Although the act for the suppression of religious houses was passed in the year 1537, the appointment of a commission to carry it into effect did not take place till the present year; when following the course pursued in England, a form of inquiry was employed to usher in an act already determined upon, and the suppression of the religious houses was quietly effected. In the mean while, the spoils expected from this harvest of rapine were already in fancy parcelled out among the great lords and officers of the Pale, both lay and spiritual. It had been suggested, in the year 1537, that, to reward the services of lord James Butler, and his father, without farther encroachment on the king's lands, a grant should be made to them of the monastery and lands of Duiske, together with some other march abbey, either in Kilkenny or Tipperary.* But this suggestion does not appear to have been carried into effect. The lord chancellor Alen endeavoured to secure for himself the monastery of St. Thomas Court, near Dublin; but the site and circuit of that venerable abbey were granted, in the year 1543, to sir Thomas Brabazon, then vice-treasurer, the ancestor of the earls of Meath.

Equally unsuccessful was archbishop Browne, notwithstanding his zeal for the cause of reform, in endeavouring to secure for himself a share of this religious plunder. On the first rumour of the coming of the commission, he wrote to request of lord Cromwell, that he would obtain for him a "very poor house of friars," as he describes it, named the New Abbey, a "house of the obstinates' religion, which lay very commodious for him by Ballymore. This monastery, however, had already been given away, and,-still more provokingly, in the eyes of the prelate,-had been bestowed upon an Irishman. He next endeavoured to obtain from Cromwell a grant of the nunnery of Grace Dieu, should that house be among the number of those suppressed. But here again his suit was fruitless; and after an ineffectual attempt to preserve it, this nunnery was suppressed, along with the rest, and its site and possessions granted, in the year 1541, to sir Patrick Barnwell, ancestor of the lord Trimleston.§

Some over-zealous Irish writers, unwilling to admit that so long an interval of peace and tolerance could have been enjoyed thus under a government almost entirely English, have brought forth one alleged instance of religious martyrdom, in the person of Dr. John Travers, an Irish secular priest, who published a book in defence of the papal supremacy. Had it been for writing this controversial work that capital punishment was inflicted on Travers, his right to the place he holds in the Irish martyrology could not have been questioned. But this was by no means the case:-he had taken a most active part in Jord Thomas Fitz Gerald's rebellion, and it was for this offence that, having been tried and found guilty of treason, he was executed at Tyburn. Such is the single alleged instance of severe punishment, on account of religion, which, even by those most desirous to fix such a charge on the Irish government, could be referred to during the whole of the thirteen years that clapsed from the first introduction of the reformed creed, to the last days of this reign.

The notion prevailing at this time among the alarmists of the Pale, and since adopted by all our historians, that religion was a leading motive of the late league among the chiefs, appears to be but little sustained by recorded facts. Had any great zeal for the interests of religion been felt, either within or without the Pale, there would have been, on both sides, more show of energy and character, but, on neither much enjoyment of tolerance or peace. So little, indeed, did Henry's spiritual claims alarm the consciences of the native chiefs, that, a year or two after, when entering into articles of submission, all the most eminent among them readily took the oath, acknowledging the king supreme head of the church. While thus, from pliancy of conscience, or, perhaps, mere ignorance of the nature of the pledge required from them, these lords contributed, by their easy submission, to prolong the tranquillity that now prevailed, the same object was, in like manner, ministered to by another large class of persons,-the unreformed clergy of the

Gray, &c. to Crumwell. "As for the name of honour of the erledome of Ormond, it is not hurtefull they have it; but as for the landes, our advise is, the king departe not wyth them, but, in the lue thereof, geve them the abbaye of Duske, with thappertenaunces, wych is determined to be suppressed."-S. P. CLXVII!. ↑ J. Alen to Crumwell. Considering that I have no howse in Dublin to lie in, neither provision to keep oon hors ther for my self, that it would plese your lordship that I maje have the monastery of St. Thomas Court to ferme, wherby I shalbe the more able to serve the king, and yit his grace nothing hindered of his profit."-State Papers, CCLXVIII.

"Where as I wrote unto your lordeschip for the obteynement of a very poure house of friars, named the New Abbay, an house of the obstynates religion, which lay very commodious for me by Ballymore, to repaire unto in tymes of nede; I am clene dispatched of any pleasures there, and the profeite theireof gyven to an Irish man; so that I am compted an unworthie parson." ."-State Papers, CCXXVI. He then solicits in the same strain, for a grant of the abbey of Grace Dieu.

