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Henry VIII and his Views on
Ireland - Conn O'Neill and John FitzGerald - Leagues of Desolation -
O'Donnell's Treaty with England - Kildare superseded - The Rebellion of
Lord Offaly; "Silken Thomas" - Murder of Alen - Skeffington reappointed -
Manus O'Donnell's Friendship with Conn O'Neill - Battle of Lake Bellahoe.
King Henry VIII started, as
so many before had done, and have done since, full of confidence and of
hope that just measures and firm government would speedily ameliorate the
condition of Ireland. That he gave the subject his careful consideration
we have evidence in the instructions he gave to the Earl of Surrey on his
appointment as Lord Deputy. The young King, pondering over affairs in
Ireland, evidently came to the conclusion that a lack of unity among the
Irish chiefs had much to do with the perturbed state of the country, and
he accordingly instructed Surrey to call together as many of the native
chiefs as would attend, and confer with them on the subject. Alas, for the
bright hopes of youth and the sanguine spirit of ignorance! Henry might as
well have called a conference of Kilkenny cats!
"We deem it expedient", he
wrote, "that when ye shall call the lords and other captains of that our
land before you, as of good congruence, ye must needs so do; ye, after and
among other overtures, by your wisdom then to be made, shall declare unto
them the great decay, ruin, and desolation of that commodious and fertile
land, for lack of politic governance and good justice; which can never be
brought in order unless the unbridled sensualities of insolent folk be
brought under the rules of the laws. For realms without justice be but
tyrannies and robberies, more consonant to beastly appetites than to the
laudable life of reasonable creatures. And whereas wilfulness doth reign
by strength, without law or justice, there is no distinction of propriety
in dominion; ne yet any man may say, this is mine; but by strength the
weaker is subdued and oppressed, which is contrary to all laws, both of
God and man. . . . Howbeit, our mind is, not that ye shall impress on them
any opinion by fearful words, that we intend to expel them from their
lands and dominions lawfully possessed; ne yet that we be minded to
constrain them precisely to obey our laws, ministered by our justices
there; but under good manner to show unto them, that of necessity it is
requisite that every reasonable creature be governed by a law. And
therefore, if they shall allege that our laws, there used, be too extreme
and rigorous; and that it should be very hard for them to observe the
same; then ye may further ensearch of them under what manner, and by what
laws, they will be ordered and governed, to the intent that, if their laws
be good and reasonable, they may be approved; and the rigour of our laws,
if they shall think them too hard, be mitigated and brought to such a
moderation as they may conveniently live under the same. By which means ye
shall finally induce them, of necessity, to conform their order of living
to the observance of some reasonable law, and not to live at will, as they
have used heretofore."
Such were the true, wise,
and generous dictates of Henry. Surrey was, however, precluded from
carrying his instructions into effect by the fact that no sooner had he
landed than the whole country was up in arms against him. As we have seen,
he asked for and obtained his recall, and now we find the country again
under the rule of Kildare, the very man who had been dismissed from office
and whom Surrey had been sent to supersede.
Kildare, on his
reappointment, seems to have lost his head. Freed by the downfall of
Avolsey from a powerful enemy, he began to quarrel with Skeffington, whom
he succeeded in ousting, and he then turned his attention to Alen, the
Lord Chancellor, whom he summarily dismissed, appointing in his place a
friend of his family, Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh. He then attacked the
Earl of Ossory, destroying his castles and ravaging his lands around
Kilkenny, carrying off large spoils. At the siege of Birr Castle the Earl
received a ball in the left side, which was extracted from the opposite
side in the following year, and it is said he never fully recovered from
this wound. About this time Conn O'Neill, at his instigation, and assisted
by John FitzGerald, Kildare's brother, plundered the English districts in
Louth.
Such was the state of
affairs during Kildare's last term of office. The King's Deputy was as
lawless as any chief of the time, and apparently could be lawless with
impunity. The utter desolation caused by these raidings and burnings left
huge tracts of country uninhabited. In a letter written at this period a
picture is drawn of "a land that is lonelier than ruin". "Some day", the
writer says, "we rode sixteen miles of waste land, the which was
Englishmen's ground, yet saw I never so goodly woods, so goodly meadows,
so goodly pastures, and so goodly rivers, and so goodly ground to bear
corn: and where the ridges were that hath borne corn, to my thinking there
was no beast did eat it, not this twelve year, and it was the most part
such waste all our journey."
