Ormonde withdraws into Clare, February.
Castlehaven commands in Leinster.
The net drawn round Kilkenny.
After consulting the Commissioners of Trust, Ormonde allowed agents to meet at Kilkenny in January for the discussion of grievances affecting the different districts, but nothing was reduced to writing, and there were, as he expected, no results. The agents proposed an adjournment to Ennis, and to this he agreed. The approach of Cromwell’s forces on the south and of Hewson’s on the north had doubtless something to say to this, and the plague which began to rage in the town still more. Cromwell made a strong reconnaissance towards Kilkenny, where a Captain Tickle had been bribed or in some other way induced to undertake that one of the gates should be opened, but the plot was discovered and the captain hanged; so that Cromwell had to retire. In spite of the plague and of enemies within and without, Castlehaven used to go out fox-hunting in the early morning. Ormonde met him in the field, told him that it was decided to withdraw into Clare, and appointed him, much to his disgust, general of Leinster. Ormonde himself went to Limerick during the first week in February, and was not destined to see Kilkenny again until after the Restoration. Cromwell, having failed in the plot with Tickle, waited patiently and let the plague do his work. Castlehaven had one success, surprising Athy and taking Hewson’s garrison of 700 men, but he found the place untenable. ‘Not knowing,’ he writes, ‘what to do with my prisoners, I made a present of them to Cromwell, desiring him by letter to do the like to me ... but he little valued my civility, for in a very few days after he besieged Gowran, where Colonel Hammond commanded, and the soldiers mutinying and giving up the place, he caused Hammond with some English officers to be shot to death.’ Cromwell’s own account confirms this, and he adds that Hammond was ‘a principal actor in the Kentish insurrection,’ and so not entitled to mercy more than Lucas or Lisle. A priest who acted as chaplain to the Roman Catholic soldiers was hanged. ‘I trouble you with this the rather because this was the Lord of Ormonde’s own regiment.’ At Gowran Cromwell was joined by Hewson, who had taken Castledermot, Lea, Kilkea, and other castles in the meantime, he himself having taken Thomastown. Castlehaven did not find himself strong enough to meet Hewson in the field. Lord Dillon promised to join him with about 3000 men, but they never came, and all he could do was to provision Kilkenny and leave it with a garrison of 1000 foot and 200 horse. Soon afterwards an Ulster regiment, which was nearly half his army, deserted on account of the plague, saying that they were ready to fight against men but not against God. Having tried to relieve Kilkenny in vain he gave orders to the governors of the town and castle to make the best terms they could, and not to attempt to hold the latter after the former had surrendered. Cromwell and Hewson corresponded about this time by letters enclosed in balls of wax, so that the messenger might swallow them if necessary. Some of these reached Castlehaven, but only served to show him that he was hopelessly overmatched.[171]
Capitulation of Kilkenny, March 27.
Citizens and soldiers
Fair terms granted.
Cromwell approached Kilkenny by Bennet’s Bridge and sent in his summons on March 22. Sir Walter Butler, a cousin of Ormonde’s, was governor of the town, and briefly replied that he held it for the King. A battery with three guns was accordingly planted at St. Patrick’s Church, and on March 25 about a hundred shot struck the wall near the castle. An attempt to carry the breach failed with the loss of a captain and twenty or thirty men, the garrison having erected earthworks and palisades inside. At the same time a thousand men were detached to attack the Irish town near the cathedral, where the wall was but weakly defended by the townsmen, and the Cromwellians entered with a loss of only three or four men. After this, the walled portion of the town on the other side of the Nore was easily taken, and the victors endeavoured to enter the main city over St. John’s Bridge, but they were driven back with a loss of forty or fifty men. In the meantime fresh guns were brought up, and the mayor sent to represent the difficult position of the citizens. No doubt, he wrote, Cromwell would be willing to grant them fair terms, but they were in the power of the garrison, and so ‘in danger of ruin as well from our own party as from that of your Honour’s,’ and it was reasonable that the soldiers should be included. To avoid further loss, and perhaps to get away from the plague, Cromwell after some discussion acquiesced in this view, and on the next day Butler saw that further resistance would be useless. Considering that Kilkenny had been the very centre of the lately powerful Confederacy, the terms granted were liberal enough. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, surrendering their arms two miles out of town and then going where they pleased. The citizens submitted to a payment of 2000l. in two instalments, in consideration of which Cromwell had ‘made it death for any man to plunder.’ Those who wished to remove themselves or their property might do so, ‘none excepted,’ within three months. There was no armistice during the negotiations, and the garrison of Cantwell Castle, now called Sandford’s Court—‘very strong, situated in a bog, well furnished with provisions of corn’—surrendered, though specially ordered by Sir Walter Butler to abandon their post and strengthen the scanty garrison of Kilkenny. They were allowed to go beyond sea.[172]
The town not plundered.
Damage to the churches.