James Archer (Jesuit) - Ireland

Ireland

In 1596 Archer returned to Ireland, landing at Waterford or Wexford, with a view to re-establishing the Jesuit mission there and to raise funds for the college at Salamanca. The brief visit became an enforced stay of four years, and it was soon decided at Rome to make him superior of the new mission. His presence quickly came to the attention of the Lord Deputy, Sir William Russell, and the government regarded him with such suspicion that a reward was offered for his capture.

By August 1598 it seems Archer had fled to Ulster, where he was based with the northern rebels when the Nine Years war was just entering its most active phase. It is probable that, following the English defeat at the battle of the Yellow Ford later in that year, he decided to commit himself to the cause of the rebel leader, Hugh O'Neill. With this newfound authority he returned south to more familiar territory.

During the rest of the war, reports of his exploits were legion, so that an aura of mystery and almost awe was attached to Archer's name, and government officers referred to him as the "arch traitor" and the "arch devil". However exaggerated the reports, it is certain that he was present at the taking of the Earl of Ormond in 1599, when the rebel O'Mores lured the most powerful nobleman in the country to a parley in a remote part of Carlow and seized him by treachery. The earl spent a substantial period in custody, with Archer attending on him regularly, at a time when the English presence in Ireland was in jeopardy.

Ormond's seizure - which followed the departure from Ireland of the Earl of Essex after a disappointing campaign (see Essex in Ireland) - was put down by the president of Munster, Sir George Carew, to Archer's influence. Upon his release some months later - unharmed - the earl described the Jesuit as an "odious traitor". It may be that Ormond himself was complicit in the act, with some suggestion that he was indulging in a long game to ensure his power against the hazard of an outright defeat of the English and the removal of their influence from Ireland. One source later claimed that Ormond had converted to the Catholic faith during his captivity, and Archer is reported to have declared that the earl would be made king of Ireland upon Spanish intervention. The episode still defies satisfactory explanation.