Richard Netterville

Richard Netterville (c. 1540–1607) was an Irish barrister and politician. He was noted for his willingness to oppose the Crown, especially on its taxation policies, and as a result he was imprisoned several times.

He was born in Dowth in County Meath, second son of Luke Netterville, judge of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland) and Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. His father died in 1560. As he was the son and grandson of judges, and as he was a younger son with his livelihood to earn, it was an obvious career choice for Richard to practice at the Irish Bar. He was at the Inns of Court in London in 1561–62, and was one of several Irish law students who compiled a book on the misgovernment of the Pale. He had returned to Ireland by 1564 to practice law.

The cess, a tax levied for the upkeep of the military garrisons of the Pale, was always unpopular with the Anglo-Irish gentry on whom it was levied, and the book to which Richard had contributed when he was a law student in the early 1560s was partly an attack on it. Matters came to a head in 1576 over the plans of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney to reform and extend the cess. Richard was one of three barristers chosen to go to London to protest against the ruinous cost of the plans, the others being Henry Burnell and the former Attorney General for Ireland, Barnaby Skurloke. The mission turned out badly: Elizabeth was angered by the attack on the royal prerogative, and imprisoned them in the Fleet Prison. In Netterville's case, her attitude was probably influenced by Sidney's deep dislike of him. The Lord Deputy wrote to the Queen-

...
Wikipedia