Catalogue description ROBERT COWLEY.

Declaration by Robert Cowley of his true service to the King.

When the late Earl of Kildare had so linked to him the Council of Ireland that none dared to advertise the King of his heinous abuses, I appeared before the Council in England, and exhibited in presence of the said Earl his enormities in "disheriting the King of his hereditaments," and appropriating the same to himself and his sequel; in making officers of his own to receive the revenues, and making no account in the Exchequer; and in binding Irishmen to his own "sect" to serve him and his heirs. "My reward was, all my goods in Ireland taken by the said Earl, and purchased mortal malice of him and all his kinsmen, servants, and adherents, hourly in danger of my life. Albeit the said Earl was retained in England, deposed from his office of Deputy, and my Lord of Norfolk constituted the King's Lieutenant of Ireland.

Then the said Earl married my Lord Marquis's [Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset.] sister, and thus obtained alliance and friendship in England, and also "co..... [Here the MS. is mutilated.] and licence" to repair into Ireland. At length he "readopted the office of Deputy, and then uttered his cankered malice to revenge his reproach." He and his cousin James, Earl of Desmond, sent Anthony Daely to the French King, who was then at open war with our Sovereign Lord, desiring him to send an army into Ireland, and promising that they would join it with all their forces, and subdue all Ireland to the French King's obeisance. All this was certified to the Deputy and Council by the mayors and officers of Limerick, Kinsale, and Youghill, "as laying the whole matter to the said Earl of Desmond, the Earl of Kildare being present, who feigned to know no such thing, or to have any intelligence with the said Earl of Desmond in that behalf." Thereupon it was decreed by the Deputy and Council that Desmond should be reputed as the King's traitor, to which decree Kildare and the Deputy and Council set their hands. It was dated 13 June, and remained in my custody as Clerk of the Council.

Long after this, Kildare waged the Brenes and other strong Irishmen to adhere to Desmond and to execute the practice aforesaid. He also wrote letters dated the 18th July, desiring Desmond with all his power to meet him in the Earl of Ossory's country. Those letters were taken and came into my hands, and I showed them to the Council. Kildare was committed to the Tower, and there remained at the King's pleasure. "My reward was to tarry here almost a whole year, with my servant and two horses, to justify the premises, as I did, and finally departed without any penny of reward, incurring further danger of my life, fain to recede from my habitation, and to dwell in remote parts of the land, half as an exile.

Then, by Kildare's procurement, his brethren, kinsmen, servants, and adherents rebelled, murdering, burning, and spoiling the King's subjects. I repaired hitherward to declare the same to the Council, but "the ways were laid for me everywhere with footmen and horsemen, so that, in avoiding the danger of my life, I was fain in the night to enter into a Pyccarde and to go to sea, and, the wind being contrariant, to go every night from one island to another till the wind served; and after the justification of all the premises, the Earl of Kildare was committed to the Tower, and I departed without thanks or reward.

Once more Kildare was pardoned and suffered to repair into Ireland with Sir William Skeffington, "as to be a principal counsellor, guide, and assister to the said Sir William, and he used the Deputy as an instrument for himself to omit all the King's affairs, and to revenge his malice upon the King's true subjects; and when the said Sir William perceived his practice and would no longer be seducted by him, then the said Earl, after his old custom, supplanted the good said Sir William, and with cruel despiteful handling amoved him from his office of Deputy, and the said Earl readopted the room of Deputy. Then he redoubled his heinous transgressions;" suffered his adherents to destroy the King's subjects; made open proclamations in free fairs and market places to rob and spoil the same; caused his adherents to take prisoners the knights for the shires and burgesses of cities and towns repairing to Parliament, and kept them for their ransoms. All this was declared and proved by Mr. John Alen and me, and the said Earl was committed to the Tower, where he died.

Now, at the being of the King's Commissioners in Ireland, I have taken pains to inform them concerning the King's honour, profit, and detection of offenders, with his right to things concealed.

Lastly, I affirm that, so long as any of the Geraldines' sect be in authority or in the Council, the King's affairs will never proceed to good effect, or the Irishmen be subdued.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer & W. Bullen (6 vols., 1867-73), vol. I, document 126.