Ireland Under the Tudors, Volume 3 — Chapter 52 The End of the Reign 1602 to 1603 Part 1

[Sidenote: The Spaniards still feared.

] Starvation by means of garrisons was Mountjoy's prescription for the Irish malady, and this treatment he pursued to the end.

But he continued to dread Spanish intervention, for, in common with most Englishmen of his time, he overestimated what was really a decaying and impoverished power.

Cecil knew better, and throughout the spring and early summer of 1602 he continued to write in a rather contemptuous tone of Spanish intentions.

In August he was able to say positively that there would be no invasion in force, though he could not promise that Philip would not send a few forlorn companies to keep up some sort of reputation in Europe, to put the Queen to cost, and 'to fill the world with continual rumour of his undertaking humour.'

To Carew he wrote in the same strain, and with still greater freedom.

It was impossible to keep Spanish ships from Irish harbours, 'whereof there be more than the Queen hath ships,' but the coast of Spain might be so harassed as to give them enough to do at home.

Sir Richard Leveson was better employed taking carracks in the Tagus than he could be in Ireland, and between Hollanders and Englishmen the Catholic King was not likely to have many men to spare.

But the Queen would not grudge the necessary outlay to make Cork, Kinsale, and some minor posts defensible.

Thus encouraged, Mountjoy was free to attack Ulster, and he proceeded slowly, but surely, to draw the net round Tyrone.

[398] [Sidenote: Docwra and Chichester in Ulster.

] Docwra was supposed to have between three and four thousand men in Derry and Donegal, Chichester nearly 1,000 at Carrickfergus; and about 800 more were in Lecale and in the garrisons at Mount Norris, Armagh, Blackwater, and Newry.

Mountjoy had over 3,000 under his own command, and at the beginning of June he advanced to Dundalk.

Docwra had established a post at Omagh, and had no difficulty in joining the Lord Deputy at Dungannon, while Chichester ferried his contingent over Lough Neagh.

Tyrone, who had laid Dungannon in ashes, was forced out of his country into the almost inaccessible wilds of Glenconkein, and his deserted strongholds were taken.

In one three guns were recovered, probably those taken at Blackwater.

A new fort was built and manned at Mountjoy on Lough Neagh.

Provisions falling short in July, Docwra was sent back to collect and victual a force at Omagh, with which Chichester, who now had hopes of 'soon beheading that wood-kerne Tyrone,' could co-operate from his fortified post at Castle Toome on Lough Neagh.

Mountjoy retired towards Monaghan, taking all the small strengths in that direction, though not entirely without loss from sharp-shooters, and wrote home to urge the positive necessity of keeping the garrisons on foot.

Tyrone was now driven from place to place like a hunted hare; but if the efforts to run him down were allowed to relax, he would gain strength quickly, and all the work would have to be done over again.

[399] [Sidenote: The Queen disinclined to spare Tyrone.

] Tyrone was now begging earnestly for mercy, but the fate of Essex warned Mountjoy against meddling with so dangerous a person.

The rebel would not come in upon his bare word, nor would he give that word; for to detain him afterwards would be dishonourable, while he might be blamed for letting him go.

He could only urge that while Tyrone was lowest was the best time to bring him to terms.

After much hesitation the Queen was induced to promise him his life, but through Mountjoy only, and without divulging anything to the Council.

Cecil saw no reason why she should not publish it to all the world.

If peace could only be dreamed of, he said, 'for saving of Christian blood and of miseries of her natural people from hence hourly sent to the shambles!

...

but her Majesty is the kingdom, and myself her humble vassal.'

Negotiations went on through the latter half of 1602, and in the meantime Mountjoy prosecuted the war.

He gave out publicly that the Queen had resolved never to pardon Tyrone, but let him know that he himself might possibly become a suitor for him.

That depended on how he behaved; 'and yet,' he wrote, 'I have told him that I will cut his throat in the meantime if I can.'

[400] [Sidenote: Carew reduces Munster.

] Carew had nominally nearly 5,000 men to complete the reduction of Munster, but the real number was much less.

Nearly half of the available force was sent, under Thomond's command, to ravage the country west of Kinsale and on both sides of Bantry Bay.

Carew himself left Cork six weeks later, and made his first halt on Tyrone's late camping-ground near Carrigaline.

Nights were spent at Timoleague, Rosscarbery, and Castle Haven, and Baltimore was reached on the fifth day.

