The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

IRELAND UNDER THE STUARTS
Vol. II.

By the same Author

IRELAND UNDER THE TUDORS

Vols. I. and II.—From the First Invasion of the

Northmen to the year 1578.

8vo. 32s.

Vol. III.—1578-1603. 8vo. 18s.

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

London, New York, Bombay, and Calcutta

IRELAND

UNDER THE STUARTS

AND

DURING THE INTERREGNUM

BY

RICHARD BAGWELL, M.A.

AUTHOR OF ‘IRELAND UNDER THE TUDORS’

Vol. II. 1642-1660

WITH MAP

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1909

All rights reserved

[CONTENTS]
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME

[MAP]

IRELAND UNDER THE STUARTS

[CHAPTER XXI]
MUNSTER AND CONNAUGHT, 1641-1642

The rebellion spreads to Munster, December, 1641.

St. Leger’s raid.

There was no outbreak in Munster during November, but Lord President St. Leger knew that he had no real means of resisting one. The Lords Justices had drawn off most of the soldiers, the rest were occupied as garrisons, and practically he had only his own troop of horse to depend on. Before the end of the month the Leinster rebels had come nearly to the Suir, and he repaired with what men he could collect to Clonmel lest Lady Ormonde, who was at Carrick, should fall into the invaders’ hands. The gentlemen of Tipperary came to meet him, but could or would do nothing. ‘Every man stands at gaze, and suffers the rascals to rob and pillage all the English about them.’ Ormonde’s own cattle were driven off. St. Leger’s brother-in-law having been pillaged, he took indiscriminate vengeance, and some innocent men were probably killed. He as good as told the Tipperary magnates that they were all rebels. In the meantime the Leinster insurgents had crossed the estuary of the Suir in boats, and ravaged the eastern part of Waterford. St. Leger rode rapidly through the intervening mountains, though there was snow on the ground, and fell upon a party of plunderers at Mothel, near Carrick. The main body were pursued to the river, and for the most part killed. About seventy prisoners were taken to Waterford and there hanged. He returned to Clonmel and thence back to Doneraile, for he could do no more. ‘My horses,’ he told Ormonde, ‘are quite spent; their saddles have been scarce off these fourteen days; nor myself nor my friends have not had leisure to shift our shirts ... the like war was never heard of—no man makes head, one parish robs another, go home and share the goods, and there is an end of it, and this by a company of naked rogues.’[1]

Mountgarret invades Munster.

Another mock commission.

St. Leger’s rough ways might furnish an excuse, but had no real effect upon events. The flame steadily spread over the whole island, and the contest fell more and more into the hands of extreme men. The Tipperary insurgents were soon enrolled in companies, the leading part being taken by Theobald Purcell, titular baron of Loughmoe, and Patrick Purcell, who rose to distinction during the war. At the end of January Mountgarret, who acted as general, invaded Munster with a heterogeneous force. He was assisted by Michael Wall, a professional soldier, and accompanied by Viscount Ikerrin, Lords Dunboyne and Cahir, all three Butlers, and the Baron of Loughmoe. Kilmallock was easily taken, and the Irish encamped at Redshard, near Kildorrery, at the entry to the county of Cork. Broghill reckoned them at 10,000, of whom half were unarmed. The President, who had 900 foot and 300 horse, thought it impossible to dispute the passage, and preferred to parley. Mountgarret demanded freedom of conscience, the preservation of the royal prerogative, and equal privileges for natives with the English. St. Leger answered that they had liberty of conscience already, that he was not likely to do anything against the Crown, from whom he held everything, and that he himself was a native. At last, on February 10, articles were agreed upon by which the President agreed to abstain from all further hostilities, both sides covenanting to do each other no harm for one month. St. Leger was induced to grant these terms mainly by the sight of a commission from Charles with the Great Seal attached, but Broghill believed that this was a mere trick, and the document fabricated. The President withdrew to Cork and Mountgarret into Tipperary. The armistice was ill kept by the Irish, who were under the influence of Patrick Purcell. Mountgarret never showed any military ability.[2]

Muskerry joins the Irish.

The King’s proclamation.

Cork beleaguered by the Irish.

Inchiquin’s first exploit, April 13, 1642.

St. Leger had long cherished the belief that Donough MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry, would remain staunch. Muskerry, who had great possessions, and who was married to Ormonde’s sister, seems to have tried the impossible part of neutral, but was soon drawn into the vortex, and it was to him that the supposed commission to raise 4000 men had been made out. He tried to stop plundering, and even hanged a few thieves, but the open country soon became untenable for English settlers. Many flocked to Bandon, which was held by Cork’s son Lord Kinalmeaky. Others fled to Cork, Kinsale, and Youghal, to which latter place Sir Charles Vavasour brought the first reinforcement of 1000 men. Vavasour carried over the King’s proclamation of January 1 against the rebels, of which only forty copies had been printed, and Cork immediately forwarded it to the Lord President. ‘I like it exceedingly well in all parts of it,’ said St. Leger, ‘save only that it is come so late to light ... it were very good that we had some store of them to disperse abroad, for of this one little notice can be taken.’ Cork maintained himself at Youghal and his sons in other places. St. Leger, as soon as he had received reinforcements, relieved Broghill at Lismore, and took Dungarvan from the Irish. Of all the old nobility Lord Barrymore, who had married Cork’s daughter, alone stood firm and refused all offers from the Irish. On March 12 St. Leger wrote that he was practically besieged in Cork by a ‘vast body of the enemy lying within four miles of the town, under my Lord of Muskerry, O’Sullivan Roe, MacCarthy Reagh, and all the western gentry and forces to the number of about 5000.’ The nominal chief of this army was Colonel Garret Barry, an experienced soldier, but without originality, and more fit for a subordinate than for a chief command. On April 13, two days before Ormonde’s victory at Kilrush, Inchiquin—who was married to St. Leger’s daughter, and had studied war in the Spanish service—persuaded his father-in-law to let him make a sally. With only 300 foot and two troops of horse he surprised the Irish camp at Rochfordstown, routed the ill-disciplined host completely, and pursued them for some miles towards Ballincollig and Kilcrea. Muskerry’s own luggage fell into the victor’s hands, and a great stock of corn, which was very welcome. The only serious fighting was in the attack of a small enclosure desperately defended by Florence McDonnell, called Captain Sougane, perhaps in memory of the last Desmond rebel. Inchiquin’s loss was little or nothing, and he was soon able to ship guns and take castles which obstructed the navigation of Cork harbour. The southern capital was relieved from all immediate danger.[3]

Limerick.

Waterford.

Limerick did not at first take any decided part, but stood upon its defence. Clonmel and Dungarvan admitted the Leinster insurgents in December, a few days after St. Leger’s raid. A party commanded by Ormonde’s brother Richard came to the gate of Waterford on the day after Christmas, but the mayor, Francis Briver, refused to let him in. Two other attempts were made before Twelfth Day. The mob of the town and a majority of the corporation were opposed to the mayor, but he held his own for some time, received English fugitives within the walls, and kept them there till shipping could be had for themselves and such property as they had been able to carry away. His own life was frequently in danger, and his hand was badly bitten by a rioter who resisted arrest. On another day, says Mrs. Briver, who took an active part, ‘when I heard so many swords were drawn at the market cross against my poor husband, I ran into the streets without either hat or mantle and laid my hands about his neck and brought him in whether he would or no ... This and much more the mayor has suffered seeking to let their goods go with the English.’ Mountgarret was excluded, but in April his son Edmund was admitted with 300 men, and the townsmen gave up their cannon.[4]

State of Connaught. Ranelagh and Clanricarde.

Events at Galway.

Hesitation of the Galway gentry.

Roger Jones, created Viscount Ranelagh, was Lord President of Connaught, and lay at Athlone with only a troop of horse and two companies of foot. The government of the county of Galway was vested by special patent in the Earl of Clanricarde, who positively refused the request of the Roscommon gentlemen to take command of their county, and thus ignore the Lord President’s authority. Mayo was entrusted by the Lords Justices to Lord Mayo and to Dillon, Viscount Costello, who were both at this time professing Protestants. Sir Francis Willoughby, the governor of Galway fort, was in Dublin when the rebellion broke out, and his son Anthony, who was young and violent, commanded in his absence. Clanricarde was at Portumna when he heard of the outbreak, and he at once warned the mayor of Galway to be on his guard. The Lords Justices refused to send arms from Dublin on the ground that the passage was not safe, but told him to take what he could find at Galway. A hundred calivers, many of them unserviceable, and as many pikes were all that could be had. His own castles of Portumna, Loughrea, and Oranmore were in a defensible state, and he came to Galway on November 6. Richard Boyle, Archbishop of Tuam, took refuge in the fort, and Clanricarde’s castle of Aghenure, on the western shore of Lough Corrib, was seized by the O’Flahertys. On the 11th a town-meeting was held, and the citizens resolved to hold Galway for the King. During the next three months there were frequent acts of violence on both sides, Willoughby treating the citizens as conquered, and they retorting by capturing and confining his stray soldiers. On December 29 the lords of the Pale invited the nobility and gentry of the county of Galway to join them, urging the legal grievances under which Roman Catholics laboured, and the severe measures of Coote and others. This did not make Clanricarde’s task easier, but he came to Galway on February 5, and patched up an accommodation. On the 11th he left the town for a fortnight, and during the interval an outrage was committed in the neighbourhood which rivalled the worst of the Ulster atrocities.[5]

The Shrule massacre, Feb. 1641-2.

Humanity of Walter Burke.

According to the Rev. John Goldsmith, there were about 1000 English and Scotch Protestants in Mayo, many of whom tried to save themselves by going to mass. He had a brother a priest, and it was owing to the Jesuit Malone and an unnamed friar that he escaped with his life. Several Protestants, including one Buchanan of Strade, and John Maxwell, Bishop of Killala, sought the protection of Sir Henry Bingham at Castlebar, but he refused to admit Goldsmith, who was a convert from Rome, lest his presence should increase the animosity of the Irish. Lord Mayo promised to convoy the whole party safely to Galway fort, and they set out on February 13, Malachy O’Queely, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, ‘faithfully promising the Lord of Mayo to accompany them with his lordship and several priests and friars, to see them safely conveyed and delivered in Galway, or at the Fort of Galway.’ The first night was spent at Ballycarra, the second at Ballinrobe, the third at the Neale, and the fourth at Shrule, where a bridge joins the counties of Mayo and Galway. Lord Mayo seems to have declined all responsibility outside of his own county, and on Sunday the 17th he dismissed his followers except one company commanded by Edmund Burke, who proposed to go with them a few miles, and hand them over to an escort of the county Galway. Burke’s men began to plunder the unarmed fugitives before they were out of Lord Mayo’s sight, and he sent his son Sir Theobald to keep order; according to Theobald’s own account he ran over the bridge with his sword drawn to help the English, but was fired at and afterwards ‘conveyed away for the safety of his life.’ The promised escort, consisting of two companies of the O’Flahertys, then came up and joined the Mayo people in an indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and children. The Bishop of Killala and a few others were saved by the exertions of Ulick Burke, of Castle Hacket, but those killed were not far short of a hundred, including Dean Forgie of Killala and five other clergymen, of whom John Corbet was one. Thomas Johnson, vicar of Turlough, escaped to the house of Walter Burke, who treated him kindly and defended him. Young priests and friars asked Stephen Lynch, prior of Strade, in his presence whether it was not lawful to kill him as a heretic, and Lynch answered that it was as lawful as to kill a sheep or a dog. The insurgents threatening to burn Burke’s house if he kept Johnson any longer, he managed to convey him to Clanricarde’s castle at Loughrea, and he ‘ever after that time lived by the noble and free charity of that good earl, until of late his lordship sent him and divers other Protestants away with a convoy.’[6]

Murders at Galway.

Clanricarde and the clergy.

Clanricarde returned to Galway on March 1. After a fortnight’s argument he succeeded in getting both town and fort to make declarations of loyalty and of peaceable intentions towards each other. As soon as his back was turned the flames fanned by the clergy broke out afresh. A party of armed townsmen disguised as boatmen seized an English ship, murdered some of the crew, and towed her off in spite of Willoughby’s fire. When Galway surrendered to Coote in 1652 the perpetrators of the outrage were specially excepted from pardon. The malcontents then closed the gates, disarmed all the English within the walls, took an oath of union, and invited the O’Flahertys and the Mayo insurgents to join them. Willoughby burned some of the suburbs to prevent the O’Flahertys from occupying them, and this military precaution still further exasperated the citizens. But Clanricarde collected a quantity of provisions at Oranmore and relieved the fort. His castle of Tirellan, which commanded the river, enabled him to blockade the town, the neighbourhood being constantly patrolled by cavalry. Supplies ceased to reach the market, and before the end of April the leading citizens were tired of resisting. While negotiations were proceeding a man of war arrived with powder and provisions, and Clanricarde then took high ground. In vain did the warden Walter Lynch, whom Rinuccini afterwards made a bishop, fulminate the greater excommunication against all who agreed to Clanricarde’s articles. The mayor signed them nevertheless, agreeing that all soldiers harboured in the town should be sent away, that access to the town should be free and open, that the Anglican clergy should enjoy their legal rights, and that no arms or powder should be sold without Clanricarde’s orders. The gates were accordingly thrown open on May 13, the young men of the town laid down their arms, and Clanricarde received the keys publicly from the mayor’s hands. Ormonde approved of these proceedings, but the Lords Justices thought the rebellious town had been too leniently treated.[7]

Order against intercourse with the Irish.

Sir James Dillon at Athlone.

Ormonde relieves Athlone.

An English party destroyed.

