The Viceroys of Ireland

The appointment of de Vere to the viceroyalty was an outcome of the struggle between Richard II. and his Barons. De Vere was the reigning favourite, and when it was proposed that he should be sent to Ireland as viceroy, the nobles enthusiastically endorsed the selection, and, glad to be rid of him at any price, cheerfully voted supplies. Richard created his creature Marquis of Dublin, and allowed him to nominate Sir John de Stanley as his deputy. It was not de Vere's intention to proceed to Ireland, and under various pretexts he avoided assuming personal control of the Irish government. Meanwhile Richard had created him Duke of Ireland, and entrusted him with powers almost regal, at one time actually proposing to make him King of Ireland. When the nobles rebelled against Richard, de Vere raised an army on behalf of his king, but was defeated in his first encounter with the barons. He died abroad after the five judges, who had supported Richard in his attempt to make de Vere King of Ireland, were brought to trial for having declared that the king was above the law, and were punished by being exiled to Ireland! Richard, weak-minded and unreliable, was at least faithful to de Vere, and he had his favourite's corpse brought from Louvain, and interred to the accompaniment of magnificent ceremonies at Colne Priory in Essex.

Richard II. arrives

From 1387 to 1389 the government was again in the hands of Alexander de Balscot, Bishop of Meath, who was assisted by Richard White, Prior of Kilmainham. Then Sir John de Stanley came back until 1391, and was succeeded by James le Botiller, third Earl of Ormonde. During Ormonde's term of office the king's uncle, Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, was nominated Viceroy of Ireland, but the commission was quickly revoked. Richard had decided to visit Ireland in person, and thus an English monarch again prepared a great army with which to conquer Ireland. The king landed at Waterford on October 13, 1394, accompanied by the Duke of Gloucester. Ormonde soon joined him, and the Irish were engaged in battle. If the English king cherished any hopes that his deeds in Ireland might secure his tottering throne in England he was doomed to grievous disappointment. He was defeated every time he joined battle with the natives, and in the end he was compelled to withdraw to Dublin and pass Christmas there. A further series of reverses followed, and Richard decided to have recourse to arbitration and conciliation. The Irish chieftains and nobles responded, and by means of various concessions Richard was enabled to return to England with at least a remnant of his army.

The viceroy was now Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, cousin to Richard and heir to the throne of England. De Mortimer had been viceroy in his youth, but not until this appointment—in 1395—did he rule in person. In 1398 de Mortimer was killed in battle while leading his soldiers, a tragedy which paved the way for Richard's deposition and the accession of Henry IV., and created the motive that led to the Wars of the Roses. John de Colton, now Archbishop of Armagh, again acted as temporary Governor while the Council proceeded to elect Reginald Grey of Ruthyn, whose appointment, however, was vetoed by Richard. His nominee was Thomas Holland, Duke of Surrey, who entered Dublin in 1399. Surrey's chief object was to people Ireland with English settlers, a plan that was to be tried again some 200 years later. The viceroy could not carry out his plan for dispossessing the Irish, and he appealed to Richard for help, and so the king came on another Irish expedition, landing in Ireland in 1399. This time his army was stronger and more experienced, but the result was a series of defeats and the loss of the throne of England. While Henry was seizing the crown his son, afterwards Henry V., was with Richard in Ireland, but the king accepted the youth's explanation that he knew nothing of his father's designs. As it was, Richard trusted to the fact that the legal heir to the throne was Edmund, Earl of March, son of the late viceroy. Henry's success to the exclusion of Edmund de Mortimer was the cause of the Wars of the Roses.

Viceregal poverty

Sir John de Stanley, ever ready to step into a breach, was again deputy, and he reigned in Dublin Castle to November, 1402. In 1401 Henry IV., anxious to secure the allegiance of the English colony, appointed his second son, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, viceroy. The youthful prince—he was only thirteen when in November, 1402, he arrived in Ireland—was provided with a specially selected Council, but evidently not with the necessary money, as there is a letter extant from the Council to King Henry which vividly describes the position of the viceroy. Henry had been asked for supplies, but as his own coffers were empty he could not send anything, and, realizing the seriousness of their position, the Council addressed His Majesty in the following terms:

'With heavy hearts we testify anew to your highness that our lord, your son, is so destitute of money that he has not a penny in the world, nor can borrow a single penny, because all his jewels and his plate that he can spare of those which he must of necessity keep are pledged, and lie in pawn. Also his soldiers have departed from him, and the people of his household are on the point of leaving, and, however much they might wish to remain, it is not in our lord's power to keep together, with a view to his aid, twenty or a dozen persons with me, your humble applicant of Dublin, and your humble liege, Janico, who has paid for your use his very all, but we will render our entire duty to him so long as we shall live, as we are bound by our sovereign obligation to you. And the country is so weakened and impoverished by the long nonpayment, as well in the time of our lord, your son, as in the time of other lieutenants before him, that the same land can no longer bear such charge as they affirm, and on this account have they importuned me. In good faith, our most sovereign lord, it is marvellous that they have borne such a charge so long. Wherefore we entreat, with all the humility and fulness that we may, that you will please to ordain speedy remedy of these said dangers and inconveniences, and to hold us excused also if any peril or disaster—which may God avert—befall our lord, your son, by the said causes. For the more full declaring of these matters to your highness the three of us should have come to your high presence, but such is the great danger on this side that not one of us dares depart from the person of our lord.'

