Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/192

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Fitzmaurice
186
Fitzneale

capture of Listowel Castle by Sir Charles Wilmot in November 1600, finding himself excluded by name from all pardons offered to the rebels (Cal. Carew MSS. iii. 488, 499), he repaired into the north, where he was soon busily negotiating for aid with Tyrone and O'Donnell (ib. iv. 10). Finding that he was ‘like to save his head a great while,’ the queen expressed her willingness that he should be dealt with for pardon of his life only (ib. p. 15). But by that time he had managed to raise twelve galleys, and felt no inclination to submit (ib. p. 60). After the repulse of the northern army from Thomond in November 1601, he was driven ‘to seek safety in every bush’ (ib. p. 405). In February 1603 an attempt was made to entrap him by Captain Boys, but without success (Russell and Prendergast, Cal. i. 5–6). On 26 Oct. 1603 Sir Robert Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, wrote that ‘none in Munster are in action saving MacMorris, whose force is but seven horse and twelve foot, and they have fed on garrans' flesh these eight days. He is creeping out of his den to implore mercy from the lord deputy in that he saith he never offended the king’ (ib. p. 22). His application was more than successful, for he obtained a regrant of all the lands possessed by his father (king's letter, 26 Oct. 1603; ib. p. 98; cf. Erck's Cal. p. 101). His son and heir, however, was taken away from him and brought up with the Earl of Thomond as a protestant. He sat in the parliament of 1615, when a quarrel arose between him and Lords Slane and Courcy over a question of precedency (ib. v. 25), which was ultimately decided in his favour (Cal. Carew MSS. v. 313, 320). Between the father, a catholic and an ex-rebel, and the son, a protestant and ‘a gentleman of very good hope,’ there was little sympathy. The former had promised to assure to the latter a competent jointure at his marriage, but either from inability or unwillingness refused to fulfil his promise. The son complained, and the father was arrested and clapped in the Fleet (Russell and Prendergast, Cal. v. 289, 361, 392). After a short period of restraint he appears to have agreed to fulfil his contract, and was allowed to return home. Again disdaining to acknowledge the bond, and falling under suspicion of treason, he was rearrested and conveyed to London (ib. pp. 530, 535, 547). This time, we may presume, surety for his good faith was taken, for he was allowed to return to Ireland, dying at Drogheda on 3 June 1630. He was buried at Cashel, in the chapel and tomb of St. Cormac. He married, first, Honora, daughter of Conor, third earl of Thomond, by whom he had Patrick, his heir, Gerald, and Joan; secondly, Gyles, daughter of Richard, lord Power of Curraghmore, by whom he had five sons and three daughters (Lodge (Archdall), vol. ii.).

[Authorities as given in text.]

R. D.

FITZNEALE or FITZNIGEL, RICHARD, otherwise Richard of Ely (d. 1198), bishop of London, was the son—legitimate, if he were born before his father was in holy orders—of Nigel, bishop of Ely, treasurer of the kingdom, the nephew of the mighty Roger, bishop of Salisbury, chancellor and justiciar of Henry I. He received his education in the monastery of Ely, where he acquired the reputation of ‘a very quick-witted and wise youth’ (Hist. Eliens.; Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 627), and laid the foundations of wide and accurate learning and literary power. He belonged to a family which for nearly a century and a half held a leading place in the royal household and in the legal and financial administration of the kingdom. The year of his birth is not recorded, but he must have been still young when in 1169 his father, the bishop of Ely, purchased for him for a hundred marks the treasurership which he had long filled himself. The flourishing condition of the treasury on Henry's death proved the excellence of his administration, more than a hundred thousand marks being found in the royal coffers, in spite of Henry's continued and costly wars. He had been appointed archdeacon of Ely by his father before 1169, became justice itinerant in 1179, and held the prebendal stall of Cantlers in St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1184 we find him dean of Lincoln, and in 1186 the chapter elected him bishop of that see, the election, however, being annulled by Henry II, who had resolved that one of the holiest and wisest men of his day, Hugh, prior of Witham, should fill the office, and compelled Fitzneale and his canons to elect the royal nominee (Benedict. Abbas, i. 345). On the death of Gilbert Foliot [q. v.], he was appointed to the see of London shortly before the king's death in 1189. The canons of St. Paul's were summoned to Normandy to elect the king's nominee, but political troubles and domestic sorrows allowed Henry no time or thought for ecclesiastical affairs. The election was postponed from day to day, and was still pending on the king's death. Immediately after his accession Richard I held a great council at Pipewell on 5 Sept. 1189, the first act of which was to fill the five sees then vacant confirming his father's nomination of Fitzneale to the see of London (Matt. Paris, ii. 351), to which he was consecrated in the chapel at Lambeth by Archbishop Baldwin on