Thomas Earl of Surrey, Lord-Lieutenant, 1520. Anarchy.
The first thirty pages of the printed State Papers are taken up with a report to the King on the state of Ireland, founded on an earlier document, but corrected and brought down nearly to the date of Surrey’s appointment. It discloses a state of things calculated to try the ablest governor. In Ulster and Connaught, in the counties of Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick, Kerry, Carlow, Westmeath, and Wicklow, and in parts of Kildare and Wexford, there was neither magistrate nor sheriff. Districts wholly or partially peopled by men of English race were under black-rent to the native chiefs. This odious tax was paid by the Savages of Lecale in Down to the O’Neills of Clandeboye. The great chief of Tyrone levied his dues in Louth. Meath and Kildare were tributary to O’Connor Faly, Wexford to the Kavanaghs, Kilkenny and Tipperary to O’Carroll, Limerick to the O’Briens, and Cork to the MacCarthies. MacMurrough Kavanagh, who in the eyes of the natives represented the ancient royalty of Leinster, actually received eighty marks out of an almost empty exchequer. The sum of the several black-rents amounted to 740l., and this was at a time when a soldier received fourpence a day. Dublin was in constant danger, and one of Henry’s first acts was to grant 20l., a year to the citizens for repairing their walls, which had crumbled through decrease of population, pestilence, and Irish violence. A line drawn from Dundalk to Kells, from Kells to Kilcullen Bridge, and thence by Ballymore Eustace, and Tallaght to Dalkey, enclosed the whole actual Pale, upon which fell all the expenses of an establishment intended to meet the wants of all Ireland. The King’s taxes had to be paid, coyne and livery were extorted, horses and carriages were requisitioned for the public service; and with all this the Government could give no protection, no judge went circuit, and black-rent was perforce paid in addition. ‘The King’s army in England,’ said Henry’s informant, ‘is the commons, the King’s army in Ireland is such as oppress the commons.’ The nobility and gentry copied the Government, and it was more than suspected that they dreaded any reform which would force them to obey the law; ‘for there is no land in all this world that has more liberty in vices than Ireland, and less liberty in virtue.’ The Church showed no better example than the lay magnates; ‘for there is no archbishop nor bishop, abbot nor prior, parson nor vicar, nor any other person of the Church, high or low, great or small, that useth to preach the Word of God, saving the poor friars’ beggars.’ Some Irish chiefs kept better order than the Government; ‘but not to the intent that his subjects should escape harmless, but to the intent to devour them by himself, like as a greedy hound delivereth the sheep from the wolf.’
Remedies suggested.
Ireland has never lacked physicians, though she has often been nothing bettered by them. The most obvious means to strengthen the English power was to make the men of the Pale keep arms and practice their use; and this had been the constant cry of governors and legislators for many generations. Henry had directed Kildare to get an Act passed obliging every merchant trading from England to Ireland to bring a pound’s worth of bows and arrows for every 20l. of wares, so as to prevent the King’s subjects from applying themselves to Irish archery. Patrick Finglas, Baron of the Exchequer, was less sanguine than the writer of the State Paper which has been so largely quoted. That reformer ventured to prophesy that if his advice were taken the war of Ireland would cease for ever, the King would recover Constantinople and die Emperor of Rome, and Ireland once reduced to order would be ‘none other than a very paradise, delicious of all pleasance.’ But Finglas admitted that reform must necessarily be gradual, and advised the King to confine himself at first to the reclamation of Leinster. He recommended that the chief abbeys and castles should be entrusted to Englishmen, from Bray Head round the coast to Dunbrody on the Suir, and inland from Baltinglass and Carlow along the Barrow to Ross. The Wicklow Highlanders would be thus bridled and unable to attack Kildare. Athy and other places were to be held against the O’Connors and O’Mores. The Butlers seem to have been thought able to take care of themselves. It would not do to give up the castles to men who had great possessions in England, and who would never encourage English farmers to become their tenants. At first settlers would have to be protected, but in time would take care of themselves. There would be no difficulty about tilling the soil, ‘for there be no better labourers than the poor commons of Ireland, nor sooner will be brought to good frame, if they be kept under a law.’[83]
Irish exactions.
Besides the payment of black-rent, the commons of Ireland were oppressed by innumerable exactions, of which the principal may be described once for all. Bonaght was a tax imposed by a chief for the support of his mercenary horsemen, gallowglasses, and kerne. The name was often transferred from the tax to those who were maintained by it, and Bonaght, or Bony, became the generic name for an Irish mercenary or for one from the Scotch isles. Sorohen was an obligation on certain lands to support the chief with his train for twenty-four hours once a quarter, or, according to another account, as often as once a fortnight. Coshery was the chief’s right to sponge upon his vassals with as many followers as he pleased. Cuddies, or night-suppers, were due by certain lands upon which the chief might quarter himself and his train for four days four times a year. Shragh and mart were yearly exactions in money and kine respectively, apparently imposed at the will of the chief. Worse than any of these was coyne and livery—that is, the taking of horse-meat and man-meat from everyone at the will of the chief; in other words, the right of the strongest to take what he liked. Coyne and livery were not the invention of an Irish chief, but of one of those Anglo-Normans who knew how to better native instruction. Maurice Fitz-Thomas, Earl of Desmond, is said to have begun it under Edward II. as the only available means of coping with Edward Bruce. Originally a contrivance for carrying on war at the enemy’s expense, it came to be used by all great men at all seasons. James, the ninth Earl of Desmond, has the credit of first imposing it on loyal subjects, but the Crown was primarily to blame for neglecting to keep order. Lords Deputies showed no better example than private oppressors.[84]
Surrey finds all in confusion.
Surrey landed with his family at Dublin on May 23, bringing 100 men of the royal guard as a peculiar mark of favour. He found the country in rather more than its usual confusion. He sent Archbishop Rokeby to Waterford, who succeeded in preventing Sir Piers Butler from fighting with Desmond, and he himself marched into Leix with his English soldiers, 120 Irish mercenaries, and 300 kerne. The English of the Pale, who, from love or fear of Kildare, usually mustered so strong on these occasions, contributed only forty-eight horse and 120 foot. Surrey made war in the usual Irish fashion, and burned Connell O’More’s country. He was joined by Sir Piers Butler, who brought a strong contingent, including Mulrony O’Carroll, whom he induced to take the oath of allegiance. O’Carroll had latterly done great harm in the Pale, and he was considered the best leader among the Irish. He refused to take the oath until Surrey rashly promised that Kildare should never be Deputy again. On being pressed about a letter which the Earl was said to have written to him, he at first said that he would not inform even were he to receive the viceregal pavilion full of gold; but in spite of all this bravado he allowed his brothers to be examined, and they both swore that they had stood by and heard the letter read. Surrey never saw the document itself, nor has it been preserved. According to the report which we have, Kildare had directed O’Carroll to keep the peace till the arrival of an English Deputy, and then to make war on all Englishmen except the writer’s friends. The object was to make all government but his own impossible.[85]
O’Donnell is friendly.
On his return to Dublin, Surrey found O’Donnell waiting for him. That chief had probably pleasant recollections of his visit to the English Court, and was not unwilling to strengthen himself against his rival O’Neill. He told Surrey that his powerful neighbour had urged him to make war on the Pale, and had declared his own intention of doing so, in compliance with Kildare’s directions. O’Donnell promised to invade Tyrone if the Lord-Lieutenant would do likewise from the opposite quarter, and remarked emphatically that if the King ever set Kildare in authority again he might as well convey Ireland to him and his heirs for ever.