Ireland under the Tudors Part 16

In the meantime the ecclesiastics who administered the vacant see of Dublin p.r.o.nounced sentence of excommunication in its most tremendous form against the murderers of the Archbishop. Offaly himself, his uncles John and Oliver, Captain Rookes, James Delahide, and Teeling and Wafer, who seem to have been the actual murderers, were mentioned by name. Leprosy and madness, hunger and thirst were invoked upon them in this life, and eternal d.a.m.nation in the life to come. No house was to shelter them, no church to give them sanctuary, no kind Christian to bestow on them a morsel of bread when starving, nor a cup of cold water when dying of thirst, on pain of being considered accessories to their crime and accursed like them. They were to be partakers with Pharaoh and Nero, Herod and Judas, Dathan and Abiram; and stones were cast towards their dwellings, as by Moses when he called down Divine wrath upon the last named. It is said that a copy of this curse was cruelly shown to the old Earl in the Tower, and that the shock snapped the enfeebled thread which still bound him to life. The fate of the seven excommunicated persons was nearly as bad as the most vindictive priest could wish. The three Geraldines were hanged at Tyburn, Rookes was hanged at Dublin, Teeling and Wafer died at Maynooth of a horrible disease, James Delahide escaped to Spain and gave the Government some further trouble, but he died an exile in Scotland.[140]

[Sidenote: The new Earl seeks help from Emperor and Pope,]

The new Earl--for Earl he was in spite of Stanihurst's statement to the contrary--took advantage of the breathing s.p.a.ce allowed him by the Deputy's inaction to cast about for allies. He sent Dominick Power to the Emperor, armed with gifts, and with doc.u.ments going to prove that Ireland was a fief of the Holy See and that it was forfeited on account of Henry's heresy. Kildare was ready to hold the country of Pope or Emperor and to pay tribute, in consideration of being protected against the English schismatics. Twelve hawks and fourteen hobbies, or Irish palfreys, were thought suitable presents for the second Charlemagne.[141]

[Sidenote: and from the Irish.]

More immediate help was sought from the O'Briens of Clare and the O'Kellies. The latter were induced to threaten Westmeath, and Con O'Brien, chief of Th.o.m.ond, was already in communication with Charles V., but Con's son Donogh had married Lady Ellen Butler, and Ossory had enough influence with his son-in-law to keep him to his allegiance. Donogh, as was usual with the sons of Irish chiefs, had a strong party of his own, and prevented the clan from stirring. Ossory contrived to make the Burkes threaten the O'Kellies, and they also were neutralised.[142]

[Sidenote: Many rebels executed.]

Skeffington, having awoke to the fact that Ireland could not be subdued by an army which never left Dublin, allowed Maunsell and Brereton to divide their forces and to burn most of the Geraldine villages, including Maynooth. While gaining strength himself he had the satisfaction of ordering several executions in Dublin. Brode, who was called the traitor's admiral; Rookes, who was captured near Wexford with some of the royal ordnance in his possession; a third rover named Purcell, who had been bold enough to cut a vessel out of the Thames; and Travers, Chancellor of St. Patrick's, who had been an agent in the attempted reduction of Dublin, were all duly hanged, drawn, and quartered on Oxmantown Green.[143]

[Sidenote: Maynooth Castle summoned. The siege.]

Brereton summoned Maynooth Castle, proposing to let the garrison depart with bag and baggage, and offering pardons and rewards. But they trusted in their walls, and answered only with taunts and jeers. At last Skeffington left Dublin and encamped before the castle, which he invested closely the next day. He p.r.o.nounced it to be the strongest fortress which had ever been in Ireland since the English first set foot there. No detailed account of the armament has been preserved, but there were several pieces of cannon and a garrison of over 100, of whom about one-half were gunners. Christopher Paris, the Earl's foster-brother, commanded within the castle. Skeffington's batteries opened on the third day after his arrival, and soon silenced the guns on the north-west side of the keep. The guns were then pointed against a new work on the northern side, and after five days' bombardment the breach was p.r.o.nounced practicable. Paris, who probably despaired of maintaining his post, now thought it time to make separate terms for himself, and shot out a letter in which he offered to sell his post for money. The garrison were accordingly allowed to sally forth and to capture a small piece of artillery. Paris pretended great satisfaction, and served out abundant liquor to his men, who proceeded to celebrate their triumph by getting drunk. In the first grey light of morning the outwork was occupied almost without resistance, and the warders were aroused from their slumbers by shouts of 'St. George! St. George!' Ladders were quickly planted against the walls of the keep, and the storming party began to ascend. Captain Holland, who was one of the first to reach the parapet, jumped down into a tub of feathers, but Brereton's company had scaled the walls at another place, and the Geraldines, completely surprised and only half sober, made but a short stand. An arrow was discharged at Holland, the weight of whose armour kept him fast in the feathers, but it missed him, and he was released in time to take an active part in the final struggle. Brereton himself ran up to the highest turret and hoisted a flag, which told the Lord-Deputy that all was over.[144]

