Bellingham leaves Ireland, 1549. His character.
Bellingham’s departure from Ireland followed pretty closely on the Protector’s eclipse, though it is not quite certain that it was caused by it. Warwick may have borne malice for past lectures, but the Lord Deputy seems to have defended himself successfully, and might have been sent back had he not excused himself on account of ill-health. The malady proved fatal, but he seems to have retained office till his death. There has been a tendency among those who find their ideal realised in a strong man armed, to represent Bellingham as a model ruler. It appears from his letters and from general testimony that he was honest, brave, loyal, and sincerely religious; but his incessant wars were very burdensome, and it is noted that he exacted the unpopular cess more stringently than its inventor St. Leger had done. But he was a true-dealing man, took nothing without punctual payment, and ‘could not abide the cry of the poor.’ From the love of gain, that common vice of provincial governors, he was absolutely free, and made a point of spending all his official income in hospitality, saying that the meat and drink in his house were not his own, but his dear master’s. For the King’s honour he paid his own travelling expenses, and insisted on doing the like even when Lord Baltinglass entertained him sumptuously. Alen, who criticised his official conduct so sharply, could not but allow that he was ‘the best man of war that ever he had seen in Ireland.’ The figure of the Puritan soldier has its charms; but the sword of the Lord and of Gideon is not a good instrument of civil government. Absolutism may be apparently successful under a beneficent despot, but who is to guarantee that his successor shall not be a villain or a fool? Bellingham’s forts did their own work, but his ascendency over lawyers in Dublin and ambitious chiefs in the country was purely personal, and had no lasting effect. There was much to admire in his character, but distance has lent it enchantment, and in practice not much permanent work could be done by a governor of whom the most striking fact recorded is that ‘he wore ever his harness, and so did all those whom he liked of.’[346]
Bryan, Lord Justice. Mischief brewing.
As soon as Bellingham had left Ireland the Council unanimously elected Bryan Lord Justice. The Irish, though overawed by the departed Deputy, had been plotting in the usual way, and after all that had passed Lord Thomond and O’Carroll were sworn allies. The Kavanaghs were known to be meditating mischief, and Desmond was not to be depended on. Lady Ormonde had been quarrelling with Lady Desmond, and Alen took credit to himself for having made a truce between them. To the usual elements of discord were added many rumours of Scotch and French invasions. O’Neill, O’Donnell, O’Dogherty, and others proposed to become subjects of France, in consideration of help from thence, and of the most Christian King’s good offices with the Pope. Monluc, Bishop of Valence, returning from his mission to the Scottish Court, was directed by Henry to take Ireland on his way, and to gain all the information possible. Sir James Melville, then a boy, accompanied him. ‘Before our landing,’ he says, ‘we sent one George Paris, who had been sent into Scotland by the great O’Neill and his associates, who landed in the house of a gentleman who had married O’Dogherty’s daughter, dwelling at the Loch edge. He came aboard and welcomed us, and conveyed us to his house, which was a great dark tower, where we had cold cheer—as herring and biscuit—for it was Lentroun.’ One De Botte, a Breton merchant, was also sent on secret service to Ireland apparently about the same time.[347]
Death of Bryan, 1550. Lady Ormonde meditates a third marriage.
At this juncture Bryan died at Clonmel under circumstances apparently somewhat suspicious, for there was a post-mortem examination. He had refused to take any medicine, and the doctors, who detected no physical unsoundness, prudently declared that he died of grief; we are not told for what. ‘But whereof soever he died,’ says Alen, who was present both at the death and the autopsy, ‘he departed very godly.’ Lady Ormonde, who must have had a rooted dislike to single life, immediately recurred to her plan of marrying Gerald of Desmond, and the Chancellor had to remonstrate on the scandal of so soon supplying the place of two such noble husbands. The danger of putting both the Ormonde and Desmond interests in the same hand was obvious. The Geraldines were already too powerful, and what might not be the consequence of throwing the weight of the Butlers into the same scale, and making them more Irish and less loyal than they had been before? In the end she promised to remain sole for one year. ‘Nevertheless,’ said Alen, ‘I would my lords (if they take her marriage of any moment) trusted a woman’s promise no further than in such a case it is to be trusted!’ Her marriage took place in the end with beneficial results: for Lady Ormonde was able to keep some sort of peace between her husband and her son, and thus saved much misery and bloodshed. Immediately after her death the quarrel broke out anew, and ended only with the extinction of the House of Desmond.[348]
Brabazon, Lord Justice. Dowdall and Wauchop.
On the day of Bryan’s death the Council elected Brabazon to succeed him, and the new Lord Justice soon afterwards went to Limerick to arrange disputes among the O’Briens and between Thomond and Desmond. Before the complicated complaints had been all heard his presence was required in Dublin on account of the disturbed state of the North; a most dangerous visitor having landed in Tyrconnel. This was the Papal Primate, Robert Wauchop—Dowdall, who had acknowledged the royal supremacy, though without accepting any of the new doctrines, not being acknowledged at Rome. The actual Primate kept himself well informed as to the movements of his rival, whom he understood to be a ‘very shrewd spy and great brewer of war and sedition.’ There were many French and Scotch ready to attack Ireland, and the former had already manned and armed two castles in Innishowen. Tyrone gave Dowdall letters which he had received from the French king, and the Archbishop, with his consent, forwarded them to the Council. Tyrone swore before the Dean and Chapter of Armagh that he had sent no answers, and that he would remain faithful to the King. He did not acknowledge Wauchop’s claims, but merely reported that he called himself Primate, and that he was accompanied by two Frenchmen of rank, who were supposed to be forerunners of countless Scotch and French invaders. The Council warned Tyrone that the French wished to conquer Ireland, and to reduce him and his clan to slavery and insignificance. He was reminded that they had been expelled from Italy and Sicily for their more than Turkish ferocity and rapacity. French messages were also sent to O’Donnell, but no letters, as he had transmitted some formerly received to the Government. He professed his loyalty, and declared that he would not recognise Wauchop unless the Council wished it.[349]
Foreign intrigues. George Paris.
In all these intrigues we find one George Paris, or Parish, engaged. He was a man whose ancestors had held land in Ireland, of which they had been deprived, and he was perhaps related to the traitor of Maynooth. This man came and went between France and Ireland, and though the threatened attack was averted by the peace concluded by England with France and Scotland, his services were not dispensed with. Henry said that the intrigues had ceased with the peace, but the English ambassador knew that his Majesty had had an interview with Paris less than a week before. Paris told everyone that all the nobility of Ireland were resolved to cast off the English yoke for fear of losing all their lands, as the O’Mores and O’Connors had done. He boasted that he himself had begged Trim Castle of the French king to make up for the lands which the English had deprived him of. The Constable spoke as smoothly and not much more truly than the King. Monluc was still employed in the matter, had interviews with Paris, and gave him money.[350]