Prince Thomas's tenure

This eloquent appeal was unheeded, but the prince did not return to England until November, 1403, appointing Sir Stephen le Scrope, his deputy, and when that soldier retired in 1405 placing James, third Earl of Ormonde, at the head of the Government. The death of the deputy in the same year led to the advancement of Gerald, fifth Earl of Kildare, whose rule was ended dramatically by the sudden reappearance of Prince Thomas in 1408 and the imprisonment of his deputy. Two years earlier the prince, having lost his indenture creating him Viceroy of Ireland, was reappointed for twelve years at a salary of £7,000 a year. Remembering his previous experiences, the prince had a clause inserted which entitled him to leave Ireland if his salary was a month in arrear. It was also agreed that in the event of the king or the Prince of Wales deciding to take over the government Prince Thomas was to have six months' notice. The Earl of Kildare was released as soon as he paid a fine of 300 marks for having interfered in an ecclesiastical appointment. Prince Thomas remained two years at his post, retiring from the country in 1410, and selecting a son of James, third Earl of Ormonde, as his deputy. This was Prior Thomas le Botiller.

But the colonists could endure the Prior for three years only, and they succeeded in getting Sir John de Stanley reappointed. He was, however, too old to be of much use, and at his death in 1414 the Archbishop of Dublin, who was the author of the pathetic plea to Henry IV., assumed the government for a few months.

CHAPTER III

The state of the English colony was now so precarious that Henry IV. decided to send one of his most trusted and capable military commanders to act as viceroy. This was Sir John Talbot, and his appointment was hailed with joy. Talbot was given a term of six years of office, and a salary of £2,666 13s. 4d. It was a large income, but as it was seldom paid, that was a detail which must have impressed Henry as being quite unimportant. During his occasional journeys to England, the Archbishop of Dublin acted as the deputy. Talbot soon intimated to the leading members of the English colony that as his salary was in arrear he intended leaving the country. This was tantamount to placing them at the mercy of the Irish, whom Talbot had repelled from Dublin many times. Thereupon the colonists petitioned the king, but without success, and Sir John departed in 1419, ostensibly recalled by the king, and leaving his brother, William Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, to represent him. Sir John Talbot, however, was destined to renew his acquaintance with the viceroyalty.

The brief authority of the archbishop was succeeded by three years under James, fourth Earl of Ormonde; and then Edmund de Mortimer, fifth Earl of March and Ulster, began a viceroyalty which lasted for less than two years, although he was appointed for nine. Edmund de Mortimer was the legal heir to Richard II., but he was an unambitious man, and there was no guile in him. He appointed Edward Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, his deputy, but William Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, declined to recognize the authority of his ecclesiastical inferior, and consequently the viceroy had to come to Dublin. This was in 1424, and the following year the plague carried him off. Sir John Talbot was then induced to accept the viceroyalty, but his services were wanted nearer home, and he agreed to the reappointment of the Earl of Ormonde, who acted for two years, and helped to maintain a sort of peace by conciliating the native Irish.

The viceroyalties of Sir John de Gray (1427-28), Sir John Sutton (1428-29), Sir Thomas le Strange (1429-31), and Sir Leon de Welles and his brother, William, who became his deputy (1438-46), were undistinguished. The deposed Earl of Ormonde succeeded in clearing himself of a charge of high treason, but the result of the bitterness and dissensions the charge provoked and fostered were felt for a long time.

The Earl of Shrewsbury

The reappointment of Sir John Talbot, now Earl of Shrewsbury, brought that strong and merciless old man—he was seventy-three—back to Ireland. He was created Earl of Waterford and Wexford, and Constable of Ireland, but even the valour and wiles of one of the bravest of warriors could not prevail against the owners of the land which had been granted to Talbot. Several times he quaintly informed the king that he was unable to collect a penny of his rents, an admission which the monarch politely disregarded. But Talbot left his mark on Ireland. Long service in the Continental wars had taught him many forms of cruelty and lust, and at seventy-three he showed that he had not forgotten what he had learnt. Not always victorious, he was always cruel and vicious. He found time to ape the statesman by presiding over a Parliament that decreed various ordinances, including the prohibition of moustaches—which were then almost exclusively worn by the native Irish, and coming into fashion amongst the Anglo-Irish. A writer of the period described Talbot as another Herod, and the country, including the colonists, who had found in him an oppressor instead of a protector, sighed with relief when the charms of a continental war called him from Ireland, and he left the Archbishop of Dublin to represent him. Talbot was little better than a hireling, and when he was killed at the age of eighty in a battle in France, he was not fighting for his country or for himself, but for a salary, and, no doubt, inspired by the lust of conflict.

