GALLERY OF ILLUSTRIOUS IRISHMEN. NO. IX. JAMES, DUKE OF ORMONDE, was the son Walter, his grandfather by the father's side, was, at this time, Earl of Ormonde; having succeeded to the estates and dignities of his uncle Thomas, who left no male issue. We do not propose, in the brief sketches to which we must confine ourselves in these papers, to give any detailed account of the genealogies of our illustrious subjects; suffice it, in the present instance, to say, that Carte traces the Ormonde pedigree beyond the period of the Norman conquest, and adduces abundant evidence of its great antiquity, to satisfy family pride, although perhaps, it may fail to convince the more scrupulous judgments of disin terested observers. The first patent of nobility, in the possession of the family, bears date September 1st, 1815. By this instrument, Edmond Le Bottiler, was created Earl of Carrick, for good services, as Carte supposes, rendered against the invading Scotch, and the insurgent Irish. His son, James, succeeded to his title and estates; and, having married the cousin-german of Edward the Third, was created Earl of Ormonde. As this latter title was that by which the family was thenceforth generally designated, the Earls of Kildare, although a more recent creation than the Earls of Carrick, by two years, began to take precedence of the latter in the Irish peerage, upon the presumption, that the title of Carrick was merged in the subsequent creation of the title of Ormonde. Nor was this augmentation of dignity, if such it may be called, the only advantage which James derived from his connection with the royal family of England. He received, also, a grant of the regalities and liberties of Tip. perary, and the rights of a palatine in that county. But neither was this high alliance without its troubles and its dangers. The quarrels between the houses of York and Lancaster involved almost every family of distinction upon one side or the other in that deadly strife. James, the fifth Earl of Ormonde, who had also been created Earl of Wiltshire, by a patent bearing date at Wintern, July 8, 27th of Henry the Sixth, sided with the house of Lancaster, and, having shared all the vicissi tudes of his party, was taken prisoner at the battle of Taunton, in Yorkshire, on the 29th of March, 1461, and beheaded on the first of May, at Newcastle. Dying without male issue, he was succeeded, in their turn, by two brothers, whose attainder (for they were both_engaged with him in the battle of Taunton, and consequently involved in the guilt of high treason) was reversed, that of the first, by Edward the Fourth, who declared of Sir John de Ormonde, that "he was the goodliest knight he ever beheld, and the finest gentleman in Christendom ;" and that of the second, Thomas Ormonde, by Henry the Seventh, who also promoted him to the dignity of privy councillor, and sent him as ambassador to the court of France. The wellknown sagacity of the last named monarch justifies the belief, that, if he did not possess qualities of an uncommon kind, he would not have been so distinguished. This Thomas, Earl of Ormonde, was the great grandfather of the famous and unfortunate Anne Bullen ;—he was thus, remotely, the ancestor of Queen Elizabeth. Piers, who succeeded Thomas, was induced, by Henry the Eighth, to surrender the title of Ormonde, that it might be bestowed upon Sir Thomas Bullen, who was very desirous to obtain it. This nobleman was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, and continued in the office until the year 1530, when the Duke of Richmond, Henry's natural son, came over as lord lieutenant. He left Sir William Skeffington as his deputy, who was soon succeeded by the Earl of Kildare. This nobleman was not long without evincing the factious and the personal feelings by • Had Ormonde been desirous to deny that he was an Irishman, he might have special pleaded the accident of his birth in London. But he was ever above such poor affectation; and gloried in being an Irishman-it is not for us to deny his claim. VOL. XI. C which he was actuated, and was summoned to England to answer for his conduct. Having done what he could to strengthen the disaffected, he took his departure, leaving his son, Thomas Fitzgerald, deputy in his stead. This youth, being excited by the rumor, (an unfounded one,) that his father had been taken and beheaded in London, renounced his allegiance, raised an insurrection, besieged the castle of Dublin, and proceeding in force into the Earl of Ossory's country, sent a mesJames, Lord Butler, proposing, if he would join in his enterprize, to divide with him the kingdom. The answer of the young nobleman, whom he would thus fain draw into the guilt of treason, is worthy of a scion of the house of Ormonde. Taking pen in hand to write to you my absolute answer, I muse, in the first line, by what name to call you, my lord, or my cousin, seeing your notorious treason hath impeached your loyalty and honour, and your desperate lewdness hath shamed your kindred. You are, by your expressions, so liberal in parting stakes with me, that a man would swear you had no right to the game; and so importunate for my company, as if you would persuade me to hang with you for good fellowship. And think you that James is so mad as to gape for gudgeons, or so ungracious as to sell his truth and loyalty for a piece of Ireland? Were it so (as it cannot be) that the chickens you reckon were both hatched and feathered, yet, be thou sure that I had