A History of Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

1931

X.—THE NEW POLICY OF HENRY VIII

The galloglas was a heavy-armed footman, wearing a shirt of mail and a helmet, and carrying a halbert or battleaxe six feet in length, with a blade like a long and broad knife. The kerne (ceatharnach] was lightly armed with target, bow, and arrows, or else three darts which he cast with wonderful facility. The tract continues: "They be for the most part good and hardie men of war, and can live hardly and fit for great misery. They will adventure themselves greatly on their enemies, seeing time to do it. Good watchers by night; as good soldiers by night as others by day. The captain or Lord Keeper [hath] none of his lands in his own hand, but giveth it to his followers, by whom he is maintained with all things necessary, or what pleaseth him to take; for all that they have is at his commandment." [3] A few years later, in 1529, James, Earl of Desmond, was writing to the Emperor Charles V stating that he had increased his force to 16,500 foot and 1500 horse, and that his friends and allies are "Princeps Oberayn [O'Brien], who could place in the field 600 horse and 1000 foot; Theobald de Burgh, with 100 horse and 600 foot; O'Donyll of Ulidia, with 800 horse and 4000 foot; and seven others, his allies, with 300 horse and 18,000 foot, all ready to fight against the Deputy Sir Piers Butler and the English King's cities of Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin. But he is much in need of artillery." [4]

[3] Cotton MSS., Dom., xviii, fol. 101-102 ; title, "In Thomond, anno 8 Hen. VIII." There is a later and incorrect copy of this return in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. G. 2. 16.
[4] Add. MSS. 28, 578, fol. 194 ; and 28, 579, fol. 329. These are copies of manuscripts in Brussels.
James was secretly corresponding with the Emperor Charles V, who was believed to be contemplating an invasion of Ireland, and had already in 1527 made a tentative invasion of England, by throwing twenty thousand Irish on the coast of Pembrokeshire, in Wales. He acknowledged Charles V as Emperor, and addressed him as "most invincible and most sacred Caesar ever august." It was James of Desmond who "first put the abominable use of coygn and livery on the King's subjects in his country," an example quickly followed by the other magnates. Thomas had gone further and made it obligatory in the Pale during his term of office as Deputy, with all the other impositions used by the native captains over their people and in defiance of the King's laws; and this was alleged to have been one chief reason of his being put to death. A Deputy who openly defied the laws was in an anomalous position which could hardly be condoned by the authorities. But the country parts of Ireland undoubtedly advanced in wealth and prosperity during the period in which this policy of encouraging native customs was in force. Markets were held all over the country, churches and castles were rebuilt, and the ports, such as Limerick, were doing a thriving foreign trade. During the fifteenth century numerous complaints are recorded from the Pale that fairs and markets were being held by "divers Irish enemies, whereby they get great profit."

Henry's first intention seems to have been to continue the policy of his predecessor and govern through the great Anglo-Irish lords, but so early as 1520, fifteen years before the fall of the house of Kildare, he had proposed to Surrey, then appointed Lord Deputy, a new view as to the government of Ireland. He held that "circumspect and politic ways should be used" to bring the independent Irish captains into obedience, "which thing must as yet be practised by sober ways, politic drifts, and amiable persuasions, founded in law and reason, rather than by rigorous dealing." Henry had come to the conclusion that "to spend so much money for the reduction of that land, to bring the Irish in appearance only of obeisance...were a thing of little policy, less advantage, and least effect." He despaired of conquering the land, but he believed that if the Irish lords, instead of being "impressed by fearful words" into the belief that it was the intention, as had been already mooted, to expel them from their lands, felt that they were to be conserved in their own and brought to aid and advise the King, as faithful subjects, to recover his inheritance, each would be able not only to live quietly on his own but would see his lands inhabited, tilled, and laboured for his own most advantage.[5] He even proposed to mitigate the rigour of the laws, and find out from them under what manner and by what laws they will be ordered and governed; only, that it is of necessity "that every reasonable creature be governed by a law." Here was a reasonable and statesmanlike policy which was destined to lead to good results. The personal popularity of Lord Leonard Grey prepared the way for the inauguration of this new policy and for the submission of the great lords under the Viceroyalty of his successor, Sir Anthony St Leger. Though to Grey was confided the unpleasant task of declaring at the Parliament of 1536-37 the abolition of the Papal authority and the establishment of that of Henry VIII as head of the Church,[6] and following on this the abolition of the houses of religion, his personal fearlessness and confidence in the Irish made him well liked. Even after his seizure of the Geraldines his popularity did not die out. When in 1540 he passed through the wildest parts of Munster with a small bodyguard, "trusting only to the Irish," O'Conor had the way over Togher Croghan mended into the heart of his country, and O'Molloy victualled him and conducted him safely on his way.