See, for particulars of this grant, Archdall's Monast. Hibern. p. 218.
Cox-Ware's Writers

Pale; who, when they found that by preaching in defence of the pope, they would incur the penalty of præmunire, refrained from preaching altogether, and gladly took refuge in the safe, though inglorious, policy of silence.* A similar course was pursued by the illfated lord Leonard Gray himself; and, accordingly, though known to be, in his heart, attached to the ancient doctrines, no charge against him on the score of religion appears in the articles upon which he was impeached.

It may be thought that the frequent “ hostings” of the lord deputy, throughout the kingdom, seem rather at variance with the picture of general quiet here presented. But it must be recollected, that these circuits, or progresses, were meant for the display, rather than the employment, of military force,-more as precautionary measures of police than as movements of actual warfare: and the bloodless result of most of the journeys of this description, under lord Gray, serves much to corroborate all that has been said of the state of peace that generally prevailed.

Another striking proof of this fact may be found in the cessation, to a remarkable degree, of that petty warfare of the Irish septs among themselves, which had, from time immemorial, been the habit and curse of the land. The single exception, indeed, to the respite which, even in this respect, the whole kingdom now enjoyed, is found in the instance of an Anglo-Irish sept, the Geraldines, of whom, in a letter already cited, from the lord deputy to Cromwell, it is said, "the bastard Geraldines are, by the permission of God, killing one another." In general, however, there prevails in the public correspondence of this period, most ample testimony to the state of quiet which the whole country then could boast. Thus, in the year 1538, there occur such admissions, with respect to the state of the kingdom, as the following:-" We are at peace with all men, and they keep peace with us, as yet."-" We signify unto your majesty (say the lords of the council) that, thanks be to God and your highness, the land is at such stay and peace, at this season, as it hath not been these many years." But a still more satisfactory evidence of the existence and effects of this change is afforded by another official authority.-"This country was in no such quiet these many years; for, throughout the land, in a manner, it is peace, both with English and Irish. I never did see, in my time, so great resort to the law as there is this term, which is a good sign of quiet and obedience."

The escape of young Gerald into France had removed the only common rallying-point or standard around which could be collected a sufficient number of male-contents to endanger seriously the peace of the country. Shortly after this youth's departure, lord Leonard Gray, who had long been entreating of the king permission to return to England, was granted a temporary recall, and sir William Brereton was appointed lord justice during his absence. The mutual ill-will so long existing between the late A. D. deputy and the carl of Ormond, though for a short time apparently suppressed, had 1540. again broken out with fresh bitterness; and the enmity of Ormond to lord Leonard had found ready and sympathizing abettors in the lord chancellor Alen, and sir William Brabazon, the vice-treasurer. In the ominous summons, therefore, of these three personages to confront him in England, Gray must have seen but too sure a foretoken of the disastrous fate that there awaited him.

On the first rumour of Gray's recall, indications of revolt had begun to show themselves among the septs immediately bordering on the Pale. The O'Tooles of Wicklow had made a foray into the marches of Dublin, and the Cavanaghs a predatory inroad of the same kind into the county of Wexford. But, when not only this lord, but the earl of Ormond also, had sailed for England, the removal from the country of two such commanders inspired a confidence in some of the more restless of the chiefs, which seemed, for a short time, to threaten disturbance to the public peace. A sudden incursion made by O'Connor, for purposes of plunder, into Kildare,|| and suspected plots and some threatening movements on the part of O'Neill, were the only grounds as yet assigned for the apprehension that generally prevailed.

It was clearly the policy of the new lord justice's government to make the worst of the state in which Gray had left the kingdom, in order, by bringing thus heavier odium upon his measures, to enhance proportionably their own merit in repairing the evils which he had caused. A desire to enter into negotiation having been intimated by O'Neill, the

* "So that now," says an observer of these events, "what for fear they have to preche their ould traditions, and the little or no good-will they have to preche the veritie, all is put to scilence."-J. White to Crumwell, State Papers, CCXII.

†Thomas Alen to Crumwell, State Papers, CCLVII.

King Henry VIII. to Gray and Sir W. Brereton, S. P. CCXCV.

The Council of Ireland to Crumwell, Earl of Essex, S. P. CCXCVII.

