Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork

Sir Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, 1st Viscount Dungarvan, 1st Baron Boyle of Youghal, Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland.(October 13, 1566 - September 15, 1643) (Portrait and another, earlier portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, London, England), also known as the Great Earl of Cork.

Political Career

Boyle by this time had been the object of the attacks of Sir Henry Wallop and several others. These attacks were incited, according to Boyle, by envy of his success and increasing prosperity.

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Boyle was arrested on charges of fraud and collusion with the Spanish (essentially accusations of covert papist infiltration, a treasonable offence for an official in Queen Elizabeth I's protestant civil service) in his office. He was thrown into prison (at least once by Sir William FitzWilliam in about 1592) several times during this episode. He was about to leave for England to justify himself to Queen Elizabeth, when there was a rebellion in Munster in October 1598, which once again returned him to poverty. The Nine Years War arrived in Munster with Irish rebels from Ulster, who were joined by locals who had lost land to English settlers. Boyle was forced to flee to Cork city for safety.

Related Topics:
Sir William FitzWilliam - 1592 - Queen Elizabeth - Munster - 1598 - Nine Years War - Cork city

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This turn of events left him obliged to return to London and his chambers at The Temple. At this point he was almost immediately taken into the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

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Henry Wallop then renewed his prosecution of Boyle. Boyle was summoned to appear at the Court of Star Chamber. In the proceedings, Boyle's adversaries seem to have failed to substantiate their accusations. Boyle had somehow managed to secure the attendance of Queen Elizabeth I herself at the proceedings, and he successfully exposed some misconduct on the part of his adversaries.

Related Topics:
Court of Star Chamber - Queen Elizabeth I

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Elizabeth famously said: "By God's death, these are but inventions against the young man" and she also said he was "a man fit to be employed by ourselves".

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He was immediately appointed clerk of the council of Munster by Elizabeth I in 1600. In December 1601, Boyle brought to Elizabeth the news of the victory near Kinsale.

Related Topics:
1600 - Kinsale

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In October 1602, Boyle was again sent over by Sir George Carew, the president of Munster, on Irish affairs. He was knighted at St Mary's Abbey, near Dublin, by Carew on July 25, 1603. It was also on this day that he married his second wife, Catherine Fenton, daughter of Geoffrey Fenton.

Related Topics:
1602 - Sir George Carew - July 25 - 1603 - Catherine Fenton - Geoffrey Fenton

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He became a privy councillor for Munster in 1606. In 1613 became a privy councillor for the whole of Ireland.

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It is claimed that Boyle obtained his Earldom with £4,000 (does anyone have any details about how this arrangement was supposed to have been transacted?) He built towns such as Bandon, in which he founded iron-smelting and linen-weaving industries and brought in English settlers, many from Bristol.

Related Topics:
Bandon - Bristol

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He was returned as a Member of Parliament for Lismore (at a Parliament held in the Castle of Dublin) on May 18, 1614.

Related Topics:
Lismore - May 18 - 1614

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He ascended to the peerage as Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal on the September the 6th 1616.

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He was created Earl of Cork and Viscount Dungarvan on the 26th of October 1620.

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On the 26th of October 1629 he was appointed as a Lord Justice, and on the 9th of November 1631 he became the Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.

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Although he was not a peer in the English Parliament, it is nonetheless recorded that he was notwithstanding “by writ called into the Upper House by His Majesty’s great grace,” and he then took up the honoured position of an “assistant sitting on the inside of the Woolsack.”

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The town of Clonakilty http://www.clon.ie/text/clients/mdltour.htm was formally founded in 1613 by Richard Boyle when he received a charter from King James I.

Related Topics:
Clonakilty - James I

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Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said of Richard Boyle 'If there had been an Earl of Cork in every province it would have been impossible for the Irish to have raised a rebellion.'

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Boyle bought Sir Walter Raleigh's estates of 42,000 acres (170 km²) for £1,500 (a tiny price, even then) in the counties of Cork (including Lismore Castle), Waterford, and Tipperary and Youghal in 1602. He made these purchases on the insistence of Sir George Carew. Order on the Boyle estates was maintained by 13 castles which were garrisoned by retainers.

Related Topics:
Walter Raleigh - Lismore Castle - Waterford - Tipperary - Youghal

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It is a mistake to see Boyle's 'empire' as merely being exclusively confined to the development of the 'Raleigh estates': for instance, his acquisition of the entirety of the city of Bandon was not completed until 1625.

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Richard Boyle had a substantial residence at Youghal, known today as "The College", close to St. Mary's Collegiate Church. Boyle occupied the office of Sheriff from 1625 to 1626.

Related Topics:
1625 - 1626

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The Great Earl's most famous enemy was Thomas Wentworth (who later became the 1st Earl of Strafford). Strafford arrived in Ireland in 1633 as Lord Deputy, and at first successfully deprived Boyle of much of his privilege and income. Boyle patiently husbanded forces in opposition to Strafford’s Irish program and this successful political manoeuvering by Boyle was an important factor in Strafford’s demise.

Related Topics:
Thomas Wentworth - 1633

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An illuminating example of the humiliations to which Wentworth subjected Boyle, was the instance where he forced Boyle to remove his wife’s tomb from the choir in St Patrick’s at Dublin.

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Archbishop William Laud delighted in Wentworth's attacks on Boyle and wrote: "No physic better than a vomit if it be given in time, and therefore you have taken a very judicious course to administer one so early to my Lord of Cork. I hope it will do him good“.

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Laud and Wentworth shared, with King Charles I, the same fate as many others who at some time in his life, found reasons to conspire against Boyle: an early demise, with Boyle showing his customary astuteness by putting on a convincing show of politically appropriate response at every crucial juncture.

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Boyle made an entry concerning Wentworth in his diary: “A most cursed man to all Ireland and to me in particular.” It seems Boyle was someone whom you betrayed at your peril, no matter how safe your position might have seemed to be.

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At Wentworth's trial, Boyle was a key witness, but he did not take any other direct part in the prosecution itself. Unsurprisingly, he was in full support of the condemnation of Wentworth and wholeheartedly approved of his execution.

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Boyle died in 1643, having been chased off his lands in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His sons however recovered the family estates after the suppression of the rebellion.

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Boyle has been described as the "first colonial millionaire".

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The Boyle motto is: 'God's Providence is my inheritance'.

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Boyle's theopolitical philosophy has been described as 'providentialist' when contrasted with its counterpart which prevailed to the north in Ulster at the time, which, is more typically characterised as Presbyterian.

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Notice how such a comparison of these two standpoints is neither exclusively religious nor secular, a factor which perhaps offers some small insight as to how Boyle managed to achieve what seems to us now the extraordinary feat of gaining strong favour at various times with the leaders on either side of the English Civil war.

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