sent on a mission to the emperor Charles V at Brussels, for the purpose apparently of soliciting Philip to return to England (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. ii. 220, Venetian vol. vi. pt. i. p. 399).
Fitzwalter returned to England early in April 1557, and on the 27th he was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, in place of Sir Anthony St. Leger [q. v.] In the instructions given to him (Cal. Carew MSS. i. 252-7) he was specially admonished to advance the true catholic faith and religion, to punish and repress all heretics and lollards, to have due regard to the administration of justice, to repress rebels, and not to grant pardons too freely, and to make preparations for a parliament 'which is thought right necessary to be forthwith called.' To these were added certain other instructions (Cott. MS. Titus B. xi. ff. 464-7) relative to the projected settlement and plantation of Leix and Offaly. Accompanied by his wife, Sir Henry Sidney [q. v."], Sir William Fitzwilliam (1526-1599) [q. v.], and others, he arrived at Dublin on Whit-Sunday, 24 May. The next day he visited St. Leger at Kilmainham, where he was hospitably entertained, and on the day following he received the sword of state in Christ Church, Dublin. The month of June was passed in arranging the necessary details of his administration; but on 1 July he conducted an expedition into the north for the purpose of expelling the Hebridean Scots from their recently established settlements along the Antrim coast. At Coleraine, hearing that a large body of redshanks supported by Shane O'Neill [q. v.], who had lately ousted his father from the chieftaincy of Tyrone, and was endeavouring to make himself master of Ulster, was lurking in the woods of Glenconkein. Fitzwalter prepared to attack them. He encountered them on the 18th at a place called Knockloughan (? Knockclogrim, near Maghera), and, having slain two hundred of them, put the rest to flight. Retracing his steps to Coleraine, he advanced through the Route and the Glynnes to Glenarm. James MacDonnell, the chief of the Antrim Scots, and elder brother of Sorley Boy MacDonnell . [q. v.], had already escaped to Scotland, but his creaghts were captured; and so, after a journey through the country, which at that time was practically a terra incognita to Englishmen, he returned to Newry, and, after receiving the submission of Shane O'Neill, disbanded his army on 5 Aug.
Returning to Dublin, Fitzwalter prepared to carry out his instructions in regard to the plantation of Leix and Offaly. After a fruitless attempt at conciliation, war was proclaimed against the O'Conors of Offaly in February 1557, and before long Conel O'More's body was dangling from Leighlin Bridge, and Donough, second son of Bernard or Brian O'Conor Faly [q. v.], grew weaker day by day as he was hunted from one fastness to another. It was under these circumstances that the parliament which Fitzwalter had been authorised to summon assembled at Dublin on 1 June. He had already, in consequence of his father's death on 17 Feb., succeeded to the earldom of Sussex, and was appointed about the same time warden of all the forests south of the Trent, and captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners (Dugdale, Baronage). On 1 June, immediately before the opening of parliament, he was invested with the order of the Garter, to which he had been elected on 23 April, by the Earls of Kildare and Ormonde (Machyn, Diary, p. 133). Before parliament was prorogued on 2 July acts had been passed declaring the queen to have been born in just and lawful wedlock, reviving the statutes against heretics, repealing all statutes against the see of Rome since 20 Henry VIII, confirming all spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions conveyed to the laity, entitling the crown to the countries of Leix, Slievemargy, Iregan, Glenmalier, and Offaly, erecting the same into shire ground by the name of King's and Queen's County, and enabling the Earl of Sussex to grant estates therein,, and finally rendering it penal to bring in or intermarry with the Scots. It was, however, easier to dispose of Leix and Offaly by act of parliament than to take actual possession; and parliament had scarcely risen when Sussex was compelled to take the field against Donough O'Conor, who had captured the castle of Meelick. Meelick was recaptured and garrisoned in July, but O'Conor managed to escape, and, after proclaiming him and his confederates traitors, Sussex returned to Dublin. A few weeks later Sussex, who thought it a favourable opportunity to punish Shane O'Neill for his underhand dealings with the Scots, again marched northward on 22 Oct., and, having burned Armagh and ravaged Tyrone with fire and sword, forcibly restored the aged Earl of Tyrone and his son Matthew, baron of Dungannon. He returned to Dublin on 30 Nov., and four days later sailed for England, entrusting the government during his absence to Archbishop Curwen and Sir Henry Sidney. He spent Christmas at court.
Sussex left London on 21 March, but he did not arrive at Dublin till 27 April. His former services were warmly commended by the English government, and he was specially
