Essex in Ireland - Departure

Departure

Essex danced with the queen at a party for the Danish ambassador on Twelfth Night and departed London the next day, March 27, 1599. Prayers were offered in the churches for his success, and he was cheered on in the sunshine for four miles through a double line of citizens, until it began to rain and hail. With him were Sir Christopher Blount and Sir Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, both of whom had had their original commissions cancelled by the queen and were now attending on Essex in a private capacity.

On April 5 Essex waited at Helbry, an island at the mouth of the river Dee, for favourable winds in foggy conditions; a week later he sailed from Beaumaris after impatiently riding over Penmaen Mawr while bidding his ships to follow him - "the worst way and in the extremest wet that I have endured". After a violent passage, he reached Dublin on April 15 and was sworn in to office the same day, when the Archbishop of Dublin preached a notable sermon.

Within a week of his arrival, Essex had mounted a lavish pageant of English chivalry during the Garter feast at Dublin on St George's Day, 23 April. It was intended as a pointed display of the values he felt were ignored in Elizabeth's court. The Queen had chosen a muted version of the same ceremony at home, owing to the hardships of the war, and on hearing the reports from Dublin she decided to grant the masterships of wards - a significant source of wealth - to Cecil rather than Essex.

Essex was followed from England by the Earl of Kildare, with 18 of the chiefs of Meath and Fingal, but their vessel foundered in mid-channel, and all on board were lost. Another English general, Arthur Chichester, landed at Dublin and marched his men to Drogheda, where Essex followed to inspect the famous 1,200 strong Flanders regiment on parade: Essex charged them with his mounted staff, but the soldiers chose not to see the joke and stood firm, forcing Essex to pull his horse back just as his backside was pricked with a pike.