James "Spanish" Blake

James "Spanish" Blake (Template:Circa – 20 February 1635),Template:Efn known by the aliases Caddell, Blackcaddell, Blague, and Diego de Blacadell,Template:Sfn was an Irish merchant, soldier and double agent. On various occasions, Blake seemingly worked as a spy for English, Irish and Spanish officials during the Nine Years' War.

According to a debunked myth,Template:Sfn Blake allegedly poisoned Irish confederate commander Red Hugh O'Donnell in 1602. Historians now believe that O'Donnell died from illness, possibly a tapeworm infection.

Family background

James Blake was born circa 1560Template:Sfn or circa 1562,Template:Sfn in Galway, Ireland. He was the second son of Walter Blake (died 1575) and his wife Juliana Browne. His grandfather and brothers served as Mayors of Galway; his elder brother, Valentine Blake (1560–1634) was created a baronet in 1622.Template:Sfn The Blake family were one of The Tribes of Galway.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> James Blake was at one point proposed by the Mayor of Galway "as leader of a force against piracy".Template:Sfn

Career

In late 1587, Blake was trading in sack and acquavite from Spain,Template:Sfn which brought him to the government's notice. He was one of several Irish merchants importing goods from Spain.Template:Sfn In 1588, Blake made contact with officials in the Spanish government via salvaging the Spanish Armada's wrecks on the Irish coast. As a consequence he was imprisoned in Ireland by the English government.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It is possible that Blake went to Spain in 1589 by way of Scotland and the Spanish Netherlands.Template:Sfn

By 1594, Blake was at Philip II of Spain's court.Template:Sfn He was given a pension of 40 crowns per month in recognition of his services.Template:Sfn He subsequently fought for Spain in Brittany, where he was captured by English soldier John Norris. Blake was utilised by Norris as a double-agent,Template:Sfn but was considered unreliable by the English government.Template:Sfnm Norris wrote in 1595 that "the matter of [Blake] may put the Spaniards out of taste with trusting to the Irish". Another English official described Blake as "a cross intelligencer, but means may make him firm".Template:Sfn In 1595 Blake was in correspondence with Lord Burghley, the queen's secretary, and was reportedly dissatisfied with his payment.Template:Sfn

Throughout the Nine Years' War (1593–1603), the Irish confederacy sought military reinforcements from Spain to oppose British rule in Ireland.Template:Sfn Blake wrote to Philip II from Ireland in 1597, offering his assistance in the event of a Spanish landing.Template:Sfnm Blake's loyalties were suspected by the authorities, and he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle for three years. He was released (purportedly through the influence of Christopher Blount), but later imprisoned again in Galway in 1601. He escaped shortly after the Irish confederacy's defeat at the Siege of Kinsale,Template:Sfn which decimated Irish forces.

Death of Red Hugh O'Donnell

Blake is best knownTemplate:Sfn for the debunked popular legend that he poisoned Red Hugh O'Donnell,Template:Sfnm a senior commander of the Irish confederacy. Following the Siege of Kinsale, O'Donnell travelled to Spain to secure military support from Philip III. O'Donnell met the king in February 1602,Template:Sfn who promised that a Spanish naval fleet would be sent to Ireland.Template:Sfn

Blake approached George Carew to seek safe passage into Spain.

Blake approached George Carew, Lord President of Munster, in Cork,Template:Sfn with an offer to travel to Spain to assassinate O'Donnell.Template:Sfnm In a ciphered letterTemplate:Sfn dated 28 May 1602, Carew informed Charles Blount, Lord Deputy of Ireland, that "James Blake...took a solemn oath to do service...and is gone into Spain with a determination (bound with many oaths) to kill O'Donnell".<ref>Template:Harvnb. Words in italics were encrypted in the original.</ref>Template:Sfn Blake arrived in Lisbon in May 1602.Template:Sfn

Blake is known for his association with Red Hugh O'Donnell via a popular legend.

