Ireland Under Elizabeth

The fall of Shane O'Neil was followed by prompt and energetic measures by Queen Elizabeth. With her iron will, she resolved to make Ireland Protestant in religion and English in ownership. But from the first, Protestantism meant, in Irish eyes, not only a religion hostile to that to which they had always been wedded, but a mark of English tyranny and ascendancy. In spite of the fact, therefore, that the offices of Ireland were filled by Protestants, and that the way, not only to wealth and power, but even to peace and comfort, was to become a Protestant, the new faith made no progress among the natives, and very little among the old English settlers. Not only the O'Neils and the O'Donnels, but the Desmonds and Kildares, adhered to the Roman creed. It was in Elizabeth's time, and by reason of the acts of her agents, that Protestantism became identified in the Irish mind with the oppressions and miseries of the land; and that sentiment remained rooted in the Irish heart down to recent times.

But while Elizabeth failed to convert the Irish, or even to force them to accept the new faith, her scheme to colonize Ireland with English colonies was carried forward vigorously and with some success. It had already been proposed, in, the time of Henry the Eighth, to plant the Irish soil with English settlements; that is, to oust the native tillers of the land, and replace them by English farmers. But it was not until the suppression of Shane's rebellion that this plan was at-tempted on a large scale. The first plantations, however, were doomed to failure. Two colonies were established in Ulster, on the domains of the O'Neils; but that still fierce and unconquered clan fell upon the colonists, and killed them to a man. Some years later, however, Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, received from the queen a large tract in Antrim (1573).

Devereux was a stern, cruel, resolute man. His district was occupied, to a large extent, by a colony of Scotsmen. He undertook not only to drive them from the soil, but also to get rid of the native clans, who thwarted him at every step. In pursuing these ends, Devereux resorted to murder and treachery without remorse. He enticed Con O'Donnel to a meeting, seized him, and cast him into prison. He invited Brian O'Neil to a banquet. Brian came, with his wife, brother, and a large retinue. Devereux's soldiers fell upon them, and slew them every one. He took Rathlin Island, and massacred, not only the Scottish garrison, but the old men, women, and children. Not less atrocious were the methods by which the attempt was made to plant Munster. Elizabeth gave authority to twenty-seven Englishmen to seize the domains of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry. The chief among these was Sir Peter Carew, a man of brutal temper, who had lost his fortune, and was eager to become rich again. Carew had the pretense of a claim to certain lands in southern Ireland; and these claims he sought to make good by acts of the most barbarous cruelty. He desolated the districts over which he passed, and massacred men, women, and children without mercy.

These savage cruelties, committed by the English intruders, soon aroused some of the Anglo-Irish chiefs to action. The Geraldines put themselves at the head of a revolt, and an appeal for aid was sent to the pope, and to the Spanish king. The leader of the revolt was James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, cousin of the Earl of Desmond; that earl being now a prisoner in London. Fitzgerald was bold, fearless, and hot-blooded. But, in his first attempt to resist the English, his force was too feeble to cope with them. Sir Henry Sidney, who was now lord-deputy of Ireland, was not less cruel than Essex and Carew. He led an army into Munster, which he desolated by fire and sword. Towns and villages were laid waste; and women and children, as well as men, were ruthlessly put to the sword. The Earl of Ormond, the great rival of the Geraldines of the South, cast in his lot with the English; and Fitzgerald was soon forced to take refuge in the mountains of Kerry.

Though shut up for the time in the hilly fastnesses, Fitzgerald was by no means subdued. He soon began to prepare the way for another rebellion. In order to strengthen his cause, he had recourse to England's enemies on the Continent. Foremost among these enemies was Philip, king of Spain; Spain being England's most formidable rival on the seas. The pope, too, whose authority in England had been overthrown by Henry the Eighth, and who had seen the Catholic church replaced by a Protestant church by Elizabeth, might well be inclined to aid a revolt against her undertaken by the Catholic Irish. Fitzgerald went, first to Spain, and then to Rome. Philip would not openly aid the insurgents; but the pope responded to Fitzgerald's appeal, by fitting out a small fleet to go to Ireland. This fleet, however, was put under the command of an unscrupulous Englishman named Stukely; who, instead of sailing to Ireland, used the fleet in piratical cruising in the Mediterranean. But Fitzgerald was not dismayed by this loss. With a few Spanish recruits and some warlike monks, he landed at Snierwick, on the west coast of Ireland, and promptly fortified that place.

A second rebellion, far more obstinate and formidable than that which had been so quickly suppressed by Sir Henry Sidney, now broke out all over Ireland. The hideous cruelties perpetrated by the lord-deputies Fitton and Sidney; the massacres, ravages, and burnings which had marked the conduct of the English "planters;" the bloodthirsty vigor with which it had been attempted to exterminate the native Irish from their ancestral homes, had roused the people of Ulster, Munster, and Connaught to a bitter and burning hatred of their oppressors. The treatment of the Anglo-Irish—the original English settlers—had not been a whit less barbarous. Even the English of the Pale, who had been so long protected and fostered by the crown, had latterly felt the iron hand of tyranny, and were inclined to join their fortunes to those of the insurgents. Bands of the Irish quickly gathered in the great forest of Kilmore, in the county of Limerick, where they were drilled by some Spanish soldiers, and where their supplies were collected; and from thence Fitzgerald sallied forth to kindle resistance in Connaught.

