FOOTNOTES:
[223] The pardon, November 7, 1625, is in Morrin’s Patent Rolls; Wilmot’s submission, October 3, 1635, in Strafford Letters, i. 477, and his letter to Wentworth, ib. ii. 41; Laud to Wentworth, ib. i. 479; Wilmot to Windebank May 28, 1636, Cal. of State Papers, Ireland.
[224] Strafford Letters, i. 73, 99, 107, 250, 259, 306, 349, 403. Mountnorris held his office during pleasure.
[225] Wentworth to Coke, December 14, 1635, enclosing the sentence of the court-martial, in Strafford’s letters; this is preferable, so far as it goes, to the account in Rushworth’s Trial of Strafford, where the abstract contains inaccuracies. Lord Chancellor Loftus had no son Adam, Sir Adam was his cousin. The Annesley whom Wentworth had rebuked and who dropped the stool, and the Annesley who was Mountnorris’s lieutenant were brothers, but neither was the Vice-Treasurer’s brother, as is so often stated. Garrard to Wentworth, January 8, 1635-6.
[226] Lord Keeper Coventry to Wentworth, December 24, 1635; James Howell to Wentworth, January 1; Garrard to Wentworth, January 8 and 25, 1635-6; Cottington to Wentworth, January 27; Coke to Wentworth, January 31, Strafford Letters; Wentworth to Price, February 14 in State Papers, Ireland. See also Gardiner’s Hist. of England, chap. 81. For further details about the 6,000l. see Laud to Wentworth, February 4, 1635-6, in Laud’s Works, vii. 240. Howell says Mountnorris’s discomfiture was popular at Court, but Garrard thought differently. Clarendon’s Hist. of the Rebellion, ii. 101.
[227] Rushworth’s Trial of Strafford, Court and Times, ii. 271, Wentworth to Coke, January 3, 1635-6; to Wandesford, July 25, 1636; to Conway, January 6, 1637-8. Cal. of Clarendon Papers, February 13, 1635-6, July 18, 1636. Conway to Wentworth, October 23, 1637.
[228] A true copy of the sentence of war pronounced against Sir Francis Annesley, Knight and Baron Mountnorris, etc., together with his Lordship’s petition, etc. London; printed for J. B., 1641.
[229] A good view of the Loftus case may be obtained from Arthur Earl of Essex’s report in the Drogheda Papers in the Ninth Report of the Hist. MSS. Comm., Appx. ii., and in the House of Lords Papers in the 4th and 5th Reports. See also Strafford Letters, ii. 160-164, 257, and Rawdon Papers, pp. 26, 54, and the Barrett-Lennard Papers in the third vol. of the Report of the Royal Hist. Commission on ‘various collections,’ 1904.
[230] Besides the authorities quoted above there is the affidavit of Henry Parry, sworn November 16, 1652, wherein it is stated that Loftus’ chaplain was not allowed to see him with a view to administering the sacrament in his extreme illness. Parry thinks his treatment by Strafford cost him 24,000l., and that he lost 80,000l. more by the rebellion.—Cal. of State Papers, Ireland, 1647-1660, p. 576.
[231] Clarendon’s History, iii. 115-117; Warwick’s Memoirs, 116; Strafford Letters, ii. 381.
[232] Lismore Papers, 2nd series, iv. 187. The case for Cork as against Strafford is contained in both series of these papers, and is summed up in Smith’s Hist. of Cork, vol. i. chap. 3, and in Mrs. Townshend’s Great Earl of Cork. If these documents had been known to Gardiner, he might have judged Lord Cork very differently.
[233] The Earl of Cork’s Remembrances, April 22 to June 2, 1636, in Lismore Papers, 2nd series, iii. 247, and his Diary, ib. 1st series, iv. 175, 179. Report on the Youghal case calendared at May 3, 1634, in State Papers, Ireland, Laud to Wentworth, October 4, 1635, in his Works, vii. 171. Mrs. Townshend’s Great Earl of Cork, chap. 16, may be consulted with advantage.
