Books: A Popular History of Ireland V2
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Thomas D\'Arcy McGee >> A Popular History of Ireland V2
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37 This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest
Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics
by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
In Two Volumes
Volume II
CONTENTS--VOL. II
BOOK VIII.
(Continued from Volume I)
CHAPTER IV.--Sir Henry Sidney's Deputyship--Parliament
of 1569--The Second "Geraldine League"--
Sir James Fitzmaurice
CHAPTER V.--The "Undertakers" in Ulster and Leinster--
Defeat and Death of Sir James Fitzmaurice
CHAPTER VI.--Sequel of the Second Geraldine League--
Plantation of Munster--Early Career of
Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone--Parliament
of 1585
CHAPTER VII.--Battle of Glenmalure--Sir John Perrott's
Administration--The Spanish Armada--
Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam--Escape of Hugh
Roe O'Donnell from Dublin Castle--
The Ulster Confederacy formed
CHAPTER VIII.--The Ulster Confederacy--Feagh Mac Hugh
O'Byrne--Campaign of 1595--Negotiations,
English and Spanish--Battle of the Yellow
Ford--Its Consequences
CHAPTER IX.--Essex's Campaign of 1599--Battle of the
Curlieu Mountains--O'Neil's Negotiations
with Spain--Mountjoy Lord Deputy
CHAPTER X.--Mountjoy's Administration--Operations in
Ulster and Munster--Carew's "Wit and
Cunning"--Landing of Spaniards in the
South--Battle of Kinsale--Death of O'Donnell
in Spain
CHAPTER XI.--The Conquest of Munster--Death of Elizabeth,
and Submission of O'Neil--"The Articles
of Mellifont"
CHAPTER XII.--State of Religion and Learning during the
Reign of Elizabeth
BOOK IX.
CHAPTER I.--James I.--Flight of the Earls--Confiscation
of Ulster--Penal Laws--Parliamentary Opposition
CHAPTER II.--Last years of James--Confiscation of the
Midland Counties--Accession of Charles I.--
Grievances and "Graces"--Administration of
Lord Strafford
CHAPTER III.--Lord Stafford's Impeachment and Execution--
Parliament of 1639-'41--The Insurrection of
1641--The Irish Abroad
CHAPTER IV.--The Insurrection of 1641
CHAPTER V.--The Catholic Confederation--Its Civil
Government and Military Establishment
CHAPTER VI.--The Confederate War--Campaign of 1643--
The Cessation
CHAPTER VII.--The Cessation and its Consequences
CHAPTER VIII.--Glamorgan's Treaty--The New Nuncio Rinuccini--
O'Neil's Position--The Battle of Benburb
CHAPTER IX.--From the Battle of Benburb till the Landing
of Cromwell at Dublin
CHAPTER X.--Cromwell's Campaign--1649-1650
CHAPTER XI.--Close of the Confederate War
CHAPTER XII.--Ireland under the Protectorate--
Administration of Henry Cromwell--
Death of Oliver
BOOK X.
CHAPTER I.--Reign of Charles II.
CHAPTER II.--Reign of Charles II. (Concluded)
CHAPTER III.--The State of Religion and Learning in
Ireland during the Seventeenth Century
CHAPTER IV.--Accession of James II.--Tyrconnell's
Administration
CHAPTER V.--King James to Ireland--Irish Parliament
of 1689
CHAPTER VI.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1639--
Sieges of Derry and Enniskillen
CHAPTER VII.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1690--
Battle of the Boyne--Its Consequences--
the Sieges of Athlone and Limerick
CHAPTER VIII.--The Winter of 1690-91
CHAPTER IX.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1691--
Battle of Aughrim--Capitulation of Limerick
CHAPTER X.--Reign of King William
CHAPTER XI.--Reign of Queen Anne
CHAPTER XII.--The Irish Soldiers Abroad, during the Reigns
of William and Anne
BOOK XI.
