The Viceroys of Ireland Part 3

Happily for England, Ireland was never united, and if Sidney gained no great conquests he was, by reason of the schisms amongst his enemies, enabled to maintain the sovereignty of Elizabeth in Ireland. It was a purely nominal sovereignty, but it sufficed for the time being.

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CHAPTER V

The gradual disappearance of the distinctively English population did not pa.s.s unnoticed in England. During some hundreds of years there had been many attempts to induce English families to emigrate to Ireland, but without any great success. To the average English person Ireland was an uncivilized country inhabited by savages and murderers.

Elizabeth's councillors, however, resolved to put into practice the theories of previous viceroys and their advisers. A new English colony was to be created, but instead of crowding all the emigrants into Dublin, the bolder policy of scattering them all over the country was adopted.

On the retirement of Sidney, Sir William Pelham was appointed Lord Justice until the arrival of Lord Grey of Wilton, 'the hanging viceroy.' Two years of systematic brutalities were as much as the country and Elizabeth could stand. She recalled Grey and left the government in the hands of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Henry Wallop, treasurer, while she and her council, now firmly resolved on the great 'plantation' scheme, could find a willing and a competent instrument to carry out the plan. They found {72} one in Sir John Perrott, and in June, 1584, he was made Lord Deputy.

[Sidenote: The undertakers]

Perrott was reputed to be a natural son of Henry VIII., whom he resembled in appearance, and, although brought up in the household of Thomas Perrott, who had married Mary Berkeley, Henry's mistress, he soon exchanged the serene life of a country gentleman for the freer and gayer court life of London. He was advanced rapidly in the royal favour, and before his deputys.h.i.+p had had considerable experience of Ireland. He now came as viceroy with a strong and definite policy, fully determined to carry it to a successful issue. Munster was the first province selected for the 'plantation' scheme. To induce English families to flock to Ireland, huge estates were offered for next to nothing. Fertile lands were given at rentals of a penny or twopence an acre, and to allow the immigrants time to put their new homes in order, no rent was asked during the first five years, and only half for the following three. Those who took over twelve thousand acres were termed 'undertakers,' and required to settle or plant at least eighty-six English families whose members were skilled in trades and the arts agricultural. Undertakers of smaller estates planted a less number, and so on in due proportion. It was a splendid scheme on paper, and would, no doubt, have settled the Irish question effectively, but its weak point was its total disregard of the Irish. The real owners of the property were in hiding with prices on their heads, but the people themselves were only awaiting {73} their opportunity to win back the lands of their chiefs and restore them to their rightful owners.

The majority of the 'undertakers'--wealthy English n.o.blemen and t.i.tled adventurers--did not, of course, trouble to come to Ireland, though they imported a number of families into the country. Two of the 'undertakers,' however, in Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, the poet, actually resided on their new estates. Raleigh, as a reward for butchering the peasantry, was given forty-two thousand acres; Spenser was granted twelve thousand acres in Cork, and took up his residence in Kilcolman Castle, residence in Ireland being the only condition upon which he was given the stolen land. Spenser wrote the first three books of the 'Faerie Queen' here, and his only absence from Ireland was occasioned by a journey to London to secure the publication of his masterpiece. On his return he married a country girl, and managed to live in some peace until 1598, when the Earl of Tyrone, eager to avenge his wrongs, roused the country. Kilcolman Castle was burnt to the ground, and Spenser's youngest child perished in the flames. The poet, penniless and ill, escaped to England to die in penury the following year.

Perrott's policy required a certain ruthlessness to carry out, and friend and foe alike became his victims. He could not be faithful to Elizabeth and please all parties in Ireland. He shared the fate of his predecessors who had adopted a similar policy, for he discovered that he was being misrepresented in London by his personal enemies. These included the Earl of Ormonde, Sir Richard {74} Brigham, and Sir Nicholas Bagenal, and they even went to the length of bribing a priest to forge treasonable letters in the viceroy's name. When Perrott appealed to Elizabeth to be allowed to come to England and confront his adversaries, the queen refused him his request, bidding him to continue with his work.

