they were charged, by martial law; and the president had authority to call on any loyal subject to assist him in prosecuting rebels with fire and sword. He could hear and decide all complaints against officers, civil and military, throughout his province, and punish the offenders at his discretion. His authority extended to putting persons, accused of high treason, to torture for the purpose of extracting confessions of guilt or accusations of their accomplices. He had also the right of reprieving all condemned persons. In short, in his own district, he had all the powers of viceroy. Like the viceroy, he had his council and his staff of officers, civil and military.* Perrot, says Hooker, was well acquainted with the character of the people among whom he was to serve; he knew that he "had to do with a sort of nettles, whose nature is, that being handled gently they sting, but being hard crushed together, they will do no harm." "The sword, and the law," he adds, "were the foundation of his government: by the one he persecuted the rebel and disobedient, and by the other he ruled and governed in justice and judgment." The reduction of the rebels was necessarily the first of these duties, and never were unfortunate men followed by keener bloodhounds than those that pursued the wretched inhabitants of Desmond's territories. Perrot followed and chased them through all their hiding places: "in the bogs he pursued them, in the thickets he followed them, in the plains he fought with them, and in their castles and holds he besieged them." Fitz-Maurice, at last, tired and wearied out with this unremitting chase, was obliged to surrender. He flung himself at the feet of the president in Kilmallock, which town he had a few months preceding burnt and plundered, having executed the sovereign and several of the townsmen.† He made his submission in the church, in the sight of all the people, kneeling before Perrot, who held the point of his sword to Fitz-Maurice's heart. This painful humiliation was intended to express that he owed his life to the mercy of the queen. Perrot, though he held out hopes of pardon to FitzMaurice, retained him as a prisoner his followers he executed in great numbers. When order was in some degree restored, he made circuits through Munster, and held sessions and courts, and in a short time restored such confidence or inspired such fear that, "whereas, no man could before pass through the country without danger of being robbed or murdered, and no man durst turn his cattle into the fields without * We transcribe Fynes Morrison's statement of the expense of the presidency of Munster in the year 1598. The scale of expense in Perrot's time was not probably materially different : President's salary £133 6 8 803 0 100 0 66 13 4 13 6 8 £1951 16 8 + Smith's History of Kerry. watch; now every man with a white stick only in his hand, and with great treasures, might, and did travel without fear or danger where he would, and the white sheep did keep the black, and all the beasts lay continually in the fields without any stealing or preying." Among the more anxious cares of the president, it is not without surprise that we find his attention directed to assimilating the dress of the Irish to English forms and patterns. If the cloak of the Irish peasant could be converted to one-half the uses which Spenser ascribes to it: a bed by night—a tent by day—and defending the wearer alike from the inconveniences of heat and cold-we are not surprised that all the efforts of legislation failed to make the Irish give up a garment so suitable to their uncertain climate, and to their mode of life, which exposed them with little other shelter to its many changes. The war against their costume, and their modes of wearing the hair, which afterwards occupied the statesmen of James the First's time, was now earnestly fought by Perrot. He dealt with the disobedient in such matters as with traitors against the queen; and though in the parts of the country where his authority was absolute, in spite of a thousand capricious. changes of fashion among the higher classes, the dress of the peasant still exhibits traces of the proscribed costume, yet he was for the time delighted with the effect of the reformation which he introduced;— "he suffered," says Hooker, "no glibs nor the like usages of the Irishry to be used among the men, nor the Egyptiacal rolls upon womens' heads to be worn, whereat, though the ladies and gentlewomen were somewhat grieved, yet they yielded, and giving the same over, did wear hats after the English manner." Soon after the establishment of this presidency court in Munster, Sidney was succeeded as deputy by Sir William Fitz-William. The favourite project of the age was the plantation of English settlers in such lands as by forfeiture became vested in the crown. A settlement of this kind had been attempted with strong prospects of success, at Ardes, in the county of Down. The appearance of prosperity was such as for a while to deceive the colonists; but the project was abandoned in consequence of the assassination of the son of Sir Thomas Smith, the originator of the plan. A more extensive effort at colonisation was soon after undertaken by Walter Devereux, lately created earl of Essex, on the district of Ulster, called Clan-hu-boy, which became vested in the queen by the forfeiture of the