Kildare, recognizing the
fact that he could not rely on the support of England in his high-handed
dealings, determined to strengthen his position still further by alliances
with Irish chiefs, and accordingly he gave a daughter in marriage to
O'Carroll of Ely and another to O'Carroll of Offaly. The Earl's friendship
with his kinsman, Conn O'Neill of Tirowen, had proved so disastrous to
O'Donnell of Tirconnell that he determined to come to terms with the Crown
without the intervention of the Lord Deputy. The Annalists state that he
was "a man who did not suffer the power of the English to come into his
country, for he formed a league of peace and friendship with the King of
England when he saw the Irish would not yield superiority to anyone among
themselves, but that friends and blood-relations contended against each
other". Two of his sons, Niall Garv and Owen, slew each other in a
domestic feud in 1524; and the enmity between his two remaining sons, Hugh
Boy and Manus, was such that in 1531 he was obliged to call in the aid of
Maguire to stop their strife. On that occasion Manus, the young brother,
was compelled to fly, and entered into alliance with Conn O'Neill, showing
him to be decidedly hostile to the English. In consequence the popularity
of Manus became very great, and on the death of his father, in 1537, he
was unanimously chosen his successor.
The many enemies whom the
Lord Deputy had made of late Alen, Ossory, Skeffington, Ormonde, and
others now determined on his downfall. The ex-Archbishop of Dublin, and a
possible kinsman named Alen also, sent long and lucid reports on the
conduct of Kildare to the King. The reports stated, amongst other things,
that the English laws, manners, and language were confined within the
narrow compass of twenty miles, and that unless the laws were duly
enforced the "little place", as the Pale was termed, would be reduced to
the same condition as the remainder of the kingdom. It was also stated
that the exactions and oppressions practised on the inhabitants loyal to
England had driven many from the land, and that their lands were occupied
by Irish enemies. The reports wound up with an entreaty to the King to
entrust the charge of his Irish government to some loyal subject sent from
his realm of England, whose sole object should be the honour and interest
of the Crown, unconnected with Irish factions, and uninfluenced by partial
favour or aversion.
The gravity of this
application, coupled with the complaints of Skeffington, roused the anger
of Henry, and he naturally fixed on the Lord Deputy as the proper object
of his resentment, even on those points which were not directly charged as
his particular misdemeanours, and Kildare therefore received a peremptory
mandate to at once proceed to England to answer for his conduct. The Earl,
conscious of his own irregularities, and sensible that he was in great
danger, endeavoured in every way to evade the order and gain time. He
pleaded the situation of his Government, and insurrections of the Irish,
and while he delayed his visit to England he sent his wife over to use her
influence with her powerful friends on his behalf. In the meantime he
furnished his castles with arms and ammunition from the armoury in Dublin,
and left them in the custody of dependents whom he could trust. Having by
these delays gained some three months in which to settle his own affairs,
he embarked at Drogheda, in February, 1534, appointing, before his
departure, his son, Thomas, Lord Offaly, who was not yet twenty-one years
old, to act as deputy in his absence. On his arrival in London he was
arrested by the King's order, and committed to the Tower.
Kildare had been directed
by Henry VIII to appoint some one on whom he could rely to act as his
deputy. No doubt his appointment of his son was done under compulsion.
There were, few indeed on whom the Earl could place any reliance, and his
appointment of his youthful son, who was known as Silken Thomas on account
of his love of dress, was a grave error of judgment. Kildare seems to have
had some misgivings at thus putting "a naked sword into a young man's
hand", and on parting with his son he bade him to be ruled by the Privy
Council, " whose wisdom will be able to restrain you with sound and sage
advice, for though in authority you rule them, they in Council must rule
you". This good advice Offaly might have endeavoured to profit by and act
on, had he not been blinded by his own trustful nature, and allowed
impetuosity rather than prudence to guide his actions. His father's
enemies resolved to take advantage of his innocence and credulity; and,
skilfully spreading abroad a report that Kildare had been executed and
Skeffington appointed his successor, they succeeded in rousing in the
young Vice-Deputy such a spirit of rebellion and a thirst for revenge
that, without making any attempt to verify the statements made, he, in a
fit of frenzy at the supposed treachery of Henry, entered the Council
chamber, and, flinging the Sword of State on the table, declared that he
was no longer a servant of the King but his foe, adding a diatribe on
Henry's conduct, as a monarch and a man, which contained such foul terms
that Campion tells us he "has no mind" to chronicle them.
