Ireland Under the Tudors, Volume 3 — Chapter 45 Government of Russell 1594 to 1597 Part 1

[Sidenote: Arrival of Russell, 1594. ] Sir William Russell left Theobalds on June 25, and did not reach Dublin till August 1. Even at midsummer no wind served to sail out of the Dee, and at Holyhead itself there was a week's delay.

Keeping to the letter of his instructions, Russell refused to receive the sword until Fitzwilliam and the Council had given him a written account of the state of Leinster and Connaught; and this ten days' pause gave Tyrone time to look about him.

Ormonde went to Dublin, and waited anxiously for eleven days to see whether the northern earl would perform his promise.

On August 15, and to the great surprise of all men, Tyrone made his appearance, the late Deputy having sailed for England the day before.

Russell had desired his predecessor to stay and make good his charges; but Fitzwilliam declined, unless ordered to do so on his allegiance, and Tyrone was thus enabled to say that he would have easily cleared himself in his oppressor's presence, had the latter stayed but one day longer.

[230] [Sidenote: Tyrone in Dublin.

] [Sidenote: He is allowed to go free.

] On arriving in Dublin, Tyrone sent in a written submission, and two days later he presented it on his knees to the Lord Deputy sitting in Council.

Again he laid all blame on Fitzwilliam and Bagenal, acknowledging that his efforts to save his life from their machinations might have some appearance of ingratitude, and professing himself ready to serve the Queen and her new Deputy.

He promised to do his best to restore peace in Ulster, to expel the Scots, and to protect the Pale.

He was ready to receive a sheriff, provided Armagh and Tyrone were made one county, and to have a gaol at Dungannon, and to pay a reasonable composition.

He promised to send his eldest son, Hugh, to Wallop or Gardiner, who might send him to an English university within three months, to give sufficient pledges, and to molest no Englishman within his jurisdiction.

The division of Armagh from Tyrone had long been part of a settled policy, and the fact that Tyrone insisted on its reversal should have been warning enough.

At the same sitting of the Council Bagenal produced a written statement of his charges against the Earl.

The first of these, and the one which would weigh most with the Queen, was that many of Tyrone's foster-brothers and household servants had joined with Archbishop MacGauran, who was unquestionably the emissary of Rome and Spain, and that Tyrone had nevertheless protected and favoured them.

But Bagenal was naturally not ready to prove his case by witnesses then and there, and upon this it was decided not to detain the Earl, although he had come in quite voluntarily and without any condition whatever; 'and it was resolved, for weighty considerations concerning Her Majesty's service, that the Earl should not be charged with the said articles at this time, but to be deferred to a more fit time.'

Russell afterwards said that he thought it safer to let him go, because his brother Cormac MacBaron was puffed up by some late successes, and, as tanist, would naturally take advantage of the Earl's absence and be ready to cut his throat.

Tyrone's submission, too, had been very humble: he had promised to banish the Scots, to appease the rebels, and to give his son as pledge.

In fact his humility disappeared as soon as he was clear of the Pale; he neither expelled the Scots nor appeased the rebels, and he never sent his son to Dublin.

The evident truth is that Russell, who was new to Ireland, was completely hoodwinked, and that the Council, after the manner of councils, took the course which was easiest for the moment, and sheltered both themselves and the Viceroy behind a formidable list of names.

[231] [Sidenote: Reverses in Ulster.

] [Sidenote: Russell relieves Enniskillen.

] Fitzwilliam had confessed to Perrott that he received Ireland from him in peace, and that he should do the Queen good service if he could leave it but half as well.

Measured by that standard his success had not been great, for he left the island very much disturbed.

Ulster was 'replenished with more treason than we have known it in former times.'

Bingham had bridled Connaught; but O'Rourke was with O'Donnell, and was a constant source of danger.

Feagh MacHugh and his crew were traitorously bent, and the arrival of 3,000 Scots in Donegal was likely to aggravate the general peril.

