Matthew De Oviedo

De Oviedo, Matthew, Archbishop of Dublin, was born at Segovia, in Spain, and educated at Salamanca. He became a Franciscan friar, and having previously visited Ireland on a political mission, was, by the Pope, in May 1600, created Archbishop of Dublin. He then conferred with O'Neill and O'Donnell, returned to Spain, and landed at Kinsale in 1601, in the suite of Don Juan d'Aguila. He afterwards took an active part in the negotiations between the Irish princes and the Spanish court. While nominally Archbishop of Dublin he continued to acknowledge Philip II. as his sovereign. Upon the discomfiture of D'Aguila's expedition, De Oviedo returned to Spain, and died in obscurity, a court pensioner.

Sources

12. Archbishops of Dublin, Memoirs of: John D'Alton. Dublin, 1838. Archdall, Mervyn, see No. 216.