Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 2 (of 3), 1642-1660

by Richard Bagwell

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Carte’s Ormonde, with the letters in vol. iii. of November 8, 13, 16, 18 and 22, and December 11. Lismore Papers, 2nd series, vol. iv. St. Leger’s letters of November 7, 10, and 28, and December 2 and 17. Bellings says ‘some innocent labourers and husbandmen suffered by martial law for the transgression of others,’ and Carte gives instances. St. Leger’s letters from November 1 to December 11 in Egmont Papers, i. 142-154.

[2] The best account of this episode is Broghill’s letter printed in vol. ii. of Smith’s Hist. of Cork; Bellings.

[3] Bellings, i. 76; St. Leger’s letters of February 26, March 26, and April 18, 1641-2, in Lismore Papers, 2nd Series. Divers Remarkable Occurrences by Thomas Baron, Esq., who lived fifteen years six miles from Bandon and arrived in London July 2. This last contains a curious dirge on Captain Sougane, beginning, ‘O’Finnen McDonnell McFinnen a Cree’ which has these lines:—

Thy general Barry of three pounds a day,
With armed Lord Muskerry did both run away.
We Cork men bewail dee, but yet for dy glory
Tank heaven to have pulled de from purgatory,
For all our priests swear dou art not in hell,
Dear Finnen McDonnell McFinnen farewell.

[4] Lords Justices and Council to Leicester, Confederation and War, ii. 28; Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Briver, ib. 7-22.

[5] A good account in Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway. Clanricarde’s letters, November 14 to January 23, 1641-2, in Carte’s Ormonde, vol. iii., and the lords of the Pale to the Galway gentry, December 29, ib. Clanricarde’s correspondence with the Roscommon gentry is in Contemporary Hist. i. 380.

[6] Deposition of Goldsmith in 1643 in Hickson, i. 375. Other witnesses in 1653, ib. i. 387-399 and ii. 1-7. Henry Bringhurst’s evidence, as being rather favourable to Lord Mayo, has been chiefly followed for the massacre. See also Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway, p. 110, and the letters in Clanricarde’s Memoirs, 1757, pp. 77, 80. The Galway men tried to throw the blame on their Mayo neighbours, for fear of Clanricarde.

[7] Clanricarde to Essex, May 22, 1642; Ormonde to Clanricarde, June 13, in Carte’s Ormonde. Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway, p. 111.

[8] Order in Council, May 28, 1642, in Confederation and War, ii. 45. Earnley’s account, ib. 134; Bellings, i. 85. Carte’s Ormonde, i. 345.

[9] Sir Michael Earnley’s Relation (soon after July 20, 1642) in Confederation and War, ii. 134. Clanricarde’s letters of July 14 and 20, and October 26, in his Memoirs, pp. 190, 197, 281.

[10] Narrative of Maurice Cuffe, printed by T. Crofton Croker, Camden Society, 1841. Joseph Cuffe to H. Jones, November 12, 1658, MS. in Trinity College, 844, No. 37. Burnet says (i. 29) guns partly made of leather were used with effect by the Scots at Newburn.

[11] St. Leger to Ormonde, May 12, 1642, in Carte’s Ormonde, iii. Appx. No. 78. Inchiquin to Cork, November 24, 1642, with the answer, in Bennett’s History of Bandon, chap. vii.

[CHAPTER XXII]
THE WAR TO THE BATTLE OF ROSS, 1642-1643

A Scots army in Ulster.

Major-General Monro.

When Charles received the news of the Irish insurrection, he at once called upon the Scottish Parliament to aid him in suppressing it. They replied that Ireland was dependent on England, that interference on their part would be misunderstood, and that they could only act as auxiliaries to the English people by agreement with them. Early in November the Parliament at Westminster resolved to send 12,000 men from England, and to ask the Scots to send 10,000 more. But Episcopalian jealousy was aroused, and the demand on Scotland was reduced to 1,000. Nothing was done for the moment, but on January 22, by which time some of the English troops had reached Ireland, both Houses agreed to ask for 2,500, and to this the Scots Commissioners in London assented. The King hesitated about giving up Carrickfergus to the Scotch regiments, but the Commissioners hoped that his Majesty, ‘being their native king, would not show less trust in them than their neighbour nation,’ and this appeal was successful. Money and military stores were stipulated for, and it was agreed that if any other troops in Ulster should join the Scots, their general was to command them as well as his own men, and he had also power to enlarge his quarters to make such expeditions as he might think fit. The Scottish estates had before offered 10,000 men, but nothing like that number ever went. A little later the command was given to Leven, who stayed but a short time and did nothing. The expeditionary force remained in the hands of Major-General Robert Monro, who had been employed to keep order at Aberdeen, and did so with no light hand. He set up, says Spalding, ‘ane timber mare, whereupon runagate knaves and runaway soldiers should ride. Uncouth to see sic discipline in Aberdeen, and more painful to the trespasser to suffer.’ Monro will live for ever in the form of Dugald Dalgetty, for whose portrait he was the chief model. Sir James Turner, who contributed some touches to the picture, says his great fault was a tendency to despise his enemy. Monro’s training was that of the Thirty Years’ War, and Turner, who belonged to the same school, thought he carried its lessons too far.[12]

The Scots land April 1642.

