waste country', where the rebel earls' troops could find no provisions and deserted. Mac Carthaig also claimed credit for the killings of Gorey MacSweeney and Morrice Roe, two of Desmond's gallowglass captains. Upon his father's death in 1581, Mac Carthaig inherited substantial property but was not the prince's tanist (second in command and usually successor to the head), and therefore did not assume his father's title, which went to Mac Carthaig's uncle, Owen MacCarthy Reagh, 16th Prince of Carbery. The position of tanist went to Mac Carthaig's cousin, Donal na Pipi (Donal of the Pipes). But, in 1583, Mac Carthaig did go to court, where he was received by the queen, who granted him 1000 marks and an annuity of 100 marks. In 1585 he served as a member of the Irish Parliament at Dublin. The Tower Upon his marriage to Ellen, the daughter and sole heir of the Mac Carthaig Mór (also Earl of Clancare), Fínghin mac Donncha fell foul of the crown government in Munster on account of the prospective unification of the two main branches of the Clan Carthy. To add to government suspicion, there was also a rumour of communications by him with Spain. In particular, he was accused of contact with William Stanley and Jacques de Franceschi, who had defected with a regiment of Irish soldiers from the English to the Spanish side in the Eighty Years' War in Flanders. As a result of these suspicions, Mac Carthaig was arrested in 1588 as a precaution against his assumption of the title of Mac Carthaig Mór, which would have given him command over huge estates and thousands of followers. The English authorities considered this too dangerous a prospect in a country they were trying to pacify and disarm. Initially detained by Carew at Shandon Castle in Cork, after six months Mac Carthaig was moved to Dublin, and then to London, where he arrived in February 1589 to be committed to the Tower. His wife escaped from Cork a few days later, probably on his instructions. Mac Carthaig was examined by the privy council in March and denied all complicity in the continental intrigues of the English Catholic, Sir William Stanley. He was sent back to the Tower, but fifteen months later his wife appeared at court and Sir Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde, volunteered to stand surety for him in the sum of £1000. Since