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of his father, who had been created baron of Somerhill, (a manor of his in Kent,) and viscount Tunbridge, to which title Charles had added those of baron Imany, viscount of Galway, and earl of St Albans.* In the summer of 1641 the subject of our present memoir returned to his seat of Portumna, and on the breaking out of the rebellion took the most active and decisive measures both for its suppression, and also for the counteraction of the evils it occasioned. Being governor of the town and county of Galway he had official power, as well as great personal influence. The English knew him to enjoy the favour and confidence of his sovereign, while the Irish looked up to him as their friend and chieftain, to which rank he was entitled not only by his extensive possessions but by his high moral qualities, which must at all times command an ascendancy, but which were then peculiarly valuable from being rare. He summoned all who held lands of the king, to be ready to take arms in his service at twenty-four hours' warning. He applied to the lords-justices, who were of the puritanic party, for aid, and was of course refused; when he called an assembly of the county at Loughrea (where his own regiment of foot happened at the time to be quartered) and so successfully awakened their fears, suppressed their discontents, and renewed their declining confidence in the royal promises of protection and support, that they agreed to raise eight companies of foot and two troops of horse, which, without deriving assistance from the state or any other quarter, he from his own stores supplied with arms and ammunition. He obtained a declaration from the king that all his promises should be fully performed to those who now, in the moment of trial, proved themselves to be loyal subjects. He strengthened the fort of Galway, personally inspected every post of defence, and by a firm and uncompromising line of conduct subdued the disaffected, who would otherwise have counteracted his designs. The vile policy of the lords-justices, who looked for unlimited support from the puritan party in England, made them not only deprive the loyal nobility of the pale, of the arms with which they had at first intrusted them, but they issued a proclamation by which all persons, except the ordinary inhabitants of Dublin were commanded to leave it on pain of death, within twenty-four hours; thus flinging back all those who had fled there for safety, or as a security from suspicion, and compelling them to seek a refuge and coalition with the rebel party, who were but too glad of such a respectable accession to their numbers. By the instrumentality of the earl of Clanricarde and of lord Ranelagh the president, Connaught had been kept tolerably quiet; but the constrained disaffection of the pale quickly spread, and seemed to give a warrantable excuse for rebellion to the discontented spirits of that province. Insurgents from the neighbouring districts flowed in rapidly, and harassed and endangered the peaceable inhabitants. At length the town of Galway became infected, and, under the plea of ill treatment from the governor, besieged the fort, and reduced the English garrison to extreme distress. The earl, on hearing of their extremity, rapidly collected a small force and hastened to their assistance; but though utterly unable with his handful of men to cope with

* Lodge.

the assailants, he subdued them by that moral energy of character for which he was so remarkable, and compelled them to suspend hostilities and come into terms, until the king's pleasure should be known, promising in the mean time that the town should be taken under his majesty's protection. The best effects seemed likely to follow upon this occurrence, and lord Clanricarde was successfully exerting his pacific influence over the minds of the people, and gradually bringing them back to their allegiance, when the lords-justices already calculating on the forfeitures to be obtained, expressed their extreme disapproval of the protection granted to Galway, and peremptorily commanded the earl to receive no more submissions. They also directed the governors of forts and other commanders, to enter into no terms with the rebels, but to exterminate them, and all who should harbour them, with fire and sword. The insurgents grew desperate, and besieged the lordpresident in the city of Athlone, where he was at length relieved by the earl of Ormonde. Clanricarde, though justly irritated at the conduct of the Irish government, remained unshaken in his loyalty, and still continued his zealous and efficient exertions for the re-establishment of tranquillity. Towards the latter end of this year a convention was held at Kilkenny by the chief portion of the Roman catholic nobility, prelates, and clergy, in which they professed their allegiance to the king (while they violated his authority and prerogative,) and their intention of being guided by the laws of England, and the statutes of Ireland, as far as they were not inconsistent with the Roman catholic religion. They enacted many laws and regulations, and when the order of government had been adjusted they selected their provincial generals. Now that the rebellion had taken a more specious and civilized form, and that the lords-justices had made themselves so obnoxious to all the high-minded and loyally-disposed, they hoped to gain over lord Clanricarde to their standard, particularly as the maintenance of the Roman catholic faith was one of their chief and most ostensible objects. They accordingly nominated him to the chief command in Connaught, and appointed colonel John Burke as his lieutenant-general. No inducement, however, or specious representation could alter lord Clanricarde's determination; he rejected all their overtures, scorned their sophistical arguments, and with unshaken loyalty adhered to the broken fortunes of his master, notwithstanding the threats and excommunication of his own clergy, which they resorted to as a last resource. When lord Ranelagh the president of Connaught quitted his government in despair, intending to lay before Charles the ruinous and faithless conduct of his justices, Clanricarde still continued at his post, though abandoned to his difficulties and his best acts maligned. Lord Ranelagh was seized immediately on arriving in Dublin, and put into close confinement, so that even the faint hope the earl might have entertained of receiving succour from the king's supporters was dissipated. As the position of the king's affairs became more desperate in England, he was proportionally anxious to bring the rebellion in Ireland to a termination, and expressed his willingness to receive and consider the complaints of the recusants. He accordingly issued a commission under the great seal of England, to the marquess of Ormonde, the earl of Clanricarde, the earl of Roscommon, viscount

