Ormond was the head of the English interest in that kingdom: he was firmly attached to the Protestant religion; and his power far exceeded that of an ordinary Lord Lieutenant, first, because he was in rank and wealth the greatest of the colonists, and, secondly, because he was not only the chief of the civil administration, but also commander of the forces.

The King was not at that time disposed to commit the government wholly to Irish hands.

He had indeed been heard to say that a native viceroy would soon become an independent sovereign.
[164] For the present, therefore, he determined to divide the power which Ormond had possessed, to entrust the civil administration to an English and Protestant Lord Lieutenant, and to give the command of the army to an Irish and Roman Catholic General.

The Lord Lieutenant was Clarendon; the General was Tyrconnel.
Tyrconnel sprang, as has already been said, from one of those degenerate families of the Pale which were popularly classed with the aboriginal population of Ireland.

He sometimes, indeed, in his rants, talked with Norman haughtiness of the Celtic barbarians: [165] but all his sympathies were really with the natives.