O'Donnell was immediately suspicious of Blake and suspected him of being an English spy. O'Donnell pointed out that Blake had sailed from Cork "which is the worst place of the kingdom, ruled by the most perverse governor [Carew] of any". O'Donnell sent his advisor Fr. Florence Conroy to the Spanish court to alert the authorities.Template:Sfnm The king's ministers were warned "not to trust [Blake] with any secret information".Template:Sfn

The promised fleet failed to materalise due to a lack of resources,Template:Sfn and on 23 July the king cancelled the expedition. Frustrated with the lack of progress, O'Donnell asked for another meeting with the king. O'Donnell set out for the Spanish court from A Coruña on 26 July and soon after arrived at the Castle of Simancas. Around the same time, Blake was in Valladolid.Template:Sfn Despite Blake's oath to Carew, on 19 August he outlined a detailed plan to the Duke of Lerma for a Spanish expedition aimed at retaking Galway from English control.Template:Sfnm Given Blake's apparent pro-Spanish sentiments, historians Frederick M. Jones and Micheline Kerney Walsh have questioned whether he was truly an English spy,Template:Sfnm and speculated that Blake was a Spanish agent who proposed the mission as a means of securing safe passage to Spain.Template:Sfnm

By 14 August O'Donnell was extremely ill,Template:Sfn and he eventually died at the castle on 30 August,Template:Sfnm aged 29.Template:Sfnm None of O'Donnell's companions, nor his physicians, suspected foul play;Template:Sfnm at the time, they credited his anguish over the diplomatic situation with causing his early death.Template:Sfnm Carew sent another ciphered letter to Blount on 9 October: "O'Donnell is dead... he is poisoned by James Blake, of whom your lordship hath been formerly acquainted... He never told the President in what manner he would kill him, but did assure him it should be effected".<ref>Template:Harvnb. Words in italics were encrypted in the original.</ref>

Blake and his servant Robert Kirwan were arrested sometime after O'Donnell's deathTemplate:Sfn under suspicion of being English spies.Template:Sfn In November and December, they were interrogated in the prison of Valladolid.Template:Sfn However they were not suspected of complicity in O'Donnell's death.Template:Sfnm Blake admitted that he had met with Carew, but claimed he had been sent to Spain by MacWilliam Burke to negotiate a truce. Interestingly, Blake claimed that he had acted as an intermediary between Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, during a supposed conspiracy between the earls to overthrow Elizabeth I.Template:Sfn Ludovico Mansoni, Papal Nuncio to Ireland, was personally convinced of Blake's innocence of being a spy.Template:Sfn

For my sins, I am punished in Ireland because of the Spaniards, and in Spain I am suspected of being English. It is a most pitiful and painful condition and it would seem that my whole life has been very badly employed.Template:Sfn{{#if:|

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Ultimately there is no evidence that Blake was successful in his promised assassination;Template:Sfnm when Carew heard of O'Donnell's death, he would have naturally assumed that Blake was responsible.Template:Sfn Present-day historians dismiss the theory that O'Donnell was poisoned by Blake. It is more likely O'Donnell died of illness.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> Prior to his death he vomited a worm ten measures long, "a thing unheard of by the doctors and regarded by them as extraordinary".<ref>Template:Harvnb: cites Ludovico Mansoni who clarifies that the worm, initially reported to be 14 measures long, was later measured and found to be 10 measures long; Template:Harvnb.</ref> It was also reported that "a kind of snake or serpent was found within him".Template:Sfnm This could indicate a tapeworm infection<ref>Template:Harvnb. "It is more than likely that Red Hugh was killed by a particularly large and virulent tapeworm..."; Template:Harvnb. "...it is more likely he died of an infection caused by a tapeworm."; Template:Harvnb. "...died of a suspected tapeworm infection..."</ref> or a cancerous tumour.Template:Sfn

Family and later life

Blake married Margery Browne, the daughter of Dominick Browne, alderman of Galway. The couple had one son and one daughter.Template:Sfn James Blake died at Galway on 20 February 1635. He was buried in the nearby abbey of St Francis.Template:Sfn

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

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