Contrary to Ormonde’s own judgment, though he signed with the rest, the Lords Justices issued an order against holding any intercourse with the Irish living near garrisons and against giving protection to any of them. The soldiers were to prosecute the rebels with fire and sword, and whenever Ormonde established a garrison the order in council was to be sent to the commanders with directions for ensuring its observance. This order bound both Ranelagh and Clanricarde, but neither of them approved of it, and indeed it involved a censure upon the latter’s pacification at Galway. Athlone had since Christmas been beset on the Leinster side by a mixed multitude under the general direction of Sir James Dillon, who had made a truce with the Lord President so far as to allow free access to the market. The castle, which stands on the Connaught side of the Shannon, was thus provisioned and made safe against assailants who had no battering train. After a time the garrison began to make incursions into Westmeath, and this was regarded by Dillon as a breach of faith. He had been distrusted by the Irish for his moderation, but without gaining him the confidence of the Government, and he thought it would be better to have at least one side heartily with him. He accordingly seized the town on the Leinster side, and threw up a work which prevented the garrison from crossing the bridge. When he heard that Ormonde was coming to relieve the castle he withdrew into the county of Longford. Ormonde left Dublin on June 14, Mullingar and Ballymore being burnt at his approach, and on the 20th he was at the village of Kilkenny, about seven English miles from Athlone. There Ranelagh met him and took charge of the 2000 foot and two troops of horse provided to reinforce him under Sir Michael Earnley. Ormonde then returned to Dublin at once, though Clanricarde was most anxious to meet him. Ranelagh put the new troops into various castles, three hundred of them, under Captain Bertie, being assigned to a convent of Poor Clares on Lough Ree. The nuns had been hurriedly conveyed away by Dillon to an island in the lake, but the vestments remained and the cellar was full. The soldiers drank the wine, and were masquerading in the vestments when they were attacked by a party sent by Dillon. Bertie fought bravely, but he and most of his men were killed. The Lord President then concentrated his forces at Athlone and the open country was left at the mercy of the Irish.[8]

Dissensions amongst the English.

Fight at Ballintober, July 1642.

The Irish grow stronger.

Ranelagh showed no energy, but he was in bad health and in want of money and supplies. He said Earnley’s men were rogues and gaol-birds, and that he longed for a commission to raise men of his own country. In the meantime he neglected to requisition the provisions available in the neighbourhood, and the soldiers died of want and neglect. Coote provided ten days’ bread, and pressed him to do something while a few men were left alive, whereupon he ordered an attack on Ballagh, which was not taken without loss, and which Earnley says was quite useless. Afterwards he joined his forces to those of Coote at Roscommon, and Sir James Dillon attacked Athlone in his absence with 1500 men, but was beaten off by the remnant left behind. A considerable Irish force under O’Connor Roe and others assembled after some skirmishing at Ballintober, where they were routed with a loss of six hundred men. Coote and Earnley were not allowed to follow up the victory, and Ranelagh refused to feed the latter’s men any longer. They were therefore dispersed among the garrisons which Coote commanded. Ranelagh made no further attempt to keep the field, and in October he made a truce for three months with the Irish. Clanricarde approved of this, and would have been glad to have its operation extended, for vengeance ‘need not be so sharp here, as where blood doth call for deserved punishment.’ But the Lords Justices were all for war to the knife, though they had not the means to wage it successfully, while Lord Forbes and Captain Willoughby did their best to prevent peace. The English Parliament were too busy at home to do much, while arms and ammunition from the Continent poured in through Wexford and the Ulster ports, with ‘most of the colonels, officers, and engineers that have served beyond seas for many years past ... which furnish all parts of the kingdom but those few that adhere to me for his Majesty’s service.’[9]

The rebellion in Clare, 1641-2.

Defence of Ballyallia, Feb.-Sept. 1642.

Strafford’s proposed settlement of Clare was never carried out, but the Earls of Thomond were Protestants, and encouraged English tenants, so that a considerable colony had in fact been established. Inchiquin, who had agreed to the abortive plantation, threw his influence in the same direction; but the great mass of O’Briens, Macnamaras, and others favoured the insurgents. The outbreak in the north and the attempt on Dublin were known at the fair of Clare on November 1, but it was not till the end of the month that certain news came of the insurrection having spread to the part of Tipperary near the Shannon. Barnabas Earl of Thomond, who had an English wife, tried to keep the peace, and adopted a trimming policy, but soon lost all control over the country, though he held Bunratty and some other places. Robberies of the Protestants’ cattle soon began, and by Christmas the owners were generally on their guard in castles, of which thirty-one were in friendly hands. Three weeks later the troops raised by Thomond were siding openly with the rebels. Ballyallia Castle, on a lake near Ennis, belonged to Sir Valentine Blake, of Galway, who was a noted member of the Catholic confederacy, but was leased to a merchant named Maurice Cuffe, and became a place of refuge for at least a hundred Protestants. Others from the neighbourhood escaped to England in a Dutch vessel. About a thousand of the Irish encamped near the castle and built cabins, but without coming to close quarters. They captured Abraham Baker, an English carpenter apparently, and with his aid constructed a ‘sow,’ such as was frequently used during the war. It was a house 35 feet by 9 feet, built of beams upon four wheels, strengthened with iron and covered by a sharp ridge roof, and was moved by levers worked from inside. The whole was kept together by huge spike-nails, which cost 5l., ‘being intended for a house of correction which should have been built at Ennis.’ Captain Henry O’Grady summoned the castle, pretending to have his Majesty’s commission to banish all Protestants out of Ireland. Whereupon ‘a bullet was sent to examine his commission, which went through his thigh, but he made a shift to rumbel [sic] to the bushes and there fell down, but only lay by it sixteen weeks, in which time unhappily it was cured.’ A girl who fell into the hands of the besiegers was tortured until she confessed that the shot was fired by the Rev. Andrew Chaplin. The Irish had no artillery, but devised a cannon made of half-tanned leather with a three-pound charge. The breech was blown out at the first fire, and the ball remained inside. The sow was soon taken and those within killed. A kind of loose blockade lasted from the beginning of February until near midsummer. The besieged often suffered much from want of water, but sometimes they ventured to skirmish in the open, joining with the garrison of Clare Castle and capturing cattle. Baker, who was taken in the sow, joined his captors, whereupon ‘the Irish immediately hewed in pieces his son, Thomas Baker, a proper young man, who was with them in their camp.’ After the fall of Limerick Castle one piece of artillery was brought against Ballyallia, but the gunner was at once shot, and little was done. After this the siege was much closer, famine and sickness reducing the garrison by one half. They got horseflesh at times, but were driven to eat salted hides, dried sheepskins and cats, all fried in tallow. At last they were forced to capitulate, and the terms were ill-kept, but in the end the survivors escaped to Bunratty, nearly all ill and stripped of everything.[10]

Cork and St. Leger, 1642.

Youghal, Lismore and Bandon.

Cromwell is reported to have said that if there had been an Earl of Cork in every county the Irish could never have raised a rebellion. All his resources were expended in resisting it, and St. Leger, though he co-operated with him, could not but feel bitterly the inferiority of his own position. The Lords Justices never communicated with him, and though they allowed him to levy forces, sent no money to pay them; and indeed they had none to send. Earnest applications for cannon, ‘six drakes and two curtoes,’ were made in vain, and to take the field without guns was impossible. ‘If they have not wholly deserted me,’ he wrote to Ormonde, ‘and bestowed the government on my Lord of Cork, persuade them to disburden themselves of so much artillery as they cannot themselves employ.’ He died a few weeks later, leaving the presidential authority in Inchiquin’s hands. In the meantime Cork himself had held Youghal, securing a landing-place for all succours from England. His son Broghill defended Lismore, and Kinalmeaky was governor of Bandon, which his father had walled and supplied with artillery. Clonakilty was an open place, and the Protestant settlers there and in the country round about escaped to Bandon, where the townsmen made them pay well for their quarters. ‘They were compelled,’ said Cork, ‘to give more rent for their chamber or corner than my tenants paid me for the whole house.’ After Kinalmeaky’s death at Liscarrol Sir Charles Vavasour became governor, and the town was never taken; the Bandonians making frequent sallies, like the Enniskilleners in a later age. Lord Cork, who had enjoyed a rental of 50l. a day, lost it all for the time, and was often in difficulties, but he saved the English interest in Munster from total destruction.[11]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Carte’s Ormonde, with the letters in vol. iii. of November 8, 13, 16, 18 and 22, and December 11. Lismore Papers, 2nd series, vol. iv. St. Leger’s letters of November 7, 10, and 28, and December 2 and 17. Bellings says ‘some innocent labourers and husbandmen suffered by martial law for the transgression of others,’ and Carte gives instances. St. Leger’s letters from November 1 to December 11 in Egmont Papers, i. 142-154.

[2] The best account of this episode is Broghill’s letter printed in vol. ii. of Smith’s Hist. of Cork; Bellings.

[3] Bellings, i. 76; St. Leger’s letters of February 26, March 26, and April 18, 1641-2, in Lismore Papers, 2nd Series. Divers Remarkable Occurrences by Thomas Baron, Esq., who lived fifteen years six miles from Bandon and arrived in London July 2. This last contains a curious dirge on Captain Sougane, beginning, ‘O’Finnen McDonnell McFinnen a Cree’ which has these lines:—

Thy general Barry of three pounds a day,
With armed Lord Muskerry did both run away.
We Cork men bewail dee, but yet for dy glory
Tank heaven to have pulled de from purgatory,
For all our priests swear dou art not in hell,
Dear Finnen McDonnell McFinnen farewell.

[4] Lords Justices and Council to Leicester, Confederation and War, ii. 28; Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Briver, ib. 7-22.

[5] A good account in Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway. Clanricarde’s letters, November 14 to January 23, 1641-2, in Carte’s Ormonde, vol. iii., and the lords of the Pale to the Galway gentry, December 29, ib. Clanricarde’s correspondence with the Roscommon gentry is in Contemporary Hist. i. 380.

[6] Deposition of Goldsmith in 1643 in Hickson, i. 375. Other witnesses in 1653, ib. i. 387-399 and ii. 1-7. Henry Bringhurst’s evidence, as being rather favourable to Lord Mayo, has been chiefly followed for the massacre. See also Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway, p. 110, and the letters in Clanricarde’s Memoirs, 1757, pp. 77, 80. The Galway men tried to throw the blame on their Mayo neighbours, for fear of Clanricarde.

[7] Clanricarde to Essex, May 22, 1642; Ormonde to Clanricarde, June 13, in Carte’s Ormonde. Hardiman’s Hist. of Galway, p. 111.

[8] Order in Council, May 28, 1642, in Confederation and War, ii. 45. Earnley’s account, ib. 134; Bellings, i. 85. Carte’s Ormonde, i. 345.

[9] Sir Michael Earnley’s Relation (soon after July 20, 1642) in Confederation and War, ii. 134. Clanricarde’s letters of July 14 and 20, and October 26, in his Memoirs, pp. 190, 197, 281.

[10] Narrative of Maurice Cuffe, printed by T. Crofton Croker, Camden Society, 1841. Joseph Cuffe to H. Jones, November 12, 1658, MS. in Trinity College, 844, No. 37. Burnet says (i. 29) guns partly made of leather were used with effect by the Scots at Newburn.

[11] St. Leger to Ormonde, May 12, 1642, in Carte’s Ormonde, iii. Appx. No. 78. Inchiquin to Cork, November 24, 1642, with the answer, in Bennett’s History of Bandon, chap. vii.

[CHAPTER XXII]
THE WAR TO THE BATTLE OF ROSS, 1642-1643

A Scots army in Ulster.

Major-General Monro.

When Charles received the news of the Irish insurrection, he at once called upon the Scottish Parliament to aid him in suppressing it. They replied that Ireland was dependent on England, that interference on their part would be misunderstood, and that they could only act as auxiliaries to the English people by agreement with them. Early in November the Parliament at Westminster resolved to send 12,000 men from England, and to ask the Scots to send 10,000 more. But Episcopalian jealousy was aroused, and the demand on Scotland was reduced to 1,000. Nothing was done for the moment, but on January 22, by which time some of the English troops had reached Ireland, both Houses agreed to ask for 2,500, and to this the Scots Commissioners in London assented. The King hesitated about giving up Carrickfergus to the Scotch regiments, but the Commissioners hoped that his Majesty, ‘being their native king, would not show less trust in them than their neighbour nation,’ and this appeal was successful. Money and military stores were stipulated for, and it was agreed that if any other troops in Ulster should join the Scots, their general was to command them as well as his own men, and he had also power to enlarge his quarters to make such expeditions as he might think fit. The Scottish estates had before offered 10,000 men, but nothing like that number ever went. A little later the command was given to Leven, who stayed but a short time and did nothing. The expeditionary force remained in the hands of Major-General Robert Monro, who had been employed to keep order at Aberdeen, and did so with no light hand. He set up, says Spalding, ‘ane timber mare, whereupon runagate knaves and runaway soldiers should ride. Uncouth to see sic discipline in Aberdeen, and more painful to the trespasser to suffer.’ Monro will live for ever in the form of Dugald Dalgetty, for whose portrait he was the chief model. Sir James Turner, who contributed some touches to the picture, says his great fault was a tendency to despise his enemy. Monro’s training was that of the Thirty Years’ War, and Turner, who belonged to the same school, thought he carried its lessons too far.[12]

The Scots land April 1642.

Newry retaken.

Sir Phelim O’Neill burns Armagh.

Monro landed at Carrickfergus on April 15 with about 2500 men, Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester retiring with their regiments to Belfast. On the 28th he marched towards Newry, leaving a garrison behind him, and was joined by Conway and the rest, making up his army to near 4000 men. The Irish under Lord Iveagh were posted in a fort at Ennislaughlin near Moira, but were easily dislodged next day, and fled into the Kilwarlin woods. No quarter was given, to which Turner strongly objects. On the third day they marched through Dromore, where only the church was left standing, to Loughbrickland, where there was a garrison in an island. Monro bribed six Highlanders to swim across, and one of these succeeded in bringing away the only boat. The island was then occupied and all the Irish there killed. No attempt was made to defend the town of Newry, but the castle gave some trouble, and Monro was unwilling to assault or burn it, lest the prisoners confined there should suffer. The garrison were allowed to march out without arms on May 3, but over sixty townsmen, including a Cistercian monk and a secular priest, were hanged next day in cold blood. Turner criticises Monro’s conduct, and claims to have saved nearly 150 women whom the soldiers proposed to kill. At least a dozen women were shot or drowned, notwithstanding his interference. The natural result of Monro’s system was to make the Irish desperate, and O’Neill burned Armagh, ‘the cathedral with its steeple and with its bells, organ, and glass windows, and the whole city, with the fine library, with all the learned books of the English on divinity, logic, and philosophy.’ Many lives were also taken by the Irish in revenge for Monro’s severities. After leaving a garrison at Newry the army marched through the Mourne mountains, and from one end of Down to the other. Turner mentions a frightful storm attributed by the superstitious to Irish witches, which if true he considered a good proof that their master was really prince of the air. Some of the soldiers died from sheer cold. On the twelfth day Monro returned to Carrickfergus. A detachment which he had left in the outskirts of Belfast had been attacked during his absence and driven off. A large number of cattle had been taken from the Magennises and Macartans, but the English soldiers everywhere complained that the Scots got most of the plunder.[13]

Sir Frederic Hamilton.

