The Fields of Athenry by James Charles Roy

Author:James Charles Roy [JAMES CHARLES ROY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2012-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

CIVIL WAR, 1641

In the career of Ulick de Burgh, fifth earl of Clanricard, a century’s worth of English policy reached fruition. Though born in Ireland, Ulick grew to be the prototypical English gentlemen in every respect save religion. A youth spent on his father’s great estate in Kent, his mother’s noble English heritage, knighthood in company with the prince of Wales at Windsor, and marriage to the daughter of an English earl, all helped to mold a man of fastidious habit and honorable intent. He was about as far removed from his buccaneering forebears, riding about the untamed Irish countryside stealing cattle and firing castles, as could be imagined. The court and presence of the king were no novelty to him; he ranged smoothly through the channels of power and society as a polished courtier.

These refinements stood him well as he negotiated the wreckage of his father’s financial affairs. The fourth earl had been a lavish spender, and Ulick found himself encumbered with debt that he could not relieve, in large measure because of Lord Deputy Wentworth’s continuing vendetta, which left bankers unwilling to forward the new earl ready money. “Rumours of my estate being questioned hath given occasion of wonder to many,” he wrote Wentworth politely in March from London, no doubt gritting his teeth at the same time, “and to speak freely of the danger I am in, a continuance of that belief will much impair my credit here with those to whom I am deeply engaged, which proves much to my prejudice.”

Wentworth replied in solicitous terms, satisfied he had the earl in his grip. The Galway jury had, with much wringing of hands, completely come apart, reversing themselves to find unanimously for the king’s title. Clanricard himself had obsequiously presented Charles with their humble apologies and utter surrender. The king airily answered that “he could not tell how fit it might be for him to take that of a courtesy which was his due” but in the end allowed the jurors “to confess themselves mistaken” in their initial verdict. Wentworth in effect told Ulick he would not help him, that the king, through his minister, would procure “all that is of right belonging them. Your own wisdom will set you in the rightest path for yourself.” The earl could approach the king from the position of either “Justice or Favor,” and Wentworth was confident that Ulick would receive satisfaction from neither.

But “you do not lack for friends,” the king’s secretary informed the Irish lord as word of his continuing difficulties spread, and indeed Wentworth was to learn firsthand how fickle divinely inspired monarchs could be.

Charles, like all kings and queens before him, could at times barely function within the confines of his own household and court, so bitten with intrigue, gossip, and narrow self-interest that policies could vary as the day progressed. Wentworth, at a disadvantage in far-off Dublin, could not compete with Ulick, standing at the king’s elbow, importuning him time and again with the iniquities of Wentworth’s behavior, a man Charles rather ironically did not personally care for.

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