«|: }': mmmm >?f^}!>?!^yJ'^?;^M. ^ WW' ' m km- mi ^(fiWii^iV|Vi^rf;Ji^ ^•x' vf V,, ■ "> ■;'/'■ ^Vj- X. ''.■ ' -W ■t..'-.. .'«■ !-•■■' ' ' ■-•' 7 \ ■' . . ^ •"'.■> '* , 1 • ■' "-' ..':ii> ' ' '■"'J^ 'K'- 'k ■■ ' '' ■ -^'^ik '''\a ■ ■' <^ /■•-.',' ; ■ ' . '? • -^ '•■''i i tm^'k- ■ : .: i ;^^iv B*t^^>^-.';i5!B'^ 'y:H> Kyi III THE LIFE OF JAMES DUKE OF ORMOND; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE AFFAIRS OF HIS TIME, AND PARTICULARLY OF IRELAND UNDER HIS GOVERNMENT: WITH AN APPENDIX AND A COLLECTION OF LETTERS, SERVING TO VERIFY THE MOST MATERIAL FACTS IN THE SAID HISTORY. A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL MSS. VOLUME XL OXFORD: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. AI.DCCC.H. O.b CONTENTS OF VOL. II, BOOK III COXTINUED. The earl of Ormond made lieutenant general of the army 192 His proposal for suppressing the re- bellion 194 His repartee to sir W. Parsons in the council 195 An account of the rebellion sent to the parliament of England . . ibid. The prejudice it did the king's af- fairs 196 The king endeavours to send suc- cours to Ireland 197 Proceedings of the parliament of England 198 Their endeavours to asperse the king as favouring the Irish rebel- lion 207 The state of the provinces of Ireland at the end of November 1641. 210 A character of the earl of Clanri- card 212 His proceedings in the county of Galway 213 Causes of the general defection of the kingdom 216 Prorogation of the parliament . . 221 Debates about its meeting .... 222 Passages in parliament 224 Measures of the English parliament affecting Ireland 233 The rebels advance to Drogheda, 238 and defeat 600 men sent to suc- cour the place 239 Delay of succours from England 24 1 Sir Charles Coote's expedition into Wicklow 242 He is made governor of Dublin ibid. The defection of the English pale 243 Reflections on the occasion of the defection of the pale 253 A letter of the lords justices, Dec. 14 260 An insurrection in Munster . . . 264 The lord Mountgarret's march into Munster 270 The siege of Drogheda 271 AxNO 1642. The proceedings of the lords justices to convict the rebels 275 Arrival of succours from England 277 The earl of Ormond's expedition to the Naas ibid. His resentment at sir C. Coote's hanging F. Higgins 278 His answer to lord Gormanston's message 280 His vindication from Wishart's and other calumnies ibid. The distress of the troops about Dublin 282 The earl of Ormond drives the rebels from Kilsaghlan 283 Debates about raising the siege of Drogheda ibid. His march into the pale 284 He is recalled from pursuing the rebels 287 Treatment of the gentlemen of the pale that submitted upon the king's proclamation 291 Views of the lords justices in racking prisoners 293 Hugh Mac Mahon put to the rack, 295. and colonel Read .... ibid. a a CONTENTS OF VOL. II. An offer of the lords of the pale to submit 297 The treatment of the earl of Castle- haven 298 Mr. Barn wall of Kilbrew racked 300 An act of parhament for adventurers towards the relief of Ireland . 301 The king's offer of going in person to Ireland against the rebels . 303 The parliament treat with the Scots to send succours to Ireland . . 308 Proceedings of the Scots' forces in Ulster 309 The earl of Ormond's services ac- knowledged by the parliament of England 312 His expedition to Maryborow . . 313 The battle of Kilrush 314 Synodical acts of the Romish clergy to encourage the rebellion ... 316 The lord Lisle's expedition into the King's County 317 The great caution of the state in giving orders 318 Distress of the army 319 Supplies arrived from England . 320 The state of Connaght ibid. The defection of Galway, 321. and submission 322 The state disapjirove of it, and forbid all submissions 323 The lord Clanricard's endeavours to secure the county of Galway . 324 Attempts to break the pacification ib. ITie earl of Ormond's expedition to Athlone 325 He takes bail for Mr. Nicholas Plun- ket 326 Proceedings of the Irish parlia- ment 328 A declaration for making new penal laws 330 The earl of Ormond's dispute with the lord lieutenant, 333. decided in fa- vour of the earl of (Jrmond, 336. who is created marquis of Ormond 337 An attempt to engage the Irish army in the interest of the parlia- ment 338 The marquis of Ormond's instruc- tions to sir P. Wemyss 339 An inquiry about the supplies sent by the parliament to Ireland, 339 into Munstcr ibid. The fort of Limerick taken by the rebels 34 r The lord Forbes refuses to assist lord Inchiquin 342 The battle of Liscarrol 343 The state of Connaght, 345. and of Galway ibid. The lord Forbes arrives at Galway, 346. and declines to attempt Slego 347 The state of Ulster upon Owen O'Neile's landing 348 An account of the supplies sent to Leinster 350 Particulars of the supplies sent . 352 The use made of the Irish rebellion by the parliament of England 353 English affairs preparatory to the re- bellion in England 354 The war breaks out in England 360 The lords justices of Ireland unwill- ing to obey the king's orders, 362 they obstruct the marquis of Or- mond's command of the army 364 The marquis of Ormond falls sick 365 A dispute about the command of the Laggan forces ibid. Preston lands supplies for the Irish 367 A general assembly of the rebels at Kilkenny 368 They draw up a remonstrance of grievances 370 Passages in the Irish parliament in August, 371. in November . . 375 Proceedings about Jerome .... 377 The rebels' oath of association. . 380 They take Burros, Birr, and fort Falkland 381 Anno 1643. 'i'he condition of the earl of Clan- ricard and the county of Gal- way 382 'I'lie lord Ranclagh accused .... 383 CONTENTS OF VOL. II. Major Woodhouse sent with the complaints of the army to the king 384 A commission sent to the marquis of Ormond to receive the propositions of the Irish recusants 390 The lord Lisle, and Reynolds, and Goodwin admitted by the lords justices into the privy-council 393 The parliament committee leaves Dublin 394 The marquis of Ormond declines the post of lord heutenant 395 The treaty previous to the congress at Trim 396 The reasons of the expedition to Ross 398 Custodiums a great detriment to the service 400 The marquis of Ormond marches to Ross 402 The battle of Ross 404 The marquis of Ormond returns to Dublin, then in great distress for want of provisions 407 A remonstrance of the rebels deli- vered at Trim 408 The king's instructions about the grievances of the recusants . . 409 A letter of the lords justices dissuad- ing a peace 410 The marquis of Ormond's motion to send the king an account of the state of the kingdom rejected by the lords justices 413 Complaints of the officers of the army 414 They petition the house of lords 415 The parliament prorogued .... 416 A letter of the lord chancellor on that subject ibid. The condition of the forces about Dublin 417 Sir Henry Tichburne made lord jus- tice in the place of sir W. Par- eons 420 Sir W. Parsons's imperious manner of treating the council 421 Tlie king's letter to the council of Ireland not to obey any orders but his own 422 Petitions of the prisoners in Dublin castle to be bailed ibid. The king sends orders to the mar- quis of Ormond to treat for a ces- sation 424 The state of Munster ibid. No hopes of relief from the parlia- ment 426 The king sends the marquis of Or- mond a commission to conclude a cessation 427 The success of the rebels in Leinster, 428. in Connaght, 429. and in Munster 431 Owen O'Neile routed by sir Robert Stewart 432 The state solicit the parliament in vain for succours 434 The marquis of Ormond's proceed- ings towards a cessation . . . ibid. His motions at the council board 437 The treaty begins, ibid, and is broken off 439 The marquis of Ormond tries in vain to fight Preston ibid. Sir W. Parsons and others of the council attached to the parliament imprisoned 440 The charge against them 441 Their letters intercepted 442 The Scots declare for the parliament and raise an army against the king 443 The king repeats his orders for a cessation 446 Debates at Kilkenny about the cessa- tion 447 The strength of the rebels 448 Distress of the state 449 The treaty renewed ibid. The cessation concluded 450 AN HISTORY AN HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF JAMES THE FIRST DUKE OF ORMOND, AND OF THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND IN HIS TIME. BOOK III. CONTINUED. 68rpHE earl of Ormond was at his house of Carrick upon JL the Sure in the county of Tipperary Avhen the rebel- lion broke out. He had resolved to be at Dublin at the meeting of the parliament, w'hich was adjourned to the 9th of November ; and the necessity of his presence there was a reason which hindered him from waiting upon his majesty in Scotland. The liberties of the county palatine of Tipperary, which had been granted by king Edward III, and confirmed to the house of Ormond by various succeeding kings of England, had been seized by king James, upon a judgment of the King's Bench of Ireland given on pretence of a default of Walter, the present earl's grandfather, when for refus- ing to stand to that prince's arbitration of the dispute between him and Richard earl of Desmond, he was clapped up at London a close prisoner in the Fleet, and neither had notice nor liberty of appearing. The seizure was only in the nature of a distress ; and the proceedings were so illegal that nothing but that king's extravagant fondness for his Scotch favourites could have drawn him VOL. II. B 2 Tlie earl of Ormond made HI. 6?>. into !?o unjust a severity. King Charles was a prince of great justice and humanity, and the earl of Ormond made no question but he was sufficiently disposed toj93 do him right. All the doubt was, whether his majesty would not refer it to his council to judge of the expe- diency and fitness of leaving such privileges in the hands of a subject ; they had never been abused to the pre- judice of the crown, and had been exercised with such moderation towards the subject, that the inhabitants of the county found great ease and comfort from them. This was the point at which the matter stuck, when his grandfather petitioned for dissolving the seizure ; the council having then been for retrenching some of the franchises, which that nobleman insisted should be re- stored entire according to right. The proofs of this right Mere incontestable ; and in confidence thereof, the now earl had presented a petition, which was referred at last to the earl of Strafford, then lord lieutenant ; but before his re])ort was made, the troubles of Scotland came on, and other more important affairs prevented the determination of this. The earl of Ormond thought it a proper time to revive his suit, and being not able to go in person, sent about the middle of September sir Patrick Wemyss to Scotland, with a petition, which he was instructed to ])resent, if he found the matter of it might be granted by an order of his majesty alone, with- out being referred at all. He had no reason to think that either of the privy- councils of England or Ireland, as then composed, would be ready to do him justice ; his zeal for the king's service, and friendship with the earl of Strafford, having rendered him unacceptable to both ; nor did lie care, for a matter of mere honour without any profit, to be at the vast expense which would necessarily attend the formalities of proceeding in a tedious circuit of references and certificates. If sir Patrick therefore found a reference absolutely necessary, lieutenant-general of the army. ( 1 64 1 .) 3 he was not to offer the petition, unless it might be re- ferred to the house of lords of Ireland, or (if it was a more regular way) to the parliament there ; before which at their meeting was to be laid an act about Tipperary, which had been transmitted by the council of Ireland, and by that of England in the May before referred to the attorney-general, who had made no alteration in it, nor any exception to the saving of the earl of Ormond's rights, which was provided for therein. Sir Patrick Wemyss was at Edinburgh executing this commission, when the king received from the lord Chichester an ac- count of the rebellion in the north of Ireland ". His majesty, glad to have so faithful and able a servant in that kingdom in such a time of trial, immediately ap- pointed the earl of Ormond lieutenant-general of his army, and despatched away sir Patrick with a letter, desiring him to accept the charge, as a great renewed testimony of the affection which he bore to his service. The lords justices had Avi-ote to him on Oct. 24, and that letter miscarrying, or being delayed, they sent an^ other on Nov. 2, desiring him to provide for the safety of the country, as well as he could, and to come up to Dublin with his troop, and they sent down soon after a commission for his lordship ; and the lord Mountgar- ret, to govern the county of Kilkenny, and provide for the peace and security thereof. The earl sent to the lords of Ikeryn and Upper Ossory, the principal gentle- men, and the corporations within the county, who rea- dily promised their service. The gentlemen meeting at Kilkenny, undertook to raise two hundred and forty foot, and a troop of fifty horse for the defence of the country; Callan offered to muster and maintain one hundred men for their guard, and other towns made the like offers ; but they wanted arms and ammunition, which they were ready to pay for ; and the earl, after u See Collection of Letters, No. XXXI. B 2 4 The earFs proposal III. 68- he got to Dublin at the end of the first week in Novem- ber, obtained'' a warrant, on Nov. 9, from the lords Justices (who would si)are none out of the stores) to buy and import them from England or Holland. Sir Patrick AVemyss arriving on the tenth of that month, and the lords justices having received his majesty's designation 1 94 of the earl of Ormond to that employment, they (without waiting for the earl of Leicester's orders, who had de- sired him to accejjt of the same charge) signed a com- mission the next day, appointing him lieutenant-general of all the forces within the kingdom, with power to govern them, and punish the rebels according to martial law ; but \\\t\\ a salvo to the authority of the lord lieu- tenant. 69 The earl of Ormond was of opinion, that the rebels ought to be immediately attacked ; and not allowed time to make themselves pikes, or to be supplied with arms from abroad ; that being naked and unarmed, (which was one reason why they were beat every where by the small parties, that sir Robert and sir W. Stewart got together in Ulster,) and almost all foot and undisciplined, they could never stand before a body of horse, and of well armed foot ; that it would be easier to reduce them then with two thousand men, than with three times that num- ber, if they deferred attacking the rebels till after the arrival of forces from England ; and therefore ])roposed to march against them immediately, with his own and five other troops of horse, and a body of two thousand five hundred foot, (which by filling u}) the old companies to one hundred might well be spared,) and with a supply of arms for such volunteers as would attend him from Dublin, or join him in his march, and power to take up meat and drink in the country for the sustenance of his forces; and thus provided, he did not doubt of reducing them in the space of three weeks. The lords justices w B. I -:. — 6g. for suppressing the rebellion. (1641.) 5 had before the end of October raised three new regi- ments of one thousand men each, out of the inhabitants of Dublin, and of those many thousands of despoiled Englisli that had fled thither from the north ; one of which regiments they had sent on Nov. 2 with sir Henry Tichburne to secure Drogheda, then by the taking of Atherdee (but seven miles distant from it) become a frontier garrison. They had since received all the com- panies of the standing army, except three that were left for the guards of as many forts in Munster, lord Clan- rickard's and Ranelagh's, sir Charles Coote's and sir Fr. Willoughby's, that were in Connaught ; and about six or seven more, that were either surprised by the rebels, or quartered and in service in Ulster ; so that they could not have less than one thousand five hundred old well disciplined foot about Dublin. The earl of Ormond, by their directions, as soon as he was made lieutenant-gene- ral, granted commissions to lord Lambert, sir Charles Coote, and sir Piers Crosby, to raise three regiments more of one thousand men each, and to others for thirteen inde- pendent companies of one hundred each : which were full in a few days. Sir Thomas Lucas, commissary-ge- neral of the horse, had lately brought the best part of his troop out of England, and now filled it up ; captain Arm- strong had a commission for another, which he soon raised ; and captain Yarner, sent over by the lord lieutenant to raise another, completed it to one hundred in a few days. There was in the stores of the castle a fine train of field artillery, ammunition of all sorts in great quantities, arms (as hath been said) for above ten thousand men, tents, and necessaries of all sorts for the march and provision of an army ; all which had been prepared by the earl of StraiFord for the Scotch expedition. Whoever considers these things, with the defeats given to sir Phelim O'Neil's forces in Ulster, and the ill condition in which the rest of the rebels were in the county of Louth, where they 6 The earVs proposal for suppressing the rebellion. HI. 69 — liad drawn their greatest strcngtli, and lay at Atherdee with four thousand men under colonel Mac Brian; but so miserably j^rovided and disheartened, that sir IT. Ticli- burne'' desired leave to surjirise them with a party of his garrison of Drogheda, and did not question effecting it with little hazard, will be amazed at the lords justices de- nying of their consent to the earl of Ormond's proposal. What were their real motives for this denial is hard to 195 say ; but the only reason assigned by them for it was the want of arms for the service of the soldiers that were to take the field, as well as of those that were to remain in Dublin ; a pretence so notoriously false, that it could onlv be made use of to cover motives which they w'ere ashamed of confessing. Whether they Avere so horribly afraid of tlieir own persons, that they thought the old army and all the new raised forces little enough for their security, and durst not send them out of the sight of Dublin, which was sir W. St. Leger's^ opinion of them ; whether by directions from the faction in the English house of commons, or by their own hopes of greater gains from forfeited estates by the s])reading of the rebellion, they did not care to have it crushed in the bud, which there is too nmcli reason, from a consideration of all parts of their conduct, to suspect, was the truth of the case ; or whether they envied the glory which the earl of Or- mond would gain by that success, and were jealous it would be rewarded with the government of Ireland ; which the lord Strallbrd had advised, and the king had been inclined to confer u})on him ; cannot be affirmed with so much certainty, as it may, that they never in all the time of their government embraced or took one vigorous step to improve any opportunity that was offered of suppressing the rebellion ; and that in all their con- duct towards the earl of Ormond they shewed an aver- * Sec his letter to the earl of Ormond, Nov. 16, 1641. y See Collection of Letters, Nop. XXXIV, XXX\\ XXXVII— XXXIX. — 71- ^^^ repartee to sir TV. Parsons in the council. (1641.) 7 sion to liis person, and did all they could to make his command of the army disagreeable, and shackle him in the exercise of it. 70 I must not on this occasion omit a passage which happened on Dec. 13 next following at the council-table^; where, besides the justices, were present the archbishop of Dublin, the lords Valentia and Dillon of Kilkenny West, sir Adam Loftus, sir John Temple, sir Charles Coote, sir Piers Crosby, and sir Robert Meredith. Sir W. Parsons proposed the calling of a court martial about captain Wingfield ; the earl of Ormond had seen how dangerous the exercise of martial law had been to the late lord lieutenant, and how highly it had been censured by the English and Irish parliaments ; he knew that he did not want enemies to lay hold on any matter that could be made the ground of a complaint and impeach- ment against him, and^ had been advised that a com- mission under the broad seal for the exercise of that and the like powers, in the absence of the lord lieutenant, was either necessary or highly expedient in the present situation of affairs, and therefore said, he had not power, as he conceived, to call a court martial, and knew not but he might be questioned for it. Sir William was of an overbearing temper, and his heat, on sudden and un- expected occasions, often got the better of his cunning ; so that in the impatience of having a proposal of his dis- puted, he told his lordship, that the thing ought to be done for the common safety ; and if he did not do it, he should be questioned for greater matters, for no less than losing the kingdom. The earl of Ormond, who never was at a loss in his days for an answer equally decent and poignant, replied, " I believe, sir, you will do as much towards losing the kingdom, as I ; and I am sure, I will do as much as you for saving it." 71 The great hopes of the lords justices in Ireland lay in '■ A. p. 278. a Ibid. p. 137. 8 The prejudice the rebellion did III. 71 — the parliament of England. They had on Oct. 25 sent by Owen O'Conally the discoverer, an account of the rebellion to the lord lieutenant, who had, on Nov. i, com- municated the same to the house of commons there ; who immediately appointed a select committee of fifty-two of their body in conjunction with twenty-six lords to take into consideration the affairs of Ireland, to provide for the raising and sending- of men and ammunition thither to suppress the rebels, and of ships to guard the coast of that kingdom. This committee sat every morning in the painted chamber, and to them the lord lieutenant com- 196 municated all the letters he received to be first consulted on there, and from thence reported to the tw^o houses, which were hereby possessed of a large power and de- pendance; all men (as ''lord Clarendon observes) "apply- ing themselves to them, that is, to the chief leaders, for their preferments in that war : the mischief whereof, thoiigh in the beginning little taken notice of, was after- wards felt by the king very sensibly." Two or three days afterwards a like account w^as sent them by the king from Scotland, where he had on Oct. 28 received the letters of the lord Chichester on the same subject. 72 Never was any intelligence so unwelcome to his ma- jesty as this, which absolutely ruined all his affairs, and defeated all the measures which he had taken to retrieve them. He had come into Scotland purely to settle that kingdom in peace, and resolving to leave them entirely satisfied, had consented to every act that was proposed by that parliament, however contrary to his religious sen- timents, or derogatory to his royal prerogative. By giving the Scots this contentment, he flattered himself that he should have only the mutinous and factious spirits in England to struggle with ; and these had given so many ])roofs of their ambition and private interest, which they covered under public jn-etences, and had thereby lost so ^ Clarendon, vol. i. book iv. par. 30. edit. 1849. — 72- * the king's affairs. (1641.) 9 much of their sway in the house of commons, that he had just reason to expect, that he should, upon his return to London, find his parliament there in such a temper, as might dispose them to concur with him in proper mea- sures, for quieting' the distractions of the nation, for sup- pressing the riots, tumults, and disorders, that had been too much encouraged of late, for establishing the throne on a just foundation, and for the support of the constitu- tion in church and state. But he now saw his hopes deceived, and another of his kingdoms (notwithstanding all his care to prevent an insurrection there, and all his endeavours to remove the discontents of the people by his many gracious concessions for the redress of their grievances) embroiled by a furious rebellion, and in im- minent danger of being lost ; and (what was still more unhappy) he saw himself in no condition to save it. The parliament had stripped him of the most profitable branches of his legal revenue, with great professions at the same time of improving it ; they had made him re- nounce all claim to tonnage and poundage, wdiicli his predecessors had ever enjoyed ; under pretence of vesting it in him in a surer and more legal manner, when they could get time to regulate that matter. But that time had never come, and in the meanwhile they caused it to be collected by their own receivers, and applied it not to the support of his majesty's household, but to '^such pur- poses as they were pleased to appoint by special orders of their own ; and (what was still more provoking) though the king had received no benefit at all by any tax they had laid, or by any grant which they had made in parlia- ment, nor had any officers of his the receipt of any of the money raised thereby, yet they, with a solemn mockery and a taunting sauciness, (whereof none of the body could in their single capacity have been capable,) re- counted from time to time the obligations which they c Nalson, vol. ii. p. 757. 10 The king endeavours to III. 72 had laid upon him by such grants, and upbraided him with them, as so many gifts and favours to himself. In this extremity, without money or means of raising it, and impatient to liave a rebellion quelled immediately, which he foresaw, if spread and continued, would be the deso- lation of that kingdom, and perpetuate the distractions of this, and probably prove in the end the overthrow of his government in both, he had recourse to the first, and (as he imagined) the readiest method that offered itself of relief, and took the fatal step of applying for assistance to those, who found their interest in embroiling and dis- tressing him more and more'' ; and sent a message to the 197 two houses of the English parliament ; wlierein, after ac- quainting them with the rebellion of Ireland, he adds, that " he recommended to them the care of those affairs, and expected their advice what course was fittest to be taken for the reducing of that kingdom." Such were the terms of JNIr. Secretary Vane's letter of Oct. 28, which was communicated to the two houses, and upon which they pretended to the sole management of the Irish war, even exclusive of his majesty ; who in vain desired their ad- vice in those affairs, if he meant to have nothing to do in them, and who certainly never intended to renounce the right and duty, inseparably incident to a king, of protect- ing his subjects, and of providing by such means as his power enabled him to use, and the necessities of the times required, for the peace, security, and happiness of his people. 7,3 The king had no sooner sent away this message, than •^he repaired to his ]>arliament of Scotland, and the same day communicated to them lord Chichester's letter, which was publicly read in the house. He naturally expected some return for his late graces to them, ujwn which they had made him promises as extravagant as his concessions to them had been. They had five thousand men still on ^ Nalson, vol. ii. p. 599. e Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 407. — 74- send succours to Ireland. (1641.) 11 foot, and might easily have called together a greater num- ber of those that had been disbanded a little before ; but these, if sent away immediately, (the passage to the north of Ireland being so short, and the transportation so very easy,) would have put at once an effectual stop to those commotions. But neither their pretended zeal for reli- gion, nor the bleeding condition of that kingdom, nor the danger of their countrymen in it, nor the entreaties of their natural sovereign, nor the shame of failing in their own promises the very moment they were making them, could prevail with the Scots to afford any succours in this general calamity. They Iiad lately found the sweets of a treaty with the English parliament, and had now an opportunity of making greater gains, and of procuring further advantages to themselves. They resolved to em- brace it; and therefore would contribute nothing to- wards suppressing the Irish insurrection, "without the knowledge and consent of their brethren of England ; though if the parliament there thought their aid neces- sary, as they lay very convenient for the service, they would then be ready to shew their dutiful respects to his majesty's service, and their affections to his loyal subjects of England and Ireland." 74 So cold an answer in such a cause, so ungrateful a re- fusal of immediate supplies, and so destructive a delay in an exigence, wherein every moment was precious, and the loss of time might be supposed to be fatal, as well as irreparable, might well enough surprise the king ; but it did not discourage him from trying all other means in his power for the speedy relief of Ireland. There were a good number of brave and experienced officers that had served in the Scotch army, which was actually break- ing at this very time ; and his majesty knowing well the contagious nature of rebellion, and the mischiefs that would flow from its continuing unrepressed, engaged as many of these as he could to gather their old soldiers, and transport them as fast as was possible to the north 12 The linn endeavours to send succours to Ireland. III. 74 — of Ireland, to make up or reinforce the regiments wliicli lio directed to be raised there by the lords Clandeboyes, Ardes, and Chichester, sir James INIontgomery, sir Ro- bert and sir AVilliam Stewart, and others, to whom he sent men, arms, and ammunition, and what money he could get by the assistance of the duke of Lenox. His majesty was so zealous in this affair, and used so much diligence and expedition therein, that he had ordered some away by the first of November ; and before he left Scotland, about the middle of it, he had sent away one thousand five hundred men into Ireland, as he acquainted 198 the two houses upon his coming to London at the latter end of that month. 1 '^He sent orders at the same time for supplies of men to be sent also out of England ; and conceiving that the rebellion of Ireland was fomented from abroad, and that the rel)els expected some supply from foreign parts, he directed the earl of Northumberland, the lord high ad- miral, to send some ships for the guarding of the Irish coasts, and others to keep the narrow seas. The king could possibly do no more, unless he had gone himself into Ireland, which would (as appeared afterwards plainly enough by all circumstances) have efi^ectually prevented at least the spreading of the rebellion, and probably have f|uenched it at once. But the Scotch parliament denying him their assistance, he could not go like a great king; he wanted money to support those that would follow him voluntarily; and it was a step too dangerous to be taken in the then situation of England, after the commons had expressed so much uneasiness at his journey into Scot- land, raised so many jealousies on that occasion, and p^ pushed to have the earl of Essex appointed custos regni during his majesty's absence in that kingdom, with power to pass any acts which they should deem necessary for f Sec Collection of Letters, No. XXXII. and Nalson, vol. ii. p. 622. K Nalson, vol. ii. ]). 424. — ']6. Proceedings of the 'parliament of Englmid. (1641.) 13 the safety of the kingdom, without loss of time in consult- ing his majesty ; and there were but too good grounds to suppose (what was threatened afterwards) that if he had gone into Ireland, the two houses would have taken upon them immediately to have seized all his forts and maga- zines, and have disposed of the government of England at their pleasure. 76 The parliament were not so hasty in their preparations for an effectual suppressing of the rebellion, as they were warm in their declarations against it ; and whilst both houses expressed the utmost detestation of so enormous a wickedness, the heads of the faction in the lower in- wardly rejoiced at an event which would enable them to execute their schemes for the subversion of the monarchy and church of England ; and resolved to make use of it for tliat purpose. When they had no longer any griev- ances to complain of, they had ^alarmed the nation with the fears of foreign invasions, with conspiracies in the army to offer violence to the parliament, and with an in- finite number of sham plots ; which were received and had their influence before the particulars thereof were known ; and some of them, senseless and ridiculous as they appeared to every man of common sense, were yet examined into with as much solemnity and gravity as the senate of Rome ever used in the extremest dangers of their commonwealth. The odium of all was thrown upon the papists, because the generality of the nation, in their abhorrence of popery, would readily swallow any thing that was suggested to the prejudice of that sect, without examining either the possibility of the design charged upon them, or the truth of the pretences em- ployed to countenance that charge. Hence arose those many orders of the commons, conferences with the lords, and addresses to the king^', for putting the laws in exe- g Clarendon, vol. i. book iii. par. 207. edit. 1849. h Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 157, 158. 188. 299. 301. 277, &c. 14 Proceedings of ffie parliament of England. HI. 74 — cution against popish recusants, and for proceeding not only against the convict, but against such as were not convicted ; for tlie judges in their circuits to press the execution of tliese laws, and to make report to the par- liament; for the execution of popish priests condemned tor the exercise of their religion, upon statutes made only in tcrrorcm, and never intended to be executed, except on such as should be found dabbling in some secret trea- sonable conspiracy (the state of England having thought proper at all times before to vindicate themselves from the imputation of enacting sanguinary laws in matters of religion) ; for prohibiting the resort of pajiists to the chapels of foreign ambassadors in London for divine wor- 199 ship ; for removing all priests of what country soever from about the queen, and all English ladies that were recusants from about the court ; for disarming the pa])ists in all the counties of the kingdom, and for securing their persons ; all calculated to create and keep up fears and apprehensions in the people of terrible dangers and de- signs. But hiotwithstanding all the arts of the faction, there appeared at last so little foundation for these fears, that considerate men began to suspect some mischievous designs were carrying on by those who were so indus- trious in raising them on such trifling occasions ; and some very unwarrantable proceedings of the committee that sat during the recess, or of jNIr. Pym, mIio presided in the chair of that committee, and who issued out va- rious orders concerning the church in favour of innova- tions and seditious lecturers, had given so much offence and scandal, that the members were like to meet toge- ther with more temper and less inclination to novelties than they had ])artcd with. But the news of a rebellion of Irish j)ai)ists raised the sjiirits of the faction which were sunk before, and animated them to resume with ' Clarendon, vol. i. Ijook iv. par. 2, 15, &c. edit. 1849. — "]"]. Proceedings of the parliament of England. (164T.) 15 vigour the designs Avhich they had ahiiost despaired of executing. That fact made the world suspect there was more in the other pretended plots than they had ever imagined before, and laid a foundation of credit for every fiction which should be forged afterwards to frighten people out of their wits, even for that plot which Beal said he overheard two unknown persons talking of in the fields, of one hundred and eight fellows being hired to assassinate as many members of parliament at the rate of forty shillings a man ; so that the minds of men being again unsettled and disquieted, and, as ^lord Clarendon observes, " knowing little ; and so doubting much ; every day produced a new discovery of some new treason and plot against the kingdom. One day a letter ' from be- yond seas, of great forces prepared to invade England ;' then, ' some attempt upon the life of j\Ir. Pym ;' and no occasion omitted to speak of the evil council about the king ; when scarce a counsellor durst come near him, or be suspected to hear from him." 77 This gave encouragement to the faction to bring in, contrary to the laws of parliament, the bill which had been before rejected for taking away the bishops' votes in parliament, and to go on with their impeachment of thirteen of that order for making canons in the convoca- tion of 1 640 ; though the crime of the act was so un- known in the law, that in the debate on that occasion they could not (even with the assistance of their lawyers, whom they sent for out of Westminster-hall for that pur- pose) find out a name whereby to denominate it; and when Mr. Denzil HoUis was for making it treason, (the common charge at that time for every act of uncommon duty to the king,) the professors of the law said he might as justly call it adultery. This emboldened them to frame, and enabled them to carry 'that fatal remon- 1^ Clarendon, vol. i. book iv. par. 32. edit. 1849. 1 lb. par. 49. 16 Proceedings of the parliament of England. 111-7/ strance, wherein, to render the king and his government odious to his people, they loaded him with a volume of reproaches for what others had done amiss, and he him- self had already reformed ; exalted their own merits, de- preciated the king's graces ; and, to alarm the whole king- dom, made loud but general complaints of designs to introduce popery, and of the danger that threatened the nation from the influence of evil counsellors, when they could not produce a single instance, nor assign a reason of exception against any that were employed and trusted by his majesty, but that they did not like them. To make the world imagine that the house of commons itself was in danger, they upon this occasion ordered a guard to be set for their security; "and to point out whence this and the like dangers came, they renewed 200 their prosecution against the papists ; "making fresh or- dei-s for putting the laws in execution against them, for the seizing of priests, and for executing seven of them at a time, notwithstanding the intercession of foreign am- bassadors in their behalf, and the consideration of the ill effect this unreasonable severity might have in Ireland, (which was prudently urged by the French minister,) and "without vouchsafing any reasons to the lords, who desired to know them before they would join in an address for so needless a cruelty, and for securing all gentlemen that were recusants in every county of England, actually taking up °the principal and most considerable of them, Prequiring foreign ambassadors to deliver up such priests as were the king's subjects, and lived in their houses, ^breaking open by violence the doors, and intercepting and opening the letters of such ministers, in violation of the law of nations. I must not on this occasion omit *" Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 595, 687, 688, 802, 832, 793. n lb. pp. 61,5, 653, 647, 731, 732, 740, 814, 667, 524. o II). pp. 662, 667. P lb. pp. 607, 608. q lb. ])p. 596, 640, 645. ' . Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 .) 17 taking notice of their 'order of Nov. 8 for tendering the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to all Irish gentlemen suspected to be recusants, that were students, and lived in the inns of court or chancery ; for expelling such as were found upon that search, and forbidding the admis- sion of any for the future, upon any pretences whatso- > ever; because it was of greater consequence than any- body, unacquainted with the situation of Ireland, or the particular sentiments of the Roman catholic lawyers of the Irish committee, sent over to prosecute the earl of Strafford, and solicit the redress of grievances, can readily conceive. 78 The commons had already got the privy council, the great ofiices of state, and the household, and almost all the lesser posts and commissions through the kingdom, filled with their partisans and creatures ; and there was not a civil officer but crouched to their power, and sub- mitted to obey their orders, how unprecedented, arbi- trary, or illegal soever. Thus they were entirely masters of the civil power; and now they resolved to lay hold upon the sovereign power of the sword, which the guilt of the heads of the faction had made them think neces- sary to protect them from their own fears of a future reckoning in calmer times, and without which they could not hope to destroy the monarchy and the church of England. With this view^ on Nov. i, the very day that they were first informed of the Irish rebellion, they began with attempting to take away the government of the Isle of Wight from the earl of Portland, to whom the king- had intrusted it, and to sequester it into the hands of a confident of their own. They next ordered a bill to be brought in for the pressing of men for the particular ser- vice of Ireland ; which being prepared according to direc- tion, was read in the house on the fourth, the day on >■ Nalson, p. 613. « lb. p. 655, and Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 415. VOL. II. C 18 Proceedings of the parliament of England. III. 78. Avliicli bis majesty's desire of their assistance and advice for the reducing of Ireland was communicated to them. * There was no occasion for such a bill, because there was no scarcity of men, and the northern army having been disbanded not three months before, it was easy to raise as many soldiers as were necessary for the Irish war; but, as lord Clarendon observes, " their business was to get power, not men ; and therefore this stratagem was used, to transfer the j)ower of impressing men from the king to themselves ; and to get the king, that he might be now able to raise men for Ireland, to disenable himself from pressing upon any other occasion. For, in the preamble of this bill, which they sent up to the lords, (as they had done before in the first act for tonnage and pound- age,) they declared, that the king had, in no case, or upon any occasion, but the invasion from a foreign power, authority to press the freeborn subject; which could not consist with the freedom and liberty of his person." This doctrine being new to the lords, contrary to the usage and custom of all times, and seeming to them a great diminution of that regal power which was 201 necessary for the preservation of his own subjects and for the assistance of his allies, which in many cases he was bound to yield, they did not readily concur in the bill. This delay provoked the commons, with an unusual li- berty, to tell the lords very plainly, "that they were only so many particular persons, and sat in parliament in a par- ticular capacity, whereas the lower house were the repre- sentatives of the whole kingdom ; and to declare that, if they would not consent to the passing of this and other bills which they had sent up to them, and deemed neces- sary for the preservation of the kingdom, they would, in conjunction with such of the lords as were more sensible of the safety of the kingdom, take such measures as were t Clarendon, vol. i. book iv. par. 88. edit. 1849. " Nalson, vol. ii. j). 712. Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 .) 10 proper for that end. So early did the commons manifest their design of engrossing the whole power of the govern- ment to themselves, exclusive of the peers, as well as of the king ; and though the vote pronouncing the upper house useless was not passed in form till some years after- wards, yet it is clear that the foundation of its authority was destroyed by this declaration, (which was tamely di- gested, if not without private resentment, at least with- out public complaint,) and that in all the intermediate time the lords were upon their good behaviour, and acted only under the good pleasure of the commons, ready to be cast off and laid aside whenever they should offer to enfranchise themselves from a servile dependance on the latter, and refuse to be subservient to their purposes. In ^vain did the king offer over and over to raise pre- sently ten thousand volunteers: they would never give any answer to the message he sent for that purpose, nor confer with the lords about it ; and wiien, after waiting some time for their answer, drums were actually beat, and men raised, they appointed a committee to inquire by what warrant this was done, and took up colonel Hill and others as delinquents for doing it, putting thereby an effectual stop to the raising of volunteers in England. Whereupon his majesty, seeing no good to be done there, sent commissions to the north of Ireland for the raising of six thousand foot, and a regiment of six hundred horse, under colonel Hill, in those parts. They had another bill of the same nature for the pressing of seamen, which they had sent up also to the lords, and insisted that they should pass them both speedily, ^for without them they con- ceived Ireland could not be saved ; and they went so far as ''to discharge their committee from meeting any more about Irish affairs till this was done ; so that the king, out of his earnest desires to relieve his good subjects, and V Nalson, pp. 789, 793, 794, 801, 874. ^ ib. p. 789. " Clarendon, vol. i. book iv. par. 89, 93. edit. 1849. c 2 !^0 Proceedings of the farliament of England. III. 78 suppress the rebels in that kingdom, was forced to pass the bills, and for a prospect of immediate supplies, (for it proved little more than a prospect,) to sacrifice to them a considerable branch of his royal authority. ',0 This however did not satisfy them who aimed at the whole, and resolved to have it by force, if other means failed ; and therefore soon after they had sent up the pressing- bill to the lords, they ordered another to be brought in to settle the militia, in such hands as they should think fit to appoint ; determining not to be satis- fied till they had all the military force and all the gar- risons and forts of the kingdom in their power. As this was too much to be carried at once and on a sudden, they endeavoured in the mean time to get it by piece- meal, and enable themselves by force to obtain the whole. This was the reason of the >' bill for making a lord general and lord admiral of their own nomination ; this Mas their view in desiring that sir John Byron (though a person of great worth, and liable to no objec- tion) might be removed from the command of the Tower, and sir John Conyers be put in his stead. This was the end aimed at in their investing the Tower with an armed force, to hinder all provisions from being carried in for the sustenance of the warders, in order to reduce 202 it by famine (as the covenanters in Scotland had starved the castle of Edinburgh) till the king was forced to comply with them in this point, lest they should get it at last by force into their hands, as they had done Hull ; and this was their meaning in moving the lords on Nov. 16, that the kingdom might be put into a posture of defence, and that all the forts and castles thereof might be secured ; and in their making orders after- wards, that neither Portsmouth, (which was under a favourite governor of theirs,) nor any other castles, forts, y Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 719, 835, 844, 649, 8.33, 847, 852, 845. -8o. Proceedings of tlie parliament of Engkind. (1641.) 21 or magazines [should be delivered up without his ma- jesty's authority, signified by both houses of parliament, i. e. without an order of their own, exclusive of his ma- jesty ; for so they had declared in sir John Byron's case, (wlien he pleaded the king's command not to stir out of the Tower, in excuse of his not attending at their bar, without first having his majesty's leave,) that the king's command was always supposed to be in an order of the houses. 80 On these and indeed on all other occasions, when any shameful point was to be carried, the Irish rebellion was still brought in. '^ If the lords declined joining with the commons in addressing for the removal of sir Thomas Lunsford from the government of the Tower, it was imputed to the influence of the malignant party, encou- raged by the papists' rebellion in Ireland. If the bishops and Roman catholic peers (who were always coupled together in such clamorous complaints) were not turned out of the house of lords, the Irish rebels were said to receive advantages from the delays and interruptions thereby occasioned ; if the popish recusants in general, without grounds of suspicion against any one in parti- cular, were to be taken up ; or if they wanted to con- tinue guards under the earl of Essex about their house, whilst the king had none for the security of his own person from those tumultuous and seditious assemblies of the rabble, which they encouraged to insult him, the Irish rebellion was still assigned as a cause. In a word, this was the burden of every petition, for the new mo- delling of religion, for the subverting of episcopacy, for the putting the nation in a state of defence, and for the removing of the dangers arising, either from evil counsellors, or from the papists and their adherents, which (in the sense then fixed upon the last word) com- z Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 778, 654, 687. 22 Proceedings of the parliament of Engla7id. III. 80 — ■ preheiided all the gentry and clergy that were loyal and orthodox in the kingdom. Si "\Aliilst the faction was making this use of the Irish rebellion, it was fit that they should make a show at least of doing something towards sui)pressing it. They therefore, on the first news of it, voted a supply of two hundred thousand pounds, of which fifty thousand pounds was to be borrowed of the city of London, and twenty thousand pounds of that sum to be sent away immedi- ately. They resolved that six thousand (which number was afterwards increased to ten thousand) foot, and two thousand horse, should be raised for that service ; and the lord lieutenant % on Nov. 6, was empowered to grant commissions for levying three thousand five hundred foot and six hundred horse, part of these forces ; but was first to present a list of such officers as he proposed to employ in that work, to the house for their approba- tion ; and the lord admiral was desired to take care of providing ships at Bristol, Chester, and other ports for transporting the men, with arms, ammunition, and provisions, into Ireland. The two houses were never conceived to have a power of levying men, or of raising forces, or of granting commissions, and had never exer- cised such power before : it was a thing entirely new ; but as it was the most convenient one for their purpose, and what the faction most wished, in order to carry on their schemes to effect, they were very glad to exert it on this occasion, and prepare the nation for their exer- cise thereof, in opposition to his majesty's authority, by exercising it now without him ; for which they had so fair a pretence as the absence of the king, which allowed 203 them to suggest, " that his royal commission could not be so soon obtained, as the necessity of Ireland required the more speedy opposing the wicked and traitorous at- 2 Nalson, vol. ii. p. 606. Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 . ) 23 tempts of the rebels there, and his majesty's having especially recommended to them the care of the pre- servation of that kingdom." These are the reasons as- signed by the two houses in the preamble to their ordi- nance ; but it seems they were not such as convinced the earl of Leicester of the legality of so unprecedented an authority as he was directed to exercise. He was afraid that he could not give commissions to levy men for the service of Ireland, without a better warrant ; and that the said order was not of sufficient validity without a confirmation from his majesty under the great seal. He * communicated, on Nov. 9, these his scruples to the houses, who resolved " that he should go on to raise men upon their order ; and on Nov. 1 6 undertook to be suitors to his majesty to confirm the authority given to his lordship by the king and parliament under the great seal of England, and promised that they would be always ready to avow his proceedings upon the said order in the mean time." This seems to have satisfied the earl of Leicester ; for thereupon he presented the form or copy of a commission, such as he intended to give to commanders, which was read and approved. The earl of Northumberland had no reason to be troubled with such scruples ; his commission of lord high admiral was a legal and sufficient authority for him to do what was desired, and he had received likewise positive orders from his majesty to send ships for the service of Ireland ; so that if he had any scruples, they were of a quite different nature, and related not to the validity, but the exercise of his authority. He had on a former occa- sion made very mean court to the faction in the house of commons, at the expense of his own gratitude, and by the sacrifice of his brother's honour ; and he seems on this to have doubted, whether his executing the king's a NalsQn, vol. ii. pp. 614, 652. 24 Proceedings of tlte parliament of Eiiglaiul. HI. orders for sending ships to guard the Irish coasts and the narrow seas, would be agreeable to the two houses. Pursuant to this notion, on ^ Nov. lo, he acquainted the liouse of lords M'ith these orders of the king, and desired to have the directions of the parliament what to do therein. The lords immediately desired a conference with the connnons on this subject, and his lordship was allowed to send away some ships, with such instructions to the commanders as he received from the two houses. But surely the king must be very ill served, and have very little authority left, when a servant, whom he had so constantly and so singularly favoured, and laid such extraordinary obligations upon, as (lord Clarendon shews he had) on the carl of Northumberland, would not exe- cute his orders in a service so very popular, as the relief of the distressed protestants in Ireland, and of no less imjiortance than the saving of a kingdom, without ask- ing leave of the houses, and receiving instructions from persons, who were raising to themselves a reputation by loading his majesty with reproaches, who founded their hopes of power in the distress of his affairs, and who could never attain what they grasped at, but by the ruin of his royal authority. An ^ order was likewise made, empowering the lord lieutenant (though he had not been invested in the formality of his place by the receiving of the sword in Ireland) to give command to the lords justices there, to seize upon the persons of any that were suspected, until they should clear themselves to the satis- faction of the justices ; a command very welcome to those gentlemen, who desired nothing more than to exe- cute it in such a manner, as might most recommend them to the favour of that power from whence it was originally derived. A •' declaration was also made on Nov. 4, and j)ul)lished l)oth in Ireland and England, in ^ Naliion, vnl. ii. p. 622. ^ Ibid. p. 643. '1 Ibid. p. 601, -82. Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 . ) 25 tlie name of both houses, expressing their " detestation 204 of the rebellion raised in Ireland, for the bloody massa- cre and destruction of all the protestants there, and of others his majesty's loyal subjects of English blood, though of the Romish religion, being ancient inhabitants in se- veral parts of that realm, who had always in former rebellions given testimony of their fidelity to the crown, and for the utter depriving of his royal majesty and the crown of England from the government of that king- dom ; and declaring their intention to serve his majesty with their lives and fortunes for the suppressing thereof, in such a way as should be thought most effectual by the wisdom and authority of parliament ; that they had provided for a present supply of money, and for raising the full number of men desired by the lords justices and council, with a resolution to add such further succours as the necessity of those affairs should require ; that they had resolved of providing arms, ammunition, stores of victuals, and other necessaries to be transported thither, as there should be occasion, from Bristol, Chester, and a port in Cumberland, where magazines of provisions should be kept for the supply of Ireland ; that they would mediate with his majesty to reward such English or Irish as should at their own charges raise any number of horse and foot for his service against the rebels, with lands of inheritance in Ireland according to their merits ; concluding with recommending to the lord lieutenant and lords justices, according to their power by his ma- jesty's commission, to offer pardon to all such rebels as within a convenient time (to be by them declared) should return to their duty; and likewise to bestow such rewards as they should think fit to publish upon all those who should arrest the persons or bring in the heads of such traitors as should be personally named in any proclamation published by the state there." 82 There was one step very proper, and in truth very 26 Proceedings of the parliament of England. III. 82 — necessary, to be taken on this occasion, I mean the despatching away of the lord lieutenant to his charge in Ireland. The inconveniences attending a division of the military and civil power being very great, and a general of an army being disabled by the strict orders of the latter, from improving many opportunities offered of good service necessarily to be embraced on the in- stant, but lost whilst recourse is had to the state for fresh orders. The power of government in that king- dom is always greater in the hands of a lord lieutenant than in those of justices, (a sort of temporary governors, all whose authority ceases upon the arrival of the lieu- tenant, and was at this time daily expected so to ter- minate,) and exercised with greater despatch. Besides, the very reputation of his coming would have contri- buted to intimidate the rebels, and might have sus- pended for a time, if not entirely prevented, the despe- rate counsels of those, who, in the heat of resentment at the conduct of the lords justices, ran headlong into the rebellion, and spread the contagion of it over the whole kingdom ; insomuch ® that the earl of Ormond, for these and other reasons, which a modest and wise man would rather hint than express, thought himself obliged, by the duty he owed his country, and the zeal he ever had for the king's service, to represent to sir Henry Vane, and to the lord lieutenant himself, the absolute necessity there was of his lordship's coming over, as " what would be of more avail than half an army." But this, however obvious and reasonable a means it appeared to be, was scarce so much as mentioned, the earl of Leicester being unwilling to go, unless he was well supported and able to do service ; and the house of commons, to whom he was otherwise very acceptable, not caring, for the sake of his particular honour and reputation, to furnish him with such suj^plics as would enable him to quell a rebel- 205 e See Collection of Letters, No. XL. -84- Proceedings of the parliament of England. (1641.) 27 lion, upon which they were building such structures of power and authority for themselves, and upon which their leaders had formed measures, which nothing but the continuance of that rebellion could afford them suf- ficient means of executing with success. 83 The resolutions of the commons made a tolerable figure in the votes ; but were of little use any where else. They knew very well that nothing Avas so much wanted in Ireland as money, and that the state was reduced to great extremity more by that than any other want ; yet they proposed only twenty thousand pounds to be sent away immediately ; a sum much too little for the present necessity, and yet even this inconsiderable sum was sent in a manner so slow and disadvantageous, that it will never be imputed to a zeal for the service. It was to be remitted by two merchants (Henley and Hawkridge) in Spanish money, and certificates were to be produced of the landing thereof in Ireland, (where it passed at an higher rate than its value, to the great dissatisfaction and oppression of the army, as will appear hereafter,) but they were not obliged '^to remit above six thousand pounds of this money till fourteen days after they had received fifteen thousand pounds of it from the chamber of Lon- don, which the commons did not so much as order to be paid till ^Nov. 23, and what time would be spent after- wards in that tempestuous season of the year, before it could be landed in Ireland, if it should escape all acci- dents at sea, is easier to imagine than ascertain. Wise men are never guilty of great oversights but through the corruption of their heart or the strength of their passions ; and yet there could not well be one more gross, than to expose to such uncertainties the fate of a kingdom that was likely in all appearance to be lost by the least delay. 84 By good luck indeed no accident happened, the wind f Nalson, vol. ii. p. 624. g Commons' Journal, Nov. 23. 28 Proceedings of tlie parliament of England. III. 84 — (which Mas so continually and so strong in the west all the months of January and February following, that a packet could not get from Holyhead to Dublin in seven weeks) chancing to sit fair to carry ships from England to Ireland all the month of December ; so that Mr. Hawk- ridge made a shift to land at Dublin in the beginning of that month (Mhicli sir J. Temple thought little less than a miracle of Providence) with the Spanish money he was allowed to transj^ort thither ; which instead of twenty thousand pounds amounted only to ^'sixteen thousand five hundred and ninety pounds sterling ; so that whether his expedition in carrying it over so immediately after his receipt of the fifteen thousand pounds was owing to a laudable zeal for the cause, or to the temptation of the exorbitant gain made by the remittance, is a great ques- tion. 85 Their backwardness in sending supplies of men has been already mentioned, and will further appear, when I have occasion to speak of the arrival of those forces in Ireland. The other succours, which they professed to send, were of arms, ammunition, and provisions ; and the like slowness was observed in the sending of these. They were ready enough in truth to order them, being pleased with an opportunity of taking them out of the king's hands, of weakening his power, and of raising a reputa- tion of merit to themselves at his expense. They ordered them all therefore out of the king's stores to be sent to Chester, or to be delivered to persons of their particular confidence ; and though they were his majesty's private proi)erty, bought with his own money, without any aid of parliament, 'and he called upon them (after his return to Scotland) to replace a like number and quantity in his stores, that he might be in a condition to defend the ^ Letter (if the lords justices to the lord lieutenant, Dec. 14, 1641. • Nalson, vol, ii. j)]). 799, 877. — 85 • Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 .) 29 kingdom in case of an invasion, they never took care to do it ; not thinking it worth their while to restore part of a prince's property whom they intended to strip of the 206 whole. This treatment did not hinder his majesty from doing what he could for the relief of Ireland, though to the weakening of himself and exhausting of his stores in England, which he was in no condition to fill again ; and yet had too much reason to fear he should soon have occasion to use. ^Thus for the service of Munster and Ulster, he gave the earl of Newport warrants for the delivering of one thousand five hundred muskets, with all things thereto belonging, five hundred pikes and cors- lets, and two thousand swords out of his Tower of Lon- don, and arms for five hundred horse out of the magazine of Hull, with a proportionable quantity of ammunition. Yet when the earl would have sent them away, (as he signified to the house of lords on Jan. i^,) he could not, for want of money and ships to convey them, which the commons had not taken care to provide, or thought fit to order. Their business was not so much to send them into Ireland, as to get them into their own power; and therefore (except what the king sent from Scotland) some months passed before any of them arrived in that king- dom. Hence ^on Nov. 6 they ordered the earl of Leices- ter, or such persons as he should appoint to receive the same, the full number of arms for one thousand horse and eight thousand foot, with ten last of powder, and such other munition, tents, and provisions of all sorts as should be needful for the service, according to a list an- nexed. Hence they ordered, first, on Nov. 4, "'one thou- sand three hundred arms, which, with a quantity of am- munition and some ordnance, were (when the garrison and sir F. Willoughby's regiment were broke) left in the magazine at Carlisle, to be sent from thence to Carrick- i' Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 791, 792, 799, 860, 877. 1 Ibid. p. 606. ^ Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 405. so Proceedings of the jiarUameni of England. III. 85. fergus; and afterwards, on the 5th of January following, ordered them to be disposed of as the lord lieutenant should direct. Hence on the same Jan. 5, they ordered for the arming of the regiments of lord Conway and sir John Clotworthy, (officers in whom they had a jierfect confidence,) to be sent from the Tower" one thousand muskets, with bullet and match proportionable, one thou- sand five hundred swords, and ten last of powder ; with a like quantity of powder, match, and bullet for ]\Iunster, to be likewise delivered and disposed of, as the lord lieu- tenant should think fit. Hence, on Nov. 13, °they ordered the king's magazine of arms and ammunition at Hull (where the arms of sixteen thousand men of the army, which the king had raised in the spring of a.d. 1640, were laid up at their disbanding) to be removed to the Tower of London, whilst it was in the hands of sir W. Balfour ; and when he was soon after, to their great sur- prise, removed from that post, left them to continue where they were at Hull. Hence likewise, when sir John Byron was governor of the Tower, Jan. 17, Pthey ordered captain White, who had brought by order of the house of commons the arms and ammunition that had been left at Berwick, in order to have them placed in the Tower, ready (as was pretended) to be sent to Ireland, (though the king had thought it much the better way to have them carried directly thither from Berwick,) to fall down the river with his ship, beyond the command of the Tower, and to lie there, suffering it so to continue at their expense till sir John was removed, rather than direct the master to carry it with the lading to Ireland, where it was so much wanted. This is the sum of the orders made by the parliament for the providing of arms, am- munition, and warlike stores, (for all other mention thereof in any act or resolution of theirs still refers to, or is in- n Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 642, 824. o Ibid. p. 643. i' Ibid. p. 893. 85 • Proceedings of the parliament of England. ( 1 64 1 . ) 31 eluded in these,) under pretence of the service of Ireland, till Jan. 17, when ^they took the militia of London out of the hands of the lord mayor and the lieutenancy, and put it under the command of sergeant-major-general Skip- pon, (who had by their command beleaguered and be- sieged the Tower in the Scotch fashion,) " with power to defend and offend, in case of violence, to beat up drums ; 207 to raise not only the trainbands, but all other forces of the city ; and to govern not only these, but all citizens or others that would mount on horseback, and put them- selves under his command, the chamber of London being to issue out ammunition of all sorts in such proportion as Skippon should think fit and direct." From that day, they were so much taken up with preparations for an in- surrection (which by that action seemed already com- menced) in England, that we cannot expect they should give themselves much trouble about the relief of Ireland ; to which country, in the terrible distress that Ulster, Con- naught, and Munster were in, for want of arms and am- munition, they had not actually at that time sent any quantity of either. In vain did the king press them by letters out of Scotland, and by repeated and moving messages after his return to London, to use greater care and despatch in sending of supplies to Ireland ; in vain did the Irish council by their despatches to the lord lieu- tenant urge the same thing, and represent the miserable condition, the terrible wants, and the extreme danger of that kingdom ; ""in vain did the Irish lords and gentle- men then in London (by their petition to the house of commons on Dec. 21) make the like representation, and use the same instances for speedy relief; in ^ vain did the Scotch commissioners, who brought proposals of send- ing over supplies from that kingdom to Ireland, after twenty days attendance in London, and no one of their 1 Nalson, vol. ii. p. 878. "" Ibid. p. 769. 3 Ibid. pp. 738, 745, 749, 763, 769, 771, 778, 874. 32 The parliament of England HI. propositions answered, coni})lain (on Dee. 20) of their shameful dehiys ; as the king had done from time to time before, and continued to do afterwards ; all signified nothing ; the service of Ireland was entirely neglected ; the parliament was satisfied with getting the king's arms and ammunition into their possession ; things of great use for the game that they had to play in England ; which it was in a manner their whole business, as it was their great design to inflame. 86 To this purpose it served much better to make a bluster and noise about the rebellion of Ireland, than to take any effectual means to suppress it; which would have dried u\) the main source of their pretences of fears and dangers. With this view they endeavoured to persuade the nation, that it had been concerted with the know- ledge and consent of the papists in England ; and to that end, (as there never wanted in those times a parcel of vile delators and informers, the most detestable })ests of the commonwealth, for any purpose,) upon the information of one William Shales, Hhey took up sir Henry Beding- field of Oxborough-hall in Norfolk, to whom Shales had been formerly a falconer, but being discharged turned soldier, and got to be a sergeant in sir Arthur Loftus's company of foot in Ireland. It was sir Henry's good fortune, that he had company with him in his garden at the time that he accidentally saw the fellow there, who heard all the discourse which passed between them, (and which related only to hawking in Ireland,) and proved the falsehood of the informer's relation so clearly and un- deniably, that sir Henry was immediately dismissed. And yet upon the credit of this information, and of some ge- neral vaunting speeches of the Irish rebels, (who had de- clared they stuck at no lies which they believed would advance their cause,) some late historians, who have wrote of those times, have thrown an unjust aspersion uj)on the t Nalson, vol. ii pp. 66i, 690. '^7' endeavour to asperse the Mng. (1641.) 33 English Roman catholics, as if they had been privy to the Irish rebellion. 87 With the same view, the English commons catched at another of those rebels' equally false and impious pre- tences, of being authorized by the king and queen in what they had [done] ; and (though the rebels had bragged like- wise of authority and assistance from the parliament of England, and the state of Ireland ; which the lords jus- tices' proclamation of Oct. 30 was issued to refute) pro- 208 pagated that monstrous calumny with all the industry and art imaginable. Few ages have more abounded, than that we are speaking of, in wickednesses of all sorts ; but the most distinguishing iniquity of this was hypocrisy. Never was a more bitter rancour of heart covered with smoother words ; never were more disloyal and insulting remonstrances couched in more humble and dutiful ex- pressions ; nor more fatal designs against the crown and person of a king attended with stronger professions of loyalty, and finer promises of duty and service, than we see in all the acts and proceedings of the faction in the English commons at this time. In this course of hypo- crisy, they first began to spread the vile aspersion against the king, insinuating at the same time, as if there were ill designs on foot to the prejudice of the nation; for this was the meaning of the order of the house of com- mons on Nov. 30, " "That a declaration be drawn for clearing of his majesty's honour from false reports cast upon him by the rebels in Ireland ; and a provision to be made, that there be no conclusion of that war to the pre- judice of this kingdom ;" an order, which, however pre- tended to be made out of a tenderness for the king's reputation, was undoubtedly intended to divulge the scandal at once to the whole nation. Their declarations, whatever was the occasion or the pretence thereof, ever had some sting or other in them (like the preamble to " Nalson, vol. ii. p. 689. VOL. II. D 34 Tlie English parliament endeavour to asperse the king, III. 87 — their grant of tonnage and poundage) to the prejudice of the king ; ^such was that, which under colour of prevent- ing all scandalous reports and apprehensions of her ma- jesty's favouring and encouraging the Irish, they drew up to be made by the queen upon a petition of both houses, for publishing and declaring her abhorrence and detesta- tion of the perfidious and traitorous proceedings of the rebels in Ireland ; but this project was spoiled, as far as it could bo, by the lords declining to join in the petition. ? Finding the suggestion work, as they wished, among the populace, exceedingly to the king's prejudice, they soon proceeded to insinuate it in such a manner as might induce the world to believe that the house gave credit thereunto. The lords justices and council of Ireland, to prevent the rebels seducing people to their party under pretence of his majesty's name, and being themselves so generally suspected of abusing it, that their proclamation of Oct. 30 had met with little credit, bethought them- selves of an expedient to convince the deluded, by the king's publishing a proclamation in his own name, (which otherwise in Ireland always ran in the name of the lords justices or lieutenant), and (whereas in other cases he used only to sign one, from whence the printed copies were taken) they now on this occasion desired him to sign twenty copies with his own hand, and the privy signet annexed to them, that they might be sent to dif- ferent parts of the kingdom, to convince every body of the imposture of the rebels by an irrefragable proof under his majesty's own hand and privy signet. This expedi- ent, so different from all former methods practised with regard to proclamations, was suggested by the lords jus- tices in a letter of theirs, of Dec. 14, to the earl of Leicester. The wind was then contrary, and had been so for many days, insomuch that their letters of Dec. 3 were still detained in the port of Dublin ; so that the ^' Nalson, vol. ii. p. 737. — 89. as favouring the Irish rebellion. (1541.) 35 latter did not arrive at London till about the end of tliat month; and upon the lord lieutenant's communicating the desire of the justices to his majesty, he immediately ordered t^yenty copies of the very form of a proclamation, which the lords justices had sent along with their letter (though it might justly have been excepted against) to be printed, and having signed and caused the signet to be put to them on Jan. i, they were all transmitted to Ire- land by the lord lieutenant in his letters of Jan. 4 ; as 1 209 find by the justices' answers to his lordship's letters of that date. Who would think that this proceeding should be made an handle to insinuate any thing to his majesty's prejudice ? Yet the house of commons, either having a wrong intimation of the nature of the thing, before the arrival of the lord lieutenant's packet, or being wilfully resolved to mistake it — in the one case, with a rashness unworthy of such an assembly, and in the other, with a malice and injustice to be detested in any body — thought fit to pass a vote on Dec. 29, "'that "one of the obstruc- tions to the relief of Ireland was the want of a procla- mation under the great seal of England, declaring the Irish papists in arms and their adherents to be rebels and traitors ; which was the more necessary, because the said Irish had given out as if they had some authority for what they did ;" and a committee was appointed to draw up a declaration on this (which signified nothing to the purpose) and the other heads then debated, concerning the obstructions of the relief of that kingdom. 89 Another handle of aspersing the king in this respect they took from an order of their own, made Nov. 10, that no Irishman should pass out of England into Ireland without a license from the committees of both houses for Irish affairs, the privy-council, or the lord lieutenant. His majesty being then in Scotland, and knowing no- thing of this order, (though if he had, it could not be w Rusliworth, vol. iv. p. 466. D 2 36 Tlieir endeavours to asperse the Ung, HI. 89 — supposed to tie up his hands in that particular,) had granted a Hcense to sir George Hamilton, a younger brother of James earl of Abercorne, and brother-in-law to the earl of Ormond ; as he had also to the lord Delvin, eldest son to the earl of Westmeath, Mr. Thomas Net- terville, a younger son of the lord Netterville's, and co- lonel John Butler, brother to the lord Mountgarret, (as the house styles him,) and uncle to the earl of Ormond, as the king calls him. This was handle enough for ]Mr. Pym to say in a speech, which the house ordered to be printed, that " since the stop of the ports against all Irish papists, many of the chief commanders now in the head of the rebels have been suffered to pass by his majesty's immediate warrant." There never was a more groundless and false accusation than this ; his majesty required the house to name the persons, or to do justice to his honour by publishing their mistake. They did not care to do either; but being most averse to the last, named the four gentlemen above mentioned, not one of which ever entered into the rebellion or took the oath of association ; and who were so far from being actually concerned in it, that they were then in custody in England. Yet these, with the passes to the earl of Clanrickard and his ser- vants, and one Tyrrell, a poor but honest man, were all the passes that the king had granted for above a twelve- month before. They had none of them been in Ireland since the rebellion, nor for a considerable time before; but being seized in their way thither, ^Mr. Netterville was, by an order of the house of lords of Jan. 1 7, brought ujD from Chester, where he was stopped by the mayor ; colonel Butler was also brought up (I suppose) by an order of the same house, y because his petition is directed to them, and he acknowledgeth their lordships' favour in committing him to so comfortable a place as the lord X Nalson, vol. ii. p. 877. y A. 225. B. 146, and 257. -90. asfamuring tJie Irish rebellion. (1641) 37 mayor of London's house, where he enjoyed every thing but the liberty of stirring abroad. He was a very gallant and loyal man ; had served with great reputation and ho- nour in the king's troops and in those of foreign princes ; where he had been so constantly employed, that he had not been in Ireland for twenty-three years past. He was with his majesty in Scotland when the rebellion broke out, and was afterwards going over into Ireland to the earl of Ormond his nephew (being '^recommended by sir 210 Henry Vane to the lords justices for an employment suitable to his known merit) to serve against the rebels, and was very capable, as well as confident, of doing con- siderable services in reclaiming some, and in suppressing the rest. He was kept in this restraint till the latter end of April 1 642, when, upon the earl of Ormond's being bound for him that he should go into foreign parts, (which the parliament insisted on,) he was set at liberty, and went accordingly. Sir George Hamilton was brought up by order of the house of commons, who, on April 6 following, admitted him to bail. He had at this time a company in the army ; but the king having in the March following ordered that no papist should hold a commis- sion, it was taken from him, and given to the earl of Ormond; yet sir George still continued loyal, and did his majesty afterwards very eminent service, as the earl of Westmeath and lord Delvin did. This will appear more particularly in the course of this history; which will fully shew the falsehood of this aspersion on the king ; though I was willing now to take notice of these two particulars, because they could not otherwise be brought in without interrupting the thread of the nar- ration. 90 The weakness as well as falsehood of these pretences (all that the parliament could find out to found their calumny upon) shews the virulence of their spirit, and z B. 17. 38 State of the provinces of Ireland III. 90 — the eagerness of tlieir desires to asperse the king, as well as their utter inability to make good the charge; and aftbrds very just grounds for those coin])laints which his majesty so feelingly makes of this treatment, when he says, that "his ^enemies did him the honour to think moderate injuries not proportionate to him, nor compe- tent trials, either of his patience under them, or of his pardon of them, and therefore (adds he) with exquisite malice they have mixed the gall and vinegar of falsity and contempt with the cup of my affliction ; charging me not only with untruths, but such as wherein I have the greatest share of loss and dishonour by Avhat is com- mitted. Whereas in all policy, reason, and religion, hav- ing least cause to give the least consent, and most grounds of utter detestation, I might be represented by them to the world the more inhuman and barbarous, like some Cyclopic monster, whom nothing will serve to eat and drink but the flesh and blood of my own subjects, in whose common welfare my interest lies as much as some men's doth in their perturbations ; who think they can- not do well but in evil times, nor so cunningly as in lay- ing the odium of those sad events on others, wherewith themselves are most pleased, and whereof they have been not the least occasions." 91 I have been the more particular in giving this account of what passed in England with regard to the rebellion, because it will be useful to account for the progress of it in Ireland, where it spread more than anybody exj^ected, or there was any reason at first to imagine. Though Ul- ster was up in arms, yet all the other provinces were generally quiet till Nov. 1 2, when the Byrnes began to stir in the county of Wicklow, and were joined on the 2ist by the Tooles and Cavenaghs in that and the ad- joining counties of Wexford and Catherlogh. This was no great surprise to the state, because these were septs 'T EiKwj/ BacriXtK^, cap. 12. — 9^' ai the end of November^ i6^i. (1641.) 89 of old Irish, and had suffered much in their estates by the late plantations in those parts; and the first were more particularly exasperated by the remembrance of the terrible persecution of Phelim M'Pheagh and his sons, formerly mentioned ; so that they were sufficiently dis- posed to encourage and join in any insurrection raised within the realm, as their ancestors in all times before them had done, without any such provocation, incited 211 purely by their love of rapine, and by the security which the strength and situation of their country afforded them. They were the rather invited to it now by an opportunity they had of seizing fort Gary, (a fort erected in the time of lord Falkland's government to keep them in awe and subjection,) ^ which was left destitute of a garrison by the lords justices drawing thence the foot company, that used to be there quartered, to Dublin ; so that there were left in it only a few English of the neighbourhood, and those naked and unarmed. The state was sending them arms to enable them to make as good a defence as could be expected from such unexperienced men ; but these arms (being sent without a convoy) were intercepted in the way by those septs, who immediately invested the place and took it. Animated by this success, they made in- roads into the counties of Catherlogli and Kilkenny, making terrible havock in the adjoining parts of both, and up to the very walls of Catherlogh and Kilkenny; and their numbers increasing, they reduced the castle of Archloe, Limerick, lord Esmond's house, and fort Chi- chester ; places of strength and importance, but not pro- vided with garrisons and arms for resistance. Thus they soon possessed themselves of all the castles and houses of the English in the counties of Wexford and Wicklow, (except the castle of Wicklow,) and confiding in their numbers, made excursions, and swept away great droves of cattle, within four miles of Dublin. b See CoUection of Letters, No. XXXIX. 40 State of the privinces of Ireland III. 92 — 92 This added miicli to the fright of the lords justices, who scarce thought themselves safe iu that metropolis, "with all the forces they had new raised, and with an in- crease of the old companies of the standing army to one hundred men each, which doubled their number. They proposed nothing to themselves but to secure that city and Drogheda till they received su])plies of forces out of England ; and their extreme solicitude for the preserva- tion of these places made them leave the rest of the king- dom disfurnished of every thing necessary for its defence. This was temptation enough to idle loose fellows to get together in small parties, and pillage their neighbours, as well Irish as English ; yet these having no other de- sign but plunder, the peace of the provinces was well enough preserved till the end of November, the Irish gentlemen in JMunster and Connaught continuing firm, and no one man of quality or estate, descended of Eng- lish blood, in all that month appearing to join and coun- tenance the rebels. 93 JMunster, upon the suppression of the great rebellion, raised therein by the earl of Desmond and others against queen Elizabeth, (to whom their lands were forfeited upon that occasion,) had been very well planted, and much improved by English undertakers. They were very numerous in that province, and would have got together in a body sufficient to have secured the quiet thereof, and to have deterred all sorts of people from attempting to disturb it ; but they were utterly destitute of arms, and all the solicitations and instances of the lord presi- dent could not prevail with the lords justices to spare them any. Sir William St. Leger, a gallant old soldier, of good experience and great activity, was the president at this time, and did all that was possible for man to do with a single troop ; which was all the guard left for the defence of that large province; and which was scarce sufficient to repress the insolencies and depredations of — 94 at the end of November, i6/^i. (1641.) 41 common robbers in a time of perfect peace, much less in a season when the distractions, disturbances, and spoils in other parts of the kingdom excited loose and disor- derly fellows to commit the like in that country. But all the gentry, as well Irish as English, using their endea- vours to keep the peace and prevent disorders, the pro- vince still continued generally quiet. 94 The case of the province of Connaught was very dif- 21a ferent in regard of the strength of the English protest- ants : there were not above one hundred and forty of these in all the county of Sligo, about as many in Mayo, not one thousand in all the large county of Galway, and about a like number in that of Roscommon. This defect was one of the reasons assigned for the intended planta- tion of that province, the apprehensions of which had kept the gentlemen, and indeed all the inhabitants thereof, in a continual inquietude for twenty-five years past ; and these general fears were scarce allayed by his majesty's late promise of laying that design aside, and of confirming all their estates in such a manner as to secure their title for ever from being questioned by act of par- liament, when these disturbances happened in the king- dom to revive them. Sir Roger Jones viscount Ranelagh was the lord president and governor of all the province, (except the county of Galway,) having for the defence thereof his own troop of horse and three companies of foot. To ease him in that charge, the county of Mayo was by the state committed to Thomas lord viscount Dil- lon of Costello, and Miles Bourke viscount Mayo, both of them by profession protestants, who kept it for some months free from all disturbances, without any assistance from the state. Lord Ranelagh's care was hereby con- fined to the counties of Roscommon, Sligo, and Ley- trim ; the last of which, being a planted country, was risen in arms, had joined with the Ulster rebels, set up an O'Rourke to be their chieftain, (though Brian 42 Character of the carl of Glanr'ickard. III. 94 — O'Rourkc, Avho had tlic best title to that honour, was living in England,) had taken all the fortresses in the country, except JNIannour Hamilton, Carrick-drumruske, and James Town, which last they had invested with a body of two thousand men, and from the fastnesses of their own, made excursions into the adjoining counties of Sligo and Roscommon, plundering the well-affected natives as Avell as the British inhabitants. But all the gentlemen, both Irish and English, joining with the lord president to put a stop to these devastations, and prevent further mischiefs, those counties were as yet preserved free from all disturbances within them, and in perfect obedience to the government. 95 Ulick Burke, earl of Clanrickard and St. Alban's, was by a peculiar commission governor of the county and town of Galway, a post which was enjoyed by his father before him, in whose lifetime this earl was by a joint patent (dated 7 Nov. 1625) appointed to succeed him. He was descended of a very noble and ancient family of English race, which came over into Ireland at the time of the conquest, in which they had a considerable hand. His ancestors seated themselves in this county, where they had vast possessions, and had been ever loyal to the crown of England, doing, in all insurrections that were made in those parts, great services against the rebels. His father, Richard earl of Clanrickard, had distinguished himself eminently in this respect during Tyrone's rebel- lion, which had gained him a great reputation in his country, and given him a just title to the favours of the crown. Coming afterwards into England, he married Frances, sole daughter of sir Francis Walsingham, and widow of Robert Devereux earl of Essex, the unhappy favourite of queen Elizabeth, and was by king James created baron of Somerhill (a manor of the earl's near Tunbridge in Kent) and earl of St. Alban's ; English ho- nours. By that marriage he had this his only son, and a — 95' Character of tlie earl of Clanrichard. (1641.) 43 daughter Honora, who was second wife to John marquis of Winchester. Uhck his son was bred in England, where he married the lady Anne Compton, daughter of Wil- liam earl of Northampton. He was a man of great piety and strict virtue, regular in his devotion, exemplary in his life, and considerate in all his actions : his natural parts were very good, and much improved by study, ob- servation, and reflection ; but whatever were the accom- plishments of his head, the perfections of his heart were still more eminent. He had a greatness of mind, a noble- ness of sentiments, and an integrity of heart, that were 313 not to be corrupted by any temptation, or biassed by any selfish, mean, or unworthy views : compassionate in his temper, sincere in his professions, true and constant in his friendships, and delicate (if possible, to an excess) in the point of honour : no man ever loved his country more, or his friend better, than he did, being ready on all occasions to sacrifice himself for either. He was na- turally grave, and even thoughtful, yet was very pleasant in conversation ; and, with the best good nature, with an affability which flowed towards all persons, and with the most engaging good manners in the world, he had a spirit which nothing could daunt, and a firmness of resolution that was not to be staggered or moved by any arts of per- suasion or terror. In a word, he was truly wise, truly good, and truly honourable; and ought to be conveyed down to posterity as one of the most perfect and rarest patterns of integrity, loyalty, constancy, virtue, and ho- nour that the age he lived in or any other has produced. He was, by an hereditary inclination, derived from his ancestors, and animated by their constant example, as well as by his own principles, strongly attached to the crown, and had received particular favours from the king, which he remembered with a gratitude not common in those days, and which adding a warmth to the affection he bore the king's person, added likewise a zeal and 44 ChnricJcarcTs proceedings in III. 95 — activity to his duty. His majesty had entertained a great opinion of his merit ; and the earl having* passed many years about his court, had contracted an acquaintance M'itli most of the English nobility, by whom he was gene- rally beloved and esteemed. His livinnf there had been attended with expenses, which made it proper for him (after his return from attending the king in his northern expedition against the Scots in 1640) to think of looking after the management of his estate in Ireland. He ar- rived there in the summer this year with his family ; and going to his scat of Portumna, began to form an acquaintance with the gentlemen of that county, when the rebellion broke out. His presence was very useful on that occasion; for besides the authority which his commission of governor gave him, he was the first man of quality in the county, and the most considerable gen- tlemen of it were related to him by blood or alliance, and many of the rest held lands under him, and had a dependance on him by their tenure. He had also, as heir of the Mac -Williams and captain of Clanrickard, a great influence upon the Irish, who were fond of those titles, and paid even more deference to them than they did to the royal authority invested in him. 96 As soon as he heard of the rising in the north, *^he took all the measures that prudence could suggest, or his power enable him to take, for the security of the country, which was under a terrible consternation at the first news of the rebellion. The archbishop of Tuam, struck with a panic terror, deserted his castle, though a place of good strength, flying for refuge to the fort of Galway ; and most of the gentlemen kept themselves in a terrible state of uncertainty and fear in their own liouses, expecting the event, and dreading the worst. *^ They were apprehensive, that this insurrection of others e See his Memoirs. 'l See Collection of Letters, No. XXXVI. — 97- tJie county of Galway . (1641.) 45 would be made use of as an handle for stopping the current of the king's graces to themselves, and prevent the performance of those promises which he had made of confirming to them the possession of their estates, and securing their title by an act to be passed in the ap- proaching session of parliament, which the lords justices upon this occasion had prorogued, and thereby deferred, if not quite destroyed, their hopes of a bounty so essen- tial to their quiet. The earl, to remove their apprehen- sions, gave them all the comfort and assurance he could, that whoever stood firm and discharged his duty in that time of danger, might be confident, not only of obtaining those graces, but to receive them with addition from so 214 just and gracious a prince ; and without any delay in so important a matter, and at so critical a juncture, made his application to the court for a declaration to that effect, which he conceived to be of great advantage to the king's service, and which his majesty agreed to with all the readiness that could be desired, and sent accord- ingly with as much despatch as could be used in trans- mitting it. 97 To provide for the defence of the county, he sent himself to the principal gentlemen, and ordered Miles Burke the high sheriff to give notice to all that held of the king to be ready at twenty- four hours' warning to attend him for his majesty's service, recommending to them in the mean time to take particular care of the lives and goods of the English ; and dividing the several baronies thereof, assigned each to some particular per- sons, that they might provoke one another to an emu- lation of distinguishing themselves, and he be the better enabled to observe their respective forwardness and abi- lities. The fort of Galway was a place of great import- ance, but indifferently stored with provisions : his lord- ship, with the assistance of sir Richard Blake, prevailed with the corporation of Galway to supply it with victuals 46 Clanrickard''s proceedings ifi III. 97* for two months, and took care that the town also was l^ut into a good posture of defence. There was a ship lay ready in that port, hired to carry a regiment to Spain, under sir Theobald, afterwards lord Taafl'e : the men were marching through the country by the direc- tions of major Lucas Taaffe, in order to embark. It was proper to have so many idle fellows out of the way, lest there being no employment for them in the king's ser- vice, they should be tempted to seek it among the rebels ; and he took his measures so well for their orderly passage and their embarkation, without entering cither into the town or fort, that nobody was molested, and no disturbance happened in the country on that occasion. He took the like care to secure officers in foreign service, and arms that should come from abroad. All the standing force he had was his own company of fifty foot quartered at Loghreagh : there was not a troop of horse in the whole county ; and though it was abso- lutely necessary for the defence thereof against any sud- den incursion, and he was the only governor of a coun- try that was without one ; yet the justices, either out of a groundless jealousy, or for some other reason, did not think fit to gratify him in a motion which he made purely for the advantage of his majesty's service ; nor did they even vouchsafe to recommend his request into England. Far from allowing him to raise a troop, they did not for some time so much as empower him to fill up his company to one hundred men, when every other company in the kingdom (pursuant to a vote of the house of commons of England on Nov. 1 2) was doubled, and they had, by his lordsliip's canal, sent particular or- ders for captain Willoughby to fill up his. It was neces- sary however to have a better standing force always on foot, and in a readiness to repel any enemy that should invade the country or rise up within it, the summoning of the king's tenants requiring too much time to prevent 9 7 • the county of Galway. ( 1 64 1 . ) 47 sudden attemjHs; he therefore called a meeting of the noblemen, gentlemen, and freeholders of the county at Loghreagh, who all expressed a great detestation of the proceedings of the rebels, and very forward desires of being employed against them, to shew their loyalty and affection to his majesty. They agreed at this meeting to raise eight companies, making four hundred foot, and two troops, amounting to one hundred horse, and to applot the money necessary to maintain them for forty days upon the country ; and they continued them after- wards for a longer time. Thomas Bourke viscount Clan- morris and Mr. Richard Burke of Kilcoine commanded the horse ; Mr. Francis Bermingham grandson and heir to the lord Athenry, Edmund son of sir Ulick Burke, and six other of the principal gentlemen of the county, were captains of the foot. There were ablebodied men enough for the service, so that the companies were full 215 and mustered in a few days ; but there was a great want of arms and ammunition. He applied to the lords justices for a supply of one thousand five hundred arms from Dublin, or for what could be spared out of the magazine at Limerick ; but they excused themselves : as to the first, from their own want, till they had received a fresh supply out of England ; and as to the second, from the length of time that the coming of arms from Limerick would require, and the danger they would run of being spoiled in the carriage, when they might easily have been brought from thence in a day by water to Portumna, (which lies upon the Shannon,) and been landed at the garden door of his castle. They allowed him to take what arms he could find in the storehouse at Galway, but these were only a hundred calivers and as many pikes ; and upon trial, half of both sorts proved unserviceable. In this distress, he was forced to take out of his own store the arms which he had for the necessary defence of his house and family, and set men 48 Clanrickard''s proceedings in HI- 97 — nt Mork to make horsemen's lances and pikes ; and thus he equipped the troops and companies in the best man- ner he could, though but very indifferently. He next resolved to make a progress round the county, to visit all the borders, observe the passes, and see the condition of the castles and parts most exposed ; and to make some figure in this survey, he formed a party of fifty horse of his servants and tenants, armed some with pis- tols, and the rest with carbines, to serve him for a guard, and went attended with a train of gentlemen, who with their servants made one hundred more. In all his pro- gress he did not find a gentleman ill-affected ; which gave him some satisfaction, whilst he suffered from the apparent distrust and neglect of the state. But he was desirous to be powerful as well as active in the king's service, and proposed not only to preserve a perfect peace and obedience within his own government, but to con- tribute also to the quiet of the neighbouring counties ; and did not question keeping them and the rest of Con- naught in order, if he were only assisted with one thou- sand five hundred arms. These he desired the lords justices would recommend to the lord lieutenant to be sent him from England by sea to Galway : but I cannot find by all their letters that they ever moved it, (even when they pressed from time to time the sending of supplies of arms and ammunition to Munster and Ul- ster,) and it is certain that they were never sent. Un- der these disadvantages, and without the least assistance from any other quarter, by his own prudence, diligence, and activity, by the universal and high esteem in which he was held, and by the opinion, rather than the reality, of his power, he preserved his own county in peace and subjection longer than any other in the kingdom, and found means to render considerable services to his neigh- bours. 98 Those of the King's County, in the beginning of De- -99* the county af Galway . (1641.) 49 cember, were alarmed by the insurrection of great nuin- bers of the old Irish in those parts of it which had been planted some years before. The hopes of plunder, and a fury for destroying the English plantations in Kill- coursy, Fox's and Coghlan's countries, drew them toge- ther, and they came in a body of one thousand two hun- dred before Birr ; but retired upon a rumour of lord Clanrickard's advancing against them, and would have been soon entirely dispersed, (being only a tumultuous rabble, and no gentlemen appearing at their head,) had it not been for the general defection which followed soon after all over the kingdom. 99 No one man of quality or gentleman of English race had as yet joined with the rebels ; but all in general, and many of the old Irish too, expressed the utmost abhorrence of their cruelties and proceedings. Some of the leading Roman catholics, and who made afterwards a very considerable figure in the supreme council and general assemblies of the confederates, such as Mr. Pa- trick Darcy, Mr. Geffrey Browne, and Mr. Richard Mar- tin, men of very good sense, and generally esteemed, wrote from Dublin, after the rebellion broke out, to the 216 earl of Clanrickard, letters expressing their detestation of it, full of zeal for his majesty's service, and of careful advices to him for preserving the county of Galway (which they had known all their lives, it being the place of their constant residence, where their estates lay, and for which they served in parliament) in peace and se- curity, importuning him much to make farther offers of service to the state. There is no manner of reason to suspect the sincerity, either of the professions or the in- stances of these gentlemen in their letters to a friend, who was capable of doing those services, which they desired of him with so much earnestness, for the peace of the kingdom and the service of his majesty, to whom in all probability they had a mind to recommend tliem^ VOL. II. E 50 Causes of the general defection III. 99- selves by the merits of that nobleman, the most consi- derable for quality, rank, and fortune of any that pro- fessed their religion in the kingdom, that they might not be deprived of the benefit of those graces of which they had so lately obtained a promise. They were men eminent for their knowledge and skill in the laws of the land, one of them a member of the committee sent into England for the redress of grievances, and the others leading men in the house of commons, as generally known and esteemed as any in the kingdom, and as well qualified to know and speak, and even to direct, the general sense of the Roman catholics of English descent throughout the kingdom ; so that how their sentiments came to change, and what were the causes, occasion, or motives of that general defection, which ensued in a little time after, is a subject that well deserves a parti- cular inquiry. > Christopher Plunket earl of Fingall, Nicholas Preston viscount Gormanston, Thomas Fitz -Williams viscount Meryon, Nicholas viscount Netterville of Dowth, and William Fleming, Nicholas St. Lawrence, and Patrick Plunket, barons of Slane, Houth, and Dunsany, all no- blemen of the English pale, came to Dublin as soon as they heard of the rebellion, most of them on Oct. 24, and waited on the lords justices, with great professions of their loyalty to his majesty, and their readiness to assist in suppressing it. But they wanted arms ; and desiring to be supplied in that particular, the justices, who were in a dreadful fright at this time, and glad to catch at any help that was offered, readily put some into their hands ; but in so small a proportion as was barely necessary for the defence of their houses ; excusing the not supplying them in a more plentiful manner, by rea- son of their ignorance whether they had enough in the stores to arm the garrison necessary for the guard of Dublin. The excuse, either through the ill opinion con- — loo. of the kingdom of Ireland. (1641.) 