During the war of Shane O’Neill, his first cousin Turlogh Lynnagh was on the side of the government, who played him, as they played many another chief, against that

1. In addition to the authorities quoted in this Chapter, the reader may consult The Life and Times of Aodh Hugh O’Neill, by John Mitchel: Duffy, Dublin.

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formidable rebel. He was elected The O’Neill immediatelyafter the death of Shane, although he well knew it was a matter of high treason. After this period he did not receive much countenance - the authorities no longer needed him; and there was now coming to the front another member of the family, a powerful rival in government favour.

It will be remembered that Matthew baron of Duugannon had two sons, the elder of whom succeeded to the title. On the death of this young man (p.411) the younger brother Hugh, the subject of our present sketch, while still a mere boy, became by law baron of Dungannon; but his claim was for many years disregarded. There is good reason to suspect that Matthew was not an O’Neill at all (p.400); but anyhow, this Hugh assumed, and probably believed that he was really of that great family; and he subsequently became the most distinguished man that ever bore the name. He is described by his contemporary Moryson [1] as ‘of a mean [medium] Stature but a strong Body, able to endure Labours, Watching, and hard Fare, being withal industrious and active, valiant, affable, and apt to manage great Affairs, and of a high, dissembling, subtile, and profound wit.’

As his father had been always on the side of the government, Hugh was educated among the English, and began his military life in the queen’s service as commander of a troop of horse. He served through the Geraldine war, and was constantly commended for his zeal and loyalty. The government gave him possession of the south-east of Tyrone, restricting Turlogh Lynnagh to the north-west. After this he kept continually quarrelling with Turlogh, in which he was rather encouraged by the government, who were not ill pleased to see that troublesome old chief kept down. He attended the late parliament (1585, p.461), as baron of Dungannon; and before the close of the proceedings he was made earl of Tyrone in succession to his (reputed) grandfather Conn Bacach. But the parliament declined to grant him the

1. Hist. of Irel. i. 16.

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inheritance attached to the title, saying that none but the queen could do that, inasmuch as the land had become the property of the crown by the attainder of Shane O’Neill.[1]

Accordingly he went to England in 1587, furnished , with a warm recommendation from Perrott to Queen Elizabeth, whose favour and confidence he soon gained by his courtly and insinuating manners; and she sent him back fully confirmed in both title and inheritance. She imposed however these important conditions: that Turlogh Lynnagh should still remain Irish chief of Tyrone - this evidently with the intention of keeping the power of both balanced; that earl Hugh himself should not claim authority over the other Ulster chiefs; and lastly, he was to give up 240 acres on the Blackwater as a site for a fort. This fort was built soon after and called Portmore; it commanded a ford which was the pass from Armagh into Tyrone, O’Neill’s territory; and its site is now marked by the village of Blackwatertown.

On his return he was received with great honour, both by the government authorities and by his own countrymen. For the Irish looked up to him as the most powerful representative of their ancient kingly race, and they believed that though an ofiicer in the English army his heart was with their cause; while the Irish government regarded him as a favourite of the queen, and as their best safeguard against the disaffected of Ulster. And with great astuteness he made full use of his influence with both to increase his power.

Sir John Perrott, worn out by the untiring persecution of his enemies, was recalled at his own request, being greatly regretted by the people of Dublin, who on the day of his departure turned out in immense crowds to see him off. He was succeeded in 1588 by Sir William Fitzwilliam, a man of no principle, who had been governor several times before. He thought he had not been sufficiently recompensed for his former services; and he now resumed the government, fully determined to enrich him-

1. Carew Papers, 1575-1588, p.407.

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self by every means in his power. He had not been long in office before he turned the whole of Ulster against the queen’s government. Soon after his arrival, in 1588, some shipwrecked sailors belonging to the Armada were treated kindly by O’Ruarc of Brefney and by Mac Sweenyna-Doe. The deputy came to hear of this, and heard moreover what interested him a great deal more - that the Spaniards before re-embarking had buried a tremendous quantity of treasure somewhere near the shore. Without a moment’s delay he hastened north, ‘wishing,’ as Cox expresses it, ‘to have a finger in the pie.’ But he found no treasure; neither did he succeed in arresting O’Ruarc and Mac Sweeny, for they had fled on his approach. Enraged at this double disappointment, he seized without any provocation the first two chiefs that came to hand, Sir John O’Gallagher and Sir John O’Doherty, ’who,’ as Cox says, ’were the best afi*ected to the State of all the Irish,’ and threw them into prison in Dublin. O’Gallagher died of a broken heart in his dungeon, and at the end of two years O’Doherty was set free when at the point of death, and even then only on paying a heavy bribe to the deputy. ‘This hard usage of two such Irish persons,’ says Ware, ‘caused a general dissatisfaction among the gentlemen of Ulster.’ O’Ruarc escaped to Scotland, but was given up to the queen by the Scotch and executed soon after. But the deputy did much worse than even this. Hugh Mac Mahon of Farney in Monaghan had occasion to go to Dublin in 1589 to settle in the courts some matters connected with his succession; when Fitzwilliam, before he would even hear the case, made him pay a bribe of 600 cows. Having settled the affair, he accompanied Mac Mahon in friendly guise to Monaghan, where he suddenly had the unfortunate chief put on his trial on a trumped-up charge, kept the jury without food till they brought in a verdict of guilty; and had him executed at his own door. Then he proceeded to divide Mac Mahon’s estate; and everyone believed that he got heavy bribes from those to whom he gave the lands. [1]

1, Moryson, i. 24; Cox, 399,

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It would appear that the earl of Tyrone had fallen under suspicion of having had friendly communication also with the shipwrecked Spaniards. At any rate he thought it best to go to England, in May 1590, to represent his own case to the queen. As he had not obtained from the deputy the license to quit Ireland required by law, he was arrested on his arrival and put in prison; but he was released at the end of a month and made his peace with the queen. He now proposed various reforms in his principality, reforms which he knew would be highly pleasing to the queen and to the government, and he bound himself on his honour to carry them out. He would renounce the name of O’Neill; would have Tyrone made shire ground, and permit a jail to be built at Dungannon. He would cause his people to hold their lands by English tenure, under rent, and to dress English fashion; he promised not to admit monks or friars into his country unless they conformed, and not to hold any correspondence with foreign traitors - along with several other proposals tending in the same direction.

Scarcely had this pleasant business ended when a son of Shane an Diomais O’Neill - Hugh Gaveloch or Hugh of the Fetters - appeared in London and openly accused the earl of plotting with the Spaniards to make war on the queen. Whereupon Tyrone was straightway brought before the council board to answer this serious charge; but he simply denied it and was believed. How could a man who had promised to do so much for the government be disloyal? After his return to Ireland one of his first acts was to arrest this Hugh Gaveloch; and having put him to trial he had him hanged (1590). This brought angry expostulations from the authorities; but he pleaded that he had merely, by virtue of his privilege of executing martial law, hanged a known traitor. And he stopped further inquiry on this and other doubtful proceedings by permitting Tyrone to be marked out into shire ground with Dungannon for its county town (1591).

At this time Sir Henry Bagenal, marshal of Ireland, had his headquarters at Newry, where his sister Mabel,

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a beautiful girl, lived with him. O’Neill, whose wife had died some time before, having met Miss Bagenal, they fell in love with each other, and earnestly wished to be married. But Bagenal was bitterly opposed to the match, and sent the lady out of the way to the house of his sister Lady Barnwell, who lived near Dublin. O’Neill followed her and managed to have her conveyed to the residence of a friend at Drumcondra, where early in August 1591 they were married by Thomas Jones the Protestant bishop of Meath.[1] Bagenal was greatly enraged, and made a violent complaint to the government, which came to nothing; but from that day forth he was O’Neill’s deadliest enemy. Moreover he persistently refused to give the lady her fortune - £1,000, which had been left her by her father. He kept it himself; and this further embittered the quarrel.

There were still continual disputes and recriminations between the earl and Turlogh Lynnagh; and the government officials, whenever they were called in to settle matters, always took the side of the earl. At last old Turlogh, wearied with the contest, retired with an assured income for life; and the earl gained the great object of his ambition: he became, in 1593, master of all Tyrone. But now he never made the least move to carry out his promised reforms. He knew well indeed that it was as much as his life was worth to attempt to do so; for his people would have risen to a man against the introduction of English customs.

The queen and government were greatly puzzled how to deal with Tyrone. His proceedings excited secret suspicions and alarms; and they now sorely repented having placed so much power in his hands. For the purpose of repressing attempts at insurrection in Ulster, he proposed to keep up a small standing army of Irish; to which the government could see no objection. An army

1. This poor lady’s married life was short; she never witnessed the final fatal struggle between her husband and her brother; for she died some time before the battle of the Yellow Ford. (Carew Papers, 1589-1600. p.151.)

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must be trained; and now the training and drilling went on steadily. But he changed some of his men almost every day. sending home those who had been sufficiently drilled and supplying their places with new recruits; and in this way he managed to make expert soldiers of nearly all the men of Tyrone. For the purpose of roofing his new house at Dungannon he brought home vast quantities of lead; and the deputy in Dublin was made uneasy by a rumour that it was intended not for roofs but for bullets.[1] He secured the friendship of the most powerful of the Ulster chiefs, instead of seeking to subjugate them like Shane O’Neill. He gave his son in fosterage to O’Cahan; kept up amicable relations with the Scots of Clandeboy and the Glens; and his late wife was daughter of Sir Hugh O’Donnell lord of Tirconnell, the most pow[n]erful of all his neighbours. We have seen how he aided young O’Donnell to escape from Dublin Castle.

Complaints now began to reach the government that he was exercising authority over many of the smaller chiefs, contrary to his agreement with the queen; but he managed things so adroitly that the complaints came to nothing. He was very careful not to commit himself openly, so that the authorities, though feeling suspicious and uneasy, had no grounds for active interference. Judging however that it might not be safe to place himself directly in the power of the government, he absented himself from the council in Dublin, of which he was a member.

Yet he still continued in the queen’s service. For when the lord deputy marched into Connaught in 1593 to attack Maguire and O’Ruarc, who had been goaded into rebellion by the sheriffof Fermanagh, the earl accompanied the expedition, though with much secret unwillingness. Maguire, driven to bay, defended with great obstinacy the ford of Culuan on the Erne, a little west of Belleek. and it was only after 400 of his men had fallen that the passage was forced. In this action Tyrone was wounded while crossing the river at the head of his cavalry; but this was the last time he fought on the side of the govern-

1. Ware’s Annals, 1593.

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ment. We are told that on this occasion Red Hugh O’Donnell was on his way to aid the two Connauglit chiefs, but was induced to refrain by a private message from O’Neill, who did not wish to fight against his young friend.

In the following year, 1594, deputy Fitzwilliam, following up his hostilities against Maguire, took his chief castle of Enniskillen, which was built on an island - it was delivered up by the warders for a bribe; in which he left a strong garrison. And Sir Richard Bingham governor of Connaught, who was present, having executed all the men that fell into his hands, gathered the women, children, and old people of the place, and flung them into the river from the battlements of the bridge. [1] But Maguire and O’Donnell laid siege to the town, plundered the adherents of the English in the surrounding country, and cut off all supplies. At the end of about six weeks, when the garrison had been reduced to great distress, the deputy directed Sir Henry Duke and Sir Edward Herbert with Sir Richard Bingham, to proceed towards the town with a considerable force and attempt to throw in provisions. When news of this reached Enniskillen, O’Donnell, who was becoming impatient at O’Neill’s persistence in holding aloof, sent him an earnest and half-angry request for help for Maguire. O’Neill, wishing to avoid an open breach with the government, took no steps in the matter; but his brother Cormac joined Maguire with a small troop of 400 horse and foot, in such a manner that it was impossible to tell whether or not it was done with the consent of the earl.

With his augmented forces Maguire intercepted the advancing relief party, on the 7th of August, 1594, at a ford on the river Arney, now spanned by Drumane bridge, five miles south of Enniskillen. Here the royal forces were defeated with a loss of 400 men; and the survivors fled, abandoning all their stores, so that the place was afterwards called Bellanabriska, the ford of the biscuits. When the garrison of Enniskillen heard of this disaster they capitulated; and Maguire permitted them to depart

1. O’Sullivan Beare, Hist. Cath. Ihern. ed, 3 850, p.160.

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unharmed, sending an escort with them till they reached a place of safety.[1]

O’Neill had been making bitter complaints of the treatment he received at the hands of the deputy and Sir Henry Bagenal: the consequence of which was that the queen, obviously anxious to conciliate him, recalled Fitzwilliam and appointed Sir William Russell deputy in his place: and she sent orders to Bagenal not to molest the earl or his people any more: but he was not directed to give up the £1,000 that belonged to O’Neill’s wife. Newry where he was stationed was just beside O’Neill’s border, and he used his great power as marshal in every possible way to mortify and exasperate him. Later on, when O’Neill in his anxiety to avoid a breach with the government, wrote letter after letter of submission and explanation to the deputy, Bagenal intercepted them; and there is no doubt that he was one of the chief agencies in driving him to rebellion. [2]

O’Neill had long held aloof from the council in Dublin: but now to the surprise of everyone, he unexpectedly made his appearance there. He handed to the deputy a formal written submission, acknowledging his fault in absenting himself from the council, but giving as a reason that he feared treachery from Fitzwilliam. Marshal Bagenal was instantly up and charged him openly and bitterly with corresponding with the rebels and with other treasonable practices, and did his best to have him arrested. But O’Neill answered the charges by simply denying them and by challenging him to single combat - a usual mode of settling disputes in those days; which the marshal declined. And he made such protestations of loyalty and promised to do so many things for the benefit of the government that the council permitted him to depart in peace. [3]

There really was nothing that could be proved against him, so that it would have been nothing less than treachery

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.95;Four Masters, 1594.
2. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.151; see also next Chapter, p.485, infra.
3. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, pp.97, 98.

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to arrest him. Yet the queen was very angry that he was let off, and expressed her rage in unmeasured terms of censure to the council. ‘When voluntarily he came up to you, the deputy, it was overruled by you, the council, to dismiss him, though dangerous accusations were offered against him. This was as foul an oversight as ever was committed in that kingdom. Our commandments to you in private for his stay ought otherwise have guided you.’ And elsewhere she says in a letter to Russell: ‘We hold it strange that in all this space you have not used some underhand way to bring in the earl.’ [1]

The friendly relations between the earl and the government may be said to have ended with the close of this year (1594). And here it may be asked, had he all this time been deliberately preparing for rebellion and following a career of deception and duplicity? ‘Was he, while professing the utmost loyalty to the queen, a crafty traitor, as English writers surmise?’ Dr. Richey, a writer of great judgment and fairness, from whom I quote, answers his own question: ‘An attentive study of his life and letters (or rather official documents) leads to the opposite conclusion.’ There is no doubt that Dr. Richey’s conclusion is the true one. O’Neill was an Englishman by education: he knew well the sort of men he had to deal with; he understood the character of the queen; he was cool and calculating and had learned all their statecraft; and he used their own weapons successfully against them all. This was his real crime. His fixed intention was to regain all the power and privileges of his predecessors; and his struggle to accomplish this, coupled with the bitter hostility and untiring machinations of marshal Bagenal, drew him gradually on till he drifted at last into open rebellion. But he did so after much doubt and hesitation: and the correspondence all through shows that it was with the greatest reluctance he broke with the government.

In the year 1592 the University of Dublin, now commonly known as Trinity College, was founded by Queen Elizabeth

1. See Carew Papers, pp.101, 109. The above letter written 31st October, 1594.

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while Adam Loftus was archbishop.The buildings were erected on the site of the Augustinian monastery of All Saints near Dublin, which had been founded in 1166 by Dermot Mac Murrogh; and the site was granted for the purpose to archbishop Loftus by the corporation of Dublin.

