CHAPTER I. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. A.D. 1509 TO A.D. 1547. IN the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., the Earl of Kildare was Viceroy of Ireland. This nobleman died in 1513; and was succeeded in office by his son Gerald, who, for a few years afterwards, administered the government of the country. At this period the Pale was confined within very narrow limits. It embraced only about one half of the counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, and Kildare: and the majority of its inhabitants were an Irish-speaking population. The territories of several of the great Irish, or AngloIrish chiefs, were not much inferior in geographical dimensions; and some of them ruled over districts even more extensive. The Earl of Kildare had vast estates, including some of the strongest castles in the kingdom; and so formidable was his influence, that he could embarrass the government itself when it ventured to provoke his opposition. The possessions of the Earl of Ormond extended over Tipperary and Kilkenny; the Earl of Desmond and his kinsmen had Kerry, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford; and the head of the O'Neills claimed dominion over a large part of Ulster. These dynasts exercised the rights of sovereignty; their lands yielded little, if any, revenue to the Crown; and the 3 1 According to some, part of Wexford now belonged to the Pale. See Haverty, P. 349, note. Meath included Westmeath; and Dublin, Wicklow. See Senchus Mor., vol. i., pref. v., note. Haverty, p. 349, note. See also Kelly's Dissertations on Irish History, p. 339, note. Dublin, 1864. 3 Moore, iii. 252. 4 Ibid. iii. 252. viceroy had the merest shadow of authority within the bounds of their jurisdiction. They were very frequently at war with each other; and they were ready, at any fitting opportunity, to renounce their allegiance to the King of England. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey,—who was Viceroy in 1520, and who was distinguished by the great ability of his administration— soon came to the conclusion that the island would require to be thoroughly subdued before it could be properly governed. He saw that no reliance whatever could be placed on the loyalty of most of the petty Irish potentates; and that they must all be stripped of their feudal privileges, before the country could be at peace. He was aware, indeed, of the difficulties attending such a subjugation of Ireland as that which he contemplated; he reckoned that it would encounter the most resolute and vigorous opposition; but he believed that a well-appointed army of 6,00c men would be sufficient for its accomplishment. He proposed farther, that when, by the discipline of the sword, the kingdom was made perfectly amenable to English rule, it should be furnished with a new colony of English inhabitants. It is very evident that the feeling of dissatisfaction with the British government, which existed in Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII., was not created by the ecclesiastical movements of that monarch. It was to be found in full force long before he came into collision with the Papacy. In 1517 the people rose in arms, even in the neighbourhood of Dublin-deluded, it is said, by some prediction that they were now to be delivered from the yoke of the stranger, and to enter on a new career of national glory. In 1523 the Earl of Desmond negotiated a treaty with Francis I. of France, who was then meditating an invasion of Ireland." The Munster chief 1 Shortly before this time the laconic correspondence, so often quoted, took place between O'Neill, kinsman of the Lord Deputy Kildare, and O'Donnel, chieftain of Tyrconnel. "Send me tribute or else," was the message of O'Neill. "I owe you none, and if -" was the reply.-Leland, ii. 91. In 1522 O'Neill and O'Donnel were engaged in sanguinary warfare.-Haverty, p. 351. 2 Leland, ii. 130. 3 Ibid. ii. 124-5. Haverty, pp. 348-9. See also as to another meditated insurrection in 1521 in Moore, iii. 240; Macgeoghegan, p. 389; Haverty, p. 353. hoped thus to become supreme monarch of a portion of the island. Terdelach O'Brien, hereditary prince of Thomond, united with Desmond in this treaty. In 1528 the same Earl of Desmond was engaged in another treasonable correspondence of a like character with Charles V., Emperor of Germany. The Irish nobles, in various other ways, indicated the impatience with which they submitted to British authority. In 1531 an English cruiser captured a Spanish ship employed in fishing in the neighbourhood of Bantry Bay; but O'Sullivan,3 the lord of the adjacent territory, captured both vessels; and, on the pretence that the rights of nations had been violated, hanged the Englishman, and set the Spaniard at liberty. Such proceedings attest that, long before the subject of religion began to divide the public mind, Ireland was in a very restless condition; and that some of the most powerful of the chiefs were prepared to ally themselves to any foreign potentate who could aid them effectually in the struggle for national independence. But whilst English rule rested on a very insecure foundation, the Pope, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, had no reason whatever to anticipate any interference with his authority in Ireland. Some natives of South Britain, who had imbibed religious sentiments in advance of their age, passed over into this country in the reign of Henry VII., and their presence caused some little uneasiness; for in 1495 we find the 1 Macgeoghegan, p. 389. Moore, iii. 260; Macgeoghegan, p. 392; Haverty, p. 353. 3 Macgeoghegan, p. 393. "Before the English invasion the O'Sullivans had occupied rich tracts in the South-east of Tipperary; but being, like most of the old Irish families of Munster, expelled from their fertile valleys by the invaders, they retreated westward, and, preying on weaker tribes, took possession of the Western parts of Cork and Kerry. The wild and mountainous tracts around Bantry Bay, co-extensive with the barony of Bear and Bantry, were possessed by the O'Sullevan Bear down to the close of Elizabeth's reign."-Preface to Hist. Cath. Ibern. Compend., p. v., by Professor Kelly. "The barony of Iveragh (except McCarthy More's estates), the entire of Dunkerion, and four plowlands in Glan-y-rought, were the allotment of O'Sullivan More. . . . O'Sullivan More gave one-third of his estate to his grandson, thence called McGillycuddy, i.e., the child of my affections and of my goods; and his eldest son, and eventually most of his descendants, adopted that name, viz., McGillycuddy, in the stead of their ancient name of O'Sullivan."-BRADY's Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. ii. 519. |