[318] Agard to Cromwell, April 4, 1538. James White to Cromwell, March 28. Spicilegium Ossoriense, vol. i. p. 437. Hibernia Dominicana.
[319] In recommending a grant of Dusk to Ormonde the Council say they ‘cannot perceive, as it is situated, that any man can keep it for the King, but only the said Earl or his son.’ For Toem and Dunmore, see Calendar of Patent Rolls, pp. 73 and 84. Browne to Cromwell, May 21, 1538.
[320] Ware’s Antiquities, by Harris, chap. xxxvii., sec. 3. Lord L. Grey to Cromwell, Jan. 19, 1538.
[321] The King to Browne in S.P., vol. ii. p. 174; Browne’s answer, Sept. 27, 1537; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Ware’s Life and Death of Browne.
[322] Ware’s Bishops; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Devices by Travers for the Reformation in 1542, S.P., vol. iii., No. 382. The King’s rebuke was in 1537, see S.P., vol. ii. p. 174, note.
CHAPTER XVI.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD VI. TO THE YEAR 1551.
Accession of Edward VI. Ormonde and Desmond.
The death of Henry VIII. made no immediate difference to Ireland, for St. Leger continued to govern as before. There was such a tendency to depress the Ormonde interest that the widowed countess thought it wise to go to London, where she pleaded her own cause with much success. She was supposed to have designs upon the heir of Desmond’s hand, and the English statesmen, who naturally dreaded such an alliance, encouraged her to marry Sir Francis Bryan, who was in favour with Somerset as he had been with Henry VIII. The new government directed their attention to economy and the repression of jobbery among the Dublin officials. It was discovered that many who drew the King’s pay were serving in the houses of councillors, ‘some in the place of a cook, some of a butler, housekeeper, and other like,’ so that they were practically useless when called to arms. This was strictly forbidden for the future. The Irish Council were earnestly charged finally to put down ‘that intolerable extortion, coyne and livery, having always respect to some recompense to be given to the lords and governors of our countries for the defending of the same.’ Desmond was thanked for his services, and the young king offered to have his eldest son brought up as his companion, ‘as other noblemen’s sons whom we favour are educated with us in learning and other virtuous qualities, whereby hereafter, when we come to just age, we, in remembrance of our childhood spent together, may the rather be moved to prosecute them with our wonted favour, and they all inclined to love and serve us the more faithfully. We shall consent and right glad to have him with us, and shall so cherish him as ye shall have cause to thank us, and at his return to think the time of his attendance on us to be well employed.’ If this offer had been accepted, and if the same results had followed as in the cases of the young Earl of Ormonde and of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, the unspeakable miseries of the Desmond rebellion might have been avoided.[323]
The bastard Geraldines.