Sir John Perrot (7 November 1528 – 3 November 1592) served as lord deputy to Queen Elizabeth I of England during the Tudor conquest of Ireland. It was formerly speculated that he was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII, though the idea is rejected by modern historians.
Early life
Perrot was born between 7 November and 11 November 1528, probably at the family seat of Haroldston Manor near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in Wales. He was the only son of Thomas Perrot (1504/05–1531) and Mary Berkeley (c.1511–c.1586), the daughter of James Berkeley (died c. 1515) of Thornbury, Gloucestershire. He had two sisters: Jane, who married Sir John Philipps, 1st Baronet of Picton Castle, and Elizabeth, who married John Price of Gogerddan.
Perrot resembled Henry VIII in temperament and physical appearance, and it was widely believed that he was the bastard son of the late King. The main source for this belief was Sir Robert Naunton (husband of Perrot's granddaughter, Penelope), who had never known Perrot and used second-hand accounts to make his case. The case is weakened by the fact that Perrot was Mary Berkeley's third child, not her first, and that she and the King are not recorded to have been in the same place at the crucial time.
Naunton claimed Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, overheard Perrot say, "Will the Queen suffer her brother to be offered up as a sacrifice to the envy of his frisking adversaries?", suggesting that Perrot himself asserted his royal paternity. However, Hopton had been removed from office by the Queen eighteen months prior to Perrot's imprisonment, so he could not have overheard Perrot make the claim there.
Perrot joined the household of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, and thereby gained his introduction to Henry VIII. His advancement faltered on the death of the King in January 1547, but in the following month he was knighted at the coronation of Henry's successor, Edward VI.
In 1551, Perrot was appointed High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire, and in June of the same year he visited France in the train of William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, who had been sent to arrange Edward VI's betrothal to Elisabeth of Valois, the young daughter of Henry II of France. Perrot's skill as a knight and in the hunt fascinated King Henry, who sought to retain him for reward. Perrot declined, but on his return to England his debts were paid by the French Crown.
During the reign of Mary I, Perrot suffered brief imprisonment in the Fleet with his uncle, Robert Perrot, on a charge of sheltering heretics at his house in Wales. Following his release, he declined to assist the Earl of Pembroke in seeking out heretics in south Wales, but in 1557 was content to serve the same Earl at the capture of Saint-Quentin in France.
Perrot inherited the castle and lordship of Carew. At the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign the naval defence of South Wales was entrusted to his care. His advancement continued in 1562, when he was elected Knight of Pembrokeshire. He served as member of parliament for Carmarthenshire in 1547, Sandwich in 1553 and 1555, Wareham in 1559 (presumably through pressure exerted on the Rogers family by the 2nd Earl of Bedford, his former commander), Pembrokeshire in 1563, and Haverfordwest in 1589.
Munster
In 1570 Perrot reluctantly accepted the newly created post of Lord President of the Irish province of Munster, which was in the throes of the first of the Desmond Rebellions. He landed at Waterford in February of the following year and, in a vigorous and gruelling campaign, reduced the province to peace.
The chief rebel, Fitzmaurice, eluded government forces for some time. In one grisly incident, after fifty rebels had been slain, Perrot sought to awe his enemy by cutting off the heads of the corpses and fixing them to the market cross of Kilmallock. Fitzmaurice still refused to come in, and Perrot issued him with a challenge to single combat, which the rebel declined with the comment, "For if I should kill Sir John Perrot the Queen of England can send another president into this province; but if he do kill me there is none other to succeed me or to command as I do". Perrot's challenge provoked mutterings from the more level-headed servants of the Crown, and his reputation for rash judgment was confirmed when he was ambushed by the rebels, who outnumbered his force ten to one, only to be relieved when the rebels mistook a small cavalry company for the advance party of a larger Crown force. But in 1572, after a second and successful siege of the rebel stronghold of Castlemaine, he was vindicated on Fitzmaurice's submission.