The first notable exploit of the new deputy, Sir William Russell, was a well-planned attempt to capture ‘The firebrand of the mountains’ - Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne. Guided by some of Fiach’s false friends, he surprised the castle of Ballinacor one night in January 1595; but the chief and his family, having been accidentally alarmed by the sound of a drum, escaped by the back during the forcing of the front entrance. The deputy left a garrison in the castle: but in the August of the following year O’Byrne surprised it in his turn and regained possession. In retaliation for the deputy’s attack, Fiach’s son-in-law, Walter Reagh Fitzgerald, with some of the old chief’s sons, swooped down by night on Crumlin near Dublin, burned the village, and carried off the leaden roof of the church. And though the blaze was plainly seen from Dublin, the party got clear off’ before there was time to intercept them. Soon after however in the same year (1595), Fitzgerald, while lying wounded in a cave, was taken by the treachery of the physician that attended him, and hanged in chains.

A couple of months later, the deputy, attended by a party of military, made a journey through Wicklow, of which the sanguinary details are given by himself. Every human being that fell in their way, whom they judged to be a traitor, was killed on the spot and his ‘head brought in’ to the camp. Among others they captured the wife of the great chief O’Byrne himself, and sentenced her to be burned alive for treason.[1]

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.228.

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There were now many alarming signs and rumours of coming disturbance; and at the request of the deputy, a force of 3,000 troops was sent over, under the command of Sir John Norris president of Munster, an officer of great ability and experience, on whom was conferred the title of ‘lord general.’ We have already unpleasantly made his acquaintance; for it was he who on Essex’s commission massacred the people of Rathlin (p.443). O’Neill evidently regarded this movement as the first step towards the subjugation of the whole country, including his own province of Ulster; and he decided on immediate action. He probably thought too that by taking a bold stand he could exact better terms. Accordingly, no doubt by his direction, his young brother Art, proceeding early in 1595 with a small party to the Blackwater, seized the recently erected fort of Portmore, and having expelled the garrison, he dismantled the fort, thus averting, so far as could be done, the danger of invasion from that quarter. Immediately afterwards the earl committed himself to open rebellion by plundering the town of Cavan and the English settlements of the surrounding district. [1]

He next laid siege to Monaghan, and reduced its English garrison to great distress; but they managed tc send word to Dublin that they wanted provisions. On the receipt of this message, Sir John Norris and his brothei Sir Thomas marched north in the same year (1595) with a large force and reached the town with a store of provisions without meeting any opposition from the Irish. But on their return march to Newry they found O’Neill with his army drawn up on the far bank of a small stream at Olontibret, six miles from Monaghan.

Norris determined to force the passage; and leading his men in person, dashed bravely across: but in spite of every effort he was forced back. A second time he crossed, and again he was driven back. At this juncture a gigantic Anglo-Irish officer named Segrave spurred across at the head of a body of cavalry, and furiously charged the Irish horse which was commanded by O’Neill.

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.109.

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Segrave singled out O’Neill liimself, and at the first onset they shivered their lances on their corslets. Then Segrave closing on him attempted to pull him from his horse bymain force; and both rolled to the ground in mortal struggle. The activity of O’Neill proved more than a match for the vast strength of his adversary: grasping his short sword he plunged it to the hilt into Segrave’s body beneath his armour, and sprang up victorious. Then the Irish horse with a vigorous charge scattered their opponents, who fled in confusion. In this battle the two Norrises fought with great bravery, and both were severely wounded. After the fight they made their way to Newry, leaving arms, horses, and other spoils in the hands of the victors. [1]

For some time past Ked Hugh O’Donnell had been incessantly active. He made two terrible raids on the English settlements of Connaught. During the first, in the spring of 1595, lie took revenge for Bingham’s butcheries at Enniskillen in the previous year, by killing every man above fifteen that fell into his hands who could not speak Irish: a cruel and useless slaughter; not quite so bad however as Bingham’s, inasmuch as the women and children were spared. [n] He demolished the castle of Sligo and several others, to prevent them from being garrisoned by the English; and he succeeded in winning to his standard most of the septs of North Connaught, and in uniting those of Ulster that had not already joined the league. But now his presence was required elsewhere.

In Midsummer (1595) the deputy and lord general Norris marched north, determined to recover Portmore: the expedition was nominally under the deputy, but Norris was the real commander. They proceeded to Dundalk, and thence by the Moyry Pass to Newry. O’Neill immediately sent word to O’Donnell, who ]3romptly left his own territory, though sorely needed there: and the two

1 See for this battle, O’Sullivan, Hist. Cath. Ibern. ed. 1850, p.173; Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.109 (Tucker’s Report); and Four Masters, 1595. I have attempted to reconcile the various accounts, which are somewhat conflicting, both as to time and circumstance.
2. O’Sullivan, Hist. Cath. Ibern. ed. 1850, p.168.

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chiefs formed an entrenched camp with their united forces beside the Blackwater, near Portmore.

The deputy and Norris proceeded with their army to Armagh, and thence towards Portmore; but when they had reconnoitred the position of the Irish they did not venture to attack. O’Neill on his part did not offer battle in force, but contented himself with continual skirmishing. At last the English returned to Armagh, and converting the church into a fort, in which was left a garrison, they returned to Newry, and thence to Dundalk, harassed by O’Neill the whole way. [1]

Yet O’Neill, knowing well the tremendous power he had to deal with, did not wish to follow up this rebellion, if by any other means he could obtain reasonable terms. He wrote to the earl of Ormond and to the treasurer Wallop declaring that he wished to live in peace, provided he and his people were allowed to profess and practise their religion. At the same time, probably at his suggestion, O’Donnell and some other chiefs wrote to the same effect. O’Neill also sent conciliatory letters to the deputy and to Norris, but Bagenal, who did not wish for reconciliation, intercepted them. [2] The deputy, knowing nothing of these overtures, proclaimed O’Neill a traitor on the 28th June, 1595, the proclamation, which came from the queen, being worded as usual in the most insulting terms. [3] About this time the English settlements over a great part of Leinster and Connaught were spoiled and wasted by the Irish.

In consequence of the manifestoes to Ormond and Wallop, however, a conference was arranged between the Irish chiefs and two commissioners from the queen. Wallop and chief justice Gardiner, which took place in an open field near Dundalk. When the chiefs were questioned why they rebelled, O’Neill gave as, one of his reasons the insults and false accusations of Bagenal; O’Donnell brought up in bitter complaint his treacherous seizure and imprisonment; and the other chiefs advanced their own several grievances.

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.232; Four Masters, 1595.
2. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.151.
3. Ibid. 1589-1600, p.111.

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The commissioners thouglit many of their complaints and demands reasonable; and agreed to refer them to the queen; but they demanded that the insurgents should at once lay down their arms, repair the forts they had demolished, and admit sheriffs into their several districts: to place themselves in fact at the mercy of the government. These preliminary conditions the chiefs rejected, and the conference ended without result.

At the conclusion of the short truce - made for the conference - the deputy and Norris marched to Armagh with the intention of crossing the Blackwater into Tyrone; whereupon O’Neill destroyed and abandoned Portmore and burned Dungannon, including his own house; after which he followed the same tactics as before: harassing the enemy with constant skirmishes and avoiding open battle. But the negotiations were renewed; and in October (1595) things had come to this pass, that O’Neill and O’Donnell made formal submission; and a truce was agreed on till the following January. [1] Meantime old Turlogh Lynnagh died; and the earl, in accordance with native custom, was made The O’Neill.

From the day of Norris’s arrival there had been serious jealousy and disagreement between him and the lord deputy. Norris, as Leland observes, ‘had judgment and equity to discern that the hostilities of the Irish had been provoked by several instances of wanton insolence and oppression. He was therefore for adopting measures of kindness and conciliation which would certainly have restored peace.’ But deputy Russell - Leland goes on to say - ‘declared for a vigorous prosecution of the rebels.’

The English government took Norris’s view, for the queen most earnestly wished the war ended; and again, in January 1596 there was a conference with a truce of two months. O’Neill and O’Donnell demanded, amongst other concessions, pardon for all the insurgents, and full liberty of conscience. As to the first, the queen refused to pardon the other chiefs through O’Neill and O’Donnell, insisting that each should ask pardon on his own account.

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.125.

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The petition for liberty of conscience she branded as downright disloyalty, being offended that it should have been even mentioned. And thus the negotiations came to nothing.

But all this time O’Neill, in common with several of the other chiefs, was in secret communication with Spain, knowing well that he could not succeed in his struggle against the great power of England without foreign aid; and he strongly urged the despatch of two or three thousand Spanish troops, which he believed would be sufficient for his purpose. Hoping for these from month to month, he protracted the negotiations, wasted time, and played a waiting game with consummate coolness and skill. At the same time the queeu and the government unconsciously played into his hands by their refusal to listen to the reasonable terms of the Irish, and by their evasive and often wilfully equivocating replies. Thus matters went on without any decided or permanent agreement. Sometimes there were truces and conferences and negotiations, sometimes pardons and partial settlements, and sometimes open hostilities; so that from this time (1596) till the battle of the Yellow Ford, it was hard to say whether the country was in a state of peace or war. But as time rolled on, the national league became more and more extended under the persuasion and guidance of O’Neill, till at last it included nearly all the chiefs of Ireland.

Soon after the break up of the resultless conference held in January of this year (1596), Sir John Norris headed an expedition into Connaught to reduce the confederates there. But he was not able to accomplish much; for he was followed by O’Donnell the whole time; and having run short of provisions, he had at last to return to Athlone. He left garrisons however in several castles between Galway and Athlone. [1] Abont this time three Spanish vessels arrived on the Donegal coast, bringing a supply of military stores, which were delivered up to O’Donnell with encouraging letters from the king of Spain.

1. Four Masters, 1596, p.200L

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Towards the close of the year (1596) peace was agreed on, at the urgent desire of the queen, each chief receiving pardon on his own account, and not through O’Neill. Yet O’Neill, though apparently yielding here, gained his point, for it was by his direction they surrendered, and the terms, as being dictated by him, were all identical. [1] But this peace was not of long duration; for the deputy soon after made an attack on the Leinster confederate, Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne. This was fiercely resented by O’Neill, who in retaliation suddenly attacked Armagh, expelled the garrison after surrender, and dismantled the fortress.[2] And he sent an expedition southwards which ravaged the English settlements as far as the Boyne. [3] Yet even after this, the English authorities, conscious of weakness, sent another commission to treat with him, but without any decisive results in pacifying the country.

The queen, who seems to have had secret sources of information, rightly suspected that O’Neill was in correspondence with some foreign power; and as nearly all the Irish chiefs were now in revolt, she became greatly alarmed. She would gladly have had peace, but could not bring herself to yield to the demands of the Irish; yet she was unable to fully assert her authority, for the army in Ireland was in a state of deplorable ineflficiency. She was most anxious that there should be no unnecessary irritation of the Irish; and she was accordingly greatly exasperated at the continual reports that reached her of Bingham’s atrocious tyranny in Connaught. She ordered inquiry, and was made aware that it was he who had driven the chiefs of his part of the country into rebellion. He was recalled in January 1597, and the Queen was so indignant that when he appeared in London to justify himself she caused him to be cast into prison. She appointed in his place, as governor of Connaught, Sir Conyers Clifford, a just and humane man; and as the Four Masters say, ‘there came not of the English into Ireland in latter times a better man than he.’

1.Carew Papers, 1589-1600, pp.185, 186, 204.
2 Ibid. p.186.
3 Ware’s Annals, 1596.

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In the month of May this year (1597) Russell led an expedition through Wicklow, when the great old chief Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne met his fate. The soldiers, led to his retreat by a treacherous relative, captured him and killed him on the spot - ‘to the great comfort and joy of all that province,’ says Russell in his diary. And they brought his head to Dublin, where it was spiked on the castle.[1] Immediately after this last exploit Sir William Russell, having been continually thwarted, as he states, by the queen following other people’s advice, asked for and obtained his recall; and Thomas Lord Borough was appointed in his place. One of the first acts of this new deputy was to deprive Sir John Norris of his high command as lord general, and send him back to his presidency of Munster; and this humiliation, ‘with the baffles and abuses put upon him by Tyrone,’ so preyed on him that he pined away and died. [2]

Borough found all Ulster, except seven castled towns, nearly all Connaught, and a great part of Munster, in the hands of the rebels. And having made up his mind to bring the entire military resources of the country in one grand effort against the northern confederates, he organised movements from three different points. He himself was to march from Dublin towards the Blackwater against O’Neill; he directed Sir Conyers Clifford to move from Galway towards Ballyshannon against O’Donnell; and young Barnewell son of Lord Trimblestone was ordered to proceed from Mullingar to join the main body; the intention being that all three should effect a junction somewhere near Ballyshannon. O’Neill and O’Donnell hearing of these preparations cast about them to prevent the intended junction, and arranged that each of the three expeditions should be intercepted.

In July (1597) the deputy mustered the forces of Leinster at Drogheda, whence he marched towards Portmore attended by the earl of Kildare and Lord Trimblestone. He was attacked by O’Neill in a dangerous pass

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.259.
2. Ware, 1597; Moryson, i. 48.

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near Armagh which the Irish had 2)laslied[n] but forced his way through in spite of all opposition; and taking possession of the ruined fort of Portmore, encamped at the Tyrone (or west) side of the river. He was however unable to advance farther, and was greatly harassed and lost many of his men in constant skirmishing. At last O’Neill unexpectedly attacked him in force at the hill of Drumflugh near the camp, where Battleford Bridge now stands, and defeated him with heavy loss. The deputy Borough, fighting gallantly in front, was w[n]ounded; and Kildare who then took command was struck down severely wounded, while his two foster brothers were killed by his side defending him. Among the slain were Sir Francis Vaughan the deputy’s brother-in-law, sergeant-major Turner, and several other officers; and Kildare died almost immediately after at Drogheda. Borough himself was carried in a litter from the battlefield, and died soon after, as will be told farther on. [1]

Notwithstanding this serious repulse, the deputy accomplished one important object of the expedition - regaining possession of Portmore. He built a new fort in place of the old one; and leaving a garrison of 300 men there in charge of a brave and capable officer, captain Williams, he returned to Dublin.

Sir Conyers Clifford, accompanied by many of the nobles and chiefs of Connaught, mustered in great force at Boyle, whence he marched north to the river Erne. O’Donnell had posted guards at all the fords, but Clifford forced his way across at Culuan in spite of the fierce opposition of the Tirconnellians, though many of his officers and men were killed - among others Murrogh baron of Inchiquin, who was much lamented by both Irish and English. Having received some cannon from Galway by sea, he laid siege to O’Donnell’s castle at Ballyshannon, which was valiantly defended by the garrison consisting of eighty men, commanded by a Scotchman named Crawford. For three days the heavy cannon battered without

1. Four Masters, 1597, p.204; Carew Papers, 3 598-1600, p.269; Ware’s Annals, 1597.

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cessation; and a determined attempt to sap the walls was made by a party in armour under cover of a testudo formed by their shields. But the defenders poured down such’ a tremendous shower of fire, logs of timber, and great blocks of stone, that the attacking party were forced to retire after great loss.

O’Donnell had but a small force on the arrival of the president; but his men increased daily, and he now harassed the English by incessant flying attacks day and night. He stopped the supply of fodder for the horses, so that the president was reduced to great distress, and instead of besieging was now himself besieged. Having held an anxious council of war, which lasted all night, it was agreed to recross the river and retreat. But as it was impossible now to reach the ford of Culuan three miles higher up, they had to take the deep and dangerous ford nearest to them, the old ford of Casan-na-gurra, the ‘Path of the Champions,’ just above the waterfall of Assaroe beside Ballyshannon. Abandoning all their ordnance, carriages, horses, and stores, they began to ford the river in silence; but before all had time to cross, the rear was set upon by the garrison; and what with the frantic haste and the depth and strength of the current, great numbers were swept down over the falls and drowned, and many were killed by the garrison. O’Donnell, hearing in his tent the noise of battle, started up, and crossing the river with his men, pursued the retreating army for four or five miles; but a heavy rain came on which wetted their ammunition, for in their haste they had left their outer garments behind; so they gave up the pursuit and returned. And thus governor Clifford accomplished nothing by this expedition. [1]

To meet the third detachment from Mullingar, Tyrone despatched a small force of 400 men under captain Tyrrell chief of Fertullagh in Westmeath, a guerilla chief of consummate skill and bravery, who knew every hill, valley, bog, and pass from Dublin to the Shannon. Tyrrell

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.269; Four Masters, 1597, pp.2025-2035.

