Sidney has it all his own way. Death of Shane Maguire.
The army then advanced to Armagh, where Shane had burned the church and destroyed all the buildings that he could. In crossing the Blackwater, which was now very low, a further justification appeared for an autumn campaign. In some former expeditions undertaken in springtime all the provisions had been exhausted while waiting for the river to become fordable. Shane’s chief residence at Benburb was found in ruins, and on the tenth day Clogher was reached. Some of the corn had been carried off, but the greater part was still accessible, and all within a circuit of twenty-four miles was destroyed. While lagging in the rear with some horse Kildare was here attacked by the O’Neills, and had a narrow escape. Near Omagh Shane Maguire died on the march, just as he was about to be restored to his own. At or near Castlederg Shane showed himself in the rear, but did not venture even to skirmish, though the ground was very unfavourable to English troops, and though he had near 5,000 men with him. At the ruined castle of Lifford, Randolph met Sidney and satisfied him that Derry, with its church and other stone houses, was the best place for a fortress. On the right bank of the Foyle opposite to the entrenchment the whole army halted. O’Dogherty and the Bishop of Derry, who was of his family, then came to Sidney; but none of the O’Donnells appeared, and the Lord Deputy found it necessary to enter Tyrconnel in person. The Foyle was accordingly passed, not without difficulty, and leaving six companies and six weeks’ provisions with Randolph, he marched by Raphoe through Barnesmore gap into Tyrconnel, and arrived at Donegal without seeing an enemy. He was joined on the march by O’Boyle, by two chiefs of the MacSwineys, by O’Gallagher, and by the Bishop of Raphoe, one of those prelates who had attended the Council of Trent. Donegal was taken formal possession of, and then delivered to O’Donnell, as was also Ballyshannon. The Erne was then passed in boats brought from Donegal, and Shane’s people abandoned Belleek Castle, which they vainly tried to burn, and which Sidney gave up to the O’Donnells to hold of the Queen. Passing between Lough Melvin and the sea, the army marched unopposed to Sligo. O’Connor surrendered the castle, which he desired to hold of the Queen independently of O’Donnell. Sidney directed him to pay one year’s rent pending a regular trial of the title, and then proceeded to Boyle by the pass over the Curlew mountains, ‘the foulest place that ever we passed in Ireland.’ The value of the fertile plains of Boyle was apparent to Sidney, who regretted that they were spoiled by local wars and yielded nothing to her Majesty. From Boyle the army went by Roscommon to Athlone, where the Shannon was passed by swimming, some baggage horses being lost. ‘Thanks be to God,’ said Sidney, ‘in all this painful and long journey there died not of sickness above three persons, and the rest in such health as the like hath not been seen in so long a journey in this land, and the horses also in better plight than with so great travail they could have been in the beginning of the year. And like as by this journey your Majesty hath recovered to your obedience a country of seventy miles in length and forty-eight miles in breadth, and the service of 1,000 men now restored to O’Donnell, and so united and confirmed in love towards him, as they be ready to follow him whithersoever he shall lead them, so is your Majesty’s name grown in no small veneration among the Irishry, who now see cause to appeal to your justice; and by this restitution of O’Donnell receive both hope and fear to be defended in their well-doing, and chastised for the contrary.’[119]
Randolph at Derry. Death of Calvagh O’Donnell.
After Sidney’s departure Randolph found his position one of great difficulty. The people had no other idea of trade than to extort exorbitant prices. The supplies were inadequate, and the soldiers were quickly reduced from cheese and bacon to bread and pease only. Their clothes soon wore out, and messengers had to be sent into the Irish districts for frieze and to England for shirts and shoes. Intrenching tools failed, for twenty dozen spades and shovels had been used up, and O’Donnell could not rebuild Lifford without help. Powder ran low. There were no boats to carry horses. The men sickened. An unexpected event added still further to their perplexity. As old Calvagh O’Donnell was riding towards Derry on his way to attack Tyrone his horse stumbled and fell, and he was seized with a fit, which soon carried him off. He lived just long enough to call his chief clansmen round him, to speak of the Queen’s kindness, and to adjure them to serve her and to fulfil every promise that he had made. His brother Hugh was quickly chosen to succeed him, but the confusion probably hindered supplies from reaching the garrison at Derry. Shane seized the opportunity to invade Tyrconnel, but O’Dogherty gave warning and the fords were closely watched. Randolph routed the assailants with great slaughter, and only one man fell on the English side; but that one was the commander, and his loss was not easily supplied.[120]
Sidney goes to Munster. Great disorder everywhere.
Determined not to let O’Neill rest, Sidney ordered a general hosting against the O’Reillys, O’Hanlons, and others of his partisans, which is only so far noteworthy in that Desmond and the White Knight co-operated with Sir Warham St. Leger, who had been acting as chief commissioner in Munster, and whom it was at this time intended to make Lord President. Butlers and Geraldines continued nevertheless to plunder one another, Sidney refusing to decide their cause without the help of English lawyers, and the Queen pressing him continually in Ormonde’s interest. In the meantime he could see the state of Munster for himself. He found the Queen’s County and Kilkenny in pretty good order, and very prosperous compared to what he had formerly seen there. Ormonde’s brother Piers was arraigned for breaking into a gaol and releasing men charged with felony, and on confession was respited during the Queen’s pleasure. Edward, another brother of the Earl, distinguished himself by apprehending certain outlaws who annoyed the Fitzpatricks, and who were sheltered in Tipperary. The Fitzpatricks were, however, in the habit of retaliating on Kilkenny. The O’Carrolls Sidney found quiescent, and their chief willing to pay rent to the Queen, and anxious for a peerage. Between the Fitzpatricks, the Desmonds, and the Butlers themselves, Tipperary was in evil case, suffering especially from ‘the excessive train of horsemen and footmen led and kept there by the younger brethren of the Earl of Ormonde, who rather consumed than defended the goods of the poor country.’
The Palatinate of Tipperary.
Indeed, those who bore authority under the Earl showed neither justice, judgment, nor stoutness in the Deputy’s opinion, and the townsmen of Clonmel, Cashel, and Fethard, sustained him in his dislike of the palatinate jurisdiction. Trade was so much interrupted by violence that the towns underwent the inconveniences of a perpetual siege. Lord Dunboyne with his brother and son were sent to Dublin Castle. ‘If maintenance of proclaimed rebels,’ said Patrick Sherlock, openly at Fethard in his lordship’s presence and in that of the Deputy, ‘murderers, and burners of corn and houses, are treason to the Queen’s person, then I have to accuse him of treason.’ Edward Butler was tried at Clonmel and acquitted, yet Sidney thought a good moral effect would result from the mere fact of bringing the Earl’s brother into court.
Waterford.
The county of Waterford was also disturbed by the Power kerne and others, who had been used to live by coyne and livery. That exaction having been repressed by St. Leger and his colleagues, they betook themselves to undisguised rapine. Lord Power was also sent to the Castle, as the best means of inducing his followers to amend their lives. Sir Maurice Fitzgerald’s county contrasted favourably both with Lord Power’s and with the Desmond territory about Youghal, but the chief was somewhat too ready to take the law into his own hands.