Battle of Rathmines, August 2.
Total defeat of the Royalists.
After Drogheda and Dundalk were taken Ormonde crossed the Liffey and established his camp at Rathmines, leaving Lord Dillon at Finglas with a small force. On the same day Jones received a reinforcement of 1500 foot and 600 horse under Reynolds and Venables, and the chance of taking Dublin was proportionately diminished, for the garrison had become more numerous than the besieging army. ‘We had it,’ says Ormonde, ‘from many good hands out of England and from Dublin, that Cromwell was at the seaside ready to embark for this kingdom, and that his design was for Munster.’ Lest Cork, Kinsale, and Youghal should fall while Dublin was still untaken it was decided by a council of war to send Inchiquin to Munster with three regiments of horse. This proved fatal, but it was supposed that Cromwell meant to land the greater part of his army in the south, and his intention was made known by some who came in the ships which brought fresh troops to Jones. Ormonde realised that if he did not take Dublin before Cromwell came he was not likely to take it after. He diverted the conduit which brought the Dodder water from near Templeoge to Dublin, and thus stopped the mills, though there was still enough to drink from other sources. Wheat was selling in Dublin at 5l. 10s. a quarter and rye at 4l. 10s., yet the garrison would hardly starve while they had command of the river, but it was different with the horses who depended upon the grazing of the meadows between Trinity College and the mouth of the Dodder. Having first reduced Rathfarnham, which annoyed his rear, Ormonde decided to fortify Baggotrath Castle, which stood near the point where Waterloo Road now joins Upper Baggot Street, and thus deprive Jones’s cavalry of their supply of fodder. Soon after dark on the night of August 1 he sent Purcell with 1500 men to occupy the place, which had already been examined carefully, and he expected to find tenable entrenchments there in the morning. The distance was scarcely a mile, and Purcell had been at Baggotrath during the day; but he wandered about all night, and when the morning broke nothing had been done. This was attributed to the treachery of a guide, and Peter Walsh says Edmund O’Reilly, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, had been engaged in conducting an intrigue between Owen O’Neill and Jones, and that he was guilty of betraying the camp at Rathmines. Ormonde sat up during the night to write despatches, but rode to Baggotrath with the first light. He found very little progress made with the entrenchments, while the garrison of Dublin were evidently on the alert and busily moving about under shelter of their works. Jones had 4000 foot and 1200 horse under arms, having at first no intention but to prevent the Royalists from establishing themselves on the shore, but the first encounter gradually developed into a general engagement, when the superior quality of the Parliamentarian troops soon became manifest. Expecting no attack, Ormonde had lain down to rest about nine o’clock, and some of his officers left their posts, so that the troops were partly surprised. He himself was roused by the firing about ten, and most of his men made but slight resistance, ‘many of them running away towards the hills of Wicklow, where some of them were bred, and whither they knew the way but too well.’ The fighting continued for about two hours and ended in a complete rout, the cavalry dispersing after the death of their commander, Sir William Vaughan. Jones’s loss in killed was not above twenty, and he reported that he had taken 2517 prisoners and that 4000 Royalists were killed; but the latter figure is doubtless much exaggerated. A vast quantity of arms and stores of all kinds fell into the victor’s hands. Ormonde escaped with very few followers, having totally failed to rally his broken regiments, but that portion of his army which had remained on the north bank of the Liffey escaped to Drogheda and Trim. Many of Inchiquin’s old soldiers afterwards took service with Jones, and not a few of Ormonde’s did the same, declaring with loud shouts that they would return to their own countrymen. Jones secured all the guns, and Ormonde lost his papers, besides ‘velvets, silk, scarlets, wines, grocery, and some convenient quantity of money.’ He went to Kilkenny, and a week after started for Drogheda with 300 horse. Jones, who had moved northwards to attack that town, thereupon withdrew into Dublin and awaited Cromwell’s arrival. Rathfarnham, Maynooth, and other strong places near Dublin fell into the victor’s hands, but Ormonde took Ballyshannon immediately after the battle, persuading the governor that Dublin had surrendered. When the truth was known Inchiquin’s soldiers in Munster began to desert and enter the Parliamentary ranks.[142]
Charles II. invited to Ireland.
