Ormonde’s opinion.
Terms of agreement with Lorraine.
A “Protector Royal.”
There was an Irish agent at Paris named Tyrrell, who intrigued with Madame de Chevreuse and the Duchess of Orleans, but even before the battle of Worcester Ormonde saw that the Duke would do nothing serious. ‘He must,’ he wrote, ‘sit down with the loss of 20,000l., and they (the Irish) with the state of perfect slavery, the frequent lot of such as affect immoderate power upon weak foundations. The remaining consolation is that, if the King recover England, Ireland will soon follow, without which, if he had it again so peopled as it was, it would be lost.’ The agreement was signed on July 2, but was not transmitted to Clanricarde until September, after the news of Worcester had reached Brussels. Taaffe, who had hitherto been so sanguine, now thought that the Duke of Lorraine would be unable to do anything; and, indeed, he had probably no further object but to gain credit at Rome by a show of strong clerical leanings. ‘His proposals,’ Taaffe wrote, ‘discovered more of self-interest than affection to his Majesty.’ As far as the agreement could do it, he was constituted the ‘true royal protector of Ireland, and this to pass to his heirs and successors.’ The army and militia present and future were placed absolutely in his hands, with power in his absence to appoint a substitute ‘professing Catholic religion, excluding all other whosoever.’ All heretics were to be expelled from Ireland. When these points had been granted, certain provisoes making a show of preserving the royal authority were hardly worth the paper on which they were written. Ormonde, who might easily have been communicated with, never heard of the agreement until a copy was sent back by Clanricarde from Ireland. At the time of its despatch Limerick was closely besieged, and within a few days of surrender, but the corporation of Galway received a direct letter from the Duke of Lorraine, in which he held out hope of further supplies, and claimed their help in carrying out the agreement made with Plunket and Browne. Some powder was sent towards the end of 1651, but it was the ‘basest ever seen, not worth 2s. a barrel,’ yet the Irish were afraid to complain for fear of offending the Duke. In 1652 a very small further supply was sent to Innisbofin. They sent a favourable answer by special messenger, addressing the Duke as royal protector of Ireland, and when the Lord Deputy remonstrated they practically refused to make any excuse. He reported fully to the Queen and to Ormonde, and he could do no more. The latter at least fully understood the matter. The object of the Irish clergy, he said, was to call in a Roman Catholic protector, ‘from which office to absolute sovereignty the way is straight and easy,’ and they were so intent upon this that they allowed the country to fall into the power of the English rebels.[203]
Clanricarde condemns the Lorraine agreement,
and Charles II. approves.
The Duke of Lorraine’s reflections.
Clanricarde plainly told the Duke of Lorraine that he had been duped ‘by the counterfeit shew of a private instrument, fraudulently procured, and signed by some inconsiderable factious persons.’ He laid the chief blame on French, as the violent and malicious enemy of royal authority in Ireland, and ‘a fatal instrument in contriving and fomenting all those diversions and divisions that have rent asunder the kingdom.’ He bade Bishop Darcy of Dromore, and the Archbishop of Tuam, who must have known all about it, to observe the efficacy of that prelate’s powerful spirit in persuading and ‘prevailing with the commissioner to break and betray their trust.’ Letters took a long time in transit, but in February 1652 Charles II. wrote to Clanricarde, entirely approving of his conduct, expressing full confidence in him, and allowing him to leave Ireland whenever he thought fit. This did not reach the Lord Deputy until August, and in the meantime all negotiations with the Duke of Lorraine had been broken off. ‘De Henin,’ says Clarendon, ‘returned in the same ship that brought him, and gave the Duke such an account of his voyage and people that put an end to that negotiation, which had been entered into and prosecuted with less wariness, circumspection, and good husbandry, than that prince was accustomed to use.’ While still professing his anxiety to help the Irish Catholics, the Duke declined to have anything more to say to the Commissioners, whose factiousness had spoiled all. Charles II. had reminded him that Clanricarde was ‘as zealous for the Catholic religion as anyone in Ireland, and that he knew the affections and interests of that people as well as any, whatsoever others pretend.’ Of his dislike to Clanricarde he made no secret, calling him a traitor and base fellow, whom he would do his best to injure if he came within reach, and when the Marchioness reached the Continent he regretted that her sex prevented him from satisfying his feelings of revenge. The remnant of the Irish in Innisbofin continued to hold the island for the Duke of Lorraine, and to hope against hope for his arrival until late in the year 1652.[204]
Ormonde on the results of Worcester.
No help, even from Rome.