From
Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
( Henry VIII's Policies )
Inset, the Tower of London
the beginning of his reign ( 1515 ) Henry VIII undertook to destroy the basis of Irish resist-
ance. With this object in view he issued " most secret " instructions to his officials to capture the Irish trade and commerce, by every subtle device. All the laws against Irish civilisation, against marriage, fosterage and gossipred against the use of native literature and its language, against every phase and aspect of Irish life, were re-enacted. By a Parliament ( May 1536 ) composed of English colonists only, and convened by fraud, corruption, murder and terror, Henry was acknowledged as Head of Church and State: and the Catholic religion with its ritual and teachings, declared null and void, " corrupt for ever " Five years later the same body proclaimed Henry " King of Ireland. "
" Irishmen " wrote one of the would-be exterminators in the light of sad later experience, " will never be conquered by war. They can suffer so much hardness to lie in the field, to live on roots and water continually and be so light, ever at their advantage to flee or fight; so that a great army were but a charge in vain and would make victuals dear. The Irishmen have pregnant subtle wits, eloquent and marvellous natural in comynaunce. They must be instructed that the King intendeth not to exile, banish or destroy them, but would be content that every one of them should enjoy his possessions taking' the same of the king . . . and become his true subjects, obedient to his laws, forsaking their Irish laws, habits and customs, setting their children to learn English " ( Cowley's Plan for the Reformation of Ireland, 1541 State Papers ).
" Irishmen " wrote one of the would-be exterminators in the light of sad later experience, " will never be conquered by war. They can suffer so much hardness to lie in the field, to live on roots and water continually and be so light, ever at their advantage to flee or fight; so that a great army were but a charge in vain and would make victuals dear. The Irishmen have pregnant subtle wits, eloquent and marvellous natural in comynaunce. They must be instructed that the King intendeth not to exile, banish or destroy them, but would be content that every one of them should enjoy his possessions taking' the same of the king . . . and become his true subjects, obedient to his laws, forsaking their Irish laws, habits and customs, setting their children to learn English " ( Cowley's Plan for the Reformation of Ireland, 1541 State Papers ).
King Henry VIII of England
The Lord Deputy, St Leger, preached and acted on this Gospel. The unfortunate result was the submission of
O' Neill, O' Donnell, O' Brien, the MacCarthy, the Burkes, and all the rules of the Irish, Old and New. They went through the form of acknowledging Henry as King of Ireland, as Head of Church and State in Ireland, and promised to substitute English for the Irish Brehon law, and English manners, and customs for Irish. " They have turned, and sad is the deed, their back to the inheritance of their fathers. " Yet in spite of " doing knee-homage " they would not get from the King of England for Ireland a respite from the misery. There is not one of them in the shape of a man in Ireland at this time. The people faithful to Ireland in woe as in weal, resented, lamented, and even cursed their " diplomatic " chiefs.
The fate and fortunes of any one of the compromisers is typical of all. Take O' Neill for eaxample. When Con
O' Neill, Lord of Tir-Eoghan, submitted to Henry VIII at Greenwich ( 24th Sept 1542 ) he renounced the title of the O' Neill and was created Earl of Tyrone instead. A sturdy adventurer " called an O' Neill " Mathew Kelly, the son of a Dundalk blacksmith, selected by the English Government to disintergrate Tir-Eoghan, received the title of Baron of Dungannon, and so Con's successor by feudal law. O' Neill then acknowledged Henry as Head of Church and State, and undertook to substitute English for Irish civilisation. All the legal incidents of feudalism were to replace those of the Brehon law. The number of his soldiers ws to be determined by the Lord Deputy, whom he was to accompany in all warlike expeditions against ' rebels ' A mansion and lands in the Pale were to be bestowed upon him when he attended the English Parliament in Dublin.
Though " he received the mocks of all men " for his conversion to Anglicisation he tried to fulfil his side of the shameful bargain. When Henry II of France and the Sovereign of Scotland sent letters and ambassadors to
O' Neill inviting him to join the Catholic League against England, he forwarded the letters to London as proof of his loyalty. Yet England had no intention of allowing any Irish lord to rule his people as his peers in England ruled theirs. Slowly it dawned on the victimised Con that her real aim was the seizure of his lands and the extermination of his people. Nicholas Bagenal, who had fled from justice for man-killing in England, was appointed Marshal of the North. He began an indiscriminate slaughter of O' Neill's subjects, burning even the very grass, killing every living thing on four legs, destroying habitations and churches.
O' Neill, O' Donnell, O' Brien, the MacCarthy, the Burkes, and all the rules of the Irish, Old and New. They went through the form of acknowledging Henry as King of Ireland, as Head of Church and State in Ireland, and promised to substitute English for the Irish Brehon law, and English manners, and customs for Irish. " They have turned, and sad is the deed, their back to the inheritance of their fathers. " Yet in spite of " doing knee-homage " they would not get from the King of England for Ireland a respite from the misery. There is not one of them in the shape of a man in Ireland at this time. The people faithful to Ireland in woe as in weal, resented, lamented, and even cursed their " diplomatic " chiefs.