51 ceived of the lords justices, or because it was well known how large a quantity was in the stores, had not the good fortune to be well received by those lords, who had likewise other occasions of uneasiness. In the pro- clamation, published immediately upon the discovery of the conspiracy against the rebels, the lords justices had not confined the charge of treason and disaffection to the old Irish, the only persons that had risen in arms; but had involved in it all the Irish papists, without dis- tinction of any. This looked like a charge against their religion, for (except some bragging speeches of the re- bels, which equally lay against the state of Ireland and parliament of England, and the threatening confession of colonel Mac Mahon, which sir John Borlase for some reason or other would not sign) they had no reason to suspect those honourable persons ; whose religion might not now hinder them, any more than it had their ances- tors on the like occasions, from venturing their lives and shedding their blood in the service of the crown of England against the old Irish rebels. This proclamation gave great uneasiness to the Roman catholics in general all over the kingdom, who began to apprehend some terrible mischief designed against them, as lord Clan- rickard informed the justices was the case in his county of Galway. The lords of the pale made a like repre-217 sentation, and as they were none of the old Irish, nor of their faction, but utterly averse to all their designs, insisted that they might be publicly cleared from the imputation of any confederacy with them. The lords justices were unwilling either to confess a blunder, or own their ill-will to them, yet at last issued out, on Oct. 29, another proclamation, explaining their meaning in the former, that " they did not intend thereby any of the old English of the pale, nor of any other parts of the kingdom, being well assured of their fidelities to the croMu, and having experience of the good afTections and E 2 52 Causes of the general defection III. loo- services of tlieir ancestors in former times of danger and rebellion." The protestants of Ireland were gene- rally of the j)uritan stamp, (occasioned by the heat which o])position, hurrying people into extremes, usually creates, and by the dangers which their fears caused them con- tinually to ai)prehend,) violent in their hatred of the persons as well as religion of the ])apists, suspecting and judging the worst of both. They were not well pleased with this condescension of the lords justices, much less with the confidence that had been placed in the few Roman catholics who had been furnished with arms ; they arraigned this proceeding in their discourses, charg- ing all the papists with being concerned in or wishing well to the conspiracy, not sparing in their censures even the loyalty and honour of the earl of Clanrickard ^, who having so just reason to complain of those aspersions, few else could hope to escape them. These suspicions and censures made the gentlemen of the pale uneasy ; and the second proclamation had not entirely removed the apprehension they had, that the state, which had been so hasty to publish the former, were too much dis- posed to encourage those suspicions, and represent the sentiments, intentions, and conduct of the Roman catho- lics in the worst light, loi I do not find that any of the lords above mentioned were intrusted with arms, except lord Gormanston, who lay most exposed to their fury, as living nearest to the rebels, who, having taken Dundalk and Atherdee, were ready to fall into the county of Meath. For the defence of that county, immediately after the taking of those towns, lord Gormanston was empowered to raise forces, to kill and destroy the rebels, and execute them accord- ing to martial law, by a commission ^ (dated Nov. 2) from the lords justices, who furnished him with five hundred '^ See his letter to the lords justices, Dec. 4. e See sir R. Cox, Appendix, No. VIII. — I o r . of the kingdom of Ireland. ( 1 64 1 .) 53 arms, part muskets, and the rest pikes; a quantity no way proportionate to the greatness of the work, and very unequal to the service expected from him ; a failure wherein was very unreasonably objected to him after- wards, by such as wanted a better reason to excuse their own conduct. Sir John Temple^ says, that commissions for martial law were granted to Mr. Valerian Wesley for the same county, Mr. Henry Talbot for that of Dublin, Mr. John Bellew for Lowth, Mr. Richard Dalton and James Fuite for Westmeath, and Mr. James Talbot in the county of Cavan ; that commissions (the same as lord Gormanston's) for raising forces were likewise directed to Mr. Walter Bagnal for that of Catherlogh, to sir James Dillon for Longford, sir Robert Talbot and Garret Byrne for Wicklow, sir Thomas Nugent for Westmeath, sir Christopher Bellew for Lowth, and Mr. Nicholas Barne- well for the county of Dublin ; and that three hundred arms were assigned to each of the three counties last named, and as many for that of Kildare, which was put under the command of the earl of that name, who, not- withstanding his zeal and affections to the English name and protestant cause, was not thereby enabled to do better service than the rest. Whatever show of trust in those gentlemen appeareth in this action, (if it were fact as to others, though it was not with regard to sir Robert Talbot,) the lords justices seem to have done it rather 218 out of fear than any real confidence, and repented of it as soon as it was done, resolving to revoke their trust, and get back the arms upon the first opportunity. They had wrote into England for supplies of men, money, arms and ammunition ; their letters to the lord lieutenant were read in the house of commons, who had voted the sup- plies desired, and made a declaration that they would add further succours, as occasion required, and serve his f History of the Irish RebelUon, p. 55 and 60, and p. 9, 21 . 54 Causes of the general defection 111. loi- niajesty with their lives and fortunes for suppressing the rebellion. Tiiis resolution and declaration the lords jus- tices received on Nov. lo, ^and having caused it to be printed the next day, dispersed it all over the kingdom. Elated with expectation of powerful succours out of England, they thought they had no further occasion for any assistance within the kingdom, nor any measures to keej) with the Roman catholics of Ireland. In ^conse- quence hereof, and of their lordships' apprehensions of the power of the rebels, they sent an order to sir Henry Tich- burne to fetch away the five hundred arms lent to lord Gormanston ; which was done on the 1 7th of that month early in the morning, and they were brought under the convoy of two companies of foot from his lordship's house to Drogheda. The three hundred for Lowth, the county most exposed of any, were fetched back at the same time. They recalled likewise the other arms which they had delivered out ; but these being more dispersed, could not be so easily recovered out of the hands of private men, into which they had been put; so that (it is said) they got back but nine hundred and fifty of them. 102 On Nov. 1 1, the next day after the receipt of the said declaration, they issued out a ^proclamation, for the im- mediate removal of all persons from Dublin, and from all places within two miles of the city, that were not con- stant inhabitants, or had not necessary cause of residence there, (to be approved of by the council of war,) ordering them to quit the place in twenty-four hours, and repair to their respective homes, the inhabitants being obliged, under pain of death, to give in accounts of such as did not remove. The reason assigned for this was, " that by the great concourse of people thither, the country w^as ? Letter of the lords justices to 1641, R. 2>3> and letter of the lord Clanrickard, Nov. 24. justices, Nov. 22. •' See sir II. Tichburrie's letter ' Borlase, Appendix, No. IV. to the carl of Orniond, Nov. i8, — loj. of the kingdom of Ireland. (1641.) 55 deprived of defence, and left open to the rapine and de- predation of the rebels, and the poor of those parts desti- tute of succour and relief." This was very inconvenient to abundance of gentlemen, particularly of the pale, who had retired to Dublin as the only place of security for their persons, whilst their houses and cattle were plun- dered by those very poor, who, taking advantage of the troubles, got together to spoil their richer neighbours, no one gentleman in any of the counties of the pale appear- ing at their head. These gentlemen were now forced to return to their respective dwellings, without arms or means of defence, exposed to the violence of those rob- bers, and to the mercy of the rebels, who soon after pos- sessed the country with forces too strong for any thing but an army to oppose. Unable to make good their houses, they were forced to submit, having only the sad choice left them, either of suffering the cruel treatment which the rebels threatened to all that would not join them, or (if they were suffered to live quietly at home within their quarters) of paying them contributions, and having a perpetual intercourse with them, which in the eye of the law is treason. 103 It may not be amiss to illustrate this matter by "^a par- ticular instance, within the duke of Ormond's particular knowledge, and duly proved by authentic testimonies. As soon as the rebellion broke out in Ulster, the Byrnes, Tooles, and other septs in the county of Wicklow, (a great part of whose territory had been planted some years 219 before,) being the likeliest men to rise and begin a rebel- lion in Leinster, sir Robert Talbot of castle Talbot in that county, repaired immediately to Dublin, and offered to sir W. Parsons (in the presence of dean Buckeley, who lived to attest it after the restoration) to secure the chief heads of those septs, if he would give him commission to do so ; insisting that those septs would not stir, whilst '^ Ireland, duke of Ormond, 2. p. 288 and 290. 56 Causes of the general defection III. 103 — their chieftains were in custody as so ttiany hostages for their fidelity ; and that it was the most effectual way to jirevent an insurrection in Leinster. Sir William abso- lutely refused to give him a commission ; and those septs jiresently after breaking out into rebellion, sir Robert Talbot engaged against them in defence of the English in that and the adjoining county of Catherlogh, and convoyed most of them, with their goods and stocks, safe to Dub- lin. He had the lords justices' thanks for this service, but it cost him dear ; for in revenge thereof, two of his best houses (Cartan and Liscartan) were then burnt by the Irish ; who increasing daily in power, he found it necessary to bring his lady and family to Dublin, in order to reside there. He then tendered his service to the lords justices, offering to raise men, if they would furnish him with arms, to fight against the rebels ; but these were denied him, nor could either his offers or his late service prevail for leave to continue in Dublin. He was forced by the proclamation upon pain of death to leave the city in twenty-four hours, and having no sure place of retreat, he was forced to skulk and live privately for a long time for fear of the Irish, till the breach between the king and the parliament of England, when he entered into the Roman catholic confederacy, doing however, during all the time of the troubles, all the good offices in his power, sometimes with the hazard of his life, to pre- serve the English, and to dis])ose the Irish to submit to the cessation first, and afterwards to the peaces of 1646 and 1648, to which he constantly adhered. '°4 The jiarliament in their declaration had recommended the putting of a price upon the heads of the chief rebels, and the offering of a general pardon to such of the rest as should submit to mercy within a certain time ; leaving in the first case the nomination of the persons and sums, and in the other, the limitation of the time, to the dis- cretion of the lords justices, who thought fit to use that -1 04- of the kingdom of Ireland. ( 1 641 .) 57 discretion with regard to the whole. Whether it was by secret instructions from others, or in pursuance of their own views, or whether in their judgment upon the par- ticular circumstances in Ireland, they really thought a method, allowed by the wisdom, and confirmed by the experience of all ages and states, as a very prudent and successful step for quelling insurrections in their infancy in all other countries, to be very improper for that in its then situation, they took no notice of either of these points, thus recommended to them, in any of their de- spatches to the lord lieutenant, which were constantly communicated to the committees of both houses for Irish affairs ; nor did they do anything at all therein till the 8th of February following, when the rebellion being in its greatest strength, they by public proclamation offered certain rewards to such as should kill or seize the per- sons of the principal and most inveterate rebels. When that was done, they in their next despatch (of Feb. 12) excused their not offering a general pardon, by the little effect which their proclamations of Oct. 30 and Nov. i had wrought upon the rebels. The former of these was chiefly intended to vindicate the crown, the parliament of England, and the state of Ireland from the rebels' false and seditious reports of being authorized or favoured by them ; and for the reclaiming of such as had been deluded thereby, and so had become involved in their guilt, a charge was given them to quit the company of those con- spirators, and to submit to his majesty's authority ; but without any positive and direct assurance of mercy. The latter indeed did contain a promise of pardon, but con- 220 fined in respect of place and persons, and limited to cer- tain conditions. It did not extend to Ulster, or to the rebels in any county of the kingdom, except in those of Longford, Lowth, Meath, and Westmeath, in the two last of which no body of the rebels had yet appeared ; only a parcel of loose, idle, disorderly, and needy rascals 58 Causes of the general defection III. 104 — liad committed some depredations, the usual prelude to a more open insurrectiou. Nor did it extend to all in those four counties ; all freeholders, all that had shed blood in the action, and all that were then in prison for any spoil or depredation, being expressly excepted. The time for the submission to be made was stinted to ten days after the publishing of the proclamation, and the goods that had been wrongfully taken away, and in con- sequence thereof dispersed into various hands, were to be brought back ; without the performance of which condition, and this within the time prefixed, no particular person could be entitled to pardon. The lords justices, who had never in any letter mentioned these proclama- tions, before they transmitted them thus by way of apo- logy for their omission of what was directed by so high an authority, imputed their want of success to the "in- veterate malionitv of the rebels and their adherents against the British and protestants, and to the hopes they had framed, that at any time, after much more spoil got- ten by them to the destruction of all the estates of the British and protestants, they might obtain a general par- don, and so sit down peaceably possessed of the wealth they had wickedly gotten." The world will judge whe- ther these proclamations were adequate to the evil, and intended to strike at the root of the rebellion, or whether they were a just excuse for not observing the directions of the English parliament. It is at least certain, that offers of mercy published under such an authority were likely to have a greater influence, than any that could be made by the lords justices, whose persons were unaccept- able to the nation, and whose designs were generally suspected ; and that a general pardon must in all reason be supposed to produce a much better effect, than could be expected from one which was restrained to a few in- considerable persons, and expressly excluded all men of estates and fortunes who had any interest in their country. -lO]. of the kingdom of Ireland. (1641.) 59 The Irish will ever follow in war the gentlemen on whom they are used to depend in peace ; several gentlemen, engaged in the insurrection, heartily detested the cruel- ties committed and encouraged by sir Plielim O'Neile and others of the rebels, and did all that was in their power to save and relieve the spoiled and imprisoned English ; but being once embarked, there was no retreat- ing without hopes of pardon. It is not easy to perceive any inconvenience that could have followed from such a general pardon to all gentlemen that had not been con- cerned in any massacre, murder, or deliberate act of cru- elty, not attended with bloodshed, (for plunder was ge- nerally the prey, as it was the bait to the common Irish,) nor does any reason appear, why such a defection of gen- tlemen from the body of the rebels should not produce that distraction of councils, that jealousy of one another, those thoughts of providing each man for his particular safety, that uncertainty, diffidence, irresolution, and con- fusion in all their actions and proceedings, among the Irish rebels, (under a ringleader of so little courage and conduct as sir Phelim, and unsupported by those foreign succours, of which he had given them assurance, and on which they had fully but in vain depended,) which have in the histories of all ages been found by constant experience to happen in the like case in all other re- bellions. 105 Whatever reasons the lords justices had to mislike this, it could not be improper for them (by whose advice and informations, as best knowing the kingdom, those in England were to regulate their measures) to suggest a better or some other method to suppress the rebellion already raised, or at least to prevent its spreading fur- 221 ther ; but they are entirely silent on this head in all their despatches. It was the great misfortune of Ireland at this time, and has been its cruel fate for some ages past, to be generally governed by persons, who, coming 60 Causes of the general defection of the kingdom. III. 105 — strangers thither, had no natural affection for that coun- try, nor any stake or interest therein. The Irish have suffered so long and so much in this respect, that if any nation upon earth liave reason to wish preferments to be confined to the natives, they certainly have ; and it is no wonder, that it was in these troubles so strongly insisted on, as necessary to remove the main source of all their grievances. It was an ordinary, and, in truth, a pretty sure way of raising a fortune for an Englishman, who wanted one in his own country, to transplant himself thither, and by some way or other of making interest, to get into some post of authority, (which it was not diffi- cult to do, the salaries of the best not being considerable, and the arts of improving the profit of them not well known in England, or, if they were, not very fit to be matter of choice,) and from thence at last into the privy- council, making in every i)art of his progress all the ad- vantages which the measure of his power could enable him to take, under pretence of concealed rights of the crown, forfeited recognisances, penal statutes, unperform- ed conditions, fraudulent grants, and defective titles, in a country where the prerogative was irresistible and unli- mited, and in an age when it was even ridiculous to have any scruple about the manner of getting into possession of Irish lands. Too many of the council, constantly re- sident in Dublin, and thereby having the chief hand in the management of affairs, were of this sort of men, and had this way of thinking ; and being now sure of support, and of reducing the whole kingdom, though all the force thereof was united together, were possibly the less con- cerned at the i)rogress of the rebellion and the increase of forfeitures, in which they at the helm could not fail of having a share, and were likely to make the most ad- vantage. 106 The parliament of Ireland had sat late in the past summer, expecting the transmission of bills, with the - 1 o6. Prorogation of the Irish parliament. ( 1 64 1 .) 61 graces promised by the king, from England ; and at last, tired out with the tediousness of the delay, and being uncertain of the return of their committees, the two houses had in the beginning of August, with the consent of the lords justices to continue the session till the graces had passed into acts, adjourned to the 9th of November. Parliaments had formerly, on less urgent occasions, and in times of more dangerous rebellions, been often called in Ireland : such rebellions were indeed (as sir John Davys observes) the general cause of holding them, in all ages, especially in the reigns of king Henry VIII and queen Elizabeth, when religion was the constant pretence of insurrections, and the houses were for the most part com})Osed of Roman catholic members. The lords justices now thought it improper for the two houses to meet"^, " for fear lest a concourse of people on that occasion should afford disaffected persons an opportunity of taking new counsels, when their former were in some part dis- appointed, and of contriving further danger to the state and people of Ireland :" and therefore by proclamation upon the first breaking out of the rebellion, had, without waiting for his majesty's directions, prorogued the parlia- ment to the 24th of February next following ; a proceed- ing contrary to the practice and received maxims of Eng- land, where rebellions are never conceived to be so dan- gerous as in the intervals of sessions of parliament ; and accordingly, sometimes when the danger hath not been generally evident, extraordinary measures have been taken for the security of the nation against any insurrec- tion at home, or invasion from abroad, in such intervals. This prorogation of the parliament gave a general dis- taste, particularly to the Roman catholics, who were like 222 to be the greatest sufferers thereby, and to lose the benefit of those graces which were intended for their particular k See their letter of Oct. 25 to the lord lieutenant, Nalson, vol. ii. p.518. 62 Prorogation of the Irish ^iarliament : III. 106 — relief. 'The legality of it VA^as called in question: some of the members that were lawyers, as Mr. Browne and Mr. Darcy, declared, that unless the two houses met the day to which they were adjourned, the parliament would be dissolved, notwithstanding the said proclama- tion ; and to prevent that evil, it was necessary that at least some small number of both should meet on the day to which the houses stood adjourned ; and then they might adjourn to the day fixed by the proclamation. This being a point of law, the lords justices consulted about it with the judges and some of the king's council, who were doubtful in the case ; but conceived, that such meeting and adjournment was the safest way to clear all disputes that might arise concerning the continuance of the parliament. Some of the committee of the house of commons that were lately returned out of England with the bills for the graces that had been there approved, and attended in Dublin to solicit the despatch of others which the state was ordered to transmit to be passed in form in the privy council of England, which had agreed to the matter of them, arraigned the expediency of the prorogation, as an obstruction to the graces so much de- sired by the whole nation, and so necessary for their sa- tisfaction in so distempered a time, and as an injury done to the kingdom, hindering them from expressing their loyal affections to his majesty, and shewing their desires to quell so dangerous a rebellion ; and proceeded so fiir as to say, that the nation ought to resent it, and complain to the king thereof, as a point of high injustice. Mr. Thomas Bourke, son of Mr. Walter Bourke of Turlogh, a gentleman of very good parts and judgment, a lover of his country, and well affected to the king's service, a friend and near relation to the earl of Clanrickard, (whose niece Lcttice, daughter of sir Henry Shirley by the lady ' See the lords justices' letter of Nov. 25, 1641, to the loid hcutenant, and sir J. Temple, p. 4. — 1 o; . debates about its meeting. ( 1 64 1 .) 63 Dorothy, the younger daughter of Robert earl of Essex that was beheaded, he had married,) and who much es- teemed him for his great abilities and unquestionable loyalty, and one of the members of that committee, ex- pressed himself very feelingly upon this subject to Robert lord Dillon of Kilkenny- West, son to the earl of Ros- common, a privy-counsellor, Mho acquainted the board therewith. JNIr. Bourke was presently sent for, and ex- pressed himself to the same effect, though with great modesty. 107 The council thereupon fell into a debate what was fit to be done, and how far it might be thought reasonable to condescend to the desires of the members of that committee. The earl of Ormond, the lord Dillon of Costelogh, and some others, were of opinion that it was fit to disannul the proclamation, and to give them leave to sit and continue the parliament according to the ad- journment in August. Besides the supplies of money which the commons might give, which would procure credit as soon as they were voted, and might be actually raised and collected (as had been done in the last year) by Dec. i, much sooner than they could be sure of re- ceiving them from another quarter, they urged the very ill condition of the whole kingdom in regard of the northern rebellion, which had already infected some coun- ties in Leinster, and was sjjreading into Connaught ; that all the nation was in great expectation of the graces, and would be strangely uneasy if they were not confirmed by parliament ; that the ill humours afloat made it dan- gerous to exasperate a people, and this prorogation might peradventure so irritate the pale, and have such an in- fluence upon Munster, as might raise them into arms, and so put the whole kingdom into a general combustion. By which means the rebels would receive a vast addition of strength, the war would be drawn into length, not to be ended without an infinite expense of blood and trea-223 64 Prorogation of the Irish parliament. III. 107 — sure, and time be given for the coming in of foreign sup- j)lies to the rebels, who would then be enabled to main- tain a war, though they were easily to be suppressed at present, if that work was but attempted. ^The earl of Ormond was so fully satisfied of the ease with which it might be done, that on this occasion he told the council that he would undertake to reduce them in a month, if they would but supply him with arms for such volunteers as would follow him, and give him power in his march to take up victuals in the country. But the lords justices and their party in the council voted strongly for the holding of the prorogation according to the time prefixed by the proclamation. The reasons which they alleged for this opinion were, that it would highly trench upon the gravity and wisdom of the board to alter a resolution taken there, and made known to the whole kingdom by proclamation ; and that it would be of dangerous conse- quence to bring a number of people to the city in such dangerous times ; that several of the protestant members for Ulster were dispersed, or so shut up or employed, that they could not repair to the present meeting ; and that therefore the Roman catholics (who peradvcnture might bring ill affections Avith them) would be superior in number and voices, and so carry all things according to their own humour. These reasons, founded chiefly upon mere jealousies and fears, for which there did not seem to be any just grounds, when so many Roman ca- tholic members were likewise absent, and there was no danger to be aj^prehended from such as were present, in a city whence all strangers were banished by proclama- tion, and in which there was now a garrison of four or five thousand men, did not satisfy the others; but upon a vote, the majority declared themselves for sticking to the prorogation. It w^as however thought proj^er that *" See Mr. Pat. Darcy's letter to lord Clanrickard, (Memoirs, p. 24^) received Nov. 17, and R. R. p. 198. 107- debates ahoui itii meethig. (1641.) C5 some endeavours should be used to make it jjalatable to those who were most averse to it, that they might be reconciled to it in some measure. And after a long de- bate of all particular circumstances, it was resolved that the earl of Orniond, sir John Temple, and sir Piers Crosby, all members of the board, should have a meeting with Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bourke, and some others of the most active and powerful members of the house of commons, and let them know from the council, that being informed of their good affections and desires to do something in the house that might tend to the suppression of the pre- sent rebellion, they approved very well thereof ; and though they could by no means absolutely remove the proroga- tion, yet they would comply so far for their satisfaction as to limit it to a shorter time ; and that at present they would give them leave to sit one whole day, in case they would immediately fall upon the work of making a pro- testation against the rebels ; and that they should have liberty (if they pleased) to depute some members of their own house to treat with the rebels about their laying- down of arms ; and that the council would be ready to receive whatever grievances those rebels had to complain of, and would transmit them over to his majesty for a speedy redress. Such was the result of this debate, which was finally determined in the interval between Nov. 9, when the two houses met, and the i6th of that month, to which, without entering upon any business, they had adjourned ; and was accordingly put in execution. The meeting was in the gallery at Cork-house : those of the house of commons were exceedingly troubled when they found that the council would not alter the jirorogation ; but seeing no remedy, they were forced to take up with what was offered, since they could not get what they de- sired. They were not without some hopes that the two houses when met in a body might by a joint address pre- vail with the state for leave to continue sitting longer, or VOL. II. F 66 Passages ifi parliament. III. lO; at least for shortening the prorogation to a nearer day than was proposed ; and that the treaty to be entered 224 into with the rebels, if it produced nothing to necessitate a speedy meeting of the parliament, might yet contribute something to prevent further mischief during the recess. Their hopes, which were faint enough in this respect, were however better founded in another : they thought that a sitting upon business would afford the two houses an opportunity of taking some measures for the satisfac- tion of the people, the safety of the kingdom, and put- ting a stop to the progress of the rebellion ; and that a representation to his majesty (which by the inflexibility of the lords justices was now the only method left them of redress) in the name of the whole parliament, would have a much greater weight than any that could be made by the members of either or both houses in their single capacity. In prospect of this advantage, they seemed at last to rest indifferently contented, and undertook to make the protestation in as full and ample manner as was desired, and that they would fall upon it immedi- ately, and make it the work of the whole day. 108 On Tuesday, Nov. 16, the lords and commons met in parliament, which was held in the castle of Dublin, the usual place of their assembly in those days. The garrison was put under arms, and the lords justices appointed a guard of musketeers to attend during the time of their meeting, not to infringe the freedom of the houses' de- bates, but to provide a remedy against their own fears. The houses were the thinner by reason of the proclama- tion for prorogation, which prevented the Munster and Connaught lords and gentlemen from coming up, and of the rebellion, which intercepted the rejjair of most of the bishops (except John Lesly, bishop of Rapho) and gentle- men of Ulster. They took immediately into their consi- deration the state of the nation, and the framing of a protestation against the rebels. Some debates happened -io8. Passages in parliament . (1641.) GT on this occasion : the lords justices were unalterably re- solved not to make an offensive w^ar, but to confine them- selves purely to the defence of Dublin and Drogheda till the arrival of succours out of England. This resolution exposed all the houses and estates of the lords and gen- tlemen in the country as a prey to the rebels ; and as well for this reason, as because, when they were enter- ing upon a treaty for healing of a breach, the doing of any thing to widen it did not seem very correspondent to the nature of that proceeding, and might raise doubts of the sincerity of their intentions, and so defeat one great end proposed by it, that of gaining time till they were better armed to resist the rebels, and in a condition of suppressing them by open force, it was not thought advisable to irritate them unnecessarily. There was rea- son on the other side to fear, that if they were not de- clared rebels, such an omission would be interpreted a seeming approbation of the insurrection. Rejecting there- fore some more virulent expressions, that could not pos- sibly do any good, and only served to inflame, (which some persons out of an unadvised heat or worse designs proposed,) they contented themselves with declaring them rebels in such words as the law adopts in indictments of treason, the charge of which, if couched in terms less of- fensive than some people wished, was yet expressed with as much force and clearness as was needful in the pro- testation. The two houses declared therein, " their de- testation and abhorrence of the disloyal rebellious pro- ceedings and abominable actions of the persons, ill-af- fected to the peace and tranquillity of the realm, who, contrary to their duty and loyalty to his majesty, and against the laws of God and the fundamental laws of the realm, have traitorously and rebelliously raised arms, and seized upon some of his majesty's forts and castles, and dispossessed many of his faithful subjects of their houses, lands, and goods, and have slain many of them, and com- F 2 C8 Passages in parliament. III. 108— niitted other cruel and inhuman outrages and acts of hos- tility Mithin this reahii ; and that they shall and will to their uttermost power maintain the rights of his majesty's crown and government of this realm, and the peace and 225 safety thereof, as well against the persons aforesaid, their abettors and adherents, as also against all foreign princes, potentates, and other persons and attempts whatsoever ; and in case the persons aforesaid do not repent of their actions, and lay down arms, and become humble suitors to his majesty for grace and mercy in such convenient time and in such manner and form as by his majesty or the chief governors and council of this realm shall be set down, they further protest and declare, that they will take up arms, and will with their lives and fortunes sup- press them and their attempts in such a way, as by the authority of the parliament of this kingdom, with his majesty's or the chief governor's approbation, shall be thought most effectual." 109 The two houses joined likewise in an ordinance (which they ground on the petition of the rebels of the county of Cavan to the lords justices, which hath been before recited) empowering the earls of Antrim and Fingall, the viscounts Gormanston, Moore, and Baltinglas, the lords Slane, Dunsany, and Lambart, with the bishop of Kilmore, sir Charles Coote, sir Piers Crosby, sir Richard Barnewall, sir Luke Fitzgerald, sir Lucas Dillon, sir James Dillon the elder, sir Christopher and John Bel- lew, INIr. Nicholas Plunket, Mr. Richard Belling, Patrick Barnwall of Killbrue, Hugh Rochford and other com- moners, (first receiving directions and authority from his majesty or the chief governors and council,) to confer with the rebels in Ulster and other i)art8, touching the causes of their taking arms, and such other matters as they should be so directed and authorized to confer about, (the rebels being charged to abstain from all hos- tilities during the said conference,) to report all matters — III. Passages in parliament. ( 1 64 1 . ) 69 to his majesty, the council, or the parliament, and to proceed therein according to the king's pleasure, or the council's directions. 1 10 These things, so necessary in the then situation of af- fairs, could not be despatched in one day ; so that they continued sitting the next, to the great uneasiness of the justices", whom both houses desired in a very earnest manner to allow them a longer session ; but in vain, meeting with a peremptory denial. Failing in this re- quest, they presented another, which the justices had before promised in general to grant ; and they urged with much earnestness, that the prorogation might not be to so long a time as Feb. 24. The justices, impatient to get rid of them, seemed to comply a little in this respect, and on the lytli at night prorogued them to Jan. II, resolving however at the same time that they should not meet at that day ; and accordingly in their next despatch (of Nov. 22) they desired to have the opinion of the judges and king's council in England, whether the Irish parliament being once prorogued may not again be prorogued by proclamation before they sat ; or whether it was of necessity that they must sit again, and the parliament to be prorogued the houses sitting. 111 The parliament, offended as they were at the conduct of the lords justices, did not yet forget what they owed to their country ; and though they had reason to com- plain that they were debarred from taking effectual mea- sures to suppress the rebels, and in so critical a time not allowed to express, as they Avished, their duty to the crown, and their affections to the king's service and the peace of the kingdom ; yet wishing the good Avork to be done at any rate, and by any other hands as well as by their own, their resentment against the justices (of whom they had an ill opinion enough) did not carry them so far as to keep them from contributing what " Lords justices' letter, Nov. 25. 70 Passages in parliament. III. m — they could, in the hurry of so short a meeting, to enable those their governors to do it. Both houses therefore 226 joined in ordinance empowering the lords justices and council, " to raise the posse of what counties they saw fit ; to make a speedy levy of forces as well for the defence of his majesty's crown and dignity, and the per- sons and estates of his majesty's faithful subjects, as for the opposing and suppressing of the rebellious disturbers of the general peace and quiet of the land ; to continue on foot such a convenient number of armed men of horse and foot, during the present troubles and distem- pers of the realm, and under such commanders, as the several counties should respectively agree to ; and to assess, collect, and levy, as equally as they could, money for providing arms and ammunition, and for such com- petent maintenance for the support of the said horse and foot, in every of the said counties respectively, and in such manner and form, as every and each of the said counties in their discretions should think fit, whilst they should continue in their proper counties respectively." 5 During these two days, the houses not trusting en- tirely to their protestation and order for a conference, which however they hoped might pacify matters for a time, considered likewise of more effectual methods to quell the rebellion, to prevent its growth, to remove the discontents of the nation, and restore the peace of the kingdom. They drew up their sentiments on this sub- ject, in a representation to his majesty ; and in certain instructions given by a committee of their body, to Thomas viscount Dillon of Costelogh ; Avho was charged with presenting it. This nobleman had been one of the lords' committee sent into England, and was a member of the privy-council of Ireland, a protestant, a man of very good parts, and great activity, generally beloved and esteemed, well affected to the crown, and very ac- ceptable to his majesty, who had lately received and 113. Passages in parliament. ( 1 64 1 .) 71 treated him with great marks of esteem and kindness*'. When he was chosen to carry this representation, it was proposed in the honse, that a request shoukl be added to it in his favour, tliat he might have the mihtary com- mand of the four counties as yet remaining untainted in Connaught ; but the earl of Ormond opposing it, as in- consistent with the patents, which the earl of Clan- rickard had for the government of the county of Gal- way, and the lord Ranelagh for the rest of that province, it was only recommended in general, that he might have some command or other in those parts, where his power and interest were considerable. 113 What was the substance of this representation and of these instructions is not so well known, both instruments being taken and suppressed by the parliament of Eng- land. There is no doubt to be made but that they chiefly related to the establishment of the graces, and contained certain advice about the proper methods of quelling the rebellion, which were not agreeable, either to the interest or views of those who presided in the government of Ireland, or who were leaders of the fac- tion tl](^t governed in the house of commons of Eng- land ; though we may be well assured, they were such as could not be excepted against, nor wrested to an ill sense, so as to found thereupon any aspersion against the king, or to raise any clamour against the papists. If this had not been the case, there is no doubt, but when they came into the hands of that faction, they would not have been concealed so carefully as they were ; but would rather have been made the subject of debate in the house, and published as usual to the world, with comments proper to foment the jealousies and distrac- tions of the kingdom of England. They probably con- tained some truths, which it was not for the purpose of o See Mr. Bourke's letter to lord Clanrickard in his Memoirs. 72 Passages in parliament. HI. 113 — that faction, or the interest and credit of their Irish friends, to have known to his majesty and the public ; as certainly they did great complaints against the lords 227 Justices, whose removal was strongly recommended. For one particular therein we have undoubted evidence ; and if all the other methods proposed were as proper for re- ducing the rebels as that was, there will be no grounds of objecting to the reasonableness of them. They de- sired that the government of Ireland might be put into the earl of Ormond's hands, in whose love of their coun- try they were as well satisfied, as his majesty was of his fidelity and affection to the crown ; if this step were taken, and the other methods pursued, the fears and uneasiness of the nation would be removed, and the re- bellion soon suppressed, for which they would be answ^er- able with their lives and fortunes, even though (as the lords justices say was contained in these instructions) no help was sent them from England for that purpose. There is no doubt but this Irish parliament might have given the king supplies sufficient to reduce the rebels, and they offered it, if they might be allowed to sit ; a less force than what they raised before against the Scotch covenanters would have done the work ; and as to their inclinations, there did not then appear any rea- son to suspect them ; for the i)arliament was composed of English families ; there had been a great animosity between them and the old Irish ever since the conquest, kept uj) by acts of hostility in times of war, and not yet extinct ; not one gentleman of estate of English race had yet joined the rebels, but all in general ex- pressed an abhorrence of their proceedings ; the old Irish were the only persons concerned in the rebellion ; their fury fell upon the English plantations and improvements, as well as their persons ; and their constant and public declarations were, that they would extirj)ate all the Eng- lish (without distinction) out of the nation, and take — 114- Passages in parliament. (1641.) 73 the government of it into their own hands. But if this offer had taken place, the lords justices would have lost their power, and been defeated of the gains they pro- posed by the forfeitures of rebels ; the king would have been enabled to restore the peace of one of his realms without a slavish and fatal dependance on the English commons for their assistance ; and the faction in that house would have been deprived of all those means of distressing his majesty, and of providing for an insur- rection in England, which the Irish rebellion and the management of that war afforded them. 114 To prevent these inconveniences and obstructions to both their schemes, the lords justices had recourse to their friends in the English commons, by an agent sent on purpose to negotiate with them, and in a private despatch under the charge of secresy to the earl of Lei- cester, the lord lieutenant, signed by themselves, and those of their junto in the council. There were then in Dublin several other members of the council, who used to join in all the public despatches sent to the lord lieutenant, (which were usually communicated to his majesty, as well as to the committee of the two houses ■of parliament,) and several of them had signed the de- spatch of the night before, which was sent away in the same packet, with the private letter dated Nov. 26, of which I am now speaking ; but the justices did not think fit to consult with them on this occasion. Those absent members of the council had made a vigorous effort to save their country from ruin, in pressing for the parliament to meet, and continue sitting, to take proper and effectual measures to restore its quiet; and though they were overpowered by numbers, or over- ruled by power, yet the weight of the reasons which they alleged in the debate had given great trouble and uneasiness to the justices, who resolved for the future to transact all their private affairs and intrigues without 74 Passages in parliament. HI. [14- their concurrence or knowledge. As the justices in this letter insinuate things to the prejudice of those noble and honourable persons, (by the reason or justice of which we may see what credit is to be given to their suggestions in other cases,) it will not be improper here to give a list of their names. They were, sir Richard 228 Bolton, the lord chancellor, Lancelot Bulkeley archbi- shop of Dublin, the earl of Ormond, Anthony Martin bishop of Meath, John Lesly bishop of Rapho, (who passed through Charlemont the very morning that sir Phelim O'Neile surprised that castle in his way to Dub- lin, and maintained a company, both officers and soldiers, all the war against the rebels at his own charge, till the execrable murder of king Charles,) and Robert lord Dillon of Kilkenny West, afterwards earl of Roscommon, sir Gerard Lowther lord chief justice of the common pleas ; names and characters so well known and esta- blished, that the reasonable world will be apt to suspect there was some vile design carrying on by those who would not consult them, rather than from such a mean suggestion imagine any thing injurious to the memory of persons, whose virtue, integrity, public spirit, and zeal for the rights of the crown, and the good of the pro- testant religion, appeared in the whole course of their lives. 115 The justices in this letter tell the lord lieutenant, " that though by their late public despatches, they had given his lordship advertisement of occurrences, yet some other things were needful to be made known to him, which (say they) we could not safely mention in that despatch ; whereby you may, in some degree, perceive a part of our misfortune, that we cannot (even at the council-l)oard) open ourselves with that freedom which becomes the duty and loyalty of faithful servants and counsellors to the king our master ; which we crave leave to impart to your lordship under that secresy, I 1 6, Passages in parliament. (1641.) 75 which, from a person of so great honour and wisdom, we have reason to expect, and who (we hope) will so dispose of this private advertisement, as not only to pre- vent inconvenience to the peace and future safety of the kingdom, being that we aim at, but also prejudice to our persons, who (in our zeal to the future good of the kingdom) expose ourselves to this danger." 116 They go on to tell him, "they had received informa- tion, that the lord viscount Dillon of Costelogh, em- ployed by the lords house of parliament to repair into Scotland to attend his majesty, either carried along with him, or was to have sent after him a writing, signed by many papists of the nobility and gentry of Ireland, im- porting (as they were informed) a profession of loyalty to his majesty, and offer of themselves by their power to repress the rebellion, without aid of men forth of England, or to some such purpose ; which, if there be any such, his lordship, though a member of the board, had not communicated to them the justices. But if the lord Dillon's private instructions or his own counsels should tend in any sort to stay the succours intended to be sent out of England, or to possess his majesty with a belief that the lords or others could raise sufficient forces to reduce the kingdom to its former peace and tranquillity, they crave leave to say that those noblemen and gentlemen misunderstand the nature and height of the rebellion, and the proposition would prove unhappy and dangerous to England as well as Ireland ; and de- clare their opinion, that without forces from England the English in Ireland would quit the kingdom, and the rebels would gain the point which they principally aimed at, namely, the total and final extirpation of all the Eng- lish and protestants ; and then the sole power and sway in all magistracy must be put into the hands of the Irish, which would enable them at their pleasure to shake off the English government ; and considering like- 76 Passages in parliament. III. ii6 — wise, that the estates and fortunes of any subjects (how specious soever their undertaking might be) could not (in their judgment) counterbahmce the evils that would fall on the kingdom by staying the supplies, they hoped the state of England would not, to save a little charge, expose both kingdoms to the unhappiness which might arise from embracing the proposition. For the charge 329 (far from being lost) would be abundantly recompensed, not only in a firmer peace (which would be for the strength and safety of England) than ever yet was set- tled there, and in reducing the kingdom to civility and religion ; but also in raising a far more considerable revenue to the crown, than formerly, out of the estates of those that were actors in the present mischiefs ; and if they had an army of some strength, some of the old English would be fit to be employed, and would doubt- less fight well for suppressing the rebellion, though till they were so strengthened they could not judge whom to trust." And then conjuring his lordship again to secresy, recommend to him the bearer Richard Fitz- gerald, esq., whom they desired him to hear at large, as a person who had long experience there, and was able to inform his lordship in many particulars very needful to his knowledge at that time. 117 This Mr. Fitzgerald had been one of the committee sent over by the Irish commons, to assist the faction in the house of commons of England in their prosecution of the earl of Strafford ; and being there acquainted with the leaders, was now sent to negotiate and settle mea- sures in concert between them and the lords justices ; for which purpose he resided after this constantly in London, attending the committee for Irish affairs, receiving from them, and comnumicating to the justices, such secret advices and directions, as were not proper for a public despatch, nor fit to be imparted to the whole council. This letter was signed by the lords justices, and by the -1 1 8. Passages in parliament. ( 1 64 1 .) 77 lord Lambart, sir Adam Loftus, sir George Shurley, sir John Temple, sir Francis Willougbby, sir James Ware, and sir Robert Meredith ; all either of the cabal with the lords justices, or depending upon them by their offices, which, their estates being wasted or seized by the rebels, was all that they had to subsist on in these times. The justices were the more solicitous to prevent any credit being given to the notion that there was force enough within Ireland to reduce the rebels, not only because it was the judgment of the earl of Ormond, and the best and most experienced officers in the army, as sir William St. Leger and sir Henry Tichburne, (which was a great countenance to W'hat they imagined lord Costelogh was charged to represent on that head,) but also because they found by advertisements out of England that it was the opinion of many there. To guard against it, they in all their letters insist on the deference that ought to be paid to their own judgment, who were intrusted with the state, and knew best the circumstances of the kingdom ; and urge the necessity of sending over, not only ten thousand foot and two thousand horse from England, but (what was still more odious to the Irish nation) ten thousand men also from Scotland ; a necessity which they do not support by any fact or reason, but merely by their fears of future possibilities. 118 After the letter above cited, and Mr. Fitzgerald's being- sent to make it by his solicitations the more effectual, nobody will be surprised at lord Dillon's fate. He em- barked (says sir John Temple) a few days after the pro- rogation, in order to go for England ; but being driven by a storm as far as Scotland, landed there, and making all the haste he could to London, was (with lord Taaffe who accompanied him) seized on the road at Ware by order of the house of commons, all his papers taken away, and the persons of the two lords secured. They remained in custody several months, till it was of no consequence 78 Passages in parliament. 111. ii8 — to keep them longer in restraint ; and then being negli- gently guarded, they made their escape, and went to the king, who was then at York, too late to offer a remedy, when the rebels were strengthened with foreign supplies, and the rebellion was become in a manner universal. 119 Of all the causes which concurred to make it so, no- 230 thing contributed so much to it, as this prorogation of the parliament, and the obstinate resolution of the lords justices not to allow the two houses to sit. They were in all times the natural resource in all the difficulties and distresses of the nation, and the likeliest power to take proper measures for the good of a kingdom, in whose welfare their own was involved, and to find out ways for removing discontents, pacifying disturbances, and restor- ing the peace and tranquillity of the country. The mem- bers which composed the houses were persons of the most considerable estates and the greatest credit in their several counties, that never could propose to make a for- tune by the rebellion, (as the lords justices and many of the council might,) and in truth did not need it : but as they had all much to lose, and a great part of them (being under the lash of penal laws, and subject to every hard- ship, which the suspicions, or views of those in power could put upon them) had much to fear from a rebellion and the consequences thereof, they could not in reason be deemed improper persons to be advised with about the means of suppressing one. The very appearance and credit of their declaring against it, attended with resolu- tions and measures to suppress it, would have been of great use : at least the supplies of money, which they might have given, would have done great service ; and according to the methods of applotting and raising them then practised in Ireland, might have been depended on with more certainty, and collected with greater expedi- tion than any that were expected, or to be remitted, out of England. There were scarce five members, and those — 120. Passages in parliament. (1641.) 