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

by Richard Bagwell

FOOTNOTES:

[74] Castlehaven’s summons to Cappoquin is dated April 14, 1645, Youghal Council Book, 552. Mitchelstown fell May 7 or 8, ib. lii. Castlehaven’s Memoirs, 54-56. For Castlehaven’s effort to make his soldiers respect capitulations, see ib. 61. Bellings, iv. 8. Writing to the Parliament, Broghill says Colonel ‘Ridgway, though drunk, killed nine men that day with his own hand. His drunkenness was owing to two tumblers of ryley ale, which he had from the Irish sutler’—Smith’s Cork, ed. Day, ii. 88.

[75] Smith’s Cork, ed. Day, i. 289, ii. 87, where the Egmont MS. is cited; Bellings, iv. 8-11; Castlehaven’s Memoirs, pp. 58-60; Castlehaven to the Supreme Council, June 17, 1645, in Confederation and War, ii. 281-4. Lady Broghill was Lady Margaret Howard, daughter of the second Earl of Suffolk, and is supposed to have been the heroine of Suckling’s delightful lines, ‘I tell thee, Dick, where I have been,’ &c.

[76] Rinuccini, Embassy, p. 45; Broghill’s Letter-book, Additional MS. 25, 287; Bellings, iv. 11-16; Castlehaven to the Supreme Council, June 17, 1675, in Confederation and War, iv. 281. As to the bad relations between Preston and Castlehaven, Bellings agrees with the Aphorismical Discovery, i. 196: ‘Two generals with unsubordinate power in one and the same army, neither obeying the other, or either said by a council of war.’ Youghal Council Book, lii.

[77] Carte’s Ormonde, i. 54; Confederation and War, iv. 353; Bellings, iv. 16; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 93. The authorities are collected in the two modern histories of Sligo by Archdeacon O’Rorke and Colonel Wood-Martin. Scarampi wrote: ‘Posteaquam se pactis dediderant, occiderunt barbare præsidium nostrum circa ducentorum militum necnon omnes pueros et mulieres’—Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 293. The Irish Cabinet containing the captured papers is in Husband’s Collection, p. 782, reprinted in Harl. Misc. v. 485, and in Somers Tracts, v. 542. Good News from Ireland, communicated to Parliament, January 12, 1645-6, and printed by authority, January 15. As to Coote’s first movements, Clanricarde to Ormonde, May 6, Carte MSS. vol. lxiii. f. 443.

[78] Papal brief of March 15, 1645 (Latin), in Embassy in Ireland, xiii. Instructions to Rinuccini, ib. xxvii.

[79] Secret Instructions to Rinuccini in Embassy, li.; Memoranda for him, ib. lvii.

[80] Embassy in Ireland, pp. 8-52, particularly Rinuccini’s letters of August 4 and 11; Scarampi’s letter of May 8, ib. 553; and of July 14, in Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 292; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 91.

[81] Rinuccini’s Embassy, p. 90; Bellings, iv. 5-7. See also the translation of a paper preserved at Rome, reprinted in appendix to Meehan’s Confederation, from the Dublin Review for 1845.

[CHAPTER XXVII]
THE ORMONDE PEACE, 1646

Glamorgan and the nuncio.

Digby in Dublin.

Rinuccini and the Confederates not in accord.

Attitude of Henrietta Maria.

While at Rochelle waiting for his ship, Rinuccini had seen Geoffrey Baron, treasurer of the Confederation, who told him that no peace had yet been made in Ireland, and who brought a letter from Glamorgan. Baron, ‘a cavalier of excellent countenance and very affable manner,’ was on his way to Paris to succeed O’Hartegan, who seems to have returned to Ireland a little later. Glamorgan returned from Dublin to Kilkenny one week after the nuncio’s arrival, and in due course delivered the King’s letter to him. Of that to the Pope he only showed the address, but he disclosed the contents of two ‘patents in which the King gives him secret but full powers to conclude a peace with the Irish, on whatever terms he thinks advisable.’ In the meantime Lord Digby, who bore the now empty title of principal secretary of state, had arrived in Dublin. It was characteristic of Charles’s diplomacy that his English minister was even more ignorant of Glamorgan’s business than his Irish viceroy. Glamorgan was sanguine that the nuncio would agree to everything required; but Ormonde calls him ‘the Italian bishop,’ and an ‘unbidden guest,’ which he would not have done had he known of the King’s letter to him. Rinuccini found that the majority of the Confederates were inclined to accept Ormonde’s political articles, and to leave the religious question for later consideration. Noblemen and lawyers saw plainly enough that the King could not grant what would satisfy the Pope without making his position in England hopeless, and they wished to save their properties with the hope of later concessions in church matters. The certain ruin of the royal cause was the worst thing that could happen, for from the Parliament nothing but evil was to be expected. Some, says Rinuccini, ‘audaciously declare that the Catholic interest could not fail to prosper under the government of a nobleman so warmly attached to the cause of Ireland as the Marquis of Ormonde; others are not ashamed to say that it is sufficient to perform the Catholic service in secret, provided it can be done in safety, and that to expect more than this from the King, restricted as he is at the present moment in his liberty, would be open injustice; and finally, that it is not lawful to contend with him in this cause. No one holds forth more loudly in favour of this doctrine than that priest Leyburn sent here six months ago by the Queen, and whose words almost amount to sedition.’ Leyburn’s mission was known and feared at Rome, where it was well understood that Henrietta Maria was willing to make peace ‘without one word concerning religion,’ and considered ‘the whole well-being of the Catholics to depend on peace with the Protestants.’ A still greater obstacle to peace on Rinuccini’s terms was the personal popularity of Ormonde, and the fact that the Council ‘were mostly relations, friends, clients, or dependants of his house.’[82]

Arrest of Glamorgan.

Examination of Glamorgan.

His answer.

The Irish Government horror-struck.

A copy of the Glamorgan treaty came into Ormonde’s hands, and was shown to Digby, who was in Dublin before the end of November. Glamorgan himself reached the Irish capital on Christmas Eve, and on St. Stephen’s Day he was arrested at Digby’s instance, and closely confined to the Castle, ‘yet with needful attendance and accommodation,’ and not as Rinuccini heard, ‘without even a servant left to attend him.’ The prisoner being brought before the Council, Digby produced copies of the treaty, of the ‘pretended authority’ of March 12, 1644-5, and of the oath taken by Glamorgan. The King complained at this time that Ormonde had been long without writing, the fact probably being that he knew just enough to make him cautious and not enough to enable him to advise. The fatal papers were read to the Irish Council, Digby declaring that the commission was either forged or obtained by fraud, or at the very least limited by other instructions. It was ‘destructive both to his regality and religion,’ and such as the King would never grant to save his Crown or life, or the lives of his wife and children. Next day Glamorgan was examined on interrogatories, framed so as to shield Charles while accumulating blame upon his agent. It was not sought to prove that he had forged the King’s commissions of January 12 and March 12, for probably both Ormonde and Digby knew in their hearts that they were genuine, though they had not seen them before the conclusion of the treaty. The fourth interrogatory was as follows: ‘Did your lordship grant, conclude, and agree, on the behalf of his Majesty, his heirs and successors ... that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland should and might from thenceforth for ever hold and enjoy all and every such lands, tenements, tithes, and hereditaments whatsoever by them respectively enjoyed within this kingdom, or by them possessed at any time since October 23, 1641, and all other such lands, tenements, tithes, and hereditaments belonging to the clergy within this kingdom, other than such as are now actually enjoyed by his Majesty’s Protestant clergy?’ In reply Glamorgan acknowledged the words of the treaty, while considering them ‘not obligatory to his Majesty.’ He was afterwards allowed to add the words ‘and yet without any just blemish of my honour, my honesty, or my conscience.’ At the end of four days Glamorgan was released from close imprisonment, but confined to the walls of the Castle for more than three weeks longer. In reporting to the King the Lord Lieutenant and Council confess that they were ‘stricken with most wonderful horror and astonishment to find so sacred a majesty so highly scandalled and dishonoured.’ And, said Ormonde for himself, ‘it is manifest that the retarding of the peace is no way on the part of me the Lieutenant, but ought rather to be attributed to that underhand dealing of the said Earl, whereby that party have been encouraged to hope for such concessions as they themselves had before receded from, as wanting confidence to insist on matters so unreasonable.’ It was pointed out that Glamorgan had mis-recited the commission authorising Ormonde to treat for peace, that he had acknowledged Mountgarret’s ‘usurped style and title’ as Lord President of the Supreme Council, and that ‘he had strangely misinterpreted the facts of the case when he discerned the alacrity and cheerfulness of the said Catholics to embrace honourable conditions of peace.’ They had shown their loyalty by ‘entertaining a nuncio from the Pope,’ and at the same time negotiating with a messenger from the King of Spain, ‘and how comely it is that such treaty with foreigners should be held at the same time that they are in treaty with his Majesty’s commissioners we humbly submit to his Majesty’s high wisdom.’[83]

Charles repudiates Glamorgan.

