[164] Letters to the Lord Deputy, June 17 to 20, from Lady St. Leger, J. Horsey, the Mayors of Cork, Waterford, and Youghal, and Andrew Skiddy. St. Leger to Sidney, February 14; see _Froude_, vol. x. p. 495, from Simancas.
[165] Depositions of Lord Baltinglass and Richard Shee, June 19; Information of William Sweetman, July 27.
[166] N. White to Cecil, April 18; Mayor and Corporation of Waterford to Cecil, July 8; Corporation of Kilmallock and Limerick to Sidney, July 2 and 10; the Queen to Sidney, July 9.
[167] James Fitzmaurice to the Corporation of Cork, July 12. He calls the Protestants 'Hugnettes.'
[168] _Life of Carew_; Ormonde to Cecil, July 24; Sir Edmund Butler to Ormonde, Aug. 23.
[169] Ormonde to Cecil, July 24; Corporation of Kilkenny to Sidney, July 2 and 29; Roger Hooker (Richard Hooker's father) to Weston, Aug. 10.
[170] Ormonde to Cecil, July 24 and Sept. 7; Words uttered, &c. Sept. 1; N. White to Cecil, Sept. 3.
[171] George Wyse to Cecil, Oct. 29; Lord Deputy and Council to Cecil, Oct. 26; Sidney's Brief Relation in _Carew_, 1583.
[172] Fitzmaurice took Kilmallock early in Sept. 1569; Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Oct. 20; Sidney's Summary Relation, in _Carew_, 1583.
[173] Brief Relation, in _Carew_, 1583; Sidney to Cecil, Oct. 17, 1569, in _Sidney Papers_.
[174] Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Sept. 12; Geo. Wyse to same, Oct. 29; Sidney to same, Nov. 29; also Sidney's Summary Relation, as above.
[175] Warde to Cecil, Sept. 26 and Oct. 18; Gilbert to same, Oct. 18.
[176] Gilbert to Sidney, Nov. 13 and Dec. 6; Sidney to Cecil, Nov. 25 and Jan. 4, 1570.
[177] MacMahon to the Commissioners for the North, Aug. 23; Fitzwilliam to Cecil, Sept. 12.
[Sidenote: Fitton, President of Connaught.]
Pollard's illness had delayed the formation of a presidential Government in Munster, but Sir Edward Fitton was appointed to Connaught, with Ralph Rokeby for a Chief Justice. When the decadence of the southern rebellion enabled him to begin work, he did not show much talent for government, being an ill-tempered, quarrelsome man, not at all fitted for the delicate duty of turning Irish into English order. The townsmen of Galway he found loyal and peaceable enough, but the people of the province were cold in religion, and inclined to superstition. By way of encouragement he burned the 'idols' in the churches. The friars were nominally expelled, really driven into hiding. More praiseworthy were his efforts to make the clergy either put away or marry their female companions--efforts extended to the laity, who, from the Earl of Clanricarde downwards, seem to have held canonical marriage in contempt. Malefactors were executed, a kind of census taken, and a provost-marshal appointed to hang out of hand all who could find no one to answer for them. 'Such as do come unto us, we cause to cut their glybbes, which we do think the first token of obedience.' Clanricarde and O'Connor Sligo professed some agreement with Fitton's course, but O'Rourke held aloof, while Thomond gave every possible opposition, even to the extent of detaining Captain Apsley and his men on their return from Kerry, and of threatening to capture the President himself. Proclamation had been made for holding assizes at Ennis, where the sheriff, Teig O'Brien, made store of provisions for the President. Thomond, who was at Clare close by, refused to attend, and when the assizes were over friendly partisans conducted Fitton through the Burren Mountains, the Earl hanging on his skirts and skirmishing as far as Gort. He was said to be acting under orders from the Duke of Norfolk, and no doubt his conduct had reference to the rising in the North, and to the general attack on those whom Fitzmaurice called Huguenots. Fitton was shut up in Galway, and John Burke, Clanricarde's rebellious son, rode up to the gate, but refused to enter. Gilbert having departed, Fitzmaurice gathered a new force, entered and spoiled Kilmallock; and there seemed every prospect of a conflagration throughout the West. Sidney resolved to take Ormonde at his word, and to employ him in putting down this fresh disturbance.[178]