t the head of the largest army ever despatched from
England for the conquest of the island. But Essex does not seem to have
made any serious effort. He appears to have had some idea of coming to
terms with Tyrone. The two had a meeting, over which many pages of
historical description and conjecture have been spent, but it is certain
that, so far as Essex was concerned, neither peace nor war came of his
intervention. He was recalled to London. His failure in Ireland, and the
trouble it brought upon him in England, only drove him into the wild
movements which led to his condemnation as a traitor and to his death on
the scaffold.

The place which Essex had so unsuccessfully endeavored to hold was given
to Lord Mountjoy, who proved himself a more fitting man for the work.
Mountjoy was a strong man, who made up his mind from the first that he
was sent to Ireland to fight the Irish. He had a great encounter with
Tyrone, and Tyrone was defeated. From that moment the fortunes of the
struggle seem to have turned. The resources of the Irish were very
limited, and it was almost certain that, if the English government
carried on the war long enough, the Irish must sooner or later be
defeated. It was a question of numbers and weapons and money, and in all
these the English had an immense superiority. Tyrone had great hopes that
a Spanish army would come to the aid of the Irish. A large Spanish force
was actually despatched for the purpose, but the news of Tyrone's defeat
reached the Spaniards on their arrival, and they promptly reembarked, and
gave up what they considered a lost cause. Some of the Irish chiefs were
compelled to surrender; others fled to Spain, in the hope of stirring up
some movement there against England, or at least of finding a place of
shelter. Ireland was suffering almost everywhere from famine, and in many
districts famine of the most ghastly order. Tyrone found it impossible to
carry on the struggle for independence under such terrible conditions.
There was nothing for it but to surrender and come to terms as best he
could with his conquering enemy.

The times just then might have been regarded as peculiarly favorable for
Tyrone. Queen Elizabeth was dead, and the son of Mary Stuart sat on the
English throne. Tyrone made a complete surrender of his estates, pledged
himself to enter into alliance with no foreign power against England, and
even undertook to promote the introduction of English laws and customs
i