to submit and to put in Owny Mac Rory Oge O'More as a pledge. He actually surrendered his son Turlough, and in November presented himself before the deputy in council, and upon his knees exhibited his submission and petition to be received to her majesty's mercy. The Irish government referred his case to the privy council, and meanwhile renewed his protection from time to time. In April 1596 he appealed to Burghley to mediate with the queen for his forgiveness and restoration to his chiefry. His petition was granted, but before the patent for his restoration arrived he had entered into a close alliance with Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone. In September he recaptured Ballinacor, and though to attack him would, in the general opinion, lead to a rupture with Tyrone, Russell, after some hesitation, determined to make the attempt. Before the end of the month a new fort was erected at Rathdrum, and, despite the protests of Tyrone, who insisted that Sir John Norris had passed his word for his pardon, Fiagh was hotly prosecuted during the winter. In February 1597 he was reported to be ready to submit to any conditions, but Russell had made up his mind to capture him at all hazards, and capture him he eventually did. On Sunday, 8 May, he was surprised by ‘one Milborne, sergeant to Captain Lee,’ and his captor was compelled by the fury of the soldiers to strike off his head. On his way back to Dublin the inhabitants greeted Russell ‘with great joy and gladness, and bestowed many blessings on him for performing so good a deed, and delivering them from their long oppressions.’
Fiagh's head and quarters were for some time exposed over the gate of Dublin Castle. Four months later one Lane presented what purported to be his head to Cecil, but he was told that head-money had already been paid in Ireland. The head was given to a lad to bury, but instead of doing so he stuck it in a tree in Enfield Chase, where it was found by two boys looking for their cattle.
Fiagh was twice married. By his first wife he had three sons—Turlough, who appears to have been hanged in 1596 for his share in the attack on Sir Piers Fitzjames Fitzgerald; Phelim, who succeeded his father; and Redmond—and one daughter, who was married to Walter Reagh Fitzgerald. Fiagh's second wife was Rose, daughter of Turlough O'Toole, who, after being sentenced to be burnt as a traitor, was pardoned by the queen on promising to do service against her stepson. Two of her sisters were married to her stepsons Phelim and Redmond.
Fiagh's death did not, as had been expected, lead to the settlement of Wicklow. On the outbreak of Tyrone's rebellion in 1598, Phelim and Redmond immediately took up arms, the former in Wicklow, the latter joining the earl in Ulster. On 29 May 1599 Phelim routed a strong force under Sir Henry Harington between Ballinacor and Rathdrum, but was shortly afterwards defeated by the Earl of Essex in the neighbourhood of Arklow. During that winter and the following year he created great havoc in the Pale, and in December 1600 Mountjoy made a determined effort to suppress him. Stealthily crossing the snow-covered mountains of Wicklow from the west, he unexpectedly appeared with a strong force before Ballinacor, at the head of Glenmalure, on Christmas eve. Phelim saved himself by escaping naked out of a back window, but his wife and son were captured. The deputy remained in the neighbourhood for three weeks, and Phelim, ‘to vent his anger, daily offered slight skirmishes upon advantage, but his heart was nothing eased therewith, being continually beaten.’ He eventually submitted, and on 10 May 1601 Mountjoy gave warrant to pass a pardon for him and his followers. It was evidently the intention of government to restore him to his chiefry, and in 1613 he represented co. Wicklow in parliament. But in 1623 a scheme was set on foot by Lord-deputy Falkland to establish a plantation in his country. The design did not meet with the approval of the commissioners for Irish affairs, who suggested that the lands belonging to the O'Byrnes as a clan should be allotted to them individually at profitable rents. Their suggestion, however, was not acted upon, and two years later Falkland announced that he had discovered a formidable conspiracy against the state, in which two of Phelim's sons were implicated. He again suggested the advisability of planting the O'Byrnes' territory, and again the commissioners for Irish affairs stood between him and the O'Byrnes, advising, ‘as the best course to reduce that barbarous country to some good settlement,’ that a grant should be made to Phelim of all the lands claimed by him, on condition that he in turn made a grant in freehold of two hundred acres to each of his younger sons. The suggestion of the commissioners was again ignored by Falkland, who on 27 Aug. 1628 announced that Phelim and five of his sons had been indicted on a charge of conspiracy, that a true bill had been found against them by a Wicklow jury, and that, pending their trial, they had been committed to Dublin Castle. But Phelim had power-