After all the fighting in Fermanagh her Majesty had no stronghold left there except Enniskillen, and that was closely besieged.

Sir Henry Duke and Sir Edward Herbert were sent with 600 foot and 46 horse to revictual it, but could not, and Sir Richard Bingham went to help them with 200 foot and 50 horse.

Before he could arrive, Maguire and Cormac MacBaron had attacked the relieving force at the ford of Drumane on the Arney river, and routed them completely.

The convoy fell into the hands of the Irish, and the place was long known as the 'ford of biscuits.'

This news met Bingham on his way northwards, and he returned to Dublin.

The check was a severe one, and Russell lost no time in taking the field himself.

His route was by Mullingar, Athlone, Roscommon, and Boyle, over the Curlews.

Lough Arrow and Lough Allen were passed on the right hand and Lough Melvin on the left, the dangers of the march being from bogs and flooded rivers rather than from armed opposition.

Enniskillen was relieved for that time, and Dublin was reached on the twenty-second day.

The return was by way of Cavan, and the only casualties were from drowning at the passages of the Sillees and the Erne.

[232] [Illustration: ULSTER with ADJACENT DISTRICTS Edwd.

Weller, _lith.

_ _London.

Longmans & Co. _] [Sidenote: The Queen blames Russell.

] [Sidenote: Tyrone generally suspected.

] Sir Edward Moore of Mellifont, who was on friendly terms with Tyrone, was employed to patch up a truce, and war was deferred until the new year.

In the meantime Russell had to bear as best he might the Queen's severe blame for letting the Earl go, in spite of direct private orders from her.

The reasons which he gave were indeed very inconclusive, and it is plain that Tyrone had known how to profit boldly by the moment of weakness which in Ireland has always attended every change of governors in old times, and every vicissitude of party in our own.

But opinions were still divided as to Tyrone's real intentions.

Some professed to believe that his animosity was only against Fitzwilliam and Bagenal, but others, if we may judge by the sequel, were less optimistic or better informed.

Tyrone's brother had contributed to the disaster at Enniskillen, and neither he nor the O'Neills who served under him would have acted against the chief's wish.

There was plenty of Spanish gold circulating in Tyrone, and powder was being made there with imported sulphur.

In Roman Catholic circles there were great hopes of what the Earl would do, but some feared that he sought an earthly rather than a heavenly kingdom.

It was more certain that he had enormously increased his force, and that he was daily enlarging his power over the neighbouring chiefs.

He had obtained leave to import a great quantity of lead by way of roofing his house at Dungannon, and that was now available to make bullets.

It is difficult to say exactly when Tyrone's correspondence with Spain began, but some great movement was clearly impending.

Jesuits and seminary priests swarmed throughout Ireland, and in any city or town, says one Protestant writer, 'there is not an Irishwoman nor merchant's wife throughout the kingdom but refuseth to come to the church, save that in Dublin a few women, under twenty in all, are not quite fallen from us.'

[233] [Sidenote: The Wicklow Highlanders, 1595. ] [Sidenote: Death of Walter Reagh.

] When the Christmas festivities were over, during which the Earl of Kildare tilted at the ring, Russell went into the Wicklow mountains and returned on the third day.

Feagh MacHugh was driven from Ballinacor and the house garrisoned, O'Byrne himself, with his wife and the notorious bastard Geraldine, Walter Reagh, being proclaimed traitors.

Some heads were brought in, but after a few days Walter Reagh's brother, Gerald, was out with his followers and burned the village of Crumlin, not three miles from St. James's gate.

The lead was stripped from the church, and carried off to make bullets.

The Lord Deputy appeared in Thomas Street, had the gate opened, and sent horse in pursuit, but the mischief was already done.

As such insolence could not be allowed to pass, another journey was immediately undertaken, and a camp was formed at Ballinacor.