He was destined to do England and Elizabeth at least one great service during his viceroyalty. In the middle of 1586 a rumour reached Ireland that Spain was about to strike a blow for Catholic Christendom.

Ireland was, of course, Catholic, and always remained so, although its spiritual fathers were mostly 'vicars of Bray.' The native Irish received the news joyfully, and waited anxiously for the day when the might of Catholic Spain would annihilate Protestant England. Perrott heard these rumours, and went to great trouble to verify them, with the result that in 1587 he was able to send confidential despatches to Queen Elizabeth informing her that Philip of Spain was preparing a great fleet for the invasion and conquest of England. That fleet, historically known as 'The Great Armada,' left its remnants off the coast of Ireland in 1588.

[Sidenote: Perrott's retirement]

When the viceroy realized that his policy, while outwardly prosperous, was never likely to develop into a permanent success, he prayed the queen to permit him to retire. She was averse to this, but every person of influence about the throne was approached by him until the queen relented, and in 1588 the viceroy joyfully prepared to depart from the country which he hated worse than the {75} pestilence. The court of England was then in an idealized state, mainly as a result of the rise of the great English school of dramatists and poets, and at such a time Ireland must have seemed more than ever a place of exile.

Perrott, however, openly prided himself upon his success, and when he appeared in Dublin in order to hand over the sword of state to his successor, he made a fulsome speech in his own praise, declaring that he left the country in peace and quietness, and hinting that if Sir William Fitzwilliam, the incoming viceroy, informed Queen Elizabeth of the fact, he would be very grateful. Sir William, as a gentleman, had to acknowledge Perrott's eulogies, and then the ex-viceroy left the country, feeling like a freed man. His last act was to present the corporation of Dublin with a silver-gilt bowl bearing his arms and crest, together with the motto 'Relinquo in pace.' The common people had a certain rough affection for Perrott. He had not robbed them--perhaps because they had nothing to lose--but at any rate they gave him a great ovation, shedding tears of grat.i.tude for the man whose code of morals happily included a partiality for paying just debts.

Sir William Fitzwilliam had already experienced the advantages and disadvantages of the viceregal position in Ireland. He married a sister of Sir Henry Sidney, a woman with a strength of character that absorbed her husband's. Every act during Fitzwilliam's tenure of office was said to have originated from the fertile brain of Lady Fitzwilliam, and she was openly hailed as the real {76} ruler of Ireland. But even Lady Fitzwilliam could not govern without money, and in 1594 she retired with her husband. Fitzwilliam is best known as the Governor of Fotheringay Castle at the time of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir William Russell, his successor, was the youngest son of the Earl of Bedford, but his two years of office brought him nothing but censure from the queen. Russell's princ.i.p.al fault was that he kept his word of honour to the rebel Earl of Tyrone. The latter came in person to Dublin Castle at the invitation of the viceroy, and made submission. Contented with this, the Lord-Lieutenant permitted him to depart, but Elizabeth wished for the imprisonment of the rebel, and, consequently, Russell retired to make way for Lord Gainsborough.

In 1603 he was created a peer by James I. A year sufficed for Gainsborough, who died at his post. Sir Thomas Norris, Lord Justice, acted until superseded by Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, Sir Robert Gardiner, and the Earl of Ormonde.

[Sidenote: Queen Elizabeth's favourite]

Their services were dispensed with when Robert Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, arrived in Dublin on April 15, 1599, his appointment dating from March 12, 1598. The Earl of Ess.e.x was one of the most romantic figures in the later court of Queen Elizabeth. When, as a boy of ten, Robert Devereux appeared at court, the queen was fascinated by his beauty and his charming manners. She sent for him later, and his early days were distinguished by the confidence of the queen. Elizabeth was an old woman when Ess.e.x was in {77} the first flower of his manhood, but he was as crafty as he was handsome, and he made every use of his power over the queen, a monarch aping youth with the aid of powder and paint.