A mother of kings

Talbot's retirement from Dublin enabled the king to remove a dangerous person, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, from his court, but although the duke's commission as viceroy was executed in 1447, he did not see fit to leave England until 1449, landing at Howth, near Dublin, on July 6. His deputy, Richard Nugent, met him and the duchess, a remarkable woman, who was one of the Earl of Westmorland's twenty-two children, and was the most beautiful of them all. Denied the throne for herself, she became the mother of two kings—Edward IV. and Richard III.—and it was her counsels which shaped her husband's destiny in Ireland. As befitting a prince of the blood royal, the duke made a triumphal entry into Dublin, and, guided by his wife, wisely conciliated the native chiefs and the leaders of the Anglo-Irish. They gave many banquets and entertainments in Dublin Castle, at which Irish and English mingled, quarrels being forgotten in the presence of the woman who was known as 'The Rose of Raby.' And when on October 21, 1449, she gave birth in Dublin Castle to her ninth child, George, afterwards Duke of Clarence, she diplomatically invited the Earls of Desmond and Ormonde to stand as sponsors.

The object of the duke and duchess was, of course, to gain adherents in Ireland for the coming conflict between the rival claimants to the throne of England. For hundreds of years Ireland had been looked upon as a source of income to the Kings of England; the viceroyalty was a place of profit, and most of the profits went into the king's treasury. Richard had many followers in England, and they were well aware of the fact that his viceroyalty was merely a pretext for exiling him, but they made good use of the misfortune, continually noising it abroad that the Duke of York was accomplishing wonders in Ireland, that his statesmanship, diplomacy, and valour proved indisputably that when the time came he would make an admirable king of both countries.

The disadvantage of a policy of conciliation, however, was the lack of revenues. Taxes could only be levied by force, and the viceroy deprecated that. He pawned his jewels manfully, and borrowed from his friends in England, France, and Ireland. Twice he wrote to the king asking for supplies, but that monarch had no intention of disguising the exile by lavishing money upon him, and the duke was compelled to return to England. This was in 1450, and for the next nine years he was absent from the country, his deputies in turn being the Archbishop of Armagh, 1454, Edmund Fitz-Eustace, 1454, and Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Earl of Kildare, who acted from 1455 to 1459. The duke's first choice was Sir James le Botiller, who was created Earl of Wiltshire before he succeeded his father in the Earldom of Ormonde, but this nobleman resided chiefly in England, and eventually became a Lancastrian.

Independence of its Parliament

The bewildering changes of fortune brought about by the Wars of the Roses had their full effect upon Ireland. The Duke of York was, of course, the leader of the Yorkists, and his sun was at its zenith when he defeated the Lancastrians at St. Albans and captured Henry VI. He was declared Protector of England and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1459 fortune turned against him; he was beaten in several encounters, and, finally, fled to Ireland with a few followers. In Dublin he found some consolation, although he had been unable to bring his wife with him. The Irish and the English joyfully welcomed him, and the Irish Parliament met at once and proclaimed him viceroy, formally declaring the acts of the Lancastrian Parliament at Coventry null and void so far as they concerned Ireland. The most significant feature of this meeting of the Irish Parliament was the formal statement that it was absolutely and entirely independent, and could not be controlled by the English Parliament. It acknowledged the obedience of Ireland to England, but 'nevertheless, it was separate from it and from all its laws and statutes except such as were accepted by the lords spiritual and temporal.' Richard established a mint at his castle of Trim; his son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, was appointed Chancellor of Ireland, the viceroy's person was declared sacred, and conspiracy against him high treason.

The Duke of York was undoubtedly the most popular man in Ireland, but the Lancastrians, who had gained the adherence of the Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, looked to the latter to remove the viceroy. The earl sent one of his retainers to arrest the duke on a charge of falsely representing himself to be His Majesty's—Henry VI.—Lieutenant for Ireland. The luckless squire was seized by Richard's officers, brought to trial, and eventually hanged, drawn, and quartered. The next move of the Lancastrian party was an abortive attempt to induce the native Irish to turn against the viceroy and murder him. This charge was denied vigorously, but there was every reason to believe that it was true. The Earls of Kildare and Desmond, however, came to Richard's aid, and they speedily secured the allegiance of the principal chieftains in Leinster and Munster. News of Yorkists' triumphs in England took Richard hastily to London, where he found an excited populace awaiting him, and calling upon him to crown himself King of England. The path to the throne seemed easy, but Queen Margaret, making one desperate rally for her family, met Richard near Wakefield on the last day of 1461, defeated his army, and killed him.

A nebulous state of affairs now existed in Ireland. The Earl of Kildare ceased to be deputy at Richard's death, and Sir Roland Fitz-Eustace, who acted as deputy to the new viceroy, George, Duke of Clarence, was a mere figurehead. In 1464 the Earl of Desmond succeeded as deputy to Clarence, but he incurred the enmity of Elizabeth Grey, Edward's plebeian wife, and she induced her husband to supersede the Irish earl by one of her favourites, the Earl of Worcester. The marriage of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Grey had caused much dissension in English court circles, and the king regarded any criticism of his action as being tantamount to high treason. A contemptuous remark about Elizabeth Grey cost the Earl of Desmond his life, Worcester executing him at Drogheda in 1468, ostensibly on a charge of high treason. It was said that Edward IV., when quarrelling with his wife, had angrily exclaimed that he, if he had taken the advice of the Earl of Desmond, would not have found himself burdened by such a wife. Elizabeth never forgot this, and, as we have seen, it led the deputy to his death.