Newry retaken.

Sir Phelim O’Neill burns Armagh.

Monro landed at Carrickfergus on April 15 with about 2500 men, Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester retiring with their regiments to Belfast. On the 28th he marched towards Newry, leaving a garrison behind him, and was joined by Conway and the rest, making up his army to near 4000 men. The Irish under Lord Iveagh were posted in a fort at Ennislaughlin near Moira, but were easily dislodged next day, and fled into the Kilwarlin woods. No quarter was given, to which Turner strongly objects. On the third day they marched through Dromore, where only the church was left standing, to Loughbrickland, where there was a garrison in an island. Monro bribed six Highlanders to swim across, and one of these succeeded in bringing away the only boat. The island was then occupied and all the Irish there killed. No attempt was made to defend the town of Newry, but the castle gave some trouble, and Monro was unwilling to assault or burn it, lest the prisoners confined there should suffer. The garrison were allowed to march out without arms on May 3, but over sixty townsmen, including a Cistercian monk and a secular priest, were hanged next day in cold blood. Turner criticises Monro’s conduct, and claims to have saved nearly 150 women whom the soldiers proposed to kill. At least a dozen women were shot or drowned, notwithstanding his interference. The natural result of Monro’s system was to make the Irish desperate, and O’Neill burned Armagh, ‘the cathedral with its steeple and with its bells, organ, and glass windows, and the whole city, with the fine library, with all the learned books of the English on divinity, logic, and philosophy.’ Many lives were also taken by the Irish in revenge for Monro’s severities. After leaving a garrison at Newry the army marched through the Mourne mountains, and from one end of Down to the other. Turner mentions a frightful storm attributed by the superstitious to Irish witches, which if true he considered a good proof that their master was really prince of the air. Some of the soldiers died from sheer cold. On the twelfth day Monro returned to Carrickfergus. A detachment which he had left in the outskirts of Belfast had been attacked during his absence and driven off. A large number of cattle had been taken from the Magennises and Macartans, but the English soldiers everywhere complained that the Scots got most of the plunder.[13]

Sir Frederic Hamilton.

His severities.

Sir W. Cole at Enniskillen.

The Laggan army.

Sir Frederic Hamilton was at Londonderry on October 24. On hearing of the outbreak he rode hard with a dozen mounted servants, who made a great show by blowing trumpets and carrying two lighted matches each. The little party reached Donegal unmolested, succoured the English settlers there, and at Ballyshannon killed some rogues on the road, and reached Manor Hamilton in safety. Connor O’Rourke, sheriff of Leitrim, visited Hamilton on the 31st, but his professions of loyalty did not last long. The arrival of a few stray Scots soldiers, some from Carlisle direct, increased the garrison to fifty men. By December 4 twenty-four prisoners were taken, and to avenge the deaths of Englishmen at Sligo, eight of them were hanged upon a conspicuous gallows. Fifty-six persons, including one woman, died thus by martial law between December 3, 1641, and February 18, 1642-3. Hamilton complained bitterly that he was not supported by Sir William Cole, and their quarrels became the subject of an inquiry by the English Parliament. Cole held Enniskillen throughout, and without much difficulty, while Captain Ffolliott maintained the important post at Ballyshannon. Meanwhile the brothers Sir William and Sir Robert Stewart, who were both professional soldiers, were active from Rathmelton in Donegal to Newtown Stewart in Tyrone. Their levies grew into an army which came to be known as the Laggan forces from a name locally given to the district. Londonderry and Coleraine also held out, and were never taken during the war.[14]

Ormonde wastes Kildare, April, 1642.

George Monck.

Battle of Kilrush, April 15.

