the geraldine ambitions of the first earl of cork

Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

The Geraldine Ambitions of the First Earl of CorkAuthor(s): Patrick LittleSource: Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 33, No. 130 (Nov., 2002), pp. 151-168Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30006938 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 23:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toIrish Historical Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.204 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 23:07:04 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ihsp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/30006938?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Irish Historical Studies, xxxiii, no. 130 (Nov. 2002)

The Geraldine ambitions of the first earl of Cork

R ichard Boyle, first earl of Cork, was a most unlikely antiquarian. A self- made man and a ruthless politician, by the early 1630s he had become the

richest landowner in Munster and was entertaining ambitions to rule Ireland as lord deputy.1 Yet in the same period the 'great earl' spent much time and effort sifting the archives for genealogical information about one of the most ancient noble houses of Ireland - the Fitzgeralds, earls of Kildare and Desmond. In 1627 Cork paid for repairs to the 'pedigree box' he kept in his study at Youghal, and it was soon put to good use.2 In 1632 Cork 'and ... other his judicious friends by him imployed herein' spent time searching 'several ancient records and sundry other deeds and muniments' in order to produce a genealogy of the senior branch of the Fitzgerald clan, the earls of Kildare.3 And shortly afterwards Cork prepared a 'fair pedigree of the house and descent of the ancient and noble family of the Fitzgeralds earls of Desmond, drawn up by myself, and friends' searches of ancient records', which he later sent to Thomas Russell, whose own 'Relation of the Fitzgeralds', published in 1638, was dedicated to and probably commissioned by, the earl.4 Why should a blunt businessman and wily politician such as the earl of Cork spend so much time and effort researching the genealogies of the defunct dynasties of medieval Ireland?

Cork's interest in Irish history and culture did not stop at family trees. As Professor Nicholas Canny has demonstrated, in the 1620s and early 1630s

'The standard works on Cork are Terence Ranger,'The career of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, in Ireland, 1588-1643' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1959), and Nicholas Canny, The upstart earl: a study of the social and mental world of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, 1566-1643 (Cambridge, 1982). See also Patrick Little,'The earl of Cork and the fall of the earl of Strafford, 1638-41' in Hist. Jn., xxxix (1996), pp 619-35; John Reeve,'Secret alliance and Protestant agitation in two kingdoms: the early Caroline background to the Irish rebellion of 1641' in Ian Gentles, John Morrill and Blair Worden (eds), Soldiers, writers and statesmen of the English Revolution (Cambridge, 1998), pp 19-35.

2Cork's accounts, 1626-32, entry for 16 Nov. 1627 (N.L.I., MS 6897, unfol.). 3Fitzgerald pedigree, c. 1632 (Dorset Record Office, D/SHC/KG 1474). The date

can be determined by the mention of the marriage of Mabel Digby to Gerald Fitzgerald, which took place in 1631.

4Lismore papers, ed. A. B. Grosart (2 series, 10 vols, London, 1886-8), 1st ser., iv, 15 (Cork's diary,4 Mar. 1634). For Russell see Samuel Hayman and James Graves (eds), Unpublished Geraldine documents (4 pts, Dublin, 1870-81), i. 3, 7-38; William O'Sullivan, 'A finding list of Sir James Ware's manuscripts' in R.L.A. Proc., xcvii (1997), sect. C, p. 97. I owe this last reference to Jason Dorsett.

151



152 Irish Historical Studies

the earl also developed a 'conscious attachment to things Irish' - retaining Irish servants and tenants, allowing his children to learn Gaelic, and even employing Irish musicians and bards.5 At the same time he also arranged marriages between his daughters and Old English lords such as David Barry, later earl of Barrymore, and George Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare. It is possi- ble, with Professor Canny, to dismiss Cork's interest in Irish culture as merely an antiquarian hobby; to explain away his eagerness to secure Old English marriages as a parvenu's desire to patch up the threadbare pedigree of the Boyles with ancient dynasties and prestigious titles;6 and to continue to portray the earl as an unsympathetic, hard-nosed colonist.' But in seeking to separate the social from the political, such an approach makes a fundamental error. As most accounts of Cork's career make plain, the earl was not given to frivolity when it came to expending time or money, and certainly not in important matters such as the marriages of his children. Indeed, Cork's financial dealings were tightly controlled, and his marriage policy can be used as a litmus test of his political ambitions throughout the last two decades of his career.8 Equally, when dealing with a man who chose as a motto the words 'God's providence is our inheritance', it is wise not to play down the fundamental importance of his religious beliefs in his private affairs, especially when they so obviously impinged on his conduct of public policy. Easy distinctions between Cork's cultural, social, political, religious and financial concerns do not seem to ring true; nor, as I shall suggest, do they accord with the evidence. The article seeks to reassess Cork's attitudes towards Ireland and the Irish, with reference to the Old English Fitzgerald family, in order to shed further light on the 'social and mental world' of this wealthy, and shrewd, New Englishman.

I

There were good practical reasons for an ambitious planter such as Cork to take a close interest in the fate of the Old English in Munster, for the suc- cess of any attempt to increase landholdings at the expense of the native Irish would depend on a knowledge of the historical precedents and their legal implications. The Desmond rebellion of 1579 had brought attainders and confiscations which cleared large areas of Munster ready for plantation by English settlers, and the greater part of Cork's landholdings was carved out of former Desmond estates. In addition, the decision of many former Desmond clients to support the government in the 1580s and the Nine Years

5Canny, Upstart earl, pp 126-8, 195n. 6Ibid., pp 129-32. 7Nicholas Canny, Kingdom and colony: Ireland in the Atlantic world, 1560-1800

(Baltimore, Md., 1988), pp 45, 55, 66-7. Canny's conclusions are supported by Brian Mac Cuarta, 'A planter's interaction with Gaelic culture: Sir Matthew De Renzy (1577-1634)' in Ir. Econ. & Soc. Hist., xx (1993), pp 1-17.

8Little, 'Cork & Strafford'; idem, 'Family and faction: the Irish nobility and the English court, 1632-42' (unpublished M.Litt. thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1992), chs 1, 5.



