Ireland Under the Tudors, Volume 3 — Chapter 36 Rebellion of James Fitzmaurice 1579 Part 1

[Sidenote: Papal designs against Ireland.

Stukeley.

] Sidney's departure had been partly delayed by a report that Stukeley's long-threatened invasion was at last coming.

The adventurer had been knighted in Spain, and Philip had said something about the Duchy of Leinster.

The Duke of Feria and his party were willing to make him Duke of Ireland, and he seems to have taken that title.

At Paris Walsingham remonstrated with Olivares, who carelessly, and no doubt falsely, replied that he had never heard of Stukeley, but that the king habitually honoured those who offered him service.

Walsingham knew no Spanish, and Olivares would speak nothing else, so that the conversation could scarcely have serious results.

But the remonstrances of Archbishop Fitzgibbon and other genuine Irish refugees gradually told upon Philip, and the means of living luxuriously and making a show were withheld.

'The practices of Stukeley,' wrote Burghley to Walsingham, 'are abated in Spain by discovery of his lewdness and insufficiency;' and he went to Rome, where the Countess of Northumberland had secured him a good reception.

'He left Florida kingdom,' said Fitzwilliam sarcastically, 'only for holiness' sake, and to have a red hat;' adding that he was thought holy at Waterford for going barefooted about streets and churches.

'It is incredible,' says Fuller, 'how quickly he wrought himself through the notice into the favour, through the court into the chamber, yea, closet and bosom, of Pope Pius Quintus.'

An able seaman, Stukeley was in some degree fitted to advance the Pontiff's darling plan for crushing the Turks.

The old pirate did find his way to Don John of Austria's fleet, and seems to have been present at Lepanto.

His prowess in the Levant restored him to Philip's favour, and he was soon again in Spain, in company with a Doria and in receipt of 1,000 ducats a week.

[1] [Sidenote: Thomas Stukeley on the Continent.

] There was much movement at the time among the Irish in Spain, and the air was filled with rumours.

Irish friars showed letters from Philip ordering all captains to be punished who refused them passages to Ireland, and the Inquisition was very active.

One Frenchman was nevertheless bold enough to say that he would rather burn than have a friar on board, and those who sought a passage from him had to bestow themselves on a Portuguese ship.

In 1575 Stukeley was again at Rome, and in as high favour with Gregory XIII.

as he had been with his predecessor.

The Pope employed him in Flanders, where he had dealings with Egremont Radcliffe.

That luckless rebel had bitterly repented; but when he returned and offered his services to the queen, she spurned them and bade him depart the realm.

From very want, perhaps, he entered Don John's service, and when that prince died he was executed on a trumped-up charge of poisoning him.

Stukeley was more fortunate, for he had then left the Netherlands, and Don John took credit with the English agent for sending him away.

Wilson was equal to the occasion, and said the gain was the king's, for Stukeley was a vain 'nebulo' and all the treasures of the Indies too little for his prodigal expenditure.

It would be interesting to know what passed between the two adventurers, the bastard of Austria and the Devonshire renegade;

between the man who tried to found a kingdom at Tunis, and talked of marrying Mary Stuart, conquering England, and obtaining the crown matrimonial, and the man who, having dreamed of addressing his dear sister Elizabeth from the throne of Florida, now sought to deprive her of the Duchy of Ireland.

Like so many who had to deal with this strange being, perhaps the governor of the Netherlands was imposed upon by his vapourings and treated him as a serious political agent.

After leaving Brussels he went to Rome, well supplied with money and spending it in his old style everywhere.

At Sienna Mr. Henry Cheek thought him so dangerous that he moved to Ferrara to be out of his way.

At Florence the Duke honoured Stukeley greatly, 'as did the other dukes of Italy, esteeming him as their companion.'

But he was without honour among his own countrymen, and they refused a dinner to which he invited all the English at Sienna except Cheek.

[2] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice on the Continent.

] James Fitzmaurice was already at Rome.

He had spent the best part of two years in France, where he was well entertained, but where he found no real help.

He received supplies of money occasionally.

The Parisians daily addressed him as King of Ireland, but nothing was done towards the realisation of the title.

Sir William Drury's secret agent was in communication with one of Fitzmaurice's most trusted companions, and his hopes and fears were well known in Ireland.

At one time he was sure of 1,200 Frenchmen, at another he was likely to get 4,000; and De la Roche, who was no stranger in Munster, was to have at least six tall ships for transport.