The Duke of Clarence, who had the faculty of pleasing both parties, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1470 by Henry VI., and on the deposition of that monarch Edward IV. confirmed the appointment, granting him the office for twenty years, to date from 1472. Meanwhile the Earl of Kildare continued to rule the country until 1475. Then the Bishop of Meath, William Sherwood, acted for a time, until Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, became deputy. In 1478 Clarence was removed, and John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant for twenty years. He could not rule in person, however, and so he conveniently appointed his infant son, George, to the office, at the same time nominating Lord Grey as his locum tenens. Grey arrived in Dublin to find that the Earl of Kildare refused to recognize his authority, giving as a reason his opinion that Grey's appointment was made under the Privy Seal, and was, therefore, illegal. The Chancellor sided with Kildare, declined to surrender the Great Seal for Ireland, and advised Kildare to summon a Parliament at Naas. That complacent assembly voted the Earl a subsidy. This was the state of affairs in 1478, and it really marked the beginning of the great struggle between Ireland and England. By now the Anglo-Irish families had lost their sympathies for the English and had become almost exclusively Irish.

Grey proceeded to hold a Parliament of his own at Trim, and, of course, it formally annulled all the acts passed by Kildare's assembly. These Parliaments were merely travesties of the word as understood to-day; they did not represent even the opinions of those permitted to take part in their proceedings, while a cynical disregard of the English colony was their most characteristic feature. They were termed 'Parliaments' in order to dignify the proceedings, but their only use was to declare their subjection to the person summoning them.

The death of the infant Prince George in 1479 enabled Grey to retire from the contest with dignity, and for two years Robert Preston, first Viscount Gormanstown, represented the nominal viceroy, Richard, Duke of York. Then in 1481 the Earl of Kildare, the only man who could rule Ireland with any hope of success, was reappointed deputy to the young prince. The death of Edward IV. and the accession of Edward V. found Kildare still in power.

The mysterious disappearance of the king and his younger brother from the Tower of London brought Richard III. to the throne, and he nominated his son, Edward, aged eleven, viceroy for a period of three years, Kildare remaining as deputy. It was announced throughout the colony that Richard intended visiting Ireland, and Kildare was, therefore, declared Lord-Deputy for one year only. The death of Prince Edward in 1484 brought the viceroyalty to Richard's nephew, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, but the Battle of Bosworth opened a new era for Ireland as well as for England.

Effect of Bosworth Field

The Earl of Kildare, notified of the appointment of the new king's uncle, Jasper, Duke of Bedford, declined to be bound by the results of the Battle of Bosworth Field, and when a priest brought to Ireland a boy whom he declared to be the Earl of Warwick, son of the late Duke of Clarence, and therefore the rightful heir to the throne of England, Kildare eagerly seized the opportunity thus presented. Lambert Simnel, the youth in question, was received with royal honours by Kildare and the Anglo-Irish, his claims declared proved, and his identity admitted. On May 24, 1487, the impostor was crowned King of England and Ireland under the title of Edward VI. The ceremony took place in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and in the presence of the whole viceregal staff, the principal ecclesiastics and the civic officials, Kildare had the leading part after Lambert Simnel, although the Earl of Lincoln, who had been appointed viceroy by his uncle, Richard III., was also present. Immediately the coronation was over a special coinage was struck, and the comedy protracted by the creation of Kildare as Regent and Protector.

The Earl of Lincoln was given the command of the army to strike the decisive blow in England, but the Duke of Bedford, Henry's viceroy, met the rebel forces at Stoke and crushed them. Simnel was taken prisoner, and Henry, with that sense of humour and a political tact rare in monarchs, decided to emphasize his victory by ridicule rather than the executioner's axe. Simnel was made a turnspit in the royal kitchens and a salary paid him regularly. Had he been executed, his unlucky followers might have made him a hero and themselves patriots; as it was, they were compelled to seek oblivion for their cause and hide their shame. Kildare, however, remained defiant. To him Simnel had been only the means to an end that had enabled him to demonstrate to the English throne and its advisers that the destinies of Ireland could not be subject to the vagaries of English politicians. Henry determined to try diplomatic persuasion, and he sent Sir Richard Edgecombe, a Privy Councillor, to offer Kildare a free pardon if he would swear fealty to the king and give a bond for his good behaviour. The deputy offered to submit, though he would not give a bond, and after considerable wrangling the question of security was waived aside, and the Earl of Kildare once more reigned in Dublin Castle. The records of the meetings between Kildare and Edgecombe are very full, and it would seem that the earl's threats to turn 'Irish'—that is, formally separate his family from England—had more to do with Henry's capitulation than anything else.

