Fitzmaurice therefore lost no opportunity of giving the struggle a religious character, and there were plenty of abuses in Ireland calculated to scandalise the devout as well as to give a handle to those who were actuated only by worldly motives. Irish priests at Louvain, often men of honesty and virtue, took care to tell English travellers that the Lord Deputy had one archbishopric and two bishoprics in farm, Cashel for 40l., the others for less; that the revenues of one see supported the grand falconer, and those of another the clerk of the kitchen—‘sufficient parsons no doubt to have such cure of Irish souls as the English doctrine will permit them to have at this day.’ The deanery of St. Patrick’s was appropriated to the support of the Great Seal, much to the disgust of the Chancellor Weston, a pious and conscientious man, who saw the abuse clearly enough. The parsonage of Dungarvan was assigned for the maintenance of the Lord President. Laymen were appointed to ecclesiastical dignities. English Jesuits who found their way to Ireland could report these things on the Continent, adding that Sidney’s gentleness did their cause more harm than any severity could have done.[196]
Foreign rumours.
Fitzmaurice was a sincere enthusiast, and no doubt he thought that the Queen’s misdeeds and excommunication would bring about a crusade; but the days of Boniface were past, and little help was vouchsafed, though rumours filled the air. A messenger from Spain touched at Cork Beg at the mouth of Cork Harbour, where he left news for the seneschal, and then went on to join Fitzmaurice in the Aherlow woods. He reported that a great fleet was coming to Dingle. Some ships from Brest and Morlaix did visit that secluded haven, but only to carry off Fitzmaurice’s son, who set quietly to work to seek recruits in Brittany. About thirty years before Peter Strozzi had proposed to make a Calais on some Irish island; this plan was now revived, but probably Delacroix reported against it.
A suspicious Spaniard.
There was much trade between Spain and the west of Munster, the foreigners carrying away fish, beef, hides, and tallow in exchange for wine and sometimes for arms. Don Juan de Mendoza came in a ship belonging to John Hawkins, and by his charming manner at first disarmed Sidney’s suspicion; but a penniless Italian adventurer—a Lucchese named Josefo—informed him that the Biscayan hidalgo had been sent by Alva to excite an insurrection in Ireland. Josefo managed to get hold of the Spaniard’s letters, but the packet was so sealed as to defy tampering. The Italian, who was known for his attachment to the Queen of Scots, and who was perhaps a double traitor, offered to go to Alva for the purpose of getting information. Sidney, at Mendoza’s request, licensed Josefo to go to France. His route necessarily lay through England, and the Lord Deputy sent Cecil word that he might waylay him there and detain him or not as he thought fit. Fitzwilliam, more cautious than Sidney, objected to any foreigner becoming acquainted with Ireland as Mendoza had done; and in this he was probably right. The Spaniard protested his innocence, and affected to be aggrieved by a detention of eighteen months, while speaking in high terms of Sidney’s and of Gilbert’s courtesy. Yet Fitzwilliam’s caution was evidently more to Burghley’s taste, for three German counts who had a mind to visit Ireland a year or two later received introductions accompanied by secret instructions to show them nothing which could decently be concealed.[197]
Archbishop Fitzgibbon on the Continent, 1571.
Foreign powers, however, were not likely to want information, for Fitzmaurice sent Maurice Reagh Fitzgibbon, the papal Archbishop of Cashel, to Philip. Fitzgibbon went from Spain to Bordeaux, where the Bishop presented him with a good horse to ride during his stay. He told certain Youghal merchants that he was come to seek help from the French King, and was allowed openly to rig ships and to press men. The Guises sent emissaries to keep Ireland disturbed, and the appearance of a fleet under the Duke of Medina Celi was the appointed signal for a general rising. A combined invasion by French and Spaniards was looked for daily, and one of Burghley’s spies, a Catholic by birth and in constant communication with the Bishop of Ross, obtained accurate information as to the hopes of the papal party in Ireland.
Irish Catholics.
The gentry of the Pale and of the greater part of Leinster were Catholics at heart, looking for an opportunity to throw off the mask. In Ulster all were ardent Catholics, banded together under the influence of the Jesuit David Wolfe, whose orders, issued from his prison in Dublin Castle, were generally obeyed. All Connaught was anti-English. In the Desmond half of Munster all were Catholics and confederates, who expected a large army from Spain and France, in which latter country Thomond had sowed good seed. Ormonde, indeed, was unnaturally loyal, but that was the only dark spot. The Ulster, Connaught, and Munster bishops were Catholics; those of Leinster only Protestant. The Northern clergy looked to Raymond O’Gallagher, Bishop of Derry, who had lately returned from Rome with a large budget of orders; the Southern waited on the word of Maurice Reagh Fitzgibbon, who was already in Spanish pay, and who was the head and front of the whole conspiracy.[198]
Fitzgibbon’s account of Catholic Ireland.