with an enemy, who were defeated one day, and rose up with
renewed energy the next. As a last resource he suggested the policy of
conciliation, which Henry appears to have adopted, as he empowered him
to confer the honour of knighthood on any of the Irish chieftains to
whom he considered it desirable to offer the compliment, and he sent a
collar of gold to O'Neill. About the same time Surrey wrote to inform
Wolsey, that Cormac Oge MacCarthy and MacCarthy Reagh were "two wise
men, and more conformable to order than some English were;" but he was
still careful to keep up the old policy of fomenting discord among the
native princes, for he wrote to the King that "it would be dangerful to
have them both agreed and joined together, as the longer they continue
in war, the better it should be for your Grace's poor subjects here."

Surrey became weary at last of the hopeless conflict, and at his own
request he was permitted to return to England and resign his office,
which was conferred on his friend, Pierse Butler,[385] of Carrick,
subsequently Earl of Ormonde. The Scotch had begun to immigrate to
Ulster in considerable numbers, and acquired large territories there;
the Pale was almost unprotected; and the Irish Privy Council applied to
Wolsey for six ships-of-war, to defend the northern coasts, A.D. 1522.
The dissensions between the O'Neills and O'Donnells had broken out into
sanguinary warfare.

The Earl of Kildare left Ireland for the third and last time, in
February, 1534. Before his departure he summoned a Council at Drogheda,
and appointed his son, Thomas, to act as Deputy in his absence. On the
Earl's arrival in London, he was at once seized and imprisoned in the
Tower. A false report was carefully circulated in Ireland that he had
been beheaded, and that the destruction of the whole family was even
then impending. Nor was there anything very improbable in this
statement. The English King had already inaugurated his sanguinary
career. One of the most eminent English laymen, Sir Thomas More, and one
of her best ecclesiastics, Bishop Fisher, had been accused and beheaded,
to satisfy the royal caprice. When the King's tutor and his chancellor
had been sacrificed, who could hope to escape?

The unfortunate Earl had advised his son to pursue a cautious and gentle
policy; but Lord Thomas' fiery temper could ill brook such precaution,
and he was but too easily roused by the artful enemies who incited him
to rebellion. The r