The O’Tooles.
No tribe had hurt the Pale more than the O’Tooles, who could boast of giving a famous saint to Irish hagiology. Originally possessed of the southern half of Kildare, they had been driven into the Wicklow Mountains by Walter de Riddlesford in the early days of the Anglo-Norman occupation. They were afterwards known as lords of Imaile, a small district between Baltinglass and Glendalough, and at one time held nearly all the northern half of Wicklow. The Earls of Kildare expelled them from Powerscourt, and latterly they had led a very precarious life. True children of the mist, they either bivouacked in the open or crept into wretched huts to which Englishmen hesitated to give the name of houses. They cultivated no land, but levied 300l. a year from their civilised neighbours, partly in black-rent and partly in sheer plunder. The actual chief was Tirlogh O’Toole, who professed himself anxious to mend his ways, and offered to go to England and beg his lands of Henry himself. There was something chivalrous in Tirlogh; for when Grey was hard pressed by the northern confederacy he sent him word that ‘since all those great lords were against him he would surely be with him, but whensoever they were all at peace, then he alone would be at war with him and the English Pale.’ This simple-minded warrior had kept his word, and he now begged St. Leger to write to Norfolk, in the belief that the Duke would let him want nothing ‘when he knew that he had become an Englishman.’ In return for his undertaking to forego his exactions and to wear the English dress, he asked for a grant of the district of Fercullen, comprising Powerscourt and about twenty square miles of land, chiefly rocks and woods, but with some fertile spots. St. Leger was anxious to grant Tirlogh’s terms, for the lands actually held by him were worthless and would never pay to reclaim, while the O’Tooles were obliged to live on the Pale. The hardy mountaineers had nothing to lose, and they prevented land enough to support 2,000 inhabitants from being cultivated at all. The Lord Deputy accordingly sent over the wild man with a special recommendation to Norfolk, whose Irish experience made him a natural mediator. Tirlogh was so poor that St. Leger had to lend him 20l. for his journey, and he could not even afford decent clothes. ‘It shall appear to your Majesty,’ wrote the Irish Government, ‘that this Tirlogh is but a wretched person and a man of no great power, neither having house to put his head in, nor yet money in his purse to buy him a garment, yet may he well make 200 or 300 men.’[238]
Tirlogh O’Toole at Court.
Tirlogh remained nearly a month at Court, where he was very well treated; perhaps Henry remembered how well Hugh O’Donnell had requited the kindness shown to him long since. The grant was authorised, and care was taken to make such a fair division among the clansmen as would prevent internal dissensions. Tirlogh became the King’s tenant by knight-service at a rent of five marks yearly, and his brother Art Oge, a man of some ability, was gratified with a grant of Castle Kevin. Henry desired that this case should form a precedent, and that in future chiefs received to peace and favour should be treated with on the same basis as the O’Tooles. In doing this he followed the advice of some of his wisest councillors at home. Cranmer, Audeley, and Sadleir did not believe in the possibility of a thorough conquest, and rightly considered that Ireland would be best gained by fair dealing. Pedants and flatterers might argue that the King was actually entitled to most of the land, that the Irish were intruders, and that grants to them were derogatory to the royal dignity. To this it was answered that the intrusions were of very old date, that future rebellions would be more easily punished when they involved a breach of contract, and that the Crown must gain by the mere acknowledgment of its title. The O’Tooles at all events seem to have given up plundering the Pale, and they make little further figure in history. But they could not give up fighting among themselves. The favoured Tirlogh had a grudge against one of his clansmen, and pursued him daily in spite of orders from the Government. At last the threatened man caught his persecutor asleep, and in the early morning killed him and all his companions; ‘and we think,’ wrote the Lord Deputy and Council, ‘the other would have done to him likewise, if he might have gotten him at like advantage.’ Tirlogh left no legitimate children, but St. Leger nevertheless recommended that his son Brian should be allowed to succeed him.[239]
Proposed military order. The King vetoes it.
