An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Part 40

Sir George Carew was sent over as President of Munster. He has left an account of his exploits in the _Pacata Hibernia_, which are not much to the credit of his humanity, but which he was pleased to consider refined strokes of policy. The English Government not only countenanced his acts, but gave the example of a similar line of conduct. James, son of Gerald, Earl of Desmond, who had long been imprisoned in London, was now sent to Ireland, and a patent, restoring his t.i.tle and estates, was forwarded to Carew, with private instructions that it should be used or not, as might be found expedient. The people flocked with joy to meet the heir of the ancient house, but their enthusiasm was soon turned into contempt. He arrived on a Sat.u.r.day, and on Sunday went to the Protestant service, for he had been educated in the new religion in London. His people were amazed; they fell on their knees, and implored him not to desert the faith of his fathers; but he was ignorant of their language as well as of their creed. Once this was understood, they showed how much dearer that was to them than even the old ties of kindred, so revered in their island; and his return from prayers was hailed by groans and revilings. The hapless youth was found to be useless to his employers; he was therefore taken back to London, where he died soon after of a broken heart.

Attempts were made to a.s.sa.s.sinate O'Neill in 1601. 2,000 was offered to any one who would capture him alive; 1,000 was offered for his head; but none of his own people could be found to play the traitor even for so high a stake. The "Sugane Earl" was treacherously captured about the end of August, and was sent to London in chains, with Florence MacCarthy. But the long-expected aid from Spain had at last arrived. The fleet conveyed a force of 3,000 infantry, and entered the harbour of Kinsale on the 23rd of September, under the command of Don Juan d'Aquila. It would appear as if Spanish expeditions were not destined to succeed on Irish soil for only part of the expedition arrived safely, and they had the misfortune to land in the worst situation, and to arrive after the war had ceased. The northern chieftains set out at once to meet their allies when informed of their arrival; and O'Donnell, with characteristic impetuosity, was the first on the road. Carew attempted to intercept him, but despaired of coming up with "so swift-footed a general," and left him to pursue his way unmolested.

The Lord Deputy was besieging Kinsale, and Carew joined him there. The siege was continued through the month of November during which time fresh reinforcements came from Spain; and on the 21st of December, O'Neill arrived with all his force. Unfortunately, the Spanish general had become thoroughly disgusted with the enterprise; and, although the position of the English was such that the Lord Deputy had serious thoughts of raising the siege, he insisted on decisive measures; and O'Neill was obliged to surrender his opinion, which was entirely against this line of action. A sortie was agreed upon for a certain night; but a youth in the Irish camp, who had been in the President's service formerly, warned him of the intended attack. This was sufficient in itself to cause the disaster which ensued. But there were other misfortunes. O'Neill and O'Donnell lost their way; and when they reached the English camp at dawn, found the soldiers under arms, and prepared for an attack. Their cavalry at once charged, and the new comers in vain struggled to maintain their ground, and a retreat which they attempted was turned into a total rout.

A thousand Irish were slain, and the prisoners were hanged without mercy. The loss on the English side was but trifling. It was a fatal blow to the Irish cause. Heavy were the hearts and bitter the thoughts of the brave chieftains on that sad night. O'Neill no longer hoped for the deliverance of his country; but the more sanguine O'Donnell proposed to proceed at once to Spain, to explain their position to King Philip.

He left Ireland in a Spanish vessel three days after the battle--if battle it can be called; and O'Neill marched rapidly back to Ulster with Rory O'Donnell, to whom Hugh Roe had delegated the chieftaincy of Tir-Connell.

D'Aquila, whose haughty manners had rendered him very unpopular, now surrendered to Mountjoy, who received his submission with respect, and treated his army honorably. According to one account, the Spaniard had touched some English gold, and had thus been induced to desert the Irish cause; according to other authorities, he challenged the Lord Deputy to single combat, and wished them to decide the question at issue. In the meantime, O'Sullivan Beare contrived to get possession of his own Castle of Dunboy, by breaking into the wall at the dead of night, while the Spanish garrison were asleep, and then declaring that he held the fortress for the King of Spain, to whom he transferred his allegiance.

Don Juan offered to recover it for the English by force of arms; but the Deputy, whose only anxiety was to get him quietly out of the country, urged his immediate departure. He left Ireland on the 20th of February; and the suspicions of his treachery must have had some foundation, for he was placed under arrest as soon as he arrived in Spain.