Ormonde returned to Dublin in the middle of March, and on April 2 set out again with 3000 foot, 500 horse, and five guns to waste the county of Kildare. Captain Yarner, with two troops, burned ten or twelve villages under the Wicklow mountains, and killed about the same number of armed men. A trumpeter was killed by a shot from Tipper Castle, near Naas, whereupon Coote blew up the house and put all to the sword. Ormonde garrisoned Naas, established a Protestant corporation there, and advanced to Maryborough, whence he sent most of his cavalry by forced marches to relieve Burris in Ossory and Birr, and to return by Portnahinch. The old men, women, and children of about sixty families were brought away safely and settled at Naas. Monck, who now appears for the first time in Ireland, was sent to secure their return passage over the Barrow. Other detachments were sent to relieve Ballinakill, Clogrennan and Carlow, and on the twelfth day Ormonde was back at Athy without any loss except of a few over-ridden horses. Great numbers of cattle were taken, and Coote gave 300 milch cows to the fugitives at Naas on condition of selling milk to the troops at a halfpenny a quart and making butter and cheese, and bread, he supplying corn at ten shillings the Winchester barrel. Ormonde found that the enemy had concentrated in the meantime at the ford of Mageney on the Barrow with a view to intercept him on his return. Mountgarret and Roger O’More were both present, as well as Hugh MacPhelim O’Byrne, who was retreating from Drogheda to the Wicklow mountains, and they had more than 6000 men, but badly armed and with very little powder. Ormonde left Athy early in the morning of April 15, his force being considerably reduced by the garrisons left behind. The Irish were soon visible to the eastward trying to reach the pass at Ballyshannon before him. As they had no baggage they would probably have got there first, but Ormonde was superior in horse, and he sent on all that he had under Sir Thomas Lucas. The Irish finding themselves forestalled, had to fight in a less advantageous position at Kilrush. They had no real head, and the Munster and Leinster men disputed about the division of the spoil before the battle was won. The English cavalry had it all their own way, Coote charging like a man of thirty. He lost his cap, ‘but bare-headed scoured about the field, crying “Kill! kill!” and with his hand gave the example, while my Lord of Ormonde secured the cannon and victory with some divisions of foot, and beat their van into a speedy retreat.’ There was very little fighting, the Irish soon taking refuge in a bog near at hand. The number of killed on their side is uncertain, but it included some persons of rank, and the army simply ceased to exist. O’More and his brother fled to their home at Ballina near the Boyne, Mountgarret and others to Tullow, and the O’Byrnes to their Wicklow mountains. Ormonde lost some twenty men. That night he slept at Castlehaven’s house at Maddenstown, where Antrim and the Duchess of Buckingham were staying, and Coote ‘to pleasure the lady,’ fired a salute of artillery and musketry. According to an Irish writer Sir Charles boasted of the day’s victory. The men were silent, but the Duchess upbraided him as being less loyal than the Irish, and as ‘a poor mechanical fellow, raised by blind fortune, as informer and promoter against all that is just and godly, being chief instrument of the shedding of many innocent blood [sic], and of the commencement of the new distempers.’ Coote, who was of a good old family, had served three sovereigns faithfully both in peace and war, and fell three weeks later fighting bravely against enormous odds.[15]

The Irish Parliament purged.

Beginning of the Catholic Confederation.

The oath of association.

On June 22 that part of the House of Commons in Dublin which accepted the oath of supremacy expelled forty-one ‘rotten and unprofitable members’ who were either in open rebellion or indicted of high treason. Of these Richard Bellings, who sat for Callan, was the most important. Among the others were Rory Maguire the northern leader, Sir Valentine Blake of Galway, who was Clanricarde’s friend, and Sir James Dillon. In the meantime what claimed to be a new legislature was being gradually formed. On May 10, 11, 13, and 14 a congregation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy sat at Kilkenny. There were present three archbishops, six bishops and the procurators of four more, with several abbots and other dignitaries; and the plan of the proposed confederation was sketched out. The prelates declared that the war had been justly undertaken for religion and for the King, against sectaries and especially against Puritans. Any province, county, or city making separate terms with the enemy was to be held excommunicate. A number of lords and gentlemen joined the prelates, and out of their joint deliberations grew the Supreme Council in its first shape—two members out of each province with Mountgarret as president. An oath of association was framed binding the confederates to obey the council and to do nothing without their consent. The main object was the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion ‘in as full and ample a manner as the Roman Catholic secular clergy had or enjoyed the same within this realm at any time during the reign of Henry VII.’ Significantly, the regular clergy are not mentioned at all. The secular clergy were to enjoy all temporalities ‘in as large and ample a manner as the late Protestant clergy respectively enjoyed the same on October 1, 1641.’ All laws to the contrary made since 20 Henry VIII. were void. Before a more regular assembly could meet Preston had landed in the south and O’Neill in the north, and their arrival gave events a new turn.[16]

Owen Roe O’Neill.

O’Neill lands in Ulster, July 1642.

Owen Roe O’Neill was son of Art MacBaron, the great Tyrone’s brother, whence he was often called Owen MacArt. In the Spanish service he was known as Don Eugenio O’Neill. He was a captain in Flanders in Henry O’Neill’s Irish regiment as early as 1607, and colonel of the regiment about 1633. With the rank of maître de camp he commanded the garrison of Arras during the siege in 1640, and marched out with the honours of war on August 9. For some time before the outbreak he had been in frequent communication with the Irish leaders, but perhaps without any well-formed intention of going over himself. When he heard that the plot to seize Dublin had been discovered ‘he was in a great rage against O’Connolly, and said he wondered how or where that villain should live, for if he were in Ireland, sure they would pull him in pieces there; and if he lived in England there were footmen and other Irishmen enough to kill him.’ It was less than eight years since another Irish colonel, Walter Butler, had murdered Wallenstein. O’Neill then asked his general Francis de Mello to let him go to Ireland, and the Spaniard answered that he should go and be well supplied for the enterprise if he could find a safe landing-place in his own country. It was, however, given out that he was in disgrace with the Spanish authorities, and years afterwards, when Hyde was at Madrid, Don Luis de Haro kept up the mystification and spoke of him as a deserter from his sovereign’s service. Where Spain was concerned there were always long delays, and the summer of 1642 was well advanced before O’Neill announced to Luke Wadding that he was about to start. Everything, he said, was going on well in Ireland, but there was sad want of powder. If the Pope knew, he said, how fatal that powder would be to heresy and heretics he would make haste to procure a plentiful supply. O’Neill sailed from Dunkirk round Scotland, and landed in Lough Swilly about the last day of July. He captured two prizes at sea and detached a small vessel to Wexford with arms, which arrived safely. O’Neill brought to Ulster ‘ammunition, arms and a few low-country officers and soldiers of his own regiment,’ and he sent his ships back to Flanders for more. Sir Phelim sent 1500 men to join his kinsman, who went round by Ballyshannon to Charlemont, where he arrived without having met an enemy.[17]

Preston lands at Wexford, August 1642.

