and articles of marshall discipline, as your majestie shall appoint me, and as the service of the land shall require. I praise the Almighty God, I have done by his goodnesse, more than all my predecessors; for I have reclaimed all the nobility of this part, under the dutifull obedience of Christ's church, and mine own authority, and accordingly have taken pledges and corporall oathes, never to swarve from the same; and would have sent them to your majestie, by this bearer, but that the ship was not of sufficiency and strength to carry so noble personages, and will send them whensoever your highnesses please. So there resteth nothing to quiet this part of the world, but your majestie's assistance, which I daily expect. Thus, most mighty monarch, I humbly take my leave, and doe kisse your royall hands, beseeching the Almighty of your majesties health and happinesse. From my campe, the fourteenth day of March, 1599. "Your majesties most humble at all command, Another letter from James Fitz-Thomas to the king of Spain. "Your majestie shall understand that the bearer hereof, Captain Andrew Roche, hath been always in the service of the queene of England, and hath performed her manifold services at sea; whereby he had great preferment and credit, and being of late time conversant with Catholikes, and teachers of divine instructions, that were sory for his lewd life, made known unto him the danger wherein his soul was, so that, by their godly persuasions, he was at that time reclaimed, and subverted to bee a good Catholike, and to spend the residue of his life in the defence and service of the church; since which time of reconcilement, hee was to repaire to your majestie with his ship and goods, as is well knowen to your highness' councell, who confiscated that ship to your majestie's use; himself being at that time struken with extreame sicknesse, that he was not able to proceed in the voyage; and when his company returned into Ireland, they reported that the Santado wished rather his person than his ship, which made him fearefull ever since to repaire thither, till hee should deserve his freedome by some worthy service to your majestie. "The heire apparent to the crowne of England had been carried by him to your highness, but that he was bewrayed by some of his owne men, and thereby was intercepted, and himself taken prisoner, where he remained of long, till by the providence of God, and the help of good friends, hee was conveyed into Ireland to me in a small boat; and leaving these occasions to your imperial majestie, and being assured of his trust, faith, and confidence towards mee, have committed this charge into his hands; the rather for that I understand your royall fleete is directed for England this yeare, to the end he may be a leader and conductor to them in the coast of England and Ireland, being very expert in the knowledge thereof, and in the whole art of navigation. And thus, with all humility, I commit your highnesse to the Almighty. From my campe, the fourteenth of March, 1599.* "Your majesties most humble at all command, "JAMES DESMOND." *Pacata Hib. p. 252. While he remained a prisoner in Shandon castle, the president caused him to be frequently brought before him, and examined him minutely to ascertain the true causes of the Munster rebellion; he thus obtained some statements which were confirmed by circumstances, all of which are specially mentioned by the president of Munster as exhibiting in a clear light, how trifling were the pretexts of this rebellion. Many of these reasons will not appear now so trifling, but we shall, however, reserve them for an occasion further on, when we shall be enabled to give them a more full and satisfactory discussion. We shall here be content to state, that religion was the main and principal pretext-while the remainder were grievances which, though affording far more justifiable ground for discontent, were put forward as matters of less comparative moment. Among these revelations of the Sugan earl, the most immediately important, were those which gave the fullest and clearest light upon the intercourse of the Irish insurgents with the king of Spain, and left little doubt that a Spanish expedition into Ireland was in preparation, and ere long to be looked for. And next the circumstantial crimination of Florence MacCarthy, as having taken a very leading part in this design. It was on this information, that the lord-president ordered the arrest of MacCarthy, which was the easier to effect, as the double part which he had throughout acted, prevented his taking much precaution. When he was arrested, his house was searched, and various letters were found, amply serving to confirm all the charges of the Sugan earl. On the 14th of August, 1601, both the Sugan earl and MacCarthy were conveyed to London, and committed to the Tower. There the Sugan earl continued for the remainder of his life, and died in 1608. He was interred in the Tower chapel. Hugh, Earl of Tyrone. We have already related the main incidents of the life of Hugh, earl of Tyrone, omitting as well as we might, many perplexing considerations which seem to involve the history of his time; some of these we must now notice ere we proceed to detail the memorable events which close this period of our work. As our materials for biography become gradually in the course of years more full-the springs of action, the