Ireland under the Tudors (Vol. 1-3). Bagwell Richard

Grey to Cromwell, June 30, 1539.

224. Alen to Cromwell, July 10, 1539, and the documents printed in the notes; Robert Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8; Archbishop Browne to Cromwell, Feb. 16, 1539.

225. Four Masters, 1539; R. Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8.

226. Four Masters and Annals of Lough Cé, 1539; Book of Howth; R. Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8, 1539. In a letter to Cromwell, dated April 20, 1540 (in Carew), the Dowager Countess of Ormonde mentions the service of her niece’s husband Gerald Fleming. In his note to the Four Masters O’Donovan says roundly that Stanihurst’s account is ‘fabricated;’ but it is corroborated by an Irish MS., for which see Shirley’s History of Monaghan, p. 36.

227. R. Cowley to Cromwell, Sept. 8, 1539; James, Earl of Ormonde, and Ossory to Cromwell, Oct. 19; to Wriothesley, Oct. 21.

228. Ormonde to Cromwell, Dec. 20, 1539; Travers to Mr. Fitzwilliam, same date. Dromaneen is five miles above Mallow.

229. Lord Deputy and Council to the King, Feb. 13, 1540.

230. Brereton to Essex, May 17, 1540 and May 7; Council of Ireland to Essex, April 30; Ormonde to Essex, May 1; Alen and Brabazon to Essex, May 8; the King’s letter to Grey and Brereton is dated April 1. For the dispute about Travers, see Council of Ireland to Cromwell, March 14.

231. The charges against Grey may be gathered from the Articles, &c., by Aylmer and Alen in S.P., vol. iii. No. 237, and their letter to St. Leger, June 27, 1538; Ormonde to Cowley, July 16 and 20; the Council of Ireland’s Articles, Oct. 1540; Stanihurst. The Articles of the Council seem to have been carefully scrutinised by Wriothesley. In his letter to the King of July 20, 1540, O’Neill says Grey, ‘guerras et contentiones in partibus istis seminavit sui lucrandi causâ.’ On June 20, 1538, Lord Butler writes to Cowley that ‘our governor threatens every man after such a tyrannous sort, as no man dare speak openly or repugn against his appetite;’ and on July 20, his father says, ‘the Lord Deputy is occupied without the advice of the Council, for his own private lucre and gain.’ On the trial of Strafford Oliver St. John—the man who said that ‘stone-dead hath no fellow’—cited Grey’s case as a precedent for trying in England treasons committed in Ireland. Grey was Viscount Grane in Ireland, but he was declared no peer, and tried as a commoner in England; see Howell’s State Trials. As to Grey’s private hoards, see a letter from R. Cowley to Norfolk, printed by Ellis, second series, No. 126, and wrongly placed under 1538; it belongs to 1540.

      CHAPTER XIII.

       1540 and 1541.

       Table of Contents

      The O’Neills. Scottish intrigues.

With the usual plundering inroads on the Pale Brereton was able to cope; and the greater chieftains were quiet, for Gerald of Kildare was safe. O’Donnell, who may have resented his treatment by Lady Eleanor, readily reverted to his father’s policy, and no difficulty was made about his pardon. O’Neill held aloof, but again professed himself ready to come to Carrick Bradagh. Again he failed to appear, and pleaded that he dared not approach Dundalk through fear of Grey’s manifest treachery. He offered to come to Magennis’s Castle at Narrowater, a beautiful spot near the mouth of the Newry river and the foot of the Mourne Mountains. Brereton agreed, and a meeting at last took place. O’Neill declared his readiness to perform all that he had promised to Skeffington, to send a trusty messenger to the King, and to leave pardon or punishment for the past to the royal discretion. Till the answer came he was content to be at peace with the Government, and to keep his neighbours quiet. He was at this time intriguing with Scotland, and his secretary was actually at Edinburgh. Cromwell had received information that eight Irishmen had been with the Scottish King, to whom they had brought sealed letters from the principal chiefs, containing offers to take him as their lord and to do homage to him. It was even said that James meditated an invasion of Ireland in person. O’Neill probably waited for the result of these negotiations before sending a confidential servant with a letter to Henry. He begged the King not to send his enemies into his country, where Grey had, as he affirmed, sowed dissensions from selfish motives. He was willing to do anything he was asked unless the new Lord Deputy should prove very extortionate, and he advised the King not to waste his money in Ulster. Henry answered graciously, and acknowledged some trifling presents which accompanied the chief’s letter. Future royal favours, his Majesty was careful to point out, must depend on performance and not on promises. Pardon in the meantime would be granted for the heinous offences committed.232

      Murder of James FitzMaurice, Earl of Desmond, 1540.

With the sea at hand, and Ormonde ever ready to help him, it was supposed that James FitzMaurice would be able to maintain himself as Earl of Desmond. At first he confined himself to Kerrycurrihy and Imokilly, but after three months he was tempted to go inland towards the Limerick district, in which James Fitzjohn’s strength lay. Near Fermoy he was set upon and murdered by his rival’s brother, who had earned the title of ‘Maurice of the Burnings.’ James Fitzjohn, who now believed himself to be undisputed Earl, at once repaired to Youghal, where he was well received and joined by all the chiefs who had lately made such professions to Grey and Ormonde. The garrison had, through over-confidence, withdrawn to Waterford. Gerald of Kildare had just escaped to France, and the web of policy which the English Government had cast over both branches of the Geraldines was torn to pieces for the time.233

      James Fitzjohn is allowed to succeed him.

There was no evidence of James Fitzjohn’s complicity in his cousin’s murder, and Ormonde received the King’s authority to pardon him, if he could be brought to promise good behaviour. He preferred to ally himself with O’Brien, and pleaded that Irish confederacies were too strong for him to withstand. To gain his confidence Ormonde risked his own person in the Desmond country for two nights, and passed right through it to parley with O’Brien, who refused to listen to anything. But Desmond would not show himself, and Ormonde then went for a few weeks to England. On his return he found that little harm had been done, and this he attributed solely to O’Brien having been out of his mind. But Desmond claimed the credit of holding his hand. ‘In like,’ he wrote to Ormonde, ‘I desire you, according to my full trust, for to bring me in the King’s favour the best ye can; and in case that his Grace will so accept me, I trust we shall both be able to do his Grace acceptable service according to our duty.’ On his return from England Ormonde at once resumed negotiations, and St. Leger had been scarcely a month in Ireland before he received friendly letters both from Desmond and O’Brien.234

      Fall of Cromwell. St. Leger is made Deputy, 1541.

In the meantime Cromwell’s head had fallen on the scaffold to which he had sent so many better men. Grey was in the Tower, and Henry found time to appoint a new Lord Deputy. He chose Sir Anthony St. Leger, who already knew much of Ireland, and whose temper would at least save him from his predecessor’s chief faults. Sir Patrick Barnewall of Fieldston, an eminent lawyer, had lately enumerated the qualities desirable in a chief governor, and in so doing had drawn a heavy indictment against the last holder of that high office. The King, he said,