Negotiations for peace interrupted.

Glamorgan released on bail.

As soon as Charles heard of the proceedings in Dublin, he proceeded characteristically to repudiate Glamorgan, to whom, he said, he had given a commission to raise and employ troops, ‘and to that purpose only.’ All his other doings were without warrant, and ‘framed of his own head.’ For himself the King was quite ready to go to London and to confer with the two Houses on the basis of making no peace in Ireland without their consent. Failing such a conference, Ormonde was to make a treaty which would preserve the Irish Protestants and the Crown, without being derogatory to the King’s honour and public professions. With chivalrous loyalty, which cannot be too much commended, Glamorgan kept silence under this undeserved rebuke. He had already shown Ormonde the original and given him an attested copy of a document which was probably the patent of April 1, 1644, strictly charging him to keep it secret. It might be useful to the Lord Lieutenant for his ‘future warrantry to his Majesty,’ but publication would not be for the King’s service. Ormonde sent a copy of this paper to the King, describing it as ‘of an extraordinary nature and way of penning,’ but expressing no doubts of its genuineness. The Supreme Council at Kilkenny said negotiations could not go on nor Chester be relieved until ‘a nobleman, so highly esteemed by the nation, and chosen general of that army by the unanimous vote of the Confederate Catholics, were released.’ To Ormonde Charles averred ‘on the word of a Christian’ that he never intended Glamorgan to do anything without his approbation. A prosecution of the Earl was necessary to clear his Majesty’s honour, but he had been actuated by mistaken zeal. The King was quite satisfied with the Lord Lieutenant, and begged him not to sentence Glamorgan, unless he found it too dangerous not to do so. Glamorgan was liberated after nearly a month’s detention, but bound to appear within thirty days after summons, bail being given for 40,000l., half on his own part and half on that of the Earls of Clanricarde and Kildare. Both the sureties had houses in Dame Street, where service was declared good. Glamorgan went back to Kilkenny, entering the town late ‘to avoid the vanity’ of popular demonstrations in his favour, and Rinuccini was rather sorry to see him, because his return removed one obstacle to the conclusion of peace. The interest of Rome was to continue the war, and the nuncio pleaded hard for delay, at least until the articles came to which the Pope had agreed.[84]

Mission of Sir Kenelm Digby.

The Queen’s religion.

The broken reed to be sacrificed.

In the spring of 1645 Henrietta Maria sent Sir Kenelm Digby to Rome. The choice of this fantastic genius was not a happy one, and the cool-headed Italians soon found that he was not a serious diplomatist. He could show no authority from the King, and that derived from an exiled Queen, who was hated in England and not much loved in Ireland, hardly afforded security enough. He received an order for 20,000 Roman crowns to be laid out in munitions of war, and carried with him articles to which he undertook to get the royal consent. He left Rome in December for Paris, where he was to see the Queen. After that he proposed to visit the King in England and the nuncio in Ireland. He was at Nantes at the end of January and on the point of sailing for Ireland, but returned to Paris instead, whence he made his way back to Rome a few months later. ‘Let him say what he will,’ wrote Bonaventure Barron to Wadding, ‘this is certainly true that excepting going to mass, the Queen has no other religion than the Lord Jermyn’s, and that both are all agreeing in this, that while there is any hope of relieving the King by a Protestant, a Catholic shall never be admitted to his succour, and while they think the Scots can do it, the Irish shall never be admitted to a communication in the work, much less to any good conditions for our nation, which is equally hated by the King, Parliament, Scots, Queen, and Jermyn.’ This was written in May, after Charles had left Oxford on that sad journey which ended in the Scotch camp, but the learned Franciscan was well informed, and had perhaps seen some of the letters received by the Queen. In January the King had told his wife that Ireland ‘must at all times be sacrificed to save the crown of England, Montreuil assuring me that France, rather than fail, will assist me in satisfying the Scots’ arrears.’ His later letters to her are in the same spirit, and with some reason from his own point of view, he declares the Irish wanting in generosity. Colepepper about the same time pronounced Ireland to be a broken reed, and the same simile was applied at Rome to the heretics upon whom King and Queen alike were disposed to lean.[85]

Sir Kenelm Digby’s treaty.

Protestants to be excluded from office.

An Irish invasion of England.

The nuncio throws over Glamorgan,

who gives up his treaty.

Ormonde’s reflections on the business.

A copy of the articles agreed to with Digby was sent to Rinuccini early in November 1645, and reached him in due course. This paper was unsigned, and differed in some respects from the formally authenticated version entrusted to Sir Kenelm himself, but the main points were the same. Seven articles applied to Ireland, and by them the King was required to grant the free and public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and to restore the hierarchy, with all churches and church property. The abbey lands ‘pretended’ to have been confirmed to lay grantees by Cardinal Pole were to be left to a free Parliament, and so were the bishoprics in the King’s hands. All penal laws passed since ‘the defection of Henry VIII.’ were to be first abrogated by the King and then repealed by a free Irish Parliament, ‘independent of that of England.’ The viceroy and all the chief placeholders were to be Catholics, and all towns, including Dublin, to be placed in Catholic hands, and the King was to join his forces with those of the Confederate Catholics so as to drive the Scots and the Parliamentarians out of Ireland. When the King had done these things, ‘and whatever else Monsignor Rinuccini may add to or alter in these articles,’ the Pope would give the Queen 100,000 Roman crowns. In England all penal laws were to be repealed and all disabilities removed, and the kingdom was to be invaded by 12,000 infantry under Irish chiefs, who were to be assisted by at least 2,500 English cavalry with Catholic officers. As soon as a landing and junction had been effected the Pope was to pay his money in twelve monthly instalments, a like sum to be paid in the second and third year if circumstances justified it. By an article added afterwards six months were given for the ratification of the Irish articles, and ten for the English, ‘after which his Holiness will not be bound by his present promise.’ Rinuccini received this document in February while the General Assembly was sitting at Kilkenny. Glamorgan, not without some wry faces and much to the disgust of his friends, at once agreed to abandon his own treaty and to adopt Sir Kenelm Digby’s. It was an excuse for delay that the original had not yet come to hand, and that was the nuncio’s main object. Glamorgan was reminded that he had exceeded his instructions, that he had talked at Dublin about what he had orders to keep secret, that he had spoken of using an Irish army to force the King’s hand, and in short that he could only cast off his load of responsibility by submitting to the Pope. It was evident that he could do nothing by himself, and that his promises had melted into air, ‘Lord Digby having declared that the Protestants would rather throw the King out of window than permit his Majesty to confirm them.’ Speaking in the assembly Rinuccini said that Glamorgan’s treaty was worthless because its confirmation depended on the will of another, and that the Roman treaty was every way preferable. Both were really waste paper, and everyone at Kilkenny knew it except the clergy and the clericals. Ormonde reminded Glamorgan that the chief object of the peace was to relieve Chester, and that could not be done unless troops were sent at once. To this the poor man answered that the Queen’s powerful hand effaced the ‘clandestine hopes’ of his own endeavours. A burnt child, he said, dreads the fire, and he would most willingly leave treaty-making to the Lord Lieutenant, who could not as ‘a great and public minister of State and real Protestant’ appear publicly, but who might give a hint to his friends at Kilkenny to deal with the nuncio. For himself he proposed to raise 100,000l. in Catholic countries, which was impossible if the Pope were ‘irritated,’ or the nuncio ‘disgusted.’ Rinuccini, he added, had agreed to let 3000 men go at once for the relief of Chester, and he believed shipping could be readily had. When this was written Chester had fallen, and a rumour had reached Ormonde when he penned an answer in his best manner. ‘My Lord,’ he said, ‘my affections and interests are so tied to his Majesty’s cause that it were madness in me to disgust any man that hath power and inclination to relieve him, in the sad condition he is in, and therefore your Lordship may securely go on in the ways you have proposed to yourself to serve the King without fear of interruption from me, or so much as inquiring into the means you work by.’ For himself he had a commission to treat with the Confederates, and he intended to do so without venturing ‘upon any new negotiation foreign to the powers he had received.’ In the meantime the proposed succours were likely to be too late.[86]

Glamorgan’s oath of fealty.