His severities.

Sir W. Cole at Enniskillen.

The Laggan army.

Sir Frederic Hamilton was at Londonderry on October 24. On hearing of the outbreak he rode hard with a dozen mounted servants, who made a great show by blowing trumpets and carrying two lighted matches each. The little party reached Donegal unmolested, succoured the English settlers there, and at Ballyshannon killed some rogues on the road, and reached Manor Hamilton in safety. Connor O’Rourke, sheriff of Leitrim, visited Hamilton on the 31st, but his professions of loyalty did not last long. The arrival of a few stray Scots soldiers, some from Carlisle direct, increased the garrison to fifty men. By December 4 twenty-four prisoners were taken, and to avenge the deaths of Englishmen at Sligo, eight of them were hanged upon a conspicuous gallows. Fifty-six persons, including one woman, died thus by martial law between December 3, 1641, and February 18, 1642-3. Hamilton complained bitterly that he was not supported by Sir William Cole, and their quarrels became the subject of an inquiry by the English Parliament. Cole held Enniskillen throughout, and without much difficulty, while Captain Ffolliott maintained the important post at Ballyshannon. Meanwhile the brothers Sir William and Sir Robert Stewart, who were both professional soldiers, were active from Rathmelton in Donegal to Newtown Stewart in Tyrone. Their levies grew into an army which came to be known as the Laggan forces from a name locally given to the district. Londonderry and Coleraine also held out, and were never taken during the war.[14]

Ormonde wastes Kildare, April, 1642.

George Monck.

Battle of Kilrush, April 15.

Ormonde returned to Dublin in the middle of March, and on April 2 set out again with 3000 foot, 500 horse, and five guns to waste the county of Kildare. Captain Yarner, with two troops, burned ten or twelve villages under the Wicklow mountains, and killed about the same number of armed men. A trumpeter was killed by a shot from Tipper Castle, near Naas, whereupon Coote blew up the house and put all to the sword. Ormonde garrisoned Naas, established a Protestant corporation there, and advanced to Maryborough, whence he sent most of his cavalry by forced marches to relieve Burris in Ossory and Birr, and to return by Portnahinch. The old men, women, and children of about sixty families were brought away safely and settled at Naas. Monck, who now appears for the first time in Ireland, was sent to secure their return passage over the Barrow. Other detachments were sent to relieve Ballinakill, Clogrennan and Carlow, and on the twelfth day Ormonde was back at Athy without any loss except of a few over-ridden horses. Great numbers of cattle were taken, and Coote gave 300 milch cows to the fugitives at Naas on condition of selling milk to the troops at a halfpenny a quart and making butter and cheese, and bread, he supplying corn at ten shillings the Winchester barrel. Ormonde found that the enemy had concentrated in the meantime at the ford of Mageney on the Barrow with a view to intercept him on his return. Mountgarret and Roger O’More were both present, as well as Hugh MacPhelim O’Byrne, who was retreating from Drogheda to the Wicklow mountains, and they had more than 6000 men, but badly armed and with very little powder. Ormonde left Athy early in the morning of April 15, his force being considerably reduced by the garrisons left behind. The Irish were soon visible to the eastward trying to reach the pass at Ballyshannon before him. As they had no baggage they would probably have got there first, but Ormonde was superior in horse, and he sent on all that he had under Sir Thomas Lucas. The Irish finding themselves forestalled, had to fight in a less advantageous position at Kilrush. They had no real head, and the Munster and Leinster men disputed about the division of the spoil before the battle was won. The English cavalry had it all their own way, Coote charging like a man of thirty. He lost his cap, ‘but bare-headed scoured about the field, crying “Kill! kill!” and with his hand gave the example, while my Lord of Ormonde secured the cannon and victory with some divisions of foot, and beat their van into a speedy retreat.’ There was very little fighting, the Irish soon taking refuge in a bog near at hand. The number of killed on their side is uncertain, but it included some persons of rank, and the army simply ceased to exist. O’More and his brother fled to their home at Ballina near the Boyne, Mountgarret and others to Tullow, and the O’Byrnes to their Wicklow mountains. Ormonde lost some twenty men. That night he slept at Castlehaven’s house at Maddenstown, where Antrim and the Duchess of Buckingham were staying, and Coote ‘to pleasure the lady,’ fired a salute of artillery and musketry. According to an Irish writer Sir Charles boasted of the day’s victory. The men were silent, but the Duchess upbraided him as being less loyal than the Irish, and as ‘a poor mechanical fellow, raised by blind fortune, as informer and promoter against all that is just and godly, being chief instrument of the shedding of many innocent blood [sic], and of the commencement of the new distempers.’ Coote, who was of a good old family, had served three sovereigns faithfully both in peace and war, and fell three weeks later fighting bravely against enormous odds.[15]

The Irish Parliament purged.

Beginning of the Catholic Confederation.

The oath of association.

On June 22 that part of the House of Commons in Dublin which accepted the oath of supremacy expelled forty-one ‘rotten and unprofitable members’ who were either in open rebellion or indicted of high treason. Of these Richard Bellings, who sat for Callan, was the most important. Among the others were Rory Maguire the northern leader, Sir Valentine Blake of Galway, who was Clanricarde’s friend, and Sir James Dillon. In the meantime what claimed to be a new legislature was being gradually formed. On May 10, 11, 13, and 14 a congregation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy sat at Kilkenny. There were present three archbishops, six bishops and the procurators of four more, with several abbots and other dignitaries; and the plan of the proposed confederation was sketched out. The prelates declared that the war had been justly undertaken for religion and for the King, against sectaries and especially against Puritans. Any province, county, or city making separate terms with the enemy was to be held excommunicate. A number of lords and gentlemen joined the prelates, and out of their joint deliberations grew the Supreme Council in its first shape—two members out of each province with Mountgarret as president. An oath of association was framed binding the confederates to obey the council and to do nothing without their consent. The main object was the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion ‘in as full and ample a manner as the Roman Catholic secular clergy had or enjoyed the same within this realm at any time during the reign of Henry VII.’ Significantly, the regular clergy are not mentioned at all. The secular clergy were to enjoy all temporalities ‘in as large and ample a manner as the late Protestant clergy respectively enjoyed the same on October 1, 1641.’ All laws to the contrary made since 20 Henry VIII. were void. Before a more regular assembly could meet Preston had landed in the south and O’Neill in the north, and their arrival gave events a new turn.[16]

Owen Roe O’Neill.

O’Neill lands in Ulster, July 1642.

Owen Roe O’Neill was son of Art MacBaron, the great Tyrone’s brother, whence he was often called Owen MacArt. In the Spanish service he was known as Don Eugenio O’Neill. He was a captain in Flanders in Henry O’Neill’s Irish regiment as early as 1607, and colonel of the regiment about 1633. With the rank of maître de camp he commanded the garrison of Arras during the siege in 1640, and marched out with the honours of war on August 9. For some time before the outbreak he had been in frequent communication with the Irish leaders, but perhaps without any well-formed intention of going over himself. When he heard that the plot to seize Dublin had been discovered ‘he was in a great rage against O’Connolly, and said he wondered how or where that villain should live, for if he were in Ireland, sure they would pull him in pieces there; and if he lived in England there were footmen and other Irishmen enough to kill him.’ It was less than eight years since another Irish colonel, Walter Butler, had murdered Wallenstein. O’Neill then asked his general Francis de Mello to let him go to Ireland, and the Spaniard answered that he should go and be well supplied for the enterprise if he could find a safe landing-place in his own country. It was, however, given out that he was in disgrace with the Spanish authorities, and years afterwards, when Hyde was at Madrid, Don Luis de Haro kept up the mystification and spoke of him as a deserter from his sovereign’s service. Where Spain was concerned there were always long delays, and the summer of 1642 was well advanced before O’Neill announced to Luke Wadding that he was about to start. Everything, he said, was going on well in Ireland, but there was sad want of powder. If the Pope knew, he said, how fatal that powder would be to heresy and heretics he would make haste to procure a plentiful supply. O’Neill sailed from Dunkirk round Scotland, and landed in Lough Swilly about the last day of July. He captured two prizes at sea and detached a small vessel to Wexford with arms, which arrived safely. O’Neill brought to Ulster ‘ammunition, arms and a few low-country officers and soldiers of his own regiment,’ and he sent his ships back to Flanders for more. Sir Phelim sent 1500 men to join his kinsman, who went round by Ballyshannon to Charlemont, where he arrived without having met an enemy.[17]

Preston lands at Wexford, August 1642.

His rivalry with O’Neill.

Attitude of Richelieu.

Thomas Preston, a son of the fourth Viscount Gormanston, was fifty-six years old when the Irish rebellion broke out. He was a captain in the same regiment as Owen Roe O’Neill in 1607, but was never on good terms with him. They were rivals in recruiting during the reign of Strafford, who favoured the man of English descent as far as he could. In 1635 Preston distinguished himself in the defence of Louvain against the combined forces of France and Holland, and in 1641 in the defence of Genappe against Frederick Henry of Orange. In 1642 his nephew, Lord Gormanston, urged him to return to Ireland. In March of that year Mountgarret sent Geoffrey Barron, Wadding’s nephew, to Paris, and in July he met Preston there. Richelieu, who had not forgotten Rochelle, did not declare himself openly, but he discharged all the Irish soldiers in the French service, allowed war material to be purchased in France, and let it be understood that help would be forthcoming to the extent of a million of crowns. Preston sailed from Dunkirk, accompanied by several officers, and arrived in Wexford harbour at the beginning of August. Here he was joined by at least a dozen vessels laden with war material from St. Malo, Nantes, and Rochelle. He reconnoitred Duncannon fort, which he thought could be taken in fifteen days, and then went to Kilkenny, where the confederates were still assembled. Public opinion quickly designated him as the fittest person to have military command in Leinster, and Mountgarret, who was no soldier, was very willing to yield the place to him.[18]

Limerick Castle taken, June 1642.

Death of St. Leger. Inchiquin vice-president, June 1642.

Battle of Liscarrol, Sept. 1642.

The army which Inchiquin had driven from before Cork came together again at Limerick, and St. Leger had no force to molest it there. After standing neutral for a time the city had joined the confederates, but the castle was held by Captain George Courtenay with sixty men and very little powder. Supplies were ordered by Parliament, but did not reach the garrison. The Irish stretched a boom across the river, which prevented any relief by water, and ran mines under the works, while the garrison were harassed by a continual fire from the walls of the cathedral. Courtenay capitulated on June 21, and Barry and Muskerry went south again with three pieces of cannon taken in the castle. Among these was a thirty-two pounder weighing about three tons, which was laid in the scooped-out trunk of a tree and dragged up hills and through bogs by twenty-five yoke of oxen. The whole county of Limerick was soon in Irish hands. St. Leger died on July 2, and the sole command then devolved on Inchiquin. His position as vice-president was confirmed by the Lords Justices, who associated Lord Barrymore with him for the civil government, but the latter died at Michaelmas. Patrick Purcell, acting as major-general under Barry, took up a strong position at Newtown near Charleville, but was beaten out of it by Inchiquin with very inferior numbers. This check caused a long delay, but at last Barry advanced with six thousand foot and five hundred horse and sat down on August 20 before the strong castle of Liscarrol. Here he was joined by Lord Dungarvan, who had just taken Ardmore Castle and hanged 117 men, leaving the women and children at liberty. A garrison of thirty men could do little against the fire of heavy guns, and Liscarrol surrendered on September 2. On the 3rd, Cromwell’s lucky day, Inchiquin advanced, as he supposed, to their relief. His force of 3000 foot and 400 horse was about half of Barry’s, but much better armed and disciplined. The Irish, having a good position under the walls of the castle, were at first successful against the charge of a small division of horse consisting of Cork and Bandon men, without even helmets; but Lord Cork’s son Kinalmeaky, ‘who was clothed with armour of proof’ was shot dead. Though one else fell, his followers were driven back in confusion and the battle seemed lost, but the foot stood firm, and Inchiquin, coming up with some more regular cavalry, succeeded in rallying the fugitives. He killed Oliver Stephenson, the Irish cavalry leader, with his own hand, and had himself more than one narrow escape, being wounded in the head and hand. The Irish were routed and ‘recovered Sir William Pore’s bog near Kilbolaine,’ where they were out of reach. Inchiquin only lost some twelve men killed, and Barry is said to have lost seven hundred, but the victory was not of much use, for there were neither money nor provisions to follow it up. Liscarroll Castle was reoccupied, and three pieces of cannon brought from Limerick were taken. Inchiquin then fell back to Mallow, and dispersed his men in garrisons, while the Irish went to their several homes.[19]

The Scots in Ulster, June 1642

Kinard burned.

Charlemont retained by the Irish.

There was perpetual fighting in Ulster during the summer of 1642. Monro marched on June 17, with about 2000 men, from Carrickfergus to Lisburn, where he was joined by Lord Montgomery and others with some 1100 foot and four troops of horse. Lord Conway brought his regiment and five troops of horse. Next morning the Scots general, with his own foot and nearly all the horse, marched through the plain to Dromore, while Montgomery cleared the woods of Killultagh, most of the Irish flying across the Bann with their cattle and ‘burning the country all along.’ The fighting was not severe, and the two divisions coalesced somewhere near Banbridge. Monro, being short of provisions, decided not to follow the enemy into Tyrone, and went off with some troops of cavalry towards the Mourne mountains, leaving the other leaders to do the best they could. Three hundred cows were captured, and the bulk of the army came to Kinard. A priest was also taken, ‘Chanter of Armagh and a prime councillor to Sir Phelim O’Neill, who was since hanged, but would not confess or discover anything.’ The chief had gone to Charlemont, and his men ran away who ‘for haste did not kill any prisoners,’ so his house was burned, which was ‘built of free stone and strong enough to have kept out all the force we could make.’ Two hundred miserable captives were released, in rags and with faces like ghosts. The plunder was considerable, including Sir Phelim’s plate, which was on carts ready to carry off. News was heard of Lady Caulfield, who was ‘kept at a stone house near Braintree woods,’ and here Captain Rawdon found her with her children, just in time to prevent the rebels from taking her off into the forest. Rawdon was not so successful in the case of Lady Blaney, who had been carried away into the wilds of Monaghan the night before he came on the scene. As he rode through Kinard the second time there was ‘nothing left quick but angry dogs and embers.’ Charlemont had been strengthened with some skill, and there was no possibility of taking it without guns, though Sir Phelim was nearly captured trying to go there, and had to fly into Tyrone. Dungannon was afterwards taken and garrisoned, with the usual hangings, Sir William Brownlow and other prisoners there having overcome the rebel guard ‘with the help of some Irish that had formerly had relation to them.’ Two brass guns were taken, but they were not heavy enough to make the difference at Charlemont, and on the eighth and ninth days the army returned from Armagh through Loughbrickland to Lisburn. A great many cattle had been taken, and all not eaten or stolen were divided among the men, one to every four foot soldiers and to every two troopers.[20]

Desultory character of the war.