His rivalry with O’Neill.

Attitude of Richelieu.

Thomas Preston, a son of the fourth Viscount Gormanston, was fifty-six years old when the Irish rebellion broke out. He was a captain in the same regiment as Owen Roe O’Neill in 1607, but was never on good terms with him. They were rivals in recruiting during the reign of Strafford, who favoured the man of English descent as far as he could. In 1635 Preston distinguished himself in the defence of Louvain against the combined forces of France and Holland, and in 1641 in the defence of Genappe against Frederick Henry of Orange. In 1642 his nephew, Lord Gormanston, urged him to return to Ireland. In March of that year Mountgarret sent Geoffrey Barron, Wadding’s nephew, to Paris, and in July he met Preston there. Richelieu, who had not forgotten Rochelle, did not declare himself openly, but he discharged all the Irish soldiers in the French service, allowed war material to be purchased in France, and let it be understood that help would be forthcoming to the extent of a million of crowns. Preston sailed from Dunkirk, accompanied by several officers, and arrived in Wexford harbour at the beginning of August. Here he was joined by at least a dozen vessels laden with war material from St. Malo, Nantes, and Rochelle. He reconnoitred Duncannon fort, which he thought could be taken in fifteen days, and then went to Kilkenny, where the confederates were still assembled. Public opinion quickly designated him as the fittest person to have military command in Leinster, and Mountgarret, who was no soldier, was very willing to yield the place to him.[18]

Limerick Castle taken, June 1642.

Death of St. Leger. Inchiquin vice-president, June 1642.

Battle of Liscarrol, Sept. 1642.

The army which Inchiquin had driven from before Cork came together again at Limerick, and St. Leger had no force to molest it there. After standing neutral for a time the city had joined the confederates, but the castle was held by Captain George Courtenay with sixty men and very little powder. Supplies were ordered by Parliament, but did not reach the garrison. The Irish stretched a boom across the river, which prevented any relief by water, and ran mines under the works, while the garrison were harassed by a continual fire from the walls of the cathedral. Courtenay capitulated on June 21, and Barry and Muskerry went south again with three pieces of cannon taken in the castle. Among these was a thirty-two pounder weighing about three tons, which was laid in the scooped-out trunk of a tree and dragged up hills and through bogs by twenty-five yoke of oxen. The whole county of Limerick was soon in Irish hands. St. Leger died on July 2, and the sole command then devolved on Inchiquin. His position as vice-president was confirmed by the Lords Justices, who associated Lord Barrymore with him for the civil government, but the latter died at Michaelmas. Patrick Purcell, acting as major-general under Barry, took up a strong position at Newtown near Charleville, but was beaten out of it by Inchiquin with very inferior numbers. This check caused a long delay, but at last Barry advanced with six thousand foot and five hundred horse and sat down on August 20 before the strong castle of Liscarrol. Here he was joined by Lord Dungarvan, who had just taken Ardmore Castle and hanged 117 men, leaving the women and children at liberty. A garrison of thirty men could do little against the fire of heavy guns, and Liscarrol surrendered on September 2. On the 3rd, Cromwell’s lucky day, Inchiquin advanced, as he supposed, to their relief. His force of 3000 foot and 400 horse was about half of Barry’s, but much better armed and disciplined. The Irish, having a good position under the walls of the castle, were at first successful against the charge of a small division of horse consisting of Cork and Bandon men, without even helmets; but Lord Cork’s son Kinalmeaky, ‘who was clothed with armour of proof’ was shot dead. Though one else fell, his followers were driven back in confusion and the battle seemed lost, but the foot stood firm, and Inchiquin, coming up with some more regular cavalry, succeeded in rallying the fugitives. He killed Oliver Stephenson, the Irish cavalry leader, with his own hand, and had himself more than one narrow escape, being wounded in the head and hand. The Irish were routed and ‘recovered Sir William Pore’s bog near Kilbolaine,’ where they were out of reach. Inchiquin only lost some twelve men killed, and Barry is said to have lost seven hundred, but the victory was not of much use, for there were neither money nor provisions to follow it up. Liscarroll Castle was reoccupied, and three pieces of cannon brought from Limerick were taken. Inchiquin then fell back to Mallow, and dispersed his men in garrisons, while the Irish went to their several homes.[19]

The Scots in Ulster, June 1642

Kinard burned.

Charlemont retained by the Irish.