The siege of Dunboy is one of the most famous and interesting episodes in Irish history. The castle was deemed almost impregnable from its situation; and every argument was used with Sir George Carew to induce him to desist from attacking it. It was then, indeed--

"Dunboy, the proud, the strong, The Saxon's hate and trouble long."[454]

But the Lord Deputy had resolved that it should be captured. The Lord President considered the enterprise would be by no means difficult, for "he declared that he would plant the ordnance without the losse of a man; and within seven dayes after the battery was begun, bee master of all that place."[455] There was considerable delay in the arrival of the s.h.i.+pping which conveyed the ordnance, and operations did not commence until the 6th of June. The defence of the castle was intrusted by O'Sullivan to Richard MacGeoghegan. The chief himself was encamped with Tyrrell in the interior of the country. The soldiers were tempted, and the governor was tempted, but neither flinched for an instant from their duty. The garrison only consisted of 143 fighting men, with a few pieces of cannon. The besieging army was about 3,000 strong, and they were amply supplied with ammunition. On the 17th of June, when the castle was nearly shattered to pieces, its brave defenders offered to surrender if they were allowed to depart with their arms; but the only reply vouchsafed was to hang their messenger, and to commence an a.s.sault.

The storming party were resisted for an entire day with undaunted bravery. Their leader was mortally wounded, and Taylor took the command.

The garrison at last retreated into a cellar into which the only access was a narrow flight of stone steps, and where nine barrels of gunpowder were stored. Taylor declared he would blow up the place if life were not promised to those who surrendered. Carew refused, and retired for the night, after placing a strong guard over the unfortunate men. The following morning he sent cannon-ball in amongst them, and Taylor was forced by his companions to yield without conditions. As the English soldiers descended the steps, the wounded MacGeoghegan staggered towards the gunpowder with a lighted candle, and was in the act of throwing it in, when he was seized by Captain Power, and in another moment he was ma.s.sacred. Fifty-eight of those who had surrendered were hanged immediately; a few were reserved to see if they could be induced to betray their old companions, or to renounce their faith; but as they "would not endeavour to merit life"[456] they were executed without mercy. One of these prisoners was a Father Dominic Collins. He was executed in Youghal, his native town--a most unwise proceeding; for his fate was sure to excite double sympathy in the place where he was known, and, consequently, to promote double disaffection.[457] O'Sullivan Beare a.s.signs the 31st of October as the day of his martyrdom.

The fall of Dunboy was a fatal blow to the national cause. The news soon reached Spain. Hugh O'Donnell had been warmly received there; but the burst of grief which his people uttered when they saw him departing from his native land, was his death-keen, for he did not long survive his voluntary expatriation. The war might now be considered over--at least, until the victims recovered courage to fight once more for their own; but the victims had to be taught how dearly they should pay for each attempt at national independence. Captain Harvey was sent to Carberry, "to purge the country of rebels"[458] by martial law. Wilmot was sent to Kerry, with orders to extirpate whole districts, which arrangement is called "settling the country," in the official doc.u.ment from which I quote. On one occasion a number of wounded Irish soldiers were found, who are described as "hurt and sick men;" they were at ma.s.sacred, and this is called putting them out of pain.[459]

Donnell O'Sullivan now found his position hopeless, and commenced his famous retreat to Leitrim. He set out with about 1,000 people, of whom only 400 were fighting men; the rest were servants, women, and children.

He fought all the way, and arrived at his destination with only thirty-five followers.[460]

O'Neill now stood merely on the defensive. The land was devastated by famine; Docwra, Governor of Derry, had planted garrisons at every available point; and Mountjoy plundered Ulster. In August he prepared to attack O'Neill with a large army, and, as he informs Cecil, "by the grace of G.o.d, as near as he could, utterly to waste the country of Tyrone." O'Neill had now retired to a fastness at the extremity of Lough Erne, attended by his brother, Cormac Art O'Neill, and MacMahon.

Mountjoy followed him, but could not approach nearer than twelve miles; he therefore returned to Newry. In describing this march to Cecil, he says: "O'Hagan protested to us, that between Tullaghoge and Toome there lay unburied 1,000 dead."

The news of O'Donnell's death had reached Ireland; and his brother submitted to the Deputy. In 1603 Sir Garret More entered into negotiations with O'Neill, which ended in his submitting also. The ceremony took place at Mellifont, on the 31st of March. Queen Elizabeth had expired, more miserably than many of the victims who had been executed in her reign, on the 24th of March; but the news was carefully concealed until O'Neill had made terms with the Viceroy.

