Death of Bishop Rothe.
Leaving the plague-stricken city with a small garrison, Cromwell went to Carrick. ‘The goodness of God,’ says a contemporary newswriter, ‘was exceedingly manifested in preventing the plunder of the place, which must needs have hazarded the army by infection.’ None of the soldiers, in fact, suffered, which was ‘the Lord’s own doing and marvellous in our eyes.’ The clergy were not in any way excepted from the terms granted to the citizens, and there is no evidence that violence was done to any priests. But the churches suffered terribly, Bishop Ledred’s beautiful painted windows, which even Bale had spared, were broken in pieces, and Thomas Earl of Ormonde’s splendid tomb was totally destroyed. A special interest attaches to the fate of the bishop, the learned David Rothe, who had opposed Rinuccini. There is nothing to show that he suffered from violence, but he was seventy-eight years old, and it is not surprising that he died in great discomfort, and in concealment. Bishop Lynch, who wrote from Clonfert in August, says he was stripped and mocked by the soldiers, but allowed to enter the nearest house, where he died within three weeks of old age and disease. Archbishop Fleming, who was also in Ireland, and who wrote in June, says much the same thing.[173]
Siege of Clonmel, May.
Vain appeals to Ormonde,
and to Preston.
Clonmel is assaulted.
Cromwell repulsed.
In the meantime Ennisnag Castle was taken, ‘where were gotten a company of rogues which had revolted from Colonel Jones. The soldiers capitulated for life and their two officers were hanged for revolting.’ Adjutant-General Sadleir, with two guns, took all the castles in the Suir valley from Clonmel to Waterford without resistance except at Poulakerry, five miles below the former town. This was taken by assault, thirty or forty being killed, ‘and the rest remaining obstinate were fired in the castle.’ On April 27 Cromwell came before Clonmel, and offered favourable terms, which were promptly rejected by the governor, Hugh Boy O’Neill, a nephew of Owen Roe, who had about 1500 Ulster men with him. O’Neill, whom Cliffe describes as ‘an old surly Spanish soldier,’ had expected to be attacked as far back as February, and Ormonde had written from Ennis at the beginning of March to say that he would ‘draw all the forces of the kingdom into a body for the town’s relief.’ But he could do nothing, for the Commissioners of Trust were more anxious to thwart him than Cromwell, and would not allow a levy to be made in the county of Limerick. An attempt to send an expedition from the county of Cork was foiled by Broghill, and Clonmel was left to its fate. Preston had promised, but failed, to send ammunition from Waterford, and with Carrick in an enemy’s hand it is not easy to see how he could have done so. O’Neill and the mayor, John White, made a last appeal to Ormonde. The long threatened attack had come at last, and the preservation of the town was almost Ireland’s last hope. ‘It is,’ they wrote, ‘our humble suit that the army, if in any reasonable condition, may march night and day to our succour.’ But no such army was available, and Cromwell planted his battery without hindrance. Reynolds and Theophilus Jones had a force in the field sufficient to prevent Castlehaven from giving any trouble. Approaches were made from the north side of the town, and there were many sallies and much fighting before the breach was practicable. A comparison of extant accounts fortified by local tradition seems to indicate that the spot was near a gate which stood a little to the eastward of St. Mary’s Church. The assault was made about eight in the morning of May 9, and the storming party entered without difficulty, but found that their work was still to do. O’Neill had manned the houses and erected two breastworks of ‘dunghills, mortar, stones and timber,’ making a lane about eighty yards inwards from the breach with a masked battery at the end. The ‘British Officer,’ who got his facts ‘not only from officers and soldiers of the besiegers,’ but also from the besieged, describes what followed. The stormers poured in and found themselves caught in a trap. Those in front cried ‘Halt,’ and those behind ‘Advance,’ ‘till that pound or lane was full and could hold no more.’ Two guns hailed chain-shot upon this dense mass, while a continual fire was kept up from the houses and the breastworks. Volleys of stones were thrown, and great pieces of timber hurled from slides which O’Neill’s ingenuity had provided, ‘so that in less than an hour’s time about a thousand men were killed in that pound, being atop one another.’ Colonel Culham, who led the stormers, and several other officers were among the slain, and the survivors were driven out again through the breach. Contemporary accounts estimate Cromwell’s total loss at Clonmel at somewhere from 1500 to 2500. This repulse, said Ireton afterwards, was ‘the heaviest we ever endured either in England or here.’ His own regiment lost most of all. It is stated that Major Fennell, who commanded the few cavalry within the town, had plotted, like Tickle at Kilkenny, to open one of the gates. This was certainly believed at the time, but if there was such a plot it came to nothing.[174]
The garrison escape,
and the town capitulates.