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

by Richard Bagwell

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels, &c., Scobell, i. 26. The royal consent was given March 19, 1641-2.

[32] Arthur Freke’s Narrative, printed from the Sloane MSS. in the Journal of the Cork Historical Society, 2nd series, i. 1; True Relation of God’s Providence in Ireland, by Hugh Peters, November 18, 1642; Day’s edition of Smith’s Cork, ii. 153, 1894; Exceeding Good and True News from Ireland, London, August 20, and Exceeding Joyful News, August 27.

[33] Hugh Peters and Smith’s Cork, ut sup.; Clanricarde’s Memoirs, August 1642, pp. 203-215.

[34] Clanricarde’s Memoirs, August and September, 1642; Bellings, i. 139-148; Hugh Peters, ut sup.

[35] Hugh Peters, ut sup. The narrative was ordered to be printed by a committee of the House of Commons immediately after Forbes’s return. Two letters from Forbes to the two Houses, dated Glin, September 27 and 28, were brought over by Peters and published October 11. He says the Irish were ‘so impudently bold as to father their rebellion upon his sacred Majesty,’ though they had never seen any warrant. Their ‘priests and prime commanders’ tried to make them fight desperately by saying there was no hope of pardon.

[36] Clanricarde’s Memoirs, April to August; Bellings, i.

[37] Sir James Turner’s Memoirs, p. 25; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 45; O’Neill’s Journal; Bellings, i. 116. Leven was back at Edinburgh, November 30, 1642, Spalding’s Hist. of the Troubles, ii. 100.

[38] O’Neill’s Journal; Bellings, i. 152; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 72; Letter of Monck and other officers, September 12, in Confederation and War, ii. 363. Some wit produced the following:—

‘Contra Romanos mores, res mira, dynasta
Morus ab Eugenio canonizatus erat.’

[39] Ormonde to Nicholas, August 13, 1642, in appendix to Carte’s Ormonde; Confederation and War, ii. 50, 129, 139, 243.

[40] Remonstrance of grievances, March 17; the King’s letters and Commission, April 23, Confederation and War, ii. 248, 265.

[41] Inchiquin to Cork, May 25, in Smith’s History of Cork; Castlehaven, p. 41.

[42] Commission dated Oxford, April 23, in Confederation and War, i. 267; Propositions of the Confederates, June 24, with Ormonde’s answer, June 29; Bellings’ reasons in favour of a cessation and Scarampi’s answer, July and August. The above are in Confederation and War, ii.; Bellings, i. 160; Carte’s Ormonde. See the observations in Gardiner’s Great Civil War, chap. xi.

[43] Confederation and War, ii. 364-384; Bellings, i. 156, 163; Declaration of Clanricarde, Inchiquin, and fifteen others that the cessation was necessary, printed by Cox, ii. 133.

[44] Lords Justices and Council to the King, May 11, 1643, and to the two Houses, October 28; the Speakers of both Houses to the Lords Justices and Council, July 4—all in Clarendon’s Hist. of the Rebellion, book vii. 334, 366. Ormonde was appointed Lord Lieutenant November 13, and sworn in January 21 following. As to Leicester, see the preface to Blencowe’s Sydney Papers and his letter of complaint to the Queen in Collins’s Sydney Papers, ii. 673.

[CHAPTER XXIV]
AFTER THE CESSATION, 1643-1644

The cessation condemned by Parliament.

Changed relations of parties.

Troops sent to England.

The rout at Nantwich, Jan. 1643-4.