Trinity College, Dublin, was founded during this reign. Sir John Perrot had proposed to convert St. Patrick's Cathedral into an university; but Loftus, the Protestant Archbishop, would not allow it, because, according to Leland, "he was particularly interested in the livings of this church, by leases and estates, which he had procured for himself and his kinsmen." When the Deputy, whom he cordially hated, had been withdrawn, he proposed a plan which gave him the credit of the undertaking without any expenditure on his part. The site he selected was in what was then called Hogges-green, now College-green; and the place was the "scite, ambit and presinct"[461] of the Augustinian Monastery of All Saints, which had been founded by Dermod MacMurrough, King of Leinster, A.D. 1166. Dr. Loftus, after obtaining this grant, and such rents as still belonged to the old Catholic monastery, endeavoured to raise a subscription to supply the further funds still necessary to complete the work. In this he signally failed; for those to whom he applied excused themselves on the plea of poverty. Other funds were therefore sought for, and easily obtained; and the revenues of some suppressed Catholic houses in Kerry, Mayo, and Ulster, were taken to endow and erect the Protestant University.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUIN--BLACKWATER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TULLY CASTLE, COUNTY FERMANAGH.]

FOOTNOTES:

[444] _Dr. Saunders_.--He has given a full and most interesting account of this expedition, in a letter to the Roman court. The original has been printed by Monsignor Moran, in his _Archbishops_, a work which every reader should possess.

[445] _Dr. Allen_.--He was a medical man, and was killed in an engagement immediately after the arrival of the expedition.

[446] _Camp_.--Dr. Saunders' letter, Moran's _Archbishops_, p. 202.

[447] _Official_.--Lord Grey says, in his official despatch to the Queen, dated "From the camp before Smerwick, November 12, 1580:" "I sent streighte certeyne gentlemen to see their weapons and armouries laid down, and to guard the munition and victual, then left, from spoil; _then put in certeyne bandes, who streighte fell to execution. There were 600 slayn_." After this exploit, "Grey's faith"--_Graia fides_--became proverbial even on the Continent. Grey appears to have a touch of the Puritan (by antic.i.p.ation) in his composition, for we find him using very unctuous language about one John Cheeke, who "so wrought in him G.o.d's Spirit, plainlie declairing him a child of His elected;"

and he calls the Pope "a detestable shaveling." Raleigh is said to have had the execution of this butchery; his friend, Spenser, was "not far off," according to his own account. He has attempted to excuse his patron, Lord Grey, but his excuse simply shows that the ma.s.sacre was reprobated by all persons not dest.i.tute of common humanity.

[448] _Castle._--The Four Masters give a detailed account of this treachery, taken from the life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, which was written by one of themselves. A copy of this work, in the handwriting of Edward O'Reilly, is still preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.

[449] _Him._--This doc.u.ment was written by Captain Lee, and presented to the Queen in 1594. It is printed in _Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica_, vol.

ii. p. 91.

[450] _Deputy._--Four Masters, vol. vi. p. 1878. The State Papers clearly prove the Deputy's guilt.

[451] _Hanged_.--It was usual to hang the Franciscans by their own cord, or to tie them together with their cords and hurl them from the summit of a tower or from a high rock into the sea.

[452] _Behalf_.--The Four Masters give copious details of this important engagement, which O'Donovan has supplemented with copious notes, vol.

vi. pp.2061-2075.

[453] _Victories_.--The victory of the Blackwater was hailed with salvos of artillery from S. Angelo. The Pope and Philip III. of Spain corresponded with O'Neill constantly, the one about the affairs of the Church, the other with generous offers of a.s.sistance. At one time the Emperor sent him 22,000 crowns of gold.

[454] _Long--Dunboy and other Poems_, by T.D. Sullivan, Esq.

[455] _Place--Hibernia Pacata_, vol. ii. p. 559.

[456] _Life.--Hib. Pac_. vol. ii. p. 578.

[457] _Disaffection_.--Dr. Moran quotes a letter from Dublin, written 26th Feb., 1603, which says that he imparted great edification to the faithful by his constancy, and that the whole city of Cork accompanied him with its tears.

[458] _Rebels.--_Commission from the Lord Deputy to Harvey.--See the doc.u.ment _in extenso, Hib, Pac_. vol ii. p. 447.

[459] _Pain.--Hib. Pac_. p. 659.

[460] _Followers_.--The father and mother of the celebrated historian, O'Sullivan were amongst the number of those who reached Leitrim in safety. Philip, the author, had been sent to Spain while a boy in 1602, for his education: the whole family joined him there soon after. Dr.

