; tagonist, which happened about the fame time, feemed to CHA P. enfure him conftant poffeffion of the queen's confidence; XLIV. and nothing indeed but his own indifcretion could thenceforth have fhaken his well-established credit. Lord Bur- 1598. leigh died in an advanced age; and by a rare fortune, was 4th Aug. equally regretted by his fovereign and the people. He had rilen gradually, from small beginnings, by the mere force of merit; and though his authority was never entirely abfolute, or uncontrouled with the queen, he was still, during the course of near forty years, regarded as her principal minifter. None of her other inclinations or affections could ever overcome her confidence in fo useful a counfellor and as he had had the generofity or good fenfe to pay affiduous court to her, during her fifter's reign, when it was dangerous to appear her friend, fhé thought herfelt bound in gratitude, when the mounted the throne, to persevere in her attachments to him. He feems not to have poffeffed any fhining talents of addrefs, eloquence, or imagination; and was chiefly distinguished by folidity of understanding, probity of manners, and indefatigable application in businefs virtues, which, if they do not always enable a man to rife to high ftations, do certainly qualify him beft for filling them. Of all the queen's minifters he alone left a confiderable fortune to his pofterity; a fortune not acquired by rapine or oppreffion, but gained by the regular profits of his offices, and preferved by frugality. : THE laft act of this able minifter was the concluding a 8th Aug. new treaty with the Dutch; who, after being, in fome measure, deferted by the king of France, were glad to preferve the queen's alliance, by fubmitting to any terms which the pleafed to require of them. The debt, which they owed her, was now fixed at eight hundred thoufand pounds: Of this fum they agreed to pay, during the war, thirty thousand pounds a year; and thefe payments were to continue till four hundred thousand pounds of the debt should be extinguished. They engaged alfo, during the time that England fhould continue the war with Spain, to pay the garrison of the cautionary towns. They ft pulated, that, if Spain fhould invade England, or the ifle of Wight, or Jerfey, or Scilly, they fhould aflift her with a body of five thousand foot, and five hundred horse; and that in cafe fhe undertook any naval armament against Spain, they should join an equal number of fhips to hers. By E Rymer, vol. xvi. p. 34o. this CHAP. this treaty the queen was eafed of an annual charge of an XLIV. hundred and twenty thousand pounds. 1598. 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 the fecond, who, after languishing under many infirmities, expired in an advanced age at Madrid. This haughty prince, defirous of an accommodation with his revolted fubjects in the Netherlands, but difdaining to make in his own name the conceffions requifite for that purpose, had transferred to his daughter, married to archduke Albert, the property of the Low Country provinces ; but as it was not expected, that this princefs could have pofterity, and as the reverfion, on failure of her iffue, was still referved to the crown of Spain, the States confidered this deed only as the change of a name, and they perfifted with equal obstinacy in their refiftance to the Spanish arms. The other powers alfo of Europe, made no diftinction between the courts of Bruffels and Madrid; and the secret oppofition of France, as well as the avowed efforts of England, continued to operate against the progrefs of Albert, as it had done against that of Philip. CHAP. CHAP. XLV. State of IrelandTyrone's rebellion-Effex fent over to Ireland His ill fuccefs -Returns to England Is difgraced-His intrigues-His infurrection -His trial and executionFrench affairsMountjoy's fuccefs in Ireland-Defeat of the Spaniards and Irifb A parliament Tyrone's fubmiffion Queen's ficknessAnd death And character. TH XLV. Ireland. HOUGH the dominion of the English over Ireland CHA P. had been established above four centuries, it may fafely be affirmed, that their authority had hitherto been little more than nominal. The Irish princes and nobles, 1599divided among themselves, readily paid the exterior marks State of of obeisance 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 still 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 enterprizing 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 A. MOST of the English inftitutions likewife, by which that ifland was governed, were to the laft degree abfurd, and fuch as no state before had ever thought of, for the preferving dominion over its conquered provinces. THE English nation, all on fire for the project of subduing France, a project, whofe fuccefs was the most improbable, and would to them have proved the most pernicious; neglected all other enterprizes, 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 from the ifland, which. poffeffed none, they gave their foldiers the privilege of free quarter upon the natives. Rapine and infolence inflamed A Sir J. Davis, p. 5, 6, 7, &c. CHAP. inflamed the hatred, which prevailed between the conXLV. querors and the conquered: Want of fecurity among the Irith, introducing despair, nourished still farther the floth, natural to that uncultivated people. 1599 BUT the English carried farther their ill-judged tyranny. Inftead of inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized cuftoms of their conquerors, they even refused, though earneftly 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 justice, the natives could find no fecurity but in force; and flying the neighbourhood of cities, which they could not approach with fafety, they sheltered themselves in their marfhes and forefts from the infolence of their inhuman malers. 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 B. As the English princes deemed the conquest of the difperfed Irith 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 island, which they converted to their own profit. Separate jurifdictions and principalities were eftablished by thefe lordly conquerors: The power of peace and war was affumed: Military law was exercifed over the Irifh, whom they fubdued, and, by degrees, over the English, by whose affiftance they conquered: And, after their authority had once taken root, deeming the English inftitutions lefs favourable to barbarous dominion, they degenerated into mere Irish, and abandoned the garb, language, manners, and laws of their native country c. By all this imprudent conduct of England, the natives of its dependant state remained still in that abject condition, into which the northern and western parts of Europe. were funk, before they received civility and flavery from the refined policy and irresistible bravery of Rome. Even at the end of the fixteenth century, when every chriftian nation was cultivating with ardour every civil art of life, that ifland, lying in a temperate climate, enjoying a fertile foil, B Sir J. Davis, p. 102, 103, &c. CIbid. p. 133, 134, &c. foil, acceffible in its fituation, poffeffed of innumerable C H A P. harbours, was ftill, notwithstanding these advantages, XLV. inhabited by a people, whose customs and manners approached nearer thofe of favages than of barbarians *. As the rudeness and ignorance of the Irish was extreme, they were funk below the reach of that curiosity and love of novelty, by which every other people in Europe had been seized at the beginning of that century, and which had engaged them in innovations and religious difputes, with which they were still fo violently agitated. The antient fuperftition, the practices and obfervances of their fathers, mingled and polluted with many wild opinions, still maintained an unshaken 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 interests was now inflamed by a religious antipathy; and the fubduing and civilizing of that country feemed to become every day more difficult and more impracticable. THE animofity against the English was carried fo far by the Irish, that, in an infurrection, raised by two fons of the earl of Clanricarde, they put to the fword all the inhabitants of the town of Athenry, though Irish; because they began to conform themfelves to English cuftoms and institutions, and had embraced a more cultivated and civilized form of life, than had been practised by their barbarous ancestors D. F THE usual revenue of Ireland amounted only to fix thousand pounds a year E: The queen, though with much. repining commonly added twenty thousand more, which the remitted from England: And with this small revenue, a body of one thousand men was fupported, which, on extraordinary emergencies, was augmented to two thousando. No wonder that a force, fo disproportioned to the object, instead of fubduing a mutinous kingdom, ferved rather to provoke the natives, and to excite thofe frequent infurrections and rebellions, which ftill farther inflamed the animofity between the two natiVOL. V. Y ons, * See Spencer's account of Ireland, throughout. den, p. 457. D Cam E Memoirs of the Sidneys, vol. i. p. 86. Cox, p. 342. Sydney, vol. i. p. 85, 200. 1599. |