LECTURE IX.

THE WAR OF HUGH O'NEILL.

NOTWITHSTANDING the Act of 11 Eliz., sess. 3, chap. 1, Turlough Luineach succeeded in establishing himself in Tyrone as "The O'Neill," but in a position very inferior to that of his predecessors. The subject chiefs had disclaimed their allegiance to the Royal house, and by their aid the English Government could without difficulty repress any attempts to establish an independent sovereignty in Ulster. His position had been endangered by the expedition of the Earl of Essex, and the treaty entered into between The O'Neill and Lord Essex on behalf of the Government shows how rapidly the O'Neills were falling into the rank of ordinary tribe chiefs. By this document, dated June, 1572, O'Neill humbly submitted to the Queen, promised to assist the Earl against any person who should oppose her in Ulster, abandoned all claims over the followers of Clandeboy beyond the Bann, all superiority over the Baron of Dungannon's sons, and any persons dwelling between the great river (the Blackwater) and Dundalk, promised to serve the Queen against all persons upon whom she might make war, to endeavour to expel the Scots, to conduct himself peaceably against O'Donnell and all other faithful subjects of the Queen, and to deliver up as pledges his sons Arthur and another. In consideration of his submission,

he was to receive of the Queen a grant of all lands from Lough Foyle to the Blackwater, and from the Bann to the Maguire country, with all the monastic lands in the province.* On the 7th of October, 1584, he agreed to maintain 300 English footmen at a certain stipulated rate, and to send to Her Majesty yearly, one good chief horse and one cast of hawks.†

In 1584, after the termination of the war in Munster, the Deputy proceeded to Ulster to establish the supremacy of the Queen in that province. Turlough Luineach met him at Newry, and submitted, putting in pledges. In this year the Ulster chiefs came in almost without exception, and the Deputy, having inflicted severe chastisement upon the Scots, proceeded to reduce the province to complete subjection by dividing the government of Ulster between O'Neill, the Baron of Dungannon, and Sir H. Bagnal. O'Neill attended the ensuing Parliament in Dublin, on the 26th of April; shortly after which the Deputy was established at Dungannon, for the purpose of directing a second campaign against the Scots.

At the date of the resignation of Perrot and the appointment of Fitzwilliam as Deputy, the English Government appeared to enjoy an uncontested supremacy in the island, and the natives to have temporarily laid aside any design of insurrection or hope of foreign succour. The Spaniards who, after the defeat of the Armada, were wrecked upon the western coasts, were treated as enemies; the only Irish chief who received them as friends was transferred to London, and executed. In Munster the natives had been crushed, and in Ulster the power of The O'Neill was paralyzed.

On the part of the English garrison this security pro*Carew MSS., vol. ii., p. 12. † Ibid., p. 382.

duced insolence and violence towards the inhabitants. The troops of this period were not restrained by a rigid discipline; they were accustomed to look upon plunder and free-quarters as portion of their remuneration; their officers, in money matters, were not trained to a high standard of honour and honesty; the pay of the privates was generally scandalously in arrear ;* soldiers of this description were scattered in small detachments throughout the country with very little duty to perform, and living among natives whom they had been taught to despise as an inferior race. The plundering and confiscation of Munster had demoralised the officers, who regarded Ireland as a country where they might treat the population with insolence, and by grant from the Crown, or by mere force, appropriate estates to themselves. The Government of Ireland was not careful about such matters, and that of London was left in ignorance of them. If to this be added the difficulty and uncertainty of communication, and the entire absence of public opinion, no violence or outrage of the soldiery to the natives is incredible.

Both the loyal English and the Celtic districts suffered alike. Some years after (1597), the conduct of the troops became a subject of inquiry, and the mode in which the Pale had been treated was stated as follows:-" The horse companies, in passing through the same, every man hath double horses, some officers treble; each of them one boy, some of them two; travelling not four miles in the day and that not directly, but crossing the country to and fro-wasting with their lingering journies the inhabitants' corn excessively with their horses, and their goods

* See the account of Sir Thomas Norris's Foot in Dublin, on the 28th May, 1590. Carew MSS., vol. iii., p. 31; also Carew to Heneage, ibid., pp. 35, 36.

with their extortion. The foot companies likewise observing the same course in travelling, most commonly not above two or three miles in the day, though their appointed garrisons be not ten miles off, yet do they go thirty miles about, being followed and accompanied as they go through the Pale, each soldier with his boy at least, and for a great part with their women, and many horses as well of their own as of the country, taken violently from their owners to carry them, their children, and women; pleasing themselves at their pleasures; exacting meat and drink far more than competent, and, commonly, money from them; their boys, women, and followers, much exceeding the people's ability, taking money from [for?] their officers after a double rate, whereof among every seven and eight soldiers they affirm commonly to have one. And if there be any wanting of a full company-as commonly in these journies, and all other cases tending to the country's charge, there be rather more than under, though at all other times far fewer than due then are the numbers, which they report to be absent, said to be employed in necessary causes, and they which are present do oftentimes take up money for the diet of them pretended to be absent. And if they be not satisfied with meat and money according to their outrageous demands, then do they beat their poor horses and their people, ransacking their houses, taking away cattle and goods of all sorts, not leaving so much as the tools and instruments that craftsmen do exercise their occupations withal, nor the garments to their backs, nor clothes to their beds; so as, at their next meeting places, there are to be found many times such plentiful store of household stuff, or what else they could carry or drive away with them, as at ordinary markets; which, if the owners did not redeem at the will of the takers, then are they sold and dispersed

in such sort as they that owned them shall never come by them again. And if any do withstand or gainsay such their inordinate wills, then they do not only exercise all the cruelty they can against them, in far worse sort than before, in nature of a revenge, so as whosoever resisteth their will shall be sure to have nothing left him, if he can escape with his life.

"This course of ranging and extorting her silly people is become so common and gainful, as that many other soldiers (as is said) have no other entertainment from their captains; and many others that are not soldiers, pretending to be of some company or other, have, in like outrageous sort, ranged up and down the country, spoiling and robbing the subjects, as if they were rebels. And most certain it is that the rebels themselves, pretending to be soldiers, and knowing how gainful the course, have often played the like parts, unbeknown to the poor people, who live in such awe of the soldiers, as they dare not resist any that take upon them that profession. So as, of all sides, the poor subjects go so miserably to wreck, as no tongue or pen can at full express.

"At other times the garrisons oppress the inhabitants without cause, consuming wastefully and needless such provisions as people make for relief of themselves and their families, and in misusing of their persons, in such wise as the poor creatures, being thereby deprived of food and rest, together with the spoils of the rebels, are forced to forsake their houses, which out of hand are plucked down, and the timber thereof burned in garrisons; which waste is made the more grievous that the inheritors or inhabitants of those waste places are forced to carry the timber of their houses to be burned; the soldiers leaving no trees, fruitful or otherwise, unspoiled; the planters and preservers,