[5] Letter to the Earl of Surrey, September 1520 (S.P., Hen. VIII, ii, 51-54).
[6] 26 Hen. VIII, in Irish Statutes (1786), i, 90.
Even Donogh O'Brien "played an honest and true part" toward one who so implicitly trusted himself among them. Asked to provide an escort through his country, O'Brien sent one galloglas with a silver spear or axe, and the hilt hanging full of silk, to be his guide. When Ulick Burke remonstrated with Grey on the hazard he had run he pointed to the lad, saying, "Lo, seest thou not yonder standing before me O'Brien's axe for my conduct?"[7] Yet the country was at this time already seething with unrest, and the object of Grey's second visit was to try to win over the "pretended Earl of Desmond," as Sir James Fitzjohn FitzGerald is called in the State Papers, whom he met "with no English with him, where they drank wine together and chatted a long part of the night." Two years later, in 1542, Desmond made his formal submission to Henry, and he brought with him O'Brien, with whom he was then in league. Henry's policy of conciliation had been especially marked toward the Desmond family. When the true heir to the earldom, James FitzMaurice, wished to lay claim to his possessions Henry had sent him home from England, where he was staying at the King's Court, "sufficiently furnished with all things fitting for such an enterprise." The Desmonds had been much in England, and were in friendly relations with the King, being supported by him against the MacCarthys and O'Briens. After parting with the King, James FitzMaurice landed in Cork, in 1540, but he fell into a trap set for him by his rival and kinsman, Sir Maurice of Desmond, when passing through Lord Roche's country, and was slain. This fierce and treacherous old man, known as Maurice na dtoitane, "of the burnings," on account of his depredations, who lived to be an octogenarian and was still at that age furiously fighting foes and friends alike, fell at last a prisoner to his own father-in-law, and was hacked to death by his followers.

[7] "Information against Lord Leonard Grey, Carew," Calendar. i, No. 149, pp. 167-168.
Grey's two visits to Desmond's country are among the first of those state progresses afterward indulged in by Lord Justice Cusack, Sir Henry Sidney, and others, the reports of which give us so vivid and personal an acquaintance with the country and with the principal actors in the drama of the Elizabethan times. In his first tour in 1536 Grey was much impressed by the fertility and beauty of the country through which he was travelling. One of his train breaks out: "If there be any paradise in this world, the counties from Dublin to Thomond may be accounted for one of them, both for beauty and goodness. The town and castle of Kilkenny is well walled and well replenished of people and wealthy. The city of Limerick is a wondrous proper city and a strong and standeth environed with the river Shannon; it may be called Little London for the situation, but the castle hath need of reparation." Desmond's island-stronghold on Loch Gur they found "desolate and unwarded" by Sir James, and it was easily captured, the roofs and windows being repaired and a garrison placed in it.[8] At that date (1536) they failed to get O'Brien "to condescend to any conformity," though he came in later, but Desmond "showed himself very reasonable" submitting his claims to the Deputy and Council, and giving his two sons as hostages. The orders from London were that he was to be "handled in gentle sort," but in his own country there was much doubt of his loyalty. [9]