Ochonor, notwithstanding his appointment of truce, assone as he perceived that the late lord dep was passed the sea, on Tuysdaje last, his sonnes and cumpany invaded the countie of Kildare.”—-Alen Brabazon to the Earl of Essex, S. P. CCCI,

lord justice appointed a meeting with him at Carrick Bradogh, a plain on the borders of Dundalk. But the chief, fearing, for some reason not explained by him, to trust himself with any Englishman at that place, proposed that the parley between them should be held at the Narrow Water, near M'Gennis's castle. Accordingly, a peace was there concluded with him to the same effect as that which, in the year 1535, he had made by indentures with sir William Skeffington.* But, in the present instance, we are furnished with proof that O'Neill's voluntary pledges of peace were by no means sincere; as a letter, still extant, addressed to him by James V. of Scotland, shows that at this very time the chief's secretary was at the Scottish court, negotiating with that monarch.†

Whatever hopes of aid from Scotland might have been counted upon by the Irish leaders, and a close intercourse had long been held by them with that kingdom,-to the lord justice and council they spoke only the language of submission and peace. A general muster, however, of the respective forces of O'Donnell, O'Neill, O'Brian, and the other leading Irish lords, having been appointed to take place at Fowre, in the west of Meath, the lord justice assembled instantly a large army, comprising, in addition to the whole of the military power of the Pale, the attendance likewise of the lords spiritual and temporal, as well as of the judges, learned men, and priests; and at the head of this large and miscellaneous army, marched forth to the scene of the threatened congress. All that the chiefs professed, from the first, to have in view, in this general confederacy, was the holding a parley with the lord justice and council, and making a peace such as would be likely to endure. But, when they now heard of the immense force the authorities of the Pale were bringing against them, and of the campaign of twenty days, for which they were victualled, the object of their own assemblage, whatever it might have been, was immediately abandoned, and none of them appeared at the place appointed. "Whereupon," says the lord justice, in relating the circumstance, "we concluded to do some exploit;" and, accordingly, they entered into O'Connor's country, and there, "encamping in sundry places, destroying his habitations, corns, and fortlaces, as long as their victuals endured."}

After this short interruption, our records continue to present, through the remainder of Henry's reign, a scene of mutual reconciliation, tolerance, and peace. Instead of the hostility so long and preposterously kept alive between the crown and its Irish subjects, conciliatory advances were now, for the first time, and almost simultaneously, made by both; and while the king, by a skilful distribution of honours and gifts, allured the principal Irish chieftains to his court, these lords, on their parts, showed even too courtier-like a compliance with all the conditions and pledges required of them in

return.

A. D.

The earl of Desmond, who, like most of the other magnates of the Pale, had become identified, from habit and policy, with the native nobility of the land, was one of the first who now showed a disposition to sue for pardon and favour. In the month of April, an act of assassination had been committed, of which the brother of this 1540. lord, Maurice Fitz John, was the perpetrator; and Jaines Fitz Maurice, the rival claimant of the earldom of Desmond, was the victim. The immediate consequence of this daring murder-and, therefore, liable to be supposed its motive-was the concentration in James Fitz John, the present lord, of the whole title to the earldom. No suspicion, however, appears to have been entertained that he was at all accessory to the crime; and his now uncontested high station, added to the weight of his personal influence, rendered the course likely to be taken by him an object of much speculation with both parties. One of the principal causes hitherto of his disaffection to the king's government had been the grudge borne by him to lord James Butler, now earl of Ormond, both on account of the ancient feud between their bloods, and also of the claim set up by Butler to the earldom of Desmond, in right of his wife, the only daughter and heir general of the eleventh earl of that house. This jealous feeling had now subsided, it appears, on both sides; and so anxious was Ormond, whose zeal and activity in the public service never flagged, to draw his brother earl to allegiance, that, when on his way to a parley with O'Brian, he so far trusted himself in Desmond's power as to lodge two nights in his dominion, for the purpose of endeavouring, as he says, to win him over "by familiarity and

Brereton to Essex, S. P. CCCII.

Epistolæ Jac. IV., Jac. V., et Mariæ, Regum Scot.

Mathew King to the Privy Council in England, S. P. CCCX. See also Letter from Robert Cowley to th Duke of Norfolk, in Ellis's Original Letters, vol. ii. Second Series, written evidently at this time.

§ Lord Justice and Council to Henry VIII., S. P. CCCXIV. The lord justice adds, as if surprised that this course of proceeding had not been agreeable to the chief, Albeit he remaineth in his cankerde malyce and rankor, and so doo all his confederates."

