1. Sir Henry Sidney was an English soldier, politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland.
17 Facts About Henry Sidney
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Henry Sidney was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst and Anne Pakenham.
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Henry Sidney was brought up at court as the companion of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward VI, and he continued to enjoy the favour of the Crown, serving under Mary I of England and then, particularly, throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth I He was instrumental in the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland, serving as Lord Deputy three times.
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Henry Sidney's career was controversial both at home and in Ireland.
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In 1556, Sidney served in Ireland with the Lord Deputy, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, who in the previous year had married his sister Frances.
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Henry Sidney played a large part in expanding the English administration in the country, which had shrunk over the centuries to the area around Dublin known as the Pale.
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Henry Sidney was involved in the civil and military measures taken by his brother-in-law for bringing Irish chieftains into submission to the English Crown, known as Surrender and Regrant.
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Henry Sidney was instructed to defer a meeting between Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots to the next year.
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In 1565, Henry Sidney was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in place of Sir Nicholas Arnold, who had succeeded the Earl of Sussex in the previous year.
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Henry Sidney placed garrisons at Belfast and Carrickfergus to dominate both Clan O'Donnell of Tir Eoghain and Clan MacDonnell of Antrim.
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Henry Sidney proposed the appointment of a military governor in the provinces of Munster and Connacht.
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Henry Sidney turned on the Hiberno-Norman Butlers in Ormond and Kilkenny, who had revolted against the opportunistic claims to their lands by Sir Peter Carew, an adventurer from Devon who pursued his entitlement with the blessing of the Dublin government.
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Henry Sidney left Ireland in 1571, aggrieved by the slight appreciation shown by Queen Elizabeth.
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Henry Sidney left his mark on the administrative areas of the island by creating shire divisions on the English model.
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Henry Sidney suppressed a rebellion headed by the earl of Clanricarde and his sons in 1576, and hunted Rory O'More to his death two years later.
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Henry Sidney has been implicated in the infamous atrocity against the seven Clans of Laois as the Massacre of Mullaghmast in 1578.
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Henry Sidney married Mary Dudley, eldest daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, in 1551.