On June 25 Clotworthy left Antrim with 600 men in twelve boats built for the service on Lough Neagh. On the flat Tyrone shore little resistance was made, and Mountjoy was taken with no loss. Here he entrenched himself strongly, and ‘notwithstanding the next was the Lord’s day’ spent it in building huts for his men. Before leaving it to be maintained by a garrison of 250 men he scoured the woods as well as he could, and lost very few men, though the pressure of hunger was severe, for he could not catch cows without cavalry, and there were 500 rescued British prisoners of both sexes and every age to feed along with the soldiers. The want of horse was partly supplied by making 200 men strip to their shirts for lightness, and they did not object, thinking it mean to wear armour against men that had none. Generally speaking the Irish would not stand against them, but they seemed to have ammunition enough, which was said to come from Limerick. One hundred cows were taken near Moneymore, after which the soldiers fared better, but there was much sickness from want of proper food, and from having to sleep on the ground.[21]

A general assembly meets, Oct. 1642.

The name of Parliament avoided.

The Catholic Church first.

The King second.

The Supreme Council.

Four generals appointed.

The provisional supreme council, which had been formed at Kilkenny in the early summer, did what they could to give their organisation something of a legal shape. ‘Letters,’ says Bellings, ‘in nature of writs were sent from this council to all the Lords spiritual and temporal, and all the counties, cities, and corporate towns that had right to send knights and burgesses to Parliament.’ The general assembly so constituted met on October 24, a year and a day after the first outbreak in Ulster, at the house of Robert Shee, heir to Sir Richard Shee. The Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons sat in one room, Mr. Pat Darcy bareheaded upon a stool representing all or some that sat in Parliament upon the woolsack. Mr. Nicholas Plunket represented the Speaker of the Commons, and both Lords and Commons addressed their speech to him. The Lords had an upper room for a recess for private consultation, and upon resolutions taken the same were delivered to the Commons by Mr. Darcy. The name of Parliament was eschewed, and Plunket was called prolocutor or president, and not speaker. Burgesses were to be paid five shillings a day, and knights of the shire ten shillings during the session, and for ten days before and after. The first act of the assembly was to establish the Roman Catholic Church as it had been in the time of Henry VII., and the statute law was to be observed so far as it was ‘not against the Catholic Roman religion.’ Allegiance to King Charles came second. For the protection of the King’s subjects against murders, rapes and robberies ‘contrived and daily executed by the malignant party, and for the exaltation of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the advancement of his Majesty’s service,’ a Supreme Council was appointed, with both executive and judicial authority; control over all officers, even generals, in the field; and power to hear and determine all matters capital, criminal or civil, ‘except the right or title of land.’ Owen Roe O’Neill was appointed general for Ulster, Preston for Leinster, and Colonel Gerald Barry for Munster. For Connaught, Colonel John Bourke was named lieutenant-general only, in the hope that Clanricarde would be induced to join. There were some bickerings between Owen Roe and Sir Phelim, who had just married Preston’s daughter, and who wished to be in command of his own province, and between Rory O’More and other Leinster gentlemen, but they were smoothed over for the time. All the generals had seen service on the Continent.[22]

Constitution of the Supreme Council.

Provincial Councils.

The Supreme Council consisted of twenty-four persons, four taken from each province. Of these only four, an O’Neill and a Magennis from Ulster, an O’Brien from Munster and Lord Mayo, were not sworn in at the time. Lord Mountgarret was appointed president, Bellings secretary, and Richard Shee clerk. Of the whole twenty-four four were peers and five bishops. Provincial and county councils were also constituted, but they had no real existence, or a very shadowy one. That for Leinster was appointed, but was overshadowed by the Supreme Council, and events soon showed that military force and not new-fangled civil departments was the determining quantity during the revolutionary period.

Protestants and neutrals to lose their estates.

Church property to be transferred.

The assembly decreed that lands taken from their owners since October 1, 1641, should be restored on pain of the new possessor being treated as an enemy; provided that if the old owner ‘be declared a neuter or enemy by the supreme or provincial,’ then the land should be surrendered not to him, but to the council, ‘to be disposed of towards the maintenance of the general cause.’ The war was a religious one, and thus the lands of all who were not prepared to espouse the Roman Catholic cause were to be forfeited, or at the least sequestered. English, Welsh and Scotch Roman Catholics were to be treated as well as natives of Ireland. All Church temporalities were at one stroke transferred from Protestants to Roman Catholics. It must have been from the first evident to all cool observers that no accommodation on these terms could ever be made with any settled English Government. After sitting for about a month the assembly adjourned till May 20 next. They had ordered 4000l. worth coin to be struck, and 5820 men to be raised as the Leinster contingent. The Kilkenny government never had any real authority, except in the south-east of Ireland.[23]

The royal authority slighted.

Flags.

Coinage.

Indulgences and excommunications.

Free trade.

The Supreme Council assumed sovereign power, the King figuring largely in negotiations with Ormonde, but seldom appearing in documents intended for home consumption. Flags were devised with various religious emblems and mottoes; but in each case there was an Irish cross on a green field, ‘Vivat Rex Carolus’ below, and C R with a crown imperial above. Francis Oliver, a Fleming, was appointed vice-admiral, and letters of marque to prey upon ‘enemies of the general Catholic cause’ were freely granted. Half-crowns and shillings and copper money were struck with Charles I. on one side and St. Patrick on the other, but this was not done without much opposition, for the coinage was unnecessary, and was an evident encroachment upon the Crown. Agents were accredited to the Emperor, the King of France, the Pope, the Duke of Bavaria, the Viceroy in Belgium, and the Governor of Biscay. The Franciscan Luke Wadding, a native of Waterford, was agent at Rome, and as this was emphatically the Pope’s war, the instructions to him are of special interest. The first thing asked for was a supply of indulgences for the confederates and of excommunications for all opponents and neutrals. The Pope was requested to send letters in their favour to the Queen of England, to the Catholic princes of Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Poland, and Bavaria, to Genoa, and to the Catholics of Holland. Wadding was directed to impress upon his Holiness that the Catholic cause in Protestant countries would be much advanced by the success of the confederates. Free trade with France, Spain, and Holland was solicited through the Pope’s mediation. In general he was to be asked to give the council power over ecclesiastical patronage, and not to admit appeals during the war. In particular Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath, had been suspended by the provincial synod of Armagh for refusing to approve of the war, and his appeal was to be rejected without trial. The Supreme Council thus engrossed to themselves all the chief prerogatives of the Crown which they professed to defend.[24]

Preston’s first action, Dec. 1642.

Preston’s first service in the field did not augur well for his success as a general. Ormonde was anxious to relieve the garrison of Ballinakill on the borders of Queen’s County and Kilkenny, and in December he sent Monck with a convoy and enough men to guard it. This service was duly performed, but Preston and Castlehaven, with a thousand foot and three troops of horse, attempted to cut him off on his return to Dublin. Monck passed by Timahoe, where there was a confederate garrison, who lined the hedges by the roadside; but hearing that he was pursued, he avoided the snare by drawing aside to some level ground backed by a hill, where he placed his foot to serve as support in case the horse were worsted. The contrary happened, and after the first charge the whole of Preston’s force was driven under the shelter of Timahoe. The numbers engaged on each side were about equal, but a crowd of spectators on a distant hill were mistaken for reinforcements, and Monck prudently continued his journey to Dublin. Castlehaven thought most of the Irish foot would have been destroyed had the enemy pursued their advantage.[25]

Parliamentary agents in Dublin.

Lisle and Grenville.

‘The check at Timahoe,’ says Castlehaven, ‘made us pretty quiet till towards the spring following,’ when the Lords Justices resolved upon an expedition into Wexford. The sympathies of Parsons, who was the ruling spirit, were certainly with the Parliament, but the event was uncertain, and even after Edgehill it was hard to say whether the King would succeed or not. Since the end of October there had been a committee from the Parliament in Dublin consisting of Robert Reynolds and Robert Goodwin, members of the House of Commons, and of Captain William Tucker, agent for the English adventurers in Irish land. Part of their business was to induce soldiers to take debentures in lieu of pay. By the advice of the Chancellor Bolton these three were admitted to sit at the Council board. Tucker kept a journal of the proceedings, and it is clear that he was not much impressed by the wisdom of the Irish Government. The sittings were generally occupied in mere talk, and very little was done in the field. Thus, when Sir Francis Willoughby took Maynooth Castle Tucker reports that the rebels ran away after one day’s siege, that four or five men were killed on each side, and ‘no service done at all, but only expectation and the gain of one ass.’ In the middle of January Lord Lisle, the Lord Lieutenant’s son, proposed to relieve the empty treasury by leading out fifteen hundred men to live upon the enemy’s country. Lisle was general of the horse, and Sir Richard Grenville major of Leicester’s own regiment, and it was intended that these two officers should command in the field. Grenville, according to Clarendon, was noted for his cruelty, but he had served with credit at Kilrush, and he was major of Leicester’s regiment of horse. In January came a commission from the King giving power to Ormonde, Clanricarde, and others to treat with the Irish, and the Lords Justices supposed that the field would thus be left clear for Lisle.[26]

Ormonde takes the field, March, 1642-3.

When the King’s letter was read at the Council board Ormonde, according to his chaplain’s account, said he had no wish to be a commissioner to hear Irish grievances, ‘for I know that nothing grieves them more than that they could not cut all our throats,’ but that as general he would command in the field. His right could not be denied, and he had lately endeared himself to both officers and soldiers by his exertions to obtain their pay and other advantages for them. But the Lords Justices and the parliamentary commissioners, who had advanced money for Lord Lisle, were not at all pleased. Tucker, indeed, held that the money could not be decently denied to Ormonde, but his career and that of his colleagues in Ireland was cut short before the campaign actually began. In the middle of February came a letter from the King directing that the committee should no longer be admitted to the Council-chamber, and fearing arrest they returned to England before the end of the month. On March 1 Ormonde set out with 2500 foot and 800 horse, and with two siege-guns and four field-pieces.[27]

Bloody affair at Timolin.

New Ross besieged.

Battle of Ross, March 18, 1642-3.

Effective artillery.

Defeat of Preston.

At Timolin, which was reached on the third day, the Irish defended the castle and an old church. One culverin reduced the former, and all the men were killed before night. The besiegers had about thirty killed and wounded in a premature attempt to storm, Lieutenant Oliver, the only engineer in the army, being among the slain. The church tower held out till next day, but the whole garrison, except one man, were killed by shot or falling stones. The garrisons of Carlow and Athy were strong enough to prevent Preston from being reinforced by the Wicklow insurgents, but the latter had some prisoners whom they proposed to exchange with the survivors of Timolin. ‘There be not many of them alive now,’ said Monck, ‘and what there is take you with you.’ According to Bellings, who is generally fair, part of the garrison were slaughtered by the soldiers of Lisle’s regiment after quarter had been given by Ormonde. On the seventh day from Dublin the army passed, without further fighting, through Clohamon in Wexford, where a fair was being held, and some cattle were swept off by the soldiers. On the tenth day New Ross was reached, ‘where,’ says Ormonde’s chaplain, ‘we saw flags set up on the walls and the inhabitants making ready for a siege.’ Women and children were sent over the Barrow into Kilkenny, and men were introduced in their places, so that the number of the garrison soon equalled that of the besieging army. One culverin was turned upon the south gate near the river, and a breach was soon made, but the defenders dug a great trench inside, and attempts to storm were frustrated. Another culverin was in position at the north end of the town, but the shot failed to reach those who were maintaining the breach, and Ormonde’s soldiers suffered sorely from rain as well as from musket balls, and no doubt envied the enemy, for they could see the women plying them constantly with drink. Meanwhile there were two English vessels of 120 and 60 tons, with eight guns between them, lying in the tideway below the town. They could neither escape nor get near enough to do much service, and when artillery was brought to bear they were scuttled and abandoned. The victuals and ammunition sank or were captured by the enemy, but the sailors joined Ormonde and did excellent work afterwards as gunners. The supply of provisions was very limited, and at the approach of Preston’s army the siege was practically raised. Six hundred men under Sir James Dillon came from Westmeath as far as Ballyragget in Kilkenny, but few or none of them ever joined Preston, having been attacked by the garrison of Ballinakill on St. Patrick’s night. ‘They being very merry for honour of their saint, and for that they expected a great victory the next day, and being full of drink,’ were cut to pieces or dispersed, and all their arms taken. On the morning of March 18 Ormonde’s army were encamped on a heathy hill half a mile to the eastward of Old Ross, but before ten o’clock they had taken up a position some three miles to the north-west and a little short of a village called Ballinafeeg. Mr. Brian Kavanagh voluntarily gave his services as a guide. The deep glen of Poulmonty lay a little further on. Preston with 5000 foot and 600 horse had passed the Barrow at Graiguenemanagh, and now advanced across the glen to attack Ormonde. Cullen and others tried to dissuade him from fighting, pointing out that the English army was short of provisions and must needs retire through a very difficult country to Carlow, and that there would be many opportunities of attacking it at great advantage. Ormonde had six guns with him, which he placed on a rising ground behind his main body. The opposing armies did not come to close quarters until after two o’clock in the afternoon. Preston’s men came up by a narrow lane, and on their serried masses every shot told. The guns were admirably served by eleven of the sailors whose ships had been destroyed, and who fired six rounds from each piece, right over the heads of their friends. As the Irish horse came out into the open Ormonde ordered his own cavalry under Lisle and Grenville to advance, fire one round, and then fall back. This movement was punctually executed, but some of the Irish horse mingled with them as they retired, a panic followed, and they galloped off to the rear. Lisle called out ‘Ten pounds, twenty pounds for a guide to Duncannon,’ and an old apothecary, named Silyard, who was attached to the army, and who was in his proper place among the baggage-waggons, reproached him for running away, and a veteran officer named Morris, who lay wounded in a litter, offered to rally the men if Lisle would lend him a horse. Then Sir Richard Grenville clapped my Lord Lisle on the shoulder: ‘Come, my lord,’ said he, ‘we will yet recover it.’ ‘Never while you live,’ said Mr. Silyard, and to his friends that stood by “I mean his credit,” said Mr. Silyard.’ Cullen got up to the guns, on one of which he laid his hand saying, ‘This is mine,’ but he was soon surrounded by infantry and taken prisoner, his life being saved by Ormonde’s personal exertions. The rout of Preston’s army was completed by the return of Lisle and his cavalry. ‘A man might see them,’ says the chaplain, ‘through the smoke of the gunpowder run twinkling like the motes in the sun.’ The pursuit was continued until darkness came on, with great loss to the defeated army, who escaped into Kilkenny by the way which they came. Ormonde, who spent the night on the ground, lost only about a dozen men.[28]

Ormonde returns to Dublin.