CHAPTER I.--Accession of George I.--Swift's Leadership
CHAPTER II.--Reign of George II.--Growth of Public
Spirit--The "Patriot" Party--Lord
Chesterfield's Administration
CHAPTER III.--The Last Jacobite Movement--The Irish
Soldiers Abroad--French Expedition under
Thurot, or O'Farrell
CHAPTER IV.--Reign of George II. (Concluded)--
Malone's Leadership
CHAPTER V.--Accession of George III.--Flood's
Leadership--Octennial Parliaments
Established
CHAPTER VI.--Flood's Leadership--State of the Country
between 1760 and 1776
CHAPTER VII.--Grattan's Leadership--"Free Trade" and
the Volunteers
CHAPTER VIII.--Grattan's Leadership--Legislative and
Judicial Independence Established
CHAPTER IX.--The Era of Independence--First Period
CHAPTER X.--The Era of Independence--Second Period
CHAPTER XI.--The Era of Independence--Third Period--
Catholic Relief Bill of 1793
CHAPTER XII.--The Era of Independence--Effects of the
French Revolution in Ireland--Secession of
Grattan, Curran, and their Friends, from
Parliament, in 1797
CHAPTER XIII.--The United Irishmen
CHAPTER XIV.--Negotiations with France and Holland--
The Three Expeditions Negotiated by Tone
and Lewines
CHAPTER XV.--The Insurrection of 1798
CHAPTER XVI.--The Insurrection of 1798--The Wexford
Insurrection
CHAPTER XVII.--The Insurrection elsewhere--Fate of the
Leading United Irishmen
CHAPTER XVIII.--Administration of Lord Cornwallis--
Before the Union
CHAPTER XIX.--Last Session of the Irish Parliament--
The Legislative Union of Great Britain
and Ireland
BOOK XII.
CHAPTER I.--After the Union--Death of Lord Clare--
Robert Emmet's Emeute
CHAPTER II.--Administration of Lord Hardwick (1801 to
1806), and of the Duke of Bedford (1806
to 1808)
CHAPTER III.--Administration of the Duke of Richmond
(1807 to 1813)
CHAPTER IV.--O'Connell's Leadership--1813 to 1821
CHAPTER V.--Retrospect of the State of Religion and
Learning during the Reign of George III
CHAPTER VI.--The Irish Abroad, during the Reign of
George III
CHAPTER VII.--O'Connell's Leadership--The Catholic
Association--1821 to 1825
CHAPTER VIII.--O'Connell's Leadership--The Clare Election--
Emancipation of the Catholics
HISTORY OF IRELAND
BOOK VIII.
THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION.
(Continued from Volume I)
CHAPTER IV.
SIR HENRY SIDNEY'S DEPUTYSHIP--PARLIAMENT OF 1569--
THE SECOND "GERALDINE LEAGUE"--SIR JAMES FITZ-MAURICE.
Sir Henry Sidney, in writing to his court, had always
reported John O'Neil as "the only strong man in Ireland."
Before his rout at Lough Swilly, he could commonly call
into the field 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse; and his two
years' revolt cost Elizabeth, in money, about 150,000
pounds sterling "over and above the cess laid on the
country"--besides "3,500 of her Majesty's soldiers" slain
in battle. The removal of such a leader in the very prime
of life was therefore a cause of much congratulation to
Sidney and his royal mistress, and as no other "strong
man" was likely soon to arise, the Deputy now turned with
renewed ardour to the task of establishing the Queen's
supremacy, in things spiritual as well as temporal. With
this view he urged that separate governments, with large
though subordinate military as well as civil powers,
should be created for Munster and Connaught--with competent
Presidents, who should reside in the former Province at
Limerick, and in the latter, at Athlone. In accordance
with this scheme--which continued to be acted upon for
nearly a century--Sir Edward Fitton was appointed first
President of Connaught, and Sir John Perrott, the Queen's
illegitimate brother, President of Munster. Leinster and
Ulster were reserved as the special charge of the Lord
Deputy.
