Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.]

THE VICEROYS OF

IRELAND

THE STORY OF THE LONG LINE OF NOBLEMEN

AND THEIR WIVES WHO HAVE RULED

IRELAND AND IRISH SOCIETY FOR

OVER SEVEN HUNDRED

YEARS

BY

CHARLES O'MAHONY

WITH PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE AND THIRTY-TWO OTHER

PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

JOHN LONG, LIMITED

NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET

MCMXII

TO

MY WIFE

{ix}

PREFACE

This is the first complete history of the viceroys of Ireland, the only
other book on the subject being the late Sir John T. Gilbert's, which
was published in 1864.  But as he dealt with the viceroys between 1172
and 1509 only, his book has no claim to completeness.  In common with
all writers on Ireland, however, I must express my acknowledgments to
Gilbert.  His keen and discerning research work, covering the first two
hundred years of the viceroyalty, has been of the utmost value to me.

Irish affairs appear certain to monopolize public and parliamentary
attention this year, and on this account I think that the history of
the men who have ruled Ireland for nearly seven hundred and fifty years
will be read with interest.

Of the illustrations, that of Lord Aberdeen is from a photograph by M.
Lafayette of Dublin and London, who has also supplied the photographs
of Lady Aberdeen, Lords Dudley, Spencer, Londonderry, Cadogan, and
Crewe, King Edward at the {x} Dublin Exhibition, and those of the
Viceregal Lodge, St. Patrick's Hall, and the Throne Room in Dublin
Castle.  All the other illustrations are from photographs of the
originals in the National Portrait Gallery, Dublin.

CHARLES O'MAHONY

LONDON

_June_, 1912

{xi}

CONTENTS

                                                               PAGE

  CHAPTER I      -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       15
  CHAPTER II     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       28
  CHAPTER III    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       48
  CHAPTER IV     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       62
  CHAPTER V      -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       71
  CHAPTER VI     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -       86
  CHAPTER VII    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      103
  CHAPTER VIII   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      120
  CHAPTER IX     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      139
  CHAPTER X      -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      161
  CHAPTER XI     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      173
  CHAPTER XII    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      188
  CHAPTER XIII   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      201
  CHAPTER XIV    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      216
  CHAPTER XV     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      229
  CHAPTER XVI    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      242
  CHAPTER XVII   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      261
  CHAPTER XVIII  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      271
  CHAPTER XIX    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      289
  CHAPTER XX     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      303
  CHAPTER XXI    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      313
  CHAPTER XXII   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      326

  INDEX  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -      343

{xiii}

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                        FACING PAGE

THE EARL OF ABERDEEN -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   _Frontispiece_

THE VICEREGAL LODGE, DUBLIN  -   -   -   -   -   -   -           30

THE THRONE ROOM, DUBLIN CASTLE   -   -   -   -   -   -           42

ST. PATRICK'S HALL, DUBLIN CASTLE    -   -   -   -   -           54

ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX   -   -   -   -   -   -           68

CHARLES BLOUNT, LORD MOUNTJOY    -   -   -   -   -   -           78

THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD  -   -   -   -   -           84

JAMES BUTLER, FIRST DUKE OF ORMONDE  -   -   -   -   -           86

OLIVER CROMWELL  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -           90

ARTHUR, EARL OF ESSEX    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          100

LORD WHARTON -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          130

JOHN, LORD CARTERET  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          140

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          150

EARL OF HARRINGTON   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          152

MARQUIS TOWNSHEND    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          176

INSTALLATION BANQUET OF KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICK   -   -          188

DUKE OF RUTLAND  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          192

EARL OF WESTMORELAND -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          194

EARL FITZWILLIAM -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          200

MARQUIS CAMDEN   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          204

MARQUIS CORNWALLIS   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          210

DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENNOX  -   -   -   -   -   -   -          214

EARL TALBOT  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          218

MARQUIS WELLESLEY    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          226

LORD MULGRAVE    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          240

{xiv}

EARL OF CLARENDON    -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          248

EARL OF EGLINTON AND WINTON  -   -   -   -   -   -   -          256

EARL SPENCER -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          280

LORD CREWE   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          306

EARL CADOGAN -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          310

LORD DUDLEY  -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          318

KING EDWARD CONVERSING WITH LORD ABERDEEN    -   -   -          334

COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN     -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -          338

{15}

THE VICEROYS OF IRELAND

CHAPTER I

The conquest of Ireland by Henry II. is one of the myths of history
which Time has endeavoured to crystallize into fact.  Rome gave Ireland
to the superstitious, cowardly King of England, but the Pope could not
make Henry a conqueror, and so the invader, coming to claim that which
did not belong to the Pope or to himself, discovered that the native
Irish could defend themselves.  Ireland was a land of saints according
to the chroniclers of the time; Henry discovered that it was also a
land of fighters, and the armour and superior weapons of his army were
outmatched by the sturdy patriotism of the Irish, whose weapons and
methods were, doubtless, crude, but whose courage and determination
were inspired by a love of country and intensified by a passion for
independence.

Henry II. landed at Waterford on October 11, 1171, accompanied by a
great army.  The conquest of Ireland was to be short, sharp, and
decisive.  The natives appeared to know nothing of the fine art of war,
and even Henry must have tasted of courage when he viewed the ill-armed
{16} legions he had to fight.  From Waterford he marched to Dublin, but
the result of several battles and skirmishes was an attenuated army and
unexpected defeat.  Had it not been for the inevitable Irish traitor,
Henry and his followers would have been swept into the sea, but it is
Ireland's tragedy that she produces almost as many traitors as heroes.
Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster, anxious to gain the unmistakable
advantages offered by an alliance with the King of England, came to
Henry's aid, and thus the invader was at any rate able to claim the
conquest of the land covered by the feet of his soldiers.  Beyond that
his jurisdiction was imaginary.  Realizing this, Henry determined to
leave Ireland.  His expedition had proved profitless, but he foresaw
possibilities of gain in the future.  The first of a long line of
Englishmen who have never known when they were beaten, Henry, with a
statesmanlike disregard for the realities, divided Ireland between ten
of his followers, and, nominating one of them to act as his
representative, sailed from the country on Easter Monday, April 17,
1172.  This, in brief, is the story of the conquest of Ireland.

[Sidenote: The first Viceroy]

Henry's representative, and, therefore, generally accepted as the first
Viceroy of Ireland, was Hugh de Lacy, a descendant of one of William
the Conqueror's companions in arms.  To De Lacy was committed the care
of Dublin Castle and the command of the English in Ireland.  The
viceroy was a small but muscular man, unscrupulous, immoral, and
unsuccessful.  Henry gave him 800,000 acres which were not the king's
to give, {17} even in the Dark Ages when right was might.  To a person
of De Lacy's qualities the gift was valueless, for he was not the man
to gain and hold the land.  Even when Tiarnan O'Ruarc, the original
owner, was treacherously slain, the viceroy found it impossible to
assert his authority over the vast estate.

De Lacy was soon succeeded by another Anglo-Norman baron,
Fitz-Gislebert, who gained Henry's confidence and gratitude by helping
to subdue the rebellious sons of the King of England.  Fitz-Gislebert
came from Normandy to Ireland.  His viceroyalty was undistinguished,
and he was chiefly occupied in defending himself from the attacks of
the Irish or in vain endeavours to assert his authority as the
representative of the King of England.  When he died in 1176 his
widow's brother, Raymond le Gros, acted as viceroy until Henry, having
been acquainted with the decease of Fitz-Gislebert, appointed Guillaume
Fitz-Aldelm de Burgh to the post in 1177.  Raymond was not at all
pleased with Henry's choice, but he dissembled sufficiently to receive
the new viceroy at Wexford.  Raymond had by now assumed the name and
arms of the Geraldine family by virtue of his descent from an emigrant
of an old Tuscan family, thus forming his kinsmen and followers under
one banner, and becoming the most powerful member of the English colony
in Ireland.  Fitz-Aldelm and the Geraldines were never friendly, and it
is not surprising, therefore, that one of the Geraldine chroniclers
should describe the viceroy as 'corpulent, crafty, plausible, {18}
corrupt, addicted to wine and profligate luxuriousness.'  The
description, save for the physical details, would, however, apply to
almost every one of the early Viceroys of Ireland.  They were for the
most part needy adventurers sent to Ireland to replenish empty purses,
legalized robbers commissioned by the Kings of England, and none the
less thieves because they were not always successful in their mission.