rather, in in this quarrel, die thine enemy, than live thy partner. For the kindness you proffer me, and good will, in the end of your letter, the best way I can, I purpose to requite you;—that is, in advising you, though you have fetched your fence, to look well before ever you leap over. Ignorance, error, and a mistake of duty, hath carried you unawares to this folly, yet not so rank but that it may be cured. The king is a vessel of mercy and bounty; your words against his majesty shall not be counted malicious, but only bulked out of heat and impotency-except yourself, by heaping of offences, discover, a mischievous and wilful meaning. Fare well." This young nobleman, when he came to the enjoyment of his family honours, greatly recommended himself, by his loyalty and services, to the English government, and was appointed by Henry the Eighth Lord Treasurer of Ireland, a post which he enjoyed for life. He was succeeded by his son, Thomas, Earl of Ormonde, who had been brought up at the Eng lish court, "and was instructed," Carte ་་ This To Queen Elizabeth's credit be it said, this freedom did not cause the earl to decline in her favour, which he enjoyed, uninterruptedly, during the whole of her long reign, and that, notwithstanding the revengeful malice of the Earl of Leicester, who cherished an implacable animosity against him. Twice that nobleman treacherously sought to take away his life, once by the hands of a hired assassin, and again, by poison. And that he was, in Ormonde's judgment, capable of any wickedness, appears from the following incident, which is as characteristic of the sordid baseness of the one party as it is of the honest indignation of the other. The first wife of Earl Thomas was a daughter of Lord Berkley, whose large estate seemed likely to be her inheritance, inasmuch as her only brother was deemed impotent, and weak of mind. Ormonde and Leicester dining one day together, the latter asked the former, "what he should give him for the Berkeley estate, when it fell to him." Ormoude said "there was no occasion for such a question, for Lord Berkeley might have sons, and he heartily wished he might." Leicester replied, "it was not likely," and repeated his question with such eager and unseemly importunity, that Ormonde, being provoked, at length told him "that he would never sell it to him, of all men, for that, if he did, he would poison the fool." This earl was a Protestant, and frequently used his influence at court, to recommend men of merit, in the church, to vacant bishopricks in Ireland. He was succeeded in his titles and estates by his nephew, Sir Walter Butler, whose son, the Lord Thurles, was married, as we before stated, to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Poyntz of Acton, in the county of Gloucester, and dying while his father was yet alive, being drowned near the Skerries as he was sailing for England, on December 15, 1619, his eldest son, James, succeeded to the family honors upon the death of his grandfather, which took place on the 24th of February, 1632. Upon the death of his father, the child was removed to England, being then only nine years old, and placed under the care of one Connyers, a Roman Catholic, by whom it was the intention of the family, that he should be brought up in all the strictuess of that persuasion. But King James willed it otherwise. He foresaw the danger which might result from suffering a nobleman, who, from station and connections, would be likely to exereise so extensive an influence in Ireland, to become imbued with the tenets of popery; and he, accordingly, exercised the privilege which he possessed respecting all wards of the crown, and, removing the young Lord Thurles from his popish preceptor, placed him in the palace of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Abbot, it is said, did not take any particular pains to imbue the mind of his young pupil either with the principles which might keep him steady in the Protestant faith, or the knowledge by which he might be qualified to act a useful or an honourble part in the world. And the advantages of his residence at Lambeth were rather negative than positive; consisting more in his exemption from the taint of superstition, than in his advancement in solid learning, or his establishment in true religion. And, although no one, at an after period of life, ever evinced a more grounded preferance for the Church of England, or a more thorough acquaintance with the Romish controversy, yet this rather arose from the reflections of his own sagacious mind, the clearness of his judgment, and the nobleness of his sentiments, than from any early instructions which he received from the prelate to whose care he had been entrusted. By a marriage with his cousin, the Lady Elizabeth Preston, he reconciled serious family differences, and secured the quiet possession of his patrimonial inheritance, of which the earl his grandfather, had long been deprived, by reason of an oppressive exercise of the royal prerogative, and most vexatious and expensive litigation. His marriage took place in 1629; and the old earl dying in 1632, James entered upon the possession and enjoyment of his estates and titles, but a short time before Lord Deputy Wentworth became chief governor of Ireland. The state of Ireland, at that critical period, was such as required a wisdom and a vigour in the administration of its affairs, such as, in all the changes and chances to which its fortunes have, at various