Conclusion of peace.

Glamorgan was not satisfied with abandoning as worthless the treaty which had cost him so much, he must needs swear fealty to the nuncio in terms such as perhaps no other English layman has ever used. ‘I swear,’ he wrote, ‘to obey all your commands readily without reluctance and with a joyful mind. I make this perpetual protestation on my bended knees to your most illustrious and reverend lordship, not only as the Pope’s minister but also as a remarkable personage, and as witnesses of the purity of my intentions I invoke the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints of Paradise.’ The result of this alliance was the consent of the Supreme Council to prolong the cessation till May 1, so as to give time for the arrival of Sir Kenelm Digby’s original articles. Neither Digby nor the documents ever reached Ireland, for the Queen did not choose that they should, and peace was concluded with Ormonde on March 28, on the understanding that the terms were not to be divulged until May 1, Rinuccini failing to get a further postponement. ‘I command you,’ Charles had written, ‘to conclude a peace with the Irish, whatever it cost; so that my Protestant subjects there may be secure, and my regal authority preserved. But for all this, you are to make the best bargain you can, and not to discover your enlargement of power till you needs must.’ This was early in 1645. Six months later, after Naseby, the King ‘absolutely and without reply,’ commanded Ormonde to make the peace, with the consent of his Council if possible, but to make it anyhow. The contracting parties were Ormonde alone on the King’s part and the following commissioners for the Confederate Catholics: Ormonde’s uncle, Viscount Mountgarret, and his brother-in-law, Viscount Muskerry, Sir Robert Talbot, Tyrconnel’s eldest brother; Colonel Dermot O’Brien; Patrick Darcy of Plattin; Geoffrey Brown and John Dillon, two lawyers who were designated as future judges. The conditions of a peace which was no peace might seem hardly worth dwelling on, but that they mark clearly the furthest point to which Charles would openly, if not altogether willingly, go in his dealings with the Irish Roman Catholics. A few weeks after the peace was signed, and before it was published, he ceased to be a free agent, and the desperate expedients of a prisoner scarcely count. The articles occupy twenty-two printed pages, but the principal points may be clearly brought out in a short abstract.

Summary of the articles.

1. The oath of supremacy to be abolished, so far as concerns Roman Catholics, in the next Irish Parliament; and an oath of allegiance substituted. All statutory penalties and disabilities to be repealed by the same Act. ‘That his Majesty’s said Roman Catholic subjects be referred to his Majesty’s gracious favour and further concessions.’

2. An Irish Parliament to be held before November 30, when all the articles were to be performed by law, the King undertaking to make no alterations under Poynings’ Act.

3. All legal acts done against Roman Catholics since August 7, 1641, to be vacated. Debts to remain as they stood before the outbreak.

6. Titles to land to be confirmed under the graces of 1628.

7. All educational disabilities affecting Roman Catholics to be removed.

8. All offices, civil and military, to be open to Roman Catholics.

9. The Court of Wards to be abolished on payment of 12,000l.

10, 11. Peers without estates in Ireland to have no votes. Irish Parliament to be as independent as it ever had been.

12. Titles to land to be decided by law and not by the Council.

13. Acts in restraint of trade to be repealed.

14. Viceroys to hold for a limited term of years and not to acquire estates.

15. An Act of oblivion for all offences civil and criminal since October 23, 1641, with some exceptions to be hereafter specified.

16. Officials and judges to have no interest in the revenue.

17. Monopolies abolished.

18. To regulate the court of Castle-chamber.

19. ‘That two Acts lately passed in this kingdom, prohibiting the ploughing with horses by the tail, and the other prohibiting the burning of oats in the straw, be repealed.’

20. Breakers of the cessation or of this peace to be punished.

21, 22. Simplification of legal remedies.

23, 24. Quit-rents increased by Strafford to be reduced again.

25. Commissioners named to raise and transport to England 10,000 men for the King’s service, and to collect overdue taxes.

26, 27. Commissioners named to appoint to judicial offices until Parliament meets, but without power to decide questions of title, and no other judges to have power within the Confederate quarters.

28. The status quo as to garrisons.

29. Further details as to taxation.

30. The judicial commissioners to have jurisdiction in every case, including murder, arising since September 15, 1643.[87]

Delay fatal to Charles.

Digby repulsed from Scilly.

The nuncio’s opinion of Charles I.

Glamorgan’s forlorn condition.

The peace proclaimed at Dublin, July 30, 1646.

These articles when duly executed were placed in Clanricarde’s hands, to be kept secret until such time after May 1 as Ormonde might choose for their publication. Before that day the Parliamentary fleets had begun their summer cruises and the sea was entirely at their mercy. Chester having fallen, it was almost out of the question to land men in Wales. Six thousand of the promised troops were ready, and orders were given for levying the remainder, but shipping could not be provided, and there was no money either at Dublin or Kilkenny. The attempt to put down the English people with Irish troops failed as it had failed in the days of Strafford, and as it was destined to fail in the days of Tyrconnel. In the meantime Lord Digby found a plan of his own for bringing the Prince of Wales to Ireland and rallying round him there all the forces opposed to the Parliament. Rinuccini dreaded the success of this scheme, but it was not he who prevented it. Digby sailed with two small frigates and 300 men to Scilly, where the Prince remained from March 4 to April 16, but did not get there till after the latter date. ‘The men of the island,’ wrote Plunket to Ormonde, ‘put themselves in arms and loudly cried that no Irish rebels should land there, the Lord Digby thereupon parted thence with one frigate, and one hundred of the men to Guernsey or Jersey.’ The other frigate with the remaining men returned to Waterford. According to Daniel O’Neill, the King’s principal secretary was ‘drunk nine days out of ten with white wine’ during the preparation of his little expedition, which may have had something to do with its being late. The Confederates depended on Glamorgan’s treaty for relief to their religion further than that promised by Ormonde. It was true that both sets of articles depended really upon the King’s word and upon his ability to keep it, but as professed Royalists they could not reject the first nor assume the permanent absence of the second. Rinuccini, who had no duties except to the Church, very rightly held that Charles’s word was worth nothing, and it was evident to him that if the royal power was destroyed in England it could not long survive in Ireland without foreign help. The King had justified the nuncio’s opinion by repudiating Glamorgan, and when this was known at Kilkenny he lost all credit, ‘with the merchants in particular, so that he really had not enough to live upon.’ He spoke to the French agent Dumoulin about leading the troops intended for England into Louis XIV.’s service, but there was no chance of that being allowed. The nuncio’s position was strengthened by a royal letter to Ormonde written from Newcastle under Scotch influence. ‘We think fit,’ the King said, ‘to require you to proceed no further in treaty with the rebels nor to engage us upon conditions with them after sight hereof’; the alleged motive being anxiety for the safety of the Irish Protestants. This came to Ormonde’s hands three months after the signature of the Dublin peace. A very few days later Digby returned from France, where a letter had been received from the King in which he declared that he was no longer free, and that Ormonde was to proceed as before. Digby accordingly publicly declared the Newcastle letter to be a forgery or written under duress. This satisfied the Council, and the peace was proclaimed in Dublin on July 30. On August 3 the Supreme Council at Kilkenny followed suit. ‘We require,’ they wrote, ‘the above proclamation to be printed, and do order and require the same to be published, and due obedience to be given thereunto by all the Confederate Catholics of Ireland.’[88]

Siege of Bunratty, March-July, 1646.

The castle in its grandeur

Fight at Sixmilebridge, April 1.

