unchanged. Of a great many, even of the bishops, it is difficult to say whether or not they conformed.

General State of the Country.-During his Deputyship Crofts went on several "hostings" into the Celtic districts, especially into Ulster, where he was well received by Conn O'Neill, who permitted him to leave garrisons in Carrickfergus and in Armagh. O'Neill afterwards accompanied the Deputy to Dublin, but, much to his indignation, was there detained against his will. There was fighting in Ulster between Shane, Conn's eldest legitimate son, and Matthew, his half-brother, and, in the west, the Clanrickard Burkes were engaged in a particularly violent family contention.

In the so-called "civil districts" the distress was great, owing to the debasing of the coinage, which had caused the prices of necessities to rise to a height previously unheard of. The soldiers, it was complained, being unpaid, plundered the people, and the military authorities seized provisions for the troops.

All this time, in spite of many obstacles, a certain standard of education was kept up amongst the Irish, and the old learning had not altogether decayed. We read of the death, in 1551, of O'Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher, " called the Grecian," evidently an eminent classical scholar, and of Teig O'Coffey, "preceptor of the Schools of Ireland, and poet," who was taken prisoner by the English, and would have been put to death only that he escaped. For Irish learning, literature or art, the English officials had little respect. An order, made in 1549, directs that no poet should "compose any poem or anything which is called 'Auran' (Abrán), except to the King, under pain of forfeiture of goods." Later, it is directed that a search shall be made for Irish harps, which, when found, are to be broken. It must be confessed that there was some reason for this attitude, for the Irish poets did not love the "Sassenach," and viewed with distrust the action of the chiefs who visited and made alliances with the foreign monarch across the Channel, and accepted from him titles and gifts. One of them thus complains:

"The race of the O'Brien of Banbha under Murrough
Their covenant is with the King of England.

They have turned their back, and sad is the deed

To the inheritance of their fathers.

Alas for the foreign grey gun!

Alas for the yellow chains!"

CHAPTER VI

QUEEN MARY'S POLICY. THE BEGINNING OF PLANTATION

Accession of Queen Mary: The Catholic Church Restored.-On July 6th, 1553, Edward VI died, and Mary, his half-sister, succeeded him. The new Queen was an ardent upholder of Catholicity, and detested the Reformed doctrines.

The accession of a Catholic sovereign caused the greatest rejoicings in the Irish towns. In the Celtic parts of the country the Catholic religion had never been much interfered with, so the change of Sovereign in England excited little interest.

Mary at once proceeded to restore the official position of the Catholic Church within her dominions. In Ireland she met with no opposition. The officials, and the few Anglo-Irish nobles who had changed to please one sovereign, were equally ready to please another by changing again. So, too, were most of the bishops, but some of these had offended too deeply to be forgiven. Six, including Browne, were deprived of their Sees. Hugh Curwen, an Englishman, was appointed in Browne's place; he afterwards proved himself an ecclesiastic of much the same type as his predecessor.

Zealous as was the Queen for the ancient Church, she was too much a Tudor not to be reluctant to part with an iota of the extended prerogative to which her father had laid claim. The title of Head of the Church, being evidently inconsistent with orthodox Catholicity, was abandoned, but that of Queen of Ireland was retained, and, though apparently with some reluctance, confirmed by the Pope.

Mary's Irish Policy.-She dealt with ecclesiastical matters in almost as high-handed a fashion as Henry himself had done. She expelled the Reforming bishops from their Sees and appointed others in their places by her own authority. Only some years afterwards were these acts of the Queen made legal, according to the usage of the Church, by confirmation from the Pope. Neither were the Irish monasteries re-established or their lands restored. It would have been difficult to do anything of the kind, without driving those who had obtained grants

of these lands into an attitude of hostility which might prove dangerous. The Church, therefore, as restored, did not regain its former position in the social and political life of the country.

A sympathetic and kindly treatment of the Irish people, who had adhered so strongly to the Catholic faith, might well have been expected of the Catholic Queen. No trace of this appears, however, in her policy.

The distinction between the Celtic and the Anglo-Irish Churches was to be maintained. Priests were to be well chosen and sent out of England" to fill the Irish livings. When Dowdall, the Primate, desired leave of the Queen to pronounce ecclesiastical censures against "the wild Irish," who resisted the authority of the Crown, the permission was accorded. The restoration to his native land of the long-exiled Gerald of Kildare, and of the chief O'Connor Faily are the only two gracious acts for which Ireland has to thank Mary Tudor. That her religious persecutions did not extend across the Channel was no merit of hers. In Ireland there were no Protestants to persecute. The Irish Catholics, always friends of toleration, gave help and shelter to many of those who had fled from England to escape the religious tyranny that prevailed there.

