18 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The prestige of the regiment derived eclat at the outset from the fact 

 that the commission for the raising of the regiment was given to the 

 Viceroy. The DiLke of Ormond Tv^as not alone the Xing's representa- 

 tive and the Greneral-in-Chief of the army in Ireland, but the fii'st of 

 his Irish subjects in rank, fame, and fortune. He had held the post 

 of Lieutenant-Greneral or Commander-in-Chief of the army formed by 

 Strafiord as far back as 1640. His association with the regiment 

 would have been sufficient of itself to stamp the corps with peculiar 

 distinction; and Onnond was careful to secure that its honour should 

 Tindergo no diminution in the persons of its officers, who were selected 

 largely from the ranks of the Irish nobility, and included several 

 who had followed his fortunes through the whole course of the civil 

 war and foreign exile. 



Unable himself, with the multifarious duties of the Viceroyalty, to 

 assume the direct command, Ormond asserted in the most marked way 

 his personal interest in the fortunes of the regiment by nominating 

 to the Colonelcy his second son Eichard, Earl of Arran, a nobleman, 

 who, if less distinguished than his gifted brother. Lord Ossory, 

 was yet a man of considerable ability, who, on more than one 

 occasion during Ormond's absence in England, filled the office of 

 Lord Deputy. Arran gave proofs of considerable military capacity 

 in command of his regiment, first in suppressing a formidable mutiny 

 of the soldiers of other regiments at Carrickfergus, in 1666, and later, 

 in 1673, by his distinguished conduct under the Duke of York, in the 

 sea-fight with the Dutch in that year, in which, after the manner of 

 those days, the Guards took a part serving on board ship.^ For his 

 services on this occasion, Arran was rewarded with an English 

 peerage. " jS'o man," says Carte, " was more active, more eager, and 

 more intrepid in danger." During his tenure of the office of Deputy 

 ia 1684, he exhibited great personal gallantry in deaHng with a very 

 serious fire in Dublin Castle, by which a great part of the castle 

 buildings was destroyed.- An address of congi-atulation was presented 

 on this occasion by the citizens of Dublin, in which Arran' s energy is 

 eulogised in glowing terms : " By your Excellency's presence of mind, 

 care, and conduct, in the midst of the devouring flames which 

 encompassed you, not only the remaining part of the buildings of the 

 Castle, but the great magazine of powder to which the fii'e had within 

 a few steps approached, was wonderfully preserved, and the ancient 

 records of this Kingdom, then also in the Castle, rescued fi'om those 



' Carte's " Ormonde," ii., 544. * Dublin Corporatiou Eecords, v., p. 312. 



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