O'Neale's. Jealousies between the lord-deputy and Essex delayed and finally defeated this proposed settlement. The Irish chieftains were maddened by the fear of projects which seemed to aim not alone at the diminution of their power, but at the utter extirpation and very extinction of their race; and the country, which Sidney had left in seeming quiet, again exhibited every where turbulence and disaffection. At this eventful moment the earl of Desmond, and his brother Sir John of Desmond, who had been sent from England as prisoners of state to Dublin, contrived to escape from their imprisonment. After being detained for several months in the castle of Dublin, they were given to the custody of the mayor. Their custody was not strict, and in a hunting party they contrived to distance mayor, aldermen • Hooker. The mayor and constables, and make their escape into Munster. described them as having broken their parole of honour. They had a story of their own: they said, and possibly believed, that it was intended to waylay and murder them,—that flight was their only security. On Desmond's escape, a proclamation was issued, declaring him a traitor-a reward of £1000 with £40 a-year was offered to any one who should bring him in alive, and £500 and £20 a-year pension to him who should bring in his head. Immediately on his arrival in Munster, a confederacy was entered into between him and his principal adherents, who bound themselves by oath neither to spare life or fortune in his defence. They signed an engagement to this effect on the 18th of July, 1574. Letters too were about this time intercepted from the pope, exhorting the Irish to persevere in their opposition to the government of the heretical queen, promising supplies of arms and money, with such plenary indulgences to the champions of this holy war, as were usually granted to the armies of the faithful warring against infidels, and promises of absolution to themselves and their posterity to the third generation.* Desmond, however, found the means of quieting the suspicions of the government as they felt themselves unprepared for active measures against him. He was permitted to renew his engagements of submission and allegiance, and on Perrot's being recalled from the presidentship of Munster, he was appointed one of the council to assist his successor, Sir William Drury. Fitz-William was now recalled, and Sidney again bore the sword of state with increased powers, and with an assurance of an annual remittance of twenty thousand pounds in aid of the ordinary revenues of Ireland. A plague which raged in Dublin, and the disturbances in Ulster, made him proceed to that province before going to the capital. His presence restored tranquillity. He continued his circuit through the other provinces, and, with a force of but six hundred men, without encountering the slightest opposition, suppressed all appearances at least of disaffection. In his progress through the south he lodged three nights at Dungarvan castle, to which place the earl of Desmond came to him and humbly offered him any service he was able to do the queen. From Dungarvan, Sidney passed into Sir John of Desmond's country, in the county of Cork. From Sir John of Desmond's he arrived at Lord Barry's; and, on the 23d of December, reached Cork, where he was received with every demonstration of joy. The earls of Desmond, of Thomond, and of Clancare, waited upon him in Cork, with the bishops of Cashel, Cork, and Ross; viscounts Barry and Roche; the barons de Courcy, Lixnaw, Dunboyne, Power, Barry-Oge, and Lowth; Sir Donald M'Carthy, Reagh of Carbery, and Sir Cormac Teige M'Carthy of Muskerry; the latter "the rarest man for obedience to the queen, and to her laws, and disposition for civility, that he had met among the Irishry." He was also attended by Sir Owen O'Sullivan, and the son and heir of O'Sullivan More, his father being too old and infirm to attend; by O'Carroll of Ely O'Carroll, and M'Donough, each of whom, he, says, might for his lands rank with any baron of England or Ireland.† + Colins's State Letters. *Leland.-Phelan. O'Mahon, and O'Driscol, each of whom had lands enough to live like a knight in England, attended, and the sons of M'Auliffe and O'Callaghan represented their aged fathers. Sir Maurice FitzGerald of the Decies, and Sir Theobald Butler of Cahir, were there. Some worthies of more doubtful character and aspect made their bow at these crowded levees. Five brothers, and three sons of two other brothers, all captains of gallowglasses, armed in mail and bassenet, holding in their hands weapons like the axes of the Tower,* the M'Swineys, whose enmity was dreaded, and whose friendship was courted by the greatest men of the province, stood like Indian warriors offering the service of their axes to the deputy. In the same circle stood Arundels, Rochforts, Barrets, Flemings, Lombards, Terrys, eyeing the M'Swineys with well-merited distrust. These were men of English descent, whose ancestors had lived like gentlemen and knights, but who were ruined by the oppressive wars of the greater potentates and the plunders of the M'Swineys. All spoke with detestation, real or affected, of their barbarous mode of living. They offered fealty to her majesty, surrendered their lands to her, and agreed to hold them by English tenure. All these lords, with their ladies, attended Sidney during the Christmas