De la Roche did nothing but convey the exile's eldest son, Maurice, to Portugal, where he entered the University of Coimbra.

Sir Amyas Paulet had instructions to remonstrate with the French Court, and the old Puritan seems to have been quite a match for Catherine de Medici; but there was little sincerity on either side.

The Queen-mother's confidential agent confessed that all was in disorder, and that the French harbours were full of pirates and thieves, but she herself told Paulet that De la Roche had strict orders to attempt nothing against England.

Having little hope of France, Fitzmaurice himself went to Spain, where his reception was equally barren of result.

The Catholic King was perhaps offended at the Most Christian King having been first applied to, and at all events he was not yet anxious to break openly with his sister-in-law.

[3] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice and the Pope.

] But at Rome, Fitzmaurice was received by Gregory with open arms.

He was on very friendly terms with Everard Mercurian, the aged general of the Jesuits, who was, however, personally opposed to sending members of the order to England, Ireland, or Scotland; a point on which he was soon overruled by younger men.

What the life of a Jesuit missionary was may be gathered from a letter written to the General about this time.

'Once,' wrote Edmund Tanner from Rosscarbery, 'was I captured by the heretics and liberated by God's grace, and the industry of pious people; twelve times did I escape the snares of the impious, who would have caught me again had God permitted them.'

But the harvest, though hard to reap, was not inconsiderable.

Tanner reported that nobles and townsmen were daily received into the bosom of Holy Church out of the 'sink of schism,' and that the conversion would have been much more numerous but that many feared present persecution, and the loss of life, property, or liberty.

This chain still kept back a well-affected multitude, but the links were worn, and there was good hope that it soon would break.

[4] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice expects to free Ireland.

] We know from an original paper which fell into the hands of the English Government, what were Fitzmaurice's modes and requirements for the conquest of Ireland.

Six thousand armed soldiers and their pay for six months, ten good Spanish or Italian officers, six heavy and fifteen light guns, 3,000 stand of arms with powder and lead, three ships of 400, 50, and 30 tons respectively, three boats for crossing rivers, and a nuncio with twenty well-instructed priests--such were the instruments proposed.

He required licence to take English ships outside Spanish ports, and to sell prizes in Spain.

Property taken from Geraldines was to remain in the family, and every Geraldine doing good service was to be confirmed by his Holiness and his Catholic Majesty in land and title.

Finally, 6,000 troops were to be sent to him in six months, should he make a successful descent.

As sanguine, or as desperate, as Wolfe Tone in later times, he fancied that England could be beaten in her own dominion by such means as these.

Sanders, who was probably deceived by his Irish friends as to the amount of help which might be expected in Ireland, had no belief in Philip, whom he pronounced 'as fearful of war as a child of fire.'

The Pope alone could be trusted, and he would give 2,000 men.

'If they do not serve to go to England,' he said, 'at least they will serve to go to Ireland; the state of Christendom dependeth upon the stout assailing of England.'

[5] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice and Stukeley.

] Stukeley appears to have got on better with Fitzmaurice than with Archbishop Fitzgibbon, which may have been owing to the mediation of Sanders or Allen.

The Pope agreed to give some money, and Fitzmaurice hit upon an original way of raising an army.

'At that time,' says an historian likely to be well informed about Roman affairs, 'Italy was infested by certain bands of robbers, who used to lurk in woods and mountains, whence they descended by night to plunder the villages, and to spoil travellers on the highways.

James implored Pope Gregory XIII.

to afford help to the tottering Catholic Church in Ireland, and obtained pardon for these brigands on condition of accompanying him to Ireland, and with these and others he recruited a force of 1,000 soldiers more or less.'

This body of desperadoes was commanded by veteran officers, of which Hercules of Pisa (or Pisano) was one, and accompanied by Sanders and by Cornelius O'Mulrian, Bishop of Killaloe.

Stukeley kept up the outward show of piety which he had begun at Waterford and continued in Spain, and he obtained a large number of privileged crucifixes from the Pontiff, perhaps with the intention of selling them well.

It must be allowed that an army of brigands greatly needed indulgence, and fifty days were granted to everyone who devoutly beheld one of these crosses, the period beginning afresh at each act of adoration.

Every other kind of indulgence might seem superfluous after this, but many were also offered for special acts of prayer, a main object of which was the aggrandisement of Mary Stuart.