Preston takes Ballinakill, May 1643.

Ormonde encamped on the second night at Graiguenemanagh, and on the third at Burris, where his artillery oxen were stolen by ‘two lusty young clowns’ of the Kavanaghs. Fresh beasts were obtained from Carlow, and Dublin was reached on the 27th, without further fighting. Lord Moore, hearing that the Irish had gathered from all sides, and expecting to catch Ormonde in a trap, took advantage of the defenceless state of Cavan and drove off much cattle without resistance. A great part of Preston’s army dispersed every man to his own village, but Sir James Dillon, who had not taken part in the battle, joined him with a strong unbroken regiment, and he made some pretence of pursuing Ormonde in order to lessen the popular disgust at his defeat. What he really did was to besiege Ballinakill, where Sir Thomas Ridgeway had planted an English colony, and established ironworks. There being thus no want of hands, Ridgeway’s castle had been strengthened and his fishponds utilised for filling wet ditches. The Protestant farmers on the estate had driven in their cattle, and there was food enough for all. Preston lay for about seven weeks before this place, where he lost 100 men, and he could not have taken it but for the arrival of two twenty-four pounders and a mortar from Spain. A shell fell on the roof and penetrated the floors below, while ‘the women within very fearful, as not accustomed to such pastimes, cried out with every shot, to the exceeding comfort of the assailants, and mighty disgust of the defendants.’ The contest had been carried on with great bitterness, the garrison throwing the heads of their prisoners over the works, while the besiegers stuck the heads of theirs upon poles within sight of the wall. The place became untenable after the arrival of the battering train, and capitulated on May 5, but Preston was glad to give fair terms, and Castlehaven escorted all the English safely to the neighbourhood of Dublin.[29]

Clanricarde on the situation.

First proposal to send a nuncio.

The Pope would be welcome.

There were cool-headed Irish Catholics at home and abroad who saw the essential weakness of the Confederates’ position. Clanricarde was Walsingham’s grandson. Alone among men of his creed he held the King’s commission, and knew the real interests of the Crown, as well as the impossibility of separating Ireland from England. Among the insurgents were many who had been ‘instruments of foul and horrid acts; there being yet some who do boast and glory in those inhumanities. And if God’s judgment and wrath be not first appeased, it is much to be feared there will be a long expectation of a more settled time.’ The Jesuit O’Hartegan, in daily communication with his countrymen and with the nuncio at Paris, had none of Clanricarde’s scruples, but he had misgivings of his own. The hatred of the heretics would stop at nothing, and the faithful had gone too far to retreat. Men and money were available, but there was no head, no order or discipline; ‘one of our birth-attributes is never to submit ourselves willingly to any of our own nation, to live as companions or equals, and think ourselves as worthy of any command and of superiority as each other of our compatriots.’ Foreigners were always thought much of, even when there were better men at home; and it was necessary to send a stranger to take charge. He should be ‘of long experience, of good learning, and charitably affected for compassionating our infirmities, and it is unquestionable these conditions do concur in an Italian best of all nations.’ Ireland could support 100,000 men, but a head was necessary. To support this army O’Hartegan proposed to seize all Crown revenues and rights; all goods of English, Scotch and Dutch heretics; all goods of Irish heretics such as Ormonde, Kildare, Thomond, Barrymore and Inchiquin; and of Catholic neutrals like Clanricarde and Antrim; all Church lands and all lands confiscated from natives, including the Desmonds. In such a cause, too, the people would readily pay heavy taxes and submit to monopolies. In the absence of a supreme head every commander and nobleman would cut and carve for himself, ‘and every mere Irish pretend his ancestors were illegally dispossessed.’ A nuncio of the highest rank, even the Pope himself, could be made comfortable at Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, or Limerick.’[30]

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Sir James Turner’s Memoirs, pp. 26, 28; Spalding’s Memorials; Burton’s History of Scotland, chap. 73; May’s Long Parliament, p. 431; Rushworth, iv. 407, 501; Gardiner’s History of England, x. 70.

[13] Monro’s despatch to Leslie, May 18, printed in Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, i. 419; Sir James Turner’s Memoirs, 22; Roger Pike’s narrative in Ulster Archæological Journal, viii. 77; O’Mellan’s narrative in Young’s Old Belfast, p. 211.

[14] An exact Relation of the good service of Sir Frederick Hamilton, 1643, Information of Sir Frederick Hamilton ... to the committee of both kingdoms, 1645. Audley Mervyn’s Relation, 1642. The first of these contains a letter from O’Connor Sligo, who urged Hamilton to capitulate, all Sligo, Mayo, and Leitrim being against him. Hamilton answered: ‘Your loyalty to your King, your faith to your friends, once broke, never more to be trusted by me, but revenged as God shall enable the hands of him who was loving to your loyal predecessors, whose course will contribute to your destruction, for extinguishing the memory of their loyalties. Thus I rest with contempt and scorn to all your base brags. Your scourge, if I can.—F. H.’

[15] Bellings, i. 80, with a plan of the battle; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 31; Carte’s Ormonde; Captain Yarner’s Relation, May 4, 1642. Yarner, who was personally consulted, testifies that Ormonde made all the dispositions himself. He guesses at 500 as the probable number killed; but Bellings says ‘scarce one hundred and no prisoners.’

[16] Bellings’ narrative and documents in Confederation and War, ii. 34, 47, 210. The acts of the ecclesiastical congregation are in English, but the Latin version (probably the original form) is in Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 262.

[17] State Papers, Ireland, July 22, 1607 (No. 297); Aphorismical Discovery in Contemp. Hist. ed. Gilbert, with the evidence of Henry MacCartan, ib. i. 396, and O’Neill’s letter to Wadding, ib. 476; Colonel O’Neill’s Journal in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, vol. ii.; Clarendon’s Hist. xii. 108; Clarendon S.P. ii. 144.

[18] Bellings in Confederation and War, and the documents there, i. xxxix.; ii. 67; Carte’s Ormonde; Martin’s Hist. de France, chap. 70.

[19] Bellings, i. 92; Carte’s Ormonde, i. 343; Smith’s Hist. of Cork; A most exact Relation of a Victory, &c., London, October 3, 1642; Digitus Dei, or a miraculous victory, London, September 20. The latter writer notes that Stephenson had ‘an exceeding rich saddle.’ A Journal of the most memorable passage in Ireland, London, October 19, 1642, by an eye-witness, notes that ‘almost all the Lords of Munster were present’—Roche, Muskerry, Ikerrin, Dunboyne, Brittas, Castleconnell, and one of Ormonde’s brothers. As to Ardmore, besides the Journal, see A True Relation of God’s Providence in Munster, which says between seventy and eighty were hanged. The letter quoted in Several Passages, &c., London, September 16, says 116, adding, ‘this is most true.’

[20] A Relation from Viscount Conway, from June 17 to July 30, London, 1642. This was sent to a worthy M.P., who published it; it is well written, but badly printed.

[21] A True Relation of the Taking of Mountjoy, &c., June 25 to July 8, London, August 4, 1642; A Relation from Belfast, London, August 17, carries this a little further. A good many cows were caught, and the country, without taking Charlemont, was swept for some twelve miles from Mountjoy.

[22] Bellings in Confederation and War, i. 111; Acts of General Assembly, ib. ii. 73; Richard Martin’s letter of December 2, 1642, in Clanricarde’s Memoirs, 296.

[23] Acts of General Assembly, ut sup. ii. 88.

[24] Letters from the Supreme Council to foreign powers, November and December 1642, Confederation and War, ii. 99-129. The oath of association of the Confederates, ib. 210; also in Cox, appx. xiv. and (omitting the last paragraph) in Walsh’s Remonstrance, appx. i. p. 31. The latter, dated July 26, 1644, is evidently not the earliest form. In Vindiciæ Catholicorum Hiberniæ, Paris, 1650, p. 6, is a much shorter Latin oath, which places the Church first, the King second, and the national liberties third, but is called ‘associationis juramentum,’ like the others.

[25] Bellings, i. 90; Castlehaven, 35.

[26] Tucker’s Journal in Confederation and War, ii. 189, January 30, 1642-3. The Commission, dated January 11, is in Carte’s Ormonde, iii. No. 117. Castlehaven.

[27] Tucker’s Journal in Confederation and War, ii.; Creichton’s faithful account, ib. ii. 248.

[28] Creichton’s Faithful Account and that of Bellings, p. 130, give the official views on the two sides. The Aphorismical Discovery is much to the same effect, adding the usual bad language, and describing Preston as ‘either drunk, a fool, or a traitor.’ Creichton exaggerates the number of Preston’s army; while Bellings unduly diminishes the number of slain. ‘Scarce one hundred slain upon the place’ takes no account of the pursuit. See also Truth from Ireland expressed in Two Letters, London, April 22, 1643.

[29] Bellings, i. 149-151; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 65; Castlehaven, p. 36.

[30] Clanricarde to Gormanston, December 21, 1642, in Carte’s Ormonde, iii. No. 115; O’Hartegan (Paris) to Wadding (Rome), November 7, 1642, in Roman Transcripts, R.O.

[CHAPTER XXIII]
THE WAR TO THE FIRST CESSATION, 1642-1643

The Adventurers for Irish land.

To gain possession of the land in English hands was at least one main object of the Irish rebellion. Much property had been acquired by various confiscations and plantations, but there was no idea of abandoning that policy. The war would be extremely costly, and the Irish were to be made to pay for it by giving up some of the land which was still theirs. It was assumed that at least 2500 acres of good land would be forfeited; and upon that security a large sum was subscribed by Adventurers, as they were always called. It was provided that the money should all go to the reduction of Ireland; but necessity has no law, and much of it was spent in making head against the King in England. It was not till the quarrel at home was settled that Parliament could act effectively on the other side of St. George’s Channel.[31]

Expedition of Lord Forbes, July 1642.

Gallant defence of Rathbarry.

In June 1642 the Adventurers determined to send an expedition to Ireland. The arrangements were completed in a fortnight by a committee of fifteen under the presidency of Sir Nicholas Crispe, afterwards the noted Royalist, who had subscribed 1500l. Ten ships were hired, each of which carried or towed a flat-bottomed barge for landing men and ascending rivers. The admiral was Captain Benjamin Peters, with the famous Rainsborough, one of the committee, a vice-admiral, and Captain Thompson, also a member of the committee, as Rear-Admiral. Hugh Peters was chaplain. One thousand soldiers were embarked under Alexander Lord Forbes, and the expedition sailed from Dover on July 1, having lost two of the barges in an easterly gale. In Mount’s Bay they spoke a King’s ship with the late garrison of Limerick Castle on board. In mid-channel a vessel was detached with a letter to St. Leger, reciting a commission from the King and both Houses to raise additional forces, and asking the Lord President to say where the expedition could be most usefully employed. St. Leger had died before the letter was written, and Forbes turned a deaf ear to Inchiquin’s entreaties for help. On July 11 the squadron was off the old head of Kinsale, and the town was found to be full of justly suspected Irish and of Protestant refugees, ‘living in miserable holes and huts.’ Lord Kinalmeaky came in from Bandon, of which he was governor, and Peters preached on a Thursday. Next day Forbes marched to Bandon with 600 men, of whom 100 were seamen, and two small brass guns. Seven thousand English, including many clergymen, had gathered round Kinalmeaky, many of them being in great distress. Peters notes that the river was full of salmon. Next day Forbes went to the relief of Captain Freke, who had been beset at Rathbarry ever since the middle of February. About 1800 sheep, 200 cows, and 50 horses had been captured by the troops and driven as far as Clonakilty, through which the line of march lay. Forbes foolishly divided his force, leaving three companies to guard the cattle. As soon as the main body were out of sight the Irish attacked the detachment, and Captain Weldon was killed with a great part of two companies. Captain Groves, whose men were part of the Bandon garrison, and understood the work better, fought his way through the enemy to a rath on the Rosscarbery road, and there maintained himself till he was relieved. The Irish fled towards the sea, and many of them were killed on the shore. After rescuing Groves, Forbes went back to Bandon, and left Freke in worse case than ever, for most of his men took the opportunity of deserting. A few sick soldiers were left in their places, ‘and so factious that I and my servants were often endangered of our lives among them, and some that had fled from the fight at Clonakilty much discouraged us with that relation.’ They held out, enduring almost incredible hardships, for eleven weeks longer, when relief came under a more capable commander than Forbes.[32]

Ill conduct of Forbes’s army.

Forbes at Galway.

The mayor appeals to Clanricarde.

