AGITATION IN THE PALE.

407

sessions, while the earl forwarded to the government, in Dublin, an indignant complaint against the president's offensive proceedings. Shortly after this Sir William Drury seized the earl's brother, John, in Cork, on suspicion of some treasonable practices, and sent him under an escort to Dublin,

In the meantime Sir Henry Sidney, having learned that a large body of Scots were about to join the still unsubdued sons of the earl of Clanrickard, marched into Connaught, where Mac William Iochter, who had deserted the cause of the young De Burgos, came to his standard; and the Scots being discouraged by the prospect of affairs, on their arrival in the west, abandoned their friends without fighting, and returned to Ulster. Thus deserted, the earl's sons continued to hide themselves in the wildest recesses of the woods and hills, and Sidney, having left some troops to hunt them down, returned to Dublin.

This

A.D. 1577.-Difficulties of another kind now disturbed the Pale, owing to the arbitrary exercise of power by the lord deputy, who, by the sole authority of the privy council, and without the intervention of parliament, converted the occasional subsidy, which was granted in emergencies for the support of the government and army, into a regular tax, abolished local and personal privileges of exemption, and decreed that the assessment should be levied on all subjects of the crown. proceeding received the warmest approval of the queen, who had always most reluctantly granted the supplies necessary for the Irish establishment; but it aroused a general and violent feeling of discontent throughout the Pale. The most loyal joined in remonstrances against an exercise of despotic power so odious and oppressive. The people pleaded constitutional rights, but the only reply to this was the queen's prerogative. The collection of the cess was resisted, and agents were sent in the name of the lords, and other leading inhabitants of the Pale, to represent the grievance to the queen and the English privy council. Their remonstrance was anticipated by letters from the lord deputy, and after a partial hearing of their complaint by the queen, in person, the agents were committed to the tower for contumacy, and Sidney was reprimanded, by letter, for not having immediately punished those who presumed to question the prerogative of the crown. This stretch of despotism augmented the popular indignation; and Elizabeth and her ministers, alarmed at the clamour which was raised, and sensible of the danger of alienating the few in Ireland who were friendly to the government, thought it better to accommodate matters. A composition for seven years' purveyance, payable by instalments, was agreed to; the

agents, and others who were imprisoned, were liberated, and the question

was set at rest.

The wars of so many generations had not been able to exterminate the ancient race of Leix and Offally, where some sturdy representatives of the O'Mores, O'Conors, and others, had grown up since the thinning of their septs in the late reigns. These shared in the general dissaffection, and were roused into action by the wild heroism of the famous outlaw chieftain, Rory Oge O'More, who, at this time, kept the borders of the Pale in perpetual alarm by his daring exploits. With a few followers he was generally a match for the small garrisons by whom the border-towns were guarded. This year he surprised Naas, the night after the annual festival, or "patron" day, of the town, when the inhabitants were buried in sleep after their festivities, and had forgotten to set the usual watch on the town-walls. His men carried lighted brands on poles, and with these set the low thatched houses on fire, so that the town was in a few minutes one sheet of flames, and the terrified inhabitants, roused from their slumbers, were unable to make any resistance. The Anglo-Irish chroniclers, who make Rory the hero of the wildest adventures, tell us that he sat for some time at the marketcross to enjoy the spectacle, and then departed in triumph without taking any life. Thus was Rory Oge for some time the terror of the Pale, making nightly attacks on its towns and villages, and having himself numerous hair-breadth escapes from the attempts to kill or capture him. Many persons in Kilkenny and other towns were suspected of being friendly to him, and of furnishing him with information which enabled him to escape the snares laid against him. On one occasion he got two English officers, captains Harrington and Cosby, into his power, and took them to his retreat in a wood near Carlow, where, through the treachery of a servant, he was soon after surprised at night by Robert Hartpool, the constable of Carlow, and had a narrow escape, having had to cut his way through the ranks of the soldiers who surrounded the cabin where he slept. His two English prisoners were rescued on this occasion, and his wife and sixteen or seventeen of his men slain; and the following year he was cut off by MacGilla Patrick, baron of upper Ossory, who watched his movements with a strong detachment of the queen's troops and a party of Irish kernes. O'More came out of a wood to parley with MacGilla Patrick's kerne, when one of the latter ran him through with his sword. Thus, on the 30th of June, 1578, was the Pale relieved from its deadliest source of fear, and the Irish deprived of a brave soldier, who, with a

THE MASSACRE OF MULLAMAST.

