Fate of the Irish Exiles
Above : Tomb Of Baron Howth
Only a few weeks after this (May 1607), an anonymous letter, purporting to give an account of a plot, which was being hatched to seize Dublin Castle and murder the Lord Deputy, was dropped outside the Council Chamber. The writer proved to be Christopher St. Lawrence, Baron Howth, who, on being interrogated by the Deputy, named Rory O’Donnell, Cuconnacht Maguire and several others as amongst the conspirators, but confessed that he had no evidence against Tyrone. Howth’s story entirely lacked corroboration, so that neither Chichester nor the English Privy Council, when it was placed before them, appear to have had much belief in it.
The affair of the anonymous letter was not long in coming to the ears of those whom Howth sought to incriminate, and they became very much concerned for their own safety. That any of them were guilty of a conspiracy to renew the rebellion has never been proved, and is in itself unlikely ; but they were too well aware of the history of the dealings of English officials with Irish chiefs to assume that innocence alone would of necessity protect them. Cuconnacht Maguire at once fled to Belgium, and thence wrote urgent letters, begging O’Neill and O’Donnell to follow his example.
O’Neill long hesitated ; he loved his countrv well, and had no mind to eat in his old age the bitter bread of exile. Still, to end his life on the scaffold or in the Tower would be an even more miserable fate. A number of slights, to which the aged chief had lately been subjected, increased his distrust of the Government, and, when he heard that a ship sent by Maguire awaited him in Lough Swilly, he resolved to avail himself of the offered opportunity of flight. Rory O’Donnell, and many other friends and kinsmen, agreed to share his fortunes. Early in September, O’Neill betook himself to Mellifont, the scene of his submission to Mountjoy more than four years before. There he stayed a while with his friend, Sir Garrett Moore, and, when leaving, ” with abundant grief, said farewell to every child and servant in the house.”
Then he turned northward, and on September 14th, 1607, the fugitives, about a hundred persons in all, set sail from Lough Swilly. With O’Neill went his wife (Catherine Magennis), his three sons and three nephews ; while Rory O’Donnell was accompanied by his infant son (his wife remained behind), Caffir his brother, and the latter’s wife and child, and Nuala, their sister, who had been married to Niall Garff, but had left him when he deserted the National cause. As far as we know, not one of those exiles ever saw again the Green Isle, for whose cause many of them had suffered so much.
After a voyage of twenty-one days, they landed in France, but did not make a long stay. They journeyed on to Belgium, and at last to Rome. The Pope (Paul V) received them with the utmost state and ceremony, and they entered the city in fifteen carriages, most of which were drawn by six horses. Pensions were assigned them, and at religious ceremonies they took a prominent place. Everything which the Pontiff could do was done to honour those whom he regarded as champions of the Catholic faith.
A couple of months after the departure of the Earls and their companions from Ireland (November 1607), a proclamation was issued by King James, and widely distributed by his authority. In it the fugitives were described as ” contemptible creatures,” and monsters of ingratitude, who had no hereditary right to the lands which they claimed, and merely desired to resist lawful authority. ” Let not foreign princes be deceived,” it went on, ” into believing their statements that they were driven from their country by religious persecution ; they never suffered any shadow of molestation for matters concerning religion.” To this document O’Neill and O’Donnell replied by two Declarations, setting forth their grievances against the English Government.
They stated that, within their own estates even, the celebration of Mass had been forbidden, and an order made to banish all clergymen who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. Further, they had been deprived of portions of their lands, their tenants had been maintained against them, and the soldiers of the garrisons permitted to plunder their people. James, whether he disdained to take any further notice of his fugitive subjects, or whether he found it impossible to refute their statements, made no answer to the Declarations.
