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Shane allies himself to
Argyll - Stukeley and Dowdall visit O'Neill - His defiant Attitude -
Sidney applies to England for Men and Money - Shane appeals to France for
help - Troops from England land at Lough Foyle and fortify Derry - Sidney
marches North and sweeps the Country.
The undisputed Lord of
Ulster now proceeded to further strengthen himself by espousing the cause
of Mary Queen of Scots, whose successes won his ardent admiration and
applause. He had offered to assist her against Argyll, and was much
surprised to find that Argyll was willing to allow the Western Islanders
to assist him in driving the English out of Ireland. This Argyll did to
punish Elizabeth for her treachery to Murray. Shane, on the other hand,
consented to permit the Scots to resettle in Antrim, and on Argyll's
visiting him it was agreed to marry a son and daughter of James MacDonald
(who had died in consequence of wounds received at Glenesk) to a daughter
and son borne to Shane by his "Countess". Amenities were carried further,
in that Argyll, in the Queen of Scots' interests, swore a pact with Shane
O'Neill, thereby cementing a friendship for which the Ulster chieftain had
hitherto long sued in vain.
In February, 1566, Sir
Nicholas Bagenall reports that Clanrickard was spoiled by O'Neill, who now
held all the countries from Sligo to Carrickfergus, and from thence to
Carlingford, and from Carlingford to Drogheda; he had made a sure bond
with Scotland. The Deputy had done all he could to bring Shane to
quietness; had sent Stukeley and Dowdall twice; but Shane would never come
to any governor, as might be seen by his answer to Stukeley, which the
Lord Deputy had sent by bearer.
The Commissioners found
O'Neill, at first, "very flexible, but timorous to come to the Deputy,
apprehending traitorous practices". But when the wine was in him, he spoke
out. "I care not", he said, "to be made an earl, unless I may be better
and higher than an earl; for I am in blood and power better than the best
of them; and I will give place to none but my cousin of Kildare, for that
he is of my house. You have made a wise earl of M'Carty More. I keep as
good a man as he. For the Queen I confess she is my sovereign; but I never
made peace with her but at her own seeking. Whom am I to trust? When I
came unto the Earl of Sussex upon safe-conduct, he offered me the courtesy
of a handlock. When I was with the Queen she said to me herself that I
had, it was true, safe-conduct to come and go; but it was not said when I
might go; and they kept me there until I had agreed to things so far
against my honour and profit, that I would never perform them while I
live. That made me make war; and if it were to do again, I would do it. My
ancestors were kings of Ulster, and Ulster is mine, and shall be mine.
O'Donnell shall never come into his country, nor Bagenall into Newry, nor
Kildare into Dundrum or Lecale. They are now mine. With the sword I won
them; with this sword I will keep them."
These be brave words,
clearly proving that further negotiations were useless, and Sidney
immediately resolved on war. "My Lord," he wrote to Leicester, "no Attila
nor Totila, no Vandal or Goth that ever was, was more to be doubted for
overrunning any part of Christendom than this man is for overrunning and
spoiling of Ireland. If it be an angel of Heaven that will say that ever
O'Neill will be a good subject till he be thoroughly chastised, believe
him not, but think him a spirit of error. Surely if the Queen do not
chastise him in Ulster, he will chase all hers out of Ireland. Her Majesty
must make up her mind to the expense, and chastise this cannibal. She must
send money in such sort as I may pay the garrison throughout. The present
soldiers, who are idle, treacherous, and incorrigible, must be changed.
Better have no soldiers than those that are here now and the wages must be
paid. It must be done at last, and to do it at once will be a saving in
the end. My dear Lord, press these things on the Queen. If I have not
money, and O'Neill make war, I will not promise to encounter with him
until he come to Dublin. Give me money, and though I have but 500 to his
4000, I will chase him out of the Pale in forty-eight hours. If I may not
have it, for the love you bear me have me home again. I have great
confidence in Lord Kildare. As to Sussex and Arnold, it is true that all
things are in disorder and decay; but the fault was not with them impute
it to the iniquity of the times. These malicious people so hated Sussex as
to ruin him, they
would have ruined all." To Cecil, Sidney wrote: "Ireland would be no small
loss to the English Crown, and it was never so like to be lost as now.
O'Neill has already all Ulster, and if the French were eager about Calais,
think what the Irish are to recover their whole island. I love no wars;
but I had rather die than Ireland should be lost in my government."
