View source for Nicholas French

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use Irish English|date=February 2020}}

{{Infobox Christian leader
| birth_date = {{circa|1604}}
| birth_place = [[Wexford]], [[County Wexford]], Ireland
| death_date = 23 August 1678
| death_place = [[Ghent]], [[Spanish Netherlands]]
| name = Nicholas French
| title = [[Roman Catholic]] [[Bishop of Ferns]]
| appointed = 6 February 1645
| consecration = 23 November 1645
| ordained_by = [[John Roche (bishop)|John Roche]]
| honorific_prefix = [[The Most Reverend]]
| buried = [[Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent]]
}}

'''Nicholas French''' ({{Circa|1604}} – 23 August 1678) was an Irish bishop, political activist and pamphleteer. He was a key founder of the [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Catholic Confederation]], and served as the [[Roman Catholic]] [[Bishop of Ferns]] from 1645 until his death in 1678.

== Early life ==
Nicholas French was born in 1603<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Corish |first=P. J. |date=October 2009 |title=French, Nicholas |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/french-nicholas-a3365 |journal=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]] |doi=10.3318/dib.003365.v1 |url-access=subscription |access-date=27 January 2024|doi-access=free }}</ref> or 1604{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} in the town of [[Wexford]], [[Ireland]]. His father John French came from a [[Landed gentry|landed family]] in Ballytory, and his mother Christina Rossiter was from a family of similar status from Rathmacknee.<ref name=":1" />

== Religious education ==
He was educated at [[St Anthony's College, Leuven]].{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}{{Sfn|Cooper|1889|p=252}} He lived in the Irish seminary there, the ''Collegium Pastorale''.<ref name=":1" />

He returned to Wexford after a few years, where he was ordained as a priest by then-Bishop of Ferns [[John Roche (bishop)|John Roche]]. Towards the end of 1630, French returned to [[Leuven]] to complete his studies. During this time he considered becoming a [[Cistercians|Cistercian]].<ref name=":1" />{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}

== Irish Confederate Wars ==
In October 1641, the [[Irish Confederate Wars]] broke out after the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641|Rebellion]] of Irish Catholics. By the end of 1641, [[County Wexford]] had hesitantly joined the Irish Rebellion, despite its deep-seated loyalist tendencies. As an accomplished member of the catholic clergy, French was marked out as a rebellion leader.<ref name=":1" />

In March 1642, French and [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] lawyer [[Nicholas Plunkett|Sir Nicholas Plunkett]], along with several other Catholic clerics and gentry, helped to organise the rebels into a more cohesive political movement - the [[Confederate Ireland|Confederate Catholics of Ireland]] - with the intention of attaining freedom of religion and legal equality for Catholics and self-government for Ireland.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In May 1642, French was delegate to the meeting of the catholic clergy in [[Kilkenny]].<ref name=":1" /> The Confederates established their capital there, and with the collapse of Royal authority as a result of the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms|British Civil Wars]], became the de facto government of Ireland between 1642 and 1649.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Green harp flag of Ireland.svg|left|thumb|Flag of [[Confederate Ireland]]]]
On 6 February 1645, French was appointed Bishop of Ferns,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cheney |first=David M. |date=9 October 2022 |title=Bishop Nicolas French † |url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bfrnch.html |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=Catholic Hierarchy}}</ref>{{Sfn|Cooper|1889|p=252}} and was consecrated on 23 November.<ref name=":1" />

In 1646, a crisis emerged when Papal Nuncio [[Giovanni Battista Rinuccini]] opposed a settlement between the Confederates and the King's representative, [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond|James Butler, Marquess of Ormond]]. After many military reverses, French and Plunkett were sent as envoys to Rome to seek help, sailing from Wexford on 10 February 1648. Although the two men were positively greeted by the papacy, they didn't receive the help they were seeking. They left Rome empty-handed in late August, arriving in Ireland late November.<ref name=":1" />{{Sfn|Cooper|1889|p=252}}

