FOOTNOTES:
[60] Castlehaven to Ormonde, November 7, 1643, in Confederation and War, iii. 40; La Boulaye Le Gouz, Tour in Ireland (1644), p. 35.
[61] Husband’s Collection, p. 576; Gardiner’s Great Civil War, i. 396; La Boulaye Le Gouz, Tour, pp. 2, 135.
[62] For the expulsion of the Cork citizens see Confederation and War, iii. 221-230 and 235-247; for Broghill’s proceedings Caulfield’s Youghal Council Book, p. 545; Calendar of Clarendon S.P., July 31-November 27, 1644. For the Protestant oath and for Henrietta Maria’s opinions, as reported by the Jesuit O’Hartegan, see Confederation and War, iv. 49, 84; Muskerry to Ormonde, February 2, 1644-5, in appendix to Carte’s Ormonde.
[63] Ormonde to Digby, October 1644, in Confederation and War, iii. 29, with the documents referred to at foot; and see ib. v. 296; Brabazon, Tichborne, and Ware to Ormonde, January 5, 1644-5, ib. iv. 116, and Swanley’s letter, 121; Tichborne’s letter to his wife, appended to Temple, pp. 327, 330.
[64] Bellings, iv. 1-6, and Monnerie to Mazarin, February 20, 1644-5, in the same volume.
[65] Receptions of Foisset and Monnerie, February 1643-4, in Confederation and War, iii. 102, 106; Monnerie to Mazarin, February 20, 1644-5, ib. iv. 147.
[66] Aphorismical Discovery, i. 32, 49; Bellings, iii. 8, and the receipt to Talbot for the Spanish money in the same vol., p. 273. For Bourke’s mission, ib. 126 and iv. 90; Rinuccini’s Embassy, 106, 307.
[67] Bodley to Salisbury, October 15, 1611, in State Papers, Ireland, and to Carew, in Carew Cal. 123; preface to Confederation and War, iv. xxvii-xl, and in the same vol. 381-2; Captain Thomas Aston’s Brief Relation of passages at Duncannon since June 8, July 22, 1642, written very shortly before the writer was killed.
[68] Preface to Confederation and War, iv. xl-xlvii, and in the same vol., which contains three plans of Duncannon, a diary of the siege, written by Bonaventure Barron, the famous Latinist, in his favourite tongue, 189; Depositions of officers and soldiers, 210-237; Letters of Supreme Council, 203-209; Letters of Smyth, Swanley, &c., and articles of capitulation, 177-183. The author of the Aphorismical Discovery, i. 102, says ‘the defendants behaved themselves exceedingly well.’
[69] Dated Oxford, April 1, 1644: ‘and for your greater honour and in testimony of our reality we have with our own hand affixed our Great Seal of England unto these our commission and letters, making them patents.’ Printed in Birch’s Inquiry, p. 22, and elsewhere; S. R. Gardiner in English Historical Review, ii. 687.
[70] The instructions to Glamorgan are dated January 2, 1644-5, the three commissions referred to in the text being of January 6 and 12 and March 12 respectively. The King to Ormonde, December 27, 1644, in Carte’s Ormonde, appendix to vol. ii., No. 13.
[71] The King to Ormonde, January 18, 1644-5; February 16, February 27, May 21, 1645; June 18 and 26—all in Carte’s Ormonde, appendix to vol. ii.
[72] Carte Papers, vol. xv., from which the letters, &c., are printed in Confederation and War, v. 62-79; and the treaty dated August 25, 1645, printed from Husband’s Collection, p. 821. When examined before the Lord Lieutenant and Council, Glamorgan said he ‘did not consult or advise with any person whatsoever concerning any the matters contained’ in the treaty, ib. 220.
[73] Charles I. to Rinuccini, April 30, 1645 (in French), printed by Birch from the Holkham MS. Archbishop Queely was killed on October 17.
[CHAPTER XXVI]
FIGHTING NORTH AND SOUTH—RINUCCINI, 1645
Castlehaven in Munster.
Cappoquin
Mitchelstown.
Action near Castle Lyons.
