John Perrot - Lord Deputy of Ireland

Lord Deputy of Ireland

In 1584 Perrot was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, to replace Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton who had been recalled to England by Elizabeth I two years earlier. His chief task was to begin the plantation of the southern province of Munster, a significant escalation of colonial policy. The Crown sought to parcel out lands at nominal rents from the confiscated estates of the lately defeated Earl of Desmond - some 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) - on condition that the undertakers establish English farmers and labourers to build towns and work the land.

Before he had time to begin the plantation, Perrot got wind of raids into the northern province of Ulster by the Highland clans of Maclean and MacDonnell at the invitation of Sorley Boy MacDonnell. Perrot marched his army beyond the Pale and into Ulster, but Sorley Boy escaped by crossing over to Scotland, only to return later with reinforcements. Although Elizabeth roundly abused her deputy for launching such an unadvised campaign, by 1586 Perrot had brought Sorley Boy to a mutually beneficial submission. At about this time he also sanctioned the kidnapping of Hugh Roe O'Donnell (lured to a wine tasting on a merchant ship and then sealed in a cabin and brought to Dublin), a move which gave the crown some leverage in western Ulster. Perrot's northern strategy also brought the submission of Hugh Maguire, Lord of Fermanagh.

In the south, the plantation of Munster got off to a slow start in the face of legal challenges by landowners associated with the attainted Geraldine rebels. In 1585 Perrot did have success in perfecting a composition of the western province of Connaught, an unusually even-handed contract between crown and landowners by which the queen received certain rents in return for settling land titles and tenant dues. In the same year a parliament was convened at Dublin, the first since 1569, with many spectators expressing great hopes upon the attendance of the Gaelic lords. The sessions proved disappointing: although the act for the attainder of Desmond (which rendered the rebel's estates at the disposal of the crown) was passed, the legislative programme ran into difficulty, particularly over the suspension of Poynings' Law. At the prorogation of parliament in 1587 Perrot was so frustrated with the influence of factions within both chambers of the house (orchestrated to a large degree by Sir Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond) that he begged to be recalled to England.

Perrot had helped to establish peace in Ireland, but unsparing criticism of his associates in government made him numerous enemies. A hastily conceived plan for the conversion of the revenues of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin to fund the erection of two colleges led to a sustained quarrel with Adam Loftus, archbishop of Dublin, which Perrot wilfully aggravated by his interference with the authority of Loftus as lord chancellor. Perrot also interfered in Richard Bingham's government of Connaught, and in May 1587 be actually struck Sir Nicholas Bagenal, the elderly knight marshal, in the council chamber, an incident his enemies blamed on his drunkenness. In January 1588 Elizabeth granted Perrot's request for recall. Six months later he was succeeded by the experienced Sir William Fitzwilliam. In 1559 he was again elected to Parliament to represent Haverfordwest