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214 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
The esteemed 19th century English historian, Samuel Rawson Gardiner observed:
“In 1634, he [Wentworth] called a Parliament, threatened it, cajoled it, appealed to the interest of each set of men separately, till he got the money which he wanted. A well-paid, well disciplined army was the result.”
In order to increase the King’s revenue, Wentworth, with the aid of his new army, whose commander was the Old English grandee, the Earl of Ormond, committed many palpable acts of injustice and illegality, including re-opening the matter of the validity of the titles by which the landowners of Connacht held their estates. This done, he then held an inquest, more to the point, an inquisition, in each county of Connacht, and by bribing, browbeat- ing, threatening, and intimidating juries and sheriffs, he quickly succeeded in having sev- eral large estates declared the property of the King. To put his practices of coercion into some context, the Galway jurors who did not find a verdict in accordance with Wentworth’s wishes were fined £4,000 each, and imprisoned until such time as the fine was paid in full.
Now, while the volatile state of political affairs in England at this time prevented Wen- tworth from colonizing the entire province of Connacht, nonetheless, the landowners had, however, to make a new composition and to take out new letters patent. Nor was his scheme entirely confined to the proprioters of the west of the country; Richard Boyle, “The Earl of Cork” found himself divested of former Church lands that he considered his own and was compelled to pay a fine of £15,000. ‘A most cursed man to all Ireland, and to me in particu- lar,’ noted Boyle of the Viceroy. The O’Byrnes of Wicklow were also fined £15,000, while the powerful London merchant companies were fined £70,000 for failing to carry out their charter obligations- their charter was itself cancelled. He also prohibited the manufacture of woolen goods in Ireland on the grounds that it interfered with the English wool trade, but encouraged and developed the Irish linen industry, a new source of revenue involving no clash with English interests.
On the other hand, it is told that he encouraged navigation, took an interest in agri- culture, weeded out many of the incompetent and self-seeking officials from within the civil and military service, laid a “reforming hand” upon the State Church-and ‘repressed Catholic and Puritan alike, with the same uncompromising ruthlessness and lack of mercy’.
In 1640, when civil war between the supporters of Charles and the forces of the English Parliament appeared inevitable, Wentworth was recalled to England to assist his sovereign. Arrested by decree of the Long Parliament, he was impeached and beheaded in 1641. In the aftermath of his death most of the reforms which he had introduced in Ireland with the
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