She made Ess.e.x the most powerful of courtiers, and he attempted to reserve her favour for himself. When the queen showed kindness to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Ess.e.x, ever pa.s.sionate and p.r.o.ne to quarrel, sought out his rival and challenged him to a duel. The result was abortive, but it was only one of a series of incidents which showed Elizabeth that she was raising Ess.e.x higher than his peculiar temperament made promotion safe. On one occasion he actually reproached the queen, who in a moment of rage forgot her pose of youth, and boxed the earl's ears. But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious.

Ess.e.x tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. He hastily concluded a treaty of peace with Tyrone, appointed Lords Justices to carry on the government, and repaired to England on September 24, having spent less than five months in Ireland. Only one who was certain of Elizabeth's favour could have dared to do such a thing, but Ess.e.x entered {78} London in the temper of a spoilt child, prepared to rail at the queen for having dared to criticize him, and no doubt expecting to receive her apologies. The queen upset his calculations by having him arrested promptly, and although the public offered up prayers for his restoration to the good graces of the queen, these prayers were unanswered, because Ess.e.x was not the man to believe in his sovereign's determination. The arrest he regarded as a joke--in bad taste, perhaps, but still a joke--and when its seriousness dawned upon him he tried to retaliate in kind. In 1601 he was executed. The charges against him were, first, with making a dishonourable treaty with the rebels, and, second, leaving his Government without the permission of the authorities--that is, the queen and Council. When released from the Tower and ordered to remain at York House, Ess.e.x attempted a rebellion, and the spoilt darling of fortune paid the penalty with his life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lord Mountjoy]

[Sidenote: Lord Mountjoy]

The next viceroy, Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy, was a typical product of the Elizabethan court. He had been Ess.e.x's friend and afterwards his enemy, and when the earl retired prematurely from Ireland, Elizabeth sent Mountjoy to reopen the war against O'Neill and to crush him, irrespective of the treaty of security and peace signed by Ess.e.x in Elizabeth's name. He carried out his duties faithfully, and succeeded in driving the Tyrones out of their territory. On the final defeat of O'Neill, that chieftain made submission, and Mountjoy was graciously pleased to forgive the rebel and restore his t.i.tle and {79} estates to him. While in Ireland Mountjoy received a letter from Ess.e.x, then a prisoner on parole at York House, asking him to bring his army from Ireland, join a promised army of the King of Scotland, and drive Elizabeth's advisers from power. Mountjoy at once declined to hazard his own neck, and he left Ess.e.x to his fate. The hope that the earl placed on the viceroy was inspired by the latter's affection for Penelope, sister of Lord Ess.e.x. This lady was so notorious that even Queen Elizabeth had to refuse to receive her, but her faults were the faults of the age she lived in. At a very early age, and without having her wishes consulted at all, Penelope was married to an old roue named Lord Rich, a man of filthy habits and loathsome ways. Penelope bore him seven children, but the gross brutalities of her husband drove her into the arms of Sidney, and when she became Mountjoy's mistress, she had five children by him. The viceroy, however, was a faithful lover, and when Lord Rich divorced her after Mountjoy's resignation of his post, the viceroyalty, he married her, inducing his private chaplain, Laud, to perform the ceremony. The act of Laud's very nearly ruined his career, and, at any rate, it stood in the way of his promotion for several years. It is said that Mountjoy did intend to come to the rescue of his mistress's brother, and certainly Elizabeth, who wanted Mountjoy's services, suppressed a confession by a prisoner which, had it become public, must have cost Lord Mountjoy his head. As it was, he held the viceroyalty until 1603, and could have {80} remained longer, for King James confirmed his appointment. Mountjoy, however, wanted his Penelope, and he left Ireland for her sake. James rewarded him with the Earldom of Devons.h.i.+re, but as all his children were illegitimate, the t.i.tles died with him.

[Sidenote: The Order of the Baronetage]

The late viceroy's deputy, Sir George Cary, enjoyed only a few months in office, for Sir Arthur Chichester, afterwards Lord Chichester of Belfast, was given the post, and came to Ireland early in 1605.