There was perpetual fighting in Ulster during the summer of 1642. Monro marched on June 17, with about 2000 men, from Carrickfergus to Lisburn, where he was joined by Lord Montgomery and others with some 1100 foot and four troops of horse. Lord Conway brought his regiment and five troops of horse. Next morning the Scots general, with his own foot and nearly all the horse, marched through the plain to Dromore, while Montgomery cleared the woods of Killultagh, most of the Irish flying across the Bann with their cattle and ‘burning the country all along.’ The fighting was not severe, and the two divisions coalesced somewhere near Banbridge. Monro, being short of provisions, decided not to follow the enemy into Tyrone, and went off with some troops of cavalry towards the Mourne mountains, leaving the other leaders to do the best they could. Three hundred cows were captured, and the bulk of the army came to Kinard. A priest was also taken, ‘Chanter of Armagh and a prime councillor to Sir Phelim O’Neill, who was since hanged, but would not confess or discover anything.’ The chief had gone to Charlemont, and his men ran away who ‘for haste did not kill any prisoners,’ so his house was burned, which was ‘built of free stone and strong enough to have kept out all the force we could make.’ Two hundred miserable captives were released, in rags and with faces like ghosts. The plunder was considerable, including Sir Phelim’s plate, which was on carts ready to carry off. News was heard of Lady Caulfield, who was ‘kept at a stone house near Braintree woods,’ and here Captain Rawdon found her with her children, just in time to prevent the rebels from taking her off into the forest. Rawdon was not so successful in the case of Lady Blaney, who had been carried away into the wilds of Monaghan the night before he came on the scene. As he rode through Kinard the second time there was ‘nothing left quick but angry dogs and embers.’ Charlemont had been strengthened with some skill, and there was no possibility of taking it without guns, though Sir Phelim was nearly captured trying to go there, and had to fly into Tyrone. Dungannon was afterwards taken and garrisoned, with the usual hangings, Sir William Brownlow and other prisoners there having overcome the rebel guard ‘with the help of some Irish that had formerly had relation to them.’ Two brass guns were taken, but they were not heavy enough to make the difference at Charlemont, and on the eighth and ninth days the army returned from Armagh through Loughbrickland to Lisburn. A great many cattle had been taken, and all not eaten or stolen were divided among the men, one to every four foot soldiers and to every two troopers.[20]

Desultory character of the war.

On June 25 Clotworthy left Antrim with 600 men in twelve boats built for the service on Lough Neagh. On the flat Tyrone shore little resistance was made, and Mountjoy was taken with no loss. Here he entrenched himself strongly, and ‘notwithstanding the next was the Lord’s day’ spent it in building huts for his men. Before leaving it to be maintained by a garrison of 250 men he scoured the woods as well as he could, and lost very few men, though the pressure of hunger was severe, for he could not catch cows without cavalry, and there were 500 rescued British prisoners of both sexes and every age to feed along with the soldiers. The want of horse was partly supplied by making 200 men strip to their shirts for lightness, and they did not object, thinking it mean to wear armour against men that had none. Generally speaking the Irish would not stand against them, but they seemed to have ammunition enough, which was said to come from Limerick. One hundred cows were taken near Moneymore, after which the soldiers fared better, but there was much sickness from want of proper food, and from having to sleep on the ground.[21]

A general assembly meets, Oct. 1642.

The name of Parliament avoided.

The Catholic Church first.

The King second.

The Supreme Council.

Four generals appointed.

The provisional supreme council, which had been formed at Kilkenny in the early summer, did what they could to give their organisation something of a legal shape. ‘Letters,’ says Bellings, ‘in nature of writs were sent from this council to all the Lords spiritual and temporal, and all the counties, cities, and corporate towns that had right to send knights and burgesses to Parliament.’ The general assembly so constituted met on October 24, a year and a day after the first outbreak in Ulster, at the house of Robert Shee, heir to Sir Richard Shee. The Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons sat in one room, Mr. Pat Darcy bareheaded upon a stool representing all or some that sat in Parliament upon the woolsack. Mr. Nicholas Plunket represented the Speaker of the Commons, and both Lords and Commons addressed their speech to him. The Lords had an upper room for a recess for private consultation, and upon resolutions taken the same were delivered to the Commons by Mr. Darcy. The name of Parliament was eschewed, and Plunket was called prolocutor or president, and not speaker. Burgesses were to be paid five shillings a day, and knights of the shire ten shillings during the session, and for ten days before and after. The first act of the assembly was to establish the Roman Catholic Church as it had been in the time of Henry VII., and the statute law was to be observed so far as it was ‘not against the Catholic Roman religion.’ Allegiance to King Charles came second. For the protection of the King’s subjects against murders, rapes and robberies ‘contrived and daily executed by the malignant party, and for the exaltation of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the advancement of his Majesty’s service,’ a Supreme Council was appointed, with both executive and judicial authority; control over all officers, even generals, in the field; and power to hear and determine all matters capital, criminal or civil, ‘except the right or title of land.’ Owen Roe O’Neill was appointed general for Ulster, Preston for Leinster, and Colonel Gerald Barry for Munster. For Connaught, Colonel John Bourke was named lieutenant-general only, in the hope that Clanricarde would be induced to join. There were some bickerings between Owen Roe and Sir Phelim, who had just married Preston’s daughter, and who wished to be in command of his own province, and between Rory O’More and other Leinster gentlemen, but they were smoothed over for the time. All the generals had seen service on the Continent.[22]

Constitution of the Supreme Council.

Provincial Councils.

