Piers Crosby
Piers Crosby | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1590 |
| Died | 1646 Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation(s) | Politician, soldier |
Sir Piers Crosby (1590–1646) was an Irish soldier and politician. Crosby was also a leading Irish magnate, owning various estates across the island. He was a man of strong and determined character, and had sufficient political skills to help bring about the downfall and death of the Earl of Stafford, who in the 1630s had been virtually all-powerful in Ireland.[1]
Family background
Crosby was of
Biography
Sir Piers commanded an Irish regiment in the
Crosby married firstly Sarah Barnewall, daughter of Sir
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
Crosby became a leading opponent of the dominant figure in Irish politics in the 1630s, the Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth. Wentworth in return despised Crosby, whom he referred to with contempt as "the tawny ribbon", perhaps a reference to his fondness for fine clothes. Wentworth also accused Crosby of leading a debauched private life.[7]
In 1634 he was returned to the Irish House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Queen's County. He voted in Parliament against a Bill to strengthen the laws against being an accessory to murder, to which Wentworth attached great importance.[8] Crosby attacked Wentworth for failing to honour previously pledged concessions to Catholics ("the Graces"). He remained a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, but in 1634 Wentworth, in an unprecedented move, persuaded the council to forbid his attendance there, in retaliation for his voting against the legislation on murder.[9] In 1639 he was prosecuted in Star Chamber for libelling Wentworth, by claiming that he had killed one Captain Esmonde by ill-treatment, a charge which was almost certainly untrue; he was also accused of perjuring himself during the trial.[10] At the same time Crosby's patron the Earl of Holland, another of Wentworth's ever-growing list of enemies, was spreading rumours that Wentworth was insane, giving Crosby as his source.[11]
Along with Wentworth's other Irish enemies, Crosby supplied evidence for the prosecution when Wentworth was tried by the
Crosby was a political ally of the powerful
Last years
Following the outbreak of the
He died in 1646 after being imprisoned by a rival faction in the leadership of the Irish Confederacy.[15] He had no surviving children by either marriage, and his estates passed to his cousin, Sir Walter Crosbie, first of the Crosbie baronets, a son of Bishop Crosbie. His second wife Elizabeth was still living in 1644: her precise date of death is not recorded.
References
- ^ Wedgwood p.157
- ^ Notes on the Family of Patrick Crosbie of Maryborough, by Whom the Seven Septs of Leix Were Transplanted to Tarbert in the County Kerry in 1608-9, Walter FitzGerald, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1923), pp. 133-150, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25513295?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
- ^ Herrup p.23
- ^ Wedgwood p.247
- ^ Herrup p.24
- ^ Herrup p.24
- ^ Wedgwood p.247
- ^ Kearney p.233
- ^ Wedgwood p.157
- ^ Kearney p.185
- ^ Wedgwood pp.246–7
- ^ Gentles p.46
- ^ Wedgwood p.344
- ^ Ohlmeyer p.281
- ^ O Siochru p.254
Bibliography
- Gentles, I.J. The English Revolution and the Wars in the Three Kingdoms, 1638–1652. Pearson, 2007.
- Herrup, Cynthia B. A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law, and the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven. Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Kearney, Hugh F. Strafford in Ireland 1633–1641: A Study in Absolutism. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
- Ohlmeyer, Jane. Civil War and Restoration in the Three Stuart Kingdoms. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- O Siochru, Micheal. Confederate Ireland, 1642–1649. A Constitutional and Political Analysis. Four Courts Press, 1999.
- Wedgwood, C.V. Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford 1593-1641- a revaluation Phoenix Press reissue 2000
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