[Sidenote: Maynooth taken. Story of Paris.]

When Skeffington entered in the evening two singing-men of the Earl's chapel prostrated themselves before him, plaintively chanting a hymn or song called 'Dulcis amica,' which affected the victors as the verses of Euripides affected the Dorians at Syracuse. They were pardoned, and Paris then came forward to claim his reward. Skeffington allowed that he had been useful, and promised that the King would not let him starve; he then asked what confidence the Earl of Kildare placed in his foster-brother, and Paris enumerated the benefits which he had received from the fallen family. 'Couldst thou,' said the Deputy sternly, 'find in thine heart to betray his castle who has been so good to thee? Truly, thou that art so hollow to him wilt never be true to us.' Then turning to his officers he ordered them to pay down the stipulated price, and to execute the traitor forthwith. 'My lord,' said the wretched man, 'had I wist you would have dealt so straitly with me, your lords.h.i.+p should not have won this fort with so little bloodshed as you did.' Among the bystanders was James Boys, formerly Constable of Maynooth, who had resigned his office at the breaking out of the rebellion, but who may have sympathised with his old employers, and who muttered 'too late' in Irish, a saying which became proverbial for an ineffectual repentance. Paris was executed, and it does not appear that he had been promised pardon, but Skeffington's action was neither honest nor politic. He had profited by the treason, and to kill the traitor could only tend to make other rebels desperate.

About forty other prisoners were taken, of whom twenty-five were executed, including the Dean of Kildare and another priest named Walsh.

It appeared from the depositions of one prisoner, a priest, that there had been negotiations with the Emperor, who held out hopes of 10,000 men, and also with the King of Scots. The 'pardon of Maynooth' became a proverbial expression for the gallows.[145]

[Sidenote: The Irish fall away from Kildare.]

Kildare had in the meantime succeeded in raising an army of 7,000 men among the O'Connors of Offaly and in Connaught, but the news that Maynooth had fallen almost dispersed it. With the men who remained he advanced to Clane, where he came into collision with Skeffington, who took 140 prisoners and put them to the sword, on a renewal of the fight being threatened. Kildare then went into Th.o.m.ond, intending to sail for Spain, but sent James Delahide and Robert Walsh, the parish priest of Loughseedy, in his stead. These messengers joined Power at Cadiz, but did not obtain an interview with Charles until after their chief's execution.

Power was pardoned at the Emperor's request, but the others were attainted by name. Kildare's allies now gradually dropped away. O'More and MacMurrough gave security to Ossory, and the Earl's followers dwindled daily, though he continued to roam about in the neighbourhood of his ancestral estates. Maynooth was too strong to attempt, but he twice took Rathangan, so that no Englishman would take charge of it; and Skeffington was forced to entrust it to Sir James Fitzgerald. After this, Kildare drove a herd of cattle under the walls, and by the hope of booty drew out a great part of the garrison, whom he cut to pieces. On one occasion, he destroyed part of the garrison of Trim by putting forward some English troopers, who pretended to be Salisbury's men; and on another, he almost succeeded in capturing a large convoy near Naas. But such stratagems could not long delay the end, and the Irish saw that the game was up. O'Neill came to Skeffington at Drogheda, and took the oath of allegiance. It was agreed among other things that any O'Neill who did wrong within the obedient districts might be tried by English law, and that homicides should not be compounded by money payments;[146] but the King's subjects taken in O'Neill's country were to be reserved for the royal consideration, and not punished capitally by the chief. O'Neill was to receive his customary black-rent, but none of his clans were to levy Irish exactions,[147] or to graze cattle in the English districts. All Englishmen were to enjoy free trade with Tyrone, and O'Neill undertook to help Skeffington in his hostings in as ample a manner as any of his predecessors had helped any previous Lord-Deputy or Lord-Lieutenant.[148]

[Sidenote: But Skeffington makes little progress.]

