George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes

Sir George Carew, after an oil painting made between 1615 and 1620

George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes (born May 29, 1555 - March 27, 1629 in London ) was an English nobleman, military man and politician.

origin

George Carew came from the Carew family , which had belonged to the gentry of south-west England since the 14th century . He was the second son of his father of the same name, George Carew (1497 / 8–1583) and his wife Anne Harvey († 1605). His father was a clergyman who converted to Protestantism and lost his offices during the reign of Queen Mary the Catholic . It was not until 1571 that he was again Dean of Exeter . His older brother, Peter Carew, served in the military in Ireland, where revolts against English rule broke out during the Desmond Rebellions . Carew studied at Broadgates Hall in Oxford from 1564 to 1573 . In 1574 Carew broke off his studies, allegedly at the request of his cousin Sir Peter Carew , who, as a descendant of Carews, claimed ownership rights in Ireland, which dated back to the 12th century. On September 17, 1589, he subsequently received a Master of Arts degree .

Military in Ireland during the Desmond Rebellions

Carew initially served in Ireland in the wake of Peter Carew, who however died in late 1575. Carew now joined the army of Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney as a volunteer . In 1576 he was named Deputy Governor of County Carlow and his brother Peter Carew's deputy as Constable of Leighlinbridge Castle . In 1577 he successfully defended the fortress against an attack by Rory Oge O'More . In 1578 he accompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert as captain of a privateer on his failed expedition to the West Indies , but then returned to Ireland in 1579, where he served as a captain until 1580. His brother Peter fell on August 25, 1580 in a battle in Glenmalure , County Wicklow , whereupon George Carew took over his post as commandant of Leighlinbridge Castle, which he remained until June 1602. In 1586 he was appointed administrator of Adare Castle . With the death of his brother, Carew developed a lifelong hatred of all Irish. In 1583 he murdered Owen O'Nasy on the street in Dublin , whom he believed to be his brother's murderer. Although this bloody act embarrassed the English administration in Ireland and also the Privy Council in London, Carew was not held responsible for it and remained in the service of the government. In 1583 he was sheriff of County Carlow in Ireland, while in Kent and Middlesex, England, despite his absence, he was appointed justice of the peace because of his reputation . In 1583 he became a member of the Gentlemen Pensioner , which he remained until 1603.

Further advancement as a military and politician

In Ireland, it struck on 24 February 1586 Lord Deputy Sir John Perrot for Ritter . In 1586 Carew traveled to London, where he reported to the government on the situation in Ireland. He made a good impression on both Queen Elizabeth I and the Secretary of State Walsingham , and he won the friendship of the influential William Cecil . Back in Ireland, he was appointed Master of the Ordnance for Ireland in January 1588 . In 1590 he became a member of the Privy Council for Ireland. In August 1592 Carew resigned as Master of the Ordnance of Ireland after he had been promoted to Lieutenant-General of the Artillery of England in January 1591 through the intercession of Thomas Heneage and Walter Raleigh . For this purpose became a justice of the peace of Devon. During the Anglo-Spanish War he took part in the attack on Cádiz in 1596 under the command of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex . He was then suspected of stealing and embezzling 44,000 ducats while looting the city . But Carew protested his innocence twice to State Secretary Robert Cecil , so that other members of the expedition were suspected instead. In 1597 he took part in the expedition against the Azores , but his ship was damaged in a storm, so that he had to head for La Rochelle and then return to England.

In November 1595 Carew had received the Hadlow Estate in Kent and parts of neighboring Tonbridge from the Crown , giving him an annual income of over £ 30. In 1597 he was elected Member of the House of Commons for the Borough of Queensborough in Kent . He served on four committees in the House of Commons. In 1593 he wanted to run for a by-election in the Borough of Camelford , which then did not take place. Carew had been proposed as ambassador for France as early as 1586 and as ambassador for Scotland in 1594, but he had refused the office. In the spring of 1598 he accompanied his sponsor Robert Cecil as an envoy to France.

Only a few remains of Dunboy Castle, captured by Carew in 1602, are preserved

Lord President of Munster during the Nine Years War

When the Earl of Essex failed to win the Nine Years' War in Ireland, which began in 1594, English rule in Ireland was increasingly threatened. On January 27, 1600 Carew was appointed Lord President of Munster . In March 1600 he returned to Ireland. Through clever negotiations and ruthless military pressure, he succeeded in subjugating the rebellious Florence MacCarthy and James FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond , by March 1601 . He worked closely with Lord Deputy Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy . When a Spanish fleet under Don Juan de Aguila landed in Kinsale in County Cork in 1601 , Carew supported Mountjoy in the siege of the invaders . In November 1601 he was supposed to intercept Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill before he could unite his troops with those of Aodh Mór Ó Néill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone . A sudden cold snap, however, made it possible for Ó Dónaill to move over the mountains of Slieve Phelim and thus bypass Carew. The legend according to which Irishman Brian MacHugh Oge MacMahon betrayed Tyrone's plan of attack on Montjoy near Kinsale for a bottle of whiskey has been refuted as false by historians Gerard Hayes-McCoy and John Silke. After the English victory at Kinsale in December 1601, Carew was able to complete the submission of Munster by conquering Dunboy Castle in County Meath in June 1602.

