descended; but instead of marching at once to claim his possessions, he adopted such conciliatory measures as secured him the services and affections of a large body of Irish chieftains, with whose assistance he soon subdued any who still remained refractory.  His popularity increased daily.  Presents were sent to him by the most powerful and independent of the native chieftains.  Nor was his “fair ladye” forgotten, for Brian O’Byrne, in addition to an offering of four hundred beeves to the Duke, sent “two hobbies"[369] for the special use of the “Rose of Raby.”  Indeed, it was reported in England that “the wildest Irishman in Ireland would before twelve months be sworn English.”  Such were the fruits of a conciliatory policy, or rather of a fair administration of justice.

The cities of Cork, Kinsale, and Youghal, now sent in petitions to the Viceroy, complaining bitterly of the way in which the English noblemen “fall at variance among themselves,” so that the whole country was desolated.  The settlers of Waterford and Wexford made similar complaints against an Irish chieftain, O’Driscoll, whom they describe as “an Irish enemy to the King and to all his liege people of Ireland.”  The Duke pacified all parties, and succeeded in attaching the majority of the nation more and more to his person and his interests.  His English friends, who looked on his residence in Ireland as equivalent to banishment and imprisonment, were actively employed in promoting his return.  The disgraceful loss of the English possessions in France, and probably still more the haughty and unconciliatory policy adopted by the Queen, had strengthened the Yorkist party, and emboldened them to action.  The Duke was requested to return to England, where the insurgents in Kent had already risen under the leadership of the famous Jack Cade, whose origin is involved in hopeless obscurity, and whose character has been so blackened by writers on the Lancastrian side that it is equally incomprehensible.  He called himself John Mortimer, and asserted that he was cousin to the Viceroy.  A proclamation, offering one thousand marks for his person, “quick or dead,” described him as born in Ireland.  In consequence of the nonpayment of the annuity which had been promised to the Duke during his Viceroyalty, he had been obliged to demand assistance from the Irish, who naturally resisted so unjust a tax.  After useless appeals to the King and Parliament, he returned to England suddenly, in September, 1450, leaving Sir James Butler, the eldest son of the Earl of Ormonde, as his Deputy.

The history of the Wars of the Roses does not belong to our province; it must, therefore, suffice to say, that when his party was defeated in England for a time, he fled to Ireland, where he was enthusiastically received, and exercised the office of Viceroy at the very time that an act of attainder was passed against him and his family.  He soon returned again to his own country; and there, after more than one brilliant victory, he was slain at the battle of Wakefield, on the 31st December, 1460.  Three thousand of his followers are said to have perished with him, and among the number were several Irish chieftains from Meath and Ulster.  The Geraldines sided with the House of York, and the Butlers with the Lancastrians:  hence members of both families fell on this fatal field on opposite sides.