79 only of the old Irish, concerned in the rebellion : there was no reasonable ground to suspect the rest, or to ima- gine that they would not, to clear themselves from such suspicion, exert their power on this occasion with a zeal, which, whether real or feigned, would have equally con- tributed to relieve the great necessity of the state, which was want of money. Every body knows, and experience has sufficiently shewed, the great advantage and power which the discovery of a conspiracy gives a government ; and as the two parties of Roman catholics and puritans were before pretty equally balanced in the house of com- mons, the servants and officers of the crown being able to turn the scale, there is no doubt but the justices might with ease have carried in parliament every thing that was really for the service of the crown, and proper to ex- tinguish a rebellion, when none (if there were peradven- ture any that secretly favoured it) durst openly oppose any motion that was made for those ends. Nothing is so easy at all times, and nothing was a more common cover for ill designs in that age, than to pretend fears and jealousies : but surely these were never alleged with a worse grace, than by the justices in the case of the sit- ting of a parliament, under a guard of their own appoint- ment, and in a garrison, where the persons of the members were as so many hostages, for their own good behaviour, for the peace of the country, and for the obedience of their relations and dependants. 120 There never could be stronger and more pressing rea- sons for the sitting of a parliament than there were at this time. For to say nothing of the rebellion, the graces lately granted by the king, and so much desired by the nation, which arrived in Ireland too late to be passed in the last session, were to be enacted in this, and were ex- pected with great impatience, by the merchants, who were to be eased in the rates of customs and licenses of exportation ; by the gentlemen, for the security of their 80 Passages in parliament. HI. 120 — estates against the avarice and rapine of needy ministers and projectors (by which they liad been plagued and ha- rassed for forty years past) ; and indeed by all sorts of men throughout the nation, who were in one respect or other to find relief, convenience, and advantage thereby. The late clamours about grievances had quickened every body's sense of them ; they were uneasy every moment till they were redressed, and to disappoint them in the 231 height of their eager expectations was enough to make them furious and desperate, and could not fail of produc- ing more mischiefs and real dangers than their fears could suggest of imaginary ones to arise from any other cause. The justices, if they knew the state of the nation, (as they insisted in all their despatches that they did better than any body else, or even than the parliament itself,) could not but know this ; and if they had any regard to the service of the prince by whom they were intrusted, or to the welfare of the kingdom over which they pre- sided, they would have taken some care to prevent the ill consequences which must otherwise necessarily follow from a prorogation, so contrary to the desires of parlia- ment and the sense of the nation, and from a disappoint- ment of the body of a people in matters of great import- ance and general concern, at a time when the fire of rebellion was broken out, and there was so much pre- disposed matter in all parts to catch and spread the flame. Instead of taking this care, they dismissed the parliament without saying a w^ord about the graces, or giving them the least comfortable assurance, to keep up some faint and distant hopes in the nation of their being passed in another session. Such an assurance, though they never intended to make it good, might have answered the end for which they proposed a conference with the rebels, and was in truth the more likely means of the two to gain them time till the arrival of succours out of Eng- land. The graces, those especially which limited the 121. Passages in parliament . ( 1 64 1 . ) 81 king-'s title to sixty years, and confirmed tlio gentry in the possession of their estates, could never be agreeable to any selfish minister, because they prevented those pre- tences of defective titles, by which such ministers had generally amassed wealth and obtained grants of estates in Ireland ; but the justices (though in their letters to the king they had actually remonstrated against them) might have given some such assurance or hopes of passing them in another session, without a greater breach of sin- cerity than they were guilty of in agreeing to a shorter prorogation, and fixing it to PJan. 1 1, when, on the night before this was done, they had brought them, by sir Thomas Lucas, the king's directions (pursuant to their own advice) for proroguing the parliament to the latter end of February or the beginning of March ; which they forbore to impart to the two houses. 121 The breaking up of the parliament in such a manner, and the strange aversion which the lords justices had shewn to its sitting at all, threw a great part of the na- tion into despair. The Roman catholics, with too much reason, gave over all expectation of the graces, nobody doubting but that the present rebellion would be made a pretence to defeat them of the benefit thereof, and ])ro- bably to lay them under further pressures. This worked and stirred up ill humours to the farthest part of the kingdom : it required all the earl of Clanrickard's pru- dence and credit to keep his own county of Galway quiet. He saw the mischief likely to ensue, and, like a faithful servant of the king's, assured the gentlemen that they might depend on his majesty's goodness for extending the benefit of the graces to all that continued loyal, and kept free from the guilt of rebellion. He applied to the king by the canal of Mr. Secretary Vane, and the media- tion of other friends ; and his majesty readily transmitted P Lords justices' letter, Nov. 22. VOL. II. G 82 Passages In parliament . HI. 121 the desired assurance under his own hand, to be published in the country. Had the justices taken the same method, or given the like assurance at their prorogation of the jiarliament, much of the evils which followed so soon after might have been prevented. But their neglect in this respect, and their other proceedings, hurried people into desperate courses, before his majesty's declaration on this head, (dated Dec. 1 8,) occasioned, not by the ad- vice of the justices, but by this information of lord Clan- 232 rickard, could reach Ireland ; for, by the slowness of the conveyance, his lordship did not receive it till the loth of January. The justices received it likewise, together with his majesty's positive orders to publish it ; which (whether they disapproved the thing, or thought such a grace improper to proceed out of their own mouth, or for some other reason) they caused to be done by sir Maurice Eustace, speaker of the house of commons, at the prorogation of the houses on Jan. 1 1 following. 2 The rebels, wdio w^ere ^before disheartened, resumed new courage upon this conduct of the justices : Roger More, who was with colonel Brian Mac JMahon, at the head of a body of about two thousand five hundred, (not the third part of them armed,) about Atherdee and Dun- dalk, saw very well the advantages thereby offered them, and no longer questioned the success of their affair. To these, as the most advanced of any party of the rebels, the deputies of parliament, appointed by a commission under the great seal, were sent to enter upon a treaty : but they, grown insolent by the prospect of those advantages, received the commissioners very coldly, tore the order of parliament and the letter sent them in a contemptu- ous manner, and returned a scornful answer, refusing all overtures towards an accommodation. The justices had likewise employed some Roman catholic priests to a like 1 Sir H. Tichburne's letter, Nov. 1 1, to the earl of Ormond. — 123- Passages in parliament. (1641.) 83 purpose, but with as little effect, the rebels now not doubting but that, in the universal discontent given by the late proceedings, they should carry the whole king- dom before them. 123 To make all possible use of this circumstance of the nation, and to curry fkvour with the discontented, Roger More (much the wisest man of his party, and the chief director of their counsels) persuaded the Irish to refrain from their declarations against the English, and put the whole merits of their cause upon the subject of religion, which was in danger of being extirpated, and the pre- tence of which was the likeliest means, as well of gaining the Roman catholics of English race, as of procuring them succours from foreign princes, whose catholic zeal might prompt them to send assistances for the defence of it in Ireland, at a time when they had no interest of their own to induce them to encourage insurrections in the dominions of a prince in amity with. them. For this purpose, he framed an ""oath of association, to be first taken by all his followers, and sent over the kingdom to draw in others by the inoffensive appearance of the mo- tives upon which they acted, and of the ends proposed in that combination ; which was to be followed by an insur- rection, for the preservation of their religion, and defence of his majesty's rights and prerogatives, and the just liber- ties of the subject. This, with a specious declaration, published about the same time, and assigning the like motives for their taking arms, had a wonderful effect in conciliating the minds of the Roman catholics of English race, whose rooted aversion to the old Irish was in a good measure diverted by their resentment of the mani- fest jealousy expressed of them by the state, the recent provocations they had received, and the greater hardships they dreaded from that quarter, and was at last quite got over by the common danger of their religion ; which '■ Clan. Mem. pp. 88, 89. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 901. G 2 84 Measures of the English parliament III. 123 — (they thought) as in a sinking vessel, called upon all hands for their assistance to preserve it. 124 Lord Clanrickard had early foreseen, and earnestly laboured to prevent, these inconveniences. He had, on Nov. 14, wrote to this purpose into England, and had solicited his brother, the earl of Essex, to use his care, power, and interest with the parliament to prevent or redress any sudden declaration, grounded upon reports, that might cast an aspersion or imputation upon the 233 loyalties or consciences of any of his majesty's faithful subjects in Ireland, in a time of general service ; the first proclamation of the state at Dublin having struck a deep and sad impression in the minds of men, and nothing being like to prove so fatal, as the doing any thing to countenance the notion of this being a M^ar of religion. 125 This wise and honest advice did not suit with the schemes of the faction in the English parliament ; it was their interest to have it thouoht in Enofland a war of re- ligion, and to have it kept up till they had inflamed their own nation, and put themselves in a condition of raising an insurrection there. With this view, and upon occa- sion of the rebellion of the old Irish, they fell with new fury upon the English Roman catholics, as if they had been confederated therein ; making the orders, and exe- cuting the severities, which, having been mentioned al- ready, need not, for the most part, be recounted here. Yet it cannot be improper to take particular notice of one or two of them, which had a more immediate rela- tion to the situation and aifairs of Ireland. 126 There was not in that kingdom a more powerful body of men than the Roman catholic lawyers. The noblemen and principal gentry of that religion, not being cai)able of offices of trust and power in the state, generally bred up their younger sons in that profession ; who thereby were enabled to raise considerable estates to themselves, and being, in proportion to their cniinency in the pro- — 126. affecting Ireland. (1641.) 85 fessioii, consulted by all tlie noblemen and gentlemen of their religion, had a general acquaintance and a great in- terest with them ; to which the dignity of their families, the mutual relations between the great houses of that country, and the opinion conceived of their knowledge, experience, and wisdom much contributed. These gen- tlemen of the law had for many years been passion- ately desirous of two things ; the one, a liberty of plead- ing at the bar without taking the oath of supremacy; the other, the having of some inns of court erected at Dublin for the education and instruction of young gen- tlemen in that profession, that they might not be at the expense of passing some years in England to learn the knowledge and practice of it. The whole nation in a manner joined with them in a desire of these privileges ; and the king, among his late graces, had indulged them in the first point ; and when they were full of hopes to see that grace established by law, the late prorogation and the proceedings of the lords justices made them ut- terly despair of it. Instead of having any hopes of the other, they found themselves entirely debarred of any education at all in the way of the law, even in England, by the late order of the English parliament for tendering the oath of supremacy to all Irishmen in the inns of court and chancery at London, for expelling all that re- fused it, and admitting none for the future that would not take it. This order affected all the considerable fa- milies in Ireland, and deprived them of the only means hitherto allowed them of providing for younger children in their own country, as well as of the best advisers, whom they could consult for defending the titles of their estates against the flaws which rapacious ministers and projectors were perpetually finding therein. The lawyers themselves, though naturally averse to war, yet not being allowed to exert themselves in parliament for the speedy suppression of it, seeing now no other way of obtaining 8G Measures of the English parliament 111. 126- tlie graces for which they had contended in the house of commons, and which they had solicited at court with some effect, as they once thought ; and despairing of what they so much wished, did not exert their power and credit to keep the gentlemen from having recourse to (what they imagined was) the only method of redress now left them in the way of arms; but some of them earlier, others later, engaged in the rebellion ; and though they did not take upon them military commands, or enter into action in the field, were very serviceable to the rebels in form- 234 ing the model of their government, and became the lead- ing members of their supreme council and general assem- blies, still retaining their inclinations to peace, and pro- moting it as opportunities offered. ^27 Their power lay chiefly among the gentry of the king- dom ; the common people were more under the influence of the Roman catholic clergy ; and these the English house of commons had given reason to apprehend every thing that is dreadful to human nature. They had caused the laws against recusants to be put in execution all over England ; and though what was done in other parts might be little known, yet what passed in London could not fail of being public. Eight Roman catholic priests had been there taken up for saying mass, and the proof fail- ing as to one, the other seven were condemned. The king, averse to the putting of any man to death merely for religion, had reprieved them. The commons were offended at it, and made loud clamours upon this subject against his majesty, whom they pressed to sign the warrant to have all the eight executed, not knowing that one of them was acquitted at his trial. The French ambassador interceded in their behalf^ and desired they might be only banished ; which at this time he conceived to be good policy, considering the commotions of Ireland, and the desperate courses such a ten-ible severity might occa- sion there. But neither that, nor the consideration of • — 12 7- affecting Irela nd. (1641.) 87 foreign protestants, who were alike at the mercy of the laws in several popish countries abroad, could stop the fury of the commons, who, after a debate upon the re- quest of the ambassador, passed a vote (in which they desired the concurrence of the lords) that execution should be done upon five of them, whom they particu- larly named. *^The lords thereupon desired a conference, to know the reasons that induced the commons to be of opinion that five should be executed and two saved. The commons, in a strange sort of fury at the lords' hesita- tion in the matter, instead of giving them reasons, de- sired them to join in a petition to his majesty that all the seven might be executed ; and insisted so strongly on it, that the lords complied ; and nothing would satisfy them till the king had left them to their mercy, to order the execution whenever they saw fit. If the persecution of Romish priests was pushed on with so much fury, and proceeded to such cruel extremities in England, where the Roman catholics were universally quiet, and too weak to be dangerous, where no disturbances had happened from them, nor was there the least pretence (but what mere imagination or wicked policy suggested) to fear any, what treatment less than extirpation could the Irish Ro- man catholic priests expect, in a country where they had an absolute power over almost nine parts in ten of the people, and where a bloody rebellion was broken out, and already imputed to them, though not above two or three of their number appeared to know any thing of the con- spiracy ? When men have every thing to dread in peace, and much to hope from a war, it is natural for them to choose the latter, and use their utmost endeavours to make it successful : nor is it any M'onder that those priests, in such a situation of affairs, should have recourse to arms for the safety of their lives, and despairing of an indul- s Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 731, 736, 740. 88 Measures of the English parliament HI. 127- gence in quiet times, should seek in troublesome ones for an establishment, never to be obtained but by the ]ire vailing force of an insurrection. i-'S They could not want arguments to persuade their flocks to engage in it ; the English commons had by their vio- lent proceedings against the papists in England furnished them very plentifully in that respect ; and as if all that hath been already mentioned on that subject was not enough, Hhey now took occasion from the Longford letter (which, as hath been said, was presented to the council 235 of Ireland on Nov. 10, and transmitted to the lord lieu- tenant) to pass a vote that no toleration of the Romish religion should be allowed in Ireland ; and to get the house of lords to join with them in an address to the king that he would make a public declaration to that effect. However convenient such a declaration might be for their purjwses in England, it was certainly very un- seasonable with regard to Ireland, whore it could serve to no other end than to inflame matters, to countenance the new pretences which the rebels had taken up to put a gloss on a rebellion, begun by the descendants and re- mains of the old rebels of the mere Irish to recover the forfeited estates of their ancestors, and rendered detest- able to all the world by a thousand acts of inhumanity and horror; to make it, in a word, be thought (what all good men, who did not wish the desolation of their country, would fain have avoided) a war of religion ; which notion, however odious the rebellion had been in its beginning, would hallow it so in its progress, that ca- tliolic princes might deem it not unworthy of their en- couragement, and the bulk of the Irish nation be drawn in to support it as a common cause, wherein the con- science of every man was concerned. ^-9 These violent proceedings of the Knglish parliament t Nalson, vol. ii. p. 737. — 13°- a fecting Ireland. (1641.) 89 caused the Roman catholics generally to apprehend a formed design of extirpating them, unless they would re- nounce their religion. It was an age of fears and jea- lousies, credulous passions, which readily swallow all re- ports that flatter them without examination, and are kept up by the force of imagination, rather than by the light of reason. An infinite number of reports were continu- ally flying about, and alarming the Roman catholics with the danger of their religion, and the design of an extir- pation ; which the more easily found credit, by reason of those undoubted facts already mentioned, which gave too much countenance to that notion, and were too public to be either unknown or denied. Letters, in consequence of these reports, were written and sent, of a like tenor, either suggested by the fears of the writer, or invented out of artifice, to drive people to the extremest counsels and desperate methods of defence and relief. Speeches were thrown out by persons of figure and power in public assemblies, either insinuating or expressing the like ter- rible design ; all which, whether arising from a furious zeal, violent passion, or wicked policy, could not, in the circumstances of the Irish nation at that time, but work powerfully upon the minds of the Roman catholic gen- tlemen, and, when they saw no other present means of safety and redress left, move them to take that which w^as already offered of an insurrection. 130 ^Thus a letter was intercepted, coming from Scotland to one Freeman of Antrim, giving an account, " that a covenanting army was ready to come for Ireland, under the command of general Lesly, to extirpate the Roman catholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots sole possessors of that province ; and that to this end a resolution had been taken in their private meetings and councils to lay heavy fines upon such as would not appear at their kirk for the " Ireland, vol. i. p. 453. 90 Measures of the English parliament III. r 30- first and second Sunday, and on failure the third, to hang without mercy all such as were obstinate at their own doors." Tliis notion (as appears from a multitude of de- positions taken before Dr. IT. Jones and other commis- sioners) prevailed univei-sally among the rebels, and was chiefly insisted on by them as one of the i)rincipal rea- sons of their taking arms. "^It was confidently averred that sir John Clotworthy, who well knew the designs of the faction that governed in the house of commons of England, had declared there in a speech, " that the con- version of the papists in Ireland was only to be effected by the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other;" 23(5 and Mr. Pym gave out, " that they would not leave a priest in Ireland." To the like effect ''sir William Par- sons, out of a strange weakness or detestable policy, posi- tively asserted before many witnesses, at a public enter- tainment in Dublin, " that within a twelvemonth no ca- tholic should be seen in Ireland." He had sense enough to know the consequences which would naturally arise from such a declaration, which, however it might contri- bute to his own selfish views, he would hardly have ven- tured to make so openly and without disguise, if it had not been agreeable to the politics and measures of the English faction whose party he espoused, and whose di- rections were the general rule of his conduct. 131 From that quarter (and probably with a design of making the insurrection general) came originally those suggestions of extirpation, which I have seen expressed in pamphlets printed at that time in England, stuffed with falsehoods to serve the parliament cause, and in which, })y a villany ordinary in those days, the names of men of quality and reputation were impudently made use of, without their knowledge, to gain credit to the rela- tions. r)f this sort was the pretended letter of Richard V Nalson, vol. ii. p. 536. "■ lb. p. 5 i-,;. -132. affecting Ireland. (1641.) 91 lord Dungarvan, afterwards earl of Cork and Burlington, (a nobleman of great merit and irreproachable conduct, and very far from any cruel or oppressive counsels,) to sir Arthur Magenis in London, but wrote by one utterly ignorant of the affairs of Ireland, and ]niblished by John Hammond, in which it is affirmed, "that perpetual war was to be expected in Ireland, and that country would never be free from insurrections, except all papists were banished the land, and that kingdom inhabited by other British subjects, that were protestants." To the same source does the king ascribe them, when he says in his excellent book, in the chapter upon this subject, that " certainly it was thought by many wise men, that the preposterous rigour and unreasonable severity which some men carried before them in England, was not the least incentive that kindled, and blew up into those horrid flames, the sparks of discontent which wanted not pre- disposed fuel for rebellion in Ireland ; where despair being added to their former discontents, and the fears of utter extirpation to their wonted oppressions, it was easy to provoke to an open rebellion a people prone enough to break out to all exorbitant violence, both by some principles of their religion, and the natural desires of liberty, both to exempt themselves from their present restraints, and to prevent those after-rigours, wherewith they saw themselves apparently threatened by the co- vetous zeal and uncharitable fury of some men, who think it a great argument of the truth of their religion to en- dure no other but their own," 132 Having thus seen what the Irish Roman catholics had to fear if they remained peaceable, it is proper to con- sider what they had to hope from an insurrection. In this point nothing struck their imagination so much, or filled it so constantly, as the late example of Scotland, where the covenanters had gained all their desires by a rebellion ; and the king, notwithstanding his real zeal 92 Measures of the English j^arliament III. 13: for religion, and his known affection to the constitution of the church of Eng-hind, had been forced to consent, not only to the abolishing of the liturgy, but to the sub- version of episcopacy itself; they had observed "^ that this compliance of his majesty had raised such an expectation in England, that he intended at his return to alter thq ofovernment of that church, and reduce it to the Scotch form, that he was forced by his letter of Oct. 1 8 to as- sure his own servants that he would be constant to the discipline and doctrine of the church of England, and resolved to die in the maintenance thereof. They had seen all the cruel outrages and newfangled reformation 237 of the covenanters so well approved by the house of com- mons in England, that with an inhumanity, not usual in that nation, they had made^ an order, that none of the episcopal clergymen so divested of their livings, plundered, and in other respects barbarously treated in Scotland, should be admitted to any benefice either in England or Ireland. They knew the Scots' design to labour with all their might the establishment of their covenant and pres- byterian constitution in both those kingdoms, and that, however averse the king might be to such an innovation, the English faction were obstinately resolved to intro- duce it ; and a petition, after the late Scotch fashion, full of bitter, but general invectives, unsupported by any par- ticular fact, against bishops, had been presented to the English commons, received and printed in the name of some thousands of the protestant inhabitants of the coun- ties of Antrim, Down, Tyrone, and other parts of Ulster in the kingdom, ])raying in express terms the utter extir- pation of episcopacy ; to which, for rendering it the more odious, the popish ])relacy and hierarchy w\as joined. When the church of England was to be destroyed, they thought they had as fair pretences for getting an esta- * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 683. >' Rushworth, vol. iv. p. 153. ■133- affecting Ireland. (1641.) 93 blishment in Ireland as the covenanters had in Scotland ; and as the king had already sacrificed Scotland, to be the better able to oppose his enemies, and support the church in England, they vainly hoped he might be forced to sa- crifice Ireland too for the same reason ; and that the par- liament, in order to carry their schemes (on which they were violently set) in the former kingdom, might be the more indifferent as to what was done in the latter. Hence they fancied, that by following the Scots' example, they had reason to expect, if not an establishment which those had obtained, yet at least a repeal of the penal laws, 2 Eliz., which inflicted fines upon such as did not con- form to the liturgy, and disqualified all persons from pre- ferments that would not take the oath of supremacy ; the former of which affected the Roman catholics of all degrees, as the latter was the great grievance of such men of quality and estates as were recusants. 133 They had seen the king, in his late visit to Scotland ^ confirm all that the covenanters had done aoainst his authority ; make the lord Loudon, the principal manager of the rebellion, chancellor of that kingdom ; confer honours on their generals and others who had fought against him in the field ; dispose of preferments and dig- nities on persons, not according to their merit, but the capacity and ability they had in doing him mischief, and (whilst his faithful servants and subjects were barely suf- fered to live, upon the condition of not coming near his presence) give all the lands of the church, which had de- volved to him by its ruin, to those rebels who had most contributed to that ruin ; to whom he had made, as it were, a deed of gift of that kingdom, and left the dis- posal of the chief oflfices and places of trust and honour. This encouraged tbe Irish Roman catholic gentlemen to hope, that by a like rebellion, they might obtain the like 2 Clarendon, vol. i. book iv. par. 46. edit. 1849. 94 Measures of the English parUament III. 133- ad vantages, and if they did not get the government of the nation so absolutely into their hands, they might at least prevail for a capacity of being admitted to offices of trust and honour, to which their quality and fortunes in the kingdom entitled them, and which they so passion- ately wished, that they thought no grievance so insup- portable, as their present legal disqualification for those offices, and the being reduced to the necessity of living always in a private condition, liable to be taken up at the will, and subject to the control and dominion of others, who were naturally their inferiors. 134 These hopes, which were much strengthened by the distracted condition of the kingdom of England at this time, by the extremity of the weather in a season of the 238 year which seemed scarce to allow the sending of any forces or supplies from thence till the spring, (by which time they might well expect succours from abroad,) by the shameful backwardness which the Scotch parliament had openly shewed, when so earnestly pressed by the king to lend their assistance for the immediate suppres- sion of the rebellion, and by the resolution, which that body had formally taken, to do nothing therein without the concurrence of their brethren in the parliament of England, who were carrying on matters with so much violence and to such extremity against the king, that all the reasonable world already apprehended it would end at last (as soon after proved to be the case) in an open rupture and rebellion there, were great encouragements to the body of the Roman catholics of Ireland to embark in the insurrection '. The rebels confidently gave out, that no succours would be sent from either of those kingdoms to the state of Ireland, and the strange delay in sending them did but too much countenance that notion. This, with the manifest signs of fear shewn in ' Lords justices' letter to the earl of Leicester, Dec. 14, 1641. — 134- affecting Ireland. (1641.) 95 the proceedings of the lords justices, in their not allow- ing either the earl of Ormond to raise an army, and take the field against them, or sir H. Tichburne ^ to attack an advanced party of Irish, that lay secure and half armed at Atherdee, though he urged it as an enterprise attended with little or no hazard in the attempt, and very easy in the execution ; in letting ^ a company of the common, loose, naked Irish, spoil and waste the country under their very nose and in the neighbourhood of Dublin, where all the strength of his majesty's army was, without so much as attempting any thing against them ; in their obstinately resolving not to make an offensive war, and confining all their care and views solely to the defence of Drogheda and Dublin, gave such spirits to the rebels, that though they were not able to maintain their ground in the north, against the small bodies that were got together under colonel Chichester, lord Montgomery, sir W. Cole, sir Ralph Gore, sir William and sir Robert Stewart, they yet drew down a considerable force towards the south in order to form the siege of Drogheda. Their numbers struck terror into all parts whither they ad- vanced, and the country, being forced to submit to them wherever they came, still added to those numbers. The county of Lowth was the most exposed of any to their fury, and the three hundred arms assigned to Mr. John Bellew, high sheriff and knight of the shire, for the de- fence of it, had been recalled by the state before they were delivered to him, so that it lay entirely at the mercy of the rebels who overflowed it. The gentlemen thereof, banished Dublin by three successive proclamations, on pain of death, and ordered to repair to their own houses, unable to make resistance, and seeing not any even the least prospect of relief or succour, opened their defence- less habitations to the enemy; which gave the lords a Sir H.Tichburne's letter to the earl of Ormond, Nov. 1 1. b See Collection of Letters;, No. XXXVIII. 96 The rebels advance to Drogheda, and defeat HI. 134 — justices '^occasion to com})lain, " that the rebels were har- boured and lodged in the gentlemen's houses of that county, as freely as if they were good subjects." This correspondence, however necessitated it was at first, involving them in the guilt of rebellion, according to the rigour of law, which they had no reason to think would be relaxed on account of their unhappy situation by any favour or tenderness they might hope from the then government, made the gentlemen in general, and the high sheriff in particular, to join with the rebels, and put the fate of their persons and fortunes upon the issue of the rebellion, 135 This detached body of the northern rebels appeared on Nov. 21 in sight of the town of Drogheda, within four miles of it, presuming (as was imagined) upon some party 239 within the place. Sir H. Tichburne^, governor of Drog- heda, had the week before sent a party of fifteen horse and twenty-two foot to Mellefont, (formerly an abbey of Bernardino monks, founded by Donagh O'Carrol, prince of Ergall about a. d. i 142, but then an house of the lord viscount Moore's, three miles from the town,) as well to secure that place from the incursions of roving parties, as to keep abroad continual centinels and scouts, that might inform him of the rebels' motions. His orders were not well observed, nor this party so vigilant as they ought to have been; for on the 21st the rebels on a sud- den encompassed the house, and (after the soldiers' pow- der was spent) took it with the loss of some one hundred and twenty of their own number, (among which were Owen Mac ]\Iahon and another captain,) and eleven of the soldiers, with most of the arms. As the Irish were breaking into the house on all sides, the troopers, causing the great gate to be opened, sallied out, and opening themselves a way through the body of the rebels, got c In their letter to the earl of Leicester, Nov. 22, 1641. ^ See his letters to the earl of Ormond, Nov. 22 and 23. 137- the forces sent to succour the place. (1641.) 9'' safe with the rest of the foot soldiers sore wounded to Drogheda. 136 The lords justices had on the 20th given orders for sir Charles Coote to march with a small party to Navan, for the safety of those parts ; but having the next day from sir H. Tichburne advice of the rebels' approach to Drog- heda, they assigned him his own regiment and two troops of horse for that service ; and ordered commissions to be given out for making a new levy of four regiments (con- sisting each of one thousand men under the command of the lord Lambart, sir Charles Coote, sir Piers Crosby, and the earl of Ormond) and four independent companies of foot. Sir Henrys in case he was to wait a siege, desired orders for burning all the corn and houses on the north side of the town, in order to deprive the enemy of so much food, and the conveniency of warm lodging, ima- gining that their being exposed to the bare fields, without tents to cover them, would be a great abatement of their courage ; but conceived it still more advisable to join all the forces together in one army, and to fight the re- bels in the field. The justices did not care to run the hazard of a battle ; but ordered a body of six hundred foot under major Roper, and fifty horse of the earl of Ormond's troop, commanded by sir Patrick Wemyss, to reinforce the garrison of the placed The foot were raw- men, lately raised, for the most part out of the despoiled English, and undisciplined ; but however were as well trained as the enemy, and much better armed. The earl of Ormond, taking a view of them before they marched, did not like their countenances, nor think them a fit con- voy for the ammunition and provisions sent for supply of the town ; but the justices would not revoke or alter their order. 137 They began their march on Nov. 27, the same day on e See his letters of Nov. 23 and 25. ^ See Collection of Letters, Nos. XL. and XLI. VOL. II. H 98 The rebels advance to Drogheda^ and defeat III. 137- which Philip Rely, having joined the rebels with four thousand men from the county of Cavan, jDassed the Boyne with his forces ; of which the governor of Drogheda sent immediate intelligence. They were ordered to be at Drogheda the next night, and sir Henry Tichburne^ sent to them to hasten their march, assuring them that he would be ready to meet them with other succours, if need required. Accordingly on Sunday the 28th, in the afternoon, he drew out a party, and advanced to meet them ; but failing thereof, returned to his place and charge, having received intelligence that the enemy in- tended to assault the town, either that night or by break of day in the morning. The officers who connnanded the succours could not prevail with their men, by any entrea- ties and promises of reward, to march any further that night than Balrudery, (a village seven or eight miles short of Drogheda,) being there informed that the enemy 240 lay in their way and intended to fall upon them that night. In their march the next morning, the lord Gor- manston sent sir P.Wemyss word, that the rebels were with a body of two thousand foot and five hundred horse at St. Julian's toAvn-bridge, three miles from Drogheda. Upon this advice sir Patrick despatched several scouts towards the bridge, who all returning with an account that there was no enemy at all there, the party con- tinued their march with great security to the bridge, no enemy appearing to disturb it. But they were scarce got a quarter of a mile beyond it, when they discovered first ten of the rebels' horse, and soon after their whole body marching towards them in very good order, seem- ing to make about three thousand horse and foot. Their horse consisted of five troops, three armed with lances and two with pistols ; they had also two fieldpieces with them. Majjor Christopher Roper, a brother of lord Balt- S Sir H. T.'s letters of Nov. 27, 28, 29, and sir Pat.Wcmyss tothe earl of Ormontl, Nov. 29. '3'^- the forces sent to succour the idace. (1641.) 99 inglas, commanded the party of recruits ; who, when they first discovered tlie rebels, were marching in a dirty lane, with a deep ditch on each side of them ; but neither he nor the other captains of foot had ever been in any for- mer command, or had any experience of war. Sir P. Wemyss advised them to draw their men out of that in- convenient place into a field adjoining, where they might fight with advantage ; which they did, and disposed them in pretty good order. Sir Patrick drew up his troop in their front, and undertook to begin the charge, in which they promised faithfully to second him. The rebels marching towards him in five large bodies of foot, sup- ported with horse on each wing, he caused his trumpet to sound a charge, and advanced to meet them ; but the foot, without firing a shot or striking a stroke, quitted their officers, threw down their arms, and betook them- selves to their heels. Sir Patrick did not observe this, till his troopers, who were old soldiers and gallant men, called out to him to take notice of the flight of the party which he expected to support him. In this situation he had nothing to do but to wheel off, and make good his retreat to Drogheda; which, all the country thereabouts being enclosed ground, was not to be done without great difficulty. He made it however in good order, and brought all his troop safe thither in a body, except two men, whose horses falling lame, they could not keep pace with the rest, but came in afterwards. The loss of the foot was not great, there being scarce an hundred of them missing, their flight being favoured by a fog, in which major Roper and the captains W. Cadogan and Charles Townsley made a shift to get to Drogheda ; but the rebels took more arms than they had before among all their forces, and a considerable quantity of powder and other ammunition, of which they were in great want. 138 Sir Henry Tichburne having waited in vain for the attack which he was advised would be made upon the H 2 100 The rebels advance to Drogheda, Sfc. TIL 138- towii that morning, as soon as the scouts which he had sent out for intelligence returned, and brought him word that the enemy were marching in a strong body athwart the country, drew immediately out of Drogheda with a party of six hundred foot and the greatest part of his horse, in order to meet the reinforcement designed him. But he was scarce got a mile from the town, when he met several of the scattered soldiers, that had escaped from the rebels, and gave him an account of the defeat they had met with about two miles farther. Sir Henry understood that the rebels' forces much exceeded his own in number, yet presuming he should find them secure and careless after their victory, he still advanced towards them, seeking them up and down in the thick mist, which as it had helped the enemy to come on a sudden, and almost undiscovered, upon the other companies, so it now served them for a shelter and means of retreat from his. Not able to find the rebels, he returned with his party to Drogheda, to provide for the defence of the place, which was the next day invested on all sides. 139 The reputation which this success gave the rebels was 241 of wonderful advantage to them, and added prodigiously to their numbers. The Irish no longer doubted of their being able to take Drogheda, and to march down with all their forces united to the siege of Dublin. A com- pany of foot, consisting of one hundred men, one of the three which had been raised in Kildare for the defence of that county, and armed at the request of the country out of the stores at Dublin, took occasion a day or two after the news to revolt to the rebels, and carried all their arms with them ; their captain, Mr. Nicholas White, son of sir Nicholas White of Leixlip, being the only per- son left to carry the unwelcome advice of it to the state. This example was followed by others of those companies, and by an infinite number of particulars, who ujion the rebels assuming to themselves the style of the catholic 1 40- Delay of succours from Eioglatul. (1641.) 101 army, and pretending that they had taken arms purely for the defence of their rehgion, which was in imminent danger of being extirpated, deluded by those pretences, embarked with them to the number of several thousands in the cause; though (as the lords justices imagined) " many of these joined with them for no other reason but because they saw succours expected out of Great Britain deferred, rightly judging, that without those succours the state was neither able to defend itself or protect them." Great numbers of the ordinary Irish in the counties of Westmeath, Meath, and Kildare, taking advantage of the troubles to gratify their natural passion for rapine and plunder, had already got together in small scattered par- ties, and pillaged their neighbours, making incursions even within six miles of Dublin, without any opposition from the state, who never sent out a party of forces to repress their insolence and stop their depredations ; and, encouraged by this impunity, the meaner ])eoi)le of the county of Dublin began now to stir, to fall upon their neighbours, and enrich themselves by their plunder. 140 The lords justices ** had resolved to keep themselves entirely on the defensive, and to attempt no enterprise till their succours arrived out of England. Every letter which they wrote, either to their lord lieutenant or to the parliament of England, was full of terrible accounts of the extremity to which they were reduced, and of the strongest instances for the hastening over of immediate supplies, without which it would be impossible for them to subsist ; and that those supplies might be at least one hundred thousand pounds in money, and in men ten thousand foot and one thousand horse, which were ab- solutely necessary, unless they had a mind to j)rotract the war, which would be attended with an infinite ex- pense of blood and treasure. These representations had '' Lords justices' letters to the earl of Leicester, Dec. 3 and 14, 1641. 102 Delay of succours from England. III. 140- little effect upon the English commons, whose views it answered better to make a mighty bhister in their votes of what they resolved to do, than to send them actually any real and effectual assistance. They had indeed on Nov. 1 1 resolved ' " to send ten thousand foot and two thousand horse out of England for the relief of Ireland, and to desire likewise the assistance of their brethren of Scotland for ten thousand men in the same service, whereof one thousand only to be sent presently, and the rest at such times and in such manner as should be agreed upon by articles and conditions of both parlia- ments, accordino' to future occasions." But thev were in no haste to execute what they had thus resolved with regard to the largeness of the supplies, or indeed to send over any at all ; though they had been told over and over, that the least delay would give such encouragement to the rebels, and those who secretly favoured them, that the rebellion would necessarily spread, and become at last universal. The earl of Ormond, who had nominally the command of the army, but could do nothing without leave from the lords justices (who made use of him only as a canal to convey their orders to inferior officers) see- 242 ing how matters went, earnestly pressed the lord lieu- tenant to come over without delay ; and taking occasion from the vote here mentioned, recommended to him some officers (who had served in the late army which had been broke in Ireland) to be employed in that body of forces, which, at that distance, he really imagined were raising in England pursuant to that vote. The earl of Leicester (in his answer'" of Dec. 4) informs him of his mistake, and tells him, " that though he had no doubt of the worthiness of those persons whose names his lordship had sent him, yet he did not sec how it was possible for him to accommodate any of them with emjdoyments fit ' Nalpon, vol. ii. p. 626. •< B. p. 78. — 14'. Sir C. Cootes expedition into Wicklow. ( 1 64 1 .) 103 for them, unless the state of Enghiiid should think tit to make more levies; for as yet (says he) there are but two regiments to be raised here, one for sir Simon TIarcourt, and the other for myself, the officers and cai)tains of which are all taken out of the king's late army ; whereof many more offered themselves, and could not have been refused, being recommended by their own abilities and by the king's good opinion of them, if there had been room for them. He adds, that this was in a manner all the force that was to be raised at that time in England, except another regiment, which was as yet only intended to be raised under the command of sir Charles Vavasour for the service of Munster ; but all the officers of those troops had been chosen and resolved on there a good while before." 141 'The lords justices, after having sat still too long in a vain expectation of supplies from the English parlia- ment, and having borne, with a patience that had too much the air of fear, the continual insults offered to their authority by the ravages of a tumultuary rabble in the very neighbourhood of Dublin, were at last necessitated to make use of the army assembled there ; and on the same day that the six hundred men began their march to Drogheda, they ordered sir Charles Coote to march from thence with a body of troops for the relief of the castle of Wicklow, which was besieged by the rebels, and in danger of being taken without present supplies. This he executed with success, the rebels upon his approach re- tiring to the mountains ; and the town being left at his mercy, he in revenge of the spoils committed upon the English in those parts, put, without distinction of sex, several persons to death, whom the Irish pretended to be innocent, but ho alleged to be actually guilty of those spoils. 1 Sir J. Temple, p. i 7. Letter of lords* justices to the lord lieutenant, Nov. 2 7, 1641. 104 Sir C. Coote made governor of DMin. III. 142 — 142 In the meantime the news of the rout of St. Julian's town-bridge arriving at Dublin, caused a general conster- nation and great disorders in the city ; the English in- habitants were so strangely dismayed, and the disaffected party so highly raised in spirit and courage, that it was apprehended by men of good sense, if the commanders of the rebels had followed their blow, and instead of amus- ing themselves and employing their army in the siege of Drogheda, had drawn all their forces together, and marched straight to Dublin, they would, by means of the jiresent distractions in the place, and of the forward af- fections which they would have found there, have in all probability made themselves masters of the city, and been able in a short time to force the castle to surrender. In this distress, the justices sent for sir Charles Coote back with his forces, who immediately returned, having in the way routed Luke Toole, who attacked him with one thousand Irish in his march, and was made governor of Dublin, which he applied himself very carefully to secure. ^43 The place was but sorrily fortified, for the suburbs, which were large, had no walls about them ; and the city- wall, having been built above four hundred years, was now very much decayed, and had no flankers on it, nor places whereon the garrison might stand to fight. Sir Charles was a soldier of fortune, had served when he was very 243 young in the wars of Ireland against Tyrone, and by various projects wherein he engaged, and by grants of wardships and of concealed lands in the province of Con- naught, &c., had raised to himself an estate of four thou- sand pounds a year. He was a man of courage and ex- perience, but very rough and sour in his temper; and these qualities of his nature being heightened by a recent sense of the very great damages he had sustained from the rebels in his forges and estate, put him upon acts of revenge, violence, and cruelty, which he exercised on all occasions with too little distinction bctM'een the innocent — 145- Defection of the Enqlish pale. (1641.) 105 and the guilty, and which, however acceptable to the lords justices and terrible to his enemies they rendered him, were generally distasteful to all wise and good men, that wished the welfare and peace of the kingdom, and fur- nished the Irish too just an occasion of complaint against him. 144 It hath been already observed, that no one nobleman of the kingdom, or any estated gentleman of Enghsh race, engaged in the rebellion, or joined with the rebels in action, till the month of December ; for as to those gentlemen of the county of Lowth who submitted to them before, being unable to defend themselves, or to make resistance, they had not yet appeared in action. The rebellion till then had been carried on by the mere Irish, and confined to Ulster, to some few counties in Leinster, and that of Ley trim in Conn aught : but the beginning of that month opened another scene, and laid the foundation of a more general insurrection, in which a great part of the nobility, and almost all the Roman catholic gentlemen of English race throughout the king- dom, first or last, were involved. The steps by w^hich this was brought about, and the manner in which the lords and gentlemen of the pale (who made the first defection) came to be engaged in the affair, is a proper subject of inquiry, and well deserves a particular relation. 145 The rebels, after their victory on Nov. 29, increased exceedingly in their numbers, so that in a very few^ days their forces about Drogheda, and between that place and Dublin, amounted to twenty thousand men. The lords and gentry of the pale, una1)le to resist so vast a body, that were entirely masters of the field, kept themselves quiet in their own houses, to which they had been order- ed by the lords justices to retire, not thinking it prudent by a weak and fruitless opposition, and acts of hostility, to provoke an enemy that could destroy them in a mo- ment, and take ample vengeance on their persons as well 106 Defection of the English pale. ITT. 145- as estates, since they were on pain of death forbid a, re- treat ill Dublin. In tliis condition they remained, when the lords justices on Dec. 3 directed their letters to divers of the nobility who were nearest to them, (most of the English pale,) acquainting tliem that they had immediate occasion to confer with them concerning the present estate of the kingdom and the safety thereof in those times of danger, and requiring them to be at Dublin for that end on the eighth day of the same month. 