Piers Crosby

Sir Piers Crosby (1590-1646) was an Irish soldier and politician. Crosby was also a leading Irish magnate, owning various estates across the island.

Crosby was of both Old English and Gaelic Irish descent, being connected to a branch of the Moore family, but he was primarily identified with the New English despite being a Catholic. He was the son of Patrick Crosby.

Crosby commanded an Irish regiment in the Duke of Buckingham's unsuccessful expedition to support La Rochelle. During the retreat Crosby commanded the rearguard, and was able to allow the English forces to board their ships largely intact. Buckingham, who was the Royal Favourite of Charles I, developed a high opinion of Crosby and supported his career, until his assassination in 1628. Due to Buckingham's influence Crosby was appointed to both the English and Irish Privy Councils. Crosby became a noted courtier, associated in particular with Queen Henrietta Maria.

Crosby married the widow of George Tuchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven, and was therefore the stepfather of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven. Through her, Crosby was able to obtain lands in County Armagh and County Tyrone after contending that the 2nd Earl had not fulfilled his obligations under the Plantation of Ulster. Crosby raised the issue in 1628, and in 1630 the King ruled in his favour. Crosby was one of several figures who stood to gain if Castlehaven died a felon when the Earl was charged and executed in 1631 following allegations made by his wife and son.

Crosby became a leading opponent of the dominant figure in Irish politics in the 1630s, the Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth. In 1634 he was returned as Member of Parliament for Queen's County. Crosby attacked Wentworth for failing to honour previously-pledged concessions to Catholics. In 1639 he was prosecuted for libelling Wentworth. Along with Wentworth's other Irish enemies, Crosby supplied much of the evidence when Wentworth was tried by the English Parliament for misgovernment in 1641.

Crosby was a political ally of the powerful Earl of Cork. During the era, Crosby either raised or offered to raise Irish troops for military service overseas for both the Crown and other nations on a number of occasions. Along with other Irish nobleman, he offered his services to the King during the Scottish Crisis when it was planned for an Irish Army to make a landing on the Scottish coast.

Following the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in 1641, Crosby was initially neutral. He later joined the Irish Confederates and also spent some time abroad. In 1643 he returned from France to Ireland. He was identified with the moderate faction, and died in 1646 after being imprisoned by a rival faction in the leadership of the Irish Confederacy.