[Sidenote: English defeats]

In 1177 King Henry secured the permission of the Pope to style his son
John, aged twelve, Lord of Ireland, and two years later the viceroy was
recalled, De Lacy returning to Ireland as Governor with a colleague in
the person of Robert de la Poer of Wexford.  De Lacy, however,
committed the heinous crime of marrying without the king's permission,
his bride being the daughter of King O'Connor, and he was superseded by
Jean, Constable of Chester, who held the viceroyalty in conjunction
with Richard de Peche, Bishop of Coventry.  The ex-viceroy, however,
managed to secure a renewal of the king's favour, and he quickly
returned to Ireland, though for safety's sake Henry gave him a
colleague, the Bishop of Salisbury, who was the monarch's paid spy.  De
Lacy pursued his policy unhampered, and very soon became wealthy and
powerful.  The king, learning of his representative's arrogance,
decided that it was dangerous to permit a subject to taste too much of
kingly power, and in 1184 he appointed his son, Prince John, now
nineteen years of age, to be the chief governor of Ireland.  Fortified
by the Papal sanction, Prince John came {19} to Ireland with a large
and costly army to impress De Lacy and his fellow-barons, and,
incidentally, to subdue the turbulent Irish.  An assassin removed De
Lacy from his path, but the natives were stubborn, and the English were
defeated whenever they gave battle.  Thereupon John, with his retinue,
indulged in a series of orgies, lost the remnant of his army, and after
eight months returned to England in 1185.

During the succeeding four years De Courcy, a powerful baron, ruled
Dublin in parts and none of the rest of Ireland, but, of course,
maintained the fiction that he was the king's representative, and,
therefore, Viceroy of Ireland.  Then followed the first viceroyalty of
Hugh de Lacy, a son of the previous viceroy, and in 1190 Guillaume le
Petil took over the post and occupied it until 1191.  After him came in
quick succession Guillaume, Earl Marechal (1191-94), Pierre Pipard
(1194), Hamon de Valognes (1197-99), and Fitz-Henry, whose father was
an illegitimate son of Henry I., whose first term began in 1199 and
ended in 1203.  De Valognes, when he retired, had to pay 1,000 marks to
the king's treasury to settle his viceregal accounts.  This was not
exceptional.  The viceroys of Ireland were given considerable powers,
but they had their responsibilities, and among these was a contract to
supply so much money and soldiers to their royal masters.  To satisfy
these contracts, the viceroys, when denied the spoils of battle, had to
rob and plunder, while the viceroy who paid his debts was as rare as
virtue in Dublin Castle.

{20}

Hugh de Lacy returned in 1203, but King John, his fears aroused by the
viceroy's introduction of special coinage, recalled him in 1204, and
for the space of a year Fitz-Henry occupied the viceregal position.  In
1205 the king issued instructions for the erection of a new Dublin
Castle.  De Lacy, however, had powerful friends, and in 1205 he came
back once more, and ruled the English colony for five years, until King
John landed at Waterford on June 20, 1210, when, of course, the
vice-royalty ceased for the time being.  De Lacy, more courageous and
skilful than his father, had carried war into the enemy's camp, and had
done something towards extending the boundaries of England's dominions
beyond the frontiers of Dublin.  He instituted a system of taxation
which was very profitable to him and to his royal master, but it
exasperated the Irish to such an extent that they rose in rebellion.
The opposing forces met at Thurles in 1208, and the result was a signal
defeat for De Lacy.  The coming of King John, who did not conceal his
distrust of the viceroy, caused De Lacy to concentrate his forces with
a view to impressing the king.  Fortune, however, was on the side of
John, and De Lacy fled the country.  There are many legends recounting
the adventures of the once powerful nobleman.  He and his brother are
said to have laboured as brickmakers and gardeners in Normandy and
Scotland, and suffered many other indignities.

[Sidenote: Papal supremacy]

King John's stay in Ireland was brief, as the critical state of his
kingdom required his presence in England.  He left behind him as his
representatives {21} Guillaume, Earl of Salisbury--an illegitimate son
of Henry II. by the fair Rosemond Clifford--and De Grey, Bishop of
Norwich.  In 1213 they were succeeded by Henry de Londres, Archbishop
of Dublin, a powerful prelate and an unscrupulous statesman.  He was
given the post because of his influence with the Pope, and John's first
task for his new viceroy was to send him to Rome to induce the occupant
of the Papal throne to side with him against the barons.  Geoffery de
Marreis, a follower of the Archbishop's, acted as his deputy during his
absence abroad.  The deputy robbed friend and foe alike, but eventually
the trades-people of Dublin petitioned the king because De Marreis
would not pay his debts and added insult to injury by compelling the
traders of the city to give him further credit.  King Henry III. was on
the throne now, and he ordered his representative to pay all his debts
within forty days.  Furthermore, he was placed under the authority of
the Archbishop of Dublin, Henry de Londres, who had helped to make
history by forming one of the barons and ecclesiastics who compelled
King John to sign the Magna Charta.  The archbishop was the most
powerful Englishman in the kingdom of Ireland, and, as the
representative of the Pope, took precedence of the representative of
the king.  In 1221 he was appointed viceroy, and then ensued the usual
conflict between the civil and religious powers that is inevitable when
churchmen turn politicians.  The English colony complained to Henry
that his viceroy was unable to cope with the insurgents, and they
prayed {22} for a more warlike governor.  Guillaume Marechal, eldest
son and heir of the first Earl of Pembroke, and afterwards second earl,
was sent to Ireland as viceroy in 1224, but this brother-in-law of the
king's did not find the country to his liking, and he departed in
favour of Geoffery de Marreis, whose third term of office began in 1226
and ended the following year.

This viceroyalty was the first to which a definite salary was given,
the sum of £580 a year being set aside for the use of Geoffery de
Marreis.  Richard de Burgh followed De Marreis until, in 1229, Maurice
Fitzgerald assumed the reins of government.  Fitzgerald was born in
Ireland, and was the first Anglo-Irishman to become Viceroy of Ireland.
His viceroyalty extended over fifteen years, though at intervals the
government was in the hands of Geoffery de Marreis and Richard de Burgh
for a few months.  The viceroy was given a salary of £500 a year, and
unlimited authority to rob the native Irish, and even the English
colony, provided he sent part of the proceeds to London to help to pay
the king's debts and finance wars.  But he fell from grace in 1245, and
was dismissed, the reason given being his dilatoriness in bringing
reinforcements to his royal master in Wales.  Jean Fitz-Geoffery was
appointed his successor, and during the ensuing ten years the
government was nominally vested in him, minor changes occurring from
time to time.  The next viceroy, Alain de la Zouche, reigned for four
years (1255-59), and died as the result of an assault made upon him by
the Earl of Warrene and {23} Surrey in Westminster Hall, while his
successor, Etienne, who had married the widow of the second Hugh de
Lacy, was murdered in 1260.

The next half-dozen viceroys are summed up easily.  Guillaume le Dene
(1260-61), Sir Richard de la Rochelle (1261-66), Jean Fitz-Geoffery for
the third time (1266-67), Sir Robert D'Ufford (1268 and 1276-82),
Richard D'Exeter (1269), and Jacques D'Audeley (1270-72).  The majority
were adventurers and favourites of the king, and few could claim
possession of the soldier-like qualities which were needed at the time.
Sir Robert D'Ufford was an exception, but he spent most of his time
fighting abroad in the service of the King of England.  Maurice
Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, signalized a brief viceroyalty, extending from
1272-73, by marching into the territory of the O'Connors, and promptly
being made a prisoner.  The vacancy thus created was filled by Geoffery
de Joinville, who held the post for three years.