146 This summons alarmed several of those noblemen, who lying most exposed to the enemy, could not hinder the rebels entrance into their houses, or the paying of them contributions, and had thereby been guilty of a corre- spondence which in the eye of tlie law was criminal, (though unavoidable,) and exposed thein to the penalties of high treason, if they were to be judged with rigour. The reason assigned for convening them at that time appeared very suspicious, because of the jealousy which the justices had always expressed of them ; and there was no reason to imagine that their jealousy could be less, when their fears and danger were greater ; or that they were now ready to take their advice, when they had rejected it before, though given in concurrence with others of unexce])tionable characters, and warranted by the authority of ])arliament. It appeared very strange and unaccountable, that those very persons who had about a fortnight before thought the abode of these lords 244 in Dublin dangerous and incompatible with the safety of the state, and in consequence thereof had banished them from thence, should now, by a sudden turn of sentiments and conduct, invite them thither to be consulted with for the safety of that state. Hence it was easily ima- gined that the summons was only an artifice to draw those noblemen to Dublin, and when they were there, to seize on their persons, confine them in an irksome prison, and perhaps prosecute them at law with a severity which — 147- Defeciiun of the English pale. ( ] 64 1 .) 107 might end in the forfeiture of their estates, the ruin of their families, and the taking away of tlieir lives by an ignominious execution. These apprehensions were much heightened by the ill opinion they had entertained of the lords justices, who (they firmly believed) hated their persons as well as religion, and had designs upon their estates ; which, having power in their hands to do what they pleased, and being restrained by no scruple about the means of doing it, they might very easily exe- cute. Thus the fears and jealousies of these noblemen, upon occasion of this summons, drove them into such extremities, as despair of mercy is wont to produce in those who have transgressed the strict bounds of duty, and know their lives and estates without it to be forfeited to the rigour of law. They resolved therefore not to ap- pear on the day appointed, when only the earl of Kildare, the viscount Fitz -Williams, and baron of Howth coming in, the justices thought fit to put off the conference. 147 The other lords met most of them on the 7th, and drew up a letter to the state, signifying " that they had heretofore presented themselves before their lordships, and freely offered their advice and furtherance towards the safety of the kingdom, which being neglected, gave them cause to conceive that their loyalty was suspected by their lordships ; and that they had received certain advertisement, that sir Charles Coote, at the council board, had uttered some speeches tending to a purpose and resolution to execute upon those of their religion a general massacre, by which they were all deterred from waiting on their lordships, not having any security for their safety from those threatened evils, or the safety of their lives ; and rather thought it fit to stand upon their best guard, until they heard from their lordships how they should be secured from those perils ; protesting however, that they were, and would continue, both faithful advisers and resolute furtherers of his majesty's 108 Defection of the English pale. III. r 47- service, concerning the present state of the kingdom and the safety thereof, to their best abilities." This letter was signed by the earl of Fingall, and the lords Gorman- ston, Shine, Dunsany, Netterville, Louth, and Trimble- stone, and sent to the lords justices, who received it on the 1 1 th of December, and thence suspected that the writers of it would rather join with the rebels than assist in suppressing them. The unhappy resolution taken of standing on their guard was a reasonable ground of such suspicions, because it must necessarily end in some treaty or other with the rebels, at least for their assistance, in case they were attacked by the state, or sent for by an armed force. i In the meantime, (on Tuesday, Dec. 7,) a i)arty of foot, being sent out into the neighbourhood of Dublin in quest of some robbers that had plundered an house at Buskin, came to the village of Santry, and murdered some inno- cent husbandmen, (whose heads they brought into the city in triumph, and among which were one or two ]>ro- testants,) under pretence that they had harboured and relieved the rebels, who had made im-oads and committed depredations in those parts. Hard was the case of the country people at this time, when not being able to hinder parties of robbers and rebels breaking into their houses, and taking refreshments there, this should be deemed a treasonable act, and sufficient to authorize a massacre. This following so soon after the executions which sir Charles Coote (who, in revenge of his own losses, and the 245 barbarities of the Ulster Irish, certainly carried matters to such extremities as nobody can excuse) had ordered in the county of Wicklow, among which, Avhen a soldier was carrying about a poor babe on the end of his pike, he was charged with saying, that he liked such frolics, made it presently be imagined, that it was determined to proceed against all suspected persons in the same undis- tinguishing way of cruelty ; and it served either for an — 149- Defection of the English pale. (1641.) 109 occasion or pretence to some Roman catholic gentlemen of the county of Dublin, (among which were Luke Netter- ville second son of the lord viscount Netterville, George Blackney of Rickenhore, and George King of Clontarf,) to assemble together at Swords, six miles from Dublin, and put themselves with their followers in a posture of defence. 149 This rendezvous was on the 9th of December; and the lords justices and council having advertisement thereof, and apprehending some mischievous consequences might thence ensue, immediately issued out their warrant, " commanding all persons there assembled, upon their duties of allegiance to his majesty, immediately upon sight thereof to separate, and not to unite any more in that manner without direction from the state ; and that nine of the principal persons so assembled should appear by ten of the clock the next morning at the board to shew the cause of their assembling in that manner." This warrant was delivered on the 10th, and the gentlemen, instead of obedience to their lawful superiors, returned an answer the same day to this effect ; " that they were constrained to meet there together for the safety of their lives, (which they conceived to be in no small danger,) being forced to forsake their houses, on the last Tuesday at night, by the rising out of some horse troops and foot companies from Dublin, who on the said night killed four catholics for no other reason than that they bore the name of that religion ; an act, as they conceived, no way justifiable, and of itself apt to strike fear and terror into all of that profession ; a treaty being then entertained by the army beneath, which, they expected, might have pro- duced an happy conclusion ; during which treaty they imagined no act of that nature, nor any such cause of distraction ought to have been given ; and having been before daily put into many fears by certain intelligence given them of unexpected attempts against their lives; 1 1 Defection of the English pale. 1 1 1 . 1 49 — and therefore tliought fit to signify thus mucli unto their lordships, desiring ardently to be some certain Avay as- sured by their lordships of the safety of their lives be- fore they ran the hazard thereof; which was the only motive that hindered them from manifesting that obedi- ence which they acknowledged to be due unto their lor B. 103. 118 Defection of the English pale. III. 157 — and fortunes for their majesty's service, which they should l)e ready to seal with their blood. This letter is signed by the earl of Fingall, the lords Gormanston, Netterville, and Slane, sir Richard liarncwall, Nicholas Darcy, and James Bathe of Acharn. 15^ They drew up at the same time a '^j)etition, and an "apology for their taking arms, both addressed to his majesty. In the former, they begged leave to lay be- fore his majesty the motives that constrained them to take up arms, and join with the forces of Ulster, fearing lest he should be misinformed by others, and conse- quently have a worse opinion of them than they de- served ; for if they had conceived, by the declaration published in that kingdom [by the Ulster rebels] of the causes and motives of the general commotion in it, that there had been any thing expressed therein to persuade or withdraw them from the duty or allegiance they owed to his sacred majesty, they would rather all of them have laid down their heads to the block than ever have done it. But finding nothing contained therein but the con- tinuance of their allegiance to his majesty, the maintain- ing and defending his royal prerogative, the free and public exercise of their religion, and the reformation of the grievances of the kingdom, this made them presume that his majesty would make no worse construction of them for what they had done than their loyalties and affections to his majesty deserved ; and no worse than his majesty had made of others of his subjects, who upon 250 less or the same occasions had done the like ; and though they were ready upon his majesty's command to them to lay down their arms, yet they hoped and humbly prayed, that, seeing their own loyalty and affections to his ma- jesty were as great as theirs, and their grievances full as great, if not greater tlian theirs, his majesty would there- t See Collection of Letter?, No. XLVl. " lb. No. XLVII. 159- Defection of the English pale. ( 1 64 1 .) 119 fore be graciously pleased to give them the like redress as he had given to the others, by a free parliament, in which they should certainly make appear to him how much they had been wronged and oppressed ; and to grant his royal assent to such things as that great court should conceive to be most for his majesty's advantage, the increase of his revenue, and the ease of his poor oppressed subjects ; which they humbly conceived would be the most powerful remedy to reduce the present dis- tempers into peace and quietness ; and in the interim to command the cessation of any hostile act on either side. 159 In their apology they insist on their petition, at the beginning of the Ulster insurrection, to the lords justices for arms out of the store at Dublin, (where there was sufficient provision for arming more than twenty thou- sand men,) their undertaking, if supplied therewith in a competent manner, to appease the present troubles with little expense to his majesty ; the conduct of the lords justices in rejecting this petition of theirs out of an inju- rious suspicion of their loyalty, though ample testimony had been given thereof by many descents, and the blood of their ancestors shed in abundance in former ages for the defence of the crown of England ; in denying them even arms for the necessary defence of their houses and persons, thereby exposing them to the mercy of the enemy, and in disarming all the Roman catholics of Dub- lin that had arms, at the same time that all the English and protestants of those parts had arms and weapons given them for their defence ; and many of these, though of mean condition, were employed, as commanders of companies, for suppressing the commotion in Ulster; whilst gentlemen of good quality, of the old English of the pale, who sued for the same favour or the like com- mands, were rejected, because Roman catholics ; the mur- dering of sundry loyal subjects, and even of sick persons, 120 Defection of the English pale. III. 159 — in their beds near Dublin and elsewhere, and the hang- ing of many by martial law without cause by sir C. Coote and others, under colour of paper warrants of the said justices, contrary to the fundamental laws of the realm ; the resolution of the state to waste all the country, with- out excepting any, especially near Dublin ; the justices' orders to their forces, to burn, pillage, and destroy the lands and goods of the best sul)jects, and their proclama- tion to burn all the corn within ten miles of Dublin, if not brought thither for supply of the army within ten days, a work impossible to be accomplished in so short a time ; the taking away of the corn of such as obeyed the said proclamation, and brought it to Dublin, upon the justices promising to pay them the market price, and pay- ing them nothing for the same ; the said justices' viola- tion of the public faith given by proclamation to gentle- men assembled for their omu defence, in sending, on the very day the proclamation was published, sir C. Coote to pillage and burn one of the said gentlemen's principal towns, houses, corn, and other goods, to the value of more than four thousand pounds, which, with the dis- arming of the Roman catholics of Dublin the day before the lords of the pale were to attend there according to the proclamation, gave them such cause of jealousy, that they did not think it safe for them to observe its con- tents, but continued to stand upon their guard, upon which sir C. Coote attempted to surprise them, (though they contained themselves within the bounds of the laws,) and burnt divers towns where they were quartered near Dublin; the protestation lately passed in parliament to 251 incense the Ulster Irish against them, and the resolution (if it had not ])assed in such terms) taken (as they were credibly informed) by the state to massacre such as op- ]iosed it, or at least to seize on their persons, and make them perpetual prisoners; the Ulster forces threatening to take away their lives and estates if they did not take ■ 1 6o . Defection of ike English pale. ( 1 64 1 .) 1 21 arms with them ; their own inability, being destitute of weapons, to resist them ; and finally their being now con- vinced by the late remonstrance, which the Ulster men had prepared to be presented to his highness, that they had taken arms as well for the defence and advancement of his royal crown, just prerogatives and rights, as for the general safeguard and preservation of the liberties, religion, possessions, estates, and persons of his faithful subjects the catholics of Ireland ; desiring his majesty not to take offence at their rising in arms ; but to vouchsafe them his protection from the cruel attempts and designs of the lords justices and the state against them, and to afford them just cause of laying them down, by ap})lying present and effectual remedies to their just grievances, and security to their estates and persons, whereby they might be enabled to perform that acceptable service to his highness and his crown, which their own duty and the many precedents of their ancestors bound them unto. 160 The gentleman by whom these instruments were to be sent, and who was to support them with a representa- tion of further grievances, was sir John Reade, a lieute- nant colonel in the late army, and sent over in 1639, (being an officer of good experience, and well acquainted with the state of Scotland,) with sir H. Bruce to assist the earl of Antrim in the diversion which he had under- taken at that time to make in Scotland, the vanity of whose pretences, and unfitness for the enterprise, he was then very serviceable in detecting. About the time of tlie action at the bridge of St. Julian's town, he had, out of regard to his wife's fears, (she being big with child,) retired with her to Plattin, the strongest castle in the country, leaving three children, with nine or ten more of his family, behind him in Drogheda. He would gladly have returned thither himself, but the Irish troops, which had encompassed the place round, would not suffer it. His being at Plattin, though he had never been a 122 Defection of the English pale. HI. i6o— musket shot without the gates since he came thither, gave occasion to some of his ill-wishers within Drogheda to suggest that he was with the Irish army, and to move that his effects might be seized. To vindicate himself from this calumny, to desire a protection for his goods, that they might not suffer in his absence, and leave, either to bring his children and servants out of the town, or to send them in provisions if they stayed there, he sent a vindication of himself to sir II. Tichburne, and wrote to the earl of Ormond on Dec. 20, telling him as a reason for his desire to remove his family thence, that the town was in great necessity for want of victuals, that it was blocked up both by sea and land ; that he did not conceive it to be tenable, and had heard by some, who conversed with the Irish, that they swore, if they took it by storm, they would spare none either in body or goods, and would put all the garrison to the sword ; recom- mending it likewise to his lordship's consideration how far it was fit to expose such a number of gallant men, and particularly sir H. Tichburne, who had carried him- self so well and nobly in all his actions, to so imminent a danger. This is the purport of a letter which the lords justices made use of afterwards to apologize for an extra- ordinary point of their conduct, and their barbarous treat- ment of that gentleman. 161 On the Wednesday following, (Dec. 22,) the lords and gentry of the county of Meatli, pursuant to the afore- mentioned summons of the sheriff, ^met at the hill of252 Taragh. Their first worlv was to make answer to the proclamation of the state, summoning the lords to appear in Dublin. This answer was brought ready drawn by the lord Gormanston, and having been presented by his lordship, and perused by some lawyers that were present, was signed by the seven lords. It was addressed to the lords justices and council ; and after taking notice of the ^ 2 Temple, p. 20. — 1 6 1 . Defection of the English pale. (1641.) 1 23 proclamation which concerned themselves, the other, which related to the gentlemen at Swords, and the vin- dication of sir Ch. Coote from uttering in their hearing any words tending to a massacre, the subscribers of it say (with greater politeness perhaps than sincerity) " that they sincerely believed their lordships did not hear the said sir Charles speak any such words ; that they never enter- tained a thought to the dishonour of the authority where- with their lordships were intrusted ; yet the bitter effects which followed were a clear proof of sir Charles his in- tentions against the professors of their religion, and a further motive to confirm them in the assurance that such words did issue from him ; that they beheld with no small terror the inhuman acts perpetrated upon the inhabitants of the county of Wicklow, (some whereof were dependants of their lordships,) the late massacre at Santry, and also Mr. King's house, and whole substance burnt by sir C. Coote on the 15th of the present, though by the proclamation he was required, with the like as- surance given to themselves of his safety, to appear the 1 8th ; that indeed they believed this an act independent of their lordships' commands, and therefore prayed them to consider how just grounds they had to fear the power of such a person, commanding the city wherein they were to appear, since he presumed to venture under their eyes, and without their directions, on such hostile acts against a gentleman who (for ought they knew) had obeyed their commands; and that this made them unwilling to lay their lives at his mercy, who preferred the execution of his own designs before the public faith. They further humbly entreated their lordships, that no sinister con- structions might be made of their stay, being ready to attend such commissioners as their lordships should ap- point, at such time as their lordships would })refix, and at such place, in convenient distance from the command and power of the said sir C. Coote, as their honours would 124 Reflections on the cause of III. j6i — be pleased to direct, whereby they might stand assured not to be made by him further examples of the breach of their lordships' words ; and that the commissioners to be named might be such of the lords of the council as were best estated and interested in the commonwealth of the kingdom, with whom, when they should meet, they would be ready to contril^ute the uttermost of their en- deavours, and the best of their advices for the advance- ment of his majesty's service, and the common peace of the kingdom ; assuring their lordships further, that their lives and estates were not so dear unto them as their loyalty and faith to his majesty, the least breach whereof was never liarl)Oured in their thoughts. 162 Such was the purport of the letter which the lords of the pale sent to the lords justices, who (in their next despatch to the lord lieutenant, on Dec. 28, say they) declined sending any commissioners, as thinking it be- low the king's dignity to descend to the sending commis- sioners to meet them without first receiving his majesty's directions therein ; and the rather because the high terms on which those lords insisted did not proceed from any true sense of public grief, or just occasion given them by the state, but from some other secret cause, and to bring about some end, which, whether matter of religion, or any thing else, they would make them know they should be disappointed of, and bitterly repent their high pre- sumption against the king's authority, if the succours, so long expected from England and Scotland, were but arrived. 163 The lords and gentlemen of Meath having returned zc^^ the aforesaid answer, proceeded to raise forces to support themselves in the measures wherein they had engaged ; lord Gormanston was declared their general in chief, Hugh Byrne lieutenant-general, the earl of Fingall gene- ral of the horse ; their army was to be raised out of the several baronies of that county, viz. eight soldiers out of — 164. the defection of the English pale. (1641.) 125 a ploughland, which was also to maintain them when raised. That of Dueleck was assigned to lord Gorman- ston, Skreene and Deece to the earl of Fingall, Slaue to the lord of that name, Navan to lord Trimbleston, Kells to lord Dunsany, Ratoogh and Duuboyn to sir Richard Barnwall of Crickestown, and Patrick Barnewall of Kill- brew. These had the appointment of captains under them in each district, and applotments were made of the proportions of corn and numbers of cattle to be furnished out of every part for the general provision of the army ; for the better supplying of which, all the ways to Dublin were blocked up, and the country people forbid to carry their corn thither. When they first began to take these regular methods for raising forces and supplying them is not mentioned by any writers of the time, who are sel- dom particular enough to specify the days on which very material transactions passed ; but when lord Gormanston's papers were taken in 1 643, and delivered by lieutenant Hatcher to the board, it appeared that his commission of general for Meath was dated Jan. 9, 1641, and that for the county of Dublin on the 25th of the same month. Thus was the pale gradually drawn in to join with the Ulster Irish, who had in all ages before been deemed their mortal enemies ; and to whom, notwithstanding all their fair pretences, several of the gentlemen who met at Taragh could not be so far reconciled as to join them ; but either quitted the country, or retired to their own houses, as lord Dunsany and others did. 164 I have been thus particular in relating all the circum- stances of this defection of the lords and gentlemen of the pale, (which was attended with a general defection throughout the kingdom,) as far as I have been able to discover them, in order to examine how far their pre- tences, or those of the lords justices, in the course of this affair, were founded upon fact, and to make some reflec- tions on the conduct of both. The reasons which the 126 Reflections on the cause of III. 164- lords justices thought fit to assign for theirs are contained in their letters of Dec. 14 and 28 to the lord lieutenant, in which they excuse the inhumanities complained of, as committed by sir C. Coote in Wicklow, by alleging, that it was always a disaffected part of the kingdom ; that the Irish septs there had joined in all former rebellions, and the Byrnes were engaged in this, and wasted the country about Dublin ; but own the fact of the execution of seve- ral persons by sir Charles's order ; of which they charge the woman as guilty upon whom the clothes of some of the plundered English were found, but say nothing par- ticular of the guilt of any of the rest; and it is with too much reason to be feared that sir Charles was not very scrupulous in distinguishing between the innocent and the guilty. They own the fact relating to Santry, but deny that sir Charles was concerned in it ; and indeed he was not there. They urge likewise that it was but a small matter, for only four persons were killed ; whereas many more would have been murdered, if a massacre had been intended ; the thoughts of which they detested, and conceived that the gentlemen of the pale might much more reasonably dread it from the northern rebels, who had been actually concerned in massacres, than from the state, who had always treated them with lenity. 165 As to the burning of Mr. King's house and town of Clontarf, they say it was done for the safety of the har- bour of Dublin, the fishermen upon the coast being all Roman catholics, disaffected, and concerned in depreda- tions both by sea and land. But to say nothing of the 254 charge being a little too general, the reason here assigned related as well to Raheny, Kilbarrock, and other villages thereabouts, as it did to Clontarf, and yet none of those were touched ; and though the securing of all barks upon the coast, and the bringing them to Dublin, might be necessary for the safety of the harbour, yet it is not easy to see how the burning of houses at land could be — 1 65. the defection of the English pale. { 1 641 .) 1 27 serviceable for that end ; especially that of Mr. King, who was invited to come to Dublin by a printed procla- mation dated the day before this expedition, was ordered, and probably published that very day, with assurance that he might safely "repair thither without danger of any trouble or stay whatsoever." I never could meet with this proclamation or manifest, as it is called ; but the justices alleged the safe-conduct to be couched in these terms ; and that it related purely to the persons of the gentle- men, and was no protection to their or their tenants' houses and goods ; whereas the gentlemen either really understood it, or were willing to interpret it, in a larger sense, so as to comprehend their estates and goods as well as persons. But surely the faith of a state is too important and sacred a thing to be left subject to dis- pute, or to depend upon niceties and ambiguities of ex- pression ; and in case any difficulty arises about these in instruments of safe-conduct, they ought (as in all acts of grace) to be taken in the most favourable sense that the words will admit of, for the benefit of the well-meaning accepter thereof. The words any trouble ivhatsoever carry with them a very extensive signification ; and if taken in a loose sense, the safeguard may be extended to contain in it an exemption from all molestation whatever, either in person or fortunes ; if the terms, in which the safe-conduct is expressed, be taken in a strict sense, they provided only for Mr. King's repair to Dublin, but gave no security for his return ; and even in his repair thither he might be robbed and stripped by the way, provided his person were safe ; but in this case the safe-conduct was deficient, and must be deemed ineffectual to the very purpose for which it was pretended to be designed. Such defects rarely happen but by design ; for men of sense know how to express themselves properly, if they please ; and as the business was to remove the jealousies enter- tained by Mr. King and others, the safeguard could not 128 Reflections on the cause of III. 165 — be expressed in too explicit and determinate words, neither capable of doubt nor liable to mistake. Whether the justices intended to take advantage of those defects is out of the power of any body to determine ; but it seems natural enough to think, that the justices did not wish the gentlemen should come in uj)on a safeguard, which was not calculated to remove their fears. Agree- able to this view, at the time of their sending the mani- fest, or pretended safe-conduct, to the gentlemen, they ordered sir C. Coote upon the expedition to Clontarf, where Mr. King suffered such vast damages by the burn- ing of his house and goods ; which was but a sorry en- couragement to him to accept of their invitation to Dub- lin, and gave him just grounds of apprehending at least some danger of trouble, from which danger the manifest pretended to secure him, as well as the rest that were assembled, and stood upon their guard at Swords. But what confirms me fully in this opinion, is, that the jus- tices at the very time of ordering that expedition were sensible that it would have this consequence ; the words of their letter of Dec. 14 are, And "if to revenge this villany on the fishermen at Clontarf and thereabouts so near us, we send forth a party of soldiers to burn and spoil those rebels' houses and corn, the gentlemen of the pale will immediately take new offence ; but that we will adventure u])on ; for now there is no dalliance with them, who so far declare themselves against the state, not caring what scorns are put upon the government ; wherein it is observable that the landlord of Clontarf is one of the gentlemen risen in arms at Swords." 166 The chief part of the lords justices' apology lies in their 255 insinuating things to the prejudice of the gentlemen of the pale (which is done in almost all their letters from the beginning of the rebellion) ; in censuring their affec- tions, inactivity, and behaviour ; in charging them with rebellious designs, and consulting with rebels ; in mag- — ^6']. the defection of the English pale. (1641.) 129 iiifying their own confidence expressed towards them in furnishing them with one thousand seven hundred arms, and in denying that they ever had any advice from them. But when upon the first news of the rebellion the lords of the pale came to Dublin, and made a tender of their service to the state ; when, soon after, they applied to the justices by a remonstrance against the proclamation, which seemed to involve all the Roman catholics of the kingdom in the guilt of a rebellion, wherein only the mere Irish were concerned, representing the ill effects that would thence follow, it was morally impossible but they must offer some advice on those occasions. When, afterwards, they pressed so earnestly the meeting, and the continuance of the sessions of parliament, in order to provide means to suppress the rebellion in the north, and to take measures to preserve the rest of the kingdom in peace, this was not less advice for being done in the way of instance or petition, or less weighty for having the concurrence of parliament. 167 I have already mentioned the affair of the one thou- sand seven hundred arms, which was far from expressing so great a confidence as was now pretended. Five hun- dred of these, half pikes, and the rest muskets, were de- livered to lord Gormanston ; but they had scarce been a week in his possession, when during his lordship's attend- ance in parliament, and before the enemy had advanced into Meath, they were fetched away from his house on Nov, 1 7 by sir Henry Tichburne, upon an order of the lords justices. The three hundred intended for the de- fence of the county of Lowth, at the request of IMr. Bel- lew the high sheriff, were stopped in their passage by the ^Mord Moore, either out of his own suspicions, or by pri- vate order of the lords justices ; and thus those two coun- ties, the most exposed of any, were left entirely defence- w Dean Barnard's relation of the siege of Droghcda, p. 11. VOL. II. K 130 Reflections on the cause of III. 167- less. The three hundred for Kiklare were probably delivered to the earl, a protestant, wlio was on this occa- sion made governor of that county ; and though it is said, that the like number was assio-ned for each of the coun- tics of Westmeath and Dublin, yet it is not said to whom they were given ; and if they had been delivered to Roman catholics, it is very probable they would have been called in or stopped at the same time with the rest, the state having conceived so great a jealousy of that body of men. 168 The grounds of this jealousy at that time were only the evil opinion which the lords justices entertained of all the professors of that religion ; some vaunting speeches of the rebels to magnify their strength, whicli equally lay against all the English Roman catholics, and the very parliament of England ; and what Hugh Mac Mahon (an officer just come from abroad, and not acquainted with any of the pale) had on his examination said he was told by captain Brian O'Neile, another foreign officer, that the whole kingdom was concerned in the conspiracy, and that twenty men were to come out of every county for surprising the castle of Dublin ; a matter which evidently appeared to be false in the fact. I have already given several reasons why I am persuaded that the lords of the pale were not concerned in that conspiracy, and had no thoufifhts of making' an insurrection. I am much con- firmed in that opinion by the accounts which the Ro- man catholic writers give of it, all of which agree to clear them from that imputation ; even the most violent of the nuncio's faction, (who hated them as being of Eng- lish race, and following different counsels from their own, and censure them for not embarking at first in the cause,) as well as P.Walsh and others of the supreme council's 256 party. Owen O'Neile's secretary, in his "Aphorismical Discovery of Treasonable Faction'^," ascribeth the con- X Bishop of Clogher's MSS. No. VIII. p. 2. -169. the defection of the English pale. (1641.) 131 junction which they made at last with the Ulster army to pure force and necessity, and represents it merely as the consequence of the distresses put upon them by the state, and their inability to defend themselves against two powers between which they lay, without either trust- ing themselves to the one or uniting with the other. The compiler of the nuncio's memoirs (a fair writer, what- ever his principles were, and who on all occasions seems to be well acquainted with his subject, and to write what he believes to be true) says^, that the English Irish of four hundred years standing, especially the English pale, were extremely averse to the rebellion, and offered their service very sincerely to the state against the rebels, re- membering their own origin, and choosing to adhere to the English government, which they were apprehensive would be thrown off by the natives ; to which reasons he adds another, drawn from the nature of their estates, a considerable part of which was church lands, which (he says) they were afraid of losing, if the old Irish got the power of the nation into their hands. 169 It is certain that the Ulster Irish hated them mortally, and they in return had as inveterate an antipathy to those Irish ; their ancestors had been in perpetual wars with one another, harassing each other's countries and estates with continual incursions and depredations for four hun- dred years past, from the time of the conquest of Ireland to the plantation of Ulster. The animosity thence con- tracted was not yet buried, and the palemen had still good reason to fear that, when the old Irish had expelled the lately planted English, they would next drive out those who had been settled there in old times, and who were still considered by them as invaders of their coun- try and usurpers of their estates. This was generally deemed to be the design of the old Irish, till the dis- tresses and fears of the lords of the pale disposed them y P.392. K 2 132 Reflections on the cause of III. 169 — to hearken to the fair pretences, which Roger More made in the others' names, and which they were rather willing to believe real, than convinced that they were so ; but which however served for a colour to the union that was made between them. This union was never hearty ; they differed in their views and measures during the whole course of the troubles, and the old animosity between them broke out, and shewed itself almost as soon as the union was made. This is evident from the depositions of men of the best sense and characters that were pri- soners among the rebels, by which it appeareth, that as soon as the pale was drawn into the rebellion the old Irish could not help expressing their satisfaction in it, by giving out openly'', that now they had put a trick on the old English of the pale for all the old tricks they had put upon them. George Creighton, rector of the church of Virginia in the county of Cavan, who was pre- served long among the rebels, and a witness of their actions and discourses, deposeth, that the Reilies upon their return from Drogheda were very suspicious that the earl of Fingall and the gentry of the pale had some purpose of drawing the Ulster people into a snare, to re- venge their pillaging of Meatli ; that the Reilies and the gentlemen of the pale were quarrelling every day, and reproaching each other's conduct, and (he firmly believed) hated one another as mortally as any two nations in the world ; that the pale gentry, in their discourse with him, would often lament their misfortune in being joined to such people as had ever been their enemies, who were proud without any thing that was honourable, covetous without industry, and bragging without valour ; calling them a company of thieves, a charge which the deponent 257 knew to be true, it being the continual practice of the Irish to steal the horses and cattle of those of the pale, 2 See the deposition of Andrew Adair of Magoonagh in the county of Mayo, esq. -170. tlie defection of the English pale. ( 1 64 1 .) 1 33 bringing' them back upon money being offered for the finding them, and then stealing them again the next day. The northern Irish, on the other side, would call the pale- men cowards, were continually laying heavy taxes and cessing soldiers upon them, and treated them worse than the very Turks woukl have done ; and the Irish priests carried this aversion so far against those of their own order in the pale, that they would not let any of them say mass in their churches, nor believe a word that they said. The Irish were always contriving something to mortify and vex the palemen, who were still praying for peace, and cursing the Irish that began the war ; and say in the bitterness of their affliction, that the parliament of England was the cause of all their harms, by the severe laws they were about to make against their religion. To the like purpose is the deposition of Mr. Ambrose Bedel, son to the excellent bishop of Killmore, that whilst he was prisoner among the rebels, he often heard the mere Irish express themselves to those of the pale in these words ; i. e. " You churls with the great breeches, do you think, if we were rid of the English, that we would spare you ? No, we would cut all your throats also ; for you are all of one race with the other English, though we make use of you for the present." 170 This rooted aversion between those two bodies of men was well enough known to have encouraged the lords justices to have treated the lords of the pale with less jealousy than they did, and even to have employed them against the rebels. The earl of Castlehaven, the lord Dunsany, sir Robert Talbot, and many others of the chief families of the old English, offered their service, and desired to be employed ; but were constantly re- fused. This put a stop to the offers of the like", nature which others of them were disposed to make ; and|being banished from Dublin, and ordered to their seats in the country, they retired thither, resolved to keep them- 13-i Befections on the cause of III. 170- selves quiet, and uneasy about the future fate which Mas to attend them, as well on one hand from the strengtli and fury of the Ulster rebels, as on the other from the violence of the English parliament, which was likely to take advantage of that rebellion for the involv- ing therein every body that they pleased upon any pre- tence to suspect, and for enacting laws for the extirpa- tion of their religion. They knew themselves to be odious to the lords justices, who were creatures of that parliament, and to be suspected by them ; they were highly discontented at the rejecting of the offers of that service, by which alone they could fully vindicate them- selves from the suspicions entertained to the prejudice of their loyalty ; and therefore, either in a sullen humour, naturally following such a refusal, or because any mo- tions of theirs without warrant from authority might prove dangerous to them, and increase those suspicions, or perhaps because they wanted arms, and were not in a condition, or had not time to f)ut themselves in a posture to oppose the sudden incursions of robbers into the country, (which, though all the outcry was made about the protestants, fell heavily on the popish inhabit- ants as well as them,) they still kept themselves quiet (pursuant to the directions of the state in the literal sense) during those depredations of loose disorderly peo- ple without an head, which infested the neighbourhood M'here they dwelt. Their houses were a sufficient se- curity against those plunderers, but not against the force of an army; and consequently, when the rebels had invested Drogheda, and after their success at St. Julian's town bridge were masters of the whole country, they were forced to pay contributions, and open the gates of their houses to the victorious, to afford refreshments to every party, and admit visits from every commander of the rebels that pleased to demand them. This was the case of such lords and gentlemen as lived near Drogheda, 258 1 7 1 . the defection of the English pale, ( 1 64 1 .) 1 35 and however unavoidable in their circumstances, it was sufficient in the eye of the state and in the rigour of the law to involve them in the guilt of treason. 171 In this situation tlie lords justices summoned the nobility of the pale to Dublin, under pretence of con- ferring with them about the present state of the king- dom, and of having their advice about measures to be taken for the security thereof. All the reason which in their letters to the lord lieutenant they assign for this summons was, to gain time, which they thought necessary, when they found the power of the rebels in- creasing and coming nearer, the protestants robbed within two miles of Dublin, themselves unable to repel the in- cursions of robbers, and become so contemptible, that they were in danger of being attacked every moment, and observed withal the retarding of the long expected succours, and imagined that by the help of the nobility of the pale they might gain that time which they wanted till the succours came. The treaty, which the state was at this time carrying on with the rebels in arms, by the intervention of Dr. Cahel and others, was indeed proper enough to gain time ; but how the conferring with a few noblemen that lived quiet in their own houses, and whose advice and offers of service they had before refused, could contribute to that end, is not so easy to be comprehended. Nobody that considers the fears and jealousies of that time, and the unfavourable notions which the lords justices had entertained and ex- pressed in all their letters of the affections and designs of those gentlemen, can ever harbour the least thought that they intended to trust and employ them. The most natural thought which ariseth upon this occasion is, that they designed upon their arrival at Dublin to secure their persons, and by that step to prevent their joining with the rebels : but this was not a proper means of gaining time, since the imprisoning of so many inoffen- 136 Reflections on the cause of III. 171 — sive noblemen, upon bare suspicion, without any aj^pa- rent cause, after strong professions of duty and offers of service, must in all probability alarm all the Roman ca- tholics in the nation, confirm all their fears of extirpa- tion, put them u})on des})erate courses, and perhaps hurry tliem on to join as one man with the rebels. Besides, the justices did not think the seizing of these noblemen to be a matter of great importance, because (as will ajDpear presently) they did not think their very joining in the rebellion to be of any consequence, or likely to give any considerable accession of strength to the rebels. Indeed, if they had thought otherwise, it must have been censured as an intolerable blunder in politics, in such a juncture, when a numerous and successful army was in the neighbourhood, and no visible force to make head against it in the field, to send to these noblemen, after many testimonies of their distrust, a summons of such a nature, as must necessarily raise their suspicions, and awaken their apprehensions of terrible designs against them ; and at the same time that they sent it, to take other measures to heighten those suspicions and appre- hensions ; since far from gaining time, the natural con- sequence of this proceeding would be, to force noblemen into action who perhaps never intended it, or, if they did, to force them before their time to have recourse to the rebels' army for their security. 172 j\Ien of sense and experience rarely commit blunders but from some unworthy end, some self-interest or vio- lent passion, which biasses their judgment and overrules their duty. It is not always difficult to trace it, let the art of concealing it be never so exf|uisite; and some have not scrupled on this occasion to imj)ute the conduct of tlie lords justices to their avarice, and to surmise, that they never expected those noblemen would comply with their sunnnons, and that all the measures they took at the same time, were taken expressly with a design — 172. the defection of the English pale. (1641.) 137 to terrify tliem from trusting themselves in Dublin, and 259 from thence to take some advantage for the forfeiture of their estates. It answered this end very well, that sir C. Coote, immediately after his inhuman executions and promiscuous murders of people in Wicklow, was made governor of Dublin, at the very time of sending out the summons to the lords of the pale ; and this, in neglect of sir Frances Willoughby, an older and more experienced officer, who had been sergeant major gene- ral of the army under the duke of Buckingham in 1627, and under the earl of Lindsey in 1628, a man of judg- ment, temper, and humanity, a very good engineer, and Avell skilled, not only in fortifications, but in all parts of the art military, upon which account he was (though a puritan in his principles) chosen by the earl of Straf- ford to erect the fort of Galway, and to command the detachment which he sent to the king's assistance against the Scots in England, where he was made governor of Carlisle. The murders at Santry, and the firing of Mr. King's house and town of Clontarf, served conve- niently for the same purpose, though they were by no means necessary towards it. For the noblemen had a very ill opinion of the lords justices, who were generally odious to the nation. They had joined in a remon- strance sent by the lord viscount Dillon to the king, complaining of their administration, and petitioning for their removal from the government ; they were satisfied that the justices knew of that step, and could not tell to what extremities so high a provocation, added to their other prejudices and jealousies, might carry them, but thought they had reason to dread the worst, in such a season of distractions, when every arbitrary illegal act in the way of government would be justified by the pre- tence of reason of state, and the justices themselves, in the first letter Avhich they wrote to the lord lieutenant after the breaking out of the rebellion, and which was 138 Reflections on the cause of III. 172 — read publicly in both houses of parliament, had declared, that they should vary from ordinary proceedings, not only in executing martial law, as they saw cause, but also in putting some to the rack, to find out the bottom of this treason, and the contrivers thereof, which they foresaw would not otherwise be done. 173 The lords of the pale thought no man's innocency could protect him, when the rack should be called in to support the suspicions, and confirm the jealousies of men in power, of whose malevolence to them they could not doubt, and who might possibly find their own interest in their destruction. 174 They had some grounds for these apprehensions: the cruel prosecution of the Byrnes in a time of peace and quiet was not so long past, but it was still remembered to the prejudice of sir W. Parsons, who enjoyed part of the spoils of that family. The chiefs of the rebels hitherto engaged were descended of the old chieftains of the Irish septs, but were generally men of broken fortunes, and had small estates ; so that little was to be got by their forfeitures. It was the unhappiness of the lords of the pale to have much larger estates, such as it would be fit for a chief governor to beg a grant of in reward of his services, in case they came to be forfeited. Whether any expectation of this nature, or (as they ex- press * themselves) " a desire of improving an oppor- tunity, which the rebellion had justly made way for, towards reducing the kingdom of Ireland, as well in point of religion and civility, as also in point of honour, and establish ])rofit to the king, and perpetual security to all his dominions against foreign invasion and intes- tine rebellion, and towards bringing the kingdom to a more happy condition in all things else than ever here- tofore ;' whether either of these, or whatever other mo- ^ Their letter to the lord lieutenant, 2 .Tan. 1641. -175- the defection of the English pale. (1641.) 139 tives influenced their conduct, it is certain, ^ that the lords justices, not only by their words and actions, ex- pressed their unwillingness to stop the further growth 260 of the rebellion, (as appeareth undeniably in their refus- ing the offers which both the earl of Ormond and the parliament of Ireland made to suppress it,) but shewed also a desire to increase the distempers of the nation, and were often heard to wish, that the number were greater of such as became criminal. With these senti- ments they could not have a fitter minister to help them in their designs than their favourite sir Charles Coote. Dr. Nalson *^ telling us, that he had seen some minutes of the council-board of Ireland, which aver, that sir C. Coote said there, that when sir Luke Fitzgerald mis- demeaned himself before the board, by uncivil words to- wards a member of the board, he let him have the line, and would not reprehend him, in hopes he would go into rebellion ; for he saw he would do so ; and that the more there were in rebellion, it was the better. 175 And to shew by an unexceptionable testimony, which renders all others unnecessary, that the lords justices were no way averse to the lords of the pale being em- barked in the rebellion, I shall here insert one of their letters upon that subject, curious enough to be read en- tire, and well worthy of observation in every respect. It is dated on Dec. 14, the very day that sir C. Coote Avas ordered on the expedition to Clontarf, and the long public despatch printed at the latter end of sir J. Temple's history, was wrote and signed by the earl of Ormond, Robert lord Dillon earl of Roscommon, lord Lambart, and others of the privy-council ; but this, being doubtless designed, not for public view, but for the pri- vate use of their particular friends and directors in the English parliament, was drawn up without the concur- b R. R. p. 198. c Vol. ii. p. 538. 140 Letter of the lords justices. Bee. 14. III. 175- rence of the three noblemen before named, and M^as signed by that part of the council which were acted by the spirit of the lords justices, or were dependent upon them by reason of their places in the government. It is directed to the earl of Leicester, the lord lieutenant, and is expressed in these words : " 3Iay it please your lordsliif^ 176 '■'■ The despatch now sent you from this board shews you in what degree of defection seven of the lords of the pale stand ; which may perhaps make the rebels the more considerable in the estimation of those that know not those lords. 177 " We confess, indeed, it may seem to add some reputation to them ; but we, who know those lords, and the power they are able to make, and their abilities in the conduct of import- ant affairs, do well know that it adds no more strength in truth to the rebels than what they had before. For all the tenants and followers of those lords, that could be seduced, were before either declared for the rebels or secretly joined with them ; so as the strength gained to the rebels by the defection of those lords is now in truth no more than the addi- tion of those seven men to their number ; and what an incon- siderable addition of strength that is, we should quickly make apparent, if our long expected succours from England and Scotland were come. Which we mention, lest, under the spe- cious countenance of the addition of the strength and power of so many lords witli the rebels, his majesty or the state there miglit be induced the rather to conditions of disadvantage to his majesty ; which now there is no more cause for, than was before those lords declaring of themselves so far. 178 " Nay, their discovering of themselves now will render ad- vantage to his majesty and this state. M'ho otherwise perhaps might suffer while they held underhand correspondence with them ; which now we see might turn to the extreme j)rejudice 261 of this state and government ; and those great counties of Leinster, Ulster, and the pale, now lie the more open to his majesty's free disposal, and to a general settlement of peace and religion by introducing of English. 179 " And althougli it be now most manifest to us here, who see — ]«I. Letter of the lords justices, Dec. 14. ( 1 64 1 .) 1 41 with grief, and observe the courses and practice of the rebels, that their main end and drift is (if it be possible) to wrest from his majesty his royal crown and sovereignty of this his kingdom ; and either to set over them some of themselves, to whom they desire to transfer his royal dignity, if they can hold it ; or otherwise to cast themselves into the hands of some foreign prince, and so shake off the English government ; con- cerning which, we are assured, there have been deep and serious consultations amongst them, with their Jesuits, friars, and priests. Yet such and so great is their subtilty, as, to deceive the world, and to work themselves the more easily into those means which must lead in order to the attaining their ungodly ends, they add to their other wickedness the disloyalty to tra- duce his sacred majesty ; and so, to cover their treachery, pre- tend audaciously, that what they do is for his service. 