for the night, and were entertained by the mayor.  The king’s protection for the O’Neill was not uncalled for.  Whenever he was recognised in city or hamlet, the populace, notwithstanding their respect for Mountjoy, the hero of the hour, pursued the earl with bitter insults, and stoned him as he passed along.  Throughout the whole journey to London, the Welsh and English women assailed him with their invectives.  Not unnaturally, for ’there was not one among them but could name some friend or kinsman whose bones lay buried far away in some wild pass or glen of Ulster, where the object of their maledictions was more often victor than vanquished.’[1] The king, however, gave the Irish chiefs a gracious reception, having issued a proclamation that he had restored them to his favour, and that they should be ‘of all men honourably received.’  This excited intense disgust amongst English officers who had been engaged in the Irish wars.  Thus Sir John Harrington, writing to a bishop, said:  ’I have lived to see that damnable rebel, Tyrone, brought to England, honoured and well liked.  Oh, what is there that does not prove the inconstancy of worldly matters!  How I did labour after that knave’s destruction!  I adventured perils by sea and land, was near starving, eat horseflesh in Munster, and all to quell that man, who now smileth in peace at those who did hazard their lives to destroy him; and now doeth Tyrone dare us old commanders with his presence and protection.’

[Footnote 1:  Father Meehan.]

In fact the favour of the king went to an excess fatal to its object, by conceding powers incompatible with his own sovereignty, leading to disorders and violence, and exciting jealousy and mortal enmity in those who were charged with the government in Ireland.  The lords of the Privy Council, with the king’s consent, gave O’Neill authority for martial law, ’to be executed upon any offenders that shall live under him, the better to keep them in obedience.’  It was ordered that the king’s garrisons should not meddle with him or his people.  The king also invested O’Donel with all the lands and rights of ancient time belonging to his house, excepting abbeys and other spiritual livings, the castle and town of Ballyshannon, and 1,000 acres adjoining the fishing there.  He also received the style and title of Earl of Tyrconnel, with remainder to his brother Caffar, the heirs male apparent being created Barons of Donegal.  He was formally installed in Christ Church Cathedral on the 29th of September following, in presence of Archbishop Loftus and a number of high officials.  Tyrone, however, was dogged by spies while he was in London, and one Atkinson swore informations to the effect that he was in the habit of entertaining a Jesuit named Archer, who was intriguing with the foreign enemies of England, and who was held by Irish royalists for ’the most bloody and treacherous traitor, who could divert Tyrone and all the rest from the king, and thrust them again into actual rebellion.’