LrTLE - The Geraldine ambitions of the first earl of Cork 153

War meant that their lands were never confiscated, and this created a patch- work of Old English and Gaelic landowners interspersed with the English planters. The Powers, Barrys, Fitzgibbons, MacCarthys, Roches and others were still major players in Munster in the 1620s and 1630s. The survival of many former Desmond clients helped to keep alive a very strong sense of allegiance to the old structures among the native inhabitants - as seen in the attempts of Cork's earliest patron in Munster, Sir George Carew, to counter the power of the 'Stigin Earl' of Desmond, by setting up a Geraldine pre- tender, James FitzGerald Fitzgerald, in the winter of 1600-1. For, as Carew calculated, even if he captured and executed the rebellious 'Stigin Earl', 'such is their [the Irish] desire to have an earl of Desmond, as that they will evermore find a Geraldine to make their Robin Hood rather than to want a head to lead them'.? Through the early decades of the seventeenth century there was continuing interest from various quarters in resurrecting the Desmond earldom. The 'Siigin Earl's' successors, now exiled in Spain, provided a focus for the dispossessed Irish on the Continent, and in 1621 there were rumours that the Spanish king would create a rival, Iberian, earldom of Desmond."o James I also recognised the power of the Desmond name: when attempting to reduce the influence of the eleventh earl of Ormond in 1619, he granted Richard Preston, Lord Dingwall, the title of earl of Desmond - and, as a result, reactivated the traditional Ormond-Desmond rivalries in Tipperary and Waterford." The continuing importance attached to the Fitzgerald clan suggests that Cork's own researches into the Desmond genealogy were not merely antiquarian in motive: he recognised that Munster was not a tabula rasa but a region which was still dominated by the personnel, and the ethos, of a headless Desmond lordship.

It was this intimate acquaintance with the potential of Desmond power in Munster which seems to have quickened Cork's interest in the Fitzgeralds as a whole. His first move, from the early 1620s, was to secure marriages with the traditional Geraldine clients in Munster. Nicholas Canny has seen Cork's interest in securing such Old English alliances for his children as a sign of his 'consciousness of the lack of social distinction in the Boyle family'.'The only satisfactory explanation' for such marriages, Canny argues, was to gain 'the lustre of their antiquity to the newly established Cork line'.'2 But this sup- posed sense of social inferiority does not explain the full significance of Cork's first Old English alliance: the marriage between his daughter, Alice

9Carew to Sir Robert Cecil, 27 June 1600 (P.R.O., SP 63/207/3, f. 321v). The pre- tender was put into the care of the young Richard Boyle: see Dorothea Townshend, Life and letters of the Great Earl of Cork (London, 1904), pp 21-3.

l0Cal. S.P Ire., 1615-25, p. 313. The 'Stigin Earl's' claim was upheld after his death in 1607 by his brother and then by his nephew, and after the latter's death in 1632 the earldom continued to be claimed by a cadet branch of the Fitzgeralds as late as the eighteenth century.

"Preston claimed the title through his wife, whose great-grandfather was the eleventh earl of Desmond: see Hayman & Graves (eds), Unpublished Geraldine documents, i, 102. In 1626 Preston was granted all the Fitzgerald lands in Kilkenny and Tipperary (Cal. S.P Ire., 1625-32, pp 325-6, 686).

12Canny, Upstart earl, pp 46-7.




Boyle, and David Barry, Viscount Buttevant, in 1621.This was first and fore- most a territorial investment. The Barry lands in County Cork, which stretched across the River Blackwater to the north of Cork city,included the important baronial manors of Castlelyons and Buttevant. This potentially valuable estate had fallen into ruin since the turn of the century - a position exacerbated during Barry's minority - and when Cork first showed an interest in 1617 he offered to invest £3,000 in redeeming mortgaged land.'3 In the years following the marriage Cork bought up the mortgages and lent money to the Barrys to pay off their debts.14 He also purchased the earldom of Barrymore for his son-in-law in 1627, at a cost of £3,000, and funded the 're-edifying and new building' of the Barry seat at Castlelyons from 1636.15 In 1640 Cork still held the manor of Buttevant and other lands as collateral for Barrymore debts totalling £2,600.16 The investment was also political. The Barrys had been key allies of the Desmonds, and their loyalty to the crown had seriously weakened the Desmond interest in the late sixteenth century. In addition, Cork's interest in the antiquity of the Barrys - recognised by Canny - may also have been enhanced by their prestigious ancestry, as direct descendants of a daughter of Gerald and Nesta, the founders of the Fitzgerald dynasty."7 His choice of earldom for his new son-in-law - Barrymore, or Barrach M6r - certainly suggests that he appreciated the historic nuances of this alliance. And the significance of the match was obvi- ous to other Old English interests in Munster: the Powers of Waterford laid their own claim to the Barry inheritance in 1618, and this quarrel helped to sour relations between Cork and his neighbour, Sir William Power, in the 1620s." What Power realised was that a match between the Barrys and the Boyles could seriously affect the status quo in Munster.

The Barry match was not an isolated incident of Cork seeking to ally former Desmond interests in Munster. Cork's sister, Elizabeth Boyle, married Piers Power of Balligarran (who belonged to a Protestant branch of the Power family of Waterford), and their son, Roger, became Cork's page.19 At Cork's instigation, the earl's brother-in-law, Sir William Fenton of Mitchelstown, married the sole heiress of Maurice FitzEdmond Fitzgibbon, the White Knight, whose lands were concentrated in north County Cork, and whose family had strong kinship ties (although rather weaker political allegiances) to the Desmond Fitzgeralds.20 Another family

13Ibid., p. 47. 14Townshend, Life & letters, pp 475-6, 478-9, 481-2, 488, details the extent of

Cork's investment by the time he drew up his will in 1642. 15Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 238; iii, 208; Cork's accounts, 1636-9, entries for 3 Oct.

1636,7 Mar. 1638, and passim (N.L.I., MS 6899, unfol.);Townshend, Life & letters, p.475. "6Cork rentals, 25 Mar. 1640 (N.L.I., MS 6245, p. 166). "7New hist. Ire., ix, 166. "Cal. S.P Ire., 1615-25, p. 233. For Cork's disputes with Power see ibid., pp 400,

434,470,524-5,525-6. 19ICanny, Upstart earl, p. 44. 20D.N.B., Fenton entry; Cal. S.F Ire., 1611-14, p. 331; Michael MacCarthy-

Morrogh, The Munster plantation: English migration to southern Ireland, 1583-1641 (Oxford, 1986), pp 168-9.



LrrrLE - The Geraldine ambitions of the first earl of Cork 155

with blood-ties to the Desmonds were the Fitzgeralds of Decies, whose lands formed a buffer zone between the estates of the Boyles and the Powers in County Waterford.21 On the death of John Fitzgerald in1626, with debts of £1,500, the estate passed to his son, Gerald Fitzgerald, who became ward to Sir Edward Villiers, lord president of Munster.22 Cork, who had been involved in the financial affairs of this branch of the family since 1623,23 offered to purchase the wardship in 1627 for £1,000, intending to marry the heir to Mabel Digby, the sister of Cork's new son-in-law, Lord Digby of Geashill.24 Cork took enormous care in arranging this match, which was finally secured in 1631. He rebuffed rival bids from Lord Aungier and the earl of Ormond; he negotiated the marriage settlement, paying £600 of his own money towards it; and he lent Lord Digby £400 to cover the out- standing payments to the Villiers family.25 Cork told Lady Villiers that he was eager to provide Fitzgerald with a wife 'nobly descended, and of our religion',26 and it is clear that he was also anxious to secure yet another former Desmond client for the Boyles' growing Munster interest.