180 " And seeing the defection appears now to be general, both in the gentry and commonalty, whereby their numbers are very great ; so as it may be conceived that many thousands (who, it seems, are as ignorant as the priests and other principal rebels are malicious) are, under countenance of his majesty''s name, seduced to their party, we, in hopes to place a right understanding with those people that are so seduced, have thought of a proclamation to be immediately published by his majesty, and sealed with his privy signet, if in his high wisdom he shall so think fit. For our publishing it in our names, by his majesty's authority, will not be sufficient to satisfy them, that it is the king's act ; unless they see his own hand and privy signet at it. And in case his majesty shall think fit to sign and seal the proclamation, it will be necessary that there be twenty several copies thereof so signed and sealed, that they may be dispersed several ways. 181 " The ^ proclamation is so framed, that their laying down of arms shall not wipe away all their former offences ; in regard we humbly conceive it were a dangerous example, if after their robbing and spoiling of so many of his majesty's faithful sub- jects, the whole kingdom over, of their goods and estates, to the value of a million at least, (no age having produced in this <^ N. B. The form of the proclama- the king on Jan. i, sent over on the tion sent enclosed in this letter had 3d to be published in Ireland, and no date put to it, but otherwise was printed in the Collection of Letters, the same verbatim as that signed by No. LIII. 1 42 Progress of the rebellion. HI, 1 8 1 — kingdom so much mischief and so great calamity in so short a time,) they should, for laying down arms, have those their grievous and unexampled tyrannies over those of the English nation remitted. Which if it should so fall out, it might not only give encouragement to those rebels and others, to rise in arms at every two or three years end, and enrich themselves by the spoil and destruction of the English ; but might also again and often renew the miserable calamities of this kingdom and the English nation therein, if ever hereafter any of them shall venture to come hither, upon any malignant instigation or perverse insolence in this people. And so we remain, from his majesty''s castle of Dublin, this 14th of December 164T, " Your lordship's to be commanded, W. Parsons. J. Borlase. Ad. Loptus. J. Temple. Cha. Coote. Fr. WiLLOuGHBY. RoB. Mereditti. 2 I leave the world to make their own remarks upon the 262 contents of this letter ; I shall only observe further, that tlie lords justices must be either very weak in their judgment or very strong in their passions, if they really thought that the seven lords of the pale were so per- fectly insignificant as they are here represented, or that their defection was so inconsiderable a thing as to add no strength, but that of their own persons, to the party of the rebels. It certainly proved far otherwise in the event ; and the very next letters of the justices are filled with accounts of new bodies of rebels rising up in various parts of the kingdom, the natural consequence of this treatment and defection of the lords of the pale. The parts which lay next them first declared ; Piers Fitz- gerald, commonly called Mac-Thomas, seized Castle- Dermot, and marched with a jmrty to the siege of Drogheda. The gentlemen of the county of Kildare took uj) arms, and formed a considerable body, making themselves masters of all the towns in their neighbour- hood. Most of those of Westmeath followed their ex- — 183. Progress of the rebellion. (1641.) 143 ample ; only the earl of that name stood firm, and did all the services he could to the distressed English ; and sir James Dillon and some others did not yet declare. Sir James indeed some time afterwards raised a regi- ment, but never joined heartily with the Irish, affecting to act a neutral part, and to keep himself on his guard in his own country. The lords of the pale were, even after their joining with the Irish, so little satisfied with them, and so far from desiring to increase their power, that they employed agents to the gentlemen in these counties, which had newly taken arms, to keep them from putting themselves under the command of Roger More, or any of the old Irish, and to prevail with them to acknowledge the lord Gormanston for their general. To strengthen their party as much as was possible, by drawing in all the old English Roman catholics, they sent ^ manifests and declarations of tlie motives and reasons of their conduct into Munster and Connaught, and to all the rich trading towns and seaports through- out the kingdom, which were chiefly inhabited by the English. Nor did they find any great difficulty in en- gaging them, they being ready enough to consider it as a common cause, and to imagine that the same snares which, they were persuaded, had been laid for the lives and estates of the lords of the pale, would be made use of to destroy them by piecemeal one after another ; and that the only way to prevent the destruction of each par- ticular, was to unite all together as one man, to make a general association for their defence, and to depend upon the fate of war to make the best terms they could for themselves. 183 It is certainly very unhappy for a nation at any time to be governed by strangers, who cannot be supposed to have any natural love for the country, and whose parti- cular advantage doth not depend on the general good of c See Collection of Letters, No. LII. 144 Progress of the rebellion. TIL 183. the nation ; but in a time of jealousies and distractions, when a mutual confidence between the governors and the people committed to their charge is absolutely neces- sary, the consequences flowing from such a circumstance must be very fatal. This was the very case of Ireland at that time; the governors were the likeliest persons in it to get by the troubles of the kingdom, and to raise tlieir own fortunes by the ruin of those of private gen- tlemen. Had the earl of Ormond, who had no interest of his own separate from that of the country, where his great estate and whole fortune lay, and whose abilities, inte- grity, and nobleness of mind every body esteemed, been at the head of the government when the rebellion first broke out, it had in all human probability been suppressed as soon as it was raised. But he was not in any condition of doing service in this juncture ; his opposition in council to the measures which the lords justices, influenced by the power and directions of a turbulent and prevailing 263 faction in England, were determined to observe, had ren- dered him disagreeable to them ; so that he was very un- willingly and rarely employed by them in his military cajiacity, and had met with such discouragements in the way of giving his advice about ordering the aftairs of the nation, and composing the differences that had inflamed it, 'Hliat it looked like arrogance and impertinence in him to oflcr any ; and he had no party left him to take, but to sit down and lament those miseries of his country which he could not prevent or redress. Both the lords justices were by affection and interest attached to that party in the English parliament which pushed matters with so outrageous a violence against the Roman catho- lics, that there Mas too much ground for their fears of a total extirpation. Sir W. Parsons, who in effect governed all at his own jdeasure, had in tlie cruel ])rosecution of the Byrnes shewed that he had no scruj>le about the *! See Collection of Letters, No. LI. 183. Progress of the rebellion. (1641.) 145 means of getting an estate, whatever infamy might arise thence ; and both of them were so very odious to the nation in general, that whatever was alleged by the nobi- lity and gentry of the pale in their own vindication, met everywhere Mith a ready belief. Indeed there is too mncli reason to think, that as the lords justices really wished the rebellion to spread, and more gentlemen of estates to be involved in it, that the forfeitures might be the greater, and a general plantation be carried on by a new set of English protestants all over the kingdom, to the ruin and expulsion of all the old English and natives that were Roman catholics ; so to promote what they wished, they gave out speeches upon occasions, insinuat- ing such a design, and that in a short time there would not be a Roman catholic left in the kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this notion, that the earl of Or- mond, in his letters of Jan. 27 and Feb. 25, 1641, to sir W. St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation, then far advanced, to the publishing of such a design ; and when a person of his great modesty and temper, the most averse in his nature to speak his sentiments of what he could not but condemn in others, and who, when obliged to do so, does it always in the gentlest expres- sions, is drawn to express such an opinion, the case must be very notorious. I do not find that the copies of those letters are preserved; but the original*' of sir W. St. Leger's in answer to them suflficiently shews it to be his lordship's opinion ; for, after acknowledging the receipt of those two letters, he useth these words : " The undue promulgation of that severe determination to extirpate the Irish and papacy out of this kingdom your lordship rightly apprehends to be too unseasonably published ; al- beit I cannot conceive that any such rigorous way of forc- ing conscience and men's religion would ever liave been e Sir W. St. Leger's letter to the carl of Ormond. ]\Iarch 30, 1642. C. .7. VOL. II. L 146 Insurrection in Munster. HI- 183 — attempted or enterprised, but upon such an occasion of a general revolt in the Irish." 184 Hence the magistrates and inhabitants of New Rosse, a rich trading town, seated on the Barrow^, who a little before had unanimously refused to give the rebels ad- mittance, and swore to lose their blood and lives rather than admit them there, and had on Nov. 29 obliged them to retire from before their walls, now readily opened their gates to them, and joined in the rebellion. Hence it was that the commotions s])read farther into every part of the province of Connaught, except the county of Galway, which was as yet kept in order by the credit and power of the earl of Clanrickard. Hence the O'Bryans in Clare, deserting their governor and the chief of their family, the earl of Thomonde, took up arms, and reduced all the castles in the county, scarce leaving him in possession of any place, excei)t his castle of Bunratty ; and the rebel- lion, like a torrent, overspread at once all Munster with 264 so irresistible a violence, that almost all the relations of the earl of Ormond himself (who upon the first news of the rebellion had declared loudly their abhorrence thereof, and had exerted themselves to oppose it) now engaged in it, and made up as mighty a force as the rebels united had been able to bring before Drogheda ; an event of such con- sequence that it deserves to be particularly related. 185 That province (as hath been observed) continued quiet all the month of November, unmolested by any disturb- ance within it, except by some petty robberies committed by loose fellows in some Irish parishes. The borders of it indeed were M^asted sometimes by the rebels of the county of Wexford, who had risen in arms on the 21st of that month ; and from thence the Cavenaghs and Bre- nans made frequent incursions into the county of Kil- kenny, (where they laid waste three thousand pounds a f Letter of the sovereign to the lords justices, 2 Dec. 1641. — 1 85 . Insurrection in Munster. (1641.) 147 year of the earl of Ormond's estate, and made terrible ravages up to the very gates of the city,) and into those of Waterford and Tipperary, even under the walls of Waterford and Carrick, taking away cattle out of the park of the latter place. To prevent these incursions into their neighbourhood, the magistrates of Waterford §■ had seized and brought thither all the boats of the Great Island and other parts thereabouts on that side of the river; but the rebels finding means to get some small boats which they could not lay hands on, and with the help of those having taken others that were coming up the river, especially one large boat of Wexford bound for Rosse, ferried themselves over to Faithley, near Passage, and ranged over the Gualtire, carrying off the goods and cattle of all the English in those parts, and pursuing such as ffed for shelter to Waterford almost within musket- shot of the gates. Sir W. St. Leger, president of Mun- ster, marched with the little force he could muster to fall upon them, and recover the spoil. His strength con- sisted in his own troop and about one hundred horse brought to his assistance by sir Richard Everard, sir John Browne, sir Arthur Hyde, Mr. Boggatt, Mr. Jcphson, and others, at their own charges. After a tedious march over the mountains of Waterford, in craggy roads and terrible Aveather, it being a very sharp frost, and a great snow lying on the ground, he overtook a small party of them at a town of lord Power's called Mohill, took nineteen of them, and recovered the prey. There he understood that the main body of them were six miles further, and ready to carry their spoil cross the water; he hasted thither with lord Tnchiquin, Mr. Redmonde Roche, (bro- ther to the lord Roche,) Mr. W. Fenton, Mr. W. Hyde, and Mr. Jephson, (who there gave great testimony of their courage and zeal for his majesty's service,) and a few of his servants, leaving his troop to follow with all s B. 74,81. L 2 148 Insurrection in Mumter. III. 185 — speed, and fell upon the remainder of the party, Avho were as yet on shore, killed about one hundred and forty of them, and brought away fifty others prisoners to Water- ford, where lie caused both them and those which he had taken at jMohill to be all executed by martial law. Thus he cleared the province for a time, and did not question but if the residue of those rascals were as effectually prosecuted and as closely pursued, they would melt away as snow before the sun. He was a brave, gallant, and ho- nest man, but somewhat too rough and fiery in his tem- per ; and he did not give greater terror to the rebels by his activity in pursuing, his intrepidity in attacking, or his severity in executing them without mercy, when they fell into his hands, than he did offence to the gentlemen of the country by his hasty and rough manner of treating them. 186 It was the middle of December before any one gentle- man in the province of IMunster appeared to favour the rebellion ; many of them had shewn themselves zealous to oppose it, and had tendered their service for that end. Lord Muskerry, Avho had married a sister of the earl of 265 Ormond's'', offered to raise a thousand men at his own charge, and if the state could not supply them Avitli arms, he was ready to raise money by a mortgage of his estate to buy them, if, when the service was ended, he might either keep the arms or be reimbursed M'hat they cost him. 'Nor did any signs of uneasiness or disaffection ap- pear among the gentry till sir W. St. Leger came to Clon- uiel, A\hich was on the first of that month, three days before the action 1 have just now related. There had been a few days before some robberies committed in the county of Tipjierary by a rabble of the common sort and ^ See liis letter of Dec. 17. to the earl of Ormond, B. 99. • See the relation of the insurrection of Tipperary given to the duke of Ormond by his steward Mr. Kearney, B. 38, and Ireland, vol. i. 1'- 4.32, 4,3.3. &c- — 1 86. Insurrection in Munster. (1641.) 149 a parcel of idle young fellows of the baronies of Elio- gurty, Killemanna, Clanwilliam, and JVIiddlethyrde, who as soon as they had got their prey, divided it, and retired to their several parishes. Among other English who suf- fered, a great number of cows and sheep were taken away from Mr. W. Kingsmill of Ballyowen, brother-in- law to the lord president. Sir W. St. Leger, upon notice thereof, came in two or three days after with two troops of horse in great fury to Ballyowen ; and being informed the cattle were driven into Eliogurty, he marched that way. As he set forth, he killed three persons at Bally- owen, who were said to have taken up some mares of Mr. KingsmilFs ; and not far off, at Grange, he killed or hanged four innocent labourers ; at Bally O'Murrin, six ; and at Ballygalburt, eight, and burnt several houses. Nor was it without great importunity and intercession that he spared the life of Mr. Morris Magrath, (grandson to Milerus archbishop of Cashel in queen Elizabeth's time,) a civil well-bred gentleman, it being plainly proved that he had no hand in the prey, notwithstanding which proof he still kept that gentleman in prison. From thence captain Peisley, marching to Armaile, killed there seven or eight poor men and women whom he found standing abroad in the streets, near their oAvn doors, inoffensively ; and passing over the river Ewyer early in the morning, marched to Clonoulta, where meeting Philip Ryan, the chief farmer of the place, a very honest and able man, not at all concerned in any of the robberies, going with his plough-iron in a peaceable manner to the forge where he used to have it mended, he, without any inquiry, either gave orders for, or connived at, his being killed, as ap- peared by his cherishing the murderer. From thence he went to Goellyn bridge, where he killed and hanged seven or eiffht of Dr. Gerald Fennel's tenants, honest inhabit- ants of the place, and burned several houses in the town ; the cattle of the country people, which he met in his 150 Insurrection in Munster. III. i86- march, being all taken up by him, and sent in great num- bers into the county of Cork. 187 The captain went from thence to meet the lord presi- dent, where several of the chief nobility and gentry of the country, being surprised at these rash and cruel pro- ceedings, waited upon his lordship with their complaints, which were rejected, and the captain applauded for what he had done. Among these gentlemen were James But- ler lord baron of Dunboyne, Thomas Butler of Killconel, James Butler of Killveylagher, Theobald Butler of Ard- maile, Richard Butler of Ballynekill, Philip O'Dwyer, and divers others of good quality. They observed to the president how generally the people were exasperated by those inconsiderate cruelties, running distractedly from house to house ; and that they were on the point of ga- thering together in great numbers, not knowing what they had to trust to, and what was likely to be their fate; they told him that they waited upon his lordship to be informed how affairs stood, and that they coveted nothing more than to serve his majesty, and preserve the peace ; and desired that he would be pleased to qualify them for it with authority and arms, in which case they 266 would not fail to suppress the rabble, and secure the peace of the country. The president did not receive their representation and offer in the manner they expected ; but in an hasty furious manner answered them, that they were all rebels, and he would not trust one soul of them ; but thought it more prudent to hang the best of them ; and in this extraordinary passion he continued all the while these and other persons of quality, their neigh- bours, were waiting upon him. This made them all with- draw and return to their houses, much resenting his rudeness and severity, as well as very uncertain about their own safety ; some of them imagining, that this dis- trusting of their loyalty and destroying of their reputa- tions was the preface to a design of taking away their — 189. Insiirrection in Munsier. (1641.) 151 lives. From Cloiimel sir W. St. Leger inarched into the county of Waterford, and liis soldiers in the way, as they went and returned from the rout of the Wexford rebels, killed several harmless poor ])eople, not at all concerned in the rebellion or in the j)lunder of the country ; which also incensed the gentlemen of that county, and made them prepare for standing on their defence. 188 This furious manner of proceeding seems to have been the effect of his particular resentment at his brother Kingsmill's losses; for Piers Butler viscount Ikerrin, having pursued some of the Tipperary rabble, who had plundered Brereton, Gunner, and others of his English tenants at Gragah, and islands near Lismalyn, and having rescued the prey, taken some of the robbers prisoners to Callan, brought the cattle home to his tenants, and at their request conveyed them, their families, goods and stock, safe to Ballynekill, when he waited on the presi- dent, after his return from Waterford, at Clonmel, and tendered his service to preserve the peace of the country, the president in great wrath called him traitor, and said he might have preserved Mr. Kingsmill's cattle and goods if he had pleased. Lord Ikerrin brought witnesses to prove that he was at the very same time in pursuit of his own English tenants' cattle ; yet sir W. St. Leger was in too great an heat to hear, or afford him any countenance, but parted Avith him in that passion. 189 After the president's return into the county of Cork, the gentry of Tipperary, considering the violence of his proceedings, and the aptness of the vulgar sort (under colour thereof) to plunder their English neighbours, la- boured all they could within their respective districts and neiohbourhoods for a while to correct their inso- lence. But, notwithstanding all their care, the common sort were so addicted to plunder, that about the 6th of December they assembled about five hundred of them together, and marched in a body towards Cashcl, in order 169 Insurrection in Munster. III. 189 — to take the city and pillage tbc English ; but several gentlemen of quality in the county, and some of the Roman catholic clergy of Cashel, hearing of their resolu- tions, met them in their march, and Ijy fair words and sermons diverted them from that wicked attempt, and prevailed with them to return, without offering violence to any body. The country people however were still in a great ferment, and pretended that they could not sleep safely in their own bouses whilst Cashel was a receptacle for the president's troops to come thither, and from thence to rush in among them and destroy them. Yet this broke out into no new outrage or attempt till after the defec- tion of the pale, when Philip O'Dwyer of Dundrom, (one of the gentlemen so ill treated by the president at Clon- mel,) taking advantage of this general resentment, ga- thered a body of them together on the last day of De- cember, and marched to Cashel. He took the place, and endeavoured (as is said) to secure the goods of all the English inhabitants there, and put them together into a storehouse ; but whatever he and some of the gentlemen that were with him could do to prevent bloodshed, some of the rabble, that were kinsmen and friends of Philip Ryan and others that had been lately murdered, finding 267 out some of the English there, killed thirteen of them, whose names are particularly mentioned. But all the rest of the English were saved by the inhabitants of the place in their houses, and had tlie goods which they 'con- fided to them safely restored. Dr. Samuel Pullen, chan- cellor of Cashel and dean of Clonfert, with his wife and children, was preserved by F. James Saul, a Jesuit. Se- veral other Romish priests distinguished themselves on this occasion by their endeavours to save the English ; particularly F. Joseph Everard and Redmond English, both Franciscan friars, who hid some of them in their chapel, and even under the altar ; which was proved by some of those so preserved at the trial of the latter at ■190. Insurrection in Munster. (1641.) 153 Clomnel assizes in 1652; upon which he was acquitted, and had a privilege granted him of living in the country, the like offer being made to F. Joseph Everard. And soon after, the English, who had been thus preserved, were, according to their desire, safely conveyed into the county of Cork by a guard of the Irish inhabitants of Cashel ; who acted with so much good faith in the affair, that several of the convoy were wounded in defending them from the violence of a rabble that waylaid and attacked them upon the mountains in their passage. 190 This enterprise of Cashel I have mentioned the first of any in Munster, because it was the first attempted merely by the fury of the populace, occasioned by impo- litic acts of cruelty, exercised without a just distinction between the innocent and the guilty ; a practice attended with very unhappy consequences in the course of the troubles of Ireland, and which continued to keep up that ferocity and barbarous manner of making war, which the massacres committed in Ulster by the Irish tempted some of the English to practise, and fancy they could justify it by the right of retaliation or revenge : but the place was not actually taken till after the surprise of Kilkenny. Richard Butler viscount IMountgarret was joined in commission with the earl of Ormond for the government of the county of Kilkenny; and upon the earl's removal to Dublin, to take on him the command of the army, had solely in him the supreme authority of ordering the forces raised by the county, and of provid- ing for the security thereof. He was a man of years and experience ; he had been too enterprising in his youth, but was now grown too old for action. But alarmed by the designs which (it was confidently said and generally believed) had been formed against the lords of the pale, and for extirpating the Roman catholic religion, and the professors of it out of the nation, he resolved to take arms, and embark himself and his family in the cause. lo4f Insurrection in Munster. III. r90 — ]Most of the gentlemen of the county were some way or other related to him, and being generally Roman catho- lics like himself, they readily joined with him, and at- tended him with a numerous train of followers to the city of Kilkenny, into which he was admitted, and there declared the reasons of his taking possession of it, and entering into arms. By public proclamation he strictly enjoined all his followers not to pillage or hurt any of the English inhabitants either in body or goods ; and succeeded so far in his design for their preservation, that there was not the least act of bloodshed committed. But it was impossible for him to prevent the vulgar sort, which flocked after him in hopes of booty, from plunder- ing both English and Irish, papist and protestant, with- out distinction. He used his authority, but in vain, to put a stop to this violence, till seeing one of the rank of a gentleman, ^Ir. Richard Cantwell, (descended of Mr. Richard Cantwell of Paynestown in the barony of Slye- wardagh, a gentleman much esteemed in his country,) transgressing his inhibition, and plundering in his pre- sence, he was so provoked, that he shot him dead with his pistol, having no respect of persons or regard to friendship and dependency in an affair of public con- 268 cernment ; for otherwise there were few of his followers and dependants that he cared less to lose than the person whom he thus killed ; he being not only an able and very active young man, but a brother also of John Cant- well, superior of the abbey of Holy Cross, whom his lord- ship for sundry respects much favoured and respected. This seasonable act of severity stopped at once the fury which the vulgar had for plundering. 191 Kilkenny being thus seized by lord Mountgarret, he detached parties different ways to secure other towns in those parts. His eldest son Edmond Roe Butler ad- vanced with a body to Waterford, where the magistrates and citizens, who a month before had appeared zealous — 191. Insurrection in Munster. (1641.) 155 in opposing the progress of the Wexford rebels, received him with open arms, and delivered into his hands that maiden city, as it was called, because it had never yet been taken by force. The inliabitants, being for the most part of English race, suffered no injury to be done their countrymen, so that nobody of any country or profession was either killed or pillaged, and such of the British protestants as had a mind to leave the place were al- lowed to carry off their goods wherever they pleased. Callan and Gowran were seized at the same time by per- sons thereunto designed by his lordship without any blood- shed. Some plunder however was there committed, though with the less violence, for fear of complaints, it being confined to cattle of English breed, which were stolen as well from the Irish, who had any of that sort, as from the English. Tlie towns of Clonmel and Carrick Macgriffyd in Tipperary, and Dungarvan in the county of Waterford, were severally surprised by Mr. Richard Butler of Killcash, second brother of the earl of Ormond ; and he had such an influence over his followers, that he kept them not only from murder, but even from plunder, his great care and noble disposition being acknowledged even by his enemies. Theobald Butler, commonly called the baron of Ardmaile, caused great numbers of the com- mon people of the barony of Middlethyrde to assemble in small parties under persons of his particular confi- dence, and then advanced with a few of his followers and some gentlemen of the neighbourhood on the first of January to Fethard, where being admitted without sus- picion by Martin Hacket, then sovereign of the town, he took his opportunity, seized him in his own house, forced from him the keys of the gates, and let in a throng of his adherents, about one thousand men armed, some with swords and skeans, but most with clubs and pikes. There were but nine English in the place ; these were immediately secured and imprisoned, and such of their 156 Insurrection in Munster. III. 191 — goods, as they had not before i)laced by way of trust in the custody of their neighbours, were seized upon and carried to an old castle that was in the town. James lord Dunboyne hearing of the surprise of Fethard, and being chief commander of the barony of Middlethyrde by special grants made to some of his ancestors for ser- vices performed to the crown of England, repaired thi- ther the next day, and took on him the command of the town, dispersing the rabble, and placing in it a garrison, which he formed of the most substantial inhabitants of the place and neighbourhood. He immediately set the English at liberty, restored them their goods, and sent them away in safety to Youghall, and other places which they chose for their retreat. Two of these were clergy- men, of which Mr. Hamilton was at his request sent with his family to the countess of Ormond, who took them into her house of Carrick ; and when she went to Dub- lin, carried them and several other English families with her thither ; where she subsisted them and great num- bers of other despoiled English for a long time during the troubles. But Mr. Lowe, vicar of Clonyne, unhap- pily making it his choice to be left with his fiimily at his landlord JMr. Geffrey Mockler's house at Mocklerstowne, 269 in hope that the times would grow calmer ; and coming- some time after to Fethard in company with Mr. Mock- ler, who, having some business that called him to Clon- mel, left him (as he thought) in safe hands, one James Mac Hugh, a carpenter, with some accomplices, attacked him in his bed in the night time, and barbarously murdered him in the house of Mr. Robert ByfFort, and carrying off his body, Avrapped up in a coverlet, to Crompe's bridge, threw it there into the river. Great search was made after the murderers by Mr. Mockler and ]\Ir. Byffort, and Mac Hugh being suspected, they gave information against him to lord Ikerrin. Ilis lordship committed him to prison, whence jMac Hugh making an escape, fled the ■192- Insurrection in Munster. (1641.) 157 country for some time, but returning, was seized again, confessed the fact, and was executed for it with two of his accomplices. 192 The gentlemen indeed in this part of the kingdom were exceeding careful to prevent bloodshed, and to pre- serve the English from being plundered ; several instances might be given thereof; but few deserve better to be particularized than sir Rich. Everard, baronet, who having before the rebellion planted the greatest part of his estate with English tenants, and at the beginning thereof ob- serving the force and violence which the rabble were disposed to use against all of that nation, and fearing that he should not be able to protect them all from their in- solence and rapine, soon sent the richest of them away with their stock and goods into the English quarters. But there was still left a number of families that were poor and unable to remove, consisting of eighty-eight persons ; these he kept and maintained at his own charge till the middle of June 1642, when finding that in the heat of the war he should not be able to protect them longer from violence, he conveyed them and their goods safely to the English garrison of JMitchelstown. When that place was afterwards taken by the Irish, he sent to some of those families, which were very poor, to come to him, maintaining them for a long time, till at last he sent them away safe to the place they desired. As soon as the cessation was made, some of these poor tenants came back to him, and he settled and protected them on his lands till Cromwell came into the country. All this was fully proved by several of the said persons before the court which sat at Athlone for the trial of qualifications ; where in sir Richard Everard's case it appeared that he was a constant harbourer not only of these, but of other poor English in their distress ; that he never was in ac- tion, but kept himself neuter during the first two years of the war; that several of his houses were rifled and burnt ; and that for opposing the Irish they took away 158 Insurrection in Munster. III. 192 — from him one hundred and sixty coms, thirty-three stud mares, and two thousand sheep, besides other damages Avliich lie sustained. Tliere are so many acts of horror, cruelty, and inhumanity necessary to be recounted in the history of these times, that I fancy the reader will be somewhat relieved by the relation of so remarkable an instance of compassion, tenderness, and generosity to the distressed. 193 Thus in the space of a week were all the towns and forts in the counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tip- perary reduced into the power of the rebels ; except the castles of Goellyn and Ballyowen, Avhich were blocked up ; and the former being in the beginning of February foUow^ing deserted in the night time by the garrison for want of provisions, some weak persons, men, women, and children, that were left behind, as unable to travel, were inhumanly murdered by the common soldiers employed in the blockade, for which four of their officers, who did not take proper care to jirevent it, nor express their re- sentment in punishing the actors, M'ho were w^ell enough known, were afterwards hanged. But this was the only act of barbarity perpetrated in those parts, besides that which was committed on the English families employed by sir George Hamilton, (brother-in-law to the earl of Ormond,) to work the silver mines at Doonally in the 270 barony of Upper Ormond, where sixteen persons were soon after cruelly murdered by John O'Kennedy and his brothers, who though they escaped human punishment for the same, were overtaken by the just judgment of God, and came to miserable ends. 194 The country being reduced, the gentlemen of Tipperary had several meetings in the beginning of January, to agree upon methods of raising forces, and money to maintain them in a regular way. Those of the barony of jNIiddlethyrde were to raise eleven companies of foot under the command of the lord Dunboyne ; but all the rest of the county and the forces therein to be raised. — 194- Lord Mountgarrefs march into Munster. (1641.) 159 were put under the government of the lord Ikerrin, a nobleman of great activity, spirit, and bravery. Every gentleman was likewise to raise, as volunteers, all the horsemen, and in the best equipage that possibly they could, which were afterwards to be formed into regular troops, when money could be provided for their subsist- ence. But though there was no pay promised at present, there was little difficulty in raising men, every body being ready enough for the service, till they had tasted the perils and hardships of war. The gentlemen in each barony were appointed to command the companies there raised ; the lord Ikerrin was chose lieutenant-general, and the lord Mountgarret (who, they heard, had a com- mission from the state to raise men) was invited to be their general-in-chief, and to take on him the command of all their forces. His lordship accordingly raised all the forces he could in the county of Kilkenny, and being reinforced by others from that of Catherlogh, advanced into Tipperary, soon after the holidays, quartering the first night at Greystowne ; and from thence marched to Cashel, where he rested for two days, and was joined by lord Ikerrin and other gentlemen of the county, making up a body of seven or eight thousand men. He was there strengthened by parties that flocked to him out of the county of Limerick, Avhich was raised in arms by the lords Bourke of Brittas and Castle-Connel ; and having appointed a general rendezvous for all the forces of Tippe- rary at Moine Inierla in Clanwilliam, he mustered there a very considerable army, not half armed indeed and very sorrily accoutred, but their vast numbers made amends for all other defects. He marched from thence, having only one piece of cannon for battery, to the castle of Knockarding, which after two days' resistance was sur- rendered to him, the defendants being to march out with their arms according to the capitulation, which was ho- nourably observed. He then advanced into the county of Cork, where he took the castle of Mallock, and was 160 Lord Mountgarrefs march into Munster. III. 194 — joined by Mac Doiiogli, with a party of his followers and others of that county. He continued still advancing- further, till he came to Ballyghowry in the Red Roche his country, where sir W. St. Leger from the top of an adjoining mountain vie\ved his army, and seeing their number, though raw, and ill furnished wdtli arms, did not think it proper to attack them, but desired a parley with lord INIountgarret. This was agreed to, and whilst the conference was carrying on by select persons, sir AVilliam got time to convey away from Donneraile and INIallo such arms, ammunition, and goods as he was most desirous to preserve. 195 The president of Munster, upon repeated complaints to the state of the nakedness of the province, which they had left destitute of all forces but his own troop for its defence, had obtained a commission to levy a regiment of foot and two troops of horse ; but wanting arms for these men, and the parliament of England, to which he had also applied for them, being so slow in sending those supplies, that he had not yet received any, he was in no condition to make head ao-ainst the enemy. Lord Mount- garret had the field open before him, and saw nothing to hinder his advancing up to Kinsale, Cork, and Youghall, which, with the other forts in the county, were at that time so indifferently provided with arms, munition, and provisions for defence, that it ap|»eared a work of no 371 great difficulty to reduce them. Lord Mountgarret was desirous to make the attempt; but Maurice Roche vis- count Roche and Fermoy, who was very powerful in those parts, and had got together a groat body of his neiglibours and dependants, disputed. his autliority, and refused to serve under him. He was the principal noble- man that had as yet taken arms in the county of Cork, and it was generally conceived that he expected him- self to have the command of the forces of that county conferred upon him. But whatever his motive was, he was supported in liis refusal hy tlic other gentlemen — 1()6. Lord Mounf(jfarrefs march into Miinste?'. (1641.) IGl who liad rose in arms with him, who insisted on having the same right of electing a general in that of Cork as had been exerted in the neighbouring counties. When this election came into debate, several competitors ap- peared ; there was no adjusting the point of command between them, nor could any expedient reconcile the differences which arose on this occasion. The heats were carried to such an height, that the army separated, and lord Mountgarret, who thought himself to be principally affronted in the matter, retired in great discontent with his forces into the county of Kilkenny, leaving Munster to shift for itself. 196 The nobility of that province being left to their own management did nothing of any consequence, for as they could not agree among themselves, they would not join with one another for attempting any feasible enterprise that was proposed in due time ; and those disunions which were now begun, continued among the great ones a long time after, to the great detriment of their undertaking. For the English, seeing the Irish broken and divided, began to recover their spirits, and being, before they were too hard pressed, gradually inured to watching, marches, cold, and other hardships, became in a little time able to bear, what at first, having been long used to ease, they either would not venture to endure or were not able to bear like the Irish. It was generally thought, that if the Irish had proceeded unanimously, and without loss of time with the forces of lord Mountgarret, those of the viscount Roche, and others which w^ere daily flocking to them from all parts, they might have been able to have cleared and secured all Munster, with its cities and forts, (considering the 'condition they were in at that time, ' See his letter to the earl of Or- tion of the Munster officers to the mond, Dec. 18, 1641. B. 102, and house of commons in England, the eari of Cork's, Jan. 6 and 12. Feb. 5, 1641. B. 155 and 169, and representa- VOL. II. M 1(J2 Siege of DrogJieda. 111. 196— without either powder or match or money to j)ay the soldiers, who were ready to throw down their arms for want, so that the lord president gave the province for lost unless he had speedy relief,) in the space of a month or two at most ; and then have employed this army for the reduction of the rest of the kingdom. But this divi- sion saved the province, and allowed sir W. St. Leger time enough to receive those supplies, which otherwise had come too slow out of England, to arm and discipline the regiments which he had formed out of the English, who had retired from their country habitations to Cork, and other towns for security, (who'^' were not only raw men but ill armed, scarce a sword amongst them, so that he could not expect much at their hands,) and to draw out early in the spring such a body of them as was able to oppose and beat the Irish in the open field. 197 Whilst these things were acted in Munster, the Ulster and Leinster rebels were taken up with the siege of Drogheda, upon the fate of which place, that of the king- dom seemed in a great measure to depend. The town, which is seated upon the river Boyne about two miles from the sea, was surrounded with a wall, but had scarce any other fortification. Sir Faithful Fortescue was go- vernor of it, when the rebellion broke out, having two companies of the standing army in garrison. Upon * the 272 first news of that affair Charles viscount Moore threw himself with his troop of sixty-six horse into the place, and, to provide for the defence of it, caused some old pieces of cannon to be scoured, and planted at the gates which looked towards Ulster. Four other pieces, with a quantity of powder, he got out of a merchant ship that lay at the mouth of the harbour, made up the north gate, and strengthened some weak parts of the wall. This not sufficing for its security, he posted to Dublin, represented ^ Letter of sir \V. St.Lcgev to the earl of Ormond, Jan. 1, 1641 . 1 See Dr. Barnard's relation of this siege. — 197* Siege of Drogheda. (1641.) 163 to the lords justices the importance and weakness of the place, offered to make up his own troop a full hundred, and to raise an hundred foot at his own expense. The offer was applauded, but not accepted ; and all that he could obtain was a commission for captain Seafowle Gib- son to raise a company of the townsmen, with some arms and ammunition, which were sent with him the next day. There were volunteers enough ready for the service, so that in two hours' time he completed a company of six score men, who were mustered, and mounted the guard that very night. Sir Faithful Fortescue still did not think the place tenable with so small a force, and there- fore upon the news of the taking of Dundalk, not having received from the state the further supplies of men and provisions promised him, he went to Dublin and threw up his government, writing word to some of the towns- men, that he was ready to sacrifice his life in defence of the town, but did not care to sacrifice his reputation, or to starve in it. Sir Henry Tichburne was thereupon sent down governor, with one hundred horse, and a regiment of one thousand foot, newly raised, but above seven hun- dred of them English and protestants, who appeared very courageous and zealous for the service ; three troops of horse were afterwards sent for a further reinforcement of the garrison, and four other companies were raised in the town. These, with fifty horse of the earl of Ormond's troop commanded by sir P.Wemyss, and three companies of Roper's, Sownley's,Cadogan's, and others, which escaped from the action near St. Julian's town bridge, were all the defendants of the place, when the rebels invested it on all sides at the end of November. Lord Moore"\ thinking they were not suflficient, had offered to raise six hundred men more at his own charge, to clothe and pay them, till a supply of money should be sent out of Eng- m See his letter to the earl of Orniond, Jan. 7, 1641. B. 158, M 2 164 Siege of Drogheda. III. 197- laiid, upon condition they should, with the four companies raised in the town, be afterwards incorporated into a regi- ment of one thousand men under his command ; but this proposal, thougli seconded by the earl of Ormond, was rejected by the justices. The Meath side of tlie town was the weakest part of the walls, and sir H. Tichburne conceiving the Mill-mount to be a defensible place, and a proper guard for the other, fortified it as well as he coukl, and planted four pieces of cannon thereon ; breast- works were made before every gate, and platforms where the walls were defective. 198 It was very late in the year to begin a siege when the northern rebels came before Drogheda, The common Irish are an hardy people, and used to fatigues ; but no bodies of men are able to undergo the hardships of a re- gular siege in the extremity of a winter season. This perhaps was one of the reasons why they did not besiege the town in form, and why we hear of no lines of circum- vallation made, no batteries erected, no mines carried on, no trenches run, nor any approaches made in this, as is usual in other sieges. They wanted cannon, arms, am- munition and instruments of war to proceed in that man- ner ; and having no tents to cover their men and guard them from the cold of the nights and the inclemency of the weather, they were forced, instead of making an en- campment, to quarter them in the neighbouring villages, scai'ce any of which were nearer than a mile to the town. 273 They lay however near enough to embrace every opportu- nity which their correspondence within, or any accident, might afford them of sur})rising the place. Their army, which is said to amount to eighteen or twenty thousand men, was numerous enough to block up all the avenues of a town seated on a river and of a considerable extent, so closely, as to cut off all its communication with the coun- try, and hinder the throwing in of supplies. The garri- son was in great want of firing, clothes, and victuals to — 199- Siege of Drogheda. (1641.) 1C5 qualify them for the hardships of their duty ; and the governor was more apprehensive of famine, and more afraid of treachery within the place, than of any force that could attack him from without. 199 The rebels first tried the way of surprise, and in the night, between Dec. 20 and 21, gave a general assault to the place, but were repulsed with great loss; which ill success discouraging them from attempting another, they lay quiet for three weeks, expecting to reduce the town by famine. They knew very well that it laboured under a great scarcity of provisions for the men, and of hay and oats for the horses ; and that the garrison suifered so much from their wants, and were so uneasy under them, that not only the Irish, but great numbers of the English soldiers, leaped over the walls, and made their escape out of the town, not with any intent of joining the rebels, but purely to avoid the hardships that were endured within ; where they were kept to very hard duty by the false alarms given them every night by the enemy, and were much enfeebled by their diet of salt-herrings, to which they had been never used, and which threw them into diseases that rendered them unfit for service. The very officers of the garrison, seeing no attempt made for their relief, thought themselves neglected by the state, and complained very feelingly by letters to the earl of Ormond, (whose instances in their behalf they acknow- ledged with gratitude,) of the little regard shewn either to their own preservation, or the safety of so important a place, then reduced to the utmost extremity. At last, on Jan. 11, the lords justices sent them by sea a small supply of biscuit, powder, and other ammunition, being loath (as they said) to adventure any great proportion till a trial was made how a passage thither might be forced. The entrance of the harbour was very narrow, and at the mouth of it there was a bar of sand which was unpassable at low water. To stop up the passage, the Irish had sunk 1 ()6 Sieac of Droqheda . 1 1 1 . j 99 — a bark in the cliannel, but a great fresh and strong west wind had not long before drove her out to sea. They had also planted two vessels on each side, and fixed an iron chain with a cable between them cross the chan- nel ; but this proved no imj)ediment to the ])innace and shallops, Avhich brought the sui)ply, and which passed the bar even at a low ebb tide, and skimmed over the chain almost without touching it, arriving safely at the key of Drogheda on Jan. 1 2. 2C0 The transports of joy which the garrison felt, and in- dulged too freely on this occasion, had like to ' have brought upon them that destruction from which they now fancied themselves to be secure. The vigilant go- vernor, to prevent any fatal effects of that security, had caused all the watches to be twice or thrice rounded that night : but his care could not hinder the treachery of some of the inhabitants, who let the rebels into the jdace through an old blind door that was broke open for them on the town side. About five hundred men, picked out of their choicest companies, got in this way ; and had they either cut off the guard at the gate near which they entered, who were most of them asleep, and so opened the gate to the numerous body of troops that was attend- ing without, or made up to the Millmount, where there were four or five pieces of artillery which commanded the whole town, or marched but to the bridge, and with the two drakes that were there planted entered into the body of the town, and fallen upon the main guard, Drog- heda had been irrecoverably lost, and the garrison cut in pieces. This p.arty continued half an hour in the town 274 undiscovered, till having marched as far as the key, they, either to give notice to their friends in the place, or in confidence of their victory, set up a great shout, which gave the first alarm, and was the means of preserving the town. Sir H. Tichburne hearing tlic noise, ran down innnediately unarmed, only with his pistols in his hand, — :200. Siege of Di'ogheda. ([642.) IGT and was the first that caused a drum to beat. He found the watches so thin, that he was forced to take the main guard, (which chanced to be his own company,) and caused his ensign to draw them down to the bridge, whilst he could get a body together to support them. The advan- tage of good arms appeared evidently in this exigence ; the rebels' pikes, made hastily out of such poles as they could meet with in the woods, were a yard less in length than those of the garrison soldiers, who by that advan- tage stopped their progress, and, charging home, forced them to a retreat. The governor coming up at the same time with a party of musketeers, which he had drawn together, and pouring in a volley of shot upon the enemy, they immediately took to their heels, flying different ways. About two hundred of them got out again at the breach made in the wall for their entrance, which was in so obscure a place, (in an orchard between St. James's gate and the water,) that it would not easily have been found by the pursuers, if the enemy had not directed them to it by their flight. Some of the rest found shelter and were concealed in the houses of the townsmen : about two hundred more were hunted up and down the streets, and either killed or taken prisoners. There were but three soldiers of the garrison killed in fight with the enemy, but more perished in the confusion and errors of the night and surprise. The rebels, more encouraged by the favourable beginning, than disheartened by the ill success of the enterprise, made an attempt the night fol- lowing upon another old door, which they were under- mining ; but being discovered,' were beaten off" with loss. The pinnace, which brought the relief, after two days' stay, and landing the provisions, among which there was no flesh meat, attempting to return, through want of water, or some mistake, ran aground, and was attacked by hundreds of the rebels, who, taking the advantage of low water when it was not more than knee deep, waded 1C8 Siege of Droghcda. III. ico — to her. In their approach they were much annoyed by the guns on board, yet they came uji to her very sides, and, as she lay dry, endeavoured with pickaxes and iron crows to bulge her. The vessel was now in great danger of being taken, for they were under her, and safe from lier shot : but captain Stuteville, who commanded her, throMing down a parcel of granadoes among them, some of their number were killed, and the rest fled for their lives, losing many in their flight by the fire of the shij), and leaving the captain upon the return of the tide to jn'osecute his voyage to Dublin. 