The Plantation Policy Begun.-Of all the evils and miseries which afflicted Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, none certainly caused suffering so widespread or produced results so evil as what is called "the Plantation Policy." It was during Mary's reign that this policy may be said to have begun.

Henry VIII had hoped, by inducing the chiefs to hold their lands from him, and by conferring titles on some of them, to make them instrumental in the Anglicising of their people, and the conversion of these into loyal subjects of the Crown. These hopes had not been realised. The chiefs remained chiefs still. Conn Bacach might be Earl of Tyrone to the English Government; to his Ulster clansmen he was "O'Neill "-holding the position and authority that his ancestors had held before him. And as "O'Neill" he acted. Any attempt on his part to introduce English customs, dress or language, or to inculcate any duty of obedience or feeling of loyalty to a stranger King would not only have failed utterly, but would have increased the comparative unpopularity which had resulted already from his dealings with the foreigner, imperfectly as these dealings were understood.

Since then this means of extending the English influence had produced so little result, and the policy of mere violence seemed, for reasons already explained, inadvisable, a third course, that of planting English colonies in the country, had been suggested by more than one of Henry VIII's ministers. The plan seemed to offer many advantages.

The initial cost would be small, and might be more than covered by Crown rents, to be exacted afterwards from the settlers. If the colony proved a success, it would introduce an element favourable to English rule and law, and accustomed to English ways and speech, whose influence

tion.

would, in time, it was hoped, permeate and "civilise" the entire populaBut up to Henry's death in 1547 nothing had been done. The O'Connors and the O'Mores. Of the Midland septs, whose proximity to the Pale gave them peculiar opportunities for harassing its

inhabitants, none had proved more troublesome than the O'Connors of Offaly and the O'Mores of Leix. Offaly comprised the eastern part of King's Co, with the middle-west of Kildare and the north of Queen's Co.; while the much smaller territory of Leix consisted of the east, south-east and middle of Queen's Co.

In the Geraldine rebellion, Brian, the reigning O'Connor chief, had played a prominent part, till finally compelled to a submission. In respect of a part of his lands, O'Connor paid certain dues to the Earl of Kildare. He was therefore regarded by the English Government as Kildare's vassal, and these lands held to be forfeit to the Crown by feudal law, owing to the treason of his suzerain.

The O'Mores, by their constant raids and rebellions, had also incurred the displeasure of the Government, and Sir Edward Bellingham, in accordance with his policy, erected forts in both the Offaly and the Leix territories. Some English settlers had come to dwell under the shelter of these forts and the protection of their garrisons. But the original lords of the soil, the O'Connors and O'Mores, gathered together and murdered or drove them out. By the end of Edward's reign few of these settlers remained.

St. Leger, who had been Deputy since the beginning of the reign, and whose leanings had always been rather to conciliation, was recalled in 1556, and Lord Fitzwalter (later Earl of Sussex) succeeded him.

Ireland, and especially Leinster, was just at this time more than commonly disturbed. There was raiding and devastating both within and without the Pale. The O'Mores and O'Connors, having got rid of the foreign intruders, had returned to their old lands and their old ways. It was these two clans that the Queen singled out to be the first victims of the new policy.

The Plantation of Leix and Offaly.-Fitzwalter was furnished with precise instructions in regard to the carrying out of the scheme by which Leix and Offaly were to be planted with English settlers. Only a part of the boggy western lands was to be reserved for the native Irish. All, English and Irish alike, were to hold their lands from the Crown, paying rent and dues and conforming themselves to the English laws. The settlers were not to sell their estates, or any part of them, to the Irish, nor to take them as tenants. The purchase or use of firearms was forbidden to the Irish.

It was not to be expected that this wholesale confiscation, unjustified, in the case at least of most of the lands involved, by any legal right* would be tamely submitted to, even by people far less warlike than the O'Mores and O'Connors.

*Leix was claimed as a part of the inheritance of the youngest of the great granddaughters of Dermot McMurrogh. This portion had, by intermarriage, merged, it was declared, in the Crown.