CHAP XI 1566 April Elizabeth the war with Shan. It was not till April was far advanced that the Council forced her by repeated importunities to consent that 'Shan should be extirpated;' and even then she would consents to send only half of what was wanted to pay the arrears of the troops. Considering the great sums of money demanded and required of her in Ireland and elsewhere, she would be most glad that for reformation of the rebel any other way might be devised;' and she affronted the Deputy by sending Sir Francis Knolles to control his expenditure. If force could not be dispensed with, Sir Francis might devise an economical campaign. The cost of levying troops in England was four times as great as it used to be;' and it would be enough, she thought, if five or six hundred men were employed for a few weeks in the summer. O'Donnell, O'Reilly, and M'Guyre might be restored to their castles, and they could then be disbanded.' Such at least was her own opinion: should those, however, who had better means of knowing the truth, conclude that the war so conducted would be barren of result, she agreed with a sigh that they must have their way. She desired only that the cost might be as small as possible; the fortification of Berwick and the payment of our foreign debts falling very heavily on her.' 2 Such was ever Elizabeth's character. She had received the Crown encumbered with a debt which with selfdenying thrift she was laboriously reducing, and she had her own reasons for disliking over frequent sessions of Parliament. At the last extremity she would yield usually to what the public service demanded, but she 1 Instructions to Sir F. Knolles. By the Queen, April 18.-Irish MSS. Rolls House. 2 Ibid. gave with grudging hand and irritated temper; and CHAP XI while she admitted the truth, she quarrelled with those who brought it home to her. Shan meanwhile was preparing for war. He doubted his ability to overreach Elizabeth any more by words and promises, while the growth of the party of the Queen of Scots, his own connexion with her, and the Catholic reaction in England and Scotland, encouraged him to drop even the faint disguise behind which he had affected to shield himself. He mounted brass 'artillery' in Dundrum Castle, and in Lifford at the head of Lough Foyle. The friendship with Argyle grew closer, and another wonderful marriage scheme was in progress for the alliance between the houses of M'CallumMore and O'Neil. The Countess' was to be sent away, and Shan was to marry the widow of James M'Connell whom he had killed-who was another half-sister of Argyle, and whose daughter he had married already and divorced. This business was said to be the Earl's practice." The Irish chiefs it seemed, three thousand years behind the world, retained the habits and the moralities of the Greek princes in the tale of Troy, when the bride of the slaughtered husband was the willing prize of the conqueror; and when only a rare Andromache was found to envy the fate of a sister 'Who had escaped the bed of some victorious lord.' 1566 April Aware that Sidney's first effort would be the restoration of O'Donnell, O'Neil commenced the campaign with a fresh invasion of Tyrconnell, where O'Donnell's brother O'Neil instill held out for England; he swept round by Lough connell." Erne, swooped on the remaining cattle of M'Guyre, and 1 Sidney to the English Council, April 15.-Irish MSS. Rolls House. vades Tyr CHAP XI struck terror and admiration into the Irishry." Then 1566 stretching out his hands for foreign help, he wrote in the style of a king to Charles the Ninth of France. May O'Neil ap plies for help to France. Your Majesty's father King Henry in times past required the Lords of Ireland to join with him against the heretic Saxon, the enemies of Almighty God, the enemies of the Holy Church of Rome—your Majesty's enemies and mine. God would not permit that alliance to be completed-notwithstanding the hatred borne to England by all of Irish blood-until your Majesty had become King in France, and I was Lord of Ireland. The time is come however when we all are confederates in a common bond to drive the invader from our shores; and we now beseech your Majesty to send us six thousand well armed men. If you will grant our request there will soon be no Englishman left alive among us, and we will be your Majesty's subjects evermore. Help us, we implore you, to expel the heretics and schismatics, and to bring back our country to the holy Roman see. 93 The letter never reached its destination; it fell into English hands. Yet in the tickle' state of Europe and with the progress made by Mary Stuart, French interference was an alarming possibility. More anxious and more disturbed than ever, Elizabeth made Sidney her Sussex in scapegoat. Lord Sussex, ill repaying Sir Henry's generous palliation of his own shortcomings, envious of the ability of Leicester's brother-in-law, and wishing to escape the charge which he had so well deserved of being trigues against Sidney. The Bishop of Meath to Sussex, April 27, 1566.—WRIGHT, vol. i. 2 Vestræ Majestatis et nostræ simul inimicos.' O'Neil to Charles IX, 1566.-Irish MSS. Rolls House. 1566 May the cause of Shan's 'greatness,' whispered in her ear CHAP XI that in times past Sidney had been thought to favour 'that great rebel;' that he had addressed him long before in a letter by the disputed title of 'O'Neil,' and was perhaps his secret ally. Elizabeth did not seriously believe this preposterous story; but it suited her humour to listen to a suspicion which she could catch at as an excuse for economy. The preparations for war were suspended, and instead of receiving supplies, Sidney learnt only that the Queen had spoken unworthy words of him. Sidney's blood was hot; he was made of bad materials for a courtier. He wrote at once to Elizabeth herself, 'declaring his special grief at hearing that he was fallen from her favour,' and that she had given credit to that improbable slander raised upon him by the Earl of Sussex.' He wrote to the Council, entreating them not to allow these idle stories to relax their energies in suppressing the rebellion; but he begged them at the same time to consider his own unaptness to reside any longer in Ireland, or to be an actor in the war.' The words which the Queen had used of him were gone abroad in the world. He could find no obedience.' His credit being gone, his power to be of service was gone also.' He therefore demanded his immediate recall Sidney dethat he might preserve the small remnant of his patri- recall. mony already much diminished by his coming to Ireland.' As for the charge brought against him by the Earl of Sussex, he would reply with his sword and body against an accusation concealed hitherto he knew not with what duty, and uttered at last with impudency and unshamefastness.'1 1 Sidney to the English Council, May 18.-Irish MSS. Rolls House. mands his May CHAP XI But Elizabeth meant nothing less than to recall 1566 Sidney. She neither distrusted his loyalty nor questioned his talents; she chose merely to find fault with him while she made use of his services. It was her habit towards those among her subjects whom she particularly valued. Sir Francis Knolles when he arrived at Dublin could report only that Sidney had gained the love and the admiration of every one; and that his plan for proceeding against O'Neil was the first which had ever promised real success. Campaigns in Ireland had hitherto been no more than summer forays-mere inroads of devastation during the few dry weeks of August and September. Sidney proposed to commence at the end of the harvest, when the corn was gathered in, and could either be seized or destroyed; and to keep the field through the winter and spring. It would be expensive; but money well laid out was the best economy in the end, and Sidney undertook, if he was allowed as many men as he thought requisite, and was not interfered with, to subdue, kill, or expel Shan, and reduce Ulster to as good order as any part of Ireland." At first Elizabeth would not hear of it; she would not ruin herself for any such hairbrained madness. The Deputy must defend the Pale through the summer, and the attack on O'Neil, if attempted at all, should be delayed till the spring ensuing. But Sir Francis, who was sent to prevent expense, was the foremost to insist on Plan for the the necessity of it. He explained that in the cold Irish springs the fields were bare, the cattle were lean, and the weather was so uncertain, that neither man nor horse could bear it; whereas in August food everywhere was abundant, and the soldiers would have time to become hardened to campaign. |