He seizes Belfast, May 14, 1644,
and secures general obedience.
Towards the end of December the English Parliament resolved to put the British and Scottish forces in Ulster under one commander, and Leven was named. He did not return to Ireland, but was authorised to appoint a lieutenant, and so at the end of April 1644 Monro obtained the full command. Some of his unfed and unpaid troops had gone back to Scotland, but the remonstrances of the Ulster Protestants prevailed, and the policy of withdrawing from Ireland was not persevered in. The colonels of the British regiments met at Belfast on May 13 to deliberate as to what degree of obedience they would give Monro, and he resolved to anticipate their decision. In spite of Chichester and his proclamation the Covenant was popular in Belfast, and had many friends among the soldiers. Scouts were sent out during the night after the meeting of the colonels in consequence of reports as to hostile intentions on Monro’s part. They returned about six in the morning, saying that they had been within three miles of Carrickfergus and had seen nothing, the probability being that they had met the Scots and come to an understanding with them. At seven Monro appeared, and Captain MacAdam’s sergeant, who commanded the guard, at once opened the gate. Monro marched through the town unopposed, seized the gate at the other end, and took possession of all the cannon. Chichester was allowed to remain in the castle, which was his own house, with 100 men, but the other regiments were quartered outside the town. As soon as Belfast was secured, Monro marched on to Lisburn, but there he found the garrison on their guard and devoted to Ormonde. The English regiments were left in possession, but Monro succeeded in getting all the Protestant troops in Ulster to serve under him. On the last day of June he had collected 10,000 foot and 1000 horse at Armagh, and with these he marched to Cavan.[50]
Expedition to Ulster under Castlehaven, July, 1644.
Leinster and Ulster cannot agree.
The expedition a failure.
Castlehaven’s army of 6000 foot and 1000 horse were in the meantime ordered to assemble at Granard, but not more than half had arrived when Monro’s approach was announced. He left Mountgarret’s brother, John Butler, to defend the passage into Leinster at Finnea between Lough Sheelin and Lough Kinale. According to an Irish writer, Butler was given to carousing at critical times, and he failed to maintain his position. Monro advanced as far as Carlanstown Castle, which he burned, but finding that Castlehaven and O’Neill had joined forces at Portlester in Meath, he withdrew northwards again. He had started with provisions for only three weeks. Castlehaven then called on O’Neill to perform his promise of co-operating in an invasion of Ulster with 4000 foot and 400 horse, and O’Neill assured him that he should have no reason to complain when actually operating in the northern province. During the greater part of August and September, Castlehaven lay at Charlemont and Monro at Tanderagee, but there was no general action, and O’Neill was ill nearly all the time. In a skirmish at Scarva on the borders of Down and Armagh, Captain Blair was taken, and about 100 Scots killed. In another encounter between Benburb and Caledon three of O’Neill’s officers fell, Colonel Ffennell looking on with some of Castlehaven’s horse, but doing nothing to save them. There was evidently no love lost between the Leinster and Ulster men, and at last, about the beginning of October, Castlehaven returned to his own province. O’Neill upbraided him with the conduct of his officer, ‘a gentleman I see here, Lieutenant-Colonel Ffennell, with the feather, a cowardly cock, for seeing my kinsmen overpowered by the enemy, some of them hacked before his face, and a strong brigade of horse under his command, and never offered to relieve them.’ Castlehaven had very little help from the Ulster Irish, except in the way of provisions. ‘O’Neill,’ he said, ‘began to be very weary sometimes of assisting me with cows,’ and attributes the ill-success of the whole expedition to the ‘failing, or something else, of General Owen Roe O’Neill.’ On the other hand, we are told that O’Neill went to Kilkenny and demanded an inquiry, saying that the foreign residents would think very little of the Confederacy if neither general lost his head. A committee sat accordingly, but no report transpired.[51]
Designs of Antrim.
His agreement with Montrose, January 1643-44.
Having failed to acquire any real influence at Kilkenny, Antrim went to England, and arrived at Oxford December 16, 1643. He talked about providing an army of 10,000, but was not at first taken very seriously. ‘We know the person well,’ said Digby, ‘and therefore wondered to find those probabilities which he made appear unto us of his power with the Irish.’ But Montrose was at Oxford, and saw his chance at once. On January 28, an agreement was made between Montrose, ‘his Majesty’s Lieutenant-General’ for Scotland and Antrim, ‘his Majesty’s General of the isles and highlands of Scotland,’ binding both to appear in arms by April 1. Antrim’s share of the work was to levy all the men he could in Ireland and in the Scottish isles, ‘and with the said forces invade the Marquis of Argyle’s country in Scotland.’ The witnesses were Digby, Robert Spotswoode, and Daniel O’Neill. The King himself directed Ormonde to give Antrim every possible assistance, and Daniel O’Neill was sent with him ‘by way of ballast,’ and as ‘the fittest person to steer him.’ It was very hard to bring the King to this point, for he distrusted Antrim and disliked O’Neill. But Digby was in his element, and he persuaded Charles to give Antrim a marquisate, which he vainly imagined would make him Ormonde’s equal, and to appoint O’Neill a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which was his great object of ambition. At Oxford Antrim talked chiefly of the moderate courses to which he intended to lead the Irish, but at Kilkenny he had encouraged them to hope that by his interest all their objects would be easily gained.[52]