Chichester was forty-one, but he had already nearly thirty years'

experience of public affairs, including the fight against the Armada.

In his early youth he had a.s.saulted an inoffensive citizen, and had fled from London to Ireland, but Elizabeth pardoned him and found him employment. Fortunately for Chichester, Lord Mountjoy took him into favour, and when the latter returned to England, and was appointed adviser to James on Irish affairs, he nominated Chichester as the most suitable person to govern Ireland. This viceroy made it a condition that religious persecution in Ireland should be abolished. Every precedent was against the continuance of a protracted and futile attempt to force an objectionable religion upon the majority of the people, and when he secured this concession to common sense from James and Mountjoy, Chichester must have realized that he was in a fair way to make his term of office a success. Some luck attended him. He was given a good army, and very early in his career in Ireland two of his most dangerous opponents, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, left Ireland {81} for ever. Chichester then proceeded to colonize Ulster. The order of the Baronetage was created in 1611, and the t.i.tle sold for 1,080, the proceeds being intended to pay the expenses of the colonization of Ulster. The large estates of the Tyrone and Tyrconnell families were distributed amongst the native Irish, the English and some planters from Scotland, Chichester himself being rewarded with a peerage. It was a wise move on his part, moreover, to give first choice to the native Irish in the matter of the division of the land, for he knew that peace could only be purchased at a price.

On these lines he governed Ireland for twelve years, and when he retired in 1614, he had the satisfaction of earning the praise of those he ruled and those he served. His wife, a daughter of Sir John Perrott, does not appear to have taken a very prominent part in Irish life. She was an invalid and contemptuous of the Irish, though the records of some of their entertainments in Dublin Castle prove that she was lavish in her hospitality, and even invited the heads of the great Irish families.

Sir Oliver St. John was in 1616 appointed Viceroy of Ireland. During the interval the Government had been in the hands of Adam Loftus, the indispensable Archbishop of Dublin, whose power was as great as his cupidity and avarice. St. John was a typical soldier of fortune, who had found fame and fortune on the battlefields of the Continent. In 1580, when twenty-one, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, out a legal career ended suddenly as the result of a duel with Best, the navigator. Best died, and {82} St. John fled the country, but after many profitless years he had the luck to come under the notice of the Earl of Ess.e.x at Rouen. Ess.e.x, who was in need of brave soldiers, enlisted St. John, and took him to Ireland to fight against Tyrone. In a few years St. John was elected member for Roscommon in the Irish Parliament, and followed that up by entering the English House of Commons as member for Portsmouth. Mountjoy knighted him and made him president of Connaught, so that when in 1616 he was made viceroy, he brought to the office a great experience of Irish affairs.

His first official act was to banish all those ecclesiastics educated abroad, his second, to make the Protestant religion compulsory, and his third, even more remarkable, took the form of a proposal to emigrate 100,000 Irish persons. This was a short method of dealing with a pressing problem, but it was hopelessly impracticable, and St. John, less successful as a statesman than as soldier, was commanded to deliver the sword of state to Adam Loftus, and return to England.

Henry Gary, Viscount Falkland, who succeeded, tried to carry on the St.

John policy. Proclamations were issued extensively, and all the Irish were ordered to go to heaven by the Protestant road. Strangely enough, while Lord Falkland was doing his best to establish the Protestant religion, Lady Falkland was secretly a Catholic, and supplying the priests with money. For over twenty years she kept her secret from her husband, but he discovered it eventually, and promptly separated from her. The Privy Council, called {83} upon to judge between husband and wife, declared Falkland's act justified, but ordered him to pay her 500 a year. Falkland retired in 1629 with the character of an unreliable, timid man.