After the cessation had been concluded, but before its actual terms were known in London, the two Houses published a declaration against it, as destructive of the Protestant interest, and for the benefit of the ‘furious, bloodthirsty Papists.’ Protestant opinion even in Ireland was certainly against the cessation, and yet it was evidently a military necessity. If the troops left Dublin the Irish would be able to take it, and in the meantime, being unpaid, they robbed and plundered almost as if they had been in an enemy’s city. The general result was that Ormonde and the thoroughgoing Royalists were henceforth engaged, not in endeavouring to suppress a rebellion, but in trying to make terms with misguided belligerents. Those Protestants who thought more of religion and less of loyalty gravitated towards the Parliament. Ormonde lost no time in obeying the King’s order about sending troops to England. Before the end of October one regiment from Munster had landed at Minehead, and another at Bristol, under Vavasour and Paulet. They were, says Clarendon, very good and excellently officered, but not many in number, and they went to swell Hopton’s ill-fated army. The common men sympathised largely with the Parliament, though discipline and the hope of reward kept them together. About the middle of November 2500 men from Leinster landed at Mostyn, in Flintshire. About the same number came partly to Beaumaris and partly to the Dee early in the next year, but before that the first detachment had suffered a great disaster. Nantwich was garrisoned for the Parliament, and Sir William Brereton faced Lord Byron in the field. Hawarden, Beeston, and Northwich quickly fell into the hands of the Royalists, and about the beginning of January Byron summoned Nantwich, which was soon hard pressed. Fairfax spent his Christmas in Lincolnshire, and after the capture of Gainsborough a message from Stamford informed him that Brereton was hard pressed in Cheshire. At Manchester, which he did not reach till January 12, he collected every available man, and on the 21st marched towards Nantwich with 2500 foot and 28 troops of horse. Byron’s force was about the same or perhaps a little stronger. Fairfax gained a complete victory, a large part of the contingent from Ireland being captured in Acton church. Seventy officers and about 1600 men were taken prisoners, including Monck, who was present as a volunteer, Colonel Warren, who commanded his late regiment, being also taken. ‘Warren’s regiment,’ says Sir Robert Byron, ‘though they had their beloved Colonel Monck in the head of them, was no sooner charged than they broke, and being rallied again, the next charge ran quite away.’ Their hearts were not in the work, and some 800 men chiefly from this regiment afterwards took service under the Parliament. They were Englishmen and Protestants, but this was not generally believed, and nothing made the King’s cause so hopeless as the imputation of having brought an army of Irish Papists into England. Lord Byron wished that reinforcements should be ‘rather Irish than English’ because they would have no seditious sympathies and he did not see why the King should not employ them, ‘or the Turks if they would serve him.’[45]

Ormonde breaks with the Parliament.

Monck’s advice to the King.

Ormonde had misgivings about the royalism of his army, and events showed that they were well founded. To make things as safe as possible he obliged all who went to England to sign a protestation of allegiance to the King and the Church, with a promise to hold no communication with Essex or any other parliamentary officer. The soldiers were so anxious to get out of Ireland, where they had been starving and in rags, that they made no difficulty. Colonel Monck and Colonel Lawrence Crawford were the only officers who refused. Crawford, who was a covenanted Scot, was threatened with imprisonment, and took refuge with Monro. Monck, who objected to political pledges, was deprived of his regiment and allowed to go to Bristol, where he was arrested by direction of Ormonde in a private letter, but was soon allowed to go to the King at Oxford. Digby procured him an audience in Christ Church garden, where he told Charles that the war was ill-managed, and that the army should be reduced to 10,000 men, thoroughly equipped and with professional officers trained in the Low Countries. A commission was given him to raise a fresh regiment with the promise of a major-general’s command. Not having done the work before Nantwich, he preferred to fight there in the ranks, and when taken was sent to the Tower, where he remained in a destitute condition for two years, writing his book on military affairs and making love to Ann Radford. Charles, who had little to spare, once sent him 100l., a kindness which Monck never forgot.[46]

The Solemn League and Covenant.

Ireland a party to the Covenant.

While Ormonde was negotiating with the Confederates under the title of ‘His Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects now in arms’—he had not allowed them to style themselves ‘Catholics’ simply—a common danger was drawing the Scottish estates and the English Parliament into a closer alliance. One week after the conclusion of the Irish cessation the solemn League and Covenant was published by order of the House of Commons. The word League was introduced by Vane to emphasise the political character of the compact, for the growing Independent party had no idea of submitting themselves to the strict yoke of Presbyterian polity. Making this reservation and reducing the sum promised to 30,000l., we may accept Baillie’s account: ‘The authority of a General Assembly and Convention of Estate was great; the penalties set down in print before the Covenant, and read with it, were great; the chief aim of it was for the propagation of our Church discipline to England and Ireland; the great good, and honour of our nation; also the Parliament’s advantage at Gloucester and Newbury, but most of all the Irish cessation, made the minds of our people embrace that means of safety; for when it was seen in print from Dublin, that in July his Majesty had sent a commission to the Marquis of Ormonde, the judges, and committee there, to treat with these miscreants; that the dissenting commissioners were cast in prison; that the agreement was proclaimed, accepting the sum of 300,000l. sterling from these idolatrous butchers, and giving them, over the name of Roman Catholic subjects now in arms, a sure peace for a year, with full liberty to bring in what men, arms, money they could from all the world, and to exterminate all who should not agree to that proclamation;—we thought it clear that the Popish party was so far countenanced, as it was necessary for all Protestants to join more strictly for their own safety; and that so much the more, as ambassadors from France were come both to England and us, with open threat of hostility from that Crown.’ Monro refused to be bound by the cessation, but abstained from open hostilities until orders came from Scotland. ‘Here,’ says Turner, ‘was strange work, a man not able to prosecute a war, yet will not admit of a cessation. It cost us dear, for since the King’s restoration, all our arrears were paid us by telling us we were not in the King’s pay, since we refused to obey his commands; and very justly we were so served.’ By a clever stroke of the politicians rather than the theologians Ireland was made a party to the Covenant as ‘by the providence of God living under one King, and being of one reformed religion,’ thus excluding the Irish confederates from the rights of subjects.[47]

