Irish members.
Intolerance of this Parliament.
Oath of abjuration.
In the summer of 1656 Henry Cromwell had become so weary of calumny and so disheartened for want of effectual support that he wished to retire; but Thurloe assured him that the tale-bearers were not believed in England, and that he might go on with his work. It was at this time that the Protector resolved to try a second Parliament, and writs for the Irish elections were sent over. The major-generals and the decimation tax were very unpopular in England, but in Ireland the army was so completely master that there was not much difficulty about getting thirty suitable members. Broghill, who as President of the Council in Scotland managed the elections there, was returned in his absence for the county of Cork, Sir Charles Coote for Galway and Mayo, and Vincent Gookin for Cork and Kinsale. Broghill voted for the title of king, but Henry Cromwell was against it, thinking little of the constitutional argument which had such weight with men like Whitelock, and esteeming it ‘a gaudy feather in the hat of authority.’ The Protector refused the crown, and it would have been well for his fame if he had also insisted on altering the eleventh article of the Petition and Advice which secured religious liberty, provided ‘it should not be extended to Popery or Prelacy.’ This having been admitted as a principle of government, the logical consequence was to pass an Act which obliged all suspected persons over sixteen to take an oath abjuring the distinctive doctrines of the Roman communion, on pain of having two-thirds of their property—real and personal—sequestered. Those who afterwards became Protestants might be restored upon taking the oath, but not unless they have given frequent attendance for the previous six months at some authorised place of worship, being subject to renewed sequestration if they relapsed. The same penalties applied to any Protestant who married a Popish Recusant. ‘The oath of abjuration,’ Henry Cromwell wrote, ‘begets much disturbance here; for the Irish, upon apprehension thereof, sell off their cattle to buy horses, to put themselves into a shifting condition either for force or flight.... I wish his Highness were made sensible hereof in time.’ Dr. Jones said the same thing, adding that the oath ‘was the great engine by which the Popish clergy stir up the people, and whereby they move foreign states to their assistance.’ Cromwell allowed this oppressive law to pass, though it was a retrograde measure, and one which he cannot really have approved. The unfortunate people affected by it in Ireland were in no condition to give serious trouble, but it must have led to the multiplication of Tories.[286]
Royalist plots.
Weakness of Spain.
Loss of a transport.
Dishonest contractors.
The Cavaliers abroad were constantly plotting against the English Government and the Protector’s life, but these intrigues had scarcely any direct effect on Ireland. Richard and Peter Talbot were among the most active conspirators, and the landing of Irish troops was always regarded as part of the scheme. The exiles were discussing Sexby’s plans at the beginning of 1656, and the Protector, who was always well informed, thought it possible that some attempt might be made in Ireland. He directed his son, and the order was promptly obeyed, to reduce garrisons as much as possible, and to keep a field army in two or three divisions ready for any alarm. John Davies, who had been elected for Carrickfergus and Belfast, was known to be an underhand Royalist worker, and he was not allowed to go to England. It was in the north that trouble was expected, but nothing happened. Five thousand foot and nearly half as many horse were held in readiness, and Henry Cromwell was after this averse to a reduction of the army, at least until an efficient Protestant militia could be provided. Helpless and decadent Spain was the enemy whose still remaining force was overrated by Cromwell. Nevertheless, he failed in Hispaniola, and dared not attempt Gibraltar, so that his naval strength was mainly useful to hold Jamaica by occupying the Spaniards near home. The end of 1656 was marked by Stayner’s capture of the galleons, but also by a disaster on the Irish coast. A fleet carrying reinforcements for Jamaica was dispersed by a gale, and one ship, the Two Brothers, having sprung a leak, drifted towards a lee shore to the westward of the Old Head of Kinsale. Four men were detached on a raft ‘with a letter in a pitch box,’ and they reached land too much bruised to move further. The letter was taken to the governor of Kinsale, but the ship’s cable parted in the meantime and she was driven upon a rock. There were saved only about forty soldiers out of some 250, and sixteen seamen out of twenty-nine. The Rev. Edward Worth, whose parsonage was at Ringrone, not far off, thanked God that the wreck was in the barony of Courcies, ‘for the greater part inhabited by English and such Irish as were never in rebellion; divers of the English and many more of the Irish attended all that evening on the coast, not to get the plunder, but to preserve the men whom it should please God to bring to shore.’ It was ebb tide, and as each poor wretch was thrown up by the sea, the hardy natives ran down and helped him to escape before the next wave. Worth and his neighbours provided shelter, and the people of Kinsale vied with each other in providing for the castaways; for the natural sentiments of humanity had survived the war, and were extended to the soldiers of the Commonwealth. Another transport, the Sapphire, from Carrickfergus, was driven into Cork harbour in an almost sinking state, and 260 soldiers, forming her cargo, were quartered in the Great Island, where they could be prevented from deserting. Both these ships were the property of contractors, and supposed to be in good trim. When the paint was off they proved to be ‘very unsound and rotten, and I think,’ says Henry Cromwell, ‘that those who were employed to contract for those ships are deeply guilty of the loss of those poor men.’[287]
Henry Cromwell Lord Deputy, Nov. 17, 1657.