But Scotch influences prevail.
The peace was signed on January 17, and on the 22nd Ormonde sent Lord Byron to invite the Prince of Wales to Ireland. If he could bring money and supplies with him he would be doubly welcome, but in any case his presence would be of the greatest value. All England and Scotland were either engaged in rebellion or subdued by the rebels, otherwise Ormonde would not have invited the Prince ‘so far from the more vital part of his hopes.’ Byron found Charles at the Hague nearly two months later surrounded by Scotch lords, who were for the most part opposed to an Irish venture, though Montrose strongly favoured it. On his way through Paris Byron had seen Henrietta Maria, who thought the change of her son’s condition from prince to king ‘an argument rather to hasten than retard his repair thither.’ Charles himself was anxious to go, but he had no money and the States would give none unless he would go to Scotland and take the Covenant. Among the Scots the extreme Presbyterians even insisted on his parting with Montrose. The idea of going to Ireland was not abandoned for some months, but the means were wanting, and Charles spent some time at St. Germains, where he divided his attentions between Lucy Walter and Mademoiselle de Montpensier. He reached Jersey in the middle of September, and there heard for the first time of the defeat at Rathmines. Henry Seymour, who carried a garter for Ormonde, was sent to find out how things were really going in Ireland, but the news of the fall of Drogheda and of Cromwell’s progress arrived before he could start. When he reached Ireland he found Ormonde still anxious for the King’s appearance, but he must have seen that the cause was hopeless. Seymour was back in Jersey about the end of January 1650, and Charles left the island, which he had found intolerably dull, about a fortnight later. He went to Breda to make arrangements for becoming a covenanted King of Scotland and for denouncing Ormonde’s treaty with the Irish Confederates, with which he had before declared himself highly satisfied.[143]
Prince Rupert at Kinsale.
His behaviour in Ireland.
Blockaded by Blake.
Prince Rupert left Helvoetsluys January 21, 1649, with ‘three flagships, four frigates and one prize ... in company with the Amsterdam, a Dutch ship of 1000 tons, and two others of less burden.’ His own second-rate had but forty sailors and eighty soldiers instead of the normal complement of 300. The frigates, whose business it was to prey upon merchantmen, were a little better manned. The Duke of York was invited to sail with this fleet, but Hyde says he was dissuaded by ‘his old Presbyterian counsellors.’ Rupert was blown as far as Crookhaven, but by the end of the month he had collected his ships at Kinsale. Fanshawe was at hand to receive such part of the expected plunder as might help to fill the exiled King’s exchequer, and Hyde impressed upon him the importance of maintaining friendly relations between Rupert and Ormonde. The Prince of Wales wrote to the same effect, but Rupert preferred to play an obscure game of his own and to intrigue with Antrim, O’Neill, and the Irish generally against the Lord Lieutenant. As a sea-rover he was at first successful enough, keeping a squadron at Scilly, which had revolted from the Parliament, and announcing his intention to make a second Venice of the little archipelago. A great many prizes were taken, but Rupert lost one frigate, taken at sea by Parliamentarian cruisers. His great difficulty was want of men, but he picked them up wherever he could about the Irish coast in sufficient numbers to man some extra ships. The depredations upon commerce lasted until May, when a powerful fleet under Deane, Popham, and Blake came before Kinsale. Towards the end of June Rupert made a show of attempting to break through the blockade, but had to draw back without fighting. He had greatly strengthened the fortifications at the harbour’s mouth, which prevented the republican squadron from entering. Then provisions and crews began to dwindle again, and nothing more was attempted throughout the summer. In October Blake was driven off the coast by a storm. Rupert seized the opportunity to slip out, and Ireland knew him no more. His presence at Kinsale had no real influence on events.[144]