Military operations in Munster, though contributing towards the general result of the war, did not at the moment interrupt the negotiations between Dublin and Kilkenny. As Lord President of Munster for the Parliament, Inchiquin was not bound by any truces but those of his own making, and Broghill as governor of Youghal was practically in the same position. Duncannon being taken, and the truce expiring soon after, Castlehaven invaded Munster with 5000 foot and 1000 horse. ‘The enemy,’ wrote Castlehaven long afterwards, ‘in this province had always been victorious, beating the Confederates in every encounter ... every gentleman’s house or castle was garrisoned, and kept the country in awe. To begin, therefore, this field I made my first rendezvous at Clonmel, and the army encamped not far from it. Thither came Dean Boyle, now Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and then married to my Lord Inchiquin’s sister; his business was to persuade me to spare Doneraile and other houses and castles not tenable.’ They parted friends, but Castlehaven made no promise, and marched to Cappoquin, where he summoned the castle, believing that the failure to take it before had been owing to the town being attacked first. Here and elsewhere his terms were fair quarter in case of immediate surrender, but ‘no quarter at all’ in case of prolonged resistance. Cappoquin preferred the first alternative, but the commandant was afterwards executed by court-martial for cowardice. According to Broghill and others, articles of capitulation were not always well observed, but from what we know of Castlehaven this may have been the fault of his subordinates. The possession of Cappoquin bridge enabled him to pass the Blackwater at will, and Inchiquin was too weak both in men and supplies to oppose him seriously. Youghal was summoned with the boast that mass should be said there in six days, but Broghill replied that God should be worshipped there for six months. Mitchelstown refused the first summons, but soon yielded at discretion, when ‘two or three,’ says Bellings, ‘of which one was a minister, that were charged to have been upon several actions cruel to the Irish were hanged for their unsoldierly obstinacy.’ The logic or morality of this is not very clear. Dromana surrendered, as well as Knockmone, which Sir Richard Osborne had defended since the beginning; but Lismore held out under Major Power. In the meantime a strong body of horse under Broghill had crossed the Blackwater by the ford of Fermoy, and Purcell persuaded Castlehaven to detach his own cavalry, ‘which I count certainly among my other follies.’ As Purcell came on, Broghill retired over the river and faced about at Kilcruig, half-way between the ford and Castle Lyons, with a scrubby wood between him and his pursuers. The Irish straggled through the covert, and before they had time to reform, Broghill charged and defeated them with great loss. The main body of Castlehaven’s army being visible in the distance, he retired to Castle Lyons and sent all the men he could spare to Inchiquin.[74]
Castlehaven generally successful,
but Inchiquin holds his own,
and Youghal still resists.
From Fermoy Castlehaven proceeded to clear the country north of the Blackwater. Mallow, Doneraile, and Liscarroll were taken with little or no resistance, but Milltown, which had made a brave defence in 1641, threatened to give trouble. Some boys who made a hole in the courtyard wall to steal cattle found a way into the castle: soldiers followed, and the place was taken by assault. Annagh Castle, which was then surrounded by bog, made a brave resistance under Lieutenant Fisher. A breach was made with the artillery and the garrison was put to the sword. The English account says this was done in cold blood after Fisher had been treacherously killed during a parley in sight of his own men. Bellings acknowledges the slaughter, but says it was during an assault. While Castlehaven was busy to the north of the Blackwater Inchiquin fell upon the district of Imokilly between Cork and Youghal. Rostellan and Castle Martyr both held for his uncle Edmond Fitzgerald. In the final division of the spoils the first fell to his lot, and the second to Broghill’s, and no doubt both leaders intended something of the kind from the first. At Rostellan, says Bellings, ‘Sir Richard Meagh, the Catholic Dean of Cork, and Captain William FitzJames Barry were hanged, which actions, how justifiable soever by arms, yet made a great noise and increased the animosities between them, the clergy of both sides being therein concerned. Hearing of Inchiquin’s raid, Castlehaven hurried to the relief of Castlemartyr, but was delayed by a flood at Fermoy, and when he passed the river met the late garrison. He thought that 140 men with plenty of arms and provisions ought to have made a better fight. He found the castle burned, and having just failed to intercept part of the Youghal garrison who retreated with their guns at his approach, he seized Cloyne and Aghada and recaptured Rostellan after a short struggle. Thomas Barham, Dean of Ross, was hanged to match the other dean, and Inchiquin’s brother Henry, ‘one of the most malicious of our enemies,’ would have had the same fate, but that the officers preferred to reserve him for special judgment by the King. This was just before Naseby. Ballyhooly and Castle Lyons were also taken, and at Conna Castlehaven made an example ‘by putting to the sword some, and hanging the rest.’ He believed that the siege of Youghal would ‘rather be a work of hours than days,’ but there were plenty of men there, and the sea was open. Broghill hurried off to England for help and to place his wife and his sister, Lady Barrymore, with the young Earl, in a place of safety.[75]
Two baronies depopulated.