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marched south, and making his way by OfFaly reached his own territory of Fertullagh, where he rested his men, till word was brought to Mullingar of his approach. Young Barnewell, despising the small body sent to oppose him, marched boldly with his 1,000 to destroy the rebels; whereupon Tyrrell fell back till he reached Tyrrell’s Pass, a perilous place for an army to be caught in, with deep bogs on both sides, which Tyrrell had made more dangerous by obstructing the passage with felled trees. In a copse beside the way by which the English were to pass Tyrrell concealed half his little army under a brave officer, Owney 0’Conor, one of the dispossessed chiefs of Offaly.

When Barnewell came in sight of the small party in the pass he made straight for them, while Tyrrell slowly retreated. When the last of the pursuing party had filed past the ambuscade, O’Conor started up from his lair, and the bagpipes struck up ‘The Tyrrell’s March,’ which was to be the signal to the other party. Then Tyrrell turned suddenly round, and the English were attacked front and rear. Gallantly fighting under such tremendous disadvantages, they all fell - every man - except the leader and one other who hid himself in a quagmire hard by, and who afterwards carried the fatal news back to Mullingar. Young Barnewell was captured without hurt, and sent a prisoner to the earl of Tyrone. It is stated that O’Conor’s hand became so swollen with fighting that day, that it had to be released by cutting the hilt of the sword with a file. [1]

1. Mac Geoghegan’s Hist, of Irel. 505.
2. We have very detailed contemporary accounts of this battle, all English, which may be seen in the Kilk. Arch. Journ. for 1856-1857, p.256; and in Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.280; see also Gilbert, Facsimiles, Pt. iv. xliii, plate xxiv.

Portmore was now (1597) occupied by captain Williams and his garrison of three hundred; and the minor eventsx'

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of which it was the centre led ultimately to the battle of the Yellow Ford. No sooner had lord deputy Borough turned southward (p.490) than O’Neill laid siege to it; and watching it night and day, tried every stratagem; but the vigilance and determination of Williams completely baffled him. At last he attempted a storm by means of scaling ladders: but the ladders turned out too short, and the storming party were met by such a fierce onslaught that they had to retire discomfited, leaving thirty-four of their men dead in the fosse. After this O’Neill tried no more active operations, but sat down, determined to starve the garrison into submission. But lord deputy Borough, when he heard how matters stood, marched north, and after some sharp fighting succeeded in throwing in supplies. Returning thence he had to be borne on a litter, either on account of sickness or of wounds, till he reached Newry, where he died.[1]

Near the end of the year (1597) the earl of Ormond was appointed lord lieutenant, with command of the army. He had instructions to bring about a peace if possible, and on the 22nd of December he held a conference at Dundalk with O’Neill, who handed in a formal submission, with a petition in which the very first thing asked for was liberty of conscience. A truce was agreed on till May (1598), and a formal pardon was sent to him, but he never made use of it. [2] He appears to have again intentionally delayed the negotiations, using them as a means of gaining time; for he still hoped for help from Spain. But on expiry of the truce he suddenly broke off negotiation, and appeared again in person before Portmore, ‘swearing by his barbarous hand that he will not depart till he carry the fort.’ Having already had suflicient experience of captain Williams, he ventured no more assaults, but turned the siege into a blockade. When this had continued for some time, Williams and his men began to suffer sorely; and they would have been driven to sur

1. Moryson, i. 51. The accounts of his death are somewhat conflicting.
2 Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.274; Ware’s Annals, 1598; Four Masters, 1597, p.2045.

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render by mere starvation but for the good fortune of having, by some stratagem, seized and brought into the fort a number of O’Neill’s horses, on which they now chiefly subsisted. Even with this supply they were so pressed by hunger that they ate every weed and every blade of grass they could pick up in the enclosure: but still the brave captain resolutely held out.

When tidings of these events reached Dublin, the council sat in long and anxious deliberation. They decided at last, in the absence of marshal Bagenal, to send directions to captain Williams to surrender on the best terms he could obtain. But the marshal, through whom the letters were sent, held them back, and coming direct from Newry to Dublin, persuaded the council, though with some difiiculty, to entrust him with the perilous task of relieving the fort. It was decided to divide the army. Lord Ormond himself was to lead one half against the Leinster insurgents, and the marshal the other half - ‘the most choice companies of foot and horse troops of the English army’ - against O’Neill. [1] A prudent and skilful strategist would have directed the whole available government forces - about 10,000 men - against O’Neill: the queen would certainly have ordered it had she been consulted; but Bagenal was filled with a rash confidence that with half the army he could rout the Ulstermen.

As for Ormond, he attempted to relieve Port-Leix, which was besieged by the Irish; but he met with a severe repulse from captain Tyrrell, Redmond Burke, and Owney O’Moore, and escaped with difficulty. Then he shut himself up safely in Kilkenny, and did nothing more against the Leinster insurgents.

Marshal Bagenal arrived at Armagh with an army of 4,000 foot and 350 horse. The five miles highway between the city and Portmore was a narrow strip of uneven ground, with bogs and woods at both sides; and right in the way, at Bellanaboy or the Yellow Ford, on the little river Callan, two miles north of Armagh, O’Neill had marshalled his forces, determined to dispute the passage. His army

1. Moryson, i. 58.

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was perhaps a little more numerous than that of his adversary, well trained and disciplined, armed and equipped after the English fashion, though not so well as Bagenal’s army - they had no armour for instance, while many of the English had; and he had the advantage of an excellent position selected by himself. He had with him Hugh Roe O’Donnell, Maguire, and Mac Donnell of the Glens, all leaders of ability and exjDerience. At intervals along the way he had dug deep holes and trenches, and had otherwise encumbered the line of march with felled trees and brushwood; and right in front of his main body extended a trench a mile long, five feet deep, and four feet across with a thick hedge of thorns on top.Over these tremendous obstacles, in face of the whole strength of the Irish army, Bagenal must force his way if he is ever to reach the starving little band cooped up in Portmore.

But Bagenal was not a man easily daunted; and on the morning of the 14th August 1598 he began his march with music and drum. The army advanced in six regiments, forming three divisions. The first division - two regiments - was commanded by colonel Percy, the marshal himself, as commander-in-chief, ridiug in the second regiment. The second division, consisting of the third and fourth regiments, was commanded by colonel Cosby and Sir Thomas Wingfield, and the third division by captains Coneys and Billings, The horse formed two divisions, one on each wing, under Sir Calisthenes Brooke, with captains Montague and Fleming. The regiments marched one behind another at intervals of 600 or 700 paces.

On the night before, O’Neill had sent forward 500 light-armed kern, who concealed themselves till morning in the woods and thickets along the way, and the English had not advanced far when these opened fire from both sides, which they kept up during the whole march past. Through all obstacles - fire, bog, and pitfalls - the army struggled and fought resolutely, till the first regiment reached the great trench. A determined rush across, a brief and fierce hand to hand struggle, and in spite of all opposition they got to the other side. Instantly reforming, they pushed

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on, but had got only a little way when they were charged by a solid body of Irish and utterly overwhelmed. It now appeared that a fatal mistake in tactics had been made by Bagenal. The several regiments were too far asunder, and the men of the vanguard were almost all killed before the second regiment could come up. When at last this second line appeared, O’Neill with a body of horse, knowing that Bagenal was at their head, spurred forward to seek him out and settle wrong and quarrel hand to hand. But they were not fated to meet. The brave marshal, fatigued with fighting, lifted his visor for a moment to look about him and take breath; but hardly had he done so when a musket ball pierced his brain and he fell lifeless.

Even after this catastrophe the second regiment passed the trench, and were augmented by those of the first who survived. These soon found themselves hard pressed; which Cosby becoming aware of, pushed on with his third regiment to their relief; but they were cut to pieces before he had come up. A cannon had got bogged in Cosby’s rear, straight in the line of march, and the oxen that drew it having been killed, the men of the fourth regiment made frantic efforts to free it, fighting for their lives all the time, for the Irish were swarming all round them. Meantime during this delay Cosby’s regiment was attacked and destroyed, and he himself was taken prisoner.

While all this was taking place in the English front, there was hard fighting in the rear. For O’Neill, who with a small party of horse had kept his place near the trench fighting and issuing orders, had, at the beginning of the battle, sent towards the enemy’s rear O’Donnell, Maguire, and Mac Donnell of the Glens, who passing by the flank of the second division, hotly engaged as they were, fell on the last two regiments, which after a prolonged struggle to get forward, ‘being hard sett to, retyred foully [in disorder] to Armagh.’

The fourth regiment, at last leaving their cannon, made a dash for the trench; but scarcely had they started when a waggon of gunpowder exploded in their midst,

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by which they were ‘disrancked and rowted’ and great numbers were killed, ‘wherewith the traitors were encouraged and our men dismayed.’ O’Neill, observing the confusion, seized the moment for a furious charge. The main body of the English had been already waverinoafter the explosion, and now there was a general rout of both middle and rear. Fighting on the side of the English was an Irish chief, Mailmora or Myles O’Reilly, who was known as Mailmora the Handsome, and who called himself the queen’s O’Reilly. He made two or three desperate attempts to rally the flying squadrons, but all in vain; and at last he himself fell slain among the others.

The multitude fled back towards Armagh, protected by the cavalry under captain Montague, an able and intrepid ofiicer, for Sir Calisthenes Brooke had been wounded; and the Irish pursued them - as the old Irish chronicler expresses it - ‘by pairs, threes, scores, and thirties.’ Two thousand of the English were killed, [1] together with their general and nearly all the officers; and the victors became masters of the artillery, ammunition, and stores of the royal army. On the Irish side the loss is variously estimated from 200 to 700. This was the greatest overthrow the English ever suffered since they had first set foot in Ireland.

The fugitives to the number of 1,500 shut themselves up in Armagh, where they were closely invested by the Irish. But Montague, with a body of horse, most courageously forced his way out and brought the evil tidings to Dublin. In a few days the garrisons of Armagh and Portmore capitulated - the valiant captain Williams yielding only after a most pressing message from Armagh - and were permitted to retire to Dundalk, leaving colours, drums, and ammunition behind.

Captain Tyrrell, Owney O’Moore, and Redmond Burke

1. Two thousand according to captain Montague, who wrote an account of the battle two days afterwards (Kilk. Arch. Journ. 1856, p.272); but other English accounts give the number as 1,500; the Four Masters say 2,500. I adopt Montague’s estimate.

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now proceeded to Munster, by direction of O’Neill, plundering the English territories as they went along. On their arrival with the news of the great northern victory they were joined by the southern chiefs; and the Munster rebellion broke out like lightning. The confederates, among whom were the sons of Thomas Roe brother of the late (i.e. the rebel) earl of Desmond, attacked the settlements to regain the lands that had been taken from them a dozen years before. They expelled or slew the settlers; and before long they had recovered all Desmond’s castles except those of Castiemaine, Mallow, and Askeaton. The lord lieutenant and Sir Thomas Norris [1] Dresident of Munster were, so far, quite unable to cope with the southern rebellion. They met at Kilmallock but did not venture to attack the rebels; and at last they retired, Ormond to Dublin and Norris to Mallow, leaving Munster to its fate.

O’Neill, who now exercised almost as much authority as if he were king of Ireland, conferred the title of earl of Desmond on James Fitzgerald (or FitzThomas), the son of Thomas Roe. This new earl was called in derision by his enemies the Sugan earl (sugan, a straw rope); and by this name he is now best known in history. The true heir, the son of the rebel earl, was still in London (p.448). O’Neill had hitherto acted chiefly on the defensive. It may be asked why he did not now assume the offensive? Why did he not march on Dublin? There was not a soldier left there; the lords justices were quaking with terror; and 500 men would have taken it without resistance. The whole country seemed ready for the decisive blow. Ulster and Leinster were nearly all in the hands of the rebels; and Munster and Connaught were rising or were already in successful revolt. In this state of affairs had O’Neill seized Dublin the English sovereignty would probably have been wiped out for the time. But then we must remember that he had no standing army - the great defect of the Irish military system. His men joined, as men always joined in Ireland, for a single campaign or expedition, and expected to be disbanded

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when it was over. It was now harvest time, when the crops had to be gathered in; and he found it impossible to keep his forces well together. Even O’Donnell and his men were forced to return home immediately after the battle for want of provisions. Then again the Irish forces were not concentrated; they were scattered all over the country without unity of action. He had hardly any stores, no commissariat, no battering train, no means of carrying on and sustaining campaign or siege. It was quite impossible that he could succeed by native resources without help from outside. No one was better aware of all this than O’Neill himself; and he does not deserve the censure passed on him by some for not more decisively following up his victory at the Yellow Ford.

The queen was exasperated beyond measure when news reached her of the battle of the Yellow Ford; and she wrote to the Irish council, bitterly censuring them, and expressing her belief that this disaster and many others were owing to their incapacity and mismanagement. Matters had now become very serious in Ireland; and at this grave juncture the queen, in March 1599, appointed as lord lieutenant her favourite, Robert Devereux earl of Essex, the son of that ill-fated nobleman whom we have already mentioned in connection with the plantation of Ulster. He had distinguished himself as a soldier abroad; but something more than a mere soldier was now needed to govern Ireland. He was provided with a fine army of 20,000 men, and the queen invested him with almost as much power as if she had made him king of Ireland. He got distinct instructions to direct all his strength against the earl of Tyrone and the other rebels of Ulster, and to plant garrisons at Lough Foyle and Ballyshannon. [1] This latter direction he quite neglected:

1. Moryson’s Hist, of Irel. i. p.91.

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we shall see how he attended to the rebels of the north.

Soon after his arrival in Dublin he foolishly scattered a good part of his army by sending detachments to various stations through the country. Then probably deeming it not yet quite safe to attempt the reduction of O’Neill, he deliberately disobeyed the queen’s instructions by setting out for the south on the 21st May with 7,000 men, chiefly with the object of chastising the Geraldines. Through the whole of this disastrous journey, which occupied about six weeks, the insurgents constantly hung round the army and never gave him an hour’s rest, so that he had to fight every inch of his way; and each successive skirmish resulted in a diminution of his numbers. [1] In one of these encounters Owney O’Moore chief of Leix, son of Rory Oge (p.438), killed 500 of his men in a defile near Maryborough, which was afterwards called the Pass of the Plumes, from the number of English helmet plumes that remained strewn about after the battle. He pushed on to Caher in Tipperary, where he took the strong castle, after a siege of ten days, from Thomas Butler, one of the confederates in alliance with O’Neill: the only successful exploit of the whole expedition. It may be remarked here that this castle was recovered by the rebels in May of the following year, and recaptured by the government three months later.

During the time Essex was in Caher, Sir Thomas Norris president of Munster, while waiting for him at Kilmallock, employed himself in scouring the district all round for the queen’s enemies. In one of his excursions he accidentally encountered Thomas Burke of Castleconnell, at the head of a small party at Kilteely, and was mortally wounded in the skirmish that followed. He died in a fortnight after at Mallow. [2]

From Caher the earl marched to Limerick; thence to Askeaton, where he strengthened and provisioned the garrison by throwing in supplies; and next by Adare

1. The whole journey is described in Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.301; and in Four Masters, 1599, p.2111.
2. Four Masters, 1599, p.2115.

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and Bruff to Kilmallock. While passing near Adare the Sugan earl and the other Geraldines suddenly set upon him at Finniterstown and killed many of his men, including one of his best officers, Sir Henry Norris, the third of those distinguished brothers who perished in these wars.

Leaving Kilmallock he marched to Ardskeagh, and on by the northern skirt of the Ballyhoura Mountains to Fermoy; thence through Lismore and Waterford, and next northwards towards Dublin. The Geraldines kept still hanging on his rear, and harassed him as far as the Decies in Waterford, where tbey left him and returned to their own country. But he had next to deal with the Leinster clans - the O’Byrnes, the O’Tooles, and the O’Moores - who attacked him near Arklow and inflicted great loss.