In crossing the mountains between Skibbereen and Bantry Bay slight resistance was made by some of the O'Driscolls and O'Sullivans, but Dunnemark was reached in safety on the eighth day from Cork.

This place is called Carew Castle by the President, who is careful to note that it belonged to his ancestors, and that the Irish name was derived from their title of marquis.

It is two miles to the north of Bantry, and was found a convenient place to collect the cattle and ponies of the neighbouring country.

An O'Daly, whose ancestors had been hereditary bards of the old Carews, was here caught tampering with Owen O'Sullivan, and was sent for trial to Cork.

The Spaniards in Dunboy were warned that they could expect no quarter if they remained there.

If they left before the siege began they would be sent safely to Spain, and Carew suggested that they might deserve greater favour by spiking the guns or disabling the carriages before they came away.

No notice was taken of this message, and the army lay at Dunnemark until all was ready for the attack on Dunboy.

[401] [Sidenote: Kerry.

] Early in February Carew sent Sir Charles Wilmot to Kerry with a force sufficient to overcome what remained of the rebellion there.

Lixnaw Castle was taken, and Lord Fitzmaurice driven away into the mountains of Desmond.

Carrigafoyle was found deserted and partly dismantled.

The Dingle peninsula was thoroughly ransacked, the castles all taken, and the Knight of Kerry driven into Desmond.

The cattle in Iveragh were also collected, and their owners forced into the woods of Glengariffe.

Wilmot's road to Bantry Bay lay by Mucross and Mangerton--'a most hideous and uncouth mountain'--and great preparations were made to attack him by the way.

Carew moved up as far as Carriganass, and in the end the Irish showed no fight, though trees had been felled and breastworks erected at every point of vantage.

The junction of the two forces was effected, and on the same day ships came from Cork.

The army had provisions left for only two days, and would have been forced to retreat but for this seasonable aid.

[402] [Sidenote: Dunboy Castle.

] Dermot Moyle MacCarthy, Florence's brother, had been in Ulster the year before, and Carew had then declared his intention to plague him on his return.

He thought him both wiser and braver than Florence himself, and certainly more popular with the scattered swordsmen--half soldiers, half caterans--who still maintained the rebellion.

Reduced to want by Carew and Wilmot, this chief took some cows belonging to MacCarthy Reagh, and while fighting for their possession was killed by his own first cousin.

To prevent his head from being exposed at Cork, as the President had threatened, the dead man was conveyed to Timoleague Abbey and there buried by a friar with great solemnity.

After this it was judged impossible to take a military train round by Glengariffe, and it was decided to cross Bantry Bay.

Tyrrell seems to have understood that the game was up, and would have been ready to join Thomond; but the Jesuit Archer prevented him, and he failed to come to the parley which he had himself asked for.

The weather was very bad all this time, which the superstitious attributed to Archer's conjury, but Carew said he hoped soon to conjure his head into a halter.

And yet he was not altogether incredulous himself.

'The country of Bere,' he wrote, 'is full of witches.

Between them and Archer I do partly believe the devil hath been raised to serve their turn.'

Nevertheless Thomond established himself in Bere Island by June 1, and here he had an interview with Richard MacGeohegan, who held Dunboy for O'Sullivan.

The Earl argued that the castle must fall, and urged the constable to gain credit by yielding it in time, while the latter tried to make out that the besiegers ran upon certain defeat, and could never even land in face of such strong fortifications.

Neither persuaded the other, and Carew went on with his preparations.

[403] [Sidenote: Carew at Berehaven] In spite of the witches, the army was transported into Bere Island without much difficulty.

The sandy bay near Dunboy was found strongly fortified, and Carew resolved to make a false attack.

The little island of Dinish was seized and two guns mounted on it, the fire of which occupied the defenders of the works on shore.

The main body was then quietly ferried across Berehaven to a point westward of Dinish and close to Castletown.

High ground hid the landing-place from the castle, and when the stratagem was at last discovered the Irish had to go round a deep creek.

They found Carew's men ready for them, and were worsted in the skirmish which followed.

Tyrrell was wounded.

Archer narrowly escaped, leaving his missal behind him, as well as a servant, who was immediately executed.

On the morrow a camp was pitched half a mile to the north-east.

Next day the work of entrenching began, materials for gabions having to be brought from a wood nearly two miles away.

