The Viceroys of Ireland

by Charles Kingston O'Mahony

Their services were dispensed with when Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, arrived in Dublin on April 15, 1599, his appointment dating from March 12, 1598. The Earl of Essex was one of the most romantic figures in the later court of Queen Elizabeth. When, as a boy of ten, Robert Devereux appeared at court, the queen was fascinated by his beauty and his charming manners. She sent for him later, and his early days were distinguished by the confidence of the queen. Elizabeth was an old woman when Essex was in the first flower of his manhood, but he was as crafty as he was handsome, and he made every use of his power over the queen, a monarch aping youth with the aid of powder and paint. She made Essex the most powerful of courtiers, and he attempted to reserve her favour for himself. When the queen showed kindness to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Essex, ever passionate and prone to quarrel, sought out his rival and challenged him to a duel. The result was abortive, but it was only one of a series of incidents which showed Elizabeth that she was raising Essex higher than his peculiar temperament made promotion safe. On one occasion he actually reproached the queen, who in a moment of rage forgot her pose of youth, and boxed the earl's ears. But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious. Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. He hastily concluded a treaty of peace with Tyrone, appointed Lords Justices to carry on the government, and repaired to England on September 24, having spent less than five months in Ireland. Only one who was certain of Elizabeth's favour could have dared to do such a thing, but Essex entered London in the temper of a spoilt child, prepared to rail at the queen for having dared to criticize him, and no doubt expecting to receive her apologies. The queen upset his calculations by having him arrested promptly, and although the public offered up prayers for his restoration to the good graces of the queen, these prayers were unanswered, because Essex was not the man to believe in his sovereign's determination. The arrest he regarded as a joke—in bad taste, perhaps, but still a joke—and when its seriousness dawned upon him he tried to retaliate in kind. In 1601 he was executed. The charges against him were, first, with making a dishonourable treaty with the rebels, and, second, leaving his Government without the permission of the authorities—that is, the queen and Council. When released from the Tower and ordered to remain at York House, Essex attempted a rebellion, and the spoilt darling of fortune paid the penalty with his life.

Lord Mountjoy

Lord Mountjoy

The next viceroy, Sir Charles Blount, afterwards Lord Mountjoy, was a typical product of the Elizabethan court. He had been Essex's friend and afterwards his enemy, and when the earl retired prematurely from Ireland, Elizabeth sent Mountjoy to reopen the war against O'Neill and to crush him, irrespective of the treaty of security and peace signed by Essex in Elizabeth's name. He carried out his duties faithfully, and succeeded in driving the Tyrones out of their territory. On the final defeat of O'Neill, that chieftain made submission, and Mountjoy was graciously pleased to forgive the rebel and restore his title and estates to him. While in Ireland Mountjoy received a letter from Essex, then a prisoner on parole at York House, asking him to bring his army from Ireland, join a promised army of the King of Scotland, and drive Elizabeth's advisers from power. Mountjoy at once declined to hazard his own neck, and he left Essex to his fate. The hope that the earl placed on the viceroy was inspired by the latter's affection for Penelope, sister of Lord Essex. This lady was so notorious that even Queen Elizabeth had to refuse to receive her, but her faults were the faults of the age she lived in. At a very early age, and without having her wishes consulted at all, Penelope was married to an old roué named Lord Rich, a man of filthy habits and loathsome ways. Penelope bore him seven children, but the gross brutalities of her husband drove her into the arms of Sidney, and when she became Mountjoy's mistress, she had five children by him. The viceroy, however, was a faithful lover, and when Lord Rich divorced her after Mountjoy's resignation of his post, the viceroyalty, he married her, inducing his private chaplain, Laud, to perform the ceremony. The act of Laud's very nearly ruined his career, and, at any rate, it stood in the way of his promotion for several years. It is said that Mountjoy did intend to come to the rescue of his mistress's brother, and certainly Elizabeth, who wanted Mountjoy's services, suppressed a confession by a prisoner which, had it become public, must have cost Lord Mountjoy his head. As it was, he held the viceroyalty until 1603, and could have remained longer, for King James confirmed his appointment. Mountjoy, however, wanted his Penelope, and he left Ireland for her sake. James rewarded him with the Earldom of Devonshire, but as all his children were illegitimate, the titles died with him.

The Order of the Baronetage

The late viceroy's deputy, Sir George Cary, enjoyed only a few months in office, for Sir Arthur Chichester, afterwards Lord Chichester of Belfast, was given the post, and came to Ireland early in 1605. Chichester was forty-one, but he had already nearly thirty years' experience of public affairs, including the fight against the Armada. In his early youth he had assaulted an inoffensive citizen, and had fled from London to Ireland, but Elizabeth pardoned him and found him employment. Fortunately for Chichester, Lord Mountjoy took him into favour, and when the latter returned to England, and was appointed adviser to James on Irish affairs, he nominated Chichester as the most suitable person to govern Ireland. This viceroy made it a condition that religious persecution in Ireland should be abolished. Every precedent was against the continuance of a protracted and futile attempt to force an objectionable religion upon the majority of the people, and when he secured this concession to common sense from James and Mountjoy, Chichester must have realized that he was in a fair way to make his term of office a success. Some luck attended him. He was given a good army, and very early in his career in Ireland two of his most dangerous opponents, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, left Ireland for ever. Chichester then proceeded to colonize Ulster. The order of the Baronetage was created in 1611, and the title sold for £1,080, the proceeds being intended to pay the expenses of the colonization of Ulster. The large estates of the Tyrone and Tyrconnell families were distributed amongst the native Irish, the English and some planters from Scotland, Chichester himself being rewarded with a peerage. It was a wise move on his part, moreover, to give first choice to the native Irish in the matter of the division of the land, for he knew that peace could only be purchased at a price.

On these lines he governed Ireland for twelve years, and when he retired in 1614, he had the satisfaction of earning the praise of those he ruled and those he served. His wife, a daughter of Sir John Perrott, does not appear to have taken a very prominent part in Irish life. She was an invalid and contemptuous of the Irish, though the records of some of their entertainments in Dublin Castle prove that she was lavish in her hospitality, and even invited the heads of the great Irish families.

Sir Oliver St. John was in 1616 appointed Viceroy of Ireland. During the interval the Government had been in the hands of Adam Loftus, the indispensable Archbishop of Dublin, whose power was as great as his cupidity and avarice. St. John was a typical soldier of fortune, who had found fame and fortune on the battlefields of the Continent. In 1580, when twenty-one, he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, out a legal career ended suddenly as the result of a duel with Best, the navigator. Best died, and St. John fled the country, but after many profitless years he had the luck to come under the notice of the Earl of Essex at Rouen. Essex, who was in need of brave soldiers, enlisted St. John, and took him to Ireland to fight against Tyrone. In a few years St. John was elected member for Roscommon in the Irish Parliament, and followed that up by entering the English House of Commons as member for Portsmouth. Mountjoy knighted him and made him president of Connaught, so that when in 1616 he was made viceroy, he brought to the office a great experience of Irish affairs.