[8] Carew, Cal. i, No. 86, pp. 105, 103.
[9] Carew, Cal. i, No. 88, p. 108.
The child Garrett (or Gerald) of Kildare was known to be then hidden away in Munster, and Silken Thomas, his kinsman, had only recently been lodged in the Tower. When it was certainly known that Garrett was safe in France Desmond declared his readiness to come in, and on January 16, 1541, he swore fealty in the usual form, recognizing his Majesty the King of England as his sovereign, and "utterly forsaking the Bishop of Rome and his usurped primacy." [10] He formally renounced the privilege of his predecessors exempting them from appearing in Parliaments and Grand Councils, or from entering walled towns in the King's obedience, and declared himself ready to sit in the Dublin Parliament. Though he refused to treat with Ormonde, he made his submission on bended knees to St Leger at Youghal, and the Viceroy reports that he found him "a very wise and discreet gentleman." Attended by a splendid retinue, he proceeded to England, where in 1542 he made his act of submission to Henry in person,[11] being received with the greatest distinction and sent back with new honours. He left his son "to be brought up and instructed after the English sort" with the young Prince Edward, and the lad became his prince's attached friend and companion. On the death of Ormonde, Edward, now become king, created the Earl Lord Treasurer of Ireland and President of Munster, and he continued in office until his death in 1558. He was buried at Tralee Abbey of the White Friars. During the same year in which Desmond had made his submission the head of Lord Grey had fallen on Tower Hill on an indictment of ninety counts, among which the escape of young Garrett and his leniency to the Desmonds formed a part.

[10] Ibid., No. 153, p. 174.
[11] Sir Anthony St Leger to Henry VIII, February 21, 1541, S. P., Hen. VIII, iii, 285 seq.
It was the formation, by the efforts of Conn O'Neill, prince of Tyrone, of the Geraldine League in 1537, after the execution of the six Geraldines, that brought the North once more into intimate touch with the South. Conn's mother was Alice, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, the Great Earl of Kildare, and it was in Donegal, as being the safest spot and least accessible to English troops, that the young Garrett of Kildare now lay in hiding. When his aunt, the Lady Eleanor, married Manus O'Donnell, in order to find with him an asylum for her nephew, Conn drew together a league which included, besides the Northern lords, the O'Briens, Desmonds, and MacCarthys of the South; and, until the activities of the English Government to capture Garrett made it advisable to convey the boy abroad, they formed a guard of young chiefs for his protection. This Manus O'Donnell was a remarkable personality; he was a good soldier and a man of culture. To him we owe the most complete existing biography of his great ancestor, St Columcille, which, though founded on the Latin Life by Adamnan, adds to it the traditions about the saint current in his own district. He wrote it as a youth, and, though he tells us that he had help in translating the Latin Life and explaining the old Gaelic words, he "dictated the whole out of his own mouth with great labour" in the intervals of a life spent in warfare, chiefly among members of his own family.[12] More remarkable still are the exquisite lyrics with which he, in common with several of the FitzGeralds, Pierce Ferriter, one of the MacCarthys, and other chiefs—refined and cultivated gentlemen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—adorned the literature of their native land. They were evidently not out of touch, even in wild Donegal, with the contemporary European tradition.

[12] Betha Coluimchille, ed. A. O'Kelleher and G. Schoepperle (1918).
Some of the poems of Manus seem to have been written to Eleanor, whom he calls the "Earl's daughter," and there are two plaintive little poems—"The sorrow of parting" and "To-night my cup of sorrow is full"—which may well have been the expression of his grief when, after Garrett's flight abroad, she decided on leaving him to return to her native province.[13] She never seems to have cared for Manus. Only force of affection for her nephew drove her, after long hesitations, to marry him, and she left him with disdainful words as soon as her purpose was fulfilled. Probably she never trusted him. Twice he had made submission to an English Viceroy, and he had promised Lord Leonard Grey to do as good service as ever his father did to the uttermost of his power. When Lord Deputy St Leger met Manus in 1540 he was surprised to find before him an elegant gentleman, magnificently dressed in crimson velvet, who had for his chaplain "a right sober young man, well learned, and brought up in France." He states that he found Manus "a sober man and one that in his words much desireth civil order." Eleanor plainly thought that her husband's friendship with St Leger, who by Henry's command offered to create him Earl of Tyrconnel, might even induce him to give up young Garrett. Manus had come into power in early life, for he had been responsible for the government of his territories during the absence of his father, Dark Hugh O'Donnell, who had made a pilgrimage to Rome and whose ill-health on his return obliged him to pass on the reins to his son. But his rule was embittered by the jealousy of his brothers—one of whom he hanged and two others he carried in chains to Dublin—and by the turbulence of his son Calvagh. St Leger in vain tried to settle their differences. Being finally taken prisoner by Calvagh, Manus was kept "under easy restraint" until near the time of his death at Lifford in 1564. He was buried with great respect in the peaceful Franciscan monastery on the shores of Donegal Bay.