Perkin Warbeck

Kildare's appointment was as deputy to the Duke of Bedford, and for four years Irish affairs had no connection with English. But the success of usurpers breeds impostors, and Henry, who had seized his throne by force, had once more to face an impostor and a rebellion. Perkin Warbeck, avowing himself to be Richard, Duke of York, and armed with a circumstantial story of his escape from the Tower of London, landed at Cork, having journeyed from Lisbon, and sent messages to Kildare ordering him to join him there with an army. Whatever the earl's answer may have been, Perkin did not wait for it, preferring to seek temporary safety in Paris. The deputy, however, had always shown a fondness for impostors, and Henry, unable to trust any of the leaders of the English in Ireland, sent Walter Fitz-Simon to be the deputy in place of Kildare. Fitz-Simon worked assiduously to secure the Earl's fall, and when he returned to England in 1493, leaving Viscount Gormanstown as his deputy, he was able to nullify the effects of Kildare's passionate protests to Henry VII. The next year Henry appointed his son, then aged four, afterwards Henry VIII., to be Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and his deputy was the notorious profligate and zealous soldier, Sir Edward Poynings, the son of Elizabeth Paston. The "Paston Letters" throw much light upon the workings of the viceroyalty of the period, although Poynings himself had only a couple of years' experience of that country. He did Henry two notable acts of service, however, by capturing Kildare and sending him a prisoner to London, and by driving Perkin Warbeck out of Ireland.

When Kildare was imprisoned in the Tower of London, his fate seemed settled, but he was too clever for the age he lived in, and he succeeded, a stranger in a strange country, in securing his liberation and the annulling by Parliament of his act of attainder. Kildare thereupon became the lion of the London season. He was invited everywhere, and every class of society crowded to see the man who had held Ireland in his power. All the time he was nominally under arrest, with serious charges pending against him. When Henry summoned the earl to his presence, and offered him the choice of any man in the kingdom to be his counsellor, Kildare promptly chose the king himself! It was a piece of shrewd flattery, but it had less to do with Kildare's restoration to favour than his marriage with the king's first cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver St. John. The moment his alliance with the clever daughter of a powerful family became known, Kildare's enemies melted away, and the king, saving his face by insisting upon Kildare's son remaining in London as a hostage for his father's good conduct, restored Kildare to his deputyship, and sent him back to Ireland. Henry Deane, a cleric who had been holding the post, retired, and was rewarded later with the See of Canterbury.

The character of Kildare is well illustrated by a story told concerning his fiery temper. The Bishop of Meath, suffering from jealousy and a grievance, declared to the king that all Ireland could not rule the earl. 'Then, in good faith,' cried the king, 'shall the earl rule all Ireland!'

The Hill of the Axes

Perkin Warbeck revisited Ireland, but the men of Waterford drove him from the country without any help from Dublin. In 1503 Kildare was summoned to London to receive evidence of the king's pleasure and approbation. This took the shape of a portion of the king's wardrobe, a signal mark of honour in those days. Returning with his son Gerald, who had married into a powerful English family, Kildare won the famous Battle of Knocdoe, or 'The Hill of the Axes,' and was given the garter for his success. The Battle of Knocdoe was the result of a bitter quarrel between the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Clanricarde. The latter had married a daughter of the deputy's, and had treated her with such cruelty that Kildare intervened. In revenge Clanricarde formed a confederacy between certain Irish chiefs to overthrow the authority of the king in Ireland.

CHAPTER IV

The death of Henry VII. and the accession of Henry VIII. tended to strengthen Kildare's position. He was continued in his office, and held it until his death in 1513. Accounted one of the handsomest and bravest men of his time, he was succeeded by his son in the deputyship, as well as in the family honours, and Gerald, ninth earl, was worthy of such a parent. For seven years Kildare was the deputy, with the exception of a brief period in England when Viscount Gormanstown was vice-deputy. His enemies were secretly trying to undermine his position, for the rise of the Kildare family was resented by the other great Anglo-Irish houses.

Cardinal Wolsey's nominee

In 1518, shortly after the death of his wife, Kildare was ordered to repair to London and answer the charges that he had illegally enriched himself and his followers, and that he had formed alliances with the native Irish and corresponded with them. Kildare, however, showed no hurry to obey the summons, and not until 1519 did he arrive in London, his cousin, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, looking after his official responsibilities. While in London, Kildare followed the example of his father, and married a cousin of the king. This was the Lady Elizabeth Grey, a grand-daughter of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV.'s wife. The marriage saved Kildare's life, for his most powerful enemy, Cardinal Wolsey, had resolved that the Irish earl should never return to his country. Acting on the advice of the Cardinal, Henry VIII., suspicious of the loyalty of the Irish nobility, appointed an Englishman, the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Surrey was one of Wolsey's adherents, and although the Earl of Kildare had, by reason of his valour and bearing on the famous 'Field of the Cloth of Gold,' risen high in Henry's favour, the Chancellor insisted upon his being brought to trial. To make certain of the result, Wolsey inspired the Earl of Surrey to write from Ireland charging Kildare with having attempted to make the Irish oppose the authority of the new deputy, but, owing to the influence of his wife, Kildare secured his acquittal, and returned to Ireland.

The Earl of Ormonde was selected in 1523 to succeed Surrey, principally because he was Kildare's bitter enemy, but Elizabeth, Henry's cousin and Kildare's wife, wrote to the king beseeching him to reconcile the earls and bring peace to their respective families. Henry responded by sending a commission to try the charges preferred by Ormonde against Kildare, and, when it found in favour of the latter, he became deputy once more. But again his enjoyment of the office was brief, further charges being preferred against him by Ormonde, now Earl of Ossory. Again Kildare went to London, and was imprisoned in the Tower, his brother, Sir James Fitzgerald, taking his post. While Kildare was in the Tower, Wolsey attempted to have him executed without the knowledge of the king, but at the last moment the Lieutenant-Governor sought confirmation from His Majesty, and discovered that the Cardinal's order lacked the king's approval.