The artillery was landed in full view of the castle and without damage from its fire, but Carew did not begin to batter until the eleventh day after landing.

In the meantime the Irish had taken courage from the arrival of a Spanish vessel at Kilmakilloge in Kenmare Bay.

She brought 12,000_l.

_, much ammunition, and letters urging the Irish chiefs to remain firm.

But perhaps the most important part of the cargo was Owen MacEgan, Bishop-designate of Ross and Vicar Apostolic or Nuncio, for he is called by both titles, who had absolute ecclesiastical authority over all Munster.

He was able to impress the defenders of Dunboy with the idea that a great Spanish force would immediately come to their relief, and they imagined that they could hold out for two or three months.

[404] [Sidenote: An island stronghold.

] The Irish had built a small fort in the island of Dursey, which they intended for their last refuge.

It was defended by forty men and three pieces of Spanish artillery.

Captain Bostock and Owen O'Sullivan were sent by Carew, with 160 men, to reduce this remote stronghold.

The water being tolerably smooth, the Queen's pinnace was brought up near enough to attack from the sea side, and the bulk of the men were landed in boats.

The soldiers showed so much dash in assaulting the fort that the garrison came out and surrendered as soon as the outwork was forced.

They were taken to Carew's camp, and all executed.

Owen O'Sullivan recovered his wife, who had been O'Sullivan Bere's prisoner since February.

In this out-of-the way place Bostock found no less than 500 milch cows, besides wheat and oil, and the existence of such islands goes far to explain the long resistance of West Munster.

Nothing could be done against them without ships, and ships were very seldom available.

[405] [Sidenote: Capture of Dunboy.

] [Sidenote: Two desperate men.

] Carew was a good artilleryman, as artillery was in his days, and he promised that Dunboy should fall within seven days after he had opened fire.

Others expected a longer siege, but he was much better than his word.

The fire of four guns, concentrated upon the castle, made it untenable within twenty-four hours.

Tyrrell's attempt upon the camp had been fruitless, and it was plain that there was no chance of relief.

After four hours' fire a turret fell in, burying many under its ruins.

In another four hours the west front of the castle collapsed, and dice were cast to decide who should lead the stormers.

The post of honour and danger fell to Captain Doddington's company, and his lieutenant, Francis Kirton, was the first man to enter the breach.

Kirton was wounded in three places, but he made good his ground, and Carew's colours were soon planted on a commanding point of the works.

The besiegers still fought, but their guns were carried with a rush, and the whole place was now commanded.

Forty men tried to escape by sea, but armed boats guarded that side, and they were killed.

Among them was Melaghlin O'More, the man who pulled Ormonde off his horse when he was captured two years before.

Seventy-seven men were left, and would have surrendered at sunset upon promise of life only; but this was denied, and the Jesuit Dominick O'Colan came out by himself.

Next morning, twenty-six more gave themselves up, including two Spaniards and one Italian, who were all that remained of the foreign gunners.

MacGeohegan was mortally wounded, and Thomas Taylor, an Englishman's son, but married to Tyrrell's niece, was chosen commander in his room.

Taylor shut himself up in the vault with nine barrels of powder, and with a lighted match in his hand swore to blow all up unless he and his companions were promised their lives.

His men prevented this, and forty-eight surrendered at discretion with him.

When the English officers entered, they found MacGeohegan still living.

With a lighted candle in his hand, he staggered towards an open powder-barrel, but Captain Power held him back, and the soldiers killed him.

Of the 140 picked men who composed the garrison, not one escaped.

The powder was then spent in blowing up the walls, and the castle, from which so much had been expected, was laid level with the ground.

[406] [Sidenote: Fate of the survivors.

] [Sidenote: A Jesuit.

] In this, as in every such Irish siege, the actual capture was comparatively easy; the real difficulty was to reach these distant strongholds, and to maintain an army in the wilds.

The garrison, champions of a lost cause and dupes of a feeble tyrant, deserved a better fate; but Carew showed no mercy.

Of the survivors fifty-eight were at once 'hanged in pairs by the Earl of Thomond.'

Twelve of Tyrrell's best men were respited for a time, but were also hanged when that leader declared that he would remain true to his master the King of Spain.

Taylor was taken to Cork, and hanged in chains near the north gate on the discovery that he had taken a principal part in George Bingham's murder.

