The present work is concerned with the later life of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton. Fitzwilliam headed his second government as Lord Deputy or Viceroy of Ireland from 1588 to 1594. His early life and his first government which ended in 1575 were examined in Volume 11 of this series. Fitzwilliam entered his second government by receiving the sword of state in the Cathedral of the Blessed Trinity (Christ Church) in Dublin on 30 June 1588, just before the Spanish Armada reached northern waters.
Fitzwilliam was in his sixties in his second government. Described by one contemporary as being in his dotage, a second would claim in the alternative that Fitzwilliam was utterly corrupt. The study explores these claims by considering in detail four pressing issues identified in a letter from Fitzwilliam’s immediate predecessor Sir John Perrot to Sir Francis Walsingham in May 1588. The first was the imminent Spanish threat. Another was how to contain the ambitious Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone. A further issue was how to pay for the army and victual for the troops in Ireland. And a final issue was that of corrupt practices, such as Tyrone bribing members of the Irish Privy Council. An introduction establishes the context for the study and an epilogue looks beyond Fitzwilliam’s term and also offers an assessment of his overall performance in his second government.
Fitzwilliam would claim that he exercised less power in Ireland than the duke of Venice, or even an alderman’s deputy in his ward. He would have to accommodate a newly-empowered Irish Privy Council, because since 1586 lords deputy were required to command a majority in the Council rather than acting with de facto absolute authority. He would face the remnants of the Spanish forces of 1588, a rebellion in the west of Ireland, and the prospect of renewed Spanish invasion after the disastrous Portugal Voyage of 1589. Fitzwilliam would also have to find money for the garrison, deal with the prospect of mutiny, and navigate multiple complaints about his performance during the course of his government. And he would have to find a way to deal with the earl of Tyrone, who would be described in 1595 as a general as good as the duke of Parma. It is to the consideration of such matters that this study is addressed.
