CHAP XXIV 1571 of the good, and become the devourer of those that yielded the men their nutriment,' it was no marvel to Tremayne why the country grew daily from bad to worse, and all was lost that was spent. In conclusion, he could but emphatically dissuade Cecil from depriving the chiefs of their estates. The English who would come over to take their places, were men, for the most part, who were doing no good at home, and would do worse in Ireland. 'Establish a sound government,' he said, 'give the Irish good laws and good justice, and let them keep their lands for themselves.'1 It was easy to advise, it was impossible to execute. The most ordinary intelligence could perceive that the requisite of Ireland was a good government; but good government implied an outlay of money. With 5,000 police regularly paid, and under proper discipline; with impartial justice, and the abandonment once and for ever of all designs of confiscation; with a prompt end to the massacres which were bringing infamy on the English name, and with some reasonable policy in Church matters; with these and an intelligent Viceroy, duly supported from home at Dublin Castle, Ireland might have been kept quiet with ease till the people had forgotten to be troublesome; but it required money, and money was simply not to be had. The Queen could not give it, for she had not got it. The whole Protestant world were clamouring for help at the doors of the English treasury; had Parliament filled her lap with gold, little of it could have been spared for Ireland; and thus the poor country drifted on before the stream of the age from misery to misery. 1 'Causes why Ireland is not reformed.'-Endorsed Mr. Tremayne, June 1571. MSS. Ireland. In one only of the four provinces Elizabeth consented that exertions should continue to be made. If the Spaniards came, they would inevitably land in Waterford, Cork, or Kerry. To leave it in the hands of the Geraldines was to reward rebellion, and to open the door to invasion; and, as the confiscation scheme had broken down, the Queen consented at last, with extreme unwillingness to the measures so long urged upon her by Sir Henry Sidney. The disaster of Sir Edward Fitton was a poor encouragement to provincial presidencies, but the experiment had been tried in Connaught under conditions which made success impossible. Another attempt was to be made in the South, and Sir John Perrot, a soldier by profession, reported by Catholic scandal to be a natural son of Henry VIII., was appointed President of Munster. Before Perrot would accept the offer, he stipulated that a year's salary to himself, and a year's wages to his men, should be paid in advance; that he should be supplied regularly from England with military stores; that he should be empowered to receive the dues of the Crown, and might deduct his own expenses before they were passed on to the Treasury.1 These demands were considered reasonable; and in the spring of 1571, Perrot arrived at Cork with a handful of English soldiers, and a Protestant Archbishop of Cashel to take charge-if he could get hold of themof the flock of his Catholic rival. The new prelate was more zealous than wise, and before Perrot had drawn his sword, opened his own campaign by seizing and imprisoning a number of friars. A brief notice which was served upon him by Fitzmaurice, taught him that 1 Requests of Sir John Perrot, 1571.-MSS. Ireland. CHAP XXIV 1571 CHAP XXIV 1571 he was no longer in England, and that a game of that kind might be dangerous. Fitzmaurice sent him word that unless the friars were at once released, he should be hanged; and that any living man who supported him, or paid him rent or cess, should have his house burnt over his head. Thus admonished, he thought it prudent to comply, and to be content for the future with a barren title.1 Perrot's work, when he began it, was more effectual, and his campaigns were a repetition of Sidney's. He went wherever he pleased, trotting the mountains' from Killarney and Glengariff to Waterford. He could never catch Fitzmaurice. The Irish gentlemen would not help him, and the kerne were too swift of foot for the heavy English men-at-arms. Castles, however, could not run away, and castles contained men. After two years of work, he had killed in fighting, or captured and hanged, some eight hundred miserable creatures of one sort or another.2 He burnt or blew up every stronghold, large or small, which closed its gates against him. He took Castlemayne, in Kerry, after a two months' siege, and Fitzmaurice was reduced to a wandering life among the hills. The roads became again moderately safe, and travellers could pass between Youghal, Waterford. Limerick, and Cork with a chance of not being murdered. But a fatality hung over everything. To reach the principal rebel, Perrot challenged him, and offered to refer the Irish quarrel to a combat of champions, twelve to twelve. Whether in case of defeat he was empowered to yield the country in his mistress's name, or whether Fitzmaurice's death would 1 James Fitzmaurice to the Archbishop of Cashel, July 9, 1571.— MSS. Ireland. Perrot to the Council, April 9, 1573.-MSS. Ireland, be accepted as decisive by the other Irish chiefs, he did not stay to consider. Time and place were agreed upon, and the President, as a set-off against Sidney's harshness, wrote to Ormond to beg that Sir Edward Butler would make one of the English party.1 Ormond, 'at his wits' end' at such an extraordinary piece of folly, repaired to the scene of action 'to prevent the combat.' Fitzmaurice, suspecting treachery, did not appear,2 and Perrot had to fall back upon the hanging and burning which formed the principal subject of all his reports. This he was able to accomplish; but the ultimate success of such measures depended on a further condition, and in the attempt to extract a revenue out of the unhappy country, to make it pay for its desolation, he utterly failed. He could plunge through bogs and rivers, force his way among glens and gorges, and send the Irish flying like wild birds among their crags; but he could squeeze no money out of them; and when his year's pay was out, he was left like Fitton and Fitzwilliam. His men grew mutinous, and he could not reconcile his soldier habits to a looseness of discipline. Complaints against his severity were showered across the Channel by his officers, to which Elizabeth gave ready hearing; Fitzwilliam, who sympathised in his sufferings, told Burghley that 'Perrot was but receiving the usual reward of Ireland to those who sought its reformation;' and Perrot himself, in fierce contempt, declared that he had done his duty as well as his means would allow him, and if he was to be found fault with for every trifle, he would rather remain in the Tower seven years than continue in his Presidency.' One active episode broke the monotony of wretched 1 Sir John Perrot to Ormond, Nov. 18, 1571.-MSS. Ireland. 2 Fitzwilliam to Elizabeth, Feb. 28, 1572.-MSS. Ibid. CHAP XXIV 1571 CHAP XXIV 1572 ness. Fitzmaurice, in May 1572, went up into Ulster, collected fifteen hundred Scots, and came down upon the Shannon. His first step was to burn Athlone. The scanty guard which was left in the castle watched the work from the battlements, and dared not venture out to interfere with it. Fitzwilliam expected that he would turn upon the Pale. He called out all the English force which remained to him. It consisted of five hundred ragged ruffians, all told. He sent an express to Elizabeth for assistance; he said that unless he was relieved, he would not answer for the country.1 Elizabeth told him shortly that she would be troubled with no such matter. She could spare neither men nor money, and he must take his chance." Fitzmaurice's views were fortunately fastened upon Munster. He moved from Athlone to Portumna, where he was joined by the de Burghs, and then crossed the river into Limerick. Perrot, who desired nothing better than to have Fitzmaurice within reach of his arm, hurried up to the woods, in which he was reported to be lying, between Kilmalloch and the Shannon. The waters were out. The horses could not travel. The men splashed two abreast along the shaking turf tracks which crossed the bogs. He got at the Scots at last, cut them in two, hurled half of them into Lough Derg, and chased the rest into Tipperary. There, a few days later, he overtook, and might have destroyed them, but the army used the opportunity to mutiny, and told him that they would do no more fighting till they were paid their wages. Perrot swore he would hang the ringleaders. The men were respectful, but resolute. 'If one was hanged,' they said, 'they would all hang for company;' Fitzwilliam to Elizabeth, July 2 Elizabeth to Fitzwilliam, Aug. 5.-MSS. Ibid. 24, 1572.-MSS.reland. |