Ireland under the Tudors Part 22

After this great success, which shattered the Irish or Catholic confederacy for a time, Grey remained in the North. A fleet had been collected at Carlingford to chastise the Scots, and the crews had taken part in the fight or pursuit at Bellahoe; but not much could be done against the islanders. The old Earl of Ormonde had just died, and his son was too busy to visit Ulster. He had incurred vast expense in subsidising the O'Briens and the Clanricarde Burkes, who were ready to serve the King with 800 gallowgla.s.ses, 800 kerne, and some horse. James Fitzjohn of Desmond was growing daily stronger, while his rival was basking in Court suns.h.i.+ne; and Ormonde attributed this state of affairs to the Lord Deputy, who favoured all Geraldines and depressed all who owed their promotion to Cromwell. James Fitzjohn had seen the Earl's brother, the Archbishop of Cashel, and had promised to meet Ormonde also, but he failed in his appointment, and threatened at every moment to attack Tipperary.[227]

[Sidenote: The Desmond heritage. Grey goes to Munster, 1539.]

The English Government had in the meantime declared that James FitzMaurice was right heir to the earldom of Desmond. He had been a royal page, and was provided with a force sufficient to guard against any sudden attack. He landed at Cork or Youghal in August, but three months elapsed before any serious effort was made to put him in possession of his own. Leaving Dublin early in November, Grey joined Ormonde near Roscrea, about which there had been fierce dissensions. The castle was now in the hands of the O'Meaghers, but they gave it up peaceably to the Lord Deputy, and he handed it over to Ormonde. Modreeny, which the Earl now acknowledged as O'Carroll's, was also surrendered. Taking hostages from O'Carroll, MacBrien Arra, O'Kennedy, O'Mulryan, and O'Dwyer to be faithful and pay the King tribute, Grey and Ormonde cut pa.s.ses through the woods near the Shannon, the inhabitants of which had guided the O'Briens in their raids. They halted two days at Thurles, where Sir Gerald MacShane and the White Knight thought it prudent to submit themselves, and victualled their troops about Cashel and Clonmel. At Youghal they delivered all the castles of Imokilly to the young Earl of Desmond, and two nephews of former Earls accepted him as the head of their House. At Cork Lord Barry, who had held aloof for years, came in and gave security. Hither also came the sons of Cormac Oge, and it was probably on this occasion that their sister Mary MacCarthy married the young Earl. The union was not fated to last long, nor to give an heir to the House of Desmond. The barony of Kerrycurrihy was taken possession of at Kinsale, and MacCarthy Reagh, in whose castle of Kilbrittain Gerald of Kildare had lately found a home, consented to come to Cork and to give his brother as a hostage. He hesitated to sacrifice his cattle, and was easily persuaded by Ormonde, who was now on unusually good terms with Grey. Barry Roe and Barry Oge also gave security. The army then s.h.i.+fted to O'Callaghan's country, and near Dromaneen James Fitzjohn came to the other side of the flooded Blackwater and defied Grey. He would, he said, conclude nothing without the advice of O'Brien, who could dispose of all the Irishry of Ireland. Grey could not pa.s.s the river, and returned to Cork. John Travers, a native of Ireland who had learned the art of war elsewhere, had lately been appointed Master of the Ordnance, and accompanied this expedition, in which only 800 men were employed. Travers said that he would go anywhere in Ireland with 2,000 men, and Grey's exploits, no less than Sidney's later, show that he was right: the difficulty was not to take but to keep. 'Six thousand good men,' Travers added, 'divided in three places as I could give instruction, with certain craftsmen to inhabit the places they win, might make a general reformation in one summer.' The advice was sound, but the Crown could not afford to take it.[228]

[Sidenote: Grey's last raid into Ulster.]