Finding Leinster in an unusually promising state, the Irish Council hit upon a strange device for keeping it permanently quiet. In the previous century Thomas, Earl of Kildare, had established the Brotherhood of St. George, an armed confraternity, whose thirteen officers, chosen from among the loyal gentlemen of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Louth, elected their own captain annually, but were paid by the State. It was found necessary to dissolve this body by an Act of Parliament, passed in 1494. Its object had been the defence of the Pale against Irish enemies and English rebels. It was now proposed to erect a new order, not named after St. George, but holding its great ceremony on St. George’s day. It was to consist of a Grand Master and twelve pensioners, with salaries amounting in the aggregate to 1,000l. The majority were to be Irishmen of family, who might be kept out of mischief by fear of losing their pensions. After seven years, promotion was to depend on knowing English, or having spent two years in the public service in England; the object being to induce Irish gentlemen to cross the Channel and learn manners. As vacancies occurred the persons chosen were to be bound ‘not to have any wife or wives.’ The Council nominated Brabazon to be first Grand Master; but Ormonde put forth a list of his own, and preferred his brother Richard to the highest place. The Council also proposed to make a pensioner of Lord Kilcullen, and to place him in the castle of Clonmore, which had belonged to his family, but which the King had granted to Ormonde. The Earl naturally ignored this claim, and there were other differences in the rival lists. The Council suggested elaborate machinery by which the Order might be made to work for the reformation of Leinster; but St. Leger does not appear to have been a party to the scheme, and perhaps opposed it quietly. The King, who had just abolished the great military Order, had no idea of creating another, though its patron saint should be St. George instead of St. John. ‘We do in no wise,’ he said, ‘like any part of your device in that behalf.’ By minding their business and doing what they were told his Majesty hoped that they would ultimately succeed in reforming Leinster ‘without the new erection of any such fantasies.’[240]
An arrangement is made with Desmond.
James Fitzjohn being now necessarily acknowledged Earl of Desmond, one of St. Leger’s first cares was to obtain his submission. Satisfied at last that no treachery was intended, Desmond agreed to meet the Lord Deputy at Cashel. Passing through Carlow and Kilkenny, St. Leger was joined by Ormonde, who took care that the viceregal retinue should be well treated on the journey; but Desmond at first held aloof, and demanded that the chief of the Butlers should give himself up as a hostage before he trusted himself in English hands. This was refused; but Archbishop Browne, Travers, the Master of the Ordnance, and the Deputy’s brother Robert consented to run the risk. Desmond then appeared, and said he was ready to do all that loyalty demanded. The proceedings were adjourned to Sir Thomas Butler’s house at Cahir, and there Desmond signed a solemn notarial instrument, by which he fully acknowledged the King’s supremacy in Church and State. ‘I do,’ he said, ‘utterly deny and forsake the Bishop of Rome, and his usurped primacy and authority, and shall with all my power resist and repress the same and all that shall by any means use and maintain the same.’ He renounced the pretensions of his family not to attend Parliament or enter any walled town. He agreed to abide by and to enforce the King’s decision as to the Kildare estates, and to pay all such taxes as were paid in the territories of Ormonde, Delvin, and other noblemen of like condition. He constituted himself the defender of the corporate towns, and gave up all claims to the allegiance of the Munster Englishry, with a partial reservation as to men of his own blood, who held their lands under him or his ancestors. Finally, he agreed to send his son to be educated in England. This was Gerald, the ill-starred youth whose folly and vanity were destined to work the final ruin of his House. The Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishops of Limerick and Emly witnessed the instrument, and the manner of the submission was as satisfactory as a Tudor could wish. ‘In presence,’ wrote St. Leger to the King, ‘of MacWilliam, O’Connor, and divers other Irish gentlemen, to the number of 200 at the least, he kneeled down before me and most humbly delivered his said submission, desiring me to deliver unto him his said pardon, granted by your Majesty; affirming that it was more glad to him to be so reconciled to your favours, than to have any worldly treasure; protesting that no earthly cause should make him from henceforth swerve from your Majesty’s obedience. And after that done, I delivered to him your said most gracious pardon, which he most joyfully accepted.’ He was immediately sworn of the Council, and St. Leger asked the King’s indulgence for having done this without warrant. Care was also taken to prevent a renewal of the quarrel between the new Privy Councillor and Ormonde, who had married the heiress-general of a former Earl of Desmond, and had thus large and indefinite claims on the family estates. The rivals bound themselves in 4,000l. to promote cross-marriages between their children, and to keep the peace. The claims of Ormonde through his wife were nevertheless destined in the next generation to deluge Munster in blood.[241]
Dutiful attitude of Desmond and O’Brien.
Desmond accompanied St. Leger to Kilmallock, ‘where, I think, none of your Grace’s Deputies came this hundred years before,’ and treated him hospitably, openly declaring that he was ready if the Deputy wished it to go to London to see the King. O’Brien came peacefully to Limerick, complaining chiefly that he was not allowed to bridge the Shannon nor to exercise jurisdiction over friendly tribes on the left bank. St. Leger promised him perpetual war unless he would yield on both points, believing that he could do little harm without the concurrence of Desmond, of the Clanricarde Burkes, or of Donogh O’Brien. He was given till Shrovetide to consult his friends, and at last decided to keep quiet and to send agents to watch over his interests in Parliament. A pardon was issued under the Great Seal of Ireland, and towards the end of the year O’Brien spontaneously addressed a very dutiful letter to the King, begging personal as well as official forgiveness for his many sins. ‘My mind,’ he said, ‘is never satisfied till I have made the same submission to your Grace’s own person, whom I most desire to see above all creatures on earth living, now in mine old days; which sight I doubt not but shall prolong my life.’[242]