The fate and fortunes of any one of the compromisers is typical of all. Take O' Neill for eaxample. When Con
O' Neill, Lord of Tir-Eoghan, submitted to Henry VIII at Greenwich ( 24th Sept 1542 ) he renounced the title of the O' Neill and was created Earl of Tyrone instead. A sturdy adventurer " called an O' Neill " Mathew Kelly, the son of a Dundalk blacksmith, selected by the English Government to disintergrate Tir-Eoghan, received the title of Baron of Dungannon, and so Con's successor by feudal law. O' Neill then acknowledged Henry as Head of Church and State, and undertook to substitute English for Irish civilisation. All the legal incidents of feudalism were to replace those of the Brehon law. The number of his soldiers ws to be determined by the Lord Deputy, whom he was to accompany in all warlike expeditions against ' rebels ' A mansion and lands in the Pale were to be bestowed upon him when he attended the English Parliament in Dublin.
Though " he received the mocks of all men " for his conversion to Anglicisation he tried to fulfil his side of the shameful bargain. When Henry II of France and the Sovereign of Scotland sent letters and ambassadors to
O' Neill inviting him to join the Catholic League against England, he forwarded the letters to London as proof of his loyalty. Yet England had no intention of allowing any Irish lord to rule his people as his peers in England ruled theirs. Slowly it dawned on the victimised Con that her real aim was the seizure of his lands and the extermination of his people. Nicholas Bagenal, who had fled from justice for man-killing in England, was appointed Marshal of the North. He began an indiscriminate slaughter of O' Neill's subjects, burning even the very grass, killing every living thing on four legs, destroying habitations and churches.
Nicholas Bagenal
The recent Con's letters of protest against such barbarity to England'd King and the Privy Council were returned unopened or disregarded. " The Baron of Dungannon " was maintained against him - " borne up by the chain " by the English Government. Daring to arrest one of the ravishers of his country, he was imprisoned in Dublin by the Governor till he was enforced to deliver the plunderer ( 1550 ) When he performed his duty of visting the Deputy in the Pale he was told by that humane dignitary were it not that he was old he would have off his head and see his blood poured in a basin. After a victory to which O' Neill's troops contributed, he provided a banquet for his companion in arms, the Lord Deputy, the latter " leaving the banquet unconsumed for haste, " at Armagh " did imprison the said Earl O' Neill and took him prisoner to Dublin, and sent a garrison to Armagh and to Dungannon, his chief manor, since which time the country was impoverished " ( 1552 )
Vainly did he try to obtain a reason for this treatment. Con's letters describing the horrors his people endured by the acts of the English soldiery, whilst he was " a true and faithful subject to the King's Majesty " make bitter reading.
After seventeen years as an English Earl Con lay on his dying bed, a broken dispirited man, despised by his subjects. He called his people to him and pronounced malediction on all his descendants who should trust the English faith or give credence to English promises. He cursed those who would speak the English tongue, " For language bred confusion " who built houses after the English fashion " to be beaten out by the hawk " who grew corn in the open unfortified country " to nourish the ravishers and destroyers " Yet he suffered no more than any other of the confiding chieftains who had put their trust in English faith, in its policy of " Conciliation "
Throughout disillusioned Ireland the fighting men deserted the English-made lords. They flocked to the standards of the Chieftains selected in the way their forebears had elected them for more than a thousand years. The Penal laws against Irish Civilisation made the people love it the more passionately.
Another of Henry's devices for the conquest of Ireland was the kidnapping of noblemen's sons and having them reared and educated in England, hostile to every tradition and instinct of their nationality. " Politic practices " said Henry " would serve till such time as the strength of the Irish should be diminished, their leaders taken away from them, and division put among themselves so that they join not together.
Vainly did he try to obtain a reason for this treatment. Con's letters describing the horrors his people endured by the acts of the English soldiery, whilst he was " a true and faithful subject to the King's Majesty " make bitter reading.
After seventeen years as an English Earl Con lay on his dying bed, a broken dispirited man, despised by his subjects. He called his people to him and pronounced malediction on all his descendants who should trust the English faith or give credence to English promises. He cursed those who would speak the English tongue, " For language bred confusion " who built houses after the English fashion " to be beaten out by the hawk " who grew corn in the open unfortified country " to nourish the ravishers and destroyers " Yet he suffered no more than any other of the confiding chieftains who had put their trust in English faith, in its policy of " Conciliation "
Throughout disillusioned Ireland the fighting men deserted the English-made lords. They flocked to the standards of the Chieftains selected in the way their forebears had elected them for more than a thousand years. The Penal laws against Irish Civilisation made the people love it the more passionately.
Another of Henry's devices for the conquest of Ireland was the kidnapping of noblemen's sons and having them reared and educated in England, hostile to every tradition and instinct of their nationality. " Politic practices " said Henry " would serve till such time as the strength of the Irish should be diminished, their leaders taken away from them, and division put among themselves so that they join not together.