Barnabas O’Brien, sixth Earl of Thomond, had endeavoured to stand neutral during the early years of the war, and to live quietly in Clare. As a Protestant his natural leaning was to Ormonde, who could not protect him; and in October 1644 the Kilkenny assembly, treating neutrals as enemies, ordered his tenants to pay no rent, and took steps to sequestrate his vast estates for the benefit of the Confederacy. Finding his position intolerable, Thomond surrendered Bunratty to the Parliament in March 1646, and soon went himself to England. A Parliamentary fleet under Penn lay in the Shannon, and there was no difficulty about putting a garrison of 700 men under Colonel MacAdam into Bunratty Castle, which lies upon the estuary of the Ogarney river. It is now the most melancholy of ruins; but Rinuccini, who beheld it in its days of grandeur, thought it the finest thing he had ever seen, and Bellings’s description bears him out. ‘It is,’ he says, ‘a noble structure, reputed strong when engines of battery were not so frequent, and before time and experience had brought the art of taking in places to perfection. On the south it hath the river of the Shannon, distant from it about a mile of marsh and meadow ground. On the east it is washed by the river which falling to the Shannon at the end of a goodly plain, ebbs and flows with it. To the north at some distance from the castle it is environed with an eminent ridge of earth, which bounds a goodly park, save that it wanted the ornament of timber trees; it was then stored with the largest deer in the kingdom.’ Glamorgan, who was now entirely in the nuncio’s hands, went to Limerick and busied himself about preparations for the recovery of Bunratty; but the garrison were at first successful. A party of Irish, consisting of 120 horse and 300 foot, came from Sixmilebridge and burned a few houses, but were routed by a sally and lost eighty men, their commander, Captain Magrath, and his lieutenant, being taken prisoners. In the afternoon of the same day the victors, amounting to fifty horse and 600 foot, went to Sixmilebridge and attacked the Irish camp. About 1400 men were strongly entrenched there, but were driven out and took to the woods. A few were slain, but a more important success was the capture of 250 barrels of meal, which supplied the garrison of Bunratty with bread for six weeks. Next day they went as far as Ballyquin, where the Irish had first encamped, burned a large store of corn, and returned with some plunder to Bunratty. Magrath and his subaltern both died of their wounds and were buried with military honours.

Muskerry presses the siege.

Rinuccini joins the besiegers.

Bunratty capitulates, July 14.

It was not till the middle of May that the Irish began to press the siege by taking the outlying castles of Cappagh and Rossmanagher. The works of Bunratty itself were strengthened by the labour and skill of the sailors, but it became difficult to supply the garrison with food and ammunition. The besiegers encamped in the park, where the underwood supplied material for gabions and fascines, and ate the deer, which they roasted with the dry wood of the palings. Muskerry arrived at the end of the month, and after that the siege became closer. Letters were received from Broghill, but no relief came. Rinuccini came to Limerick about the middle of May, where he had the satisfaction of superintending the rejoicings for Benburb, but he found that the siege of Bunratty was likely to be raised for want of money to pay the soldiers. There were frequent sallies from the garrison, but nothing decisive on either side. The nuncio went himself to the camp at the end of June with all that remained of the Pope’s money, to which he added some of his own, and the attack was after that pressed with more vigour. Colonel MacAdam was killed by a stray round shot which came in at a window, and his loss proved fatal to the defence. Eighteen bags of money and some of Thomond’s plate had been guarded by the commandant; but this treasure was now divided among themselves by the officers who found it, in spite of Penn’s remonstrances. When Muskerry’s men succeeded in getting heavy guns down to the shore where the action of the defenders was weak, ships could no longer lie near, and want of provisions soon became felt. On July 14 the garrison capitulated, and were carried off in Penn’s boats. Rinuccini was satisfied that his presence and assistance during the siege would cause ‘the people to recognise it as an apostolic undertaking,’ and a Te Deum was sung in the cathedral, where ten captured colours were displayed.[89]

Battle of Benburb, June 5, 1646.

While Rinuccini was at Limerick, and before Bunratty was taken, O’Neill gained his great victory at Benburb. The tidings were peculiarly grateful to the nuncio, in that success was entirely due to the Ulster Irish, and in no sense to the Supreme Council or to any who favoured Ormonde’s peace. And, moreover, the efficiency of O’Neill’s army was mainly due to the Pope’s money, brought over and distributed by Rinuccini himself.

Monro plans an attack on Kilkenny.

Over-confidence of the Scots.

Owen Roe’s speech.

In the early summer of 1646 the Confederacy was so weakened by internal dissensions that Monro thought it possible to take Kilkenny. It was arranged that Sir Robert Stewart’s army should enter Connaught while he engaged O’Neill. In the event of both attacks being successful, he could then march southwards without any great probability of meeting an enemy that could stop him. He had 3400 foot ‘effective under arms,’ with eleven troops of horse and six field pieces. Campbell of Auchinbreck was left in command at Carrickfergus. The general’s nephew, Colonel George Monro, was to join him at Glaslough in Monaghan, bringing 240 musketeers and three troops of horse from Coleraine. Monro left the neighbourhood of Belfast on June 2, and spent the night of the 3rd at or near Dromore. On the following morning he detached a troop of horse, under Daniel Monro, with orders to cross the Blackwater at Benburb and meet his namesake at Dungannon. At Armagh Daniel learned from a prisoner that O’Neill was concentrating his forces at Benburb, and the fear lest George Monro should be cut off probably accounts for the Scottish general’s subsequent proceedings. The army spent the night of the 4th at Hamilton’s Bawn, and in the morning Monro went through Armagh to view the bridges and ford at Benburb. Both are commanded by high rocks crowned by Shane O’Neill’s castle, and it was impossible to attempt the passage in front of the Irish army. Monro then marched to Caledon, where he crossed the Blackwater, doubled back on the left bank, and faced the enemy late in the afternoon. After the long march it would have been prudent to halt till the morning; and, moreover, sun and wind were in the eyes of the Scots, but they were overconfident of victory. ‘All our army,’ says Monro, ‘foot and horse, did earnestly covet fighting, which was impossible for me to gainstand without being reproached of cowardice.’ Sir James Turner, however, declared that his greatest fault as a general was a tendency to underrate his enemy. O’Neill had with him about 5000 men, including 500 horse, ‘such as they were,’ and took up a position on hilly ground to the west of Benburb. He detached the greater portion of his mounted men to intercept George Monro, but they scarcely did more than neutralise that skilful leader. The two armies met at Drumflugh, between the Oona brook and Benburb. O’Neill made a short speech to his men, reminding them that they were the ancient inhabitants of Ulster, professing the same faith as those who first brought Christianity into Ireland. ‘You have arms in your hands,’ he said, ‘you are as numerous as they are; and now try your valour and your strength on those that have banished you and now resolve to destroy you bud and branch. So let your manhood be seen by your push of pike; and I will engage, if you do so, by God’s assistance and the intercession of His blessed mother and all the holy saints in heaven, that the day will be your own. Your word is Sancta Maria; and so, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, advance, and give not fire till you are within picket-length.’[90]

The Scots completely defeated,

with great slaughter.

Monro’s apology.

An old soldier’s comments.

The battle did not begin till about six in the evening, by which time the sun was well in the eyes of the Scots. The wind was also against them, and there were clouds of dust and smoke. Monro’s guns were placed on high ground, but they did little damage, the round shot going over the heads of O’Neill’s men as they descended into the plain, which was full of bushes and scrubby timber. Monro’s front was too narrow, and there were no proper intervals for his rear divisions to come out in front. So learned a general might have remembered something about the Roman maniples. Overcrowding resulted in confusion, and this was increased by a squadron of his own cavalry, ‘consisting,’ as he says, ‘for the most part of Irish riders, although under the English command, who did not charge, but retreated disorderly through our foot, making the enemies’ horse for to follow them at least one squadron.’ He thought they were at least half traitors. The foot fought on bravely till sunset, when they broke and fled. The majority sought the neighbouring ford of the Blackwater, where Battleford Bridge now is, and the slaughter there was frightful. Sir Phelim O’Neill, who commanded the horse, specially charged his men to take no prisoners and to give no quarter. Others fled towards Caledon, and many of them were drowned in Knocknacloy Lake. Of those who crossed the river a large number were killed in passing through the county of Armagh. Most of the horse escaped with Monro, who acknowledges a loss of 500 or 600 men; but the Irish accounts say that from 3000 to 4000 bodies were counted. A long train of carts followed the army, so that many camp-followers were probably killed, and the truth is likely to be somewhere between the two extremes. The Irish slain were under forty, and the wounded under 250. George Monro got back to Coleraine without the loss of a man. Monro’s wig, cloak, sword, and cap fell into the victor’s hands with thirty-two colours and the standard of the cavalry. Even those who escaped for the most part threw away their arms, which enabled O’Neill to enrol fresh men. Lord Blayney, who commanded the artillery, was killed, all his guns being taken. Lord Montgomery of Ardes, who led the cavalry during the battle, was taken prisoner with about twenty other officers. Monro’s army was not annihilated, but it was to a great extent disarmed, and ceased to be an aggressive force. Over-confidence was certainly one main cause of his defeat. ‘The Lord of Hosts,’ he says himself, ‘had a controversy with us to rub shame on our faces, as on other armies, till once we shall be humbled; for a greater confidence did I never see.’ The ‘British Officer’ agrees that this was the chief cause of disaster; also mentioning the sun and wind and the long march, and that the soldiers, who had had little rest or refreshment since leaving Lisburn, stood to their arms for at least five hours. Another reason, he adds, is ‘that the Irish pikes were longer by a foot or two than the Scottish pikes, and far better to pierce, being four square and small, and the other pikes broad-headed, which are the worst in the world. Withal to my knowledge, the soldiers, I mean some that were not strong in the British army for his pike on a windy day, would cut off a foot, and some two, of their pikes—which is a damned thing to be suffered.’[91]

Small results of the victory.