O'More, an able man, who was anxious to deserve well of his new friends, accompanied Brabazon into the wastes of Allen, where Kildare was lurking.

After the usual plundering, he advised the Englishmen to turn as if in full retreat, but, in reality, to occupy all the pa.s.ses, while the O'Mores engaged the Earl's party in the plain. But the Northumberland moss-troopers under Dacre and Musgrave had not forgotten their old habits, and made off with the booty, leaving an unguarded pa.s.s, through which the Geraldines escaped.[149] The O'Mores would not kill Kildare's men, but were very active against the O'Connors; indeed, the Earl was believed to have been in O'More's hands for a time, and to have been purposely released. But Brabazon took Burnell of Balgriffin, one of the original advisers of the rebellion, and William Keatinge, captain of the Keatinge kerne, who had hitherto been the rebels' chief strength. The latter was released on giving security, but Burnell was reserved for the scaffold. The remarkable unfitness of Skeffington for the post in which Henry maintained him was strikingly shown at this time. He was unable to stir from Maynooth, and seemed half dead if he rose before ten or eleven o'clock. Marauding bands came with impunity to the castle gates, and stole the Deputy's horses; and he allowed the army to lie in the open country without orders, and to consume provisions instead of fighting.

The sick man was jealous of Lord Leonard Grey, the marshal of the army, whom rumour had designated as his successor; he was himself incapable of action, and was unwilling to let others act in his stead.[150]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Kildare.]

Before his release Keatinge undertook to drive the Geraldine chief out of Kildare. The wretched peasants crept back to their fields to save what was left of the harvest; and Cahir O'Connor, who saw how things were likely to end, came to Grey and Brabazon, and took an oath to defend the King's interests against Kildare, and against his own brother. The Earl had a stronghold in a boggy wood near Rathangan, fortified with earthworks and wet ditches, and almost impregnable had it been well manned and armed. Not being defended it was easily taken, and whatever would burn was burned. At last Skeffington felt well enough to take the field, and advanced with Grey and Butler to the borders of Offaly.

Despairing of the cause, and anxious to save his harvest, O'Connor came in and submitted to the Lord Deputy at Castle Jordan; and Kildare, finding himself alone, then surrendered to Butler and Grey in the presence of three witnesses. Skeffington positively a.s.serts that no condition was made, 'either of pardon, life, land, or goods;' and this is confirmed by a despatch from the Council sent three days later and signed by Lords Butler and Delvin, Rawson, Prior of Kilmainham, Saintloo, Brabazon, Aylmer, Salisbury, and Sir Rice Maunsell, the last two having been present at the surrender. But the councillors admitted that 'comfortable words were spoken to Thomas to allure him to yield,' and begged the King to spare his life according to the comfort of those words.[151]

[Sidenote: The surrender was unconditional.]

A great effort was made to cause a belief in England that the surrender was conditional, but it does not appear that the prisoner himself made any such a.s.sertion. He wrote to his connection Grey, confessing himself a rebel, but urging that he had done all by the advice of Thomas Eustace and Sir Gerald MacShane. He begged intercession for his life and lands: failing the efficacy of such aid, he had, he said, only to s.h.i.+ft for himself as he best could. Writers favourable to the Geraldines have nevertheless stated that he was promised his life, and this has been copied into a long succession of popular manuals. Even at the time, the legal mind of Lord Chancellor Audeley refused to believe that the Irish Council had so dealt 'with so errant and cankered a traitor.' 'If this,'

he added, 'be intended that he should have mercy, I marvel much that divers of the King's Council in Ireland have so largely told the King, afore this time, that there should never be good peace or order in Ireland till the blood of the Garrolds were wholly extinct. And it was also said that the Irishmen spared their effectual diligence in the persecution of him, because they heard that he should have pardon, and then he would revenge; and now it seemeth they would procure him mercy.

