Fitzgerald. Accordingly, on the 14th of February, 1536, the council of Ireland sent to Cromwell, then minister, an exulting message; that Lord Gray, the chief justice, and others, had captured the five brethren, which they pronounced to be "the first deed that ever was done for the weal of the king's poor subjects of that land." They added, "We assure your mastership that the said lord justice, the treasurer of the king's wars, and such others as his grace put in trust in this behalf, have highly deserved his most gracious thanks for the politic and secret conveying of the matter." But the truth was, that this politic and secret management was one of the most disgraceful pieces of treachery which ever was transacted—the Fitzgeralds being seized at a banquet to which both parties had proceeded under the most solemn pledges of mutual faith. They were conveyed at once to London, and, in February, 1537, the young earl and his five uncles were beheaded, after a long and cruel imprisonment in the Tower. Their unprincipled betrayer, however, did not long enjoy the fruits of his treachery. He was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland as a reward for his dishonourable service, but was soon removed on charges of misconduct, committed to one of the very cells which his victims had occupied, and was beheaded on Tower Hill, as a traitor, on the 28th of June, 1541, ending his life, according to Godwin, very quietly and godlily. Gray certainly deserved better treatment of Henry; for, though his conduct was infamous to the Fitzgeralds, it was most useful to the English king. The rival factions of Fitzgeralds and Butlers continuing to resist the English power, Gray contended against them till, by his brilliant victory at Bellahoe, he broke the power of O'Neil, the northern chieftain, and confirmed the power of England. Yet, being uncle, by his sister, to the last surviving male heir of the Fitzgeralds—Gerald, the youngest brother of the unfortunate Lord Thomas, a boy of only twelve years of age—he was accused of favouring his escape, and all his services were forgotten by his ungrateful sovereign. The young Gerald Fitzgerald escaped to the Continent by the aid of a sea captain of St. Malo, and ultimately to Italy, where he lived under the patronage and protection of his kinsman, Cardinal Pole, till he eventually recovered the honours and estates of his ancestors, in the reign of Queen Mary, at the suggestion of the cardinal.
After the recall of Lord Gray, O'Connor, O'Neil, M'Mordo, and the O'Tholes excited fresh insurrections, but they were speedily put down, and in 1541 Anthony St. Leger found both the Irish chiefs and the lords of the pale eagerly outstripping each other in professions of loyalty. In 1541 Henry raised Ireland from the rank of a lordship to that of a kingdom, and granted letters patent to the Irish chiefs, by the advice of Sir Thomas Cusake, though unwillingly. Thus, by securing them in possession of their lands, and raising them to new honours, he gained their devoted attachment. Henry gave them houses in Dublin, which they were to inhabit when summoned as peers of the Irish Parliament. Ulliac de Burg was made Earl of Clanricarde, Murroch O'Brien Earl of Thomond, and the great O'Neil became henceforth known by his new title of Earl of Tyrone. The Irish council was instructed to proceed with the suppression of the monasteries, though cautiously, not urging the monks too rigorously, lest they stirred up opposition, but desirably persuading them that "the lands of the Church were his proper inheritance." These matters were so well carried out, that the ascendancy of England had never appeared so firmly established since the first invasion of the island by Henry II.
Our last glance at Scotland was when Henry, having suddenly lost Jane Seymour, was endeavouring to persuade Francis I. to prevail upon Mary of Guise, the widow of the Duke de Longueville, to become his wife.Both Francis and Mary of Guise replied that the thing was impossible, the lady being already engaged to his nephew, James of Scotland. Henry in vain endeavoured to pluck the prize from his nephew. Mary of Guise proceeded to Scotland, and the marriage was celebrated in the cathedral of St. Andrews, in 1538. This marriage was undoubtedly intended by the Romanist party in Scotland to strengthen the attachment of the Government in that country to the old faith. The negotiation for a French princess had been entrusted to David Beaton, abbot of Arbroath, afterwards Bishop of Mirepoix, and next Cardinal of St. Andrews, accompanied by Lord Maxwell and the master of Glencairn. The princess was of a house attached to the Roman Catholic faith, and other circumstances tended to throw the weight into that scale. James of Scotland, on his visit to France in 1537, when he traversed the country from Dieppe to Provence, everywhere hoard the bitter terms of execration in which the cruelty and rapacity of his uncle, Henry of England, were spoken of. The Pilgrimage of Grace, which had just preceded his journey, had given him a warning of what he might expect from attacking the property of the Church. In England, the power of the aristocracy had been broken down before Henry VIII. came to the throne, and there was little to be feared from some increase of wealth amongst them; but in Scotland the case was different. There the aristocracy was still intact and strong, though many of them were poor, and still more would have gladly laid a greedy hand on the ecclesiastical property. But to increase the power of the nobles by destroying that of the Church, the only counterbalancing power, would have been an impolitic measure in James, and these reasons kept him back from listening to the invitations from Henry to follow his example. On the other hand, the emperor and Francis I. endeavoured to maintain his friendship as a check upon Henry, and the Pope naturally united with the clergy in giving all their influence to the Church in Scotland which was possible.
In 1539 David Beaton succeeded his uncle, James Beaton, in the primacy, and the Pope, to add additional honours to so devoted a servant, presented him with a cardinal's hat. It was at this crisis that the Pope, acting in concert with France and Spain, sent Cardinal Pole to co-operate with the Scotch in annoying Henry, and James being applied to by the Pontiff Paul, declared himself willing to unite with Francis I. and the emperor in the endeavour to convert or punish the heretical English king. As if to show Henry that there was no prospect of any co-operation of James with him, the fires of persecution were kindled by Beaton and his coadjutors against the Protestants in that kingdom, and this again drove the Reformers to make common cause with the Earl of Angus and other Scottish exiles in England.