The Supreme Council consisted of twenty-four persons, four taken from each province. Of these only four, an O’Neill and a Magennis from Ulster, an O’Brien from Munster and Lord Mayo, were not sworn in at the time. Lord Mountgarret was appointed president, Bellings secretary, and Richard Shee clerk. Of the whole twenty-four four were peers and five bishops. Provincial and county councils were also constituted, but they had no real existence, or a very shadowy one. That for Leinster was appointed, but was overshadowed by the Supreme Council, and events soon showed that military force and not new-fangled civil departments was the determining quantity during the revolutionary period.

Protestants and neutrals to lose their estates.

Church property to be transferred.

The assembly decreed that lands taken from their owners since October 1, 1641, should be restored on pain of the new possessor being treated as an enemy; provided that if the old owner ‘be declared a neuter or enemy by the supreme or provincial,’ then the land should be surrendered not to him, but to the council, ‘to be disposed of towards the maintenance of the general cause.’ The war was a religious one, and thus the lands of all who were not prepared to espouse the Roman Catholic cause were to be forfeited, or at the least sequestered. English, Welsh and Scotch Roman Catholics were to be treated as well as natives of Ireland. All Church temporalities were at one stroke transferred from Protestants to Roman Catholics. It must have been from the first evident to all cool observers that no accommodation on these terms could ever be made with any settled English Government. After sitting for about a month the assembly adjourned till May 20 next. They had ordered 4000l. worth coin to be struck, and 5820 men to be raised as the Leinster contingent. The Kilkenny government never had any real authority, except in the south-east of Ireland.[23]

The royal authority slighted.

Flags.

Coinage.

Indulgences and excommunications.

Free trade.

The Supreme Council assumed sovereign power, the King figuring largely in negotiations with Ormonde, but seldom appearing in documents intended for home consumption. Flags were devised with various religious emblems and mottoes; but in each case there was an Irish cross on a green field, ‘Vivat Rex Carolus’ below, and C R with a crown imperial above. Francis Oliver, a Fleming, was appointed vice-admiral, and letters of marque to prey upon ‘enemies of the general Catholic cause’ were freely granted. Half-crowns and shillings and copper money were struck with Charles I. on one side and St. Patrick on the other, but this was not done without much opposition, for the coinage was unnecessary, and was an evident encroachment upon the Crown. Agents were accredited to the Emperor, the King of France, the Pope, the Duke of Bavaria, the Viceroy in Belgium, and the Governor of Biscay. The Franciscan Luke Wadding, a native of Waterford, was agent at Rome, and as this was emphatically the Pope’s war, the instructions to him are of special interest. The first thing asked for was a supply of indulgences for the confederates and of excommunications for all opponents and neutrals. The Pope was requested to send letters in their favour to the Queen of England, to the Catholic princes of Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Poland, and Bavaria, to Genoa, and to the Catholics of Holland. Wadding was directed to impress upon his Holiness that the Catholic cause in Protestant countries would be much advanced by the success of the confederates. Free trade with France, Spain, and Holland was solicited through the Pope’s mediation. In general he was to be asked to give the council power over ecclesiastical patronage, and not to admit appeals during the war. In particular Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath, had been suspended by the provincial synod of Armagh for refusing to approve of the war, and his appeal was to be rejected without trial. The Supreme Council thus engrossed to themselves all the chief prerogatives of the Crown which they professed to defend.[24]

Preston’s first action, Dec. 1642.

Preston’s first service in the field did not augur well for his success as a general. Ormonde was anxious to relieve the garrison of Ballinakill on the borders of Queen’s County and Kilkenny, and in December he sent Monck with a convoy and enough men to guard it. This service was duly performed, but Preston and Castlehaven, with a thousand foot and three troops of horse, attempted to cut him off on his return to Dublin. Monck passed by Timahoe, where there was a confederate garrison, who lined the hedges by the roadside; but hearing that he was pursued, he avoided the snare by drawing aside to some level ground backed by a hill, where he placed his foot to serve as support in case the horse were worsted. The contrary happened, and after the first charge the whole of Preston’s force was driven under the shelter of Timahoe. The numbers engaged on each side were about equal, but a crowd of spectators on a distant hill were mistaken for reinforcements, and Monck prudently continued his journey to Dublin. Castlehaven thought most of the Irish foot would have been destroyed had the enemy pursued their advantage.[25]

Parliamentary agents in Dublin.

Lisle and Grenville.

‘The check at Timahoe,’ says Castlehaven, ‘made us pretty quiet till towards the spring following,’ when the Lords Justices resolved upon an expedition into Wexford. The sympathies of Parsons, who was the ruling spirit, were certainly with the Parliament, but the event was uncertain, and even after Edgehill it was hard to say whether the King would succeed or not. Since the end of October there had been a committee from the Parliament in Dublin consisting of Robert Reynolds and Robert Goodwin, members of the House of Commons, and of Captain William Tucker, agent for the English adventurers in Irish land. Part of their business was to induce soldiers to take debentures in lieu of pay. By the advice of the Chancellor Bolton these three were admitted to sit at the Council board. Tucker kept a journal of the proceedings, and it is clear that he was not much impressed by the wisdom of the Irish Government. The sittings were generally occupied in mere talk, and very little was done in the field. Thus, when Sir Francis Willoughby took Maynooth Castle Tucker reports that the rebels ran away after one day’s siege, that four or five men were killed on each side, and ‘no service done at all, but only expectation and the gain of one ass.’ In the middle of January Lord Lisle, the Lord Lieutenant’s son, proposed to relieve the empty treasury by leading out fifteen hundred men to live upon the enemy’s country. Lisle was general of the horse, and Sir Richard Grenville major of Leicester’s own regiment, and it was intended that these two officers should command in the field. Grenville, according to Clarendon, was noted for his cruelty, but he had served with credit at Kilrush, and he was major of Leicester’s regiment of horse. In January came a commission from the King giving power to Ormonde, Clanricarde, and others to treat with the Irish, and the Lords Justices supposed that the field would thus be left clear for Lisle.[26]