A fort was built, and there was no difficulty in getting a hundred labourers from among the O'Byrnes.

But Feagh had plenty of sympathisers.

In one place a girl warned six kernes of the approach of soldiers; in another a bag of bullets was found newly cast.

Heads came in fast, but straggling foragers from Russell's camp were sometimes cut off.

Ormonde came up from Kilkenny with a large force, and it became evident that Walter Reagh's career was near its end.

One of his brothers was taken by the Kavanaghs, the Gerald who burned Crumlin was killed, and he himself was wounded in attacking the house of Sir Piers Fitzjames Fitzgerald, who was sheriff of Kildare and Ormonde's kinsman.

His leg being almost broken by the blow of a hammer, he was carried by his followers to a cave, and there attended by a native leech, 'who went every second day to the woods to gather herbs.'

With the help of this leech Walter's first cousin, Dermot MacPhelim Reagh, betrayed him to Sir Henry Harrington, and promised also to give up Feagh MacHugh himself.

Another O'Byrne, Murrogh MacTeig Oge, is also mentioned as being in the plot.

Walter Reagh was brought to Dublin, examined, and hanged alive in chains for twenty-four hours, 'as a notable example of justice.'

This was Russell's opinion, but it must be evident that such barbarity could have no real effect, and in fact the Wicklow rebels were soon as strong as ever.

[234] [Sidenote: Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne.

] [Sidenote: Interference of Tyrone in Leinster.

] No sooner was Walter Reagh dead than Russell set out again for the disturbed districts of Leinster.

A camp formed at Money, between Tullow and Shillelagh, was the Lord Deputy's headquarters for three weeks, and he visited all the country round, finding time for a little hunting and fishing, and receiving heads of prisoners almost daily.

Several companies scoured the Wicklow mountains, but never quite succeeded in catching Feagh MacHugh.

But his wife, the famous Rice O'Toole, fell into Harrington's hands, and a Dublin jury found her guilty of treason.

The sentence was death by burning, as if she was considered a witch, but the Queen spared her life.

The arrival of Sir John Norris required Russell's presence in Dublin, preparatory to dealing seriously with Tyrone.

Sir Henry had already brought rather more than 2,000 of the Brittany veterans, and the news of their coming kept the North quiet for a moment.

Garrisons were left to bridle Wicklow, and it was supposed that the fort at Ballinacor could easily hold out.

But Feagh MacHugh had now a thorough understanding with Tyrone, who had promised him 1,000 men--400 from himself, 400 from O'Donnell, and 100 each from Maguire and O'Rourke.

The MacMahons had also promised a hundred.

These were to be maintained for a year, doubtless with some of the Spanish gold which was circulating in Ulster.

[235] [Sidenote: Recruiting for the Irish service.

] [Sidenote: Impressment.

] [Sidenote: A contractor.

] [Sidenote: How the horse were raised.

] We are now entering upon the great Tyrone war, which cost Queen Elizabeth so many men and so much money.

The trained troops at her command were very few, and fresh levies were constantly required.

From what took place in one county, we may judge of the method pursued all over England, and gain some idea of the drain upon the scanty population of that time.

Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, a great figure among the nobility of that day, was Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire.

In March, 1595, he was directed by warrant to make a compulsory levy of 100 men for the Irish service.

This was done, and the new company assigned to Captain Nicholas Merriman, the captain and his two subalterns being appointed by the Crown, and not by Lord Shrewsbury, who thought some men were pressed 'rather for ill will than for any care of the Queen's service'; nor is the suggestion singular in the correspondence of this period.

In the same year Derbyshire had to raise three horsemen for the Irish service, and the cost was compulsorily divided among the gentlemen and freeholders.

John Manners of Haddon was assessed at 53_s.

_ 4_d.

_, while some had to pay only six shillings.

In 1596, fifty more men were raised for Ireland.

Directions are sometimes given that the arms and uniforms should be bought of particular persons.