[Sidenote: The Earl of Strafford]

Another period of government by Council and Lords Justices covered the years from 1628 to 1633, and then Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, one of the great figures of the early days of the Civil War, was chosen by Charles I. to represent him in Ireland. Wentworth's appointment was dated 1632, but that n.o.bleman did not hurry to take over his post, and besides, there were many urgent affairs to keep him at home. Wentworth was leader of the House of Commons, and at the first encounter with the king stood by the Commons. Charles, however, determined to secure his personal adherence, and by means of t.i.tles, the bait of kings, Wentworth foreswore his radical opinions, came over on to the king's side, and was ever afterwards a most zealous and devoted servant of the Crown. When Charles conferred with his advisers upon the coming struggle with the people, Wentworth made the first practical suggestion by subscribing 20,000 towards the royal treasury. Wentworth was, therefore, the most trusted of the King's advisers, and he was sent to Ireland with the object of raising money for His Majesty.

The new viceroy hastily summoned a Parliament at Dublin, and persuaded it to vote 180,000 for the king's use against the army of the Covenanters. Further, Wentworth raised an army with the object of invading England and joining {84} Charles's forces. The intention was never carried out; but when Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, stood his trial at Westminster Hall, on April 5, 1641, the princ.i.p.al charge against him was that he had raised an army of Irish Papists to make war upon His Majesty's subjects. Strafford was executed on May 12.

His history concerns England rather than Ireland, but he had considerable influence upon the latter country, and did something towards placing Irish industries upon a better footing. In an age of wars and rebellions the reformer was out of place, but Ireland owes something to the Earl of Strafford's memory. When he died, Ireland mourned for him, and Sir Charles Wandesford, who had acted as one of his deputies, died of a broken heart upon hearing the news.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Earl of Strafford]

[Sidenote: The civil war]

The fatal year of 1641 found Ireland without a viceroy. The Lords Justices ruled in Dublin, but they carried no authority. Throughout the country it was said that England had abandoned her compatriots.

The Great Rebellion followed as a matter of course. Centuries of oppression, outrage, robbery, and every other form of tyranny produced their natural offspring. The native Irish, who had not accepted the dictum that time legalizes robbery and sanctifies wrong, rose in their pa.s.sions and slaughtered the 'planted' settlers. The less said about the rebellion the better. The history of the world shows that when the democracy rises to avenge its wrongs, the innocent pay the debts of the guilty.

Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, should have {85} succeeded Strafford, but he lingered in England, conscious that his own country would be the centre of great events. He asked his son, Lord Lisle, to take his place, but that young man had no taste for the rigours of Ireland. His prognostications were justified, and with the outbreak of the Civil War Lord Leicester abandoned all intention of taking up the office of viceroy. Charles wanted every available soldier, and Ireland was left to look after itself. There was a nominal Government in Dublin, and the Earl of Ormonde, at the beginning of his splendid career, was Commander-in-Chief. Ormonde was a devoted royalist, and in the king's hour of need sent him 5,000 soldiers from Ireland, paying their expenses himself. In the midst of his worries Charles found time to show his grat.i.tude by making Ormonde a marquis, and appointing him Viceroy of Ireland. This was in 1644, but strong man as he was, Ormonde's tenure of office was shorn of all its glory and strength. He was destined later to play a leading--the leading--part in Irish affairs; but during the Civil War there was no effective government in Ireland, and the country went back to its ruling chiefs, and Dublin and a few provincial towns sheltered the remnants of the party that looked to England for protection and guidance. Lord Ormonde's determination was to hold Ireland for the king, and with this object he strengthened the garrison towns. The ma.s.sacres of the settlers in the North he had punished, but until the settlement of the conflict in England he was in a dangerous and anomalous position.

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CHAPTER VI

James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde, was born at Clerkenwell on October 19, 1610. For political reasons he was brought up in London under the immediate influence of the court. The boy, who was known as Viscount Thurles, was as popular as he was handsome, and in his early manhood he was one of the most famous 'bucks' about town. The story of his marriage is a romantic one, and much has been written about it. The facts are that the young Lord Thurles saw Elizabeth Preston, only daughter and heiress of the Earl of Desmond, in church. She was very beautiful and wealthy, and Thurles resolved to wed her. Whether it was a case of love at first sight or not depends upon the sentiment of the reader. We know that the lady's fortune did much towards restoring that of the house of Ormonde.