[234] Wentworth to Conway, Cal. of State Papers, Ireland, March 12, 1635; Notes of the Star Chamber trial, ib. May 10, 1639; Rushworth, iii. 888 and viii. 109; Wentworth to Sir John Bramston, C.J., April 12, 1639, in Browning’s (really Forster’s) Life of Strafford, 1892. And see the note to Gardiner’s Hist. of England, ix. 71.
[235] Ussher to Laud, in his Works, xv. 572-575; Laud to Wentworth, March 11, 1633-34, in his Works, vi. 255; Wentworth to Laud, August 23, 1634, in Strafford Letters.
[236] Ussher to Dr. Ward, 1633 (before September); to Laud, July 9, 1638, in his Works; Laud to Bramhall, August 11, 1638, in his Works, vi. 532—‘the motion of the Provost’s keeping the College, though he was a Bishop, proceeded originally from the Lord Deputy, and not from me’; to Wentworth, July 30, ib. vii. 43; to same, September 10, 1638, ib. vi. 535—‘Methinks you might speak privately with the Primate, and so do what you would with him. As for the Bishop of Derry, I presume you can rule him; if not, you were better send the Provost fairly with honour to his bishopric, and think of as good a successor as you can for the college’; to same, December 29, 1638, ib. vi. 551. Chappell’s metrical autobiography is in Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, Lib. xi.
[237] Wentworth to Laud, August 23, 1634, Strafford Letters. Further details may be found in Stubbs’s Hist. of the Univ. of Dublin, and in Dr. Mahaffy’s Epoch in Irish Hist.
[CHAPTER XVI]
STRAFFORD’S GOVERNMENT, 1638-1640
Wentworth’s account of his stewardship, 1636.
The Church.
Finance.
The army.
Law reform.
Trade.
Wentworth was in England from the beginning of June until late in November 1636, rooms being assigned to him at Hampton Court. Wandesford and the Chancellor were Lords Justices, and very careful to do nothing of themselves, so that the Lord Deputy found the situation unchanged at his return. His best work in Ireland was already done, and he was able to give a very good account of it. Thirty thousand pounds a year had been recovered for the Church, impropriations in the hands of the Crown having been all restored to the clergy. A High Commission Court had been erected, and measures taken to prevent improvident leases of Church lands. Some progress had been made in restoring the churches, most of which had been roofless ruins since the Desmond and Tyrone wars. Decency was re-established in service time, as to which it may be sufficient to say that Wentworth had found ‘the communion table was sat upon as ordinary as any other place.’ The English canons were put in force and the Thirty-nine Articles adopted, ‘those of Ireland silenced and passed by.’ He had found an excess of expenditure amounting to 24,000l. over income, and a debt of 94,000l. An equilibrium had now been established and the arrears cleared off; and a future surplus of 50,000l. might be secured if his plans were not thwarted by hasty grants. He had inspected every single man of the 2000 foot and 600 horse forming his army, ‘the great peacemaker between the British and the natives, between the Protestant and the Papist’; whereas some former generals had been several years in Ireland without reviewing one company. The troops were properly clothed, armed, and paid, and discipline was so strict that the soldiers dared not take a chicken without paying ‘at the owner’s price.’ The law had been assimilated by the late Parliament to that of England, and its administration was greatly improved. Trade had increased by the almost total suppression of piracy, and means were taken to encourage the growing and spinning of flax. But revenue was in his eyes the most important part of commerce, and the cloth business was depressed because it interfered with an English staple industry, ‘the rather that by the wool of Ireland the King hath four times custom: first, when it is brought into England, and here when it is landed, and then here when it is transported in cloth, and also for the commodities which is returned.’ On the other hand, he persuaded the King to take off a lately imposed export duty of four shillings a ton on coal for Ireland, and another heavy one on horses, which interfered with his military plans; and an import duty of eighteenpence and sixpence respectively upon Irish cattle and sheep.[238]
An earldom again refused.
Lady Carlisle.