409

better organised system of opposition might have proved a very dangerous foe to Elizabeth's government.*

This year, the nineteenth of queen Elizabeth, is marked by a frightful transaction, the recital of which has often in late times made men shudder, while its gloomy interest has been enhanced by the mystery in which it has been shrouded. It would appear that the heads of the Irish families of Leix and Offaly were invited in the queen's name, and under her protection, to attend a meeting or conference in the great rath on the hill of Mullamast (Mullach-Maistean), in the county of Kildare, and that about four hundred of them obeyed the summons. The Irish annalists assert that they were people who had remained on friendly terms with the English, and that they had been "summoned to show themselves with the greatest numbers they could bring with them." Some of them may have been implicated in the revolt of Rory Oge, who was then verging towards his fall; but no special provocation is alleged against them, and at all events they came to the meeting under the guarantee of the royal protection. No sooner, however, had they assembled in the great rath than they were encompassed by a treble line of the queen's garrison soldiers, and all of them, to a man, most inhumanly butchered in cold blood-and this atrocious act was committed with the cognisance and approval of the queen's deputy in Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney! In this horrible massacre, coming so soon after the

Dowling, according to whom O'More was slain in 1577, asserts that that chief maintained his independence during eighteen years, in the course of which time he burnt Naas, Athy, Carlow, Leighlin bridge, Rathcool, and other places; but the injury he inflicted on some of these towns must have been very slight. The Four Masters, who record his death (as does also Ware), in 1578, describe him as "the head of the plunderers and insurgents of the men of Ireland in his time." The baron of Ossory was offered the one thousand marks which had been promised as a reward for the head of O'More; but he only accepted one hundred pounds, which he divided among his men. Owen, or Owny, the son of Rory Oge, was also a valiant captain, and became celebrated as a soldier in the subsequent wars against Elizabeth.

† According to a traditional account of the massacre of Mullamast, given on the authority of "an old gentleman named Cullen, of the county of Kildare, who was living in 1705, and had frequently discoursed with one Dwyer and one Dowling actually living at Mullamast when this horrid murder was committed," as published by Dr. O'Donovan (Four Masters, vol. v., pp. 1695-1696) from a MS, in the handwriting of the late Laurence Byrne, of Fallybeg, in the Queen's county, it appears that the victims belonged to the seven septs of Leix, namely, the O'Mores, O'Kelly's, O'Lalors, Devoys, Macaboys, O'Dorans, and O'Dowlings, with some of the family of Keating; and that the persons concerned in the commission of the murder were the Deavils, Grehams, Cosbys, Pigotts, Bowens, Hartpoles, Hovendons, Dempseys, and Fitzgeralds--the five last-named families being at that time Catholics. Tradition attaches the most blame in the matter to the O'Dempseys, because they were not only Catholics but Irish; and "the inhabitants of the district," says Dr. O'Donovan, "now believe that a curse has followed this great Irish family ever since." It is probable that Cosby was the officer in command of the military party called in to execute the massacre; the chief command of all the kerne in the queen's pay having been committed by lord deputy Sussex to Francis Cosby; one Edmond O'Dempsey being a captain of kerne under him (Patent Roll, 5th & 6th Philip and Mary). Captain Thomas Lee, an officer of government, who, in 1594, addressed a memorial to Elizabeth,

murder of O'Neill of Clannaboy and his family, and the slaughter of his followers, by the earl of Essex, and followed by other like acts of inhumanity and perfidy on the part of the government, in the south, and in the merciless rigor with which the laws were enforced against the Irish, we obtain a frightful idea of the principles then acted upon in the government of this country.

The affair of Mullamast and the prosecution of some citizens of Kilkenny, who were suspected of holding communication with Rory Oge O'More, are the last incidents in the government of Sir Henry Sidney. That statesman had been four times appointed lord justice of Ireland, and three times lord deputy; and it is remarkable that notwithstanding his excessive rigor, he is mentioned in the Irish annals in terms which imply respect. In compliance with his repeated and earnest applications for permission to retire, he surrendered the sword of state to Sir William Drury, the lord president of Munster, on the 26th of May, 1578.

