The earl's negotiation had hitherto gone on prosperously, and there was good reason to suppose that he would shortly have brought the rebels to a complete concurrence with his Majesty's views, when a most unexpected accident disconcerted the whole of his schemes. An attempt having been made by the Irish upon Kilkenny about the end of October, 1645, in which the titular Archbishop of Tuam had a command; the rebels were beaten and the prelate killed, in whose baggage was found a copy of the treaty which his Lordship had entered into with the confederate Catholics and the pope's nuncio. Of this discovery immediate information was furnished to the Parliament, then sitting, which had invariably expressed the greatest aversion to any concession being made to the Catholics; and the matter became so public, that the Lords Ormonde and Digby found it necessary to do something towards the vindication of his Majesty's honour, and to preserve appearances with the Parliament.
The council having met on the twenty-sixth, Lord Digby appeared at the board, and accusing the Earl of Glamorgan of high treason, moved that he should be immediately committed to the castle. On the following day he was examined by a committee of the council, when he exonerated his Majesty, and requested that the whole blame of the matter might be attributed to him; as he had consulted with no one on the subject, but the parties with whom he had made the agreement.[3]
When the intelligence of his lordship's imprisonment reached Kilkenny, where the supreme council then held their sittings, the Catholics were thrown into the greatest confusion, and some insisted on an immediate recourse to arms for his enlargement. These proceedings, however, were soon stayed by the friends of the Earl of Ormonde, and his lordship was shortly afterwards released on bail. As soon as this was effected he repaired to Kilkenny, in order to expedite the embarkation of a force amounting to about three thousand men, which had been raised for the relief of Chester; and, had there been a sufficient co-operation on the part of the general council, they might have sailed time enough to have afforded the most essential service to the royal cause; but after repeated delays on their part, intelligence was brought of the loss of that important city; and the Marquis, finding that his further stay in Ireland was attended with considerable hazard to his own life, without any commensurate benefit to his Majesty, resolved on embarking for France, where he was soon after joined by the exiled queen.
Immediately after his lordship's departure for the continent, the parliamentary forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax appeared before Ragland; and being refused admission by the venerable old Marquis, their hostile approaches were carried on with great vigour, in spite of repeated sallies from the fortress. The gallant veteran, however, finding the garrison, which at first consisted of only 800 men, reduced to less than half that number, surrendered on honourable terms on the 17th August. Notwithstanding the pledge given by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the conditions of capitulation were most disgracefully violated, and the Marquis was committed to the custody of the Black Rod, where he languished till the December following; when he expired in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and was buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.
In the mean time the fortifications of Ragland were destroyed, and all the timber in the parks was cut down, and sold by the committee of sequestrations. The lead alone that covered the castle was sold for 6,000 pounds, and the loss to the family in the house and woods, has been estimated at not less than 100,000 pounds!
From the destruction of Ragland castle by the Parliamentary forces, till the beginning of 1654, the earl's name scarcely occurs in the political history of those times; but about that period, we find him attached to the suit of Charles II., who then resided at the court of France: and in the following year he was dispatched by the exiled monarch to London, for the purpose of procuring private intelligence and supplies of money, of which the king was in the greatest need. He was, however, speedily discovered and committed a close prisoner to the Tower, where he remained in captivity for several years.
Some idea of the state of indigence to which the Marquis was now reduced may be formed from a perusal of the following Letter, directed to the celebrated Colonel Copley, who was, it appears, one of the noble Author's supporters.
"Dear Friend,
"I knowe not with what face to desire a curtesie from you, since I have not yet payed you the five pownds, and the mayne businesse soe long protracted, whereby my reallity and kindnesse should with thankefullnesse appeare; for though the least I intende you is to make up the somme allready promised, to a thousand pownds yearly, or a share ammounting to farr more, (which to nominate before the perfection of the woorke were but an individuum vagum, and therefore I deferre it, and vpon noe other score,) yet, in this interim, my disapointments are soe great, as that I am forced to begge, if you could possible, eyther to helpe me with tenne pownds to this bearer, or to make vse of the coache, and to goe to Mr. Clerke, and if he could this daye helpe me to fifty pownds, then to paye yourself the five pownds I owe you out of them. Eyther of these will infinitely oblige me. The alderman has taken three days time to consider of it. Pardon the great troubles I give you, which I doubt not but in time to deserve by really appearing
"Your most thankful friend
Worcester.28th of March, 1656.
"To my honored friend
Collonell Christopher Coppley,
These."
On the king's restoration, the Marquis of Worcester was one of the first to congratulate his Majesty on the happy event, though the situation of the unfortunate nobleman was little bettered by the change; indeed it appeared but as the signal for new persecutions, as one of the earliest public acts of that ungrateful monarch may be characterized as an invidious attempt to set aside the just claims of his earliest and best friend.