Ormonde takes the field, March, 1642-3.

When the King’s letter was read at the Council board Ormonde, according to his chaplain’s account, said he had no wish to be a commissioner to hear Irish grievances, ‘for I know that nothing grieves them more than that they could not cut all our throats,’ but that as general he would command in the field. His right could not be denied, and he had lately endeared himself to both officers and soldiers by his exertions to obtain their pay and other advantages for them. But the Lords Justices and the parliamentary commissioners, who had advanced money for Lord Lisle, were not at all pleased. Tucker, indeed, held that the money could not be decently denied to Ormonde, but his career and that of his colleagues in Ireland was cut short before the campaign actually began. In the middle of February came a letter from the King directing that the committee should no longer be admitted to the Council-chamber, and fearing arrest they returned to England before the end of the month. On March 1 Ormonde set out with 2500 foot and 800 horse, and with two siege-guns and four field-pieces.[27]

Bloody affair at Timolin.

New Ross besieged.

Battle of Ross, March 18, 1642-3.

Effective artillery.

Defeat of Preston.

At Timolin, which was reached on the third day, the Irish defended the castle and an old church. One culverin reduced the former, and all the men were killed before night. The besiegers had about thirty killed and wounded in a premature attempt to storm, Lieutenant Oliver, the only engineer in the army, being among the slain. The church tower held out till next day, but the whole garrison, except one man, were killed by shot or falling stones. The garrisons of Carlow and Athy were strong enough to prevent Preston from being reinforced by the Wicklow insurgents, but the latter had some prisoners whom they proposed to exchange with the survivors of Timolin. ‘There be not many of them alive now,’ said Monck, ‘and what there is take you with you.’ According to Bellings, who is generally fair, part of the garrison were slaughtered by the soldiers of Lisle’s regiment after quarter had been given by Ormonde. On the seventh day from Dublin the army passed, without further fighting, through Clohamon in Wexford, where a fair was being held, and some cattle were swept off by the soldiers. On the tenth day New Ross was reached, ‘where,’ says Ormonde’s chaplain, ‘we saw flags set up on the walls and the inhabitants making ready for a siege.’ Women and children were sent over the Barrow into Kilkenny, and men were introduced in their places, so that the number of the garrison soon equalled that of the besieging army. One culverin was turned upon the south gate near the river, and a breach was soon made, but the defenders dug a great trench inside, and attempts to storm were frustrated. Another culverin was in position at the north end of the town, but the shot failed to reach those who were maintaining the breach, and Ormonde’s soldiers suffered sorely from rain as well as from musket balls, and no doubt envied the enemy, for they could see the women plying them constantly with drink. Meanwhile there were two English vessels of 120 and 60 tons, with eight guns between them, lying in the tideway below the town. They could neither escape nor get near enough to do much service, and when artillery was brought to bear they were scuttled and abandoned. The victuals and ammunition sank or were captured by the enemy, but the sailors joined Ormonde and did excellent work afterwards as gunners. The supply of provisions was very limited, and at the approach of Preston’s army the siege was practically raised. Six hundred men under Sir James Dillon came from Westmeath as far as Ballyragget in Kilkenny, but few or none of them ever joined Preston, having been attacked by the garrison of Ballinakill on St. Patrick’s night. ‘They being very merry for honour of their saint, and for that they expected a great victory the next day, and being full of drink,’ were cut to pieces or dispersed, and all their arms taken. On the morning of March 18 Ormonde’s army were encamped on a heathy hill half a mile to the eastward of Old Ross, but before ten o’clock they had taken up a position some three miles to the north-west and a little short of a village called Ballinafeeg. Mr. Brian Kavanagh voluntarily gave his services as a guide. The deep glen of Poulmonty lay a little further on. Preston with 5000 foot and 600 horse had passed the Barrow at Graiguenemanagh, and now advanced across the glen to attack Ormonde. Cullen and others tried to dissuade him from fighting, pointing out that the English army was short of provisions and must needs retire through a very difficult country to Carlow, and that there would be many opportunities of attacking it at great advantage. Ormonde had six guns with him, which he placed on a rising ground behind his main body. The opposing armies did not come to close quarters until after two o’clock in the afternoon. Preston’s men came up by a narrow lane, and on their serried masses every shot told. The guns were admirably served by eleven of the sailors whose ships had been destroyed, and who fired six rounds from each piece, right over the heads of their friends. As the Irish horse came out into the open Ormonde ordered his own cavalry under Lisle and Grenville to advance, fire one round, and then fall back. This movement was punctually executed, but some of the Irish horse mingled with them as they retired, a panic followed, and they galloped off to the rear. Lisle called out ‘Ten pounds, twenty pounds for a guide to Duncannon,’ and an old apothecary, named Silyard, who was attached to the army, and who was in his proper place among the baggage-waggons, reproached him for running away, and a veteran officer named Morris, who lay wounded in a litter, offered to rally the men if Lisle would lend him a horse. Then Sir Richard Grenville clapped my Lord Lisle on the shoulder: ‘Come, my lord,’ said he, ‘we will yet recover it.’ ‘Never while you live,’ said Mr. Silyard, and to his friends that stood by “I mean his credit,” said Mr. Silyard.’ Cullen got up to the guns, on one of which he laid his hand saying, ‘This is mine,’ but he was soon surrounded by infantry and taken prisoner, his life being saved by Ormonde’s personal exertions. The rout of Preston’s army was completed by the return of Lisle and his cavalry. ‘A man might see them,’ says the chaplain, ‘through the smoke of the gunpowder run twinkling like the motes in the sun.’ The pursuit was continued until darkness came on, with great loss to the defeated army, who escaped into Kilkenny by the way which they came. Ormonde, who spent the night on the ground, lost only about a dozen men.[28]