They be people of a strange nature and much inconstancy.'[152]

[Sidenote: Kildare is sent to England;]

In writing his thanks to Skeffington the King regrets that Kildare's capture had not been 'after such a sort as was convenable to his deservings'--alluding to the report that conditions had been made with him. The letter is worthy of Elizabeth at her best, and very creditable to Henry, who declares his unabated confidence in Skeffington, and promises to make every allowance for his age and infirmities. As to the disposal of the prisoner, not only Audeley but Norfolk, who spoke from the fulness of his Irish experience, thought he should be sent to the Tower and executed in due course, 'except it should appear that by his keeping alive there should grow any knowledge of treasons, or other commodity to the King's grace.' The Duke advised a long respite, lest Lord Butler and Lord Leonard Grey should lose all their credit in Ireland. The Chancellor wished to proceed in the King's Bench under the new Statute of Treasons, by which he considered that such offences, though committed in Ireland, might be tried in an English s.h.i.+re. Had this opinion finally prevailed, modern Ireland might be easier to govern than it ever seems likely to be. Both Norfolk and Audeley allude to the report that Kildare had been promised his life, but neither they nor the King confirm it.[153]

[Sidenote: and harshly treated in the Tower.]

An account is extant showing that twenty s.h.i.+llings a week were allowed for Kildare's maintenance in the Tower, but intercepted letters tell of great harshness. His object in writing was to borrow 20_l._ from O'Brien, who had his plate, and he urged that chief to help the Deputy as the best means of helping him. 'I never,' he wrote to a trusty servant, 'had any money since I came into prison but a n.o.ble, nor I have had neither hosen, doublet, nor shoes, nor s.h.i.+rt but one; nor any other garments, but a single frieze gown, for a velvet furred with budge, and so I have gone woolward, and barefoot and barelegged, divers times (when it hath not been very warm), and so I should have done still, and now, but that poor prisoners, of their gentleness, hath sometimes given me old hosen, and shoes, and old s.h.i.+rts.' For sixteen months the rash young man endured this misery, and then, an Irish Act of attainder having pa.s.sed in the meantime, he and his five uncles were carried to Tyburn and there duly hanged, drawn, and quartered.[154]

[Sidenote: The Desmonds and MacCarthies.]

Having followed the fortunes of the House of Kildare until their great eclipse, we may now turn to the southern Geraldines, who had also entered upon the slippery paths of rebellion. The dispute between Desmond and Ormonde was of old standing, the real cause of it being the fact that Munster was not large enough to hold two such families. In 1520 Surrey brought about a meeting at Waterford between James, the eleventh Earl of Desmond, and Sir Piers Butler. They were solemnly sworn to keep the peace and to help each other on lawful occasions. Cormac Oge MacCarthy, Lord of Muskerry, and MacCarthy Reagh, who had allied themselves with the Butlers as a defence against their great neighbours' oppressions, were parties to this agreement. Surrey took hostages from them, and reported that they were wise men and more conformable than some Englishmen. If the King would undertake to protect them, he thought that they and many other Irishmen would be content to hold their lands of him. The peace was short; for Desmond no sooner got back to his own country than he proceeded to waste Muskerry with fire and sword. The two MacCarthies joined their forces, and a pitched battle was fought at Mourne Abbey, near Mallow. Cormac Oge placed the cavalry under the command of his sister's husband, Thomas Moyle Fitzgerald, who was Desmond's uncle and heir presumptive; and to his charge the Geraldine partisans of course attribute the result. The Earl was totally defeated: 'and of this overthrow,' wrote the family historian more than a century later, 'the Irish to this day do brag, not remembering how often both before and after they received the like measure from the Geraldines.'[155]

[Sidenote: Desmond intrigues with Francis I., 1523.]

Two years after the fight at Mourne Abbey Desmond was in secret communication with Francis I., the Constable Bourbon having at the same time similar relations with Henry VIII. The French King sent two agents to Ireland--Francis de Candolle, Lord of Oisy, who afterwards appears as having a relations.h.i.+p or connection with Desmond, and Francis de Bergagni. They met the Earl at Askeaton, and made a convention with him.

Desmond agreed to make war on the King, provided that his father-in-law Tirlough O'Brien and others of that clan should be included in any peace made between England and France. Francis rather oddly undertook to send s.h.i.+ps to help Desmond in collecting tribute from his subjects. The Earl and his seneschal David MacMorris were promised French pensions, and both Geraldines and O'Briens were encouraged to expect French help in any emergency. Richard de la Pole, Edward IV.'s exiled nephew, was to be set up against Henry, and Desmond undertook to support the Pretender with 400 horse and 10,000 foot, which were to remain under his command. If he succeeded in raising 15,000 foot Francis agreed to pay two angelots a month for every fully armed man, and one angelot for every kerne.