The Council of Ireland to Henry VIII., S. P. CCXCVI.

persuasion." But Desmond, though conscious of his own offences, and most anxious to obtain pardon, was yet unwilling to relinquish his amity with O'Brian and others of the chiefs; and declared that so strong were their confederacies, he could not, even if it was his wish, attempt to resist them.

In the month of August, sir Antony Sentleger, the new lord deputy, reached Dublin; and his first report of the state of the country, addressed to the king soon after his arrival, refers to the peaceful dispositions manifested by O'Connor, O'Neill, O'Donnell, and other northern chiefs; as well as by O'Brian, Desmond, and other great lords of the west. O'Donnell had previously written to the king, acknowledging his spiritual supremacy, professing, in the humblest terms, repentance for his own offences, and suing earnestly for pardon.* By O'Neill, likewise, a respectful letter was addressed, in Latin, to the monarch, accompanied by some gifts, which Henry graciously received. Far less dependent in his tone than O'Donnell, this chief, while professing himself disposed to proffer submission to the king, complains of the grievous extortions practised by his deputies, as well as of their constant wars and forays, which render it impossible, he declares, for peace to exist in the kingdom. To O'Donnell the king readily granted pardon; but, in answering O'Neill, though considerate and gracious in his language, he gives him to understand that farther favours must all depend upon his own deserts; and, referring to a request made rather prematurely in O'Neill's letter, for the grant of some lands and ruined castles on the north coast, Henry intimates, with no small address, that the favour solicited by him is rather postponed than refused.

The reduction of the sept of the Cavenaghs, which had been begun some months before by the earl of Ormond, was now, under the auspices of the new lord deputy, carried more fully into effect. After wasting and burning their country for the space of ten days,the usual preliminary to Irish negotiation, the invaders succeeded in bring Mac Morough, the head of the Cavenaghs, to make his submission. Renouncing, on his own part, the title of Mac Morough, he engaged also, on the part of his sept, that they would never more, after that day, elect any one from among themselves to bear that title, or act as their ruler, excepting only his majesty the king, and such as he should appoint. Measures of a similar kind were then taken with the sons of O'Moore, who held the county of Ley; and also with several other petty chiefs, such as O'Doyne, O'Dempsey, and Mac Maurice, who had all been confederates with O'Connor, but were now detached from his party.

O'Connor himself, whose restless spirit and near neighbourhood to the Pale had rendered him a thorn in the side of the English, was now the only native lord to whom hopes of favour had not been held forth. So much excluded was he from the royal grace, that, in a letter addressed by the king to the Irish council, he desires that on no account, unless from actual necessity, they should enter into any terms with him; but rather, if possible, "expel him utterly from his country:" the king adding, that in this case, he would not be unwilling to bestow that country upon Cabir O'Connor, the chief's brother, on condition that he would "leave the Irish fashions," pay obedience to the English laws, and conform himself and those under his rule to the manners and usages of the Pale. However willingly this chief would have continued his harassing warfare, had he been seconded by the other great captains, his solitary defiance of the king's government would, he knew, be entirely fruitless. Already, with the view of crushing him, the lord deputy had proclaimed a "hosting" into his territory, with store of provisions for a campaign of fourteen days. O'Connor saw clearly, therefore, that the only way to preserve his possessions, or even his life, was to follow the example of his fellow toparchs, and submit to the mercy of the crown. The news of his intention to proffer submission came the more welcome to the government, as saving the cost of the threatened expedition, which the state of the exchequer at this time but ill could bear.** The council con

* State Papers, CCCIX.

↑ O'Neill to King Henry VIII., S. P. CCCXIII. The signature of this letter is as follows:-" Per me Capitaneum Oneyell, virum in omnibus subditum."

State Papers, CCCXXI.

This sept, or nation, inhabited Idrone, in the west part of Carlow.

"Occhonor, root of all mischief," says the lord justice, in one of his despatches to the king.-State Papers,

CCCXIV.

T State Papers, CCCXIX.

