Ormonde reached Cork harbour on Michaelmas Day. Inchiquin begged him to come, with or without money, but to multiply the real sum by four so as to encourage the soldiers. What he actually brought was thirty pistoles, his slender resources having been expended through various accidents and delays before he left France. He issued an address to the Munster army, declaring that he had come ‘to employ his utmost endeavours for the settlement of the Protestant religion, for defence of the King in his prerogatives, and for maintaining the privileges and freedom of Parliament, as well as the liberty of the subject.’ Independency he would do his best to suppress. He had still all the legal authority of a viceroy, but his special powers to treat with the Irish had been exhausted in 1646. He had fresh powers from the Prince of Wales, but they might be objected to, and the King was applied to for their confirmation. ‘I must command you two things,’ wrote Charles from Newport, ‘first, to obey all my wife’s commands; then, not to obey any commands of mine until I send you word that I am free from restraint. Lastly, be not startled at my great concessions concerning Ireland, for that they will come to nothing.’ Ormonde stayed a few days at Cork, and then went to his own house at Carrick, so as to be near Kilkenny.[130]
Riot at Galway, July.
The archbishop defies the nuncio.
The General Assembly denounce the nuncio’s party,
and welcome Ormonde to Kilkenny.
The mayor of Galway attempted to proclaim the truce, as Kilkenny had done, but Rinuccini opposed him in person, and in the riot which followed some lives were lost. The mob generally sided with the nuncio, and he had the bell of the Carmelites’ church taken down, that order having opposed him. Two priests were posted at the door ‘to keep Catholics from the mass, to the great scandal of Catholic religion in the country, where there are many Protestants that, by good example, might be converted to the Catholic faith.’ Archbishop de Burgo reached the town at this juncture, and demanded the production of the warrant under which Rinuccini acted. ‘I won’t show it,’ said the nuncio. ‘And I won’t obey you,’ replied the archbishop, and ordered the church doors to be forcibly opened by a man who got in through a hole in the roof. The archbishop celebrated mass in spite of the interdict. In order to neutralise the action of the Kilkenny Council, Rinuccini summoned a national synod to meet at Galway on August 15; but Clanricarde, who had the assistance of Inchiquin, surrounded the town and quite prevented any episcopal gathering there. No letters reached the nuncio, and it was with great difficulty that he despatched any. On August 30 he published a declaration, which was signed by six bishops and some other dignitaries, setting forth that adhesion to the truce with Inchiquin was ‘a deadly sin against the law of God and His Church.’ This did not prevent the Assembly from meeting at Kilkenny on September 4, who denounced the malice and irregularity of those who signed the declaration, and pronounced them guilty of the late bloodshed at Galway. A few days later they sent John Roe, provincial of the barefooted Carmelites, to Rome with letters for the Pope. They had fought, they said, for the faith for seven years, and their reward was to have the papal thunders loosened upon their heads by the nuncio. As soon as Ormonde arrived they congratulated him, and announced their willingness to conclude ‘a well-grounded and lasting peace’ with him. Commissioners, of whom Sir Phelim O’Neill was one, were appointed to carry on the negotiations. Early in November Ormonde was invited to Kilkenny, and entered the town with great pomp, the members of the Assembly going out along the road to meet him and conducting him to his own castle. It was just three years since Rinuccini had been received with equal or greater rejoicing.[131]
Antrim tries to thwart Ormonde
Antrim was much disgusted at not being made Lord Lieutenant, and reached Ireland about the same time as Ormonde, with the intention of thwarting him. He was not trusted by the Confederates, and the most important part of the Paris negotiations had been hidden from him. Wexford favoured the nuncio, and Antrim collected about a thousand men there with a view of making a diversion in aid of Owen O’Neill. They consisted of a battalion of Highlanders, under Macdonald of Glengarry, and of levies made among the O’Byrnes and Kavanaghs. They were attacked on the road between Wexford and Arklow by the Confederate forces, and routed by MacThomas and his cavalry. This is what Antrim in his autobiographical memoir calls ‘living privately at Wexford and Waterford.’ He escaped by boat to Arklow, and thence to O’Neill’s garrison at Rebane in Kildare. In the following year he became a pensioner of Cromwell.[132]
The Parliament masters of Ulster.
Monck takes Carrickfergus and Belfast, September.