FOOTNOTES:
[259] The words ‘durante bene placito’ were changed into the words ‘quamdiu se bene gesserint.’
[260] Hallam’s Const. Hist. ii. 196. Blackstone’s Commentaries iv. 230. Clarendon’s Hist. of the Rebellion iii. 121.
[261] Giustiniano, July 19, reckons them at £250,000.
[262] Speech of the King, July 5. Nalson ii. 327.
[263] Deering, in Nalson ii. 247.
[264] Lister’s Life of Lord Clarendon i. 113.
[265] Journals ii. June 12.
[266] The ten propositions of the Commons, in Nalson ii. 310:—the 3rd head about his Majesty’s counsells.
[267] So Giustiniano declares ‘redurre la monarchia a governo democratico.’ In the Diurnall Occurrences it is only mentioned on the 27th of August: ‘both houses sate till 10 o’clock at night but could not agree upon anything.’
CHAPTER VII.
CHARLES I IN SCOTLAND. THE IRISH REBELLION.
In the middle of August 1641 Charles I reappeared in Scotland after eight years’ absence. What restlessness had since pervaded the country from end to end! how completely altered was the position of the King! In the year 1633 he had begun to establish the monarchical and despotic system which he had in view: in 1641 he was obliged to accept and confirm maxims entirely contrary to it.
He assented to the acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and of the Parliament of 1640: he gave up the bishops in Scotland and submitted without further hesitation to those claims of parliamentary power against which he had striven so long and desperately: he ratified the treaty already concluded by touching it with his sceptre. But all was not yet over. On September 16 a new act was read, by which the nomination to the most important offices in the administration of the state and of justice was made dependent on the approval of Parliament. The King said that he accepted it in order to supply a need which the country might experience through his absence: he would in future let his Privy Council consist of a fixed number of members, never to be exceeded, according to the advice of the Estates: he would lay before them a list of those to whom he thought of confiding the great offices of state, and hoped that it would meet with their approval. ‘At this gracious answer,’ says the old journal, ‘one and all rose and bowed themselves to the ground[268].’
A.D. 1641.
The King’s chief object was to content the Scots, and separate their cause from the English. The events of the last year had convinced him that the connexion of Scottish and English affairs had involved him in all his troubles. The late projects, which were so contrary to his views, especially the attack made by Parliament on the bishops, he ascribed to Scottish influence. He believed that he could manage to resist in England if he could only pacify Scotland, but for this purpose concessions were indispensable. Even those royalists who followed Montrose, and had long sought to ally themselves with him, demanded these as absolutely necessary.
Even by these however his chief opponents were not won. The party in religion and politics which depended on Argyle, and had alone wielded the supreme power, was unwilling to lose it through new appointments, or even to share it with those who had hitherto opposed them: they accepted the King’s concessions, but at every fresh step opposed him again.
The King could appoint neither chancellor nor treasurer to please himself, so long as Argyle opposed him. At first a compromise was effected, by which Loudon, the very man whom Charles had wanted to treat as a traitor on account of his letter to the King of France, was elevated to the chancellorship. The King regarded it as a point of honour to save the men who had been conspicuously true to him from the anathema denounced against them in Scotland: the terms of an oath which Argyle had carried through the Assembly were so conceived that the clergy doubted whether it could possibly be interpreted in the King’s sense. We know the King’s predilection for Hamilton: now came the shock of finding that the friend who had advised most of what he had done against the dominant faction in Scotland himself joined that very party. To save his life Hamilton had allied himself with the Scottish commissioners, who again were dependent on the committee, at the head of which was Argyle: he now openly made common cause with the latter, and in Argyle’s enemies saw his own.