II

Cork's Munster marital policy provides the essential background for understanding his interest in the other, senior branch of the Fitzgeralds - the earls of Kildare. Although not attainted and disgraced as their Desmond cousins had been, the Kildare Fitzgeralds still faced financial ruin - largely through accidents of heredity. The two trump cards held by Cork - a pro- liferation of direct heirs and enormous landed wealth - were conspicu- ously absent from the hand dealt to the earls of Kildare. The descent of the earldom of Kildare in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was tortuous indeed. The eleventh earl of Kildare had died in 1585, to be succeeded in turn by his two younger sons, the twelfth and thirteenth earls, and then by his nephew, the fourteenth earl, whose infant son became fifteenth earl in 1612. The latter's death in 1620 brought the title to his cousin, George Fitzgerald, who became sixteenth earl at the age of eight. The death of five earls within thirty-five years had caused the earldom to be diverted to cadet lines twice, and to suffer two minorities in succession.27

21'Descents of the Fitzgeralds', early 17th century? (B.L., Add. MS 4814, £ 41r). 22Cal. S.PI Ire., 1625-32, pp 110,117; 'Wardships, liveries, etc.' (N.A.I., Lodge MSS,

1.A.53.55, f. 28r). 23Lismore papers, 1st ser, ii, 75-6, 90, 105. 24Ibid., p. 230. 2Cork to Lady Villiers, 17 Oct. 1631 (Chatsworth House, Cork Letter-book I (MS

78), p. 350); Cork's accounts, 1626-32, note of debts post-1629 (N.L.I., MS 6897); Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 110, 162, 165-6.

26Cork to Lady Villiers, 17 Oct. 1631 (Chatsworth, Cork Letter-book I (MS 78), pp 350-51).

27C. W. Fitzgerald (ed.), Descents of the earls of Kildare and their wives (Dublin, 1869), pp 13-30.




The vagaries of heredity had a devastating effect on the Fitzgerald landholdings. The problems started after the death of the eleventh earl in 1585: his widow, Lady Mabel, enjoyed a large part of the estate as jointure lands until her death in 1610. By then other difficulties had arisen: the eleventh earl's eldest son, Lord Offaly, had died before succeeding to the earldom, but Offaly's daughter, Lettice, who had been created Lady Offaly in her own right, was still the heiress-general of the entire Kildare patrimony. Lady Offaly, who married Sir Robert Digby, a Warwickshire landowner, fought against her cousins, the fourteenth and fifteenth earls, until 1619, when James I awarded her the estate of Geashill, which constituted the bulk of Fitzgerald lands in King's County.?8 Despite this royal award, Lady Offaly also kept alive her claim, as heiress-general, to extensive areas of the Kildare patrimony: in 1618 a list of lands 'rightly descended to the Lady Lettice' included manors in nine Irish counties as well as areas of Connacht.29 The situation was further complicated by the dogged survival of Lady Offaly's mother, Lady Catherine Fitzgerald, until 1632. Her own jointure lands included such important midlands manors as Athy, Woodstock and Portlester, and the descent of these lands would prove another bone of contention between the earl of Kildare and Lady Offaly in the 1630s.30

As if this was not enough, by the time it descended to the sixteenth earl in 1620 the earldom was also encumbered by the claims of the fourteenth earl's widow, Lady Elizabeth Nugent. In 1616 James I proposed granting Lady Elizabeth a third part of the earl's estates for her jointure, but a final decision was delayed until 1620, when her right was granted subject to the claims of Lady Offaly and the Digbys.31 Lady Elizabeth's jointure severely depleted the estate inherited by the infant sixteenth earl, who had lost, in the words of one of his advisers, 'a very great part of your earldom' because of her life-interest.32 The situation deteriorated still further during the 1620s. As the sixteenth earl was a royal ward, his estates fell under the control of his guardian, the duchess of Lennox, who proved a less than diligent manager of his affairs. Neglect allowed local landowners and tenants, such as Sir Terence O'Dempsie and Cork's old Munster enemy, Sir William Power, to encroach on the land, apparently unchallenged.33 By 1624 the entire earldom was worth 'not above nine hundred pound lands by the year'.34 With the rival claims and the de-

28Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 474; settlement, 19 James I (Dorset R.O., D/SHC, Box 3C/81).

"29Lands of the earl of Kildare, 1618 (B.L., Add. MS 19937, esp. ff 2r, 5v). 30Cal. Carew MSS, 1603-24, pp 196-7; order for arbitration, 15 Feb. 1614 (Dorset

R.O., D/SHC, Box 3C/81); Cal. S.P Ire., 1633-47, p. 9. 3aCal. S.P Ire., 1615-25, p. 139; Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, pp 471-3,495. 32Cork to Kildare, 15 May 1630 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5,

p. 8). Cork's note on p. 151 of this volume makes it clear that this is his own letter-book - possibly a companion to the two Cork letter-books now at Chatsworth.

33Cork to Kildare, 20 Apr. 1630 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5, pp 8-9); Cork to Kildare, 15 May 1630 (ibid., pp 10-11).

34Richard Talbot to countess of March, 28 Feb. 1624 (Chatsworth, Cork Letter- book I (MS 78), p. 14).



LrrrTLE - The Geraldine ambitions of the first earl of Cork 157

terioration of the remaining patrimony, by the late 1620s it looked as if the earldom of Kildare was a spent force, financially as well as politically.

The earl of Cork could hardly be ignorant of the imminent collapse of the house of Kildare, which was well in train by the time he initiated his own campaign to take over the old Desmond interest in Munster.35 It was within this context that Cork first entertained thoughts of a match for his widowed daughter, Sarah Moore, with Lord Digby of Geashill, the son of Lady Offaly. The Digby marriage was first proposed in October 1626.36 A marriage agreement had been signed by the end of November,37 stipulating that the wedding had to proceed before the new year, and the ceremony was con- ducted at Lismore on Christmas Day.38 The speed of the process - barely two months elapsing between the initial negotiations and the wedding - may reflect Cork's enthusiasm for the match, and this impression is rein- forced by the generosity of the marriage portion offered with the bride: £4,000 in cash, and a £1,000 interest-free loan to Lady Offaly.39 Why was Cork so eager to ally with the Digbys?