Jealousies among the Confederates.

Antrim’s nominal command.

The confederate assembly sat at Waterford in the early part of November, and summoned O’Neill to meet them there. It was determined to attack Monro, and indeed a chief object of the cessation was to have their hands free for so doing. Their great difficulty was about the choice of a general. O’Neill was the ablest officer available, but they feared to put so much power into his hands, and were influenced by ‘that ancient and everlasting difference’ between the North and South. They could not name Preston, between whom and General Owen O’Neill there was ‘such an antipathy as, from their first apprenticeship in soldiery, which they had passed at least thirty years before, notwithstanding their having served for all that time the same princes, and been employed in the same actions of war, could not be removed.’ After much discussion Castlehaven was chosen, for he was generally liked, and no one suspected him of personal ambition. O’Neill was pleased at the rejection of his enemy, but he wished to be general-in-chief, and the evils of divided command were not long in showing themselves. In the mean time Antrim came to Waterford, and there were some who thought good might be done at the English Court by giving him the title of Lieutenant-General. It was, however, expressly stipulated that he should have no real military authority in Ireland. He did not so understand it himself, or perhaps he only pretended not to understand, and proposed to carry into England the very forces which had been provided for the invasion of Ulster. This claim was quickly set aside, and Castlehaven was ordered to continue his preparations.[48]

The Covenant taken in Ulster.

A deputation from the General Assembly.

Early in December, Owen O’Connolly arrived in Ulster with instructions from Westminster, and at once invited the English to take the Covenant. Lord Montgomery, his uncle Sir James, Sir Robert Stewart, Sir William Cole, Colonels Arthur Chichester, Hill, and Mervyn, and Robert Thornton, mayor of Londonderry, met at Belfast on January 2 and decided not to do so, but to consider themselves under Ormonde’s orders, which involved acceptance of the cessation. In writing to the Parliament they merely asked for money to prosecute the war against the rebels. But the bulk of the men composing what were called the British regiments, as distinguished from Monro’s Scots, were of Scottish origin, and were induced to take the Covenant by the Presbyterian ministers, who were vigorously supported by Sir Frederick Hamilton. All were required at the same time to repudiate Strafford’s black oath and to confess their fault in taking it. A deputation of four ministers, one of whom was William Adair, was sent over by the Scotch General Assembly, and reached Carrickfergus at the end of March. Monro readily embraced the Covenant with all his officers and soldiers except Major Dalzell, whom Adair calls an ‘atheist,’ and who afterwards served in Russia, where he learned methods of warfare which made him no less odious as a persecutor than Claverhouse or the Laird of Lag. The country people followed the example of the soldiers. At Belfast, where Chichester commanded, the ministers met with some opposition, for he had published the proclamation against the Covenant by Ormonde’s orders; but everywhere else they were received gladly. At Coleraine, Colonel Audley Mervyn and Sir Robert Stewart were at first hostile, but the majority were favourable. At Londonderry Adair and his colleagues appeared in the market-place while the Church of England service was going on in the principal church, and the mayor and others,’coming from their sacrament, stood somewhat amazed,’ but did not molest the meeting. At Enniskillen they were equally successful, Sir William Cole, after some little hesitation, taking the Covenant himself. They went as far west as Rathmelton and Ballyshannon, and on their return to Londonderry Mervyn took the Covenant, the soldiers greeting him with shouts of ‘Welcome, Colonel.’ Sir Robert Stewart followed suit at Coleraine.[49]

Monro commands in Ulster for the Parliament.

