was not unsuccessfully asserted by the native chiefs, and the policy of the day was directed rather to conciliate than control them. We grant,' says the king, 'that ye not only make O'Neill, and such lords of the Irishry as ye shall think good, knights, but also to give unto the said O'Neill a collar of gold of our livery.' The chiefs waged wars as often among themselves as with the interloper; in Offaly's rebellion, O'Brien of Thomond espoused one side, while his son joined the other; and hereditary feuds subsisted between the O'Neills, O'Connors, and O'Donnells.

For the purpose, indeed, of plundering the Pale they often united their bands; to this period belongs the battle of Belahoe, on the confines of Meath, in which the deputy, Lord Leonard Gray (1539) punished a raid of the chiefs O'Neill and O'Donnell.

During the latter years of his reign, the method of conciliation was tried by Henry VIII. much more largely than had ever yet been known. Hitherto, the policy of the law had been to separate the races, to prevent English blood from adopting Irish habits, but now a new system of fusion began-the chiefs were complimented, ennobled and enriched. Mac-GillPatrick, changed into Fitz-Patrick, accepted the title of earl of Upper Ossory (1538). Con O'Neill, the great chief of Ulster, became earl of Tyrone (1542), and his son, Matthew O'Neill, was created baron of Dungannon. Murrogh O'Brien assumed the courtly style of earl of Thomond, and his nephew, of the same name, sat among his peers as baron of Ibracken, in the county of Clare (1543); Ulick Bourke, or De Burgh, otherwise denominated Mac-William Eighter, resumed his English shape as earl of Clanrickarde (1543); and in the following reign (1551), Moelrony O'Carrol bore the honours of baron of Elye, in the county of Tipperary. These titles were taken from the seats of their power. Some of the chiefs attended the parliament which sat at Dublin, June, 1541. Besides earldoms on

parchment, more substantial baits invited their loyalty, in grants of abbey-lands from the dissolved monasteries; and presents of clothes are commemorated-to the earl of Desmond a gown, jacket, doublet, hose; to Mac-Gill Patrick, parliamentary robes; to O'Rourke, a suit of ordinary apparel; nor does any one of the great men beyond the Pale, except O'Donnel, appear provided with better vestments than the saffron shirt and Kernoghe's coat.'

The Reformation met with no opposition in Henry's time. Acts passed by which he was declared supreme head of the church of Ireland; which prohibited appeals to Rome; which ordered first fruits and twentieths to be paid to the king; which abolished the usurped authority of the pope, which suppressed abbeys and religious houses and resumed the lands of absentees, as the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Lord Berkeley.

There were also some other enactments which illustrate the condition of the country: it was made an ordinance of state, and entered in the council-book of Ireland, that King Henry VIII. should be accepted, reputed, and named king of Ireland by all the inhabitants of the kingdom: that all archbishops and bishops should be permitted to exercise their jurisdiction in every diocese throughout the land: that tithes should be duly set out and paid: that children should not be admitted to benefices: that for every manslaughter and theft above fourteen-pence committed in the Irish country, the offender should pay a fine of forty poundstwenty pounds to the king and twenty pounds to the captain of the country; and for every theft under fourteen-pence a fine of five marks should be paid-fortysix shillings and eight-pence to the captain and twenty to the Tanister: that horsemen and kern should not be imposed upon the common people, to be fed and maintained by them: that the master should answer for his servants, and the father for his children.

