Ireland cannot be governed without money.
To this formidable letter Grey and his Council answered that the army had never been properly paid, and had in consequence often mutinied, that they had spent every farthing of revenue on public objects, and had raised large additional sums on their own credit, that credit was now quite exhausted, and that without money to pay off the men it was impossible further to reduce the military establishment. Brabazon had accounted or was ready to account for every penny, ‘and as to our desire to reign in estimation, it is to be thought that among civil people there can no name of dignity or honour be in estimation, unless thereunto be annexed rule and riches. Would to God his Majesty did know our gain and riches, which is so great that we of the mean sort of this Council, being his Grace’s officers among us all, we suppose be not worth in money and plate 1,000l. Irish, which is a small substance for us all, being in the rooms that we be under his Grace. We be no such purchasers of possessions, builders, dicers, nor carders, neither yet pompous householders whereby we should consume our profits and gain if we had them.’186
Grey attacks the O’Connors, 1537.
Those best acquainted with the country at this time believed that the necessary precedent to its reduction was a thorough conquest of Leinster. The overthrow of the Kildare Geraldines was necessary, but had its inconveniences. They had been a standing menace to the Government, but they had kept the Irish at bay, and their fall left the marches quite open. Without security either of life or title no one would work the forfeited lands, and the margin of waste grew broader every day. Grey’s temper and talents made him prefer war to diplomacy, and he resolved to strike at O’Connor, whose hostages were in his hands, and who was under recognizance to deliver 800 cows to the King, but who had regained complete possession of Offaly. His brother Cahir had suffered the not uncommon fate of those who support Irish governments, and had been an exile for two years. Grey, Brabazon, and Aylmer took fourteen days’ provisions from Dublin, and were joined on the march by Lords Delvin, Slane, and Killeen, and by William Saintloo, now seneschal of Wexford, with his own company and 100 kerne. They passed along the southern edge of Westmeath to MacGeohegan’s country, the modern barony of Moycashel, and took hostages from that chief and from O’Molloy, whose district lay further south. On the same day Brabazon got possession of Brackland Castle through the treachery of an inmate, who acted in Cahir O’Connor’s interest, and who was pardoned while the rest of the garrison were beheaded. The soldiers destroyed all that lay in their path, and on the fifth day arrived before Dangan, afterwards Philipstown, which had been fortified with some skill. The march was only of five or six miles, but the ground was boggy, and a road had to be made with fascines and hurdles. The ditches about the castle were filled in the same way, and the courtyard was forced before nightfall. Three days were spent in waiting for one large and two small pieces of artillery, and on the bright May morning following their arrival fire was opened upon the keep. After four hours’ cannonade, resulting as usual in those days with the disabling of the principal gun, a breach was made and the castle at once stormed. The walls were dismantled, and the heads of their twenty-three defenders set on poles ‘for a show to the O’Connors.’ On the next day Ossory’s second son Richard, afterwards created Viscount Mountgarret, came to excuse his father, who had been kept away by ill-health. O’Connor in the meantime had fled into O’Carroll’s country, ‘which O’Carroll,’ Grey carefully notes, ‘is the Earl of Ossory’s friend.’ The punishment of O’Carroll for harbouring the fugitive was nevertheless entrusted to Richard Butler, partly to punish his tardiness, and partly because Grey’s fifteen days’ provisions were almost gone. It was an absurd expedient, and before the end of the year O’Connor was back and Cahir had fled the country. The sole result of the expedition was to show the force of artillery; yet Henry, unless his language be thought ironical, calls it a notable exploit. ‘If, however,’ the King added, ‘he should be suffered to enter again, it should but add a further courage to that traitorous malice which by all likelihood is so entered, that it will not be removed.’187
Grey makes many enemies.
Grey had many enemies, for he was not conciliatory, and his relationship to the Geraldines laid him open to the suspicions of all who had risen on the ruins of the House of Kildare. With Brabazon, the ablest man about him, he had long been on cold terms, and many supposed that the Vice-Treasurer thought he ought to have been Deputy himself. Thomas Agard, Vice-Treasurer of the Mint, a sour but apparently honest Puritan, hated Grey for his attachment to old religious forms, and Archbishop Browne lost no opportunity of attacking him on the same grounds. Alen, Master of the Rolls, a useful public servant, but with an inborn love of intrigue, gave trouble to every successive chief governor. Robert Cowley and his son were devoted to the House of Ormonde, which Grey thought too powerful. The Deputy did not favour the innovations in religion, and took no pains to hide his dislike to Browne and Agard; but with the rest he was always ready to co-operate. The King, however, found it hard to reconcile conflicting accounts, and resolved to send over Commissioners unconnected with Irish factions to report upon the actual state of affairs. The persons selected were Anthony St. Leger, of Ulcombe in Kent, one of the wisest statesmen who ever represented the English Crown in Ireland; George Paulet, a younger brother of the astute courtier who is best known as Marquis of Winchester, but not equally endowed with prudence; Thomas Moyle, of Gray’s Inn, Receiver-General of the Court of Augmentations, and afterwards Speaker of the English House of Commons; and William Berners, auditor of the same court. The Irish Government was directed to treat them with as much deference as if the King were present; and they were ordered to treat Grey with much consideration, and to take his advice when possible. The latter instruction, so well calculated to soothe the Lord Deputy’s wounded pride, was not directly made known to him. The Commissioners were ordered to present their credentials to the Lord Deputy as soon as they reached Dublin, and then to summon the Council and read the King’s letter, in which he promised to remember their good services. ‘If, on the other side,’ he added, ‘we shall not find you now faithful officers, ministers, and good councillors, but men given more to your own affectes, commodities, and gains, than earnestly bent to our satisfaction, we shall again so look upon the best of you so misusing himself for it, as shall be little cause to rejoice at length of his doings in that behalf.’188
The King sends a special Commission.
The first duty imposed on the Commissioners was the reduction of expenditure and the increase of revenue. As a cheap defence to the Pale, hostages were to be generally taken, and the army was, if possible, to be cut down to 340 picked men, inclusive of garrisons. Horsemen were to receive 8l. yearly, footmen 4l., constables of castles 13l. 6s. 8d., gate-keepers 6l. 13s. 4d., under-warders 4l. 13s. 4d.—all in Irish currency, or about two-thirds of the sterling amounts. The Vice-Treasurer was in future to visit all garrisons quarterly, to see that deserving men received commands, and to provide for frequent musters of all borne on the books. All soldiers in excess of the new establishment were to be paid off with money specially provided, and the King, with a touch of his daughter’s temper, gave orders that they should be induced if possible to take less than their due. The Commissioners were to survey waste lands and were authorised to give leases for twenty-one years, with a clause of forfeiture for non-observance of the laws as to English dress and for alliance with Irish rebels—the penalties provided by law being also enforced. After this all offices and officers were to be subjected to rigid scrutiny, with a view to increased efficiency and reduced