During his first two years in the King’s service, Cromwell was so busy in establishing the Royal Supremacy, that he could not pay much attention to Irish affairs. The three years of Skeffington’s administration, moreover, appear to have been fairly quiet. In 1532, however, a change came. The Earl of Kildare, by craftily misrepresenting Skeffington’s doings at the English Court, secured the latter’s recall, and obtained for himself the post of Lord Deputy for the third time[325]. On regaining the coveted office, however, he returned to Ireland, and instead of following out the King’s instructions, proceeded to stir up his adherents into open rebellion, and neglected the English at Dublin. Unmindful of his ‘hole duetie to the Kingis Highnes,’ he used the royal authority deputed to him, ‘as a cloke or habyte to cover his cruele persecutions, mynding utterly to extynguyshe the fame and honor of any other noble man within that lande[326].’ It is possible that he thus served Henry’s and Cromwell’s ultimate purpose of subjugation better than he knew, as he certainly weakened the power of many of the wildest clans, who hated the English rule as much as his. But his use to the Crown in this direction, if it amounted to anything, was only temporary, and things became ripe for his dismissal. Continual complaints of him reached the King and Cromwell. Dublin was almost the only place in the country, which remained perfectly loyal to England. The neighbouring tribes were so hostile, that the citizens were hard put to it for food, and its inhabitants almost perished from starvation. John Deythyke, a priest, wrote sarcastically to a friend in the autumn of 1533, that although it was the custom to refrain from meat on Wednesdays as well as Fridays, provisions were so scarce that people had become more devout still, and abstained also on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. ‘This is a very sore abstenaunce . . . the country is so quiett that they dare nott ryde one myle owte of the towne, to by any maner of vytteyles; and they make there complaynt to the Deputie and the wynde hath blowen hym soo in the erys that he can nott here them. But yt is a comon sayinge “whoo is so defe as he that lyst not to here[327].”’ Things went on from bad to worse, and finally John Alen, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was sent over by the Council there to report Kildare’s doings at the English Court, and further to submit to the King a set of articles for the reformation of the abuses which had become prevalent in the country[328]. Alen finally succeeded in procuring Kildare’s recall; and the Deputy arrived in London in April, 1534, having left his eldest son, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, in his place. Efforts were made to induce the young man to come to England also; and when he persistently refused to put himself into the King’s hands, his father was arrested and sent to the Tower. These vigorous measures, according to Chapuys, were due to Cromwell; they were the beginnings of his policy of subjugation[329].
The arrest of Kildare, coupled with a premature report of his death, set half Ireland aflame, and his son, making up a slight quarrel he had had with his kinsmen the Desmonds threw off his allegiance. All the English were ordered out of the Geraldines’ land before a certain day. The Archbishop of Dublin attempted to flee the country, but encountering a storm, was driven back on the Irish coast, fell into young Thomas’ hands, and was murdered with most of his following[330]. A formidable revolt against the royal authority was evidently pending. Henry and Cromwell were seriously alarmed, and the extraordinary popularity of the rebellion among the people in England, who, as Chapuys said, thought it ‘a very good beginning to remedy matters at home,’ greatly increased their fears[331]. Cromwell had to bear the brunt of all the blame, and the Duke of Norfolk seized the opportunity to speak ill of his successful rival. According to Chapuys, the Duke had ‘left the Court to be away when the affairs of Ireland were discussed, and this out of disdain that the King despised his advice, and at the suggestion of Cromwell and Skeffington had ill-treated the earl of Kildare, and ruined the affairs of Ireland. On this subject the Duke and Cromwell had reproached each other with many things . . . which shows the ill-will they have borne each other a long time, however much they have dissembled it[332].’ But Norfolk’s efforts to undermine the influence of his rival were as yet unavailing. The time for pacific measures had now passed; Henry would have been only too glad to grant Kildare peace on any terms, but the latter refused every offer. Skeffington, who was Cromwell’s friend, was sent over again as Deputy to quell the rebellion. After many delays he crossed on the 14th of October, with troops which the King had secretly raised for him[333].
