of driving the chief into fresh combinations with Irish enemies. The probability is that O’Connor had at first been ready to confess anything, because absolution was sure to follow, and he is not likely to have been overflowing with Latin, which was his only means of communicating with the English officials.211
They accuse each other.
Both Grey and Ormonde gave in long written statements. The Council desired to consider them in the Deputy’s absence, and to this he with some hesitation consented. They found that Grey’s charges contained nothing new, but only general accusations of slackness; while Ormonde plainly accused Grey of treasonable practices, of shaping his policy to suit young Gerald of Kildare, and of systematically depressing all who opposed the Geraldine faction. The indictment is summed up in the comprehensive statement that ‘My Lord Deputy cannot find in his heart to love or favour any man that is preferred, favoured, or put in trust by his Majesty within this his land, and would have none of them, though they be all ready at his commandment, to be toward, or about him, be they never so trusty nor so well meaning; but wholly adhereth to those that were the counsellors, servants, and followers of the disloyal Geraldines, and no men so nigh about him as they, which either of his own prepensed mind, or being seducted by them, is like to bring this land to perdition again.’ On being pressed for proof, Ormonde said that the facts were too notorious to require any.212
The Council patch up a reconciliation.
The Council prudently resolved not to let either litigant see the other’s charges, and Mr. Justice St. Lawrence having been called in, the originals were burned in his presence. Copies already taken were transmitted to London. Ormonde and his son then swore to serve the Lord Deputy loyally. Grey swore not to use them spitefully nor ask them to perform impossibilities, to deliver Modreeny to the Earl unless O’Carroll could show a better title, and to cause the young O’Mores to restore the plunder of Ormonde’s villages, or at least to refer all to the Council. The Council did not believe the agreement would be lasting. ‘Neither,’ they added, ‘can we perceive (whereof we be sorry) that my Lord Deputy is meet to make long abode here, for he is so haughty and chafing that men be afeard to speak to him, doubting his bravish lightness. Nevertheless, it is much pity of him, for he is an active gentleman.’213
The Kavanaghs. The O’Reillys.
It was not long before the Butlers had an opportunity of co-operating with Grey. The Kavanaghs threatened the Wexford colony, negotiations failed, and it became necessary to chastise them. Grey entered Carlow in person, and was joined by Saintloo, who, whatever his shortcomings as a governor, was not a bad soldier, and who brought 800 men. After fourteen days’ burning and plundering, MacMurrough and his clansmen sued for peace, and agreed to hold their lands of the King. Grey then moved northwards, and provisions for eight days were prepared for a raid against O’Reilly, to be used otherwise by the Deputy in case O’Reilly should make timely submission. O’Reilly did submit, and Grey went to Dundalk with a view of meeting O’Neill, who was now young Gerald Fitzgerald’s protector. O’Neill broke his appointment, and he did wisely, for Grey says he was determined to take Gerald if possible, ‘and if not, by the oath that I have made to my sovereign lord and master, I would have taken the said O’Neill and a kept him till he had caused the said Gerald to be delivered to my hands.’214
The Savages in Down.
Foiled in this attempt, which can hardly be described as otherwise than treacherous, Grey determined to chastise the Savages, who had refused to pay rent to Brabazon, the King’s tenant in Lecale. This old English family had become quite Hibernicised, and were now bringing Scotch mercenaries into the country. Various castles were taken and delivered to Brabazon, who also took charge of Dundrum, an important stronghold belonging to Magennis, which commanded the entry to Lecale on the land side. The Scots fled, leaving corn, butter, and other rural plunder behind. Grey was much struck by the fertility of the district, which is still famous. ‘I never,’ he said, ‘saw a pleasanter plot than Lecale for commodity of the land, and divers islands in the same environed in the sea, which were soon reclaimed and inhabited, the King’s pleasure known.’215
Labours of St. Leger’s Commission.
Sir Anthony St. Leger and his brother Commissioners arrived in Ireland early in September 1537, and lost no time in endeavouring to carry out the King’s plan. By November they had surveyed most of the King’s lands in Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Dublin, and Kildare. The general result of their observations was that they had seen ‘divers goodly manors and castles, the more part of them ruinous, and in great decay, the towns and lands about them depopulate, wasted, and not manured; whereby hath ensued great dearth and scarcity of all manner victuals.’ But few applications were made for leases, because there was no security, and they saw the necessity of placing a few castles in a defensible state. Within reach of the walls there was no difficulty in getting tenants. By Christmas the survey was finished, and an increased desire to take leases was quickly manifested; but some lands were still unlet. Two thousand marks in money and securities had been collected for the King, ‘and much more,’ the Commissioners reported, ‘would have been levied, in case that men had not of late been sore charged with service doing to his Highness here, whereby we be constrained to look on them with more favourable eye.’216
The public accounts.
Brabazon reported that the Commissioners had done their work well. The passing of his own three years’ account was a yet more difficult matter. They found it tedious and intricate, both from its nature and from the fact that there were no records of the King’s ancient inheritance, or of escheats. Brabazon’s own arrangements were good, but all before his time was chaos. ‘Every keeper,’ said the Master of the Rolls, ‘for his time, as he favoured, so did either embezzle, or suffer to be embezzled, such muniments as should make against them and their friends, so that we have little to show for any of the King’s lands or profits in these parts: it is therefore necessary that from henceforth all the rolls and muniments to be had be put in good order in Bermingham’s Tower, and the door thereof to have two locks, and the keys thereof one to be with the Constable, and the other with the Under-Treasurer, which likewise it is necessary to be an Englishman born; and that no man be suffered to have loan of any of the said muniments, nor to search, view, or read any of them there, but in the presence of one of the keepers aforesaid.’ The accounts were nevertheless put in order by March; and having received very gracious thanks from the King, St. Leger and his colleagues returned to England, ‘not,’ as they were careful to note, ‘for that we be weary to serve his Grace, but for because we be very loth to spend any more of his treasure, than we see time to serve him.’ Aylmer and Alen, by the King’s especial orders, accompanied the High Commissioners to England.217
Cromwell and the Irish service.
The official politicians of Ireland generally took care to be on good terms with the virtual ruler of England, and to watch for every sign of change in the distribution of royal favours. Cromwell was therefore well bespattered with flattery; but there were murmurs, some at least of which reached his ears. St. Leger the discreet may or may not have glanced obliquely at the Lord Privy Seal when he said of himself that ‘he had too long abstained from bribery to begin now.’ But his colleague George Paulet was more outspoken, and declared openly that ‘the Lord Privy Seal drew every day towards his death, and that he escaped very hardly at the last insurrection, and that he was the greatest briber in England, and that he was espied well enough.’ Cromwell had given orders that the Commissioners should not interfere with castles in Lord Butler’s possession,