The Earl of Ossory was now deputy, Kildare remaining in London after his release from the Tower. Several noblemen went bail for his good conduct, and although there was another period of royal disfavour in 1532, he accompanied Sir William Skeffington, the new Lord-Deputy, to Ireland, and received a welcome that overshadowed that accorded to the king's representative. It is interesting to note that in 1530 Holbein painted this remarkable man's portrait, and that in the same year he was one of the peers who signed the letter to the Pope setting forth the grounds of Henry's divorce from Catherine.

Death of "King Kildare"

In 1532 he was once more deputy, and he gained the adherence of the Irish by marrying two of his daughters to Irish chiefs. The country was now at his feet; he was respected and obeyed. But he had enemies whose pertinacity equalled his, and they soon aroused the suspicions of a monarch whose chief weakness was a disinclination to trust others or cultivate loyalty in himself. Henry at once ordered the deputy to come to him; instead, Kildare sent his wife to act as mediator. The countess was a clever woman, but Henry's experience of the sex was extensive, as we know, and he declined to receive her more than once. He wanted the person of Kildare, and eventually that nobleman obeyed the summons. The earl appointed his twenty-year old son, Thomas, Lord Offaly, deputy, and left Ireland, never to return. Lord Offaly was something of the mould of his father, and, although young, had been trained from early years to rule. When, therefore, a rumour reached Dublin that the Earl of Kildare had been executed by Henry's orders, Lord Offaly immediately resigned his office, and gathered his followers under his banner with the avowed object of driving the English out of Ireland. The earl was quickly apprised of his son's rebellion, and a copy of the youthful lord's sentence of excommunication shown him. The effect was to hasten Kildare's death, and he died in the Tower on December 12, 1534. Great as had been his father, Gerald, ninth earl, was even greater, and Wolsey, although he spoke sarcastically, was not wrong when he described him as 'King Kildare, who reigned, rather than ruled, in Ireland.'

Sir William Skeffington, the deputy, was ordered to crush the rebellion, and he pursued the Kildare faction into their strongholds, besieging the Castle of Maynooth, while its owner was in Connaught collecting troops. The castle could have held out until the arrival of its owner, but the inevitable Irish traitor appeared in the person of Christopher Parese, a creature who had received many benefits at the hands of Lord Offaly and his father. Parese betrayed the castle for a reward, which was promptly paid him, but the deputy immediately had him executed, because he dare not trust a rogue who had already betrayed one benefactor. Treachery was again employed by Skeffington's successor, Lord Grey, and eventually Lord Offaly, tenth Earl of Kildare, and five of his uncles were executed on Tower Hill. The ten-year-old heir to the earldom would, doubtless, have perished also, but he had a remarkable mother, who kept him in hiding for some years, and succeeded in smuggling him out of the country to France, where his education was supervised by the famous Cardinal Pole.

Lord Grey continued in office until 1540, and although, from the English point of view, he ruled well and successfully, on his return to England he was imprisoned and subsequently executed, the ostensible reason being his partiality for the Kildares.

Grey was replaced by a remarkable man, Sir Anthony St. Leger, whose three terms of office covered thirteen years. Sir William Brereton, a foolish person, was the deputy until St. Leger arrived, and distinguished himself by leading a vast army in search of a phantom enemy. St. Leger, from the moment he arrived in Ireland, set about restoring some order in the country, and he succeeded so well that the historians of the period call attention to the amazing fact that the sight was actually seen of English lords and Irish chiefs meeting in the same chamber and proclaiming Henry VIII. King of Ireland. St. Leger went further than this, and actually paid the debts incurred during his viceroyalty.

Religious persecution

In 1548 he was recalled, and Sir Edward Bellingham ordered to act as deputy and to punish those Irish who had not become Protestants by Act of Parliament. This was a new feature in Irish politics, but Bellingham found diplomacy, force, and threats, and persecution equally ineffective, and he retired in disgust. Sir Francis Bryan followed as deputy in 1550, but he died the same year, and Brabazon, hastily elected in his stead, retired when Sir Anthony St. Leger returned, to be welcomed by all classes. He held office until 1556, save for a period between 1551-52, when Sir James Croft represented him, and when he retired he had the satisfaction of knowing that he left Ireland better off than when he found it.

The appointment of the Earl of Sussex, however, undid all St. Leger's good work, and the new deputy had immediately to take the field. He was lucky, however, to find the Irish chiefs quarrelling amongst themselves, and in the circumstances victory was achieved easily. The O'Neills, headed by the famous Shane, advanced against him, but Sussex defeated them with great slaughter, and the chieftain escaped the battlefield to die a dishonourable death in a drunken brawl.

England had greater attractions for the earl than Ireland could offer, and he returned there in 1557, nominating Sir Henry Sidney and the Lord Chancellor as vice-deputies. Elizabeth, immediately after her accession, sent the viceroy back, but he returned again to London. Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin, anxious to retain his office as well as that of joint representative with Sir Henry Sidney of the absent viceroy, conveniently changed his religion now that a Protestant was on the throne, and to show the genuineness of his conversion he had the pictures that adorned the walls of Christ's Church and St. Patrick's whitewashed.

