On this day in 1794, William Bulkeley from Clonmel, who served the Royalist cause during the French Revolution, was sentenced to death by the revolutionary government during the 'Reign of Terror' and guillotined the same day.
William Bulkeley was born in Clonmel on 7 December 1768. He joined Walsh’s Regiment of the Irish Brigade of the French Royal Army in 1785 when he was 19. His uncle Richard Butler had been a colonel of that corps. By 1790, he was a lieutenant and married to Celeste-Marie de la Cartrie, a wealthy widow. However, soon after the Revolution broke out, he resigned from the army and retired to his wife’s chateau at La Roche-sur-Yon in western France.
By the spring of 1793, a pro-Royalist and Catholic insurrection broke out in the province of La Vendee, where La Roche-sur-Yon was situated. Bulkeley joined this counter revolution and was appointed Commandant of his own district.
However, by the end of the year the royalists were defeated and Bulkeley and his wife, who fought at his side, were captured. They were sentenced to death by the Angers military tribunal and William Bulkeley was guillotined on 2 January 1794. Madame Bulkeley’s execution was postponed as she was pregnant. She would later be released.
Describing the execution of Bulkeley in a letter to the Mayor of Paris, the Mayor of Angers said Bulkeley “was a man of splendid physique of six feet whose head was too large [for the guillotine]; it is now in the sack.” Dr. Richard Hayes, historian and T.D said of Bulkeley: ‘while of gentle disposition, he was a gallant soldier.’
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France, Part II, Dr. Richard Hayes, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 31, No. 122 (Jun., 1942), p.237.
Franz Liszt, considered to be one of the most influential composers of his era, performed at Hearn’s Hotel, Clonmel on this day in 1841.
The concert was to form part of Liszt’s 1840/1 tour of Ireland and Britain. However, upon arriving in Clonmel from Cork on bad roads through a cold night, he discovered that that no tickets had been sold and the concert had been forgotten altogether.
The pianist insisted, though, that the entire programme be given in his hotel sitting room. An audience of only 25 was gathered and they heard the small upright piano rattle and shake under the weight of his forceful playing.
John Orlando Parry, a composer and member of Liszt's party,wrote in his diary “’Twas like a private matinee." Of the frail piano, Parry wrote that it was "funny to see Liszt firing away . . . on this little instrument, but it stood his powerful hand capitally".
According to Britanica.com, Liszt was ‘not only the greatest piano virtuoso of his time but also a composer of enormous originality and a principal figure in the Romantic movement. As a composer he radically extended the technique of piano writing, giving the instrument not only brilliance but a full and rich, almost orchestral sound’.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Liszt/Legacy
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.190784