[13] Dánta Grádha, ed. T. F. O'Rahilly and R. Flower (1926).
It was an unusual thing for an alliance to be formed between the O'Donnells and O'Neills, such as that which momentarily held together Conn Bacach, or "the Lame", O'Neill and Manus O'Donnell, on behalf of Garrett FitzGerald. How far either of these chiefs were playing fair toward Garrett on the one hand or toward the English Government on the other it would be difficult to say. Manus's protection, as a sworn liegeman of the Crown, was clearly not to be implicitly relied upon. Conn O'Neill had gone even farther; as representative of the Northern princes he had acknowledged the sovereignty of the English King over all Ireland and made submission to him. After the fall of Maynooth and the break up of the rebellion of Silken Thomas in 1535 he had twice made a formal submission to Lord Leonard Grey, but this may have been only to secure his own safety. Grey was uncertain of him. He found him "very tractable in words, but obstinate in refusing to put in pledges for his good behaviour." He was, in fact, then secretly forming his league for the protection of young Kildare. But in 1541, when Garrett was safely in France, he sent in his son as hostage and offered unqualified submission. He even crossed over to London to make his formal act of allegiance to Henry VIII in person. In October 1542 he was received with great ceremony by the King in the Queen's closet at Greenwich, which was "richly hanged with cloth of Arras and well strewn with rushes" for the occasion. In return for his surrender of his hereditary title of O'Neill he was created Earl of Tyrone, with remainder to his illegitimate son Matthew, who was made Baron of Dungannon. Conn would have preferred the title of Earl of Ulster, but that was held from old times to be an adjunct to the Crown, and Henry would not consent to part with it. For the solemnity, Conn was led in by the Earls of Hereford and Oxford, while Viscount Lisle bore the sword before him. He wore the robes of state proper for his new title, and the King placed round his neck a collar of gold worth threescore pounds and presented him with a hundred marks in money. His style was henceforth Du très haut et puissant Signeur Con, Conte de Tyrone, en la Royaulme d'Irlande.[14]

[14] The negotiations with Conn O'Neill and his articles of submission will be found in Carew, Cal., i, No. 167, p. 188, and No. 174, p. 199 ; Morrin, Calendar of Patent Rolls, i, 85 ; Cal. S. P. , Hen. VIII, xvii, Nos. 884 and 885 p. 511 ; MS. Titus B, xi, 385 (British Museum).
O'Donnell and Magennis were knighted on the same occasion, and when Conn had returned thanks in a speech translated by his chaplain a state dinner followed. Conn remained long in London. Like Calvagh O'Donnell he seemed to prefer the "civility" of the capital to the troubles of his own province. But when he did return to his native land it was to hold the ancient tribal possessions of his ancestors with the name, state, and title as the "mere gift" of the King. Conn's complications were not over. The tyranny of officials on the spot went far to bring to naught any policy of conciliation. A series of letters show that he was imprisoned on his way back through Dublin; and he complains not only of this unexpected and unjust imprisonment, which is, he says, injuring his own province, but of the harsh treatment he had received from Lord Chancellor Cusack.[15]

