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Home Ireland under Tudors and Stuarts, 1485-1688 Part 5 |
Part 5The last and most formidable rebellion of all had its centre in the north of Ireland. Its leaders were Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh Roe, the head of the O'Donnells. Tyrone won a victory at the "Yellow Ford" on the Blackwater in 1598, Had he shown more enterprise he might have succeeded in taking Dublin. As it was, his victory led to a fresh rising in Munster. Moreover, the Spaniards made an alliance with him and sent him arms and money; and the Pope presented him with a "peacock's feather" and promised indulgence to all who would rise in defence of the Church. The situation looked serious—never before had there been a rebellion which had united so many tribes in Ireland, or which partook more of a national rising. Essex, Elizabeth's favourite, was sent over in 1599, but he made a truce with Tyrone instead of fighting him, and then returned home. His successor, Lord Mountjoy, found, on his arrival in 1600, the rebels in control of all Ireland up to the walls of Dublin. But he was a man of great capacity. He compelled a Spanish force which had landed at Kinsale to surrender. Then, turning against Tyrone, he carried on a war rather, it has been said, "with the spade than the sword". He built forts at all the chief passes to stop communications, and by systematically ravaging each district starved it out. His methods were successful; and in 1603, just before the news of Elizabeth's death reached Ireland, Tyrone submitted on promise that his title and his lands should be restored to him.At Elizabeth's death the conquest of Ireland was for the first time complete. Yet it had been carried out with excessive brutality, and Elizabeth was told, at the end of her life, that she reigned but over "ashes and dead carcases". We read of an English deputy attempting to send to Shane O'Neill a present of poisoned wine; of children in Desmond's rebellion being hoisted by the English soldiers on the point of their spears and whirled about in their agony; of Irish women so reduced by starvation during Mountjoy's campaign that they lit fires to attract children, whom they then seized and devoured. No doubt the brutalities were by no means confined to the English side. Moreover, the Irish were regarded, in Spenser's words, as "a savage nation", and they were in league with the two mortal foes of the English—the Pope and the King of Spain; and their chiefs were often very unreliable and treacherous in their dealings with the English lord deputy. Yet, making allowance for all these facts, it Is difficult to excuse much that was done, and the Irish Protestants were to pay dearly in 1641 for the evil deeds pepetrated during the reign of the great queen. |
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