As Lord President Carew systematically curtailed the political influence and independence of the cities inhabited by English settlers. Because of their Catholic faith and their old privileges, the townspeople were generally suspected of sympathizing with the rebellious Irish. In Cork , Limerick and Waterford he had new fortifications built, while he deliberately punished Kinsale for the apparent support of the Spanish invaders. The city's charter was revoked and the citizens were forced to rebuild the ruined castle. After Carew had thus consolidated English rule in large parts of Ireland, he wanted to return to England. He received permission to do so in March 1603, but it was not until June 4, 1604 that Sir Henry Brouncker was appointed as his successor as Lord President of Munster.

Courtier and politician under the Stuart kings

When Queen Elizabeth I died shortly after his return from Ireland, Carew immediately traveled to Edinburgh and escorted Anna , the wife of the new King James I , to London. He quickly won the favor of the new king and was appointed deputy chamberlain and receiver-general of the queen's household in October 1603 . On October 9, 1604, he became a member of the Queen's Council, which he held until Queen Anna's death in 1619. He now took up the claims of his cousin Peter Carew on lands of his ancestors in Ireland, and in fact he received between December 1603 and April 1604 several lands in Ireland in thanks for his services.

After he could not run in the general election in 1601 because of his military service in Ireland, he was nominated as a candidate for the Borough of Hastings in Sussex in 1604 at the instigation of Robert Cecil of the Earl of Northampton , who was also Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports , and then by Reluctantly chosen by the citizens. As one of the king's few confidants, he was active in the House of Commons, although it cannot be clearly distinguished whether the minutes of the meeting refer to him or his distant cousin George Carew , who was also a member of parliament. At the instigation of Cecil Carew was elevated to Baron Carew, of Clopton on May 4, 1605 . He became a member of the House of Lords and resigned from the House of Commons. In England he took on various offices again. On June 27, 1608 he was promoted to Master of the Ordnance of England, which he remained until his death, to 1609 he was administrator of the royal Nonsuch Palace in Surrey and a member of the Council of Virginia , which should oversee the Virginia Company . From January 1610 to March 1621 he was governor of Guernsey . In 1611 he traveled back to Ireland to report on the development of the plantations in Ulster . In order to achieve a Protestant majority in the Parliament of Ireland , he proposed the establishment of new boroughs in Ulster. However, his report disappointed Cecil, so that he lost his favor. However, after Cecil's death in 1612, he quickly succeeded in winning the favor of the new royal favorite Sir George Villiers . On July 20, 1616 he became a member of the Privy Council .

Activity as an antiquarian

Carew was one of the friends of the condemned Sir Walter Raleigh , which is why he was briefly suspected of a conspiracy in 1603. He campaigned in vain for his pardon. His other friends included the antiquarians William Camden , Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Thomas Bodley . Despite his hatred of the Irish, he was very interested in Irish history and kept contemporary documents, in addition to acquiring older ones. From these papers he created family trees of Irish families and wrote extensive records, which he did not publish. He left his books and writings to Sir Thomas Stafford , who was believed to be his illegitimate son. Stafford used Carew's documents to work with Pacata Hibernia to write a comprehensive report of the Nine Years War, which he published in 1633. Today most of Carew's writings are in the library at Lambeth Palace in London.

Grave memorial of Carew and his wife in Stratford-upon-Avon Church

Last years and death

Carew was an old sick man, but he was commissioned again in 1624, together with Sir Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester and Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison of Limerick , to inspect the plantations in Ulster. On July 20, 1624, he was appointed a member of the War Council to plan the recovery of the Electoral Palatinate , which had been lost in the Thirty Years' War , for Elector Friedrich V , the king's son-in-law. The new King Charles I appointed him to the King's Council in the North on April 29, 1625. In 1626 Carew became treasurer and receiver-general of Queen Henrietta Maria , and on February 7, 1626 Carew was made Earl of Totnes . Because of his friendship with the unpopular royal favorite George Villiers, who had meanwhile been raised to the Duke of Buckingham, allegations were made against Carew. As a member of the council of war, he was therefore supposed to answer to the House of Commons for the costs of the war, but apologized for his age, paralysis and other ailments.

Marriage and inheritance

Carew had married on May 31, 1580 Joyce Clopton (1562-1637), the eldest daughter of William Clopton (1538-1592) from Warwickshire . As an heir of her father, she inherited the family estate of Clopton House near Stratford-upon-Avon , after which Carew's title of baron was added. With her he had a son who, however, died childless before his father. After his death, Carew was buried on May 2, 1629 in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford-upon-Avon, where a magnificent funeral memorial was erected for him and his wife. He bequeathed his considerable fortune, his house on the Savoy and other houses in Holborn , London, to his wife. After their death, Anne, his brother Peter's only daughter, inherited the property. Clopton House and the Clopton family estate in Warwickshire fell to a nephew of his wife's. His alleged illegitimate son Thomas Stafford, he also bequeathed his property at Woodgrange in Essex as well as lands in Devon and Cornwall.

Web links

Commons : George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• RC Gabriel: CAREW, Sir George (1555-1629), of Clopton, Warws. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)
• Peter Lefevre, Andrew Thrush: CAREW, alias HARVEY, Sir George I (1555-1629), of The Savoy, London and Clopton, Warws. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1604–1629)
• Ute Lotz-Heumann: Carew, George, earl of Totnes (1555-1629). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

predecessor	Office	successor
Recreate title	Earl of Totnes 1626-1629	Title expired
Recreate title	Baron Carew 1605-1629	Title expired