Ireland Under the Tudors, Volume 3 — Chapter 49 Government of Mountjoy 1600 Part 1
[Sidenote: The government is entrusted to Mountjoy.
] In October 1599 the government of Ireland was offered to Mountjoy, who refused it.
He may have thought that Essex would have to go back, or he may have been unwilling to leave Lady Rich.
But in the following month he was nevertheless ordered to be ready within twenty days.
It became evident that Essex would not be employed again; he made Mountjoy and Southampton guardians of his interests, and for his sake they both went perilously near to treason.
Mountjoy undertook the thankless office with a heavy heart.
He told the Queen that everyone of his predecessors had without exception been blamed, and that there was no one in Ireland whom he could trust.
Very unjustly, he included even Ormonde in this sweeping censure.
It was Raleigh who had insisted that he should be appointed, and the Queen listened chiefly to him about Irish affairs.
'This employment of me is by a private man that never knew what it was to divide public and honourable ends from his own, propounded and laboured to you (without any respect to your public service) the more eagerly, by any means to rise to his long expected fortune.
Wherein, by reason of the experience I have heard your Majesty holds him to have in that country, he is like to become my judge, and is already so proud of this plot that he cannot keep himself from bragging of it.'
[334] [Sidenote: Raleigh's advice.
] The usual delays took place, and the twenty days were prolonged to eleven weeks.
Raleigh's advice, like that of everyone who really understood the problem, was for a system of garrisons.
A Lord President in Munster with a considerable force, a local governor in Connaught with smaller means, a strong post at Lough Foyle, and the remaining troops under the Lord Deputy's immediate command--these were the means by which it was hoped to reduce Ireland.
A large army under Essex had failed, and his successor was expected to do everything with 12,000 foot and 1,200 horse, though everyone but the Queen thought this force too small.
Lord Grey de Wilton, who was Essex's known enemy, desired the command at Lough Foyle; but Mountjoy resented this idea as an insult, and the choice fell upon Sir Henry Docwra, who had served under Bingham in Connaught and under Essex at Cadiz.
Grey consoled himself by sending a challenge to Southampton, who said he was ready to fight when time and place served, but that one so out of favour as himself could hope for no mercy if he broke the law in England.
Mountjoy took leave of the Queen on the 24th of January, but was not made a Privy Councillor, that honour being reserved till his return.
Those who were to accompany him also kissed hands, and Elizabeth read a little lecture to each upon his duties.
A fortnight later the Lord Deputy left London with an escort of 100 horse, and wrote from Daventry to Cecil begging that he might not be kept too closely to the 13,000 men.
Southampton was not allowed to go with him.
[335] [Sidenote: Tyrone's Holy War in Munster.
] Whether Tyrone cared much or little for religion, it became an object with him to appear publicly as the champion of Rome, and as such he sought help from Spain and Austria.
He then marched into Munster, and, acting in concert with Desmond and the ecclesiastics there, called upon all to take part in the holy war.
He wasted a considerable part of Westmeath, and carefully ravaged Ely O'Carroll.
'All its movable possessions,' say the Four Masters, 'were carried away, and nothing left but ashes instead of corn, and embers in place of mansions.
Great numbers of men, women, sons, and daughters were left in a dying state.'
The reason or pretext for this severity was that O'Carroll had hired certain warriors of the Macmahons, and had killed instead of paying them when the settling day came round.
At Holy Cross Abbey the relic, which had been hitherto preserved in spite of the dissolution, was brought out to do him honour.
Ormonde and Delvin watched his course, but did not venture to attack him.
The annalists oddly remark that on his progress by Cashel to the neighbourhood of Bandon he only injured those who were opposed to him.
Among these was David Lord Barry, who had remained firmly loyal since his pardon in Lord Grey's time.
Tyrone reviled him for deserting the cause of the Church, and as the principal means of preventing the southern nobility from joining him in rebellion.
'Her Highness,' replied Barry, 'hath never restrained me for matters of religion,' and he demanded the restoration of some of his followers who had been captured, and of 4,000 kine and 3,000 horses.
He defied Tyrone, and promised to have his revenge some day, with her Majesty's assistance.
He had hoped to save the island on which Queenstown now stands, but the castle commanding the bridge over the narrow strait was of no avail to protect his property.
Tyrone landed his parties in boats, and not a single house was left unburned.
[336] [Sidenote: Arrival of Mountjoy and Carew (February).
] In the meantime Mountjoy had been appointed Deputy, and Carew President of Munster.
They landed together at Howth on February 26, and found things in as bad a state as possible, almost the whole island being virtually under the sway of the victorious rebel.