characters of the agents, and the real connexions and causes of changes and events, become more clearly observable: the most prominent consequence of this, so far as our task is concerned, is unquestionably rather an increase than a diminution of the difficulty of that part of our duty which requires that we should administer historical justice with a strictly impartial hand. A duty which becomes more important, in proportion as the prominent actors in the events of their own times, have become the subject of praise or censure, and as the nature of that praise or censure is likely to involve either feelings or opinions which have still their place in the bosoms of mankind. This is aggravated by the critical importance of the events of the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, at which time much of the political circumstances, prejudices, and parties, by which this island has been since affected for good and evil, may be regarded as having had their origin: and from this too, our historical materials, derive a character by no means favourable to the rapid investigations of modern history. Every statement is a party statement. This evil would be but comparatively slight, if confined to contemporary histories, such as Sullivan, Moryson, or the Pacata Hibernia: because in all of these there is both a certain necessary adherence to fact, and a simplicity of style, so that their attempts to give a partial colouring are too apparent to impose on any one. They mostly content themselves with accompanying their statements with an interpretation of their own, which can deceive no reader, and never even amounts to misrepresentation: the parenthetic forsooth' or the term 'traitor', the assertion of insincerity or the unauthorized imputation of meanings and intentions, still are but appeals to the reader's judgment, or prejudice, and leave untouched facts in which all statements agree. The real difficulties arise from the prepossessions of the present age. From the same old materials, modern writers have succeeded in dressing up histories and biographical sketches which are calculated to maintain the most opposite and contradictory views. The subserviency of these to the spirit of party, would be but a conjectural accusation, but for the manner in which these partial views are contrived. This consists in omission, so that nothing is admitted into a history designed to be popular, but those facts which favour a popular view of the person or event in question. Thus are false impressions on either side to some extent increased. Unquestionably, among these opposite faults, the most to be guarded against are those which favour a popular purpose; not only because they are designed to be the vehicles of party feeling in its least scrupulous form, but also because they are composed under the consciousness that they are to be subjected to no contradiction, the writers for the most part having the field entirely to themselves, and writing for a class with which their reception entirely depends upon the conclusions with which they jump. The cause of truth requires that we should proceed in disregard of all preconceived impressions, however respectably supported; and, stating facts as we find them, conclude, where comment is required, according to the maturest judgment we can form on the whole of our data. Should it be found that we offend against the prepossessions of any party, by a little patience and candid attention, the reader so offended, will presently discover statements equally militating against the prejudices of those whom he opposes. In the entire of the civil wars in Ireland, at the period now immediately presenting itself to our attention, the errors and crimes committed on both sides, will be found to form a heavy weight in either scale. The impartial historian of periods more disengaged from these will be very likely to resolve into the general theory of human nature facts and actions which now the writer shrinks from touching, by reason of the passions and prejudices with which they are involved. Before we enter on the history of Hugh O'Neale, it may very much conduce to a distinct conception of many material points which personally affect him, to understand the precise connexion of the chief O'Neales of his day. Con O'Niall, commonly called Con More, had two sons, Con Boccagh, the first earl of Tyrone, and Tirlogh Lynnogh, whose name frequently occurs in the history of the time. Con Boccagh was the father of Shane O'Neale and others, his legitimate sons, and of Matthew who was admitted to be illegitimate, and was further affirmed to be by another father of the name of O'Kelly, a smith, whose son he was publicly reputed to be until his fifteenth year, when by a disclosure of his mother's, the old earl ascertained him to be his own. person was set up by the earl as his successor, and created baron of Dungannon, by queen Elizabeth. He was slain by the followers of Shane O'Neale, and left three sons, of whom the second was Hugh, the person here to be commemorated. This On the death of Shane O'Neale, his uncle Tirlogh Lynnogh was, by the law of tanistry, entitled to become the O'Neale, which title he accordingly assumed; but by the law of English descent, and by the disposition* already mentioned, Hugh was the immediate successor of his father Matthew, and entitled to the earldom of Tyrone. He was