Nicholas Canny has ascribed Cork's interest in the Digbys solely to their connexion with the powerful English politician, John Digby, earl of Bristol. There is something to be said for this theory: Bristol was uncle to Lord Digby of Geashill, and the two families were certainly close in the 1620s.40 But the timing of the marriage, a few months after Bristol's disgrace at the hands of the duke of Buckingham and Charles I, suggests that political reasons were not at the top of Cork's agenda. Nor was Cork primarily motivated by financial considerations. Despite James I's award to Lady Offaly, the Digbys were close to ruin by the mid-1620s. Much of the £4,000 marriage portion was immediately used to redeem mortgaged estates: in March 1627 £1,000 was spent buying back property in Warwickshire.41 In the following September a further £1,000 was lent to Lord Digby by Cork 'to sat- isfy his debts and clear his estate'.42 An additional £1,000 was lent by Cork between December 1627 and October 1631 'that he may not be eaten up with usurers'.43 Other sums followed, until, on 20 December 1632, Digby, Lady Offaly and their trustees were forced to mortgage Geashill to Cork as security for the repayment of debts totalling £3,000.44 Despite the appar-

35Cork's attention had already been drawn to the plight of the Kildare estate by 1624: James Waller to Cork, 10 Apr. 1624 (N.L.I., MS 13237(9), unfol.).

36Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 199 (13 Oct. 1626). 37Settlement, 30 Nov. 1626 (Dorset R.O., D/SHC, Box 3C/79, unfol.). 38Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 113,203; see also Cork's accounts, 1626-32, entry for

27 Dec. 1626 (N.L.I., MS 6897). The marriage settlement was signed on 31 January 1628: see Birmingham Record Library, A1155 (Wingfield Digby MSS). I owe this last reference to Dr Stephen Roberts.

39Settlement, 30 Nov. 1626 (Dorset R.O., D/SHC, Box 3C/79, unfol.); see also Cork's accounts, 1626-32, entries for 13 Jan. 1627, 13 Feb. 1629 (N.L.I., MS 6897).

40See correspondence between the Digbys and Lady Offaly, Mar.-Oct. 1623 (Sherborne Castle, Dorset, Digby MSS, I, ff 151-2, 155rv, 175-6).

41Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 210. 42Ibid., p. 255. 43Ibid., p. 240; iii, 103-4. 4"Indenture, 20 Dec. 1632 (Dorset R.O., D/SHC, Box 3C/79, unfol.); Lismore

papers, 1st ser., iii, 184 (13 Mar. 1633).




ently harsh terms of the mortgage, Cork proved himself consistently lenient to the Digbys, even after the death of his daughter in 1633. In the late 1630s the earl negotiated with Lady Offaly about the fate of the 'motherless little ones' under her charge, and he offered his eldest granddaughter a marriage portion of £1,000.45 Before his death Cork also absolved Lord Digby from £750 of rent arrears and assigned £2,000 from his estate for his granddaugh- ters' portions.6 Even without the lost profits from Geashill, by his death in 1643 Cork had allocated nearly £10,000 merely to keep the Digbys from bankruptcy and to give their children a future.

Cork's patient generosity to the Digbys was the result of various factors. Sarah Lady Digby was the earl's favourite daughter, and her death in July 1633 came as a real blow.47 In later years his affection for his daughter passed to her children, whose childish correspondence to their grandfather is preserved in the earl's papers.4" By the early 1630s the political connexion with the earl of Bristol was of greater benefit to Cork, and Bristol would aid him in his purchase of lands in England later in the decade.49 But Cork was also fully aware of the importance of the Digbys as heirs-general of the Fitzgerald earls of Kildare.As we have seen, the Digbys could claim not only Geashill and disputed lands in the Irish midlands, but also the majority of the Kildare lands in Leinster, Munster and Connacht. In addition, there was a possibility that Lord Digby could inherit the earldom of Kildare itself, if the male line became extinct. This rival claim had worried the fourteenth earl of Kildare as early as 1601, when he objected that Lady Digby,'by usurping the name of Lettice Offaly ... would deprive me of the style of earl of Kildare'.50 In 1629 the duchess of Lennox, as the sixteenth earl of Kildare's guardian, was also concerned that the Digbys were 'a concurrent with that earl for his honour and fortunes, and heir unto them both'."5 Cork was keen to preserve the Digby claim: in July 1629 he tried to block the rival claim to the earldom of Kildare presented by an illegitimate relative, Maurice Fitzgerald of Belagh, who pressed for a patent of restitution in blood 'to enable him to be earl of Kildare' and 'thereby to prevent my Lord Digby's succession'.52 It is almost certain that Cork was behind the Irish council's decision to quash Maurice Fitzgerald's claim in 1630, acting on a petition from Lord Digby.53

45Lady Offaly to Cork, 18 Apr. 1639 (Chatworth, Lismore MS 20, no. 9); Cork to Lady Offaly, 1 Mar. 1640 (Sherborne, Digby MSS, FAM/C1); Lady Offaly to Cork, 13 Apr. 1640 (ibid.).

"ITownshend, Life & letters, pp 482, 488-9. 47Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 199. "Chatsworth, Lismore MS 24, nos 104-6, c. 1640? See also Cork's description of

Kildare Digby and his sister Lettice as'two angels' in May 1637 (Lismore papers, 1st ser., v, 5).

49See Cork to Bristol, 6 Dec. 1633 (Chatsworth, Cork Letter-book I (MS 78), pp 714-15).

50Kildare to Sir Robert Cecil, 14 Sept. 1601 (P.R.O., SP 63/209/1, f. 204r). s"Henry Lucas to Lord Dorchester, 17 Aug. 1629 (P.R.O., SP 16/148, f. 125rv). 52Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 335 (25 July 1629). 53Lords justices and council to Lord Dorchester, 30 Mar. 1630 (P.R.O., SP 63/250,

f. 157r); remonstrance of Lord Digby, c. 1630 (ibid., ff 159r-161v; for another copy in Cork's own letter-book see P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/1/1/1, pp 442-3).




It may also be significant that in 1631, as we have seen, Cork put much effort into securing a match for Lord Digby's sister with the Munster family of the Fitzgeralds of Decies - thus symbolically uniting the Kildare and Desmond branches of the family. Cork was clearly conscious of the place of the Digbys at the centre of the Fitzgerald clan, and his heavy investment in their future was guided neither by sentiment nor by English politics: rather, by his growing desire for association with the Geraldine lordships of Kildare and Desmond.

