William St Leger

William St Leger was born in August 1586, probably in County Cork, eldest son of Sir Warham St Leger (1560–1600) and his wife Elizabeth Rothe, for whom it was her third marriage. His grandfather Anthony St Leger (1496–1559), had served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1540 to 1548, whereas his father held a number of administrative positions in Munster before he was killed during the Nine Years' War in 1600.^[1]

While resident in

In October 1625 he commanded a regiment during a failed attack on Cádiz; most of the landing force became drunk and St Leger claimed he "had never seen men acting with such beastliness".^[4] Although Buckingham retained his influence at court following the succession of Charles I, the damage to his reputation was enhanced by an equally disastrous assault on Saint-Martin-de-Ré in 1627 which St Leger also helped organise. Buckingham's assassination in August 1628 was greeted with widespread public rejoicing.^[6]

Ireland: 1627 to 1642

In March 1627, St Leger joined the

However, in the short term, Strafford was less concerned with religious issues and more focused on increasing royal income by reclaiming lands that rightfully belonged to the Crown and ending widespread corruption among government office holders. Both particularly impacted so-called

The first of the Bishops' Wars in 1639 ended with the Covenanters in control of Scotland, a defeat Charles I was determined to reverse. To help achieve this, in December 1639 Stafford called the 2nd Irish Parliament of King Charles I to approve funding for an Irish expeditionary force that would land in Western Scotland.^[10] St Leger was re-elected for County Cork to the Irish Parliament of 1640–1649.^[b][14] Under Strafford's guidance, Parliament unanimously voted four subsidies of £45,000^[15] to fund an Irish army of 9,000 ^[16] for use against the Scots in the Second Bishops' War.^[17]

St Leger was appointed Sergeant Major^[c] with responsibility for training the new recruits, ^[18] who were based in Carrickfergus ready for transport to Scotland or northern England. In July 1640, St Leger declared them ready for service but they remained in Ireland throughout the Second Bishops' War. The main impact was to deepen divisions between Strafford and his opponents in both the Irish and English Parliaments, which led to his trial and execution in May 1641.^[19]

An additional complication was what to do with the newly formed army, many of whom were Catholic and thus viewed with deep suspicion by the Protestant-dominated Dublin Castle administration.^[20] It was eventually agreed they could take service with Spain and when the Irish Rebellion began in October 1641, around 2,500 men under Garret Barry were waiting in Kinsale for shipment to the Army of Flanders.^[21]

As Lord President, St Leger was responsible for dealing with the insurgents in Munster, but the forces and supplies placed at his disposal were inadequate. In February 1942 he was reinforced by the arrival at Youghal of Charles Vavasour and his regiment.^[22] He also brought St Leger the royal declaration of 1 January 1642 in which the King denounced the rebels.^[23] St Leger was still struggling with the insurrection when he died on 2 July 1642, either at Doneraile Court^[24] or at Cork.^[25]

Reputation

His reputation in the minds of

References

Sources

• Asch, Ronald G. (2004). "Wentworth, Thomas, first earl of Strafford (1593–1641)". In
  ISBN 0-19-861408-X
  .
• OCLC 8544105
  .
• OCLC 458582656
  . – 1642 to 1660
• OCLC 28297274
  .
• Clavin, Terry (2004). "St. Leger, William, d. 1642".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24516. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• OCLC 1180891114
  . – S to T (for Strafford)
• OCLC 228661424
  . – Dacre to Dysart
• ISBN 978-0-19-820242-4
  . – 1641 to 1645 (Preview)
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, No. 2 (3rd ed.). London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society.
  ISBN 0-86193-106-8
  . – (for timeline)
• Gerard, John (1913). "Chronology, General". In
  OCLC 1157968788
  .
• Gibson, Charles Bernard (1861). The History of the County and City of Cork. Vol. II. London: Thomas C. Newby.
  OCLC 1046522071
  . – 1603 to 1860
• Gillespie, Raymond (2006). Seventeenth-Century Ireland: Making Ireland Modern. Dublin:
  ISBN 978-0-7171-3946-0
  .
• Harris, Tim (2014). Rebellion, Britains's First Stuart Kings 1567-1642. Oxford:
  ISBN 978-0-19-920900-2
  . – (Preview)
• House of Commons (1878). Return. Members of Parliament – Part II. Parliaments of Great Britain, 1705–1796. Parliaments of the United Kingdom, 1801–1874. Parliaments and Conventions of the Estates of Scotland, 1357–1707. Parliaments of Ireland, 1599–1800. London:
  OCLC 13112546
  .
• Lenihan, Pádraig (2001). Confederate Catholics at War, 1641–49. Cork:
  ISBN 1-85918-244-5
  . – Does not seem to be available online
• Lockyer, Roger (2004). "Villiers, George, first duke of Buckingham (1592–1628)".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28293. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• McCarthy, Patrick (2001). "The 1641 Rebellion in Cork to the battle of Liscarroll, 3 September 1642". The Irish Sword. 22 (90): 369–372.
• Murphy, Elaine (October 2009). "St Leger, Sir William". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
• OCLC 1048802636
  .
• ISBN 1-85182-626-2
  . – (Snippet view)
• Perceval-Maxwell, Michael (1994). The Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Montreal:
  ISBN 0-7735-1157-1
  . – (Preview)
• Stearns, Stephen (2007). "Military order and martial disorder in early Stuart England". In Sharp, Buchanon; Fissel, Mark Charles (eds.). Law and authority in early modern England: essays presented to Thomas Garden Barnes. Newark:
  ISBN 978-0-87413-959-4
  .
• Trim, David (2002). Fighting 'Jacob's Wars'; the employment of English & Welsh mercenaries in the European Wars of Religion - France and the Netherlands, 1562-1610 (PDF) (PHD). King's College, London.
• Wedgwood, Cicely Veronica (1961). Thomas Wentworth, First Earl of Strafford 1593–1641. A Revaluation. London:
  OCLC 1068569885
  .