Once more before young Gerald had left Ireland did Grey turn his attention to the North. For the third time O'Neill promised to meet him, and for the third time he failed to appear. Without victuals, and trusting to plunder for the support of his men, the Lord Deputy then rode 'thirty-four miles of ill way' to Dungannon, and again nearly caught the troublesome chief. But the guides, perhaps intentionally, delayed the soldiers on their night march, and daybreak found them still five miles from Dungannon. O'Neill had time to escape. Six days were spent in promiscuous burnings, during which the soldiers had no bread and lived on freshly killed beef: it is no wonder that disease was rife in the ranks.

This was Grey's last warlike expedition; successful in a certain sense, but quite useless as a matter of policy.[229]

[Sidenote: Recall of Grey. Consequent confusion.]

Grey had often asked leave to go to Court and lay the state of Ireland before the King, begging that his adversaries might not be allowed to ruin him behind his back. His request was now to be granted in an unexpected manner. One of his last acts in Ireland was a quarrel with the Council, in spite of whose remonstrances he sent over Travers, the Master of the Ordnance, with despatches, though he seems to have agreed with them that a man who could be better spared would have done the business just as well. Sir William Brereton, Marshal of the Army, had lately broken his leg, an accident from which he seems never to have fully recovered; Edward Griffiths, another useful officer, was dying of diarrhoea; Travers was the only available officer, and his own department was in bad order. Yet Grey sent him, perhaps because he thought his talk would be favourable to him. The immediate result of Travers's journey was that the King sent for Grey, professing his anxiety to see him and to send him back to Ireland in time for the fighting season at the end of May. Brereton was to act as Lord Justice during his absence. Henry declared himself willing to raise the wages of soldiers in Ireland, which had been fixed three years before at 5_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ a year for hors.e.m.e.n and half that sum for footmen, and which had been found quite inadequate. Deplorable disorders had resulted from the necessities of the men. Henry expressed his intention of keeping the troops on the Irish borders instead of in Dublin. Coming events cast their accustomed shadow before, and Grey's recall, for recall it was understood to be, was known to the public sooner than to the officials. It was of course suggested that Grey purposely concealed the truth in order to embarra.s.s the Council; and he refused their prayer to stay until arrangements had been made for the defence of the Pale. His activity had evidently inspired respect, for he had no sooner crossed the Channel than the O'Tooles made a raid towards Dublin. O'Byrne warned the citizens, and they had time to make ready. The Kavanaghs attacked the Wexford settlers.

The O'Connors burned Kildare. Alen and Brabazon had also been called to England, but they were obliged to wait for a fitter time. 'The country,'

wrote Brereton in excusing their absence, 'is in very ill case, being a.s.sured of no Irishman's peace.'[230]

[Sidenote: Trial and execution of Grey.]

An enormous number of charges were brought against Grey. He was accused of maintaining the King's enemies and depressing the King's friends, of injustice to Irishmen and others, of violence towards Councillors and others, and of extortion. There is no reason to suppose that he could have taken young Gerald, with whom, in Stanihurst's quaint language, he was accused of 'playing bo-peep;' but no doubt he had been guilty of much injustice, as his unprovoked invasion of Ferney and his treatment of O'More sufficiently prove. He cannot be called a man of scrupulous honour, or he would not have arrested the Geraldines at dinner, or professed his intention to capture his nephew by fair means or foul. But Henry VIII. knew how to pardon such conduct, though he could punish his instruments when it suited him. The Irish chiefs felt that they could not trust Grey, and therefore kept no faith with him. He was accused on all sides of greed, and especially of making useless expeditions for the sake of plunder. The usual inquisition made after his arrest shows that he had some private h.o.a.rds. He was violent in Council, and no doubt it was often hard for a Viceroy, especially for one who suffered from gout, to deal with the Dublin officials, who were independent of him and sometimes spies on his conduct. 'I think,' says Walter Cowley, 'there is not one of the King's Council there but my Lord Deputy successively have sore fallen out with them.' But he was rude and tyrannical to others also, as to Lord Delvin, whose life he was accused of shortening by insults, and especially by calling him traitor, 'which,' says the old Earl of Ormonde, 'shall never be proved.' In any case and whatever his actual guilt, a cloud of witnesses appeared to denounce Grey.[231] He pleaded guilty, rather in hopes of mercy than acknowledging his faults; but no pardon followed. That he had any treasonable intention is more than doubtful, but there was more against him than against Buckingham; he suffered a year's imprisonment in the Tower, and then underwent the fate to which his treacherous compliance with a tyrant's wishes had condemned his Geraldine kinsmen.

