The Solemn League and Covenant.
Ireland a party to the Covenant.
While Ormonde was negotiating with the Confederates under the title of ‘His Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects now in arms’—he had not allowed them to style themselves ‘Catholics’ simply—a common danger was drawing the Scottish estates and the English Parliament into a closer alliance. One week after the conclusion of the Irish cessation the solemn League and Covenant was published by order of the House of Commons. The word League was introduced by Vane to emphasise the political character of the compact, for the growing Independent party had no idea of submitting themselves to the strict yoke of Presbyterian polity. Making this reservation and reducing the sum promised to 30,000l., we may accept Baillie’s account: ‘The authority of a General Assembly and Convention of Estate was great; the penalties set down in print before the Covenant, and read with it, were great; the chief aim of it was for the propagation of our Church discipline to England and Ireland; the great good, and honour of our nation; also the Parliament’s advantage at Gloucester and Newbury, but most of all the Irish cessation, made the minds of our people embrace that means of safety; for when it was seen in print from Dublin, that in July his Majesty had sent a commission to the Marquis of Ormonde, the judges, and committee there, to treat with these miscreants; that the dissenting commissioners were cast in prison; that the agreement was proclaimed, accepting the sum of 300,000l. sterling from these idolatrous butchers, and giving them, over the name of Roman Catholic subjects now in arms, a sure peace for a year, with full liberty to bring in what men, arms, money they could from all the world, and to exterminate all who should not agree to that proclamation;—we thought it clear that the Popish party was so far countenanced, as it was necessary for all Protestants to join more strictly for their own safety; and that so much the more, as ambassadors from France were come both to England and us, with open threat of hostility from that Crown.’ Monro refused to be bound by the cessation, but abstained from open hostilities until orders came from Scotland. ‘Here,’ says Turner, ‘was strange work, a man not able to prosecute a war, yet will not admit of a cessation. It cost us dear, for since the King’s restoration, all our arrears were paid us by telling us we were not in the King’s pay, since we refused to obey his commands; and very justly we were so served.’ By a clever stroke of the politicians rather than the theologians Ireland was made a party to the Covenant as ‘by the providence of God living under one King, and being of one reformed religion,’ thus excluding the Irish confederates from the rights of subjects.[47]
Jealousies among the Confederates.
Antrim’s nominal command.
The confederate assembly sat at Waterford in the early part of November, and summoned O’Neill to meet them there. It was determined to attack Monro, and indeed a chief object of the cessation was to have their hands free for so doing. Their great difficulty was about the choice of a general. O’Neill was the ablest officer available, but they feared to put so much power into his hands, and were influenced by ‘that ancient and everlasting difference’ between the North and South. They could not name Preston, between whom and General Owen O’Neill there was ‘such an antipathy as, from their first apprenticeship in soldiery, which they had passed at least thirty years before, notwithstanding their having served for all that time the same princes, and been employed in the same actions of war, could not be removed.’ After much discussion Castlehaven was chosen, for he was generally liked, and no one suspected him of personal ambition. O’Neill was pleased at the rejection of his enemy, but he wished to be general-in-chief, and the evils of divided command were not long in showing themselves. In the mean time Antrim came to Waterford, and there were some who thought good might be done at the English Court by giving him the title of Lieutenant-General. It was, however, expressly stipulated that he should have no real military authority in Ireland. He did not so understand it himself, or perhaps he only pretended not to understand, and proposed to carry into England the very forces which had been provided for the invasion of Ulster. This claim was quickly set aside, and Castlehaven was ordered to continue his preparations.[48]
The Covenant taken in Ulster.
A deputation from the General Assembly.
Early in December, Owen O’Connolly arrived in Ulster with instructions from Westminster, and at once invited the English to take the Covenant. Lord Montgomery, his uncle Sir James, Sir Robert Stewart, Sir William Cole, Colonels Arthur Chichester, Hill, and Mervyn, and Robert Thornton, mayor of Londonderry, met at Belfast on January 2 and decided not to do so, but to consider themselves under Ormonde’s orders, which involved acceptance of the cessation. In writing to the Parliament they merely asked for money to prosecute the war against the rebels. But the bulk of the men composing what were called the British regiments, as distinguished from Monro’s Scots, were of Scottish origin, and were induced to take the Covenant by the Presbyterian ministers, who were vigorously supported by Sir Frederick Hamilton. All were required at the same time to repudiate Strafford’s black oath and to confess their fault in taking it. A deputation of four ministers, one of whom was William Adair, was sent over by the Scotch General Assembly, and reached Carrickfergus at the end of March. Monro readily embraced the Covenant with all his officers and soldiers except Major Dalzell, whom Adair calls an ‘atheist,’ and who afterwards served in Russia, where he learned methods of warfare which made him no less odious as a persecutor than Claverhouse or the Laird of Lag. The country people followed the example of the soldiers. At Belfast, where Chichester commanded, the ministers met with some opposition, for he had published the proclamation against the Covenant by Ormonde’s orders; but everywhere else they were received gladly. At Coleraine, Colonel Audley Mervyn and Sir Robert Stewart were at first hostile, but the majority were favourable. At Londonderry Adair and his colleagues appeared in the market-place while the Church of England service was going on in the principal church, and the mayor and others,’coming from their sacrament, stood somewhat amazed,’ but did not molest the meeting. At Enniskillen they were equally successful, Sir William Cole, after some little hesitation, taking the Covenant himself. They went as far west as Rathmelton and Ballyshannon, and on their return to Londonderry Mervyn took the Covenant, the soldiers greeting him with shouts of ‘Welcome, Colonel.’ Sir Robert Stewart followed suit at Coleraine.[49]
Monro commands in Ulster for the Parliament.