Captain Merriman, who was a skilled veteran, commended the armour supplied by Mr. William Grosvenor, of Bellport, who was a friend of Shrewsbury, and a 'follower of the Earl of Essex.'

In April, 1597, twenty-three men were pressed for Ireland; four of them ran away, and the arms of those who did not were so bad that the officers had to buy others from the armourers at Chester.

In 1598, 100 men were first levied, and after the disaster at Blackwater fifty more were wanted.

These levies were not completed till the spring of 1599; but in 1600 the demands began again.

One hundred and fifty were required, but some ran away, and some were inefficient, and there was a further call for fifteen men before the year was out.

John Manners was also ordered to provide one light horseman, with a cuirass and staff, at his own charge, and the county was forced to have carpenters, smiths, and bricklayers among the recruits.

In 1601, three horsemen and 110 footmen were raised, and there was a further levy of horse ordered as soon as it was known that Spaniards had landed at Kinsale.

About 70 gentlemen and ladies are mentioned as specially contributory to this last call, and again John Manners had to supply a gelding with a good saddle, and a good man to fill it, 'furnished with a good cuirass and a caske, a northern staff, a good long pistol, a good sword and dagger, and a horseman's coat of good cloth.'

[Sidenote: Unpopularity of the service.

] [Sidenote: A ragged regiment.

] Clothing for foot soldiers was contracted for at 40_s.

_ a head.

After the victory at Kinsale, we read of no more levies in Derbyshire, but the drain had been severe.

Of foot-soldiers alone, some 450 were raised in that single county, from 1595 to 1601, and we may be sure that most of them never returned.

Naturally the service was very unpopular;

'Better be hanged at home than die like dogs in Ireland' had become a Cheshire proverb.

Sometimes it was necessary to 'set sufficient watch in all the highways, footpaths, and bye-lanes, for the apprehending of such soldiers as shall offer to escape before God sends a wind.'

And it is not difficult to see how Shakespeare made the study for his immortal picture of the ragged regiment with whom Falstaff refused to march through Coventry.

'You appointed twelve shires,' said the Mayor of Bristol, 'to send men here for Cork.

We protest unto your lordships, excepting of some two or three shires, there was never man beheld such strange creatures brought to any muster.

They are most of them either old, lame, diseased, boys, or common Rodys; few of them have any clothes, small, weak, starved bodies, taken up in fair, market, and highway, to supply the place of better men kept at home.

If there be any of them better than the rest we find they have been set forth for malice....

We have done what we could to put able men into silly creatures' places, but in such sort that they cannot start nor run away.'

[236] [Sidenote: Officers and adventurers.

] [Sidenote: veteran.

] But if the Irish service was odious and terrible to the poor conscript, adventurous young gentlemen sought therein the means of retrieving their fortunes and of getting out of scrapes.

'There is,' says one such, 'nothing under the elements permanent.

Yesternight I lived with such delight in my bosom, concealing it, that I was for this voyage, that the overmuch heat is now cooled by a storm, and my prayer must be to send better times and fortunes than always to live a poor base justice, recreating myself in sending rogues to the gallows.'

The veterans who had fought and bled in many lands were not anxious to have their places filled by lads, who were brave enough doubtless, but who had everything to learn.

Complaints upon this subject are frequent, but no one has told his story better than Captain Bostock, who, having served for eighteen years by sea and land, thought he was entitled to some reward.

Bostock was at the siege of Antwerp in 1582, and remained long in the Netherlands, wherever hard knocks were going.

Then he commanded a ship commissioned by Henry of Navarre.

Afterwards he was in the Netherlands again, under Russell and Vere, and with Lord Willoughby at the siege of Bergen.

Then he commanded her Majesty's pinnace 'Merlin' in Portugal, returned to Holland, and served under Essex all the time that he was in France.

His next venture was in command of a man-of-war to the West Indies.

