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Investiture of O'Neill as
Earl of Tyrone - Success of Henry's Policy - His Dealings with Church and
Land - A Peaceful Ireland - The Scottish Element in Ulster - Death of
Henry VIII - Accession of Edward VI - Policy of the Seymours - The
Protectorate - St. Leger recalled - Succeeded by Sir Edward Bellingham -
Machinations of the French - Disturbances in Ulster - Sir James Crofts,
Lord Justice - All Ulster in Confusion.
A new era dawned for
Ireland when the lately created Earl of Tyrone repaired to England, and
was graciously received by the King at Greenwich on the 24th September,
1542. O'Neill (a name he had agreed to renounce) had already ratified his
submission on 19th May, so that his appearance before Henry must be
considered his third and final submission. He was the first of his race to
visit England, and every ceremonial that could add to the dignity of the
occasion or lustre to the investiture was employed. The proceedings
commenced with a solemn Church service, after which the Irish chieftain
was ushered into apartments belonging to the Queen, which were "richly
hanged with cloth of arras and well strewed with rushes". Here he was
arrayed in robes provided for him by the King and presented to the Earl of
Hertford and the Earl of Oxford, the noblemen who had been appointed to
act as his sponsors. Accompanied by them, Tyrone entered the great hall,
in which the King was seated under the cloth of state, "with all his noble
Council, and other noble persons of his realm as well spiritual as
temporal ". As the new Earl approached the King, his sword being borne
before him by Viscount Lisle, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, the
letters patent were delivered by Garter to the Lord Chamberlain, and by
the Lord Chamberlain to the King, who handed them to the Secretary to read
aloud, which he did. "And when he came to cincturam gladii the Viscount
Lisle presented to the King the sword, and the King girded the said sword
about the said Earl baldrickwise, the aforesaid Earl kneeling, and the
other lords standing that lead him. And so the patent read out the King's
Majesty put about his neck a chain of gold, with a cross hanging at it,
and took him his letters patent, and he gave thanks unto him in his
language, and a priest made answer of his saying in English. And there the
King made two of the men that came with him Knights. And so the Earls in
order aforesaid took their leave of the King's Highness, and departed unto
the place appointed for their dinners, the Earl of Tyrone bearing his
letters patent in his hands, the trumpets blowing before him unto the
chamber, which was the Lord Great Master's under the King's lodging. And
so they sat at dinner. At the second course Garter proclaimed the King's
style, and after the said new Earl's in manner following: 'Du tres hault
et puissant Seigneur Con O'Neil, Comte de Tyrone, Seigneur de Dungannon,
du royaulme d'Irlande'. The King's Majesty gave him his robes of estate
and all things belonging thereunto and paid all manner of duties belonging
to the same."
The success of Henry's
policy was greater and more immediate than could have been expected. Both
Irish chiefs and Anglo-Irish lords kept to their bargain, and there seemed
a fair prospect of Ireland becoming a united and loyal portion of the
dominions of the Crown. The popularity of the King's methods is proved by
the fact that Manus O'Donnell now petitioned for an earldom, requesting to
be created Earl of Sligo. The King hesitated to grant a title which might
be interpreted as a recognition of O'Donnell's claim to supremacy in Lower
Con naught, and delays occurred whereby the title was not bestowed until
sixty years later, when O'Donnell's grandson was made Earl of Tyrconnell.
The introduction of
Protestantism into Ulster meant little to the great Irish chiefs. The word
"Protestant" is used in its widest sense, for it must not be forgotten
that Henry VIII, when at Cromwell's suggestion he declared himself to be
"the only supreme lord and head of the Church and clergy in England",
hated the "Lutheran heresy", and lived and died, as his will proves him,
"a good Catholic". He put to death Protestants for denying the old
doctrine of transubstantiation, and Romanists for denying the new doctrine
of the royal supremacy. Having been recognized as head of the Church in
Ireland as well as in England, the King now proceeded to act as such, and,
turning his attention to such institutions as were likely to dispute the
validity of his claim, he forthwith commenced to demolish abbeys,
priories, monasteries, and nunneries throughout the country. Acts were
passed prohibiting appeals to Rome and forbidding the giving of
first-fruits to the Pope, and one declared that the estates of absentees
should be resumed by the Crown. The religious houses confiscated, numbered
about five hundred. Pensions of various amounts were given to the heads of
houses and to most of the brethren in consideration of orderly
self-effacement, the surrendering of the houses being, of course,
compulsory. The bulk of the land belonging to these houses was granted for
a nominal sum to corporations and to some of the Irish and Anglo-Irish
chiefs, and thus the latter got, almost as a free gift, what previously
they had acquired at
the cost of war.
