Tintern Abbey's political past

Irish Arts Review

Tintern Abbey's political pastAuthor(s): John MulcahySource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 28, No. 1 (SPRING (MARCH - MAY 2011)), pp. 110-113Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41206285 .

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COMSERVATIOM * RESTORATION •." '

^^^Ä^^^^^Ä?Ä^P#^^Î TINTERN ABBEYS POLITICAL PAST ^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^Él

Tintern S8BEw3 political past ^^^^^^B^^| TinternAbfaeyatBaniiow$ayinWexfordistodaya - fl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H plact of beauty andtranquHtty, secured if not fulty r^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| restored by the OPW: a Ustint monument to the :^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| earliest days of the Norman ínvMíon from which Its ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M foundation sprungp as John Huicahy reports j^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M

hHrttmera ixt thü south-west ^ôf County Wexford was founded by "^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H I Vtfaikm Marshal, one dF the most distinguish^ knights in die ;^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

Am service of HcniyH and sufceequen% of his two schisò ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H John. MaishaU was a nephw of Strong , ̂ ̂̂ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

* thus i^îtni Tarrt < JMi í til ̂^•'H ^V u^'i^fr^tf-W^^ ^ ̂ ^ ̂ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

110 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SPRING 2011



SPRING 2011 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 111



CONSERVATION & RESTORATION TINTERN ABBEYS POLITICAL PAST

HIS GRANDSON SIR VESEY WHO INHERITED TINTERN IN 1 766, WAS A WOMANIZER AND A SPENDTHRIFT ALTHOUGH HE HAD SOME INTEREST IN PUBLIC LIFE AND WAS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE VOLUNTEERS LOCALLY

where he landed if his life was spared. (This dramatic scene is re-created in one of the very beautiful series of fifteen Ros Tapestries created by Ann Bernstorff. See Irish Arts Review Autumn 2005 p95.) It's a nice story and comes down to us via the Histoire de Guillame Maréchal, a eulogy in verse of the great knight commissioned by one of his five sons, all of whom suc- ceeded him in the earldom but all of whom died without issue.

It is true that in 1 200, William Marshal willed the allocation of 9,000 statute acres to the Cistercian Order to establish a monastery adjoining Bannow Bay and that confirmation for the grant was secured from King John in the same year. But were the origins of Tintern really as simple and romantic as all that? What is a matter of record is that Marshal was

following the example of his father-in-law, Strongbow, who soon after he took Waterford by force in 1 169, established the Cistercian house of

Dunbrody Abbey just a few miles outside that city and installed Herve

112 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SPRING 2011

de Montmorency, a leading Knight Templar of his day, as the first abbot. Both men were consolidating the extraordinary connection between the Normans, the Cistercians and the Knights Templar who combined to exert a dominant influence throughout Western Europe at that time.

As every schoolboy knows, the first Cistercians came to Ireland in 1142, at the invitation of Malachy, Bishop of Down, and established Melifont Abbey in Louth. By the time the Normans invaded in 1 1 69, the Cistercians had built no less than ten establishments here - a number that was soon to grow to thirty. It was an amazing rate of expansion which was, however, being emulated all over Europe thanks to the drive of their most influential member, Bernard the Abbot of Clairvaux. Obviously the Cistercians were in the best position to supply information on Ireland back to France long before the Normans ever set foot here.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was, without doubt, the most influential cleric of his day. An enthusiastic reformer of the monastic orders he also played a leading role in the promotion of the cult of the

Virgin Mary in the 1 2 th century. But he was also an active promoter of the Church militant and established the Rule of the Knights Templar who soon became the equivalent of the Pope's private army. He

preached against the 'heresy' of the Cathars in the South of France who were afterwards tortured and finally annihilated by the Norman knights. He was also commissioned by the Pope to preach the Second Crusade that turned out so disastrously for all concerned.

Tintern in Wexford was first colonized by monks from the mother Cistercian church, called Tintern Abbey in Chepstow, Wales where

Strongbow came from. The Knights Templar had been granted lands in this part of Wexford by Henry II in 1 1 72, in what became the parishes of Templetown and Hook on the southern end of the Hook peninsula, but these lands reverted to William Marshal and thence to Tintern after the death of Herve de Montmorency in 1205. Thus the entire Hook Peninsula which dominates the coastline on the strategic approach to Waterford Harbour was under the combined control of the Cistercians

in Dunbrody and Tintern. And when Marshal built the famous light- house on Hook Head (still extant) the monks from Tintern lit the fires at night that guided the Norman ships into Waterford. What a happy alliance between the Church and the invaders.