To this urgent appeal,
alas! "there lives no record of reply ". A deaf ear was turned to the Lord
Deputy's cry for money wherewith to carry on the great work he had in
hand. Daily he was faced with the insolence of troops whom he was unable
to pay, and whom he could not dismiss. Months passed in misery, without
the desired relief being forthcoming. Driven to desperation by the silence
and the unconcern manifested in London by those to whom he appealed, he
again wrote to his brother-in-law, Leicester, saying: "My Lord, if I be
not speedier advertised of her Highness's pleasure than hitherto I have
been, all will come to naught here, and before God and the world I will
lay the fault on England, for there is none here. By force or by fair
means the Queen may have anything that she will in this country if she
will minister means accordingly, and with no great charge. If she will
resolve of nothing, for her Majesty's advantage and for the benefit of
this miserable country, persuade her Highness to withdraw me, and pay and
discharge this garrison. As I am, and as this garrison is paid, I undo
myself; the country is spoiled by the soldiers, and in no point defended.
Help it, my Lord, for the honour of God one way or the other."
Letters from the Council
came to hand two days later. In these they pleaded their innocence and
laid the blame on the Queen. They had, themselves, they said, unanimously
voted him money and supplies, "so much was every man's mind inclined to
the extirpation of that proud rebel, Shane", but "the charge was the
hindrance". The Queen agreed that "Shane should be extirpated", but
"considering the great sums of money demanded and required of her in
Ireland and elsewhere, she would be most glad that for reformation of the
rebel any other way might be devised ". Anxious that the cost of the war
should be as small as possible, Elizabeth, at the risk of cruelly
affronting a loyal and zealous servant, sent Sir Francis Knowles to
control Sidney's expenditure, giving as her reason for so doing that "the
cost of levying troops in England was four times as great as it used to
be".
The delay in providing
Sidney with men and money proved a boon to Shane, who had spent the last
few months in preparation for war. He had come to the conclusion that
nothing more could be obtained from Elizabeth by protestations of loyalty,
his deeds in actively allying himself with her enemies, the partisans of
Mary Queen of Scots, being, he felt, more potent than his words could be.
He now posed as the only protector of Catholicism in Ireland, and
concluded that he must make an effort to impress the neighbouring chiefs
by some act in evidence of his power and ability. He fortified Dundrum
Castle with brass "artillery" and also his castle in Lifford, at the head
of Lough Foyle. He proposed a new marriage scheme to Argyll, with whom his
friendship became warmer. His unfortunate "Countess" was to be dispensed
with, and he would marry the widow of James MacDonald. Desiring help from
every quarter from which it was likely to come, he wrote in his regal
style to Charles of France: "Your Majesty's father, King Henry, in times
past required the Lords of Ireland to join with him against the heretic
Saxon, the enemies of Almighty God, the enemies of the Holy Church of
Rome, your Majesty's enemies and mine. God would not permit that alliance
to be completed, notwithstanding the hatred borne to England by all of
Irish blood, until your Majesty had become King in France, and I was Lord
of Ireland. The time is come however when we all are confederates in a
common bond to drive the invader from our shores; and we now beseech your
Majesty to send us six thousand well-armed men. If you will grant our
request there will soon be no Englishman left alive among us, and we will
be your Majesty's subjects evermore. Help us, we implore you, to expel the
heretics and schismatics and to bring back our country to the Holy Roman
see."
This letter never reached
the monarch to whom it was addressed. It fell into English hands.
Elizabeth was perturbed by its contents, and, being impressed by Sussex,
who was envious that a Deputy had been found who could rule Ireland better
than had he, became suspicious of Sidney, and spoke to his disparagement.
The word used being repeated to the Deputy, he wrote to the Queen,
"declaring his special grief at hearing that he was fallen from her favour",
and "that she had given credit to that improbable slander raised upon him
by the Earl of Sussex". Sick of the turn events were taking, and of a
country he desired rather to live out of than to reside in, he urgently
demanded his immediate recall, "that he might preserve the small remnant
of his patrimony, already much diminished by his coming to Ireland ".