Towards the end of June (1599) ‘his lordship,’ says Moryson, ‘brought back his forces into [the safe part of] Leinster, the soldiers being weary, sick, and incredibly diminished in numbers.’ And the earl himself returned to Dublin ‘without having achieved in his progress any exploit worth boasting of except only the taking of Caher Castle.’ [1]

In the month of June, while the earl was still in Munster, Sir Henry Harrington, marching with 600 men from Wicklow against the insurgents of those parts, was intercepted at Eanelagh near Baltinglass and defeated vdth heavy loss by Felim O’Byrne the son of Feagh. In this action the English soldiers, in spite of the exertions of Harrington and some of his officers, threw down their arms and fled in a panic without striking a blow. Essex, on his arrival in Dublin, was so enraged at this disgraceful flight, that he had the officers who were to blame cashiered, and caused every tenth man of the soldiers to be executed. [2]

All through this great revolt O’Conor of Sligo had remained in the queen’s service. He had fought against O’Neill at the Yellow Ford, and had accompanied Essex during a part of his march through Munster; after which he

1. Four Masters, 1599, p.2121.
2. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.312,

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retired to his strong castle of Collooney in Sligo, the only strongliold now in his possession. As soon as O’Donnell received intelligence of this, he suddenly marched from his headquarters at Ballymote, seven miles off, and surrounded the castle, determined to reduce it by blockade; for it was too strong to be carried by assault. O’Conor after some time contrived to send news of his distressed condition to Dublin; whereupon Essex directed Sir Conyers Clifford governor of Connaught to proceed by land to relieve the castle, and to send also an expedition by sea from Galway with materials for rebuilding the castle of Sligo which had been destroyed four years before by O’Donnell (p.484). The ships were under the command of Theobald Burke, commonly called Theobald-na-Long (of the ships) son of the celebrated Grace O’Malley. Clifford himself proceeded with an army of 2,100 from Roscommon to Bovle, where he halted to make preparations for his final march.

O’Donnell having been apprised of these movements prepared to counteract them. He first sent a small party to guard the shore, who on Burke’s arrival prevented him from landing. Then he made preparations to intercept Clifford, though against the advice of several of his officers, as he had not near so many men as the English.

In order to go from Boyle into Sligo, Clifford had to cross the low range of the Curlieu hills by a difiicult way called Ballaghboy or the Yellow Pass. O’Donnell with a small detachment of picked men encamped at the Sligo end of this pass, leaving a sufficient force to guard the beleaguered castle under the command of his cousin Niall Garve O’Donnell, of whom more will be heard hereafter: while he sent Brian Oge O’Ruarc to take a position a short way off at the eastern end of the range, lest Clifford might make that his way. Here O’Donnell waited for two months, keeping scouts on the hill tops every day to look out for the approach of the enemy: and meantime he IDlaslied the pass, i.e. made it more difficult by felled trees and other obstructions. At last in the afternoon of the 15th of Angust a messenger ran down full speed to the

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camp with news that the English were in motion. O’Donnell and his men had spent that morning as well as the evening before in devotions, for it was Ladyday, a solemn festival in the Catholic Church; and the ceremonies were scarce ended when the bugles rang out the call to arms. He divided his little army into two parts. One consisting of about 400 young active men, he sent forward with orders to attack the English at the beginning of the ascent, but to retire after the first onset, and harass them as best they could afterwards. He himself at the head of his veterans followed after at a slow steady pace.

The English advanced in three divisions. Near the entrance to the pass, the van commanded by Sir Alexander Ratcliff was encountered by the 400 Irish sharp-shooters, who having discharged their weapons from behind a barricade, retired, but continued to assail the advancing column from a distance, never waiting for close quarters. The way now led through bogs and brushwood; and the English having cleared the barricade, advanced twelve abreast - there was no room for more - till they met O’Donnell and his veterans: and then the real battle began. Ratcliff, fighting at the head of his men, was first disabled and soon after shot dead; and the van after some sharp fighting at length turned and fled right in the faces of the ‘battle’ or centre division. In a few moments all was confusion; and the whole army rushed back down the hill-slope in spite of the utmost efforts of their leaders. The brave and high-minded Sir Conyers Clifford, disdaining to fly, endeavoured in vain to rally his men; when two of his officers perceiving that he was in imminent danger, drew him back some distance by main force. But he burst from them in a fury; and facing the advancing Irish, fought single handed, till overpowered by numbers, he fell dead in the middle of the pass.

O’Ruarc, hearing from his encampment the sounds of battle in the distance, hastened forward with his Brefney men, and arrived just in time to complete the rout. The fugitives were saved from utter destruction by Sir Griffin Markham, who at the head of a small body of horse,

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charged the pursuers with great spirit over difficult ground of rock and hog, and thus made time for escape. [1]

Sir Conyers Clifford was greatly regretted by the Irish, especially the people of Connaught, to whom he was a just and merciful ruler - a complete contrast to Bingham; and he was honourably buried by the victors in the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Lough Key.

After the battle O’Conor surrendered his castle and joined the northern confederates; and O’Donnell with characteristic nobleness of mind, restored his lands and gave him cattle to stock them. Theobald-na-Long, who was O’Conor’s brother-in-law, also submitted and entered into friendship with O’Donnell, after which the fleet returned home.

Essex’s fine army of 20,000 had melted away in a few months (of 1599). At his own urgent request he now got 2.000 more from the queen, who however was greatly exasperated, and wrote him a bitter letter peremptorily commanding him to proceed against O’Neill. On the receipt of this he set out for the north in August 1599, with an inadequate little army of 2,500 foot and 300 horse. On a high bank overlooking the little river Lagan between the counties of Louth and Monaghan, he found O’Neill’s army in a camp so strongly fortified that he did not attempt an attack. O’Neill sent him a courteous message asking for a conference, which he at first refused, but next day granted.

At the appointed hour, on a day early in September, the two leaders rode down from the heights on either side, wholly unattended, to the ford of Ballaclinch, now spanned by Anaghclart bridge near the village of Louth. O’Neill saluted the earl with great respect, and spurring his horse into the stream to be near enough to hold con-

1. The Four Masters give a full account of this battle and the circumstances that led to it, a.d. 1599, pp.2121-2133; see also ‘A Brief Relation of the Defeat in the Curlieus,’ by John Dymmok, published by the Irish Arch. Soc. in Tracts relating to Ireland, 1812, p.14; and Sir John Harrington’s account of the battle in his Nugcc Antiquce, i. 264. A good description of site and battle will be found in the Rev. Dr. O’Rourke’s Bist. of SUgo, ii. 291-305.

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verse, remained there up to his saddle girths during the conference, which lasted more than half an hour. He declared himself ready to submit to her majesty on the following conditions: That the Irish should have complete liberty to practise their religion: that O’Donnell, the earl of Desmond (i.e. the Sugan earl) and himself should enjoy their patrimonial lands: that the judges and the principal officers of state should be natives of Ireland: and that half the army of Ireland should be Irishmen.[1]

It is believed that the earl was quite won over by the open and kindly address and chivalrous bearing of the Irish chief, who with his usual ability laid his country’s claims in the most favourable light before him.

After this there was another conference, in which O’Neill and Essex were attended by six of the principal men on each side. O’Neill, standing all the time on horseback in the water with his men, saluted the earl’s companions respectfully and spoke a good deal, with head uncovered all the time. In the end a truce was agreed on till the 1st of May, which might be broken at any time by either side on giving a fortnight’s notice. [2]

This was Essex’s last act of any moment in Ireland. On his return to Dublin he found awaiting him another angry letter from the queen, full of coarse insult and bitter reproaches. Whereupon he suddenly sailed for England; and nothing ever came of his conference with O’Neill. The remainder of his short career, ending in the block, belongs to the history of England.

For some time after the departure of Essex there were negotiations for peace; but they were all rendered fruitless by the obstinacy of the queen and government on the one vital point. O’Neill always insisted on perfect freedom of religious worship; but this was persistently refused; and he was told that he must ask something more reasonable.

There had not indeed been much active interference with religion. In every part of the country Mass was

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.321; Four Masters, 1599, p.2139.
2. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.324.

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regularly celebrated; and so long as this was done quietly the worshippers were not molested. Yet this lenity was not prompted by any spirit of toleration but simply by fear. For the vast majority of the lords and gentlemen of Ireland of both Irish and English blood that had remained neutral during the war were Catholics, who, as Carew states, sympathised with the rebels, and might be driven to join them by any general attempt to suppress Catholic worship.The State Papers afford curious glimpses of the feeling of the government on this matter. The English privy council, on the 30th September 1600, write to Sir George Carew complaining that, in Waterford especially, there were ‘mass-houses,’ with priests, friars, nuns, &c., openly celebrating their religion. He was directed to attempt to put a stop to all this, but very quietly for fear of rebellion.[n] Carew himself was quite anxious to punish the ‘popish insolency’ of the citizens of Waterford: but fearing to do so openly, he makes a most characteristic [n] proposal to the council to get the names of the worst offenders, and then ‘matters of treason not tending to religion may be suflSciently proved to convince [convict] them: but if it do appear in the least that any part of their punishment proceeds for matter of religion, it will kindle a great fire in this kingdom.’ [n] And when the queen appointed Mountjoy lord deputy she instructed him not to take any violent measures on the score of religion till she should have established her power in Ireland; but short of this she directed him to be very exact. [2]

O’Neill, seeing that he could not come to terms with the government, broke off negotiations, and resolved to visit Munster in order to unite the southern chiefs more closely in the confederacy. He set out in January 1600 with an army of 3,000 men, and marching southwards through Cashel, where he was joined by the Sugan earl,

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.457.
2. Quite characteristic of Carew’s ‘witt and cunning': see p.508, farther on.
3 Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.470, written 25th October 1600. See also the same volume, p.388.
2. Ibid. p.356.

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he finally encamped at Inniscarra on the Lee, six miles above Cork. Here most of the southern chiefs visited him and acknowledged him as their leader.

While here he lost one of his best officers, Hugh Maguire chief of Fermanagh, who is designated by Sir John Davies ‘a valiant rebel, and the stoutest that was ever of his name.’ It chanced that Maguire, riding with only three attendants, fell in with Sir Warham Sentleger, one of the two temporary governors of Munster, with a party of horse. Both were renowned for personal prowess, and here meeting face to face, neither would retire. Maguire advanced with poised spear, but was met by a pistol bullet from his adversary which mortally wounded him. Spurring on with his remaining strength he transfixed Sentleger in the neck, and then fought his way through the English lines back to camp. He had barely time to receive the last sacraments when he died: Sentleger survived the encounter only a few days.

For the last two years victory and success had attended the Irish almost without interruption; and Hugh O’Neill earl of Tyrone had now attained the very summit of his power. But after this the tide began to turn; and soon came the day of defeat and disaster. In the next five Chapters I will relate the waning fortunes of the earl of Tyrone and the waning fortunes of his country.

The person chosen by the queen to succeed Essex as deputy was Charles Blount, better known as Lord Mountjoy, a man of great ability and foresight, and a more formidable adversary than any yet encountered by O’Neill. This man took an active interest in the morals of his soldiers, for he had a dash of the missionary in his character, and was pious in his way; and I see no reason to doubt his sincerity. But he must have had strange

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notions of religion: for at the very time the soldiers were dutifully endeavouring to obey his stern order against profane swearing, they were busily employed under his direction, killing men, women, and children, and destroying the poor people’s crops to bring on a famine: all which will be duly related in this and the following Chapters.

He came to Ireland in February 1600, accompanied by Sir George Carew the newly appointed president of Munster. O’Neill was at this time in his camp at Inniscarra where he had tarried about six weeks. As soon as he heard of the arrival of the new deputy he broke up his camp, and successfully eluding the guards sent to intercept him, he arrived safely in Ulster.

Sir George Carew, though nominally under the authority of Mountjoy, was really as powerful; he had the confidence of the queen, and the friendship and support of the English minister Cecil. He was a man of great courage and ability, but avaricious, crafty, and unscrupulous; and he delighted, as he himself says, to accomplish his ends by ‘witt and cunning.’ It will be remembered that his brother had been killed in 1580 in Glenmalure (p.454), which inspired him with the most rancorous hatred of the Irish; and his great comfort on entering on his new position was, as he states, that it gave him an opportunity of taking revenge on those who had a hand in his brother’s death. [1] One of his first acts after his arrival in Ireland in 1583 was to murder with his own hand, in open day on the quays of Dublin, in presence of several persons, a man who, he was told on mere hearsay, had boasted of being concerned in the deed. For this he was never brought to account.[2]

Before entering on his history let us note another creditable feature of his character. He had considerable literary taste and talent, and he made a very important collection of historical documents relating to Ireland, a work of much labour, which has lately been published in six volumes, commonly known as the Carew Papers, so

1. Carew Papers, 1515-1574, p.xiv,
2. Ibid. xvi-xix.

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often quoted in this book: a collection quite indispensable to every student of Irish history. In addition to this he has given us a full history of events occurring in Ireland during his presidency, in a book called Pacata Hibernia (Ireland pacified), written by himself or under his direction by his secretary. The Pacata Hibernia[n] though full of bitter prejudice against the Irish, is a highly valuable and interesting book; and much of the materials for this and the three following Chapters has been derived from it.

The following account given by him [1] of his plot to capture the Sugan earl of Desmond is a good example of what he meant by ‘witt and cunning.’ One of the most trusted confederates in the south was Dermot O’Conor Donn, a Connaught chief who commanded 1,400 Bonnaghtmen or hired troops drawn from Connaught and Ulster. He was married to Lady Margaret daughter of the late earl of Desmond - the rebel earl - and first cousin to the present (Sugan) earl. Her brother, the true heir to the earldom, was still detained in London (p.448), and she was naturally anxious for his restoration. Carew knew all this, and he sent a confidential messenger to her, to propose that her husband should betray the Sugan earl - should in fact seize and give him up - which would of course open the way for the restoration of her brother; and for this service he promised O’Conor a reward of £1,000 and a commission in the queen’s army. Lady Margaret was captivated by these proposals, and induced her husband to enter into the scheme.

When the plan had been all arranged it happened that one Nugent, who had been a servant to Sir Thomas Norris, and had turned over to the rebels after the death of his master, now thinking that he could do better by returning to the service of the crown, came to Carew and offered for pardon and reward to kill either the Sugan earl or his brother John FitzThomas. As the Sugan earl had been already provided for, Nugent was commissioned to murder John; but his part of the plot did not

1. Pacata Hibernia, p.90, ed. 1810, the edition I quote from all through.

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succeed, for he was caught in the very act of levelling his pistol and hanged on the spot.

The conspirators went to work very cautiously. In order that O’Conor might have some excuse, Carew wrote a letter from himself addressed to the Sugan earl, acknowledging his many secret services to the state - as if he had been a secret traitor - and directing him to deliver up O’Conor alive or dead, which of course was all pretence; and this letter was given to O’Conor, who was to say that he intercepted it. Immediately afterwards the traitor obtained an interview with the Sugan earl, bringing a sufficient number of followers. During the conference he took occasion to raise a quarrel, and producing the forged letter he accused the earl of treachery to the confederates, arrested him on the spot in the name of O’Neill, and sent him a prisoner with some companions to the fortress of Castle Lishen near Dromcollogher.

He then sent his wife to the president for the money. But the rebels were too quick for him; for John FitzThomas and some others of the confederate leaders hastily mustered 4,000 men, and before Carew had time to come up, surrounded the castle and rescued the captive, dismissing his guards unharmed. After this O’Conor, disappointed and crestfallen, was expelled the province by the earl and returned to Connaught. He got a reward indeed, but not what he had expected; for in this same year (1600), while marching through Galway on his way to Limerick to meet his brother-in-law, the young earl of Desmond who had come over from London, he was attacked near Gort by Theobald-na-Long, who seized him and cut off his head.

But Carew, though given to that low cunning he so well describes, was able and vigorous in his military operations. On the 8th of July (1600) he took the castle of Glin on the Shannon belonging to the knight of Glin, one of the confederates, after an obstinate defence, and executed all that remained of the garrison, with - as the Four Masters say - sofae women and children. When O’Conor Kerry heard of this, he was so frightened that he surrendered his castle of Carrigafoyle, also on the

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Shannon, the strongest fortress in all Kerry, and made his submission to the president. After this many of the minor chiefs demolished their castles and fled to the mountains with their families.

