James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven ( - 11 October 1684) was the son of
Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and his first wife, Elizabeth Barnham (1592 - ). Castlehaven played a prominent role in the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...
that took place in the middle of the 17th century, and was particularly active in the conflicts in Ireland at this time.
Titles
He succeeded to the Irish earldom of
Castlehaven and
Baron Audley of Orier on 14 May 1631, when his father was attainted and beheaded. Most of his estates in England were taken over by others.
He was created
Baron Audley of Hely with remainder "to his heirs forever" on 3 June 1633, with the place and precedency of George, his grandfather, formerly
Baron Audley, in an effort to nullify his father's attainder. However, this was considered insufficient, legally, until a bill was passed by Parliament in 1678 allowing him to inherit the original Barony of Audley.
War in Ireland
Castlehaven was involved in the defence of Ireland during the
Confederate Wars of the 1640s and in the subsequent Cromwellian invasion. During the outbreak of the
Irish uprising in 1641–42, Castlehaven volunteered to help suppress the Irish rebels, but because he was a Catholic he was not trusted to take command. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and detained at
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle () is a major Government of Ireland, Irish government complex, conference centre, and tourist attraction. It is located off Dame Street in central Dublin.
It is a former motte-and-bailey castle and was chosen for its position at ...
. Fearing that he would meet the same fate as the
Earl of Strafford, Tuchet manage to escape 27 September, with the help of a friend and fled south into the
Wicklow Mountains. His intention was 'to gain a passage by Wexford into France, and from thence into England;’ but coming to Kilkenny, the headquarters of the confederate Catholics, he was persuaded to accept a command in the army, and was appointed general of horse under Sir
Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara. It was believed among the northern Irish that his escape was a contrivance on the part of the
Earl of Ormonde 'to work an understanding' between him and his kindred in rebellion, Castlehaven being related to him through the marriage of his sister with Edmund Roe Butler.
Even though he considered himself English, he was appointed a member of the 25-strong Supreme council of the
Confederation of Kilkenny. In 1644 the Irish Confederate Supreme Council decided to vote for Castlehaven as the commander of a 6,000-strong expedition force in a push against the Ulster-Scottish army under
Robert Monro. The campaign under Castlehaven proved indecisive, the large army being mostly used to defend the stronghold of
Charlemont. Historians generally consider the expedition to have been a wasted opportunity: as a result of this,
Owen Roe O'Neill considered Castlehaven to be incompetent and
Thomas Preston also developed a dislike of him. (Castlehaven somewhat unconvincingly later blamed O'Neill for the failure of the expedition). However, Castlehaven was not entirely lacking in military ability. Apart from Owen Roe O'Neill, he proved to be the only Irish Confederate commander capable of winning conventional set-piece battles. In 1643 he surprised and routed hundreds of Inchiquin's men in county Cork at the
battle of Cloughleagh. In 1650 he won a second small (though inconsequential) victory over an English
Parliamentarian force during the
battle of Tecroghan with some aid from
Ulick Burke. The great weakness of Castlehaven was that he was largely an amateur, lacking the patience to conduct sieges and somewhat touchy- it is said that some referred to him as ''
Tiarna Beag'' or 'Little Lord.' The anonymous author of the Aphorismical Discovery, a contemporary account of events during the Confederate wars in Ireland, contemptuously referred to Castlehaven as the 'pigmeyan Goliath of Clanricarde.'
Later years
In 1647 he, like many other Catholic nobles, moved to France and was present at
Prince Rupert's siege of Landrécy, the capital of Hainault. He went back to Ireland, after seeing the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
in Paris, to hold several commands in Leinster, Munster, and Clare but was unable to counter the actions of
Cromwell and his son-in-law,
Ireton. He was able to return to the continent in April 1652
to further his military career serving
Prince de Condé in the
Fronde,
Charles II, and the Spanish Crown.
He participated in the battles of
Rocroy,
Cambrai
Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river.
A sub-pref ...
,
Seneffe,
Maestricht,
Charleroi
Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...
and
Mons
Castlehaven wrote his memoirs in 1681 in response to the hysteria of the
Popish Plot. Like all Catholic peers, he had been barred from the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
(where he sat as
Baron Audley) by the
Test Act 1678, much to the regret of the Protestant peers, who held him in high regard. He took his leave on 30 November 1678, with a speech expressing his duty to the Crown, and his concern for the peace and welfare of the Kingdom.
[Kenyon, p.147] His fellow peers, knowing him to be in financial difficulty, wrote to
Charles II recommending Castlehaven to his bounty.
Marriage and issue
He married twice, first Elizabeth Brydges (died March 1678/9) in
Kilkenny,
daughter of
Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos and of his wife
Lady Anne Stanley (1580–1647), who married the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven after Lord Chandos' death. (Anne Stanley was thus both the 3rd Earl's stepmother, and his mother-in-law.). Elisabeth was buried at St Martin-in-the-Fields.
He married secondly, about 19 June 1679, Elizabeth Graves (died 1720).
He died without issue on 11 October 1684, at
Kilcash Castle,
County Tipperary
County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
and was succeeded in the earldom by his youngest brother
Mervyn. Mervyn's older brother
George was passed over by virtue of being a Benedictine monk.
References
;Attribution
Sources
*
*
Biography
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castlehaven, James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of
1610s births
1684 deaths
*03
*13
Irish generals
Tuchet
English Roman Catholics
Tuchet