[Sidenote: Sir Jean Wogan]

Jean de Saundford, Archbishop of Dublin (1288-90), was one of the
numerous deputies who governed the English colony between 1282 and
1290.  These deputies were mainly ecclesiastics, for England's
unsettled state and numerous wars called every leading warrior away
from Ireland.  Sir Guillaume de Vesci (1290-93), Guillaume de la Haye
(1293), Guillaume D'Ardingselles (1294), Thomas Fitzmaurice (1294-95)
paved the way for Sir Jean Wogan, who was viceroy for thirteen years,
and who did more to establish the authority of England than any of his
predecessors.  When Wogan was appointed the chief source of danger {24}
to the English colonists was the feud between the two great Anglo-Irish
families, the Fitzgeralds and the De Burghs.  Wogan, however, succeeded
in bringing them together, and they agreed to a truce.  The viceroy was
also fairly successful against the natives, but he made no additions to
the territory over which England nominally held sway.  In 1308 Sir
Guillaume de Burgh was appointed to succeed Wogan, but an unexpected
development occurred, and Edward II., urged on by his advisers,
nominated his Gascon favourite, Piers de Gaveston, to the post.  This
was virtually an act of banishment, and the gay Gascon regarded it as
such, but for the time he had to accept the post, which was regarded by
the wealthy English barons as tantamount to exile.  Ireland was not a
garden of pleasant memories to the English warriors.  Not one of them
who had tried his skill in the country had added to his laurels, and,
consequently, the only men who would accept the viceroyalty or any of
the posts attached to the Dublin Castle Government were the "needy
adventurers" who stood to lose nothing and gain something.  From time
to time the English colony petitioned the king not to send these 'needy
adventurers,' but there were no others to fill the vacancies that arose.

Piers de Gaveston's case was an exception.  Edward II. had advanced him
to the Earldom of Cornwall, and the barons were jealous of him.  They
plotted against his life, but the king stood by his favourite, and
eventually both parties {25} compromised by permitting Piers to go to
Ireland.  He did not stay in Ireland for more than a few months, for he
hungered for the gay English court, and when he left the country Sir
Jean Wogan renewed his viceroyalty.  It was in this year--1309--that
John Lech, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained a Bull from Clement V.
authorizing the establishment of a university in Dublin.  The laudable
project, however, was prematurely abandoned owing to the death of the
archbishop.  Nearly three hundred years elapsed before Dublin received
its now famous university.

[Sidenote: Edward Bruce crowned]

Sir Edmund le Botiller, or Butler, succeeded Wogan in 1312, and carried
on his policy.  He is said to have succeeded in restoring order in the
English colony and its immediate surroundings, but when reappointed in
1315, after a viceroyalty of a few months by Theobaude de Verdun, he
had to cope with the most serious rebellion Ireland had known for two
hundred years.  The native Irish had been inspired by the exploits of
King Robert Bruce of Scotland, and they called upon that monarch's
brother, Edward Bruce, to rule over their country and lead them to
victory.  Bruce responded with alacrity, and he was crowned King of
Ireland in 1315.  Le Botiller collected a large army, and went in
pursuit of the invader and his followers, but the viceroy suffered an
overwhelming defeat, and it seemed as though the last day had come of
English rule in Ireland.  The inhabitants of Dublin, who were, of
course, mainly English, became alarmed, but some confidence was
restored at a meeting of the chief {26} nobles, who swore fidelity to
King Edward, and declared that they would forfeit life and lands if
they failed in their duty.  The manifesto, signed by ten nobles, was
delivered to Edward at Westminster, and he signified his approval and
gratitude by creating the first of the signatories, Jean Fitz-Thomas,
Earl of Kildare.  Fitz-Thomas had been Baron of Offaly.  The defeated
and discomfited Le Botiller was superseded in 1317 by Roger de
Mortimer, the paramour of King Edward's queen.  Mortimer brought with
him 15,000 men, and while he was pursuing Bruce he appointed the
Archbishops of Cashel and Dublin to act as his deputies at Dublin.

Sunday, October 14, 1318, witnessed the last of Edward Bruce and his
pretensions to the kingdom of Ireland.  Outnumbered and out-generalled,
he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughard, and in accordance
with the rules of war his head was sent to King Edward.  When this
ghastly trophy arrived, Edward was seated at a banquet with the
Ambassadors from King Robert Bruce of Scotland, who had asked and
seemed likely to obtain the province of Ulster for Edward Bruce.  The
sight of Bruce's head, however, ended the conference prematurely.

[Sidenote: The first university]

Roger de Mortimer was in 1319 induced to forsake the attractions of the
queen's court for the rigours of Dublin Castle, but in 1320 he was back
again in London, leaving Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, to rule in
his stead.  Kildare was succeeded by Jean de Bermingham, Earl of Louth,
{27} in 1321; while in the same year Sir Ralph de Gorges and Sir Jean
d'Arcy occupied in turn the viceroyalty.  D'Arcy lasted until 1326.  It
is worthy of note that in 1320 a university was opened in Dublin, but
it was never more than a seminary for ecclesiastics.

{28}

CHAPTER II

The year 1326 is memorable in English annals because of the deposition
of Edward II.  The Viceroy of Ireland, Thomas, second Earl of Kildare,
was appointed that year, the warrant stating that he represented Edward
III., then a boy of fourteen.  The deposed monarch immediately looked
to Ireland for support, and to Dublin he came, having heard that the
English colony refused to acknowledge the authority of the Earl of
Kildare.  He was misinformed, however, and he lost his throne without
being able to strike a blow for it.

[Sidenote: Prior Utlagh and witchcraft]

The Earl of Kildare gave way in 1328 to a remarkable ecclesiastic,
Prior Roger Utlagh, Chancellor and Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of
Kilmainham.  He ruled as an autocrat, outwardly acknowledging Edward's
sovereignty, but in reality a combination of layman and priest, who
feared neither God nor man.  When King Robert Bruce visited Ireland,
and invited the Prior to a conference, he was ordered to leave the
country, and he had to obey.  Fellow-ecclesiastics plotted against him,
but he was more than their match.  When the Bishop of Ossory openly
accused the viceroy of favouring heretics, Roger Utlagh made {29} it
the occasion of a great public demonstration of his virtuous qualities.
The charge was based on a rumour that the viceroy had shown kindness to
a man imprisoned in Dublin Castle because he was the patron of a
supposed witch's son.  The position was serious enough, and the
viceroy, therefore, issued proclamations for three successive days,
calling upon his enemies to appear and prefer a charge against him.  No
one came forward, as was only to be expected, the viceroy possessing
arbitrary punitive powers, and Utlagh thereupon nominated six
commissioners in Dublin Castle and examined witnesses provided by
himself.  The complacent commissioners formally declared Prior Utlagh's
character to be spotless, and in return for this testimonial the worthy
ecclesiastic presided over a banquet in the Castle.  Thus were his
enemies confounded.

The Prior retired for William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, who was styled
Lieutenant, or locum tenens.  De Burgh's reign was brief, and in 1332,
within a year of his appointment, he was replaced by Sir Jean d'Arcy,
an ex-viceroy.  The Earl of Ulster was murdered in 1333, an act of
revenge inspired by an aunt whose husband the earl had starved to death
in one of his castles.  The crime had its effect on English history, as
the Countess of Ulster fled to England with her only child, Elizabeth,
who married a son of Edward III. and became an ancestor of Edward IV.
Sir Jean d'Arcy was merely viceroy in name, the deputy, Sir Thomas de
Burgh, ruling in Dublin Castle until 1337, when Sir John de Cherlton,
who had been {30} appointed in place of the deputy--dismissed for
irregularities--occupied the post for a year.  His successor was his
brother, the Bishop of Hereford, who also became Chancellor.  Like most
ecclesiastics of the time, the Bishop of Hereford was a very zealous
politician, drawing a sharp line between his spiritual and his temporal
powers.  He seized the cattle of the native Irish in large quantities,
frequently despoiling the whole countryside of every head of live
stock, and this so delighted the valorous Edward III. that he wrote a
long letter of commendation to his faithful representative, and ordered
the treasurer at Dublin Castle to pay the viceroy's salary before that
of any other official.  The year 1340 witnessed the retirement of the
cattle-stealing Bishop, the reappointment and death of Prior Utlagh,
and the conferring for life of the viceroyalty upon Sir Jean d'Arcy,
who had covered himself with glory in the numerous wars of Edward III.
D'Arcy did not, of course, come to Ireland.  The appointment was in
reality the king's way of rewarding his faithful warrior, and,
therefore, D'Arcy was content to share in the spoils and gains of his
deputy, Sir John Moriz.

[Sidenote: Rise of the Anglo-Irish]

By now, however, a new factor entered into the protracted struggle for
the possession of the rich lands of Ireland.  During the centuries of
English occupation several great Anglo-Irish families had arisen, and,
fattening upon their spoils, gradually came to occupy positions more
powerful than the representatives of the king.  The heads of the
Desmonds, the Geraldines, the De Burghs, and {31} others, resented the
intrusion of English warriors sent to Dublin to refill their treasure
chests.  They wished to rule Ireland, and declined to bow the knee to
impecunious adventurers invested with royal powers by the King of
England.  Slowly yet surely these powerful chieftains ranged themselves
on one side until hostilities in Ireland were not between the English
and the natives, but between the English by birth and the English by
blood, jealousy and greed of gain forming the motive.

