On his return to England he was introduced to court, and became gentleman of the bedchamber. At the creation of Henry prince of Wales in 1608 he was created a knight of the Bath. In 1617 he became comptroller of the household and a privy councillor, and on 10 Nov. 1620 he was created in the Scottish peerage Viscount Falkland in the county of Fife, which title, with his naturalisation, was confirmed by Charles I by diploma in 1627. Chiefly through the favour of Buckingham he was appointed to succeed Viscount Grandison as lord deputy of Ireland, being sworn 18 Sept. 1622. In office he showed himself both bigoted in his opinions and timid in carrying out a policy which continually dallied with extremes; though conscientious, he was easily offended, and he lamentably failed to conduct himself with credit when confronted with any unusual difficulties. Urged on by a sermon of Ussher on the text ‘He beareth not the sword in vain,’ Falkland, greatly distressed at the number of priests in Ireland and their influence over the people, issued a proclamation, 21 Jan. 1623, ordering their banishment from the country. Such a proclamation was at the time specially inexpedient on account of the negotiations for the Spanish marriage, and in February 1624 he received an order from the English privy council to refrain from more extreme measures than preventing the erection of religious houses and the congregation of unlawful assemblies. On account of the difficulties of maintaining the English army in Ireland, an assembly of the nobility of Ireland was convened by Falkland, 22 Sept. 1626, before whom he laid a draft of concessions promised by Charles, which were subsequently known as the ‘Graces.’ They promised the removal of certain religious disabilities and the recognition of sixty years' possession as a bar to all claims of the crown based on irregularities of title. The negotiation was not conducted by Falkland with much skill, and for a long time there seemed no hope of a satisfactory settlement, but at last, in May 1628, a deputation from the nobility agreed, before the king and privy council at Whitehall, on certain additional concessions in the ‘Graces,’ then confirmed, that Ireland should provide a sum of 4,000l. for the army for three years. Falkland believed that his difficulties with the nobility had been largely due to the intrigues of the lord chancellor, Lord Loftus of Ely, and, after the dissolution of the assembly of the nobility in 1627, brought a charge against him of malversation, and of giving encouragement to the nobility to refuse supplies. After the case had been heard in London, Lord Loftus was allowed to return to his duties pending further inquiry. Meantime Falkland had for some years been engaged in tracking out what he supposed was a dangerous conspiracy of the Byrnes of Wicklow, and in August 1628 was able to announce to the king that the result of his protracted investigations had been successful, a true bill having been found against them at the Wicklow assizes. The aim of Falkland was to set up a plantation in Wicklow on the confiscated estates of the Byrnes, but as his designs were disapproved of by the commissioners of Irish causes, the king appointed a committee of the Irish privy council to investigate the matter more fully, one of the members of committee being the lord chancellor, Loftus. At this Falkland took deep offence, refusing to afford any assistance in the investigation on account of the ‘high indignity’ offered to himself (see ‘A Copie of the Apollogie of the Lord Viscount Faulkland, Lord Deputie of Ireland, to the Lords of his Majestie's Privie Counsell, the 8th December, 1628,’ printed from the Harleian MS. 2305, in Gilbert's History of the Irish Confederation, i. 210–17). When, as the result of the inquiry, it was discovered that the Byrnes had been the victims of false witnesses, Falkland was, on 10 Aug. 1629, directed to hand over his authority to the lords justices on the pretext that his services were required in England. The king, recognising his good intentions, continued him in favour. From having accidentally broken his leg in Theobalds Park, he died in September 1633, and on the 25th of that month was buried at Aldenham. Falkland continued throughout his life to cultivate his literary tastes. An epitaph by him on Elizabeth, countess of Huntingdon, is given in Wilford's ‘Memorials.’ Among his papers was found ‘The History of the most unfortunate Prince, King Edward II, with choice political observations on him and his unhappy favourites, Gaveston and Spencer,’ which was published with a preface attributed to Sir James Harrington in 1680. Falkland was in the habit of ingeniously concealing the year of his age in a knot flourished beneath his name, a device by which he is said to have detected a forger who had failed to recognise its significance.
Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland (1585–1639), famous for her learning and her devotion to the catholic religion, was the sole daughter and heiress of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, lord chief baron of the exchequer, and Elizabeth, daughter of Giles Symondes of Claye, Norfolk, and was born at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, in 1585. In very early years she manifested a strong inclination for
