Ormond and the Lords Justices had now no alternative but a cessation, and knowing that the King was willing to treat for a free Parliament, he prepared to resume negotiations. Some of the irreconcilables of the Privy Council bitterly opposed any cessation, but on the King’s order, Parsons, Sir John Temple, and others, were arrested as traitors to the King for having sided with “my rebels of England.”
Amongst the Confederates, the nobility and gentry of Norman or English extraction were willing to accept such terms as would restore to the Catholic Church its former jurisdiction, and would give them, through Parliament, the control of the Government and the assistance of the King’s troops against the Puritan army under Monroe. They foolishly believed that if the King “gained the victory over his enemies in England (he) would have either the will or the power to support in England the system which found favour at Kilkenny.”
The Old-Irish, especially of Ulster, and the clergy took a more accurate view of the situation, and were against any cessation, as it would only give time for the enemy to regain strength, and for disunion to spread in their own ranks. In these opinions they were strongly supported by Father Scarampi, who had recently arrived as Papal Legate. His views are embodied in a document drawn up by those of the Old-Irish most in his confidence, which is worth quoting at some length, as it is the whole case of the national party as distinguished from those who thought more of the King’s and the English interest, than that of their country. “We should undoubtedly,” they say, “carry on our work to establish the Catholic Faith, the authority of Parliament, and the security of our country by arms and intrepidity, not by cessations and indolence. For this there are the following reasons: That peace will ever be made between the King and the Parliament is improbable, nor would it be to our advantage, for if they combined, we should be necessitated to surrender. It is likely, however, that before long one side will become powerful enough to dictate to the other. If the Parliament prevail—which God forbid—all Ireland will fall under their arbitrary power; the swords of the Puritans will be at our throats, and we shall lose everything except our faith. Should the King triumph, we may expect much from his goodness and kindness, and much from the Queen’s intercession. It is uncertain, however, what laws or terms may be imposed on us in such circumstances. The King, should he succeed by the aid of the Protestants, would be in a manner engaged to them. They, as usual, would oppose freedom of religion in Ireland, and insist on the punishment of our ‘rebellion,’ as they style it, to enable them to seize our properties and occupy our estates. It would probably be thought a sufficient concession to the Queen to allow us to return to the miserable position in which we were before the war. On the other hand, if we now adopt proper measures, the party eventually triumphing in England will find us in arms, well provided, with increased territories, and stronger in foreign succours. Thus they would not so readily invade us, or swallow us up, so as to leave us without the free exercise of our faith, or some share in the administration of the kingdom.”
“It was the banner of Irish nationality,” says Gardiner, “which was here unfolded, and those who upheld it were at least not afraid to look in the face the stern fact that no English party would willingly tolerate the organisation of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, or the organisation of a purely Irish Government. If the opportunity of England’s divisions was to be seized to any profit, Ireland must become a nation strong enough to hold its own. To gain for itself the sentiment of patriotism, to cherish, in defiance of all assailants, its own traditions and its own beliefs, would be worthy many a struggle and many a defeat, if only, through suffering, it might be attained.”
The national party were not strong enough in the Assembly or the Council to successfully oppose the cessation; Ormond was permitted to resume negotiations, and the Articles for a Cessation for a year were signed on September 15, 1643. A narrow district on the East Coast, another round Cork, and such fortresses as were held by the Royal troops, were to remain in the hands of the English Commanders. All the rest of Ireland, outside Ulster, was in the power of the Confederates. If Monroe’s troops accepted the Cessation, they were to share its advantages; if not, Ormond’s army was to remain neutral, whilst the whole force of the Confederates was to march against them, and the King was even to be asked to allow Ormond to co-operate.
On these conditions, the Supreme Council agreed to pay £800 to relieve the garrison of Naas and £30,000 in money or beeves for the use of the regiments withdrawn to England in support of the King. The Confederates were also to send Commissioners to Oxford to discuss with Charles the terms of a permanent peace.
Such in brief was the Cessation, and from its very articles which prove the Confederation not only masters of almost the whole of Ireland, but so well provided with money and supplies as to be able to come substantially to the assistance of the King, we can estimate their folly in voluntarily throwing away a position they were never able to regain. Ormond’s diplomacy had triumphed. He had prepared the ground for the future sowing of dissensions in their ranks. He could now look forward to helping the King with the Irish garrison whose cause with this addition might triumph, and before the time expired, they could be back in Ireland flushed with victory, replenished in every way, and easily able to overcome the disunited insurgents. The Confederates had gained nothing, but had placed themselves in danger of losing all. An Irish writer declares “that the Puritans in Dublin did swear that if the Irish did hold out for one month more all the Parliamentarians would have deserted Leinster.... The enemy had no commander of any repute but Ormond, Tichborne, Hume and Monk, while the Irish had O’Neill’s victorious army ... ranging at pleasure in the counties of Meath and Dublin and Castlehaven taking the garrisons whereunto he marched, the enemy not daring to relieve any for fear of the Ulster (O’Neill’s) army. All the Irish got by this bargain was the release of a few prisoners.”
It is necessary only to allude to the attempt made by Randal McDonnell, Earl of Antrim, to raise by his own efforts 10,000 Irish soldiers for the service of the King, as it had no effect on the course of events.
In March, 1644, the Confederates’ Commissioners arrived at Oxford to treat with Charles for a permanent peace. Amongst the first conditions submitted, they required that no standing army should be maintained in Ireland, that all offices should be vacated whereby any titles to lands were found for the Crown since the first year of Elizabeth, that all attainders since that period and all grants and leases from the Crown should be revised in a free Parliament in which they would form the large majority. These conditions were found to be inadmissible by the King, as practically meaning the extinction of his authority in Ireland, and it is difficult to see how they could have been put before any English King, and especially one in the difficult position of Charles, with any hope of success. They accordingly modified their demands, and now asked for the freedom of their religion, the repeal of the penal laws which prevented them from holding public appointments, a free Parliament, and the repeal of Poynings’ Law during its session, the annulling of all Acts of the Irish Parliament since the prorogation of 7th August, 1641, to which they imputed the subsequent troubles, the vacating of all outlawries and attainders against Catholics since that date and of all offices found for the King’s title to lands since the year 1634. They also demanded the establishment of an Inn of Court and Catholic Colleges, a free and indifferent appointment of all Irish natives without exception to places in the public service, that an Act should be passed formally declaring the independency of their Parliament on that of England. If these conditions were accepted by the King, they were ready to send 10,000 men to his assistance, as well as money and supplies. Though unwilling to agree to most, if not all, of these conditions, Charles accepted the memorial for consideration as the basis of a future treaty.
Agents were also nominated at the desire of the King to represent the Irish Privy Council and the Protestant Royalists. These, headed by Archbishop Usher, set out for Oxford, but before they could arrive, Sir Charles Coote headed a Commission sent by the extreme Puritan party in Ireland, and hastened to the King with a memorial praying that he “would abate his quit rents and encourage and enable Protestants to re-plant the Kingdom, and cause a good walled town to be built in every county for their security, no Papist being allowed to dwell therein.” That he should “continue the penal laws and dissolve forthwith the assumed power of the Confederates, and banish all Popish priests out of Ireland, and that no Popish recusant should be allowed to sit or vote in Parliament.”