Forbes was repulsed with loss from Timoleague Castle. Lady O’Shaughnessy, whose husband, Sir Roger, was loyal, offered to surrender it to Kinalmeaky and Sir William Hull, but not to strangers. The soldiers then burned the town and abbey containing a thousand hogsheads of wine. Two spies were taken, but, says Ensign Jones, ‘the rogues slight death, for we could get nothing out of them; so our men mangled them to pieces.’ So Forbes returned to Kinsale, and on July 25 sailed to Castlehaven. The Irish appeared in force on the hills, and the castle of their chief, O’Donovan, was blown up with one barrel of powder. It was sixty feet high with very thick walls, but it fell half on one side and half on the other. O’Driscol’s castle at Baltimore was burned, and the neighbouring islands harried. About 100 camp-followers of the worst kind followed Forbes’s wake. They entered and plundered houses without provocation, and even killed children within sight of the soldiers. Meanwhile Forbes had been summoned to Galway, without Clanricarde’s knowledge, by Willoughby, who having a commission to execute martial law from the Lords Justices, had hanged a sergeant in Lord Clanmorris’s company for extortion. Clanmorris retaliated by hanging some soldiers of the fort who had strayed into the open country. The Lords Justices sent Captain Ashley with his frigate to Galway, and he and Willoughby combined to seize corn, cattle, and timber upon requisition. Only tickets were given in exchange, and Clanricarde’s friends and tenants were injured. Forbes anchored off the town on August 9, Willoughby and Ashley coming on board the same night, and at once sent letters to Ranelagh, Clanricarde and the corporation of Galway. The lieutenant-general of the additional forces by sea and land, so he styled himself, proposed to join hands with the Lord President, and so to subdue the rebellion. Ranelagh answered that he would come from Athlone to Galway, though at some personal risk. ‘I observe,’ he said, ‘in your lordship’s letter an inclination to make a distinction of persons; and truly, my lord, if that course shall not be held, I see little hope of a speedy reducing this kingdom to obedience, seeing most men are possessed of an opinion that an utter extirpation is intended, and that conceit being fomented by the priests and friars, all are falling into such a course of desperation, that being once engaged and their counsels and force united, will certainly be an occasion to lengthen the war, and draw a vast charge upon the Crown to make a complete conquest.’ The only chance of peace, he thought, was in ‘a just distinction between practick and passive rebels, with severity to the one and moderation to the other.’ Of the citizens of Galway Forbes demanded that they should lay down their arms, admit a garrison, and place themselves under his protection, submitting absolutely to the King ‘and the state of England, under whose blessed government they had enjoyed a sweet and long-continued peace.’ The mayor in reply urged his grievances against Willoughby, and declined all further answer till Clanricarde had been consulted, under whose government and by whose mediation they had lately enjoyed some degree of peace. To Clanricarde himself Forbes made much the same proposals as to Ranelagh, with the additional suggestion that he should allow him to garrison Tirellan as a basis of operation against the O’Flahertys, whom the Earl had acknowledged to be ‘out of protection and fit persons to receive chastisement.’ The invitation to give up a convenient private residence to the soldiers who had burned his cousin’s town of Timoleague was politely declined, but Clanricarde was ready to come from Loughrea and to receive Lord Forbes as a guest.[33]

Clanricarde’s difficulties.

Forbes harries co. Galway.

Peters thought Clanricarde’s letter in which he excused the Galway people and laid the blame on Willoughby was well written and showed the writer to be ‘a man of wisdom and parts.’ In the meantime John de Burgo, titular bishop of Clonfert, let the head of his family know that no one would fight for him if he sided with Forbes. While the correspondence proceeded, a detachment from the English squadron was landed on the Clare shore, and harried the lands of Daniel and Tirlogh O’Brien, who had both helped to provision the fort. Peters says they burned ‘a whole town.’ Two demi-culverins were landed on the west side of Galway, but it was ‘as strong and compact as most towns in Europe for houses and walls.’ Forbes said he would raze the latter if the townsmen did not agree to his terms, but the task did not prove easy. In the meantime Forbes’s men landed at various points on the north side of Galway Bay, burning every house and hamlet that they could reach as in an enemy’s country.

The pragmatic chaplain.

The country was so little safe that Clanricarde went to meet Ranelagh at Carrowreagh ford on the Suck with 200 horse. Ranelagh brought the same and as many foot, but no attack took place, and with the horse only they rode the first night to Clonbrock and the second to Loughrea. Clanricarde then sent to invite Forbes to dinner at Tirellan, but he did not care to venture so far inland, and proposed that the place of meeting should be the fort. Clanricarde, who took his stand upon the royal commission to him as governor of Galway, objected to this as beneath his dignity, especially after Forbes had refused his hospitality, and also because some attempt might be made to detain him. Ranelagh, who thought it unwise to stand upon mere points of honour, and who did not believe any one would dare to touch him, made no difficulty about entering the fort. He found Forbes much under the influence of Peters—a ‘pragmatic chaplain from London’—who urged him to attack the town. In the meantime soldiers both from the fleet and the fort ravaged the coast, many men and some women were killed, and Clanricarde had the pleasure of seeing his tenants’ houses burning. Forbes propounded large schemes of conquest with the aid of the Scots army in Ulster, over the impracticability of which Ranelagh and Clanricarde had a good laugh together. The President tried to persuade Forbes to go to Sligo, or to Tralee, whence help might be given from the sea, but he preferred to press Clanricarde to admit his garrison to Tirellan. Some forty guns were landed, but there was no wood to make platforms, and Forbes soon recognised that he could not take Galway, where every house was like a castle. Sir Charles Coote had been expected, but he did not come. Clanricarde returned to Loughrea and Ranelagh to Athlone, while Willoughby remained in command of the fort, and on the worst terms with the townsmen.[34]

Forbes repulsed from Galway.

Tralee taken.

The Earl of Thomond.

Glin taken.

Result of Forbes’s campaign.

Opinions of Hugh Peters.

The officers knew that a strong town could not be taken with the means at their disposal, but the sailors were ‘readier to fall on nakedly than forsake the work, and the soldiers no way backward.’ The guns were taken on board, and Forbes departed to the Shannon. Askeaton, which had made so gallant a stand in the last Desmond war, surrendered without a blow. Sir Edward Denny continued to press for the relief of his castle at Tralee, but Forbes wasted two or three days in harrying the poor islands of Arran, and when at last he arrived off Ballingarry in Kerry it was only to hear that Tralee had fallen, the garrison having been reduced to eating hides. The expedition then returned to the Shannon, and captured a great piece of ordnance called ‘roaring Meg’ with which the Irish had taken most of the castles thereabouts. The gun was found in one boat and the carriage in another, so that this was an easy task. It was then proposed to destroy Sir Daniel O’Brien’s house at Clare Castle on the ground that he was no friend to the Parliament. Yet he acted in strict unison with the loyal and Protestant Earl of Thomond. Even the latter was doubted, ‘and in truth,’ says Peters, ‘his case is nice, the chief of the country being his kindred and himself without power saving fifty horses in his stable.’ He was, however, unwilling to see his country laid waste, and declined to join in the work. The Limerick shore was devastated instead. The Knight of Glin sent a letter of recommendation from Clanricarde, and offered to give cattle for the use of the squadron. Glin Castle was nevertheless battered and stormed, the defenders being short of bullets. ‘Most matters,’ says Peters, ‘fell as at the last siege forty years since,’ but in shorter time and with the loss of only four men. ‘The plate and silver were gone for Limerick, which receives most of which is in Ireland.’ A garrison was put in, and guns mounted on the walls. This was done on September 26, and so the expedition ended, for the ships had only been hired till Michaelmas. Five vessels had been taken worth 20,000l., including one from Barbadoes with a cargo of tobacco, and corn to the same value had been destroyed. Many Irish towns had been burned, and many English relieved. Thousands of cattle had been taken or spoiled, and a diversion had been made on the west coast. This is Peters’s own summary, and it does not amount to much. It is more certain that Forbes did everything in his power to aggravate the bitterness of a war which was already sufficiently horrible. The pragmatic chaplain’s political remarks are interesting. He had been assured that a million of English had been murdered, and he hoped many more Irish slain. The cause of the war was Popery on the one side and profaneness on the other. The royalism of the Irish was a mere catchword. ‘An Irish rebel and an English cavalier in words and actions we found as unlike as an egg is to an egg,’ he adds rather ambiguously. Among the English there were many abuses both in ecclesiastical and civil government, many unfaithful ministers, and many scurrilous and ignorant congregations. Ireland, he prophetically concludes, will be reduced ‘when soldiers and commanders there shall rather attend the present work than the continuance of their trade.’[35]

The King praises Clanricarde,

and repudiates Forbes.

Galway fort besieged.

The fort surrendered.

Galway occupied by the Irish, Aug. 1648.

When Clanricarde returned from the conference at Trim he found things in a bad way at Galway. Little or no support was given him from Dublin, while agents of the confederates did all in their power, ‘both by spiritual and temporal practices,’ to seduce his men and to sap his great local influence. He was somewhat comforted by a letter from the King, who approved of his conduct, protested that Lord Forbes had no orders from him, and declared that he would support him rather than ‘those who pretend that they do really serve us by rebelling against us.’ Colonel John Bourke was acting as lieutenant-general for the confederates on Christmas Eve, and the question of closely besieging the fort was at once entertained. Willoughby had exasperated the townsmen by firing into their houses, and many were ready to retaliate, though the more prudent hesitated. His necessities forced him to drive cattle wherever he could, and he was not particular about the exact opinions of the owners. On one occasion fifty of his men were intercepted by a party from Galway, several being killed and others taken prisoners. From accounts given by the latter general Bourke was convinced that the fort might be starved out, and breastworks were erected on the points at the mouth of the river to prevent relief by sea. Chains were afterwards drawn across the channel. Of relief by land there was little chance, for Clanricarde’s castle of Claregalway had been betrayed to the Irish, and it was as much as he could do to provide for the safety of Loughrea and Portumna. Bourke had a garrison at Athenry, and some of his troops watched Roscommon so as to prevent Ranelagh from making any move. Preston had occupied Banagher, and Inchiquin, though he wrote civil letters, could find neither men nor money. Early in May Bourke besieged the fort in force, with about 1000 men, but he made no approaches, and trusted to famine. On or about June 10 Captain Brooke, who commanded a man-of-war in the bay, sent in a flotilla of boats to attempt the relief of the fort, but they were beaten back by boats from the town, assisted by the fire from the breastworks. Willoughby believed this to be his last chance, and as a choice of evils proposed to surrender his post into Clanricarde’s hands. This could not be done without the consent of the Irish, and the terms offered by Bourke were such as Clanricarde could not in honour entertain. He held the King’s commission, and yet he was required to take the confederate oath of association, and to do nothing without the consent of the corporation of Galway, and of several other persons, the betrayer of Claregalway being one. Negotiations upon this basis necessarily failed, and Willoughby capitulated on the 20th without making Clanricarde a party. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and were allowed to go on board ship. The post at Oranmore, which belonged to Clanricarde, was surrendered on the same terms without his consent. The day after the capitulation was signed a squadron sailed into the bay, which had it come sooner would have been able to relieve the fort. On August 6 Galway opened its gates to Bourke and granted him 300l., which enabled him to proceed to the siege of Castle Coote. The castles of Athlone and Roscommon in the Lord President’s hands, Loughrea, Portumna and Kildogan in Clanricarde’s, were the only other places in Connaught of which the Irish were not by this time masters.[36]

Owen Roe and Sir Phelim O’Neill.

Leven leaves Ireland.

Owen Roe O’Neill had been appointed general of Ulster by the confederates, but it was some time before he was fully acknowledged, for Sir Phelim was very unwilling to yield the first place. It was found necessary to send primate O’Reilly as a peacemaker. Leven arrived in Ireland soon after O’Neill, but attempted little, and left the country in November, driven out, as Turner believed, by the insubordinate action of the officers. O’Neill claimed him as an ally if he was for the King, but would consider him an enemy if he was for the Parliament. ‘I charitably advise you,’ he wrote, ‘to abandon the kingdom and defend your own native country.’ According to O’Neill’s panegyrist this letter drove him away, but perhaps he really went because the Parliament of England invited him. According to Turner he appropriated 2500l. sent to him from England for the use of the army; ‘and truly this earl who lived till past fourscore, was of so good a memory that he was never known to forget himself, nay, not in extreme old age.’ When leaving Ireland he told Monro that O’Neill would be too much for him, if ever he succeeded in getting an army together.[37]

O’Neill and Monro.

O’Neill defeated at Clones

O’Neill in Meath. Lord Moore killed, Sept. 12.

O’Neill could get as many men as he wanted, but arms and ammunition were not so plentiful. He succeeded, however, in equipping a force of about 1500 men during the winter. In May 1643 Monro attacked him with superior numbers near Charlemont, but without much result, though he himself fought on foot to encourage his men, calling out ‘Fay, fay, run away from a wheen rebels.’ A second attack some weeks later also ended in nothing, but in July O’Neill was defeated by Robert Stewart near Clones, with the loss of 150 men. Shouts of ‘Whar’s Macart?’ showed that the great object was to capture the Irish leader, and he had a very narrow escape. O’Neill afterwards made his way to Mohill in Leitrim, where he procured a small supply of arms from Kilkenny and then encamped near Boyle. This camp was surprised in August by a small English force, and about 160 men killed and wounded, the sentries having been made drunk by Irish sutlers who brought them spirits from the neighbouring garrisons. Immediately afterwards O’Neill was ordered by the Supreme Council to join Sir James Dillon in Meath with as many men as possible. He succeeded in collecting 3000, with whom he marched across Cavan, taking castles on the way, till he came to Portlester near Trim. The castle near the ford was taken after a short cannonade, and O’Neill prepared to defend the passage of the Boyne against Lord Moore, who was approaching from Dublin with a superior force. A short fight took place, and Moore was cut in two by a cannon-ball, the gun being laid by O’Neill himself, with the assistance of a ‘perspective glass.’ The attempt to cross was then abandoned and the cessation was agreed to three days later.[38]

The King decides to negotiate, Jan. 1642-3,

but is not prepared to concede much.

Conference at Trim, March, 1642-3.

In the meantime Charles had made up his mind to treat with the Irish. As early as July 31, 1642, the nobility and gentry assembled at Kilkenny had petitioned the King for an interview where they might affirm their loyalty, and explain the grievances which had induced them to take up arms. This was forwarded through Ormonde, who was warned that if he refused to transmit it he would be held ‘guilty of all the evils that may ensue.’ He first communicated with the Lords Justices and Council, who agreed to forward a copy of the petition to the King with remarks of their own, but as they took a long time about it Ormonde sent over the original himself, ‘being well assured that his Majesty’s judgment is not to be surprised with any colours these rebels can cast upon their foul disloyalty.’ Charles took no notice of the document, and in December the Roman Catholics sent fresh petitions both to the King and Queen. They asked to have a place appointed where they might state their grievances at length. The result was a royal commission, dated January 11, to Ormonde and others, authorising them to meet representatives from the rebels and hear what they had to say. Thomas Burke, one of the Irish Parliamentary Committee who contributed to Strafford’s condemnation, brought over the packet and was himself joined in the commission, which made a very bad impression on the Protestants, since he was believed to have been an abettor of the original outbreak. ‘We have not thought fit,’ Charles wrote to Ormonde at the same time, ‘to admit any of them to our presence, who have been actors or abettors in so odious a rebellion.’ He also sent a paper pointing out that an abrogation of the penal laws would be asked for, but that nothing more could be granted than a mild administration of laws which were never severe. A repeal of Poynings’ Act, or any measure tending to make the Irish Parliament independent, was refused beforehand. Inquiries into forfeitures or titles could not be carried further back than the beginning of the reign, and Recusants were never to hold the majority of official posts. Drogheda was at first designed as the place of meeting, but this was objected to by the Irish, and the conference took place at Trim on March 17. Ormonde was absent in the field, but the statement was received by Clanricarde, Moore, Roscommon, and Sir Maurice Eustace, and by them transmitted to the King.[39]

Irish Remonstrance.