[Illustration: The Viceregal lodge, Dublin]

When Sir John Moriz, D'Arcy's deputy, called a Parliament together at
Dublin to consider the state of the country and to promulgate new
Edwardian ordinances, the Earl of Desmond and other leaders of the
English by blood declined to attend.  In their opinion Sir Jean d'Arcy
and his deputy were 'needy adventurers'--a description they applied to
them in a petition sent direct to Edward III.  Desmond was a clever
man, who openly advocated peace and secretly prepared for war.  His
diplomacy, however, gained a surer victory than all his legions were
capable of accomplishing, for in the petition already referred to he
asked politely why his Majesty did not receive larger revenues from
Ireland.  This caused Edward to realize some of the disadvantages of
conferring the viceroyalty upon impecunious warriors, and he promptly
surrendered to the petitioners, removing Moriz, and appointing Sir
Raoul d'Ufford, who became viceroy in the early part of 1344.

D'Ufford was wealthy enough to be trusted with {32} the government of
Ireland, and Edward owed him something for his services in the French
and Flemish wars.  It is more than likely, however, that he was
indebted for his viceroyalty to the fact that his wife was Maud
Plantagenet, widow of the murdered Earl of Ulster and also of Edward's
son.  D'Ufford's commission authorized him to grant pardon to rebels on
their swearing allegiance to the king, and, furthermore, it enjoined
him to search for Irish mines of gold, silver, lead, and tin.
D'Ufford's appointment evoked no enthusiasm and some fear.  The English
colony knew the temper of Maud Plantagenet, a proud, revengeful, and
ambitious woman, and greatly as they feared D'Ufford's reputation for
severity, they realized that, urged on by his wife, he might be guilty
of excesses exceeding those which had won for him the fear of his
enemies in France.

The entrance of the viceregal pair into Dublin in July, 1345,
foreshadowed the kingly state they maintained throughout their brief
reign.  They resided in the Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of
Kilmainham, and Maud Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster, put into practice
the lessons she had learnt at the English court.  She exacted homage
from her friends, maintained ladies-in-waiting, held courts of her own,
and, in fact, was Queen of Ireland.  Letters were sent to Edward
describing the conduct of his ambitious representatives, and the king's
jealousy and fears were aroused.  Action on his part, however, was
forestalled by the death of D'Ufford, who expired from a malignant
disease on Palm Sunday, 1346.  Clergy and laity {33} combined to
celebrate the tyrant's death, and thanksgiving services were held
throughout the English colony.  D'Ufford and his wife occupied the
viceroyalty for less than twelve months, but in that brief space of
time they committed many acts of oppression, torturing, robbing,
despoiling, and executing enemies and even friends to gratify a lust
for gain and exhibit to the world their vanity of power.  Most of
D'Ufford's tyrannies were ascribed by the populace to the evil counsels
of his wife, and when he was no more they sought out the widow with the
intention of laying violent hands upon her.  Tyrants have no friends
when they fall from power, and Maud Plantagenet suffered the usual
indignities of a changeable fate, though she managed to escape from
Ireland and carry her husband's body to England.  She passed the
remainder of her life in retirement.

Since his dismissal Sir John Moriz had laboured to obtain his
restoration, and he succeeded in this three days before D'Ufford's
death.  Meanwhile the council in Ireland had elected Roger, son of Sir
Jean d'Arcy, who, however, gave way to Moriz when the latter arrived.

[Sidenote: The profits of the post]

The new viceroy had been charged by the king to secure supplies of
money for him from out of Ireland.  Indeed, the appointment was based
on a sort of co-partnership, the king insisting upon a large percentage
of the profits of the post.  Moriz knew that conciliation was the only
means of obtaining the money, and he began by releasing the Earl of
Kildare from imprisonment in Dublin Castle, and showing similar
clemency to other {34} distinguished prisoners.  The policy of Walter
de Bermingham (1348-49), John, Lord Carew (1349), and Sir Thomas de
Rokeby (1349-55), was in direct contrast.  They favoured war where
Moriz had tried peace, and with the usual result.  The native Irish had
by now the protection and assistance of the leading Anglo-Irish
families, who were influenced by the Irish blood in their veins, and
took common cause against the viceroy and his battalions.  In almost
every encounter the English were defeated, and, finally, Dublin itself
was threatened.  In alarm the English colony began to make hasty
preparations for flight to England.  They sold what they could and
abandoned the rest, and it seemed as though the English in Ireland
would cease to exist when an order came from England declaring that any
English colonist deserting Ireland would be put to death.  Compelled to
remain, they continued their miserable existence, threatened with
murder by their foes, and in continual danger of robbery by the very
men appointed to protect them.  Dublin at this period was in a wretched
condition.  There had been no attempt to build a city, and in reality
the place was a fort whereby England maintained its footing in Ireland.
In the country the native chiefs and the Anglo-Irish noblemen ruled,
administering justice in their crude fashion, and in some cases issuing
their own coinage.  The Viceroy of Ireland was in reality Viceroy of
Dublin, and not always even that.

The next Lord-Deputy was Maurice, first Earl of Desmond, an
Anglo-Irishman.  He died in 1356, {35} a year after his appointment,
and Sir Thomas de Rokeby, who succeeded him, succumbed the same year.
A return to the old condition of things was marked by the appointment
of Baron Almaric de St. Amaud, who was created Lord of Gormanstown, but
the baron did not care for Ireland, and he went back to England,
leaving Maurice, fourth Earl of Kildare, to act as his deputy.  He gave
way to James le Botiller, second Earl of Ormonde, who was a
great-grandson of Edward I.  The appointment won the allegiance of
Ormonde to the throne of England, and when, two years
later--1361--Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III., was appointed
viceroy and sent to Ireland with a large army, Ormonde promptly became
one of his Generals.  In 1347, when the Prince was ten, he had been
married to Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered Earl of Ulster and Maud
Plantagenet, the girl being sixteen.  The object was to secure for the
Royal Family the immense estates and vast wealth of the late Earl of
Ulster, and when in 1361 Prince Lionel and his wife travelled with
their army to Ireland, a considerable part of the expenditure was borne
by his wife's estate.  Remembering the hostility of the Irish against
his wife's mother, Lionel issued a proclamation forbidding the natives
to approach his camp.

[Sidenote: English army defeated]

Having rested for a time, Prince Lionel began the march which was to
conquer the land, but again an English army, strong, well armed and
victualled, was outmatched and defeated by the Irish.  Disaster after
disaster followed the prince, who could do nothing right.  Edward, when
he {36} heard the news, was alarmed and astounded.  The first thing he
did was to create the prince Duke of Clarence.  His second step was
more practical, and consisted in raising another army, while he
increased his son's allowance from 6s. 8d. a day to 13s. 4d.  Victory,
however, was denied the prince, and though he returned to Ireland with
increased forces in 1364, 1365, and 1366, he failed to improve upon his
previous attempts.  In 1362 his wife had died, leaving an only child in
the person of Phillipa.

[Sidenote: The Statute of Kilkenny]

Prince Lionel's term of office is chiefly remarkable because it
witnessed the creation of the famous, or infamous, Statute of Kilkenny.
At a special Parliament held in Kilkenny in 1367, the viceroy
endeavoured to gain by legislation that which he and his soldiers had
lost in a dozen battles.  It was therefore decreed that no English
settler could marry into an Irish family; the selling of horses,
armour, or victuals in peace or war was declared treason; English was
the only language to be spoken; the English style of horsemanship was
to be adopted; and no subject of the king's could be known except by an
English name, and the education of the Irish was forbidden, no colleges
or seminaries being permitted to receive them.  There were also special
clauses dealing with ecclesiastics, who were ordered to expel any Irish
amongst them.  The use of the English tongue was enjoined strictly, and
if anyone offended the profits of his benefice were to be seized by his
superior.  The English colonists were likewise warned against admitting
itinerant {37} musicians into their houses, for these men were regarded
as spies, and therefore dangerous.  The custom of calling the English
by birth 'English Hobbes,' or clowns, was forbidden, as well as the
nickname of 'Irish dogs' bestowed upon the English by blood.  The
Government could not afford the luxury of schisms amongst its friends.
The common people were ordered not to play hurlings and quoitings,
'which had caused evils and maims,' but to accustom themselves 'to draw
bows and cast lances and other gentleman-like sports whereby the Irish
enemies might be better checked.'  Constables of castles were forbidden
to take more than 5d. per day from any prisoner for maintenance, and
torture was vetoed.  Not the least important enactment of the Statute
of Kilkenny was the 'one war one peace' declaration.  This meant that
in the event of a rebellion or uprising all those who did not side with
the viceroy were to be regarded as the open enemies of the King of
England.  Neutrality could not be acknowledged.

