The dwindling Assembly at Kilkenny.
The nuncio’s party outnumbered
A property qualification.
The General Assembly of the Confederates met at Kilkenny on November 12, the day before the battle of Knocknanuss. In the previous year there had been seventy-three members to represent Ulster, and these had given Rinuccini his majority. This time, ‘from poverty or some other cause,’ only nine appeared, who claimed to hold proxies for the whole number. This claim was disallowed, and Munster and Connaught, being under-represented owing to the difficulties of travel, the powers lay with ‘the mob of Leinster, many of them the minions of Muskerry.’ On the very day of meeting, apparently, the Assembly proceeded to pass what was in effect a new constitution. This document, extending to fifteen printed pages, and no doubt carefully prepared beforehand, begins by setting forth the ruin wrought by military violence. To repress this for the future a new Supreme Council was appointed, consisting of twelve from each province; but the real power was given to a committee of twelve ‘residents,’ three for each province, chosen out of the larger number. Bellings was one of the twelve, only two of whom were bishops; of these, Edmund O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, was a pronounced Ormondist; while Emer Macmahon of Clogher was by no means averse to treating with the Lord Lieutenant. When seven, being an absolute majority of the committee, came to any decision, the dissidents were to sign as if they had been assenting parties. Elaborate orders were made for the repression of malefactors, for raising money, and for the arming and training of a militia consisting of all men between sixteen and sixty, ‘forcing such as are able to provide for themselves swords and muskets, and the rest pikes and skeyns.’ It was recited that in all former assemblies many of the members had been ‘serving-men and men uninterested in the kingdom,’ and ordered that only estated gentlemen should be eligible in future. Finally, orders were given for the regulation of the ‘creaghts’ or nomad herdsmen of Ulster, who had followed Owen Roe O’Neill into the other three provinces and settled upon them like locusts, turning the cultivated country into a desert.[119]
The Queen’s opinion about Ireland
Envoys sent to Rome,
to Spain,
and to France.
‘I wonder,’ wrote Henrietta Maria to her husband a few days before the Assembly met at Kilkenny, ‘that the Irish do not give themselves to some foreign king; you will force them to it in the end, when they see themselves offered as a sacrifice.’ Many in Ireland were of the same opinion, and Rinuccini feared that Louis XIV. would be chosen. His own sympathies were rather Spanish, but he could not deny that France was likely to be the best paymaster and the most vigorous protector. A neutral would be preferable, and, like a good Florentine, he suggested the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. who had sent or promised some arms. But the Assembly had no thought of repudiating the English Crown, though they eagerly sought help from Continental sovereigns, and even from the Dutch States-General. None of the envoys chosen were such as Rinuccini approved. Bishop French and Sir Nicholas Plunket were sent to Rome, and in this case he could say that the object of the Council was to get good men out of the way. They were to represent generally the fidelity of Ireland and her need of help, and in particular to beg the Pope’s intercession with the Queen and Prince, with the sovereigns of France and Spain, and with all other Christian princes. If all else failed, they were empowered to invite Innocent to be himself protector of Ireland, and they were to ask his help even if matters should be accommodated with the Queen and Prince. Sir Richard Blake, a decided opponent of the nuncio, was sent to Spain with instructions to offer the protectorship to the King; but only in the last resort and after they had heard the result of the Roman mission. The same instructions were given to those who went to France. Viscount Muskerry, Bishop Emer Macmahon, and Geoffrey Brown were at first chosen; but Macmahon positively refused to go on the grounds that the Queen hated him, that Jermyn and Digby had threatened his life for opposing the Ormonde peace, and that he spoke neither French nor English. The latter can hardly have been strictly the case, but perhaps he did not speak well enough for diplomacy. It was nevertheless carried by a majority that he should be compelled to go. ‘He then rose,’ says Rinuccini, ‘and, with much displeasure, added the following words: “You, sirs, have gained your victory, but I say that under no circumstances will I go to France.”’ More than fifty members left the hall, exclaiming that the Confederation was at end; but a bishop said that the disaffection of one need not dissolve the union of others. Muskerry, Taaffe, and Preston wished to imprison Macmahon, but the mayor sheltered him. There was a cry that O’Neill was coming, and the city gates were shut. Preston went to look for soldiers, and when Macmahon returned to the Assembly next day he was driven away as being himself under discussion. The lawyers said a bishop might be imprisoned, but the clergy objected, and the Council contented themselves with forbidding him to leave the city. In the end, Antrim was substituted for the bishop as envoy to France, and the matter dropped for the time.[120]
Inchiquin’s bare-footed army