Wentworth disapproves of his schemes.
As soon as the troubles in Scotland began it was natural that Charles should expect help from Ireland. The first proposals came from Tyrone’s grandson, Randal MacDonnell, second Earl of Antrim, whose handsome person had recommended him to the widowed Duchess of Buckingham. Having conformed to the State Church to please her first husband, she reverted to her original faith to please her second. The marriage of his friend’s wife was displeasing to Charles, and perhaps this made her second husband the more anxious to do some signal service, or at least to have the credit of intending it. Antrim was a man of much ambition and some cunning, but his practical abilities were small, and neither Strafford, Ormonde, nor Clarendon rated him highly. He had been ‘bred in the Highland way, and wore neither hat, cap, shoes, nor stockings till seven or eight years old,’ and a Highlander he remained to the end. His extravagance at Court had involved him in debt to the enormous amount of 80,000l., and Wentworth believed that the sale of his whole estate would not fetch such a sum. Hatred of the Campbells was his strongest passion. In July 1638 he asked Wentworth to supply him with arms to be kept in a magazine in Coleraine ready to use in case of an invasion by the dreaded clan, and six months later he credited Argyle with the intention of getting a law passed ‘that to the end of the world no MacDonnell should be allowed to enjoy a foot of land in Scotland.’ Charles was doubtful how far it would be wise to entrust a magazine of arms to one of Antrim’s creed, but desired the Lord Deputy and Council to ‘favour him as much as anyone of his profession in religion.’ In February Wentworth told the King that the demand for arms had not been pressed, ‘my lord of Antrim perceiving I am not ignorant of his great want of money, his credit to be so low, as not able at this very instant to take up in Dublin poor three hundred pounds.’ Charles, however, wrote to Antrim, encouraging him to fit out an expedition against the Scottish isles by way of making a diversion in his favour. Windebank prudently sent a copy of the letter to Wentworth, who was thus prepared for a sudden visit from Antrim on March 9. The Lord Deputy’s caustic criticism had taken some effect, and the proposed 20,000 men were reduced to 5400, but the conditions of even this modified plan might have displeased a much more patient man than Wentworth. Among Antrim’s demands were the right to appoint his own officers, power to cut timber in the royal woods, a loan of 20,000l., and four of the King’s ships under his own command. Twelve field pieces, bows and arrows, muskets, carbines, pistols, swords, armour, and buff coats were all to be provided by Government, and more barrels of powder than the royal stores contained. One hundred old soldiers were to be detached to drill the new levies, and Antrim talked of bringing Irish officers over from Spain.[246]
Antrim’s plan is abandoned.
A primitive commissariat.
Danger of a Celtic army.
Wentworth knew that the raw material of an army was plentiful in Ireland, and that 40,000 ‘bodies of men,’ to use an old phrase of Sir Henry Sidney’s—might easily be had. But to pay, feed, and train them was another matter, and no one knew better the difference between an army and a mob. Neither money, arms, material, nor drill-sergeants could be spared to such a projector as Antrim. ‘I desired,’ said Wentworth, ‘to know what provision of victual his lordship had thought of, which for so great a number of men would require a great sum of money. His lordship said he had not made any at all, in regard he conceived they should find sufficient in the enemy’s country to sustain them, only his lordship proposed to transport over with him ten thousand live cows to furnish them with milk, which he affirmed had been his grandfather’s (Tyrone’s) play.’ It was suggested that Argyle might drive off his cattle, and that Cantire and the Hebrides were barren tracts. Antrim said his men could ‘feed their horses with leaves of trees, and themselves with shamrocks.’ Wentworth doubted whether there were any trees in the Western Islands, and was at all events sure that they would not be in full foliage in the early spring, so that there would be no hurry. The end of it all was that Antrim found he could not have the whole resources of the Government at his disposal. Having no money or credit, he could do nothing of himself, though the King gave him a commission of lieutenancy over the western Highlands and islands. Wentworth saw clearly the danger of raising a force in Ireland which it would be impossible to pay. ‘What sudden outrage,’ he wrote prophetically, ‘may be apprehended from so great a number of the native Irish, children of habituated rebels, brought together without pay or victual, armed with our own weapons, ourselves left naked the whilst? What scandal of his Majesty’s service it might be in a time thus conditioned to employ a general and a whole army in a manner Roman Catholics? What affright or pretence this might give for the Scottish, who are at least fourscore thousand in those parts, to arm also, under colour of their own defence?’ With a general and soldiers alike ignorant the whole scheme would be much more likely to draw a Scotch invasion upon Ireland than to strengthen the King in Scotland. Antrim had not even decided in his own mind which island to land on—any one of eighty, he thought, would do.[247]
Plans for a diversion in Scotland.
A garrison for Carlisle. Sir F. Willoughby.
The idea of using the Irish army in Great Britain originated with Charles himself. In July 1638 he inquired what help he might expect in the event of an outbreak in Scotland. Wentworth answered that he had only 2000 foot and 600 horse, and that it would not be safe to send away any, especially since the Ulster Scots undoubtedly sympathised with their countrymen. He would have Charles trust his English subjects, but could only recommend the most ruthless repression for Scotland. Leith might be permanently fortified and garrisoned at the expense of the Scots ‘till they had received our common prayer-book used in our churches of England without any alteration, the bishops settled peaceably in their jurisdiction,’ and English law substituted for Scotch. For his own part he could only propose to concentrate a large part of his small army in north-east Ulster. At the King’s suggestion he raised 400 additional horse, a troop of 110 cuirassiers being given to Ormonde as the man in Ireland most able and willing to maintain them effectively. Money was sent to Holland to provide arms for the new men, and the equipment of the foot was also much improved. On October 22 Charles wrote to propose that Wentworth should provide a garrison of 500 men for Carlisle, and also some cannon if they could be spared from Ireland. The business was taken in hand at once, Sir Francis Willoughby, governor of Galway, being selected to command the expedition. The pay in Ireland was sixpence a day, in England eightpence, and Wentworth asked that they might be paid on the higher scale after crossing the channel. Charles promised, but could not perform this, though he did give some money by way of bounty, and in June 1641 the regiment was back in Ireland, and their pay heavily in arrear. Willoughby had been forty years a soldier, twenty-five in the Netherlands, and his experience at Carlisle confirmed him in the opinion that the discipline of great garrisons was best maintained by paying the men well and punishing their misdemeanours.[248]
Nucleus of the new Irish army.