Rejoicings at Limerick,

and at Rome.

The nuncio’s donative.

Military authorities are agreed that the general who wins a great victory ought to pursue his beaten enemy to the uttermost. One reason why O’Neill did not do this may have been that he was afraid of Sir Robert Stewart falling upon Tyrone in his absence; but he was a man of few words, and it does not appear that he ever said as much. He raised new regiments, which he armed with the spoils of victory, and waited for orders from Kilkenny. Want of money was no doubt a cause of delay. His appearance at Augher caused Stewart to retire towards Londonderry, and O’Neill lay inactive, first at Tanderagee and then at Loughanlea in Cavan. Four days after the battle he sent Boetius MacEgan, an eminent Franciscan, to Limerick with a letter to Rinuccini, who was quite certain that a miracle had taken place. The Jesuit O’Hartegan, who had returned from France, followed with the captured colours, which were carried in procession through Limerick to the cathedral. The people filled the streets and windows, the Te Deum was sung by the nuncio’s choir, and high mass afterwards by the Dean of Fermo in the presence of four bishops and of the civic magistrates. When the news reached Rome, Innocent X. attended at Santa Maria Maggiore and heard a Te Deum sung there also. Rinuccini was sure that if he had only money enough he could make the greater part of Ireland obedient to the Pope. All his letters declare that money would do almost everything in Ireland; but it was a scarce commodity, and without it even the clergy could not ‘keep the soldiers quiet and united.’ The nuncio had still a little left, and he despatched Dean Massari to Ulster, who gave three rials to each soldier and larger sums to the officers. The donative was small, but it tended to foster the notion that it was the nuncio’s war, and that little regard need be paid to the viceroy or to the Council at Kilkenny, where Anglo-Irish influences were in the ascendant.

Roscommon taken.

O’Neill forced to let his men plunder.

Preston had also been successful in Connaught, but the capture of Roscommon, though important, paled before the glories of Benburb. Neither general was in a condition to attack Sligo. Preston had no ammunition for a siege, no means of drawing his guns over the Curlew hills, and no money to pay his men. Even the sums promised—for they had not arrived at the end of July—were not enough to last for a week on active service. The country was so wasted that everyone would have to carry a month’s provisions with him, and this could only be had for ready money. Ormonde urged Preston to reduce Connaught before the summer season slipped away, but admitted that little help in money for the Leinster army could be expected from Leinster. Both Preston and O’Neill offered Rinuccini to march on Dublin, looking no doubt to him for the means; but he refused because Dumoulin, the French agent, was there, lest the Pope might be embroiled with the Most Christian King. The part of that province which bordered on Ulster was overrun by O’Neill’s men, who plundered all classes and creeds impartially, so that they appeared as conquerors rather than allies. Ormonde attributed it ‘to the necessities imposed on General O’Neill for want of means to go on or to keep his men in better order where he is.’[92]

Rinuccini works against the peace.

The clergy at Waterford.

The peace not proclaimed at Waterford.

Want of money and ill-feeling between the native and Anglo-Irish notables prevented the greatest of Irish victories from having any permanent results. Rinuccini left the Supreme Council at Limerick under the impression that he would not object further to Ormonde’s peace, but he continued to counter-mine it while they despatched Muskerry, who would have been more useful in Munster, to be present at the proclamation in Dublin. Arriving at Waterford at the beginning of August, the nuncio summoned the clergy to meet him there in order to take steps for constituting a national synod. When he had got them together, they immediately fell to debate the peace; and this had, no doubt, been his real object. Scarampi, who had not yet sailed, was authorised to write letters urging the municipalities of Limerick, Cashel, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Galway, Wexford, and New Ross not to allow the peace to be published. In the meantime, Ulster King-at-Arms had arrived at Waterford with orders from Ormonde to proclaim the peace there. The mayor and aldermen refused him permission on various grounds. They had already been warned by the previous appearance of a pursuivant, who had to give a little boy sixpence to show him the way to the mayor’s house, and who declared that there were ‘by imagination about a thousand priests and friars gazing’ upon him and Ulster when they had succeeded in getting an interview with the corporation. After two days they were allowed to go in peace to Kilkenny, not without covert threats of violence if their departure were longer delayed. Scarampi’s letters were written before they left Waterford, though the attitude of the civic authorities was nominally due to the fact that proclamation had not been first made at Kilkenny and by order of the Supreme Council. Waterford was preferred on the ground that it was the most ancient city of Ireland after Dublin; but perhaps Ormonde hoped that his herald would create dissension enough to break up the clerical assembly.[93]

The clergy reject the peace.

Peace proclaimed at Kilkenny.

Callan, Fethard and Cashel follow Kilkenny.

Clonmel follows Waterford.

The Supreme Council at Kilkenny transmitted the original articles of the peace to Waterford by the hands of Nicholas Plunket and Patrick Darcy. The nuncio had not seen them before, though he was, of course, well acquainted with their substance. After several days’ debate it was decided ‘that all and singular the Confederate Catholics, who shall adhere to such a peace, or consent to the fautors thereof, or otherwise embrace the same, be held absolutely perjured: especially for this cause, that in these articles there is no mention made of the Catholic religion, and the security thereof, nor any care had for conservation of the privileges of the country as is found promised in the oath [of association]; but rather all things are referred to the will of the most serene King, from whom in his present state nothing certain can be had.’ In the meantime everything remained subject to the authority of Protestant officials, ‘to free ourselves from which we took that oath.’ And it was plainly hinted that excommunication would follow in due course. The document was signed by the nuncio himself, by two archbishops, ten bishops, and many vicars-general and heads of religious houses. It professes to be absolutely unanimous; but Archbishop Bourke of Tuam, Bishop Dease of Meath, and the Franciscan Peter Walsh, whose stormy career in Ireland now begins, did not sign, though they took part in the debates and were among those to whom the question was referred. On the same day the peace was proclaimed at Kilkenny ‘in the presence of the mayor and the magistrates only, the people not choosing to appear,’ according to Rinuccini, who says the Supreme Council terrorised the city with soldiers. At Callan, Fethard, and Cashel proclamation was made in spite of clerical opposition, but there was no popular enthusiasm. The corporation of Clonmel declared that they would do as Waterford had done. The town had received supplies of arms from the nuncio and was subservient to the clergy, though some of the more prudent inhabitants would have complied. The most the herald could obtain was a promise to reopen the question after proclamation had been made at Limerick.[94]

A herald’s adventures at Limerick.

The drum ecclesiastic.

Gaol the only safe place.

The nuncio approves of the riot.

The proclamation at Kilkenny was an open declaration of war with the nuncio, who immediately sent Dean Massari to Rome to explain that both clergy and people were against the peace, and that its few supporters could do no harm. Meanwhile, Ulster went on his way to Limerick. Arriving after the gates were shut, he was refused admittance, and had to pass the night in an old house outside. Next day he was received by Sir John Bourke, the mayor, and at first it seemed that all would go smoothly; but the civic authorities went on arguing the question till the following day was well advanced, and time was thus given for a formidable agitation to grow. James Wolfe, a Dominican friar, harangued a mob in the streets, and declared that all who adhered to the peace would incur the penalties of excommunication. The chief citizens assembled at the mayor’s house, where Dr. Walter Lynch, warden of the Galway college, employed his eloquence in the same cause. A third priest ‘carried a great crucifix through the streets on the top of a pole.’ The mayor, nevertheless, favoured the proclamation and tried to protect the herald while doing his office, but stones flew like hail, and his house was wrecked. He was himself knocked down and nearly murdered, while Ulster was hunted from the room, the friars calling out in Irish, ‘Kill, kill! I will absolve you.’ He received two serious wounds on the head and one in the hand, while his body was covered with cuts and bruises. Dr. Thomas Arthur, a famous physician, who had succeeded twenty years before in curing Archbishop Ussher of a disease which had puzzled the London faculty, did what he could to pacify his co-religionists and to save the herald’s life at the risk of his own. Appeals to the law of nations which protects heralds were fruitless, and the more moderate citizens were forced to carry Roberts to gaol for safety and to give out that he was dead. He and his companions were detained for ten days, when Rinuccini said they might be discharged. Bourke was deposed from the mayoralty, and Thomas Fanning, a leader of the rioters, was installed in his room. The new mayor received the nuncio’s thanks and apostolical benediction for his good conduct in the matter.[95]

Ormonde and the Protestant hierarchy.