Kinsale, Cork, or Youghal was to be held by the French, and Desmond promised to use his exertions in providing them with horses. The convention was ratified at St. Germain-en-Laye, but nothing whatever came of it. Had there been any good understanding between Desmond and the Scots who were threatening Ulster, a powerful diversion might have been effected; but the Earl seems to have had no higher object than the enhancement of his own local authority. Some years later a bill was prepared for the attainder of Desmond in the Irish Parliament, which recited his treason in giving aid and comfort to Frenchmen while France and England were at war. But no Parliament was then held, and Desmond died unattainted.[156]

[Sidenote: The Butlers and the Desmond Geraldines.]

During his short administration after Surrey's departure Sir Piers Butler, who had heard of Desmond's dealings with France, invaded his country with the consent of many loyal Geraldines. The port towns closed their gates to the rebellious Earl, who turned upon Tipperary, and occupied the strong castle of Cahir, the same which afterwards delayed Ess.e.x and thus contributed to his fall. The Deputy hastened to the spot, and seized the bridge leading to the fortified island; but the bridge on the other side remained open and Desmond escaped. After this the O'Briens, whom many supposed to be instigated by Kildare, laid a trap for Sir Piers very like that in which his famous grandson was long afterwards caught. A parley was proposed at the ford of Camus on the Suir, and thither, according to his own account, Butler repaired with a slender escort and the most pacific intentions. The O'Briens, who were hidden in a wood, suddenly rushed out and attacked him, but his men fought bravely and killed Teig O'Brien, the chief's son, 'of all men of his age the most dreaded by his enemies.' The Ormonde district at this time lay open on account of a bridge which the O'Briens had lately built over the Shannon, and one of the complaints against Kildare was that he had not helped Sir Piers to destroy this bridge.[157]

[Sidenote: Their disputes about Dungarvan.]

A war without much plan or apparent purpose continued to rage for years between the Butlers and the southern Geraldines. In 1527 James Butler wrote to his father, who was then in England, giving him an account of certain intrigues and disturbances, and telling him plainly that it was folly trying to look after Irish affairs in London. He who would do the King service must do it on the spot. Sir John Fitzgerald of Decies, who had taken part against the head of his house, and had in consequence lost much cattle and seen many farm-houses in flames, watched his opportunity, and shut up Desmond in Dungarvan. Here he was joined by Butler, and by the Earl's cousin, Thomas Fitzgerald of Decies; but the castle defied anything short of a regular siege. Butler had a horse shot under him, but a sally was unsuccessful, and Desmond thought it prudent to take the sea with forty men. He sailed into Youghal upon the flood-tide, and Dungarvan then offered to surrender to Sir Thomas Fitzgerald. Butler refused to allow this, and Sir Thomas then joined his cousin, who had begun to ravage his lands about Youghal. The prey having escaped, Dungarvan was not thought worth any further immediate trouble; but a grant of the offices of governor, constable, and steward of the place was soon afterwards pa.s.sed to Sir Piers Butler on his being created Earl of Ossory. The condition was imposed that the new Earl should seek to recover Dungarvan out of Desmond's possession.[158]

[Sidenote: Desmond immigration into Wales.]

The rebel seems to have been a man of large ideas. He had the Archbishop of Cashel, a natural son of Ossory, to watch over his interests at Court, and something amounting almost to an Irish invasion of England took place under his auspices. In twelve months the almost incredible number of 20,000 Irishmen are said to have landed in Pembrokes.h.i.+re--that little England beyond Wales whence the ancestors of the Geraldines had first sailed to Ireland. They spread themselves over the country about Milford Haven and between St. David's and Tenby, and the very corporation of the latter town came under Irish influence. A townsman had two large heavily armed s.h.i.+ps manned by Irishmen: he was himself Welsh, but he would have neither Welshman nor Englishman on board. Throughout the country side Irishmen outnumbered the natives in the proportion of four to one, and many Irish vessels frequented the coast, and were employed in trade or piracy, or in a mixture of both. Nearly all the men they brought were from Desmond's country, and it is probable that he had a share of the profits, and that he was thus enabled to keep up the contest on land.[159]

[Sidenote: Desmond intrigues with Charles V.]