When this laborious and comprehensive statute had been drawn up the
viceroy requested the Archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, and the
Bishops of Lismore and Waterford, Killaloe, Leighlin, and Cloyne to
pronounce sentence of excommunication against all those who might by
'rebellion of heart' resist the Statute of Kilkenny.

This was Lionel's last act as viceroy, and he retired, being succeeded
by Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, known as 'The Poet' by reason of his
{38} writings.  He was popular, witty, and just, and for two years he
ruled the English colony.  In 1369, however, Sir William de Windsor,
who had been one of the leaders of Prince Lionel's army, was appointed
viceroy, and given an annuity of £1,000 until lands producing an equal
amount could be settled on him.  De Windsor's time was occupied chiefly
in repelling attacks on the city of Dublin by the border Irish, but he
performed an heroic action by marching to the South of Ireland and
rescuing the preceding viceroy, whose poetical temperament and mild
manner had not saved him from the hostility of the Irish.  In 1371 De
Windsor retired for over two years.  The appointment of a successor
caused Edward great trouble.  He was averse to sending a pauper,
because that would entail a diminution in the royal receipts from
Ireland, while the wealthy men about his court would not accept the
post at any price.  Ireland to them was a savage country; a stay there
tantamount to punishment and exile.  There was no prospect of military
glory, for they knew that many of the gallant victors of France,
Flanders, and Scotland had left their reputations behind them on many a
lost battlefield in Ireland.  Edward thought that he could compel
anybody he chose to go to Ireland, and he selected Sir Richard de
Pembridge, who held several very profitable offices under the English
Crown.  Naturally Pembridge declined the post, and Edward retorted by
depriving him of his offices.  Pembridge, however, appealed to the
Council and to Parliament, and it was decided that it was not the {39}
king's prerogative to order anybody to leave the country.  Magna Charta
distinctly stated that exile from England was the punishment for felony
or treason, and that Parliament alone had the power to expel a subject.

[Sidenote: The 'Lady of the Sun']

Prior to the return of Sir William de Windsor, the government was
undertaken for various short periods by Maurice Fitz-Thomas, Earl of
Kildare, Dean de Colton, of St. Patrick's, who secured the post by
undertaking to repel the O'Briens at his own expense, and William de
Taney, an ecclesiastic.  De Windsor came back in April, 1374, having
come to an agreement with his royal master, whereby he was allowed 500
marks from the Exchequer and the sum of £11,213 6s. 8d.  In return for
the money he guaranteed to maintain 200 men-at-arms and 40 archers.  De
Windsor's object was obviously to make as much money as he could out of
the unfortunate country, which was already sending annually the
enormous sum for the period of £10,000.  The viceroy came to regard all
surplus moneys above that sum to be his perquisites, and his efforts to
increase taxation and enrich himself were so unscrupulous and cynical
that reports and complaints soon reached Edward.  The king immediately
appointed Sir Nicholas de Dagworth to proceed to Ireland, and
investigate the charges against De Windsor.  But the enemies of the
viceroy reckoned without the famous Alice Perrers.  She was the aged
king's favourite, and was clever and unscrupulous, a woman of humble
birth who had risen high without the aid of a pretty face.  In love
with Sir William {40} de Windsor, she remained faithful to him during
his absence in Ireland, and although surrounded by his enemies, the
'Lady of the Sun,' as Edward styled her, outwitted them all, her
greatest achievement being the prevention of Dagworth's departure for
Ireland.  Subsequently she married De Windsor, but as she belongs more
to the history of England than Ireland her career cannot be treated
here.

In 1376 De Windsor was ordered to come to Westminster, and confer with
the king on the state of his Irish dominions, but this was merely a
pretext to deprive him of his post, and he never returned.  Maurice
Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Kildare, once more acted as deputy for a short
time, and then James le Botiller, Earl of Ormonde, carried on the
government from 1376 to 1378.  Ormonde retired dissatisfied, and the
colony was governed by two members of the Council, Alexander de Balscot
and John de Bromwich, until in 1380 the king sent over Edmund de
Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, husband of Phillipa, daughter of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and therefore owner of vast estates and
commander of an army of his own.  On his appointment the colonists
petitioned the king to compel De Mortimer to live in Dublin and protect
his property.  The petitioners were successful, and the viceroy,
instead of appointing a deputy and sharing the profits, graciously
agreed to govern Ireland in person for a period of three years at a
salary of 2,000 marks.  In princely splendour he entered the country,
and immediately inaugurated a campaign against the rebellious south.
Death, however, claimed him on {41} December 26, 1381, and he died at
Cork in a Dominican Abbey, being only thirty years of age.

The vacancy thus created was offered in turn to the Earls of Desmond
and Ormonde, but they declined on the ground that if they were in
Dublin they could not protect their own territories.  Dean de Colton,
therefore, was appointed pending the pleasure of the king, who, when he
heard of De Mortimer's death, at once nominated the deceased viceroy's
son Roger to the post.  Roger de Mortimer was only eleven, but the
viceroyalty was intended as a monetary compensation for the death of
his father, and the commission appointing him stated that he was to
receive all the profits of the office as well as a salary of 2,000
marks.  Furthermore, as soon as he attained his majority he could
retire from the post.  In pursuance of this convenient plan the boy's
uncle, Sir Thomas de Mortimer, was chosen as his deputy.

[Sidenote: A Parliament in Dublin]

The presence of a deputy, however, always had an irritating effect upon
the English colonists, and when in 1382 Richard II. ordered a
Parliament to meet in Dublin, its first act was to protest against the
absence of the viceroy.  To satisfy the nobles and prelates the king
appointed Philip de Courtenay, a cousin of his, viceroy for life.  The
commission was drawn up in 1385, but it was not until two years later
that de Courtenay landed in Ireland.  His reign was brief and stormy.
The two great Anglo-Irish families, the Desmonds and the Ormondes, were
in conflict, and the Irish were besieging and harassing the colonists.
De Courte was not the man for the occasion.  He was {42} charged with
oppression and extortion, and the king, who had already made up his
mind to make his favourite, de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Viceroy of
Ireland, gladly accepted the accusations against de Courtenay, and
ordered him to remain under arrest in Dublin until the arrival of his
successor, who would investigate the charges against his character.  De
Courtenay appealed to the Council in Dublin, and they declared the
accusations to be unjust.

[Illustration: The Throne Room, Dublin Castle]

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 {43} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {44} 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.

[Sidenote: Viceregal poverty]

Sir John de Stanley, ever ready to step into a {45} 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 {46} 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.'

[Sidenote: 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 {47} 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.

{48}

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 {49} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {50}
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.

[Sidenote: 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 {51}
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 {52} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {53} 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.  {54} 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 {55}
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.

[Illustration: St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle]

Worcester retired in 1468, and the Earl of Kildare ruled for the absent
Duke of Clarence.  Edward IV., however, began to entertain fears that
the young Prince might imitate the example of his late father, and make
the viceroyalty an office rivalling the throne itself, and convert
Ireland into a stronghold against him and his house.  The Duke of
Clarence and the Earl of Warwick were undoubtedly conspiring against
Edward, who promptly offered a reward of £1,000 or £100 a year for life
to whoever captured the duke or the earl.  The latter, however, did not
survive the _coup d'état_ of 1470, when Henry VI. was restored
temporarily.  The Earl of Warwick, who was nominally Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, being represented there by Edmund Dudley, was beheaded by the
Earl of Oxford on Tower Hill.

[Sidenote: The Duke of Clarence]

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
{56} 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
{57} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {58} 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 {59} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {60} 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 {61} 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!'

[Sidenote: 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.

{62}

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.

[Sidenote: 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.  {63} 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 {64}
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.

[Sidenote: 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 {65} 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 {66} 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 {67} actually paid the debts incurred
during his viceroyalty.

[Sidenote: 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, {68} 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.