During all this time Carew, like the deputy elsewhere (pp.516, 519), destroyed the crops wherever he went. He got the two garrisons of Askeaton and Kilmallock to traverse Connello in all directions, burning and spoiling everything they could reach; and he says ‘scarcity already begins, and when famine shall succeed, there is no means for the rebel long to subsist.’ [1]

Notwithstanding that Carew wrote triumphant accounts of his successes, the authorities were still in great apprehension; and they never felt themselves secure in the south so long as the Sugan earl remained at the head of the confederates. As they had failed to capture him, a device was now resorted to for destroying his influence: to liberate the son of the rebel earl and restore him to his titles. Accordingly he was despatched from London after his twenty-one years’ absence from Ireland, with two letters to Carew, one from the queen and the other from her minister Cecil. Cecil instructs Carew to be careful not to let the young lord escape, but if he should turn out to be useless, then some excuse was to be invented for arresting him: either he was to be allured to join the rebels by some person employed for the purpose, or if this failed, then some one was to be suborned to swear treason against him: a piece of crooked statecraft which it would be hard to surpass. Yet Cecil writes worse than even this: ‘Take this from me, upon my life, that whatever you do to abridge him, which you shall saie to be done out of providense, shall never be ymputed to you as a fault. ... Remember what I say to you: blame shall not betide you for any caution (how curious soever) in the managing of this young puer male cinctus.* All which conveys a suggestion not to be misunderstood. [2]

1. Carew Papers, l509-1000, pp.413, 414.
2. Ibid. pp.463, 464; and Life and Letters of Florence Mac Carthy Mor, p.318.

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Reports now (1600) went through all Munster of the young lord’s return, and when at last he arrived in Kilmallock, the old town rang with acclamations of joy; the people thronged the streets and windows, and even climbed on the gutters and roofs to catch a glimpse of the son of their old master; so that it was with great difficulty he made his way to his lodging.

Next day, Sunday, instead of accompanying the people to Mass as they expected, he went to the Protestant church, for he had been reared a Protestant in London. They were astonished and shocked; they crowded round him, and in their own expressive language passionately implored him not to desert the faith of his fathers. But he did not understand one word of Irish, and taking not the slightest notice of their entreaties, he passed on quietly to church. Then their feelings of affection were changed to loathing, and ‘after service and the sermon was ended the earle comming forth of the church, was railed at and spet upon by those that before going to church were so desirous to see and salute him.’ [1] The people returned to their homes, and never again took the least notice of him; and as he was useless now to the government, a mere shadow, insignificant and characterless, he was sent back to London in March 1601, where he soon after died.

The activity of Carew now began to tell on the rebellion all over Munster. The garrison of Kilmallock inflicted on the Sugan earl a crushing defeat, after which he was reduced to the condition of a mere fugitive, fleeing with a few followers from one hiding-place to another, like his uncle some years before. The president ofiered large rewards for taking him alive or dead, and there was scarce a man of note in Munster that he did not tempt to apprehend him. [2]

When all these plans failed, Carew tried another. He traversed the plain of Limerick, burning all the houses and all the corn - now stacked in the haggards, for it

1. Pac. Hib. p.164.
2. All this is taken from the letter written by Carew himself on 2nd November 1600: Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.471. 518

was December. This continued till the poor people over an immense extent of comitry were left without food or shelter. And Carew expressed his intention to destroy and burn till the earl was given up. Yet no one ever thought of betraying him, for he was, as Carew states, ‘a man the most generally beloved of all sorts as well in this town [Cork] as in the country.’ [1]

He was at last taken in the great Mitchelstown cave by his old adherent the white knight, who delivered him up to Carew for a reward of £1,000. He was tried and found guilty of high treason; but he was not executed, lest his brother John might be set up in his place and give more trouble. He and Florence Mac Carthy, who had submitted some time before, were sent to the Tower of London, where they remained till their death. With the capture of these two, the most powerful of the Munster confederates, the rebellion in the south came to an end for the time.

While these events were taking place in the south, O’Neill and O’Donnell were kept busy in the north. The’ English had a garrison in Carrickfergus, from which they dominated the surrounding country: and the authorities now determined to carry out their long cherished project of bailding forts and planting garrisons on the shores of Lough Foyle, which would enable them to command the north-western districts. For this purpose a powerful armament of 4,000 foot and 200 horse, under the command of Sir Henry Docwra, [2] with abundance of stores and building materials, sailed for Lough Foyle in May 1600. At the same time, in order to divert O’Neill’s attention and draw off opposition, Mountjoy marched north from Dublin as if to invade Tyrone.

His strategy was quite successful. O’Neill and

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.487, and ibid. 1601-1603, p.76.
2. He wrote two interesting tracts relating to the transactions in Ireland in which he was engaged: ‘Relation of Service done in Ireland ‘and ‘A Narration of the Services done by the Army ymployed to Lough Foyle,’ which have been published in the Miscellany of the Celtic Society for 1849. Both have been consulted and made use of in this chapter.

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O’Donnell marclied to oppose him, and took possession of the Moyiy Pass, a narrow and dangerous defile five miles north of Dundalk, then the chief highway from the south into Eastern Ulster. But the English forced the pass after a sharp conflict on Whitsunday 1600, and made their way to Newry, where they remained till Mountjoy judged that he had given Docwra sufficient time to land. He then returned to Dublin in June, making his way back, not by the Moyry, but round by Carlingford. [1]

Meantime Docwra succeeded after some trifling opposition in landing at Culmore at the mouth of the Foyle, where he erected a. fort and left a garrison. Leaving another garrison in O’Doherty’s castle of Ellagh a little inland, he sailed up the river and landed at Derry, the site of St. Columkille’s establishment, then almost uninhabited, where stood the ruins of a castle and of several churches. Here he began the erection of two forts, intending this to be his principal settlement on the Foyle. In the midst of their work they were attacked by O’Neill and O’Donnell, who had marched towards the Foyle the moment Mountjoy had returned, but the garrison were able to repel the attack and the Irish retired.

A little later on Docwra sailed still further up the river and landed at Dunnalong, five miles from Derry, at the Tyrone side, where in spite of the opposition of O’Neill he built a fort and left a garrison. After this the two chiefs hovered round the several settlements, attacking at every opportunity and cutting off stragglers; but through all difiiculties and privations the garrisons bravely held their ground.

Let us now. turn for a moment to the aSairs of Leinster. Owney O’Moore, the chief of Leix, had carried on the war vigorously and successfully, and up to the present the English had on the whole got the worst of it. ‘In this summer many conflicts, battles, sanguinary massacres, and bloodsheds, in which countless troops were cut off", took place between the English and Irish of Leinster.’ [2]

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.388.
2. Four Masters, 1600, p.2179.

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On the 10th of April 1600 a conference was arranged between O’Moore and the earl of Ormond near Ballyragget in Kilkenny. To this meeting Ormond invited the earl of Thomond and also Sir George Carew, who happened to be then in Kilkenny on his way from Dublin to his presidency. During the parley some angry altercation was carried on between Ormond and Father James Archer, an Irish Jesuit who accompanied O’Moore. Some of the clansmen, imagining that the priest was in danger, rushed forward and attempted to seize the whole party. They pulled Ormond from the saddle; but Carew, Thomond, and the others, putting spurs to their horses, escaped through the crowd: and Ormond was carried off by O’Moore to his fastness. He was however released in the following June at O’Neill’s request. Carew says this affair was an act of treachery, plotted by Archer; the Irish writers represent it as accidental and unpremeditated; but Mountjoy then and afterwards suspected that Ormond himself, secretly sympathising with the rebels, had arranged the whole thing with them to avoid fighting against them.

By this time O’Moore had succeeded in winning back all his own principality of Leix, except the fortress of Port Leix or Maryborough. The people with his strong hand to protect them had settled down in peace, had brought back their land to cultivation, and were prosperous and contented: and the country had quite recovered from the effects of the desolating wars of the plantations. Fynes Moryson, Mountjoy ’s secretary, who saw the district at this time, says: ‘It seems incredible that by so barbarous inhabitants’ - the English writers generally speak of the Irish as barbarous - ‘the ground should be so manured [tilled], the fields so orderly fenced, the towns so frequently [fully] inhabited, and the highways and paths so well beaten as the lord deputy found them. The reason whereof was that the queen’s forces during these wars never till then came among them.’ [2]

But now all this was to be changed, for Mountjoy

1. Moryson, i. p.178.

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returning in July from a journey north against O’Neill, prepared for an expedition into Leix to punish the people for their share in O’Neill’s rebellion. And he adopted the plan foreshadowed by Spenser (p.459) and carried out at this same time by Carew in the south (p.511), of starving the whole population by destroying the growing crops. He began this policy in Leix and continued it systematically elsewhere during the whole period of his deputyship.

Setting out from Dublin in August with a force of horse and foot, and a supply of sickles, scythes, and harroivs, to cut and tear up the unripe corn, [1] the deputy entered Leix and Ossory and soon changed the face of the country, burning, spoiling, and destroying everything. ‘Our captains,’ says Moryson, ‘and by their example (for it was otherwise painful) the common soldiers, did cut down with their swords all the rebels’ corn to the value of £10,000 and upwards (more than £120,000 now; in a tract of about twenty miles long by fifteen broad), the only means by which they were to live.’ [2] Mountjoy seems to have thought this a pleasant and enjoyable sort of work; for in his letter to Carew he makes it the subject of a joke: ‘I am very busy at harvest [work] in cutting down the honest gentlemen’s corn.’ [3] Moryson, as we saw, calls the people barbarous; but here the real barbarians were certainly not the poor people but Mountjoy and his subordinates.

This kind of warfare was new to O’Moore, and in the anguish of his heart he wrote to the earl of Ormond, with whom he was on terms of personal friendship, asking him to put a stop to ‘this execrable and abominable course, and badd example to all the world,’ as he described it.’ [4] But as this just expostulation produced no effect, O’Moore with the small force at his command attempted to save his people by attacking the destroyers on every available opportunity; and he lost his life in the attempt. In one of the skirmishes he separated himself incautiously from

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.430; and Four Masters, 1600, p.2187.
2. Moryson, i. 178.
3. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.422.
4. Ibid., p.439.

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his party, and was struck dead by a musket-ball on the 17th August 1600. [1] After the death of the chief - ‘this bloody and bold young man’ as Moryson calls him - there was no further resistance, and Mountjoy continued his work of destruction unchecked till he had ruined the whole country; after which he returned to Dublin, leaving the people to despair and hunger, their smiling district turned to a black ruin. And forthwith the English took possession of Leix, and proceeded to repair all their dismantled castles.

We left O’Neill and O’Donnell struggling against Docwra at Lough Foyle. But now a circumstance befel that quite crippled them in their efforts; for two of their leading sub-chiefs, Sir Art O’Neill the son of Turlogh Lynnagh, and Niall Garve O’Donnell the cousin and brother-in-law of Red Hugh, deserted them in the hour of trouble and danger, and went over to the English. The queen promised to make Sir Art earl of Tyrone in place of the great rebel Hugh; but he died in the same year (1600) in the English camp.

Niall Garve was a man of much greater consequence. Next to O’Neill and O’Donnell he was the ablest and most influential of the northern chiefs, and as a reward for joining the English he stipulated that he should get Tirconnell, O’Donnell’s principality; but he afterwards extended his demands by claiming every district over which O’Donnell had at any time exercised authority, not only Tirconnell, but also Fermanagh and even Connaught. He carried out his traitorous design in the following manner. O’Donnell, setting out in October on a hostile expedition against the earls of Clanrickard and Thomond, left him in command to keep watch on the English garrisons. But as soon as he had got to a safe distance, Niall Garve went over to the English at Derry with his three brothers and a body of troops.

It was a lucky moment for the English that he did so, for the garrison, cooped up and closely invested by O’Donnell, had lost great numbers by death, and the men

1. Carew Papers, 1589-1600, p.431.

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were in the last extremity of distress from bad food, sickness, and hardship. [1]

But Niall Garve relieved them from all this, and bydirecting them where to send their plundering parties, enabled them to supply themselves with plenty of provisions. In the words of Docwra, ‘the garrison both heere [at Derry] and at Dunalong set divers of Preys and of Catle, and did many other services all the winter longe; and I must confess a truth, all by the help and advise of Neale Garvie and his Followers and the other Irish that came in with Sir Arthur O’Neale, without whose intelligence and guidance little or nothing could have been done of ourselves, although it is true withall they had theire owne ends in it, which were always for private Eevenge, and we ours to make use of them for the furtherance of the Publique service.’ Immediately after his desertion Niall Garve, with a detachment of English, seized the castle of Lifford, one of O’Donnell’s fortresses, and held it for Docwra. [2] Meantime a messenger had been despatched hot haste after O’Donnell to tell him of these proceedings. Amazed and grieved he hastened back and encamped beside Lifford; but he was unable to recover possession of it, for his traitorous cousin was an able and valiant leader. He remained near the town however for a month to enable the people of the neighbourhood to gather their harvest and secure it from plunder; after which he retired.

During all this time the deputy Mountjoy was as active in his own district as Docwra and Carew in north and south. He had scarce rested after his destructive raid in Leix (p.516) when he made another journey north in September, the third to Ulster this year, and encamped at Faughart near Dundalk. Here he remained a month; and he had to fight almost every day, for O’Neill kept in his neighbourhood the whole time and attacked him at

1. Four Masters, 1600, p.2211.
2. It may be worth while to note here that Niall Garve’s wife - Nuala, Red Hugh’s sister- was so shocked at his treachery that she left him and never afterwards rejoined him.

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every opportunity. Though Mountjoy, like his secretary Moryson, writes boastfully about his victories while here, it is obvious that he was hard set to hold his ground; for he had to write to Dublin for reinforcements, and he requested that the Dublin garrison should take steps to draw off the rebels’ attention from him: and the Four Masters give a very unfavourable account of the result of his expedition.[1]

In October he forced his way through the Moyry Pass, and built a fort and planted a garrison at a place which he called Mountnorris in honour of Sir John Norris. He then by the queen’s command proclaimed O’Neill a traitor and offered £2,000 for bringing him in alive or £1,000 dead. Having remained altogether two months in the north, still burning and destroying the people’s corn, he made his return journey round by Carlingford. Here in the narrow passage between Carlingford mountain and the sea he was intercepted by O’Neill, and after a severe action attended by much loss on both sides, he forced his way through and got back to Dublin.

The O’Byrnes ofWicklow, under their chief Felim,the son of the old ‘firebrand of the mountains,’ had for some time been giving trouble, making nightly inroads down the hill-slopes towards Dublin. At Christmas time Mountjoy made a sudden raid on them, and coming unawares on Felim’s house captured his wife and eldest son, the chief himself barely escaping through a window. Here the deputy remained a month driving away the cattle, and burning and destroying the houses and corn.

In the following year (1601) towards the end of May he set out from Dublin on another expedition to the north, and again encamped at Faughart. The Moyry Pass, which lay a little north of the camp, was in some way left unguarded by O’Neill; and the watchful deputy, taking instant advantage of this, built a castle in the middle of it, in which he left a garrison of 200 men; so that this most dangerous pass was ever after open to him.