Wentworth was useful to the King in the ship-money trouble as well as in Ireland, more than once expressing a wish that Mr. Hampden should be well whipped into his right senses. He had Charles’s entire approbation, and wished for a mark of honour to carry back to his government, without which it might be supposed that he was more or less in disgrace at Court. The last rebuff had made him shy, and this time he used Laud’s mediation; but the earldom was again refused. No answer was given to the Archbishop, who had observed that his Majesty ‘loved extremely to have such things, especially once moved, to come from himself,’ and on this occasion the sovereign laid down that titles were useful ‘not to quell envy, but to reward service.’ He had not much regard for his minister’s feelings. Wentworth knew very well that his hold upon Ireland depended on the belief that he was firmly rooted in the King’s favour, and he would have liked some outward and visible sign of it. He left London victorious for the time, but knowing that he had many enemies in high places and very few real friends. During this visit he formed a close alliance with Lady Carlisle, who had been lately left a widow. Her husband bequeathed to her his interest in Ireland, the value of which depended much upon the good will of the all-powerful Lord Deputy. Financial considerations may have moved the lady first, and Wentworth on his part may have desired the help of someone who stood well with the Queen. At all events, the admiration was mutual, for she even regulated her movements by his, and was repaid, as her sister Lady Leicester reported, by having ‘more power with him than any creature.’ When he reached York he was nearly killed with feasting, after which he had a few weeks’ rest in the country. ‘With what quietness in myself,’ he wrote from Gawthorp, ‘could I live here in comparison with that noise and labour I meet with elsewhere; and I protest put up more crowns in my purse at the year’s end too. But we’ll let that pass, for I am not like to enjoy that blessed condition upon earth. And therefore my resolution is set to endure and struggle with it as long as this crazy body will bear it, and finally drop into the silent grave where both all these and myself are to be forgotten.’[239]
Wentworth supreme in Ireland.
His Irish estates.
Country life.
Game laws.
Wentworth returned to Ireland late in 1636, and remained there for more than two years and a half. He continued to pursue the policy already described, and as he had completely defeated his enemies at Court his power was greater than ever, notwithstanding the last rebuff about an earl’s coronet. In every dispute he was victorious, though we know from what happened afterwards that there was deep discontent. He did not neglect his own affairs, and though he knew well by how frail a tenure he held authority, the founder of a dynasty could scarcely have proceeded with greater confidence. As a man of fortune, he could afford to wait for profits, and his delight in building and planting was great. He had 6000l. a year in England, which was a great deal in those days; and he told Laud that his expenditure in Ireland far exceeded his official emoluments. He did, however, acquire a large Irish estate, though he is not seriously accused of getting it by unfair means. In 1637 he had bought land worth some 13,000l., but his debts had increased by more than half that amount. A country residence for himself and his successors and another for the King’s representative, or for the sovereign himself should he visit Ireland, occupied as much of his time and thoughts as could be spared from public business. His love of the country was genuine. Writing from his Yorkshire home in 1623, he says that his ambition there was limited to ‘looking on a tulip, hearing a bird sing, a rivulet murmuring, or some such petty and innocent pastime ... having recovered more in a day by an open country air than in a fortnight’s time in that smothering one of London.’ He was fond of field sports, and as there were no partridges near Dublin, he trained sparrow-hawks to fly at blackbirds. ‘It is excellent sport,’ he told Cottington, ‘there being sometimes two hundred horse in the field looking upon us.’ In Tipperary he found plenty of partridges, and killed them daily with his hawk, wishing that his children had some of the plums which that county also produced. In Wicklow he amused himself by shooting outlying bucks, complaining that he was bitten all over by much worse midges than are found in England—‘surely they are younger brothers to the muskitoes the Indies brag of so much.’ By a drastic proclamation he tried to preserve all pheasants, grouse, and partridges within seven miles of Dublin or five miles of Naas. From time to time he sent eels, salt fish, and dried venison to Laud, who much appreciated these delicacies, while laughing at the badness of the hung beef which Wentworth procured from Yorkshire. On one occasion he sent the Archbishop ninety-two skins of the pine-marten, now very rare, to line a gown with. Ormonde entertained him twice, at Carrick-on-Suir and Kilkenny Castle, which he greatly admired as well as the country round. In writing to his wife he praised or criticised the ladies’ looks, but found no time to notice their dresses. At Kilkenny, he says, ‘the town entertained us with the force of oratory and the fury of poetry, and rather taught me what I should be than told me what I am.’[240]
Strafford’s buildings.
