The English Ministry saw clearly enough that nothing could be made of the Ulster expedition without great expense. This the Queen was most unwilling to incur, and some proposed to make Essex Lord Deputy as the easiest way out of the difficulty. He was, they said, ‘painful in watch, in travail, in wet and dry, in hunger and cold, and frank of his own purse in her Majesty’s service.’ The Queen’s honour would be saved by withdrawing in this way from a hopeless enterprise, and the Earl’s feelings would be spared by promoting instead of recalling him. But Elizabeth refused positively to make anyone Deputy who had a landed estate in Ireland, and the reason was good whether suggested by Leicester or not. Sir F. Knollys feared that if the Queen would neither make the Earl Deputy, nor take the enterprise into her own hands, the unlucky adventurer would be undone, to her Majesty’s great danger and dishonour. Lady Essex’s father might have been well pleased to have her living in Dublin, but if Leicester, as is exceedingly probable, was already her lover, opposition would not be wanting. ‘Yet all men,’ says Knollys significantly, ‘outwardly do seem to favour my Lord Essex and his enterprise.’[272]
Essex is made Governor of Ulster,
Essex became Governor of Ulster, and in less than a month longed to be rid of an office which he could not fill with credit. He was very willing to be Lord Deputy, for that might give him the means of reducing Ulster, but he feared that no Deputy would ever brook a separate governor for the Northern province.
but can do nothing.
Having planned an expedition against Tirlogh Luineach, he applied to Fitzwilliam for help, and the Deputy, willing to show his goodwill, called upon the gentlemen of the Pale. But, with the single exception of Lord Slane, they refused to go. Even the Louth people, who were on the borders of Ulster, would do nothing but complain that they were overtaxed; ‘and they think,’ said Essex sarcastically, ‘to have greater thanks for denial to go with me, than for their forwardness in this service; they do so often and so openly exclaim and complain unto me, and I not able to redress it, as I am truly weary of myself.’ The treatment which the regular troops received was not such as to make the service popular. Fitzwilliam, or some of those about him, tried to husband the scanty resources of the Irish Government by giving the victualler a hint that he need not exert himself too much in Ulster. The garrisons of Dundalk and Newry were consequently neglected, and universal desertion was only prevented by the timely arrival of fifty barrels of herrings which one of the Earl’s servants had bought at Carlingford. ‘For twenty days,’ wrote the sorely tried Governor, ‘they had neither bread, drink, fish, nor flesh, but were forced to beg, and lay their arms, pieces, and garments in gage for to buy them food.’ The 300 men last sent over had been willingly diverted to Ulster by the Lord Deputy, who wanted the means to feed them, and there was ‘no provision made for these men, neither yet for 80 horsemen and 260 footmen, and the victualler hath unto them delivered but only 30l. to make provision for these 600 and odd men; ... and the soldiers because they, in their extremity, received those herrings from me, do think that the charge of their victualling is mine, and do lay the blame of their wants upon me, and do all fall to mutiny, and say that unless I will see that they shall be better victualled, they will do neither any service, nor yet abide there.’[273]
Essex will not despair.
‘For my part,’ said Essex, with a noble obstinacy, ‘I will not leave the enterprise as long as I have any foot of land in England unsold. But my land is so entangled to the Queen’s Majesty, for that money which I had of her towards this journey, as I cannot sell any land that I have for the one-half of that which before I might have done.’ He was in the position of a borrower driving a risky trade, or of a would-be insurer who leads an unhealthy life. No one was willing to lend or to buy where the Queen was first mortgagee. He proposed two courses to her Majesty. If she would bear the charge of 100 horse and 600 foot, while he furnished 100 horse, and made a last effort with the adventurers, then he engaged to make the North profitable to the Crown, either by rents from the natives or by English settlers. ‘Let me bear both the blame and the shame if I do not before Christmas Day make that part as quiet as any part in Ireland shall be.’ For himself he asked only a grant at a nominal rent of Island Magee, the long narrow peninsula which protects Lough Larne from the fury of the Northern Sea, on condition of contributing 500l. towards any town which the Queen might think proper to build there. ‘I find it more easier to bear the charges of 200 men than to bear the name of a general without wages.’ The other alternative was for the Queen to take 250l. a year in land in discharge of the 10,000l. which he owed her, and to free the third part of his estate from the claim of the Crown. He would then do his best to carry out the original scheme alone, ‘but yet this way will neither please the adventurers, nor encourage them to go forwards.’[274]
The Queen resolves to recall Essex.
The Queen had resolved to recall Essex as soon as he had ‘lapped up’ all matters with Tirlogh Luineach and Sir Brian upon the most decent terms possible, and to limit her efforts in Ulster to keeping a small garrison at Carrickfergus, and to wheedling a small tribute out of the chiefs. But after reading the letter last quoted she changed her mind. Her heart was touched, and she resolved to give another chance to a subject whose loyalty no neglect could impair, and whose constancy no failure could overcome. In one of those letters which go far to explain her wonderful power, she thanked him heartily for his services, unsuccessful as they had hitherto been, ‘acknowledging the same to have been grounded not upon gain, but upon honour, an argument of true nobility, and we cannot, whatsoever issue the same hath had, but make account of you as of that noble man who, in respect of other service, hath rather chosen to suffer any intolerable toil in Ireland than yield to enjoy the delicacy of England. Which rare affection, if we should not cherish, we should show ourselves unworthy of so rare a servant.’ He had complained that his letters were not answered; she reminded him that they contained matters not fit for every secretary, ‘to which our eyes and the fire only have been made privy.’ She accepted his surrender of Clandeboye, and agreed for a time to maintain the required force, and she promised to grant him Island Magee. The Lord Deputy should resume the government, receiving at the same time strict and secret instructions to co-operate with him in his attempt to expel the Scots and to reduce Sir Brian MacPhelim.[275]
Essex powerless.