The adventurous Earl had gained nothing by his alliance with France; but he did not abandon the hope of foreign intervention in Ireland, and sent a present of Irish hawks and wolf-hounds to Charles V. The gifts were in charge of a trusty messenger, who landed at St. Sebastian and hastened to the Imperial Court at Toledo. Wolsey's emissaries were accurately informed of these movements, and one who lived at Renteria recommended that a royal cruiser should be sent to intercept the amba.s.sador on his return. The man himself lacked discretion, for he showed his despatches to the papal collector at Valladolid, and their contents thus became known to the English agents. Desmond's great wish was for artillery, which would have placed nearly every castle in Munster at his mercy. Glad to find any means of annoying a King who desired to repudiate his aunt, Charles sent a gold cup to Desmond, and soon afterwards despatched his chaplain Gonzalo Fernandez to Ireland. Fernandez, who spoke very good English, was instructed to make himself thoroughly acquainted with Desmond's resources, and to offer help if he thought it advisable. He was authorised to promise that the Earl should be included in any treaties which might be made between the Emperor and Henry VIII., and to explain that his master had always been most anxious for the English King's friends.h.i.+p. Notwithstanding his former good offices Henry had made an alliance with France, and now sought to divorce his Queen and to give the Duchy of Ireland to his b.a.s.t.a.r.d in disparagement of the Princess Mary.

Such proceedings Charles was determined firmly to resist.[160]

[Sidenote: Mission of Gonzalo Fernandez to Ireland, 1529.]

Fernandez left Toledo on March 3, the Spanish Government giving out that he had gone to England to recover debts due to the Emperor. He had returned by April 28. On his way out he touched at Cork, where many persons visited his s.h.i.+p, and he gathered from their conversation that Desmond was not popular there. After this he was driven into Berehaven, whence he wrote to the Earl; and in four days he received an answer directed to him as chaplain to 'our sovereign lord the Emperor,' Desmond striving to a.s.sume the position of an Imperial feudatory, instead of that of an English subject. Fernandez then sailed to Dingle, and before he could land Desmond sent six gentlemen on board to ask his help in capturing certain English and French vessels which lay near, probably at Ventry or Smerwick. Desmond had already sent his galleys, and was going with 500 men to support them by land. The Spaniard, with a more exact idea of an amba.s.sador's duties than the potentate to whom he was accredited, prudently excused himself. Desmond evidently did not wish Fernandez to visit any of his castles, and preferred to meet him at the water's edge. Anxious to appear a powerful independent prince, he was probably unwilling that the Spaniards should see the nakedness of the land and his own rude way of life; and perhaps he shrunk from acc.u.mulating evidence against himself in case submission to his lawful sovereign should after all become expedient.[161]

[Sidenote: Fernandez in Munster with Desmond.]

On April 21 Fernandez disembarked. He was well received by the inhabitants and by Desmond himself, who had 500 horse and as many gallowgla.s.ses with him. The Earl asked after the Emperor's health, and again called him his sovereign lord. Fernandez read his commission first in English. Desmond then requested that it might be repeated in Latin for the benefit of his Council, and when it was finished he took off his cap and thanked the Emperor for his gracious condescension, adding the reflection that his Majesty was placed on earth to prevent one prince from injuring another. His evident design was to acknowledge the supremacy of the Empire over all the kingdoms of the world, and at the same time to place himself on a level with the King of England, from whom he held his lands, his t.i.tle, and his jurisdiction. Desmond then discharged the congenial duty of magnifying himself and his ancestors. He was, he said, descended from Brito, who lawfully conquered the great and the small Britain, and reduced Ireland and Scotland under his yoke. It had been prophesied that an Earl of Desmond should conquer England, and this kept the English in a constant state of tremor. The fear of its fulfilment had caused the beheading of Earl Thomas by Lord Deputy Tiptoft, and Richard, 'son of the King of England,' had invaded Ireland on account of his father's enmity with the reigning King. Afterwards that Earl had conquered all Ireland, 'some few towns only excepted.' The King of England caused the Earl of Kildare to be destroyed in prison, until his kinsman of Desmond forcibly liberated him and made him Viceroy of Ireland. In twenty-four years, during which he had been stirring up both English and Irish, first to kill Desmond's father and afterwards to make war on himself, the King of England had gained no advantage. The Earl's servants trading in France and Flanders had been imprisoned and despoiled of 9,000_l._ by the English King's orders. Fernandez prudently demanded that this extraordinary farrago should be written down. It is very fortunate that he was unable to retain it in his memory, for no amount of mere English evidence could give us such a measure of a Desmond's pride, or of the nonsense which rhymers or Brehons could venture to put into a Desmond's head.[162]

[Sidenote: Desmond's proposals to the Emperor.]