It is not necessary in a
history of Ulster to follow the story of Silken Thomas's rebellion in
detail, but the knowledge of some facts in connection with it are
necessary in order to secure a clear understanding of subsequent events.
Offaly's first move, after
gathering together his retainers and being joined by a large body of
malcontents, was to demand the submission of Dublin. This was speedily
granted, as not alone were the citizens unprepared for such hostilities,
but they were further incapacitated for active resistance by a recent
visitation of the plague; the officials, however, took refuge in the
castle, among them being Alen the Archbishop. Offaly now laid waste the
surrounding country, and Alen, taking advantage of his absence, attempted
to escape, but was seized and brought before Lord Thomas, from whom he
begged on his knees for mercy. The Archbishop had been active in hostility
to the Geraldines; but it is not likely that Offaly wished to be revenged
on an old and helpless man, and we may therefore believe that the command
given by him was ''Take from me that clown!" but words spoken in the heat
of passion are apt to be misunderstood, and the mandate of Offaly was
followed by the immediate murder of Alen. This did not improve the cause
Offaly had at heart. His cousin, Lord James Butler, to whom he appealed
for assistance, turned from him, saying: "In this quarrel I had rather die
thine enemy than live thy partner". Offaly retorted by entering Butler's
territory and wasting it by fire and sword. He then again turned towards
Dublin, where he had left a portion of his forces besieging the castle,
and found to his consternation that the citizens of Dublin had closed the
gates of the city, and had thus imprisoned the besiegers. Finding it
impossible to capture the city, he raised the siege.
Long-delayed reinforcements
now arrived from England, under the command of Sir William Brereton. With
them came Sir William Skeffington, to whose ill -health and sluggish
movements great delays were due. All the winter he lay idle, determined if
there was no glory for him in the campaign his officers should have no
opportunity to earn any. In the spring of 1535 he attacked the Kildares'
stronghold at Maynooth. The siege lasted nine days, and in the end the
castle was taken by assault; twenty-six of the garrison were taken
prisoners, and two days later their heads adorned the turrets.
In the meantime Kildare,
ignorant of the fate of the besieged, was hastening to the relief of his
fortress with a large army drawn from the provinces of Ulster and
Connaught. It is stated that this force numbered nearly 7000 men, but no
sooner did they learn of the taking of the castle and the summary
executions which followed than they deserted in large numbers,
disappearing like snow in a sudden thaw. Kildare was now a fugitive, and
took refuge with O'Brien in Thomond, and after fruitless efforts to regain
his ground he submitted to Lord Leonard Gray, and was sent to the Tower,
in which his father had expired a few months previously. Here he was
imprisoned until 3rd February, 1537, when he was executed; and thus ended
the rebellion of Silken Thomas. With Kildare, five of his uncles were also
executed, and the sole representative left of the once-powerful family was
a boy of twelve named Gerald, left in the care of his aunt, Eleanor, who
had been married to MacCarthy Reagh, the Chief of Carberry. She was now a
widow, and receiving at this time an offer of marriage from Manus
O'Donnell of Tirconnell, she accepted, and, so great and universal was the
loyalty to the house of Kildare, she passed in safety with her nephew from
the south to the north of Ireland. O'Neill, O'Donnell, and other northern
chieftains formed a confederacy for the restoration of young Gerald to his
estates; and when Lord Gray, who had been appointed Lord Deputy, sought to
treat with them for the surrender of the lad, they refused to meet him.
The consequence was a hostile inroad by Lord Gray into Tirowen. The castle
of Dungannon was taken, and the surrounding country was for six days
abandoned to pillage and devastation.
Through the influence of
O'Donnell's wife, O'Neill and O'Donnell now formed an alliance, and were
for the first time in history on terms of genuine friendship. In August,
1539, they together attacked the Pale, marching, as pre-arranged, by
different routes, and joining forces in Westmeath. The Lord Deputy, though
unprepared, hastily gathered together, out of Dublin and Drogheda, as
strong a force as he could, and marched to meet the invaders, who had
already burnt the towns of Navan and Ardee, and devastated the surrounding
territory. The greed of the mercenaries, who began to disperse with their
booty, reduced the northern army so considerably that Gray won an easy
victory (1539) at Lake Bellahoe, on the border of Meath and Monaghan. This
battle proved to be a turning-point in Anglo-Irish history, for O'Neill's
defeat meant that the power of the Ulster chiefs was broken, and that led
to a general submission on their part two years later. |