He seizes Belfast, May 14, 1644,

and secures general obedience.

Towards the end of December the English Parliament resolved to put the British and Scottish forces in Ulster under one commander, and Leven was named. He did not return to Ireland, but was authorised to appoint a lieutenant, and so at the end of April 1644 Monro obtained the full command. Some of his unfed and unpaid troops had gone back to Scotland, but the remonstrances of the Ulster Protestants prevailed, and the policy of withdrawing from Ireland was not persevered in. The colonels of the British regiments met at Belfast on May 13 to deliberate as to what degree of obedience they would give Monro, and he resolved to anticipate their decision. In spite of Chichester and his proclamation the Covenant was popular in Belfast, and had many friends among the soldiers. Scouts were sent out during the night after the meeting of the colonels in consequence of reports as to hostile intentions on Monro’s part. They returned about six in the morning, saying that they had been within three miles of Carrickfergus and had seen nothing, the probability being that they had met the Scots and come to an understanding with them. At seven Monro appeared, and Captain MacAdam’s sergeant, who commanded the guard, at once opened the gate. Monro marched through the town unopposed, seized the gate at the other end, and took possession of all the cannon. Chichester was allowed to remain in the castle, which was his own house, with 100 men, but the other regiments were quartered outside the town. As soon as Belfast was secured, Monro marched on to Lisburn, but there he found the garrison on their guard and devoted to Ormonde. The English regiments were left in possession, but Monro succeeded in getting all the Protestant troops in Ulster to serve under him. On the last day of June he had collected 10,000 foot and 1000 horse at Armagh, and with these he marched to Cavan.[50]

Expedition to Ulster under Castlehaven, July, 1644.

Leinster and Ulster cannot agree.

The expedition a failure.

Castlehaven’s army of 6000 foot and 1000 horse were in the meantime ordered to assemble at Granard, but not more than half had arrived when Monro’s approach was announced. He left Mountgarret’s brother, John Butler, to defend the passage into Leinster at Finnea between Lough Sheelin and Lough Kinale. According to an Irish writer, Butler was given to carousing at critical times, and he failed to maintain his position. Monro advanced as far as Carlanstown Castle, which he burned, but finding that Castlehaven and O’Neill had joined forces at Portlester in Meath, he withdrew northwards again. He had started with provisions for only three weeks. Castlehaven then called on O’Neill to perform his promise of co-operating in an invasion of Ulster with 4000 foot and 400 horse, and O’Neill assured him that he should have no reason to complain when actually operating in the northern province. During the greater part of August and September, Castlehaven lay at Charlemont and Monro at Tanderagee, but there was no general action, and O’Neill was ill nearly all the time. In a skirmish at Scarva on the borders of Down and Armagh, Captain Blair was taken, and about 100 Scots killed. In another encounter between Benburb and Caledon three of O’Neill’s officers fell, Colonel Ffennell looking on with some of Castlehaven’s horse, but doing nothing to save them. There was evidently no love lost between the Leinster and Ulster men, and at last, about the beginning of October, Castlehaven returned to his own province. O’Neill upbraided him with the conduct of his officer, ‘a gentleman I see here, Lieutenant-Colonel Ffennell, with the feather, a cowardly cock, for seeing my kinsmen overpowered by the enemy, some of them hacked before his face, and a strong brigade of horse under his command, and never offered to relieve them.’ Castlehaven had very little help from the Ulster Irish, except in the way of provisions. ‘O’Neill,’ he said, ‘began to be very weary sometimes of assisting me with cows,’ and attributes the ill-success of the whole expedition to the ‘failing, or something else, of General Owen Roe O’Neill.’ On the other hand, we are told that O’Neill went to Kilkenny and demanded an inquiry, saying that the foreign residents would think very little of the Confederacy if neither general lost his head. A committee sat accordingly, but no report transpired.[51]

Designs of Antrim.

His agreement with Montrose, January 1643-44.