[15] One of these shrewd and sensible letters of Conn O'Neill will be found in Appendix VI. For his imprisonment see Carew, Cal. i, No. 248, p. 367.
The submission of the head of the oldest family of Irish princes made a great sensation in Ireland. Since the days of Richard II, nearly a hundred and fifty years before, such a thing had not been heard of, and the clans of the North had drifted back into their old position of haughty independence, holding themselves aloof not only from English entanglements, but also, so far as was possible, from the wars and quarrels of their own country. Having got rid of the de Courcys and de Burghs out of the North, their efforts were directed to holding back the Scots from their coasts, and the only feuds in which they took part were those of their own and the Connacht borderland. The old pride of superiority over the South, as a race which had, in ancient days, placed forty-seven kings upon the throne of Tara, while the South, during all its long history, had only once been in undisputed occupation of the coveted honour of the High Kingship, was as strong as ever. "Forty-seven kings to one" is the theme of the Ulster poems in the Contention of the Bards,[16] sustained in a lively poetic controversy during the seventeenth century. The fact gave the North a pre-eminence that Ulster was not likely to forget. Thus the act of submission of Conn O'Neill was a matter of high importance. It was speedily followed by that of O'Brien, who was created Earl of Thomond, representing Munster, and MacWilliam Burke from Connacht, now created Earl of Clanricarde. Thus once again the three independent provinces acknowledged fealty to the Crown. If we ask what was the inducement which made these leading families submit we find it in the promise of support offered by the Crown to the selected ruler as against all applicants to the chiefdom, with the right of descent in a single line, thus giving an hereditary interest in the tribal lands. The acceptance of the English system of descent from father to son entirely altered the old method of succession by concentrating in the hands of a single branch of the princely houses the rights belonging in former days also to the collateral branches of the family, and requiring the confirmation of the suffrages of the whole clan. Many of the chiefs, either through avarice or through weariness of the system of election by tanistry, which introduced an element of uncertainty into every succession and tore the fair provinces to pieces from century to century in endless internecine strife, hailed the hope of a quiet possession passing on from father to son in regular descent and assuring in their own branch the hereditary ownership of the tribal lands. It tended to make each of these chiefs supreme in his own clan against all comers.

[16] Edited by L. McKenna for the Irish Texts Society (1918).
The immediate result of the new system seemed to be all that could be desired. Sir Thomas Cusack reports in May 1553 that "the policy that was devised for the sending of the Earls of Desmond, Thomond, Clanricarde, and Tyrone, and the Baron of Upper Ossory, O'Carroll, Magennis, and others into England was a great help in bringing those countries to good order, for none of them who went into England committed harm upon the King's Majesty's subjects. The winning of the Earl of Desmond was the winning of the rest of Munster at small charges. The making of O'Brien an earl made all that country obedient. The making of MacWilliam Earl of Clanricarde made all the country during his time quiet and obedient, as it is now. The making of MacGillapatrick Baron of Upper Ossory made his country obedient." [17] All looked well for the success of the new experiment. The country was as near 'settlement' as ever it had been in the course of its history. It was therefore a particular misfortune that Conn, for what reason we know not, chose as his heir not his eldest son Shane, who ought to have succeeded him under the English rule of descent which he had just accepted, but a boy irregularly born into his family, if indeed he belonged to his family at all, which seems doubtful. This boy's mother was a woman of Dundalk, the wife of a blacksmith named Kelly. At the age of fourteen she presented this lad to Conn as his son, and Conn was so delighted with the boy that he not only adopted him into his family, but made him his heir.[18] The English authorities accepted Ferdoragh (called in English "Matthew") on Conn's recommendation, giving him the title of Baron of Dungannon, with succession to the Earldom of Tyrone, but Shane on coming to manhood refused to acknowledge him, and naturally asserted his own superior claims. Thus the family strife which it was the aim of the new settlement to heal was destined soon to break out afresh and to make the succeeding years the most turbulent that Ulster had known in the course of its long history. Nevertheless, St Leger might well think that Ireland was at last at peace. The submissions of the great lords were followed by those of the minor chiefs, each contented to be confirmed in the territory he ruled by Henry's policy of surrender and regrant, which made him independent of the suffrages of his people, and enabled him to feel behind him the support of English authority.

