Desperation of the Irish.
Means used to subdue armed bands.
Ludlow’s hunt in Wicklow, Feb. 1651-2.
The soldiers were always ignorant of the designs and movements of the combatant Irish, for whom the country people acted as scouts, being ‘possessed of an opinion that the Parliament intend them no terms of mercy and therefore endeavouring to preserve them as those that stand between them and danger.’ It was estimated that 30,000 men were still in arms among the Irish, a few in garrisons, but for the most part lurking among woods and bogs. The plan adopted to subdue them was to make a Pale from the Boyne to the Barrow, and to destroy the means of subsistence elsewhere. No smiths, harness-makers, or armourers were allowed to ply their trade outside of garrisons, no beer, wine, or spirits might be sold nor fairs and markets held beyond those limits. The county of Wicklow, with parts of Dublin, Kildare, and Carlow, was outside the new Pale and excluded from protection. All who resided within the doomed area after February 28 were to be treated as enemies, but permitted to live and graze their stock upon such waste or untenanted lands as might be assigned to them in the protected region. As soon as the appointed day had passed, Ludlow himself went to Talbotstown to plant a garrison, and then carefully searched Wicklow with horse and foot. Few people were met with, for they had look-out men on every hill, but all the houses and stores of corn were burned. ‘He was an idle soldier,’ wrote one officer, ‘that had not either a fat lamb, veal, pig, poultry, or all of them every night to his supper ... we have destroyed as much as would have served some thousands of them until next harvest.’[224]
Clanricarde’s proposals for peace, Feb. 1651-2.
Failure to relieve Galway
The day fixed for the surrender of Galway with the benefit of the first articles offered to Limerick was allowed to pass, and Clanricarde on behalf of many of the nobility and clergy ‘with the corporation of Galway’ made proposals for a general peace. He was fain to profess, though he could hardly believe, that succours would come from his Majesty and allies; if these failed, he and the assembly for whom he acted were prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Ludlow answered from Dublin ten days later that it belonged to Parliament to grant terms, that those who had already long since refused to hear reason could hardly be admitted at the eleventh hour, and that they were relying upon ‘vain and groundless expectations.’ He believed that moderate terms would still be granted in individual cases, but refused to grant a safe conduct for commissioners pretending to represent the general body in arms. Clanricarde did his best to prolong the resistance of Galway, but left the town when he saw that the inhabitants were not prepared to endure extremities. A sortie to gather cattle led to heavy loss, and of two corn ships which attempted to relieve the besieged one was taken and the other forced upon the rocks of Arran. The town was, however, not invested on the west, and there was always a chance that reinforcements or supplies might be introduced from that side. Coote thought the place very strong, and was inclined even to exceed his authority in granting comparatively easy terms.[225]
Dissensions among the besieged, July-Feb. 1651-2.
Improvised colonels.
The clergy prefer Parliament to King.