Elizabeth, however, excused his conduct, saying 'we must allow something for his wild bringing-up, and not expect from him what we should expect from a perfect subject.
If he mean well he shall have all his reasonable requests granted.' But there was among Elizabeth's advisers a statesman who felt that this sort of policy would never do.

Sir Henry Sidney, on being requested to take charge of the Government of Ireland, urged the absolute necessity of a radical change.

The power of O'Neill, and such rulers as he, must be utterly broken, and that by force, at whatever cost.

And this, he argued, would not only be sound policy but true economy.

The condition of Ireland was unexampled; free from foreign invasion, the sovereignty of the Queen not denied, yet the revenue so mean and scanty that 'great yearly treasures were carried out of the realm of England to satisfy the stipends of the officers and soldiers required for the governance of the same.' He must have 10,000 l.
or 12,000 l.