Sex, lies and rigged returns: the Kerry county parliamentary election of 11 June 1634 and its consequences
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Bríd McGrath [1]
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[1] Trinity College
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- Localización: Parliaments, estates & representation = Parlements, états & représentation, ISSN-e 1947-248X, ISSN 0260-6755, Vol. 37, Nº. 3, 2017, págs. 241-255
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
The 1634 Kerry county election involved the mis-return by the deputy sheriff of the Protestant father-in-law of the sheriff, rather than the Catholic John FitzGerald, a member of the local gentry. FitzGerald successfully appealed the return and was elected MP; however, the injustice of the original return rankled and, combined with a bitter existing family dispute with FitzGerald’s brother-in-law Patrick FitzMaurice, Lord Kerry and Lixnaw, led to accusations of sexual infidelity and a ruinous case in the Irish equivalent of the English Star Chamber. FitzGerald’s subsequent return in a by-election in 1640 formed part of the downfall of the Irish Lord Deputy, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. This study of the 1634 Kerry county election also forces a revision of the accepted view of Wentworth’s conduct of all the elections for that Irish parliament, with consequences for an understanding of the early stages of his deputyship.
