Waterford and Tipperary, in which he committed waste, and took spoil without meeting any resistance.

The deputy receiving an account of these outrages drew together about four hundred men, and marched into Kerry; and coming to the wood of Lisconnell, where the earl was encamped with seven hundred, an encounter took place, in which the earl's army was put to flight and scattered away, leaving their spoil behind them. The earl, with a few more, escaped into the mountains of Sleulaugher. Marching on into the estates of Fitz-Maurice, the lord deputy seized and garrisoned the forts and strong places. Another severe defeat, which soon followed, completed the fall of the earl, who found himself unable to attempt any further resistance. He then applied to the earl of Ormonde, to whom he had done all the mischief in his power, to obtain a pardon for him. The earl of Ormonde had the generosity to intercede for him, and he was pardoned.

The remaining events of his life have nothing remarkable enough to claim attention. He lived on in honour and prosperity, till the close of his eighty-eighth year, when he died at Lixnaw, on the 16th December, 1590. He is said to have been the handsomest man of his time, and also remarkable to an advanced age for his great strength.

Robert, Fifth Lord Trimleston.

DIED A. D. 1573.

THE first lord Trimleston was Robert Barnewall, second son to Sir Christopher Barnewall, of Crickston, in Meath, who was chief justice of the king's bench in 1445 and 1446. The ancestors intermediate between this eminent person and the fifth lord, had most of them acted their part in the troubled politics of their respective generations with credit, and were eminent in their day. We select the fifth lord for this brief notice, as he is mentioned in terms of high eulogy by the chroniclers. In 1561, he was joined in commission with the archbishop of Dublin and other lords, for the preservation of the peace of the pale, during the absence of lord deputy Sussex. Hollinshed gives the following account of him:“He was a rare nobleman, and endowed with sundry good gifts, who, having well wedded himself to the reformation of his miserable country, was resolved for the whetting of his wit, which nevertheless was pregnant and quick; by a short trade and method he took in his study to have sipt up the very sap of the common law, and upon this determination sailing into England, sickened shortly after at a worshipful matron's house at Combury, named Margaret Tiler, where he was, to the great grief of all his country, pursued with death, when the weal of the public had most need of his life." His death happened in 1573: he left no issue, and was succeeded by his brother

Peter.

Richard, Second Earl of Clanricarde.

DIED A. D. 1582.

RICHARD DE BURGO, Son and successor to Ulick the first earl of Clanricarde, was commonly called Sassanagh by the Irish. The first exploit, for which he is commemorated, is the capture of Cormac Roe O'Conor of Offally, who had for some time previous given great trouble to the government, and very much disturbed the quiet of the pale. He was on this account proclaimed a traitor by the government; in consequence of which he became so much alarmed for his safety, that he came into Dublin on the 18th November, 1548, and made his submission. He was pardoned by the deputy: but on recovering from his alarm, his restless and turbulent spirit, incapable of subordination, soon returned to the same troublesome and dangerous course.

It was therefore found necessary to proceed to rougher extremities, and he was taken prisoner by the earl of Clanricarde, who sent him to Dublin, where he was put to death.

In the following years, the chiefs of his race in the west appear to have been involved in party wars among themselves and with the neighbouring chiefs. In the year 1552, he took the castle of Roscommon by stratagem;* and in the following year, being at war with John de Burgo, he invaded his lands, but was compelled to retire by the appearance of a stronger force; Daniel O'Brien having marched

to the aid of John.

