LITMIR.BIZ

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Rumours were afloat at this time about great preparations at Brest for the invasion of Ireland in the interest of Gerald of Kildare. It was supposed that the blow would fall in Cork, Lady Eleanor MacCarthy not having yet been pardoned, and her influence being very great. The Council thought that they could resist 10,000 men with the help of the natives, who would all stand firm against Frenchmen. But if young Gerald once set his foot in Ireland, they could answer for nothing. It was true that he had left Italy and Reginald Pole, but only to serve with the Knights of Malta against the Moslems; and it does not appear that he visited France at all. But the very sound of his name, coupled with Scots one day and with Frenchmen the next, kept the Irish Government in hot water for more than a year. Lady Eleanor received a pardon, and her nephew, who was now nineteen, returned about the same time to Italy. From the time that he entered Cosmo de’ Medici’s service the rumours in Ireland ceased.270

      St. Leger returns to Ireland. He falls out with Ormonde.

St. Leger returned to Ireland in August 1544, after the kerne had sailed, and it was probably their absence which kept the island quiet for a time. Like his predecessor, St. Leger found Ormonde’s power embarrassing. He knew him to be loyal, and personally both liked and admired him, but could not help being uneasy at his overgrown power. His influence in the Council was so great that St. Leger reported him as having ‘the great part of all those that daily frequent the Council here, of his fee.’ The King’s interest had small chance against the Earl’s, ‘and as I am true man,’ St. Leger wrote, ‘I see no man having learning that will plainly speak in such a case but poor Sir Thomas Cusack.’ Ormonde now claimed for his palatinate of Tipperary a larger meaning than had lately been given to it. The undefined boundaries he stretched to the utmost, and throughout the whole district claimed every sovereign right, except treasure trove and the right of punishing rape, arson, and coining. Men feared to speak openly against him. Cusack was maligned for his independence, and Lord Upper Ossory begged St. Leger to keep his communications secret. The palatinate jurisdiction and the prisage of wines had been taken from the House of Ormonde by Poyning’s Parliament; but the Earl could show later documents under the Great Seal, some of which St. Leger suspected to have been forged during the time that Sir Piers Butler was Lord Deputy. St. Leger also complained that Ormonde put obstacles in the way of reforming Leinster, unless he might do it himself and in his own way. He recommended that this mighty subject’s wings should be clipped a little, and that he should have no more grants of land in Ireland; he had no objection to the King giving him as much as he pleased in England. To make things pleasant he recommended a garter. After all this he strangely proposed to entrust the Irish Government to a succession of Irish noblemen for two or three years at a time, and to make Ormonde the first Deputy of the new series. The suggestion met with no favour, and seems not to have been thought worthy of an answer. No Irish nobleman received the sword during the remainder of the Tudor period; but when Charles I. was slipping from the throne he committed his interests in Ireland to the charge of another and more famous Ormonde.271

      Scotch politics. The Lord of the Isles takes Henry’s side,

      Donnell Dhu, calling himself Earl of Ross and claiming to be Lord of the Isles, having escaped from his almost lifelong imprisonment, was received with open arms by the Hebrideans, who still sighed for their ancient independence. Donnell and seventeen of his principal supporters bound themselves solemnly to be at the command of Lennox, who had declared for Henry VIII. against the regent Arran and the French party, which at this time was also the Scotch party. The confederates gave full treating powers to Rory MacAlister, Bishop-elect of the Isles, and to Patrick Maclean, Bailie of Iona and Justice Clerk of the South Isles.

      and sends agents to Dublin.

A few days after this treaty the bishop and the bailie came to Dublin and asked for 1,000l. Half of this sum, with 100l. worth of provisions, was as much as St. Leger could afford to give them. In the meantime Donnell Dhu had appeared at Carrickfergus with 4,000 men and 180 galleys, having left another force of 4,000 behind him to keep Argyle and Huntley in check. In writing to the King of England he expressed great joy that his Majesty had deigned to look upon so small a person, and either he, or the priest who prompted him, found an extraordinary analogy between the fishers of the Western Isles and those of the Galilean lake, and between Henry VIII. and their Master. At Carrickfergus Donnell Dhu and his friends again bound themselves to do the bidding of Lennox, and ‘to fortify after their power the King’s Majesty touching the marriage of the Princess of Scotland, and in all other affairs as is commanded them to do by my Lord Earl of Lennox.’272

      His agreement with St. Leger.

Having done their business in Dublin, Donnell’s ambassadors hurried to England and made their terms with the Council. They bound their chief and his friends to be Henry’s liege subjects, and to furnish him with 8,000 auxiliaries, who were to co-operate with Lennox and Ormonde, and, if possible, to harry Scotland as far as Stirling. While Lennox remained in Argyle’s country all the islemen were to be employed in destroying it; in other places 6,000 were to follow him, but there were never to be less than 2,000 occupied in persecuting the sons of Diarmid. In consideration of this undertaking Henry promised to pay 3,000 of Donnell’s men, and to send a force of 2,000 Irish under Ormonde, who was to be subordinate to Lennox.273

      The whole project ends in failure.

St. Leger had considerable difficulty in raising 2,000 men at short notice. Money was scarce with him, and he was not told what pay he might offer. Recruiting was hindered by rumours of casualties among the kerne who had taken part in Hertford’s second raid, when they had been specially employed to burn and waste East Teviotdale ‘because the borderers would not most willingly burn their neighbours.’ The required number was, however, got together by great exertions, one-half being raised by Ormonde. The force when complete consisted of 100 of the Dublin garrison, 400 gallowglasses, and 1,500 kerne. Two hundred and fifty had muskets, or were to some extent trained in the use of artillery, of which there were several pieces. Shipping was collected in the Irish and Welsh ports, and great quantities of munitions put on board. Lennox himself came to Dublin, and sailed with Ormonde for the Clyde. Dumbarton Castle was in the hands of Lord Glencairne, and was to be taken if possible. Should this attempt fail, the plan was to effect a landing in Argyle’s country, and to do all the damage possible there. The fleet left Dublin on November 17, and was unlucky from the first, being caught in a storm off Belfast Lough and much damaged. On reaching the Clyde the country was found to be up in arms, the attitude of the islemen was uncertain, a French squadron was on the coast, and Lennox, against the advice of Ormonde, resolved to turn back. Donnell Dhu died at Drogheda just at the critical moment, and was buried in St. Patrick’s, Dublin, where an epitaph recorded the mournful fact that he had escaped an exile’s life only to die an exile’s death.274

      James MacDonnell offers his services, 1545.

James MacDonnell, the son of Alaster, became Lord of the Isles by general consent. He had been educated at the Scottish Court, and his politics had thus lost something of their insularity. At all events he had learned to write, and that was a rare accomplishment for one of his family in those days. Lady Agnes Campbell had perhaps excited doubts in his mind as to the desirability of destroying the Argyle power; and others in the isles may have doubted the power of Henry VIII. to protect them against the Campbells and Gordons. But James still professed his readiness to do the King of England’s bidding, suggested St. Patrick’s day—nearly two months off—for a meeting with Lennox in the island of Sanda, and in the meantime asked for shipping to transport his men. Ragged Scotchmen continued to flock to Dublin, all asking for money; and the Irish Government soon formed an opinion that while the cost of maintaining them was certain, the expectation of service was more than doubtful.275

      Dissensions

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