James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass

Early life

He was born in 1530. Baltinglass's family was traditionally associated with the FitzGerald family, the earls of Kildare, but prudently remained loyal to Henry VIII during the "Silken Thomas" Rebellion of 1534–35. For their loyalty, they were granted additional lands. Later in the 1540s Thomas FitzEustace, James's grandfather, was created first Viscount Baltinglass by a grateful king. But like many other old English Pale families, the FitzEustaces later became disillusioned.

Baltinglass's circle included the Pale families of Plunkett, Dillon, Aylmer, Fitzsimon, Sedgrave and Nugent. Within this circle, discontent increased and the Baltinglass revolt was first conceived. Previously for airing his views James had earned a night in jail, a sermon, a fine and the lasting enmity of Adam Loftus, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. James Eustace was educated at Gray's Inn, the most prestigious of the Inns of Court in London, and lived in Rome during the 1570s. James had as his tutor an influential priest, Sir Norman Eustace and became a fervent Catholic who regarded Queen Elizabeth I as illegitimate, a usurper, a tyrant, and a heretic. Generally, the government viewed James as misguided, but not a threat. They were even dismissive of him, which echoed ironically after his revolt broke.

Marriage

He married Mary Travers, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Travers of Monkstown Castle, only child of Sir John Travers, by Genet Preston, but they had no children. Henry predeceased his father. Mary died in 1610, having married secondly, in 1587, Sir Gerald Aylmer, Bart., of Donadea, a Catholic loyalist, repeatedly imprisoned, but finally released and knighted, by Queen Elizabeth, and created baronet by King James. Sir John Travers of Monkstown (Carrickbrennan), County Dublin, was a connection of the Earl of Kildare. He was Master of the Ordnance and a Groom of the Chambers. He married Genet Preston, and during the period 1545 to 1551 received many grants of land, including Rathmore and part of Haynestown (east of Naas), Tomogue, and estates in County Carlow. In 1589 Mary petitioned for the return of part of her lands, which must have been extensive. With the assistance of Sir Gerald Aylmer, whom she later married, she obtained the re-possession of the Preceptory of Killerig, County Carlow. Soon after her death in 1610 this estate was shared between several grantees, but mainly Monkstown and its estates in seven counties were left to Henry Cheevers, her sister Katherine's second son.

Rebellion

In 1576, before the death of his father, James Eustace lodged complaints against the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the illegal taxation ordered by the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney. He and other leading Catholics were imprisoned in 1577, and he was released only just in time to assume his title the next year. Much of their resentment was directed against policies pursued by Queen's officials. To finance military campaigns against the Gaelic nobility of Ireland and rebellious Anglo-Irish magnates, the government levied a military tax, known as the cess, upon the Pale. Troops were also billeted upon the Palesmen. This drew increasingly vociferous complaints from both the Pale's gentry, merchants, and commons. Before Baltinglass's rebellion, their discontent was rife. This Pale community opposed government demands on their assets to maintain its military policy. Viscount Roland, James's father, was a prominent leader. With other leaders, he was imprisoned in the closing years of the 1570s by the Elizabethan administration who viewed their opposition as little short of treason. Such action on the government's part only increased its unpopularity. The predominant Pale faith was Catholic.

In Catholic eyes there was a growing threat from the Protestant-dominated government, a perception supported by their marked decline in participation within the kingdom's government. English-born Protestants increasingly occupied positions of authority. These government officers found the concept of being both Catholic and a loyal subject to be inconceivable. The persecution was further escalated in retaliation for Pope Pius V's excommunication of Queen Elizabeth in the 1570 Papal bull Regnans in Excelsis. With growing regularity, the sons of Catholic families from the Pale withdrew from English universities and pursued their education in Catholic Europe. Within the walls of these continental colleges the Classics, Medieval Scholasticism, Renaissance humanism, Counter-Reformation theology, Baroque art, and Baroque literature dominated. Catholic Palesmen were profoundly affected by their exposure to the intellectual and cultural flowering. Their education made them more determined to both defy and to resist the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland upon their return.

In 1579, Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, took up arms in Munster for a second time against the Queen, in the so-called Second Desmond Rebellion. Elizabeth I appointed Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond to deal with the rebellion. This he eventually did, but with ruthless and terrible severity. During the summer of 1580, James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass, apparently prompted almost entirely by religious motives, recruited a Catholic army in County Wicklow, with the goal to assist Desmond. His allies included many influential Catholics, some of them his own relatives.

Defeat & Exile

Baltinglass and his followers were outlawed and forty-five of them were hanged in Dublin. James Eustace escaped to Munster, where Desmond was still in revolt, and thence, with the aid of the Wexford Martyrs, to Spain. He was well received, and only just failed to persuade King Philip II of Spain to provide sufficient troops and ships to invade Ireland. He died there childless in 1585. The fates of his five brothers were as follows:

Edmund Eustace had married Frances, daughter of Robert Pipho, and secondly Joan, daughter of Richard Walsh of Carrickmines, who afterwards married Dermot Kavanagh of Knockangary. In 1583 he escaped to Scotland and thence to Spain, where he was created "4th Viscount" by the Pope. He served against England in the Armada in 1588, and died in Portugal in 1594.

Thomas Eustace was executed in 1582.

William Eustace was certainly believed to have been slain in battle in 1581, for it was officially reported to Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State in London, "Head of William Eustace, another of the Baltinglass brethren, taken this morning." It is, possible however that this report was untrue and that he was the ancestor of the Eustaces of Robertstown whose distinguished line will be dealt with later. The Complete Peerage reports that William (4th son) was "slain in rebellion, 21 Apr. 1581." Burke's Extinct Peerage1883 reports that William (3rd son) "had not been engaged in rebellion ... (and was) ... living as Viscount Baltinglass, in 1610".

Walter Eustace was captured in 1583 and executed.

Richard Eustace was in Paris at the time of the Second Desmond Rebellion. With future Irish Catholic Martyr Dermot O'Hurley acting as his interpreter, Richard Eustace engaged in arranging for the dispatch of ammunition and supplies to aid his brothers. He was later ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in Rome.

Among the other Eustaces from County Kildare who took part were Maurice of Castlemartin and Thomas of Kerdiffstown (near Sallins), who were both executed, and John of Newland and Oliver of Blackhall, Clane, who were eventually pardoned, as was Maurice FitzGerald of Osberstown, Naas, who was the husband of Baltinglass's aunt Janet.