301 The supply sent was not at all proportioned to the necessities of the garrison ; and the rebels, to prevent their receiving any other, sunk another ship in the chan- nel, and strengthened the boom which they had laid across it. The biscuit and meal sent with the pinnace was all spent in a fortnight ; the garrison was reduced to a worse condition than ever, and much weakened by famine, fluxes, and other diseases : horseflesh, dogs, and cats were the best food they had for their sustenance. Sir Phelim O'Neile, fancying he had now an opportunity of taking the town by force, hurried away to the north, promising to return in a few days with eight pieces of ordnance, and such a body of forces as should be able to carry the town in a general storm without any great hazard. Sir H. Tichburne sent captain Cadogan to Dub- lin to rejiresent the necessities of the place, and to solicit a further and speedy supply of provisions, as well as a reciuit of four or five hundred |)rotestants to complete the companies. lie was fl man of great resolution, and determined to wait the arrival of the succours till the last bit of horseflesh was spent; and "then, to })revent275 the advantage which the enemy might receive from the arms and ammunition within the j»lace, he resolved not " Sir H. Tichburne's letters to the earl of Oi-nioiul, Jan. 29, Feb. 2 and 25. — 202. Siege of Drogheda. (1642.) 169 to leave the broken barrel of a musket, nor a grain of powder behind him, and to fight his way through the rebels, giving notice to the earl of Ormond of the time, that his lordship might march out of Dublin to favour his retreat thither. 202 To defer that day as long as was possible, and to inure his men to action, he sent parties out from time to time to fetch in provisions from the country. Scarce a day passed without some skirmish or other on this occasion with the rebels, who were always beat ; which daunted them to such a degree that they durst not attack a party of the garrison with three or four times their number. The governor at first sent out these parties to such places as lay nearest, not above a mile from the town, into which they brought a good quantity of hay and oats for the horses. But seeing the weak opposition made by the enemy, he at last sent captain Trevor to a place four miles off, where there was a prey of eighty cows, and two hundred and sixty sheep, all which he brought into Drog- heda, without the loss of a man, to the great relief of the soldiers, who had not tasted a bit of wholesome meat in many weeks. This enabled him to hold out till Feb. 20, when a fresh su]jply of bread for seven weeks, and four companies of foot, arrived for their supply; the ships which brought it having entered the harbour, and come up to the key of Drogheda, with the loss only of two men killed by the shot of a fieldpiece from the shore, and about fourteen hurt. It happened providentially, that the boom which the rebels had made of a great many shipmasts, with other timber, bound together with a very massy strong chain, and supported by seven or eight great boats, was the day before carried away by a violent storm, which broke the chain and scattered the boats, (so that there was no occasion to make use of the engine which had been prepared to cut the chain,) and the ship that had been sunk in the channel was likewise 170 Proceedings of the lords justices 111. 202 — by the wind and tide carried out into the sea. The wind, whicli for a long time before had been contrary and very tempestuous, turned at this time on a sudden just to fit the spring-tide, (without which it would have been of little service,) and blew a fair gale at south-east ; every thing conspiring to afford an easy passage to the ships, and bring them all up at one tide to the key. 203 That very morning, about four o'clock, sir Phelim O'Neile, being returned out of the north with two pieces of canon and seven hundred men, instead of the much greater number which he had vainly promised, made an attempt upon the town by scalado with all the strength he could make ; but was repulsed with considerable loss. This was the last assault made upon it by the rebels, whose great army was now grown contemptible. A pro- clamation of the state, dated Feb. 8, offering sums of money for the heads of particular rebels therein named, had been sent in the ships that brought the suj)ply, and was fixed upon the market-place of the town. Sir H. Tichburne being recruited, resolved in his turn to harass the enemy, sallied out every day in much stronger parties than before, beat up their quarters in villages three or four miles distant from the town, and being successful in all his enterprises, forced them to raise the blockade and retire with their army in the beginning of March. 204 In the mean while the lords justices, as soon as they were satisfied that the lords of the pale would not com- ply with the order for their repair to Dublin, took mea- sures in order to convict them of treason, and forfeit their estates. For this ])urpose, on Dec. 23, (the very next day after the date of the letter in which those lords 276 declared their peremptory resolution of not trusting them- selves in that city in the hands of sir C. Coote, though they were ready to treat with commissioners sent from thence to any place out of his power,) they issued out a commission under the great seal, directed to Dr. Henry — 205. to convict the rebels. (1642.) 171 Jones, dean of Killmore, and others, empowering them to inquire into the losses sustained by the English and protestants, and to examine witnesses towards the con- viction of such as had been concerned in the depreda- tions lately committed, or had been any way engaged in the rebellion, either by any hostile act of their own, or by corresponding with or relieving the rebels that were in action ; and this commission was renewed on Jan. 1 8 following. Two days afterwards they acquainted the lord lieutenant with the reasons thereof, and mention some difficulties which they met with in the execution of their design. Their reasons are expressed in these words ° : "There are more persons of quality and estate in this rebellion than have been in any former rebellion here ; and considering that in this parliament, a little before these distempers broke out, it became questioned in par- liament whether or no persons being slain in rebellion did forfeit their estates to his majesty, although until that time it was never doubted here, his majesty and his tenants being actually possessed of great quantities of land upon that title : yet in the papists' debates in par- liament they endeavoured to have it declared that men killed in rebellion did not forfeit their estates ; which if it should stand for law, his majesty and his crown must of necessity, for the time past, receive very great preju- dice, and for the future the forfeitures of such of those men's estates as may happen to be slain in this rebellion will be lost utterly. In prevention whereof, we caused many of the principal of them to be indicted, and will take order that the ordinary process run out against them, so to take from them that pretence, which otherwise might be made, touching their estates, to his majesty's disadvantage." 205 What is here mentioned in reference to the law of o See the letter of the lords justices to the earl of Leicester, Jan. 20^ 1641. 172 Proceedings of the lords justices to convict the rebels. III. 205- treason in Ireland relates to the first of the queries put by the house of commons there to the judges in the sum- mer session of parliament in 1641, and there seems to me some mistake or want of exactness in this account of that matter. PThe question was very general, viz. " Whether the subjects of Ireland were a free people, and to be governed only by the common law of England, and statutes in force in Ireland." The judges in their answer thereunto say, " That the subjects of Ireland were for the general to be so governed ; but as in England several statutes were grown obsolete, and some particular ancient laws had been changed by interpretation of the judges; so their predecessors, the judges of Ireland, as the necessity of the times moved them, did declare the law in some particular cases otherwise than the same is practised in England ; which the present judges could not alter without diminution of his majesty's revenue, and opening a gap for questioning the estates of the sub- ject, and for the overthrowing of several judgments, or- ders, and decrees depending thereupon. For example ; if it be found by office of record suffici^ent for form, that a man was killed in actual rebellion, and at the time of his death he was seized of lands, hereditaments, goods, or chattels, by the constant declaration of law and practice in former times in Ireland, the crown was entitled to such lands, goods, and chattels, and many men's estates depend thereupon ; and yet the law is not so in England." The judges produce several other instances of the different in- terpretations and judgments of law in the two kingdoms, 277 and might have spared this if they liad so pleased. But however unnecessarily it was brought by them upon the stage, it doth not appear by the journals, or any other ac- count that I have seen, to have been made the matter of a formal or particular debate in the house of commons ; and it is certain there is not the least notice taken of it P Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 573, 576, and 584. — 3o6. Arrival of succours from England. (1642.) 173 in their declaration upon this, or indeed upon any other of the queries. Another difficulty in the conviction of estated persons was, that there could be no sessions held in any county but that of Dublin, where however indict- ments had been found for such acts as were committed within the county, though the persons indicted were resi- dent in other counties. Whatever difficulties there were in the case, the lords justices were equal to them all, and carried on the prosecution against them with great vi- gour, causing indictments to be preferred, not only against open and declared rebels, but also against others which were barely suspected ; and as there was nobody to make defence, nor any great delicacy used, either in the choice of the jury, or as to the character and credit of the wit- nesses, and one witness sufficed, such indictments were readily found. 206 There was not the same vigour exerted in the prose- cution of the war ; for, whether their fears or their weak- ness was the cause, they kept themselves entirely on the defensive, till sir Simon Harcourt, an old officer, who had served under sir Horatio Vere in the wars of Flanders, arrived at Dublin with a regiment of one thousand one hundred foot, and the news of three hundred unarmed men more being at sea, ready to come into the harbour. These additional forces animated the lords justices to send out parties to clear the neighbourhood of Dublin from the rebels. Thus on Jan. 11, sir C. Coote was sent with two thousand foot and two hundred horse to attack one thousand four hundred rebels assembled at Swords, who were routed, and the town of Swords burnt, toge- ther with some villages adjoining ; some of these belong- ing to some of the chief of the rebels, and the rest serv- ing as receptacles to relieve them. Sir Lorenzo Gary, a younger son of the late lord viscount Falkland, formerly lord deputy of Ireland, was killed in this action. This desolation was made in the country pursuant to the 174< Earl of Ormoyid' s expedition HI. 206 — orders of the lords justices, who justified their conduct therein by unavoidable necessity, alleging % that the pil- laging and burning of these villages was intended chiefly for the disappointment of the rebels, and the punishment of such as willingly harboured and relieved them ; yet it sometimes so fell out, that, amongst the multitude, some honest men (much against their minds) did suffer in the common mischief; it being difficult, if not impossible, at those times, and in such hasty and confused actions, (especially where whole villages were to be burnt,) to enter into examination of particulars so far as to preserve such as had not offended, the protestants' houses being- mixed with the papists' in those villages ; and in some cases whole villages belonging to protestants were of necessity burnt, because the Irish had seized them for harbour and lodging. This had been a better reason before their army had been so increased as to put them out of all fear of being attacked in Dublin, than it was at a time when they were daily expecting such supplies of forces as would enable them to be masters of the field. Captain Armstrong was sent soon after with a party of two hundred horse to drive the rebels from Tassagard and Rathcoole, which he easily effected, and burnt those vil- lages. 207 The borough'' of NewTastle within seven miles of Dub- lin, the adjoining castle and village of Lyons, and the town of Naas, serving also for receptacles to the rebels, the last especially, being the principal place of meeting, and holding councils of war, composed of the prime gen- tlemen of the county of Kildare, for applotting their levies 278 of men, money, and victuals upon the country for the strengthening and relieving of the rebels' forces, and for issuing out their other orders, it was thought necessary to dislodge them thence. The earl of Ormond was ap- pointed to go upon that exi)edition, attended by the lord q Letter of Jan. 20 to the lord lieutenant. >" Ibid. Feb. 12. — 2o8. to the Naas. (1642.) 175 Lambert, sir C. Coote, and sir Simon Harcourt. The earl on Monday, Jan. 31, marched out of Dublin towards Newcastle with two thousand foot, three hundred horse, and five small fieldpieces, hoping for an opportunity of encountering the rebels, who seemed to jiresume much on their numbers. He quartered that night at New- castle, and the next morning having, pursuant to his orders, burnt that town and Lyons, marched to the Naas, where the rebels had held a council of M'ar the very day before; but upon news of the lieutenant-general's ap- proach, thought fit to abandon the place. His lordship kept his quarters there all that day and the next ; during which time he sent out parties to burn Castle jMartin, Kilcullen-bridge, and several other villages within a few miles of the place. The inhabitants of the Naas had ap- peared very forward in receiving and relieving the rebels, and in pillaging and expelling the protestant inhabitants ; his lordship therefore, as well to punish them in their goods (since their persons were fled with the rebels) for their disloyalty, as to encourage his soldiers, (who were in arrears for their pay, and suffered nmch for want of clothing and shoes, none of which were to be got in Dub- lin,) gave them up the town for plunder. He dispensed with his orders in the point of setting fire to it, finding it capable of being fortified, and considering the distance of it, being a day's march from Dublin, the convenience of lodging to be there had for the army upon all occasions of marching that way, and the fitness of the place for a garrison to keep that part of the country quiet, when by the arrival of more succours from England the state might venture to send forces abroad. For these reasons he took care that the town was not burnt, and returned on Feb. 3 to Dublin. 208 The prisons^ of that city w^ere now filled with prisoners ; s Letter of Feb. 12 to the lord lieutenant. 176 The earl of Ormond's resentment at sir C. Coote's III. 208. and, as the governiiient increased in strength, were likely to be more crowded every day. It was troublesome, chargeable, and inconvenient to keep them, because of the consumption Miiich it occasioned of victuals, which were already grown very scarce, and their numbers might soon prove dangerous ; for which reasons the lords justices resolved to thin them. It was difficult, or rather impos- sibles for want of freeholders, to find juries of the pro- per counties where the crimes were acted ; so that there was no bringing these prisoners to a legal trial : in this necessity it was determined to cause a considerable num- ber of them to be executed by martial law. Men of estates were exempted from the rigour of that law, in order to preserve the king's escheats upon legal attain- ders; so that these executions fell entirely upon the poorer sort, and such as had no freeholds, particularly upon the Romish priests, who were all in general charged as the chief exciters of the rebellion, and whose execu- tion would exasperate the Irish to the highest degree. There happened upon this occasion an affair, which gave the earl of Ormond a good deal of concern, and which he considered (as it probably was meant) to be an indignity offered to himself. ^Tliere was one father Higgins, a Franciscan, a very quiet, inoffensive pious man, much respected by those who knew him, who officiated as a Roman catholic priest at the Naas, and in the neighbour- hood. He had distinguished himself in saving the Eng- s This they assign as a reason against three hundred persons of for proceeding hy martial hiw ; and quahty and estate in the county of yet in the postscript of this very Kiklare ; among which were the letter, they say, they had juries to old countess of Kildare, sir Nich. find indictments for the counties White, his son captain Nich. White, of Meath, Wicklow, and Kildare. &c., who had never joined the re- For the two first of which, as well hels : so much expedition was used as for tliat of Dublin, within two in this affair. days afterwards, bills of high trea- t Annotationes in Pontium, p. son were found against all the 139. lords and prime gentlemen, as also 2o8. hanging Father Higgins. (1642.) 177 lish in those parts from slaughter and plunder, and had 379 relieved several that had been stripped and robbed. The earl of Ormond found him at the Naas, took him under his protection, (he having never been concerned in any act of rebellion, nor guilty of any crime, nor liable to any objection but the matter of his religion,) and brought him along w\i\\ him to Dublin. About six weeks after- wards, when upon the earl of Ormond's return from his expedition to Drogheda it was thought politic to dis- courage the submissions which the gentry of the pale, and others who had been drawn in or forced to submit to the prevailing force of the rebels, were generally dis- posed to make, and to exasperate them by new cruelties ; and when these executions by martial law were carrying on in Dublin, whereof sir Charles Coote was still gover- nor, (the lords justices having in his favour declined executing the order sent for putting sir S. Harcourt into that post,) this man was seized on March 24, and, without any formality or delay, immediately hanged. The earl of Ormond hearing of it after the execution, too late to prevent the cruelty, expostulated with the lords justices about it in council. They pretended to be surprised at it, and excused themselves from having had any hand in. the fact, by their having given sir Charles Coote a gene- ral authority to do such things without consulting them. The earl told them, that he did not expect such usage from them, as that they should either order or suffer a person so well recommended to him, and so justly taken into his protection, to be put to so ignominious a death ; and insisted that Coote should be tried for what he had done, as having offended the laws, and put, not only an innocent, but a deserving subject to death, without ex- amination, without a legal trial, and without a particular or lawful warrant to authorize him therein. The dispute was sharp on both sides, and the earl of Ormond threat- ened to throw up his commission unless he had satisfac- VOL. II. N 178 The earl of Ormondes resentment at sh' C. Coote's III. 208- tion given him. Tlie justices pleaded hard for sir Charles, and, whether he had acted by private instructions from them in this particular case, or because he was their con- fident, and very serviceable to their purposes on all occa- sions, could not be brought to proceed against him. The earl highly resented this proceeding; but considering, that he had received his commission of lieutenant-general from the king, as a mark of his special confidence ; that it was not easy to find another subject in the kingdom whom his majesty could so properly intrust with a charge of such importance ; that by continuing in it he might pro- bably have an opportunity, some time or other, of doing acceptable service to his prince, and perhaps be instru- mental in preventing some of that desolation, which, he saw, was threatening his country ; that if he quitted the command of the army, it must necessarily fall into ill hands, and be entirely at the devotion of his majesty's enemies, since the parliament of England would be sure to intermeddle in that case, and the lord lieutenant would put in none but whom they approved ; and that possibly this very affront was offered him for no other end but to provoke him to throw up his commission, he resolved therefore to keep it, rather than expose his king and country to the inconveniences and mischiefs which would necessarily follow his laying it down. " It was certainly a miserable spectacle (as Mord Castleliavcn observes), to see every day numbers of persons executed by martial law, at the discretion, or rather caprice of sir C. Coote, an hotheaded and bloody man, and as such accounted even by the English and protestants. Yet this was the man whom the lords justices picked out to intrust with a com- mission of martial law, to jnit to death rebels or traitors, i.e. all sucli as he should deem to be so; which he per- formed with delight, and a wanton kind of cruelty. And yet all this while the justices sat frequently in council, 280 t Vindication of his Memoirs in MS. p. i 2. — 2 1 o^ hanging Father Higgins. ( 1 64 2 . ) 1 79 and the judges in their usual seasons sat in their respect- ive courts, spectators of, and countenancing, so extrava- gant a tribunal as sir C. Coote's, and so illegal an execu- tion of justice." 209 There is something so very extraordinary in this pro- ceeding of sir C. Coote and the lords justices, that one is afraid of guessing at the motives thereof. The hanging of a man of character, deserving in many respects, and exceptionable in none but that of his religion, looked as if they had a mind to countenance the notion (which they pretended in their letters to guard against) of this being a war of religion. The hanging him in such a manner, by martial law, l)y sir Cha. Coote's authority, without a particular warrant from the state, seems so perfectly Mell calculated to justify the fears which the lords of the pale pretended to have of trusting themselves in a place whereof that gentleman was governor, that whatever the motives were, they certainly must be very strong in their influence to overbalance these considerations and the respect due to the earl of Ormond's merit and dignity, though i^robably not very honourable in their nature, when the effects which they produced were so inconsist- ent with law, justice, and humanity. 210 The earl of Ormond suffered, for a long time after, a good deal of odium on account of this execution of Father Higgins, through a false representation made of it by some of the partisans of the nuncio. And as if it was to be his constant fate to suffer for the actions of others, done without his knowledge and against his will, he had about this time a message sent him from lord Corman- ston", complaining of his burning the country, and hang- ing some people in the late exjiedition to the Naas, and threatening him, that his wife and children should answer it, if he did the like for the future. The earl would not receive a message from a rebel in a way that might be b See Collection of Letters, No. L\'I1I. N 2 180 The earl of OrmoniTs vindication from III. 210 — interpreted a correspondence ; and therefore caused Mr. Henry Dillon, who brought the message, to be examined about it before the council board. By their direction or permission he wrote an answer to lord Gormanston, in which he represents to that lord his disloyalty and ingra- titude to the crown, his degenerating from the example of his worthy ancestors, and his joining with the Irish, instead of repressing (as he ought) their inhuman cruel- ties. He afterwards vindicates himself from the matter of the charge, nobody having been hanged by his author- ity in that expedition ; and declares his jfirm resolution to venture his life and all that was dear to him in prose- cution of the rebels, and never to disavow any thing that he slionld do in pursuance of his majesty's commands, for fear of what might befall him and his ; and that if his wife and children, who were in their power, should re- ceive injury from men, he would never revenge it upon women and children ; which, as it would be base and unchristian, would be likewise infinitely below the value which he set upon his wife and children. I Whilst the rebels were accusing the earl of Ormond of too much severity in his prosecution of them, others of a different stamp at the same time could not forbear aspersing him of too close a correspondence with them, and of sending intelligence from time to time to the rebels^'. James Wishart, son of sir John Wishart, a Scotch gentleman settled in the north of Ireland, was the author of this calumny. He had been a prisoner among the rebels, and left their camp after the 1 2th of January. In liis way from Dublin to London he met lord Blayney and captain Perkins at Chester, as they were going to Carrick- feigus, and in their hearing was not ashamed to aver, that he was assured of the fact by the lord Gormanston and other lords of the pale, and that he himself had seen "V Sir Philip Percival's letters to the carl of Ormond, Jan. 25, Feb. 5, and March 22, 1641. — 211. Wisharfs and other calumnies. (1642.) 181 it under the earl of Ormond's own hand. Sir Philip 281 Percival was in Chester at the same time, and Mas assured, by the noble lord and officer here mentioned, of what Wishart had advanced. He was the more concerned at the aspersion, because it was broached at a time, when some reports about the private instructions given to the lord Dillon of Costellogh, (in one of which it was pro- posed that his majesty should be moved to make the earl of Ormond governor of Ireland,) had caused the puritans to entertain great jealousies of his lordship's in- tegrity. This was no part of those instructions given to lord Dillon by the house of lords, in which the earl had concurred ; but an article in those which were drawn up for him after the parliament was prorogued, by a number of the Roman catholic nobility and gentry"', without the earl of Ormond's knowledge. Sir Philip had an infinite esteem for the earl, and was fully persuaded, that both the report and the proposition came from those Avho wished him ill, because his zeal for the king's service, and for the peace of the distressed kingdom of Ireland, was the greatest impediment in the way of the enemies of both. In a just concern therefore for the good of his prince and country, and a true zeal for the honour of his friend, he not only sent the earl of Ormond notice of the attempt made to wound his reputation, but wrote also to his best friends in London to vindicate his lordship from the aspersion, and to give them instances of other points, in which Wishart had falsified himself at Chester. The earl, as soon as he received sir Philip Percival's letters, laid the matter before the privy council of Ireland, who did not fail to express their indignation at so groundless a scandal, and wrote to the lord lieutenants^, giving an ample testimony of the earl of Ormond's zeal and for- w See the letter of the lords justices to the earl of Leicester, Nov. 2 7, 1 641, and Collection of Letters, No. LXXXL " See Collection of Letters, No. LIX. 182 Ormonil's vindication from IVisharfs calumnies. III. 21 1 — wardness in his majesty's service, and entreating his lord- ship, as well to use his best endeavours to prevent any impression of jealousy or misconstruction, which that scandal mioht have left with anv in Enoland, as to o^et Wishart secured there, that he might be forthcoming to ansv.er his misdemeanor in so high a scandal against so eminent a person. AVishart absconded at first, but was at last discovered by sir P. Porcival, taken up, and brought before the house of lords at Westminster, where he abso- lutely denied that he had ever spoke any words to that l)urpose to the lord Blayney or any other person whatso- ever. He owned indeed that he had said to lord Blay- ney and others at Chester, that the rebels always had notice of the earl of Ormond's and sir C. Coote's marches Avith the army; but that his lordship was the means of advertising the enemy, was the mere invention of some persons that maligned the earl's honour and his own re- ])utation. He protested solemnly that he never har- boured the least dishonourable thought of his lordship ; and declared before the committee of lords, and in the presence of sir Philip Percival and other honourable gen- tlemen, that the imputation as to himself was absolutely false, and he was ready with his sword to maintain his just defence against any that should dare to affirm such scandalous words concerning his lordship, or aver that they were ever vented by him. He^ expressed himself to the same purpose in a letter to the earl himself, dis- avowing the words, and entreating his lordship not to en- tertain any hard opinion of a person who did not deserve it, and who, though a mere stranger to his person, was yet entirely devoted to his virtues. But this was not the (uily attack on his lordship's re])utation at this time ; the design of aspersing him seems to have been more general, and was carried on as well by private letters from Dub- ' y On March 22, 164 1. B. 283. — 212. Distress of the troops about Dublin. (1642.) 183 lin, as by public papers printed in London^. The state took up one Chappie, the author of some of those letters, and complained of the English pamphlets to the lord lieutenant, who appeared very zealous to vindicate the earl's character and conduct, which by being examined 282 became the more universally esteemed. The house of lordsa, very sensible of the injury done him, exerted themselves to give him satisfaction, and even the house of commons, on March 8, passed a censure on a pamphlet, entitled, " A Declaration of sir Phelim O'Neile to the High Court of Parliament," recommending to the com- mittee of printing (whereof Mr. White had the chair) to take some speedy course for repairing the honour of the lord of Ormond much wounded by that pamphlet, and for the corporal punishment of the printer and the con- triver ; of which they were to make a speedy report. 212 After long expectation, a further supply of forces ar- rived from England ; and on Feb. 20 and 21, sir Richard Grenville with a body of four hundred horse, and lieu- tenant-colonel George Moncke with the lord lieutenant's regiment of one thousand five hundred foot, arrived in the port of Dublin. These forces were not so consider- able for their number as the lords justices expected, or as the necessities of the kingdom required. But what w^as still a greater disappointment to the state, there came neither money nor jirovisions with them, at a time when they were in the greatest distress for want of both, and that distress was likely still to increase, as their num- bers of men increased. ''The garrison of Drogheda was seventeen weeks behind in their pay ; the rest of the army, both old and new, had received nothing for two months past ; and no part of the arrears of the old army had yet been paid. The soldiers would never have been z Letter of March 4, 1641, and B. 281. a Letter of the earl of Leicester to the earl of Ormond, March i^. ^ Letters of lords justices, Feb. 12 and 27, March 4, &c. 184 Distress of the troops about Dublin. III. 212 — able to subsist so long, if the state had not compelled the inhabitants of Dublin, on M^hom they were billeted for their lodging, to give them credit for their diet, on pro- mise of repayment ^vithin a few days. And now those inhabitants, being most of them lamentably poor, and their trade and all access to the town failing, could not possibly bear the burden many days longer ; and the rather, because of the great scarcity of victuals. This scarcity was owing to the havock made all over the coun- try about Dublin. The rebels used to make incursions from time to time and pillage in those parts ; the state in revenge, or to prevent their getting any share of the provisions it afforded, burnt the villages, and wasted the country, which between both M'as utterly ruined. This was a consequence naturally to be expected from such a method of making war, which wise generals always avoid, taking care to preserve the country about them, that it may be able to afford sustenance, comfort, and accommo- dation to the soldier. But the lords justices, full of ex- pectations of being supplied with provisions from Eng- land, had so entirely destroyed the little circuit that was in their power about the city, that it could neither fur- nish corn or food for the men, nor hay and oats for the horses. To keep the soldiers from starving, they had not only ransacked the stores of the citizens, but had been forced also to break into those M'hich they had laid up in the castle of Dublin, to enable themselves to hold out some time of a siege, in case of extremity ; and his ma- jesty's store was so exhausted, that there was not corn enough left in it to victual the army for fourteen days in any exigence whatever. Hence many inconveniences ensued ; such of the soldiers as could get off for England deserted the service ; the rest, who were by a proclama- tion deprived of the means of transportation, feeding on unwholesome diet, (what they had consisting chiefly of salt herrings,) fell most of them into diseases, and died — 2 13 • Earl of Ormond drives the rebels from Killsalghen. ( 1 642 .) 1 85 in so great numbers, that there was danger of a conta- gion ; whilst others, necessitated by mere want, robbed and plundered the inhabitants of the city and places adja- cent, and were emboldened in so doing by impunity ; the state thinking it shameful to punish men for what they did out of pure necessity, to prevent starving, when they 283 had no money to pay them, nor any convenient diet to give them. They would gladly have dispersed some of their troops into garrisons in the neighbourhood, but were disabled from doing so for want of victuals to send with them ; and the men having neither clothes to guard them from the cold, nor shoes to enable them to march, were very ill qualified to shift for themselves. In these circumstances, the state was in continual danger of a mutiny, which they had reason to apprehend from the discontent of the soldiers, and which would have over- whelmed them in a sudden destruction. 213 Such was their situation at Dublin, when the new re- recruit of forces arrived ; which whatever accession of strength they brought them, did yet increase the scarcity of provisions, and the dangers arising from the want of pay to the army. It was necessary to employ the troops. A party of three thousand rebels under Hugh Byrne and Mac Thomas posted themselves within seven miles of Dublin S at a castle called Killsalghen, a place of very great strength, in regard of woods and many high ditches and strong enclosures and barricades there made, and other fastnesses. The lieutenant-general therefore him- self, attended by the lord Lambart, sir C. Coote, sir S. Harcourt, and sir Thomas Lucas, went out with a body of two thousand five hundred foot and three hundred horse, with four fieldpieces, to dislodge them. The ''orders given him by the lords justices on Feb. 23 were not only to kill and destroy the rebels, their adherents and reliev- c Letter of lords justices, March 4. ^ See Collection of Letters, No. LX. 186 Debates about I'amng the siege of Drogheda. III. 213 — ers, and to burn, waste, consume, and demolish all the places, toMus, and houses where they had been relieved and harboured, and all the corn and hay there, but also to kill and destroy all the men there inhabiting- able to bear arms. The earl of Ormond did not like this terri- ble way of making war; but thought the liberty left to a general in the execution of such orders was better in his hands than in those of some others, who would probably make use of them to destroy a multitude of harmless countrymen. He advanced against the rebels, and con- tented himself with burning some villages and houses thereabouts, in order to draw them out of their fastnesses ; but they still keeping themselves within their intrench- ments, he attacked them there, drove them out of the wood and enclosures where they were posted, and put them to flight, not without some small loss of men on his own side, who behaved themselves with great bravery and resolution. 214 The army was now by the military men thought strong- enough to raise the blockade of Drogheda ; but reasons of state were proper to be considered as well as those of war ; and the lords justices were not satisfied that in the present condition of the kingdom it was fit to make the attempt. It <^was urged, in favour of the attempt, that it would be a great dishonour to the army to lie still in Dublin whilst Drogheda was taken ; that, the season beginning to allow of a regular siege, it miglit be taken by force, and as it was to be feared the enemy would give no quarter, the cutting off such a number of gallant men as composed the garrison would be an inexi)ressible loss ; that by gaining the town in any manner, (as they would certainly disarm the garrison soldiers, which they had done in all other places,) they would gain store of arms and ammunition, which was their greatest want, and the mischief thence arising would be irretrievable ; fi B. 127. — 214. Debates ahout raising the siege of Di'ogheda. (1642.) 187 that they would thereby become masters of a town of very great importance in regard as well of the harbour and river, as of its situation in the way between Dublin and the north, and by the advantage thereof would be enabled to hinder the conjunction of his majesty's forces in those different parts of the kingdom ; that the taking of it would give such credit to their party, that all who 284 were at present neutrals would thereupon declare them- selves for the rebels; and in fine, that if Drogheda was taken, and the garrison thereof lost, Dublin could not possibly hold out long against the united forces of the rebels, which would be drawn down against it from all parts of the kingdom ; for being masters of the field, and the markets being entirely taken away, the army and in- habitants would soon spend all the provision within, and no city could hold out longer than its provision lasted. It was represented further, that if the siege were raised, the rebellion would be as good as half suppressed ; that the good subjects would recover their spirits, and the rebels be exceedingly disheartened in all parts of the kingdom ; that Dublin w^ould be absolutely secured, and the whole kingdom rescued from the imminent danger with which it was at present threatened. To these rea- sons were opposed the danger of an attempt, and the mischiefs of a miscarriage ; it was alleged, that the army of the enemy, employed in the siege, was not composed of ordinary and mercenary men, but of noblemen, gen- tlemen, their tenants and dependants, who were all volunteers, and had risen as one man in the quarrel, who having engaged in it past a retreat, and looking upon it as the cause of religion, had no way left them to take, but to fight it out to the last man ; that in case of any slaughter of men, the rebels knew where to have present supplies of more, but the state must wait a long time for the like supplies out of England ; that the enemy, if they were worsted, had places enough of retreat, but the Eng- 188 Debates about raising the siege of Drogheda. III. 314 — lish army had none between Dublin and Drogheda, the whole country between them being on the side of the rebels ; that as soon as it Avas known the forces had left the city upon such a design, the rel)cls in Wicklow and the adjoining counties would draw all their forces toge- ther, to fall upon Dublin or come upon the back of the army sent to Drogheda ; and that if the attempt failed, Drogheda would be given up immediately, Dublin would be lost without a siege, that part of the nation, which was as yet entire, would revolt, and the English would hardly find a landing place in the kingdom. Tliese dif- ferent considerations puzzled the affair, and the justices, always very sensible of the force of arguments drawn from possible dangers, were a good while unresolved what to do ; but at last took a middle way, the general party taken by those who know not how to determine between two contrary opinions. They resolved not to make a formal attempt for raising the siege, but to try what effect a diversion might produce. There was an absolute necessity for sending some of the army out of Dublin, because it could not subsist there; the danger of their contracting more diseases, and the fears of a mutiny, made the justices think of adventuring to send a con- siderable party of them abroad into the country, partly to keep them in action, and partly in hopes of keeping them in heart with pillage among the rebels. For these reasons (they^ say), they had resolved to send three thou- sand foot and five hundred horse into the pale, to burn, spoil, and destroy the rebels there, and perhaps to beat off the rebels from Drogheda ; and they were in great hopes, that the waste which would be made in the pale would deter many of their party, and force the rebels into the north. 215 Orders were accordingly given on ^INIarch 3 to the •" In their letter of March 4. e See Collection of Letters, No. LXII. -2 1 6. The earl of OrmoncTs march into the pale. (1642.) 189 earl of Ormond to march with the said body towards the river Boyne, to prosecute with fire and sword all rebels, their adherents and abetters, in the counties of Dublin and JNIeath, and to burn and destroy, as he should think fit, the places, towns, and houses, where the said rebels, their adherents or abetters, are, or have been relieved and harboured, and now or lately resided. In these orders there is expressly given to the earl a liberty in the execu- tion of them, which he had presumed before to exercise 285 in virtue of the powers incident to the authority of a general. He desired a further explanation in another particular, which was not in the former orders, and re- lated to the places of the rebels and their abetters' resi- dence ; whereupon the order was restrained to places, where such persons " now or lately usually resided ;" the word usually being interlined, in sir W. Parsons's hand- writing, in ^the original order signed by the council. They had found the inconveniences of wasting the parts which lay near the city ; and therefore directed the earl to take care that no corn, hay, or houses should be burnt within five miles of Dublin. He was allowed to march in such places as he saw fit, between the sea and the Boyne, but was in no case to pass that river, nor to stay out longer than eight days without further orders. 216 Whether the alteration, insisted on by the earl of Or- mond, and made in these orders, gave offence to the lords justices, or what other motive soever influenced them, they did not care that he should go upon this expedition. He had prepared every thing for it, when sir W. Parsons wrote to him, that they had considered of the expedi- tion and some consequences thereof concerning his lord- ship ; and thereupon they had resolved earnestly to en- treat him to stay at home, and let them send away the army now prepared under the conduct of sir Simon Har- court ; wherein they desired his lordship's approbation. '' B. 233. 190 The earl of Ormond's march into the pale. III. 316 — The earl of Ormond did not care to be made a cipher in his post of lieutenant general, or to lose any opportunity of distinguishing himself in the service of his prince and in opposition to the rebels : he refused to let the army, which the king had so particularly intrusted to his com- mand, to march, on an expedition of so much conse- quence, under anybody's conduct but his own. 217 He accordingly marched out of Dublin on March 5, in the evening, with the forces then in readiness ; and being advanced to a convenient distance from the city, he began, on Monday, March 7, to burn viUages, and to waste the country, sending out parties on all sides, who plundered with great security, meeting with no enemy to make re- sistance. This was matter of wonder to him, till lieute- nant colonel Reade and jNIr. Barnwall of Killbrcw came to him on the 9th Mith confident assurances that the town of Drogheda was clear of the rebels on both sides the Boyne. The news of his march, and the losses which the rebels daily sustained by sir H. Tichburne's beating up their quarters, made them raise the blockade on the 5tli; when 'sir Phelim O'Neile, having sent away his cannon towards Dundalk, and withdrawn his companies from Beauly, and colonel INIac Brian being beaten out of his quarters at Turholland, with the loss of many killed, and Art Roe Mac INIahon taken prisoner, the wdiole force of the rebels quitted the neighbourhood of the town, and dispersing themselves, fled towards the north. Upon this advice, he consulted with sir S. Harcourt, sir T. Lucas, and sir Robert Farrer, all of them old and experienced officers, who were unanimously of o])inion, that it was of absolute necessity, for the advancement of the king's ser- vice, and the speedy as well as i)ros})erous ending of the war, that with such forces as could be spared out of Drogheda, they should prosecute the victoi-y and i-ebels as far as the Newry. The governor of Drogheda was ' Sir II.Tichbarue's letter, Marcli 8. -2 1 8. The earl of Or momVs mar ell into the pale. (1642.) 191 able to spare one thousand foot and one hundred horse, which, with the army, woukl have made a force of four thousand foot and six hundred horse ; a force sufficient, in the distraction of the rebels at this time, to have re- duced all the north into obedience. The earl of Ormond sent the lords justices'^ advice of this state of affairs, and of the result of the council of Mar thereupon ; desiring an enlargement of his authority for the execution of that design, and to receive such further instructions from them as they should think fit. He had received from 286 them no directions at all as to his conduct in case of any lords and gentlemen that should come in and offer them- selves to him ; for which there was now a general dispo- sition in those of the pale. The lords justices likewise, when they issued a proclamation on Feb. 8, declaring a number of gentlemen by name to be rebels, and setting a price on their heads, had forbore therein to mention the names of any peers, till they received from England particular directions on that subject, which they desired might be sent them, but which were not yet arrived. He desired therefore some directions on the first head, and more particular instructions on the latter, conceiving him- self warranted in that desire by their own example, and not knowing whether it were their intention that he should pay the same deference to the seats, as they had shewn to the persons of the lords. He sent this letter by an officer, whom he detached with a small party of horse, to convoy colonel Reade and Mr. Birford (who had come in the day before) to Dublin. 218 The lords justices were in a terrible fume at the re- ceipt of this letter; the council was assembled and an ^answer drawn up that very night. The proposition of going to the Newry was disliked by all ; some resented it sharply, and thought his lordship might well have for- k See Collection of Letters, No. LXIII. 1 lb. No. LXIV. 192 The earl of Ormond's riiarch into the pale. III. 218 — borne the makiiif^ of that overture, as well as the other about the receiving the submissions of the nobility and gentry of the pale, which was far from being agreeable to them. In the answer, they allow his lordship to con- tinue abroad (if he saw fit, and found it necessary for the service) two or three days more than the eight allowed him by their order of the third ; but absolutely forbid him to pass the Boyne. They order him to make no dis- tinction between noblemen and others that were rebels, but to burn the houses and goods of both ; and to re- ceive such as offered to come in only as prisoners taken by the power of the army, recommending it to his lord- ship to have them seized by the soldiers before they had access to his person, and afterwards not to admit them to his presence. As a ground of this order about the houses of peers, they allege their last despatch into Eng- land, wherein they had signified his lordship's being to go on this expedition to burn, spoil, and destroy the rebels of the pale without exception of any. But they do not vouchsafe to offer any reason for adhering to their former order of not passing the Boyne, though the won- derful alteration of affairs, so different from Avhat they appeared when the army marched out of Dublin, might reasonably have been expected to produce an alteration of orders. Only they seem to lay a stress upon the earl's omitting to mention his having consulted with sir R. Grenville and other commanders on this occasion ; which does not so much express their deference to the judg- ment of these commanders, as it shews their inclination to give a reason for their resolution, if they had any to offer. This answer was sent away early on the loth, but a party of fifteen horse that was sent with it, observing in their road a body of rebels about Clony, returned to Dublin for a reinforcement ; by which means it was not delivered to the carl of Ormond till the i ith at night. 219 His lordship in the mean time continued his march -220. H6 is recalled from pursuing the rebels. (1642.) 193 towards Droglieda, and taking with him the three officers mentioned in his letter, went with a party of horse into the town (which he found so weakly fortified, that he was amazed at its defence) to consult with sir H. Tich- burne and lord Moore, who were best acquainted with the force, and the likeliest to guess at the intentions of the rebels. They were entirely of opinion that the rebels, who had fled further northward out of those parts, ought to be forthwith pursued, without giving them any breath or recollection. They all joined in a letter"' to the lords justices, pressing an enlargement of their commission, as 287 well to pursue the rebels beyond the Boyne, as to stay a longer time from Dublin ; and signifying to them, that as the resolution taken in the councils of war for pursuing the enemy ought to be put in immediate execution, and as they presumed their lordships concurred Avith them in judgment for the same reasons which determined their own, (especially not having received a countermand upon the earl of Ormond's late letter to the like purpose,) they had therefore resolved to march forthwith to Ather- dee and Dundalk, and either to burn or garrison those places as they should be directed by their lordships ; whom they desired to send with all convenient speed some ammunition, meal, and biscuit by sea to Drogheda, the fittest place to serve for a magazine to supply the army. This letter was sent from Drogheda on the nth; but all the measures concerted for pursuing the rebels were broke by the letter which the earl of Ormond re- ceived that night from the lords justices, requiring their former orders to be observed. 220 The earl could not but resent the beincc thus con- trolled in the command of the army ; and therefore, in a "despatch which he sent the next morning to the jus- tices, he could not forbear telling them, that there was "^ See Collection of Letters, No. LXVII. » lb. No. LXXI. VOL. II. O 194 The earl of Ormond is recalled III, 220 — usually such a confidence reposed in the judgment and faithfulness of those that are honoured with the com- mand of an army, as that it is left to them when and where to prosecute and fall upon an enemy; that ho took this to be his due, though he was content to depart from it, because he would not confidently depend upon his own judgment ; that they might see lord IVIoore's and sir H. Tichburne's judgment by a letter signed by them and the rest of the chief ofiicers, except the lord Lambert and sir R. Grenville, who were left in their quarters for the security thereof, and keeping the sol- diers from disorder, but were as far consenting to the execution of that design as himself who proposed it, or any of the rest that approved of it and signed the letter ; that, however, he was applying himself to perform their last commands, and for that end had sent forth horse to destroy the dwellings of traitors for six miles about, and would quarter the night following at Balruddery, and thence continue his march to Dublin ; want of bread causing him not to make use of the short enlargement of time granted in their letter of the 9th, which they could have been furnished with from Drogheda if they had pursued their design towards the Newry. He added, that with regard to the gentlemen who came in, his method was to put them in safe keeping, and either to send them before, or to bring them along with him to Dublin, without any manner of promise or condition, but that they submit to his majesty's justice ; nor did he dis- pute by what power they came in, leaving it to their lord- ships to determine that point when they had them in their hands, and he had given them an account of the manner of their coming. 221 The earl of Ormond had been made a general almost before he had been a soldier, and had seen as yet but little service ; that good sense however which makes a man master of all professions and employments, served — 222. from piir suing the rebels. (1642.) 