| Nicholas
Bagenal played a pivotal role in the history  of
Ireland and County Down in particular, he was a native of Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Stafford shire, England where his father John Bagenal was Mayor
of the town.
In 1556 he married Eleanor, 3rd daughter and heiress
of Sir Edward Griffith of Penrhyn, North Wales, the couple had nine
children Henry, Dudley and Ambrose, and daughters Frances, Mary,
Margaret, Isabel, Anne and Mabel
This marriage brought to Bagenal
considerable estates in Wales.
In 1539 he was involved in a
brawl in Leek, Staffordshire in which a man was killed, he fled
the country to Ulster, where he took employment with Conn O'Neill
as a mercenary soldier. By 1542 O'Neill had been created 1st Earl
of Tyrone, it was 7th December of that year that Conn O'Neill interceded
on Bagenal's behalf in the form of a letter sent by the Dublin Privy
Council to London petitioning for a pardon for Nicholas Bagenal,
which was granted on 2nd March 1543.
Between 1544 and 1547 he served
in the French Wars where he gained a high reputation for his military
prowess. By 1548 he was back in Ireland serving under Sir Edward
Bellingham in the Irish midlands, where a group led by Cahir O'
Connor were plundering Laois, Carlow and Kildare, it was in the
latter county that Bagenal met O'Connor's superior force, inflicting
a crushing defeat on them.
At this time the English Pale was under fairly
consistent attack from the native Irish, the policy of strengthening
the defenses of the pale can to a large extent be attributed to
Bellingham, one of the castles built by him was at Leighlinbridge,
Co. Carlow, in the Barony of Idrone owned by the Carew, the strategic
location of this castle enabled the English to subdue a large part
of the county. Bagenal was later (1585) to buy the barony from Carew
for £2,000 for one of his sons, Dudley, who met a violent
death shortly thereafter when ambushed near Ballymoon
Castle County Carlow.
The year 1550 was an auspicious one for Nicholas
Bagenal in that year he became a member of the Irish Privy Council
and was appointed Marshall General of the Army in Ireland. In that
year also he received a lease for 21 years on the Abbey lands of
Newry and Newry town,and
was granted the Lordship of Mourne.
Bagenal's son Henry was killed at the Battle
of Yellow Ford in 1598 by the Irish forces led by by Hugh
O'Neill who incidentally was married to Henry's sister Mabel
Bagenal.
Bagenal's castle in Newry County Down now
houses Newry Tourist Information Center and Newry & Mourne Museum,
there is some dispute as to whether the castle was built by Bagenal
some contend that he modified another building, and that the plans
which came to light were just an elaborate scam by him to extract
money from Elizabeth I.
Bagenal like several of the English adventurers
in Ireland came here as fugetives from English justice capatilising
on this to his own advantage and also that of the English crown
in his treatment of the Native Irish.
|
