History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume II Part 31

[346] The rebel chiefly trusteth in his ordnance, which he hath of the king's.--Allen to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 202.

[347] Allen, Master of the Rolls, had gone over to quicken his sluggish movements, and wrote from Chester to Cromwell, in despair: "Please your goodness to be advertised, that as yet the deputy is at Beaumaris, and the Northern men's horses have been on s.h.i.+pboard these twelve days, which is the danger of their destruction. They have lost such a wind and fair weather, as I doubt they shall not have again for this winter season. Mr. Brereton (Sir William Brereton, Skeffington's second in command) lieth here at the sea side in a readiness. If their first appointment to Dublin had been kept, they might have been there; but now they tarry to pa.s.s with the deputy. Sir, for the love of G.o.d, let some aid be sent to Dublin; for the loss of that city and the castle were the plain subversion of the land."--Allen to Cromwell, Oct. 4: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 202.

[348] Instructions to Walter Cowley on behalf of the Earl of Ossory: Ibid. p. 251.

[349] Sir William Brereton to Henry VIII.: Ibid. p. 204.

[350] Two thousand five hundred was the smallest number which Lord Surrey previously mentioned as sufficient to do good.--_State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 73.

[351] Fifteen miles north of Dublin; immediately off Malahide.

[352] Sir William Brereton and Sir John Salisbury to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 203.

[353] A small harbour near Drogheda.

[354] Skeffington was prudently reserved in his report of these things to Henry. He mentions having set a party on sh.o.r.e, but says nothing of their having been destroyed; and he could not have been ignorant of their fate, for he was writing three weeks after it, from Dublin. He was silent, too, of the injury which he had received from the pirates, though eloquent on the boats which he burnt at the Skerries.--_State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 205. On first reading Skeffington's despatch, I had supposed that the "brilliant victory" claimed by the Irish historians (see Leland, Vol. II. p. 148) must have been imaginary. The Irish Statute Book, however, is too explicit to allow of such a hope. "He [Fitzgerald] not only fortified and manned divers s.h.i.+ps at sea, for keeping and letting, destroying and taking the king's deputy, army, and subjects, that they should not land within the said land; but also at the arrival of the said army, the same Thomas, accompanied with his uncles, servants, adherents, &c., falsely and traitorously a.s.sembled themselves together upon the sea coast, for keeping and resisting the king's deputy and army; and the same time they shamefully murdered divers of the said army coming to land. And Edward Rowkes, pirate at the sea, captain to the said Thomas, destroyed and took many of them."--- Act of Attainder of the Earl of Kildare: 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 1.

[355] Skeffington to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. II. pp. 206, 207.

[356] Accompanied with the number of sixty or eighty hors.e.m.e.n, and about three hundred kerne and gallowgla.s.s, the traitor came to the town of Trim, and there not only robbed the same, but also burnt a great part thereof, and took all the cattle of the country thereabouts; and after that a.s.saulted Dunboyne, within six miles to Dublin; and the inhabitants of the town defending themselves by the s.p.a.ce of two days, and sending for succour to Dublin ... in default of relief, he utterly destroyed and burnt the whole town.--Allen to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p.

220.

[357] He hath sent divers muniments and precedents which should prove that the king held this land of the See of Rome; alledging the king and his realm to be heretics digressed from the obedience of the same, and of the faith Catholic. Wherefore his desire is to the emperour and the Bishop of Rome, that they will aid him in defence of the faith Catholic against the king, promising that he will hold the said land of them, and pay tribute for the same yearly.--Ibid. p. 222.

[358] My lord deputy desireth so much his own glory, that he would no man should make an enterprise except he were at it.--Ibid. p. 227.

[359] Skeffington to Sir Edmund Walsingham: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p.

233.

[360] Allen to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 220.

[361] In Kildare county, on the frontiers of the pale.

[362] The captains and I, the Earl (of Ossory) directed letters to the deputy to meet us in the county of Kildare, at Kilcaa, bringing with him ordnance accordingly, when the deputy appointed without fail to meet. At which day and place the said Earl, with the army (of) Waterford failed not to be, and there did abide three days continually for the deputy; where he, neither any of the army, came not, ne any letter or word was had from him; but only that Sir James Fitzgerald told that he heard say he was sick.--Ossory to W. Cowley: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 251.

