freed from this subjection, he would willingly have "offered service" to the English.

With the exception of O'Donnell and O'Rourke, "all Connaught" had now submitted, and tranquillity was generally restored; so that the Lord Deputy was able to report that the condition of that province was satisfactory. O'Rourke, it is true, still held out; and for many years afterwards continued to give great trouble, and to cause considerable inconvenience to the English. He is described, in 1576, as being the "proudest man in Ireland," and Sir N. Malby, writing to Walsingham, in 1578, refers to him as "the proudest man this day living on the earth." To his daughter, Hugh O'Conor, the eldest son of O'Conor Don, was married; and, as will subsequently appear, young O'Conor was accused of instigating and assisting his father-in-law in opposition to the English Government.

Writing from Dublin in 1576, and referring to his journey through Connaught, Sir Henry Sydney states':

"I staid in Roscommon but a night, both that I had appointed provision at Athlone, which is in the same county, as also for that I found nothing there laid in, to furnish me withal, and therefore willed the assembly to be at Athlone. Yet during my abode in Roscommon, O'Chonnor Donne came unto me, whose ancestor they say was sometime called 'King of Connaught.' The castle of Roscommon I took from him in my former government, whose ancestors possessed the same seven score years, and never came into Englishmen's hands. Under his call there are O'Birn and O'Flynn. O'Chonnor Roe came not unto me for fear I would compel him to make recompense for hurtes done in the rebellion time. Under him is O'Flanagan; but I can have them when I will, and make them both, arm in arm, bear and draw with their fellows. M'Dermot was with me, and one under him called MacManus. These people and some more petit lords inhabit the plains of Connaught, and are all destroyed by the Scots chiefly."

From this and abundance of other evidence it appears that the Scots and the Irish had now fallen out. Having settled their differences with the English, the Irish chieftains no longer needed the services of the Scottish mercenaries whom they had previously employed, and desired to dismiss them; but the latter were not to be got rid of so easily. Turning their arms against their former employers, they ravaged the country, and maintained themselves at the expense of its inhabitants. In 1577 they attacked the territory of O'Conor Don, who on this occasion was assisted in repelling them by the English sheriff. A few years later, in 1581, they took young Hugh

'State Papers, A.D. 1576.

O'Conor prisoner, marched through O'Conor Sligo's country, killed his son, and defeated the combined English and Irish forces.1

To put an end to these disorders, and to consolidate the government of the queen, what was termed "a council of Erin," had been held without success in Dublin in 1578, which was attended by O'Conor Sligo and M'Dermot, who were away five weeks, and received great honours. This was followed in 1582 by another council held in Roscommon, under the presidency of Captain Brabazon. This assembly, as already mentioned, held their meeting in the tower of the castle, known as "the tower of the narrow passages," and a part of the flooring gave way, when all the occupants were precipitated to the ground, and some of them were killed.3

About this time O'Conor Don's son Turlough died, and his son Hugh, who had married O'Rourke's daughter, rose in rebellion against the English. As before mentioned, O'Rourke had never fully submitted, although on several occasions he had made temporary arrangements with the English commanders.

Sir Nicholas Malby, writing to the Earl of Leicester in 1581, reports:

"O'Rourke, the only man now in action, is craving for peace. O'Donnell hath entreated me to license him to deal with O'Rourke, and compel him to submit himself to my order, which if he shall refuse to do, he hath vowed to me to expulse him out of his country. O'Donnell and O'Connor were the two principal instigators of O'Rourke to the last rebellion, which now they are sorry for."

994

Again, on 15th September, 1583, he writes:

66

His answer was

66 Three or four times I wrote to O'Rourke for the continuancy of peace. that he meant and would keep the peace usque ad festum omnium sanctorum." His meaning thereby was to get in his harvest, and then to break out. As I did assure myself, O'Connor Don's son who married O'Rourke's daughter, would begin the matter, I required him to repair to me to answer complaints exhibited against him by his neighbours.

He refused to

come over, set fire on his father's castle, who is blind and 100 years old. Captain Brabazon made haste thither with thirty horsemen ; and had it not been for the favour of a bog, had despatched the rebels. I caused the house to be repaired, and put a ward in it. This young man went by night into O'Rourke's country; thereupon I proclaimed Hugh O'Connor, and

1 Annals of Loch C, A.D. 1581.

Annals of Loch Cè, A.D. 1578.

Annals of Loch Ct, A.D. 1582. This has been already referred to in the account of castle of Roscommon, p. 176, ante.

