time it was decided to send over Irish troops to England, but the attempt to fill the ranks of English regiments with Irishmen was in great measure defeated by the firmness of the officers. The Irish soldiers were very unwilling to leave their own country, but Tyrconnel is said to have promised that they should be the king's bodyguard and have lands given them. Lady Tyrconnel was present at the birth of the Pretender on 10 June 1688 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. App. ii. 53), but rejoined her husband in Ireland later.
Shortly before James's flight from England Tyrconnel began to raise a large new force. Suitable officers could not be obtained in sufficient numbers, and commissions were given to many who had nothing to recommend them but their religion and their Irish names. As these troops were seldom paid, they could not be prevented from plundering. Trinity College was invaded and all horses and arms taken away (Stubbs, p. 131). ‘It pleased God,’ said George Walker (True Account), ‘so to infatuate the counsels of my lord Tyrconnel that when the 3,000 men were sent to England to assist his master against the invasion of the prince of Orange, he took particular care to send away the whole regiment quartered in and about Londonderry.’ Tyrconnel told an envoy from Enniskillen that he could not restrain the rabble, and that if they persisted in resistance they must be prepared to see a general massacre of protestants in the northern counties (McCormick, Actions of the Enniskillen Men). This was just the way to make brave men resist. Tyrconnel sent Lord Antrim to occupy Londonderry, but the citizens refused to receive him and his disorderly followers. In the negotiations which followed with Mountjoy [see Stewart, William, first Viscount Mountjoy], Tyrconnel did everything in his power to earn the name of ‘lying Dick Talbot’ which has been so freely given him by whig writers. For a moment William thought it possible to make terms with Tyrconnel, and perhaps the latter wavered. Richard Hamilton [q. v.] was sent over to sound him in January 1688–9, but it came to nothing, and Hamilton himself joined the jacobite ranks.
James landed at Kinsale on 12 March. Tyrconnel went to him at Cork on the 14th, and carried the sword of state before him when he entered Dublin on the 24th. He had hoisted over the castle a flag with the inscription, ‘Now or never, now and for ever.’ It was announced by proclamation that parliament would meet on 7 May, and James set out a few days later for Londonderry, leaving Tyrconnel in charge at Dublin. Writing to Louvois on 29 March 1689, Avaux observed that Tyrconnel was much less sanguine than James about the fall of Londonderry, and about the prevalence of Jacobite feeling in England. Avaux and Tyrconnel had advised James not to leave the capital, where they had him at their disposal, and could overrule Melfort [see Drummond, John, titular Duke of Melfort, (1649–1714)]. When James returned to Dublin he proposed to send Tyrconnel to the siege of Londonderry ‘to make the more noise’ (D'Alton, i. 58), but he did not go, probably on account of his health. Just before the meeting of parliament Tyrconnel sat for a day with Avaux, Melfort, Fitton, Nugent, and Nagle to decide upon the measures to be passed. All Avaux's suggestions were adopted, and James approved of everything (Avaux, p. 63). Among the measures so hatched were the repeal of the act of settlement and the attainder of 2,455 protestant landowners. A few days later Tyrconnel was ill again, Avaux attributing this to his vexation at Melfort's ascendency over the king. Avaux got on very well with Tyrconnel, who, he said, was as zealous for King Louis as any French viceroy could be, being convinced that nothing could be done without his help. In July James made Tyrconnel a duke. In September the fellows of Trinity College were turned out to make room for a garrison of foot, and a Roman catholic priest was, by Tyrconnel's advice, made provost (Stubbs, p. 134). Though still ill, Tyrconnel went to Drogheda, where he assembled twenty thousand men to keep Schomberg in check (Story, p. 17). The English army was much reduced by sickness, and made no progress, but the Irish officers spent the winter feasting in Dublin instead of making their ground good. The result was that Schomberg took Charlemont as soon as he could move in the early spring of 1690 (Macariæ Excidium, p. 41). Tyrconnel succeeded in getting rid of Justin Maccarthy [q. v.], who was his most powerful opponent, and who was chosen to take six thousand Irishmen to France in exchange for the French troops brought by Lauzun. Writing to Avaux on 22 March 1689–90, Tyrconnel remarked that Lauzun would be a long time getting to the front if he waited at Cork for everything needful.
Avaux's great object had been to get rid of Melfort, and Lauzun was not much better pleased with Dover [see Jermyn, Henry, first Baron Dover]. Acting on instructions from Louvois, Lauzun told James that he could not attend his council because he spoke no English. To meet the difficulty, James