Fall of Lismore.
The Naseby prisoners.
Siege of Youghal.
Broghill relieves Youghal,
and Castlehaven’s army is dispersed
Castlehaven reported that he had cleared the baronies of Imokilly and Barrymore completely both of people and cattle. ‘I conceive in this I have done my Lord of Inchiquin more mischief than in killing a thousand of his men,’ for this source of supply was quite cut off. He hoped to take Youghal and to besiege Cork before harvest, but this sanguine letter was written two days after Naseby. Lismore was taken at last after a gallant defence by Major Power, and the garrison admitted to quarter. Templemichael capitulated, Castlehaven undertaking the safe custody of the garrison to Youghal, but Broghill complains that he kept them for a fortnight and sent them in when nearly starved. The general’s proceedings at Mogeely and Strancally were also objected to, but both banks of the Blackwater from Mallow to the sea were in his hands before the end of June. Several hundreds of the King’s soldiers taken at Naseby were sent to relieve Youghal, but the curious experiment was hardly successful, for when provisions ran short they deserted. ‘I could wish,’ writes a zealous Protestant, ‘no more might be sent over. They are brutes, void of reason or understanding, or they would never hasten so much to the herd of unclean beasts.’ Some of them, however, might have taken the oath of allegiance devised for the benefit of Protestant Royalists, involving the independence of the Irish Parliament and co-operation with ‘the Confederate Catholics (saving in the freedom of religion).’ About the middle of July an Irish vessel reached Nantes with the news that Youghal had fallen, and that Castlehaven was on his way to Cork, but the wish was father to the thought. Inchiquin sent some reinforcements from Kinsale, but the Duncannon frigate with many men was blown up in Youghal harbour during an artillery duel with one of the Confederate batteries. After this Youghal was effectively blockaded on both sides of the river, but the besiegers never came to close quarters. At the beginning of October Preston came with his army, but finding that in Munster he would be only second to Castlehaven, went back in dudgeon to his own province, leaving the country, as Bellings mildly puts it, ‘much offended at the unusual liberty the soldiers assumed in his return.’ Youghal was no longer in danger, having been relieved early in September by Broghill, who brought over reinforcements from England. Inchiquin also was able to send supplies from Cork and Kinsale, and the Parliamentary Vice-Admiral Crowther commanded the sea. After Preston left him, Castlehaven attempted to take the great island in Cork harbour, which was of the highest importance to Inchiquin. The bridge at Belvelly appears not to have been then in being, and the attempt to cross the narrow channel failed, both horses and men sticking in the mud. After some indecisive skirmishing in the direction of Blarney, Castlehaven returned to Youghal, where he found his army dwindling away, and disheartened by Preston’s desertion. Those who remained were dispersed into winter quarters, and Youghal was left to itself. So far as Munster is concerned, this failure may be called the turning point of the war.[76]
Three presidents of Connaught.
Ormonde and the Scots.
Activity of Coote
Sligo taken, July 8
Battle of Sligo, October 17.
Four days later Rinuccini landed in Kerry.
