The mayor appeals to Clanricarde.
Forbes was repulsed with loss from Timoleague Castle. Lady O’Shaughnessy, whose husband, Sir Roger, was loyal, offered to surrender it to Kinalmeaky and Sir William Hull, but not to strangers. The soldiers then burned the town and abbey containing a thousand hogsheads of wine. Two spies were taken, but, says Ensign Jones, ‘the rogues slight death, for we could get nothing out of them; so our men mangled them to pieces.’ So Forbes returned to Kinsale, and on July 25 sailed to Castlehaven. The Irish appeared in force on the hills, and the castle of their chief, O’Donovan, was blown up with one barrel of powder. It was sixty feet high with very thick walls, but it fell half on one side and half on the other. O’Driscol’s castle at Baltimore was burned, and the neighbouring islands harried. About 100 camp-followers of the worst kind followed Forbes’s wake. They entered and plundered houses without provocation, and even killed children within sight of the soldiers. Meanwhile Forbes had been summoned to Galway, without Clanricarde’s knowledge, by Willoughby, who having a commission to execute martial law from the Lords Justices, had hanged a sergeant in Lord Clanmorris’s company for extortion. Clanmorris retaliated by hanging some soldiers of the fort who had strayed into the open country. The Lords Justices sent Captain Ashley with his frigate to Galway, and he and Willoughby combined to seize corn, cattle, and timber upon requisition. Only tickets were given in exchange, and Clanricarde’s friends and tenants were injured. Forbes anchored off the town on August 9, Willoughby and Ashley coming on board the same night, and at once sent letters to Ranelagh, Clanricarde and the corporation of Galway. The lieutenant-general of the additional forces by sea and land, so he styled himself, proposed to join hands with the Lord President, and so to subdue the rebellion. Ranelagh answered that he would come from Athlone to Galway, though at some personal risk. ‘I observe,’ he said, ‘in your lordship’s letter an inclination to make a distinction of persons; and truly, my lord, if that course shall not be held, I see little hope of a speedy reducing this kingdom to obedience, seeing most men are possessed of an opinion that an utter extirpation is intended, and that conceit being fomented by the priests and friars, all are falling into such a course of desperation, that being once engaged and their counsels and force united, will certainly be an occasion to lengthen the war, and draw a vast charge upon the Crown to make a complete conquest.’ The only chance of peace, he thought, was in ‘a just distinction between practick and passive rebels, with severity to the one and moderation to the other.’ Of the citizens of Galway Forbes demanded that they should lay down their arms, admit a garrison, and place themselves under his protection, submitting absolutely to the King ‘and the state of England, under whose blessed government they had enjoyed a sweet and long-continued peace.’ The mayor in reply urged his grievances against Willoughby, and declined all further answer till Clanricarde had been consulted, under whose government and by whose mediation they had lately enjoyed some degree of peace. To Clanricarde himself Forbes made much the same proposals as to Ranelagh, with the additional suggestion that he should allow him to garrison Tirellan as a basis of operation against the O’Flahertys, whom the Earl had acknowledged to be ‘out of protection and fit persons to receive chastisement.’ The invitation to give up a convenient private residence to the soldiers who had burned his cousin’s town of Timoleague was politely declined, but Clanricarde was ready to come from Loughrea and to receive Lord Forbes as a guest.[33]
Clanricarde’s difficulties.
Forbes harries co. Galway.
Peters thought Clanricarde’s letter in which he excused the Galway people and laid the blame on Willoughby was well written and showed the writer to be ‘a man of wisdom and parts.’ In the meantime John de Burgo, titular bishop of Clonfert, let the head of his family know that no one would fight for him if he sided with Forbes. While the correspondence proceeded, a detachment from the English squadron was landed on the Clare shore, and harried the lands of Daniel and Tirlogh O’Brien, who had both helped to provision the fort. Peters says they burned ‘a whole town.’ Two demi-culverins were landed on the west side of Galway, but it was ‘as strong and compact as most towns in Europe for houses and walls.’ Forbes said he would raze the latter if the townsmen did not agree to his terms, but the task did not prove easy. In the meantime Forbes’s men landed at various points on the north side of Galway Bay, burning every house and hamlet that they could reach as in an enemy’s country.
The pragmatic chaplain.
The country was so little safe that Clanricarde went to meet Ranelagh at Carrowreagh ford on the Suck with 200 horse. Ranelagh brought the same and as many foot, but no attack took place, and with the horse only they rode the first night to Clonbrock and the second to Loughrea. Clanricarde then sent to invite Forbes to dinner at Tirellan, but he did not care to venture so far inland, and proposed that the place of meeting should be the fort. Clanricarde, who took his stand upon the royal commission to him as governor of Galway, objected to this as beneath his dignity, especially after Forbes had refused his hospitality, and also because some attempt might be made to detain him. Ranelagh, who thought it unwise to stand upon mere points of honour, and who did not believe any one would dare to touch him, made no difficulty about entering the fort. He found Forbes much under the influence of Peters—a ‘pragmatic chaplain from London’—who urged him to attack the town. In the meantime soldiers both from the fleet and the fort ravaged the coast, many men and some women were killed, and Clanricarde had the pleasure of seeing his tenants’ houses burning. Forbes propounded large schemes of conquest with the aid of the Scots army in Ulster, over the impracticability of which Ranelagh and Clanricarde had a good laugh together. The President tried to persuade Forbes to go to Sligo, or to Tralee, whence help might be given from the sea, but he preferred to press Clanricarde to admit his garrison to Tirellan. Some forty guns were landed, but there was no wood to make platforms, and Forbes soon recognised that he could not take Galway, where every house was like a castle. Sir Charles Coote had been expected, but he did not come. Clanricarde returned to Loughrea and Ranelagh to Athlone, while Willoughby remained in command of the fort, and on the worst terms with the townsmen.[34]
Forbes repulsed from Galway.
Tralee taken.
The Earl of Thomond.