Thomas Lee (army Captain) - Ulster

Ulster

In 1593 Lee took part in the expedition against Hugh Maguire under the new lord deputy, William Fitzwilliam. Following the battle of Belleek he was commended for bravery by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and by Bagenal, having been the first to enter the ford on the river Erne.

Lee became intimate with O'Neill, and was useful to the government during negotiations with the earl in March 1594, prior to the outbreak of the Nine Years War. On one occasion, the earl requested the company of "Tom Lee": along with another intermediary, Lee accompanied the earl and, on his return, reported that some of the earl's party had pointed weapons at his breast and beaten him and his companion with their staves, whereupon the earl had advised him to depart.

Lee went to England as intermediary, and about this time he wrote his Brief Declaration, which was presented to the queen in November and duly ignored. He also had his portrait done by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. In his writings he cast himself in the model of the Roman hero Scaevola, who had entered the Etruscan camp to assassinate the king and, upon his discovery and trial, had thrust his right hand in the flame, whereupon a treaty had been concluded. The parallel was with Lee's relations with O'Neill, and his argument seems to have been that the rebels were in arms because the crown had waged its campaign beyond Fermanagh and Monaghan into the heart of O'Neill's territory in Ulster. However, Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam - at whose door Lee had laid the principle blame for the war - described him to Lord Burghley as "indigent and desperate", and recommended he be barred from the queen's presence.

Lee returned to Ireland in September 1595 and killed Kedagh MacPhelim Reagh. Harrington deemed it a cruel murder, and Lee was again imprisoned in Dublin Castle. In March 1596 Lee served under Lord Deputy Russell and took Cloghan Castle. The garrison refused to yield to him or evacuate the women, so he breached the walls and set fire to the thatched roof: forty-six died, either in the flames or by being thrown over the walls by Lee's soldiers.

In April 1596 Lee wrote to the queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley, again urging a conciliatory policy towards O'Neill - now a proclaimed rebel - who would go to England on a safe conduct from the queen. Lee complained that the rebellion could have been avoided had his original advice been taken. At this stage he was being sued for arrears of Crown rents. By the summer he had grown sceptical of O'Neill, who was "too far gone with pride of his own strength and confidence of foreign assistance, that he is past all hope of being reclaimed otherwise than by force".