The first public act of the Lord Deputy was to assemble a Parliament, in which all constitutional rules were simply set at defiance (January 17th, 1569).  Mayors and sheriffs returned themselves; members were sent up for towns not incorporated, and several Englishmen were elected as burgesses for places they had never seen.  One of these men, Hooker, who was returned for Athenry, has left a chronicle of the age.  He had to be protected by a guard in going to his residence.  Popular feeling was so strongly manifested against this gross injustice, that the judges were consulted as to the legality of proceedings of whose iniquity there could be no doubt.  The elections for non-corporate towns, and the election of individuals by themselves, were pronounced invalid; but a decision was given in favour of non-resident Englishmen, which still gave the court a large majority.[432] In this Parliament—­if, indeed, it could be called such—­Acts were passed for attainting Shane O’Neill, for suppressing the name, and for annexing Tyrone to the royal possessions.  Charter schools were to be founded, of which the teachers should be English and Protestants; and the law before-mentioned, for permitting the Lord Deputy to appoint persons to ecclesiastical benefices for ten years, was passed.

Sir Philip Carew came to Ireland about this time, and renewed the claim of his family to possessions in Ireland.  This plea had been rejected in the reign of Edward III.; but he now produced a forged roll, which the corrupt administration of the day readily admitted as genuine.  His claim was made in right of Robert FitzStephen, one of the first adventurers; his demand included one-half of the “kingdom of Cork,” and the barony of Idrone, in Carlow.  Several engagements ensued, in one of which Carew boasted of having slain 400 Irish, and lost only one man.  If his statement be true, it is probable the engagement was simply a massacre.  The war became so formidable, that the MacCarthys, FitzGeralds, Cavanaghs, and FitzMaurices united against the “common enemy,” and at last despatched emissaries to the Pope to implore his assistance.  It is strange to find native Irish chieftains uniting with Anglo-Norman lords to resist an English settler.

Sidney now began to put his plan of local governments into execution; but this arrangement simply multiplied the number of licensed oppressors.  Sir Edward Fitton was appointed President of Connaught, and Sir John Perrot, of Munster.  Both of these gentlemen distinguished themselves by “strong measures,” of which cruelty to the unfortunate natives was the predominant feature.  Perrot boasted that he would “hunt the fox out of his hole,” and devoted himself to the destruction of the Geraldines.  Fitton arrested the Earl of Clanrickarde, and excited a general disturbance.  In 1570 the Queen determined to lay claim to the possessions in Ulster, graciously conceded to her by the gentlemen who had been permitted to vote according to her royal pleasure in the so-called