Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Chapters towards a History of Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth (Author: Philip O'Sullivan Beare)
Chapter 4
Rising of the Munster Cities.
AFTER the pacification of Ireland, the death of Elizabeth, Queen of England, who a few days previously had passed away in delirium and great pain, became known. Immediately on receipt of this news, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, cities of Munster, and also intervening towns, not knowing what Prince to obey, took counsel together and hastened to publicly celebrate Mass and carry out the ancient ecclesiastical rites. If they had done this before, when the Irish chiefs and entire Catholic party were flourishing, the English would have been driven out of the whole realm. Now, however, there were none to help or defend them and by themselves they did not seem capable of withstanding the power of the heretics, and this, indeed, turned out to be the case. The English Privy Council with the utmost despatch called James Stuart, King of Scotland, to be their king also. This assuredly, on account of the ancient enmity between the English and Scotch they would never have done, had they not known that England, the home of error, would be maintained in its madness, and had they not been aware that if the Irish, who could never he detached from the Catholic faith nor be brought over to English views, and the Scots, who seemed to claim the sceptre of England as their King's hereditary right, were joined in attacking England, it would go hard with the English between two such warlike races, which in ancient times had conquered and made England subject to them. James having got the sceptre, Charles Blount with the royalist army arrived at Waterford from Dublin. John White, a priest and Doctor of Theology came into his camp
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with a deputation from Waterford, carrying and displaying the Crucifix, and assured the Viceroy that the people of Waterford would never willingly yield allegiance to any prince who would attack and persecute the Catholic religion. To the same effect spoke brother Edmond O'Callaghan of the Order of St. Dominic, a man renowned for his holiness and learning, and Brother Candidus of the Order of St. Bernard, assuredly candid not only in name but also in learning, piety, and manners. Blount, on account of the difficulties of the times, and the anxieties which perplexed him, dissembled, treated the monks and doctor with civility, and speaking them fair, received the surrender of Waterford and other lesser towns. The Corkonians suffered more severely in this inter-regnum, for having expelled the English garrison they fought daily battles for two months, with Charles Wilmot, Vice-President of Munster, at long range and close quarters; from the fortifications and before the walls; in the harbour and docks; on land and sea. In these skirmishes Charles lost more than the Corkmen, but a few fell on each side. When Blount arrived the Corkmen submitted to him, being now advised of the new king. As soon as Blount entered the city he ordered three persons to be publicly hanged:—Christopher Muriach Murray?, a man well skilled in military matters and who had inflicted no small damage on Wilmot's troops; Eugene, a teacher of Latin, because when our Lord Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist was being carried through the streets of the city, with great pomp and incredible joy of the whole town, he, looking up to heaven with outstretched arms, had prayed God never to permit Cork to want power to preserve so happy, holy, and divine a custom: and William Buler, because he had stayed the cruelty of Dominic Sarsfield, a judge of notoriously truculent and wicked disposition, who used to condemn to death priests and other holy and innocent men. Then he sought out the movers of these disturbances, and would have treated most honourable citizens with the greatest harshness and cruelty, were it not for the magnanimity of one William Meach Meade?. This man preferring that he alone should die for all the citizens, than that all should perish with him, avowed himself the sole instigator and leader of the rebellion and prime mover therein. He was imprisoned and put in chains on this confession and now it appeared that if he were acquitted the others must also go scathless, but if he were condemned then all who had taken part in his schemes must suffer the like punishment. This matter, according
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to the English law, was to be submitted to the verdict of twelve men, who were to pronounce whether he were guilty or not of the crime, and if found guilty the punishment was meted out by the judge in manner heretofore described by us at length. William, distrusting the virtue of his own fellow-citizens, chose, to try him on the capital charge, twelve Irish gentlemen, some of whom had served under O'Sullivan in the Catholic Party. It must, however, be remembered that if the twelve men acquitted against the direction of the English judge, they were at least fined and often put to death. Lest the twelve men should, through dread of this penalty, be afraid to acquit William, the Corkmen, who knew that their own safety depended upon William's acquittal, promised the twelve to pay the fine for them. These gentlemen, at the peril not only of a fine, but even at the risk of their lives, boldly and bravely acquitted. They were heavily fined, and the Corkmen failing to pay up, some of the jury were reduced to poverty by the enormousness of the fine, and some who could not pay, had to quit the country. William, being released from prison, also went for Spain, where he was granted 40 gold pieces a month by his Catholic Majesty, and where he died.