Having failed to acquire any real influence at Kilkenny, Antrim went to England, and arrived at Oxford December 16, 1643. He talked about providing an army of 10,000, but was not at first taken very seriously. ‘We know the person well,’ said Digby, ‘and therefore wondered to find those probabilities which he made appear unto us of his power with the Irish.’ But Montrose was at Oxford, and saw his chance at once. On January 28, an agreement was made between Montrose, ‘his Majesty’s Lieutenant-General’ for Scotland and Antrim, ‘his Majesty’s General of the isles and highlands of Scotland,’ binding both to appear in arms by April 1. Antrim’s share of the work was to levy all the men he could in Ireland and in the Scottish isles, ‘and with the said forces invade the Marquis of Argyle’s country in Scotland.’ The witnesses were Digby, Robert Spotswoode, and Daniel O’Neill. The King himself directed Ormonde to give Antrim every possible assistance, and Daniel O’Neill was sent with him ‘by way of ballast,’ and as ‘the fittest person to steer him.’ It was very hard to bring the King to this point, for he distrusted Antrim and disliked O’Neill. But Digby was in his element, and he persuaded Charles to give Antrim a marquisate, which he vainly imagined would make him Ormonde’s equal, and to appoint O’Neill a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which was his great object of ambition. At Oxford Antrim talked chiefly of the moderate courses to which he intended to lead the Irish, but at Kilkenny he had encouraged them to hope that by his interest all their objects would be easily gained.[52]

The Confederates hesitate to send troops to England.

Antrim raises a small force,

under Alaster Macdonnell,

who joins Montrose.

Antrim and O’Neill reached Kilkenny on February 23. In obedience to the King’s instructions, their first business was to persuade the Confederates to send him ‘10,000 men, well armed, to be transported into England with all possible expedition,’ and to provide them with artillery, ammunition, and shipping. The Supreme Council replied that they would wait until they had a report from their agents at Oxford. Prince Rupert’s application for muskets and powder was also set aside, but some were sent in the following autumn. The expedition to the Scottish isles was agreed to, and the Council undertook to provide ‘2000 muskets, 2400 pounds of powder, proportionable match, 200 barrels of oatmeal, by May 1, upon knowledge first had that all other accommodations be concurring, and a safe and convenient port provided in Ulster; provided the same port be commanded by Walter Bagenal.’ Ormonde objected to put Carlingford or Greencastle into the hands of the Confederates’ nominee, and also to Bagenal’s being made governor of Newry, the rather that he had hereditary claims there which might prove awkward. After much wrangling, the Council agreed that the expedition should embark at Passage in Waterford harbour, but the flotilla, consisting of two Flemish and one Irish vessel, did not sail till June 27. The delay was aggravated by the difficulty of finding shipping, and by the necessity of watching the parliamentary cruisers. According to Antrim’s own account, the number of men sent was about 1600, and 800 more were discharged for want of shipping. Three weeks later Ormonde informed Digby that Antrim had sent ‘from Waterford and other adjacent places,’ 2500 men well armed and provisions for two months. The chief of the expedition was Alaster, or Alexander McColl MacDonnell, often, but incorrectly, called Colkitto. He was a man of great courage, remarkable for his strength and stature, and Leven thought him the most formidable leader of the Irish. On the way to Scotland several prizes were taken, on one of which were three ministers named Weir, Watson, and Hamilton, being among those who had gone over to administer the Covenant. Weir and Watson died in prison after enduring dreadful hardships, but Hamilton lived to be exchanged after ten months’ confinement. MacDonnell reached the Sound of Mull in safety, and seized upon the castles of Mingarry and Lochaline. The prospect was so unpromising that he thought of re-embarking; but Argyle, with the help of two English vessels, mastered his ships, and he was forced to go on. The Flemings surrendered at once, but the Irish sailors, who fought desperately, were all killed and their ship burned to the water’s edge. He harried all the Campbell territory that he could reach, and afterwards that of the Mackenzies, and then tried to recruit his forces on the Spey. In the meantime Montrose had entered Scotland and summoned MacDonnell to meet him at Blair Athol. The Irish contingent took part in the victory of Tippermuir on September 1.[53]

Importance of the Irish to Montrose.

Their barbarous proceedings.

Alaster Macdonnell deserts Montrose.

Cruelty of the Covenanters.

