The Confederates hesitate to send troops to England.
Antrim raises a small force,
under Alaster Macdonnell,
who joins Montrose.
Antrim and O’Neill reached Kilkenny on February 23. In obedience to the King’s instructions, their first business was to persuade the Confederates to send him ‘10,000 men, well armed, to be transported into England with all possible expedition,’ and to provide them with artillery, ammunition, and shipping. The Supreme Council replied that they would wait until they had a report from their agents at Oxford. Prince Rupert’s application for muskets and powder was also set aside, but some were sent in the following autumn. The expedition to the Scottish isles was agreed to, and the Council undertook to provide ‘2000 muskets, 2400 pounds of powder, proportionable match, 200 barrels of oatmeal, by May 1, upon knowledge first had that all other accommodations be concurring, and a safe and convenient port provided in Ulster; provided the same port be commanded by Walter Bagenal.’ Ormonde objected to put Carlingford or Greencastle into the hands of the Confederates’ nominee, and also to Bagenal’s being made governor of Newry, the rather that he had hereditary claims there which might prove awkward. After much wrangling, the Council agreed that the expedition should embark at Passage in Waterford harbour, but the flotilla, consisting of two Flemish and one Irish vessel, did not sail till June 27. The delay was aggravated by the difficulty of finding shipping, and by the necessity of watching the parliamentary cruisers. According to Antrim’s own account, the number of men sent was about 1600, and 800 more were discharged for want of shipping. Three weeks later Ormonde informed Digby that Antrim had sent ‘from Waterford and other adjacent places,’ 2500 men well armed and provisions for two months. The chief of the expedition was Alaster, or Alexander McColl MacDonnell, often, but incorrectly, called Colkitto. He was a man of great courage, remarkable for his strength and stature, and Leven thought him the most formidable leader of the Irish. On the way to Scotland several prizes were taken, on one of which were three ministers named Weir, Watson, and Hamilton, being among those who had gone over to administer the Covenant. Weir and Watson died in prison after enduring dreadful hardships, but Hamilton lived to be exchanged after ten months’ confinement. MacDonnell reached the Sound of Mull in safety, and seized upon the castles of Mingarry and Lochaline. The prospect was so unpromising that he thought of re-embarking; but Argyle, with the help of two English vessels, mastered his ships, and he was forced to go on. The Flemings surrendered at once, but the Irish sailors, who fought desperately, were all killed and their ship burned to the water’s edge. He harried all the Campbell territory that he could reach, and afterwards that of the Mackenzies, and then tried to recruit his forces on the Spey. In the meantime Montrose had entered Scotland and summoned MacDonnell to meet him at Blair Athol. The Irish contingent took part in the victory of Tippermuir on September 1.[53]
Importance of the Irish to Montrose.
Their barbarous proceedings.
Alaster Macdonnell deserts Montrose.
Cruelty of the Covenanters.
The epic of Montrose belongs to Scotland, but it should be remembered that the Irish, as they are always called, formed the nucleus and the only stable part of his army, and that when Alaster Macdonnell forsook him, victory forsook him too. Antrim was Tyrone’s grandson, and the remains of the Ulster clans had no objection to follow him, though some of his levies were islemen or Hebrideans settled in Ireland. Patrick Gordon calls them ‘strangers and foreigners,’ adding that they showed no pity or humanity, nor made any distinction between man and beast, ‘killing men with the same careless neglect that they kill a hen or capon for supper. And they were also without all shame, most brutishly given to uncleanness and filthy lust; as for excessive drinking, when they came where it might be had, there was no limit to their beastly appetites.’ Spalding, who was present when Montrose sullied his fame by allowing the sack of Aberdeen, says they murdered and ravished for four days. The corpses lay unburied until women ventured to move them, for no man could show himself: ‘the wife durst not cry nor weep at her husband’s slaughter before her eyes, nor the mother for the son, nor daughter for the father; which if they were heard, then were they presently slain also.’ As long as the business consisted in harrying Campbells or Mackenzies, Alaster Macdonnell had no difficulty in getting recruits from his fellow tribesmen on the main land, but after Kilsyth he and his Highlanders, who were gorged with plunder, deserted Montrose that they might carry their acquisitions home. No commands or entreaties of their general could prevail, says Sir James Turner, ‘to Cantire they would go, and to Cantire they did go.’ They cared nothing for Lowland or English politics. Some 500 Irish remained faithful ‘because they had no place of retreat,’ and these were cut to pieces at Philiphaugh, 300 of their wives being butchered there, and many others later at Linlithgow, where the horrors of Portadown bridge were repeated with the parts reversed. Those who are disposed to deny the Ulster massacres may ponder the words of Spalding and Gordon, while nothing can excuse the cruelty practised in retaliation.[54]