The delays caused by the
Queen's uncertainty, and the perilous outlook, caused Sidney much
uneasiness. On the 3rd June, 1566, he wrote to Cecil saying: u I testify
to God, to her Highness, and to you, that all the charge is lost that she
is at with this manner of proceeding. O'Neill will be tyrant of all
Ireland if he be not speedily withstood. He hath, as I hear, won the rest
of O'Donnell's castles; he hath confederated with the Scots; he is now in
Maguire's country. All this summer he will spend in Connaught; next winter
in the English Pale. ... I will give you all my land in Rutlandshire to
get me leave to go into Hungary, and think myself bound to you while I
live. I trust there to do my country some honour: here I do neither good
to the Queen, to the country, nor myself."
At last things were set in
motion. Troops from England, under the command of Colonel Randolph, sailed
from Bristol for Lough Foyle, where they were landed at the head of the
lake and moved up to Derry, where they entrenched themselves "in a very
warlike manner". At Derry Randolph was joined by the Lord Deputy, who was
accompanied by Kildare, the aged Calvagh O'Donnell, Shane Maguire, and
O'Dogherty. On seeing the site chosen by Randolph, O'Donnell, O'Dogherty,
and Kildare "agreed all of them that it was the very best spot in the
northern counties to build a city". Leaving Randolph at Derry with 650
men, 350 pioneers, and provisions for two months, Sidney marched to
Donegal, which he found a pile of ruins, in the midst of which arose "the
largest and strongest castle which he had seen in Ireland". It was in the
possession of one of O'Donnell's kinsmen, who had been seduced to Shane's
side by marriage with his sister. On the appearance of the old chief the
castle was immediately surrendered. Sidney recommenced his triumphal
march, and passed from Donegal, through Ballyshannon and Sligo, and across
bogs and mountains from Mayo into Roscommon, taking castles as he went
until he reached the Pale, and at the end of his journey was able to say
that "there had not died of sickness but three persons", and also had the
gratification of being in a position to state that "her Majesty's honour
was re-established among the Irishry and grown to no small veneration". On
his return the Lord Deputy was informed that during his absence Shane had
invaded the Pale, but had been successfully resisted by the garrison which
had been left in Dundalk under Sir Warham St. Leger, with a loss of 200
men.
The garrison of Derry was
not only an obstacle to Shane's enterprises, but mortifying to his pride;
and as it was a proof that his actions were being closely watched, and
that his foes were on the alert, he determined to reconnoitre. Leading his
forces to the walls of Derry, and without directly attacking the town, he
insolently braved the garrison. Randolph, more spirited than cautious,
issued from the town, and fell upon O'Neill's men, defeating them with
great slaughter, nearly four hundred of the Irish being killed. Randolph,
however, was himself slain, and the English at Derry were thus left
without their commander.
Shane, unaccustomed to
defeat, felt this reverse of fortune very keenly. He was, as a result of
this, attacked on all sides, the Viceroy following up the dead Randolph's
victory by invading the country north of Dundalk, burning farms and
capturing castles as he went; and the Scots, freed from the controlling
hand of Shane, crossed the River Bann and wasted all the adjoining
countryside. Allaster MacDonald, a brother of the dead James and of the
imprisoned Sorley Boy, wreaked his vengeance on innocent women and
children, and achieved a more tangible triumph in appropriating
innumerable cattle. In December, 1566, Calvagh O'Donnell, filled with a
fierce desire to requite Shane for all the sufferings he had endured in
having his wife stolen from him, his country pillaged and devastated, and
himself for years imprisoned, swept into Tyrone and laid waste all before
him. But the fierce old man, who from a modern point of view was no aged
saint, but a hoary-headed sinner who had himself imprisoned his father,
was now a wreck, being accounted by Cusack as "but a poor creature without
activity or manhood". Overcome by the sudden influx of good fortune after
years of suffering, he succumbed, falling from his horse while leading his
followers against his arch-enemy. He did not die, however, until he had
implored his people to be loyal to Queen Elizabeth and to his son, Hugh,
his successor. Hugh proved his own loyalty by immediately repairing to
Derry and swearing allegiance to the Crown.
Finding that "when sorrows
come they come not single spies but in battalions", Shane sought relief in
letter-writing. He penned an eloquent and piteous appeal to Sidney for
pardon and peace; but the Viceroy, sick of "words, words, words", did not
even acknowledge his letter; Shane had gone too far,, and "nothing was
talked of but his extirpation by war only".
The days of Shane O'Neill
the Great and Proud were numbered. |
