Limerick excludes Ormonde’s garrison.
The Anglo-Irish Catholics had been drawn into the war against their will in many cases, and in many others only in the hopes of obtaining religious toleration. They were genuine Royalists, though the interests of the sovereign did not always seem to be theirs. But the Celts cared extremely little for the Crown and a great deal for the Church; even more perhaps for the land which they had lost. Rinuccini’s whole influence went to widen the difference between the two sections. The dominant faction among the clergy were quite ready to submit to a foreign protector, and Ormonde’s last struggles were with the bishops. The Clonmacnoise decrees having failed to secure union, he summoned twenty-four prelates along with the Commissioners of Trust to meet him at Limerick, whither he went after finally leaving Kilkenny. They met accordingly on March 8, and five days later presented him with a paper of advice. They suggested that a Privy Council should be appointed consisting of ‘peers and others, natives of this kingdom, at once spiritual and temporal,’ to sit daily with the Lord Lieutenant and determine all weighty affairs. The answer to this was easy: that the appointment of Privy Councillors belonged to the King alone, and that in the actual condition of affairs the Commissioners of Trust were quite Council enough. There were vague charges of preferring Protestants to Catholics, and suggestions made as to the rendering of accounts and the administration of justice, very suitable for peaceful times, but not at all applicable to the desperate state of affairs really existing. Ormonde’s immediate object was to place a garrison in Limerick, and there all was refused to him, Lord Kilmallock, Catholic though he was, being imprisoned by the citizens for quartering part of his own troop within the walls by the Marquis’s orders. Some of the bishops made a faint attempt to reconcile the townsmen; but Ormonde went away to Loughrea on March 18, and the prelates and Commissioners followed him thither next day. It had been represented to him by some of them that all would be right if he would only get rid of Inchiquin; while others told the latter that he, as a chief of the ancient Irish, was the proper person to command, if only he would separate from Ormonde. The two lords compared notes, and easily perceived that the real object in view was to get rid of them both.[179]
A successor to Owen Roe O’Neill.
Bishop Macmahon appointed, April 1.
By the fourth article of his agreement with Owen Roe O’Neill, Ormonde was bound to give the command in Ulster to the person nominated by the nobility and gentry of that province, who assembled for that purpose at Belturbet in March, under the presidency of Eugene Swiney, who had been Bishop of Kilmore since 1628. Antrim, who had already been in communication with Cromwell and was soon to be in alliance with Ireton, was a candidate, and had many supporters among the officers. It was thought that Sir George Monro and his Scots might follow him, though they would dislike an Irish and especially a clerical general. Hugh O’Neill, who would have been by far the fittest man, was absent in Munster; and Daniel O’Neill was practically disqualified by being a Protestant. The other candidates were Sir Phelim O’Neill, who had never shone as a soldier, Owen Roe’s son Henry, General Ferrall, and Bishop Macmahon of Clogher. The bishop professed no great anxiety for the post, but there seems little doubt that he left no stone unturned. These intrigues were successful, and Ormonde signed his commission on April 1. He was, says the ‘British Officer,’ ‘a great politician, but no more a soldier fit to be a general than one of Rome’s cardinals.’
Englishmen turned out of the army.
Before the end of April, Monro surrendered Enniskillen to Coote ‘for 500l. and other trivial things.’ At the beginning of May the Bishop began his active campaign. Toome, at the foot of Lough Neagh, was surprised, and, though it was retaken not long after, this prevented Coote from besieging Charlemont; and the Irish army got between his garrison at Londonderry and that of Venables at Coleraine. A council of war was held at Loughgall in Armagh to decide whether the attack should be on the Belfast district or on Londonderry. According to the ‘British Officer,’ the latter course was taken owing to the secret practices of Sir George Rawdon, who wished to keep the war away from his own country. Macmahon summoned Dungiven, which was defended by Colonel Beresford with about sixty men, to whom he wrote, ‘if you shed one drop of my soldiers’ blood, I will not spare to put man, woman, and child to the sword.’ The place was taken by assault, the soldiers mounting the ramparts by means of short sticks thrust into the sods, and all found in arms were killed, except Beresford himself, who was sent wounded to Charlemont, where he recovered. The women, among whom, according to the ‘British Officer,’ were Lady Coote and Mrs. Beresford, were sent safely to Limavady, which was maintained by the successor of Sir Thomas Phillips. The Bishop hoped that some Scots would join him on Royalist grounds; but he got rid of all Englishmen, and a declaration was published by himself and the Bishop of Down, which was signed by twenty-nine officers, every one of them with Celtic names.[180]
Over-confidence of Bishop Macmahon,
who divides his forces,
and rejects Henry O’Neill’s advice.