[17] Carew, Cal., i, No. 200, pp. 245-246.
[18] Shane said that Conn, his father, "being a gentleman, made it a rule never to refuse paternity to any child brought to him as his own"—a remark which illuminates the habits of the chiefs with regard to their clans-people.
It was at a Parliament in which, for the first time in history, native princes sat side by side with Anglo-Norman lords that Henry VIII was proclaimed King, instead of Lord, of Ireland. This Parliament met on June 13, 1541, in the presence of the Earls of Ormonde and Desmond (here seated for once together), of Donogh O'Brien, the O'Reilley, and a great company of nobles and ecclesiastics, both Irish and Anglo-Irish; and it was proclaimed, amid universal rejoicings, that "forasmuch as your Majesty had always been the only defender and protector, under God, of this realm, it was most meet that your Majesty and your heirs should from henceforth be named and called King of the same." The proclamation was repeated in the Lower House, "where it was likewise passed with no less joy and willing consent," and it was publicly announced after solemn Mass in St Patrick's Church in the presence of two thousand persons "with great joy and gladness to all men." The contents of the Act were translated into Irish by the Earl of Ormonde, "greatly to the contentation" of the said lords.[19] Such are the official reports of this important event. St Leger, reporting the proceedings to the King on June 26, declares that he felt "no less comfort than to be risen again from death to life." When St Leger left Ireland for the first time in the spring of 1546 it was amid the weeping and lamentation of the people, and the Earls of Desmond, Thomond, and Tyrone promised to see the country defended to the uttermost of their powers until the Deputy's return. None could be found of better conformity than those Irish lords, and the "honest obedience" of the land warmed the heart of men like Sir Thomas Cusack. "Thanks be to God," he exclaims, "those who would not be brought under subjection with 10,000 men, cometh to Dublin with a letter, which is no small comfort to every faithful heart to see."

[19] 23 Hen. VIII, inIrish Statutes, vol. 1, 176 ; and see Cal. S. P., Hen. VIII, xvi, No. 926, p. 446.
It was twelve years later, in May 1553, that Cusack, who had become Lord Chancellor in 1551, made the tour round the South of Ireland to which we have already referred. It is interesting to note the actual results of Henry's pacific policy after the lapse of these twelve years and before the South was again devastated by the Desmond wars. He reports that Munster, under the rule of such lords and captains as be there and of the Earl of Desmond, is in good quiet so that the Justices of the Peace ride their circuit in the counties of Limerick, Cork, and Kerry, being the farthest shires west in Munster, and the sheriffs are obeyed. "The lords and captains of those countries, as the Earl of Desmond, the Viscount Barry, the Lord Roche, the Lord FitzMorris and divers others [all lords of old English blood], which within few years would not hear speak to obey the law, beeth now in commission with the Justices of the Peace to hear and determine causes...The Irish captains in those quarters do not stir, but live in such quiet that the English captains at Cork with forty horsemen cause the offenders to stand to right. MacCarthy Mór, who is the most powerful Irishman in Ireland, is now very conformable to good order." Leinster also he reported to be "in meetly good stay," the Kavanaghs being weakened and even the O'Byrnes and "such other of Irish sort dwelling in the rest of Leinster being of honest conformity." Thomond was quiet since O'Brien had been created earl, and the wild country that lay between Limerick and Tipperary, where a few years before the MacWilliams, O'Mulryans, and other Irishmen of good power were all wild, was now so conformable and well-ordered "that men may pass through the countries at pleasure, quietly, without danger of robbing or other displeasure." The same cheerful report of peace and progress comes even from Clanricarde's country, long wasted by the family quarrels of the Burkes. Where, at the time of Cusack's first visit, there were not forty ploughs in all the country "but all waste through war," two hundred ploughs were now at work, and the number was increasing daily. The country was universally inhabited, and people were able to leave their ploughs, irons, and cattle in the fields without fear of their being stolen.[20] Such a report is a remarkable testimony to the beneficial effects of the stability brought about by the new system.

