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 Ardglass, 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 documents 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 Cé, 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 Shirley’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 Essex, May 17, 1540 and May 7; Council of Ireland to Essex, April 30; Ormonde to Essex, May 1; Alen and Brabazon to Essex, 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 causâ.’ 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 appetite;’ 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 hoards, 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.
The O’Neills. Scottish intrigues.
With the usual plundering inroads on the Pale Brereton was able to cope; and the greater chieftains were quiet, for Gerald of Kildare was safe. O’Donnell, who may have resented his treatment by Lady Eleanor, readily reverted to his father’s policy, and no difficulty was made about his pardon. O’Neill held aloof, but again professed himself ready to come to Carrick Bradagh. Again he failed to appear, and pleaded that he dared not approach Dundalk through fear of Grey’s manifest treachery. He offered to come to Magennis’s Castle at Narrowater, a beautiful spot near the mouth of the Newry river and the foot of the Mourne Mountains. Brereton agreed, and a meeting at last took place. O’Neill declared his readiness to perform all that he had promised to Skeffington, to send a trusty messenger to the King, and to leave pardon or punishment for the past to the royal discretion. Till the answer came he was content to be at peace with the Government, and to keep his neighbours quiet. He was at this time intriguing with Scotland, and his secretary was actually at Edinburgh. Cromwell had received information that eight Irishmen had been with the Scottish