Moore, and others, to meet the principal recusants and transmit their complaints; to the bringing about of this arrangement the lords-justices opposed every obstacle. It was however at length effected, and the recall of Sir William Parsons followed on the exposure of his iniquities. The province of Connaught was nearly reduced to desperation, the rebels were every day increasing in numbers, and were possessed of many of the most important forts. Lord Clanricarde's towns of Loughrea and Portumna, were all that in the western province remained in the possession of the royalists. About this period the marquess of Ormonde concluded a treaty with the insurgents for the cessation of arms for a year, to which lord Clanricarde and several other noblemen were parties. In 1644 he was made commander-in-chief of the military in Connaught, under the marquess of Ormonde, and in the same year he was promoted to the dignity of marquess, with limitation to his issue male. He was also made a member of the privy council, and zealously exerted his increased influence and power for the benefit and tranquillization of the country. An attempt was made during the campaign of Cromwell to recover Ulster from the parliamentary army, by a conjunction of the northern Irish with the British royalists of this province, under the command of the marquess of Clanricarde; this however was defeated by the intrigues of lord Antrim, and the Irish refusing to follow any leader but one of their own selection. During the long and factious struggle of the Roman catholic prelates with lord Ormonde, Clanricarde marched with his forces to oppose the progress of Ireton and Sir Charles Coote towards Athlone, when the sentence of excommunication was published at the head of his troops, so as to discharge them from all obedience to the government. No representations of the moderate party could induce those haughty prelates to revoke the sentence of excommunication, and all that could be obtained from them was a suspension of it during the expedition for the relief of Athlone. When at length their insolent and obstinate resistance drove Ormonde from the kingdom, he appointed Clanricarde as his deputy with directions to act as circumstances and his own judgment should direct. Had Clanricarde consulted his own interest or safety he would never have undertaken so thankless and dangerous a responsibility; but his was too noble a nature to let personal considerations weigh for a moment against a sense of duty, and his zealous and devoted attachment to the king made him anxious to preserve even the semblance of his authority in Ireland; and he also thought that by continuing the war even at disadvantage in that country, he might in some degree divert the republican army from concentrating their forces against the king and the English royalists. Clanricarde accordingly accepted the office, but had to encounter a difficulty in the very outset, in getting the instrument which was to bind both parties, drawn with sufficient simplicity to prevent its covering dangerous and doubtful meanings. The Roman catholics had now a chief governor of their own religion, and Ireton was disappointed in his advance upon Limerick, so that the Irish, still possessing that city, Galway and Sligo could have made a good stand against the republicans. Ireton made propositions through his agents to the assembly to treat with the parliament, and the fatal influence exerted by the nuncio still predominated