Meantime the rebels had gained a decisive victory, and were just outside the walls of Dublin. Piteous entreaties from the inhabitants, begging him to come to the relief of the beleaguered city, reached Skeffington, and after some delay he advanced. His arrival made the rebels retreat, but instead of pursuing them vigorously, and striking a telling blow, he remained at Dublin, and wasted time in trying to get a sentence of excommunication passed against the murderers of Archbishop Alen[334]. But in spite of the Deputy’s dallying inefficiency, the superiority of Cromwell’s policy to Norfolk’s was destined to be made evident by succeeding events. A new complication in Irish affairs arose when young Kildare, taking advantage of Skeffington’s inactivity, sent an embassy to the Emperor, promising to hold Ireland as a fief of the Holy See, on condition that he would offer him protection against the English schismatics[335]. An ambassador, Dominick Power by name, was sent by Charles to Ireland and Scotland, but Henry soon discovered it, and complained[336]; Charles was not quite ready as yet to do anything active in aid of the rebels, and so the affair came to nothing. Meantime, at the request of Cromwell, Skeffington was induced to shake off his apathy, leave Dublin and Drogheda, and move after the rebels[337]. The Lord Privy Seal’s boast that the young Kildare would soon be a prisoner in the Tower, was not as empty as Chapuys thought. Maynooth Castle, a rebel stronghold, was besieged and taken[338]; many rebels were executed, others fell away from Kildare, the young Earl finally surrendered, and was sent a prisoner to London. Two years later he was hanged with five uncles at Tyburn[339]. With his surrender other chieftains came to terms; many districts became comparatively quiet, and by the end of 1535 Ireland seemed further on the road to tranquillity than she had been for some time. This was a significant triumph for Cromwell’s policy over that of Norfolk, and did much to increase his influence with the King. On the last day of December, 1535, Skeffington died, and Lord Leonard Grey was made Deputy in his place[340].
Before Cromwell could hope to derive much benefit from Ireland, it was necessary to establish some sort of government in the country, as well as to subjugate it. To this intent, Lord Grey summoned a Parliament, which met at Dublin in the spring of 1536[341]. Its first act was to pass a bill securing the succession of Anne Boleyn’s issue: the report of this came to Cromwell in London in June, two weeks after Anne’s execution[342]. He must have been somewhat puzzled, when he heard the news; events were moving so rapidly, that even an ‘ordered’ Parliament could not keep pace with them. He finally wrote back that in case the act for the succession was not ‘passed thoroughly’ they were to ‘staye the same tyl further knowleage of his graces pleasure[343].’ It was too late, however, to do this; but when the report came that Anne had been executed, and that Jane Seymour had become Queen, the Parliament was ready enough at once to rescind the old statute, and pass a new one in favour of the issue of Henry’s third wife. Later there were enacted a series of measures to loosen the bonds that held the Irish Church to Rome[344], and George Browne, Provincial of the Austin Friars, who had already made himself useful in forcing the oath of succession on his brethren in the south of England, was nominated in 1535, by Cromwell’s influence, to succeed Alen as Archbishop of Dublin. The Deputy meantime carried on the subjugation steadily and consistently in the wilder portions of the country.
Everything in Ireland was now proceeding to the complete satisfaction of Henry and Cromwell, except the finances. Few could equal Cromwell’s ideal, or satisfy Henry’s avarice in this respect. Ireland had never paid its expenses before; and it was largely in the hope of deriving revenue from a land which had hitherto been only a burden, that the King and his minister had undertaken to subjugate it. A letter from Henry to the Deputy and Council in 1537 blames them for taking excessive fees, thinking only of private gain, and not taking care of the royal income[345]. To remedy this Cromwell appointed and sent over Commissioners, who were ordered to try to reduce expenses and increase revenue, and, to this end, to inquire into the conduct of every royal officer in Ireland, learn all the particulars of the local government, and cut down the retinue of the Deputy and Treasurer to 340 men[346]. In the list of Commissioners occurs the name of William Brabazon (Cromwell’s old friend and fellow servant under Wolsey), who later attained a very important position in Irish affairs. The extant letters of Cromwell to the Commissioners deal for the most part with the adjustment of petty land claims. The most interesting of them is the one concerning the policy to be pursued towards ‘that traytor Bryan Oconor[347].’
There are significant depositions against some of these Commissioners who dared to murmur at Cromwell’s notorious accessibility to bribes, which seems to have been more noticeable in his dealings with Ireland than anywhere else. He appears to have received enormous sums from the rich and powerful family of the Butlers, kinsmen of Anne Boleyn and of the Duke of Norfolk, in return for a promise to protect their castles from the search of the royal agents. There was a great deal of discontent among the Commissioners on account of his rapacity, and though they openly flattered him, they continually spoke ill of him behind his back. ‘My Lorde Pryvee Seale hathe wrought to his awne confusion and dethe,’ said one, ‘and of late tyme was veray nere the same, and escapid veray narrowly . . . noo lorde or gentilman in Englande berith love or favor to my Lorde Pryvee Seale by cause he is soo great a taker of money, for he woll speke, solicite, or doo for noo man, but all for money. . . . I wold not be in his case for all that ever he hathe, for the King beknaveth him twice a weke, and sometyme knocke him well aboute the pate; and yet when he hathe bene well pomeld about the hedde, and shaken up, as it were a dogge, he will come out into the great chambre, shaking of the bushe with as mery a countenaunce as thoughe he mought rule all the roste[348].’ We may well believe that Henry was willing that Cromwell should make some private gains, provided he brought money to the royal treasury as well.
