CHARLES II (1630-1685). King of Great Britain and Ireland.
Letter Signed to James, Duke of Ormond, Lieutenant General & General Governor of Ireland, 1 page folio with address-leaf, Whitehall, 29 November 1684. Countersigned by [Robert Spencer, second] Earl of Sunderland (1641-1702) and (Sir) Nicolas Morice.
Raising Arthur [Forbes], Viscount Granard, to the Earldom of Granard in the Irish peerage.

'... Taking into our Princely consideration the many good and acceptable Services performed unto Us by Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin & Counsellor Arthur Lord Viscount Granard, We have thought fit hereby to signify Our Will and Pleasure to you, that forthwith upon receipt hereof you cause effectuall Letters Patents to be passed in due forme of Law under Our Great Seale of that Our Kingdom containing a Grant of the Dignity of an Earle of Our said Kingdome of Ireland unto him the said Arthur Lord Viscount Granard by the name style and title of Earle of Granard, with the Fee of twenty pounds p[er] ann[u]m payable out of Our Revenue these for the better Support of that Dignity. ...'

'In 1672 the lord lieutenant, the earl of Essex, warmly commended Forbes to Charles II, calling him 'as worthy a man and as faithfull a servant to you as any person I have ever known' (Second Report, HMC, 211). Essex nominated him one of the lords justices to officiate in his absence in England in 1675. The same year Forbes was created Baron Clanehugh and viscount of Granard. In 1684 he raised the 18th regiment of foot, and was made its colonel, and in the same year was advanced to the dignity of earl of Granard. His appointment as one of the lords justices after the recall of the lord lieutenant, the duke of Ormond, was reassuring to protestants in Ireland when James II came to the throne in 1685. But Granard was subsequently replaced by Tyrconnell at the head of the Irish army, a move heralding the launch of the king's ill-fated Catholic coup.' [Sean Kelsey in Oxford DNB].
[No: 23349]