and induced the clergy to listen favourably to these proposals. Clanricarde indignantly represented the treachery and baseness of such conduct, and the leading members of the assembly joined in expressing the same sentiments, saying, "it is now evident that these churchmen have not been transported to such excesses by a prejudice to the marquess of Ormonde, or a zeal for their religion, their purpose is to withdraw themselves entirely from the royal authority. It is the king and his government which are the real objects of their aversion, but these we will defend at every hazard; and when a submission to the enemy can be no longer deferred, we shall not think it necessary to make any stipulations in favour of the secret enemies of our cause. Let those men who oppose the royal authority be excluded from the benefits of our treaty."* The clergy little accustomed to such language at length submitted, and the treaty was rejected. They still, however, retained their hatred to Clanricarde, and held secret and seditious conferences. Early in the spring Ireton again prepared to besiege Limerick, and when the earl proposed to shut himself up in the city and defend it to the last, he was rejected by the clergy and citizens with the same insolence with which they had before excluded Ormonde. Ireton at length commenced his siege, and having gained the city by treachery, Galway was next summoned to accept the same terms previously offered to Limerick, and threatened with similar severities if they refused. The citizens were at first terror-struck, and inclined to submit, but on learning the death of Ireton their courage revived, and they sent to lord Clanricarde, entreating his assistance, and promising to be entirely guided by his directions. The marquess at once summoned a meeting of all the neighbouring nobility, gentry, and prelates, at Galway, that they might take into consideration the best measures for its defence. The former panic however quickly returned, for Ludlow succeeding to the command of the English forces, acted with such uncompromising vigour, that they prevailed on Clanricarde unwillingly to accede to a treaty, and at length, without his authority or sanction, surrendered the town.

The success of the republicans daily increased, but still Clanricarde, with desperate fidelity, adhered to the royal cause, and aided by some Ulster forces, took the castles of Ballyshannon and Donegal. At length, on the dispersion of his troops and the total exhaustion of his own resources, he yielded to the stern necessity of his position, and in compliance with the king's instructions, accepted conditions from the republicans. His high character made him respected, even by his enemies; he was allowed to remain unmolested in their quarters, and had permission to transport himself and three thousand Irish into the service of any foreign prince not at war with England.

His Irish estate, of £29,000 a-year, was seized and sequestered, and he retired to Somerhill, in Kent, where he died in 1657. He married early in life the lady Ann Compton, daughter of the earl of Northampton, who survived him, and by her had one daughter, who married Charles, viscount Muskerry.

The marquess was excepted from pardon for life and estate, by an act passed by Cromwell's parliament in 1652.

*Leland.

Roger, Earl of Orrery.

BORN A. D. 1621.

THIS distinguished nobleman was the third son of Richard Boyle, the first earl of Cork, already commemorated in our pages. At the age of fifteen, we are informed, he entered the university of Dublin, from which he was in a few years sent by his father, to travel on the continent― then, when the means of acquiring a knowledge of the world from any means short of actual observation, were far less than in later times, the only resource for the accomplishment of a man of the world. Under the care of a Mr Markham, he made the tour of France and Italy, and profited so much by the extended means of intercourse and communication thus afforded, that his appearance at the English court was greeted by general admiration and respect: nor was employment slow in following. The earl of Northumberland gave him the command of his own troop in the expedition against Scotland; while, by the interest of the earl of Strafford, whose regard is of itself a high testimony of desert, he was created baron Broghill, 28th February, 1627.

During his long sojourn in England, he married the lady Margaret Howard, sister to the earl of Suffolk; and with her arrived in Ireland on the opening of the troubles of 1641, and proceeded with his lady to his father's castle of Lismore, which they gained without any alarm, as the breaking out of rebellion was not yet known in Munster.

A few days after, he was invited by the earl of Barrymore, his brother-in-law, to dine at Castlelyons, where he met his father, the earl of Cork, lord Muskerry, and other neighbouring gentry. On this occasion it was that a messenger, arriving just before dinner, brought intelligence to the earl of Cork, that the Irish were in rebellion, and had taken possession of the entire country through which he had come. All scattered to their respective homes to prepare for defence, or to meditate the course they were to follow. The immediately succeeding events we have already told in more than one memoir, but more especially in that of the earl of Cork.* In these lord Broghill bore his full share, and conducted himself so as to have acquired increased reputation for courage, sagacity, and military talent.

During the progress of the ensuing protracted struggle, in which, for a time, it became a question of difficulty to decide between the respective claims of the several parties who were contending in arms on the pretext of loyalty, or in the name of government, lord Broghill's straight-forward common sense easily disentangled him from the perplexity of a sanction, which, on the one side, was false and fraudulent; and on the other had lost its vitality. He readily saw that the king's authority could not be supported, that his cause was not maintained; and that, while his friends were compelled to keep up a vain struggle against every impediment, the rebels, who had assumed, the pretext of his name, were overwhelming with imputation a cause for which

*Vol. II. pp. 412, 413.

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