O'Colan, whom the English called Collins, was closely examined at Cork, and Catholic accounts say that he was tortured.

He gave no useful information, but freely told the strange story of his own life.

Born at Youghal, and educated at a Jesuit school there, he went at the age of seventeen to France, made some money as a waiter in inns, and served the League for nine or ten years under the Duke of Mercoeur.

He rose to the rank of captain; and was recommended to the King of Spain by Don Juan D'Aguila, who was then in Brittany.

Coming under the influence of the Jesuit Thomas White of Clonmel, who was rector of the Irish seminary at Salamanca, he was admitted, after a time, to the Society of Jesus, whose principles, we are told, he preferred to Dominican vigour or Franciscan rigour, but not to full priest's orders; and Archer, who knew him only by reputation, asked that he might accompany him to Ireland.

His military knowledge was perhaps thought useful at Dunboy.

After keeping him a prisoner for about four months, Carew found that nothing would be gained by preserving his life, and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Youghal, meeting his fate with the greatest courage and in a manner most edifying to his co-religionists.

[407] [Sidenote: O'Donnell in Spain.

] [Sidenote: Death and character of Hugh Roe O'Donnell.

] The fall of Dunboy prevented the King of Spain from sending prompt help, but he did not give up the idea.

Rumours of fresh invasions were rife during the summer, and sooner or later O'Donnell might have returned with another army.

That chief had sailed from Castle Haven immediately after the battle of Kinsale, and fugitives from Munster continued to join him whenever opportunity offered.

He landed at Corunna, and went straight to the King at Zamora.

Falling upon his knees he obtained favourable replies to three requests: that an army should be sent to Ireland; that the King, when he gained Ireland, would set no O'Donnell over him or his successors; and that he would never deny any right that the O'Donnells had ever had.

Philip sent him back to Galicia, then under the government of his zealous friend, the Marquis of Caraçena.

Exiles are ever sanguine, and he professed to have no doubt of ultimate success; but Spanish vacillation sorely tried his impatient spirit.

When the surrender of Kinsale became known in Spain, some vessels intended for Ireland were unloaded, and Don Juan's report was unfavourable.

The disgrace of that unsuccessful commander revived O'Donnell's credit, and the ship which brought over Bishop MacEgan and his 12,000_l.

_ was despatched.

O'Donnell began to despair of a great fleet, and begged to be allowed to go with a few small vessels.

He asked his friends in Ireland to let him know the whole truth, but to keep bad news from Spanish ears.

This, of course, could not be done, and the arrival of Archer and a crowd of fugitives after the disaster at Dunboy, must have outweighed all his arguments.

He sought the King again at Simancas, and there he died after an illness of seventeen days.

His body was carried, with great pomp, to the royal palace at Valladolid, and buried in the Franciscan monastery with every mark of respect.

His solemn requiem was the death-song of the Irish tribal system.

Much romance cleaves to his name, but his ideas scarcely rose above those of an ordinary chief.

Local supremacy was his main object, and the panegyric of the annalists fails to raise him to the height of a national hero.

He was, they say, 'the vehement, vigorous, stern, and irresistible destroyer of his English and Irish opposers.'

He died at thirty, but there is nothing to show that he would have even attempted the task of building a stable edifice with the shifting sands of Irish life.

[408] [Sidenote: Assassination plots.

] The Irish accounts do not suggest foul play, but Carew believed that O'Donnell had been poisoned by one James Blake, of Galway, who had announced his intention of killing him.

Blake was not hired by Carew, but he would hardly have made him his confidant if he had not expected reward, and he it was who brought the first news of O'Donnell's death to Munster.

John Anias, who had been implicated in a plot to murder Elizabeth, had offered to kill Florence MacCarthy, and afterwards gave out that he had been suborned by Cecil to poison that troublesome person.

Cecil and Carew employed Anias as a spy, but denied that he had ever said anything about poison, and had him hanged out of the way as soon as he could be caught.

Neither Blake nor Anias would have dared to speak of such things to a modern statesman, but the morality of that age was different.

A similar suspicion attaches to the death of Hugh O'Donnell's brother, Rory, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnell.

An Italian came to Sir Henry Wotton, who was then ambassador at Venice, and offered to kill Tyrone or Tyrconnell, but without mentioning their names or even seeming to know them correctly.

