[191] Causes why Ireland is not Reformed, by E. Tremayne, June 1571; Loftus to Burghley, July 8.
[192] Ormonde to Burghley, with enclosures, June 18, 1571; to the Lord Deputy, March 3 and 18; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, March 15; Ormonde to Cecil, Dec. 7, 1570 and Feb. 27, 1571; to Fitzwilliam, May 1. Four Masters, 1571.
[193] Perrott’s Life. N. White to Burghley, April 9 and May 15. These operations were in April and May, 1571.
[194] Fitzwilliam and Weston to the Queen, with enclosures, July 31.
[195] Ormonde to Burghley, June 27, 1571; Brief of Expenses, Sept. 7; Fitzwilliam to Burghley, July 31. The siege of Castlemaine lasted from June 21 to July 27. To judge from slight remains, this renowned stronghold must have been small: probably, as in many other cases, the garrison ordinarily lived in thatched houses on the mainland.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FOREIGN INTRIGUES.
Fitzmaurice wishes to make it a religious war.
No doubt Fitzmaurice was encouraged in his seemingly desperate task by the hope of succour from France or Spain. The fear of losing their lands bound the Irish chiefs and nobles together, but that would not weigh one grain with any foreign potentate. The chiefs were doubtless with few exceptions Catholics, but that alone would not have tempted them to incur the penalties of treason any more than it tempted Protestants like Cecil or Perrott to conspire against Queen Mary. Sir Edmund Butler fought against Sir Peter Carew, but not against the Queen. The Desmonds and their allies fought against the St. Legers and Grenvilles and against their hereditary foes of the House of Ormonde. The O’Neills feared schemes of colonisation: if the Queen would let them alone they asked for no other sovereign. Purely Irish interests were sure to be sacrificed by France, Spain, and Rome; but Catholicism was an inheritance in which they all shared.
Catholics at Louvain.