But Henry's chief triumph
was in the abolition of the tribal system of land tenure. The chiefs
acknowledging Henry as the King of Ireland surrendered their lands, only
to receive them again to be held by knights' service. In this they
benefited greatly by the change. Not only, as we have seen, were the lands
of the suppressed religious houses granted to them on their assumption of
their new titles, but their claims as landowners were recognized by the
courts of law, which now ignored the Irish custom by which the land
belonged, not to the individual but to the sept at large, and regarded the
chiefs as the sole proprietors of the soil.
From this time (1540) until
the close of Henry's reign the condition of the country slowly but
steadily improved. Although not "lapped in universal law", Ulster was
decidedly in a more peaceful mood than she had known for centuries. The
universal acknowledgment of Henry's title of King of Ireland, and the
education of the sons of the Irish chiefs in the English Court were both
factors in the extension of English law and the general acceptance of
English social methods. An important result of the amelioration of the
country was seen a few years later, when, England being at war with
France, it was found that not a single Irish chieftain offered to assist
the enemy. A little later an Irish corps of over 1000 men joined the
English army, and the members distinguished themselves by their valour and
the rapidity of their movements at the siege of Boulogne. In the following
year the services of an Irish contingent were employed in Scotland, and
thus Irishmen fought against the Scots, from whom a few years earlier
Ulster chieftains had hoped to get assistance to throw off the yoke of
England.
But the Earl of Tyrone was
no longer in sympathy with the Scots; he found those within his own
borders very unruly, and their numbers were constantly increasing, being
largely augmented by immigration. Cowley, who loved not the Irish,
complained of the settlers in Antrim, and asserts that "a company of Irish
Scots, otherwise called Redshanks, daily cometh into the north parts of
Ireland, and purchaseth castles and piles upon the sea-coast there, so as
it is thought that there be at this present [1542] above the number of two
or three thousand of them within this realm: it is meet that they be
expulsed from the said castles, and order taken that none of them be
permitted to haunt nor resort into this country: the rather because they
greatly covet to populate the same". Scots poured into Antrim and Down
from Bute, Arran, and Argyllshire, and were at first welcomed. The Irish
chiefs fraternized with them, for were they not of the same race, and they
spoke almost the same tongue. The Irish intermarried with them, and
finally the Scots, by siding with one or the other of rival chiefs,
stirred up enmity against themselves, and had to be subdued by the sword.
By the death of Henry VIII,
in 1547, and the minority of his successor, Edward VI, Ireland sustained a
great loss. The latter years of the dead King's rule had been so peaceable
that they may be counted among the comparatively halcyon periods of Irish
history. Even though Henry has been accused of having created Irish
landlordism, the agreement with the landowners worked well, and a few more
years of his vigorous and just government would have done much to
establish the growth amongst the hitherto unruly chiefs of a love of
English law and order. The succession of a minor is, as a rule, seized
upon by the ambitious to misgovern in his name. Protectorates have
frequently been occasions of disaster and crime. The Protectorate during
Edward VI's reign did not advance the cause of Ireland.
As we have seen, Henry had,
in spite of the Irish Council, carried out his plan of conciliating the
Irish by "sober ways, politic drifts, and amiable persuasions of law and
reason", and the fruits of his system promised well for the future. Upon
his death the contrary counsels prevailed: it was believed to be better to
drive the Irish than to lead them. To be just and firm, and to give time
for those hitherto untried varieties of government to work, was at once
the most merciful and most politic course that could be pursued.
Unfortunately for the destinies of Ireland, unfortunately for the future
comfort of her rulers, there was too little patience to persevere in that
direction. On the accession of Edward VI the control of English policy
passed into the hands of his uncles, the Seymours, who neither knew nor
cared anything for Irish affairs; but when, after the battle of
Musselburgh, which was the result of a vain attempt to bring about the
marriage of the King and Mary Queen of Scots, they were informed that
O'Donnell had broken into rebellion in Ulster, and 1500 Scots had landed
to support him, they deemed it wise to consider the state of things in
"the dependency".
