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Ireland began to be infected with the same factions which had broke out in England since the revolution: lord Capel, lord-deputy, governed in a very partial manner, oppressing the Irish papists without any regard to equity or decorum.
Accompanied by the lord-deputy of Calais, and a numerous retinue, he went forth to meet the fiancée on her way from Gravelines. His dress, and that of his attendants, is recorded for our gratification: 'For he was apparelled in a coat of purple velvet, cut in cloth of gold, and tied with aigulets and trefoils of gold to the number of four hundred.
His father, Sir Henry Sidney, lord-deputy of Ireland, and president of Wales, a states man of accomplishments and experience, called him "lumen familiae suae," and said of him, with pardonable pride, "that he had the most virtues which he had ever found in any man; that he was the very formular that all well-disposed young gentlemen do form their manners and life by."
Sir William, however, notwithstanding the differences between them, recommended him in the strongest terms to Lord Capel, then lord-deputy, who gave him a prebend, of which the income was about £100 a year.
Avaricious by nature he had been highly dissatisfied with the poor rewards which his former services had obtained. Upon making some remonstrance to that effect he had been told that the "position of an Irish Lord-deputy was an honourable one and should challenge no reward." Upon this hint he seems now to have acted.
This was the more disagreeable, because living at Elizabeth's court was an expensive luxury for a poor gentleman's son who had magnificent tastes. His father, Lord Henry Sidney, was lord-deputy of Ireland, but he was also an honest man, and, like most honest men in high public office, he was not rich.
"Down they go at every corner!" the Lord-deputy writes at this time triumphantly in an account of his own proceedings, "and down, God willing, they shall go." A plan for appointing presidents of provinces had been a favourite with the late deputy, Sussex, and was now revived.
A slight incident which took place at the end of this battle is too characteristic to omit. "We have done one good work," observed Lord Gormanston, one of the Lords of the Pale, confidentially to the Lord-deputy.
But, if that any ask thy name, Say, 'thou wert basebegot with blame. For thy thereof thou takest shame, And, when thou art past jeopardy, Come tell me what was said of mee, And I will send more after thee." The Shepherd's Calendar made the new poet famous. Spenser was advanced at court, and soon after went to Ireland in the train of the Lord-Deputy as Secretary of State.
That fashion of looking at the matter had now so long been the established rule that it had probably ceased indeed to be regarded as a failing. When the Battle of Bosworth brought the adherents of the Red Rose back to triumph, Gerald Mor was still Lord-deputy.
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