Stukeley was placed in supreme charge of the expedition, which seems to have been done by the desire of Fitzmaurice, and the titles conferred on him by Gregory were magnificent enough even for his taste.

He took upon himself to act as mediator between some travelling Englishmen and the Holy Office, and having obtained their release he gave them a passport.

This precious document was in the name of Thomas Stukeley, Knight, Baron of Ross and Idrone, Viscount of Murrows and Kinsella, Earl of Wexford and Carlow, Marquis of Leinster, General of our Most Holy Father; and the contents are certified 'in ample and infallible manner.'

Marquis of Leinster was the title by which Roman ecclesiastics generally addressed him.

[6] [Sidenote: Battle of Alcazar, 1578. Death of Stukeley.

] Stukeley left Civita Vecchia early in 1578, and brought his ships, his men, and his stores of arms to Lisbon, where he found nine Irish refugees, priests and scholars, whom Gregory had ordered to accompany him.

He called them together, and, with characteristic grandiosity, offered a suitable daily stipend to each.

Six out of the nine refused, saying: 'They were no man's subjects, and would take no stipend from anyone but the supreme Pontiff, or some king or great prince.'

This exhibition of the chronic ill-feeling between English and Irish refugees argued badly for the success of their joint enterprise.

After some hesitation, Sebastian of Portugal decided not to take part in this attack on a friendly power, and he invited the English adventurer to join him in invading Morocco, where dynastic quarrels gave him a pretext for intervention.

Secretary Wilson was told that Stukeley had no choice, 'the King having seized upon him and his company to serve in Africa.'

Sebastian had also German mercenaries with him.

There was a sort of alliance at this time between England and Morocco, Elizabeth having sent an agent, with an Irish name, who found the Moorish Emperor 'an earnest Protestant, of good religion and living, and well experimented as well in the Old Testament as in the New, with great affection to God's true religion used in Her Highness's realm.'

Whatever we may think of this, it is easy to believe that the Moor despised Philip as being 'governed by the Pope and Inquisition.'

But it is not probable that this curious piece of diplomacy had much effect on the main issue.

Stukeley warned Sebastian against rashness, advising him to halt at the seaside to exercise his troops, who were chiefly raw levies, and to gain some experience in Moorish tactics.

But the young King, whose life was of such supreme importance to his country, was determined to risk all upon the cast of a die.

The great battle of Alcazar was fatal alike to the Portuguese King and the Moorish Emperor.

Stukeley also fell, fighting bravely to the last, at the head of his Italians.

It may be said of him, as it was said of a greater man, that nothing in his life became him so much as his manner of leaving it.

[7] [Sidenote: Result of this battle.

] The Geraldine historian, O'Daly, says Fitzmaurice landed in Ireland entirely ignorant of Stukeley's fate, but this statement is contradicted by known dates.

Nor can we believe that if Stukeley had come with his Italian swordsmen while Fitzmaurice lived, it would have fared ill with the English--that a little money and less blood would have sufficed to drive them out of Ireland.

Yet it is probably true that the battle of Alcazar was of great indirect value to England.

Sebastian left no heir, and the Crown of Portugal devolved on his great-uncle, Cardinal Henry, who was sixty-seven and childless.

The next in reversion was Philip II.

, whose energies were now turned towards securing the much-coveted land which nature seemed to designate as proper to be joined with Spain.

For a time, however, it was supposed that he would heartily embrace the sanguine Gregory's schemes, and rumours were multiplied by hope or fear.

[Sidenote: Ireland ill-prepared to resist invasion.

] Lord Justice Drury knew that the lull in Ireland was only temporary, but Elizabeth made it an excuse for economy, and disaffected people, 'otherwise base-minded enough,' were encouraged to believe that the government would stand anything rather than spend money.

By refusing to grant any protections, and by holding his head high, Drury kept things pretty quiet, but he had to sell or pawn his plate.

He hinted that, as there was no foreign invasion, her Majesty might continue to pay him his salary, and save his credit.

Meanwhile, he had some small successes.

Feagh MacHugh made his submission in Christ Church cathedral, and gave pledges to Harrington, whom he acknowledged as his captain.

Desmond and his brother John came to Waterford and behaved well, and a considerable number of troublesome local magnates made their submissions at Carlow, Leighlin, Castledermot, and Kilkenny;

twenty-nine persons were executed at Philipstown, but the fort was falling down, and this was little likely to impress the neighbouring chiefs.

