GOVERNMENT OF LORD BURGH, 1597.
Last acts of Russell.
The destruction of Feagh MacHugh enabled Russell to leave Ireland without discredit, but the latter days of his government were darkened by a disaster of a very unusual kind. One hundred and forty barrels of powder which had been drawn from the quay to Wine-tavern Street exploded, accidentally as was supposed, and there was a great destruction of life and property. Men were blown bodily over the housetops, and among the dead were many ‘sons of gentlemen who had come from all parts of Ireland to be educated in the city.’
Appointment of Lord Burgh.
The Queen had for some time made up her mind to entrust the civil and military government of Ireland to Thomas, Lord Burgh, though Burghley wished to leave Norris at the head of the army. Considered as general there could be no comparison between the two men; but it is absurd to say, as so many have said, that Burgh was totally ignorant of military matters. He was governor of Brill, and had fought in the Zutphen campaign, where he distinguished himself by gallantry of a rather headlong kind. But he was chiefly known as a diplomatist, and the fact that he was, or had been, a man of fortune may have weighed with the frugal Queen. Russell, who expected his recall daily, retired from Dublin Castle to a small house, and put his train upon board wages; but he need have been in no hurry, for his successor’s appointment hung fire.
‘The Queen,’ says a well-informed news-writer, ‘hastens the Lord Burgh’s despatch, but by-and-by it is forgotten; it lives some day or two, and lies a-dying twenty days. Many will not believe it till they see him go; but it is very certain that nobody gives it furtherance but the Queen’s own resolution; and his standing upon an imprest of 3,000l. and a house furnished makes her Majesty let it fall.’[267]
Arrival of Burgh, May.
The financial question was settled at last, Lord Burgh receiving 1,200l. for immediate needs. He carried 24,000l. to Ireland with him, and was allowed to retain the governorship of Brill. His health was bad, but he did not let this delay him. ‘I am,’ he told Cecil, ‘cut all over my legs with the lancet, and have abidden loathsome worms to suck my flesh.’ He could not wish even his enemies to feel such anguish. But he managed to take leave of the Queen in spite of his swollen legs, and a week after the leeching, he travelled as far as St. Albans, accompanied by Raleigh, Southampton, and other distinguished men. On the morning of his departure, he went to see Essex at Barnes, and the Earl brought him back to London in his coach. At Stony Stratford he opened his instructions, and found, to his great chagrin, that one article had been added to those which he had already seen. The Queen had been dishonoured, she said, by the facility with which knighthood had been bestowed, and he was forbidden to give it ‘to any but such as shall be, both of blood and livelihood, sufficient to maintain that calling, except at some notable day of service to bestow it for reward upon some such as in the field have extraordinarily deserved it.’
He was thoroughly alive to the difficulties awaiting him in Ireland—difficulties which had been aggravated by the delay in despatching him, and now he was deprived of the means of rewarding his friends, and made to seem less trustworthy than his predecessors. He was in Dublin on the twelfth day after leaving London, and found nothing there to his liking. Almost all supplies were wanting, the number of effective soldiers was much below what it should have been, and the horses were too weak for active service.[268]
Burgh and Norris.