The cruel policy by which large portions of Ireland were depopulated, and then planted with colonies of English and Scotch settlers had been continued during the reign of Charles. In addition to this and other local causes of complaint, the state of religion was one which pervaded nearly the whole country, and was always becoming more and more important. Though the reformed faith had been established for nearly a century, it had made little progress except among the English settlers. The greater part of the nobility, and also of the lower orders, were still attached to the ancient creed; and a Catholic hierarchy, appointed by the Pope, and supported by the people, enjoyed as much respect and obediance as when that religion was countenanced by the state. The refusal of the Catholics to take the oath of supremacy, which acknowledged the king to possess a right which their faith taught them to belong to the Pope, necessarily excluded them from all branches of the public service. There were also penal laws against the profession of Catholicism and a severe court of Star-Chamber to carry these into execution. Thus situated, the Irish Catholics had two powerful motives to mutiny—a confidence in their numbers, and a constant sense of suffering under the government.
In 1633, the Earl of Strafford was appointed viceroy of Ireland. His government was vigorous, and those institutions which he thought proper to patronize flourished under it; but his great aim was to make the king absolute, and he rather subdued than conciliated the popular spirit. When summoned in 1640 to attend the king in England, he left the Irish government in the hands of Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase, as lords justices. Immediately after his departure, the spirit which he thought he had quelled began to reappear, being encouraged both by his absence and the success which the Scottish Covenanters had experienced in a war against religious restraint. A conspiracy, involving most of the country without the Pale, and including many persons within it, was formed chiefly under the direction of a gentleman named Roger Moore, who possessed many qualities calculated to endear him to the people. Some circumstances excited the suspicion of the Protestants; and among others, the return of several officers who had been in the service of the king of Spain, under pretense of recruiting for the Spanish army. But the apparent tranquillity of the country baffled all scrutiny.
The 23d of October 1641, being a market-day, was fixed on for the capture of Dublin Castle. During the previous day, nothing had occurred to alarm the authorities. In the evening of the 22d, the conspiracy was accidentally discovered, and measures were taken to save Dublin; but a civil war raged next morning in Ulster, and speedily spread over the country.
The design of Sir Phelim O’Neill, and the other leaders of this insurrection, was simply political. They conceived the time a good and opportune one for striking a blow against the government as the Scots had successfully done; and their conduct was in the outset characterized by lenity. But they could not allay the hatred with which the Catholics looked upon their adversaries; and a spirit of revenge broke out among their followers, which was aggravated to cruel outrage, when they heard that the conspiracy was discovered in Dublin. The spirit of retaliation was let loose, and political wrongs, unfeelingly inflicted, were, as is often the case, ferociously avenged. The massacre of an immense number of Protestants held forth an awful lesson of the effects which oppressive laws produce on the human passions. The government rather aggravated than alleviated the evil, by offering the estates of all in rebellion to those who should aid in reducing them to obedience. This drove the insurgents to desperation, postponed the complete extinction of the war for several years. It is to be remarked, that though the Irish were struggling for both national and religious freedom, they gained no sympathy from the patriots of Britain, who, on the contrary, urged the king to suppress the rebellion, being afraid that a religious toleration in Ireland would be inconsistent with the same privilege in their own country. The Scottish Covenanters, themselves so recently emancipated from a restraint upon their consciences, contributed ten thousand troops to assist in restoring a similar restraint upon the Irish.
THE CIVIL WAR.
It was generally allowed by moderate people, that in the autumn of 1641, at which time the labors of the Parliament had continued one year, the king had granted redress of all the abuses for which the earlier part of his reign, and the British constitution in general, were blameable. If he could have given a guarantee that he never would seek to restore any of these abuses, or attempt to revenge himself upon the men who had been chiefly concerned in causing him to give up, there would have been no further contention. Unfortunately, the character of the king for fidelity to his engagements was not sufficiently high to induce the leaders of the House of Commons to depend upon him: they feared that if they once permitted him to resume his authority there would be no longer any safety for them; and they deemed it necessary that things should be prevented from falling into their usual current. They therefore prepared a paper called The Remonstrance, containing an elaborate view of all the grievances that had ever existed, or could now be supposed to exist; and this they not only presented to the king but disseminated widely among the people, with whom it served to increase the prevailing disaffection.
From this time it was seen that the sword could alone decide the quarrel between the king and the Parliament. Charles made an unsuccessful attempt (January 4, 1642) to seize six of the most refractory members, for the purpose of striking terror into the rest. This served to widen still further the breach. In the earlier part of 1642, the two parties severally employed themselves in preparing for war. Yet, even now, the king granted some additional concessions to his opponents. It was at last, upon a demand of the Parliament for the command of the army—a privilege always before, and since, resting with the crown—that he finally broke off all amicable intercourse. He now retired with his family to York.
The Parliament found its chief support in the mercantile classes of London and of the eastern coast of England, which was then more devoted to trade than the west, and in the Puritan party generally, who were allied intimately with the Presbyterians of Scotland, if not rapidly becoming assimilated with them. Charles on the other hand looked for aid to the nobility and gentry, who were able to bring a considerable number of dependents into the field. The Parliamentary party was by the other styled Roundheads, in consequence of their wearing short hair; while the friends of the Parliament bestowed upon their opponents the epithet of Malignants. The Royalists were also, in the field, termed Cavaliers, from so many of them being horsemen. On the 25th of August 1642 the king erected his standard at Nottingham, and soon found himself at the head of an army of about ten thousand men. The Parliament had superior forces, and a better supply of arms; but both parties were very ignorant of the art of war. The king commanded his own army in person, while the Parliamentary forces were put under the charge of the Earl of Essex.
The first battle took place, October 23, at Edgehill, in Warwickshire, where the king had rather the advantage, though at the expense of a great number of men. He gained some further triumphs before the end of the campaign, but still could not muster so large an army as the Parliament. During the winter, the parties opened a negotiation at Oxford; but the demands of the Parliament being still deemed too great by the king, it came to no successful issue.
Early in the ensuing season, the king gained some considerable advantages; he defeated a Parliamentary army under Sir William Waller at Stratton, and soon after took the city of Bristol. It only remained for him to take Gloucester, in order to confine the insurrection entirely to the eastern provinces. It was even thought at this time that he might have easily obtained possession of London, and thereby put an end to the war. Instead of making such an attempt, he caused siege to be laid to Gloucester, which the army of Essex relieved when it was just on the point of capitulating. As the Parliamentary army was returning to London, it was attacked by the royal forces at Newbury, and all but defeated. Another section of the royal army in the north, under the Marquis of Newcastle, gained some advantages; and, upon the whole, at the close of the campaign of 1643, the Parliamentary cause was by no means in a flourishing condition.