Queen Elizabeth, amid all her troubles with foreign states, had to pour
large numbers of troops into Ireland, and these troops, as all historians
admit, overran the country in the most reckless and merciless manner.
Shane O'Neil, however, held his own, and began to prove himself a
formidable opponent of English power.
The evidence of history leaves little or no doubt that Elizabeth connived
at a plot for the removal of O'Neil by assassination. This project did
not come to anything, and the Queen tried another policy. She was a woman
not merely of high intellect but also of artistic feeling, and it would
seem as if the picturesque figure of Shane O'Neil had aroused some
interest in her. She proposed to enter into terms with the new "Lord
of Ulster," as he now declared himself, and invited him to visit her
court in England. O'Neil seems to have accepted with great good-will
this opportunity of seeing a life hitherto unknown to him, and he soon
appeared at court. We read that O'Neil and his retainers presented
themselves in their saffron-colored shirts and shaggy mantles, bearing
battle-axes as their weapons, amid the stately gentlemen, the
contemporaries of Essex and Raleigh, who thronged the court of the
great Queen. A meeting took place on January 6, 1562.
Froude tells us the effect produced upon the court by the appearance
of O'Neil and his followers: "The council, the peers, the foreign
ambassadors, bishops, aldermen, dignitaries of all kinds, were present in
state, as if at the exhibition of some wild animal of the desert.
Pages:
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517