Attitude of Jones.
Milton and the Ulster Scots.
The Scots a hired army.
Ormonde and Cromwell compared.
All the treaties with the Irish condemned.
Ormonde went to Cork early in February in order to communicate with Prince Rupert. At Youghal on his return he heard of the King’s execution, and immediately proclaimed Charles II. The same was done wherever his authority extended, and the new sovereign lost no time in renewing his commission as Lord Lieutenant with the fullest powers. His negotiations with O’Neill at this time had no result, but he had some hope that the King’s execution would detach Michael Jones from the Parliament. There was, he said, an evident intention to abolish monarchy, ‘unless their aim be first to constitute an elective kingdom and Cromwell or some such John of Leyden being elected then by the same force to establish a perfect Turkish tyranny.’ Nothing better could be expected from ‘the dregs and scum of the House of Commons picked and awed by the army,’ which was all that remained of the ancient constitution. Jones in his answer pointed out that the peace just concluded scarcely gave any protection to Protestants, and that none was to be expected from a Papist army. His business was not to meddle in affairs of State, but to carry out the work for which he was appointed. The intermeddling of Irish governors with English parties had always had the effect of weakening the colony, and Ormonde himself had provided a case in point by sending most of his English army across the channel, and thus very nearly abandoning Ireland to the rebels. The English interest could evidently only be preserved by the English, and it was upon that ground that he had surrendered Dublin to the Parliament, ‘from which clear principle I am sorry to see your lordship now receding.’ Jones said nothing either in approval or condemnation of the King’s execution, but he did not allow it to affect his action. The Scots in Ulster, while condemning it unreservedly, did not think it a reason for supporting Ormonde. The Presbytery of Belfast were chiefly anxious to overthrow the sectaries who had departed from the Solemn League and Covenant, and even showed an intention of tolerating all religions, even ‘paganism and Judaism.’ But they were scarcely less bitter against those who ‘combined themselves with Papists and other notorious malignants.’ Milton, who was just beginning his career as Latin secretary, was employed by the House of Commons to answer both Ormonde and the Ulster presbyters. With the latter he had little difficulty, for they admitted that Ireland was dependent upon England and not upon Scotland. ‘The Presbytery of Belfast, a small town in Ulster,’ said the poet, should have enough to do in overseeing their own flock, without meddling in affairs of State. The House of Commons were accused of seizing upon the King’s person, ‘but was he not surrendered into their hands an enemy and captive by their own subordinate and paid army of Scots in England?’ And Knox, who was the founder of Scotch presbytery, ‘taught professedly the doctrine of deposing and of killing kings.’ Ormonde on his part made a great mistake in comparing Cromwell to John of Leyden, for never was any man more unlike the Puritan chief than the polygamous scoundrel who had enjoyed a brief royalty at Münster. Cromwell, said Milton, had ‘done in few years more eminent and remarkable deeds whereon to found nobility in his house though it were wanting, and perpetual renown to posterity, than Ormonde and all his ancestors put together can show from any record of their Irish exploits, the widest scene of their glory.’ Dealing with the articles of the peace in greater detail than Jones had done, Milton shows that the Protestants of Ireland were really left at the mercy of those who were more or less responsible for the massacres. The cessation of 1643 and the abortive articles of 1646 were open to the same objection, but this last treaty went further in proposing to give an Irish Parliament power to repeal Poynings’ Act, and by abandoning the militia, ‘a trust which the King swore by God at Newmarket he would not commit to his Parliament of England, no, not for an hour.’ Nor did Milton omit to notice the article ‘more ridiculous than dangerous’ which provided for the repeal of laws against ploughing by the tail and burning in the straw, showing how ‘indocible and averse from all civility and amendment,’ the Irish rebels were.[139]
O’Neill and Monck.
They combine against Ormonde and Inchiquin.
O’Neill helps Coote.