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Spanish Aid for Ulster
arrives at Killybegs - Tyrone sends the King of Spain's Letter for
Inspection to the Lord Deputy - It is retained despite a Promise to return
- Connaught invaded by O'Donnell - Tyrone starts a Catholic Crusade - His
Manifesto to Roman Catholics - Sir William Russell retires - Thomas, Lord
Burgh appointed Lord Deputy - He arrives in Dublin - Sir John Norris
retires - Lamentable State of the Pale.
Scarcely had the cessation
of arms been agreed upon by the Ulster chiefs and the Queen's
commissioners when three Spanish frigates arrived in Donegal Bay, bringing
encouraging letters from the King of Spain, and a supply of arms and
ammunition addressed especially to O'Donnell. Tyrone is charged by the
English with having communicated to Fiagh MacHugh and the other Leinster
insurgents the news of the promises held out by Spain, at the same time
that he sent to the Lord Deputy, as an evidence of the sincerity of his
submission, the letter which he had received from the Spanish monarch.
Such charges of dissimulation, so frequently reiterated against Tyrone,
are unsupported by evidence. The facts are these. Captain Warren, who,
with Captain St. Leger, had acted as intermediary between the
commissioners and the northern chieftains, stayed with Tyrone for nearly a
month after the departure of Norris and Fenton for Dundalk. At the end of
the month he repaired to Dublin, bearing with him a letter from Philip of
Spain to Tyrone a letter in which the Spanish monarch encouraged the Earl,
to persevere in his defence of the Catholic cause against the English.
Warren had promised that
this letter should be returned or burned, no copy being taken, Tyrone
having entrusted the missive to him on those conditions ; but the Lord
Deputy wished to retain the document, in which outrageous decision he was
supported by the Council, only Norris and Fenton dissenting. Warren was
annoyed and disgusted that he should be forced to be a party to such a
manifest breach of faith, as he had promised the Earl to keep the document
in his possession, and merely present it to the Lord Deputy for inspection
and return. Finally Tyrone was thanked for giving such a proof of the
sincerity of his loyalty, and begged to give further evidence as to the
intentions of his Spanish Majesty towards Ireland. Tyrone, in reply,
declared that the Lord Deputy and the Council had broken their word, and
had made Warren break his, "where", said he, "if I be honourably and well
dealt with, I shall refer myself to the answer of her most excellent
Majesty". The letter having been addressed to O'Donnell, he too was
indignant at this high-handed proceeding, and wrote to say that he wished
for peace, but could not restrain his men, and could give no pledge,
"inasmuch as Captain Warren performed not his promise in not returning the
letter he took with him to Dublin upon his word and credit".
The Spanish ships put into
Killybegs, and the King's Messenger, Alonzo de Cobos, came forty miles
inland to meet Tyrone and O'Donnell. A meeting was held, amongst those
present being the principals, and Tyrone's brother Cormac, his secretary,
Henry Hovenden, and O'Dogherty. An interpreter was employed, who, when his
duties terminated, spread abroad information regarding the proceedings,
which included the dictation of a letter by Cormac to Philip asking for
500 men. The Pope sent relics, and an indulgence, permitting the eating of
meat every day during active warfare. The several chiefs present now
signed an invitation to the King of Spain to invade Ireland. Tyrone,
however, only intimated verbally his accession to the league.
While Tyrone was inactive
in Ulster, Connaught was the scene of the wildest commotions. Towards the
close of 1596 O'Conor Sligo returned, after a long stay in England, and
manifested a zealous and ostentatious loyalty. His old feudatories,
MacDonough of Tirerill, and O'Hart, were detached by his influence from
the Catholic cause, and these examples, together with the popularity of
Sir Conyers Clifford, greatly strengthened the English ranks in the west.
O'Donnell took immediate steps to punish the defection. In December, 1596,
he crossed the river at Sligo, and swept off every head of cattle
belonging to the friends of O'Conor; and the following January he returned
with a much larger force and overran Connaught. He burned the gates of
Athenry and pillaged the town ; and all the territory of Clanrickard was
plundered by him as far as Maree, Oranmore, and the walls of Galway. He
then returned home laden with spoils, routing on his way a force which
O'Conor Sligo had collected to intercept him.
A Holy War was now started
by Tyrone's issuing a letter calling upon his co-religionists to help him.
"We have given oath and vow", he wrote, "that whosoever of the Irishry,
especially of the gentlemen of Munster, or whosoever else, from the
highest to the lowest, shall assist Christ's Catholic religion, and join
in confederacy and make war with us ... we will be to them a back or stay,
warrant or surety, for their so aiding of God's just cause, and by our
said oath and vow, never to conclude peace or war with the English, for
ourselves or any of us, during our life, but that the like shall be
concluded for you," &c. Essex had told Tyrone that he had much religion as
his horse, but whatever Tyrone's own ideas about religion were, it is
quite evident that out of Ulster he was regarded as the leader of a
crusade.
A little later he published
a manifesto to the Catholics of the towns throughout the entire country,
warning them of "the great calamity and misery into which they were likely
to fall by persevering in the damnable state in which they had been
living". If they did persevere, he told them, he should use means to
despoil them of their goods and to dispossess them of their lands, because
the towns were the means whereby wars were maintained against the
exaltation of the Catholic faith.
