The ‘fighting Bishop’ John Leslie bore arms without embarrassment to defend the royals in Ireland

This year marks both the 450th anniversary of the birth of John Leslie, ‘the Fighting Bishop’, and the 350th anniversary of his death.

Leslie was born on 14 October 1571 in Crichie, Aberdeenshire, and was the eldest son of George Leslie and his wife Marjory. Educated in Aberdeen, he spent much of his early life on the continent in centres of learning such as Padua, Leipzig, Madrid, Salamanca and San Sebastian and became fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish.

His Latin was so much admired by the Spanish that they said of him: ‘solus Lesleius Latine loquitur (Leslie is the only man who can speak Latin).’

Returning to Scotland, he graduated MA from the University of Aberdeen in 1614 and at some point entered holy orders.

Leslie found favour with James I & VI, and was appointed a domestic chaplain in the early 1620s.

He became friendly with William Laud, the future archbishop of Canterbury, who had a profound influence on him. In 1624 Leslie was awarded the degree of DD from Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1627 he is said to have accompanied the Duke of Buckingham to Ré Island during the siege of La Rochelle but it is not clear whether he was there as a combatant or as a chaplain.

On 24 August 1628 he was consecrated as bishop of the Isles (or Sodor) and was translated to the see of Raphoe in June 1633.

A strong Churchman in the Laudian mode, he was strongly hostile to both Puritanism and Presbyterianism. He built Raphoe Castle which was intended as much as a defensive structure as a home.

It served him very well in the 1641 rebellion, enabling him to hold out against the insurgents. He was one of only three bishops to remain in Ireland during this turbulent era.

When the Cromwellians took power in Ireland he initially held out against them too, his castle being one of the last royalist strongholds to surrender to them.

Some Anglicans are uncomfortable with Leslie being described as ‘the fighting Bishop’ but the description would have caused him neither angst nor embarrassment.

The evidence of his own letters confirms that he bore arms, commanded forces and participated in several engagements.

Perhaps curiously, Leslie enjoyed good relations with the lord lieutenant, Henry Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell’s fourth son.

This is partially explicable because Henry Cromwell aspired to establish the protectorate on as broad a basis as possible, to free it from the control of the military leaders, and to rally to its support as many of the royalists and old parliamentarians as possible.

Leslie’s courteous manners also endeared him to Henry Cromwell,

In September 1653 he was granted a pension of £100 by the Cromwellian regime. In July 1654 Leslie was granted £10 by the regime for services as a preacher, and in 1655 his pension was increased to £120, and subsequently to £160, as recompense for repairing Raphoe castle.

On hearing of the Restoration in 1660, Leslie, who was now almost 90, allegedly rode non-stop from Chester to London, a 24-hour journey, to pay homage to Charles II.

If true, this represents striking testimony of his royalist commitment and impressive evidence for a vigorous constitution.

He was granted a pension of £200 a year in May 1660, though his episcopal authority was not immediately restored.

In July 1660 he successfully persuaded John Bramhall, the newly-appointed archbishop of Armagh, to allow him to hold the deanery of Raphoe along with his bishopric.

In December 1660 he petitioned Charles II for compensation, having spent over £3,000 on Raphoe castle and the troops he had raised, among other expenses; he was subsequently granted 4,000 acres of forfeited land in Donegal, or its equivalent.

On Charles II’s recommendation he was granted £2,000 for his expenses by the Irish parliament, and he was reappointed to the Irish council.

On 29 April 1661 he was appointed to the see of Clogher and resigned the deanery of Raphoe. He purchased an estate at Donagh where he built Castle Leslie, now known as Glaslough.

At the age of 67 he had married Katherine Conyngham, the 18-year-old daughter of the dean of Raphoe. It was apparently a very happy marriage which lasted 33 years and produced ten children. John Leslie, the eldest surviving son, was dean of Dromore from 1681 to 1721.

Charles Leslie, the famous Non-Juror and intellectual whose writings were greatly admired by Dr Johnson, John Wesley and Gladstone among others, was their sixth son. (Non-Juror is the term used to describe those who refused to take the 1688 Oath of Allegiance to William III and Mary II because it would violate their oath to James II.)

Charles Leslie’s grandson was Charles Leslie MP, whose son in turn was John Leslie, Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.

Bishop John Leslie died at Glaslough on 8 September 1671, and was interred in the church of St Saviour, Glaslough, which he had founded.

Virtually a centenarian, at the time of his death, he was regarded as the oldest bishop in the world.

The slab which covered his remains recorded that the bishop died a centenarian (which is almost true), that he was a doctor of divinity and laws (even if there is only the word of Charles Leslie for the latter claim), and that he was a privy councillor to three kings (James I & VI, Charles I and Charles II). Robert Maxwell, the bishop of Kilmore, composed an epitaph.

The biographer of Charles Leslie described John Leslie as a man of ‘extremely temperate habits and generous temper’.

Katherine Leslie died in her 73rd year in the early 1690s.

A scholarly man, Leslie produced a number of unpublished treatises in his lifetime, but unfortunately these, along with his library, were destroyed in 1690 during the Williamite war.

His only surviving publication is a set of guidelines (1667) for diocesan visitations.

Any bishop wishing to avail himself or herself of Leslie’s advice may consult the work in the library of TCD.

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