It is mentioned by Lodge that he was lord lieutenant of Ireland, and that with the assistance of Sir Richard Bingham, he gained a victory over the Scots at the river Moye in 1553. It is singular that we find no notice of this event in Ware's Annals, in Cox's Hibernia, in Hooper who writes with so much minute detail, or in Leland who was little likely to pass a event so remarkable. But it is more worthy of notice that the same combination of names and circumstances takes place at a later period, in which five or six years after the death of this earl, his son, then earl of Clanricarde, obtains distinction in a great victory gained by Bingham over 3000 Scots at Ardnary, on the river Moye. As this event occurs thirty years after the date assigned by Lodge, while the incidents are precisely the same, there is some difficulty in accounting for the oversight; and the more so, as the incident is again repeated in its proper period by Lodge, in his notice of the third earl. It is, however, mentioned by Ware, that in 1558 this earl gained a great victory over the Scots when they were called in to the assistance of "some families of the Bourkes," with whom he was at war. To this Leland thus alludes, “The Scottish adventurers in the meantime, as the decision of the war in Tirconnel left them no military employment in Ulster, entered into the service of some turbulent chieftains of the west; but before they could raise any considerable disorders, were suddenly attacked by the earl of Clanricarde, who defeated and pursued these pestilent invaders, to the almost total destruction of their body, &c."†

The latter years of this earl seem to have been disturbed by the dissensions of his unruly sons, who not only quarrelled amongst themselves, but rebelled against their father. The earl was thrice married, and these sons were, perhaps, bred up with no kindly feeling among themselves. At his death in 1582, he was succeeded by Ulick, his eldest son, whose legitimacy was disputed, but confirmed.

Donald O'Brien.

We have already had occasion to mention the most remarkable event in the life of this ancient chief, in our notice of his nephew, the first earl of Thomond; whose father his own elder brother slew in 1553, and usurped his inheritance: but was obliged by the interposition of the government to resign it to Conor O'Brien the rightful heir, who was then created earl of Thomond.

It was not long, however, before Donald O'Brien's discontent at an arrangement, to which nothing but superior force could have compelled him to assent, broke out into open violence. On this the lord deputy Sussex marched into Limerick and took the castles of Clare, Clonroad, Bunratty, of which he delivered the latter to the earl of Thomond. On this occasion an amusing and characteristic fiction is told by Sullivan, which we transcribe from Cox. The lord president having, according to Sullivan, enticed Donald into Limerick on the promise of allowing him to pass out again freely from the gates, contrived to turn him out from a wrong gate, so that the river Shannon separated him from his army: and then immediately sent the young earl of Thomond to take possession of the country. In this disconsolate situation Donald had no resource but to take shelter with his horse in a poor and lowly cabin, so miserably unpromising in its appearance, that his horse, who was, it may be presumed, also a highbred beast, and touched with the unruly spirit of the age, refused to enter a hovel so far inferior to his breeding and pretensions. In this delicate juncture, while the generous steed of O'Brien was yet tossing his head in chivalric disdain at the door, where his master thought it no disgrace to enter his scorn was allayed by the sensible admonition of O'Brien's page, who whispered in his ear, that his master, O'Brien, was to lodge for the night in that very cabin: and represented that he might very well lower his crest and crupper to keep his master company. On this delicate and seasonable hint, the noble beast "being well bred, did very civilly comply in matters of ceremony." But though his good sense and respect for his master thus repressed his pride, a fresh difficulty arose when it came to the demands of a nice and pampered appetite. "When he came to supper, he was at a loss, for he was used to feed on wheat, and could not conform to country entertainment, until the foot-boy whispered him once more, that his master, O'Brien, who fed upon an oaten cake, commanded him to eat the same, and then the horse laying aside all further conceit, very meekly eat his supper like the rest of the company." Of the horse there is nothing further recorded. His master was compelled to fly the country and continue for five years in exile.

He returned about 1563, and received lands from his nephew: he was also taken into the king's favour, and led from thenceforth so quiet and respectable a life that no further mention of his name occurs.

Henry, Twelfth Earl of Kildare.

BORN A. D. 1564-died a. D. 1597.

THIS nobleman, born in the year 1564, was the son and successor of Gerald, of whose life, marked by singular vicissitudes and changes of fortune, we have already given some account. Though living in a period when the political consideration of the great and powerful class to which he belonged was beginning to decline with the extension of the power and efficiency of the government; and where it became the condition of great fame to be notorious for crime and misfortune, yet he maintained in the wars of his troubled age, the character of his distinguished line. Of the events in which his name might be brought forward, we shall here only notice the last. He was in his 33d year, when he was called upon to attend the lord deputy Borrough into Ulster.