FOOTNOTES:

[201] Ormonde to St. Leger, March 12, 1538. See also the 'Fall of the Clan Kavanagh,' by Hughes, _Irish Archaeological Journal_, 4th series, vol. ii., 1873. Erics were compositions for murder, caines for other felonies. Rahownes may be the same as 'sorohen.' I do not understand allyieg, unless it be 'allying' with the Irish.

[202] _Four Masters_, 1537; Brabazon to Aylmer and Alen, Whitsuntide, 1538; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, June 10, 1538.

[203] Grey to the King, June 4, 1538; Brabazon to Aylmer and Alen, Whitsuntide; Luttrell to Aylmer, June 5; Council to Aylmer, June 10. All the accounts make out that Kelway was quite wrong.

[204] Justice Luttrell to Chief Justice Aylmer, June 5, 1538; Ormonde's instructions to R. Cowley, June; Lord Butler to his father and to R.

Cowley, June.

[205] Lord Butler to his father, June 19, 1538; Ormonde to the Irish Council, June; to R. and W. Cowley, July 16; to R. Cowley, July 20; to the Privy Council, S.P., vol. iii., p. 77; Grey to the King, June 4 and July 26; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, June 10, July 24, and August 22.

[206] Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, Aug. 24, 1538. For the treatment of O'More see Ormonde to R. Cowley, June 1538; Aylmer and Alen's articles against Grey, June. Lord Butler to R. Cowley, June 20.

Articles alleged on the part of O'More, S.P., vol. iii. p. 26. Council of Ireland to Cromwell, June 10. Luttrell to Aylmer, June 5. The ten years'

truce between Charles V. and Francis I. was concluded June 28, so that Lord Butler must refer to some earlier negotiations.

[207] Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, July 24, 1538.

[208] Grey to the King, July 26, 1538. Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, Aug. 22. Information against Lord Leonard Grey, Oct. 1840, in _Carew_.

[209] Grey's account has been pretty closely followed; see his letter to the King, July 26, 1538.

[210] For unfavourable strictures on Grey's journey see Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, Aug. 22; articles by the Earl of Ormonde in S.P., vol. iii. p. 77; Thomas Agard to Cromwell, July 25, 1538. Agard blames Grey for taking cannon with him; he risked them of course.

[211] Brabazon, Aylmer, and Alen to Cromwell, Aug. 22.

[212] Articles by the Earl of Ormonde, S.P., vol. iii. p. 80.

[213] Brabazon, &c., as above.

[214] Grey to Cromwell, Oct. 31, 1538, in _Carew_.

[215] _Ibid._ The 'islands' referred to seem to be the peninsula of Ards, subsequent attempts to colonise which did not meet with much success. The islets in Lough Strangford are very small.

[216] St. Leger and others to Cromwell, Nov. 15, 1537, and Jan. 2, 1538.

[217] J. Alen to St. Leger, S.P., vol. ii. p. 486, 1537. St. Leger and others to Cromwell, Jan. 2, 1538; to Wriothesley, Feb. 11. The King to St. Leger and others, Jan. 17. The Commissioners sailed from Dublin in April.

[218] Interrogatories, with Aylmer and Alen's answers, as to Paulet's conversations, are printed in the S.P., vol. ii. pp. 551-553.