The Queen realised that the country could not be bridled without fixed garrisons, but she cautioned Mountjoy against frittering away his strength by multiplying small posts.
It had long been recognised that fortifications at Lough Foyle would do more than anything to cripple the O'Neills, and 4,000 foot and 200 horse were assigned for this service to Docwra; while 3,000 foot and 250 horse were allotted, by official orders from England, to the presidency of Munster.
The force left under Mountjoy's immediate control did not, therefore, exceed 5,000 men, and he was thus prevented from repeating Essex's mistake, that of 'making progresses' at a great expense without achieving any permanent results.
[337] [Sidenote: Tyrone plays the king in Munster.
] Carew was necessarily delayed in Dublin for about six weeks, and in the meantime Tyrone went where he pleased in Munster.
His principal camp was at Inniscarra on the Lee, and thither came friendly messages or hostages from nearly all the neighbouring magnates, whether of English or Irish race.
Among his trustiest lieutenants was his son-in-law, Hugh Maguire, who, on or about the last day of February, made a raid in the immediate neighbourhood of Cork.
Sir Warham St. Leger and Sir Henry Power, the acting commissioners for Munster, went out for a ride, in no expectation of an attack so near the town.
Their men were marching at ease and in loose order when they suddenly came in contact with Maguire's party.
St. Leger fired his pistol at the chief with fatal effect, but the latter had strength enough to retaliate with his half-pike; and so the two leaders fell by each other's hands, and with few or no other casualties on either side.
To Tyrone the loss was great, and probably decided him to leave the province before Carew could appear.
Marching through the eastern part of Cork, and leaving Cashel on his right hand, he passed through Westmeath and reached his own country without striking a blow or ever seeing an enemy.
Ormonde and Thomond came out from Limerick with a considerable force, but no battle took place, though Carew has recorded his opinion that the loyal Earls were very anxious to fight.
[338] [Sidenote: Tyrone's march through Ireland.
] Tyrone left about 1,800 men behind him in Munster, chiefly under the command of Richard Tyrrell, and with 600, which were probably his best, he travelled so fast as to elude Mountjoy, who had made preparations for intercepting him in Westmeath.
The Ulster men marched twenty-seven miles in one day, and reached Tyrone in less than a quarter of the time that it had taken them to perform the outward journey.
The Queen and her viceroy did not escape 'the great dishonour of this traitor passing home to his den unfought with.'
Ormonde and Thomond, who had been keeping Easter together at Kilkenny, then repaired to Dublin; and Mountjoy matured his plan for the re-conquest of Ireland in detail.
Carew was ready before Docwra, and on April 7 he set out for his province, the two Earls having preceded him to Kilkenny.
[339] [Sidenote: Ormonde is taken prisoner by the O'Mores (April).
] [Sidenote: The Jesuit Archer.
] Carew reached Kilkenny on the third day, and his company of 100 horse were billeted in the neighbourhood by Ormonde's directions.
Each day the Earl proposed that the President should accompany him to a parley with Owen MacRory at a point between Ballyragget and Ballinakill in the Queen's County.
So little did he dream of danger on the border of his own county, that he refused Carew's proffered escort, and set out with about forty mounted men, of whom more than one half were 'lawyers, merchants, and others, upon hackneys,' and with no weapons but the swords ordinarily worn.
His company of 200 foot were left two miles short of the place of meeting.
O'More brought a picked troop of spearmen with him, leaving in the rear 500 foot and twenty horse, 'the best furnished for war and the best apparelled that we have seen in this kingdom,' 300 of them being Ulster mercenaries, left by Tyrone on his return to the North.
The two parties met upon a heath sloping down towards a narrow defile, and with a bushy wood on each side, 'the choice of which ground,' says Carew, 'we much misliked.'
An hour's conversation then ensued between Ormonde and O'More about such questions as would naturally arise between warlike neighbours.
Carew, who noticed that the Irish kept edging further forward in the covert on each side, was for departing before mischief could happen; but Ormonde, who was quite unsuspicious, desired first to speak with Archer, who as a Kilkenny man might be open to the arguments of his natural chief.
The Jesuit came forward, and after some talk the Earl called him a traitor, and upbraided him with seducing the Queen's subjects into rebellion.
Archer replied that the Pope was the Sovereign of Ireland, and that he had excommunicated Elizabeth.
Ormonde then spoke of the Pope in contemptuous terms, whereupon Archer threatened him with his stick.
At this signal, whether premeditated or not, the two parties became suddenly intermingled, and Melaghlin O'More pulled the Earl off his pony.
Others, wrote Carew, and Thomond, 'tried to seize us too.