1. Four Masters, 1600, pp.2223-2225; Carew Pajjers, 1589-1600, p.465; Moryson, i. p.296 and preceding pages.

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From Faughart he went to the Blackwater, and took possession of the old fort of Portmore, which had remained in the hands of the Irish since the battle of the Yellow Ford. He built a new fort and remained encamped beside it for six weeks; and every day he sent out parties of men to destroy the green corn. He made several attempts to penetrate farther into O’Neill’s territory; but he was always forced back with more or less loss. While here he renewed his proclamation of reward for bringing in O’Neill alive or dead; but ‘the Name of O’Neal was so reverenced in the North as none could be induced to betray him upon the large reward set upon his head.’ [1] But danger came from another quarter. ‘One Walker an Englishman’ offered to assassinate him. The offer was made to Sir Henry Davers governor of Armagh, who by the consent and advice of Mountjoy accepted it, and passed Walker through the English lines on his way to the Irish camp. At the last moment however this fellow failed through cowardice. When he returned he ‘behaved himself in such sort, as his lordship [Mountjoy] judged him frantic, though not the less fit for such a purpose’ [i.e. to murder O’Neill]: and Mountjoy, in order to clear himself and Davers from the discredit of having failed, sent the fellow a prisoner to England to give an account there of his proceedings.[2]

Leaving captain Williams governor of the new fort at Portmore, who had so valiantly defended it three years before, Mountjoy returned to the Pale in the end of August. He had served the queen well in this excursion, for he forced many of the smaller chiefs to submit, and left garrisons in several important strongholds.

By this time the rebellion may be said to have been crushed in the three southern provinces. In Ulster, though O’Neill and O’Donnell were still actively engaged in defensive warfare, they had become greatly circumscribed; for the deputy had possession of all the main strongholds, and was daily gaining a firmer grasp on .the province. But the rebellion was now fated to be renewed in another quarter of the island.

1. Moryson, i. 276. Ibid. 289, 290.

It had lately been rumoured in England and Ireland that Philip III of Spain had sent a fleet with troops to aid the Catholics of Ireland. The rumour proved correct. On the 23rd of September 1601 the Spanish fleet entered the harbour of Kinsale with 3,400 troops under the command of Don Juan del Aguila. They immediately took possession of the town and placed garrisons in two outlying castles at both sides of the entrance to the harbour, Rincorran on the east and Castle-na-park on the west. And Del Aguila despatched a message to Ulster to O’Neill and O’Donnell, earnestly urging them to come south without delay.

But from the very beginning this expedition seems to have been attended by ill-luck. The force, which originally consisted of 6,000, became reduced by delays in embarking; and after sailing, the fleet was scattered by a storm, so that seven of the ships laden with artillery, small arms, and stores, had to put back into Corunna. The help came at the wrong time, for the Irish had greatly lost ground. The choice of commander was unfortunate. Del Aguila, though he had seen some service and was a brave soldier, was quite unfit to lead such an expedition, which required patience and cool judgment; whereas he was hot-tempered, self-willed, and impatient under difficulties. And worst of all, instead of landing in Ulster, now the chief seat of the rebellion, they chose Munster, where Carew had, only a few months before, thoroughly crushed the power of the insurgents: but for this last Del Aguila could not be blamed, as he had not heard of what had lately taken place in Munster.

*Detailed descriptions of the siege and battle of Kinsale are given by Carew in Pacata Hibernia; by the Four Masters; and by Philip O’Sullivan Beare in his Hist. Cath. IBern. Compendium: and chiefly from these the account in this chapter is taken.

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The Spanish commander had expected that all Munster would be up in arms on his arrival; but he was bitterly disappointed when he found that the Sugan earl and Florence Mac Carthy had been taken (p.513), and that only three chiefs of any consequence joined him: Donall O’Sullivan Beare, O’Driscoll, and O’Conor of Kerry. All the others were now either prisoners or allies of the English: and the peasantry, thoroughly cowed by the recent proceedings of Oarew, showed no disposition to join the Spanish standard.

Mountjoy and Carew were sitting in council in Kilkenny when an express arrived from Sir Charles Wilmot, who then commanded in Cork, with the news that the Spanish fleet had arrived. They set out instantly; and on their arrival in Cork, they sent out couriers in every direction to muster troops. At the end of three weeks they encamped on the north side of the town with an army of 12,000 men; and after some time they were joined by the earls of Thomond and Clanrickard, with additional reinforcements.

The receipt of Del Aguila’s letters placed the northern chiefs in great difficulty. Their presence was urgently required in Ulster, where they still kept up a brave defensive struggle; and now they must either abandon their own province to its fate or leave Del Aguila to fight his battles unaided. Yet they never hesitated, but made instant preparations for their march south, though winter was now setting in.

O’Donnell was first. After a hasty preparation he set out from Ballymote with about 2,500 men of the septs of Tirconnell and North Connaught. Crossing the Shannon near the present Shannon Harbour in King’s County, he proceeded into Tipperary, and encamped on Moydrum Hill, midway between Roscrea and Templemore, where he remained for nearly three weeks awaiting O’Neill; after which he moved farther south one day’s march and again encamped near Holycross. While here his scouts brought him word that Sir George Carew had been despatched by the deputy to intercept him, and was now encamped six or eight miles off near Cashel.

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O’Donnell, wishing to reserve his strength, was determined to reach Kinsale without fighting. But the president lay right in his path: the Slieve Felim mountains on his right - to the west - were impassable for an army with baggage on account of recent heavy rains; and he dared not go roundabout east through Kilkenny, as he might encounter the army of the Pale, so that there seemed no way by which he could move south. Luckily there came a sudden and intense frost on the night of the 22nd of November, which hardened up bog and morass and made them passable. The Irish general, instantly taking advantage of this, set out that night westwards, crossed the Slieve Felim mountains with his hardy followers, making his way through the transverse glens, and passing AbbeyOwney (now Abington), he reached Croom the next night after a march of forty English miles - ‘the greatest march with [incumbrance of] carriage,’ says Carew, ‘that hath been heard of.’ But in this journey he had to abandon much of his baggage.

When Carew was told of O’Donnell’s sudden departure, he started in pursuit four hours before day on the morning of the 23rd, hoping to intercept him in a dangerous pass near Abington; but by the time he had arrived at Abington O’Donnell was far in front, and he barely reached Kilmallock when the Irish had got to Croom. So finding he could not overtake them he turned south and made a hasty march to Kinsale. O’Donnell now moving leisurely in order to rest his men, arrived at Castlehaven where he encamped for a few days. At this same time the missing part of the Spanish fleet sailed into Castlehaven, bringing 700 Spanish troops. Part of these were now sent to garrison the castles of Castlehaven, Baltimore, and Dunboy: the remainder, under their officer Don Alfonso Ocampo, joined O’Donnell and marched with him to Kinsale.

During the month of November the English had carried on the siege vigorously. The two castles of Rincorran and Castle-na-park were reduced by cannonade and taken from the Spaniards, and a fleet of English ships blockaded

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the bay, so that the town was completely invested. There were daily skirmishes between besiegers and besieged. The English ordnance made a breach in the walls, and a storming party of 2,000 attempted to force their way in, but after a desperate struggle were repulsed. On the other hand, one stormy night, 2,000 of the Spaniards made a determined sally to destroy some siege works, but were driven off after a sharp contest, without accomplishing their object.

After O’Donnell’s arrival things began to go against the English, who were hemmed in by the town on one side and by the Irish army on the other, so that they were now themselves besieged. They were threatened with famine; they could procure no fodder for their horses; and the weather was so inclement that they lost numbers of their men every day by cold and sickness.

O’Neill arrived on the 21st December with an army of about 4,000, and encamped at Belgooly, north of the town, about three miles from the English lines. He saw at once how matters stood, and his plan was to avoid fighting - to remain simply inactive and let the English army melt away. Already, during three months of siege, more than 6,000 of the English had perished; [1] and had his counsel been now followed, success was certain. But he was overruled. The Spanish commander Del Aguila, who was ignorant of the country and of its mode of warfare, and should have submitted to O’Neill’s experience, grew impatient under his own privations, and sent pressing letters to the Irish chiefs to attack, believing that the English were so worn out as to be unable to fight well. O’Donnell, fiery and impetuous as he was, sided with him; and against O’Neill’s judgment it was decided that a simultaneous attack should be made by the Irish on one side and the Spaniards on the other, on the night of the 3rd of January, 1602 (New Style).

But a traitor in the Irish camp, Brian Mac Mahon, gave secret warning to captain William Taaffe, one of Mountjoy’s officers. Taaffe instantly told Mountjoy, who

1. Carew Papers, 1601-1603, p.805.

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placed his army in readiness; and the communication between the Irish and Spaniards miscarried, so that Del Aguila’s attack never came off. The Irish set out under cover of the darkness in three divisions: captain Tyrrell led the van; O’Neill, under whom were 0’Sullivan Beare and Ocampo, commanded the centre; and O’Donnell the rear. The night was unusually dark, wet, and stormy; the guides lost their way, and the army wandered aimlessly and wearily; till at length at the dawn of day O’Neill unexpectedly found himself near the English lines, which he saw were quite prepared to receive him. Instead of surprising Mountjoy, he was himself surprised. His own men were wearied and his lines in some disorder, and O’Donnell had not yet come up; so he ordered the army to retire a little, either to place them in better order of battle or to postpone the attack.

But Mountjoy’s quick eye caught the situation, and sending back Carew to guard the camp against the sallies of the Spaniards from the town, he hurled his cavalry on the retreating ranks. For a whole hour O’Neill defended himself, still retiring, till his retreat became little better than a rout. Tyrrell and O’Donnell, w]hen they were able to take part in the battle, fought tenaciously as they always did. But nothing could retrieve the rout of the centre; the superhuman efforts of O’Neill and Ked Hugh, of Tyrrell and O’Sullivan, to rally their men, were all in vain; and they lost the battle of Kinsale.

According to the English accounts 1,200 of the Irish were killed; but the Four Masters on the Irish side say that ‘although they were routed the number slain was not very great on account of the fewness of the pursuers.’ Carew states that the English loss was comparatively trifling, which is no doubt true. Of 300 Spaniards that entered the field under Ocampo only forty-nine with their leader survived. The earl of Clanrickard - a Catholic - fought with great fury on the side of the deputy; he killed twenty kern with his own hand in the pursuit, and he gave orders that all Irish prisoners should be killed the moment they were taken. Those of the Irish who were

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captured by other officers were sent at once to the camp and hanged.

On the night following that fatal day the Irish chiefs retired with their broken army to Innishannon. Here they held a sad council, in which it was resolved that O’Donnell should proceed to Spain to solicit further help from king Philip, leaving his Tirconnellian forces in command of his brother Kory. And inasmuch as it was now the depth of winter, when another campaign was out of the question, it was decided to suspend active operations pending the issue of O’Donnell’s mission. Accordingly O’Neill made a rapid retreat to Ulster, and Rory O’Donnell led his own men back to Sligo.

After the dispersal of the Irish army the lord dep]uty continued the siege vigorously. But Del Aguila lost heart and offered to surrender on honourable terms. The deputy was only too glad to end hostilities, and agreed to everything demanded; for he anticipated another expedition from Spain, and he dreaded a continuance of the war in the weakened state of his army. Nine days after the battle, Del Aguila gave up possession of the town, marching forth with colours flying and drums beating, with all his arms, ammunition, and valuables; and he agreed to surrender the castles of Castlehaven, Baltimore, and Dunboy. Mountjoy on his part agreed to convey him and his army back to Spain.

After the capitulation Del Aguila formed a friendship with Carew, and expressed himself about the Irish in the most contemptuous terms, blaming them for the defeat before Kinsale, which had been chiefly brought about by his own impatience and incompetency. When news of the defeat reached Spain the king wrote to him to hold out till another expedition - then in preparation - should arrive, which he might have done, as he had sufficient men, arms, and provisions. But in his haste he had capitulated even before the letter was written; and when the king subsequently heard of the surrender of the town and of the capture of Dunboy, he abandoned for the time all intention of further expeditions. Del Aguila was justly

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blamed for his conduct, and soon after his arrival in Spain he was placed under arrest, which so affected him that he died of grief.

Immediately after the council at Innishannon O’Donnell went on board a Spanish ship and sailed for Spain. He was treated everywhere with the greatest respect and honour. The king received him most cordially and with all the high consideration due to a prince, and assured him that he would send with him to Ireland an armament much more powerful than that of Del Aguila.

But Red Hugh O’Donnell never saw his native Ulster more. He took suddenly ill at Simancas, and his bodily ailment was intensified by sickness of heart; for he had heard of the surrender of Kinsale and of the fall of Dunboy; and he died on the 10th September in the twenty-ninth year of his age. His death however was not brought on by natural illness: there is the best reason to believe that he fell a victim to foul play. The Irish annalists and people of the time had no knowledge of what went on, and we derive all our information on the point from English authorities, including Carew.

In the month of May 1602 a miscreant named Blake came to president Carew and offered to follow O’Donnell into Spain and kill him. He did not say how it was to be done, but he assured the president that he would accomplish it. Carew applauded the design, and eagerly closed with the offer. He himself tells the whole story in a letter written - partly in cipher - to Lord Mountjoy, who was also in the secret. ‘God give him strength and perseverance,’ says Carew, ‘I told him I would acquaint your lordship with it.’

Blake accordingly set out, and after his arrival in Spain he kept Carew well informed of how matters progressed. Meantime O’Donnell was suddenly carried off as related above: and in October of the same year, when news of his death had reached Ireland, Carew again writes to Mountjoy, gloating over the event in this fashion: ‘O’Donnell is dead. ... and I do think it will fall out that he is poisoned by James Blake, of whom

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your lordship hath been formerly acquainted. At his [Blake’s] coming into Spain he was suspected of O’Donnell because he had embarked at Corke, but afterwards he insinuated his access - and O’Donnell is dead [1]

The body of O’Donnell was brought to Valladolid, and by command of King Philip was buried with royal honours in the church of the Franciscan monastery. The church has long since disappeared; and now no monument marks the grave of Red Hugh O’Donnell.

The Irish chiefs were very indignant with Del Aguila for surrendering Kinsale; and they were incensed beyond measure when they heard that he had agreed to hand over to the deputy the castles of Baltimore, Castlehaven, and Dunboy. Donall O’Sullivan Beare especially, whose castle of Dunboy was the strongest and most important of the three, denounced the transaction as cowardly and dis

1 CareTv Papers, 1601-1603, pp.241, 350, 351. Besides the attempts or incentives to assassinate Shane O’Neill, John Fitzthomas, Hugh O’Neill earl of Tyrone, Eed Hugh O’Donnell, and the young earl of Desmond related at pp.108, 413,414, 509, 511, 520, and 527, the State Papers reveal many other similar plots; and it is proper to observe that the authorities for these are all English, several being the letters of the very plotters themselves. Even the blnff old soldier Perrott engaged one Thady Nolan to poison Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne; and in a letter to the council (3rd October 1590) he justifies it by Sussex’s attempt to poison Shane O’Neill (Cal of State Papers, Ejuj. Povwst. 1590, p.691). Carew employed ‘one Annyas an Irishman’ to kill Florence Mac Carthy More {Life of Florence Mae Carthy Peagh by Daniel Mac Carthy, 1867, p.302). We may expect to find many more instances when more State Papers are published. No doubt the plotters thought their fearful letters were consigned to everlasting secrecy; but the editors of the State Papers, with unrelenting impartiality, have brought them forth to the light of day. I fear we must admit that during the reign of Elizabeth assassination was not merely a thing of occasional occurrence, but a recognised mode of dealing with Irish chiefs.

The narrative in this Chapter is founded chiefly on those of Carew in Pacata Hihernia, and of O’Sullivan Beare in his History of the Irish Catholics.

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honourable; for he had intrusted his castle, as he said, to the safe-keeping of Del Aguila, who was bound in honour to return it to the owner.

Dunboy had not yet been given up however; and O’Sullivan resolved to regain possession of it. It was still held by the Spanish garrison; and at the dead of night, while the Spaniards were sound asleep, O’Sullivan, by breaking a hole in the wall, in February 1602, threw in a body of native troops under the command of Richard Mac Geoghegan and Thomas Taylor an Englishman. The Spaniards were overpowered and sent away, all but a few cannoniers who were kept to serve the artillery. And now Mac Geoghegan’s whole garrison amounted to 143 men, who straightway began to make preparations for a siege.

It might seem an act of madness for such a small garrison to attempt a defence against the overwhelming force at the disposal of Carew: but O’Sullivan hoped that O’Donnell would return with help from King Philip, and that the fortress could hold out till the arrival of the Spaniards.

