Thomas Radcliffe 3d earl of Sussex

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Sussex, Thomas Radcliffe, earl of (1523–83). This inflexible, military‐minded chief governor (1556–64) replaced the gradualist regime of St Leger. A courtier with little administrative experience, Sussex relied on martial law and built up the military establishment by appointing English relatives and clients as commanders and privy counsellors. He fought the O'Connors and O'Mores to consolidate the Laois‐Offaly plantation and tried unsuccessfully to evict the MacDonnells for a similar project in Antrim. His militaristic approach, with its jobbery, related debasement of the currency, and forced billeting of troops on loyal communities (cess) antagonized the Palesmen. Court connections helped him to fend off a protest movement headed by Archbishop George Dowdall of Armagh.

Sussex now staked all on defeating Shane O'Neill but achieved only a number of expensive failures. The Pale opposition, this time headed by the earl of Kildare, succeeded in having him recalled with the support of his enemy at the court, Robert Dudley. Sussex's most lasting achievement was religious not military—the re‐establishment of the Church of Ireland in the 1560 parliament which reversed his own restoration of Catholicism under Mary three years earlier.

Hiram Morgan

Thomas Radcliffe Sussex, 3d earl of 1526?–1583, English nobleman. Styled Viscount Fitzwalter after his father became (1542) the 2d earl of Sussex, he served in the army in France and on diplomatic missions abroad. In 1554 he was made Baron Fitzwalter, and in 1557 he succeeded his father as earl of Sussex. He served as lord deputy of Ireland under Mary I (1556–58) and again (1559–64) under Elizabeth I, who gave him the title of lord lieutenant. Sussex was a vigorous general, although he never succeeded in subduing Shane O'Neill , and during his administration English influence was forcefully extended outside the Pale . Sussex's desire for Elizabeth to marry outside England brought him into sharp conflict with the earl of Leicester. His attempts to negotiate a marriage between the queen and Archduke Charles of Austria, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, collapsed in 1567. In 1568, Sussex became lord lieutenant of the north, and he aided in the suppression of the revolt (1569–70) of the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland. He became lord chamberlain in 1572.

Sussex, Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd earl of (c.1525–83). Radcliffe's mother was a daughter of the 2nd duke of Norfolk. He fought with distinction in the French campaign of 1544 and at Pinkie in 1547. Though he signed the proclamation of Lady Jane Grey in 1553, his father declared for Mary and was in command of her forces at Framlingham. Radcliffe's wobble does not m to have done him harm. He was entrusted by Mary with the suppression of Wyatt's rising. He succeeded as earl in 1557 and was given the Garter. In 1556 he was sent by Mary to Ireland as lord keeper with instructions to promote the catholic cause. Elizabeth reappointed him, making him lord‐lieutenant, but his renewed campaign against the O'Neills made little progress. He resigned in 1565 and from 1568 to 1572 was lord president of the Council of the North, helping to put down the rising of the northern earls in 1569. From 1572 until his death he was lord chamberlain.