СНАР XXIV 1570 Gilbert's officers, was admitted into Clare Castle, and he and his companions were told that they were prisoners. They resisted; some were killed, some were thrown into dungeons, and the Earl, who a few months before had appeared himself at Sidney's levee, set upon the town where the President was lying, maimed his horses, scattered his train, and left him to find his way back to Galway as he could. The Deputy, made helpless by want of money, was obliged to swallow his pride, and applied to Ormond to help him to punish this new outrage. Ormond, though still loyal, was hampered by the division in his family, and could do nothing. A handful of soldiers were at last scraped together in Dublin, and sent to Fitton, who then marched into Thomond and fought a battle, where, though he gained what he called a victory, he was himself wounded, and his men were so badly cut up that he was obliged to retire. Unable to trust himself again in Galway, he shut himself up in the Castle of Athlone, and there for a time he maintained a shadow of authority. But his own salary was unpaid, and no allowance was made him for the expenses of his office. When his own money was all gone, he borrowed to the extent of his credit. When this was gone, there was no resource but exaction. His followers became a company of ragged and starving ruffians; and the President, who was sent to introduce a higher order of justice into Connaught, had to confess that his own servants were more grievous to the people than the rebels could be.' In an interval of quiet he ventured a few miles out of the town. On his return he found the gates shut against him. The citizens declined to receive or relieve the soldiers further.' They attempted to force an entrance, but they were defeated with loss. The President was ad mitted to the empty honours of the castle; the men-atarms were dismissed to the Pale, and Fitton wrote to the Council to be relieved of an office the duties of which were merely to have to speak the Queen's enemies fair, to give his friends leave to bribe the rebels for their own safety, and to see the people spoiled before his face." It cannot be said that England deserved to keep a country which it mismanaged so disastrously. The Irish were not to be blamed if they looked to the Pope, to Spain, to France, to any friend in earth or heaven, to deliver them from a Power which discharged no single duty that rulers owe to subjects. That Philip allowed the opportunity to escape him was due in part to the causes which closed his ears against the English Catholics, and for which he endured for so many years the intolerable insolence of the privateers. He could not agree to any common course of action with France, and without France he durst not move; while again, it was only with extreme reluctance, and by extremely slow degrees, that he could bring himself to regard Elizabeth as an enemy, or consent to measures which might overthrow her throne. Yet, as with England he had been long perplexed and irresolute, so it was not without a struggle that he abandoned a second Catholic nation who flung themselves upon him for protection; and, after all, he might have listened favourably to the petition of which the Archbishop of Cashel was the bearer, but for a difficulty unforeseen by anyone who did not understand the secret relations between the Courts of Rome and Madrid. 1 Rokesby to Cecil, April 15, 1570. Sidney to the Council, June 24, 1570. Fitton to Cecil, Aug. 27, 1570. Fitton to Cecil, Feb. 8, 1571. Fitton to Cecil, May 20, 1571. Fitton CHAP XXIV 1570 CHAP XXIV 1570 The Irish had dutifully addressed their request in the first instance to the Pope. For some mysterious reason, the ultimate sovereignty of Ireland was held to be vested in the Holy See. Saint Peter had given it to the Normans. The grant was considered to have lapsed with English apostasy, and St. Peter's successor was entreated to transfer it to the Catholic King. No one in Ireland dreamt that the Pope would raise an objection. Having excommunicated Elizabeth, and commissioned the Catholic Powers to execute his sentence upon her, it was not so much as imagined that when the Irish people came forward of their own accord to do his bidding, he would obstruct their wishes. The King of Spain conjectured more accurately the Pope's probable feelings. His conduct with respect to England had given small satisfaction at the Vatican. He had stood between his sister-in-law and Paul IV. He had not interfered with her himself, and he had prevented the French from interfering. When the ruling Pontiff would wait no longer, and had fulminated his excommunication, Philip had forbidden the publication of the Bull both in Spain and in Flanders. When the Irish petition was, therefore, presented to him, he refused to reply to it till the pleasure of the Pope should be known; and the Pope soon justified his hesitation by expressing the strongest disapproval of the proposal. He was weary of the lukewarmness of Spain. He was expecting a Catholic revolution in England which would restore the faith, and give the throne to Mary Stuart; and he had not the slightest intention of allowing her expected dominions to be dismembered in favour of a prince who had done so little to deserve his favour. The Archbishop of Cashel had written a letter to Pius full of eagerness and confidence. The Cardinal Secretary replied, with cold brevity, that His Holiness was astonished that the Irish Church and people should have ventured to transfer their allegiance without his sanction. They ought to have remembered that Ireland was a fief of the See of Rome, which only a grant under the Pope's seal could alienate. If the Catholic King would ask the Pope to give him the kingdom of Ireland to hold under himself, his prayer would, perhaps, be taken into consideration.1 Words could scarcely express the surprise of the Archbishop at the Pope's displeasure. He expected encouragement and thanks, and he found himself rebuked for his officiousness. He could not understand such an answer, or sit down under it with patience. 'I have received your Excellency's letter,' he replied, ' and I am overwhelmed with confusion. The Irish, I assure you, never thought for a moment of trespassing on the rights of the Holy See. Our sole idea was to 'free ourselves from English tyranny. Is not England 'itself a fief of the Church ?2 and did not the Pope him'self, with the Council of Trent, permit any Catholic 'prince who cared to do it, to overthrow the government ' of England by force of arms? I had hoped that on 'hearing of my commission, His Holiness would have 'been the first to exhort the King to undertake the enterprise. Are we to wait, then, till His Holiness himself 'interferes for our salvation, or is it to be the King of 'France, who can scarce keep his own crown upon his 'head? What prince in Christendom, I beseech your Excellency, has the power of the King of Spain? What 'prince is more truly Catholic, more devout, or more 1 Cardinal Alciati to the Archbishop of Cashel, Jan. 9, 1570.— MSS. Simancas. 2 An non etiam et Anglia ipsa ad Ecclesiam nomine feudi pertinet ?' СНАР XXIV 1570 CHAP XXIV 1570 'obedient to the Holy See? and who can blame a prisoner 'if he seeks his freedom by the first means that offer? 'Your Excellency will say that we shall be no more free 'than we are now-we shall only be subjects of another sovereign; and that is true, and if anyone had asked 'me fifty years ago to which of the two empires I should 'prefer that Ireland should belong, I should then, 'perhaps, have answered, England. But now, as we are ' at present governed, to hear mass, to attend confession, 'to receive the sacraments of the Church, is treason, 'while in Spain the law not only permits these duties, 'but demands the performance of them. เ 'Your Excellency will say this is nothing to the purpose; that whoever will be King of Ireland must sue 'to the Church for the crown. I acknowledge it; and 'the Catholic King, I doubt not, will acknowledge it; but your Excellency should not impute to the Irish a lack 'of obedience for offering themselves to his Majesty. 'How else, busy as he is with other matters, could they 'bring him to attend to them? And surely, such is his piety, he would never listen to us without His Holi 'ness's sanction. But your Lordship knows that unless ' either he or some one comes to help us, the evil will 'be past cure, either by Pope or King. The English ' are growing strong, and the question will soon be, not 'of Ireland only, but of Scotland, France, Flanders, and 'all Europe. 'If His Holiness require me to desist from this com'mission, I am a servant, and I must obey. I will go 'home and make my neck ready for the axe, as many 'more of us will have to do, unless God send help from 'heaven. Write to me, I beseech you, quickly. Tell 1 'At rursum dicet omnia hæc nihil ad rem facere.' |