[11] St. Leger to Ormonde, May 12, 1642, in Carte’s Ormonde, iii. Appx. No. 78. Inchiquin to Cork, November 24, 1642, with the answer, in Bennett’s History of Bandon, chap. vii.
[CHAPTER XXII]
THE WAR TO THE BATTLE OF ROSS, 1642-1643
A Scots army in Ulster.
Major-General Monro.
When Charles received the news of the Irish insurrection, he at once called upon the Scottish Parliament to aid him in suppressing it. They replied that Ireland was dependent on England, that interference on their part would be misunderstood, and that they could only act as auxiliaries to the English people by agreement with them. Early in November the Parliament at Westminster resolved to send 12,000 men from England, and to ask the Scots to send 10,000 more. But Episcopalian jealousy was aroused, and the demand on Scotland was reduced to 1,000. Nothing was done for the moment, but on January 22, by which time some of the English troops had reached Ireland, both Houses agreed to ask for 2,500, and to this the Scots Commissioners in London assented. The King hesitated about giving up Carrickfergus to the Scotch regiments, but the Commissioners hoped that his Majesty, ‘being their native king, would not show less trust in them than their neighbour nation,’ and this appeal was successful. Money and military stores were stipulated for, and it was agreed that if any other troops in Ulster should join the Scots, their general was to command them as well as his own men, and he had also power to enlarge his quarters to make such expeditions as he might think fit. The Scottish estates had before offered 10,000 men, but nothing like that number ever went. A little later the command was given to Leven, who stayed but a short time and did nothing. The expeditionary force remained in the hands of Major-General Robert Monro, who had been employed to keep order at Aberdeen, and did so with no light hand. He set up, says Spalding, ‘ane timber mare, whereupon runagate knaves and runaway soldiers should ride. Uncouth to see sic discipline in Aberdeen, and more painful to the trespasser to suffer.’ Monro will live for ever in the form of Dugald Dalgetty, for whose portrait he was the chief model. Sir James Turner, who contributed some touches to the picture, says his great fault was a tendency to despise his enemy. Monro’s training was that of the Thirty Years’ War, and Turner, who belonged to the same school, thought he carried its lessons too far.[12]
The Scots land April 1642.
Newry retaken.
Sir Phelim O’Neill burns Armagh.
Monro landed at Carrickfergus on April 15 with about 2500 men, Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester retiring with their regiments to Belfast. On the 28th he marched towards Newry, leaving a garrison behind him, and was joined by Conway and the rest, making up his army to near 4000 men. The Irish under Lord Iveagh were posted in a fort at Ennislaughlin near Moira, but were easily dislodged next day, and fled into the Kilwarlin woods. No quarter was given, to which Turner strongly objects. On the third day they marched through Dromore, where only the church was left standing, to Loughbrickland, where there was a garrison in an island. Monro bribed six Highlanders to swim across, and one of these succeeded in bringing away the only boat. The island was then occupied and all the Irish there killed. No attempt was made to defend the town of Newry, but the castle gave some trouble, and Monro was unwilling to assault or burn it, lest the prisoners confined there should suffer. The garrison were allowed to march out without arms on May 3, but over sixty townsmen, including a Cistercian monk and a secular priest, were hanged next day in cold blood. Turner criticises Monro’s conduct, and claims to have saved nearly 150 women whom the soldiers proposed to kill. At least a dozen women were shot or drowned, notwithstanding his interference. The natural result of Monro’s system was to make the Irish desperate, and O’Neill burned Armagh, ‘the cathedral with its steeple and with its bells, organ, and glass windows, and the whole city, with the fine library, with all the learned books of the English on divinity, logic, and philosophy.’ Many lives were also taken by the Irish in revenge for Monro’s severities. After leaving a garrison at Newry the army marched through the Mourne mountains, and from one end of Down to the other. Turner mentions a frightful storm attributed by the superstitious to Irish witches, which if true he considered a good proof that their master was really prince of the air. Some of the soldiers died from sheer cold. On the twelfth day Monro returned to Carrickfergus. A detachment which he had left in the outskirts of Belfast had been attacked during his absence and driven off. A large number of cattle had been taken from the Magennises and Macartans, but the English soldiers everywhere complained that the Scots got most of the plunder.[13]