Then there was more fighting in the Netherlands, and under Fitzwilliam and Russell in Ireland.

In the voyage to the Azores Bostock was captain of a man-of-war, and 'fought with a carrack every day for twenty days.'

Then he served under Essex at sea and in Ireland, and at the end of it all found that he had spent 1,000_l.

_ of his patrimony, and was still without recognised rank.

'A soldier that is no captain,' he says, 'is more to be esteemed than a captain that is no soldier; the one is made in an hour, and the other not in many years, of both which kinds I know many.'

[237] [Sidenote: Sir John Norris.

] [Sidenote: Norris and Russell.

] [Sidenote: Essex interferes.

] Russell had asked for a good officer to help him, but, to his great disgust, the Government sent him a general with absolute authority.

A

commission, indeed, was to be issued by the Lord Deputy and Council, and for this Russell expressed his thanks; but the terms of it were dictated by the Queen, who fixed upon Sir John Norris as the fittest man for the place.

Norris was still Lord President of Munster, but the administration of that province was left to his brother, and he was put over all the forces in Ireland, with almost unlimited authority, for the purpose of pacifying Ulster.

His promises of pardon or protection were to be performed as a matter of course by the Lord Deputy and Council.

The fame of Norris was deservedly great, and it seems to have been thought, as it has sometimes been thought in our own time, that the mere terror of his name would save the cost of an army.

But he was under no such illusion himself, and complained before he left England that Russell was hostile to him.

He was in bad health too, and declared that but for that he would post back from Bristol and refute the detractors who began to buzz as soon as his back was turned.

The servile herd of courtiers well knew that abuse of Sir John Norris sounded sweet in the Earl of Essex's ears.

The favourite had interfered in the appointment of officers, and was told that the general had accused him of passing over the best men.

This Norris denied, declaring that he had always tried to be the Earl's friend, and wondering why the latter would always treat him as an enemy.

[238] [Sidenote: Arrival of Norris.

] Norris landed at Waterford on May 4, after a bad passage, which brought on the ague to which he was subject.

He found the season so late that there was no likelihood of much grass before June, and in any case he was unable to ride for some days.

Russell civilly begged that he would take his time, and he did not reach Dublin until four weeks after leaving Bristol.

While riding near the city his horse fell with him, and this accident brought on a fresh attack of ague.

But he saw enough in a very few days to make him realise that the struggle before him was very different from any that had preceded it.

The rebels were more in number and better armed than of old, and they had plenty of ammunition.

Spanish gold found its way from Tyrone to some gentlemen of the Pale, and something like a panic prevailed.

Two thousand good soldiers had hesitated to march ten miles by a tolerable road from Newry to Dundalk, and had clamoured to be sent by water.

The like had never been heard of before, and both gentlemen and townsmen for the first time refused even to pass the doors of a church.

[239] [Sidenote: The Irish retake Enniskillen.

] While Russell waited at Dublin for Norris, Maguire regained possession of Enniskillen.

The garrison had been reduced by sickness to fourteen, who were promised their lives; but the English account says the promise was not kept.

Monaghan was also threatened, and 1,400 foot and 200 horse were sent to Newry.

With this force Bagenal succeeded in victualling the place, but Tyrone greatly harassed the army on its return, killing over thirty and wounding over a hundred; ten barrels of powder were expended and many horses lost.

It was said that the Irish engaged were more than 5,000, and that twice or even three times that number were in the neighbourhood.

The road between Dundalk and Newry was then broken up by Tyrone's orders.

Russell reported that the powder left in the Master of the Ordnance's hands was less than had been burned in this one day's work.

[240] [Sidenote: Murder of George Bingham.

] [Sidenote: The Irish seize Sligo.

] Sir Richard Bingham had lost no opportunity of warning the Government how necessary it was to seize the passage between Ulster and Connaught;

he had made preparations at Sligo for the occupation of Ballyshannon.

