Welsh Journals

as he had earlier pursued James Fitzmaurice and in like case he failed and had to accept a token submission. The outbreak of war with Spain in 1585 forced London to curtail his expansive northern policy. This change was also brought about by his quarrels with other New Englishmen in the Dublin government Archbishop Loftus, Secretary Fenton and Marshal Bagenal who informed against him in London. Sir James omitted much of the detail of these quarrels, conveniently forgetting to mention that Perrot imprisoned Fenton for debt after his return from England and that he knocked down the ageing Sir Nicholas Bagenal after a row at the council table in Dublin. These rows happened because Perrot took on the vested interests of these money-grubbing officials in Ireland. He also took on the leaders of the Old English community during the 1585 parliament. He failed to get them to swear the oath of supremacy to the established church and had to accept a compromise with them over a taxation scheme known as 'composition'. He also had more opposition from the earl of Ormond but Sir James is curiously silent on this matter. All of Sir John's grandiose schemes met opposition in Ireland because of vested interests and in England because of cost. In the second half of his deputyship Perrot had to be more conservative and settle for containment measures. One of his most famous stratagems detailed here was his capture of Red Hugh O'Donnell, the heir apparent of Tirconnell (now County Donegal), after he sent a boat loaded with wine to the North-West. The captain enticed Red Hugh and his compan- ions on board to sample the merchandise, battened down the hatches and brought them back to Dublin where they were imprisoned as hostages. When Perrot left the government of Ireland, the country was at peace and nobles and people gave him an emotional send-off. This was prob- ably a propaganda stunt but the quiescence of Irish at the time of the 1588 Armada and their failure to join forces with the many Armada survivors coming ashore in Ireland is as good an attestation as any of his success in government there. Afterwards Sir John, promoted to the Privy Council in England, continued to involve himself in the administration of Ireland. It was this interference that led his successor Sir William Fitzwilliam to trump-up allegations of treason against Perrot which ulti- mately led to his downfall. The Life passes over this episode but the eighteenth-century editor included, and so does this modem one, Sir John's last will and testament as a justification of his career and as an explanation of his fall.