| Florence Maccarthy |
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| 1560 births | |
| 1640 deaths | |
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EARLY LIFE The significance of Florence MacCarthy's career lies in his command of territories in west Munster, at a time when the Tudor Re-conquest Of Ireland was underway. Southwest Munster was the area that was most open to Spanish intervention, mooted since the late 1570s to aid Catholic rebellions in Ireland. The overlord of this area was the MacCarthy Mór chieftain, whose lands were located in modern west Cork and Kerry . There were two main subordinate branches of the MacCarthy clan, the MacCarthys of Muskerry and the MacCarthys Reagh of Carberry, of which Florence's father was the chieftain. It was into a complex interplay between the crown government and these opposing branches that Florence MacCarthy found himself pitched. Upon his father's death in 1576, MacCarthy inherited substantial property but was not the chief's ''tainiste'' or Tanist (second in command and usually successor to the clan chieftain) and therefore did not assume his father's title, which went to Florence's uncle, Owen. The positon of tanist went to Florence's cousin, Donal na Pipi (Donal of the Pipes). The MacCarthy Reagh branch established itself as loyal to the crown during the Desmond Rebellions and its territories were not affected by the first Munster Plantation in 1586. MacCarthy served the crown faithfully and reported that he had mobilised his men to drive the rebel Earl Of Desmond out of his territory. In 1583 he went to court and was received by the queen, who granted him 1000 marks and an annuity of 100 marks. In 1585 he served as a member of the Irish Parliament at Dublin. THE TOWER MacCarthy fell foul of the crown government in Munster after his marriage to Ellen, the daughter and sole heir of the MacCarthy Mór (also Earl Of Clancar ), thus prospectively uniting the two main branches of the Clan Carthy. To add to government suspicion, there was also a rumour of communications by him with Spain. In particular, he was accused of contact with William Stanley and Jaques De Francesci , who had defected with a regiment of Irish soldiers from the English to the Spanish side in the Eighty Years' War in Flanders . As a result of these suspicions, Florence MacCarthy was arrested in 1588 as a precaution against his assumption of the title of MacCarthy Mór, which would have given him command over huge estates and thousands of followers. The English authorities considered this too dangerous a prospect in a country they were trying to pacify and disarm. Six months later, he was moved to Dublin, and then to London, where he arrived in February 1589 to be committed to the Tower. His wife escaped from Cork a few days later, probably on his instructions. He was examined by the privy council in March and denied all complicity in the continental intrigues of the English Catholic, Sir William Stanley . He was sent back to the Tower, but fifteen months later his wife appeared at court and Sir Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl Of Ormonde , volunteered to stand surety for him in the sum of £1000. Since no charges were proved against him, MacCarthy was set at liberty in January 1591 on condition that he not leave England nor travel more than three miles outside London without permission. The Queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley , backed him, and he obtained protection against his creditors and permission to recover an old fine of £500 due to the Crown from Lord Barry, a neighbour and rival of his in Munster, whom he blamed for his arrest; Barry was later to accuse him of disloyalty as this suit was prosecuted. MacCarthy subsequently obtained permission to return to Ireland. SUCCESSION DISPUTES MacCarthy returned to Ireland (though he was still technically a prisoner) in November 1593, following his wife and child. In the next year, his uncle Owen (the MacCarthy Reagh tanist) died and was succeeded by his nephew, Donal na Pípí. The latter bound himself in the sum of £10,000 not to divert the MacCarthy Reagh succession from MacCarthy, who was in turn his tanist. Florence appeared before the council at Dublin in June 1594 to reply to Lord Barry's accusations, which implicated him further in Stanley's projects. He then returned to England by licence and remained there until the spring of 1596 in a vain attempt to prosecute Barry. In 1596, Donal MacCarthy, MacCarthy Mór and Earl of Clancarthy, died without male issue and the matter of the MacCarthy succession became highly complicated. Clancar's estate should by law have reverted to the crown, but Florence had a mortgage on the lands and also had right by his wife. Another Donal, the Earl's illegitimate son (not to be confused with Donal na Pipi), also asserted a claim. It was most unlikely that the English authorities would acknowledge Florence as MacCarthy Mór or grant him the equivalent English title – Earl of Clancarthy – so the real dispute in law came down to the recovery of lands by Florence from an English mortgagee (William Brown), who had possessed them on account of a debt owed to him by the earl. In June 1598, MacCarthy travelled to England to pursue the matter. However, the situation was transformed by the arrival in Munster of the Ulster forces of Hugh O'Neill , who was leading a nation-wide rebellion – the Nine Years War – against English government in Ireland. In the autumn, Donal MacCarthy (the late Earl's illegitimate son) was reported to have acknowledged the authority of the rebel O'Neill (who went by the title Earl Of Tyrone ) and assumed the title of MacCarthy Mór; but the O'Sullivan Mór withheld the rod of inauguration (which symbolically approved the accession of a chieftain) in favour of Florence MacCarthy. To try and maintain a friendly lord in Munster, the crown granted MacCarthy a free pardon, on terms that he immediately withdraw his followers from rebellion in return for qualified acknowledgment of his title against Donal MacCarthy; but he prevaricated and only returned