The park of parks.
‘They say I build up to the sky,’ Wentworth wrote in the autumn of 1637; but he had already several houses in Yorkshire, and his object was a public one. At Sigginstown or Jigginstown, near Naas, he had almost completed a palace at an expense of 6000l. The King might have it at cost price, otherwise he would bear the loss himself. He dissuaded his wife from joining him there while he was wrangling with workmen, but hoped it would soon be ready to receive her. Just six years afterwards Ormonde’s truce with the rebels was signed in this very house, which still stands, though roofless. It was built of bricks, probably Dutch-made, and there is a doubtful tradition that they were transmitted from hand to hand all the way from Dublin. Wentworth talked about spending 1200l. upon a residence for himself in what he calls ‘the park of parks’ near Tinahely in Wicklow, intending it as a health resort which might enable him to disappoint his enemies by living a little longer. The foundations of this house, locally known as ‘Black Tom’s Kitchen’, may still be seen; but the lands of Fairwood have for the most part been sold to the tenants, who have converted the fine old trees into ready money. Wentworth’s last visit was in August 1639, but he seems to have lived in a temporary wooden building, and the strong stone house was never finished. He then hoped to leave to his son one of the finest places in the King’s dominions, ‘where a grass-time may be passed with most pleasure of that kind,’ a good house and an income of near 3000l., with ‘wood on the ground as much, I daresay, if near London, as would yield 50,000l., besides a house within twelve miles of Dublin, the best in Ireland, and land to it which I hope will be 2000l. a year.’[241]
Wentworth becomes the King’s chief adviser, 1639.
His misgivings.
While at Doncaster, after the treaty of Berwick, the King saw a messenger from Wentworth, who gave him his latest ideas on the Loftus case. Charles reached London on August 2 1639, and within three weeks it was known that the Lord Deputy would be sent for and perhaps made Lord Treasurer. He arrived at his own house in Covent Garden on September 21, and became virtually chief minister until the meeting of the Long Parliament, though his advice was not always taken. Juxon remained in charge of an empty Treasury. Lord Dillon and Wandesford had been left in Ireland as Lords Justices, but Radcliffe was more trusted than anyone. Wentworth did not neglect the affairs of Ireland, but he had no time to write at length, though he was able to bring the Loftus affair to the conclusion he desired. He was particularly anxious that Lady Carlisle’s interests in Ireland should not be neglected, and no doubt he often saw her. While devoting himself heart and soul to the King’s affairs, he was under no illusion as to their evil condition. Writing from St. Albans on the morning of the day when he reached London, ‘I find,’ he told Radcliffe, ‘a great expectation is drawn upon me, for which I am most sorry; and the nearer I come to it the more my heart fails me; nor can I promise unto myself any good by this journey.’[242]
Wentworth advises a Parliament.
He is made Lord Lieutenant and Earl of Strafford
On November 19, in the King’s presence, the Privy Council gave judgment for Wentworth against the Irish Chancellor. Very soon afterwards it was decided on his recommendation that a Parliament should be held both in England and Ireland, and he fancied that some popularity had come to him in consequence. So much did Charles lean on him, that his presence at the opening of both Parliaments was considered necessary. He tried to maintain Sir John Coke in office, but indeed the Secretary was superannuated, and he failed to obtain the succession for Leicester, the appointment being given to Vane, whom he hated and despised. But he was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a title which had not been conferred since Devonshire’s time, with power to appoint a deputy, and so to direct affairs on both sides of St. George’s Channel; and he received the earldom which had been twice refused. He had the bad taste to take a second title from Vane’s house at Raby, and the latter bitterly resented what was probably an intentional insult on Strafford’s part; ‘and I believe,’ says Clarendon, ‘it was the loss of his head.’[243]
Strafford reconciled to the Queen.