We had more hanging upon us than is credibly to be believed; but our horses were strong and by that means did break through them, tumbling down on all sides those that were before and behind us; and, thanks be to God, we escaped the pass of their pikes, which they freely bestowed and the flinging of their skeynes....
Owen MacRory laid hands on me the President, and, next unto God, I must thank my Lord of Thomond for my escape, who thrust his horse upon him.
And at my back a rebel, newly protected at my suit, called Brian MacDonogh Kavanagh, being a-foot, did me good service.
For the rest I must thank my horse, whose strength bore down all about him.'
Thomond received the stab of a pike in his back, but the wound did not prove dangerous.
[340] [Sidenote: Mountjoy and Ormonde.
] [Sidenote: Ormonde a prisoner, (April to June).
] [Sidenote: His release (June).
] Mountjoy distrusted Ormonde, more perhaps from jealousy than because there was any real pretext for doing so.
'Taking notice,' the Queen told her Deputy, 'of our cousin of Ormonde's good services, and in respect that he hath been much toiled now in his latter years, we have left unto him the choice whether he will retain the place of Lieutenant under you or not.
We would have himself and all the world know that we make extraordinary estimation of him.'
He retained his post with an allowance of three pounds a day, and his almost independent position galled Mountjoy, as it had galled other Deputies before his time.
Ormonde had trusted to his own vast influence, and he would certainly have been warned had the intention of seizing him been known generally among O'More's followers.
If there was any premeditated design, it was probably divulged only to a few.
At first he was confined at Gortnaclea Castle, near Abbeyleix, where he was allowed to have his own cook and other comforts, but not to see anyone, except in Owen MacRory's presence.
Archer plied him hard with religious argument, and some believed that he conformed to Rome; but this is at least extremely doubtful.
Tyrone was anxious to get him into his power, but O'More had no idea of giving up such a hostage, and it is probable that the Leinster men would, in any case, have refused to let him be carried out of their province.
A rescue was feared, and after a month the Earl was removed from Gortnaclea, and carried from cabin to cabin in the woods.
From the intolerable hardship of this life he was relieved by Sir Terence O'Dempsey, who allowed his castle of Ballybrittas, near Portarlington, to be used as a prison.
It was supposed that the Ulster mercenaries, or Bonaghts, wished to carry off the Earl to Tyrone by force, and the transfer was made by the O'Mores without their knowledge.
Besides this, Dermot MacGrath, papal bishop of Cork, who is called legate by the English, and who was, perhaps, vicar-apostolic, was of opinion that the capture had been treacherous, and was thus opposed to Archer.
Fenton managed to get access, for his spies, to the Earl, among whom a 'gentlewoman' named Honora is particularly mentioned.
Finding, perhaps, that his prisoner was not likely to be as useful as he first supposed, and fearing that he might lose all advantage by death, O'More gradually relaxed his demands.
The first terms offered were that all garrisons should be removed out of both Leix and Offaly; that the former county should be given up to Owen MacRory; that all his nominees should have protection for six weeks; and that during that time there should be no invasion of Ulster.
Afterwards there was an attempt to make Ormonde sign a paper, which would have involved him in the guilt of O'More's rebellion, but he eluded these snares, and was released after two months' detention.
'It may please your sacred Majesty to be advertised,' he wrote to the Queen, 'that it pleased God of his goodness to deliver me, though weak and sick, from the most malicious, arrogant, and vile traitor of the world, Owen MacRory, forced to put into his hands certain hostages for payment of 3,000_l.
_ if at any time hereafter I shall seek revenge against him or his, which manner of agreement, although it be very hard, could not be obtained before he saw me in that extremity and weakness, as I was like, very shortly, to have ended my life in his hands.'
He believed that he owed his liberty to the report that Leinster would be overrun with troops, to prevent which the Irishry of the province themselves offered hostages, and were ready to quarrel with O'More should he refuse them.
They were twelve in number, one being Sir Terence O'Dempsey's son, and Ormonde's intention was to ransom them one by one.
Sir Terence had married a Butler, and whatever became of the other hostages, a ransom appears to have been paid for this one.
Mountjoy was fain to confess that 'the Earl doth continue with as great affection as ever to her Majesty, and with much more spleen against the rebel; but the tie upon him to the contrary are the pledges he hath put in, whom no doubt the traitors will retain upon their own conditions whatsoever his were.
I do not think he will deliver his daughter, although I believe he hath promised to do it...
I cannot but bear a kind of reverence to so ancient a servant of her Majesty, and a compassion to the miserable fortune he was in...
it shall be hard, but I will put the Earl and the fathers of the pledges in blood against the rebels, and that will soon mar all contracts between them.
