as Henry lived, good management and good fortune combined on the whole in his favour, and his term of government was creditable and happy.
But the reform gusts which were borne across St George's Channel on the accession of the child King, swept the strings of the Irish harp, and woke the old music. 'If the Lords of the Council,' sighed a later deputy, 'had letten all things alone in the order King Henry left them, and meddled not to alter religion, the hurley-burleys had not happened.'[1] But the Protector's mission to regenerate the world, the pillaged cathedrals, the emptied niches, and the white- washed church walls, rapidly stirred the jealousies of a passionate and susceptible people, and gave the chiefs, who by this time had made themselves secure in their new properties, an opportunity for the display of their remaining devotion.
St Leger, the pilot of the calm, was unequal to the hurricane which instantly arose. He was recalled, and his place was taken by Sir Edward Bellingham.
The tourist who has visited Athlone may remember, on the edge of the town, a half-ruined castle, on which the letters E. R. [Edwardus Rex] stand out in high and distinct relief. It is one of the few surviving memorials of the brief administration of a remarkable man.
Edward Bellingham, brought up originally by the Duke of Norfolk, attracted, in 1540, the notice of Henry VIII., and was employed by him from that time forward in various secondary services. He was in
- ↑ Sir James Crofts to the Council: Irish MSS. Edward VI. vol. iv. State Paper Office.