On the other hand, if they
joined him, Tyrone assured his co-religionists upon his conscience that he
would employ himself to the utmost of his power in their defence, "as well
as for the extirpation of heresy, the planting of the Catholic religion,
the delivery of the country from infinite murders, wicked and detestable
policies by which this kingdom was hitherto governed, nourished in
obscurity and ignorance, maintained in barbarity and incivility".
Therefore he thought himself in conscience bound to use all means for the
reduction of that poor afflicted country to the Catholic faith, which
never could be brought to any good pass without either the destruction or
the helping hand of the Catholics of the towns.
The Earl further protested
that he did not want the lands or goods of those to whom he addressed
himself, nor would he plant any in their places if they would only join
him. He declared "upon his salvation" that he chiefly and principally
fought for the Catholic faith to be planted throughout all their poor
country, as well in cities and elsewhere, protesting that "if he had to be
King of Ireland without having the Catholic religion established, he would
not the same accept".
He exhorted them to follow
the example of "that most Catholic country, France, whose subjects, for
defect of Catholic faith, did go against their most natural king, and
maintained wars till he was constrained to profess the Catholic religion,
duly submitting himself to the Apostolic See of Rome, to the which,
doubtless, he might bring his country, the Catholics of the towns putting
their helping hands with him to the same". He concluded, this man with the
religious sentiment of a horse: "As for myself, I protest before God and
upon my salvation I have been proffered oftentimes such conditions as no
man seeking his own private commodity could refuse; but I, seeking the
public utility of my native country, will prosecute these wars until
general religion be planted throughout all Ireland. So I rest, praying the
Almighty to move your flinty hearts to prefer the commodity and profit of
your country before your own private ends."
On the 22nd of May, 1597,
Sir William Russell was succeeded as Lord Deputy by Thomas, Lord Burgh,
Governor of Brill, who, like his predecessor in the Viceroyalty, had
fought in the Flanders campaign, in which he had served with distinction;
but for a while his appointment hung fire. "The Queen", says one informant
on the subject, "hastens the Lord Burgh's dispatch, but by and by it is
forgotten; it lives some day or two, and lies a-dying twenty days. Many
will not believe it till they see him go; but it is very certain that no
one gives it furtherance but the Queen's own resolution ; and his standing
upon an imprest of £3000., and a house furnished, makes Her Majesty let it
fall."
Elizabeth, who cannot be
too highly praised for her womanly love of economy, at last consented to
give her new representative in Ireland the sum of £1200 for immediate
needs. He was also given £24,000 for the Irish treasury. Financially he
was now in a satisfactory position, but his health was far from
satisfactory. "I am", he said to Cecil, "cut all over my legs with the
lancet, and have abidden loathsome worms to suck my flesh." In spite of
his sufferings Burgh kept a brave face, and was accompanied as far as St.
Albans by Ralegh, Southampton, and other distinguished men, who no doubt
diverted him and kept him free from painful reflections. On the very day
of his departure he called on Essex at Barnes, and returned to London
accompanied by the Earl, who placed his coach at his disposal. Opening his
dispatches on the way, he was annoyed to find that an additional article,
which he had not hitherto seen, had been tacked on to his instructions.
Knighthoods had, in the Queen's opinion, been given so freely as to
dishonour Her Majesty; Burgh was therefore commanded not to knight "any
but such as shall be, both of blood and livelihood, sufficient to maintain
that calling, except at some notable day of service to bestow it
[knighthood] for reward upon some such as in the field have
extraordinarily deserved it."
Twelve days after he left
London the new Lord Deputy arrived in Dublin. Here he found much to
complain of. Supplies were lacking, the numerical strength of the army
below par, and the horses in a condition which rendered them more fit to
be slaughtered than to be used in the field. Rumour had been rife to the
effect that Sir John Norris, the War Lord, who was no friend of Burgh,
resented his being entrusted not alone with the civil but also the
military government of the country, and that he declined to serve under
the newly-appointed Viceroy. Rumour was, however, in error, for when the
general arrived in Dublin, four days after the entrance of Burgh, the
latter wrote to Cecil that he was gratified at the result of their first
interview. "Sir John Norris and I", he wrote, "have in public council and
private conferences agreed well. I think you wrote to him to become
compatible." The ubiquitous pressman, or news-writer, of the day has, of
course, something to say, and relying on his imagination for his facts in
retailing the Court gossip of the hour, he refers to a solemn pacification
between War Lord and Viceroy, "made with much counterfeit kindness on both
sides". Be that as it may, there is no doubt that one of the first acts of
the new Deputy was to deprive Sir John Morris of his command, and to send
him to govern Munster with his brother. The gallant veteran, who, while in
office, had indeed performed no service worthy of his great military
reputation, soon after died broken-hearted.
Lord Burgh found Dublin
indeed a "city of dreadful night", and, writing to Cecil of the universal
misery, declares it to be "lamentable to hear as I am sure in your ears,
but woeful to behold to Christian eyes. I see soldiers, citizens,
villagers, and all sorts of people daily perish through famine; meat
failing the man of war makes him savage, so as the end is both spoiler and
spoiled are in like calamity." Such was the state of the Pale in the
initial stage of Burgh's Viceroyalty. |
