Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum (Vol.1-3). Bagwell Richard
Knox.
The rival churches in Dublin.
One of the most active promoters of uniformity was Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles, who was appointed to Raphoe in the summer of 1610, but without resigning the first see. After visiting his new diocese, he went to Court and gave such an account of Ulster as to bring on one of the King’s hot fits in the matter of enforced conformity. In his old age Knox learned that Protestants in Ireland could not afford to be divided, and was ready to stretch a point so as to include his Presbyterian fellow-countrymen in the ministry. But in his more pugnacious days he was intent on the impossible task of driving the Roman Catholic population to conform. The result of his representations was an order from James himself directing that the Ulster bishops should meet for the purpose of suppressing Papistry and enforcing uniformity. Each prelate was to visit every parish in his diocese annually, to administer the oath of allegiance to all persons of note, whether spiritual or temporal, to have Jesuits, seminary priests, and friars arrested and brought to the Lord Deputy, and to let no ecclesiastic of foreign ordination enjoy benefice or cure unless he would use the book of Common Prayer. The bishops were to be active in teaching and catechising for the purpose of reclaiming recusants, to repair ruined churches, and to appoint fit pastors, ‘or at least for the present such as can read the service of the Church of England to the common people in the language which they understand’—that is to say, for the most part in Irish. The exact method was left to Chichester’s discretion, and only four days after the date of James’s letter the Council informed the Lord Deputy that his Majesty had considered how the people were blinded by the Jesuits, and that he might introduce reforms gradually. The latter letter reached Chichester long before the other, but a meeting of bishops not confined to those of the northern province was held in Dublin in June, and while waiting for the arrival of his brethren Knox preached in the Dublin churches. He found that congregations of several hundreds had been reduced to half a dozen, that the clergy of the Establishment, with few exceptions, were careless and inefficient, and that the Papal clergy were active and well supported. The cargoes of ships unloading in Dublin harbour seemed to consist principally of ‘books, clothes, crosses, and ceremonies.’ And still he had good hopes of banishing all these things out of Ulster. Chichester, who was better informed and therefore less sanguine, reported that he had carried out the King’s orders as far as possible, and he republished the proclamation of June 1605. The oath of allegiance he had no legal power to administer. The only practical result of it all was the execution of Bishop O’Devany and some other priests, which certainly did not help the cause of the Reformation.[90]
Chichester deports Irishmen to Sweden, 1609–1613.
The Swedish service unpopular.
Others are sent to Poland.
When giving an account of his stewardship in 1614, Chichester took credit for having sent 6,000 disaffected Irishmen to the wars in Sweden. In the main these were the Ulster swordsmen, for whom it was found impossible to find room in Ireland, but some masterless Englishmen and not a few town idlers were included contrary to the Lord Deputy’s orders, and privates sought the ranks as an alternative for the gallows. The majority were partly coaxed into going and partly pressed, nor was the transfer effected without disorder. In the autumn of 1609 three ships left Lough Foyle with 800 men, and another was ready with a full cargo at Carlingford, but the Irish mutinied at the instigation of Hugh Boy O’Neill, ran the vessel on a bank, smashed the compasses, and would have done more mischief if troops had not been soon at hand. Three or four mutineers were ordered for ‘exemplary punishment,’ and were probably hanged, but Hugh Boy escaped and is no more heard of. The ship was got off, but was still unlucky, losing all her rigging in a storm and being with difficulty towed off the coast of Man into a Scotch harbour. There another craft was hired and the voyage continued, but it is not likely that all the men got to Sweden, for the captain in charge wrote from Newcastle to describe their misdoings. Chichester, however, was able to report that before the end of 1609 900 of those who troubled the quiet of Ulster had been got rid of. For example’s sake he had begun with his own territory of Inishowen, and sent away thirty tall fellows who had been in O’Dogherty’s rebellion. Many hundreds were also sent from Leinster who were either loafers in the Pale or belonging to the Kavanaghs, O’Byrnes and O’Tooles, ‘and to speak generally they were all but an unprofitable burden of the earth, cruel, wild, malefactors.’ Among the penniless young men of good Irish family who knew no trade but fighting some were willing enough to serve Sweden as they or their fathers had served Queen Elizabeth. Some had acquired a taste for camp life in Flanders, and others volunteered with a wild idea of joining Tyrone on the Continent, or because their position at home was desperate. Such men had their personal followers, but there seems little doubt that the rank and file were for the most part pressed. The Swedish service had not a good name, perhaps because the discipline was too severe, and the priests from abroad, ‘all lusty able young men, always well armed,’ did what they could to make it unpopular. Some said that it was intended to throw all the Irish swordsmen overboard; others with better reason maintained that it was ‘altogether unlawful to go to such a war, where they should fight for a heretic and an usurper agains a Catholic and a rightful King.’ The description might apply to Charles of Sweden first and later to the Elector Palatine. Chichester persevered, but assuming that he actually sent off 6,000 there were still plenty left in Ireland. Sir Robert Jacob, the Solicitor-General, said there were 2,000 idle men who had no means ‘but to feed upon the gentlemen of the country … he is accounted the bravest man that comes attended with most of those followers.’ There were 4,000 of the same sort still in Ulster, 3,000 in Leinster, and as many in Munster. In 1619, St. John thought 10,000 might well be spared to any foreign prince. There are no better soldiers than disciplined Irishmen, but there seem to have been difficulties in Sweden with these wild men, for Gustavus Adolphus, the year before his death, declined the services of an Irish regiment as not being trustworthy. Irish friars dressed like soldiers were often busy in persuading their comrades to desert Sweden or Denmark and join the Spanish forces in the Netherlands. The King of Poland was, however, allowed a little later to raise men in Ireland. The religious question did not arise in this case, yet the Lord Deputy was ordered to watch the recruits lest they should run away, ‘as it has been ofttimes in such case,’ as soon as they had received their first pay. When the Spanish match was broken off it was thought that the Poles would exert themselves to prevent the northern powers from interfering in case the Spaniards and their allies were to invade King James’s dominions.[91]
Prevalence of piracy.
The preamble of the Act of 1614, against piracy, sets forth that ‘traitors, pirates, thieves, robbers, murderers, and confederators at sea’ often escaped punishment through defects in the law, and alterations were made which may have abated the evil but without curing it. The weak and corrupt administration of the navy, which was long sheltered by Nottingham’s great name, had made the sea unsafe, and the harbours of Munster lay open to the rovers. Before the end of 1605 a pirate named Connello was imprisoned in England for robbing some Exeter merchants, but was saved by the intercession of the Howard faction, some of whom were very probably paid. Those who had been active in apprehending him were threatened with vengeance, and Connello attacked a Barnstaple vessel and carried the oil and wool which she contained to the neighbourhood of Wexford, where he was captured. The captain, master, and one other old offender were sent to England and there hanged, though they hoped to escape through the same help as before; but Devonshire, who was still Lord-Lieutenant, probably prevented this. They could all read well, but Chichester begged that such offenders might be deprived by law of ‘the benefit of their book.’[92]
Weakness of the navy.
Chichester was willing to hang a thousand pirates if he could catch them, but this was not at all easy. Englishmen and Flemings infested the Spanish coast and fell back upon Ireland for provisions. In one year they robbed more than 100 fishing boats on the Munster station, and all trade was unsafe; but the Admiralty gave very little help. Sometimes there was a King’s ship at hand and sometimes there was not, and the Irish