Ormonde at Kilkenny.

Ormonde and Owen Roe O’Neill.

While the Congregation at Waterford were fulminating their censures against all who adhered to the peace with Ormonde, the Protestant clergy who had taken refuge in Dublin were congratulating him on having ‘preserved not only in this city, but also in all the out-garrisons, the free and full exercise of the true reformed religion.’ They besought him to continue in this way as the only means to make Ireland obedient to the King, and to provide them with some maintenance until they could return to their benefices. ‘If any of our number,’ they concluded, ‘be found disaffected to the religion, book of service, public worship, government of the Church, his Majesty’s service, or disturbers of the present peace, we do not supplicate for such, but leave them to your lordship to be proceeded with as you shall find convenient.’ This was signed by eleven archbishops and bishops and by seventy-seven other clergymen, many of whom afterwards rose high in the Church. Ormonde’s loyalty to the Church of England was incompatible with Rinuccini’s views; but it did not prevent the Council at Kilkenny from inviting the King’s representative to his own town and castle. He left Dublin on August 28 and reached Kilkenny on the 31st, where he was received with triumphal arches and many demonstrations of joy; and even succeeded in collecting some of his long-lost rents. Ormonde left 1500 foot at Gowran, under Sir Francis Willoughby, and took 500 horse on with him, whom he quartered about Bennetsbridge. In passing Naas he took the precaution of borrowing eight barrels of powder from Sir John Sherlock, the governor, and they proved very useful. Digby and Clanricarde accompanied him to Kilkenny. His previous negotiations with Preston led him to believe that that general would keep the victorious Ulster army at a distance. Ormonde’s last act before leaving Dublin was to send Daniel O’Neill to his uncle, Owen Roe, with power to make him great offers if he would adhere to the peace. These included the custody of all lands in O’Neill-land belonging to men who questioned the King’s authority and of all Lord Caulfield’s estate, and confirmation in his command. These were promises, while the nuncio was able to give hard cash, without which an army could not be moved—4000l. at first out of the Pope’s money, and 5000l. later from the contributions of the faithful, or by means of an advance from the Spanish agent.[96]

Rinuccini denounces the peace.

O’Neill and Preston.

Limitation of Irish loyalty.

After staying a few days at Kilkenny, Ormonde went to his other house at Carrick, so that he might be near Waterford and in a position to confer with the clergy; but they were past the reach of argument. Rinuccini issued a decree ordering them all to denounce the peace publicly and to threaten actual excommunication by himself of all who favoured it. He had seen, he said, ‘with grief of heart that the Protestant ministers in some places appear, and threaten that they will recover both the churches and the exercise of their religion.’ Finding that nothing could be done on the Waterford side, Ormonde set out for Cashel, intending to encourage those who had proclaimed the peace there; but he was met on the road by a messenger from the mayor begging him not to draw down upon the town the vengeance of O’Neill, who was already at Roscrea. Piers MacThomas Fitzgerald, with the Munster horse, ‘appeared upon a hill to the left hand, near Clonmel.’ Preston had been summoned to attend, but he pleaded ill-health, and a few days later declared that, though he distrusted the Ulster army, he had ‘received a positive inhibition from the clergy that neither myself nor any of my commanders, upon pain of excommunication, shall obey any orders from my Lord lieutenant.’ The position of Ireland could scarcely be better described than in this letter of Preston’s. The Confederates had all along professed loyalty to the Crown, and had never denied that Ormonde was the King’s representative. But when it came to a trial of strength between the viceroy and the papal nuncio, it was the latter that they were forced to obey.[97]

Ormonde driven back to Dublin.

The many-headed monster.

Castlehaven was sent to sound the clergy at Waterford, but he found them impracticable, rejoined Ormonde near Cashel, and persuaded him to get back to Dublin as quickly as possible, lest he should be intercepted and captured. Castlehaven argued that the clerical party was getting stronger every day, ‘and that the Supreme Council were dissolved on the proclamation of peace, and consequently of no authority to make good the public faith.’ Other advices were to the same effect, and it seemed probable that O’Neill’s object was to get between the viceroy and his capital. Castlehaven tried in vain to gain over MacThomas, who followed Ormonde as far as Callan, but without coming to blows. Orders were sent to Willoughby to seize the fortified pass over the Barrow at Leighlin Bridge with his infantry. Colonel Walter Bagenal, who was in command there, offered no opposition, and Ormonde joined the main body at Kilcullen. He had sent Castlehaven and his brother-in-law, Sir George Hamilton, to the corporation of Kilkenny, offering to stand by them if they wished it and would adhere to the peace, but they begged him to pass on his way. The mob plundered his baggage, and the very men, says Bellings, ‘who a fortnight before had employed both cost and invention in erecting statues and triumphal arches adorned with inscriptions, setting forth his own actions, and the trophies of his ancestors, were suddenly as busy in pulling them down, and defacing the monuments of his solemn entry, lest the northern army, which could have easily mastered, might be incensed to their destruction.’ Willoughby, when expecting an attack, found that the bulk of his powder, which had been given in part payment of 30,000l. by the Confederates at the first cessation, was so bad as to be quite useless, and but for the eight barrels lately borrowed from Sir John Sherlock he would have been in no condition to fight.[98]

Lord Digby’s proposals.

Triumph of Rinuccini,

who imprisons the Supreme Council.

O’Neill and Preston at Kilkenny.

Ormonde ignores Glamorgan.

Digby remained at Kilkenny and made one more effort for the King. He proposed that the nuncio and three or four bishops should give an undertaking in writing to support the peace and unite with Ormonde against the common enemy, on condition of receiving a firm private assurance that the penal laws should be repealed and that they should not be disturbed in their church possessions until a meeting of a new Parliament to carry out the articles. Rinuccini would hear of nothing less than Glamorgan’s treaty fortified by part of Sir Kenelm Digby’s. Of the latter he never received the official text, and his instructions were not to proceed without it. He entered Kilkenny in triumph and took the city into his protection, relieving it from the interdict which Roth, Bishop of Ossory, had proclaimed. O’Neill’s army encamped in the immediate neighbourhood and made all resistance impossible. Rinuccini then proceeded to imprison the old Supreme Council. Mountgarret’s eldest son Edmond, Bellings the secretary and historian, and Lord Muskerry, the viceroy’s brother-in-law, were among those confined in the castle. Geoffrey Brown, who had been conspicuous among the commissioners for concluding the peace, and was intended to be a judge, was arrested at Galway, but the citizens refused to send him to the nuncio. O’Neill and Preston both entered Kilkenny, and assisted ‘the lord nuncio and congregation of the clergy’ in choosing a new council of seventeen members. Four were bishops, Walsh of Cashel, Bourke of Clonfert, Macmahon of Clogher, and French of Ferns; among the others were Glamorgan, who was appointed general of Munster in Muskerry’s place, Owen Roe O’Neill, Preston, and Sir Phelim O’Neill. The great object was now to take Dublin, and Ormonde was told that he had no chance of defending himself against 17,000 foot and 1700 horse. If the city was taken by assault it was likely that neither man, woman, nor child would be spared, but this might be averted if Ormonde would adhere to the Glamorgan treaty. ‘If,’ was the Lord-Lieutenant’s answer, ‘I could have assured the clergy my lord of Glamorgan’s conditions, I had not retired hither. They are things I have nothing to do with, nor will have. If they be valid in themselves, they need no corroboration; if invalid, I have no power to give them strength.’ After this Rinuccini concluded that if he wanted Dublin he would have to get it taken, while Ormonde, who felt his weakness, opened communications with the English Parliament.[99]

O’Neill threatens Kilkenny.

