UNBIASED OPINIONS. IRELAND AND THE IIUSH—No. 11.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7116, 14 July 1886, Page 4

UNBIASED OPINIONS.

IRELAND AND THE IIUSH—No. 11.

[Wit deem it rigtit to stnt6 tbat wo in no ivay idont^ oai_o've3 \T"th tboopiuions expressed iv a'.'c^ appearing under this head,] i j | '

Qerat.o, eighth Earl of Kildare, af cerwards Lord Deputy of Ireland, ia the reign of Henry VII., bad the audacity to crown, •with bis own hand, Lambert Simnel, the pretender to the throne. Not content ■with that act of high treason, be rose in rebellion in favour of Perkin Waibeo'c, und carried iire and sword through Ire!, id. At length Sir Edward Paynings was seat over to Dublin to put down this Irish kingmaker. Tho earl was taken prisoner and sent to London. Brought before the Council, lie was asked by Henry to choose Bomo counsel to plead bis causo against the heavy accusations to bo brought ajjaiust him. Tbo Eirl. look;:ig at the wily Monarch, witb a smile of somo simplicity, replied: "Your Highness, I will choose the ablest in England: I take your Highness jourself for my counsel against these false knaves." Tho Earl, among other crimes, bad burned the cathr Jral at Cashel, and the Archbishop, who was present at tho Council, was witness against him. The Earl pleaded guilty; ' But, by Jesus," said he, "I would not have done it if I had been told my Lord Archbishop ■was inside." The Council could not help laughing at his cool impudence. Said one of the members: "All Ireland cannot govern this Earl." "Then," said Kins Henry, " let this Earl eovem all Ireland." "He wan sent over," says Froude, " a convicted traitor—he returned a Knight oE the Garter, Lord Deputy, and the representative of the Crown. Rebellion was a aucccessful policy, and a lesson which corresponded so closely to the Irish temper was not forgotten." Perhaps that sagacious Monarch Henry VII. may have been recently reading and laying to heart the •words of Chaucer, in hiß Counsel of Prudence: "Isayethat it is no folie to cbnunge conseil whan the thiug is chaunged, or elles whan the thing semeth otherwise than it seemed afore." The most probable explanation is tbat Henrywas too cautious n sovereign, seated as he was on a somewhat shaky throne, to run tho risk of so serious a step as the punishment of so popular and powerful a nobleman as this Gerald, Earl of Kildare, certainly was. In 1520, his successor, the ninth Ear!, was removed by Henry VIII from the office of Lord Deputy of Ireland, and his place given to the gallant Earl of Surrey, eldest son of Thomas Howard, cieated Duke oE Norfolk by Henry VIII in return for his victory on Flodden Field, and father of the accomplished poet. This Earl of Surrey, succeeding to the Duchy of Norfolk in 1524, bad married for his first wife Anne, daughter of Kine Edward IV; and for his eecond wife Elizabeth Stafford, eldest daughter of the unfortunate E 1 ward Duke of Buckingham, by whom he became father of tho poet. No eooner had the newly appointed Lord Deputy landed, than all Ireland was up in arms to resist his authority. O'Neile, O'Carroll, O'Connor, O'Brien, Desmond, all rose in rebellion. In a letter from the Earl of Kildare, which fell into the hands of Lord Surrey, occurs this pessage. "Life and health to O'Oarroll from the fiarl of Kildare. There is none other Irishman in Ireland than I am better content witb than you ; and whenever I come into Ireland, I shall do you good for anythif ; that ye shall do for me. . . . . Do your best to make war upon Englishmen." (Stale Papers vol. ii p 45 quoted by Froude). The Earl of Surrey informed Henry that to re-conquer Ireland would prove as hard a task as the conquest of Wales by Edward I. Not only would a large army be required, but strong castles must be built, such as Edward had erected in Wales at Harlech, Caernarvon, Cornwaj 7, Beaumaris, and elsewhere. A large number of English colonists should also be encouraged to settle in the country. Half measures, declared Lord Surrey, only nude bad worse ; a policy of coercion, if not consistently carried out, was alike pernicious an'l unjust. Either these strong measure?, he contended, should be taken, or nothing done. Receiving, however, but a cold answer and Bcanty support, the Earl, after some partial successes, obtained his recall, having held his po3t but eighteen months. Meanwhilr, the Earl of Kildare, who had accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, had so grown in the royal favour as to have been allowed to many the Lady Elizabeth Gray, daughter of the Marquis of Dorset, a relative of the King himself. In 1524, he was re-appointed Deputy, and was not long in abusing the confidence reposed ia him, conspiring with his kinsman, the Earl of Desmond, who was plotting for a French army to land in ilunster. He likewise married one of his daughters to the O'Connor ; another to O'Carroll of Leap Castle ; a third to the Baron of Slane. There three ladiep, it is perhaps interesting to note, were bolieved tb be the sisters of ' The fair Geraldine' of the poet Surrey, by no less an authority than Horace Walpole in his ' Catalogue of Boyal and Noble Authors'; but later critics have thrown more doubt upon the story. It is mere probably somo unknown fair one whom he addressed under that name. He himself says, indeed, of his love Geraldine :—: — ' "From Tuscsns came my lady's worthy race ; " Fair Florence was some timo her (their) ancient seat." Yet he adds almost immediately :—: — " Fosler'd sho was with milk of Irish breast: Her sire an Earl : her dame of Prince's blood." The Earl of Kildaro mado further preparations for the intended rebellion by removing the cannon and military Btones from Dublin Castle to bis own fortress at Maymooth. This tieaty Becretly made between the Earl of Desmond and Fmncis 1., King of France, stipulated that Ireland wns to be divided between (he llonse of Desmond and Richard de la Pole, brother to the do la Pole beheaded in the Tower in 1513, and ancestor oE Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury in tho rei^n of Queen ftlary. Its conditions were, like every other compact oE the kind into which the luckless Irish have been led, utterly impracticable and wild. The only object of France then, as on every subsequent occasion, was not to serve Ireland, but to make it a thorn in the side of her old enemy, England. The divorce of King Henry from Catherine, ••nil the projected matrimonial alliance uilh the Court ofc' France, which Cardinal Wolsey was endeavouring to bring about, canned the Irish nobles to negotiate next with diaries V , Einprior o£ Gei .an\, on llio Haine conditions, Gonzalvo Fernandez, Chaplain to Charles, was sent as an agent to Ireland to meet tho Ear] of Desmond. In a lettc-r written by him to his Imperial master in April, 1529, from that country, he gives a lengthy and curious narrative of bis visit. Speaking of tho Earl of Desmond, he tells Charles, the Earl has lordships and vassal in the three cities of Waterford, Cork, and Limerick; he has dominions also among the wild tribes; lords and knights on his CBtutes, who pay him tribute: ten castles of his own, some of them strong and well built. "The tarl himself is from thirty to forty years old, nnd is rather above tho middle height. 110 keeps better juslite throughout his dominions than any other chief in Irelaud. Robbers and murderers find no mercy, I ut are executed out of hand. His people are in high order and discipline. Ihey nro nrmed with shortbows and swords. The Earl's guard are clad in armour from nock to heel, and carry halberta. . . . TI iy all ride admirably without saddle or ptirrup." Ecjmont.