O'Donovan is not correct in his genealogy. It is well known that the real representative of the family is Murtough O'Sullivan, Esq., of Clohina, co. Cork.

[461] _Presinct.--History of the University of Dublin_, by W.B.S.

Taylor. London, 1845.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Accession of King James--Joy of the Irish Catholics--Their Disappointment--Bishops, Priests, and Laity imprisoned for the Faith--Paul V. encourages the Catholics to Constancy--Plot to entrap O'Neill and O'Donnell--Flight of the Earls--Ulster is left to the Mercy of the English Nation--The Plantation commences--Chichester's Parliament, and how he obtained Members--Death of James I., and Accession of Charles--The Hopes of the Catholics are raised again--They offer a large sum of Money to obtain "Graces"--It is accepted, and the "Graces" are treacherously refused--The Plantation of Connaught--How Obedience was enforced and Resistance punished--Conspiracy to seize Dublin--Sir Phelim O'Neill-Ma.s.sacre of Island Magee.

[A.D. 1605-1642.]

Great was the joy of the Irish nation when James the First of England and the Sixth of Scotland ascended the throne. The people supposed him to be a Catholic in heart, and a prince in feeling. They should have judged less favourably of one who could see his mother sacrificed without making one real effort to avert her doom. His weakness, obstinacy, and duplicity, helped to prepare the way for the terrible convulsion of English society, whose origin was the great religious schism, which, by lessening national respect for the altar, undermined national respect for the throne.

The Irish Catholics, only too ready to rejoice in the faintest gleam of hope, took possession of their own churches, and hoped they might practise their religion openly. The Cathedral of Limerick was re-dedicated by Richard Arthur, the Cathedral of Cork and Cloyne by Robert Urigh, the Metropolitan Church of Cashel by Thomas Rachtar, the churches of Wexford by John Coppinger. Dr. White restored himself the churches of Clonmel, Kilkenny, and Ross, and other clergymen acted in like manner in other places. But the most open and remarkable manifestation of devotion to the old faith was in Cork, always famous for its Catholicity, for the generosity of its people, and their special devotion to literature and religion. All the Protestant Bibles and Prayer-books were publicly and solemnly burned, the churches were hallowed, and Smith says: "They had a person named a Legate from the Pope [Dr. Moran, who quotes this pa.s.sage, supposes him to have been a Vicar-Apostolic], who went about in procession with a cross, and forced people to reverence it. They buried the dead with the Catholic ceremonies; and numbers took the sacrament to defend that religion with their lives and fortunes."[462]

But the Catholics were soon undeceived. King James drank "to the eternal d.a.m.nation of the Papists"[463] solemnly at a public dinner, no doubt to convince the sceptical of his Protestantism; and he divided his time very equally between persecuting the Puritans and the Catholics, when not occupied with his pleasures or quarrelling with his Parliament. The Puritans, however, had the advantage; popular opinion in England was on their side; they were sufficiently wealthy to emigrate if they pleased: while the Catholics were not only unpopular, but hated, and utterly impoverished by repeated fines and exactions.

James' conduct on his accession was sufficiently plain. He was proclaimed in Dublin on the 28th September, 1605. A part of his proclamation ran thus: "We hereby make known to our subjects in Ireland, that no toleration shall ever be granted by us. This we do for the purpose of cutting off all hope that any other religion shall be allowed, save that which is consonant to the laws and statutes of this realm." The penal statutes were renewed, and enforced with increased severity. Several members of the Corporation and some of the princ.i.p.al citizens of Dublin were sent to prison; similar outrages on religious liberty were perpetrated at Waterford, Ross, and Limerick. In some cases these gentlemen were only asked to attend the Protestant church once, but they n.o.bly refused to act against their conscience even once, though it should procure them freedom from imprisonment, or even from death.

The Vicar-Apostolic of Waterford and Lismore wrote a detailed account of the sufferings of the Irish nation for the faith at this period to Cardinal Baronius. His letter is dated "Waterford, 1st of May, 1606." He says: "There is scarcely a spot where Catholics can find a safe retreat.

The impious soldiery, by day and night, pursue the defenceless priests, and mercilessly persecute them. Up to the present they have only succeeded in seizing three: one is detained in Dublin prison, another in Cork, and the third, in my opinion, is the happiest of all triumphing in heaven with Christ our Lord; for in the excess of the fury of the soldiery, without any further trial or accusation, having expressed himself to be a priest, he was hanged upon the spot."