During these party conflicts some very unexpected scenes happened. Hamilton and his brother Lanerick quitted Edinburgh A.D. 1641. one day with Argyle, as their lives were in danger in the neighbourhood of the King, who inclined to their opponents. Thereupon the King, who regarded this mistrust as an insult, betook himself with an unusually numerous train, including all those whom he had taken into his protection, to the Parliament. It almost seemed as if he meant to use force against Argyle’s adherents. The rumour was spread that the fiercest and bitterest enemies of Hamilton, Kerr and Home, and their borderers, had been summoned to attack him. The consequence was that the other party armed also, and eventually gained the upper hand. After a fortnight’s absence Hamilton and Argyle returned, the latter more powerful than ever in Parliament. The second and third estates, the barons and burgesses, did nothing without him. Though here and there a preacher drew to the King’s side, most of them filled their churches with all the louder complaints against the plots which were being formed[269].
Unless Charles I were willing to break with the Parliament he had no choice but to make terms with the men of this party. Argyle was consulted on all weighty matters: in the nomination to offices, his friends, the determined supporters of the covenant, obtained the preference. Instead of the treasurer designated by the King a commission was named on which sat friends of Hamilton and Argyle. Lesley, who belonged to this party, was created Earl of Leven with all the pompous formalities of earlier times, and Argyle was advanced to a marquisate.
Men could not understand the King’s promoting his adversaries and passing over his supporters, and bitter complaints were uttered against him. But it was not his choice: it was necessity arising from the weakness of his friends and himself. These last concessions, like the earlier ones, originated in his plans for England. He obtained a promise from the men whom he promoted, namely, Argyle, Loudon and Lesley, that they would not interfere with religious affairs in England, nor ever help the English therein: they pledged A.D. 1641. him their honour, as he asserted, that they would not[270]. He meant to separate the ambition of the dominant Covenanters from the interests of the parliamentary party in England. For his attention was devoted almost entirely to England, as everything depended on depriving the revolutionary leaders there of the support which they derived from their connexion with the Scots. The sequel must show whether he was not deceiving himself, whether his old enemies now in favour would at a later time keep their word: but the whole question did not depend on this uncertainty. The result of the King’s present dealings was that the Scots attained the independence which had been their object from the beginning, their leaders retained the posts which they had as it were conquered, the influence of the crown was virtually annulled. In comparison to this practical result all the King’s schemes were of minor importance. For in events once accomplished there is a strength, independent of the combinations which produced them, which causes further consequences and reactions.
Through the disturbance of the universal order of things in the British islands, there was awakened a general and full consciousness of the elements of which they were composed, which found vent in movements that mocked at the union to which they had hitherto been subject.
The Irish Rebellion.
The government which Strafford had established in Ireland fell with him, the office of viceroy was entrusted to some of the judges, and shorn of the powers which gave it authority over the whole country. The Irish army, which had been formed with so much difficulty, and maintained in spite of so much opposition, was disbanded without any attention being vouchsafed to the King’s wish that it should be allowed to enter the Spanish service. Martial law, even for cases of rebellion, A.D. 1641. was virtually at an end; the High Commission in Ireland also was declared a general grievance and was abolished. Under the influence of events in England government based on prerogative, and on its connexion with the English hierarchy, as it had existed in Ireland since Elizabeth’s time, fell to the ground.
This revolution however might entail important results. The Irish people was Catholic: while the Protestant settlers were split into two hostile factions, and thereby the highest authority in the land, which bore a really Protestant character, was systematically weakened and almost destroyed, the thought of ridding themselves of it altogether was sure to arise in the nation. The steed, never completely broken in, felt itself suddenly free from the tight rein which hitherto it had unwillingly obeyed.
The contending principles contributed also to bring about this result. For it had been part of Strafford’s system to allow some toleration to the Catholics: they had been by him introduced into the army; he had winked at a crowd of priests from the Spanish and Netherland seminaries entering the country and acquiring an ecclesiastical authority to which the natives willingly submitted. On the other side the national religious constitution which the Scots had attained by their example induced the Irish to attempt the same thing, but in the Catholic sense appropriate to their case. No doubt the old Irish antipathy of the natives against the Saxons was stimulated thereby; how could it be otherwise? Still it was the common object of all Catholics, alike of Anglo-Saxon and of Celtic origin, to restore to the Catholic Church the possession of the goods and houses that had been taken from her, and above all to put an end to the colonies established since James I, in which Puritan tendencies prevailed. The Catholics of the old settlements were as eager for this as the natives.
