Rinuccini’s excommunication still in use.
There were dissensions within the walls of Galway as there had been at Limerick, and it is not easy to make out exactly what took place. The indefatigable Dean King left Charles at Stirling in June, just after Ireton had crossed the Shannon and when Coote had been some time in Connaught. He landed near Londonderry on the 20th and found his way to Galway by July 2. Bishop Lynch and others of the clergy tried to make out that he had not been with the King, and that his commission was a trick of Ormonde’s. This was easily disproved, and clerical help was promised on condition that the chiefs of the old Irish in Connaught should be made colonels. Ten were so promoted, but not one of them could muster over 500 men, and every one thought of little but defending his own castle. These petty strongholds were daily taken with the pick of the Irish soldiers inside. The Ulster forces for the most part disregarded Clanricarde’s summons, while those of Leinster, 3000 foot and 500 horse, dwindled daily and lived upon the spoil of the country, as there was no money to pay them, so that he thought it better to let them go back to their own province under the nominal generalship of Lord Westmeath. The only force upon which the unfortunate Deputy could rely was raised in his own county of Galway, and with these he kept an eye upon Coote’s army. Dean King found that the clergy generally, headed by Bourke of Tuam and French of Ferns, were hostile to the King’s government and anxious only for an accommodation with the Parliament, in which they were supported by the Prestons father and son, by Sir Nicholas Plunket, and by Geoffrey Brown. The expectation of the Lorraine succours had paralysed all the Irish parties, so that no one exerted himself. The little that had been sent by the ducal pretender had been wasted or embezzled; ‘20,000l. whereof 6000l. defalked for the charge of the negotiations,’ 1000 stand of arms, 1000 barrels of badly damaged rye, and ‘thirty barrels of powder, the worst in the world.’ To make confusion worse confounded, some of the bishops were using Rinuccini’s old excommunication to crush their opponents. There were nevertheless nearly 30,000 men under arms, but no means of keeping them together, and there were many harbours still open in Connaught and Munster through which money and stores might be introduced. Dean King left Ireland on February 16 and reported to Charles at Paris on April 1; but the battle of Worcester had been fought and lost, and no help came.[226]
Capitulation of Galway, May 12, 1652.
Coote offends the Independents.
Coote and Ludlow.
Clanricarde did what he could to prolong the defence of Galway, but the citizens could not see that there was anything to gain by it. He had agreed to approach Ludlow with proposals for a general pacification, but was determined to resist as long as he could. The town therefore acted without consulting him, though he was in the neighbourhood, and the articles of surrender contain no mention of King, Lord Lieutenant, or Deputy. Fear of famine and of hard terms when the inevitable end came were sufficient inducements to surrender, and there is no reason to suppose that Galway was betrayed in the common sense of the words, though in 1656 some of the inhabitants claimed special indulgence on the ground that they had favoured the English interest throughout the war, and had thereby ‘contracted a malice from those of their own nation’ among whom they had to live. Coote has a bad name on the score of severity, but he and many of those with him had estates in Ireland, and some of them in Connaught, and they did not see with the same eyes as those who were bent upon planting new settlers everywhere. The extreme Independents called Coote and his men ‘Tame Tories,’ and there was jealousy of his position as President of Connaught. Ireton thought the provincial presidencies should be abolished, as an unnecessary burden to State and country, and the Commissioners in Dublin were of the same opinion. One hot-headed captain of the Munster army attached to that of Connaught wrote to say that Ireland being almost reduced, there was little left to do but to ‘fall on Sir Charles Coote and his ‘Tame Rebels.’’ The letter was intercepted, and Coote imprisoned the writer, whose curious defence was that many others agreed with him. Ludlow released him and blamed Coote for exercising authority over an officer not belonging to his province. From all this the Royalists had hopes, and no doubt Coote had never been a republican, but they had to wait several years for their realisation. In the meantime he was glad to get hold of Galway upon almost any terms.[227]
Terms granted to Galway.
The terms disliked in Dublin.
The articles are amended,
but the townsmen protest.