entitled "a brief declaration of the government of Ireland" (preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, and printed in the Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, vol. ii., p. 91, and in the appendix to Dr. Curry's Civil Wars in Ireland) mentions in that tract, among other acts of oppression, cruelty, rapine, and injustice, the massacre of Mullamast, in the following words:-" They have drawn unto them by protection three or four hundred of these country people, under color to do your majesty service, and brought them to a place of meeting, where your garrison soldiers were appointed to be, who have there most dishonorably put them all to the sword; and this hath been by the consent and practise of the lord deputy for the time being." Thady Dowling, the cotemporary Protestant chancellor of Leighlin, thus records the massacre :—“ 1577.—Moris MacLasy MacConyll (O'More), lord of Merggi, as he asserted, and successor of the baron of Omergi, with 40 (query? a mistake for 400) of his followers, after his confederation with Rory O'More, and after a certain promise of protection, was slain at Mullaghmastyn, in the county of Kildare, the place appointed for it by Master Cosby and Robert Hartpoole, having been summoned there treacherously, under pretence of performing service;" and at the end of this entry, which is in Latin, some zealous Protestant interpolated the following words in English :-" Harpoll excused it that Moris had geven villanous wordes to the breach of his protection," which might mean that, in order to commence the slaughter, a pretended riot was raised, on the occasion of some hasty words extracted from O'More. O'Sullivan (Hist. Cath., p. 99, ed. 1850) says that 180 men of the family of O'More were slain in the massacre. According to some traditions only one O'More escaped from the slaughter; but according to the MS. of Lawrence Byrne, above referred to, the popular tradition was that the lives of several others were preserved through the means of one Harry Lalor, who, "remarking that none of those returned who had entered the fort before him, desired his companions to make off as fast as they could in case they did not see him come back. Said Lalor, as he was entering the fort, saw the carcases of his slaughtered companions; then drew his sword and fought his way back to those that survived, along with whom he made his escape to Dysart, without seeing the Barrow." Mullamast (Mullach-Maistean) is a large but not lofty hill, situated about five miles from the town of Athy, in the county of Kildare, and in our times has been rendered further remarkable as the scene of one of Mr. O'Connell's most celebrated meetings in the great repeal movement of the year 1843.

3236

CHAPTER XXXIII.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH-CONTINUATION.

Plans of James FitzMaurice on the Continent.-Projected Italian expedition to Ireland-Its singular fate.-Fitzmaurice lands with some Spaniards at Smerwick.-Conduct of the earl of Desmond.-Savage treatment of a bishop and priest.-The insurgents scattered.-Murder of Davells and Carter.-Tragical death of James FitzMaurice.-Proceedings of Drury and Malby. -Catholics in the royal ranks.-Defeat of the royal army by John of Desmond at Gort-naTiobrad.-Death of Sir William Drury.-Important battle at Monasteranena-Defeat of the Geraldines.-Desmond treated as a rebel-Hostilities against him.-Sir Nicholas Malby at Askeaton.-Desmond at length driven into rebellion.-He plunders and burns Youghal.-The country devastated by Ormond.-Humanity of a friar.-James of Desmond captured and executed.-Campaign of Pelham and Ormond in Desmond's country.-Capture of Carrigafoyle castle.-Other castles surrendered to the lord justice.-Narrow escape of the earl of Desmond.-Insurrection in Wicklow.-Arrival of lord Gray-His disaster in Glenmalure.-Landing of a large Spanish armament at Smerwick harbour.-Lord Gray besieges the foreigners.-Horrible and treacherous slaughter in the Fort del Ore.-Savage barbarity of lord Gray and his captains Butchery of women and children near Kildimo.-Rumoured plot in Dublin.-Arrest of the earl of Kildare and others.-Premature executions.-Forays of the earl of Desmond.Melancholy end of John of Desmond.-The FitzMaurices of Kerry in rebellion.-Battle of Gort-na-Pisi. The Clen of Aherlow.-Desperate state of Desmond-His murder His character.-Mild policy of Perrott.-The Parliament of 1585.-Composition in Connaught.-Plantation of Munster.-Brutal severity of Sir Richard Bingham in Connaught.-&c.

[A.D. 1579 TO A.D. 1587.]

AMES FitzMaurice, the most earnest and consistent of the Irish patriots of his time, was not inactive during the long sojourn he had been making on the Continent. While staying with his family at St. Malo's, his movements were closely watched by the spies of Sir Henry Sidney.* At that moment, however, the relations between England and France were unfavorable to his purpose, and when he applied to Henry III. for help for the Irish Catholics, he was merely told by that monarch that he would use his interference with Elizabeth to procure pardon for him. Reconciliation with the queen of England was the last thing that FitzMaurice desired; so he next repaired to Philip II. of Spain, who, being also then at peace with

· Sidney at this time calls Sir James FitzMaurice "a papist in extremity (ie., an extreme Catholic), well esteemed, and of good credit among the people." S. P.