About the time of O'Neil's death Sidney made an official
progress through the South and West, which he describes
as wofully wasted by war, both town and country. The
earldom of the loyal Ormond was far from being well
ordered; and the other great nobles were even less
favourably reported; the Earl of Desmond could neither
rule nor be ruled; the Earl of Clancarty "wanted force
and credit;" the Earl of Thomond had neither wit to govern
"nor grace to learn of others;" the Earl of Clanrickarde
was well intentioned, but controlled wholly by his wife.
Many districts had but "one-twentieth" of their ancient
population; Galway was in a state of perpetual defence.
Athenry had but four respectable householders left, and
these presented him with the rusty keys of their once
famous town, which they confessed themselves unable to
defend, impoverished as they were by the extortions of
their lords. All this to the eye of the able Englishman
had been the result of that "cowardly policy, or lack of
policy," whose sole maxims had been to play off the great
lords against each other and to retard the growth of
population, least "through their quiet might follow"
future dangers to the English interest. His own policy
was based on very different principles. He proposed to
make the highest heads bow to the supremacy of the royal
sword--to punish with exemplary rigour every sign of
insubordination, especially in the great--and, at the
same time, to encourage with ample rewards, adventurers,
and enterprises of all kinds. He proposed to himself
precisely the part Lord Stafford acted sixty years later,
and he entered on it with a will which would have won
the admiration of that unbending despot. He prided himself
on the number of military executions which marked his
progress. "Down they go in every corner," he writes, "and
down they shall go, God willing!" He seized the Earl of
Desmond in his own town of Kilmallock; he took the sons
of Clanrickarde, in Connaught, and carried them prisoners
to Dublin. Elizabeth became alarmed at these extreme
measures, and Sidney obtained leave to explain his new
policy in person to her Majesty. Accordingly in October
he sailed for England, taking with him the Earl and his
brother John of Desmond, who had been invited to Dublin,
and were detained as prisoners of State; Hugh O'Neil, as
yet known by no other title than Baron of Dungannon; the
O'Conor Sligo, and other chiefs and noblemen. He seems
to have carried his policy triumphantly with the Queen,
and from henceforth for many a long year "the dulce ways"
and "politic drifts" recommended by the great Cardinal
Statesman of Henry VIII. were to give way to that
remorseless struggle in which the only alternative offered
to the Irish was--uniformity or extermination. Of this
policy, Sir Henry Sidney may, it seems to me, be fairly
considered the author; Stafford, and even Cromwell were
but finishers of his work. One cannot repress a sigh that
so ferocious a design as the extermination of a whole
people should be associated in any degree with the
illustrious name of Sidney.
The triumphant Deputy arrived at Carrickfergus in September,
1568, from England. Here he received the "submission,"
as it is called, of Tirlogh, the new O'Neil, and turned
his steps southwards in full assurance that this chief
of Tyrone was not another "strong man" like the last. A
new Privy Council was sworn in on his arrival at Dublin,
with royal instructions "to concur with" the Deputy, and
20,000 pounds a year in addition to the whole of the cess
levied in the country were guaranteed to enable him to
carry out his great scheme of the "reduction." A Parliament
was next summoned for the 17th of January, 1569, the
first assembly of that nature which had been convened
since Lord Sussex's rupture with _his_ Parliament nine
years before.
The acts of this Parliament, of the 11th of Elizabeth,
are much more voluminous than those of the 2nd of the
same reign. The constitution of the houses is also of
interest, as the earlier records of every form of government
must always be. Three sessions were held in the first
year, one in 1570, and one in 1571. After its dissolution,
no Parliament sat in Ireland for fourteen years--so
unstable was the system at that time, and so dependent
upon accidental causes for its exercise. The first
sittings of Sidney's Parliament were as stormy as those
of Sussex. It was found that many members presented
themselves pretending to represent towns not incorporated,
and others, officers of election, had returned themselves.
