rid of them and his wife at any price. To add to his discomfort, it was said that he had been accidentally shot by his jester while sitting at supper with his wife. But Sir Nicholas Malby, who was inclined to regard him with suspicion, was of opinion that he was merely ‘winning time,’ and that he would never be content with less than the absolute control of his urraghs or feudatory chiefs. To this the government would not consent; but on 20 Jan. 1571, acting, it is said, by the advice of his wife, but more probably by the intervention of Sir Edward Moore [q. v.], he agreed to a temporary peace in order to afford time to enable him to submit his demands to the queen. Meanwhile he promised to dismiss his Scottish mercenaries, but declined to be drawn into a combination against them.
Matters continued in this uncertain state till the rumour of the intended colonisation of Antrim by Sir Thomas Smith in the spring of 1572 drove him into active opposition. Professing his doubts as to Smith's authority for his undertaking, he took measures to render it abortive. But the prospect became more serious when it was known that Smith's project had been taken up by Walter Devereux, earl of Essex [q. v.] Refusing to be deluded by Essex's specious announcement, that the expedition was directed against the Scots, and not against loyal Irishmen, Turlough declined to render him the assistance he demanded; and in February 1574 Essex prepared to carry out his threat of wasting him with fire and sword. But for this his resources proved inadequate, and in March he consented to a truce, promising to transmit his petition to the queen. Elizabeth, who had been inclined, on the first news of Essex's inability to make good his footing in Ulster, ‘to lap up’ matters with Turlough, but could not make up her mind to any consistent policy, now ordered her deputy to give Essex every assistance in order to bring Turlough to his senses. Accordingly, in September Essex invaded Tyrone. Turlough suffered severely. But the expedition was productive of little advantage to Essex; and the eagerness with which Fitzwilliam obeyed Elizabeth's fresh instructions for a disbandment produced a coldness between him and Essex, which Turlough endeavoured to improve to his own advantage by addressing ‘a politic letter’ to the deputy, favourably contrasting his conduct with Essex's. But Elizabeth was annoyed at Fitzwilliam's precipitancy, and Turlough, fearing that the storm had not blown over, sent his wife to the viceroy to sue for peace. He still insisted on having his urraghs, and ten days were given him to reconsider his position. It was deeply mortifying to Essex, just when things seemed to be improving, to learn from Elizabeth herself that his enterprise had proved a failure, and that all that remained to be done was to induce Turlough to consent to reasonable conditions ‘as our honour may best be salved,’ and, if possible, to erect a fort at the Blackwater. Essex obeyed with a heavy heart; but seizing the opportunity of an attempt on Turlough's part to hinder the erection of the new fort, he crossed the Blackwater, captured twelve hundred of his cattle, and pressed him so hard that he was compelled, at no little personal risk, to seek safety in a neighbouring bog. Turlough thereupon submitted, and on 27 June 1575 articles of peace were signed whereby he promised to surrender his urraghs, to keep the peace with O'Donnell, the baron of Dungannon, and others of the queen's loyal subjects, and to assist in expelling the Scots. In return he was to receive a grant of all the lands from Lough Foyle to the Blackwater, and from the Bann to Lough Erne; to be excused from coming to any governor against his will; and to be allowed, ‘for the better security of his person,’ to retain three hundred Scots, so long as they were not of the MacDonnell connection.
The treaty was a victory for Turlough; and to prove that his rebellious behaviour was solely, as he declared, due to Essex's arbitrary conduct, he took the opportunity shortly afterwards to present himself before Sir Henry Sidney at Armagh, ‘without Pleadge, Promis, or Hostage,’ and so won upon the lord deputy that, while refusing to countenance his petition for ‘as ample an Estate and Rule as others of his Surname heretofore have had,’ he recommended that he should be treated leniently so far as his urraghs were concerned, and that he should be ennobled by the title of Clanoneill for life, which Sidney thought could not be long, ‘consideringe his Age, wounded and imperfect Boddye, his ill Diet, and contynuall Surfett’ (Collins, Sidney Papers, i. 78; cf. Derricke, ‘Image of Ireland,’ in Somers Tracts, i. 611, and the corresponding woodcut illustrating Turlough's submission). Sidney's suggestion was approved; but it was not till May 1578 that a patent creating him Baron of Clogher and Earl of Clanconnell was passed. The retirement of Sidney from the government of Ireland, the outbreak of the rebellion in Munster, the questionable behaviour of Turlough himself in refusing to meet Sir William Drury [q. v.], coupled with the fact that he and the Baron of Dungannon had become fast friends, frustrated the realisation of Sidney's proposal. After Drury's