For a considerable time before this, O’Sullivan had been strengthening the castle and fortifying the approaches; and it had now the reputation of being impregnable. It was situated on a point of the mainland jutting into the channel west of Beare Island; it was almost impossible to reach it by land, because the approach lay through a vast extent of hills, bogs, and rocks; and it was hard to come at it by sea on account of the ruggedness of the coast.

When Carew began preparing to besiege this castle, his friends tried to dissuade him from what they believed a rash and impossible enterprise. But his resolution was proof against all persuasion. Knowing well that the castle was regarded by the southern Irish as their most important stronghold, he expressed his belief that its capture would discourage the Spaniards from further invasion - which indeed turned out true; and he declared that nothing should hinder him from making Queen Elizabeth mistress of Dunboy.

He set out from Cork with an army of 3,000 men, accompanied by O’Brien earl of Thomond; and on the 30th

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of April 1602 encamped near Bantry to await the arrival of his ships with the ordnance and stores. Sir Charles Wilmot, who had been employed with 1,000 men reducing the insurgents in North Kerry, now directed his march south to join the president. His passage was disputed near Mangerton mountain by the indefatigable Tyrrell (of Tyrrell’s Pass: p.492); but he forced his way and entered the camp on the 11th of May. On the same day the ships appeared at the mouth of Bantry Bay: a glad sight to the president and his men, who had by that time consumed nearly all their provisons.

On account of the insurmountable difficulty of the land journey, the whole army was conveyed to Great Beare Island by sea in the first few days of June. On the 6th they entered the narrow strait at the north of the island, and landed near the present Castletown Beare. Then marching west they encamped near the ill-starred castle. The devoted little garrison never flinched at sight of the powerful armament of 4,000 men, and only exerted themselves all the more resolutely to strengthen their position. And now the siege was begun in good earnest, and day after day the ordnance thundered against the walls. On the 17th of June the castle was so shattered that Mac Geoghegan sent to Carew offering to surrender, on condition of being allowed to march out with arms: but Carew’s only answer was to hang the messenger and to give orders for a final assault. The storming party were resisted with desperation and many were killed on both sides; but the defenders were driven from turret to turret by sheer force of numbers: till at last they had to take refuge in the eastern wing which had not yet been injured.

The only way to reach this was by a narrow passage where firearms could not be used; and a furious hand to hand combat was kept up for an hour and a half, while from various standpoints the defenders poured down bullets, stones, and every available missile on the assailants, killing and wounding great numbers.

While this was going on some of the besiegers, by clearing away a heap of rubbish, made their way in by a

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back passage, so that the garrison found themselves assailed on all sides; whereupon forty of them sallying out, made a desperate rush for the sea, intending to swim to the island. But before they had reached the water they were intercepted and cut down, all but eight who plunged into the sea; and for these the president had provided by stationing a party with boats outside, ‘who,’ in Carew’s words, ‘had the killing of them all.’

Tliis furious struggle had lasted during the whole long summer day, and it was now sunset; the castle was a mass of ruins, and the number of the garrison was greatly reduced. Late as it was the assault was vigorously renewed; and after another hour’s fighting the assailants gained all the upper part of the castle; and the Irish, now only seventy-seven, took refuge in the cellars. Then Carew, leaving a strong guard at the entrance, withdrew his men for the night; while those in the castle enjoyed their brief rest as best they could, knowing what was to come with the light of day.

On the next morning - the 18th of June - Taylor was in command; for Mac Geoghegan was mortally wounded; and the men resolved to defend themselves to the last, except twenty-three who laid down their arms and surrendered. Carew now directed his cannons on the cellars till he battered them into ruins on the heads of the devoted band; and at length Taylor’s men forced him to surrender. When a party of English entered to take the captives, Mac Geoghegan, who was lying on the floor, his life ebbing away, snatched a lighted candle from Taylor’s hand, and exerting all his remaining strength, staggered towards some barrels of powder which stood in a corner of the cellar. But captain Power, one of Carew’s ofiicers, caught him and held him in his arms, while the others killed him with their swords.

On that same day Carew executed fifty-eight of those who had surrendered. Fifteen others, among whom were Taylor and a friar named Dominick Collins [1] ‘the lord

1. This was Donogh Oge O’Cullane chief of the O’Cullanes of the territory round Castlelyons in Cork, who, when Boyle earl of Cork had seized

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president reserved alive, to try whether he could draw them to do some more acceptable service than their lives were worth.’ [1] But after some time, finding that they could not be tempted to inform on their associates, he had them all executed.

We might perhaps expect that a brave man would show some mercy to brave men wlio had done their duty. But no mercy here: and Carew is able to boast that of the 143 defenders of Dunboy ‘no one man escaped, but were either slaine, executed, or buried in the ruins; and so obstinate and resolved a defence had not been scene within this kingdom.’ The powder that was in the vaults was heaped together and ignited; and all that remained of Dunboy was blown into fragments, except two parallel side walls which still remain.[2]

Chapter XVI:
The Retreat of O’Sullivan Beare

After the capture of Dunboy, Donall O’Sullivan the lord of Beare and Bantry had no home; for his other chief fortress on Dursey Island had also been taken, and its garrison, and all the people of the little island, men, women, and children, were put to the sword.[3] He was however at the head of a formidable band, which he and Tyrrell held together among the glens of Cork and Kerry, still fondly hoping for help from King Philip.But towards the end of the year (1602) ill news came from Spain -

his property, went abroad, and after extraordinary vicissitudes, joined the church. He was really a Jesuit, a non-combatant, though Carew calls him a friar. (Rev. Edm. Hogan, S.J., in the Month, July 1890.)

1. Pac. Hib. 574.
2. Mr. T. D. Sullivan has related in verse the story of this siege in his fine poem of Dunboy.
3. ‘He [Sir Charles Wilmot] sent Captaine Flemming with his pinnace, and certaine souldiers into Osulevans land [Dursey Island]. ... They tooke from thence certaine cowes and sheepe, which were reserved as in a sure storehouse, and put the churls to the sword that inhabited therein.’ - Pac. Hib. p.659.

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that O’Donnell was dead, and that King Philip, on hearing of the fall of Dunboy, had countermanded the intended expedition.

Many of O’Sullivan’s followers now abandoned him in despair; and at last even Tyrrell and his party had to leave him. The English forces were gradually hemming him in, and towards the end of December Sir Charles Wilmot encamped in Glengarriff within two miles of him. For several days there was skirmishing between the outposts of the two armies, and at last the English succeeded, after a bitter fight of six hours, in driving off from before the camp of the Irish a vast number of horses, cows, and sheep, their chief means of subsistence.

Finding that he could no longer maintain himself and his followers where he was, 0’ Sullivan resolved to bid farewell to the land of his inheritance and seek a refuge in Ulster. On the last day of the year 1602 he set out from Glengarriff on his memorable retreat, with 400 fighting men, and 600 women, children, and servants. The march was one unbroken scene of conflict and hardship.They were everywhere confronted or pursued by enemies, who attacked them when they dared; and they suffered continually from fatigue, cold, and hunger.

They fled in such haste that they were able to bring with them only one day’s provisions, trusting to be able to obtain food as they fared along; for 0’ Sullivan had plenty of money, which had been sent to him from Spain. But they found the country people too much terrified by Carew’s threats to give them help or shelter or to sell them provisions. As they could not buy, they had either to take by force or starve, which explains much of the hostility they encountered; for no man will permit his substance to be taken without resistance. But it must be confessed that some of the Irish chiefs attacked him on his way for no other motive than to gain favour with the government. Scarce a day passed without loss: some fell behind or left the ranks overcome with weariness; some sank and died under accumulated hardships; and others were killed in fight.

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The first day they made their way to Ballyvourney, after a journey of about twenty-four miles over the mountains. Here they rested for the night; and going to the little church next morning before resuming their march, they laid offerings on the altar of the patron - the virgin saint Gobinet - and besought her prayers for a prosperous journey. On next through Duhallow, fighting their way through a hostile band of the Mac Carthys, till they reached Liscarroll, where John Barry of Buttevant attacked their rear as they crossed the ford, and after an hour’s fighting killed four of their men, but lost more than four himself. Skirting the north base of the Ballyhoura Mountains by Ardskeagh, they encamped one night beside the old hill of Ardpatrick. Their next resting place was the Glen of Aherlow, where among the vast solitudes of the Galtys they could procure no better food than herbs and water; and the night sentries found it hard to perform their duty, oppressed as they were with fatigue and hunger. For the first part of their journey they made tents each evening to sleep in; but they were not able to continue this, so that they had to lie under the open sky, and they sufiered bitterly from the extreme cold of the nights.

Next northwards from the Galtys across the Golden Vale, over the great plain of Tipperary, fighting their way through enemies almost every hour. While one detachment of the fighting men collected provisions, the others remained with the main body to protect the women and children; and the whole party were preserved from utter destruction only by the strict discipline maintained by the chief.

O’Sullivan’s wife, who accompanied the party, carried and nursed so far through all her hardships her little boy, a baby two years old; but now she had to part with liim. She intrusted him to the care of one of her faithful dependants, who preserved and reared him up tenderly, and afterwards sent him to Spain to the parents. We are not told how it fared with this lady and some others; but as they did not arrive with the rest at the end of the journey, they must, like many others, have fallen behind

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during the terrible march, and been cared for, as they are heard of afterwards.

The ninth day of their weary journey found them beside the Shannon near Portland in the north of Tipperary; and here they rested for two nights. But their enemies began to close in on them from the Tipperary side, and no time was to be lost; so they prepared to cross the broad river opposite the castle of Kiltaroe or Redwood. Among them was a man, Dermot O’Hoolahan by name, skilled in making curraglis or hide boats. Under his direction they constructed boat-frames of boughs, interwoven with osier twigs in the usual way. They then killed twelve of their horses, and carefully husbanding the flesh for food, they finished their curraghs by covering the skeleton boats with the skins. In these they crossed the river; though at the last moment their rearguard had a sharp conflict with the sherifl" of Tipperary, Donogh Mac Egan the owner of Redwood Castle, who with his party came up, and in spite of O’Sullivan’s earnest expostulations, attacked them, and attempted to throw some of the women and children into the river. But O’Sullivan turned on him, and killed himself and many of his men.

Nothing better awaited them on the other side of the Shannon. Pushing on northwards through O’Kelly’s country, they had to defend themselves in skirmish after skirmish. As most of the horses had by this time quite broken down, O’Sullivan had to abandon the wounded to their certain fate; and their despairing cries rang painfully in the ears of the flying multitude. Sometimes when they came near a village, a party was despatched for provisions, who entered the houses and seized everything in the shape of food they could lay hands on, satisfying their own hunger while they searched, and bringing all they could gather to their starving companions.

At Aughrim they were confronted by captain Henry Malbie and Sir Thomas Burke of Clanrickard, with a force much more numerous than their own. O’Sullivan,

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addressing his famished and desperate little band of fighting men in a few encouraging words, placed them so that they were protected on all sides except the front, where the assailants had to advance on foot through a soft boggypass. Malbie, despising the fugitives, sprang forward at the head of his followers, but fell dead at the first onset. On rushed O’Sullivan and his men: it must be either victory or destruction; and after a determined and bitter fight, they scattered their assailants, and freed themselves from that great and pressing danger.

Onwards over Slieve Mary near Castlekelly, and through the territory of Mac David Burke, where the people, headed by Mac David himself, harassed them all day long to prevent them from obtaining provisions. Near Ballinlouofh in the west of Roscommon thev concealed themselves in a thick wood, intending to pass the night there. But they got no rest: for a friendly messenger came to warn them that Mac David and his people were preparing to surround them in the morning and slay them all. So they resumed their march and toiled on wearily through the night in a tempest of sleet, splashing their way through melting snow, and in the morning found themselves pursued by Mac David, who however was cowed by their determined look, and did not dare to come to close quarters.

Arriving at another solitary wood, they found the people friendly; and they lighted fires and refreshed themselves. They next crossed the Curlieu Hills southwards to Knockvicar, beside the river Boyle where it enters Lough Key, and here they took some rest. For days past they had undergone unspeakable sufferings. Avoiding the open roads, they had to cross the country by rugged, rocky, and unfrequented ways, walking all the time, for horses could not be used. The weather was inclement, snow falling heavily, so that they had sometimes to make their way through deep drifts; and many of those who continued able to walk had to carry some of their companions who were overcome by fatigue and sickness.

Their hope all through had been to reach the territory

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of O’Ruarc of Brefney; and next morning when the sun rose over Knockvicar, their guide pointed out to them, a few miles off, the towers of O’Ruarc’s residence, Leitrim Castle. At eleven O’clock the same day they entered the hospitable mansion, where a kind welcome awaited them.

They had set out from Glengarriff a fortnight before, one thousand in number; and that morning only thirty-five entered O’Rourke’s castle: eighteen armed men, sixteen servants, and one woman, the wife of the chief’s uncle, Dermot O’Sullivan. [1] A few others afterwards arrived in twos and threes; all the rest had either perished or dropped behind from fatigue, sickness, or wounds.

How it fared with South Munster after the capture of Dunboy may now be told in a few words.

When setting out from Glengarriff, O’Sullivan left in the deserted camp some weak women and little children, with a number of wounded and sick people who could not be moved, thinking probably that their infirmity would be a sufficient protection. But in this he miscalculated. The women and children were able to escape in time; but Wilmot had all the wounded men massacred on the spot: ‘Next morniug,’ says Carew, ‘Sir Charles [Wilmot] coming to seeke the enemy in their campe, hee entered into their quarter without resistance, where he found nothing but hurt and sicke men, whose pains and lives by the soldiers were both determined.’ [2]

Though Munster was now quiet enough, yet several of the rebels were still at large, and there were rumours of other intended risings. Against these dangers Carew took precautions of a very decided character. Twenty years before, the province had been almost depopulated by war and artificial famine: now the same dreadful work was repeated, though on a smaller scale: the country was

1. This old couple, who survived the hardships of the journey, were then seventy years old. Their son Philip O’Sullivan Beare afterwards wrote in Latin a book called Historian CathoUcce Ihernicp Compendium, a compendium of the History of the Irish Catholics, from which, and from the Four Masters, the account in this Chapter is chiefly taken.
2. Pac. Hib. p.659.

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turned into a desert: ‘Heereupon Sir Charles [Wilmot] with the English regiments overran all Beare and Bantry, destroying all that they could find meet for the reliefe of men, so as that country was wholly wasted. ... The coresident therefore, as well to debarre those straglers from releefe as to prevent all means of succours to Osulevan if hee should returne with new forces, caused all the county of Kerry and Desmond, Beare, Bantry, and Carbery to be left absolutely wasted, constrayning all the Inhabitants thereof to withdraw their Cattle into the East and Northern parts of the County of Corke.’ [1]

From the autumn of 1600 to the end of 1602 the work of destroying crops, cattle, and homesteads was busily carried on by Mountjoy and Carew, and by the governors of the garrisons, who wasted everything and made deserts for miles round the towns where they were stationed. We have already seen how thoroughly this was done in Munster and Leinster (pp.459, 513, 516): it was now the turn of Ulster. In June 1602 Mountjoy himself marched north to prosecute the rebels, and remained in Ulster during the autumn and winter, traversing the country in all directions, and destroying the poor people’s means of subsistence.

And now the famine so deliberately planned swept through the whole country, and Ulster was, if possible, in a worse condition than Munster. For the ghastly results of the deputy’s cruel policy we have his own testimony, as well as that of his secretary the historian Moryson. Here is Mountjoy’s description of what he found on his arrival in Ulster (written 29th July 1602): ‘We have seen no one man in all Tyrone of late but dead carcases merely hunger starved, of which we found divers as we

1. Pac. Hib. pp.659, 680.

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passed.’ And again: ‘O’Hagan protested that between Tullaghoge and Toome [seventeen miles] there lay unburied 1,000 dead, and that since our first drawing this year to Blackwater there were about 3,000 starved in Tyrone.’ [1] But this did not satisfy him; for soon after we find him invoking the Almighty to aid him in completing this horrible work: ‘To-morrow (by the grace of God) I am going into the field, as near as I can utterly to waste the county Tyrone.’ [2]

Next hear Moryson.[3] ‘Now because I have often made mention formerly of our destroying the rebels’ corn, and using all means to famish them, let me by one or two examples show the miserable estate to which the rebels were thereby brought,’ He then gives some hideous details, which show, if indeed showing were needed, that the women and children were famished as well as the actual rebels. And he goes on to say: ‘And no spectacle was more frequent in the ditches of towns than to see multitudes of these poor people dead with their mouths all coloured green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend up above ground.’