An Irish army to subdue Scotland.
An Irish Parliament, March, 1640.
Before taking leave of the King, Strafford attended a meeting of the Council, where a subscription was opened to meet his Majesty’s most pressing needs, and he headed the list with 20,000l. He left London on March 5 in the Queen’s coach and six, which shows that he had been reconciled to her, and carried with him instructions as to the Irish Parliament. The King enlarged upon the enormities of the Scots, professing himself sure of Ireland, and demanding six subsidies to be paid in three years, but holding out hopes of two being remitted if the misguided faction in North Britain should submit to his just desires. That he did not much expect such submission is clear from his determination to raise 8,000 foot and 1000 horse in Ireland, ‘the better and more speedily to reduce those others in Scotland to their due obedience.’ Strafford was attacked by gout at Beaumaris, but hastened over to Ireland, determined, whatever pain he might have, to be back in time for the opening of Parliament at Westminster—‘I should not fail, though Sir John Eliot were living.’ Halt, lame, or blind, he would be true to the King’s service, and he reflected on what he might be able to do with legs, since he was so brave without them. The Irish Parliament had been summoned for March 16, and the Lord-Lieutenant did not land until two days later. The Lords Justices and Council had already determined to ask for four subsidies, for six had been voted on a former occasion, and they feared an exact repetition lest the taxpayers might take alarm at the prospect of a recurrent charge. Nothing was actually done until Strafford arrived on the 18th, after forty-eight hours tossing in the channel. On the 19th he summoned the Council, and next day opened Parliament in state, and confirmed the election of Sir Maurice Eustace as Speaker of the House of Commons. Eustace made a pompous oration, containing six long quotations from Horace and abundance of other Latin. ‘The Brehon law,’ he said, ‘with her two brats of tanistry and Irish gavelkind, like the children of the bondwoman, are cast out as spurious and adulterate.’ Everyone rejoiced to see that the son of the free woman prevailed, and the King’s subjects should boast that they only had peace, while France, Germany, Spain, and the dominions of the House of Austria were laid waste by war.[244]
Four subsidies voted.
Subservience of Parliament.
Declaration in praise of Strafford.
In his opening speech to Parliament, which the journals say was excellent, Strafford, having heard Wandesford and the rest, ventured slightly to vary the King’s instructions. Instead of demanding six subsidies he allowed four to be moved for, and they were granted with such alacrity that he acknowledged the plan of the Council to be best, and confidently affirmed his belief that the Commons would be ready to give as many subsidies more after the first four had been levied. Some members, indeed, declared themselves ready to give the fee of their estates, if occasion required, and to leave themselves nothing but hose and doublet. The native representatives were loud in their loyalty, and there were no dissentient voices, ‘all expressing even with passion how much they abhorred the Scotch Covenanters.’ Not only were the subsidies voted, but a declaration of the most extreme character was agreed to. Both Houses were ready to give their all for the reduction of the Covenanters, and desired that this should be ‘published in print for a testimony to all the world and succeeding ages that as this kingdom hath the happiness to be governed by the best of kings, so they are desirous to give his Majesty just cause to account of this people amongst the best of his subjects.’ To complete the Lord Lieutenant’s momentary triumph, the preamble of the Subsidy Bill was a panegyric upon that ‘just, wise, vigilant, and profitable governor.’ He was given full credit for the Commission for defective titles, for restoring the Church and reforming the army, for his justice and impartiality, and for his ‘care to relieve and redress the poor and oppressed.’ On March 31 he came down again to the House of Lords in state, and gave the royal assent to the Subsidy and eight other Bills. The declaration had been entered on the Parliament roll, and Strafford took care to have some hundreds of copies printed for distribution by him in England. The clergy taxed themselves very heavily, and so a revenue was provided for some years. Strafford seems actually to have believed that the King was infinitely reverenced in Ireland, and that he himself was quite popular, though some spiteful people had asserted the contrary. ‘God forgive their calumnies,’ he said, ‘and I do.’[245]