the other hand, the Earl of Tyrone recognised in Norris an opponent to be feared, and was easily persuaded to forward to him a signed paper, which he called his submission. But the terms demanded a full acknowledgment of Tyrone's local supremacy, and were at once rejected by Norris, with the approval of the queen's advisers.
Norris, after making vain efforts to bring Tyrone to an open engagement, resolved to winter in Armagh. The place was easily occupied, but while engaged in fortifying a neighbouring pass between Newry and Armagh on 4 Sept. Norris was attacked by the Irish, and was wounded in the arm and side. The home government thereupon suggested that Norris should reopen negotiations. Norris, impressed by the defects in his equipment, had already suggested that Tyrone should be granted a free pardon on condition that he renounced Spain and the pope. If further hostilities were attempted, it was needful that all the English forces in Ireland should be concentrated in Ulster. Meanwhile a truce was arranged with Tyrone to last until 1 Jan. 1596, and one month longer if the lord-deputy desired it.
Next year Norris was instructed to renew negotiations for a peace, and a hollow arrangement was patched up at Dundalk. Sir William Russell plainly recognised that Tyrone was only seeking to gain time until help came from Spain, and complained with some justice that ‘the knaves’ had overreached Norris. But for the moment Ulster was free from disturbance, and Norris was ordered to proceed with Sir Geoffrey Fenton to Connaught to arrange terms with the Irish chieftains there (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1596–7, pp. 2 sq.). He censured the rigorous policy of the governor, Sir Richard Bingham [q. v.], who was sent to Dublin and detained. But his efforts at a pacification of the province proved futile. He remained there from June until the middle of December, when he returned to Newry; but as soon as he left the borders of Connaught the rebellion blazed out as fiercely as of old. Russell protested that Norris's ‘course of pacification’ was not to the advantage of the queen's government, and the dissensions between them were openly discussed on both sides of the Channel. Each represented in his official despatches the state of affairs in a different light, and Tyrone took every advantage of the division in the English ranks. On 22 Oct. 1596 Anthony Bacon, whose relations with Essex naturally made him a harsh critic of Norris, informed his mother that ‘from Ireland there were cross advertisements from the lord-deputy on the one side and Sir John Norris on the other, the first, as a good trumpet, sounding continually the alarm against the enemy; the latter serving as a treble viol to invite to dance and be merry upon false hopes of a hollow peace, and that these opposite accounts made many fear rather the ruin than the reformation of the state upon that infallible ground “quod omne regnum divisum in se dissipabitur”’ (Birch, ii. 180). In December 1596 Norris, in letters to Sir Robert Cecil, begged for his recall. He complained that all he did had been misrepresented at Whitehall, his health was failing, and the unjust treatment accorded to him was likely to ‘soon make an end of him’ (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1596–7, pp. 183–6).
Until April 1597 Norris, who remained at Newry, continued his negotiations with Tyrone, in the absence, he complained, of any definite instructions from Dublin; but the chieftain had no intention of surrendering any of his pretensions, and it was plain that diplomacy was powerless to remove the danger that sprang from his predominance. At length the queen's patience was exhausted. She recognised that the war must be resumed. The suggestion that both Russell and Norris should be recalled was practically adopted. Although Burghley's confidence in Norris was not wholly dissipated, Thomas, lord Borough, was despatched in May to fill Russell's place as lord-deputy, and to take the command of the army. The new viceroy belonged to Essex's party at the English court, and had been on bad terms with Norris in Holland. Norris, although not recalled, was effectually humiliated, and he felt the degradation keenly. ‘He had,’ he declared, ‘lost more blood in Her Majesty's service than any he knew, of what quality soever,’ ‘yet was he trodden to the ground with bitter disgrace’ owing to ‘a mistaken information’ of his enemies. But he met Borough on his arrival in Dublin ‘with much counterfeit kindness,’ and no rupture took place between them. In June he retired to Munster, where he still held the office of president. His health was precarious; no immediate danger threatened his province, and he asked for temporary leave in order to recruit his strength. In his absence the rebels might be easily kept in check, he said; and, he added, ‘I am not envious, though others shall reap the fruits of my travail—an ordinary fortune of mine.’ Before any reply was sent to his appeal he died, on 3 July, in the arms of his brother Thomas, at the latter's house in Mallow. The immediate cause of death was gangrene, due to unskilful treatment of his old wounds, but a settled melancholy aggravated his ailments;