Attack upon Parsons,

who is dismissed.

The Remonstrance presented to Clanricarde and his colleagues at Trim is an able paper, but it hardly afforded a basis for lasting peace between parties whose objects were radically different. The remonstrants objected to the penal laws, which resulted in driving all professors of the old faith from the service of the state, and in employing in their stead upstarts whose great aim was to enrich themselves. The attacks upon property which Strafford had begun were continued after his death, and Sir William Parsons in particular had incurred the gravest odium by using his position as Lord Justice and Master of the Wards to oust the old proprietors from their estates. They demanded a free Parliament, that is, a Parliament in which they would have an overwhelming majority. The Protestant party had never been the most numerous, and with the country in military possession of their opponents they could only hope to return very few members. The immediate result of the Trim meeting was that Charles superseded Parsons and appointed Sir Henry Tichborne Lord Justice in his stead. A few days later he authorised and commanded Ormonde to conclude a truce for one year with the Confederates, and when that was done to carry the Irish army over to Chester.[40]

Inchiquin had not much to fear in Munster from such a general as Barry, but he had no money to support an army in the field. He sent one part of his force to Kerry, where means of subsistence were found, and another under Sir Charles Vavasour to the borders of Tipperary, while he himself sat down before Kilmallock. He had no hope of being able to effect anything without money or stores. Vavasour took Cloghleagh Castle, near Mitchelstown, and after the surrender some of his followers slaughtered the defenders, and apparently some women and children with them. In the meantime Castlehaven received a pressing invitation from some of the Cork gentry, who had no confidence in their own general. He persuaded the council at Kilkenny to give him money, with which he soon raised a body of horse, and on June 4 he routed Vavasour near Kilworth. On Castlehaven’s side only cavalry were engaged, Barry, with the main body, being more than two miles off, and the result was due to panic. Vavasour’s horse for the most part escaped, but he himself was taken prisoner and his force routed. This action was important, because it was the first victory of the Irish in the field since the beginning of the war, for the affair at Julianstown scarcely counted as a battle. Cox, with all his prejudices, says it was a just judgment on Vavasour and his followers, ‘for suffering some inferior officers to violate the quarter they had given to the garrison of Cloghleagh.’[41]

King and Parliament.

Ormonde and Preston.

Arrest of Temple and other Privy Councillors, Aug. 1643.

Arrival of Scarampi,

who opposes any truce.

Bellings opposes Scarampi.

During the spring and summer Charles continued to press for a cessation of arms, full discretion as to terms being given to Ormonde. The commission to him sets forth that the two Houses of Parliament ‘to whose care at their instance we left it’ to manage the Irish war, had long failed to support the army and to defend loyal subjects. The general assembly of the Confederates met at Kilkenny on May 20, and appointed commissioners with powers to treat, but nothing was actually done for more than a month, when they delivered their first proposition at Castlemartin in Kildare. Ormonde gave his answer within a week, and the commissioners then asked for an adjournment till July 13. Time was in their favour, for the treaty would confirm each party in possession of what they held, and they were gaining ground. On the appointed day the commissioners returned a dilatory answer, and Ormonde resolved if possible to try conclusions with Preston in the field. He collected 5000 men and succeeded in retaking Edenderry and some other strong places, but his opponent evaded a general action, and scarcity of provisions soon forced him to return to Dublin. On August 1 orders arrived from the King to arrest four Privy Councillors who sided with the Parliament as much as they could, and against whom charges had been brought. Sir John Temple, Sir Adam Loftus, and Sir R. Meredith were accordingly shut up in the Castle, Parsons being excused on making affidavit that confinement would injure his health. The opposition was thus silenced, and Ormonde found himself complete master. In the meantime Pier-Francesco Scarampi, an Oratorian, arrived at Kilkenny with a commission from the Pope, and immediately threw his weight into the scale against peace. The Confederates, he urged, appeared to be winning, and if they continued to fight vigorously they would probably get control of the country. Nothing was to be expected from the justice of any English party, but if they made themselves formidable they might extort respect from the victors, whether King or Parliament. Instead of giving money to Charles ‘to be converted by his ministers, our enemies, to their own use,’ it would be much better to employ their resources in driving the Scots out of Ulster. The Scots would not be bound by the cessation, which would be a sham as long as it was necessary to fight them. Foreign princes would be offended if arms supplied by them were laid down without their consent. The real object of Scarampi’s mission was to ‘reinstate the Catholic religion and worship throughout the whole country, and to restore to the entire island the splendour of its ancient sanctity,’ and not to beg an uncertain truce for a year. Bellings, on the contrary, who expressed the official view taken by the Supreme Council, argued that it was above all necessary to show that they were no rebels, to join with the English to drive out the Scots, and ‘that the Catholic Church may, in safety and freedom, by a tacit licence from the King, exercise her rights and jurisdiction among us.’ There was a great difference between what ultramontane priests were determined to get, and what laymen, and especially lay landowners, were willing to accept. There can be no doubt that Scarampi, and Rinuccini after him, had plenty of justification for refusing to trust the King, who could do nothing unless he were victorious in England, and who would then be able to defy everyone.[42]

Ormonde unable to continue the war.

The cessation concluded, Sept. 15.

A truce not a peace.

The Confederates make a grant to the King.

Ormonde offered to continue the war, in spite of the King’s wishes, if the Privy Council could find any means of feeding the army. This he knew they could not do, and the Confederates knew it too. All the chief officers declared that a truce was necessary. Both sides were fighting in the King’s name, and it did not suit either of them to disobey his direct orders, so that the conference was renewed at Sigginstown, near Naas, and there the terms of cessation were agreed to on September 15. The King’s commission being to Ormonde personally, he signed the articles alone on the one part. Ten persons signed on the part of the Confederates, of whom Lord Muskerry, Sir Robert Talbot, and Geoffrey Brown were perhaps the most notable. A meeting of the Privy Council was held immediately afterwards, and the articles were solemnly approved. Clanricarde and Inchiquin were present. In the articles of cessation none of the grievances so often brought forward by the Confederates were touched upon at all. On the other hand they refused to make any stipulation as to sending an army to England. This they were willing to do, but declined to bind themselves until after the conclusion of a truce. There was a cessation of hostilities for one year and nothing more, based upon the actual condition of affairs. All places in possession of the King’s Protestant or Roman Catholic subjects respectively were to remain so during the year, and trade was to be free. Prisoners were to be mutually restored. The practical meaning of this was that Ormonde retained the coastline from below Bray up to and including Belfast, and a strip of territory, including Naas, Navan, and Lisburn, with detached garrisons at Athboy, Maryborough, and Carlow in Leinster. In Ulster Londonderry, Coleraine, and Enniskillen were also held by the Protestants, and in Munster they had the ports of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, and Courtmacsherry, and the valley of the Blackwater from above Mallow to the sea. In Connaught Clanricarde, though not a Protestant, yet adhering to Ormonde, retained Loughrea and Portumna, while the Lord President kept the castle of Athlone, Roscommon, and Castle Coote. Monro and his Scots held Carrickfergus and Lough Larne, and all the rest of the island was in the hands of the Confederates. Within a week the cessation was proclaimed at several places in the Pale, and at the three Connaught fortresses, and directions for doing the like were sent to all principal officers. On September 16, the day after the signing of the articles, the Confederate commissioners granted the King 30,000l., half in cash and half in bullocks, payable by instalments extending over six months. A further sum of 800l. was to be paid within two months to maintain the garrison at Naas.[43]

Ormonde made Lord-Lieutenant, Nov. 1643.

The English Parliament against the cessation.

The Irish Government insist on the truce,

Parliament having failed to support the war.

In April 1642 Ormonde had received a jewel and the thanks of the House of Commons for his services against the ‘wicked, bloody rebels.’ In the following August, a few days after the raising of the royal standard, Charles made him a marquis. After the cessation he was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and the farce of Leicester’s viceroyalty came to an end. The latter was a very good but very weak man, and his vacillations prevented his being trusted by any party. Meanwhile Ireland had been left to substitutes without either the ability or the position required to command success. The ruling party in the English Parliament, whatever their shortcomings may have been, were opposed to the cessation. The King having informed them of his commission to Ormonde, they retorted that they had ‘just cause to suspect an impious design on foot to sell for nought the crying blood of many hundreds of thousands of British Protestants, by a dishonourable, insufferable peace with the rebels, and then to lay the blame and shame of this upon the Parliament, a plot suitable to those counsels that have both projected and fomented this unparalleled rebellion’; for those who contrived the powder treason intended to lay it on the Puritans. The Lords Justices and Council informed both King and Speaker that their position was bad in the extreme, and that this was owing mainly to Parliament having failed to send the necessary supplies. To this the two Houses replied that they had made great efforts, and that in any case the direction of the war belonged to them, as well as the privilege of acting as bankers to the Irish Council. Full control had been conferred on them by Act of Parliament, and the King had no power to deprive them of it. This joint-letter is dated July 4, but was not delivered in Dublin till October 6, after the cessation had been actually concluded. The Lords Justices, with Ormonde and thirteen others of the Irish Council, rejoined in greatest detail, reviewing all that had passed between the two Governments. Such was the lack of money, after the great local efforts, that the sack of Dublin by the unpaid soldiery was a calamity daily expected. The parliamentary ships had failed to guard the coasts, so that the Confederate cruisers often intercepted such scanty supplies as were sent; and even captains employed by Parliament prevented the passage of necessaries from Liverpool to Ireland. A cessation was the only means of self-preservation, ‘and seeing that the charge of this war was referred to and undertaken by the Houses of Parliament of England, and that by those despatches they fully understood the condition of affairs here, we offer it to any man’s consideration whether or no we had not just cause to conceive and accordingly to express, that our difficulties were occasioned through the Houses of Parliament in England.’[44]

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels, &c., Scobell, i. 26. The royal consent was given March 19, 1641-2.

[32] Arthur Freke’s Narrative, printed from the Sloane MSS. in the Journal of the Cork Historical Society, 2nd series, i. 1; True Relation of God’s Providence in Ireland, by Hugh Peters, November 18, 1642; Day’s edition of Smith’s Cork, ii. 153, 1894; Exceeding Good and True News from Ireland, London, August 20, and Exceeding Joyful News, August 27.

[33] Hugh Peters and Smith’s Cork, ut sup.; Clanricarde’s Memoirs, August 1642, pp. 203-215.

[34] Clanricarde’s Memoirs, August and September, 1642; Bellings, i. 139-148; Hugh Peters, ut sup.

[35] Hugh Peters, ut sup. The narrative was ordered to be printed by a committee of the House of Commons immediately after Forbes’s return. Two letters from Forbes to the two Houses, dated Glin, September 27 and 28, were brought over by Peters and published October 11. He says the Irish were ‘so impudently bold as to father their rebellion upon his sacred Majesty,’ though they had never seen any warrant. Their ‘priests and prime commanders’ tried to make them fight desperately by saying there was no hope of pardon.

[36] Clanricarde’s Memoirs, April to August; Bellings, i.

[37] Sir James Turner’s Memoirs, p. 25; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 45; O’Neill’s Journal; Bellings, i. 116. Leven was back at Edinburgh, November 30, 1642, Spalding’s Hist. of the Troubles, ii. 100.

[38] O’Neill’s Journal; Bellings, i. 152; Aphorismical Discovery, i. 72; Letter of Monck and other officers, September 12, in Confederation and War, ii. 363. Some wit produced the following:—

‘Contra Romanos mores, res mira, dynasta
Morus ab Eugenio canonizatus erat.’

[39] Ormonde to Nicholas, August 13, 1642, in appendix to Carte’s Ormonde; Confederation and War, ii. 50, 129, 139, 243.

[40] Remonstrance of grievances, March 17; the King’s letters and Commission, April 23, Confederation and War, ii. 248, 265.

[41] Inchiquin to Cork, May 25, in Smith’s History of Cork; Castlehaven, p. 41.

[42] Commission dated Oxford, April 23, in Confederation and War, i. 267; Propositions of the Confederates, June 24, with Ormonde’s answer, June 29; Bellings’ reasons in favour of a cessation and Scarampi’s answer, July and August. The above are in Confederation and War, ii.; Bellings, i. 160; Carte’s Ormonde. See the observations in Gardiner’s Great Civil War, chap. xi.

[43] Confederation and War, ii. 364-384; Bellings, i. 156, 163; Declaration of Clanricarde, Inchiquin, and fifteen others that the cessation was necessary, printed by Cox, ii. 133.

[44] Lords Justices and Council to the King, May 11, 1643, and to the two Houses, October 28; the Speakers of both Houses to the Lords Justices and Council, July 4—all in Clarendon’s Hist. of the Rebellion, book vii. 334, 366. Ormonde was appointed Lord Lieutenant November 13, and sworn in January 21 following. As to Leicester, see the preface to Blencowe’s Sydney Papers and his letter of complaint to the Queen in Collins’s Sydney Papers, ii. 673.

[CHAPTER XXIV]
AFTER THE CESSATION, 1643-1644

The cessation condemned by Parliament.

Changed relations of parties.

Troops sent to England.

The rout at Nantwich, Jan. 1643-4.

