Peter Carew

Sir Peter Carew (1514–27 November 1575) was a Devonshire adventurer, who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England and became a controversial figure in the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland.

Early life and career

Carew was the third son of Sir William Carew, a Devonshire gentleman, and was born at Ottery Mohun (now Mohun's Ottery) in the parish of Luppitt. He was educated at Exeter grammar school, where he was a frequent truant, and at St Paul's School. By his own account (set down in his biography) he once climbed a turret on Exeter city wall and threatened to jump if his master came after him. His father then had him led back to his house on a leash, like a dog, and for punishment coupled him to one of his hounds for a time.

Carew was placed in the service of a French friend of his father's, but suffered demotion to muleteer and was only saved in February 1526, when a family relation, on his way to the siege of Pavia in the service of King Francis I of France, heard Carew's companions call the young man by name. On the way to the siege, the relation died and Carew took up with a marquis, who was killed at the actual battle; Carew then went over to the enemy and served the Prince of Orange, after whose death he was sent by Orange's sister to King Henry VIII of England with letters in despatch; the king noted his proficiency in riding and French and took him into service.

In 1540, he travelled abroad with his cousin and visited Constantinople, Venice, Milan and Vienna, where the cousin died; in Turk land they had disguised themselves as merchants in alum. He then served in the war against France on land and at sea; in 1544, he led a company of foot apparelled in black at his own expense, with his brother George Carew — who was to command the Mary Rose when it sank — serving as commander of horse. For his service in the campaign he was knighted, and then served as member of parliament in 1545 and 1553 — on the second occasion for Devonshire, of which he was also sheriff in 1547.

Carew was reprimanded for the vigour of his response to the rising occasioned by the issue of the reformed Book of Common Prayer. In 1555, he dutifully proclaimed Queen Mary of England in the west but conspired against her marriage proposal with King Phillip II of Spain and escaped to the continent before arrest. The English ambassador to Venice tried to have him killed by hired bravoes, so he went north and was arrested in Antwerp with a companion and sent blindfold by fishing boat to England, where he was held in the Tower of London until December 1556, his release being secured upon payment of an old debt due by his grandfather to the crown.

Under Elizabeth I, Carew was sent to settle a dispute between Lord Grey and the Earl of Norfolk, which had arisen while they were commanding an army against the French in Scotland. When Norfolk was eventually convicted of treason in 1572, he found that Carew was his gaoler, having been appointed constable of the Tower.

Ireland

In 1568, Carew undertook his greatest adventure, when he laid claim to lands in the south of Ireland. He had sent ancient documents for examination by John Hooker, who became convinced - after he had travelled to Ireland for confirmation - that the documents established Carew's hereditary entitlement to extensive properties in that country. It was shown that King Henry II of England (the first Lord of Ireland, a title assumed in 1172 at the beginning of the Cambro-Norman conquest) had granted lands to one Robert Fitzstephen, whose daughter had married a Carew ancestor.

However correct the tracing of the legal title may have been, the lands in question (mostly in the south of the province of Leinster) had suffered a succession of minor counter-conquests over the course of hundreds of years. Carew's claim existed by letter of the law contained in antique parchment under crown seal, but was without regard to the remoteness of his connection to the lands and the people who lived there and owed more to the necessity of empire building in the face of Spanish expansion in the New World.

Nevertheless, Carew obtained leave of the queen to prosecute his claims and sailed for Ireland from Ilfracombe in August 1568. His first proceedings were against Christopher Cheevers for possession of the lordship of Maston in Meath; Carew claimed he couldn't get a fair trial at common law before a jury and went instead before the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, sitting in council, whereupon Cheevers agreed to a compromise of the claim. Then he secured a decree of Sidney and council for the barony of Idrone in Carlow, which was then in the possession of the ancient Kavanagh clan, and was appointed captain of Leighlin castle (in succession to Sir Thomas Stukley) in the centre of the barony.

Carew's claim became complicated when it appeared to encroach upon the possession and authority of the Butler family, an Anglo-Norman dynasty with wide influence in Ireland, whose principal was Sir Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde, a bosom companion from the queen's childhood. Butler's younger brother, Edmund, held the castle of Clogrenan a few miles north of Leighlin - it had been seized from the Kavanaghs by his father - and in protest at this encroachment, which he expected would extend to his own lands (similar proceedings were in fact to be brought against him), he launched an attack on Carew. Without hesitation, Carew retaliated by storming Clogrenan, which he seized with little difficulty. But the seizure caused great disquiet locally and eventually led to the Butler Wars, which contributed to a wider insurrection, the first of the Desmond Rebellions.

Carew fought an effective campaign against the Butlers, but their influence overwhelmed his efforts. Not content to pursue the acquisition of Irish lands by right of inheritance, he extended his ambitions with a scheme for plantation. In April 1569, the privy council at London approved in principle a proposal by him, along with Sir Warham St Leger, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Richard Grenville, for a corporate settlement by confiscation of lands at Baltimore on the coast of the province of Munster (see Plantations of Ireland). This was to be achieved on foot of legal proceedings to be taken for the purpose of exposing defective titles, expelling rebels and introducing English colonists. Carew's solicitor, Hooker, had by then become a prominent New English member (for Athenry) of Sidney's parliament at Dublin.

The Desmond rebels engaged in bloody conflict along the coast of Munster, besieging the city of Cork, amongst others, with the demand that all efforts at colonisation cease. Both sides laid waste to the hinterland, and it was soon recognised that Carew had reached too far. The Earl of Ormond had just managed to bring his followers in from their rebellion against the crown, and after the earl's return to court the queen decided to recall Carew to England. He was loaded with some of the blame for the disturbances and had to seek further leave before pursuing his claims. Leave was granted after some years, and he returned to Ireland in 1574 having refused the queen's request to retake his seat in parliament. He found Lords Courcy and Barry Oge and the O'Mahons (and others) willing to acknowledge his claims and agree tenancies with him. Once this part of his plans had been settled he ordered a house to be prepared for him at Cork but died of illness on the way, on 27 November 1575, at Ross in Waterford.

Legacy

Carew had no issue. He was buried in Waterford church, on the south side of the chancel. A portrait of him is kept at Hampton court, and his monument stands in Exeter cathedral. His biography was written by John Hooker. His will is dated 4 July 1574. He is to be distinguished from another Peter Carew, a cousin who was killed at the Battle of Glenmalure.

References

*Richard Bagwell, "Ireland under the Tudors" 3 vols. (London, 1885–1890)
*John O'Donovan (editor), "Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters" (1851).
*"Calendar of State Papers: Carew MSS." i., ii., (6 vols., 1867-1873).
*"Calendar of State Papers: Ireland"
*Nicholas Canny "The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland" (1976); "Kingdom and Colony" (2002).
*"Dictionary of National Biography" 22 vols. (London, 1921–1922).
*Sir J. Maclean (ed.) "The Life of Sir P. Carew" (1857).
*John A. Wagner "The Devon Gentleman: A Life of Sir Peter Carew" (University of Hull Press, 1998)ISBN 0-85958-669-3.
*John Sage, "Luppitt: Parish, Church and People" (2000) ISBN 0-9539483-0-7.