[Illustration: Earl of Essex]

When the Earl of Sussex was recalled in 1564, Sir Henry Sidney was
appointed deputy or viceroy, and he acted for fourteen years.  What he
thought of the appointment may be inferred from a letter he wrote on
his return after a brief absence in 1575.  Sir William Fitz-William had
acted as his deputy, and no doubt Sidney hoped that Elizabeth might
give him a more congenial task.  He declares that he 'took on for the
third time that thankless charge, and so, taking leave of Her Majesty,
kissed her sacred hands, with most gracious and comfortable words,
departed from her at Dudley Castle, passed the seas, and arrived
September 13, 1575, as near the city of Dublin as I could safely, for
at that time the city was grievously infected with the contagion of the
pestilence.'  In the depth of winter he went to Cork, and passed
Christmas there.  The following February he visited Thomond, Earl of
Clanricarde, and caused two of his sons to make public confession of
their rebellion and sue for his pardon.  Sidney, in recounting this,
adds fervently, 'whom would to God I had hanged!'

{69}

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.'

[Sidenote: 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 {70} 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.

{71}

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 {72} one in Sir John
Perrott, and in June, 1584, he was made Lord Deputy.

[Sidenote: 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 {73} 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 {74} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {75} 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 {76} 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.

[Sidenote: 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 {77} 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 {78} 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.

[Illustration: Lord Mountjoy]

[Sidenote: Lord Mountjoy]

The next viceroy, Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy, was a
typical product of the Elizabethan court.  He had been Essex's friend
and afterwards his enemy, and when the earl retired prematurely from
Ireland, Elizabeth sent Mountjoy to reopen the war against O'Neill and
to crush him, irrespective of the treaty of security and peace signed
by Essex in Elizabeth's name.  He carried out his duties faithfully,
and succeeded in driving the Tyrones out of their territory.  On the
final defeat of O'Neill, that chieftain made submission, and Mountjoy
was graciously pleased to forgive the rebel and restore his title and
{79} estates to him.  While in Ireland Mountjoy received a letter from
Essex, then a prisoner on parole at York House, asking him to bring his
army from Ireland, join a promised army of the King of Scotland, and
drive Elizabeth's advisers from power.  Mountjoy at once declined to
hazard his own neck, and he left Essex to his fate.  The hope that the
earl placed on the viceroy was inspired by the latter's affection for
Penelope, sister of Lord Essex.  This lady was so notorious that even
Queen Elizabeth had to refuse to receive her, but her faults were the
faults of the age she lived in.  At a very early age, and without
having her wishes consulted at all, Penelope was married to an old roué
named Lord Rich, a man of filthy habits and loathsome ways.  Penelope
bore him seven children, but the gross brutalities of her husband drove
her into the arms of Sidney, and when she became Mountjoy's mistress,
she had five children by him.  The viceroy, however, was a faithful
lover, and when Lord Rich divorced her after Mountjoy's resignation of
his post, the viceroyalty, he married her, inducing his private
chaplain, Laud, to perform the ceremony.  The act of Laud's very nearly
ruined his career, and, at any rate, it stood in the way of his
promotion for several years.  It is said that Mountjoy did intend to
come to the rescue of his mistress's brother, and certainly Elizabeth,
who wanted Mountjoy's services, suppressed a confession by a prisoner
which, had it become public, must have cost Lord Mountjoy his head.  As
it was, he held the viceroyalty until 1603, and could have {80}
remained longer, for King James confirmed his appointment.  Mountjoy,
however, wanted his Penelope, and he left Ireland for her sake.  James
rewarded him with the Earldom of Devonshire, but as all his children
were illegitimate, the titles died with him.

[Sidenote: The Order of the Baronetage]

The late viceroy's deputy, Sir George Cary, enjoyed only a few months
in office, for Sir Arthur Chichester, afterwards Lord Chichester of
Belfast, was given the post, and came to Ireland early in 1605.
Chichester was forty-one, but he had already nearly thirty years'
experience of public affairs, including the fight against the Armada.
In his early youth he had assaulted an inoffensive citizen, and had
fled from London to Ireland, but Elizabeth pardoned him and found him
employment.  Fortunately for Chichester, Lord Mountjoy took him into
favour, and when the latter returned to England, and was appointed
adviser to James on Irish affairs, he nominated Chichester as the most
suitable person to govern Ireland.  This viceroy made it a condition
that religious persecution in Ireland should be abolished.  Every
precedent was against the continuance of a protracted and futile
attempt to force an objectionable religion upon the majority of the
people, and when he secured this concession to common sense from James
and Mountjoy, Chichester must have realized that he was in a fair way
to make his term of office a success.  Some luck attended him.  He was
given a good army, and very early in his career in Ireland two of his
most dangerous opponents, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, left Ireland {81} for
ever.  Chichester then proceeded to colonize Ulster.  The order of the
Baronetage was created in 1611, and the title sold for £1,080, the
proceeds being intended to pay the expenses of the colonization of
Ulster.  The large estates of the Tyrone and Tyrconnell families were
distributed amongst the native Irish, the English and some planters
from Scotland, Chichester himself being rewarded with a peerage.  It
was a wise move on his part, moreover, to give first choice to the
native Irish in the matter of the division of the land, for he knew
that peace could only be purchased at a price.

On these lines he governed Ireland for twelve years, and when he
retired in 1614, he had the satisfaction of earning the praise of those
he ruled and those he served.  His wife, a daughter of Sir John
Perrott, does not appear to have taken a very prominent part in Irish
life.  She was an invalid and contemptuous of the Irish, though the
records of some of their entertainments in Dublin Castle prove that she
was lavish in her hospitality, and even invited the heads of the great
Irish families.

Sir Oliver St. John was in 1616 appointed Viceroy of Ireland.  During
the interval the Government had been in the hands of Adam Loftus, the
indispensable Archbishop of Dublin, whose power was as great as his
cupidity and avarice.  St. John was a typical soldier of fortune, who
had found fame and fortune on the battlefields of the Continent.  In
1580, when twenty-one, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, out a
legal career ended suddenly as the result of a duel with Best, the
navigator.  Best died, and {82} St. John fled the country, but after
many profitless years he had the luck to come under the notice of the
Earl of Essex at Rouen.  Essex, who was in need of brave soldiers,
enlisted St. John, and took him to Ireland to fight against Tyrone.  In
a few years St. John was elected member for Roscommon in the Irish
Parliament, and followed that up by entering the English House of
Commons as member for Portsmouth.  Mountjoy knighted him and made him
president of Connaught, so that when in 1616 he was made viceroy, he
brought to the office a great experience of Irish affairs.

His first official act was to banish all those ecclesiastics educated
abroad, his second, to make the Protestant religion compulsory, and his
third, even more remarkable, took the form of a proposal to emigrate
100,000 Irish persons.  This was a short method of dealing with a
pressing problem, but it was hopelessly impracticable, and St. John,
less successful as a statesman than as soldier, was commanded to
deliver the sword of state to Adam Loftus, and return to England.

Henry Gary, Viscount Falkland, who succeeded, tried to carry on the St.
John policy.  Proclamations were issued extensively, and all the Irish
were ordered to go to heaven by the Protestant road.  Strangely enough,
while Lord Falkland was doing his best to establish the Protestant
religion, Lady Falkland was secretly a Catholic, and supplying the
priests with money.  For over twenty years she kept her secret from her
husband, but he discovered it eventually, and promptly separated from
her.  The Privy Council, called {83} upon to judge between husband and
wife, declared Falkland's act justified, but ordered him to pay her
£500 a year.  Falkland retired in 1629 with the character of an
unreliable, timid man.

[Sidenote: The Earl of Strafford]

Another period of government by Council and Lords Justices covered the
years from 1628 to 1633, and then Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford,
one of the great figures of the early days of the Civil War, was chosen
by Charles I. to represent him in Ireland.  Wentworth's appointment was
dated 1632, but that nobleman did not hurry to take over his post, and
besides, there were many urgent affairs to keep him at home.  Wentworth
was leader of the House of Commons, and at the first encounter with the
king stood by the Commons.  Charles, however, determined to secure his
personal adherence, and by means of titles, the bait of kings,
Wentworth foreswore his radical opinions, came over on to the king's
side, and was ever afterwards a most zealous and devoted servant of the
Crown.  When Charles conferred with his advisers upon the coming
struggle with the people, Wentworth made the first practical suggestion
by subscribing £20,000 towards the royal treasury.  Wentworth was,
therefore, the most trusted of the King's advisers, and he was sent to
Ireland with the object of raising money for His Majesty.

