In consideration of his many and great services, large grants were made to lord Butler in the years 1539 and 1542; of these several were manors which had belonged to the earl of Kildare. In 1539, his father died, and he succeeded to his honours, &c. in the same year he was sent against the Connaught insurgents. In 1543, he had a commission along with Ormonde and Desmond, to make levies through Tipperary, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, to take, imprison, or protect, according to his judgment and the purposes of his commission. Among other commissions, in this busy period of his life, he was sent into Scotland in command of the Irish forces sent over to join the earl of Lenox, and others, in prosecution of a war which had various parties and purposes, but had been promoted and joined by king Henry for views of his own in the year before when he had a considerable force at his disposal. In this year the invasion languished, and the English and Irish were withdrawn without having effected any important service. On this occasion, lord Butler, then ninth earl of Ormonde, is mentioned to have levied 1500 of his own followers— being a number equal to that levied by the deputy, St Leger, for the king.

In 1546, this illustrious nobleman was lost to his time and country in the flower of his age. Having publicly accused the deputy, St Leger, of high treason, the deputy retorted the charge, and both were summoned to England. While residing there he was poisoned, with several of his servants, at Ely house in Holborn. The entertainment is said, by Ware, to have been given him by his own people-the poison was, in all probability, accidental. The number who were poisoned is mentioned by Lodge to have been thirty-five; Ware says, his steward and sixteen servants. The earl was buried in the church of St Thomas of Acres: but his heart was brought over and buried in the cathedral of St Canice, Kilkenny. We add an extract of his will, which has interest. After the directions concerning his burial, he devises that "My sonne and heyre, being in the prince's graces court, shall have my basin and ewer, which I have here, a silver pot, a salt, a new boll, a trencher, and a spoon of silver. Item, my wife (Joan, daughter to the 11th earl of Desmond), to have my best bracelet of gold sent her for a token. Item, to my lord chancellor of England, my new gilded goblet with the cover, for a token. Item, master Fitz-William, to have a new boll of them that were lately made, for a token, &c., &c.Ӡ He was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, viscount Thurles.

Richard, Viscount Mount-Garret.

DIED A. D. 1571.

THIS distinguished person was next brother to the last noticed earl of Ormonde. His life was spent in active services, and he was, in recognition of these, in 1550, created viscount Mount-Garret, by king Edward VI. He was, during the reigns of Edward and Mary, keeper

of the castle of Fernes. He was, also, honourably employed in several important commissions, and other offices of public trust in queen Elizabeth's reign; and died in 1571, when he was buried in St Canice, Kilkenny, in a tomb, says Lodge, "Whereon is his effigies in armour, with his feet resting against a dog, &c."*

James, Fifteenth Earl of Desmond.

DIED A.D. 1558.

THIS earl succeeded his father Thomas, who died of extreme old age in 1536. It is perhaps a just inference which we have no means to verify, that this earl was himself far advanced in life at the period of this event. Immediately on his accession he followed the example of his illustrious ancestors by attempting an insurrection in Munster. James, viscount Thurles, (afterwards 9th earl of Ormonde,) was immediately dispatched against him by lord Grey, and soon reduced him to submission-wasting his lands, and seizing on his castle of Lough Gur, which, as we have already mentioned in our notice of that nobleman, he fortified and garrisoned against its lord. Desmond submitted, and gave pledges to be a faithful servant to the king, and to do right to the rival claimant of his earldom. He had strongly, on this occasion, expressed to Grey his wish to submit and his fear of the consequence. The lord James Butler, it seems, pretended a claim in right of his wife Joan, daughter and heir to the 11th earl of Desmond. On this account it was, that in the correspondence of James Butler, this earl of Desmond is always called "the pretended earl." On the subject of this claim, Desmond observes that it was to be apprehended, lest by a submission to English law his enemy's claim might be unjustly preferred, "lest by the favours of the other, he and his blood shall be put from their inheritance, which they have possessed, he saith, from the conquest." The deputy in the same communication recommends Desmond to favour on strong prudential grounds, both as the best means of repressing the natives, and also as a counterbalance to the growing power of the house of Ormonde, now freed from the rivalship of the other great branch of the Geraldines, by the recent hapless events in that family.