The epic of Montrose belongs to Scotland, but it should be remembered that the Irish, as they are always called, formed the nucleus and the only stable part of his army, and that when Alaster Macdonnell forsook him, victory forsook him too. Antrim was Tyrone’s grandson, and the remains of the Ulster clans had no objection to follow him, though some of his levies were islemen or Hebrideans settled in Ireland. Patrick Gordon calls them ‘strangers and foreigners,’ adding that they showed no pity or humanity, nor made any distinction between man and beast, ‘killing men with the same careless neglect that they kill a hen or capon for supper. And they were also without all shame, most brutishly given to uncleanness and filthy lust; as for excessive drinking, when they came where it might be had, there was no limit to their beastly appetites.’ Spalding, who was present when Montrose sullied his fame by allowing the sack of Aberdeen, says they murdered and ravished for four days. The corpses lay unburied until women ventured to move them, for no man could show himself: ‘the wife durst not cry nor weep at her husband’s slaughter before her eyes, nor the mother for the son, nor daughter for the father; which if they were heard, then were they presently slain also.’ As long as the business consisted in harrying Campbells or Mackenzies, Alaster Macdonnell had no difficulty in getting recruits from his fellow tribesmen on the main land, but after Kilsyth he and his Highlanders, who were gorged with plunder, deserted Montrose that they might carry their acquisitions home. No commands or entreaties of their general could prevail, says Sir James Turner, ‘to Cantire they would go, and to Cantire they did go.’ They cared nothing for Lowland or English politics. Some 500 Irish remained faithful ‘because they had no place of retreat,’ and these were cut to pieces at Philiphaugh, 300 of their wives being butchered there, and many others later at Linlithgow, where the horrors of Portadown bridge were repeated with the parts reversed. Those who are disposed to deny the Ulster massacres may ponder the words of Spalding and Gordon, while nothing can excuse the cruelty practised in retaliation.[54]

Confederate agents at Oxford, March 1644.

Protestant agents follow, April.

The Irish Government separately represented.

As early as November 1643 the Supreme Council of the Confederates, acting by order of their General Assembly, nominated seven commissioners as agents to attend the King and to state their grievances to him. The persons chosen were Lord Muskerry, Antrim’s brother Alexander Macdonnell, Sir Robert Talbot, Nicholas Plunket, Dermot O’Brien, Geoffrey Brown, and Richard Martin. There is some doubt about Martin, but all the others went over. The Lords Justices granted them a safe conduct in January, but there was considerable delay first at Kilkenny, and afterwards in waiting for a wind at Wexford. They landed in Cornwall and reached Oxford March 24. As soon as it was known in Ireland that the King would be likely to receive the Confederate agents, the more zealous Protestants began to prepare for a counter-mission. Charles expressed himself ready to hear both sides. Lords Kildare, Montgomery, and Blayney were the chiefs of the Protestant movement, and a deputation waited on Ormonde the day after he was sworn in as Lord Lieutenant. Michael Jones was the spokesman. Ormonde answered that he was somewhat taken by surprise, but ‘for you English and Protestants, I assure you both of assistance and protection, and that, if need be, to the hazard even of my life and fortunes.’ The envoys first chosen were Sir Francis Hamilton, Captains Ridgeway and Jones, and Fenton Parsons. Jones, whose parliamentary sympathies led him to avoid the Court, refused to go, and Sir Charles Coote was substituted with the King’s consent. A petition of the Protestants was read in the Irish House of Commons on February 17, and approved by the House. The agents did not reach Oxford till April 17, and the King received them next day ‘in the garden at Christ Church,’ and desired them to prepare definite proposals. Charles had sent to Ireland for Chief Justice Lowther, Sir Philip Perceval, Sir William Stewart, and Mr. Justice Donnellan, who arrived about this time, accompanied by Sambach, the Irish Solicitor-General. Sir H. Tichborne and others went over later. Strafford’s old secretary, Radcliffe, who was already at Oxford, was ordered to join in their consultations. The whole case was then handed over to a committee of the Privy Council, consisting of the Earls of Bristol and Portland, Lord Digby, Secretary Nicholas, Colepepper, and Hyde.[55]

Attitude of Hyde, Digby and others.

Revised demands of Confederates.

