That Donogh in offering his services was going directly against his own family is plain from a letter which his father had written to Charles V. not much more than a year before. 'We have,' he had then said, 'never been subject to English rule, or yielded up our ancient rights and liberties; and there is at this present, and for ever will be, perpetual discord between us, and we will harass them with continual war.' The O'Briens had never sworn fealty to anyone, but he offered full submission to the Emperor, with 100 castles and 18,000 men.[167] [Sidenote: The Desmonds and the Irish.] Old Sir John of Desmond, the rival claimant to the title, also came to Adare and spoke plainly in very good English. 'What should I do in England,' he asked, 'to meet a boy there? Let me have that Irish horson, Cormac Oge, and I will go into England before the King.' Parry thought him as full of mischief as ever; but he agreed to meet the young Earl at Youghal, and also the obnoxious Cormac. It is curious to see how proud these Desmonds were of their Norman blood, and how they despised the Irish; while often straining every nerve against Henry II.'s successor, offering their allegiance to foreign princes, and boasting to them of their Irish allies. [Sidenote: Parry's observations.] Returning to Clonmel by Kilmallock and Cashel, Parry was despatched to bring Vice-Treasurer Brabazon and Chief Justice Bermingham to a conference with Ossory and his son at Youghal. During the whole long journey from Dungarvan he had met no one who had ever seen an English soldier in those parts. Some days they rode sixteen miles at a stretch over what had once been really, and still remained nominally, Englishmen's ground. The woods, the rivers, and the rich grass lands about them excited his admiration. Nor was there any want of ground suitable for corn, and the ridges showed that it had once been tilled, but not a blade of oats had grown there for twelve years. Parry, who had evidently been very well treated by him, seems to have formed a high idea of Lord Butler's qualifications. If the King would give him artillery there was scarcely any limit to his possible services; for his own marriage with a daughter of Desmond and the marriages of his sisters, no less than his personal character, gave him great influence throughout the South of Ireland.[168] [Sidenote: Lord Leonard Grey made Marshal of the army. He and Skeffington disagree.]