Wentworth falsely accused of killing Esmond.
Crosbie fined and imprisoned.
Sir Piers Crosbie had been excluded from the Irish Council for opposing Wentworth in the Parliament of 1634. This action was sustained in England and might easily be defended, for the distinction between executive and legislative functions was not fully observed in those days. Privy Councillors were then the real advisers of the Crown, and Wentworth might fairly object to one who was an open opponent. In modern times the Cabinet has usurped the powers of the Council, but no one could long remain a member without submitting to the Prime Minister in his parliamentary capacity. By withholding his confidence from all except some half-dozen Englishmen, who owed their advancement to him, Wentworth made enemies or very lukewarm supporters of the Irish officials and their friends. Crosbie had commanded an Irish regiment at Rhé, but Wentworth wrote of him as ‘a gentleman of so fine and tender parts as qualifies him much better for a lady’s chamber. Was there ever man such an Adonis, think you?’ These words, or others to the like effect, were probably in circulation, and Crosbie was in a position to give some trouble. Lord Esmond spoke openly against the Lord Deputy, and the death of a relation of his in prison furnished the pretext for a false charge. Robert Esmond was a ship-owner, and he refused in November 1634 to take some timber of Wentworth’s on board. His own defence was that the pieces were too long to be stored on board his vessel, which was already laden with wood belonging to the Chief Justice. Perhaps the Lord Deputy did not believe him: at all events he shook his cane at him and sent him to gaol, and as he died of consumption soon after being released, it is possible that confinement may have hastened his death. It was generally given out that he died of the beating he had received, and Esmond, Mountnorris, and others appear to have combined with Crosbie to propagate the story. ‘There is,’ Wentworth wrote, ‘an impudent and false conspiracy against me. And, verily, my lord, on this Friday (a day on which it pleased God to bring me forth into the world) I renounce all the blessings of this passion if ever I did or had it in my thoughts to strike Esmond, and when the poor wand shall be shown in court wherewith I must have beaten the man to death, the impudent untruth will further appear to you.’ Lord Esmond himself seems to have ceased to believe the story, for he told Wentworth of the report early in 1636. It was not till 1639 that the Star Chamber in England decided the case in Wentworth’s favour. Crosbie was fined and imprisoned for a short time. According to his own account he was released on paying the fine, but Wentworth alleged that he broke out of the Fleet prison. From the charge of killing Esmond, Strafford may be fully exonerated; but it can never in any age have been right for the Chief Governor of Ireland to shake his stick at offenders, either in his judicial or in his military capacity.[234]
Case of Trinity College, Dublin.
Cambridge influences.
Provost Temple, 1609.
Bedell provost, 1627.
Laud chosen chancellor, 1633.
It was originally intended that the University of Dublin should include several colleges, as at Oxford and Cambridge, and unsuccessful attempts were made to carry out the idea. But in fact the University and Trinity College remained one. Some short-lived halls were founded for the increase of accommodation. All the early provosts except Robert Ussher, who was educated in the college itself, were Cambridge men, and a Puritan or, as we might say, a Low Church tone was generally maintained. Sir William Temple, who was provost from 1609 to 1627, made the distinction between senior and junior fellows, and it was soon decided that the right of election lay in the seniors only. Temple, who was not in orders, objected to wear a surplice as directed by Abbot, who was chancellor of the University. Bedell, who succeeded Temple, had a comparatively short tenure of office, but he signalised his reign by promulgating revised statutes and by taking steps for the teaching of Irish, with a view to approach the natives through their own language. When Abbot died in 1633 the fellows, at the instance of Primate Ussher, chose Laud for their chancellor. Laud would have preferred that the lot had fallen upon Wentworth himself, but Ussher urged him not to refuse.[235]
Robert Ussher provost, 1629.