The idea originated in a couple of chiefs of old Irish extraction, Roger O’More and Lord Macguire, who had been involved in Tyrone’s ruin, but were connected by marriage with several English families. The first man whom O’More won over was Lord Mayo, the most powerful magnate of old A.D. 1641. English descent in Connaught, of the house of De Burgh, of whose ancestors one, a half-brother of William the Conqueror, came over with him to England; another came to Ireland with Henry II[271]. The best military leader in the confederacy, Colonel Plunkett, was a Catholic of old English origin: he had numerous connexions among the Catholics of Leinster, and had preserved through the wars in Flanders the religious enthusiasm which led him thither. Among the natives the most notable personage was Phelim O’Neil, who after having been long in England, and learning Protestantism there, on his return to Ireland went back to the old faith and the old customs: he was reckoned the rightful heir of Tyrone, and possessed unbounded popular influence.
The plan for which the Catholics of both Irish and English extraction now united was a very far-reaching one. It involved making the Catholic religion altogether dominant in Ireland: even of the old nobility none but the Catholics were to be tolerated: all the lands that had been seized for the new settlements were to be given back to the previous possessors or their heirs. In each district a distinguished family was to be answerable for order, and to maintain an armed force for the purpose. They would not revolt from the King, but still would leave him no real share in the government. Two lords justices, both Catholic, one of Irish, the other of old English family, were to be at the head of the government. In the Parliament, which should no longer be in any way subordinate to the English, the clergy also were to have seats and voices. In the negotiations which preceded the rising, the question had already been discussed, what should be done with the Irish Protestants in case of victory. At a meeting of the political and spiritual leaders held on St. Francis’ day in the Franciscan convent at Mullifarvan in Westmeath, this question, as well as the form of the future state, was taken into consideration. The advice of the monks was to drive them out, as Philip III had driven the Moors out of Spain, without staining the land with their blood. Others A.D. 1641. remarked that that prince would have done better to destroy the Moors, since a lasting evil, the strength of the pirate states, had been increased by his clemency: in the same way it would be better to exterminate the Protestants in Ireland than to incur their future hostility—a consideration of disastrous omen. We do not hear how they decided at the moment, but the sequel showed what feelings were supreme in their hearts.
The preparations were made in profound silence: a man could travel across the country without perceiving any stir or uneasiness. But on the appointed day, October 23, the day of St. Ignatius, the insurrection everywhere broke out. In Ulster the O’Neils, under the leadership of Phelim, succeeded in obtaining possession of Charlemount, which commanded one of the most important points on the northern roads. The O’Guires surprised Mountjoy; the O’Hanlons Tanderagh in the county of Armagh, and Newry, where they found arms and powder: in the county of Monaghan all, in Cavan, where the sheriff himself headed the rising, nearly all the fortified posts were seized; here and there the government troops, where they met the insurgents, carried away by their impulses, made common cause with them. The insurrection, however, did not fully attain its object. The chief attack was directed against the castle of Dublin, where they hoped to gain great supplies of arms and military stores; and then, with the co-operation of the inhabitants who sympathised with them, they would have been in a position to defy the attacks of England. This did not seem a hard thing to achieve, for the government, which always liked to do the exact opposite of what Strafford had done, had neglected military matters; it had no troops in the city, and the castle was very insufficiently garrisoned, so that it might apparently have been captured by two hundred men. Perhaps it may be affirmed that the English dominion in Ireland was saved through some natives of Irish origin having been won to Protestantism. The conspirators applied to one of these, Owen Conolly, to gain his accession to their cause. He was an opponent of Strafford, as such had come into contact with the zealous Puritans during a short stay in England, and by A.D. 1641. them had been strengthened in the Protestantism which he had always professed[272]: he abhorred the religious tendency of the Irish rising, and on the