Cork's concern for the Digbys, and for the Fitzgerald succession in general, heightened his interest in the fate of the sixteenth earl of Kildare, who was a youth of seventeen in 1629. The young earl's wardship was held by the duchess of Lennox, who by the late 1620s was determined to sell it on to the highest bidder.54 In the spring and early summer of 1629 the duchess negotiated with Randal MacDonnell, earl of Antrim, who hoped to marry Kildare to his daughter - a match sponsored by the dowager countess of Kildare (widow of the fourteenth earl), Lady Elizabeth, who was herself related to the MacDonnells through the Nugent family.55 The prospect of Kildare, raised as a Protestant, being married into a staunchly Catholic family, raised fears at court, and Charles I ordered the young earl to study in Oxford, to remove him from the influence of his Irish relatives.56 The royal intervention seems to have put an end to the Kildare-Antrim match, and this gave Cork his chance. Less than a month after the royal order, on 4 August 1629, Cork concluded his own agreement with the duchess of Lennox 'for the wardship of the body and lands of George, earl of Kildare'. In return for a payment of £6,600, Cork would gain custody of the Fitzgerald patrimony, and his daughter, Joan Boyle, would become countess of Kildare.57 Initial agreements had been made in August 1629, and the purchase was finalised in mid-October. The wedding itself took place on 15 August 1630.58 Cork was immensely proud of his achievement, and, in par- ticular, that 'the young earl is to be married to an English Protestant'.59

Cork's motives in securing the Kildare match were varied. Canny is, of course, right to stress the prestige which would attach to Cork at having the premier Irish earl as his son-in-law. But any sense of social inadequacy felt by the 'upstart' earl of Cork cannot provide a convincing explanation on its own. Other motives are already apparent: the Kildare match would protect the position of the Digbys against rival claimants to lands and titles; and the Protestant Kildare must be secured against the encroachments of the

54Sir William Talbot to Kildare, 28 May 1629 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5, p. 29).

55Dowager countess of Kildare to Kildare, 1 June 1629 (ibid., p. 29; see also ibid., pp 24-5).

56"Order, 13 July 1629 (B.L., Eg. MS 2553 (Nicholas papers), f. 71r). "7Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 336. 58Indentures, 14, 15 Oct. 1629 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/1/3/2-3);

Lismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 336; iii, 48. 59Cork to Mr Hodges, 11 Mar. 1630 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/1/1/1,

p. 142).




Catholic dowager countess and her Nugent advisers.60 Equally important was Cork's continued concern for his regional and national interests, both as the successor to the Desmonds in Munster and as lord justice of Ireland. The earl's fears may also have been raised by the resurgence of the Butlers - the traditional rivals to both the Kildare and the Desmond Fitzgerald interests. James I's earl of Desmond, Richard Preston, had been encouraged to pursue his claims (through marriage) to much of the Ormond estate. After Preston's death in 1628 his heiress was quickly secured by her cousin, the eleventh earl of Ormond, as a bride for his grandson and heir, Viscount Thurles. This agreement, which reunited the title and patrimonial lands of the Ormonds, was concluded in August 1629 - the same month that Cork intervened to secure the Kildare wardship and marriage for his own daughter.61 This may explain the timing of Cork's initial negotiations with the duchess of Lennox over the wardship. For with Ormond on the ascendant, Cork needed a counterbalance to protect his interests in Munster and Leinster. This made a match with Kildare all the more attractive.

Above all, Cork's involvement with the Kildares should be seen as a case of 'ethical investment'. Cork had long-term plans for the house of Kildare, with a financial plan which had nothing to do with the profits of the Boyle family. From the very beginning of his negotiations with the duchess of Lennox and other Kildare representatives, he had promised to revive the fortunes of the earldom, as a means of restoring its prestige. On 13 October 1629 the earl reassured the duchess of his intentions towards the earldom of Kildare, promising that he would 'employ all my best endeavours, to reduce it to its former lustre'.62 On the same day he told Kildare that although his estate had suffered 'for want of a good protector near at hand during your minority', now 'the trump is turned on your side', and he would make him 'the greatest earl of Kildare for revenue that ever was in Ireland'.63 Cork was as good as his word. By early November 1629 he had taken over the leasing of wardship lands, and he had begun paying off mortgages by February 1630: one such mortgage, that of Moylagh in County Meath, was redeemed by the payment of £1,100 from Cork's own pocket." Rival claimants to the Kildare estates were vigorously challenged.As early as October 1629 Cork had taken steps to overturn the dowager countess's jointure, and the matter was pursued - to the lady's fury - until a settlement was imposed in May 1632, reducing her life-interest to two manors and £500 per annum, 'and she to release all claim of jointure and dower'.65 Local landowners who had usurped Kildare's landed rights were pursued through the courts.66

60Cal. S.P Ire., 1625-32, p. 490. 61Cal. S.R dom., 1629-30, p. 38 (14 Aug. 1629). 62Cork to Lennox, 13 Oct. 1629 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5, p. 3). 63Cork to Kildare, 13 Oct. 1629 (ibid., p. 5). 64Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 8, 18-19, 37, 41. 65Ibid., pp 6, 143; Cork to Kildare, 15 May 1630 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,

D/3078/3/1/5, pp 8-9); dowager countess of Kildare to Kildare, 4 Sept. 1630 (ibid., pp 47-8); dowager countess of Kildare to Kildare, 29 July 1631 (ibid., pp 48-9).

"Cork to Kildare, 13 Oct. 1629 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5, pp 4-5); Cork to Kildare 20 Apr. 1630 (ibid., pp 10-11).



LIrrLE - The Geraldine ambitions of the first earl of Cork 161

To mark the completion of the process, and the majority of the sixteenth earl in 1633, two manuscript volumes were prepared, apparently on Cork's instructions. The first was a transcript, created by William Roberts, Ulster King of Arms, of the Red Book of the earls of Kildare - a compendium of evidences and deeds dating from the middle ages, originally prepared for the eighth earl of Kildare in 1503. Roberts's version was elaborate - a large vellum book, with title-page ornamented with the armorial bearings of the Kildares and related families, and including figures of Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and Temperance - and was presumably designed to encourage the young sixteenth earl to emulate the achievements of his wealthy and illus- trious forebears.67 The second manuscript dealt with the present and the future.This was a volume entitled 'The Earl of Kildare's White Book', which included copies of deeds and leases made on behalf of the present earl, with pedigrees of the Kildares and their relatives (including the Digbys), and cross-references to the Red Book.68 Once again, this is almost certainly the work of the earl of Cork, intent on bringing together in one place all that the Boyles had done for the senior line of the Fitzgeralds. Cork's concern to link the past and future glories of the Kildares also lay behind his ambitious restoration of the earl's ancestral seat at Maynooth, building a modern house alongside the medieval castle. By January 1634 Cork calculated that he had spent £1,530 on the refurbishment.69 The finishing touches were being made in September 1634, when the new countess moved in, and Cork contracted a stonemason 'to finish the cutting of the earl of Kildare's and his lady's arms over the outward gate of Maynooth'.70 It is telling that Cork's final embellishment was to the medieval gateway, not on the modern house; and it is surely no coincidence that the plaque, which still survives, shows the Boyle arms impaled with those of the Fitzgeralds, in yet another symbol of the recovery of Kildare fortunes under the tutelage of the earl of Cork.