Others, again, were non-resident Englishmen, dependent
on the Deputy who had never seen the places for which
they claimed to sit. The disputed elections of all
classes being referred to the judges, they decided that
non-residence did not disqualify the latter class; but
that those who had returned themselves, and those chosen
for non-corporate towns, were inadmissible. This double
decision did not give the new House of Commons quite the
desired complexion, though Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin,
the Court candidate, was chosen Speaker. The opposition
was led by Sir Christopher Barnewall, an able and intrepid
man, to whose firmness it was mainly due that a more
sweeping proscription was not enacted, under form of law,
at this period. The native Englishmen in the House were
extremely unpopular out of doors, and Hooker, one of
their number, who sat for the deserted borough of Athenry,
had to be escorted to his lodgings by a strong guard,
for fear of the Dublin mob. The chief acts of the first
session were a subsidy, for ten years, of 13 shillings
4 pence for every ploughland granted to the Queen; an
act suspending Poyning's act for the continuance of
_that_ Parliament; an act for the attainder of John
O'Neil; an act appropriating to her Majesty the lands of
the Knight of the Valley; an act authorizing the Lord
Deputy to present to vacant benefices in Munster and
Connaught for ten years; an act abolishing the title of
"Captain," or _ruler_ of counties or districts, unless
by special warrant under the great seal; an act for
reversing the attainder of the Earl of Kildare. In the
sittings of 1570 and '71, the chief acts were for the
erection of free schools, for the preservation of the
public records, for establishing an uniform measure in
the sale of corn, and for the attainder of the White
Knight, deceased. Though undoubtedly most of these statutes
strengthened Sidney's hands and favoured his policy, they
did not go the lengths which in his official correspondence
he advocated. For the last seven years of his connection
with Irish affairs, he was accordingly disposed to dispense
with the unmanageable machinery of a Parliament. Orders
in council were much more easily procured than acts of
legislation, even when every care had been taken to pack
the House of Commons with the dependents of the executive.
The meeting of Parliament in 1569 was nearly coincident
with the formal excommunication of Elizabeth by Pope
Pius V. Though pretending to despise the bull, the Queen
was weak enough to seek its revocation, through the
interposition of the Emperor Maximilian. The high tone
of the enthusiastic Pontiff irritated her deeply, and
perhaps the additional severities which she now directed
against her Catholic subjects, may be, in part, traced
to the effects of the excommunication. In Ireland, the
work of reformation, by means of civil disabilities and
executive patronage, was continued with earnestness. In
1564, all Popish priests and friars were prohibited from
meeting in Dublin, or even coming within the city gates.
Two years later, _The Book of Articles_, copied from the
English Articles, was published, by order of "the
Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical." The articles
are twelve in number:--1. The Trinity in Unity; 2. The
Sufficiency of the Scriptures to Salvation; 3. The
Orthodoxy of Particular Churches; 4. The Necessity of
Holy Orders; 5. The Queen's Supremacy; 6. Denial of the
Pope's authority "to be more than other Bishops have;"
7. The Conformity of the Book of Common Prayer to the
Scriptures; 8. The Ministration of Baptism does not depend
on the Ceremonial; 9. Condemns "Private Masses," and
denies that the Mass can be a propitiatory Sacrifice for
the Dead; 10. Asserts the Propriety of Communion in Both
Kinds; 11. Utterly disallows Images, Relics and Pilgrimages;
12. Requires a General Subscription to the foregoing
Articles. With this creed, the Irish Establishment started
into existence, at the command and, of course, with all
the aid of the civil power. The Bishops of Meath and
Kildare, the nearest to Dublin, for resisting it were
banished their sees; the former to die an exile in Spain,
the latter to find refuge and protection with the Earl
of Desmond. Several Prelates were tolerated in their
sees, on condition of observing a species of neutrality;
but all vacancies, if within the reach of the English
power, were filled as they occurred by nominees of the
crown. Those who actively and energetically resisted the
new doctrines were marked out for vengeance, and we shall
see in the next decade how Ireland's martyr age began.
