When released from his Parliamentary duties, Sussex marched westward against the O’Connors, who, under Donough, had possessed themselves of Meelick Castle, on the Shannon. The line of march lay through Offaly, by Killeigh, Ballyboy, and Cloghan, no opposition being offered by the O’Molloys or O’Maddens. The Shannon was reached on the third day. Clanricarde must have been in a tolerably peaceful state, for Athlone pursuivant seems to have had no difficulty in going to Galway to seek ammunition and provisions. Cannon were brought by water from Athlone and planted in the grounds of the friary, on an island or peninsula on the Galway side of the stream. The castle was summoned, and a cautionary shot fired without effect. Next day the cannonade began, and at the sixteenth shot a large piece of the courtyard wall fell down. The O’Connors escaped by a postern gate, and were proclaimed traitors. Clanricarde, Thomond, O’Carroll, and other chiefs, came to pay their respects to Sussex, and may well have laughed at the small results achieved by the display of irresistible force. A garrison was placed in the castle, and, hostages having been taken from the neighbouring clans, the army returned through MacCoghlan’s country, led by the chief himself. The Lord Deputy had the pleasure of seeing the night lit up by fires which the rebels kindled within a mile of his camp. The outlying buildings at Philipstown were all burnt, and arrows shot into the fort itself. Such was the practical outcome of a nine days’ expedition, during which, as the annalists say, it is not easy to state or enumerate all that was destroyed.[411]
and another into Ulster.
An expedition into Ulster, undertaken three months later, had the same lame and impotent conclusion. The annalists say compendiously that Armagh was burned twice in one month by Thomas Sussex. His horsemen encamped in the cathedral, and no enemy opposed the destroyer, who returned after a week to Dundalk only to hear that Shane O’Neill was burning and plundering within four miles of the town. Being pursued, Shane retreated to his woods, whither those who knew the country declined to follow him. Sussex then returned to Dublin; the Queen being richer by a few cows, and Sir James Garland poorer by the village which O’Neill had burned.[412]
The central districts still disturbed.
Not much impressed by the late invasion, the O’Connors who had escaped from Meelick stationed themselves at Leap Castle, about which there had been so much fighting in bygone days. Sussex took the castle without trouble, but Donough again escaped by the speed of his horse, and the stronghold was seized by O’Carroll as soon as the army had left. Sidney afterwards made two separate inroads into the same district. O’Molloy was proclaimed a traitor, and everything destroyed. It is not easy to see how there could be anything combustible left in the devoted country. The O’Carrolls were also engaged about this time in opposition to the Government, and in support of the O’Mores and O’Connors, and the annalists are again at a loss to enumerate the preys and slaughter which were made from the Shannon to the Nore.[413]
War between the O’Neills and O’Donnells.
A local war of considerable importance took place this year between the O’Neills and O’Donnells. Manus, the old chief of Tyrconnel, had been kept a prisoner for the last two years by his son Calvagh, who assumed the leadership. This claim was disputed by his brother Hugh, who, with his immediate adherents, had deserted to Shane O’Neill. Shane was delighted at the opportunity of interfering, and declared that not one cow should escape, though the O’Donnells should carry away their cattle into Leinster or Munster. He himself would in future be the sole King of Ulster. Shane pitched his camp at Carriglea, near Strabane, just above the junction of the Finn and the Mourne. It was more a fair than an encampment, and the time was gaily passed in buying, and no doubt in drinking wine and mead, as well as fine clothes and merchandise. Calvagh, who lay five miles off with a few followers, sent two trusty spies to the camp, who mingled boldly with the throng of camp followers and soldiers belonging to many different clans. In front of Shane’s tent they found a great central fire, and a huge torch as thick as a man’s body blazing brightly. Sixty gallowglasses with their axes, and as many Scots, with heavy broadswords drawn, stood ready to guard the chief. When the time came for serving out supper, the spies claimed their share with the rest, and received a helmet full of meal and a corresponding quantity of butter. Not staying to make cakes, they carried back the trophy to Calvagh, who immediately got his men under arms. He had but two companies of the MacSweeney gallowglasses and thirty horsemen. No look-out was apparently kept at the camp, which they entered at once. There they had little to do but to kill till their arms were tired, the deficiency of force being much more than counterbalanced by the totally unprepared state of the O’Neills. Shane, whose reputation for courage is not high, slipped out at the back of his tent with only two companions, leaving his men to their fate. The three fugitives threaded the passes of the neighbouring mountains, and passed the Finn, the Deel, and the Derg by swimming. At Termonamongan, near the latter river, Shane bought a horse, and never rested till he reached the neighbourhood of Clogher. Calvagh remained in possession of the camp, and his men spent the rest of the night in drinking the wine which the O’Neills had provided for themselves. The extent of the plunder may be estimated from the fact that Con, Calvagh’s young son, who had given up his horse to his father and fought on foot, now had eighty steeds for his share, including a celebrated charger of Shane’s called the Eagle’s Son.[414]
Sidney, Lord-Justice. No money.
Sussex had not been very long in Ireland before he asked for a holiday, and he was allowed to spend Christmas at home; Curwin and Sidney, and afterwards Sidney only, being appointed Lords Justices. War had been declared with France at midsummer, and one of the first letters received by the new governor announced the loss of Calais, and the Queen’s vain hope of recovering it. In the storm of St. Quentin and the defence of Guisnes, English soldiers had shown that they were made of the same stuff as the victors of Agincourt, but the war was unpopular. Mary’s subjects felt that they were sacrificed to Philip, and this jealousy of Spain both caused the fall of Calais and prevented its recovery. But the national vanity was sorely hurt, and Sidney thought it a good opportunity to point out that James MacDonnell was expected in Ulster with many French and Scots allies, and that the natives would join him or fall upon the Pale, which was itself heartily sick of English rule, of soldiers at free quarters, and of purveyors, who paid, if they paid at all, something very much less than market prices. The army was reduced to a little over 1,000 men, and the people of the Pale, though well disposed, could afford no effective help. Credit was extinct, and the bad money caused great misery. Yet even bad coin was scarce. ‘Help us, my lord,’ he wrote openly to Sussex, ‘help us to money at this pinch, though it be as base as counters.’
Men, money, and provisions were alike wanting, and the outlook was as dark as could be. Desmond proposed that the Queen should send special commissioners, independent of the Government, to inquire into the state of Ireland, and point out means of reformation. He himself had perhaps sinned through ignorance, and he thought justice and fair dealing more likely to do the work of civilisation than a new conquest. ‘We neither think it meet, nor intend,’ answered Mary, with a touch of her father’s humour, ‘to make any new conquest of our own, nor to use any force when justice may be showed.’ She proposed to do all that was necessary by fair means.[415]