In September the following year he served as captain of the Swiftsure under Admiral William Winter, and in the course of that expedition took part in the massacre at Smerwick of hundreds of Italian and Spanish troops who had surrendered to the English, an event on which he reported to another of the queen's secretaries, Francis Walsingham.

Bingham entered their territory in March, taking Castlehag in Lough Mask, and agreed to withdraw his forces only if the men of the country prosecuted the rebels.

Bingham assembled his army at Ballinrobe in mid-July, and by the end of the month, the rebel Burkes were ready to submit on the terms offered by him.

Perrot wanted an immediate peace, but Bingham insisted on good pledges, suspecting that the rebels were buying time to reap their corn.

In July 1587 Bingham left Ireland for service in the Netherlands, with the prospect of assuming command of England's expeditionary army at the end of the year upon the recall of the Earl of Leicester.

(Some years later, in January 1592, Bingham persuaded several Spaniards to come in from the Burkes under protection and sent them to Dublin for passage home, but they were detained in prison there against his wishes.)

By the end of September, few Irish lords refused to give up their Armada survivors, but the presence of the Spanish caused unrest among several clans.

Then Sir Brian O'Rourke committed a great cattle raid in County Sligo, while the Burkes took similar action in the southwest, across the Mayo border.

One faction in the Privy Council of Ireland put the collapse of the talks down to the desire of some of the peace commissioners to blame Bingham for the rebellions.

Bingham pursued his policy in the field, scouring counties Mayo and Roscommon with his forces, until the rebels had caved in and O'Rourke was driven north into Ulster.

The Lord Deputy was determined that blame be placed on Bingham, and the rebels were resurgent as Fitzwilliam ordered the governor to remain at Athlone.

Fitzwilliam travelled to Galway with 350 foot and 120 horse to receive the formal submissions of the rebels, and two books of complaints were lodged by them against Bingham.

In early October, the Blind Abbott was proclaimed MacWilliam, and the queen ordered Fitzwilliam to assist Bingham in suppressing the title.

The crown forces progressed through the country, burning crops and villages, and the rebels withdrew with their cattle towards the mountains of Erris, where they soon sued for peace.

He then turned against O'Rourke who had invaded Sligo in March, although illness prevented him from taking the field and his brother George assumed command.

In 1592 Perrot, who was then on the Privy Council in London with a special brief to advise on Irish affairs, formally complained to the queen of Bingham's severity and insubordination.

But Perrot became entangled in allegations made against him by a priest imprisoned in Dublin, and the investigation broadened out to include the former lord deputy's dealings with the rebel O'Rourke.

He also made it clear that only O'Rourke's personal seignory be subject to attainder, even though the crown had been expecting a much larger part of the rebel's clan territory in Leitrim.

In June 1592 a Burke faction went into rebellion again, and as part of the ensuing terms of the peace, Bingham forced them to give pledges for each sept, imposed a fine of 2000 marks, and made them bear the damages of war since 1588.

Connacht was quiet until May 1593, when Hugh Maguire and the late rebel's son, Brian Óg O'Rourke, raided Sligo after Bingham's brother George had seized the latter's milch cows in lieu of composition rent.

In June they suffered heavy losses in a raid on Roscommon in the company of Fiach McHugh O'Byrne, who had brought forces from Leinster.

Bingham sought 6 companies and 50 horse from the lord deputy to retake Sligo and Ballyshannon, but few could be spared from the campaign against Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, the chief rebel of the period.

Bingham stationed his troops and horses in the grounds and buildings of the Dominican friary in Sligo, using the church as a base while he tried to retake the castle.

[2] Bingham had been left with few resources to counter the dominance asserted by O'Donnell in northern Connacht; and then the new lord deputy, William Russell, came to Galway to consider a further set of charges against the governor.

In the course of an attempted appeasement of the rebels, O'Donnell submitted in April 1596 to John Norreys and Geoffrey Fenton, who had come to Connacht to make peace.

In 1599 Essex was appointed to lead an army into Ireland, but the expedition was largely a failure, and it was only in 1601 that the English took the upper hand, with their victory at the battle of Kinsale, which led to the submission of Tír Eoghain after the queen's death in 1603.

Bingham's reputation has suffered on account of the harshness of his rule in Connacht, and he became the image of a cruel governor, lording it over the Irish without regard to justice or mercy.