While Castlehaven was in Munster the Scots threatened Connaught, where there were now virtually three provincial presidents—Lord Dillon of Costello for the King, Sir Charles Coote for the Parliament, and Archbishop Queely for the Kilkenny Confederacy. Ormonde steadfastly abstaining from denouncing the Scots as rebels, for many who had taken the Covenant were really Royalists, and those who had refused it were still worse disposed to the Parliament, whose promises of help had not been kept. The hard treatment of the King at Uxbridge and Montrose’s successes in Scotland had a great effect in Ulster, and for a moment Ormonde thought it possible to unite the English and Scots forces there under his own banner. The officers of the British forces in Ulster—excluding Monro and the new Scots—met at Antrim on May 17 and agreed to receive commissioners from the Parliament. They proposed, in spite of all the misery they had undergone, to continue the war until the conclusion of a safe and honourable peace by consent of King and Parliament, but, they significantly added, they ‘called heaven and earth to witness that it was not their fault, if they were forced to take any other way whatever for their preservation and subsistence.’ Five days before this Coote, who was in England, received a commission as President of Connaught. He hurried over to Ireland, and the presence of so resolute an officer with the necessary authority soon changed the aspect of affairs. First he entered his province at Ballinasloe and ravaged the country almost up to Galway. His next thought was to take Sligo, which was held by Teige O’Connor with a colonel’s commission from the Confederates. Four thousand foot and 500 horse assembled at Augher in Tyrone on June 17, consisting both of English and old Scots, and battering guns were sent to Sligo by sea. At the instance of Clanricarde, Ormonde gave a commission to Lord Taaffe, authorising him to raise troops and resist all who invaded Connaught in breach of the cessation, and Lord-President Dillon was directed to use his services in the last resort; but the appointment was ineffectual for the immediate purpose. Ten days later cannon were brought to bear upon Sligo Castle, and O’Connor surrendered. The town was defended a little longer, but was carried by assault with great slaughter. The Irish accounts say that men, women, and children were killed after quarter had been promised, ‘so as never a man escaped but two men and two women’; but these charges were generally made by both sides during the war, and it is not always possible to test them. The Sligo district was now at the mercy of Sir Frederick Hamilton and his allies, but recruits flocked to Taaffe’s standard in considerable numbers, and he turned his attention to Roscommon. Tulsk was taken by storm, and Major Robert Ormsby, a redoubtable partisan of the Parliament, was taken prisoner. Carrigdrumrusk and Boyle also fell, and then Lord Taaffe was recalled to Dublin. The chief authority in Connaught was for a short time in Archbishop Queely’s hands, but Major Luke Taaffe appears to have commanded the force which attempted to recover Sligo in October. A priest is out of place at the head of any army, and probably some of the evils attending a divided command were felt. At all events a very bad look-out was kept. On October 17 a cavalry detachment from Sir Robert Stewart’s army, under Lord Coloony and another Coote, fell upon the Irish and put them to flight. Sir Frederick Hamilton came up in time to take part in the pursuit, and there was great slaughter. Archbishop Queely was killed, and upon him was found the copy of the Glamorgan treaty which played so important a part.[77]
The nuncio Rinuccini.
His instructions.
The Curia imperfectly informed.
Scope of the nuncio’s mission
Giovanni Battista Rinuccini was of a good old Florentine family, and had been carefully educated. He was in his fifty-third year, and had been Bishop of Fermo since 1625. In 1631 he refused the archbishopric of Florence, telling the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. that he was too much attached to his flock to leave them. When the Irish Confederacy begged for a regular nuncio, Luigi Omodei, afterwards a cardinal, was first chosen, but passed over as a Spanish subject, whose appointment might be disagreeable to France. This was the reason given, and it seems sufficient, but according to Bellings Rinuccini was preferred to please Ferdinand, and that the revenues of Fermo might be applied for a time in liquidation of the bishop’s debts. He was given almost unlimited ecclesiastical authority and patronage in Ireland, with power to visit all monasteries and nunneries, even exempt jurisdictions, and to settle disputes between the various orders. He was directed to be chiefly guided by the advice of archbishop Queely and Bishop Emer Macmahon, and he was to establish the Tridentine decrees firmly. With regard to church lands in lay hands, he was to use his own discretion, treating each case on its merits, and giving grants or leases as he thought best, but always with the proviso that a sufficient part of the profits should be retained for the support of the clergy. About ecclesiastical matters in Ireland the Roman court was very well informed, Luke Wadding being at hand to answer every question. But political affairs were less well understood. Rinuccini was told, for instance, that the Parliament had ‘bound themselves by a sacrilegious oath to maintain and defend what they called the true reformed Protestant religion against all Popish inventions and innovations, and determined to extinguish every spark of the Catholic religion, by extirpating all who adhered to that faith, not only in England and Scotland, but even in Ireland. This dreadful sentence came to the knowledge of the Irish at a time when four thousand men were in arms, who had been levied for the service of the King of Spain, but were then detained in Ireland by order of the Parliament.’ The detention of the troops was indeed one great cause of the outbreak in 1641, but the men had been levied originally not for any foreign prince, but to enable Charles and Strafford to crush the English Parliament and their Scots allies. Parliament was undoubtedly ready to oppress the Roman Catholics, but there is no evidence of any intention to extirpate them. The friars persuaded the people that this had been determined on, and the argument was too convenient to be neglected. The main object of Rinuccini’s mission was to ‘restore and re-establish the public exercise of the Catholic religion in the island of Ireland, and further to lead her people, if not as tributaries to the Holy See, such as they were five centuries ago, to subject themselves to the mild yoke of the Pontiff, at least in all spiritual affairs—thus to gain over souls innumerable to the glories of Paradise.’[78]
Opinion held of Ormonde.
