rent of 5l., paid down yearly in that town. As if to complete the anomaly this abbot-chieftain gave his son as a hostage for due performance.255
Desmond in favour at Court.
Desmond continued to behave loyally. St. Leger received him hospitably in Dublin, and advised the King to do the same. But Alen cautioned his Majesty not to be too free of his grants, especially in such important cases as Croom and Adare. The Chancellor preferred to give the Earl monastic lands in the Pale, by accepting which he would give hostages to the Crown, or among the wild Irish, who would thus certainly be losers though the King might be no direct gainer. Desmond did not linger long in the Court sunshine, for he took leave of the King in little more than a month from the date of his leaving Ireland. Either he really gained the royal goodwill, or Henry thought it wise to take St. Leger’s advice, for he gave him money and clothes, made him the bearer of official despatches, and, after due inquiry, accepted his nominee to the bishopric of Emly.256
The Munster nobles submit. They abjure the Pope.
With a view to establish order in those portions of Munster under Desmond’s influence, St. Leger visited Cork, where the notables readily obeyed his call. They abjured the Pope, and agreed to refer all differences to certain named arbitrators. Henceforth no one was to take the law into his own hands, but to complain to Desmond and to the Bishops of Cork, Waterford, and Ross, who were to have the power of summoning parties and witnesses, and of fining contumacious persons. Difficult cases were to be referred to the Lord Deputy and Council, and legal points reserved for qualified commissioners, whom the King was to send into Munster at Easter and Michaelmas. This was part of a scheme for establishing circuits in the southern province, but it was very imperfectly carried out during this and the three succeeding reigns. The state of the country seldom admitted of peaceful assizes, and martial law was too often necessary. The Munster gentry now promised to keep the peace, and to exact no black-rents from Cork or other towns. The Anglo-Norman element was represented by Lord Barrymore and his kinsmen, Barry Roe and Barry Oge, by Lord Roche, and by Sir Gerald MacShane of Dromana. The Irish parties to the contract were MacCarthy More, MacCarthy Reagh, MacCarthy of Muskerry, MacDonough MacCarthy of Duhallow, O’Callaghan, and O’Sullivan Beare. St. Leger himself, Desmond, Brabazon, Travers, and Sir Osborne Echingham, marshal of the army, represented the Crown.257
An Earldom for O’Neill.
O’Neill was at last induced to go to Court to receive the Earldom of Tyrone, the title chosen for him by the Irish Government. He would have preferred that of Ulster, but it was in the Crown, and the King refused to part with it. St. Leger did what he could to conciliate O’Neill by attention and hospitality while in Dublin, and rightly attached great importance to the fact that he was the first O’Neill who had ever gone to the King in England. He advised that he should be received with the greatest distinction.
‘O’Neill,’ say the ‘Four Masters,’ ‘that is, Con the son of Con, went to the King of England, namely, Henry VIII.; and the King created O’Neill an Earl, and enjoined that he should not be called O’Neill any longer. O’Neill received great honour from the King on this occasion.’ The acceptance of a peerage was universally considered a condescension, if not a degradation, for the head of a family who claimed to be princes of Ulster in spite of the Crown. The Irish Government were willing that he should have Tyrone, ‘but for the rule of Irishmen, which be at his Grace’s peace, we think not best his Highness should grant any such thing to him as yet.’258
His submission.
It may be doubted whether O’Neill fully understood the scope of a document which was written in English, and which he signed with a mark; but the form of his submission to his ‘most gracious sovereign lord’ was as ample as even that sovereign lord could wish:—
‘Pleaseth your most Excellent Majesty, I, O’Neill, one of your Majesty’s most humble subjects of your realm of Ireland, do confess and acknowledge before your most Excellent Highness, that by ignorance, and for lack of knowledge of my most bounden duty of allegiance, I have most grievously offended your Majesty, for the which I ask your Grace here mercy and forgiveness, most humbly beseeching your Highness of your most gracious pardon; refusing my name and state, which I have usurped upon your Grace against my duty, and requiring your Majesty of your clemency to give me what name, state, title, land, or living it shall please your Highness, which I shall knowledge to take and hold of your Majesty’s mere gift, and in all things do hereafter as shall beseem your most true and faithful subject. And God save your Highness.’259
He is created Earl of Tyrone. Special remainder.
One week after the delivery of this submission O’Neill was created Earl of Tyrone, with remainder to his son Matthew in tail male: Matthew being at the same time created Baron of Dungannon, with remainder to the eldest son of the Earl of Tyrone for the time being. This patent afterwards gave rise to infinite bloodshed. Con O’Neill certainly acknowledged Matthew as his heir apparent; but it was afterwards stated, not only that he was illegitimate, which might not have mattered much, but that he was not Con’s son at all. There was no doubt about the legitimacy of Shane, and that able savage consistently refused to acknowledge the limitations of the patent. Henry dealt liberally with the new Earl, paying 60l. for a gold chain such as O’Donnell had asked for, 65l. 10s. 2d. for creation fees and robes, and 100 marks as a present in ready money. ‘The Queen’s closet at Greenwich was richly hanged with cloth of Arras, and well strewed with rushes’—no more was then thought of even in a palace—and Tyrone was led in by the Earls of Hertford and Oxford, the latter of whom was summoned specially for the purpose. Viscount Lisle bore the new Earl’s sword. Kneeling in the rushes, the descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages submitted to be girt by the hands of Henry II.’s descendant. The King then gave him his patent, and he gave thanks in Irish, which his chaplain translated into English. Two of his neighbours, Donnell and Arthur Magennis, were knighted and received gifts from the King. A great dinner followed, to which the lords went in procession with trumpets blowing; and Tyrone carried his own patent. At second course Garter proclaimed the King’s style and that of the new Earl. The herald who tells the story is careful to note that Tyrone gave twenty angels to Garter, 10l. to the College of Arms, and 40s. to the trumpeters, with other fees ‘according to the old and ancient custom.’ Next day Con was taken to pay his respects to the young Prince Edward, and he soon afterwards returned to Ireland.260
O’Brien created Earl of Thomond. Special remainder. MacWilliam Earl of Clanricarde. Knights.
Murrough O’Brien, his nephew Donough, MacWilliam of Clanricarde, and many other Irish gentlemen of note, went to Court during the summer of 1543. The three first were raised to the peerage in the same place and with the same ceremonies as O’Neill. Murrough O’Brien was created Earl of Thomond, with remainder to Donough, and Baron of Inchiquin in tail male. Donough’s right to succeed as tanist thus received official sanction. Donough was made Baron of Ibracken in tail male, and, curiously enough, the same patent created him Earl of Thomond for life in case he should survive his uncle. MacWilliam was created Earl of Clanricarde and Baron of Dunkellin. The Earls were introduced by Derby and Ormonde, the Barons by Clinton and Mountjoy, and the King gave a gold chain to each. The presence of the Scottish ambassadors, who had just concluded the abortive treaty of marriage between Edward and Mary Stuart, added to the interest of the ceremony; and no doubt Henry was glad to display his magnificence to the representatives of the poor northern kingdom. Macnamara, the most important person in Clare after the O’Briens, was knighted at the same time; as were O’Shaugnessy, chief of the country about Gort, and his neighbour