[20] Carew, Cal., i, No. 200, pp. 235 seq.
It is the fashion among certain writers to scoff at the idea of any quiet or "good conformity" brought about by English rule, but there is no doubt that many of the large owners of property were heartily weary of the incessant wars which turned their fertile lands into a waste and depleted them of inhabitants, and that they were anxious to bring them under the more regular working of English law. The Irish in early times never disliked English law, though they strenuously resisted its abuse as a means of repression. This report was written just before the accession of Queen Mary, twelve years after the declaration of the King's supremacy. Again, it is often said that the troubles in the Tudor period were caused by the dissatisfaction of the small holders because their rights as tenants were overlooked in the new arrangement under which the chief held directly of the Crown. Theoretically, indeed, these rights were ignored; they were not, in fact, affected by the new relations between the lord and the Government; for while the lord's position entered on a new phase, that of the tenant toward his lord remained exactly as heretofore. He received his portion of land and paid his dues in cattle and kind after the submission of the chiefs exactly as he had done before.[21] Up to the time of the plantations his position with regard to his chief was unaltered in any way. The lot of the tenant in the native parts of the country does not appear to have been at all a happy one. According to Fynes Moryson he paid no regular rents, but the lord exacted from him all that he needed for his spendings and maintenance, "the countrypeople living under the lord's absolute power as slaves" and having no settled property, for their portions were partitioned among them only for one, two, or three years, so that they had no encouragement to build or improve their holdings.[22] Certain changes he was conscious of under the new system, of which the most important one to him was that he had no longer any choice in the election of his chief, which was now settled over his head between the Government and the ruling house; and, secondly, that the sheriff made his appearance in the country—a token that chief and tenant alike were henceforth to be ruled by English law. Both these changes, when realized, led to disturbance. The chosen chief might welcome them as signs that his authority would be upheld against all pretenders, but to the clansman they were the symbols of a lost status which he never afterward was able to regain. Thus, in theory, the individual rights of every clansman passed into the hands of his lord, who now held them under the Crown; but the actual conditions as between the lord and his tenant remained unchanged until the uprooting of all the old native ways came about with the confiscations and replantations after the Desmond and Tyrone wars.

[21] See "Tyrone's Rental" December 18, 1610, described by Sir Tobias Caulfeild, in Cal. S.P.I., James I, No. 931, p. 532 seq.
[22] Fynes Moryson, The Commonwealth of Ireland, in C. L. Falkiner's Illustrations of Irish History, pp. 242, 246.
The system of pacification was at this time fairly attempted, and the plans for the settlement of the luxuriant but wasted provinces of Munster and Ulster with English, which had been recommended by successive travellers and considered by successive Viceroys as a possible alternative to the old native rule, were for the moment set aside, to be revived again and carried out with rigour when the experiment of ruling through and with the concurrence and help of the native chiefs and Anglo-Irish lords had proved a failure. The causes of this failure are not far to seek. Garrett of Kildare was still abroad, a centre round whom the affections of the people twined. The jealousies of the great lords were irrepressible and ready at any moment to break out afresh. But, beyond these local causes of unrest, the determination of the sovereigns to force the recognition of their new claim to be the Head of the Church, which to a Catholic people was sacrilege, and the effort to oblige them to attend Protestant services and accept the revised Book of Common Prayer, aroused widespread discontent, especially when it was accompanied by the destruction of the monasteries and the breaking up of images and relics. The new causes of disturbance were religious, not political or social. Catholic leagues began to be formed throughout the country, and as the efforts to enforce the tenets of the Reformation grew more vigorous, carrying with them the persecution of priests and friars, the smouldering discontent was ready to burst into a flame. The closer connexion with Spain and France, both from an educational and political point of view, brought in agents who encouraged and guided the movement, and fanned the growing antagonism to English dictation into a passion. Yet both the O'Neill rebellion in the North and that of the Geraldines in the South arose out of personal and private quarrels, as we shall see, and might in other circumstances have been easily dealt with. The union of the North and South made them formidable, and the proclamation of a religious war turned them into a crusade. The work of reconciliation was suddenly to be cast to the winds on both sides. Persecution, rebellion, and plantation were to follow each other in rapid succession, and the whole conditions in Ireland were to be radically changed.

END OF CHAPTER X