The honour and danger of organizing resistance to the
progress of the new religion now devolved upon the noble
family of the Geraldines of Munster, of whose principal
members we must, therefore, give some account. The
fifteenth Earl, who had concurred in the act of Henry's
election, died in the year of Elizabeth's accession
(1558), leaving three sons, Gerald the sixteenth Earl,
John, and James. He had also an elder son by a first
wife, from whom he had been divorced on the ground of
consanguinity. This son disputed the succession
unsuccessfully, retired to Spain, and there died. Earl
Gerald, though one of the Peers who sat in the Parliament
of the second year of Elizabeth, was one of those who
strenuously opposed the policy of Sussex, and still more
strenuously, as may be supposed, the more extreme policy
of Sidney. His reputation, however, as a leader, suffered
severely by the combat of Affane, in which he was taken
prisoner by Thomas, the tenth Earl of Ormond, with whom
he was at feud on a question of boundaries. By order of
the Queen, the Lord Deputy was appointed arbitrator in
this case, and though the decision was in favour of
Ormond, Desmond submitted, came to Dublin, and was
reconciled with his enemy in the chapter house of St.
Patrick's. A year or two later, Gerald turned his arms
against the ancient rivals of his house--the McCarthys
of Muskerry and Duhallow--but was again taken prisoner,
and after six months' detention, held to ransom by the
Lord of Muskerry. After his release, the old feud with
Ormond broke out anew--a most impolitic quarrel, as that
Earl was not only personally a favourite with the Queen,
but was also nearly connected with her in blood through
the Boleyns. In 1567, as before related, Desmond was
seized by surprise in his town of Kilmallock by Sidney's
order, and the following autumn conveyed to London on a
charge of treason and lodged in the Tower. This was the
third prison he had lodged in within three years, and by
far the most hopeless of the three. His brother, Sir John
of Desmond, through the representations of Ormond, was
the same year arrested and consigned to the same ominous
dungeon, from which suspected noblemen seldom emerged,
except when the hurdle waited for them at the gate.
This double capture aroused the indignation of all the
tribes of Desmond, and led to the formidable combination
which, in reference to the previous confederacy in the
reign of Henry, may be called "the second Geraldine
League." The Earl of Clancarty, and such of the O'Briens,
McCarthys, and Butlers, as had resolved to resist the
complete revolution in property, religion, and law, which
Sidney meditated, united together to avenge the wrongs
of those noblemen, their neighbours, so treacherously
arrested and so cruelly confined. Sir James, son of Sir
Maurice Fitzgerald of Kerry, commonly called James
Fitz-Maurice, cousin-germain to the imprisoned noblemen,
was chosen leader of the insurrection. He was, according
to the testimony of an enemy, Hooker, member for Athenry,
"a deep dissembler, passing subtile, and able to compass
any matter he took in hand; courteous, valiant, expert
in martial affairs." To this we may add that he had
already reached a mature age; was deeply and sincerely
devoted to his religion; and, according to the eulogist
of the rival house of Ormond, one whom nothing could
deject or bow down, a scorner of luxury and ease, insensible
to danger, impervious to the elements, preferring, after
a hard day's fighting, the bare earth to a luxurious
couch.
One of the first steps of the League was to despatch an
embassy for assistance to the King of Spain and the Pope.
The Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Emly, and James,
the youngest brother of Desmond, were appointed on this
mission, of which Sidney was no sooner apprised than he
proclaimed the confederates traitors, and at once prepared
for A campaign in Munster. The first blow was struck by
the taking of Clogrennan Castle, which belonged to Sir
Edmond Butler, one of the adherents of the League. The
attack was led by Sir Peter Carew, an English adventurer,
who had lately appeared at Dublin to claim the original
grant made to Robert Fitzstephen of the moiety of the
kingdom of Cork, and who at present commanded the garrison
of Kilkenny. The accomplished soldier of fortune anticipated
the Deputy's movements by this blow at the confederated
Butlers, who retaliated by an abortive attack on Kilkenny,
and a successful foray into Wexford, in which they took
the Castle of Enniscorthy. Sidney, taking the field in
person, marched through Waterford and Dungarvan against
Desmond's strongholds in the vicinity of Youghal. After
a week's siege he took Castlemartyr, and continued his
route through Barrymore to Cork, where he established
his head-quarters. From Cork, upon receiving the submission
of some timid members of the League, he continued his
route to Limerick, where Sir Edmond Butler and his brothers
were induced to come in by their chief the Earl of Ormond.
From Limerick he penetrated Clare, took the Castles of
Clonoon and Ballyvaughan; he next halted some time at
Galway, and returned to Dublin by Athlone. Overawed by
the activity of the Deputy, many others of the confederates
followed the example of the Butlers. The Earl of Clancarty
sued for pardon and delivered up his eldest son as a
hostage for his good faith; the Earl of Thomond--more
suspected than compromised--yielded all his castles,
with the sole exception of Ibrackan. But the next year,
mortified at the insignificance to which he had reduced
himself, he sought refuge in France, from which he only
returned when the intercession of the English ambassador,
Norris, had obtained him full indemnity for the past.
Sir James Fitzmaurice, thus deserted by his confederates,
had need of all that unyielding firmness of character
for which he had obtained credit. Castle after castle
belonging to his cousins and himself was taken by the
powerful siege trains of President Perrott; Castlemaine,
the last stronghold which commanded an outlet by sea,
surrendered after a three months' siege, gallantly
maintained. The unyielding leader had now, therefore, no
alternative but to retire into the impregnable passes of
the Galtees, where he established his head-quarters. This
mountain range, towering from two to three thousand feet
over the plain of Ormond, stretches from north-west to
south-east, some twenty miles, descending with many a
gentle undulation towards the Funcheon and the Blackwater
in the earldom of Desmond. Of all its valleys Aharlow
was the fairest and most secluded. Well wooded, and well
watered, with outlets and intricacies known only to the
native population, it seemed as if designed for a nursery
of insurrection. It now became to the patriots of the
South what the valley of Glenmalure had long been for
those of Leinster--a fortress dedicated by Nature to the
defence of freedom. In this fastness Fitzmaurice continued
to maintain himself, until a prospect of new combinations
opened to him in the West.
The sons of the Earl of Clanrickarde, though released
from the custody of Sidney, receiving intimation that
they were to be arrested at a court which Fitton, President
of Connaught, had summoned at Galway, flew to arms and
opened negotiations with Fitzmaurice. The latter,
withdrawing from Aharlow, promptly joined them in Galway,
and during the campaign which followed, aided them with
his iron energy and sagacious counsel. They took and
demolished the works of Athenry, and, in part, those of
the Court of Athlone. Their successes induced the Deputy
to liberate Clanrickarde himself, who had been detained
a prisoner in Dublin, from the outbreak of his sons. On
his return--their main object being attained--they
submitted as promptly as they had revolted, and this hope
also being quenched, Fitzmaurice found his way back again,
with a handful of Scottish retainers, to the shelter of
Aharlow. Sir John Perrott, having by this time no further
sieges to prosecute, drew his toils closer and closer
round the Geraldine's retreat. For a whole year, the
fidelity of his adherents and the natural strength of
the place enabled him to baffle all the President's
efforts. But his faithful Scottish guards being at length
surprised and cut off almost to a man, Fitzmaurice, with
his son, his kinsman, the Seneschal of Imokilly, and the
son of Richard Burke, surrendered to the President at
Kilmallock, suing on his knees for the Queen's pardon,
which was, from motives of policy, granted.
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