XLIII, 1598. Spain, they should join an equal number of fhips cHA P. to hers". By this treaty the queen was eased of an annual charge of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds. SOON after the death of Burleigh, the queen, who regretted extremely the lofs of fo wife and faithful a minifter, was informed of the death of her capital enemy, Philip II. who, after languifhing under many infirmities, expired in an advanced age at Madrid. This haughty prince, defi rous of an accommodation with his revolted fubjects in the Netherlands, but disdaining to make in his own name the conceffions neceffary for that purpose, had transferred to his daughter, married to archduke Albert, the title to the Low Country provinces; but as it was not expected, that this princess could have pofterity, and as the reverfion, on failure of her iffue, was ftill referyed to the crown of Spain, the States confidered this deed only as the change of a name, and they perfifted with equal obftinacy in their refiftance to the Spanish arms. The other powers alfo of Europe made no distinction between the courts of Bruffels and Madrid; and the fecret oppofition of France, as well as of the avowed efforts of England, continued to operate against the progrefs of Albert, as it had done against that of Philip. CHAP. XLIV. State of Ireland-Tyrone's rebellion--Effex fent over to Ireland-His ill fuccefs-Returns to England-Is difgraced-His intrigues-His infurrection-His trial and execution-French affairs Mountjoy's fuccefs in Ireland-Defeat of the Spaniards and Irish-A parliament-Tyrone's fubmiffion-Queen's Sickness-And death-And character. CHA P. THOUGH the dominion of the English over XLIV. 1599. State of Ireland had been feemingly established above four centuries, it may fafely be affirmed, that their authority had hitherto been little more than nominal. The Irish princes and nobles, divided among themselves, readily paid the exterior marks of obeifance to a power which they were not able to refift; but, as no durable force was ever kept on foot to retain them in their duty, they relapsed ftill into their former state of independence. Too weak to introduce order and obedience among the rude inhabitants, the English authority was yet fufficient to check the growth of any enterprifing genius among the natives And though it could bestow no true form of civil government, it was able to prevent the rife of any fuch form, from the internal combination or policy of the Irish ', Sir J. Davies, P. 5, 6, 7, &c. XLIV, MOST of the English inftitutions likewife, by CHA P. which that ifland was governed, were to the laft degree abfurd, and fuch as no ftate before had ever thought of, for preferving dominion over its conquered provinces. THE English nation, all on fire for the project of fubduing France, a project, whofe fuccefs was the most improbable, and would to them have proved the most pernicious; neglected all other enterprifes, to which their fituation fo ftrongly invited them, and which, in time, would have brought them an acceffion of riches, grandeur, and fecurity. The fmall army, which they maintained in Ireland, they never fupplied regularly with pay; and as no money could be levied on the island, which poffeffed none, they gave their foldiers the privilege of free quarter upon the natives. Rapine and infolence inflamed the hatred, which prevailed between the conquerors and the conquered: Want of fecurity among the Irish, introducing defpair, nourished ftill more the floth, natural to that uncultivated people. BUT the English carried farther their ill-judged tyranny. Instead of inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized cuftoms of their conquerors, they even refufed, though earnestly folicited, to communicate to them the privilege of their laws, and every where marked them out as aliens and as enemies. Thrown out of the protection of juftice, the natives could find no fecurity but in 1599. 1599. CHAP. which they could not approach with safety, they XLIV. fheltered themselves in their marshes and forests from the infolence of their inhuman masters. Being treated like wild beafts, they became fuch; and joining the ardor of revenge to their yet untamed barbarity, they grew every day more intractable and more dangerous *. As the English princes deemed the conquest of the difperfed Irish to be more the object of time and patience than the fource of military glory, they willingly delegated that office to private adventurers, who, inlifting foldiers at their own charge, reduced provinces of that ifland, which they converted to their own profit. Separate jurifdictions and principalities were established by thefe lordly conquerors: The power of peace and war was affumed: Military law was exercifed over the Irish, whom they subdued, and, by degrees, over the English, by whofe affiftance they conquered: And, after their authority had once taken root, deeming the English institutions lefs favorable to barbarous dominion, they degenerated into mere Irish, and abandoned the garb, language, manners, and laws of their mother country'. By all this imprudent conduct of England, the natives of its dependent state remained still in that abject condition, into which the northern and western parts of Europe were funk, before "Sir J. Davies, p. 102, 103, &c. they 0 XLIV. 1599. they received civility and flavery from the re. CHA P. fined policy and irresistible bravery of Rome. Even at the end of the fixteenth century, when every christian nation was cultivating with ardor every civil art of life, that ifland, lying in a temperate climate, enjoying a fertile foil, acceffible in its fituation, poffeffed of innumerable harbours, was ftill, notwithstanding these advantages, inhabited by a people, whose customs and manners approached nearer those of savages than of barbarians *. As the rudeness and ignorance of the Irish were extreme, they were funk below the reach of that curiosity and love of novelty, by which every other people in Europe had been feized at the beginning of that century, and which had engaged them in innovations and religious dif putes, with which they were still so violently agitated. The ancient superstition, the practices and obfervances of their fathers, mingled and polluted with many wild opinions, ftill maintained an unfhaken empire over them; and the example alone of the English was fufficient to render the reformation odious to the prejudiced and difcontented Irish. The old oppofition of manners, laws, and intereft was now inflamed by religious antipathy; and the fubduing and civilizing of that country seemed to become every day more difficult and more impracticable. THE animofity against the English was carried 4 See Spencer's account of Ireland, throughout. |