Wotton said the Earls were of no importance, having run away because they could do no harm at home.

No doubt proclaimed rebels might be justly slain; 'yet,' he added, 'it was somewhat questionable whether it might be done honourably, your Majesty having not hitherto proceeded to the open proscription of them to destruction abroad, neither was it a course so familiar and frequent with us as in other states.'

Three months later Tyrconnell and his page died rather mysteriously at Rome, others of his party also sickening.

Roman fever was probably to blame, though Wotton seems to have half-suspected poisoning, but in the interest of the papacy, and not of the King of England.'

[409] [Sidenote: Last struggles in Connaught.

] When O'Donnell sailed for Spain he left his brother Rory in charge of the clan, who led them through all Munster and Connaught.

The vast herds which Hugh had taken from his neighbours were found grazing peacefully in Sligo, and Ballymote was given up by O'Gallagher to the acting chief.

Sir Niel Garv was co-operating with Docwra, and kept his rival out of Donegal; but Rory allied himself with O'Connor Sligo, and sought help from Brian O'Rourke against Sir Oliver Lambert, who was pressing him from the Connaught side.

Tibbot-ne-Long and others of the lower Burkes solicited Lambert's help, and he came up from Galway with a strong force, while O'Rourke fought for his own hand and refused to help O'Donnell.

Lambert says he might easily have been stopped either at Ballina or Ballysadare, but he reached Sligo without serious fighting.

The town had been burned by O'Connor, and the castle was in ruins.

O'Donnell passed his cattle over the Curlews, and across the Shannon into Leitrim.

Lambert, though camping in places 'where no Christians have been since the war begun,' could never catch him, but took 200 cows and a keg of Spanish powder.

When the English were in Leitrim, and when Leitrim was invaded in turn, O'Donnell was safe in Roscommon; but Lambert established communications with his friends at Ballyshannon.

The O'Malleys and O'Flaherties infested the coast, and Sir Oliver had to provide a galley with fifty mariners and fifteen oars on a side, for these pirates spared no one, and Bingham had found it necessary to take similar precautions.

Lambert thought Sligo would be a dainty place for a gentleman if walled, and he placed a garrison there, which was able to maintain itself until the end of the war.

[410] [Sidenote: Progress of Docwra in Ulster.

] The absence both of Tyrone and of Hugh Roe O'Donnell in Munster left a comparatively clear field to Sir Henry Docwra; 'the country void, and no powerful enemy to encounter withal, more than the rivers.'

Castle Derg and Newtown (Stewart), both lately garrisoned, had since been betrayed by Tirlogh Magnylson, a follower of Sir Arthur O'Neill, who had become a favourite with the English officers.

Tirlogh first curried favour with Captain Atkinson at Newtown by helping him to seize some cattle.

Having dined with this officer, he persuaded him to take a walk outside the castle.

Three or four confederates suddenly appeared, who made the captain prisoner, while others got possession of the courtyard and of the hall-door.

The soldiers 'lying in the Irish thatched house' were all killed.

Captain Dutton lost Castle Derg by a similar stratagem.

But in the absence of the great chiefs Docwra was clearly the strongest man: O'Cahan's country was harried to punish his perfidy, and even women and children were killed.

Donegal was victualled, and Ballyshannon, 'that long desired place,' taken and garrisoned.

Tirlogh Magnylson's turn soon came.

Countrymen in Docwra's pay pursued him from place to place, and his followers were killed one by one without knowing their pursuers; those who were taken, says Sir Henry, 'I caused the soldiers to hew in pieces with their swords.'

The hunted man travelled about the woods at night, sometimes occupying three or four cabins successively, and lighting fires to attract attention where he did not intend to stay.

A boy was set to watch, and at last the poor wretch was seen to take off his trousers and lie down.

Four men, says Docwra, 'with swords, targets, and morions, fell in upon him; he gat up his sword for all that, and gave such a gash in one of their targets as would seem incredible to be done with the arm of a man, but they dispacht him and brought me his head the next day, which was presently known to every boy in the army, and made a ludibrious spectacle to such as listed to behold it.'

Captain Dutton's betrayers had better luck.

They had killed no one, and were twice spared by Docwra, after swearing 'with the most profound execrations upon themselves, if they continued not true.'

They broke out, nevertheless, and the ringleaders kept the woods till Tyrone's submission, when they were pardoned by Mountjoy's express command.

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