The new viceroy hastily summoned a Parliament at Dublin, and persuaded
it to vote £180,000 for the king's use against the army of the
Covenanters.  Further, Wentworth raised an army with the object of
invading England and joining {84} Charles's forces.  The intention was
never carried out; but when Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, stood
his trial at Westminster Hall, on April 5, 1641, the principal charge
against him was that he had raised an army of Irish Papists to make war
upon His Majesty's subjects.  Strafford was executed on May 12.

His history concerns England rather than Ireland, but he had
considerable influence upon the latter country, and did something
towards placing Irish industries upon a better footing.  In an age of
wars and rebellions the reformer was out of place, but Ireland owes
something to the Earl of Strafford's memory.  When he died, Ireland
mourned for him, and Sir Charles Wandesford, who had acted as one of
his deputies, died of a broken heart upon hearing the news.

[Illustration: Earl of Strafford]

[Sidenote: The civil war]

The fatal year of 1641 found Ireland without a viceroy.  The Lords
Justices ruled in Dublin, but they carried no authority.  Throughout
the country it was said that England had abandoned her compatriots.
The Great Rebellion followed as a matter of course.  Centuries of
oppression, outrage, robbery, and every other form of tyranny produced
their natural offspring.  The native Irish, who had not accepted the
dictum that time legalizes robbery and sanctifies wrong, rose in their
passions and slaughtered the 'planted' settlers.  The less said about
the rebellion the better.  The history of the world shows that when the
democracy rises to avenge its wrongs, the innocent pay the debts of the
guilty.

Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, should have {85} succeeded Strafford,
but he lingered in England, conscious that his own country would be the
centre of great events.  He asked his son, Lord Lisle, to take his
place, but that young man had no taste for the rigours of Ireland.  His
prognostications were justified, and with the outbreak of the Civil War
Lord Leicester abandoned all intention of taking up the office of
viceroy.  Charles wanted every available soldier, and Ireland was left
to look after itself.  There was a nominal Government in Dublin, and
the Earl of Ormonde, at the beginning of his splendid career, was
Commander-in-Chief.  Ormonde was a devoted royalist, and in the king's
hour of need sent him 5,000 soldiers from Ireland, paying their
expenses himself.  In the midst of his worries Charles found time to
show his gratitude by making Ormonde a marquis, and appointing him
Viceroy of Ireland.  This was in 1644, but strong man as he was,
Ormonde's tenure of office was shorn of all its glory and strength.  He
was destined later to play a leading--the leading--part in Irish
affairs; but during the Civil War there was no effective government in
Ireland, and the country went back to its ruling chiefs, and Dublin and
a few provincial towns sheltered the remnants of the party that looked
to England for protection and guidance.  Lord Ormonde's determination
was to hold Ireland for the king, and with this object he strengthened
the garrison towns.  The massacres of the settlers in the North he had
punished, but until the settlement of the conflict in England he was in
a dangerous and anomalous position.

{86}

CHAPTER VI

James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde, was born at Clerkenwell on October
19, 1610.  For political reasons he was brought up in London under the
immediate influence of the court.  The boy, who was known as Viscount
Thurles, was as popular as he was handsome, and in his early manhood he
was one of the most famous 'bucks' about town.  The story of his
marriage is a romantic one, and much has been written about it.  The
facts are that the young Lord Thurles saw Elizabeth Preston, only
daughter and heiress of the Earl of Desmond, in church.  She was very
beautiful and wealthy, and Thurles resolved to wed her.  Whether it was
a case of love at first sight or not depends upon the sentiment of the
reader.  We know that the lady's fortune did much towards restoring
that of the house of Ormonde.

[Illustration: James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde]

[Sidenote: Lord Ormonde's marriage]

Elizabeth Preston, however, was already reserved for someone else, and
under the watchful and jealous guardianship of Lord Holland she was
hidden from Lord Thurles.  Realizing that his attentions would not be
displeasing, Lord Thurles disguised himself as a pedlar, and carried
his pack to the back-door of Lord Holland's Kensington {87} residence.
Happily for the course of true love, the ladies of the house were not
above opening the door to pedlars, and Lord Holland's daughters
performed that service for the lover.  They made a few purchases, and
then hastened to Elizabeth, to tell her that the handsomest pedlar in
England was at the back-door, and to beg her to come and patronize him.
The girl recognized Thurles, and when he pressed a pair of gloves upon
her, she asked him to wait while she went for some money, although her
companions offered to save her the trouble by lending her the necessary
amount.  This she declined, guessing that one of the gloves contained a
love-letter.  In the safety of her own room she read Thurles'
impassioned address, and then, having penned a suitable and favourable
reply, came down again and returned the gloves, declaring that they
smelt abominably, and could not be worn by a lady.  Never did a pedlar
accept the cancellation of a bargain so gleefully as this one did.  The
message the gloves contained settled his doubts and fears, and later
Viscount Thurles and Elizabeth Preston were wedded.  Lord Holland's
consent was purchased for £15,000, and when he succeeded to the Earldom
of Ormonde, Butler took his bride to Ireland.

The coming of the Earl of Ormonde to the country of his ancestors was
hailed as a welcome sign by the leading Irish families.  By his
marriage Ormonde had united two of the greatest and ended a bitter
feud, and the native party looked to him to lead them against the
English.  His only disadvantage was his religion.  He was a Protestant,
{88} the result of his education in England, but the question of
religion was ignored by the Irish, and the handsome and chivalrous earl
was called upon to take his stand in the forefront of the Irish army.
Lord Strafford was viceroy at the time, and upon him lay the
responsibility of influencing Ormonde's choice.  The viceroy acted
wisely.  Personally he disliked the young earl, but he realized that to
make an enemy of the most powerful nobleman amongst the Irish families
of distinction would be fatal to his own chances of success as Viceroy
of Ireland, and so he immediately made overtures of friendship to the
man whom he had known as a boy in London.  Lord Ormonde responded, and
the two noblemen became fast friends, a friendship not forgotten to the
last by Wentworth.  When the latter had been sentenced to death for
treason against the State, he implored Charles to give Ormonde the
garter left vacant by his death, and also warned that monarch that the
only loyal servant he had in Ireland was the Earl of Ormonde, advising
the king to appoint him Lord-Deputy.  The king, whose principal
weakness was a tardiness of judgment, granted neither request at the
time.  But in 1644 he made Ormonde viceroy, and later bestowed the
garter, though at a time when that emblem of royal favour was little
better than a brilliant mockery.

Ormonde served an apprenticeship as Commander-in-Chief of the troops
during Wentworth's viceroyalty, and on his own appointment to the
latter position he combined the two offices.  His duties as viceroy
were, however, merely nominal, {89} and believing that he could be of
more service to the royal cause in England, he resigned his
post--inspired, no doubt, by the fact that Parliament had appointed
Philip Sidney, Lord Lisle, Lord-Lieutenant, under its jurisdiction--in
1647.  Ormonde went at once to Charles at Hampton Court, and acquainted
him with the news that it was the intention of the Parliamentary
leaders to seize his person and bring him to trial.  Charles, of
course, declined to believe the existence of the Parliamentary plot,
and the ex-viceroy, again appointed Lord-Lieutenant, but armed with a
worthless commission, returned to Ireland.  Lord Lisle was not in
residence, and the Government that represented the Commons consisted of
five commissioners--Arthur Annesley, Sir R. King, Sir R. Meredith,
Colonel John Moor, and Colonel Michael Jones--a quintette scarcely
likely to impress Ormonde with a sense of their dignity, or inspire in
the country a feeling of security.

Dublin, however, was in the hands of the Parliamentarians, and Ormonde
chose to assert what authority he possessed from the provinces.  Had
Charles's cause been the strongest in the world, it could not have
survived the adverse verdict of the series of great and decisive
battles that temporarily ended the monarchy.  Ormonde was not dismayed,
however, and even the execution of the king found him dauntless and
fearless.  He proclaimed the son of the murdered monarch king, and
wrote entreating him to come to Ireland, assuring the prince that his
troops could hold that {90} country for him.  Meanwhile Ormonde
attacked Dublin, captured Drogheda, suffered defeat at Rathmines, where
Colonel Jones, the Parliamentary leader, with that strange inspiration
for successful fighting and generalship which inspired the leaders of
the democracy, outpointed him, and drove him and his army from the
field.

