French, Nicholas

French, Nicholas (1604–78), Catholic bishop of Ferns and Confederate Catholic politician. An opponent of the first Ormond peace, French was dispatched to Rome as crisis mounted. In November 1648 he used the pope's non‐committal answer on how peace might be achieved with heretics, and a cardinal's letter about Roman opinion being divided over Rinuccini's use of excommunication, to swing the Confederate Assembly towards the second Ormond peace. French subsequently persuaded the bishops to acquiesce, citing the compromise between Catholics and Protestants at Westphalia.

By 1650 French regretted his support for Ormond. He met with other bishops to condemn his conduct and went to Brussels hoping to persuade Charles of Lorraine to assist Irish Catholics. After Ormond revoked his licence to return home, he became the foremost critic of the Restoration regime, publishing The Narrative of the Settlement and Sale of Ireland (1668), The Bleeding Iphigeneia (1675), and The Unkinde Desertor (1676).

Hiram Morgan