The Geraldine addressed Charles V. as most invincible and most sacred Caesar, ever august; and described himself as Earl of Desmond, Lord of Decies, of O'Gunnell, and of the liberty of Kerry. He first asked for four vessels of 200 tons each, and six smaller ones, all well armed, and for 500 Flemings to work them. Fernandez objected that no consideration was offered for so great a gift, and that Desmond could give no security out of Ireland; but ultimately an article was made out in which the Earl avowed himself the Emperor's subject, and promised to help him in all his enterprises. Knowing that no guarantee could be given, the Spaniard wisely asked for none but his host's word of honour. The Earl declared his fixed intention--and here at least he spoke quite sincerely--to use all his strength and that of his friends in prosecuting the war against Piers Butler, the King's Deputy, and against the cities of Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin. He begged the Emperor's help, and renewed his request for cannon; as for men, he could bring 16,500 foot and 1,500 horse into the field, and his allies could furnish 9,000 additional foot and 300 additional horse. In enumerating his allies Desmond again drew upon his imagination, for he included O'Donnell, Prince of Ulster, with his 4,000 foot and 800 horse, Maguire and Magennis in the distant north, as well as the MacCarthies with whom he was at war, and who, about this time, defeated him in a pitched battle. He also represented himself as firmly allied and frequently communicating with the King of Scotland.[163]

[Sidenote: Fernandez is unfavourable to Desmond.]

Fernandez told his master that Desmond had treated him well, and supplied his s.h.i.+p with fresh beef and venison. He had found him full of animosity against Wolsey, and quite ready to forget his French connections and his former compact with Francis. But the Earl acknowledged that Dublin was the chief town of Ireland, and that he had no interest there, and that his kinsman of Kildare, whom he called the ruler of the capital, had been imprisoned in the Tower. That he had been arrested partly on Desmond's account was obviously of less importance than the fact that he could be arrested at all. As to Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, Desmond had some friends there, but many more enemies. On the other hand, the Earl certainly had ten castles, and Fernandez was made to believe that the King of England had lately failed to take Dungarvan--a version of the facts which strained them considerably. The Spaniard could not doubt that Desmond had many tributary knights, and much influence among the wild Irish; but he did not form a high opinion of the Earl's soldiers, among whom executions for theft and murder were very frequent. They performed wonderful feats of horsemans.h.i.+p without saddle or stirrups, but they had no military skill. There were some gallowgla.s.ses with halberts, but the great ma.s.s had only bows and arrows. Fernandez allows that the Earl kept good justice, but it is clear that his general impression was unfavourable.

[Sidenote: Desmond sends messengers to Spain. The English agents are well informed.]

Desmond sent John Aslaby, Archdeacon of Cloyne, and another messenger with Fernandez, and they found their way to Spain. The English agents there continued to be well informed, and they learned from one Gwyn, living at Ballinskellig, in Kerry, and trading to St. Sebastian, that Desmond had sent for 4,000 men to teach the Irish war. Gwyn truly reported that Cormac Oge was warring against the Earl, but that he would probably soon acknowledge himself beaten. There is reason to believe that a Spanish expedition to Ireland was really contemplated, but that the Biscayans intended for the service refused to go, alleging, with a fine perception of the realities of Celtic diplomacy, that the Irish would be sure to deceive the Emperor. At all events nothing was done, and Spanish intervention in Ireland was put off for half a century. Desmond was proclaimed a traitor, but he died soon afterwards, and his successor followed him in a few months, leaving his heritage in dispute. The mission of Fernandez had no direct effect upon Ireland, but it may have had a good deal to do with Wolsey's fate, and with the crooked diplomacy of the divorce question. He was heir to De Puebla, who had negotiated Catherine of Arragon's marriages, and probably knew more than any one about the brief which Julius II. was said to have sent to Ferdinand the Catholic, and which, if genuine, would have precluded Clement VII. from granting a divorce on the ground of affinity. If the brief was forged, its spuriousness could not be proved in the absence of Fernandez, and the delay was fatal to the English Cardinal.[164]