As the plaque at Maynooth suggests, by the early 1630s Cork was looking for dynastic, as much as financial, returns from his investment in the Fitzgeralds. Kildare's kinsman, Robert Randolphe, recognised this when he warned the earl in 1632 that '[Cork] will look as much upon your posterity as upon yourself and if he find that you are likely to lessen your estate rather than to increase it, I believe you will find him backward to help you.'71 As part of this dynastic agenda, Cork was eager to demonstrate the unity of the Geraldines under his patronage. Alongside his efforts to restore their financial health, the earl also tried to reconcile the differences and promote unity

67The transcript survives in the Leinster papers at the P.R.O.N.I.: see H.M.C. rep. 9, ii, app. (1884), pp 264-5: Gear6id Mac Niocaill (ed.), The Red Book of the earls of Kildare (Dublin, 1964), pp v-vi.

68P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/1/1/2. Cork's involvement is suggested by the inclusion of information provided by his friend Sir James Ware (ibid., pp 25-7). The Leinster papers of this period contain many documents which probably originated with Cork: see above, n. 32.

69Lismore papers, 1st ser., iv, 6. 70Ibid., pp 44-5. 7tRobert Randolphe to Kildare, 3 Apr. 1632 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,

D/3078/3/1/5, p. 43).




between the various members of the Fitzgerald clan. Cork's sense of occa- sion meant that his attempts were often heavy with symbolism. He was par- ticularly keen to reunite the Kildares with their rivals for the Fitzgerald inheritance, the Digbys. In October 1629 Cork reminded Kildare of his kinship ties with the Digbys, and that 'this family wish your Lordship as much honour and happiness as you can wish to yourself'.72 In March 1630 he arranged that Lord Digby would play a prominent role as agent in settling the Kildare estates, telling the young earl that 'My Lord Digby is a speaking letter and therefore I need write no news to you.'73 In June 1630 Cork wanted Digby to accompany Kildare back to Ireland before his marriage,74 and in the following years he frequently brought Lord Digby and Kildare together as part of the Boyle entourage and encouraged Digby to attend him when the family visited Maynooth."75 More formal family occasions also became symbolic attempts to reconcile the two lines: when Lord Digby's son and heir was born in November 1630, he was given the Christian name Kildare, and his godfathers were the earls of Kildare and Cork;76 and Lady Digby's funeral in August 1633 saw a full turn-out of Boyles, with the earl and countess of Kildare prominent among the mourners.77 The 'double interest both of blood and alliance' which Cork had established between the Digbys and the Kildares was one of his proudest achievements.7"

Cork's dynastic ambitions were enmeshed with a wider sense of mission, which lies at the heart of his 'social and mental world'. A surviving illumi- nated genealogy of the Fitzgeralds makes the point eloquently.79 This document, which dates from c. 1632, was commissioned by the earl of Cork and includes a statement of the earl's intentions. He had presented it to Kildare:

To induce his lordship as well to take into his due consideration the antiquity and nobility of his honourable house and descent, to the end he might do nothing unworthy his birth and honour, but also judiciously observe that so long as his great ancestors made their sole dependence on the crown, so long they upheld themselves, their estates and honours, unblemished. But when they forgot their allegiance to the crown and trusted to the counsels, power and strength of their Irish followers and dependencies, then they were subject to attainders, corruption of blood, and confis- cation of their lands and estates ... to bring him whereunto, and as it were to make him passage to this earldom, God hath removed and taken to himself sundry brave earls, without heirs male, and to make this earl ascend to this high title of honour.

Cork's emphasis is not only on the history of the Fitzgeralds but also on the need for religious conformity and loyalty to the crown, which would bring prosperity back to the Kildares.The genealogy provides a crucial link between Cork's private and public worlds: between his ambitions for the Fitzgeralds and his public policies as lord justice of Ireland between 1629 and 1633.

72Cork to Kildare, 13 Oct. 1629 (ibid., p. 5). 73Cork to Kildare, 25 Mar. 1630 (ibid., p.7). 74Cal. S.P Ire., 1625-32, p. 549. 75Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 98, 134-5; iv, 52. 76Ibid., iii, 115. 77Funeral certificate, 12 Aug. 1633 (B.L., Add. MS 4820, f, 126r). 78Lady Offaly to Kildare, 27 Sept. [1631] (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,

D/3078/3/1/5, p. 21). 79Dorset R.O., D/SHC/KG 1474.




In his official role, Cork was convinced of the need to penalise Irish Catholicism and encourage the conversion of Catholics to Protestantism. In 1630 he told Lord Dorchester that he had high hopes of the Irish gentry now they had been detached from the great lords, and that in a few years the crown could rely on a militia based on the Irish 'reformed in manners and religion'." As the 1632 genealogy suggests, Cork considered his relatives' marriages with Old English families as part of the same programme. The earl of Barrymore, Gerald Fitzgerald of Decies and Lord Digby were acceptable marriage partners because of their Protestantism. For Cork, religion was far more important than ethnicity: in 1627 the earl broke off his marriage negotiations with the New English earl of Castlehaven 'for that the young Lord Audley would not be conformable in religion'.81 When it came to the earl of Kildare, Cork was determined to stop him coming under the influence of his Catholic kinsmen. He made sure Kildare employed godly chaplains, including Robert Sibthorpe (later bishop of Kilfenora),82 and in May 1631 he set up a series of lectures at Kildare Hall in Dublin, retaining the puritan divine Stephen Jerome with Sibthorpe and one Mr Thomas to give the first sermons.83 As well as rebuilding Maynooth castle, in 1632 Cork started the 're-edification' of the parish church.4 Kildare's lack of interest in religion was one of the things that soured his relations with Cork, who repeatedly chided him for gambling, drunkenness, petty theft and other moral failings."5 By contrast, the Digbys, under the gaze of the fer- ociously puritanical Lady Offaly, were resolutely Protestant, and the Barrymores reputedly heard 'sermons ... twice a day, Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays' at Castlelyons.86 The conversion of wards, and the continuance of Protestantism in their descendants, was as important as ensuring the financial health of these ancient families. In this sense, Cork's efforts to marry into the Fitzgerald dynasty should be seen as the private manifes- tation of his public policy of re-education and conversion.

