Earl of Meath

With William and the English political class transfixed on how to fill James' throne and what sort of future relationship would exist between that throne and parliament, matters Irish simply resonated very little with them at the start of 1689.

When Clarendon told William that the Earls of Meath and Blessington had offered their services in reducing Ireland, Blessington had offered to recruit a regiment of dragoons, William again ignored him, though on this occasion adding he would take care of Ireland as soon as things were a little settled here in England.

Clarendon was also involved in drafting a proposal from William to the Tyrconnell administration for its surrender, though even he must have known its terms would have been unacceptable to almost all Irish Catholics.

Not even the most hardline Fermanagh Protestant gentry had confidence at that early juncture in an eventual Williamite victory in Ireland.