brought up in England, and early received employment in the queen's service, in which he repeatedly distinguished himself, especially in the wars against Gerald the sixteenth earl of Desmond, in which he had the command of a troop of horse. At this time his reputation stood high with every party; while his valour and military talent recommended him to the English, the other party, accustomed to temporizing submissions, put the most indulgent construction on his adhesion to their enemies. Moryson describes his person and character with the authority of a contemporary and an eye-witness:— "He was of mean stature, but of a strong body, as able to endure watchings, labour, hard fare; being withal industrious and active, valiant, affable, and apt to manage great affairs, and of a high dissembling subtile and profound wit."† There were at this early period of his career, various circumstances and many influences in growing operation, which were likely sooner or later to give to his conduct the direction which it afterwards received. But it may be safely admitted, that he was at first sincere in his adherence to a government, of which his rank and fortune were the creation, and to which with his questionable title, he must from the first have looked as his main support. These circumstances will sufficiently appear as we proceed, and may be easily anticipated by those. who have read our previous notices. To a person of Tyrone's sagacious judgment, it must have been sufficiently apparent that it was his best interest, and the only course consistent with safety and honour, to preserve his loyalty without suspicion. But this did not altogether depend on him. It was a time when the very air of the country was loaded with suspicions and imputations: the designs of the queen, council, and in the main of the chief governors, may be allowed to have been upright; but the interests under question at the moment, were too large and weighty not to bring into the field and council, all the most sordid passions of human nature. An important change was also working in the stormy elements of + Moryson. *Vol. i. F. 463. Irish contention. The wave of the reformation had flowed in and the resistance of the Roman see gave new force, bitterness, and unity to the strife of four centuries. The enmity of Philip the Third, king of Spain, added its portion of fuel to the same flame. Ireland was too obviously the assailable side of the queen's dominions to be neglected, and the Irish chiefs were long cajoled by great promises and small aids, which were yet enough to give the excitement of hope to their ambition and hate. Still Hugh O'Neale was looked on with an invidious eye by many of the chiefs. It was felt that he was an intruder on the territorial possessions of Tyrone; his known illegitimacy, and the still deeper disqualification, more than suspected, caused him to be slighted by some. His adherence to the English government excited the dislike of many, and a grasping and tyrannical disposition not peculiar to him, raised numerous enemies. To these O'Neale turned a front of subtile and profound dissimulation, which ended like all indirect courses in determining his course to the baser side. While he professed, and we believe truly, his attachment to the queen, he was compelled to dissemble with his fellow-countrymen. This conduct, which Irish authorities place beyond doubt, led in two ways to the determination of his conduct: it supplied in no small abundance material for misrepresentation, betraying him from time to time into positions of an equivocal nature; and it placed him under the occasional necessity of committing himself by acting in his assumed character. He was as yet little affected by these embarrassments of position, when in 1587 he petitioned the parliament, then sitting in Dublin under Sir John Perrot, that he might be allowed to take the title and possessions of Tyrone. The rank and title were conceded, but for the possessions he was told that the question must depend on the queen's pleasure, on which he applied for Sir John's recommendatory letters to the queen, and represented that a large rent might be reserved to the crown, with his free consent. Perrot was reluctant,* but at the pressing entreaty of his Irish friends, gave him the required letters. Thus authorized, he straightway repaired to England to plead for himself, and put the best face on his own pretensions. O'Neale's address and practised suppleness eminently fitted him for such an occasion, and in Elizabeth he had a fair object for the exercise of such qualities. She received him graciously as an old acquaintance, and suffered herself to be pleased by his wily admiration, and the well-assumed simplicity which did not prevent his exhibiting his claims and enforcing their expediency, with all the dexterity of a sagacious statesman. warmly expressed his regret at the slowness of his countrymen to receive the improvement of English manners and laws; was particularly earnest and pathetic in his representation of the afflictions of Tyrone; and with much force of argument, convinced the queen, that nothing could proceed rightly until she had put down the barbarous title of O'Neale. On the strength of these arguments, he urged his personal pretensions, and so won upon the queen that she complied with his demands; he thus obtained the princely inheritance of his He 1 |