GLEANINGS ON O'DONNELL HISTORY The permission was granted, but on penings in the country, but in ".Such l1 condition that nobody else of the Irish way that, if there is bad news, while party at Rome accompanied her, '.so as letting him know he will keep the innot to offend the king of England' by formation from the Spaniards. He nathe prosximity of Irish rebels and plot- turally feared that if the position of ters to his domains. There is also men- the Irish deteriorated too much, the tion of this Hugh, her nephew, at dif- king would be reluctant to commit ferent later stages o.f .his caree.r. himself further. As bad luck would There are contemporary references have it, this letter was discovered by to the death of Red I-fugh at Simancas the English when they captured O'Suland of Rory at Rome. I have treated at livan's castle at Bearehaven. Astutely greater length elsewhere (in an article enough, they decided to use it to drive now with the printers which is due to a wedge between Spaniard and Irish. appear in a coming number of The An English soldier, Captain Harvey, Irish Ecclesiastical Record) of the re- had been befriended by a Spaniard, ference.s to the death of Red Hugh, so Pedro Lopez de Soto, and the lords of let it suffice on this occasion to state the council wrote to Carew, lord preonce again that there is no evidence at sident of Munster, instructing hi:ni ·w Simancas that he died of poison ad- get ~a.rvey as a pretended act of gratministered by an English agent. it,ude to :ti.and over, this letter to Lopez There were two documents to show 'how this traitor O'Donnell among the bundles examined by my I only tempers a· bait to deceive the colleague Doctor Joseph Healy which, king your ma~ter.' The letter was duly on his showing them to me, left a par- I fol'1Warded, as the English had foreticularly vivid impression. One was a seen, to the .king of Spain, :but the letter dated 24th April, 1600, which death of O'Donnell soon afterwards was sent from Donegal by the Spanish ~ook greatly from the effectiveness of Franciscan, Matthew of Oviedo, arch- the English ·.stratagem. It can now be bishop elect of Dublin at the time. It examined at Simancas with its ac::c-.:fmtold of a gathering there of sixty Irish panying 1ette:-s, a vivid reminder of a gentlemen to concert plans for a vigor- great epoch and an impressive memous prosecution of the war for homes ento of a great man. It is still ·.stained and altars. Nowhere, the writer assur- brown with the marks of the fray and ed the king, had his majesty more turmoil between English and Irish at ·" faithful or more valorous vassals than Bearehaven. . .. these. He praises O'Neill and O'Don- Bi:bliographicaJ note: Summaries nel: and says he delivered the chains of a large number of the documents at sent as a gift by the king. He vigor- Simancas relatil).g to Ireland for the ous1y rebuts the calumnies being period 1558-1603 will be found in spread about them that they arc mere Letters and state pap•fr.s relating to rnvages. On the contrary, they are English affairs preseh~.e.il principally mo·st prudent men. The other· docu- in the archiv.es cf Simancas, e~. M.A.S. ment was a letter sent to O'Connor Hume, I-IV (1892-99). Copies of some Kerry by Red Hugh shortly after he of the documents dealing with Red had gone to Spain to seek further aid Hugh O'Donnell wi11 be found in the for Ireland. It is an original signed by introduction to L. O'Clery, Beatha his own )land. He buoys O'Connor up Ao,dha Ruaidh Ui Dhc;.mhnaill, ed. . D. by assuring him of the king's strong ;\Iurphy. For an account of the capture dete:mination to help Ireland what- of Red Hugh's letter to O'Connor ever the cost, and asks him to keep Kerry and the use to which it was put · him, Red Hugh, fully informed of hap- see Pacata Hibernia, ed. S. O'Grady, 4B9.
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