This view is corroborated strongly by part of a letter afterwards written 1542, by lord deputy St Leger to Henry. We extract the passage which is interesting for the authentic sketch it presents of the actual state of these parties in the reign of Henry VIII.:—“It may also please your majestie, that where it hath been to me reported, that the said M'Cowley, lately the master of your rolls here, should article against me that I went about to erect a new Geraldine band (probably here referring to lord Thomas's rebellion); meaning the same by the erle of Desmond. The truth is, I laboured most effectually to bring him to your perfect obedience, to my great peril and charge; and this, gracious lord, was the only cause. I saw that now the erle of Kildare

was gone, there was no subject of your majestie's here meet nor able to way (weigh) with the erle of Ormonde, who hath of your majestie's gifte, and of his own inheritance, and rule given him by your majesty, not only 50 or 60 miles in length, but also many of the chief holds of the frontiers of Irishmen; so that if he or any of his heirs should swerve from their duty of allegiance, (which I think verily that he will never do,) it would be more hard to daunt him or them than it was the said erle of Kildare, who had always the said erle of Ormonde in his top, when he would or was like to attempt any such thing. Therefore I thought it good to have a Rowland for an Oliver, (&c. &c.)"*

It was probably on these grounds that Desmond was encouraged to look for favour and protection from the king. To this course he was strongly moved; both by the representations of the deputy and by Henry's favourable reception of Con O'Niall, then created earl of Tyrone. Under these and such influences Desmond sailed from Howth in the summer of 1542, bearing recommendatory letters from the lord deputy St Leger; and was received with great honour by the king. On the same occasion he was also appointed lord high treasurer in Ireland, and enjoyed the post during this and the two following reigns. He was sworn of the privy council, and deputy St Leger by the king's authority, granted to him and his heirs male St Mary's abbey to hold by the fifth part of a knight's fee: with the condition of forfeiture in case of rebellion.†

From this he remained in prosperity and honour till his death in 1558, at Askeaton, where he was buried in the Franciscan Friary.

Maurice Fitz-Gerald, or Black Maurice.

KILLED A. d. 1565.

Maurice Fitz-GERALD, brother to the earl just noticed, was, by the gift of this earl proprietor of Kerry Currihy, in the county of Cork. When 80 years old he attempted an incursion upon the lands of the Macarthys of Muskerry: he was driving off his prey when he was met, and his party overpowered by one of the Macarthys, who took him prisoner. While Macarthy continued the pursuit, he left Maurice under the custody of four men, who put him to death. He was father to James of Desmond, afterwards distinguished in the great rebellion of Gerald, 16th earl of Desmond.

Sir Anthony St Leger.

DIED A. d. 1559.

THE name of St Leger is upon the roll of Battel Abbey; the brave Sir Robert St Leger, warrior, came to England with king William,

and it is said handed him first on shore in Sussex. The descendants of this knight frequently appear on the scene of public events, both in England and Ireland, before the illustrious person whose fortunes we are now to trace, became the founder of an Irish family. The St. Legers were, for many generations, settled in the county of Kent; and several individuals of the family appear, during the course of the 15th century, to have held offices lay or clerical in Ireland.

Sir Anthony was sent over by Henry VIII. as one of the commissioners for setting the waste lands upon the marches of the English pale, for 21 years, to such tenants as would improve them, and on such rents as might appear fair to demand, &c., with certain conditions framed to extend the pale and preserve the English character of its inhabitants. This commission is historically important, for the distinct view which it affords of the state of the pale in the year 1537. We shall, therefore, have to notice it farther on in detail. It may be here enough for the reader to know, that the commission carried an inquest, by means of juries, into the several districts of the pale; from the returns of this the result is a most frightful picture of exaction and petty tyranny, under the odious names of Coyne and Livery, and other pretences of extortion all prohibited by law. Surveys were also made of several estates of the greater proprietors; regulations of the most judicious character were decided upon in conformity with these, and intrusted to this commission to carry into effect. For this purpose they were armed with very considerable authority, and executed their commission with vigour and effect. They made sufficient inquiries as to the parties concerned in lord Thomas Fitz-Gerald's rebellion to produce a salutary fear, while they refrained from an injudicious severity, which might excite disaffection. They let to farm the king's lands, reserving the annual payments due to the exchequer; and they reconciled the earl of Ormonde to the lord deputy.

