They
scornfully threw away the title "Earl of Tyrone," bestowed upon the
head of their house by Henry VIII,, and declared that by virtue {211}
of the old Irish law of Tanistry, Shane O'Neill was King of Ulster! It
was a test case of the validity of Irish or English laws. "Shane the
Proud," the King of Ulster, at the invitation of Elizabeth, appeared
with his wild followers at her Court, wearing their saffron shirts and
battle-axes. The tactful Queen patched up a peace with her rival, and
then made sure that his head should in a few weeks adorn the walls of
Dublin Castle. His forfeited kingdom was thickly planted with English
and Scotch settlers, who, when they tried to settle, were usually
killed by the O'Neills. The only thing to be done was to exterminate
this troublesome tribe. This grew into the larger purpose of
extirpating the whole of the obnoxious native population. The
Geraldines were not all dead, and this atrocious plan led to the famous
Geraldine League, and that to the Desmond Rebellion. The league which
was to be the avenger of centuries of wrong, was a Catholic one. The
Earl of Desmond had long been in communication with Rome and with
Spain, enlisting their sympathies for their co-religionists in Ireland.
A recent event {212} helped to steel the hearts of the natives against
pity should they succeed. A rising in Connaught had, at the suggestion
of Sir Francis Crosby, been put down in the following way. The chiefs
and their kinsmen, four hundred in number, were invited to a banquet in
the fort of Mullaghmast. But one man escaped alive from that feast of
death! One hundred and eighty from the clan of O'Moore alone were
slaughtered. It was "Rory O'Moore" who did not attend the banquet, who
kept alive the memory of the awful event for many a year by his
battle-cry, "Remember Mullaghmast!" Now the long-impending battle was
on, with a Geraldine for a standard-bearer. But it was in vain.
Another Earl of Kildare perished in the Tower, and another Desmond head
was sent there as a warning against disloyalty! Those who escaped the
slaughter fell by the executioner, and the remnant, hiding from both,
perished by famine. But Munster was "pacified." The enormous Desmond
estate, a hundred miles in territory, was confiscated and planted with
settlers who would undertake the doubtful task of settling.

{213}

The smothered fires next broke out in Ulster--the brilliant Earl of
Tyrone headed the rebelli