Ormonde returns to Dublin.

Preston takes Ballinakill, May 1643.

Ormonde encamped on the second night at Graiguenemanagh, and on the third at Burris, where his artillery oxen were stolen by ‘two lusty young clowns’ of the Kavanaghs. Fresh beasts were obtained from Carlow, and Dublin was reached on the 27th, without further fighting. Lord Moore, hearing that the Irish had gathered from all sides, and expecting to catch Ormonde in a trap, took advantage of the defenceless state of Cavan and drove off much cattle without resistance. A great part of Preston’s army dispersed every man to his own village, but Sir James Dillon, who had not taken part in the battle, joined him with a strong unbroken regiment, and he made some pretence of pursuing Ormonde in order to lessen the popular disgust at his defeat. What he really did was to besiege Ballinakill, where Sir Thomas Ridgeway had planted an English colony, and established ironworks. There being thus no want of hands, Ridgeway’s castle had been strengthened and his fishponds utilised for filling wet ditches. The Protestant farmers on the estate had driven in their cattle, and there was food enough for all. Preston lay for about seven weeks before this place, where he lost 100 men, and he could not have taken it but for the arrival of two twenty-four pounders and a mortar from Spain. A shell fell on the roof and penetrated the floors below, while ‘the women within very fearful, as not accustomed to such pastimes, cried out with every shot, to the exceeding comfort of the assailants, and mighty disgust of the defendants.’ The contest had been carried on with great bitterness, the garrison throwing the heads of their prisoners over the works, while the besiegers stuck the heads of theirs upon poles within sight of the wall. The place became untenable after the arrival of the battering train, and capitulated on May 5, but Preston was glad to give fair terms, and Castlehaven escorted all the English safely to the neighbourhood of Dublin.[29]

Clanricarde on the situation.

First proposal to send a nuncio.

The Pope would be welcome.

There were cool-headed Irish Catholics at home and abroad who saw the essential weakness of the Confederates’ position. Clanricarde was Walsingham’s grandson. Alone among men of his creed he held the King’s commission, and knew the real interests of the Crown, as well as the impossibility of separating Ireland from England. Among the insurgents were many who had been ‘instruments of foul and horrid acts; there being yet some who do boast and glory in those inhumanities. And if God’s judgment and wrath be not first appeased, it is much to be feared there will be a long expectation of a more settled time.’ The Jesuit O’Hartegan, in daily communication with his countrymen and with the nuncio at Paris, had none of Clanricarde’s scruples, but he had misgivings of his own. The hatred of the heretics would stop at nothing, and the faithful had gone too far to retreat. Men and money were available, but there was no head, no order or discipline; ‘one of our birth-attributes is never to submit ourselves willingly to any of our own nation, to live as companions or equals, and think ourselves as worthy of any command and of superiority as each other of our compatriots.’ Foreigners were always thought much of, even when there were better men at home; and it was necessary to send a stranger to take charge. He should be ‘of long experience, of good learning, and charitably affected for compassionating our infirmities, and it is unquestionable these conditions do concur in an Italian best of all nations.’ Ireland could support 100,000 men, but a head was necessary. To support this army O’Hartegan proposed to seize all Crown revenues and rights; all goods of English, Scotch and Dutch heretics; all goods of Irish heretics such as Ormonde, Kildare, Thomond, Barrymore and Inchiquin; and of Catholic neutrals like Clanricarde and Antrim; all Church lands and all lands confiscated from natives, including the Desmonds. In such a cause, too, the people would readily pay heavy taxes and submit to monopolies. In the absence of a supreme head every commander and nobleman would cut and carve for himself, ‘and every mere Irish pretend his ancestors were illegally dispossessed.’ A nuncio of the highest rank, even the Pope himself, could be made comfortable at Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, or Limerick.’[30]