A union of Scotland and
Ireland against England had been for long a constant object of French
policy, and now news reached the Council that seven French vessels were at
Dumbarton, and that on board one of them was "young Gerald of Kildare "
(the sole survivor of that unhappy house); and it was said "that the said
Kildare should marry with the Scottish Queen, and arrear all Ireland in
their party against England, and further, that before Easter there should
be such a battle fought that all England should rue it ".
Under these circumstances
St. Leger's firm but conciliatory policy was considered dangerous, and
accordingly he was recalled in 1548, and Sir Edward Bellingham, who had
acted as Captain-General of the English forces in Ireland during the
summer of 1547, was appointed Lord Justice. Bellingham was directed to
carry on the old policy of an iron rule, and he acted so fully up to his
instructions that, by his "rough handling", he "put the Irish in such fear
that they all conspired against him". It is true that Ireland needed a
strong hand, for France remained on the look-out for a favourable
opportunity to attack England through Ireland, and was untiring in her
efforts to gain the support of the Irish chieftains. When Bellingham
arrived at Dublin, French and Scottish agents were busily engaged with
plans for a French invasion, for the restoration of Gerald FitzGerald, for
the fortification of the Skerries, and the maintenance there of a French
fleet. Among other French emissaries came John de Monluc, Bishop of
Valence, "commanded thereto by the King his master's letter, to know more
particularly the motion and likelihood of the offer made by O'Neill,
O'Donnell, O'Dochart, and O'Carroll, willing to shake off the yoke of
England, and become subject to the King of France". But though "the
ambassador met in a secret part with O'Neill and his associates, and heard
their offers and overtures", the transaction was not attended with any
effect or consequence.
Bellingham was a man of
energy and decision, and such a man won golden opinions during his short
term of office. It was reported of him that "He was a perfectly good
justicer, and departed hence with clean hands". Falling ill, he left
Ireland in the summer of 1549, and died in the autumn. He was indeed a
lesser Cromwell. "There was never deputy in the realm that went the right
way as he doth," wrote an Irish gentleman to the Protector, "both for the
setting forth of God's word and his honour, and the honour of the King's
Majesty to his Grace's commodity and the weal of his subjects". And Walter
Cowley, the Clerk of the Crown, wrote of him as having doubled "the King's
possessions, power, obedience, and subjects in the realm" during the
eighteen months of his rule.
When the Ulster chiefs
handed over their lands to Henry, to receive them again to be held from
the Crown, the tribesmen were wholly ignorant of the effect of what had
taken place, but the sons of O'Neill and O'Donnell, who had got an idea of
the transfer, refused to recognize it. Tyrone had named as his successor
his illegitimate son, Ferdoragh, who was accordingly created Baron of
Dungannon, to the subsequent displeasure of his son, Shane. Tirconnell
also was disturbed by the fact that Calvagh O'Donnell had taken up arms
against his father, Manus, on the grounds that he had parted with tribal
lands. In 1548 a battle was fought between the O'Donnells at
Strath-bo-Fiach, now Ballybofey, on the River Finn, when Calvagh and his
ally, O'Kane, were defeated. Some of the Ulster chiefs appealed for the
settlement of their disputes to the Pale, and the latter took advantage of
their position as arbitrators to strike a fatal blow at the power of the
superior dynasts by making the inferior chiefs independent of them.
MacGennis was freed from all subjection to O'Neill, and by similar means
the power of O'Donnell was also restricted.
On Bellingham's death his
place was filled by Sir Francis Bryan, who died two months later. Sir
William Brabazon succeeded him as Lord Justice. In 1550 St. Leger
returned, but was anxious to be relieved of office; accordingly, in the
next year, Sir James Crofts was appointed. One of his first acts was to
lead an army into Ulster against the island Scots and the MacDonnells of
Antrim, whose increasing power had long been a source of anxiety to the
English Government. Crofts sent four ships to Rathlin, where the
MacDonalds of the Hebrides had a much larger force than he anticipated,
and it is said that only one man of the four crews escaped with his life.
The same year the O'Neills of Tyrone were at war, and all Ulster was in
confusion. |