It will be remembered that after the battle of Kinsale O’Neill and Rory O’Donnell made good their retreat to the north. But O’Neill was not able to make any headway against Mountjoy and Docwra, both of whom continued to plant garrisons all through the province. With the few followers that remained to him, he retired into impenetrable fastnesses; and far from taking active measures, he had quite enough to do to preserve himself and his party from utter destruction. But he refused to submit, still clinging to the hope of help from abroad.

About the 10th August 1602 Mountjoy collected a force of 8,000 men to proceed against him. He first took possession of Dungannon, which on his approach O’Neill had abandoned and burned; and from this he proceeded to attack the strong fort of Inisloughlin, in which O’Neill and the other chief men of the country had for safety de

1. Carew Papers, 1601-1603, p, 287.
2. Moryson, ii. 191.
3. Ibid. 283.

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posited all their plate and other valuables. It was situated in the middle of a great bog in the south of Antrim, near the village of Moira in Down; and on the first appearance of the English army the little garrison of sixty-two surrendered, and Mountjoy brought away all the treasure. He then returned to Dungannon, still burning and destroying, and having fortified the town, he left it in charge of a garrison. In his destructive progress through the country he came to Tullaghoge, which for many centuries had been the inauguration place of the O’Neills; ‘ and there he spoiled the corn of all the country, and Tyrone’s own corn, and brake down the chair wherein the O’Neills were wont to be created [princes of Tyrone], being of stone planted in the open field.’ [1]

At this time O’Neill was in the great fastness of Glenconkeine in the south of the county Londonderry, a little to the north-west of Longh Neagh, with all that remained of his army - 600 foot and 50 horse. Mountjoy attempted to follow him, but was not able to get nearer than twelve miles. So leaving Sir Henry Docwra and Sir Arthur Chichester there with instructions to ‘ clear the county of Tyrone of all inhabitants, and to spoil all the corn which he could not preserve for the garrison,’ he returned to Dublin.

The news of the death of Red Hugh O’Donnell, which came while O’Neill was in Glenconkeine, crushed the last hopes of the chiefs; and Eory O’Donnell and O’Conor Sligo submitted in December, and were gladly and favourably received. O’Neill himself, even in his fallen state, was still greatly dreaded; for the government were now, as they had been for years, haunted by the apprehension of another and more powerful armament from Spain. They well knew that on the slightest encouragement the whole population, Anglo-Irish as well as native, would rise in revolt. Carew writes: [In case the Spaniards should land] ‘ the loss of one field or one day’s disaster would absolutely lose the kingdom.’ [2] The authorities

1. Moryson, ii. 197.
2 Carew Papers, 1621-1603, p.305: written 11th August 1602.

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were heartily sick of this war, and Mountjoy was most anxious to receive O’Neill; but the queen, now sickly, old, and cross-tempered, was so exasperated against him that it was with the greatest difficulty she was persuaded to consent. At length she empowered Mountjoy to offer him life, liberty, and pardon, with title and territory.

The sort of enemy Tyrone had to deal with may be gathered from Mountjoy’s own words, written after he had got authority to receive the submission. ‘ ‘I have omitted nothing, both by Power and Policy, to ruin him and utterly to cut him off, and if by either I may procure his Head, before I have engaged her royal Word for his Safety, I do protest I will do it, and much more be ready to possess myself of his person, if by only Promise of Life, or by any other Means whereby I shall not directly scandal the Majesty of public Faith, I can procure him to put himself into my power.’ [1] O’Neill however knew the man thoroughly, and was too watchful for the assassins and too wary to be caught in any trap, however skilfully laid. At length Sir Garrett Moore of Mellifont, O’Neill’s old friend, was commissioned to treat with him; and riding north to O’Neill’s camp with Sir William Godolphin, he conducted him back to Mellifont.

While the negotiations were going on here, Mountjoy received private intelligence that the queen had died on the 24th March 1603. Keeping the news strictly secret, he hurried on the arrangements. On the 30th of March at Mellifont the chief made his submission to the deputy in the usual form. On his knees, after the fashion of the time, he acknowledged his offences, supplicated the queen’s pardon, renounced the title of O’Neill, abjured all foreign power, and promised to serve the crown in future with all his ability. He received full pardon for himself and his followers, and was to be restored to his titles and lands, except certain small portions reserved by the government. The deputy, accompanied by O’Neill, now rode to Dublin. The day after their arrival the queen’s death was publicly announced; and it was observed that when

1. Moryson, ii. 293.

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O’Neill heard of it he shed tears. He said himself it was nothing more than sorrow for the queen; but many believed that his tears were caused by regret that he had not delayed his submission a few days longer, when he might have forced better terms from the new sovereign.

James I of England, who had been James VI of Scotland, was the first English king who was universally acknowledged by the Irish as their lawful sovereign; and they accepted him partly because he was descended in one line from their own ancient Milesian kings, and partly because they believed that though outwardly a Protestant he was at heart a Catholic.

There was now a very general belief in Ireland that the Catholic religion would be restored, as it was on the accession of Mary. The citizens of Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Limerick forced their way into the churches - their own churches, which only a few years before had been taken from them; and they restored the altars and had Mass openly celebrated.

But they were soon made sensible of their mistake. Mountjoy, when he heard of their proceedings, marched south in May (1603) with a formidable army; and when the citizens of Waterford shut their gates on him, he sent them word that if he had to enter by force he would raze the city and strew salt upon the site. Whereupon they admitted him; and forthwith he suppressed the Catholic worship and restored the churches to the English ministers. Cork in like manner submitted, and all the other towns followed.

This disturbance was not a remnant of the late insurrection, with which it had no connection; for the inhabitants of those towns were then chiefly English or of English descent, and were thoroughly loyal. But they were all Roman Catholics; and their action was merely a struggle for liberty to exercise their religion: it was the beginning of an agitation which continued from that time to a period within our own memory.

Niall Garve O’Donnell, almost from the hour he joined the government, had given great trouble. He had done

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the English good service; but he was grasping, quarrelsome, and unmanageable; and nothing that was done for him pleased him. He was now enraged at the favour shown to his rival Rory O’Donnell; and while Mountjoy was in Munster, he rose in open rebellion and had himself proclaimed The O’Donnell. But he was easily defeated by Docwra and taken prisoner, though not dealt with severely; and in the end he had to content himself with the possession of his own patrimonial estates, and nothing more.

Deputy Mountjoy now petitioned to be allowed to retire from the government of Ireland. Whereupon the king conferred on him the higher title of lord lieutenant, with permission to reside in England. He forthwith sailed for London, accompanied by O’Neill, Rory O’Donnell, and others. The king received the Irish chiefs kindly and graciously; confirmed O’Neill in the title of earl of Tyrone; made Rory O’Donnell earl of Tirconnell; and restored both to most of their possessions and privileges.

Although the war was now ended, yet the country was in a very unsettled state; for there were everywhere numbers of people that had taken part in the rebellion, who now lived in a continual state of apprehension. In order to put an end to this state of things, the king caused to be proclaimed ‘an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity,’ by which all offences heretofore committed against the crown were forgiven, never to be revived: a merciful act which would not have been entertained in the preceding reign.

When Mountjoy sailed for England he left as his deputy Sir George Carey, treasurer at war (also called Carew, but to be distinguished from Sir George Carew of the preceding chapters). During Carey’s short administration - from June 1603 to February 1604 - English law was established in Tyrone and Tirconnell, and sheriffs and judges were sent for the first time into these two districts. The first judges were Sir Edward Pelham and Sir John Davies: the latter the author of the valuable treatise on Ireland, already so often quoted in these pages.

A little later (in 1605), during the administration of Sir Arthur Chichester, who became lord deputy in 1604,

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tanestry and gavelkind (pp.84, 85) were abolished, and the inheritance of land was made subject to English law.

The extension of English law to all Ireland, which was accomplished a little later on, placed all the people for the first time under government protection. This measure had often been sought by the Irish, and persistently refused; and full credit for the concession should be accorded to King James I. But its sudden application to the tenure of land was harsh, and was attended with great injustice. By the abolition of tanistry probably no one seriously suffered; but the case was different with gavelkind. When this was declared illegal, all those who happened at the time to be in possession became the leofal owners: and no account was taken of the numerous junior members of the septs who had a right to their portions in subsequent distributions. These were all deprived of their inheritance to enrich the actual possessors, and were turned out on the world without any provision: as great an injustice as if the tenants of the present day were suddenly made absolute owners of their farms, and the landlords and mortgage holders sent adrift without compensation. Sir Henry Maine [1] strongly condemns the sudden introduction of this measure, and complains of the injustice done to a number of children all through the country for the advantage of individuals. A just and thoughtful legislator would have provided for compensation, or would have made the act prospective, so as to avoid wronging any living member of the community.

Notwithstanding that the earl of Tyrone had been received so graciously by the king, and was now settled down quietly as an English subject, yet he was looked upon with suspicion and hatred by the ofiicials and adventurers, who could not endure to see him restored to rank and favour. Those who had looked forward to the forfeiture of his estates and to the confiscation of Ulster were bitterly disappointed when they found themselves baulked of their expected prey, and they determined to bring about his ruin. He was now constantly subjected

1. Anc. Institutions, p.206.

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to annoyance and humiliation, and beset with spies who reported the most trivial incidents of his everyday life. Montgomery the Protestant bishop of Derry and O’Cahan one of O’Neill’s sub-chiefs harassed him with litigation about some of his lands; and when the cases came to be tried in the council chamber, the lawyers decided that neither O’Neill nor O’Cahan had any title at all accordign to English law: a decision in direct violation of the king s order restoring the earl all his lands. At the same time the earl of Tirconnell was persecuted almost as systematically.

At last matters reached a crisis. There had been rumours of a conspiracy for another rebellion; and now (1607) an anonymous letter addressed to the clerk of the privy council was dropped at the chamber door, which spoke of a design to murder the deputy Chichester and other officials, and to seize the castle of Dublin; and of a general revolt which was to be assisted by a Spanish army. No conspirators were named in the letter, but the earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell, the young baron of Delvin, and others, were freely talked of. It was stated that they held their meetings at the castle of Maynooth, belonging to the dowager countess of Kildare, though the Kildare family knew nothing of what was going on.

This letter - ‘a rambling and absurd document/ as Richey calls it - was concocted by Christopher St. Laurence baron of Howth, a man wholly devoid of honour or principle, who had served against the Irish under Lord Mountjoy: but probably he was in collusion with others. Even the government officials distrusted him; and Chichester, in a letter to the earl of Salisbury, speaks of him in the most contemptuous terms: ‘I find him so wavering and uncertain that I am enforced to hold him to particulars. ... I like not his look and gesture when he talks to me of this business.’ [1] In some short time afterwards St. Laurence brought charges of disloyalty and treason against Sir Garrett Moore of Mellifont, O’Neill’s old friend, which Moore easily proved before the king and council to be all

1. Gilbert, Account of Nat. MSS. 284.

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false. Although the government obviously disbelieved St. Laurence, yet he afterwards managed to obtain considerable grants from the crown.

The whole story of the conspiracy was an invention without the least foundation; yet rambling and absurd as St. Laurence’s statement was it led to very important consequences; for in a short time the whole country was startled by the news that the two earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell had secretly fled from Ireland.

Tyrone had been on a visit at Slane with the deputy Chichester, intending to proceed to England, when he heard of the matter; and at the same time both he and Tirconnell were assured that it was intended to arrest them. ‘There is no reason to believe that he was engaged in any conspiracy; but he was utterly disgusted with his position, irritated with the annoyances he was continually subjected to, and must have foreseen that it was impossible for him to live in Ireland as an English subject, and that sooner or later he should be forced into rebellion or accused of treason.’ [1] Keeping his mind to himself, he took leave of the deputy and went to Sir Garrett Moore of Mellifont, where he remained for a few days. On a Sunday morning he and his attendants took horse for Dundalk. He knew that he was bidding his old friend farewell for the last time; and Sir Garrett, who suspected nothing, was surprised to observe that he was unusually moved, blessing each member of the household individually and weeping bitterly at parting. They rode on in haste till they reached Rathmnllan on the western shore of Lough Swilly, where a ship that had been purchased by O’Ruarc awaited them. Here he was joined by the earl of Tirconnell and his family.

Tyrone had with him his wife and children; while with Tirconnell went his son a child of a year old, his sister Nuala wife of the traitor Niall Garve, and his brother Cathbarr: the countess, being from home, was left behind in the haste of flight. There were several other relatives of both earls; and the total number of exiles taking ship

1. Richey, Short Hist. 597.

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was about one hundred. At midnight on the 14th of September they embarked, and bidding farewell for ever to their native country, they made for the open sea. After a long, stormy, and perilous voyage, they landed in France, where they were received with great distinction by all, from the king downwards. From France the earls and their families proceeded by leisurely stages to Rome, where they took up their residence, being allowed ample pensions by the Pope and the king of Spain. O’Donnell died in the following year, 1608; and O’Neill, aged, blind, and worn by misfortune and disappointment, died in 1616. His son Henry was mysteriously murdered in Brussels in 1617; at whose death that branch of the family became extinct.[1]

Let us conclude the tale of the flight of the earls by quoting Dr. Richey’s weighty and well-considered words: [n] - ‘The extreme impolicy of the English government throughout these transactions is remarkable. If, instead of being harassed and insulted by English bishops and garrisons, he had been frankly and loyally dealt with, his services [in maintaining order in Ulster] acknowledged, and his hands strengthened for good, instead of an Ulster reformed by a Scotch and English plantation, we might have an Ulster as thriving and cultivated, but inhabited by the descendants of its original possessors; and the rising of 1641 and all its consequences might have been spared this country. But the hatred and suspicion of all that was Irish, the desire to utilise the country for the benefit of the English, and the greed for grants of lands and forfeited estates, in this as on many other occasions influenced the conduct of the government, the miserable results of which form the staple of our subsequent history.’

For some time after the suppression of the great rebellion there was profound quiet, till it was suddenly broken by the hasty and reckless rising of Sir Cahir

1. For all details of the flight of the earls, the reader is referred to the Rev. C. p.Meehan’s valuable work The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell.
2. Short Hist. 597.

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O’Doherty. This chief, then only twenty-one years of age, had hitherto been altogether on the side of the English: he had fought with Sir Henry Docwra against O’Neill and was knighted for his bravery. He was the queen’s O’Doherty, appointed by the government in opposition to his uncle, who had been inaugurated by the earl of Tyrone; and his rebellion was a mere outburst of private revenge, having nothing noble or patriotic about it.

On one occasion, in 1608, he had an altercation with Sir George Paulett governor of Derry, who being a man of ill-temper, struck him in the face. O’Doherty, restraining himself for the time, retired; and under the advice of his foster-brothers the Mac Devitts, and of Niall Garve O’Donnell, he concerted his measures for vengeance. He invited his friend captain Harte the governor of Culmore fort and his wife to dinner. After dinner the governor was treacherously seized by O’Doherty ’s orders, and threatened with instant death - himself and his wife and child - if he did not surrender the fort. Harte firmly refused; but his wife, in her terror and despair, went to the fort and prevailed on the guards to open the gates. O’Doherty and his men rushed in and massacred the whole garrison, sparing Harte and his wife however; and having supplied himself with artillery and ammunition from the fort, he marched on Derry that same night. He took it by surprise, slew Paulett, slaughtered the garrison, and sacked and burned the town. He was joined by several neighbouring chiefs, and held out from May to July 1608, when he was shot dead near Kilmacrenan in a skirmish with Marshal Wingfield. The rising then collapsed as suddenly as it had begun. Some of those implicated were executed, and others were sent to the Tower of London, among whom were Niall Garve O’Donnell and his son, who were kept there in confinement for the rest of their days.