Hyde and Colepepper were hostile to the Confederates’ demands, and Radcliffe was even violent, ‘which,’ says a correspondent of Ormonde, ‘makes the Irish swagger very severely.’ Digby, who was much more favourable to them, said their first propositions were scandalous, and that all negotiations would have to be broken off unless they amended them. Muskerry, on the contrary, had assured Ormonde that their demands were an irreducible minimum. ‘Neither,’ he said, ‘is the highest of them such a rock, but that the King may find a way to satisfy his people in Ireland without prejudice to his party in England. And the real advantage of the assurance of our kingdom, and of a nation so faithfully affected to his service, is much more considerable than the fears and jealousies to discontent a party.’ Unfortunately for this argument, Ireland was divided into parties quite as much as England, and concessions to Irish national feeling were certain to deprive the King of all effective English support. In spite of Muskerry’s assurance, Digby found him and his colleagues ‘beyond expectation counsellable, and they have this day, instead of the former, presented these enclosed propositions, which though in many things unreasonable for the King to grant, yet are not very scandalous for them to ask.’ Ormonde wrote to Muskerry advising moderation, and foretold that the time might come when ‘his Majesty might with more safety grant, than he can as yet hear propounded’ such of the agents’ desires as were in themselves just. The amended propositions demanded the repeal of all penal laws affecting the Roman Catholics, their relief from disabilities of every kind, and that a free Parliament, entirely independent of the English legislature, should at once be called. All proceedings of the Irish Parliament since August 7, 1641, should be annulled, as well as all outlawries, attainders, and other acts affecting the Roman Catholics prejudicially since that date. All forfeitures to the Crown in Connaught, Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny, and Wicklow since 1634 were to be abandoned, and the ancient possessors confirmed by law, the Court of Wards abolished, and trained bands established in every Irish county. The other demands were of less importance. Among the proposals waived by the agents was one which virtually placed all titles to land created since the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign at the mercy of the Irish Parliament. Another clause proposed to deprive the King of all right to maintain a standing army in Ireland. It was also required ‘that the present Government of the said Catholics may continue within their quarters and jurisdictions until the Parliament, and after until their grievances be redressed by Acts of Parliament, and for a convenient time for the execution thereof.’ The original propositions were such as might have been dictated by the victors to a conquered country. The amended propositions, though containing many things ‘in themselves just,’ involved the complete subjection of the Protestants in Ireland, and could never be granted by an English Government. If the King granted them it would only be because he had no longer any real power. The Irish Privy Councillors at Oxford, though more moderate than Coote and his colleagues, held that the toleration of Romish priests had been the cause of the rebellion, that what was called a free Parliament would contain few or no Protestants, most of them having been murdered or exiled, and that Poynings’ Act was one of the wisest ever made and ‘one of the precious jewels of his Majesty’s imperial diadem.’[56]

Protestant proposals equally extreme.

No compromise appears possible.

If the propositions of the Confederate agents seemed scandalous to Digby, those of Coote and his colleagues will not seem less so to modern readers. They demanded, among other things, that all penal laws should be strictly executed, that all the Roman Catholic clergy should be banished out of Ireland, that the oath of supremacy should be taken by every member of Parliament, mayor, sheriff, or magistrate; that no lawyer refusing to take that oath should be allowed to practise; and that there should be a ‘competent Protestant army.’ After a few days, the Protestant agents were summoned to meet Ussher, Henry Leslie, Radcliffe, and others. Radcliffe, on behalf of the Committee of Council, said their proposals were unreasonable, and that peace could never be made on any such terms. The agents then agreed to modify the demands, but still insisted firmly on the full execution of the penal laws, on maintaining the existing Parliament and Poynings’ law, on the encouragement of plantations, and on disabling lawyers who refused the oath of supremacy. They waived the expulsion of Roman Catholic priests and the oath ex officio, and also the demand that all churches should be restored to them, rebuilt and refitted ‘at the charge of the Confederate Roman Catholics.’ A week later the agents were summoned before the King in council. Charles asked them whether they wanted peace or war. They said they preferred peace, but only upon honourable terms; and the King answered that he also would choose the hazard of war rather than that they should suffer by a peace of his making. He could not, he added, help them with men, money, arms, ammunition, or victuals, nor could he allow them to join with those who had taken the Covenant. It was consistent with Charles’s love for tortuous ways that he had tried to prevent Coote and his friends from knowing what the propositions of the Confederate agents were. They had oozed out, of course, and, making a virtue of necessity, the King now gave them a copy and requested their answers. This was done, and the absolute incompatibility of the two sets of agents was conclusively shown.[57]

Failure of Oxford negotiations.

Both parties are referred to Ormonde,

who is authorised to make peace.

An impossible task.

