Still sanguine after Naseby.
A few days after giving Glamorgan his instructions, Charles wrote to Ormonde defining clearly the extreme point of his possible concessions to the Roman Catholics. He promised that ‘the penal statutes should not be put into execution, the peace being made and they remaining in their due obedience. And further that when the Irish give me that assistance which they have promised, for the suppressing of this rebellion, and I shall be restored to my rights, then I will consent to the repeal of them by a law. But all those against appeals to Rome and Præmunire must stand.’ A month later the orders were that Ormonde should hasten the peace upon the terms already granted, but that if he could not do so he was to avoid a rupture and to continue the cessation. Only three days later came a ‘command to conclude a peace with the Irish, whatever it cost, so that my Protestant subjects there may be secured and my regal authority preserved.’ Charles said he would not think it a hard bargain if the Irish could be heartily engaged on his side in England or Scotland, upon condition of repealing the penal laws at once, and of suspending Poynings’ Act for that and kindred purposes. But he did not tell Ormonde whether he still considered the statutes against foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction part of his ‘regal authority,’ and he directed him to ‘make the best bargain he could, and not to discover his enlargement of power till he needs must.’ The King’s position remained substantially unaltered during the spring and early summer, but four days after Naseby he told Ormonde that Irish help was more necessary than ever. ‘If,’ he wrote, ‘within two months you could send me a considerable assistance, I am confident that both my last loss would be soon forgotten, and likewise it may (by the grace of God) put such a turn to my affairs, as to make me in a far better condition before winter than I have been at any time since the rebellion began.’ The Lord Lieutenant was to conclude the peace as quickly as possible, and then to come over himself at the head of an army. The course of events was destined to be very different.[71]
Glamorgan in Ireland. August 1645.
The Glamorgan Treaty, August 25.
An army offered in payment.
Ormonde is kept in the dark.
When Glamorgan reached Dublin about the beginning of August, he found no peace signed and no army ready to embark. As Charles’s necessities grew, so did the demands of the Irish bishops, and the King’s orders to conceal his powers prevented Ormonde from saying at once what was the furthest point to which he could go. Glamorgan was present at some of the meetings between the Lord Lieutenant and the Confederate commissioners, and he then went to Kilkenny. Ormonde told his brother-in-law Muskerry, who went there also, that the news of Naseby had made the conclusion of peace more needful than ever. He urged him to help Glamorgan, but at the same time acknowledged his independence, and to some extent deprecated the idea that he was acting in concert with him. ‘I know,’ he wrote, ‘no subject in England upon whose favour and authority with his Majesty, and real and innate nobility you can better rely than upon his lordship’s.’ Muskerry, who was anxious to come to terms with the King, no doubt made full use of this testimonial, and so Glamorgan, relying entirely on his commission of March 12, proceeded to ‘engage his Majesty’s royal and public faith’ for the due performance of the articles known as ‘the first Glamorgan treaty.’ Ormonde was no party to them in fact or in name. ‘Free and public use and exercise of the Roman Catholic religion’ was granted to all without exception. All churches possessed by the Roman Catholics at any time since October 23, 1641, were granted to them, ‘and all other churches in Ireland other than such as are now actually enjoyed by his Majesty’s Protestant subjects.’ All jurisdiction of the Protestant clergy over Roman Catholics was taken away, and an Act of Parliament was promised to abrogate the penalties for breaches of the Acts of supremacy and uniformity. Glamorgan also promised ‘on behalf of his Majesty,’ confirmation to the Roman Catholic clergy of all temporalities possessed by them at any time since the fatal October 23, two-thirds of the profits for three years or during the continuance of the war being applicable to the royal service and one-third to the support of the clergy. Glamorgan afterwards explained that he intended the immediate wants of the Protestant clergy to be provided for out of the two-thirds reserved to the King. That any English Protestants at that time were willing to grant unlimited toleration may well be doubted, but it is certain that there were none ready to confirm everything that had been done against their own clergy since the rebellion began. The consideration offered by the Confederates was 10,000 men, armed one half with muskets and one half with pikes, to be shipped by Glamorgan to any port he might choose. These troops were to be kept together in one entire body under the Earl’s leadership, all other officers being appointed by the General Assembly or Supreme Council. Ten days later Glamorgan solemnly swore to tell the King everything, and ‘not to permit the army entrusted to his charge to adventure itself, or any considerable part thereof, until conditions from his Majesty and by his Majesty be performed.’ In the meantime the treaty was kept secret, and the negotiations between Ormonde and the commissioners of the Confederates went on pretty much as before.[72]
Copies of the treaty are secretly circulated,
and thus becomes public.
Charles writes to the Pope.