Henry Burnell

Henry Burnell (fl.1630s-40s, d.1656) was an Irish politician, playwright and landowner of the seventeenth century. The details of his life are not well recorded, but it is known that he was a prominent member of the Irish Confederacy which governed much of Ireland between 1642 and 1649.

He was a member of a leading Dublin landowning family, who forfeited most of their possessions after the failure of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He is now remembered mainly as the author of Landgartha, the first play by an Irish playwright to be produced in an Irish theatre, and as the father of the poet Eleanor Burnell.

Family He was the son of Christopher Burnell of Balgriffin, and grandson of Henry Burnell, Recorder of Dublin, who died in 1614. Nothing is known of his mother; his paternal grandmother was an O'Reilly of County Cavan. The Burnell family had been landowners in Dublin since the late fourteenth century and were Lords of the Manors of Balgriffin and Castleknock. They had a long tradition of serving as judges, especially on the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). Most of them were stubbornly Roman Catholic in their religious beliefs and as a result after the Protestant Reformation their loyalty to the Crown was often suspect, a suspicion reinforced by their role in the Rebellion of Silken Thomas, in 1534-6. One John Burnell was executed at Tyburn for his part in the Rebellion. Little is known of Henry's personal life, except that he was rich and eligible enough to marry one of the Earl of Roscommon's daughters. He probably inherited his money from his grandfather, who made a fortune at the Irish Bar.

Landgartha Landgartha, Burnell's only surviving play, was produced at the Werburgh Street Theatre on St. Patrick's Day 1640. it was the first work by an Irish playwright to be produced on the Irish stage and one of the last productions before the theatre closed in 1641.

Summary of the play The main characters are the heroine Landgartha, a Norwegian "Amazon"; Frollo, King of Sweden and conqueror of Norway; Reyner, King of Denmark; Harald, his rival, and Uraca, daughter of Frollo. It has been suggested that Landgartha symbolises the old Anglo-Irish ruling class to which Burnell belonged, and that Reyner represents the New English aristocracy who, by denying the Anglo-Irish their full share in public life, abandoned them. In the alternative, it can be read as a straightforward defence of England's colonizing role in Ireland. A more elaborate parallel suggests that Reyner represents King Charles I of England and that the plot reflects the political turbulence which led to the English Civil War. The plot supposedly derives from a real episode in Danish history.

Reputation as a playwright Burnell refers to the "good applause" his play received, and quotes an English writer who called him "the true heir of Ben Jonson", an opinion which few critics either then or later have shared. That this view was widely shared in Burnell's own time is suggested by his bitter reference to "the other babblers" (i.e. critics) who had apparently ridiculed his play, and whom he in turn regarded with contempt. His efforts to have an earlier play produced had failed, due in his opinion to the hostility ("spite") of his critics.

Marriage and children Burnell married Lady Frances Dillon, third daughter of James Dillon, 1st Earl of Roscommon and his wife Eleanor Barnewall; she died in 1640.