His army.

O’Neill and Preston on bad terms.

A clerical commissary.

The nuncio and his generals.

Rinuccini wished O’Neill to attack Dublin before Ormonde could return thither; but the Ulster general excused himself on the ground that he had no artillery, and came to Kilkenny instead. Benburb had been fought and won by men who were defending a strong position in their own country, and the means for a serious siege were wanting. An officer who was with the northern army near Birr described it as consisting of 5000 infantry, of which rather more than half were pretty well armed, ‘the rest as the rabble used to be in the beginning of the distractions.’ The horse were under 400, good and bad, and there were only five field-pieces ‘of about a foot and a half long.’ When O’Neill was at Kilkenny a month later Ormonde learned that his army was composed of 8000 foot, more than half of them without muskets, and seventeen or eighteen small troops of miserable horse ‘whereof not above two armed with pistol, and none with defensive arms.’ About 8000 ‘of the Ulster families, unarmed,’ accompanied the troops. Preston’s cavalry were well appointed, but it was estimated that the combined armies could not in any case exceed 13,000, with five pieces of artillery and very few stores of any kind. The two generals acted quite independently. O’Neill took all the castles and towns in Queen’s County, and made himself master of Athlone. Preston temporised, and both were much more intent upon outwitting each other than upon taking Dublin. The Leinster people did not like to see the hungry northerns devouring their province, and they flocked to Preston’s standard, so that he became as least as strong as his rival. Early in October Rinuccini went to Kilkea, then in the possession of Robert Nugent, provincial of the Jesuits, to whom it had been granted for the use of the Society by his kinswoman Elizabeth Countess of Kildare. Nugent lent 1500l. to the nuncio, and voluntarily undertook the task of victualling the army; but this clerical commissary was not more successful than a clerical general proved to be later on. ‘The good man,’ says Bellings, ‘how perfect soever his mathematical demonstrations might have been, failed in the practice, which affords a thousand circumstances that commonly lie out of the road of divinity and speculation.’ The two armies were together, though not united, in the neighbourhood of Kilcock, whence they advanced by Harristown and Naas to Lucan, within seven miles of Dublin. The Leinster men thought O’Neill’s object was to conquer them, while he believed, or perhaps only professed to believe, that Preston was conspiring with Ormonde to place him between two fires. Successful joint action under these circumstances was impossible, and it appeared to the nuncio that ‘arms at first devoted to religion were about to minister to private passions alone.’ The two generals met at Lucan, but could not agree, and Rinuccini joined them there in hopes of at least preventing a collision between Leinster and Ulster.[100]

Ulster and Leinster irreconcilable.

Dublin in danger.

Negotiations with the Scots,

and with the Parliament,

but nothing is settled.

‘Besides the hatred of the generals,’ Digby wrote from the midst of Rinuccini’s partisans, ‘their men have a greater animosity one against another, than those at Dublin have against either.’ But for this the capital might probably have been taken, for the defences were very weak, ammunition was scarce, and famine was always in sight. The fortifications were, however, repaired as well as possible, the ladies, with the Marchioness of Ormonde at their head, setting an example to the citizens by carrying baskets of earth. Ormonde had destroyed the bridges over the Liffey, and the mills, so that the Irish had great difficulties about food. Negotiations were opened by the Lord Lieutenant with the Ulster Scots, but they ended in nothing, for the survivors of Benburb were too few and too much discouraged to play an active part. Colonel George Monro, whose Royalist proclivities were doubtless known to Ormonde, apologised for his enforced inactivity. The Lord Lieutenant suggested that 500 Scots should come to Dublin, but the officers did not see their way to go so far south, though they were willing to act as a garrison for Drogheda. The Lord Lieutenant was not likely to accept such an offer, for Drogheda was in no danger. Negotiations had also been opened with the Parliament, whose fleet lay out in the bay. Sir Francis Willoughby, Sir Gerald Lowther, Chief Baron, and Sir Paul Davis, clerk of the Council, sailed on Michaelmas Day, and reached London a fortnight later. They were heard by a committee of the Commons, and five commissioners, of whom Sir John Clotworthy was one, reached Dublin on November 12 with power to treat for its surrender. The negotiations lasted for ten days, failing at last mainly because Ormonde would not deliver up the sword of state without actual orders from the King, and thus dissolve the remnant of the Irish Parliament on which the Protestants relied. The other points upon which the Lord Lieutenant insisted and the commissioners failed to satisfy him, were that they could give him no assurance for their estates ‘to the Papists who adhered to his Majesty’s Government since October 22, 1641’; that the Covenant should not be pressed, nor the Book of Common Prayer suppressed; and that official vested interests should be preserved. Ormonde was perhaps less anxious to come to terms because the mere appearance of the commissioners had averted the danger of a siege, and because he had been allowed to procure powder from the Parliamentary ships. The supplies intended for Dublin were carried by Clotworthy and his colleagues to Ulster.[101]

Vacillation of Preston.

One of Digby’s schemes.

Preston’s mental reservations.

The conduct of Preston throughout the whole of these proceedings showed the weakness of the Confederate position as well as of his own character. First he gave Ormonde to understand that he would prevent O’Neill from marching southwards, and then he let the nuncio persuade him to join forces with the northern general in the attempt to intercept Ormonde and in threatening Dublin. On August 26 he wrote to invite the Lord Lieutenant’s commands as to the disposition of troops to prevent O’Neill from entering Leinster. On September 5 he excused himself from personal attendance. On the 17th he lamented that clerical threats of excommunication prevented him from obeying any of the Lord Lieutenant’s orders. On October 10 he found that the peace published in his camp and by his authority was ‘destructive to my religion and liberty of the nation,’ and contrary to his oath as a Confederate. On the 21st he swore solemnly to aid O’Neill in attacking Dublin, to ‘use and exercise all acts of hostility against the Lord Marquis of Ormonde and his party,’ and to damage him in every possible way. Digby, who was a sanguine man, thought it possible to kidnap O’Neill and Rinuccini and carry them to Dublin, and to spike Preston’s guns, and he was also inclined to believe that something might be done with that vacillating general. Ormonde was less hopeful, but his patience was inexhaustible, and he resolved to make another effort, and Preston took care to let him know privately that he was not really irreconcilable, and would not join O’Neill, and that if he captured towns or castles it was only to prevent the Ulster general from getting them. Clanricarde was sent for from Portumna, and came to Luttrellstown, where he was in a position to communicate with all parties.[102]

Extreme demands of the nuncio.

Ormonde’s distrust of the Confederates.

Agreement between Digby and Preston.

Ormonde does not adopt it.

Proposed treatment of Protestants.

Dublin cannot be taken.

