Hello,
I've found an expression, or better a concept, that I don't understand —or am not sure to grasp properly, at least:

Quote :

        In 1662, Sir William Petty expressed the opinion that even if every last one of the 50,000 Adventurers and soldiers settled in Ireland, military government would still be necessary. “Government [in Ireland] can never be safe without chargeable Armies,” said Petty, “until the major part of the Inhabitants be English.”

What a native English speaker would understand by "chargeable Armies"? Is it paid armies, so that soldiers receive a certain regular amount for their services? Or is it a recruitment army, so that the government charges a quantity to taxpayers in order to build that army?
I am sure you'll be able to answer that easily, as you've always done.

Petty, one of my heroes. Ran away to sea at 13 years of age, blind as a bat, jumped ship in France (or thrown off by his fellow sailors), learnt the language and qualified as a physician there by the age of 19, ended up at age 21 with Cromwell in Ireland as the chief doctor of the invasion force, found he loved the place and wound up settling there, refused to be knighted or receive any state pension while he instead made a living from inventing agricultural machinery, refining husbandry of farm animals and occasionally just doing his own thing - like building a galleon sized catamaran (twice). He also helped found two Royal Societies for the advancement of science, and twice defended his position as president of the Irish one in a duel (remember, he couldn't see without bottle glass spectacles). What a lad.

But I digress. "Chargeable" was, by inference, to the crown and simply meant "trusted by and answerable to". In other words he was saying to the newly restored regime of Charles II who were taking over the enterprise from his one-time employer's old crew not to bother thinking they could trust militia raised from native stock until all the Irish DNA had been watered down sufficiently with English blood. In the meantime, be prepared to pay through the nose for an army there, and be prepared to do so for a very long time indeed if they really wanted to hold onto the place. He was, of course, right.

Thanks a lot nordmann, digression included ; "chargeable" means then "expensive, but controlled (that is, paid) by the English Crown".

This throws a lot of light to my perception of English (and Spanish) history, and I find it really, really interesting.

Thanks a lot for your answers. I just wanted to say no worries to Temperance, all of your unbelievably rich discussion with nordmann and other members are always welcomed. I read through them whenever I can, and find them useful.

I really appreciate your knowledge and detailed accounts —but I can only hear (or read), because it far surpasses me.

All the best,

CM

Anything that is placed squarely within your responsibility is "encharged" to you. You can be charged with a crime, charged with raising a child who then becomes your "charge", or even solely responsible for paying an agreed sum to another for a service or good - so you are "charged" a fee. The central theme is responsibility.

Charles was toying with the idea of using the unholy mess in Ireland that Cromwell had caused with regard to who owned what land anymore to maybe do a "plantation on the cheap", the planters of course also paying to raise militia for their own defence, as in Ulster under James I. Both Petty and the Duke of Ormonde, who would have been landed with the headache, talked him out of it. Either repatriate the lands to their original owners or be prepared to pay for your own army to keep order. This was how you always got through to Charles - mention money and expense, especially his own. He dropped his plan and they went for the First Act of Settlement instead.