After the cessation had been concluded, but before its actual terms were known in London, the two Houses published a declaration against it, as destructive of the Protestant interest, and for the benefit of the ‘furious, bloodthirsty Papists.’ Protestant opinion even in Ireland was certainly against the cessation, and yet it was evidently a military necessity. If the troops left Dublin the Irish would be able to take it, and in the meantime, being unpaid, they robbed and plundered almost as if they had been in an enemy’s city. The general result was that Ormonde and the thoroughgoing Royalists were henceforth engaged, not in endeavouring to suppress a rebellion, but in trying to make terms with misguided belligerents. Those Protestants who thought more of religion and less of loyalty gravitated towards the Parliament. Ormonde lost no time in obeying the King’s order about sending troops to England. Before the end of October one regiment from Munster had landed at Minehead, and another at Bristol, under Vavasour and Paulet. They were, says Clarendon, very good and excellently officered, but not many in number, and they went to swell Hopton’s ill-fated army. The common men sympathised largely with the Parliament, though discipline and the hope of reward kept them together. About the middle of November 2500 men from Leinster landed at Mostyn, in Flintshire. About the same number came partly to Beaumaris and partly to the Dee early in the next year, but before that the first detachment had suffered a great disaster. Nantwich was garrisoned for the Parliament, and Sir William Brereton faced Lord Byron in the field. Hawarden, Beeston, and Northwich quickly fell into the hands of the Royalists, and about the beginning of January Byron summoned Nantwich, which was soon hard pressed. Fairfax spent his Christmas in Lincolnshire, and after the capture of Gainsborough a message from Stamford informed him that Brereton was hard pressed in Cheshire. At Manchester, which he did not reach till January 12, he collected every available man, and on the 21st marched towards Nantwich with 2500 foot and 28 troops of horse. Byron’s force was about the same or perhaps a little stronger. Fairfax gained a complete victory, a large part of the contingent from Ireland being captured in Acton church. Seventy officers and about 1600 men were taken prisoners, including Monck, who was present as a volunteer, Colonel Warren, who commanded his late regiment, being also taken. ‘Warren’s regiment,’ says Sir Robert Byron, ‘though they had their beloved Colonel Monck in the head of them, was no sooner charged than they broke, and being rallied again, the next charge ran quite away.’ Their hearts were not in the work, and some 800 men chiefly from this regiment afterwards took service under the Parliament. They were Englishmen and Protestants, but this was not generally believed, and nothing made the King’s cause so hopeless as the imputation of having brought an army of Irish Papists into England. Lord Byron wished that reinforcements should be ‘rather Irish than English’ because they would have no seditious sympathies and he did not see why the King should not employ them, ‘or the Turks if they would serve him.’[45]

Ormonde breaks with the Parliament.

Monck’s advice to the King.

Ormonde had misgivings about the royalism of his army, and events showed that they were well founded. To make things as safe as possible he obliged all who went to England to sign a protestation of allegiance to the King and the Church, with a promise to hold no communication with Essex or any other parliamentary officer. The soldiers were so anxious to get out of Ireland, where they had been starving and in rags, that they made no difficulty. Colonel Monck and Colonel Lawrence Crawford were the only officers who refused. Crawford, who was a covenanted Scot, was threatened with imprisonment, and took refuge with Monro. Monck, who objected to political pledges, was deprived of his regiment and allowed to go to Bristol, where he was arrested by direction of Ormonde in a private letter, but was soon allowed to go to the King at Oxford. Digby procured him an audience in Christ Church garden, where he told Charles that the war was ill-managed, and that the army should be reduced to 10,000 men, thoroughly equipped and with professional officers trained in the Low Countries. A commission was given him to raise a fresh regiment with the promise of a major-general’s command. Not having done the work before Nantwich, he preferred to fight there in the ranks, and when taken was sent to the Tower, where he remained in a destitute condition for two years, writing his book on military affairs and making love to Ann Radford. Charles, who had little to spare, once sent him 100l., a kindness which Monck never forgot.[46]

The Solemn League and Covenant.

Ireland a party to the Covenant.

While Ormonde was negotiating with the Confederates under the title of ‘His Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects now in arms’—he had not allowed them to style themselves ‘Catholics’ simply—a common danger was drawing the Scottish estates and the English Parliament into a closer alliance. One week after the conclusion of the Irish cessation the solemn League and Covenant was published by order of the House of Commons. The word League was introduced by Vane to emphasise the political character of the compact, for the growing Independent party had no idea of submitting themselves to the strict yoke of Presbyterian polity. Making this reservation and reducing the sum promised to 30,000l., we may accept Baillie’s account: ‘The authority of a General Assembly and Convention of Estate was great; the penalties set down in print before the Covenant, and read with it, were great; the chief aim of it was for the propagation of our Church discipline to England and Ireland; the great good, and honour of our nation; also the Parliament’s advantage at Gloucester and Newbury, but most of all the Irish cessation, made the minds of our people embrace that means of safety; for when it was seen in print from Dublin, that in July his Majesty had sent a commission to the Marquis of Ormonde, the judges, and committee there, to treat with these miscreants; that the dissenting commissioners were cast in prison; that the agreement was proclaimed, accepting the sum of 300,000l. sterling from these idolatrous butchers, and giving them, over the name of Roman Catholic subjects now in arms, a sure peace for a year, with full liberty to bring in what men, arms, money they could from all the world, and to exterminate all who should not agree to that proclamation;—we thought it clear that the Popish party was so far countenanced, as it was necessary for all Protestants to join more strictly for their own safety; and that so much the more, as ambassadors from France were come both to England and us, with open threat of hostility from that Crown.’ Monro refused to be bound by the cessation, but abstained from open hostilities until orders came from Scotland. ‘Here,’ says Turner, ‘was strange work, a man not able to prosecute a war, yet will not admit of a cessation. It cost us dear, for since the King’s restoration, all our arrears were paid us by telling us we were not in the King’s pay, since we refused to obey his commands; and very justly we were so served.’ By a clever stroke of the politicians rather than the theologians Ireland was made a party to the Covenant as ‘by the providence of God living under one King, and being of one reformed religion,’ thus excluding the Irish confederates from the rights of subjects.[47]

Jealousies among the Confederates.

Antrim’s nominal command.

The confederate assembly sat at Waterford in the early part of November, and summoned O’Neill to meet them there. It was determined to attack Monro, and indeed a chief object of the cessation was to have their hands free for so doing. Their great difficulty was about the choice of a general. O’Neill was the ablest officer available, but they feared to put so much power into his hands, and were influenced by ‘that ancient and everlasting difference’ between the North and South. They could not name Preston, between whom and General Owen O’Neill there was ‘such an antipathy as, from their first apprenticeship in soldiery, which they had passed at least thirty years before, notwithstanding their having served for all that time the same princes, and been employed in the same actions of war, could not be removed.’ After much discussion Castlehaven was chosen, for he was generally liked, and no one suspected him of personal ambition. O’Neill was pleased at the rejection of his enemy, but he wished to be general-in-chief, and the evils of divided command were not long in showing themselves. In the mean time Antrim came to Waterford, and there were some who thought good might be done at the English Court by giving him the title of Lieutenant-General. It was, however, expressly stipulated that he should have no real military authority in Ireland. He did not so understand it himself, or perhaps he only pretended not to understand, and proposed to carry into England the very forces which had been provided for the invasion of Ulster. This claim was quickly set aside, and Castlehaven was ordered to continue his preparations.[48]

The Covenant taken in Ulster.

A deputation from the General Assembly.

Early in December, Owen O’Connolly arrived in Ulster with instructions from Westminster, and at once invited the English to take the Covenant. Lord Montgomery, his uncle Sir James, Sir Robert Stewart, Sir William Cole, Colonels Arthur Chichester, Hill, and Mervyn, and Robert Thornton, mayor of Londonderry, met at Belfast on January 2 and decided not to do so, but to consider themselves under Ormonde’s orders, which involved acceptance of the cessation. In writing to the Parliament they merely asked for money to prosecute the war against the rebels. But the bulk of the men composing what were called the British regiments, as distinguished from Monro’s Scots, were of Scottish origin, and were induced to take the Covenant by the Presbyterian ministers, who were vigorously supported by Sir Frederick Hamilton. All were required at the same time to repudiate Strafford’s black oath and to confess their fault in taking it. A deputation of four ministers, one of whom was William Adair, was sent over by the Scotch General Assembly, and reached Carrickfergus at the end of March. Monro readily embraced the Covenant with all his officers and soldiers except Major Dalzell, whom Adair calls an ‘atheist,’ and who afterwards served in Russia, where he learned methods of warfare which made him no less odious as a persecutor than Claverhouse or the Laird of Lag. The country people followed the example of the soldiers. At Belfast, where Chichester commanded, the ministers met with some opposition, for he had published the proclamation against the Covenant by Ormonde’s orders; but everywhere else they were received gladly. At Coleraine, Colonel Audley Mervyn and Sir Robert Stewart were at first hostile, but the majority were favourable. At Londonderry Adair and his colleagues appeared in the market-place while the Church of England service was going on in the principal church, and the mayor and others,’coming from their sacrament, stood somewhat amazed,’ but did not molest the meeting. At Enniskillen they were equally successful, Sir William Cole, after some little hesitation, taking the Covenant himself. They went as far west as Rathmelton and Ballyshannon, and on their return to Londonderry Mervyn took the Covenant, the soldiers greeting him with shouts of ‘Welcome, Colonel.’ Sir Robert Stewart followed suit at Coleraine.[49]

Monro commands in Ulster for the Parliament.

He seizes Belfast, May 14, 1644,

and secures general obedience.

Towards the end of December the English Parliament resolved to put the British and Scottish forces in Ulster under one commander, and Leven was named. He did not return to Ireland, but was authorised to appoint a lieutenant, and so at the end of April 1644 Monro obtained the full command. Some of his unfed and unpaid troops had gone back to Scotland, but the remonstrances of the Ulster Protestants prevailed, and the policy of withdrawing from Ireland was not persevered in. The colonels of the British regiments met at Belfast on May 13 to deliberate as to what degree of obedience they would give Monro, and he resolved to anticipate their decision. In spite of Chichester and his proclamation the Covenant was popular in Belfast, and had many friends among the soldiers. Scouts were sent out during the night after the meeting of the colonels in consequence of reports as to hostile intentions on Monro’s part. They returned about six in the morning, saying that they had been within three miles of Carrickfergus and had seen nothing, the probability being that they had met the Scots and come to an understanding with them. At seven Monro appeared, and Captain MacAdam’s sergeant, who commanded the guard, at once opened the gate. Monro marched through the town unopposed, seized the gate at the other end, and took possession of all the cannon. Chichester was allowed to remain in the castle, which was his own house, with 100 men, but the other regiments were quartered outside the town. As soon as Belfast was secured, Monro marched on to Lisburn, but there he found the garrison on their guard and devoted to Ormonde. The English regiments were left in possession, but Monro succeeded in getting all the Protestant troops in Ulster to serve under him. On the last day of June he had collected 10,000 foot and 1000 horse at Armagh, and with these he marched to Cavan.[50]

Expedition to Ulster under Castlehaven, July, 1644.

Leinster and Ulster cannot agree.

The expedition a failure.

Castlehaven’s army of 6000 foot and 1000 horse were in the meantime ordered to assemble at Granard, but not more than half had arrived when Monro’s approach was announced. He left Mountgarret’s brother, John Butler, to defend the passage into Leinster at Finnea between Lough Sheelin and Lough Kinale. According to an Irish writer, Butler was given to carousing at critical times, and he failed to maintain his position. Monro advanced as far as Carlanstown Castle, which he burned, but finding that Castlehaven and O’Neill had joined forces at Portlester in Meath, he withdrew northwards again. He had started with provisions for only three weeks. Castlehaven then called on O’Neill to perform his promise of co-operating in an invasion of Ulster with 4000 foot and 400 horse, and O’Neill assured him that he should have no reason to complain when actually operating in the northern province. During the greater part of August and September, Castlehaven lay at Charlemont and Monro at Tanderagee, but there was no general action, and O’Neill was ill nearly all the time. In a skirmish at Scarva on the borders of Down and Armagh, Captain Blair was taken, and about 100 Scots killed. In another encounter between Benburb and Caledon three of O’Neill’s officers fell, Colonel Ffennell looking on with some of Castlehaven’s horse, but doing nothing to save them. There was evidently no love lost between the Leinster and Ulster men, and at last, about the beginning of October, Castlehaven returned to his own province. O’Neill upbraided him with the conduct of his officer, ‘a gentleman I see here, Lieutenant-Colonel Ffennell, with the feather, a cowardly cock, for seeing my kinsmen overpowered by the enemy, some of them hacked before his face, and a strong brigade of horse under his command, and never offered to relieve them.’ Castlehaven had very little help from the Ulster Irish, except in the way of provisions. ‘O’Neill,’ he said, ‘began to be very weary sometimes of assisting me with cows,’ and attributes the ill-success of the whole expedition to the ‘failing, or something else, of General Owen Roe O’Neill.’ On the other hand, we are told that O’Neill went to Kilkenny and demanded an inquiry, saying that the foreign residents would think very little of the Confederacy if neither general lost his head. A committee sat accordingly, but no report transpired.[51]

Designs of Antrim.

His agreement with Montrose, January 1643-44.

Having failed to acquire any real influence at Kilkenny, Antrim went to England, and arrived at Oxford December 16, 1643. He talked about providing an army of 10,000, but was not at first taken very seriously. ‘We know the person well,’ said Digby, ‘and therefore wondered to find those probabilities which he made appear unto us of his power with the Irish.’ But Montrose was at Oxford, and saw his chance at once. On January 28, an agreement was made between Montrose, ‘his Majesty’s Lieutenant-General’ for Scotland and Antrim, ‘his Majesty’s General of the isles and highlands of Scotland,’ binding both to appear in arms by April 1. Antrim’s share of the work was to levy all the men he could in Ireland and in the Scottish isles, ‘and with the said forces invade the Marquis of Argyle’s country in Scotland.’ The witnesses were Digby, Robert Spotswoode, and Daniel O’Neill. The King himself directed Ormonde to give Antrim every possible assistance, and Daniel O’Neill was sent with him ‘by way of ballast,’ and as ‘the fittest person to steer him.’ It was very hard to bring the King to this point, for he distrusted Antrim and disliked O’Neill. But Digby was in his element, and he persuaded Charles to give Antrim a marquisate, which he vainly imagined would make him Ormonde’s equal, and to appoint O’Neill a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which was his great object of ambition. At Oxford Antrim talked chiefly of the moderate courses to which he intended to lead the Irish, but at Kilkenny he had encouraged them to hope that by his interest all their objects would be easily gained.[52]