Bellings understood that the help of France and Spain ‘rather seemed a traffic for men and a gratification for the levies made in Ireland for the service of both crowns, than marks of a royal bounty and a real will to assist them.’ Early in 1643 the Confederates allowed Spain to recruit in Ireland, the number of men, after some haggling, being fixed at 2000. Philip IV. then made them a present of 20,000 crowns, which was laid out in arms and ammunition. With the Parliamentarians in command of the sea, it took a long time to get the men away, and they could not be spared till after the cessation. Then it became necessary to promise the same number of soldiers to France. At last, in February 1643-4, the Spanish agent or envoy was received by the Supreme Council, and told that he should have his men by June 25. He was a Burgundian named Foisset, and came, not from Spain, but from Don Francisco de Melo in the Netherlands. Next day the French representative, De la Monnerie, was received and had exactly the same answer. Monnerie was a gentleman of the bedchamber, and his sole business was to get as much food for powder as possible in Ireland. It would seem that both agents were privately told that the great object of the Council was to favour their respective sovereigns. Meanwhile their lawful King was calling for Irish troops in vain. Monnerie did manage to get off 1300 men from Galway early in 1645, not being able to get shipping for more in Ireland, and Mazarin failing to send the vessels which he promised; but the recruiting still continued. Monnerie seems to have done better than his rival, and reported that ‘the Spaniard who is here’ began to lose heart and to declare loudly that the Supreme Council was quite French. It was Mazarin against Don Luis de Haro. A Colonel Plunket was promised forty crowns by Ottavio Piccolomini for every man he could land in Flanders, but the Kilkenny authorities would not let him do the work.[65]
Confederate envoys. Talbot and O’Sullivan.
Hugh Bourke.
The story told abroad.
Heresy to be extirpated.
Immediately after the outbreak in 1641 the Irish of Western Munster had sent Francis O’Sullivan, a Franciscan, to solicit the help of Spain. A little later, James Talbot, an Augustinian, was sent on the same errand, and returned with 3000l. in silver, 4000 muskets, four pieces of cannon and other stores, purchased with the 20,000 crowns obtained from Philip IV., but not without much bickering as to whether the Celtic O’Sullivan or the Anglo-Norman Talbot deserved the credit. In acknowledgment, it was proposed to send 1000 men to Spain; but there was a difficulty about transport, and they never started. Talbot was sent again in June 1643 with an offer of two thousand and directions as to how he should spend any further sum he might receive. The landing of the money and arms at Dungarvan during the negotiations for a cessation made Ormonde’s task harder; but the Spanish Government had transferred the matter to the Governor of the Netherlands. Talbot went there instead of to Spain, and returned with Foisset. He perhaps thought it the best thing to do, but the Supreme Council never fully trusted him afterwards. It was found that unauthorised persons had been begging in Spain for the Irish cause, and had kept the money received, and it was thought expedient to cancel all former credentials and to send a new envoy to Spain. The person selected was Hugh Bourke, a Franciscan, who had been doing good service in the Netherlands, whence he was transferred directly. He went by Paris, where he met Rinuccini on his way to Ireland, and impressed him by his cleverness and energy. The instructions to Bourke, dated December 12, 1644, throw great light upon the position of the Confederates. The war was represented as being purely a struggle ‘for the Catholic Church in its splendour.’ Nothing at all is said about the Ulster barbarities, but the Protestant party are simply described as ‘taking advantage, before we were provided of arms and ammunition, to destroy many thousands of people unarmed, and exercise barbarous cruelties against man, woman, and child, sparing none that did come within their power, and intending to extirpate the whole nation.’ Nevertheless, the Confederates, having received some arms from abroad, had re-established the Catholic religion in full splendour and been victorious everywhere except ‘in some particular places and parts of the kingdom.’ Among those particular places, unfortunately, were Dublin, Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale, Londonderry and Coleraine, Carrickfergus and the rising settlement of Belfast. If the Spaniard inquired why such a victorious party had agreed to a truce with Ormonde, Bourke was to reply that it was thought wise to be on terms with one hostile party so as to be free to crush the other. Nor had the calculation been unsuccessful, for Ormonde had sent 12,000 men to England, most of whom had been killed. As to the Oxford propositions, the Confederates had thought it expedient to ask for freedom of religion only, and ‘you may inculcate the reason (which God knows to be true), it was to win time, and our construction shall be freedom in splendour if holpen with possibility of subsistence.’ The ultimate goal was to be an Ireland whose victorious soldiers ‘would not rest satisfied, but try their valours elsewhere for religion, as long as any heretics did remain in the neighbouring provinces.’ The duplicity of Charles I. was rightly complained of by the Confederates; but it was not greater than their own.[66]
Siege of Duncannon, Jan.-March 1644-5.
Parties in the garrison.
The cessation ignored.
Lord Esmond’s difficulties.