at Cork, and "kept very plentiful and hospitable houses." It was a period of confidence and festivity. Sessions of gaol delivery were held from the morrow after twelfth day to the end of January. The dignity of the law was sustained by the execution of several notable malefactors, and the attainder of some of the principal persons engaged in the late disturbances. Sidney next visited Limerick, where he was received with greater magnificence than he had before witnessed in Ireland. Numbers of the principal inhabitants of Limerick and the neighbouring counties, both those of English descent and the aboriginal Irish, repaired to meet him. They complained of the waste and misery occasioned by their great men; they entreated him for English forces to protect them, and English sheriffs to execute the laws. They also sought permission to surrender their lands and to hold them of the queen. The counties of Kerry and Tipperary, being palatinate counties, he did not visit; but in the letter from which we make these extracts, he states, in the strongest manner, his conviction that no perfect reformation could exist in Munster till the privileges claimed by the earls palatine were abolished, and the grants resumed. Drury did not wait for the slow process of legislation, or for any formal resumption of the grants; he disregarded the old patents under which Desmond claimed his privileges, and determined, as lord-president of Munster, to hold his courts within the privileged territories, which had become a sanctuary for every malefactor who sought to escape justice. Desmond resisted, and with warmth pleaded his palatine rights. When he found resistance useless, he spoke of an appeal to the lord-deputy, and still protesting against the usurpation, said, that as the lord-president was determined to hold his court in Kerry, it was his duty respectfully to submit, and he invited Drury, when his progress led him through that part of Kerry, to reside in his castle at Sentleger. Tralee. Drury was unsuspicious, and he travelled through the country with an attendance of but six or seven score men. As he approached the castle of Tralee, he was astonished to behold a body of seven or eight hundred armed men, who shouted violently as the president's little party approached. It was a moment of serious alarm, and the president, having consulted with his company, charged the armed party, who in the instant retired and dispersed among the woods, without returning the charge. The countess of Desmond soon after approached. She assured the president that the body of men whom he supposed to be enemies had never intended hostilities, that the shouts which he mistook for battle-cries were the national mode of welcome; that the earl had assembled his principal friends and retainers to greet the lord-president; and that they were assembled to entertain him with the sport of hunting-the favourite pastime of the country. Drury believed, or affected to believe this account of the matter, which was probably true. He accepted the hospitality of the earl, but pursued his determination, and held his courts and sessions through the whole of the earl's palatinate. Desmond's complaint had the show, perhaps the reality, of right, though in favour of Drury it must be said that in the original patent creating the palatinate certain pleas were reserved to the crown, and only cognizable by the king's judges. Desmond, too, on his late submission, had made an absolute surrender of all his lands to the queen, with promises to execute any conveyances she might direct of them. Fierce hostility, however, against Drury, was the result of the experiment made of invading the earl's territory. The negotiations of the discontented in Ireland with the continental states, did not cease during this troubled time. Stukely, an adventurer of English birth, a man of profligate habits, and desperate fortunes, was actively engaged at the court of Rome, and the writers who relate the events of this period tell us that he succeeded in persuading Gregory the XIII., who was then supreme pontiff, that nothing could be easier than to obtain the throne of Ireland for an Italian nobleman, the nephew or son* of Gregory. The invasion and conquest of Ireland was to be the work of Spain. When this island was won, the rest of her dominions might soon be torn from Elizabeth, and the crown of England was to be Philip's reward. Eight hundred Italians were raised for this service, and placed under Stukely's command. They were to be paid by the king of Spain. Gregory, who seems already to have regarded Ireland as his own, had the audacity to confer upon Stukely the titles of Marquis of Leinster and earl of Wexford and Carlow. The impression of Stukely's military talents was such as to occasion considerable alarm to the government. All danger, however, from that quarter was soon at an end. He had embarked at Civitta Vecchia, and arrived at Lisbon at the time when Sebastian was setting out on the romantic African expedition which had such a disastrous termination. Sebastian succeeded in persuading him to join him in this expedition, promising that on their return he would assist in the invasion of Ireland. The consent of the king of Spain was easily obtained to this arrangement. Stukely fought gallantly at * Hume calls him his nephew, Cox, Leland, Phelan, and Sharon Turner, his son. |