[Ill.u.s.tration: James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde]

[Sidenote: Lord Ormonde's marriage]

Elizabeth Preston, however, was already reserved for someone else, and under the watchful and jealous guardians.h.i.+p of Lord Holland she was hidden from Lord Thurles. Realizing that his attentions would not be displeasing, Lord Thurles disguised himself as a pedlar, and carried his pack to the back-door of Lord Holland's Kensington {87} residence.

Happily for the course of true love, the ladies of the house were not above opening the door to pedlars, and Lord Holland's daughters performed that service for the lover. They made a few purchases, and then hastened to Elizabeth, to tell her that the handsomest pedlar in England was at the back-door, and to beg her to come and patronize him.

The girl recognized Thurles, and when he pressed a pair of gloves upon her, she asked him to wait while she went for some money, although her companions offered to save her the trouble by lending her the necessary amount. This she declined, guessing that one of the gloves contained a love-letter. In the safety of her own room she read Thurles'

impa.s.sioned address, and then, having penned a suitable and favourable reply, came down again and returned the gloves, declaring that they smelt abominably, and could not be worn by a lady. Never did a pedlar accept the cancellation of a bargain so gleefully as this one did. The message the gloves contained settled his doubts and fears, and later Viscount Thurles and Elizabeth Preston were wedded. Lord Holland's consent was purchased for 15,000, and when he succeeded to the Earldom of Ormonde, Butler took his bride to Ireland.

The coming of the Earl of Ormonde to the country of his ancestors was hailed as a welcome sign by the leading Irish families. By his marriage Ormonde had united two of the greatest and ended a bitter feud, and the native party looked to him to lead them against the English. His only disadvantage was his religion. He was a Protestant, {88} the result of his education in England, but the question of religion was ignored by the Irish, and the handsome and chivalrous earl was called upon to take his stand in the forefront of the Irish army.

Lord Strafford was viceroy at the time, and upon him lay the responsibility of influencing Ormonde's choice. The viceroy acted wisely. Personally he disliked the young earl, but he realized that to make an enemy of the most powerful n.o.bleman amongst the Irish families of distinction would be fatal to his own chances of success as Viceroy of Ireland, and so he immediately made overtures of friends.h.i.+p to the man whom he had known as a boy in London. Lord Ormonde responded, and the two n.o.blemen became fast friends, a friends.h.i.+p not forgotten to the last by Wentworth. When the latter had been sentenced to death for treason against the State, he implored Charles to give Ormonde the garter left vacant by his death, and also warned that monarch that the only loyal servant he had in Ireland was the Earl of Ormonde, advising the king to appoint him Lord-Deputy. The king, whose princ.i.p.al weakness was a tardiness of judgment, granted neither request at the time. But in 1644 he made Ormonde viceroy, and later bestowed the garter, though at a time when that emblem of royal favour was little better than a brilliant mockery.

Ormonde served an apprentices.h.i.+p as Commander-in-Chief of the troops during Wentworth's viceroyalty, and on his own appointment to the latter position he combined the two offices. His duties as viceroy were, however, merely nominal, {89} and believing that he could be of more service to the royal cause in England, he resigned his post--inspired, no doubt, by the fact that Parliament had appointed Philip Sidney, Lord Lisle, Lord-Lieutenant, under its jurisdiction--in 1647. Ormonde went at once to Charles at Hampton Court, and acquainted him with the news that it was the intention of the Parliamentary leaders to seize his person and bring him to trial. Charles, of course, declined to believe the existence of the Parliamentary plot, and the ex-viceroy, again appointed Lord-Lieutenant, but armed with a worthless commission, returned to Ireland. Lord Lisle was not in residence, and the Government that represented the Commons consisted of five commissioners--Arthur Annesley, Sir R. King, Sir R. Meredith, Colonel John Moor, and Colonel Michael Jones--a quintette scarcely likely to impress Ormonde with a sense of their dignity, or inspire in the country a feeling of security.