to Munster after Sir Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl Of Essex – whose favour he had been relying upon – threw up his command as lord lieutenant in Ireland in late 1599 and returned to England under a cloud. WAR IN MUNSTER During the Nine Years War in Munster, MacCarthy failed to engage with the English military campaign and secretly negotiated with the rebels under Hugh O’Neill and the Spanish. O'Neill's strategy was to back local Irish lords who had a grievance against English authority and commanded sufficient land and followers to contribute to his war effort. In 1599, MacCarthy visited the rebel "Súgan" Earl Of Desmond Fitzthomas in Carbery, where he claimed to have spoken in the queen's favour; it is more likely that Florence promised his support for the rebels on condition that Hugh O'Neill acknowledge him as MacCarthy Mor. In the following days, Fitzthomas, followed reluctantly by Donal MacCarthy, laid waste to Lord Barry's territory of Ibawne, since he refused to join the rebellion; from his base at Kinsale , Florence closed all the approaches into his own country. In 1600 Hugh O'Neill's army arrived in Munster and pitched camp between the rivers Lee and Bandon , whereupon MacCarthy came in to the camp for interview and was installed there as MacCarthy Mór at the expense of Donal MacCarthy. To the English, it now appeared as if Florence had sided conclusively with O'Neill, and in April an expedition led by Captain Flower raided his lands in Carberry and fought a bloody skirmish with MacCarthy's levies, which left over 200 men dead on both sides. In the same month Sir George Carew was appointed governor of Munster and given men and resources to pacify the province. Carew summoned MacCarthy to Cork for an explanation of his conduct; at first, MacCarthy refused to come in without safe conduct, and when he did come in he refused to give his son as hostage. In effect, MacCarthy promised no more than his neutrality, arguing that he was loyal, but that if he were to side openly with the English his own followers would desert him. In fact, at this time MacCarthy had assured the northern rebels of his commitment to their cause and was also the main contact for the Spanish, who were planning a landing in Munster. In the months that followed, Carew broke the rebellion in Munster, retaking rebel castles, arresting Fitzthomas, the Earl of Desmond, and persuading Donal MacCarthy to change sides. Having pacified the province, Carew had no intention of leaving Florence MacCarthy installed as MacCarthy Mór, which he judged would make any future English presence in the area impossible. To this end, he arrested MacCarthy 14 days before the expiry of the safe conduct "on discretion" (ie. without charge)- an action which the Queen's secretary, Robert Cecil , approved. The prisoner was sent to England in August 1601 and committed to the Tower. Only a month later, the Spanish landed in Kinsale , and enquired immediately for Florence MacCarthy, who was their main local contact. Most of the MacCarthys, including both Donal MacCarthy and Donal na Pipi went over to the Spanish side, but surrendered after the Spanish defeat at the Battle Of Kinsale . IN CUSTODY AT LONDON MacCarthy vainly petitioned for release from prison with a promise to serve against O'Neill. After the English victory at the battle of Kinsale, his brother, Diarmuid Maol ("Bald Dermot") was killed in a skirmish with a rival branch of the MacCarthy clan; many of his kinsmen were also killed. In 1604 he was transferred to the Marshalsea for his health, but sent back to the Tower, with the privilege of access to his books. In 1606, Donal na Pípí surrendered his claim to the MacCarthy lordship and received a grant of the territory of Carbery. Then Sir Richard Boyle , Earl of Cork, and Lord Barry tried to wrest from MacCarthy the territory inherited from his father, but he successfully resisted by means of the law. He went to the Marshalsea again in 1608, was released in 1614 on bonds of £5000 not to quit the realm, and in 1617 was recommitted to the Tower on the information of his servant, Teige O'Hurley, concerning his intimacy with Stanley. MacCarthy was due for release in 1619 but was sent back to the Gatehouse in 1624, to "''a little narrow close room without sight of the air''", owing to the death of two of his sureties, the Earl Of Thomond and Sir Patrick Barnewall. He was freed in 1626 on fresh sureties and won his protracted suit for the barony of Molahiffe in 1630 (although the lands were still in the possession of the English mortgagees in 1637). Florence MacCarthy lived the remainder of his life in London, where he wrote a history of Ireland, based on Old Irish texts. He wrote that, "''although they Irish are thought by many fitter to be rooted out than suffered to enjoy their lands, they are not so rebellious or dangerous as they are termed by such as covet it''". He died in 1640 . MacCarthy was considered imposing in stature and appearance and learned in Irish ways. However, Donal MacCarthy described him as "''a damned counterfeit Englishman whose study and practice was to deceive and betray all the Irishmen in Ireland''". LEGACY MacCarthy fell out with his wife, but he did have four children who are known of: Teige (died as a boy in the Tower), Donal (married daughter of the MacDonnell Earl of Antrim), Charles, and Florence. In time, the title of MacCarthy Mór was abolished and the personal lands of Florence MacCarthy were distributed to English settlers, among them Richard Boyle, 1st Earl Of Cork . The MacCarthy lords, including Donal na Pipi of Carberry, Donal MacCarthy (son of the earl) and Dermot MacCarthy of Muskerry were granted title to their lands, but had to surrender up to a third of their inheritance to the crown. Donagh MacCarthy, alter created Viscount of Muskerry, would later be one of the leaders of Confederate Ireland in the 1640s. There is a rough portrait of MacCarthy taken to France in 1776 by a descendant of Donal na Pípí, which was deposited at Toulouse. REFERENCES
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