Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Eustace, James
EUSTACE, JAMES, third Viscount Baltinglas (d. 1585), was eldest son and heir of Sir Roland Eustace, second viscount Baltinglas in Wicklow, by Joan, daughter of James Butler, lord Dunboyne. Roland's father, Sir Thomas Eustace, was of the same stock with Roland Eustace, baron of Portlester [q. v.], and possessed estates in Kildare, Wicklow, and Dublin, including the town of Ballymore Eustace in the latter county. Henry VIII in 1535 created Sir Thomas Eustace baron of Kilcullen in Kildare, and in 1541 granted him the title of Viscount Baltinglas, together with the site and lands of the dissolved Cistercian abbey there. On the second viscount's decease his titles and estates devolved on James Eustace, who married Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Travers of Monkstown, co. Dublin, and was allied by blood with the Earl of Kildare and the most important of the Anglo-Irish families. The third Viscount Baltinglas did not conform to the established church, and from an official record it appears that shortly before his accession to the title he was fined one hundred marks for having heard a mass. He does not seem to have been regarded by his contemporaries as endowed with eminent abilities, but he is stated to have been a zealous religionist. With the object of re-establishing the catholic religion in Ireland, and of removing the penalties and disabilities imposed on its professors there, Baltinglas entered into a confederacy with some of the native Irish in Leinster and Ulster. Information in relation to this movement is stated to have first reached the government at Dublin through the wife of one of those engaged in it, who furtively obtained possession of a letter which she erroneously supposed at first to have reference to some intrigue of her husband, of whom she was jealous. Little authentic material has as yet been published in relation to Baltinglas and his projects. In July 1580 he addressed a communication to Thomas, earl of Ormonde, in which he apprised him that he had taken up the sword to ‘maintain the truth’ by command of the ‘highest power on earth.’ He protested against the severities and injustice inflicted by Elizabeth's officials on the people of Ireland, repudiated the recognition of a woman as head of the church, and added that but for the death of Becket the earl's ancestors could never have acquired the Ormonde peerage. This letter was transmitted by Ormonde to the government, and the capture of Baltinglas was entrusted by it to his relative, the Earl of Kildare. Baltinglas appeared in open hostility to the crown in June 1580, when he joined the native Irish in Leinster who encountered and repulsed the forces led against them by the lord deputy, Arthur Grey. Baltinglas and his followers continued in arms for several months, but with resources too limited for the attainment of any important results. Towards the close of 1581 Baltinglas, with one of his brothers, notwithstanding the vigilance of the governmental agents, succeeded in reaching Spain, where they hoped to obtain aid in arms and supplies. They were received with favour by Philip II, who assigned liberal allowances to them. The return of Baltinglas to Ireland with supplies from Spain was looked forward to with hope by catholics in Ireland and with apprehension by the new settlers there. He does not appear, however, to have completed the requisite arrangements when he was carried off by death in Spain in November 1585. Baltinglas was outlawed by the government in Ireland, and his possessions were vested in the crown. Among them was a house in Dublin of which a grant was made to the poet Edmund Spenser, secretary to the lord deputy, Arthur Grey. The Earl of Kildare and the Baron of Delvin were imprisoned for a considerable time on charges of having connived at the acts of Baltinglas and his adherents. Forty-five persons are stated to have been executed at Dublin for alleged complicity with Baltinglas. In 1585 an act was passed in the parliament at Dublin for the attainder of James Eustace, late Viscount Baltinglas, with his brothers Edmund, Thomas, Walter, and Richard Eustace. Spenser, in his ‘View of the State of Ireland,’ has left some observations on the difficulties encountered by the government in obtaining parliamentary assent to the retrospective clauses which were embodied in this statute.
[State Papers, Henry VIII and Elizabeth (Public Record Office, London); Carew MSS. (Lambeth); Carte Papers (Bodleian Library); Istoriæ Catholicæ Iberniæ Compendium, 1621; De processu martyriali in Hibernia, 1619; Commentary on services of Lord Grey (Camden Society), 1847; Hibernia Anglicana, 1689; Camdeni Annales, regnante Elizabetha (Leyden, 1639); Statutes of Ireland, 1621; Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin (Rolls Series), 1884; Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland, iv. 1, 1882.]