187. Grey and Brabazon to Cromwell, June 11, 1537; Council to Cromwell, June 26; Thomas Alen to Cromwell, June 12, in Carew.
188. The King to St. Leger and others, with the Commission of July 31, 1537; to the Lord Deputy and Council, same date; to Grey, same date.
189. Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, Aug. 12. Grey to Cromwell, Aug. 16, 1537, wrongly printed under 1539 in the S.P.; same to same, Sept. 1.
190. Four Masters and Annals of Lough Cé, 1512 and 1537. Manus O’Donnell to Grey, Aug. 20, 1537. Ware says that Donegal Friary contained a famous library.
191. Grey to Cromwell, Sept. 1, 1537; J. Alen to St. Leger and others, No. 183 in the printed S.P.
192. Brabazon to Cromwell, Dec. 31, 1537. St. Leger to Cromwell, Jan. 2, 1538.
193. From the light it throws on the land question O’Connor’s prayer is worth transcribing:—
‘Humiliter petit, quatenus Dominus Rex, ex suâ gratiâ, dignetur concedere sibi, per literas suas patentes, quod ipse, et exitus sui, sint liberi status, et homines legales, more Anglicorum; et quod sit Baro de Offaly, atque habeat sibi et heredibus suis ex regia donatione portionem terrarum in Offaly, quas nunc illic possidet per partitionem, more patriæ, tenendam de Domino Rege secundum leges Anglicanas; ac quod simili auctoritate, fratres sui, et alii possessionarii terrarum ibidem, terras quas nunc possident habeant sibi et heredibus suis; ipse et omnes alii et heredes sui, reddendo Dominio Regi, annuatim, de qualibet carucata terræ, tres solidos et quatuor denarios; et quod carucatæ terræ in Offaly, quotiens Domino Deputato visum fuerit, ac necessitas emergerit, onerantur et assidentur belligeris pro defensione subditorum Domini Regis, eodem modo sicut cæteræ carucatæ terræ inter regios subditos onerantur et assidentur. Igitur humiliter petit, quod Dominus Rex, et Deputati sui, pro tempore existentes, suscipiant suam protectionem et defensionem contra omnes alios, prout suscipiant defensionem Anglicorum.’ Submission of O’Connor, March 6, 1538.—Grey to Cromwell, March 17, 1538; Francis Herbert to Cromwell, March 21, 1536, to Norfolk, Jan. 24, 1538; Grey to Cromwell, April 1, 1538.
194. Brabazon to Cromwell, Sept. 10, 1535; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 14, 1536; Stanihurst; Ware; Four Masters, 1535.
195. Nearly all that is really known about her is contained in a memoir by the Rev. James Graves. See also Hallam’s History of Literature and Lodge’s Lives of the Earls of Surrey and Kildare.
196. Lady Kildare to Cromwell, July 16, 1536. Articles by St. Leger and others, Dec. 10, 1537.
197. St. Leger and others to Cromwell, Jan. 2, 1538; Ormonde to the Irish Council, S.P., vol. iii. p. 44; Stanihurst.
198. Brabazon to Cromwell, May 26, 1539; Stanihurst.
199. Sir John Wallop to Essex, April 18, 1540, S.P., vol. viii.; Lord Deputy and Council to the King, July 12, 1542, and Henry’s unfavourable answer; Bartholomew Warner to Wallop, May 22, 1540.
200. Lady Eleanor O’Donnell to the King, May 4, 1545.
CHAPTER XII.
END OF GREY’S ADMINISTRATION.
Ormonde proposes to reform his country.
The O’Connors having been quieted for the moment, Ormonde, who had private as well as public reasons for his advice, proposed a temporising policy towards O’Neill and O’Reilly on the north, and towards O’Byrne and O’Toole on the south, side of the Pale. The Government might then easily subdue the Kavanaghs, who were surrounded by settled districts. Their chief, Cahir MacEncross, who has been called the last King of Leinster, had till lately been Constable, and his acceptance of the office seems to have been thought a condescension. Ormonde’s son Richard had now succeeded him, and with the aid of Saintloo and his Wexford men might hope to reduce the whole country. To strengthen Kilkenny against a possible counter attack from the O’Mores, Ormonde secured the services of Edmond MacSwiney, a powerful hereditary chief of gallowglasses, whom O’Connor had brought from Donegal. The Earl thought it cheaper to outbid O’Connor than to have MacSwiney’s band thrown into the scale of rebellion. Desmond and the rest excused their slowness to reform by saying that they waited for him to begin; and he was anxious to wipe out this reproach, regretting only that he had not the same powers in Kilkenny as in Tipperary. Though not disinterested, Ormonde’s was probably the best available plan, and his reforming zeal was certainly serious. ‘I have proclaimed,’ he said, ‘over all the county of Tipperary, that no caines, allyiegs, errikes, Irish Brehons, neither that law, rahowns, and many like exactions and extortions shall cease, with reformation for the grey merchants, and the Liberty court to be duly continued, as the King’s laws require.’ In Kilkenny he could only exhort; ‘howbeit,’ he added, ‘I have often persuaded many of them to be converted, which to do I can scarcely have their assents, for the lust they have to caines and other abuses, turning to their profit, as it doth to mine.’201
Grey goes to Ulster, 1538.
Taking advantage of O’Connor’s quiescent state, Grey cut passes on the borders of Offaly wide enough for several carts abreast. He then turned his eyes to the North, where the MacMahons of Ferney had for three years neglected to pay their tribute of 10l. The borderers of English race were opposed to Grey’s raid, and gave the MacMahons warning, but he managed to capture 500 cows, and as many pigs and goats. The expedition was as useless as it was inglorious, for Louth was invaded within a week, and O’Neill, who complained that his black-rent was unpaid, plundered the borders of the Pale and threatened to burn Drogheda. The men of that town and of Dundalk and Ardee rallied at the Lord Deputy’s summons, and O’Neill then became quieter in his behaviour. But nothing could keep Grey quiet. He lent soldiers to one Chamberlayne of Athboy, to revenge a private quarrel against O’Reilly. That chief had hitherto been at peace with the Pale; but he lost his brother in this aimless brawl, and a general alliance of the Northern chiefs was with difficulty averted. The MacMahons had done far more harm to Louth than Grey had done to them, and he could gain little reputation by enterprises which had no apparent object but plunder.202
The O’Tooles.
While the Lord Deputy was driving cattle in Ulster, the other side of the Pale was in a blaze. John Kelway, Constable of Rathmore, saw some servants of Tirlogh O’Toole eating meat, assumed that it was stolen, and incontinently hanged them. This seems to have been thought unusual even among borderers, and Kelway’s conduct found no defenders. But the O’Tooles were willing to consider the question