The Geraldine League
July
O’Donnell was found willing, and in the spring of 1538 the Lady Eleanor, with Gerald and his tutor, journeyed from Cork to Donegal, where the marriage was celebrated. The lady at once bestirred herself to form a confederacy of the northern and western chiefs, the ostensible object of which was the protection of her nephew and the upholding of his cause. This confederacy is known as ” the Geraldine League,” but, except that all opposed the Lord Deputy and his Government, there was not much singleness of purpose amongst its members. It was, however, a very powerful and widely spread association, and both Anglo-Irish, like Mac William Burke of Clanrickard and his kinsman Mac William of Mayo, and Irish chiefs, like O’Donnell and O’Neill, adhered to it.
Meanwhile; Grey, finding his former policy both ineffective and costly, modified it in the direction of conciliation. He succeeded in gaining over Brian O’Connor, and the campaign which he undertook in the spring and early summer of 1538 was as much diplomatic as military. Many of the midland and southern chiefs, as well as the Earl of Desmond and several of the Burkes, were induced or forced to ” come in.” They promised tribute and adherence to the English Government; but that the tribute would ever be paid, or that the adherence would be long-lasting, Grey must have been by this time too well acquainted with Irish affairs to suppose. Well pleased with the result of his labours, Grey returned to Dublin in July.
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June
Of the family of Garrett, only two male representatives survived; Thomas’ little half-brothers, Gerald and Edward, aged respectively twelve and nine. Of these, the younger was in England in King Henry’s power, but the elder and more important remained in Ireland. Henry earnestly desired to obtain possession of him, and the boy’s own uncle, Lord Leonard Grey, tried all manner of shifts to fulfil his master’s wishes in this respect, but the young Geraldine had relatives of a different stamp and plenty of devoted adherents in his native land.*
Lord Leonard Grey’s Campaigns– In the December of 1535 Skeffington died, and Grey became Deputy. He made a spring and summer campaign in Munster against the Desmonds and the O’Briens, tvho were in open revolt, and gained considerable success. He captured Desmond’s castle of Lough Gyr, and broke down the fine bridge which O’Brien had built across the Shannon, at a place still known as ” O’Brien’s Bridge,” near Killaloe.
At this point, however, his progress was checked by a most inopportune mutiny of his soldiers, whose pay was in arrears, and who declared that without it they would do no more service. Grey had no money to give them, so nothing remained but to march back to Dublin, which he accordingly did. In the course of the autumn and winter the tide rolled back ; Desmond regained his castle and O’Brien rebuilt his bridge. The Lord Deputy’s campaign had produced no enduring result worth mentioning. Such was the usual course of events in Ireland.
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