Beginning of the Catholic Confederation.
The oath of association.
On June 22 that part of the House of Commons in Dublin which accepted the oath of supremacy expelled forty-one ‘rotten and unprofitable members’ who were either in open rebellion or indicted of high treason. Of these Richard Bellings, who sat for Callan, was the most important. Among the others were Rory Maguire the northern leader, Sir Valentine Blake of Galway, who was Clanricarde’s friend, and Sir James Dillon. In the meantime what claimed to be a new legislature was being gradually formed. On May 10, 11, 13, and 14 a congregation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy sat at Kilkenny. There were present three archbishops, six bishops and the procurators of four more, with several abbots and other dignitaries; and the plan of the proposed confederation was sketched out. The prelates declared that the war had been justly undertaken for religion and for the King, against sectaries and especially against Puritans. Any province, county, or city making separate terms with the enemy was to be held excommunicate. A number of lords and gentlemen joined the prelates, and out of their joint deliberations grew the Supreme Council in its first shape—two members out of each province with Mountgarret as president. An oath of association was framed binding the confederates to obey the council and to do nothing without their consent. The main object was the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion ‘in as full and ample a manner as the Roman Catholic secular clergy had or enjoyed the same within this realm at any time during the reign of Henry VII.’ Significantly, the regular clergy are not mentioned at all. The secular clergy were to enjoy all temporalities ‘in as large and ample a manner as the late Protestant clergy respectively enjoyed the same on October 1, 1641.’ All laws to the contrary made since 20 Henry VIII. were void. Before a more regular assembly could meet Preston had landed in the south and O’Neill in the north, and their arrival gave events a new turn.[16]
Owen Roe O’Neill.
O’Neill lands in Ulster, July 1642.
Owen Roe O’Neill was son of Art MacBaron, the great Tyrone’s brother, whence he was often called Owen MacArt. In the Spanish service he was known as Don Eugenio O’Neill. He was a captain in Flanders in Henry O’Neill’s Irish regiment as early as 1607, and colonel of the regiment about 1633. With the rank of maître de camp he commanded the garrison of Arras during the siege in 1640, and marched out with the honours of war on August 9. For some time before the outbreak he had been in frequent communication with the Irish leaders, but perhaps without any well-formed intention of going over himself. When he heard that the plot to seize Dublin had been discovered ‘he was in a great rage against O’Connolly, and said he wondered how or where that villain should live, for if he were in Ireland, sure they would pull him in pieces there; and if he lived in England there were footmen and other Irishmen enough to kill him.’ It was less than eight years since another Irish colonel, Walter Butler, had murdered Wallenstein. O’Neill then asked his general Francis de Mello to let him go to Ireland, and the Spaniard answered that he should go and be well supplied for the enterprise if he could find a safe landing-place in his own country. It was, however, given out that he was in disgrace with the Spanish authorities, and years afterwards, when Hyde was at Madrid, Don Luis de Haro kept up the mystification and spoke of him as a deserter from his sovereign’s service. Where Spain was concerned there were always long delays, and the summer of 1642 was well advanced before O’Neill announced to Luke Wadding that he was about to start. Everything, he said, was going on well in Ireland, but there was sad want of powder. If the Pope knew, he said, how fatal that powder would be to heresy and heretics he would make haste to procure a plentiful supply. O’Neill sailed from Dunkirk round Scotland, and landed in Lough Swilly about the last day of July. He captured two prizes at sea and detached a small vessel to Wexford with arms, which arrived safely. O’Neill brought to Ulster ‘ammunition, arms and a few low-country officers and soldiers of his own regiment,’ and he sent his ships back to Flanders for more. Sir Phelim sent 1500 men to join his kinsman, who went round by Ballyshannon to Charlemont, where he arrived without having met an enemy.[17]
Preston lands at Wexford, August 1642.
His rivalry with O’Neill.
Attitude of Richelieu.
Thomas Preston, a son of the fourth Viscount Gormanston, was fifty-six years old when the Irish rebellion broke out. He was a captain in the same regiment as Owen Roe O’Neill in 1607, but was never on good terms with him. They were rivals in recruiting during the reign of Strafford, who favoured the man of English descent as far as he could. In 1635 Preston distinguished himself in the defence of Louvain against the combined forces of France and Holland, and in 1641 in the defence of Genappe against Frederick Henry of Orange. In 1642 his nephew, Lord Gormanston, urged him to return to Ireland. In March of that year Mountgarret sent Geoffrey Barron, Wadding’s nephew, to Paris, and in July he met Preston there. Richelieu, who had not forgotten Rochelle, did not declare himself openly, but he discharged all the Irish soldiers in the French service, allowed war material to be purchased in France, and let it be understood that help would be forthcoming to the extent of a million of crowns. Preston sailed from Dunkirk, accompanied by several officers, and arrived in Wexford harbour at the beginning of August. Here he was joined by at least a dozen vessels laden with war material from St. Malo, Nantes, and Rochelle. He reconnoitred Duncannon fort, which he thought could be taken in fifteen days, and then went to Kilkenny, where the confederates were still assembled. Public opinion quickly designated him as the fittest person to have military command in Leinster, and Mountgarret, who was no soldier, was very willing to yield the place to him.[18]