Essex and Fitzwilliam.
As soon as Fitzwilliam knew that he was expected to represent the Crown and to furnish all garrisons in the three southern provinces with 700 men, he at once declined the task. The force actually in Ireland was about 3,000, and in case of the proposed scheme not taking effect, it was to be reduced by one half. All was made dependent on perfect accord between the Deputy and the Governor of Ulster; and in fact they had never been on really cordial terms. Nor did Elizabeth herself speak with any confidence, and it is plain that personal regard and admiration for Essex were struggling in her mind with the desire to throw away no more money upon Ulster. It was in Elizabeth’s nature to vacillate, and the tendency may have been increased by Burghley’s illness. To keep Essex in Ireland, and at the same time to secure his failure there, may have been Leicester’s policy. That some sinister influence was at work may be inferred from the Earl’s complaint to Burghley that many letters sent to him were intercepted, and that he could trust no messenger but his own servants. Fitzwilliam’s refusal to incur the responsibility of government without proper forces was reasonable enough, but his manner of proceeding shows how deep his feeling against Essex really was. He summarily discharged all men above 2,000; and the Earl, as he himself expressed it, ‘having no longer soldiers to govern,’ resigned the government of Ulster. ‘Being now,’ he said, ‘altogether private, I do desire your Majesty’s good license so to live in a corner of Ulster, which I hire for my money; where though I may seem to pass my time somewhat obscurely, a life, my case considered, fittest for me, yet shall not be without some stay in these parts, and comfort to such as hoped to be rid from the tyranny of the rebels.’ In the meantime his men were unpaid and unfed; for the Vice-Treasurer had orders from the Deputy to give them nothing without the Queen’s special directions, and the victualler feared that he might not have sufficient warrant. Essex, who complained bitterly that he had not even ten days’ notice, appealed to the Council, and both Fitton and Loftus sided with him; for the prospect of having 1,500 disbanded soldiers let loose upon the Pale was not a pleasant one. ‘To you,’ Essex told Burghley, ‘I am content to be beholden, yet to be generally bound to all men as I have been in this action, is to my nature such a misery as I confess all the wretchedness that I have found in Ireland hath not been comparable to this. And now, since my good deserts here, if they were any, be extinguished with dishonour, I pray you let my small sins be also forgotten. I suffer pain enough. Increase not my misery with your ill opinion.’
Troops hastily disbanded.
Fitzwilliam, as on some other occasions, showed a lamentable want of dignity, and, if we are to believe the Governor of Ulster, he dismissed the troops with indecent haste and with no more responsible advice than that of his wife. ‘My lady, as I am most credibly informed, kept her Majesty’s letters three days and coted every line of it, and in the end gave her final judgment that I and all my soldiers should be cassed; and it was no sooner done but here was such a general joy conceived by some about him, as though some great victory had been obtained, and indeed it agreed well with his former report, for not six weeks since he said there were two Deputies in Ireland, and named me for one, and added that either he would have all, or I should have all.’ Tirlogh Luineach, or perhaps his astute wife, knew how to profit by these dissensions, for no sooner was it known that Essex had resigned his province, than he thanked Fitzwilliam for not invading his country unjustly, as the Earl had done. He professed great readiness to treat with the Lord Deputy. His loyalty to the Queen only had prevented him from accusing Essex several times: his only desire was peace, and he had no wish to injure any person in the English districts.[295]
The Queen encourages Essex.
Elizabeth had not bargained for being so promptly taken at her word. ‘We did never,’ she said, ‘think that upon such a sudden either you our Deputy would have refused to take that your charge with those numbers, or you the Earl have given over your government of Ulster.’ To the one she was willing to allow 700 men in addition to garrisons, hinting at the same time that she had evidently been paying for imaginary soldiers. To the other she said that the enterprise was not abandoned, and Maltby was authorised to use encouraging language. Munitions were sent, and even some money, and Sir Peter Carew was ordered to Ulster as a valuable lieutenant, and probably also a pleasant companion for the Earl. All this was open and official, but to the Earl she wrote a private letter, which, to one of his romantic temper, was probably more consoling than a Lord-Lieutenant’s commission with unlimited warrant to raise and pay troops. She could not but feel that he had failed, but her heart was touched, and she addressed him thus:—
‘For your more satisfaction we have thought good to signify unto you, that by all your actions, your wise behaviour and constancy in them, your pains and travels sustained by yourself bodily, the great charge that you have been at in your private expenses, and consuming of your revenues and patrimony in our service, and for the attaining of honour by virtue and travail, we have great cause to think you a rare treasure of our realm and a principal ornament of our nobility; we wish daily unto God we had many such; and are sorry that in anything you should be discouraged.... What success soever your enterprise shall have we must needs have a great good opinion of you as a thankful prince ought to have; whereof you may be bold to assure yourself, and all such your friends as would be glad thereof, which be, you may be bold, for your rare virtues and noble courage, a great number.’[296]
He sets out towards Tyrone.