times, been exposed, had rarely been demanded. The measures of James had now been in operation for more than twenty years, and were beginning to have an important influence, both moral and political, upon the condition of Ireland. The plantation of Ulster had laid, in that part of the country, a foundation of tranquillity and prosperity which has since been happily realized, and which has more than coinpensated for the heartburnings and jealousies by which such an experi ment, in its outset, was sure to be attended. The extensive confiscations, in the south and west, which followed the suppression of the Desmond insurrection, had thrown into the hands of the crown domains sufficiently ample to gratify the cupidity of its retainers, and which were disposed of in the way most likely to secure the neutra lity, or the attachment of those upon whom they were bestowed, and to protect the country from the desolating effects of those periodical outbreaks of sedition and turbulence, to which it seemed to have been cndemned by some fiat of nature. British law, for the first time, had ample course through the whole extent of the country, and the people were protected against the tyrannous and capricious exactions of the Irish chieftains, who, instead of lording at will over their degraded vassals, themselves became amenable to the severity of offended justice. Towns were built, which speedily began to flourish, in consequence of the advantages conferred upon them by the municipal corporations. Trade revived. The land began to be judiciously cultivated. The peasant no longer felt himself under the absolute dominion of an arbitrary task-master, but as one who had himself an interest in the soil, and who now enjoyed a reasonable degree of security, that the fruits of his industry might be transmitted to his children. The laws against recusancy were rarely enforced with any blameable rigour, nor were papists, except in very suspicious instances, required to take the oaths of supremacy and abjuration. In all matters pertaining to the exercise of their religion, they were as free from molestation as the members of the Established Church; and if they were only disposed to respect the authority of the state, there was no disposition, on the part of the government, to violate, in the least degree, the rights of conscience. So far, upon the surface of affairs, everything wore the appearance of permanent and progressive prosperity. But, under all this goodly show, there were at work feelings and principles, whose disguised operation was but little regarded by the busy politicians of the day, and whose influence never became thoroughly conspicuous until it was found to be as uncontrollable as it was malignant. The Romish clergy were the vassals of the see of Rome. The heretical pravity of the British sovereign disentitled him, in their judgment, to even their civil allegiance. The winds, which scattered the Armada, had no effect in dissipating the dreams of ambition which still possessed the king of Spain, who hoped, by the aid of his holiness, and the Romish party in Ireland, to secure to himself the sovereignty of the kingdom. Heretofore the Irish chieftains contended resolutely against this alienation of the Irish crown, and, however ready they might appear to join in an enterprise which promised to throw off the dominion of England, they could not easily be reconciled to an attempt, which no success could exempt, in their minds, from a certain degree of national humiliation. But, by the measures of James, they had been humbled. Their feudal authority was now no more; and they were no longer in a position to contend for that popular sway, which, in former times, they had enjoyed, in common with ambitious and intriguing ccclesiastics. The Romish priesthood had now obtained an undisputed mastery over the Romish multitude, whose emancipation as serfs, from the dominion of rude and unprincipled lords, had only served to rivet the chains which bound them in a state of spiritual slavery, and to render them so much more obnoxious to papal influence, as they were less at the bidding of capricious masters. The only individuals who now appeared to contend with the clergy, for some portion of that authority of which the old heads of the Irish clans had become dispos sessed, were the lawyers-and these men were far too sagacious not to perceive that their interest, either as a party or as individuals, would best be promoted by falling in with the views of their clerical rivals; and, accordingly, while the one employed their spiritual influence, and the hopes, and the fears of another world, to mould the people into an accordance with their views, the others were not wanting in the artful fabrication of every temporal device which might aid in the accomplishment of their common object. There was, then, when Wentworth arrived in Ireland, an exsoteric and an esoteric popish faction, by whom the peace of the kingdom was disturbed, and of whom it might be said that the violence of the one was chiefly dangerous because it served to keep out of sight the deep and subtle villainy of the other. Principles the most seditious and pestilent were thus secretly disseminated throughout the community, and Roman Catholics were taught to believe that, by conspiring against their sovereign, and aiding in a project for the extirpation of heresy, they were doing God a service. This feeling manifested itself, occasionally, by acts of outrage and intolerance which chal |