The Queen distrusted,
as well as the King.
The nuncio was informed that the cessation and its various renewals had done no good, and that peace was unlikely because Ormonde would ‘never yield save by force to the wishes of the Catholics.’ The Lord Lieutenant’s Protestantism was sincere, but in Rinuccini’s secret instruction a lingering hope is expressed that he might be gained over, perhaps through the Queen or ‘any particular predilection of which advantage might be taken.’ He had one predilection, the supremacy of the Crown in Church and State. The same secret instructions declared that Henrietta Maria must be kept out of Ireland, because Royalist heretics would flock round her and make the Irish suspicious, and because queens are expensive people to maintain. The Pope would give no help to the faithful in England except on condition that all disabilities affecting them should be taken away, the oath of supremacy abolished, and no peace made until these concessions were confirmed by Parliament. ‘To secure these conditions all the fortresses in Ireland must be put into the hands of English and Irish Catholics, because without some such pledge, their Majesties’ promises can not be depended on.’ No Irish army was to be landed in England if of less force than 10,000 men, ‘who may be able to defend themselves without danger of being cut to pieces by the English who serve under the King ... the Irish Catholics are so hated by the English Protestants that they would be in constant danger of treachery, if marching with cavalry, commanded by Protestant officers,’ and therefore the provision of a body of English Catholic cavalry proportionate to the Irish infantry was a condition precedent to the latter serving in England, and there is much more of the same kind. Had Charles known what ideas prevailed at Rome there would have been no Glamorgan treaty, no royal letters to the Pope or nuncio, and very probably no battle of Naseby.[79]
The nuncio’s journey to Paris.
French parties.
Effects of Naseby.
Attitude of Mazarin and Henrietta Maria.
Rinuccini travelled by Florence and Genoa, where the Doge’s attentions much delighted him, to Marseilles, and thence by Lyons, where the cardinal archbishop was barely civil, and he reached Paris at the end of the third week in May. He had strict orders not to linger long in the French capital, ‘lest the ill-affected should warn the Parliament of the enterprise.’ They were not likely to be ignorant, for the English merchants at Leghorn had plotted to intercept him at sea between Genoa and Cannes. He carried with him the golden rose, which was a dead secret, and he was ordered not to deliver it to Anne of Austria unless he was sure that it would be well received. There was some ill-feeling on account of the Pope’s late refusal to make Mazarin’s brother a cardinal, and this was increased by the mistake of a secretary who infringed diplomatic usage by neglecting to inform the nuncio at Paris of Rinuccini’s mission. The refusal to give up Beaupuis, who was implicated in the conspiracy of the Importants, and had been arrested at Rome at the French queen’s instance, made matters worse, and Rinuccini soon determined not to offer the rose, which would probably be refused under the circumstances. The Irish flocked to the nuncio with requests and advice, but the French were not enthusiastic. The Duke of Orleans, indeed, and the Prince of Condé, were friendly, the latter expressing the most extravagant devotion to the Holy See, but Mazarin was merely smooth and cautious. Jealousy of Spain was much more apparent in Court circles than sympathy with Ireland, but the devout Duke of Ventadour promoted a subscription of 100,000 crowns. After the news of Naseby the French became cooler than ever, but Henrietta Maria begged Rinuccini to bring about peace between the Irish, saying that she was empowered to do this by her husband. The persons trusted by her in the matter were the Jesuit O’Hartegan, whom Charles considered a knave; Bellings, who had reached Paris soon after the nuncio; and the inevitable Jermyn. Scarampi in the meantime was writing from Ireland that ‘the peace, if concluded, would be fatal.’ Rinuccini’s long stay in France was so far favourable to Scarampi’s views that the Confederates were unwilling to conclude anything until he arrived, and in the meantime the King’s necessities grew more pressing. ‘I have observed,’ says the nuncio, ‘that many in France are anxious to assist the King of England, but would rather it should be by the help of others, and consequently they would greatly like he should be aided by the Irish. Mazarin, who made some difficulty about an audience, gave vague promises, but was very cautious. Henrietta Maria offered to see Rinuccini privately, but he declined anything short of an official reception. It is perhaps true that she tried to prevent him from going to Ireland, for Scarampi showed from her letters that she was ‘always ready to treat of peace without one word concerning religion,’ and indeed it was quite impossible for her to act so as to alienate Protestant Royalists. It was equally impossible for her to please all parties.[80]
Rinuccini leaves Paris.