At the very outset of the rebellion, however, the insurgents lost their brave and energetic leader. Fitzmaurice was killed as he attempted to pass the river Muckern. The Earl of Desmond had now been released from his imprisonment. At first he had hesitated whether to take part in the rising. Two of his brothers, Sir John and Sir James, had promptly joined Fitzmaurice's standard; and three thousand of his tenants had entered the rebel ranks. The death of Fitzmaurice was followed by Desmond's tardy adhesion to the Irish cause. He took the command, and forced the English general, Malby, to retreat. He then carried his sway over Munster, took Voughal, and seemed on the high road to decisive victory.

Elizabeth, alarmed at Desmond's progress, sent a new deputy, Sir William Pelham, to Ireland. At the same time, she ordered the Earl of Ormond, always Desmond's rival and enemy, to attack him. Pelham led an army from Dublin, and Ormond set out, at the head of another, from KiIkenny. Joining their forces in the west, the English generals soon checked Desmond, drove him from his stronghold, overran Kerry, and recovered all Munster. Desmond was forced to hide himself in the mountains. The triumph of the English army, as usual, was marked by terrible atrocities. Murder and rapine everywhere attended their advance. They left desolation and utter misery behind them.

The subjection of Munster was not at once followed by the suppression of rebellion in other parts of Ireland. Some of the principal Englishmen of the Pale rose in revolt, and, leaving their homes, hastened to join the rebels in the interior. Chief among these was lord Baltinglass, a strong Catholic. He, with his comrades, effected a junction with Sir John Desmond and the remnant of his force. A new lord-deputy, lord Grey of Wilton, had arrived in Ireland. He hastened forth to meet the troops under Baltinglass, but was caught by the rebels in a narrow defile, in the valley of Glenmalure, where his entire force was exterminated. Among Grey's lieutenants was the cruel Sir Peter Carew, who thus met his death at the hands of the race he had so terribly oppressed. Grey retired to Dublin, and once more marched westward at the head of a fresh army. It is interesting that among those who followed Grey in this new expedition were Sir Walter Raleigh, the famous navigator, and Edmund Spenser, the great poet who wrote the "Faerie Queen."

Grey laid siege to the garrison of Spaniards and Italians who were holding the port of Smerwick, on the west coast, for the rebels, and soon compelled them to surrender. Almost the entire garrison were mercilessly shot. Grey returned in triumph to Dublin, and once more set forth to deal a blow at Baitinglass and his comrades in the south. The rebels were soon defeated; but Baltinglass himself succeeded in escaping to France. The rebellion had now been effectually subdued. It only remained to capture Desmond and his faithful friends, and to wreak vengeance upon the routed rebels. A large number, both of Anglo-Irish and natives, were hanged. One hundred and fifty women and children were put to the sword at Kildimo. Lady Fitzgerald was hanged near her own castle. Every day new victims were given over to slaughter. Among those captured and slain were Desmond's two brothers. The head of Sir John Desmond, one of the brothers, was sent to Dublin, and fixed upon a spike in front of the castle, for all men to see.

Desmond did not escape the fate of his kinsmen and of so many of his adherents. For some time he sallied forth from the hills, at intervals, and led guerilla expeditions to ravage the domains of his enemy, Ormond. But his forces dwindled from week to week, and he was constantly forced to retreat from one valley to another. A price was put upon his head, but the people would not give him up to his foes. At last he found a temporary shelter in the densely wooded mountains in western Kerry. His situation was desperate; for he was not only in daily peril of capture, but hunger constantly tortured his devoted band. Early one morning, some English soldiers discovered his retreat, and rushed in upon his camp. The earl was seized and beheaded on the spot. His head was sent to England, and was placed, by order of Elizabeth, on a high pole on London Bridge. With the death of the earl, the second Desmond rebellion came to an end.

The state of the interior of Ireland, and especially of Munster, which had been the principal scene of the struggle, was now extremely wretched. The rich lands had been desolated. Villages, once thriving and busy, had disappeared, or lay in ruins. The poor people wandered about helplessly, gaunt with famine, or stricken by disease. One Englishman who saw them wrote, that "the people offer themselves, with their wives and children, rather to be slain by the army, than to suffer the famine that now beginneth to pinch them." The poet Spenser said that they looked more like skeletons than human beings; and that, in their hunger, they not only ate dead animals, but human corpses. Queen Elizabeth confiscated the estates of the Earl of Desmond, which comprised more than half a million of acres, and divided them up among Englishmen, who undertook to settle English colonies upon them.

The land in Limerick, Kerry, Cork, and other parts of southern Ireland, was parceled out in estates of from four thousand to twelve thousand acres. These estates were handed over to "undertakers" (as those who agreed to plant colonies were called); and many of the soldiers who had taken part in putting down the rebellion also received tracts of land. A small rent of two and three pence an acre was imposed upon these new occupiers by the crown, after they had been settled on the land six years. The undertakers were allowed to send what they raised on the land into England, free of duty. On the other hand, they were forbidden to take native Irishmen as tenants or laborers; and were compelled to get their tradesmen and artisans—the bakers, butchers, smiths, carpenters, tailors, and so on—from England. Each undertaker was bound, moreover, to establish at least eighty-six English families on his estate. Such, in general, was the plan by which Elizabeth and her ministers hoped to replace the Irish by an English population, and to make of Ireland an English country.