French and Plunkett assumed control of the Supreme Council and tried to promote a better peace treaty with the Royalists at the same time as a more vigorous prosecution of the war. A new treaty was signed with the Royalists in 1648 and French was prominent in trying to secure the widest possible support within the Confederation for it. However, the most hardline Catholic elements remained hostile to it. In any event, the Royalist/Confederate alliance lasted little more than a year - as they were crushed by an [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|English Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland]] which began in 1649. The Parliamentarians were extremely hostile to Catholic clergy, executing them when they apprehended them.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

French deemed it prudent to leave Ireland in 1651, and he lived the rest of his life in continental Europe. He acted as coadjutor to the archbishops of [[Santiago de Compostela]] and [[Paris]], and to the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Ghent|Bishop of Ghent]].{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}

French, along with many Irish Catholics, was very disappointed with the treatment Irish Catholics received when the English monarchy was [[English Restoration|restored]] in 1660. Only a "favoured minority" of Irish Catholic Royalists were returned the land confiscated from them by the Parliamentarians under the [[Act of Settlement 1662]] and the public practice of Catholicism remained illegal.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

== Writings ==
In 1676, French published his attack on James Butler, entitled "The Unkinde Desertor of Loyall Men and True Friends," and shortly afterward "The Bleeding Iphigenia." The most important of his other pamphlets is the "Narrative of the Settlement and Sale of Ireland" (Louvain, 1668).{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}

In collaboration with Plunkett and [[Bologna]]-based Irish professor [[Niall Ó Glacáin]], French wrote eulogistic poems in [[Latin]] to [[Pope Innocent X]], titled ''Regni Hiberniae ad Sanctissimi Innocenti Pont. Max. Pyramides Encomiasticae''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murphy |first=David |date=October 2009 |title=O'Glacan (Ó Glacan), Nial |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/oglacan-o-glacan-nial-a6763 |journal=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]] |doi=10.3318/dib.006763.v1 |access-date=14 December 2023|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Death and legacy ==
[[File:Sint-Niklaaskerk and the belfry of Ghent (DSCF0229).jpg|thumb|[[Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent|Saint Nicholas Church]], French's burial place]]
French died in [[Ghent]], [[Spanish Netherlands]] (present-day [[Belgium]]) on 23 August 1678.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Donnell |first=Francis Martin |author-link=Francis Martin O'Donnell |date=2020 |title=Memorialising Emigré Dignity - The Cultural Heritage of St. Anthony's College, Leuven |url=https://www.academia.edu/44246051 |journal=Irish College Leuven - Memorialising Emigré Dignity - the Cultural Heritage of St. Anthony's College, Leuven |pages=29}}</ref>{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}} He is buried there in [[Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent|Saint Nicholas Church]].{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}<ref name=":1" />

''The Historical Works of Bishop French'', comprising his three pamphlets and some letters, were published by SH Bindon at [[Dublin]] in 1846.{{Sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=99}}{{Sfn|Cooper|1889|p=253}}

==Authorities==
*[[Thomas D'Arcy McGee]], ''Irish Writers of the 17th Century'' (Dublin, 1846)
*[[John Thomas Gilbert]], ''Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641-1652'' (Dublin, 1879–1880)
*[[Thomas Carte]], ''Life of James, Duke of Ormond'' (new ed., Oxford, 1851)
*"The Oxford Companion to Irish History", ed. S.J. Cannon, Oxford, 1999.

== References ==

=== Citations ===
<references />

=== Sources ===
*{{EB1911|wstitle=French, Nicholas|volume=11|page=99}}
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=French, Nicholas|volume=20|last=Cooper|first=Thompson|author-link=Thompson Cooper|pages=252-253|short=1}}
{{Roman Catholic Bishops of Ferns}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1604 births]]
[[Category:1678 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Ferns]]
[[Category:Irish writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Irish historians]]