'State Papers Calendar, A.D. 1581.

wrote to O'Rourke to apprehend him and send him to me. He returned me answer that Hugh O'Connor was his son-in-law, yet would he not keep him. Notwithstanding he prayed me to receive him to peace on certain conditions, or otherwise he had sent for Scots, and would do much hurt. I advertised the Lords Justices of these proceedings, and entertained 500 strangers out of the province. I sent out precepts to the lords and gentlemen to be ready with their rising out on the 15th of this month, with six weeks' victuals.

"O'Rourke, understanding of my disposition to invade his country, sent to me for a perfect peace. The Earl of Thomond and the Baron of Leitrim being then by hap with me, I appointed them, jointly with Captain Brabazon to repair to the borders to have parlance with him. At which parlance, upon such a sudden, there were five or six hundred tall men, the sight of whom pleased O'Rourke nothing, and forced him to stoop to any reasonable conditions; and craving two years' peace, hath put in his pledge for performance of the same, and sent his son-in-law, Hugh O'Connor, unto me. Hugh made his submission, and delivered me his pledge.'"

Dermot O'Conor was now very old and feeble; and although not quite so aged as stated by Sir N. Malby, the management of the territory had practically passed into the hands of his son. With him, as representative of his father, the new Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrot, entered into communications, and in the year 1584-85, summoned him and most of the Irish chieftains of Connaught to a parliament to be held in Dublin.

Sir Richard Bingham was about the same time appointed governor of Connaught; and the Irish Annals abound in accounts of his cruelty and injustice; "it being impossible to reckon or count all the injuries and oppressions committed by the foreigners on the chief lords of the Irish in Connaught." Perrot's parliament and Sir Richard Bingham's government will be dealt with more in detail, when treating of the life and times of Hugh O'Conor; but the following, from the Annals of Loch Cè, gives an idea of the view taken of this parliament by the Irish annalists:

"In 1585 an Act of Parliament was held in Dublin, and several of the Irish who attended it were hanged, and the rest came away without profit, and a great tribute-viz., an ounce of gold for every quarter of land---was laid on Connaught, and the sovereignty of each Gaelic lord was lowered."

In the same year, and shortly after the sitting of this parliament, Dermot O'Conor died. His death is thus recorded in the Annals of Loch Cè:

"O'Conor Don, i.e., Dermot, son of Carbry, son of Owen Caech, the man who subdued and humbled his enemies the most, the best that came of the race of Turlough Mor for a long time, died, and was interred in Ballintober,

'State Papers, Elizabeth, A. D. 1583, p. 363.

2

* Annals of Loch C, A.D. 1584.

under the protection of God and Bridget, the third day before the first festival of Mary, after he had been thirty-five years in the sovereignty.""

Dermot O'Conor married Dorothy, daughter of Teige Buidhe O'Conor Roe, and had three sons: Con, who was killed in 1563, in a war with O'Kelly; Turlough, who died in 1583; and Hugh, who succeeded him. He was the last of the O'Conors who claimed and exercised independent jurisdiction over Connaught; and with his son Hugh, a new era and system opened.

1 According to the Annals of the Four Masters and O'Donovan, Dermot O'Conor was buried in Roscommon, and his death occurred on the 16th September. Probably the first festival of Mary, here referred to, was the festival of the nativity of the B. V. Mary, held on the 8th of September.

CHAPTER XIX.

E

SIR HUGH "O'CONOR DON," SON OF DERMOT.

A.D. 1585-1632.

HE death of Dermot O'Conor, which took place in 1585, made little appreciable change in the position of the O'Conor family. Long before his death, his son, Hugh, had taken on himself the chief guidance of affairs. The daring character of this young man has been already alluded to; but the time was close at hand when the most bold and proudest amongst the Irish chieftains had to submit to the inexorable logic of accomplished facts, and to recognise to its fullest extent the superior power of England's monarch.

Hitherto, even after the partition of authority over the Irish in Connaught, which took place, under the two Turloughs, in 1385, the head of the O'Conor Don family had retained the position of an Irish chieftain-recognising the English authority only under certain limited conditions; and, within the territory which acknowledged him as chief, claiming and exercising rights scarcely consistent with the position of a subject. This sort of semi-independence was now about to disappear; and the O'Conors, as well as nearly all the other Irish chieftains, were about to accept the position of subjects of the Crown of England, and to receive grants of their lands from the royal hands.

It had long been the policy of the English monarchs to accomplish this result. Henry VIII. had endeavoured, and to a great extent successfully, to bring it about. Instead of exterminating the native Irish chieftains, they were to be conciliated; the feudal system was to be est. lished; the principal chieftains were to give up their rights of governing their subordinates; these rights were to be compounded and paid for; and the lands belonging to the chieftains themselves, or over which they exercised directly the authority