evening of the 22nd gave information. The government awoke from perfect security to a sight of their terrible danger: they had still just time to arrest the leaders who were already in the city, and to secure the gates of the castle and city, so that those who came up, seeing that they were discovered, obeyed the order to disperse. Several other places also held out, as Londonderry and Carrickfergus, and afforded places to which the Protestants might fly. But no one can paint the rage and cruelty which was vented, far and wide over the land, upon the unarmed and defenceless. Many thousands perished: their corpses filled the land and served as food for the kites. The elemental forces, which hitherto had been repressed by the strong hand of the government, arose in the wildest licence: religious abhorrence entered into a dreadful league with the fury of national hatred. The motives of the Sicilian Vespers and of the night of St. Bartholomew were united. Sir Phelim, who at once was proclaimed Lord and Master in Ulster, with the title of the native princes, as Tyrone had been, and who in his proclamations assumed the tone of a sovereign, was not at all the man to check these cruelties. Rather cast upwards by a sudden eruption, than raised by his own services and exertions, he added fuel to the flame already kindled: either when drunk, or when for a moment he believed himself in danger, he ordered the massacre of all the prisoners. Or did this happen in consequence of their deliberations? Did they wish to put an end for ever to the claims of the rich settlers by taking their lives? With all this letting loose of ancient barbarism there was still some holding back. The Scottish settlements were spared, although they were the most hated of all, for fear of incurring the hostility of the Scottish as well as of the English nation.
Immediately there was a rising in the five counties of the old English Pale: the gentry of Louth, under the leadership A.D. 1641. of the sheriff, took the side of the rebels. The younger men of Meath assembled on the Boyne, and commenced hostilities against the Protestants: so completely had their religious sympathies prevailed over their patriotism. They told the King that being in the midst between the government which mistrusted them and forbade them arms, and the advancing rebels, threatened on both sides, they had no escape left except by joining the latter[273]. This agrees with their original suggestion that if they sought him he might treat them no worse than the Scots: if he would be gracious to them, they would shed the last drop of their blood for him.
As the Scots had won from the King the recognition of their national and religious independence, so also the Irish aimed at a national and Catholic independence. There is certainly a resemblance, but a far greater difference. In the one it was a controversy which found vent, as it were, prematurely in violent demonstrations and domestic feuds; the other was one of the most cruel insurrections recorded in history.
The King received the first tidings of the Irish rebellion while in Scotland; he immediately informed the Scottish Parliament and begged their aid. The Scots declared themselves ready, but delayed to see what would happen in England. The King, who regarded the cause as his own, in spite of his distressed circumstances contrived out of his own means to send over a small force of 1500 men under experienced commanders: this was the first succour which the Protestants received, and it gave them courage, and contributed greatly to make the strong places that had not surrendered in the mean time hold out to the end. False as it is to accuse Charles I of having himself secretly taken part in this Irish movement, it is undeniable that it was not altogether hostile to him. It was above all a reaction against the form of government derived from the Puritan parliamentary principles in England. The Irish Catholics told the King, that it was because he, in the fulness of his A.D. 1641. princely love, granted them some religious liberty, that the English Parliament, envious of their good fortune, diminished his prerogative: it desired to call the Scots to its assistance, and with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other to extirpate Catholicism in Ireland. It is obvious that Ireland in its native condition could exist very well under a monarchy clothed with extensive prerogatives, but never under a parliamentary government with predominant Puritan sentiments, such as existed and daily grew stronger in the present Parliament.
We turn our attention to England, to those parliamentary discussions long before proposed, and now again resumed, to which the course of things in Scotland, and still more the events in Ireland, furnished a new and powerful impulse.