The voyage to Ireland.
The nuncio lands in Kerry, October 11/21
The journey to Limerick.
Reception at Kilkenny.
Bellings, who is a very hostile witness, says Rinuccini disliked the idea of Ireland, and tried to get himself appointed nuncio to France instead of Monsignor dei Bagni, and Mazarin seems to have been of the same opinion. However that may be, it is certain that he lingered for more than three months in Paris, and that he was severely reprimanded by the Pope for doing so without showing a sufficient reason to vary his original instructions on that point. At the date of that reproof he had got as far as Tours on his way to the coast. He succeeded in wringing 25,000 crowns from Mazarin, and persuaded Bellings to go to Flanders in the hope of preventing him from getting first to Ireland. O’Hartegan had letters in his possession which showed that Charles was trying to use the Irish for his own purposes, and had taken care that they should be known in Ireland, his object being to prevent any peace without extraordinary securities. Rinuccini sailed at last from the island of Rhé, more than six months after leaving Florence, accompanied by Bellings and about twenty Italians, of whom the most remarkable was Massari, Dean of Fermo. A nephew of the great Spinola, who soon died at Kilkenny, was sent before to explain or excuse the delay. There had been much difficulty about shipping, but the frigate San Pietro was obtained with Mazarin’s money. The cardinal said the French flag would protect all on board, but this turned out not to be the case. Rinuccini carried with him a considerable sum in specie and a large quantity of arms purchased in France, a consignment of swords, pistols, and muskets with 20,000 pounds of powder having preceded him to Ireland. The total amount received from Rome and from Mazarin was about 200,000 dollars, and of this nearly one-half had been laid out in arms and other warlike material. At sea the nuncio was chased first by an English squadron and afterwards by Plunket, a notorious rover or pirate, who, having become ‘a Puritan,’ was trusted by the English Parliament. Superior speed averted the first danger, but Plunket would have succeeded had not a fire broken out in his galley. ‘The frigate,’ says Rinuccini, ‘was dedicated to St. Peter, whose gilded image was placed at the poop ... and truly I see the hand of the Saint in the miraculous issue of this pursuit.’ In spite of this it was thought too dangerous to approach Waterford, and after six days at sea the San Pietro at last found shelter in Kenmare bay. The nuncio’s first letters are dated from Ardtully, about four miles to the eastward of Kenmare. ‘And here,’ he writes, ‘I may give your Eminence another proof of the Divine providence towards me in having discovered and touched land on October 21 and 22, which seem to be consecrated to an archbishop of Fermo, as on the 21st my Church celebrates the feast of Saint Mabel, one of the 11,000 virgins, whose head we have at Fermo, and whom we believe on no slight grounds to have been of Irish birth; while on the 22nd we also celebrate the martyrdom of St. Philip, Bishop of Fermo.... My first lodging was in a shepherd’s hut, in which animals also took shelter.’ The arms were temporarily stored in Ardtully Castle, and to avoid Inchiquin, Rinuccini proceeded by Macroom and Millstreet through the mountains to Limerick. The ruggedness of the roads and the steepness of the passes were, he says, indescribable, but the faithful flocked to meet him, and Ormonde’s brother Richard, specially sent by the Supreme Council, was among those who escorted him. At Limerick he found Scarampi, who had succeeded in making the hitherto neutral city declare itself, and heard of Archbishop Queely’s death. He reached Kilkenny on November 12, and was received with much pomp, which he evidently enjoyed. The Supreme Council held a special sitting in the Castle, and the nuncio had a chair covered with ‘red damask enriched with gold and handsomer than the president’s,’ but Mountgarret did not leave his place either at the beginning or end of the ceremony. The arrangements were made by Bellings, who would be sure to preserve the dignity of the civil power.’[81]