[Illustration: Oliver Cromwell]

[Sidenote: The Cromwellian campaign]

Whatever hopes Ormonde may have entertained of recovering his position,
they were soon extinguished by the arrival of Oliver Cromwell.  It was
an unexpected move on the part of Parliament, but now that Charles was
dead, and the royal family in exile, it was considered safe to send the
strongest man of his generation to cope with the Irish rebellion.  In
1642 Cromwell had subscribed £600 towards the cost of an expedition for
avenging the massacres of the previous year, and this act showed that
he took a practical interest in Irish affairs, and realized the
country's importance to England.  Ormonde was a resourceful, determined
leader, and a man of unquestioned courage, but Cromwell was his
superior in the field and in the council-room, and he had the advantage
also of a united army.  Twelve thousand picked soldiers, their courage
exalted by a fanaticism that combined psalm-singing with murder, took
the field under Cromwell against Lord Ormonde, who had to depend for
the greater part upon ill-trained troops officered by men who were not
the less incompetent because the Protestants among them refused to be
led by Catholics, and Catholics declined to recognize the authority of
Protestants.  Ormonde {91} strove frantically to unite his forces, but
without success, and Drogheda, Wexford, Ross, and other towns were left
to the cruel mercies of Cromwell.

The English leader came to Ireland as Commander-in-Chief and
Lord-Lieutenant at a combined salary of £13,000 a year.  His first act,
characteristic of the man, was to issue a proclamation against
swearing, and he discouraged plunder and looting by hanging even those
of his own soldiers who transgressed his rules.  Inspired by a sense of
his own rectitude, Cromwell marched on Drogheda.  The massacre has
stained his memory almost as much as it stained the streets of the
town, and after it Wexford's tragedy seems light in comparison.

Ormonde, suspected by the native leaders, was in no enviable position.
Waterford, besieged by Cromwell, declined to allow his army to enter
because its leader was 'English.'  There was thus no work for him to
do, but he remained on, contemptuously rejecting Cromwell's offer of a
passport to the Continent.

In the great Cromwellian campaign the ex-viceroy took no part.  The
English leader, encouraged by a series of victories, was suddenly
disconcerted by the successful resistance of the citizens of Waterford,
and his failure to take Clonmel ended his enthusiasm for the task of
conquering Ireland.  In a pessimistic letter to the House of Commons he
warned the Speaker not to imagine that by his victories at Drogheda and
Wexford he had subdued Ireland.  He knew too {92} well that in reality
he had not conquered a square foot of the land.

The outwitting of Cromwell by Hugh O'Neill, the gallant defender of
Clonmel, is one of the lighter episodes of an era of tragedy.  The
English leader had restarted his campaign following a rest after the
setback at Waterford.  He besieged Kilkenny, and was compelled to stoop
to an honourable treaty to secure the town, and then he marched on
Clonmel, where O'Neill, the Irish idol who had supplanted Ormonde as
the national hero, was performing wonders at the head of a small and
badly-armed garrison.  And this garrison withstood the flower of
Cromwell's soldiery, fighting for their country without any hope of
gain, and repeatedly defeating the invaders.  Cromwell, sick at heart,
was considering the advisability of abandoning the siege which had
brought him so many rebuffs, when he was agreeably surprised to hear
that the Mayor of Clonmel, Mathew White, wished to see him.  The
mayor's object was to surrender the town on certain terms, and Cromwell
was, of course, only too glad to save his face by granting any
concessions so long as they brought him the town of Clonmel.  A treaty
was hastily drawn up, guarding against the atrocities that had
distinguished Drogheda and Wexford, and then the English General
inquired if Hugh O'Neill was aware of the mayor's action.  Mathew White
replied with well-assumed diffidence that O'Neill and his army had left
the town some hours before!  Cromwell stormed and raged, and demanded
his treaty back, but White {93} played upon the Puritan's vanity of
reputation, and Cromwell kept his word.

[Sidenote: Death of Henry Ireton]

Despite his reverses, Cromwell had hopes of firmly establishing English
authority by means of the Protestant religion in Ireland.  He drew up a
series of recommendations on the subject, but by now there was more
important work for him to do.  England required his services, and on
May 29, 1650, his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, was appointed Lord-Deputy
and Commander-in-Chief, and instructed to carry out the Cromwellian
policy.  Ireton did not spare himself or others.  He besieged Limerick,
and in four months starved the garrison out, but it was his last
effort, and on November 26, 1651, he died of the prevailing plague.

The rest of the Commonwealth deputies were undistinguished so far as
their Irish careers were concerned.  Major-General Lambert was chosen
to succeed Ireton, but he was more suited for the camp than the council
board, being a bluff soldier with a partiality for the rough pleasures
of the average campaign.  Cromwell did not care for 'Honest John'
Lambert, and having in mind a scheme whereby Lieutenant-General Sir
Charles Fleetwood, who had wisely married Ireton's widow and the
Protector's daughter, should be made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, he
induced Parliament to abolish the post.  Lambert was enraged, for the
prospect of ruling a country had excited his imagination, and he made
great preparations to inaugurate his term of office.  The Protector
gave him two thousand pounds as compensation, and offered him the post
of {94} Commander-in-Chief, which he declined angrily.  Fleetwood was
thereupon given the post, and after a couple of years of government by
commissioners, he was created Lord-Deputy.

Fleetwood distinguished himself by priest-baiting and an attempt to
revive the 'plantation' methods of Sidney and Perrott.  Henry Cromwell,
fourth son of Oliver, who had been given command of an army in Ireland,
in order to amuse himself and learn the arts of war, replaced
Fleetwood.  This Cromwell was unambitious, something of a poltroon, and
only kept in the forefront by the personality of his father.  Nepotism
nourishes even in democracies, and Henry, a Colonel at twenty-two and
Lord-Deputy before he was thirty, was not the man to carry on the
traditions of the Protector.  The Restoration found Henry Cromwell
pitiably anxious to submit to the new order of things, and when the new
reign opened and Lord Ormonde returned to resume his duties at Dublin
Castle, Cromwell was grateful for being allowed to retire into private
life.

[Sidenote: The Restoration]

During the years of the Commonwealth Lord Ormonde had resided abroad,
stanchly faithful to the discredited cause of the Stuarts.  When others
grew faint-hearted, and deserted, Ormonde spoke the encouraging word,
and he spent all his revenues in the royal service.  Recalling a
promise made by Cromwell that his wife's fortune would not be
confiscated, he sent her to the Protector, and she succeeded in getting
five hundred pounds in cash and two thousand a year for life.  In 1658,
six years after his wife's visit, Ormonde entered {95} England
disguised, charged with a mission from the Royalist party to ascertain
if the times were rife for a rising.  The ex-viceroy returned with a
pessimistic report, and on his advice Charles waited.  Two years later
came the Restoration, and with it Ormonde's fortunes rose to a dazzling
height.

In the first flush of gratitude King Charles showered honours upon the
Irish nobleman.  He was created Duke of Ormonde in the Irish peerage,
Earl of Brecknock in the English, appointed Chancellor of Dublin
University, Lord Steward, Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, and High Steward
of Kingston, Westminster, and Bristol.  At the coronation of Charles
II. he carried the crown.  The restoration of his Irish estates
followed as a matter of course, and the king added a promise to pay him
a large sum of money.  This promise was never kept, but the Irish
Parliament, anxious to curry favour with Ormonde and the king, voted
him thirty thousand pounds.  At the close of his career Ormonde
declared that he had spent nearly a million of money in the king's
service, and although this is an obvious exaggeration, yet it is a fact
that he lost heavily pecuniarily and otherwise by his adherence to the
Stuart cause.

Ultra-patriotic writers, with that passion for obscure data which
characterizes the partisan historian in his search of an argument, have
chosen to regard the first Duke of Ormonde as the friend of England and
the enemy of Ireland.  They shed inky tears over the fate of men like
Hugh O'Neill and Shane of that family, but the {96} success of either
of these would have meant a return to the absurd state of affairs which
made Ireland a nation of kingdoms and traitors.  O'Neill represented
only his own followers, and his success would have bred rivals and
imitators.  There was no hope of peace or prosperity if the country
came under the dominion of men brave on the battlefield and foolish and
quarrelsome in their councils.  Mere bravery is not statesmanship;
victories on the battlefield have to be supported by wisdom in the
council, or all their benefits are lost.

[Sidenote: Ormonde and Lady Castlemaine]