Note 73 — Chapter VIII · THE REIGN OF HENRY VII.

Sidney to Leicester, March 1, 1566, in the Irish State Papers. The account of the battle of Knocktoe is made up from Ware, Stanihurst, the Four Masters, and the Book of Howth. The Four Masters seem to have thought that the forces of the Pale were not engaged, and O’Donovan rather countenances them, but the Annals of Lough Cé say Kildare mustered ‘all the foreigners and Irish of Leinster and of Northern Ireland.’ (Ad ann. 1504.) The details in the Book of Howth may not be all correct, though there is nothing antecedently improbable in Lord Gormanston’s truculent speech.