I have many plots upon Owen MacRory to take him, and I think it is a thing that the Earl doth very much practise, and will go very near to perform.'
[341] [Sidenote: Tyrone and Ormonde.
] Lady Ormonde was in bad health at this time, and her death in the following year was perhaps hastened by anxiety.
She begged that her husband's military allowance might still be paid, as absolutely necessary for her support.
Mountjoy took proper measures for her protection, and even if he had not done so from kindness, the custody of her daughter was a matter of public importance.
She was Ormonde's only child, and there were sure to be many candidates for her wardship, and for her hand.
Besides which, possible heirs male would be ready to advance their claims should anything happen to the Earl.
Tyrone was supposed to desire the heiress for his son, and he took the trouble to deny the imputation, but this may not have been until he saw that O'More had no idea of surrendering his great prisoner.
'Use him honourably,' he wrote from Dungannon, 'but keep him very sure until he be sent hither by the help of yourself and such as we have appointed for that purpose.
Therefore be not tempted to enlarge him upon any proffer, for if you will desire ransom you shall have money and gold at my hands.'
It was not till more than a month later that he denied any wish to have the young 'lady' or 'my lady mistress,' as he calls Lady Elizabeth, 'for by demanding her, men would say that I should have her for my son.'
It seems clear that his first object was to get Ormonde into his hands, and failing that he wished to have credit for liberality and kindness.
'For any motion,' said Ormonde contemptuously, 'of marriage of my daughter to any of that base traitor Tyrone's brood, upon my duty of allegiance to your highness, I never thought of any like matter, neither was it demanded of me.'
[342] [Sidenote: Carew in Munster.
Florence MacCarthy.
] [Sidenote: Barbarous warfare.
] As soon as Mountjoy had provided for the safety of Kilkenny, Carew started for his own province, where St. Leger's death had left Sir Henry Power in temporary charge of a very troubled community.
The rebels in the county of Waterford came in to the Lord President at once, and it was thought wiser not to ask questions.
In Cork, Florence MacCarthy was trying to play the impossible part of a neutral, while Dermot O'Connor, at the head of a strong body of mercenaries, was really the most powerful person in the province.
Essex had been authorised to give Florence a patent of inheritance to his father-in-law, with discretionary power so to limit it as might seem best for the public safety, but his sudden departure prevented this being done.
St. Leger and Power wished the patent to issue, and thought the best way of restraining Donell's violence would be to acknowledge Florence as MacCarthy More.
To show his power, or to annoy a personal enemy, Florence soon afterwards ravaged Lord Barry's barony of Ibane with '700 of the traitors' bonies, otherwise called here among us cabbage-soldiers.'
Yet he continued constantly to protest his loyalty, while maintaining that he dared not declare openly for the Queen, lest Dermot should forsake him and secure the triumph of that 'bastardly rascal Donell MacCarthy,' whom Tyrone had acknowledged as MacCarthy More.
O'Connor was not originally a person of much importance, but he had married Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, the late Earl of Desmond's daughter, and, being a valiant man, found himself at the head of 1,400 Connaught free companions.
Tyrone had given him the chief command in Munster, and the loose swordsmen flocked to his standard.
He was, however, 'a mere mercenary serving in Munster only for pay,' and probably quite ready to sell himself to the highest bidder.
Lady Margaret could speak English, and it was thought that she would do anything to procure her brother's restoration to the earldom of Desmond.
According to Florence's account it was the fear of Dermot, and the necessity of doing something to make his own people believe in him, that induced him to appear in arms on the rebel side; and provocation was not wanting which might justify such action on his part.
Sir Henry Power sent 1,000 men into Carbery, under Captain Flower, with general orders to spoil all who failed to give securities for their good behaviour.
It does not appear that any time or much notice was given, but Flower carried out the work of destruction thoroughly.
From Kinsale to Glandore harbour, and from that to Dunmanus Bay, not a grain of corn was left unburned within ten miles of his line of march, 500 cows were drowned to save the trouble of driving them, and 'the churls and poor people' were treated as enemies and killed.
On his return Flower was threatened by Florence with a superior force, but reached Kinsale without any serious encounter.
Near Ballinhassig, between that town and Cork, the troops were near falling into an ambuscade, and even for a time put to flight.
In the end they made good their retreat, but the victory was not much to boast of.
When Carew heard of the affair, he regretted deeply what had been done.
He could not reckon on much above 1,700 effective men in the field, too few to fight the Sugane Earl and the MacCarthies at once, and it was better to have Florence as a faithless, but on the whole peaceable neutral, than as an open enemy.
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