Muskerry and his colleagues left Oxford first, and were followed by the Protestant agents on the last day of May. Both missions were dismissed civilly enough, but neither had gained their point. Percival told Ormonde that the failure of the Council to make any decision was reported to be the work ‘of one that labours to be commanded to Ireland, and hopes to rule all there.’ This points unmistakably to Digby, who probably encouraged the King to refer everything back to Ormonde. This was done by a commission dated June 24, and to enable the Lord Lieutenant to arrive at a decision, all the propositions by both sides during the Oxford negotiations were sent to him, and also the King’s answer to the Confederate agents. They were told that the King would not ‘declare Acts in themselves lawful to be void,’ but that the penal laws had never been harshly executed; and that if his Irish subjects would live peaceably and loyally, they should be as moderately administered ‘as in the most favourable times of Queen Elizabeth and King James.’ He would allow a new Parliament to assemble, but ‘would by no means consent to the suspension of Poynings’ Act.’ Many lesser demands were wholly or partly conceded, but religious toleration and the Irish Parliament would still depend on the King’s will. If the Confederates could be got to accept such terms, Ormonde was authorised to conclude peace upon that basis, and to go further if he found it consistent with the present preservation of the Irish Protestants. If peace could not be had on reasonable terms, then he might renew the cessation for as long as he thought expedient. Ormonde lost no time in informing Muskerry and his colleagues that he was commissioned to treat for a peace or truce, and asked them to prepare the ground among their friends. ‘Let me tell you,’ wrote that astute courtier Daniel O’Neill, ‘that our friend the Marquis of Ormonde has a hard task put upon him: for it is imposed upon him to end that in Ireland which all the Council durst not look upon in England.’[58]

Inchiquin visits Oxford,

and returns discontented.

He sides with the Parliament,

and secures Cork, Youghal, Kinsale and Bandon.

During St. Leger’s illness and since his death, Inchiquin had been acting-President of Munster. His services had been great, and he was not willing to see anyone put over his head. ‘If the King,’ he wrote to Ormonde from Cork, ‘have bestowed the ‘presidency on any other (though more worthy) personage, I hope your lordship will not command my stay longer here.’ Ormonde disliked his going, but gave no direct order, and Inchiquin was at Oxford early in February. It soon appeared that the King had many years before promised the presidency to Portland, and though Radcliffe and Digby were in despair, the most that could be obtained for Inchiquin was the reversion. As Portland would not waive his claim, this really amounted to nothing. Inchiquin received a warrant for an earldom; but that was not what he wanted, and he did not use it. Hopes were held out to him of commanding the Munster troops in England; but his best regiments had been assigned to Hopton and others, and he saw no chance of anything in that direction. At Oxford he dissembled his ill-humour, but before the end of March it was generally known in Ireland that he ‘came discontented from Court.’ Ormonde’s idea was to keep the presidency of Munster vacant, so that Inchiquin should be kept quiet by seeing the great prize always dangling before him. Portland’s object was to sell his interest without going to Ireland; but he does not appear to have offered it to Inchiquin, who kept pretty quiet during the spring and early summer. When the result of the Oxford negotiations was known, he and the other Munster officers declared strongly against a peace which could not be had without abandoning the Protestants. As a proof of their danger, they cited a Franciscan named Matthews who had been executed as a spy after having confessed that he was concerned in a plot to betray Cork to Muskerry. Ormonde had heard reports that there was some plot. After Marston Moor it became evident that the King was powerless to protect the Irish Protestants, and Inchiquin resolved to throw in his lot with the Parliament. Broghill afterwards told Ludlow that he persuaded him without much difficulty to take this step. The letter in which Inchiquin declared himself—for he assured Ormonde that this was his first advance—was signed also by Broghill as governor of Youghal, and by the governors of Cork, Kinsale, and Bandon. Each of the subscribers offered to go on board a parliamentary ship as a hostage, there to remain until all four towns were in sure hands. A letter with the same signatures was also sent to the King, who was urged to come to terms with the Parliament as the only means of saving the Irish Protestants. Aware that he might be distrusted, Inchiquin reminded the governor of Portsmouth that he was forsaking a plentiful fortune ‘for the good of the cause,’ and that he was ready to make room if another commander was thought fitter to subdue the Irish rebels. Bandon was easily secured, for it was a Protestant place; but Inchiquin took the strong step of expelling the Irish inhabitants from Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale. This was a very harsh measure, especially for a chief of the O’Briens; but it may be defended on military grounds, the only defence of the Munster Protestants lying in the four garrisons, without which they would be quite cut off from England. Inchiquin’s brother Henry, after making great professions of attachment to the King, surrendered Wareham on August 24 and brought his regiment over to serve the Parliament in Ireland.[59]