Safe conducts rejected by Ormonde and Inchiquin.
Some papers, which Broghill thought important, were found in Bishop Egan’s possession. An anonymous correspondent of Hyde’s says one of them was a letter in which Inchiquin proposed during the latter part of 1649 to go over to Cromwell. Carte, without giving his authority, says that some such letter was forged by Antrim, who was perhaps tricky enough to do it, and the editor of the Clarendon State Papers adopted Carte’s account. Probability seems against Inchiquin having made any such overtures, but his position after Rathmines was very uncomfortable, for his men left him and he knew that the Irish would always hate him for his proceedings at Cork, Cashel, and elsewhere. He admitted that he had talked too freely to one of the enemy’s trumpeters, and it may be that he asked questions which gave rise to the idea that he was wavering. But in April 1650, when Kilkenny had fallen and Ormonde had no army in the field, Protestant Royalists grew tired of the hopeless struggle, and Cromwell was ready enough to meet them halfway. Nor did Ormonde make any difficulties. Sir Robert Sterling, Colonel Daniell, and Michael Boyle, Dean of Cloyne, made the first advances ‘on behalf of the Protestant party in Ireland now under the command or obedience of the Lord Marquis of Ormonde.’ They were all, whether soldiers or civilians, allowed to go where they pleased on engaging not to act against the Parliament, taking all their movable property except horses, arms, and ammunition, and even these they might sell to the army or to English Protestants. Questions of land were reserved for the decision of Parliament, and until that was given were referred to the Commissioners for Revenue, and those who gave assurance of fidelity to the Parliament might enjoy their estates in the meantime. Colonel Wogan and the officer who helped him to escape from Cork were the only persons excepted. Lord Montgomery surrendered at Enniskillen, Sir Thomas Armstrong at Trim, and Colonel Daniell at Doneraile. Dean Boyle had strict orders not to make any overtures on behalf of Ormonde or Inchiquin, but Cromwell nevertheless sent them both passes to go beyond seas. Admiral Penn, whose squadron lay in the Shannon, was directed to make it easy for any of the Protestants who came in his way. Ormonde contemptuously rejected the safe conduct, which was civil enough in point of form, adding that if he ever had to return the compliment he would not use it ‘to debauch any that commanded’ under Cromwell. Inchiquin was angry, but his wife had already been allowed to depart with her family and servants under convoy to Middleburgh.[178]
FOOTNOTES:
[166] Letter from Clonmacnoise signed by the four archbishops and seven bishops, including the secretary of the congregation, to the Pope, December 12, 1649, in Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 327. Ormonde to the King, December 15 and 24, and the answer from Jersey, February 2, 1649-50, in Carte’s Original Letters, ii. 417-425.
[167] Declaration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the undeceiving of deluded people, January 1649-50, in Carlyle, ii. 1, and see the strictures on this ‘remarkablest State paper’ in the notes to the 1904 edition and in Gardiner’s Commonwealth, i. 163-166; the Declaration was first printed at Cork and reprinted in London, March 21.
[168] Lady Fanshawe’s Memoirs, p. 53, ed. 1907. Sir Richard Bolton died about a year before the revolt of Cork, after which the Great Seal of Ireland may have been placed irregularly in the hands of Roscommon, who had married Strafford’s sister.
[169] Cromwell to Lenthall, February 15, 1649-50, and to Bradshaw, March 5, in Carlyle; also letters in the Supplement, pp. 54-56. In the articles for the surrender of Fethard (No. 55) it is stipulated that the garrison might retire to ‘any place within his Majesty’s quarters.’ When Cromwell signed this, he either did not notice the draftsman’s expression, or thought it did not matter. For Enniscorthy see Whitelock’s Memorials, p. 437.
[170] Bellings, vii. 129. Several Letters from Ireland, March 18, 1649-50. This tract is reprinted in the Kilkenny Archæological Journal, new series, i. 110, with a contemporary plan of Ballisonan, but the latter must have been drawn to illustrate the capture of the place by Jones in September 1648.
[171] Castlehaven’s Memoirs, pp. 83-86; Cromwell to Lenthall, April 2, 1650, in Carlyle. And see Murphy’s Cromwell in Ireland, chaps. 24 and 25, and Lord Dillon’s apologetic letter in Contemp. Hist. ii. 373; Clarendon’s History, Ireland, p. 96.
[172] Articles for surrender, March 27, in Murphy’s Cromwell in Ireland, p. 301. All the letters extant are printed by Carlyle, vol. ii., see especially that of Cromwell to the mayor on March 26. The Aphorismical Discovery, ii. 69, states that the townsmen capitulated behind the governor’s back, and that the garrison were not mentioned in the capitulation, which shows the untrustworthiness of the writer. And see Carte’s Life of Ormonde, ii. 113.