The country was involved in rebellion which started up on every side; and lord deputy Borrough, who was but new in his office, had made a month's truce with O'Niall, which each party employed in preparation for further hostilities. When the truce was expired, the deputy forced his way through a difficult pass near Armagh, which the Irish had, with their wonted skill, fortified by interweaving the boughs of trees and blocking the way with trunks of others which they felled for the purpose. Having conquered this obstacle, the deputy marched towards the fort of Blackwater, which he quickly carried by assault. The English were returning thanks to God for their success, when they perceived a strong body of Irish advancing upon them rapidly from the neighbouring wood. They quickly stood to their arms and received the fierce onset of the Irish, who were, however, repulsed, and disappointed as they came. The English suffered little loss: but among the slain, were two foster-brothers of the earl of Kildare. The earl's grief was inconsolable, and he died shortly after of a broken heart.*

Thomas, Tenth Earl of Ormonde.

BORN A. D. 1532-DIED A. D. 1614.

In placing the life of this illustrious Irishman in the present period, it becomes necessary to explain a disposition which may otherwise seem to be a violation of the arrangement which we have adopted; viz., to place our notices according to the death of the persons noticed. We should, however, here observe, that this most convenient general rule has been, all through the previous portion of our work, subject to

* Ware's Annals, Cox, Lodge.

another more important, though less definite principle of arrangement. We have endeavoured, in all the more extended and strictly historical memoirs of contemporary persons, to place them according to the order of the events in which they were mainly concerned; as it is evident that, by this means, the historical order would be best preserved. Thus our arrangement has been in reality one compounded on both these considerations; and, we may observe, adopted more as a convenience than as a restriction. In the present instance, as in a few more which follow in the close of the period, it will be accordingly observed, that although this earl, together with the first earl of Cork, &c., continue to live into the reign of James I., yet all the great events of their lives fall within the reign of queen Elizabeth, in such a manner that, were we to place them in our next period, we should have to travel back into the history of this—a violation of order which would be something more than formal.

The tenth earl of Ormonde, was born some time about 1532; and, as he was thus but fourteen years old in 1546—the time of his father's death-great precautions were taken to preserve his property against the encroaching and freebooting spirit of the age. For this purpose it was ordered that the lord justice should draw the English army, at his command, towards the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary; and it was also ordered that the government of these counties should be committed to his family. He was himself brought up in the English court, and was one of the most favoured companions of the young prince Edward, with whom he was educated. At the age of fourteen, he was made a knight of the Bath, at the coronation of this king. It is also mentioned that the king ordered the lord deputy to increase his allowance to the sum of 200 marks.* When he attained his nineteenth year, he obtained by the same favour a year's release of his wardship. He begun his military career at the same time with distinguished honour. It is briefly mentioned, after these incidents, by the antiquarians, that he accompanied the duke of Somerset in his expedition against the Scots. This requires some explanation; for though the Scottish war alluded to certainly was continued in the same year, yet it is as certain that it was not commanded by the duke of Somerset, who first declared war, and led an expedition into Scotland, in 1547, when Ormonde was but fifteen years of age. In the following years, the command of the armies sent against the Scots was intrusted to the earls of Shrewsbury and Northampton. But military training, at that period, formed so principal a part in education, that there is no improbability in supposing the military career of this earl to have commenced even so early. These conjectures are confirmed by the mention that he distinguished himself by his bravery in the battle of Musselburgh; better known in history as the battle of Pinkey, which took place 10th September, 1547. In this battle the Scots were defeated by the English, under the duke of Somerset, with the loss of 14,000 men, of whom 800 were gentlemen. The war was engaged in to compel the Scots to deliver up their young queen, who had been contracted to Edward VI. when they were both children.

*Collins, Lodge.