III

It was perhaps appropriate that the height of Cork's Geraldine ambitions corresponded with his term as lord justice of Ireland, and that his loss of political power in 1633 should have been accompanied by the correspond- ing decline of his grand dynastic experiment. Just as Cork discovered that he could not control the new lord deputy, Viscount Wentworth, so he found that the earl of Kildare, on his coming of age in early 1633, was free to reject Boyle guidance in his affairs. Without the legal restraints of Cork's guardian-

aCal. S.P Ire., 1625-32, pp 589-90. 8tLismore papers, 1st ser., ii, 212. 82Not to be confused with the Arminian divine of the same name: see D.N.B. aLismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 82, 179.

a4Ibid., p. 135. 85See, for example, ibid., pp 121, 151. 86Thomas Fitzpatrick, Waterford during the Civil Wars (1641-53) (Waterford,

1912), p. 129.




ship, in the later 1630s Kildare was free to engage in a series of inheritance disputes with the Digbys. The first of these was prompted by the death of Lady Catherine Fitzgerald, the mother of Lady Offaly, in December 1632.87 Lady Catherine enjoyed jointure rights over the manors of Athy, Portlester and Woodstock, and on her death these would normally have reverted to the patrimony, and thus to Kildare; but the Digbys had already staked their claim to these lands as heirs-general to the estate. Kildare heard of Lady Catherine's death in February 1633 and acted quickly.8s In mid-March he was planning to contact his old guardian, the duchess of Lennox, who had 'good friends about the king',89 and he also sent a petition directly to Charles, asking for the confirmation of his rights over the property." Lady Offaly had been completely outmanoeuvred. She only learned the news of her mother's death from Kildare's pen in late March, and within a week the earl had arranged the re-entry of the disputed manors.9' By the end of April the king had agreed to support Kildare's possession of the same.92 In May, Kildare instructed his tenants not to pay rents to the Digbys, and Lady Offaly, forced to leave her house at Portlester,93 could only try a last des- perate appeal to her friends at court to mediate between them.94 The final decision was left in the hands of Wentworth, the newly arrived lord deputy, and Kildare seems to have been confirmed in possession by the end of 1633."

Kildare's obstreperousness seriously damaged his relationship with Cork. In late 1633, when Wentworth tried to make peace between them, the two earls were barely on speaking terms." The dispute over Athy, Portlester and Woodstock was followed by a second dispute with the Digbys - over the manors of Moylagh in County Meath and Castleleigh (or 'Lea') in Queen's County - which once again forced Wentworth to intervene.97 Kildare's refusal to co-operate led to his imprisonment in 1637, and he was only released when he agreed to yield his evidences in 1638.98 Such humiliations

87James Plunkett to Kildare,9 Feb. 1633 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,D/3078/3/1/5, p. 100). nIbid. 89William Talbot to Kildare, 14 Mar. 1633 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,

D/3078/3/1/5, p. 97). 9Cal. S.P Ire., 1633-47, p. 9. This is dated 'before 26 April' in the calendar, and is

almost certainly from mid-March. 91William Talbot to Kildare, 14 Mar. 1633 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers,

D/3078/3/1/5, p. 97). 92Cal S.P Ire., 1633-47, p. 9. 93Lady Offaly to Kildare, 24 Mar. 1633 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/3/1/5,

pp 105-6); William Talbot to Kildare, 1 Apr. 1633 (ibid., pp 106-8). "Lady Offaly to countess of Carlisle, 10 Aug. 1633 (T.C.D., MS 10949/6). I am

grateful to Dr Toby Barnard for drawing my attention to this document. 95Dowager countess of Kildare to Kildare, 11 Aug. 1633 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster

papers, D/3078/3/1/5, p. 139). A document dated 19 Sept. 1633 (Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 210) may refer to the same settlement.

"Lismore papers, 1st ser., iii, 212 (2 Oct. 1633). 97Cal. pat rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 495; see also Charles I to Wentworth, c. 1639 (Dorset

R.O., D/SHC, Box 3D/118). 98Lismore papers, 1st ser., v, 26 (9 Aug. 1637); Cal. S.P Ire., 1633-47, pp 96,184.




did little to endear Kildare to his already exasperated father-in-law. In 1639 the Kildare household moved to London. Repeated calls for loans, or for permission to sell lands still held jointly with Cork, fell on deaf ears.99 In response to the deepening financial crisis of the Kildares, Cork merely suggested 'the settling of the best part of his [i.e. Kildare's] estates upon Dick', his infant son and heir.100 In 1639 Kildare's ambitious plans - 'to offer his prince thousands of Irish, and he says they shall be all Geraldines'101 were frozen out by Cork, who was receiving unwelcome reports of his son-in- law's excesses, who 'sings about The Strand as merry as mulled sack, and that the boys know well enough, for they flock about him'.1'02 Denied help, Kildare continued to borrow money and sell lands on the London market,103 and, in a show of dishonesty impressive even by early modern standards, in 1641 swindled the Laudian bishop of Derry, John Bramhall, out of £6,000 by selling him the Moylagh estate without disclosing Cork's legal interest over the property.104 In terms of godly living, not to mention Prudence, Fortitude, Justice and Temperance, Kildare seems to have been a complete failure.

Yet in one important respect, even Kildare had been won over by Cork's efforts. During the 1641 rebellion he remained firm to the Protestant cause, despite the blandishments of the Catholic rebels, who in 1642 urged him 'to come and live amongst them, and they would put 10,000 men under his command and put him in possession of all his lands that were taken from him'.105 Kildare's refusal to claim the leadership of the Catholic Fitzgerald interest indicates that Cork's attempts to tame the old lordships had succeeded. In Munster the rebels seized on another Geraldine, James Fitzgerald of Leitrim, and promised to 'create him earl of Desmond, and put him in possession of his lands'.1'" This attempt also failed, as Cork had already effec- tively neutralised the Fitzgerald interest in Munster. Of the remaining Geraldine descendants, Robert Lord Digby died in the first year of the war, having distinguished himself as a soldier in the relief of the old Fitzgerald castle of Geashill. The earl of Barrymore also rejected calls by his kinsmen to defect, 'and in the height of scorn rejected to accept the place of being general of the Irish forces of this

province'.," He died a Protestant hero at

the battle of Liscarroll in 1642, being buried in Cork's tomb at Youghal - in a chapel with strong Geraldine associations. In the absence of a willing leader from the Fitzgerald family, command of the Irish forces in Munster was left to their traditional rivals, the MacCarthys and the Butlers, as repre- sented by Viscounts Muskerry and Mountgarret.

99Countess of Kildare to Cork, 3 Mar. 1639 (Chatsworth, Lismore MS 19, no. 120); countess of Kildare to Cork, 5 Mar. 1639 (ibid., no. 121).

1MCountess of Kildare to Cork, 10 Mar. 1639 (ibid., no. 124). 1"1Arthur Jones to Cork, 10 June 1639 (ibid., Lismore MS 20, no. 53). 12William Perkins to Cork, 11 June 1639 (ibid., no. 57). "'Mortgage, 13 Apr. 1641 (P.R.O., C 54/3857/12); bond, 10 May 1641 (ibid., LC

4/202, f. 218r); Lismore papers, 1st ser., v, 127. l°Bramhall v. Kildare, 14 Feb. 1642 (P.R.O., C 2/ChasI/B61/11). "o'Countess of Kildare to Cork, 8 Feb. 1642 (Chatsworth, Lismore MS 22, no. 146). 106Fitzpatrick, Waterford, p. 134. 107Cork to Speaker Lenthall, 25 Aug. 1642 (Chatsworth, Lismore MS 23, no. 119).