Drury's presence alone saved it from a sudden attack by the O'Connors.

But a son of O'Doyne's was fined for concealment, and his father took it well, so that it was possible to report some slight progress of legal ideas.

Meanwhile there was great danger lest the Queen's ill-judged parsimony should destroy much of what had been done in Sidney's time.

Thus, the town of Carrickfergus had been paved and surrounded by wet ditches; the inhabitants had, in consequence, been increased from twenty to two hundred, forty fishermen resorted daily to the quay, and sixty ploughs were at work.

But over 200_l.

_ was owing to the town, the garrison were in danger of starving, and it was feared that 'the townsmen came not so fast thither, but would faster depart thence.'

[8] [Sidenote: Ulster in 1579. ] Tirlogh Luineach O'Neill was now old and in bad health.

It was again proposed to make him a peer; but this was not done, since it was evident that a title would make fresh divisions after his death.

There were already four competitors, or rather groups of competitors, for the reversion; of whom only two were of much importance.

Shane O'Neill's eldest legitimate son, known as Henry MacShane, was supported by one legitimate and five illegitimate brothers, and Drury's idea was 'by persuasion or by force of testoons' to make him a counterpoise to the Baron of Dungannon, whose ambitious character was already known.

The bastardy of the baron's grandfather had been often condoned by the Crown, but was not forgotten and might be turned to account.

Against the advice of his leeches old Tirlogh was carried forty miles on men's shoulders, to meet Bagenal at Blackwater, and said he was most anxious to meet Drury.

Dungannon, who expected an immediate vacancy, begged hard for 200 soldiers, without which the MacShanes would muster twice as many men as he could.

He promised not to go out of his own district as long as the old chief lived.

Drury temporised, since he could do nothing else, and tried what effect his own presence in the North might have.

The suddenness of his movement frightened Tirlogh, who got better, contrary to all expectation, and showed himself with a strong force on the top of a hill near Armagh, refusing however to come in without protection.

This Drury refused on principle, and Tirlogh's wife, who was clever enough to see that no harm was intended, tried in vain to bring her husband to the Viceroy's camp.

Meanwhile he and the Baron became fast friends, and the latter proposed to put away O'Donnell's daughter, to whom he was perhaps not legally married, and to take Tirlogh's for his wife.

Drury made him promise not to deal further in the match; but his back was no sooner turned than the marriage was celebrated, and the other unfortunate sent back to Tyrconnell.

At the same time Tirlogh gave another of his daughters to Sorley Boy MacDonnell's son, and the assistance of the Scots was thus supposed to be secured.

There were rumours that Fitzmaurice would land at Sligo, and a general confederacy was to be looked for.

Fitton, who had been long enough in Ireland to know something about it, saw that the Irish had great natural wits and knew how to get an advantage quite as well as more civil people, and that Tirlogh, like the rest of his countrymen, would submit while it suited him and no longer.

[9] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice and Sanders sail for Ireland.

] After Stukeley's death James Fitzmaurice continued to prepare for a descent on Ireland.

After his return from Rome he went to France, where he joined his wife, son, and two daughters.

He then spent nearly three months at Madrid with Sanders, and obtained 1,000 ducats for his wife, who was then in actual penury at 'Vidonia' in Biscay.

But he could not see the king, and professed himself indifferent to help from Spain or Portugal.

'I care for no soldiers at all,' he said to Sanders; 'you and I are enough; therefore let me go, for I know the minds of the noblemen in Ireland.'

Some of Stukeley's men, with a ship of about 400 tons, had survived the Barbary disaster.

O'Mulrian, Papal Bishop of Killaloe, came to Lisbon from Rome with the same men and two smaller vessels, and by the Pope's orders Stukeley's ship was given to them.

Sanders accompanied the bishop, and there seem to have been about 600 men--Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Flemings, Frenchmen, Irish, and a few English.

It was arranged that this motley crew should join Fitzmaurice at Corunna, and then sail straight to Ireland.

A Waterford merchant told his wife that the men were very reticent, but were reported to be about to establish the true religion.

When questioned they said they were bound for Africa, but the Waterford man thought they were going to spoil her Majesty's subjects.

Meanwhile Fitzmaurice was at Bilbao with a few light craft.

