An Irish bishop in penal times

This book is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the life of an Irish Franciscan friar and bishop of the early eighteenth century. Against a background of periodic repression of catholics by the authorities, Sylvester Lloyd emerges as a kind of Pimpernel figure, gravely in cahoots with the Jacobite plotters on the Continent and plying them continually with intelligence reports on the current scene as he flits between Ireland, Britain and the Continent.

Lloyd's letters and reports, culled from the Stuart Papers at Windsor Castle, present us with new insights into events over the quarter of a century from 1723 to 1747 and serve to illumine a period of Irish history which hitherto has been neglected by historians.