[363] Allen certainly thought so, or at least was unable to a.s.sure himself that it was not so. "My simple advice shall be," he wrote, "that if ever the king intend to show him grace (which himself demandeth not in due manner) and to pardon him, to withdraw his charges and to pardon him out of hand; or else to send hither a proclamation under the Great Seal of England, that the king never intends to pardon him ne any that shall take part with him, but utterly to prosecute both him and them to their utter confusion. For the gentlemen of the country hath said plainly to divers of the council, that until this be done, they dare not be earnest in resisting him, in doubt, he should have his pardon hereafter, as his grandfather, his father, and divers his ancestors have had; and then would prosecute them for the same."--_State Papers_, Vol.

II. p 222.

[364] Allen to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 226.

[365] "Restraint must be had that this army shall not spoil ne rob any person, but as the deputy and council shall appoint; and that the captains be obedient to their orders, or it shall not be well. Ne it is not meet that every soldier shall make a man a traitor for to have his goods. They be so nusselled in this robbery, that now they almost will not go forth to defend the country, except they may have gain."--Allen to Cromwell, Feb. 16.

[366] "The bows which came out of the stores at Ludlow Castle were naught; many of them would not hold the bending."--_State Papers_, Vol.

II. p. 228.

[367] The king, a few months later, wrote to him a letter of warm thanks for his services, and admitted his plea of ill-health with peculiar kindness.--Henry VIII. to Skeffington: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 280.

[368] Brabazon to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 224.

[369] Allen to Cromwell: Ibid. p. 230.

[370] Campion, p. 179.

[371] Leland, c.o.xe, Ware.

[372] Henry VIII. was one of the first men to foresee and value the power of artillery. Sebastiani mentions experiments on the range of guns which were made by him, in Southampton water; and it is likely that the cannon used in the siege of Maynooth were the large-sized bra.s.s guns which were first cast in England in the year of its capture.--Stow, p.

572. When the history of artillery is written, Henry VIII.'s labours in this department must not be forgotten. Two foreign engineers whom he tempted into his service, first invented "sh.e.l.ls." "One Peter Baud, a Frenchman born," says Stow, "and another alien, called Peter Van Collen, a gunsmith, both the king's feed men, conferring together, devised and caused to be made certain mortar pieces, being at the mouth from eleven inches unto nineteen inches wide, for the use whereof they [also] caused to be made certain hollow shot of cast iron, to be stuffed with fire-work or wildfire; whereof the bigger sort for the same had screws of iron to receive a match to carry fire kindled, that the firework might be set on fire for to break in pieces the same hollow shot, whereof the smallest piece hitting any man would kill or spoil him."--Stow, _Chronicle_, p. 584.

[373] _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 237.

[374] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 446.

[375] Ibid Vol. II. p. 253.

[376] Lord Thomas Fitzgerald to Lord Leonard Grey: _State Papers_, Vol.

II. p. 273.

[377] The Lord Leonard repayreth at this season to your Majesty, bringing with him the said Thomas, beseeching your Highness most humbly, that according to the comfort of our words spoken to the same Thomas to allure him to yield him, ye would be merciful to the said Thomas, especially concerning his life.--The Council of Ireland to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 275.

[378] _State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 274.

[379] The conditions promised to Napoleon by the captain of the _Bellerophon_ created a similar difficulty. If Nana Sahib had by any chance been connected by marriage with an English officer, and had that officer induced him to surrender by a promise of pardon, would the English Government have respected that promise?

[380] It were the worst example that ever was; and especially for these ungracious people of Ireland.--Norfolk to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol.

II. p. 276.

[381] Ibid.

[382] Ibid. The duke, throughout his letter, takes a remarkably businesslike view of the situation. He does not allow the question of "right" to be raised, or suppose at all that the government could lie under any kind of obligation to a person in the position of Fitzgerald.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CATHOLIC MARTYRS.

[Sidenote: State of England in the summer of 1534.]

While the disturbance in Ireland was at its height, affairs in England had been scarcely less critical. The surface indeed remained unbroken.

The summer of 1534 pa.s.sed away, and the threatened invasion had not taken place. The disaffection which had appeared in the preceding year had been smothered for a time; Francis I. held the emperor in check by menacing Flanders, and through French influence the rupture with Scotland had been seemingly healed. In appearance the excommunication had pa.s.sed off as a _brutum fulmen_, a flash of harmless sheet lightning, serving only to dazzle feeble eyes. The oath of succession, too, had been taken generally through the country; Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher having alone ventured to refuse. The pope had been abjured by the universities and by the convocation in both the provinces, and to these collective acts the bishops and the higher clergy had added each their separate consent.

[Sidenote: The clergy comply with the revolution, but inwardly have little heart for it.]

[Sidenote: They bend before the storm, trusting to time.]

[Sidenote: The clergy are called upon to explain to the people the changes which have taken place.]