The largest was of sixty tons, commanded by a Dingle man who knew the Irish coast, but who ultimately took no part in the expedition.

William Roche, who had been Perrott's master gunner at Castlemaine, and James Den of Galway, were also retained as pilots.

A little later Fitzmaurice had a ship of 300 tons, for which he gave 800 crowns, several small pieces of artillery, 6,000 muskets, and a good supply of provisions and trenching tools.

The men received two months' pay in advance.

Fitzmaurice's one idea was to raise an army in Munster, and he told an Irish merchant who thought his preparations quite inadequate, that 'when the arms were occupied' he made no account of all the Queen's forces in Ireland.

He was accompanied by his wife and daughter and about fifty men, who were nearly all Spaniards.

Sanders went to Bilbao after a short stay at Lisbon, and two merchants, one of Waterford and one of Wexford, who came together from the Tagus to the Shannon, reported that a descent was imminent.

'The men,' they said, 'be willing; they want no treasure, they lack no furniture, and they have skilful leaders.'

To oppose a landing the Queen had one disabled ship in Ireland, and there were no means of fitting her out for sea.

[10] [Sidenote: The voyage.

] The French rover, De la Roche, in spite of Catherine de Medici's assurance, seems to have co-operated with Fitzmaurice.

John Picot, of Jersey, bound for Waterford with Spanish wine, was warned at San Lucar by a Brest man that De la Roche and Fitzmaurice spoiled everyone they met.

To avoid them Picot kept wide of the coast; nevertheless he fell in with eight sail 60 leagues N. W.

of Cape St. Vincent.

They fired and obliged him to lower a boat, and then robbed him of wine, oil, raisins, and other things of Spain.

Picot saw twelve pieces of cannon in De la Roche's hold, but was warned significantly not to pry under hatches again.

The Jerseymen were beaten, the St. Malo men spared, and all were told, with 'vehement oaths and gnashing of teeth,' that if they had been Englishmen they would have been thrown overboard--a fate which actually befell the crew of a Bristol vessel two or three days later.

Finding that Picot was going to Ireland, his captors said they would keep company with him; but thick weather came on, and by changing his course, he got clear within twenty-four hours.

A few days after Fitzmaurice was in Dursey Sound with six ships, and others were sighted off Baltimore.

He picked up a fisherman and bade him fetch in Owen O'Sullivan Bere, but that chief refused, and three days later the invading squadron cast anchor off Dingle.

[11] [Sidenote: Fitzmaurice and Sanders reach Ireland.

] The portreeve and his brethren went off to speak with the strangers next morning.

Some Spaniards whom they knew refused to let them come on board, and they sent at once to Desmond for help.

The preparations for resistance were of the slightest.

The constable of Castlemaine reported that he had only five hogsheads of wheat, two tuns of wine, three hogsheads of salmon, and some malt; and that he was dependent for meat upon such bruised reeds as Desmond and Clancare.

There were neither men nor stores at Dublin, and no hope of borrowing even 500_l.

_ Cork had but five barrels of inferior powder, and no lead.

At Waterford there were only 2,000 pounds of powder.

All that Drury could do was to write letters charging the Munster lords to withstand the traitors, but a fortnight passed before he himself could get as far as Limerick.

[12] [Sidenote: They land at Dingle.

] Mr. James Golde, Attorney-General for Munster, writing from Tralee, thus describes the manner of Fitzmaurice's landing, which took place on the day after his arrival at Dingle:-- 'The traitor upon Saturday last came out of his ship.

Two friars were his ancient-bearers, and they went before with two ancients.

A bishop, with a crozier-staff and his mitre, was next the friars.

After came the traitor himself at the head of his company, about 100, and went to seek for flesh and kine, which they found, and so returned to his ships.'

[13] On the same day they burned the town, lit fires on the hills as if signalling to some expected allies, and then shifted their berths to Smerwick harbour, taking with them as prisoners some of the chief inhabitants of Dingle.

At Smerwick they began to construct a fort, of which the later history is famous.

It was believed that Fitzmaurice expected immediate help out of Connaught.

'Ulick Burke is obedient,' said Waterhouse; 'but I believe that John will presently face the confederacy.'

Drury could only preach fidelity, and commission Sir Humphrey Gilbert to take up ships and prosecute the enemy by sea and land.

[14] [Sidenote: Proclamation of Fitzmaurice.

]