Sidney's interview with Grace O'Malley is historic. The English warrior, unaccustomed to Amazonian women, out of curiosity granted an audience to Grace, who came to him in state. This is how the viceroy describes the incident:

'There came to me also a most famous feminine sea-captain, called Grace O'Malley, and offered her services to me wheresoe'er I would command her, with three galleys and two hundred fighting men. She brought with her her husband, for she was as well by sea as by land more than master's mate with him. He was of the nether Burkes, and called by nickname "Richard in Iron." This was a notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland. This woman did Henry Sidney see and speak with. He can no more at large inform you of her.'

On May 26, 1578, Sidney retired from office, broken in health and fortune. Describing his condition, he says that he was 'fifty-four years of age, toothless and trembling, being five thousand pounds in debt.' Later he declared that he was twenty thousand pounds poorer than when he had succeeded to his father's estate—a commentary on his inability to take advantage in a pecuniary sense of his viceroyalty. His wail is dated 'from Ludlow Castle, with more pain than heart, March 1, 1582.'

English colony absorbed

But Sidney was the victim of his time. There was no English colony now; it had been absorbed by the native Irish families, and to make war against the natives was to make war against the Fitzgeralds, the Butlers, and other great families better known by their titles. Happily for England, Ireland was never united, and if Sidney gained no great conquests he was, by reason of the schisms amongst his enemies, enabled to maintain the sovereignty of Elizabeth in Ireland. It was a purely nominal sovereignty, but it sufficed for the time being.

CHAPTER V

The gradual disappearance of the distinctively English population did not pass unnoticed in England. During some hundreds of years there had been many attempts to induce English families to emigrate to Ireland, but without any great success. To the average English person Ireland was an uncivilized country inhabited by savages and murderers. Elizabeth's councillors, however, resolved to put into practice the theories of previous viceroys and their advisers. A new English colony was to be created, but instead of crowding all the emigrants into Dublin, the bolder policy of scattering them all over the country was adopted.

On the retirement of Sidney, Sir William Pelham was appointed Lord Justice until the arrival of Lord Grey of Wilton, 'the hanging viceroy.' Two years of systematic brutalities were as much as the country and Elizabeth could stand. She recalled Grey and left the government in the hands of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Henry Wallop, treasurer, while she and her council, now firmly resolved on the great 'plantation' scheme, could find a willing and a competent instrument to carry out the plan. They found one in Sir John Perrott, and in June, 1584, he was made Lord Deputy.

The undertakers

Perrott was reputed to be a natural son of Henry VIII., whom he resembled in appearance, and, although brought up in the household of Thomas Perrott, who had married Mary Berkeley, Henry's mistress, he soon exchanged the serene life of a country gentleman for the freer and gayer court life of London. He was advanced rapidly in the royal favour, and before his deputyship had had considerable experience of Ireland. He now came as viceroy with a strong and definite policy, fully determined to carry it to a successful issue. Munster was the first province selected for the 'plantation' scheme. To induce English families to flock to Ireland, huge estates were offered for next to nothing. Fertile lands were given at rentals of a penny or twopence an acre, and to allow the immigrants time to put their new homes in order, no rent was asked during the first five years, and only half for the following three. Those who took over twelve thousand acres were termed 'undertakers,' and required to settle or plant at least eighty-six English families whose members were skilled in trades and the arts agricultural. Undertakers of smaller estates planted a less number, and so on in due proportion. It was a splendid scheme on paper, and would, no doubt, have settled the Irish question effectively, but its weak point was its total disregard of the Irish. The real owners of the property were in hiding with prices on their heads, but the people themselves were only awaiting their opportunity to win back the lands of their chiefs and restore them to their rightful owners.

The majority of the 'undertakers'—wealthy English noblemen and titled adventurers—did not, of course, trouble to come to Ireland, though they imported a number of families into the country. Two of the 'undertakers,' however, in Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, the poet, actually resided on their new estates. Raleigh, as a reward for butchering the peasantry, was given forty-two thousand acres; Spenser was granted twelve thousand acres in Cork, and took up his residence in Kilcolman Castle, residence in Ireland being the only condition upon which he was given the stolen land. Spenser wrote the first three books of the 'Faerie Queen' here, and his only absence from Ireland was occasioned by a journey to London to secure the publication of his masterpiece. On his return he married a country girl, and managed to live in some peace until 1598, when the Earl of Tyrone, eager to avenge his wrongs, roused the country. Kilcolman Castle was burnt to the ground, and Spenser's youngest child perished in the flames. The poet, penniless and ill, escaped to England to die in penury the following year.

Perrott's policy required a certain ruthlessness to carry out, and friend and foe alike became his victims. He could not be faithful to Elizabeth and please all parties in Ireland. He shared the fate of his predecessors who had adopted a similar policy, for he discovered that he was being misrepresented in London by his personal enemies. These included the Earl of Ormonde, Sir Richard Brigham, and Sir Nicholas Bagenal, and they even went to the length of bribing a priest to forge treasonable letters in the viceroy's name. When Perrott appealed to Elizabeth to be allowed to come to England and confront his adversaries, the queen refused him his request, bidding him to continue with his work.