Over the years, the Cistercian foundations became increasingly impor- tant as centres of political rather than spiritual power. In the 14th century, the abbot of Tintern was one of those appointed to collect funds for the

raising of men-at-arms and archers for the defence of the county and the abbots in Tintern were peers in the Irish Parliament until 1447. Indeed the

growing secularization and power of the Cistercians during the 1 5 th cen-

tury partly contributed to their eventual downfall which came on 6 May 1 536 when, on the orders of Henry VIII, both Tintern and Dunbrody, like most of the monasteries, were suppressed and all their assets seized on behalf of the Crown. Thus after approximately 326 years occupation by



the Cistercian monks, theTintern estate with its then 6,000 acres passed into the possession of Anthony Colclough, an officer in the king's service in Ireland who hailed from Staffordshire. Remarkably, members of the

Colclough family continued to live there until 1959.

Stretching over such a long period, the history of the Colcloughs in Tintern inevitably included as many disasters as triumphs. In the 1 7 th

century, the family was split along religious lines. In the 19th, court actions disputing the ownership of the estate were so protracted that they were said to have inspired Dickens1 Jarndice vs Jarndice in his novel Bleak House. Of course there was a famous duel in the early 1 9th century and even the execution as a rebel of poor John Henry Colclough in 1 798.

The religious spilt occurred when Sir Thomas Colclough (d. 1624) (Fig 2) took for his second wife a certain Eleanor Bagenal of the Duffry, an heiress in her own right. For the next hundred years, the Protestant line continued at Tintern until the last died childless in 1723. Meanwhile, the Catholics at Duffry prospered until backing the wrong side in the Civil War of 1 641-9 and being temporarily dispossessed. But all came right again when the 'Great Caesar' Colclough (Fig 1 ), who had inherited the Duffry estates came into the Tintern property as well in 1723. The Great Caesar Colclough now the owner of very extensive

properties in Wexford, was a dominant character here in the first half of the 1 8th century, a great sportsman, Colonel of the Wexford Militia mar- ried twice (Fig 5) and father of no less than thirteen children. But his

grandson SirVesey (Fig 6) who inherited Tintern in 1766, was a womanizer and a spendthrift although he had some interest in public life and was a founding member of the Volunteers locally.

We now come to perhaps the most interesting period of the

Colclough residency in Tintern - all the events surrounding the 1798 rebellion in Wexford. Sir Vesey had two sons, the eldest being another Caesar who went to live on the continent and remained there during the

Napoleonic Wars. Meanwhile, his younger brother John, took charge at Tintern and set about repairing the family fortunes and extracting the estate from the many mortgages and encumbrances bequeathed by his father. He established a bank in New Ross with others and also a flour mill, and stood for election in 1807 to the Westminster Parliament in

place of his absent brother. However he was killed in a duel with his brother-in-law, William Alcock, during the election. And shortly before this, Dr John Henry Colclough had met an even more tragic fate.

John Henry Colclough of Ballyteigue Castle near Kilmore Quay was a Catholic and a United Irishman and one of the leaders of the 1 798 rebellion in Wexford. He was in command of sections of the rebel army in the Battle of New Ross on 5 June and was also engaged in the battle for Horetown on 20 June. After the rebellion was crushed, he fled to the Saltee Islands with his good friend Bagnel Harvey of Bargy Castle. But their hide-out was betrayed and they were brought back to Wexford and executed on the bridge where their heads were displayed on pikes. Caesar returned from France in 1814 and continued to live at Tintern until his death in 1 842. After that, most of the Colclough family energy appears to

5 G MORPHY PORTRAIT OF LADY FRANCES COLCLOUGH 1 680s who is believed to be the first wife of Great Caesar Colclough Courtesy of the Estate of Hardress Llewellyn Lloyd

have been expended in the protracted court cases over the ownership of the ancient abbey. Miss Marie Biddulph Colclough lived at Tintern for sev-

enty years before she finally pulled up stumps and bequeathed what had become a near ruin to the state in 1959. She left in a pony and trap and retired to a modest residence in the nearby village of Saltmills.

Since that time extensive excavations and renovations have been carried out by the OPW under the direction of Ann Lynch and the monument has been secured for the future in the beautiful setting on the shores of Bannow Bay, now called theTintern Heritage Park. ■

John Mulcahy is the Editor of the Irish Arts Review.

Sources: Lynch, Ann, Tintern Abbey, Co Wexford: Cistercians and Colcloughs, Excavations 1982-2007. 2010.

Orpen, G H, Ireland under the Normans 1169-1333 (Oxford 1911-201.

Stalley, R, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland (Yale 1987). Whelan, Kevin (ed.) Tintern Abbey Co Wexford.i Friends of Tintern, undated)

SPRING 2011 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 113

6 PORTRAITOF SIRVESEY COLCLOUGH d. 1 794 Courtesy of the Estate of Hardress Llewellyn Lloyd



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Tintern Abbey's political past