His plans were frustrated by one of those unexpected acts of treachery in which Irish history abounds.

The governor of Sligo, under him, was his cousin, George Bingham the younger, who seems to have depended almost entirely on Irish troops, and especially upon his ensign, Ulick Burke, Clanricarde's cousin-german and son of that 'Redmond of the besoms,' as he was called from his sweeping raids, who had been the actual murderer of Sir John Shamrock.

George Bingham had lately made a descent upon Tory Island, which he plundered, and also upon MacSwiney Fanad's village at Rathmullen, where he sacked the Carmelite monastery.

Ulick Burke was left in charge at Sligo, and it seems that he or his Irish followers were offended at not receiving their due portion of the spoil.

Sir Richard Bingham admits that they were badly paid, and that all the mischief came from that.

At all events George Bingham and eight Englishmen with him were butchered by the treacherous ensign without a word of warning.

Ulick had been twice saved from hanging by Bingham, but he gave the signal by stabbing his preserver with his own hand.

Sligo, with its guns and stores, was handed over to O'Donnell, and Ulick Burke became his constable.

'This,' says Sir Richard, 'is the worst news ever happened in Connaught in my time.'

[241] [Sidenote: Tyrone is proclaimed traitor.

] [Sidenote: A garrison at Armagh.

] A week after the disaster at Sligo, Norris started for Newry, whither Russell followed him five days later with 2,200 foot and 550 horse.

Tyrone and his adherents were proclaimed traitors at Dundalk, both in English and Irish.

The causeway through the Moyry pass had been broken up, but no resistance was offered, and a band of pioneers soon made it practicable.

In the presence of the Lord-Deputy Norris disclaimed all power and responsibility, but there was no outward breach between them.

Russell reached the Blackwater without serious fighting, and pitched his camp close to Armagh.

The church was fortified and made capable of sheltering 200 men, and Tyrone spent his time in burning the houses round about and in razing his own castle of Dungannon.

He had intended to make a great stronghold, fortified 'by the device of a Spaniard that he had with him, but in the end employed those masons that were entertained for builders up, for pullers down of that his house, and that in so great a haste, as the same overnight mustering very stately and high in the sight of all our army, the next day by noon it was so low that it could scarcely be discerned.'

The arrival of cannon at Newry had already taught Tyrone that he could not defend any castle against a regular army, and he afterwards constantly acted upon that principle.

Besides making Armagh tenable, Russell again relieved Monaghan.

There was constant skirmishing, which cost a good many men, but nothing like a general battle.

On his return to Newry the Lord-Deputy very early fell into an ambuscade, but no one was actually hurt except O'Hanlon, who carried the Queen's colours.

The Moyry pass was again found unoccupied, and a council of war was held at Dundalk.

Russell announced that he had fulfilled her Majesty's order, and would now leave Ulster matters to the general, according to his commission, while Bingham should attend to Connaught.

Norris said he would do his best; but if his invasion of Tyrone were frustrated by want of provisions, as the Lord-Deputy's had been, he trusted it should be without imputation to him.

'And so,' says the chronicler, 'every man returned well wearied towards his own dwelling that had any.'

[242] [Sidenote: Strained relations between Norris and Russell.

] During the expedition Russell wrote to say that he agreed better with Norris than he had at first thought possible.

But the general looked at everything upon the darkest side.

He accused the Lord Deputy of stretching his conscience to injure him, of detaining letters so as to deprive him of the means of answering them, of making his commission less ample than the Queen had ordered; and he declared, though without actually naming Russell, that his letters to Cecil and Cecil's to him were certainly opened.

He maintained that every obstacle was thrown in his way, and that his private fortune was spent without increase of honour after so many years of service.

The means provided were utterly inadequate, since even Russell thought more than 3,000 men necessary for the Ulster war, and scarcely half the number were actually available.

'I wish,' he says, 'it had pleased God to appoint me to follow some other more grateful profession.'

[243]