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  by letters patent of 8 Sept. 1629, and the marriage took place at Christmas of the same year. The following year Lord Thurles spent with his wife at his uncle's, Sir Robert Poyntz, at Acton in Gloucestershire, where he studied Latin for the first time, and at the end of 1630 they went to live with his grandfather, Earl Walter, at Carrick, until his death in 1632, when James succeeded to the earldom of Ormonde and Ossory. In 1631 he made a journey to England, travelling through Scotland, and showed his activity by riding from Edinburgh to Ware in three days. In the beginning of 1633, his grandmother too having died, he returned to Ireland, accomplishing the whole journey to Carrick between four in the morning of Saturday and three o'clock on Monday afternoon. Throughout his life he was distinguished for his physical strength and comeliness, for his attention to dress, and for the dignity of his carriage. His own tastes were simple—it is recorded that his favourite dinner was a boiled leg of mutton (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. 486 b)—but he was careful always to observe an almost regal display in the conduct of his household. Upon the arrival of Wentworth in Ireland as deputy in July 1633, Ormonde at once attracted his attention, as much by his distinguished appearance as by his readiness to assist in raising the supplies of which Charles was in need. On 14 July 1634, at the opening of parliament, he carried the sword before Wentworth. There shortly occurred a characteristic instance of his independence of spirit. Wentworth, fearing scenes of violence in the parliament, had ordered that none should enter wearing their swords. Ormonde refusing to give up his sword, and the usher insisting, 'the earl told him that if he had his sword it should be in his guts, and so marched on to his seat, and was the only peer who sat with a sword that day in the house.' When sent for by Wentworth he replied that he had seen the proclamation, but was only obeying a higher order, inasmuch as his writ summoned him to come to parliament cum gladio cinctus. It was clear to Wentworth that he must either crush so independent a man or make a friend of him; wisely enough he determined to take the latter course, and shortly reported most highly of him to the king, finishing the eulogium with 'He is young, but take it from me, a very staid head.' Ormonde and Wentworth lived on the best terms until the latter's death. Ormonde actively supported the deputy in the parliament of 1640; and when Wentworth left the country in April to join Charles, he committed to Ormonde the entire care of levying and raising the new army. Since 1631 he had been in command of a troop of horse, and in 1638 had raised a second troop of cuirassiers. A regiment of cavalry was now given to him; he was made lieutenant-general of the horse, and commander-in-chief of all the forces in the kingdom during Strafford's absence. So active was he in his charge that by the middle of July the troops came to the rendezvous at Carrickfergus in complete readiness for action. Ormonde was, however, unable himself to join them in consequence of his wife's illness.

Towards the end of 1640 a remonstrance against Strafford's government was passed by the Irish House of Commons and published in England, but Ormonde successfully opposed a similar remonstrance in the House of Lords. On the death of Wandesford, Strafford urged Charles to make Ormonde deputy; the opposition, however, in the Irish Commons, who were now acting in a great degree under the inspiration of the English parliament, was too strong. He supported Strafford against the attacks made upon him in the parliament of 1641, and, as chairman of the lords' committee on privileges, strongly opposed the commons in the dispute which arose in the Fitzgerald case (, Ormond, i. 250, Clar. Press edit.) Strafford had, it is stated, urged the king, as one of his last requests, that the garter which his death left vacant might be bestowed upon Ormonde. The latter, however, declined it on the ground that such a gift might possibly, engage some other person to the crown, and desired that rewards to himself might be reserved until all danger was over. This story is vouched for by Sir Robert Southwell in his manuscripts, p. 18.

Upon the news of the outbreak of the rebellion in Ireland in 1641 reaching Charles, he at once appointed Ormonde lieutenant-general of his army. Twice also he sent him private instructions to gather into one body the Irish army which was being disbanded, and to seize Dublin Castle in his name by the authority of the Irish parliament, hoping to win the Irish to his cause by the grant of religious liberty (, Hist. Eng. x. 7, ed. 1884). He does not, however, appear to have moved in this direction. His proposal to collect immediately all available forces and march against the rebels was overruled by the lords justices, who appear to have been jealous of his power, and who were in correspondence with the English commons. Their policy, indeed, appears to have been to employ him as little as possible in his military capacity, and the jealousy with which they regarded him was of the greatest disadvantage at the time of the 