The subjugation of the country, however, had not yet been thoroughly accomplished. Though 1537 was comparatively quiet, the following year witnessed a fresh outbreak. Taking advantage of the precarious condition of England’s foreign affairs at the time, young Gerald, brother of the late Earl of Kildare, and heir to his power, stirred up various chieftains, and baffled all the attempts of the Deputy to lure him into the King’s hands. Letters for aid were written to the Pope and to Cardinal Pole, and were sent by a certain monk, as the safest means of transmitting them to their destination[349]. The monk sailed from Scotland in a French ship, which was blown ashore on the English coast at South Shields; the messenger was captured, and the letter intercepted[350]. In September, 1539, there were several skirmishes between the various forces of the rebels and the Deputy; but the latter was generally victorious, and another crisis was tided over[351]. Young Gerald was forced to flee into Brittany, and the rebels were left without a leader. The Deputy, Lord Grey, appears to have become very unpopular during his term of service, however, and in the spring of 1540 he was recalled[352], on the accusations of violence to the King’s Council, extortion, injustice, and maintaining the King’s enemies. Affairs were in a bad state after he left; Scotch intrigues, even an invasion of the country by James, were rumoured[353], and Sir William Brereton, who temporarily filled Grey’s place, had a very hard time. Grey was finally condemned and executed a year after Cromwell’s fall, and Sir Anthony St. Leger, ‘the discreet,’ who had been the Chief of Commissioners of 1537, was sent over as Deputy in 1541[354].
It may be said that from 1534 until his fall, Cromwell was the virtual ruler of Ireland. His significant triumph over Norfolk and his policy of pacification, mark the beginning of his influence. From that time onward the King left to him the entire direction of Irish affairs; he appointed the officers, regulated the revenues, and in short managed everything connected with the country until 1540. From the instructions which the Commissioners received in 1537, we gather that the main object of the Crown was to get a revenue from Ireland, and the plan which Cromwell pursued in order to attain this end is noteworthy, in that it differed so entirely from his policy in all the rest of England’s dependencies. Realizing that the country was worse than useless to the King, while it remained in the state in which it was when he came into power, he saw that it was so wild and disorganized, that subjugation by force would be possible and profitable, if attempted vigorously, and in time. He therefore pursued a most aggressive policy, which in Scotland, for instance, where the conditions were so different, he would never have dared to adopt.
In Wales he was confronted with a problem of a very different nature. What was needed there was thorough legal reform. The country was not large enough to render an insurrection there very formidable, but the wild and lawless state of the Welsh Marches, which afforded hiding-places for criminals of all kinds, was a source of much evil. One Thomas Philips wrote to Cromwell in May, 1532[355], that the whole country was in great decay, and that the King’s representatives there took fines for felony and murder, and used the money for their own purposes; he begged that such a council might soon be established in Wales, that the best officer should ‘quake,’ if found in fault. The Bishop of Exeter, who was President of the Marches, was an inefficient ruler and took no pains to remedy the existing evils. The crimes of making and uttering counterfeit money seem to have been extremely common[356]. Cromwell saw that it was high time measures were taken to rectify this lawlessness, and his ‘remembrances’ are full of items for the reform of Wales. He replaced the Bishop of Exeter by his own friend Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who in his younger days had served with him under Wolsey[357]. Lee’s energetic and business-like methods rendered him a fit man for the place, and he set about reorganizing and reforming Wales in earnest. It was probably at his instance that Cromwell devised several Acts, passed in the Parliament of 1534, to establish justice and maintain order[358]. As the King’s writ did not run in Wales, it was next to impossible to get a case fairly heard there; so Royal Commissioners were sent thither, with authority to punish crimes and felonies (which were to be tried in the next English court), and to establish Justices of the Peace. Chapuys, in a letter written in December, 1535, describes the distress of the Welsh at these measures as incredible, saying that Parliament ‘has just taken away their native laws, customs, and privileges, which is the very thing they can endure least patiently[359].’ He further states that the Welsh were violently in favour of the cause of Katherine and Mary, and longed for an opportunity to declare themselves. A rising was probably prevented by the fact that the King himself was of Welsh descent. Cromwell was exceedingly active in his endeavours to stamp out all sedition of this sort, and was ably seconded by Lee, who, when the clergy in 1535 were required to preach in favour of the Royal Supremacy, and against the power of the Pope, declared himself ready to ride into his diocese in his own person and carry out the decree, though, as he confessed, he had never before been in a pulpit[360]. But Lee adopted other measures to extirpate sedition, far more vigorous than preaching in favour of the Royal Supremacy; he never failed to enforce his words by deeds. He hung and beheaded offenders and criminals right and left, and sent full reports of his doings to Cromwell, who must have rejoiced to find an agent whose energy corresponded so closely to his own[361].
But in spite of Lee’s goodwill, the state of Wales was not satisfactory, until Cromwell’s great statute of 1535 was passed[362]. By this Act, Wales was formally declared to be incorporated with England, to be entitled to the same privileges, and to be subject to the same laws. The Marches were declared to be in disorder, and were annexed or divided into shires. The King was further empowered by the Act to erect courts in Wales every five years. These fundamental reforms laid the basis for an entirely new method of administration of justice there, and the country henceforth ceased to cause anxiety to its prince.