The reigns of Edward VI. and Mary present us with no features of mark; they are mere corollaries to the preceding. Some mention is made of French emissaries (1550), who received pledges from O'Neil, earl of Tyrone, and from O'Donnel, with their oath of allegiance to the King of France: the matter is of no further consequence than as showing that Irish hostility to the "Sassanagh' did not array itself in the glaring colours of liberty.' Philip and Mary hesitated to bear the title of king and queen of Ireland until it had been duly erected into a kingdom by a bull of the Pope. The gift of Pope Adrian had also, in their opinion, become invalid by the schism of Henry and Edward, and must be renewed. King Philip II. was a true son of the church. The changes in religion were scarcely felt in Ireland. The liturgy of Edward VI. was introduced; and a disputation on the mass was held between George Dowdall, archbishop of Armagh in the Romanist sense, and Edward Staples, bishop of Meath, on the Protestant side: but a good deal of latitude generally ruled in Ireland. Dowdall, the Pope's champion though he were, had been appointed by Henry VIII. in the days of his schism; and the pope would never confirm him in the see, but, on the other hand, nominated a candidate of his own, who never got possession. Dowdall was deprived (1552) by Edward, and Staples (1554) by Mary.

48

CHAPTER V.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

THE reign of Queen Elizabeth opens a new era. We have already seen that, ever since the first landing of Strongbow, no considerable exertion had been made by the English government. King Henry II. was content with homage and indentures: King John and King Richard II. received nothing but oaths of fidelity, freely and perhaps honestly made. Besides these, no sovereign of England ever set foot in Ireland till the battle of the Boyne. Whatever had been effected on the first impression, was half effaced by the disastrous effects of the Scotch war which followed Bannockburn. If Clarence contributed subsequently a little to the amendment of the land, his acts of parliament fell powerless amid the feuds of the Butlers and Geraldines. And if the lords deputies occasionally asserted the legal sovereignty of their master, it was with little body guards of five or six hundred men. But towards the end of her reign, Elizabeth had twenty-thousand men on foot and she laid the foundation of that pacification in which the term Pale was forgotten.

Besides some small affairs of lord Baltinglass, Sir Edmund Butler, the Moores, the Cavanaghs, the O'Byrnes, and the Bourkes of Connaught, Elizabeth's viceroys had to suppress three conspicuous rebellions; 1st, that of Shane O'Neill; 2nd, that of Desmond; and, 3rd, that of Tyrone.

Con O'Neill, who had been complimented with the title of earl of Tyrone by Henry VIII., had by different mothers two sons, Matthew and Shane. Matthew was at the same time created Lord Dungannon; but Shane declared himself the genuine eldest son, and

pleaded the law of Tanistry to upset the tenure of English origin, by which Matthew claimed the inheritance. A family quarrel therefore subsisted for a time between the two O'Neills, and at length Shane wielded the chief power in Ulster. Alternately negotiating and plundering, he kept the English in perturbation for seven years. Policy suggested that a rival chieftain should be encouraged, and O'Donnel was allured with the title of earl of Tyrconnel to the English alliance. But Shane planting an ambush, seized O'Donnel and his wife, the countess of Argyle, when on a journey, and threw the chief himself into a dungeon; while the countess, deserting her husband, lived with Shane. Mixing artifice with force, the rebel chief professed his desire to visit the royal court in person, and do his obeisance to the queen; but about the same time he worsted her troops near Armagh, and then again petitioned for 'some English gentlewoman of noble blood to his wife.' In fact, he did visit the queen's court attended by his gallow-glasses, and entered into indentures, but he returned as refractory as before. On condition that he should be allowed to exercise the authority of the O'Neill, enjoy a patent of nobility and an English wife, receiving also an annual payment for his better maintenance, he would be tranquil. To these demands the government listened, or affected to listen; and Shane's correspondents at court exhorted him to prove, by some loyal act, his wish for the queen's favour. To comply with this request he resolved to attack the Scots, who, having under Edward Bruce learnt the way into Ireland, had located themselves in small numbers on the northern coast of Ulster. After some preliminary engagements, a stated battle contributed its share to the glory of O'Neill, and seven hundred of the Scots fell. His negotiations with Elizabeth did not, however, prosper he ravaged the Pale, laid siege to Dundalk, and burned the cathedral of Armagh. He poured forth his vengeance upon those chieftains who submitted to