-
Subject Index A-B
-
Subject Index C-F
-
Subject Index G-K
-
Subject Index L-O
-
Subject Index P-Z
Email: info@searcs-web.com
18th Century Ireland - Charles Wogan (1698-1754)
|
|
Email: info@searcs-web.com 18th Century Ireland - Charles Wogan (1698-1754) |
|
Charles Wogan was born at Rathcoffey, County Kildare. He was a Captain of Troop in the
Jacobite Army which rose at Preston in 1715. After the defeat Wogan surrendered to
General Carpenter and was imprisoned in Newgate Prison, London for a year. He escaped
to France on the eve of his trial in May, 1716. At Avignon Wogan became a Jacobite agent
and was sent to find a Catholic Princess to marry James III, the son of the
deposed King James II.
Wogan traversed Europe and in March, 1718 he chose Princess Clementina Sobieski of Poland
to be James' bride. Wogan travelled to Urbino, Italy where he heard that the Princess
had been taken prisoner in Innsbruck by Emperor Charles VI of Austria at the behest of George I of England.
Wogan, disguised as a
French merchant, rescued the Princess and took her to Rome where he was awarded a Roman
Senateship for his gallantry. In 1722 Wogan published his best-seller Female Fortitude, exemplified in an impartial narrative of the seizure, escape and marriage of Princess Clementina Sobieski. Wogan then joined the Spanish Army with the rank of Colonel and quickly rose to the rank of Brigadier General. After reading Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729) Wogan anonymously sent Swift English and Latin verses he had written and a present of Spanish wine. Swift found out Wogan's identity and urged him to look for a publisher in London. But Wogan, then Governor of the Spanish Province of La Mancha, did not seek publication. This extract is from one of Wogan's letters to Swift, whom Wogan addresses as Mentor, dated 27th of February, 1732. © Those [Irish] who have chosen a voluntary exile, to get rid of oppression, have given themselves up, with great gaeity of spirit, to the slaughter, in foreign and ungrateful service, to the number of above 120,000 men, within these forty years. The rest, who have been content to stay at home, are reduced to the wretched condition of the Spartan helots. They are under a double slavery. They serve their inhuman lordlings, who are the more severe upon them, because they dare not look upon the country as their own; while all together are under the supercilious dominion and jealously of another overruling power. To return to our exiles. Mentor certainly does them that justice which cannot be denied them by any of those nations among whom they have served; but it is seldom or ever allowed them by those who can write or speak English correctly. They have shewn a great deal of gallantry in the defence of foreign states and princes, with very little advantage to themselves, but that of being free; and without half the outward marks of distinction they deserved... Upon this account the Irish were parcelled by brigades among the many armies entertained by the French king. Although this reparition was very mortifying to them, they ever behaved in their several bands apart with particular distinction. They never found themselves in any engagement where they did not pierce the opposite enemy. Not one regiment of them ever fled, till it was in a manner left alone; and during all the late wars, in which their principals were generally worsted, they cannot be said to have lost two pairs of colours. The French never gained a victory, to which those handfuls of Irish were not known to have contributed in a singular manner; nor lost a battle, in which they did not preserve, or rather augment their reputation, by carrying off colours and standards from the victorious enemy... The Irish for having been steady to their principals, and not as cunning knaves as the two neighbouring nations, have groaned, during the last two centuries, under all the weight of injustice, calumny and tyranny, of which there is no example, in equal circumstances, to be shewn in any history of the universe. All this calumny has been sounded into the ears of all Europe by their enemies, both foreign and domestic; and thereby gained credit, more or less, on account of not having been sufficiently controverted or refuted in time... In the meantime they were involved in too much war, or in too much misery, to be the relaters of their own story with any advantage; or found the English language as backward as the English nation and government, to do them common justice. Their enemies have spared them the labour with a vengeance. The mongrel historians of the birth of Ireland, from Stanihurst and Dr. King down to the most wretched scribbler, cannot afford them a good word in order to curry favour with England... In the meantime, it is impossible for an upright and good-natured spirit not to look with concern upon the inhuman slavery of the poor in Ireland. Since they have neither liberty nor schools allowed them; since their clergy, generally speaking, can have no learning but what they scramble for, through the extremities of cold and hunger, in the dirt and egotism of foreign universities; since all together are under the perpetual dread of persecution, and have no security for the enjoyment of their lives or their religion... In this uncouth attitude the Irishman must, in his own defence, and that of his whole country, be braver, and more nice in regard of his reputation, than it is necessary for any other man to be. All that he gets generally for his pains, is the character of having behaved as might be expected from an Irishman: yet if there be any crime or mistake in his conduct, not only he, but his whole country, is sure to pay for it. This, in strictness, regards only the Irishmen abroad; those at home may be Englishmen, and join in the banter, when they please. All this is owing to the calumny dispersed, time out of mind, by the tongues and pens of the two neighbouring nations, in order to justify their own barbarous proceedings in regard of that unhappy people. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008 |
|
|