He was destined to do England and Elizabeth at least one great service during his viceroyalty. In the middle of 1586 a rumour reached Ireland that Spain was about to strike a blow for Catholic Christendom. Ireland was, of course, Catholic, and always remained so, although its spiritual fathers were mostly 'vicars of Bray.' The native Irish received the news joyfully, and waited anxiously for the day when the might of Catholic Spain would annihilate Protestant England. Perrott heard these rumours, and went to great trouble to verify them, with the result that in 1587 he was able to send confidential despatches to Queen Elizabeth informing her that Philip of Spain was preparing a great fleet for the invasion and conquest of England. That fleet, historically known as 'The Great Armada,' left its remnants off the coast of Ireland in 1588.

Perrott's retirement

When the viceroy realized that his policy, while outwardly prosperous, was never likely to develop into a permanent success, he prayed the queen to permit him to retire. She was averse to this, but every person of influence about the throne was approached by him until the queen relented, and in 1588 the viceroy joyfully prepared to depart from the country which he hated worse than the pestilence. The court of England was then in an idealized state, mainly as a result of the rise of the great English school of dramatists and poets, and at such a time Ireland must have seemed more than ever a place of exile. Perrott, however, openly prided himself upon his success, and when he appeared in Dublin in order to hand over the sword of state to his successor, he made a fulsome speech in his own praise, declaring that he left the country in peace and quietness, and hinting that if Sir William Fitzwilliam, the incoming viceroy, informed Queen Elizabeth of the fact, he would be very grateful. Sir William, as a gentleman, had to acknowledge Perrott's eulogies, and then the ex-viceroy left the country, feeling like a freed man. His last act was to present the corporation of Dublin with a silver-gilt bowl bearing his arms and crest, together with the motto 'Relinquo in pace.' The common people had a certain rough affection for Perrott. He had not robbed them—perhaps because they had nothing to lose—but at any rate they gave him a great ovation, shedding tears of gratitude for the man whose code of morals happily included a partiality for paying just debts.

Sir William Fitzwilliam had already experienced the advantages and disadvantages of the viceregal position in Ireland. He married a sister of Sir Henry Sidney, a woman with a strength of character that absorbed her husband's. Every act during Fitzwilliam's tenure of office was said to have originated from the fertile brain of Lady Fitzwilliam, and she was openly hailed as the real ruler of Ireland. But even Lady Fitzwilliam could not govern without money, and in 1594 she retired with her husband. Fitzwilliam is best known as the Governor of Fotheringay Castle at the time of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir William Russell, his successor, was the youngest son of the Earl of Bedford, but his two years of office brought him nothing but censure from the queen. Russell's principal fault was that he kept his word of honour to the rebel Earl of Tyrone. The latter came in person to Dublin Castle at the invitation of the viceroy, and made submission. Contented with this, the Lord-Lieutenant permitted him to depart, but Elizabeth wished for the imprisonment of the rebel, and, consequently, Russell retired to make way for Lord Gainsborough. In 1603 he was created a peer by James I. A year sufficed for Gainsborough, who died at his post. Sir Thomas Norris, Lord Justice, acted until superseded by Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, Sir Robert Gardiner, and the Earl of Ormonde.

Queen Elizabeth's favourite

Their services were dispensed with when Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, arrived in Dublin on April 15, 1599, his appointment dating from March 12, 1598. The Earl of Essex was one of the most romantic figures in the later court of Queen Elizabeth. When, as a boy of ten, Robert Devereux appeared at court, the queen was fascinated by his beauty and his charming manners. She sent for him later, and his early days were distinguished by the confidence of the queen. Elizabeth was an old woman when Essex was in the first flower of his manhood, but he was as crafty as he was handsome, and he made every use of his power over the queen, a monarch aping youth with the aid of powder and paint. She made Essex the most powerful of courtiers, and he attempted to reserve her favour for himself. When the queen showed kindness to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Essex, ever passionate and prone to quarrel, sought out his rival and challenged him to a duel. The result was abortive, but it was only one of a series of incidents which showed Elizabeth that she was raising Essex higher than his peculiar temperament made promotion safe. On one occasion he actually reproached the queen, who in a moment of rage forgot her pose of youth, and boxed the earl's ears. But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious. Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. He hastily concluded a treaty of peace with Tyrone, appointed Lords Justices to carry on the government, and repaired to England on September 24, having spent less than five months in Ireland. Only one who was certain of Elizabeth's favour could have dared to do such a thing, but Essex entered London in the temper of a spoilt child, prepared to rail at the queen for having dared to criticize him, and no doubt expecting to receive her apologies. The queen upset his calculations by having him arrested promptly, and although the public offered up prayers for his restoration to the good graces of the queen, these prayers were unanswered, because Essex was not the man to believe in his sovereign's determination. The arrest he regarded as a joke—in bad taste, perhaps, but still a joke—and when its seriousness dawned upon him he tried to retaliate in kind. In 1601 he was executed. The charges against him were, first, with making a dishonourable treaty with the rebels, and, second, leaving his Government without the permission of the authorities—that is, the queen and Council. When released from the Tower and ordered to remain at York House, Essex attempted a rebellion, and the spoilt darling of fortune paid the penalty with his life.