[219] Alen and others to Cromwell, Jan. 18, 1539. In his letter to Cromwell of Sept. 8, 1539, R. Cowley says Saintloo did no service, but kept in a corner like a King, used every kind of extortion, and took no notice of the universal outcry against him. 'Such a liberty,' says Cowley, 'is more like to induce them to plain rebellion than to any civil order.'

[220] Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 8, 1539, and also the letter of Jan. 18, and Browne to Cromwell, Feb. 16. The letter of Jan. 18 says 'all the Bishops of Munster' were summoned.

[221] The Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Jan. 18 and Feb. 8. Both letters are signed by Alen, Aylmer, and Brabazon; the second by Browne also.

[222] Grey to the King, May 9, 1539; Walter Cowley to Cromwell, Feb. 18, 1539; Thomas Wusle, Constable of Carrick Fergus, to Laurans, Constable of Ardgla.s.s, March 1539, in _Carew_; confession of Connor More O'Connor, servant to young Gerald, April 17, 1539; Brabazon to Cromwell, May 26; Gerot Fleming to Cromwell, April 27.

[223] Grey to Cromwell, June 30, 1539.

[224] Alen to Cromwell, July 10, 1539, and the doc.u.ments printed in the notes; Robert Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8; Archbishop Browne to Cromwell, Feb. 16, 1539.

[225] _Four Masters_, 1539; R. Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8.

[226] _Four Masters_ and _Annals of Lough Ce_, 1539; _Book of Howth_; R.

Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8, 1539. In a letter to Cromwell, dated April 20, 1540 (in _Carew_), the Dowager Countess of Ormonde mentions the service of her niece's husband Gerald Fleming. In his note to the _Four Masters_ O'Donovan says roundly that Stanihurst's account is 'fabricated;' but it is corroborated by an Irish MS., for which see s.h.i.+rley's _History of Monaghan_, p. 36.

[227] R. Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8, 1539; James, Earl of Ormonde, and Ossory to Cromwell, Oct. 19; to Wriothesley, Oct. 21.

[228] Ormonde to Cromwell, Dec. 20, 1539; Travers to Mr. Fitzwilliam, same date. Dromaneen is five miles above Mallow.

[229] Lord Deputy and Council to the King, Feb. 13, 1540.

[230] Brereton to Ess.e.x, May 17, 1540 and May 7; Council of Ireland to Ess.e.x, April 30; Ormonde to Ess.e.x, May 1; Alen and Brabazon to Ess.e.x, May 8; the King's letter to Grey and Brereton is dated April 1. For the dispute about Travers, see Council of Ireland to Cromwell, March 14.

[231] The charges against Grey may be gathered from the Articles, &c., by Aylmer and Alen in S.P., vol. iii. No. 237, and their letter to St.

Leger, June 27, 1538; Ormonde to Cowley, July 16 and 20; the Council of Ireland's Articles, Oct. 1540; Stanihurst. The Articles of the Council seem to have been carefully scrutinised by Wriothesley. In his letter to the King of July 20, 1540, O'Neill says Grey, 'guerras et contentiones in partibus istis seminavit sui lucrandi causa.' On June 20, 1538, Lord Butler writes to Cowley that 'our governor threatens every man after such a tyrannous sort, as no man dare speak openly or repugn against his appet.i.te;' and on July 20, his father says, 'the Lord Deputy is occupied without the advice of the Council, for his own private lucre and gain.'

On the trial of Strafford Oliver St. John--the man who said that 'stone-dead hath no fellow'--cited Grey's case as a precedent for trying in England treasons committed in Ireland. Grey was Viscount Grane in Ireland, but he was declared no peer, and tried as a commoner in England; see Howell's _State Trials_. As to Grey's private h.o.a.rds, see a letter from R. Cowley to Norfolk, printed by Ellis, second series, No. 126, and wrongly placed under 1538; it belongs to 1540.

CHAPTER XIII.

1540 and 1541.