Flight and Extradition
Under the government of Perrot's successor as lord deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, pressure was increased on the territories bordering the province of Ulster. Thus, in the spring of 1590, Bingham's forces occupied west Breifne and O'Rourke fled; later that year the adjacent territory of Monaghan was seized by the crown after the execution at law of the resident lord, Aodh Rua Mac Mathúna.
O'Rourke fetched up in Scotland in February 1591, with "six fair Irish hobbies and four great dogs to be presented to the king". He was seeking not only asylum but also the opportunity to recruit mercenaries to contest the occupation of his territories. In consultation with the English ambassador, King James VI denied him an audience, and Queen Elizabeth (relying on the Treaty of Berwick 1586) made a strong request for the delivery of O'Rourke into her custody.
The matter was put to the Scottish privy council, which readily ordered – in the face of some objections – the arrest and delivery to English crown forces of the rebel Irish lord. Elizabeth's councillors had explicitly held out the prospect of clemency for O'Rourke, and certain Scots councillors agreed to the extradition, in the supposed expectation that his life would be spared. The expectation was to be disappointed, an experience the king himself suffered in the years afterward, when extradition requests for Bothwellites were denied by the English.
O'Rourke was arrested in Glasgow, where the townsmen sought a stay on his delivery into custody, fearing for their Irish trade. The denial of their request caused an outcry, and the king's officers were cursed as knights of Elizabeth with the allegation that the Scottish king had been bought with English angels (a reference to the pension the king received from England). Several of O'Rourke's creditors feared that his debts would go unpaid, but the English ambassador later made a contribution of £47. O'Rourke was removed from Glasgow in the afternoon of April 3, 1591 in the midst of a riot. Two ships on the west coast were looted, and, after some crews had been killed by Irishmen in protest at O'Rourke's treatment, guards had to be mounted on all vessels sailing to Ireland.
Read more about this topic: Brian O'Rourke
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“Sure smokers have made personal choices. And they pay for those choices every day, whether sitting through an airline flight dying for a smoke, or dying for a smoke in the oncology wing of a hospital. The tobacco companies have not paid nearly enough for the killing.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)