Having executed his commission, St Leger returned to England, where he remained till 1540. When he was sent over as lord deputy, and was sworn on the 25th of July, he brought over with him a commission, appointed for the further prosecution of the measures already mentioned, which they forwarded materially by a survey of the crown lands. An order was transmitted to the master of the rolls and the archbishop of Dublin, to have the goods of every description, which had been the property of the late lord deputy Gray, appraised and delivered into the custody of the new deputy, to hold for the king, and use during the royal pleasure. Gray, one of the ablest, most active, and in every way serviceable governors Ireland had yet known, was, on his return to England, by means of the malicious intrigues of his enemies and the reckless tyranny of Henry, most iniquitously accused, tried, and condemned. His conduct on the occasion was an instance of the difference between active courage and passive fortitude: so vigorous in military command, so brave in the field, his firmness was not of that high order that accompanies the hero into the horrors of captivity, and supports him against the wantonness of the tyrant's cruelty: his spirit sunk under the terror of Henry's brutality— which he had probably been accustomed to fear and shrink from; and he refused to defend himself. He was condemned and executed.

He

was more resolute to face death than the tyrant's bluster, and met his fate with heroic calmness. The principal charge against him was the suffering the son of Kildare, a youth of ten, to be saved from the general slaughter of his family.

St Leger successfully exerted himself to infuse activity, and control the direction of every department and functionary of the government. He sent the marshal of Ireland, Sir William Brereton, to receive the submission of the earl of Desmond. Brereton died at Kilkenny. But the earl came to meet the deputy at Cahir, in the following January, and tendered his submission which was accepted by St Leger. This submission was confirmed by the delivery of the earl's son, Gerald, as an hostage. This earl also renounced the privilege of the Desmond lords, to absent themselves from parliaments, and not to enter walled towns: a privilege which, the reader may recollect, was granted in 1444, to James the 7th earl. This transaction had been a considerable time in agitation. Among the State Papers of the year 1538, a letter from St Leger, written during the time of his commission (already noticed), mentions that the earl had delivered a hostage and a written engagement. And another letter, written by lord Ormonde in the same year, mentions evidently with a view to injure the deputy, (Grey.) "And after my lord deputie of his own motion, went with four of his company to James, earl of Desmond, and perswaded him, after such a fashion, that he desired him for the love of God to deliver him the hostage, considering that he have written to the king's highness, that he had the same; otherwise, that he was like to be utterly undone, . . . . . . and hereupon he had the hostage given him, who promised, that after he had shewed the same, that he should be delivered (back) without any hurt, losses or danger, as he was true knight; which matter was done in Thomen, O'Brien's country."

On the 13th June, 1541, Sir Anthony summoned a parliament in Dublin, in which it was enacted that king Henry and his successors should from that time bear the title of kings of Ireland.* Several enactments were also made for the administration of justice in questions affecting property; and an application was made to the king for permission to hold the following session of the same parliament at Limerick, on account of the salutary effect its presence might have on the earl of Desmond and other chiefs in that vicinity.† At this parliament also, Meath was divided into East Meath and West Meath, for the convenience of county jurisdiction.

It was also in the same year, and in the administration of Sir Anthony, that O'Niall, and a number of other Irish chiefs, made their submissions, and swore fidelity to the English crown. In 1542, the king granted to Sir Anthony, in recompense for his many services, the site and precinct of the monastery of Grany, in the county of Carlow, with several other lands and profits in different parts of Ireland.

In 1543, Sir Anthony was summoned over to England to give a full account of his government, and of the state of Ireland. His account was considered so satisfactory, that he was created a knight companion * This was followed by a coinage of groats, twopenny and penny pieces, for Irish circulation, having a harp on the reverse.— Lodge.

State Papers, cccxlii. p. 311.