In November 1642, in the midst of the rebellion, the earl of Cork drafted the final version of his will, 'for the settling of such worldly estate which it hath pleased God in his mercy plentifully to bless me withall'.'8 This document was the final statement of Cork's Geraldine ambitions. Although he still held mortgages from each branch of the family, these were to be held on trust until they had recovered sufficiently to take them back; and in the meantime they were provided with generous support, derived from the Boyle estates. He first made careful provision for the Barrymores, who were still deeply in debt, assigning the mortgages of Barryscourt and other estates to Francis Boyle, but allowing 'the now earl of Barrymore my grandchild' to lease back part of the estate. He also left a £200 annuity to the young heir, in the hope 'that his posterity may raise the same to its former lustre and greatness again' and that he would receive 'a noble, virtuous and religious education'. Barrymore's sisters, Ellen and Catherine, were allowed £1,000 apiece as marriage portions - with provision for the money to go to their brother, James Barry, if they died young.1009 Similarly, Cork assigned the Digby mortgage of Geashill to Robert Boyle, but added that 'It is my expressed will and pleasure that no advantage be taken or forfeit had upon the breach of the condition' if the money was quickly repaid. The arrears of rent due from the Digbys (which amounted to £750) were counted as a gift to the young heir, Kildare Lord Digby, while his sisters, Lettice and Catherine, were assigned marriage portions of £1,000 each - a sum which would revert to their brother if they died unmarried."0 Cork was still angry with the earl of Kildare and made no mention of him in his will. He did, however, bequeath all the money still in the possession of Sir William Parsons 'to my dearly beloved daughter the Lady Joan Countess of Kildare'."' Yet the Kildares, like the Barrymores and Digbys, were included in the general charge at the end of the will, addressed to all his children 'to be most zealous and constant in that undoubted true Protestant religion now possessed and established in the Churches of England and Ireland ... and that they and each of them breed up their children in the same'.1"2 This long-term thinking would pay dividends when, fifteen years after Cork's death, the more malleable seventeenth earl of Kildare agreed to be guided by his Boyle relatives."'3 And final vindication came a century later, when the Kildare Fitzgeralds, as dukes of Leinster, became the richest and most influential family in Ireland.

108Townshend, Life & letters, p. 470. 109Ibid., pp 475-8,489-90. 110Ibid., pp 483,489-90. 111lbid., p. 498. 112Ibid., p. 505. 113See second earl of Cork's diary, entries for 30 Mar., 2, 5 May 1657, 10 Feb.

1658, 2 Mar. 1660 (Chatsworth, Lismore MS 29, unfol.); lease, 20 Dec. 1657 (P.R.O.N.I., Leinster papers, D/3078/1/4/14); bond, 28 Apr. 1657 (N.L.I., MS 20625). The sixteenth earl died in December 1656: see inventory, 11 Dec. 1656 (N.L.I., MS 18996(i)).




IV

The first earl of Cork's attempt to resurrect the Geraldine interest was a deliberate and coherent policy during the 1620s and early 1630s. His involvement with the Fitzgeralds began as a result of his territorial position as the de facto successor to the Desmond lordship in Munster, and his first alliances with former Desmond clients were motivated by his concern to tip the regional balance of power in his favour. But this soon developed into a more far-reaching plan of action. By 1626 Cork had become interested in securing marriage ties with the Kildare Fitzgeralds through the Digby family, and in 1630 he managed to obtain the earl of Kildare - the head of the family - as a husband for his daughter. With the Fitzgerald chief in his reti- nue, Cork set about restoring the financial position of his sons-in-law, uniting them socially and ensuring their loyalty to the Boyle clan and to Protestantism. The breathtaking degree of calculation and investment that went into Cork's attempts to arrange marriage alliances with the Fitzgeralds and their traditional allies further undermines the idea that these marriages were purely social in motivation - an attempt to enhance the undistin- guished pedigree of the Boyle family. Nor was it purely a financial specula- tion. Just as important as these objectives was Cork's desire for stable, civil government in Ireland and for the triumph of Protestantism, which depended on the civilisation and conversion of the old dynasties which still held such influence over the native Irish. Such motives could be considered (in contemporary terms) altruistic, or even as having a divine mandate; and they influenced Cork's private activities as much as his public policies. The integrity of these elements casts new light on Cork's character, suggesting that his pursuit of Old English marriages was not fuelled by a sense of social inferiority, but from moral conviction. In short, Cork's greatest failing was over-confidence, not inadequacy.

With only a handful of major archival collections surviving, it is sometimes difficult to gauge how far a dominant family such as the Boyles can be seen as representative of the New English as a whole. In this case, however, the individual experience does seem to reflect a more general attitude. The Boyles were clearly not alone in their desire to ally with, and improve, the old families of Ireland. Although the earl of Cork's wealth and political position seem to set him apart (after all, no other New Englishman could aspire to resurrecting the ailing earldom of Kildare), on a less grandiose level his favourable relationship with the Irish was something that he shared with many other New English planters. Cork's willingness to marry his children into Old English families, which formed the bedrock of his other Geraldine schemes, was a common theme in seventeenth- century Ireland. For example, most of the major New English families in Munster had, by the late 1630s, married into Old English or Gaelic Irish families. Sir William Fenton married into the Fitzgibbon family, and chris- tened his son Maurice in recognition of his Anglo-Norman ancestry; Sir Hardress Waller married into the influential Dowdall family; Sir Philip Percivalle's sister married Richard Fitzgerald of Castle Dod; and Sir William St Leger married his daughter to a Gaelic lord, Murrough O'Brien,




Lord Inchiquin.114 This last example is of especial interest. Although Canny has described Cork's marriage policy as a way of grafting the upstart Boyles onto long-established Old English roots,'15 contemporaries used the metaphor in reverse, with Inchiquin being seen as the 'the ingrafted, inocu- lated and artificial scion' which had been joined with 'that fructiferous old tree', Sir William St Leger."6 The difference is revealing, for although the social prestige of marrying into an ancient family was an incentive to the New English, they were themselves aware of the financial stability, the entrepreneurial vigour and, above all, the Protestant faith"7 which they offered in return to the young shoots of the old families."8

PATRICK LITTLE History of Parliament, London

114MacCarthy-Morrogh, Munster plantation, pp 165,168, 245. 1"5Canny, Upstart earl, p. 47. "u6Thomas Bettesworth to Sir Philip Percivalle, 28 Oct. 1643 (H.M.C., Egmont, i,

191). '"The reference was probably religious rather than horticultural in origin, as the

metaphor of grafting would immediately suggest parallels with Romans 11:16-24 ('if the root be holy, so are the branches').

usI am indebted to Toby Barnard, Jason Dorsett and Jane Ohlmeyer for their com- ments on earlier versions of this paper. I should also like to thank the trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement and Mr Simon Wingfield Digby of Sherborne Castle for permission to cite material in their collections.



the geraldine ambitions of the first earl of cork

Documents