who became Lord Justice, remembered what had happened after Grey’s departure, and stood well upon his guard. The veteran O’Connor and the new Baron of Upper Ossory were discovered to be in league. They avowed designs against O’More; but Brabazon was not to be deceived, and preserved the peace by imprisoning the Baron. Clanricarde enjoyed his Earldom only a few months, and his life had not been such as to ensure a peaceful succession. ‘Whether the late Earl,’ the Irish Government wrote, ‘hath any heir male, it is not yet known, there were so many marriages and divorces; but no doubt he married this last woman solemnly.’ His son Richard by Maude Lacy was ultimately acknowledged as second Earl, and became a considerable personage; but his morality or fidelity was not more conspicuous than his father’s.267
An Irish contingent for the Scotch war, 1544.
Beaton had outwitted Henry, annulled the marriage treaty from which so much had been hoped, and brought his countrymen back to the French alliance. Breathing threatenings and slaughter, the King of England determined to raise an Irish contingent as his predecessors had done. As his object was to destroy the greatest possible quantity of property, he could hardly have done better. One thousand kerne were required for Scotland and 2,000 for France. The order to raise the men only reached Ireland about the beginning of March, and Henry’s impatience expected them to be ready in a few days. The Irish nobility were not unwilling to meet the King’s views, but they thought six months’ notice would have been little enough. Even in England such a sudden levy would have been very difficult, and in Ireland, the King was reminded, ‘the idle men were not at such commandment, that willingly they would in such case forthwith obey their governor, nor gladly depart the realm, being never trained to the thing, without some nobleman of these parts had the conduct of them.’ Great exertions were made, the Council dividing into a northern and southern recruiting party; but the King was at last obliged to content himself with 1,000 kerne, the proportions to be furnished by different chiefs and noblemen being fixed by Henry himself. Ormonde, who was asked to give 100, sent 200, and Desmond provided 120 instead of 100. The Lords Power, Cahir, and Slane also did more than they were required; but the Irish chiefs were all under the mark, and the O’Briens and others sent none at all. Tyrone, O’Reilly, and O’Connor were pretty well represented, and the deficiencies were supplied from various sources. In Irish warfare every two kerne used to have a ‘page or boy, which commonly is nevertheless a man.’ That allowance was diminished by one-half, and when all deductions had been made, more than 1,000 fighting men were sent. The ship which brought treasure for this expedition was chased by the Breton rovers, who then commanded the Channel. There was some difficulty in finding a commander, ‘Earls being unwieldy men to go with light kerne,’ and the choice of the Council lay practically between Lord Power and Lord Dunboyne. The former, who was Ormonde’s nephew, was chosen. The Council were afraid of offending the chiefs by refusing any quotas which might be furnished after the departure of the main body, and they resolved to take all who came. In any case, they said, ‘if any ruffle should chance, we be discharged of so many.’ They begged Henry to see that they were properly treated for an encouragement to others. The kerne were good soldiers in their way, but the King was warned that they would require some training for regular warfare. The proportion of officers was excessive; but the Council advised their retention, lest disappointment should quench the smoking flax of Irish loyalty.268
Irish troops at the siege of Boulogne.
Lord Power’s men mustered 700 men in St. James’s Park, the rest having been perhaps diverted to the Scottish borders, and they served at the siege of Boulogne, burning all the villages near the beleaguered town, and foraging as much as thirty miles inland. Their plan was to tie a bull to a stake and scorch him with faggots. The poor beast’s roars attracted the cattle of the country, ‘all which they would lightly lead away, and furnish the camp with store of beef.’ They treated Frenchmen no better than their bulls, preferring their heads to any ransom. The French sent to Henry to ask whether he had brought men or devils with him, but he only laughed; and they retaliated by mutilating and torturing every Irishman that they could catch. The Irish gained a more honourable distinction from the valour of Nicholas Welch, who, when a French challenger defied the English army, swam across the harbour and brought back the boaster’s head in his mouth.269
Apprehensions from France.
Rumours were afloat at this time about great preparations at Brest for the invasion of Ireland in the interest of Gerald of Kildare. It was supposed that the blow would fall in Cork, Lady Eleanor MacCarthy not having yet been pardoned, and her influence being very great. The Council thought that they could resist 10,000 men with the help of the natives, who would all stand firm against Frenchmen. But if young Gerald once set his foot in Ireland, they could answer for nothing. It was true that he had left Italy and Reginald Pole, but only to serve with the Knights of Malta against the Moslems; and it does not appear that he visited France at all. But the very sound of his name, coupled with Scots one day and with Frenchmen the next, kept the Irish Government in hot water for more than a year. Lady Eleanor received a pardon, and her nephew, who was now nineteen, returned about the same time to Italy. From the time that he entered Cosmo de’ Medici’s service the rumours in Ireland ceased.270
St. Leger returns to Ireland. He falls out with Ormonde.
St. Leger returned to Ireland in August 1544, after the kerne had sailed, and it was probably their absence which kept the island quiet for a time. Like his predecessor, St. Leger found Ormonde’s power embarrassing. He knew him to be loyal, and personally both liked and admired him, but could not help being uneasy at his overgrown power. His influence in the Council was so great that St. Leger reported him as having ‘the great part of all those that daily frequent the Council here, of his fee.’ The King’s interest had small chance against the Earl’s, ‘and as I am true man,’ St. Leger wrote, ‘I see no man having learning that will plainly speak in such a case but poor Sir Thomas Cusack.’ Ormonde now claimed for his palatinate of Tipperary a larger meaning than had lately been given to it. The undefined boundaries he stretched to the utmost, and throughout the whole district claimed every sovereign right, except treasure trove and the right of punishing rape, arson, and coining. Men feared to speak openly against him. Cusack was maligned for his independence, and Lord Upper Ossory begged St. Leger to keep his communications secret. The palatinate jurisdiction and the prisage of wines had been taken from the House of Ormonde by Poyning’s Parliament; but the Earl could show later documents under the Great Seal, some of which St. Leger suspected to have been forged during the time that Sir Piers Butler was Lord Deputy. St. Leger also complained that Ormonde put obstacles in the way of reforming Leinster, unless he might do it himself and in his own way. He recommended that this mighty subject’s wings should be clipped a little, and that he should have no more grants of land in Ireland; he had no objection to the King giving him as much as he pleased in England. To make things pleasant he recommended a garter. After all this he strangely proposed to entrust the Irish Government to a succession of Irish noblemen for two or three years at a time, and to make Ormonde the first Deputy of the new series. The suggestion met with no favour, and seems not to have been thought worthy of an answer. No Irish nobleman received the sword during the remainder of the Tudor period; but when Charles I. was slipping from the throne he committed his interests in Ireland to the charge of another and more famous Ormonde.271
Scotch politics. The Lord of the Isles takes Henry’s side,
Donnell Dhu, calling himself Earl of Ross and claiming to be Lord of the Isles, having escaped from his almost lifelong imprisonment, was received with open arms by the Hebrideans, who still sighed for their ancient independence. Donnell and seventeen of his principal supporters bound themselves solemnly to be at the command of Lennox, who had declared for Henry VIII. against the regent Arran and the French party, which at this time was also the