Preston never really co-operated with O’Neill, but he joined him in making certain proposals to Ormonde in which the nuncio’s hand can be very clearly seen. The first was that the Roman Catholic religion should be exercised in every part of Ireland as in Paris or Brussels. The third was ‘that Dublin, Drogheda, Trim, Newry, Carlow, Carlingford, and all the garrisons within the Protestant quarters be garrisoned by the Confederate Catholics.’ They were to be held for the King, but only in name. ‘The madness of their propositions to you,’ Digby wrote to Ormonde after he had joined Clanricarde, ‘makes him almost despair of doing any good with Preston.’ Ormonde did not condescend to discuss the propositions at all, but contented himself with asking who composed the Council of the Confederates and by whose authority they were established. ‘These questions,’ says Bellings, pithily, ‘were too knotty to be resolved on the sudden, and therefore, as it is the custom in such cases, they were not answered.’ Four days later Clanricarde was at Tecroghan, near Trim, and at once opened communications with Preston. Safe-conducts were granted to him and Digby, but to the latter, who was still nominally Secretary of State, not without great difficulty. ‘I conjure you,’ said Ormonde, ‘(as you expect to serve our master, or his hereafter) not to venture any more among so faithless a generation, if you have any probable hope of getting away from thence. For, if I have any judgment, your coming will be fruitless.’ And fruitless it was. Two days later the Parliamentary commissioners reached Dublin, and O’Neill, probably fearing to be caught in a trap, threw an extempore bridge over the Liffey at Leixlip, collected his men by firing a gun, and passed them all over to the left bank. It was thought that Sir Phelim O’Neill, who was jealous of Owen Roe’s supremacy in Ulster and who had married Preston’s daughter, might be induced to join the latter. Digby’s plan was to make Clanricarde general, who would thus be in a position to make the best terms for his own Church, while loyally co-operating with the Lord Lieutenant. Preston and his friends bound themselves most solemnly to embrace the peace in consideration of such additional securities as Clanricarde undertook to procure. These included the repeal of the penal laws and enjoyment by Catholics of such churches and ecclesiastical possessions as they held at the conclusion of the peace, until a settlement by a free Irish Parliament, ‘his Majesty being in a free condition himself.’ To confirm these promises Clanricarde was to procure an engagement under the King’s hand as well as from the Queen and Prince of Wales and the French crown. The peace once concluded on these terms the Catholics were to be ‘forthwith invested in such commands by his Majesty’s authority, both in field and garrison, as may pass for a very sufficient part of the security.’ Ormonde was no party to this treaty, which could not be performed without his help, and he was not anxious for it after he had got rid both of O’Neill and the Parliamentary commissioners. Rinuccini’s influence was at work all the time, and it was insisted that the first thing should be the admission of a Prestonian garrison into Dublin. Ormonde insisted on the original peace being first accepted, and so the negotiations fell through. Digby thought that if Preston had been promptly dealt with he would have attacked O’Neill, but his judgment is not for a moment to be set against Ormonde’s. Preston was satisfied, and in a letter to the mayor and citizens of Kilkenny, urged the acceptance of Clanricarde’s terms. What the ultimate position of the Protestants would have been may be judged from this document. ‘We have,’ he said, ‘by the divine Providence, wrought the splendour of religion to that extension as from Bunratty to Dublin there is Catholic religion publicly professed and exercised, and from Waterford to the lower parts of Tyrone, and confined heresy in this province to Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, and Trim, these places which in four days will be garrisoned by my army, by God’s help; and then think you in what posture of religion these parts are in, for us and ours, having all penal laws against Catholics repealed; all in our own hands, churches and church livings secured till the King in a free Parliament declare the same for us; the government in the Catholics’ hands; petitions of right allowed the parties grieved; and, to make this good, our arms in our own hands.’ This was written under the impression that Dublin would soon be in his hands, though in the same letter he admits that he could not take it even with O’Neill’s help. Rinuccini and his council had already left the camp, and Preston’s officers were soon induced to break with Clanricarde on the ground that no concessions would be of any use without a garrison in Dublin. ‘That being denied did beget a desperation of future performances.’[103]

The popular tide turns against Rinuccini.

The Supreme Council released.

The Confederate constitution breaks down.

Officers not ‘excommunication-proof.’

Preston submits to the nuncio.

Ormonde in Westmeath.

The nuncio, says Bellings, entered Kilkenny, ‘very incognito in his single litter without guards or attendance, and the council and congregation dropped in one after another without pomp or ceremony.’ The tide had turned, and the odium which so often attaches to authority in Ireland, especially when it fails to make itself feared, was borne by the clerical party. Rinuccini, yielding very unwillingly to Nicholas Plunket and fearing lest the mob should do it without his leave, allowed the old council to be liberated, and devoted his attention to the elections for the next general assembly. All over the country the clergy administered oaths to candidates binding them to reject the peace. Absolution for other sins was denied to those who refuse to take such an oath, and O’Neill’s soldiers were everywhere called in to enforce the clerical decrees. The vacant places in the Ulster returns were filled up from the creaghts or nomad herdsmen whom Owen Roe had planted in the Queen’s County—‘nay,’ says Bellings, ‘with such an overcharge of supernumeraries, as for some boroughs three have been returned and actually voted.’ When the session began, the verification of these returns proved to be impossible, and after much wrangling the assembled members turned as they were to other business, ‘and all formalities, how necessary soever, were quite omitted.’ In the meantime Preston had again gone over to the nuncio. On December 10 Walter Bagenal wrote by his orders to Ormonde, pressing him to advance at once so as to join forces against the northern army, all the nobility and gentry being ready to support him. ‘If you fail or delay,’ Bagenal concluded, ‘you ruin us all and yourself in us.’ On the same day that this was written, Preston made his submission to the nuncio, who had threatened excommunication. Ormonde advanced to the neighbourhood of Gowran, which was to be the place of meeting. He found reason to believe that there was another plot to cut him off. A letter from Preston to Clanricarde was brought to him at Grangebeg in which the general said that ‘his officers not being excommunication-proof, were fallen from him to the nuncio’s party.’ On first receiving this Clanricarde had so far forgotten his usual serenity as to call Preston traitor. It was followed by a similar letter to Ormonde, and by an abject declaration of obedience to the nuncio’s commands. Ormonde professed to believe that the letter, which was printed and circulated, was ‘a forgery, as also the reports raised that some of your army are gathered in a body at Castle Dermot, with intent to intercept my return, or destroy the remainder of my quarters.’ He withdrew into Westmeath and Longford, where there was still some country undevastated by O’Neill, and where he maintained good discipline among his men. Dublin was relieved for a short time without distressing the country, and the Westmeath gentry actually scraped together a voluntary contribution of 1000l. At Kells an attack was made upon some of Ormonde’s men by a party of O’Neill’s soldiers. Ormonde says two officers were barbarously murdered. Bellings admits that a very bad impression was made, but O’Neill was hardly a party to the negotiations. After conferring with the Lord Lieutenant, Clanricarde went to Kilkenny in the vain hope that he might to some extent counteract the nuncio and induce the assembly to embrace moderate ideas. Ormonde soon found it necessary to reopen communications with the English Parliament.[104]

Discord at Kilkenny.

A clerical majority.

The things that are Cæsar’s.

Mazarin supports the peace,

but it is rejected publicly, Feb. 2, 1646-7.

The Confederate assembly met at Kilkenny on January 10, ‘with all those signs,’ said Rinuccini, ‘of discord and intrigues which generally reign in such meetings.’ The tempers of the old council had not been improved by imprisonment, while the clergy, knowing that they had a majority, were in no conciliatory mood. Bellings admits that former assemblies had been turbulent ‘and loud in their ayes and noes, yet now it was grown clean another thing.’ Edmond Dempsy, Bishop of Leighlin, who was a famous preacher, and had probably a good voice, sat upon a lofty bench which recalls the revolutionary Mountain. He had only to wave his hat to raise a storm, the mass of members, ‘like a set of organ-pipes, as senseless and louder, depending for their squeaking, or being still, on the hand of another.’ After a few days the turmoil partially subsided, and then the nuncio demanded an audience. He was received with the same ceremony as at first, and proceeded to justify his assumption of dictatorial power. He declared in plain terms that the ecclesiastical authority was superior to the temporal, ‘and that ignorance of the true source of power had ruined the neighbouring kingdom.’ Above all things he urged the assembly to reject the peace with Ormonde, and to take a fresh oath adverse to it. A letter was read from Dumoulin, the French agent, who had positive orders from his government to press for confirmation of the peace, but this had no effect, though a letter from Mazarin had been previously received urging them to merit help from France by re-establishing the King of England. A remarkable speech of Walter Bagenal’s has been preserved by Bellings, in which he urged them to remember how strong England was and how certainly they would be overwhelmed if they did not support the King. Ormonde sent Lord Taaffe and Colonel John Barry to represent him at Kilkenny, but the clericals would listen to nothing, and it soon became evident that the peace would be rejected publicly. This was done after three weeks’ wrangling, but by no means unanimously, and Scarampi started at once to carry the news to Rome. It was found necessary at the same time to declare that the commissioners and others who had a hand in the peace had ‘faithfully and sincerely carried and demeaned themselves in their said negotiation pursuant and according to the trust reposed in them, and given thereof a due acceptable account to this assembly.’ This important matter being settled, a new and stringent oath of association was taken by which all bound themselves to make no peace without the consent of the General Assembly. One of the conditions precedent was that the Roman Catholic clergy should enjoy all churches and church property in as ample a manner as the Protestants enjoyed them on October 1, 1641, in all places which the Confederates should at any time possess ‘saving the rights of Roman Catholic laymen according to the laws of this kingdom.’ The law, in other words, was to protect Roman Catholics, but not Protestants. All this referred to the secular clergy only, for the question of abbey-lands was too dangerous to touch. To avoid the appearance of an open breach with the Lord Lieutenant, Dr. Fennell and Geoffrey Baron, who had just returned from France, were deputed to see him. Their proposals for a sort of offensive and defensive alliance with Ormonde came to nothing, but successive truces were patched up until April 10.[105]