ciate with the Saxon race. Having been frequently upbraided with this circumstance, and finding the Irish nation now more estranged than ever from the English government by the recent attempt to force them out of their religion, he chose this as the most favourable period to shake off his allegiance, and revert to the antient consequence and independence of O'Neal.

The unexpected death of Edward VI., and the short reign of his sister Mary, gave a temporary respite to the troubled state of Ireland, as far at least as it depended upon England. The queen immediately on her accession repealed all the protestant acts of her brother and her father, restored the antient religion, and reinstated many of the deposed ecclesiastics in their situations in the church.

Bands of Scotch adventurers from their native islands had about this period become exceedingly numerous. These mercenaries had come over upon the speculation of profiting by the internal dissensions of the Irish, and their services were consequently to be obtained by those who proffered them the most lucrative terms. Their numbers became so considerable, and their outrages so alarming, that it was declared to be high treason to invite them into Ireland, or to entertain them, and felony to intermarry with them, without the license of the lord lieutenant. In this reign also the advantages gained by the earl of Sussex over the two most powerful septs of Leinster, the O'Moores and the O'Connors, enabled the English to extend the Pale, by converting their territories of Leir and Offaly into two counties; and they were by act of parliament vested in the crown, and converted into shire land. LEIX was denominated the Queen's county, and its principal fort was styled Maryburgh; and a similar compliment was paid to her royal conser

Offaly was called King's county, and its fort Philipstown; which were the two first counties made since the twelfth year of the reign of king John. The earl of Sussex, having thus far extended the jurisdiction of the English, resolved to divide all the rest of the Irish counties unreduced into several shires, for which purpose an act of parliament was passed, and by this means laid open a passage for the civil government into the unsubdued parts of the kingdom.

So confident was the English government of the tranquillity of Ireland during this reign, that the queen ordered the army to be reduced to five hun dred men; and to comply as far as was deemed safe in Ireland with her majesty's wishes, the army was actually reduced to six hundred foot, four hundred and sixty horse, and a small number of light infantry. The turbulence, however, of the Irish! chiefs, and their incessant wars with each other, together with the refractory and lawless conduct of the Scotch adventurers, rendered it necessary to increase the army with reinforcements from Eng-land. Although the Irish were in general highly gratified by the restoration of the catholic religion, yet they were not altogether satisfied with the civil administration of the power of the crown within their kingdom. They were particularly irritated at the power vested in the lord lieutenant to dispose of the territories of Leix and Offaly in grants at the royal pleasure, in violence to the rights of those natives to whom these lands had hitherto be longed. Upon the whole, it has been remarked by one of the Irish annalists, that notwithstanding the restoration of their antient religion to the Irish by queen Mary, her reign was marked by acts in jurious to the independence of Ireland.

CHAP

W

CHAP. IV.

The Reign of Elizabeth.

WHEN Elizabeth ascended the throne of England she found the Irish nation more tranquil, and more submissive to the English government, than it had been under any of her predecessors. That princess, however, having determined to establish the reformation, immediately on her accession assembled a parliament in Ireland, and in a session of a few weeks the whole system of Mary was completely reversed; and the arbitrary and impolitic measures of Henry were renewed with vigour. In consequence of the general discontent which followed these measures of Elizabeth, the whole kingdom was for several years convulsed, either with the internal feuds and wars of the chieftains with each other, or with the grand insurrection of O'Neal. As the events in the early part of this reign are not of sufficient importance to require particular detail, we shall content ourselves with observing, that the acts of the English government unhappily continued to be those of a cruel and impolitic conqueror towards a foe in their power, rather than the magnanimous and philanthropic efforts of a civilized nation to obtain the affections of a sister kingdom, whose interests should have been regarded as essentially necessary to her own.

Among other outrages against the people, Elizabeth adopted the scheme of planting or re-peopling the province of Munster with an English colony, with a view to extirpate the aboriginal

owners

owners of the soil, transpose the property, and alter the very face of the country. For this purpose, letters were written to every county in England, holding out encouragements to adventurers in Ireland. Estates were offered in fee, at a small acreable rent of three-pence, and in some places two-pence, to commence at the end of three years, and one half only of these rents was to be demanded for the three following. Seven years were to be allowed to complete the plantation. The undertaker for twelve hundred acres was to plant eightysix families on his estates; those who engaged for less seignories were to provide in proportion. None of the native Irish were to be admitted among their tenantry. Among other advantages, they were assured that sufficient garrisons should be stationed on their frontiers, and commissioners appointed to decide their controversies. Sir Christopher Hatton, sir Walter Raleigh, and others, gentlemen of power and distinction, received grants of different portions of Irish territory under these regulations. Such being the situation of the Irish, any affectionate attachment to the queen was not to be expected from them: their forced submission to her strong measures could be nothing more than an insidious suspension of hostilities till the favourable moment for rising in arms should present itself. The submission produced by fear is ever different from the obedience and fidelity which spring out of affection and attachment.

The spirit of insurrection showed itself on all possible occasions, and the Irish chieftains, espe cially in the north, were almost constantly in arms against the English government; and so formidable did the power of the insurgents at length become, that the queen condescended to appoint sir Robert Gardiner

Gardiner and sir Henry Wallop to conclude a peace with the Irish. This treaty was very solemn, but it produced nothing more than a truce. for some months.

A. D.

1596.

of re

After the recommencement of hostilities the remainder of Elizabeth's reign was a continued scene of the most disastrous war, famine, and desolation. A general system bellion to shake off the English government was now organized in Ireland. The most formidable of the rebel chiefs was O'Neal, who disdaining the title of Tyrone, had assumed the rank and appellation of king of Ulster, and entered into a correspondence with Spain, from whence he received a supply of arms and ammunition. The queen, sensible of the danger, appointed her favourite the earl of Essex deputy of Ireland, with the command of twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse. During the violent contentions that ensued every enormity was committed by both parties, at the recital of which the soul sickens. For a series of years, particularly during the government of Essex, the arms of England were unsuccessful. At length the mutual system of devastation became so general, that the produce of that fertile country no longer sufficed to support its wretched inhabitants. The putrified bodies of multitudes that fell daily, more by famine than the sword, brought on a pestilence, which threatened to clear the land of its aboriginal race. The advantages in this rueful state of calamity were with the English, who, by commanding the coasts, were supplied with provisions and other means of subistence from England. In this extremity of distress Tyrone, whose adherents were 1603. every day diminishing, made overtures of

A. D.

an