**The financial resources of the Irish government were, at all times, scanty and precarious; and Davies tells us that, in all the most ancient pipe rolls, the report of the state of the exchequer is invariably," In Thesauro nil." Even in the reign of Henry VIII, so much was the Irish exchequer neglected, that (as ap pears from a letter of Cowley to the duke of Norfolk) it was destitute even of Books of the Revenue. Ellis's Original Letters, vol. ii. Second Series, letter cxxvi.

sented, therefore, to accept his own proposition, which was, that he should fulfil his former covenants, as agreed upon by indentures; and shortly after, his principal adherents, O'Mulmoy, O'Mulloghlin, and Mac Geoghegan, made their submission in like manner.*

In a parliament appointed to be held at the beginning of this year, but which did not meet till the 13th of June, an act was passed, which had been suggested more than A. D. once in the course of this reign, conferring on Henry and his successors the title 1541. of king of Ireland. This measure was adopted in consequence of a notion said to be prevalent among the natives, that the regal dominion of the kingdom of Ireland was vested in the pope for the time being; and that from him the king of England held the lordship of that realm. It was therefore hoped that Henry's adoption of the royal title would disabuse the Irish chieftains of their error, and lead them to acknowledge with less hesitation his paramount dominion.

But there had now opened upon them a prospect, not merely of mercy, but of favours and honours, at the hands of royalty which wanted no farther inducement to draw them in that direction; and, throughout the remaining years of this reign, little else is left to the historian than to pass in review the different chiefs who, with an almost lavish generosity, were in the same breath pardoned and rewarded, and some of whose names still stand memorials of this truly princely policy, among the most shining and honourable titles of the Irish peerage.

In the instance of a wild mountain chief, named Tirlogh O'Toole, this course of policy was attended with circumstances not unworthy of notice. The sept of the O'Tooles, whose territory bordered on the marches of Dublin, had been, to a greater degree than many even of the more powerful septs, a source of annoyance and terror to the English Pale. Occupying the mountainous parts of the county of Wicklow, their only habitations were the wood and the morass, their only fortresses, the deep glens and mountainpasses. The reigning chief, however, Tirlogh O'Toole, combined with the ferocity of a border ravager much of that generous sense of honour by which the rude heroes of chivalry were distinguished; and, on one occasion, when all the great Irish lords, O'Neill, O'Donnell, O'Connor, and others, had leagued to invade the English Pale, Tirlogh sent word to the lord deputy, that, seeing the principal chiefs were now all combined against him, he, Tirlogh, thought it but fair to be on his side; but," as soon as the others made peace, then would he alone make war with him." This chivalrous promise the chief faithfully kept; nor was it till O'Donnell, O'Neill, and others, had made their submission and withdrawn, that Tirlogh, summoning forth his wild followers from their mountainholds, renewed, fiercely as before, his harassing inroads on the English borders.†

Even to this rude and houseless warrior, the conciliatory influence of the royal policy had now found its way. Requesting a parley with the lord deputy, he asked for permission to repair to England to see the king, "of whom he had heard so much honour," and likewise to present to him an humble petition for some lands to which he laid claim. Wisely entering into what he knew to be the royal wishes, the lord deputy acceded to this request; supplied him with 201. from his own purse towards his expenses, and gave him likewise a recommendatory letter to the duke of Norfolk, who was then universally regarded as the warm friend and patron of Irish interests. It was also suggested that the castle of Powerscourt, which stood upon a part of the lands claimed by this chief, should be granted to him by the king.

The earl of Desmond, having at length consented to make his submission, acquainted the lord deputy and council that he was ready, on hostages being given, to repair to the borders of Cashel for that purpose. He had demanded that the earl of Ormond should be given in pledge for him; but to this the lord deputy would not agree; and the hostages whom he sent instead, were the archbishop of Dublin, the master of the ordnance, and his own brother. Among other articles of this submission, which was signed and sealed at sir Thomas Butler's house, at Cahir, Desmond agreed to renounce, for himself and his heirs for ever, the singular privilege claimed by his ancestors, of never appearing at any parliament, nor entering into any walled town. To get rid of the variance between him and Ormond respecting the title of the earldom of Desmond, it was agreed

The Council of Ireland to King Henry VIII., S. P. CCCXXIII.

"And although it shall appear to your majesty that this Thirrolough is but a wretched person, and a man of no grete power, neither having house to put his hedd in, nor yet money in his purse to by him a garment. yet may he well make 2 or 3 hundred men.-Assuring your highness that he hath doon more hurte to your English Pale then any man in Irlande, and woll do, whensoever he shall not aither be clerely banished or restored to your hieghnes favours, wherby he may be bound to serve your majestie, as we thinke verely he woll do."-The Lord Deputy and Council to Henry VIII., S. P. CCCXXIX. p. 267., note.