‘The marquis,’ says Clarendon ‘in his defence of Ormonde, believed it much more prudent, and agreeable to the trust reposed in him, to deposit the King’s interest and right of the Crown in the hands of the Lords and Commons of England, who still made great professions of duty and subjection to his Majesty, and from whom (how rebellious soever their present actions were) it must probably revert to the Crown, by treaty or otherwise, in a short time, than to trust it with the Irish, from whom less than a very chargeable war would never recover it, in what state soever the affairs of England should be; and how lasting and bloody and costly that war might prove, by the intermeddling and pretences of foreign princes, was not hard to conclude.’ To the Lord Lieutenant Ireland was essentially part of the same State as England, and the King being temporarily in abeyance, the actual wielders of power were trustees for the Crown. Parliamentary troops began to be received in Dublin at the end of March, and on June 7 the new commissioners arrived. At their head was Arthur Annesley, son of Strafford’s Mountnorris, and afterwards well known as Earl of Anglesey. Other forces followed, and arrangements were soon made. Ormonde sailed from Dublin on July 28, having left the sword of state in the hands of the Parliamentary commissioners. ‘He was,’ says Carte, ‘attended by the prayers of the distressed clergy, great numbers of whom, with their wives and children, had been kept from perishing through want by his and his lady’s bounty, and landed on August 2 at Bristol.’ Colonel Michael Jones became governor of Dublin for the Parliament. His father, the Bishop of Killaloe, had died there just nine months before.[108]
Digby and Ormonde.
Parliament prevents foreign enlistment.
Lord Digby’s schemes were always unsuccessful, but he continued plotting to the last moment. After a meeting at Leixlip with Bellings, Sir Robert Talbot, and others of the Confederates who were more or less opposed to Rinuccini, Digby urged Ormonde not to leave Ireland after delivering the sword, but to go to Rathfarnham or some other country where his presence would be a protection to the well-affected. He might raise a force and transport it to France with Muskerry’s help, who was absolute in Munster. In this way he would avoid all appearance of joining with the English Parliament. Ormonde received this strange proposal only five days before he sailed. He replied that Preston and the rest who refused his help while he still possessed an army and fortresses would not be much impressed by his arguments in a private capacity, that the Parliament commanded the seas, and that the very worst way to get their leave to transport troops was to put himself into the power of the Confederates. For himself, he could always go from England to France, but to go from France to England would be virtually impossible. True to the policy which had prevailed since Strafford’s time, the dominant party in England refused to allow troops to be sent from Ireland into the service of any foreign prince. It was evident that they might be used against England if France or Spain were to espouse the King’s cause. Yet it is probable that unrestrained foreign enlistment would have gone far to settle the Irish question, and might have made Cromwell’s terrible campaign unnecessary.[109]
Glamorgan as general.
Character of his army.
He is ousted by Muskerry.
Rinuccini forced out of Leinster.
At the beginning of 1647 Clanricarde reported that Glamorgan was despised and dejected, and Ormonde said it mattered little what became of him or of Antrim ‘if it were not for a natural propension in this people to love their cozeners.’ But the Kilkenny assembly had made Glamorgan general of Munster, and an effort was required to make the appointment a reality. He told the King that he had been forced to undergo a seeming commission which should put him at the head of 12,000 foot and 2500 horse, but that his enemies never rested and that he had small hope of success. Rinuccini and his council moved to Clonmel at the beginning of June, and for a moment it seemed as if they were going to have their own way. Glamorgan, though not much of a soldier, had had some experience in raising troops, but in Munster he did little, finding it easier to multiply officers under the King’s commission of January 6, 1644-5, so that later on it was difficult to ‘dissolve even this airy structure, and to proportion the officers to the men the province was able to contain.’ Rinuccini, with the help of these new colonels and captains, thought he could establish clerical supremacy in Munster and displace all who adhered to Ormonde’s peace. Of these last Muskerry was by far the most important, for he had the confidence of the soldiers, and the nuncio had been unable to exclude him from the council. But his life was thought to be in danger, for three Dominican chaplains suggested that it would be no harm to murder him or the Munster commissioners. This kind of casuistry, as Rinuccini saw, ‘made the impression to be expected on these idiots.’ Muskerry came to Clonmel and took his seat amongst the hostile clericals, but feared a second arrest, and escaped to the camp. He found the old officers friendly and afraid of being superseded by Glamorgan’s creatures. Moreover they professed themselves excommunication-proof, and declared that they were ready to live and die with Muskerry. The men were then mustered, and it was explained to them that their pay would be diverted to the new officers, for that the province could not bear both. They gladly followed suit, joyfully repeating Muskerry’s name with cheers and casting up of hats. ‘And thus,’ says Bellings, ‘was the army, in the space of one hour, without noise, save what witnessed their public satisfaction, placed under his command.’ Their resolution proved irrevocable, and though the nuncio himself might be respected, his adherents could not venture into the camp. Rinuccini therefore went to Galway, and the Council returned to Kilkenny.’[110]
Preston’s army.