195 him instead of experience. He found the army of the rebels dissolved and crumbled to nothing; the common soldiers dispersed and fled to their own homes ; their chiefs separated in confusion, and distracted with their fears. He judged that it would be no easy matter for the leaders to assemble their men again, who had run away to their cabins with what arms they had, and, as they had as yet received no supplies from abroad, that it would be impossible for them to arm any other body. He saw a general disposition in the gentlemen of the English pale to return to their obedience, which, with a little encou- ragement, would in all appearance have proved universal ; 288 and their submission must necessarily increase the con- sternation of the rest of the rebels. He saw clearly the advantages to be made of both of these by a warm prose- cution of the northern rebels, without loss of time, and in the height of their terrors, for a speedy suppression of the rebellion in those parts, and the influence it would have for the same purpose in all the rest of the kingdom. For these reasons he first proposed the immediate prose- cution of them to the other officers, and being by their sentiments confirmed in his own, had resolved to march on with his army to the north ; but knowing what ene- mies he had, watching every advantage that could be taken from his conduct to attack him, what a clamour would be made if he disobeyed the express orders of the state, and that if it were made the pretence of an accu- sation to remove him from the post he filled, the king in his present circumstances could neither protect him nor put anybody else in whom he could confide into the command of the army, by which means all the kingdom of Ireland, and all the forces in it, Avould be lost to him, and remain entirely in the power of his enemies, he altered his resolution, and prepared to return to Dublin. 222 He had given the lord Moore and sir H. Tichburne notice of the positive orders he had received to return, o 2 19G The earl of Ormond is recalled III. 222- and of his intention to obey them. They "coukl not pos- sibly conceive what motives could induce the lords jus- tices to send such orders ; they saw no signs of any im- portant affairs about Dul)lin, or of any necessity that could call his lordship thither in such haste ; but they evidently saw a fair opportunity lost of reducing the whole county of Lowth into obedience, and of possess- ing Atherdee and Dundalk with garrisons to curb the northern rebels, which they could not but lament. They had sent one of lord IMoore's servants to Dundalk for intelligence, and had by him received advice, that sir Phelim O'Neile and colonel Plunket had been the day before at that place, and had got together about five hundred men ; that they would fain have led them out towards Drogheda, but the men did not care to march ; that with great diflSculty, and after hanging two of the number, they at last got them out of the town ; but as soon as the men found themselves out of the place, and at liberty, they threw down their arms and ran all away ; that towards night sir Phelim himself went away Mith Plunket, and left three field pieces behind him ; and that there were not three gentlemen of quality left in the whole county of Lowth. 223 This intelligence, M'ith a request that he M'ould send them six hundred or one thousand foot, another troop of horse, and two pieces of battery, for taking in the strong houses about Drogheda, was the substance of the letters which the earl received from the lord INIoore and sir H.Tichburnc on the 12th, after he had despatched his own of that date to Dublin. He thought the advice im- portant enough to encourage him to make another essay to prevail with the lords justices to revoke their order for his return ; and for that purpose held another council of war, at which the lord Lambert, sir S. ITarcourt, sir T. Lucas, sir Robert Farrer, and sir R. Grcnville assisted. See Collection of Letters, Nos. LXIX and LXX. -224- ' from pursuing the rebels. (1642.) 197 It was; there unanimously resolvedP to send the lord Moore's and sir H. Tichburne's letters to the lords jus- tices, to let them see in Avhat present affrights the fled and disanimated rebels were, and how much it might conduce to their total overthrow not to let slip an oppor- tunity, which, once lost, might never be recalled without extreme expense of blood and treasure ; to acquaint them, that they could not, consistent with their faith to his majesty's service, or their due respects to the state, pursue their intentions of returning, (any further than 289 Balruddery, which was equally distant with their present quarters from Drogheda,) without following the rebels to Atherdee and Dundalk, before they had clearly ac- quainted their lordships with the enclosed, and received their directions thereupon ; and that, considering the great benefit and little hazard, (as the case stood,) not only of returning vengeance and destruction to the same persons that began the rebellion, and in the same parts where they began it, but also of freeing all the country as far as Dundalk from being the seat of the war with any of the northern rebels, they unanimously besought their lordships to give way thereunto, to transmit them orders to proceed accordingly, and to send a supply of victual and ammunition, with some shoes and stockings, to Drogheda, where they proposed to take part of those men, who had been so seasoned and encouraged by their late service and success, leaving others less experienced and worse provided in their stead. This letter was signed by all the officers above mentioned, except sir R. Grenville, Avhose quarters lying at a considerable dis- tance, and it growing late, he could not conveniently stay the drawing of it, so as to sign it, but he had been consulted with, and was entirely of the same opinion in the case. 224 This letter, which was delivered'' the next day to the P See Collection of Letters, No. LXVIII. q lb. No. LXXII. 198 The earl of Ormond is recalled III. 224 — lords justices, did not alter their resolution; it only served to furnish them with an excuse, that they could not send to Drogheda either shoes or stockings, nor so full a ]H-ovision of victuals as such an occasion required ; which however lord ^loore undertook to supply from his own lands, and was abundantly provided for by ''the pro- digious glut of provisions of all sorts, and incredibly cheap, brought by the country people to Drogheda, as soon as the siege was raised, and which were sufficient for several months. They adhered to their first order, and the earl was forced to keep on his march to Dublin, after having sent five hundred foot and a troop of horse, with a battering piece, to sir H. Tichburne ; for which they vouchsafed to give him permissiou, if he could con- veniently spare them. On this occasion they repeated their orders for burning all the houses of the rebels and their adherents in the country as he passed ; which he was obliged to observes except in two instances, wherein he prevailed with them to relax something of their se- verity ; the one, relating to the fishermen's houses on the coast, the destroying of which, he conceived, would hurt the markets at Dublin ; the other, concerning Ma- lahide, which he found to be an house of good situation and strength, and therefore proposed to preserve and secure it with a garrison of two hundred men, the house affording good accommodation for them, and they being a strength sufficient to keep the place. This being done, he returned with his army to Dublin on the 1 7th, having spent eleven days in the expedition. !5 It is very evident from this affair that the lords jus- tices were much more solicitous for the devastation of the country, though it was now coming to be under their power, and to serve for the nourishment of the king's army, than they were for the speedy suppression of the f Dean Barnard's relation of the siege, p. 72. s B, 272 aud 274. -226. from pursuing the rebels. (1642.) 199 rebellion. What business of importance there was about Dublin to induce them to recall the army does not ap- pear ; the rebels in those parts had made no motion to alarm them : but it is very plain from their own * letters, that they could not subsist the troops there upon their return ; that they could not send detachments of them to garrison the neighbouring towns for want of victuals to send with them ; that for want of clothes the soldiers were exposed to extreme cold, and in such nakedness, that it was a shame and dishonour to the state ; that by reason of the unwholesomeness of their diet, and the cold and hurts which they got for want of clothes and 290 shoes, they daily contracted diseases, there being in some companies thirty, in others more, in some less, but in every company very many sick, who died daily before their faces for want of means to relieve them; and of the lord lieutenant's own regiment, (one of the last that came over,) there were no less than two hundred sick for want of money to buy wholesome food and to give them drink ; so as by reason of death and sickness their strength was daily w^eakening, and the soldiers from such extremities taking up apprehensions of grief and great discouragement. These evils might have been prevented, if instead of recalling that body of forces to starve in Dublin, they had allowed them to pursue the flying re- bels into a plentiful country not yet wasted, to live upon the spoil and contributions, and to supply themselves with all necessaries out of the goods, stock, provisions, and plunder of the enemy. 226 What their reasons were for not allowing the earl of Ormond to pursue the rebels does not appear: it was natural to expect them in their next "despatch to the lord lieutenant ; but all the account there given of this expedition is, that his lordship went with an army, ac- t To the lord lieutenant, March 19, 1641, and March 31, 1642. u Letter to the lord lieutenant, March 19, 1641. £00 The earl of Onnond is recalled III. 226- cording to their letters of March 4, into the pale (their intent being that he should not be at any time above a day's journey from Dublin, Mhich was their principal care) ; that finding the rebels gone, he made a visit to sir H. Tichburne at Drogheda to observe how all things there stood, and returned after having burnt several vil- lages and lords' houses, without having seen an enemy, the lords and gentry having removed. And then, after praising God for their deliverance, instead of represent- ing the true state of the aflairs of the northern rebels, they go on to say, that these will rally again, and that the rebels are still very numerous in all parts of the kingdom. So barren an account of such important af- fairs, in so critical and improvable a juncture, is enough to make one suspect, if not the sincerity, yet at least the fullness, of those informations of the state of Irish af- fairs, which they sent from time to time into England. Whatever their reasons were, it is past dispute, that they defeated by their obstinacy the fairest opportunity that could be offered for putting an end to the rebellion in the north ; as a])peared plainly by the consequences of their orders. ^ For as the terror of the earl of Ormond's being advanced near Drogheda caused the rebels to for- sake Atherdee aud Dundalk ; so they no sooner heard of his lordship's return, but they took possession of those places again, and endeavoured to draw to an head. Sir H. Tichburne, after the earl's return, spent the first week in reducing Plactin and other strong houses in the neigh- bourhood of Drogheda ; and then, accompanied by lord Moore, marched with one thousand foot and two hun- dred horse into the barony of Slane ; and having burnt all the country thereabouts, advanced on the 23rd of the month to Atherdee. ^^'He was met about a mile from the place by a party of Irish, to the number of one thou- * Sir H. Tichburne's letter to the carl of Ormond, March 17. "*' lb. March 25 aud 26. 227- from following the rebels. (1642.) 201 sand one hundred foot and one hundred horse : some make their foot to be two thousand ; but whatever was their number, they were soon routed, and sir Henry took possession of the town. He found it a place of some importance, but so waste and ruinous, as not to be re- paired without a great charge ; so that he thought it more advisable to take and garrison some strong castle near it with one hundred foot, and forty or fifty horse, to keep the county of Lowth in subjection, and to waste the neighbouring counties. 227 From thence he marched, on INIarch 26, to Dundalk, where about eight hundred of the enemy were in garri- son. The town is naturally strong by its situation, having 291 a bog on one side and the sea on the other ; and the rebels had fortified it with a double wall and double ditch. Sir Henry assaulted the place, and with the loss of eighteen men killed or mortally Mounded, carried it by storm : an hundred of the enemy were killed in the town, the rest, with sir Plielim O'Neile their commander, escaping in the dark of the evening. He took there three pieces of cannon, two of them brass, and better than any he had with him. He considered this as a place of very great importance, and requiring a garrison of at least eight hundred men ; a greater number than he could well spare : however he resolved to maintain it, till he received either a reinforcement of troops, or some orders about it from the lords justices^, who were so strangely slow in sending him either the one or the other, that it looked as if they had no sense of the consequence of the town, or no manner of satisfaction in his success. yThey did indeed own that it was a place of mighty im- portance for the general service, but as they alleged that they had not forces enough to supply him with such numbers as might enable him to secure both that place ^ Sir H. Tichburne's letter to the earl of Ormond, Apr. 6, 1642. y Their letter to the lord lieutenant, March 31, 1642. ^02 Treatment of the gentlemen of the pale III. 227- and Drogheda, they thought he would be forced to de- sert Dundalk. lie maintained it however against all the forces of the rebels, who being left unpursued, had time to recover their spirits, and to gather again into a body. If sir II. Tichburne, after the loss of a fortnight's time, could Avith so small a force reduce the wliole county of Lowth, what might not the earl of Ormond have done towards ending the war, if, with an army of four times the number of that party, he had been suffered to pursue the rebels in the instant of their confusion and height of their terrors, without allowing them time either to recol- lect their spirits, when they were so miserably sunk, or to reassemble their forces, when so entirely dispersed ? 228 The earl of Ormond had, during his late expedition, received the submission of several gentlemen of the pale, wdio had come in to him, depending upon the encourage- ment given them to expect pardon by his majesty's pro- clamation of Jan. I, which, having been long stopped by contrary winds, arrived at Dublin on Feb. 26, and had been since published by the lords justices, and sent into all parts of the kingdom. He had sent several of these before him to Dublin, particularly sir John Netterville, Garret Aylmer of Ballrath, James Bathe of Acharn, W. Malone of Lismullen, Nic. Dowdall of Brownstown, Stcjdien Dowdall of Galstown, Edward Dowdall and his son Lawrence of Muncktown, none of which had been in any action with the rebels, and some of them had been plundered by the Irish. Patrick Pluncket baron of Dunsany, the eleventh lord of his family, which had been ever loyal, four of his noble ancestors having been killed, and five more wounded, in the service of the crown, and himself an Englishman by descent, alliance, and affection to the English interest in Ireland, had wrote to the earl to desire his protection. He had re- tired out of the pale when the gentlemoi had joined with the Irish, and lived quietly in his own house, doing — 230. that submitted upon the king's proclamatio7i. (1642,) 203 all manner of acts of humanity to the English, even at the hazard of his life, till he came with his son to Dublin on INIarch 19, having the king's proclamation in his pocket, and surrendered himself to the lords justices. Sir Andrew Aylmer, John Talbot of Robertstown, and George Devenish had done the same. The lords Net- terville and Slane, and many others of the principal gentry of the pale, had offered the like submissions ; and this practice was growing so very general, that the lords justices thought it high time to put an effectual stop to it. 229 Some of these gentlemen had been indicted of high treason for having been seen to converse with some of the rebels, whilst the latter were masters of the country, and the bills had been found by the gi-and juries, who (as hath been observed) in the space of about two days 292 found so many hundreds of indictments. These they re- solved^ to have tried in a legal course for a terror to others, and to lead towards a full resumption of his ma- jesty's just and regal power and authority in Ireland. It was proper for them to prepossess the court and parlia- ment of England in favour of this proceeding, and it will be but justice to them to hear the reasons which they alleged for it in their despatch of March 19, 1641. 230 In that letter they signify to the lord lieutenant, that some gentlemen had rendered themselves to the king's justice ; that many others had desired protections, and that very many, even of the best rank, had endeavoured to make submissions ; but they thought it necessary to observe, that the state of England had been too indulgent to the Irish in former ages since the conquest of the kingdom, and had too easily received submissions, and granted pardon to rebels, whereas if the governors of Ireland had been careful to improve the frequent oppor- z Their letter to the lord lieutenant, March 19, 1641. 204 Treatment of the fjentlemen of the pale III. 230 — tunities offered tlieiii by those rebellions, tliey might have made such a full reformation in the kingdom as \vould have prevented the present general destruction fallen upon the British there ; that none of the former rebel- lions could parallel the present, either in the dangerous original thereof, or in the unexampled cruelty and ex- treme hatred to the British nation shewed in the pro- gress thereof, or in the fearful and terrible consequences finally aimed at therein, being no less than to wrest out of his majesty's hands his royal sceptre and sovereignty there, to destroy and root out all the British and pro- testants and every species of English out of the kingdom, to suppress for ever God's truth and true religion there, and instead thereof to set up the idolatries of the church of Rome, and finally to pour in forces into England to disturb that blessed peace which by the mercy of God that kingdom then enjoyed ; that some, to extenuate the rebellion, had said, that England had never conquered Ireland, but only received it by submission ; that the re- bels presumed upon forcing his majesty to entertain their submissions, and to give them dishonourable conditions ; that these submissions Avere purely the consequence of their disappointments, to work their own ])resent ease, and prevent the sending over further supplies from Eng- land ; that if, after such a series of rapine, cruelty, and bloodshed, to the enriching of themselves, and the ruin and destruction of the British protestants, the rebels could wipe out their crimes by making submissions, they would be emboldened to attempt the like again, to the continual unsettlement, if not destruction, of the king- dom, the English would be discouraged from coming over to settle there, and the few British yet left unde- stroyed would remove thence, and so the settlement of religion and civility there would be prevented ; and the natives continuing without tlic mixture of English, would be unserviceable either to the king or themselves, having — 2^1. that submitted upon the king's i^roclamation. (1642.) 205 no trades among them, being generally idle, and for the most part barbarous; and upon considering these parti- culars, they hoped his majesty would have the glory of perfecting the great work which his fother had begun, and make the like settlement and reformation all over the kingdom, as king James had done in Ulster. 231 These arguments, which are an appeal to the passions of men rather than to their reason, are chiefly drawn from the practice and notions of the old Irish, and could not, consistent with justice or equity, be applied to the gentlemen of the pale, who had been concerned in none of those barbarities, and who, being of English race, were well affected to the English interest, by which they were first settled, and still subsisted, in Ireland. They involve all in one general accusation, imputing to every one of the rebels what the worst of them had done, without 293 making a distinction, which all wise and good men wished, between the first authors and ringleaders of the rebel- lion, and those who had been misled by their specious pretences, or forced by their prevailing power to join them ; between those who had been concerned in ra- pines and cruelties, and such as had been guilty of nei- ther ; between such as had been engaged in hostile ac- tions, and such as had, in the jealousy of the times, only stood upon their guard ; between those that had ap- peared in the field, and such as had only paid contribu- tions to the rebels, and conversed wMth them, when their houses, and all that they had, and the whole country thereabouts, was in the power of their forces. Of this latter sort were those gentlemen who had now made their submissions, against whom the lords justices were now meditating, and indeed using those illegal and bar- barous severities, for which they had prepared an apology by these arguments ; in which no consideration is had either of the faith of the king's royal word and his mercy promised in the late })roclamation to such as should im- 206 A im of the lords justices III. 231 — mediately lay down their arms, and forbear all further acts of hostility ; or of the blood that must be spilt and the treasure that must be spent in reducing the whole nation bv force ; or of the desolation of the kingxlom that would have been prevented, and the peace which would have been restored, if these submissions had in fact be- come, Mdiat a little seasonable lenity in that juncture was likely to make them, general. But such considerations as these were not agreeable to the views of the lords justices, who had set their hearts on the extirpation, not only of the mere Irish, but likewise of all the old Eng- lish families that were Roman catholics, and the making of a new plantation all over the kingdom ; in which as they could not fail to have a principal share, so all their reasonings upon all occasions were calculated and in- tended to promote that their favourite scheme. 232 This scheme would have been destroyed, if the rebels in general had submitted upon the late proclamation ; there was a general disposition in those of the pale, and offers made by the chief of them, to submit; and nothing was so likely to stop the effects of that disposition, as to treat those who had actually submitted in such a manner as to shew the rest that they should receive no favour upon such submission, nor any benefit by his majesty's proclamation. Hence all the gentlemen that surrendered themselves were, without being admitted to the presence of the justices, committed prisoners to the castle of Dub- lin : preparations were made for their trial, and designs published of their being prosecuted Avith the utmost se- verity. But as the prisoners had never appeared in the field, nor l3een concerned in any Avarlike action, there was a want of proper facts wherewith to charge them, and of sufficient witnesses to prove those facts. To supply both these defects, the lords justices had recourse to the rack; a detestable expedient, invented to extort from unhappy prisoners, in the anguish of their pain, or in the terror of — 233- in racking the prisoners. (1642.) 207 the tortures prepared for them, such confessions, as those, who have the management of that accursed instrument of tyranny, have a mind to put into their mouths, and therefore justly ahhorred by all lovers of liberty, and for- bidden by the laws of England. 233 The two points which the lords justices aimed at in their examinations of persons on the rack were, to force from them some confession which might enable them to charge all the Roman catholic gentlemen in the kingdom, and particularly those of the pale, with being originally concerned in the conspiracy ; and to find out some pre- tence to asperse the king \\\t\\ authorizing or countenanc- ing the rebellion. It appears clearly from what hath been said, how serviceable the first of these would be to justify their conduct towards the lords and gentry of the pale, to put a stop to the submission of those noble per- sons, and to forward their own scheme of extirpation ; and the latter point seems to be suggested to them on 294 this occasion : The house of commons of England had in the month of January raised a body of several thou- sand men in London under colonel Skippon, who pub- licly beat up for volunteers, and blocked up the Tower, in order to reduce the place by famine. They had seized Hull and Portsmouth, and endeavoured to get the other forts of the kingdom into their hands. The king had been forced to quit London, and in the beginning of February to retire northward, for the greater security of his person. The parliament had gone on to strip him of the small remainder of power which was left him, and to take the militia out of his hands : they had arrogated the power of it to themselves, and vested it in commis- sioners of their own appointment ; they had published a declaration for putting the kingdom of England into a posture of defence, and made preparations for an open war. Nothing in that case was so likely to increase their own strength, and to lessen the king's, as the alienating 208 Views of the lords justices III. 233 — from him the atfections of his people ; and nothing so pro- per to produce that effect, as the aspersing of his majesty with authorizing, encouraging, or favouring the Irish re- belHon, in which so many acts of cruelty and inhumanity had been committed, that the accounts published thereof, fortified by the shocking sight of multitudes of the de- spoiled protestants coming over daily into all parts of England, had justly raised the greatest horror of that affair in the minds of all the people in that nation. AYith this view, they had on Feb. 9 taken advantage from four passes granted by the king to four gentlemen never con- cerned in that rebellion, to insinuate to the nation, that he had granted passes to such as were at the head of the rebels ; a scandalous falsehood which hath been already refuted, and which they were so little able to support, that they thought it behoved them to use their endea- vours for getting other informations to make out the charge. The king, in an utter detestation of that rebel- lion, and out of his earnest desire to suppress that, which he saw was the ruin of his affairs in this, and would, if suffered to continue, prove the desolation of that king- dom, had by frequent messages pressed the house of com- mons to hasten their supplies for the relief of that dis- tressed country, had offered to raise immediately ten thousand volunteers for the service, if the commons would but promise to pay them when raised, and even to go himself, and venture his royal person. 234 To these messages, to those particularly of Feb. 14 and 24, which contained his offers of going in person for the redemption of his poor protestant subjects in Ireland, he refers in his >' answer to the declaration of both houses j^rcsented to him on ISIarch 9, at Newmarket : and when he delivered this answer the next day to the earl of Hol- land and the rest of the committee, he expressed himself y Husband's Collection of Ordinance?, 4to, p. 107. -234' in racking the prisoners. (1642.) 209 in such strong terms with regard to that offer, that they were very apprehensive he had taken a resolution there- upon, and was going to put it in execution. He told them, that the business of Ireland would never be done in the way they were in ; the work was put into too many hands, and must be done by one ; and if he were trusted with it, he would pawn his head to end that work ; and though he was a beggar himself, yet (speaking with a strong asseveration) he would find money for that. The king's appearing in the head of an army against the Irish rebels, and prosecuting the war with vigour, would have undeniably refuted that aspersion of the parliament, and soon have put an end to the rebellion. His presence in Ireland would have determined the power of the lords justices, and, together with the ready submission of the rebels, would have put an end to their scheme of an ex- tirpation. It was therefore the common interest both of the faction and parliament of England, and of the lords 295 justices in Ireland, to prevent the king's intended journey to this latter country ; which nothing could so effectually prevent as the rendering of him suspected of favouring and holding a secret intelligence with the rebels ; a no- tion which, if it once prevailed in England, would make it too dangerous for the king to attempt the expedition, or at least defeat him in a great measure of those advan- tages which he might otherwise derive thence. Whether therefore the lords justices acted in this affair by direc- tion from the faction in England, (with whom they held a close correspondence by means of their agent Fitz- gerald,) or out of their own motion for promoting their design of a new plantation upon a general forfeiture of all the Roman catholics of the kingdom, it is certain that to this point of aspersing his majesty, and the other of involving all the Roman catholics throughout the nation in the guilt of the original conspiracy, the questions which VOL. II. p 210 Hugh Mac Mahon and cohnel Read III. 234- they put to prisoners upon the rack at this time plainly tended. 235 The first that was so treated was Hugh Mac Mahon, a gentleman who had been in foreign service, and had joined in the design of surprising the castle of Dublin. To en- gage him in that afliiir, captain Brian O'Neile had told him, that he should be assisted in it by twenty prime men out of every county in Ireland, who were to be at Dublin the night before the execution of that enterprise. He was taken up on Oct. 23, and being then examined ^ had confessed thus much, in a threatening manner, to in- timidate the state from proceeding rigorously against him for fear of revenge. It was now thought proper to force him upon the rack to say something more for their pur- pose, and particularly for countenancing the horrible as- persion upon the king. The tortured wretch had nothing to offer, but hearsay, to gratify them ; and in answer to their questions, acquainted them, that he '^was told by Philip O'Reily, that the Irish committee were to solicit the king for a commission to authorize the papists of Ireland to proceed in their rebellious courses, and that colonel Mac Bryan Mac Mahon had assured him he should see it at his coming to Dublin ; in confidence of which he had engaged in that aflfair, but had never seen any such commission ; though he had been deluded, as others of the Irish had been, by that false pretence ad- vanced by the profligate ringleaders of the rebellion, to draw weak and credulous people into their measures, and to gain credit in their cause. The lords justices knew very well the falsehood of that pretence, and consequently that nothing could be brought to proi)agate that calumny against the king, but the rebels having out of political views made such a pretence : yet this, in an age of jea- z Nalson, vol. ii. p. 521. ^ Bishop of Clogber's MSS. No. III. article the 2nd. '.^6. are imt to the racl-. (i6.|.2.) 211 lousies antl distractions, wlieii the people of England be- lieved every thing that they heard on one side, and nothing that they saw on the other, was sufficient for their puqiose. 236 Mac Mahon was racked on March 22, sir John Read was the next day put to the same torture, and questioned upon the like interrogatories. He was a sworn servant of his majesty, as gentleman of the privy-chamber, and had been a lieutenant-colonel in the late army against the Scots. He had gone, with his wife, to Plattin, the strongest castle in those parts, to convoy her thither ; and his return to his house at Drogheda was intercepted by the rebels' sudden investing of that town on all sides. Whilst he continued at Plattin, the nobility and gentry of the pale prevailed with him to carry their remonstrance and letters to the king, and to represent to his majesty by word of mouth some particulars of their grievances and sad situation, which were not so proper for the per- usal of the lords justices, who would probably be curious enough to see those papers before they allowed them to 296 be carried over. For sir John resolved to make no secret of his message, and thereupon sent a servant of his own, with a letter to sir W. Parsons, to desire a pass for his going over into England to wait upon the king. His journey was undertaken upon condition of having the expenses of it, as well as of his solicitation at court in that affair, defrayed, and some provision made for the subsistence of his wife, children, and family, during his absence, and in case of any accident attending him. There was, as I find by the letters^ of the lords Fingall, Gor- manston, Netterville, and Slane, some difficulty in the raising of this money, which caused his journey to be re- tarded. This being at last removed, and the lords jus- tices and council having, in answer to his letter for a pass, desired him to repair to Dublin that they might b B. I 13, 159, and 160. P 2 212 Colonel Bead is 2Mi to the rack. III. 236 — confer \\\i\\ liini before his departure, he resolved to go thither, conscious that he had neither done nor under- taken any thing contrary to his allegiance and duty to his majesty. When the earl of Ormond's advance with liis army into the pale had cleared that ])art of the coun- try of the rebels, he took the oj)portuiiity of getting to his lordship, and brought him the first account of the enemy's having raised the siege of Drogheda. He ob- tained from his lordship a convoy to carry him to Dublin, and upon his arrival there, was committed close prisoner to the castle, notwithstanding that they had invited and ordered him to come thither, and that he told them he had brought letters for his majesty ; and that he had also brouo-ht them another letter from the lord viscount Net- terville, to desire a safe conduct for himself, and two or three more to come and see a proclamation of his ma- jesty's, (whereof they had a rumour,) which commanded them to lay down their arms, and submit to his mercy, that, if true, they might render obedience thereunto. The proclamation here referred to was that of Jan. i, which the justices had received on Feb. 26, and ought to have published in such a manner that it might be seen by every body in the nation, if the reasons they alleged for desiring the king to sign with his own hand and privy signet an extraordinary number of the copies thereof were the true motives of that request. Their secreting them to such a degree, that the lords and gentlemen of the pale, who lay nearest Dublin, could not see one of those copies, was the likeliest way to prevent their effect, and could never arise from any of the motives pretended for a request, which, from their proceedings afterwards, appears to have been made upon different, however mys- terious views. 237 The lords justices seized the letters addressed to his majesty, and never transmitted them to him. They put sir John upon the rack, interrogated him upon questions — 238. Colonel Read is put to the rack. (1642.) 213 calculated to entitle the king to the iniquity of the re- bellion, and drew up what they thought fit of his answers, and what they made him say, in the form of a confession, which they sent, along with that of Mac JMahon, to the house of commons in England, on the 23d of April following. They sent at the same time their letter of that date, (directed to Mr. Secretary Nicholas,) stuffed with motives to dissuade the king's coming into that kingdom ; a circumstance which shews clearly enough that the lords justices moved in all this affair, either by the express direction, or at least with the concurrence of that faction which at that time governed in the English parliament. Their endeavours were indeed so well ac- cepted by that body, that they thought themselves en- titled to some recompense ; and accordingly soon after, (May II, 1642,) in a private letter of their own (without the rest of the council) to the speaker, besought the com- mons to assist them with a grant of some competent pro- 'portions of the rebels lands. 238 The king was all this while a stranger to these proceed- 297 ings, the examinations having been taken privately, and the justices having never acquainted him with any of these particulars. ''He had heard indeed of them by various reports, which agreed in saying that there was somethino- in those examinations which reflected on his o majesty's honour; and had caused sir Edward Nicholas to write for copies of them to the lords justices ; but they, conscious of their own iniquity in that affair, and being determined to make their future application to the par- liament of England, and to carry on a correspondence with the prevailing party in that body, rather than with the king, forbore to send his majesty any account of that business, though they had sent copies thereof to their friends in the parliament. The king thereupon com- manded the secretary to write to the earl of Ormond, and b See Collection of Letters, No. LXXV. 214 Of'-r of the lorch of the pale to submit. III. 238— desire his lordship to send him a coj)}' of the said exami- nations ; but this was more than his lordsliij) conkl do, so carefully was this matter secreted from him, though a member of the council. And it was between two or three years afterwards that sir John Tiead, after a close imprisonment for some time at London, there being no evidence of any crime against him, got his liberty ; and after serving some time in the parliament army repaired to the king at Oxford, and informed him of the particu- lars of these transactions. 239 The severity of the lords justices did not stop here; they caused sir John to be indicted, and (whilst he was absent and a ])risoner in England) to be outlawed for high treason ; and that every thing belonging to him might feel the effects of their displeasure, his wife and goods were seized upon, before he was either indicted or outlawed, and his children and family thrust out of doors. His wife presented a petition to the lords justices, that they would assign her some part of her own goods, to maintain herself and her small children ; but they abso- lutely refused to allow her any, though the barons of the exchequer, to whom her petition was referred, certified, that it did not appear unto them what sir John Read's offence was, nor how, or for what cause, the crown was or might be entitled to his goods or other estate. Who- ever reads this account will scarce have any advantageous opinion, either of the lords justices' fidelity to his majesty, who intrusted them with so important a charge, or of their humanity to others, who upon their invitation put themselves into their hands. 240 The reader j)erhaps may be curious to inquire, what answer the justices returned to lord Nettervi lie's letter here mentioned, and may be assured that they sent none at all. For on March 22 the earl of Castlehaven sent them a '^letter, with one inclosed from the lords Gorman- c Bishop of Cloghcrs MSS. No. III. p. 45. -24-- Treatment of the earl of Catitlehacen. (1642.) 215 ston, Slane, and Netterville, addressed to himself, and expressed in these terms : 241 ^'- Right honourable and our very good lord, " Understanding of a proclamation (which we could never come to the sight of) set forth by his majesty, commanding us to lay down our arms, in obedience thereunto, we performed accordingly ; and thereupon employed lieutenant-colonel Read unto the lords justices, that cessation of arms might be of all sides, until we were informed upon what grounds and conditions we should be received. Since which the army came forth from Dublin, pillaged and burned both our own houses and our tenants', not having once received answer. Wherefore our hum- ble request unto your lordship is, (so it may be without incon- venience to your person,) that you will be pleased to move unto the state, in behalf of us the united lords, to be licensed to meet by a certain time in some convenient place, where we may draw up our grievances to be presented to his majesty, and in the 298 mean time a cessation of arms to be continued, and no hostile act perpetrated ; which by these presents we fully authorize your lordship to do, and do undertake, that the united lords will approve the same ; for which favour you will oblige us to be " Your lordships most humble servants, ,, , , , " GORMANSTON. SlANE. NeTTERVILLE." March 1 6, 164 1. 242 James Touchet earl of Castlehaven was descended of a very ancient and noble family, who had been barons of England from the time of Edward I, by the style of lord Audley of Heleigh, Those honours, as well as a very large estate in England, had been forfeited by his father ; the king had in the 9th year of his reign by a new crea- tion put him in possession of both honours, but the estate had been granted away to lord Cottington and others. He was a nobleman of good parts, great honour, and of a very active spirit. His ^genius led him to war, and d See his memoirp, and vindication of them in MS., and O. O. p. 292. 216 Treatment of the earl of Castlehaven. TIT, 242. this inclination, with some hopes of recommending him- self to an employment in foreign service, Avhicli might enable him to live more suitably to his quality than the small remains which he enjoyed of the family estate would otherwise allow him to do, had carried him to the sieo-e of Turin in Piedmont. He had afterwards attended the king in his northern expedition, till the first pacifi- cation with the Scots, and then went over to Flanders, where he made the campaign, in which Arras was be- sieged and taken by the French. Resolving to enter into the service of some foreign prince, he settled his estate in England, and went over into Ireland to do the like there, with regard to what he had still left of his grandfather's lands in the counties of Cork and Kerry. He was at the house of the lord Kerry (whose brother Gerald Fitz ISIaurice had married his eldest sister Lucy) when the rebellion first broke out. As soon as he re- ceived the news thereof, he hastened to Dublin, and offered his service to the lords justices against the rebels. They told him that his religion (he being a Roman ca- tholic) was an invincible obstacle against his having any command. He then desired their permission and pass- port to go into England, where there was a parliament sitting, whereof he was a peer. This was likewise un- justifiably refused him ; he having attended in the Irish parliament the two days they were permitted to sit. His lordship next desired that they would furnish him with something to support him in Dublin, in regard it might not be safe for him to live in a little, lonely, weak hunt- ing seat which he had about twenty miles from Dublin ; but rather than give his lordshij) leave to pass into Eng- land, or means of supporting him in Dublin, they advised him to retire to that house, and, if need were, to make fair weather. This advice his lordship took, not of choice, but necessity, and retired to JNIaddinstown in the county of Kildare, the only place where he could possibly subsist 242. Treatment of fJte earl of Castlehaoen. (1642.) 217 in Ireland, and thither the earl of Antrim and his lady the dnchess of Buckingham followed him. Whilst he continued there he was very serviceable in saving and relieving the English that were robbed and strip])ed in those parts, and from thence sent from time to time to the lords justices, and the troops quartered at the Naas, such intelligence as he was able to get of the rebels' pro- ceedings. His humanity to the English occasioned some losses to himself, great part of his stock having been drove away one night by the Irish rabble to a neighbour- ing village, where his brother colonel INIervyn Touchet recovered most of it with the help of his lordship's ser- vants by force, bringing away two or three of the ring- leaders prisoners ; but for this action was threatened by 299 the Irish, and forced to retire for his security to Dublin, whither he got with great difficulty, being attacked on the road, and only saved by the goodness of his horse ; as his servant and company, after being taken, were by JNIr. Walter (son of sir John) Dongan, who, sallying out of his father's house with a party of his servants, rescued them, and convoyed them safe to Dublin. The earl of Castle- haven continued still at his house of IMaddinstown, and being an English peer, the lords of the pale judged that an aj)plication through his means might be treated with less contempt than their address by colonel Read had been, and might possibly procure them some answer. They accordingly wrote him the letter recited above, which he transmitted to the lords justices, with another of his own to them, dated '"the 22nd of the same month ; in which, if their lordships thought fit to send an answer, he desired they would be pleased to give him particular instructions, which, he assured them, he would punctually observe. He made use of this occasion to renew his re- quest for a pass to go for England ; a letter which he had e MSS. of the bishop of Clogher, No. III. p. 43. 218 Treatment of the eai'l of Castlehaven. III. 242 — sent ton days before with the same request having- been intercepted by the Irish. 243 The lords justices received it the next day, and on the 25th ]-cturned him an *^ answer, in which, with regard to a pass, they positively refused to grant him any, and ordered him expressly not to dej^art the kingdom with- out special license. With regard to the request of the lords of the pale, instead of making any answer, they re- primanded his lordship severely for not securing the mes- senger who brought their letters, and bid him beware how he held any correspondence with them, or joined either in their counsels or actions, lest thereby further inconveniences arose to his lordship. This reprimand, with colonel Read's being put to the rack at the same time for the like offence, were sufficient to terrify every body from intermeddling for the future in the convey- ance or recommending of any offers which the rebels might make of submission ; and his lordship soon after felt the effects of the displeasure of the lords justices. He continued, pursuant to their advice, still at Maddins- town, though he was either alarmed or attacked almost every night by the Irish. There, on the 15th of April following, after the victory gained that day between Killrush and Rathmore in sight of his house, the earl of Ormond with his chief officers made him a visit after dinner, and was entertained by him as well as he could on so sudden an occasion. A passage being about that time by the taking of the Newry opened into the north, the earl of Antrim and his duchess presently after left him, her grace going for England, and the earl to his castle of Dunluce in the county of Antrim. The earl of Castlehaven, ui)on the wretched pretence of a boy (that was blind and lame, and kept in his lordship's house out of charity, and emi)loyed to whip aw^ay the pigs) his hav- f MSS. of the Bishop of Clogher. No. III. p. 43. — 243- Treatment of the earl of Castlchaven. (1642.) 219 ing been instrumental to the lord Antrim's saddler being takeu by the rebels, and his lordship being made account- able for the actions of this boy, who was represented as his servant, was towards the latter end of May indicted of liio-h treason at Dublin, where indictments of that kind were at this time readily found upon any pretence what- ever. Upon this, colonel Touchet, who was then at Dub- lin, complained to the lords justices that they had not kept their word with him in allowing this clandestine proceeding against his brother, and desired that they would let him have a party of horse to fetch him to Dub- lin. They refused him a convoy, but the colonel, getting a small party of his particular friends together for that purpose, made his way to JNIaddinstown, and the earl of Castlehaven, upon information of the proceeding against him, came to Dublin to justify himself. His lordship there addressed himself to the earl of Ormond, and sent his brother to notify to the lords justices that he was 300 come. They replied, that they could say nothing to it till he appeared before them ; which he did the next day, and then they ordered him to come the day following. He did so, but then, without being called in, they com- mitted him prisoner to JNIr. Woodcock's house, one of the sheriffs of Dublin. Colonel JNIervyn, seeing his brother thus rigorously treated, desired a pass for himself to go to England, and being refused by the lords justices, made a shift to get away in a small boat. He went directly to the king at York, and petitioned him that his brother might be sent for over to be tried in England by his peers. His majesty's answer was, that he had left all the affairs of Ireland to the parliament. Upon this he went to London, and petitioned the parliament to the same effect. Their answer was, that they could do nothing without the king. The colonel, seeing nothing could be done, remained in England, where he served in the king's 220 Treatment of the earl of Castlehaven. III. 243 — army ; and tlio earl of Castlehaven all this while con- tinned in cnstody ; till the lords jnstices finding he was not likely to be taken ont of their hands, resolved to proceed further against his lordship, and ordered him to be removed to the castle of Dublin. He had been now twenty weeks under a confinement very uneasy to a per- son who had always been used to an active life. He had seen and daily heard of executions by martial law ; he considered that innocency was a scurvy plea in a time of jealousy and violence, when such encouragement was o'iven to informers and delators, that there could be no want of rascals to attest any falsehood ; and apprehend- ing all manner of extremities from the lords justices, so closely linked with the parliament which had engaged in an open war against the king, he thought it advisable to make his escape. There was one George Lidwidge a trooper, who had after the battle of Killrush been left in his house, and was there cured of his wounds. The man out of gratitude for his good treatment often visited his lordship in his confinement, and now in his distress, being furnished with money, bought horses for his escape ; which he made in the beginning of October following, slipping in the dusk of the evening on Sept. 27 out of the sheriff's house into the street, and carrying the trooper's saddle, as his servant, till they got out of town to the place w^here the horses were ready for them. As soon as it was known that he was gone, a jiarty of horse was sent out on the road to Maddinstown to retake him ; but he had made the best of his way by Temple Oge towards the mountains of Wicklow; and thence went to Kil- kenny. His lordship's intention was to get a passage for England ; but being ju-essed by the su])reme council of the confederated lloman catholics, then sitting in that place, and taking measures for their mutual defence, to accept of a command in their army ; and not knowing — 244- Mr. Barneit'oU of Kilbrew is racked. (1642.) 221 well how to subsist elsewhere, he accejjted their offer, and was made general of the Leinster horse, under Pres- ton, who was commander-in-chief. 244 Soon after sir John Read had been racked, Mr. Patrick Barnewall of Kilbrew in the county of Meath was put to the same torture. He was one of the most consider- able gentry of the pale, a venerable old man of sixty-six years of age, delighting in husbandry, a lover of quiet, and highly respected in his country. He had sent the state intelligence of the motions of the northern rebels in the month of November, but had met (pursuant to the sheriff's summons) at Crofty-hill, when lord Gorman- ston declared to the Ulster rebels that the gentry of the pale were ready to join them for the ends which those rebels pretended to have in view. But he does not seem to have liked that union ; for though he was appointed chief commander, in conjunction with sir Richard Barne- wall, of the baronies of Ratoogh and Dunboyne, he does not appear to have acted in that capacity, or to have actually joined the rebels on any occasion ; and his name is not to the commission, signed by other gentlemen, and 301 constituting lord Gormanston general of the forces of Meath. The rack extorted so little from him, and there was such a total defect of evidence against him, that the severity of his prosecution made his innocency the clearer ; he was suffered to continue in Dublin, and when ^sir Fr. Willoughby was in the summer following sent with a party to gather the harvest about Kilbrew, and take in Sidan and other castles in Meath, he had particular in- structions to take care of Mr. Barnewall's stock, goods, and effects. The principal question put to him was, whether the king was privy to or had encouraged the rebellion. It is hard to say whether his majesty or the old gentleman so tortured were treated by the lords jus- ^ See his letters to the earl of Ormond, Aug. 2, 5, 8, and 10, 1642, and D. 133. ooo Act of parliament /or adcenturers III. 244 — ■ tices in the more barbarous manner. Tliey understood law well enough to know that no accusation or evidence extorted after that manner could be of force against any man ; but still any thing would help to countenance the scandal raised against the king by the parliament party, now ready for an open breach with his majesty. The lords justices, devoted to that party, to whose disposition the government of Ireland was entirely left, endeavoured in this detestable way to serve their ends by the calum- niating of his majesty ; at the same time that they served their own scheme of an extirpation by the racking of these gentlemen, whose treatment could not fail of deter- ring every body from venturing themselves into their power for the future. 245 This, with an act lately passed in England, put an ef- fectual stop to those submissions which the Roman ca- tholics, of English race, that had taken arms, were so generally disposed to make. The lords justices had in several letters taken notice of the great advantages that would accrue to the crown by the forfeitures of the re- bels and the disposal of their lands. The parliament of England resolved to deprive the king of those advan- tages, and to engross them to themselves. The king by those forfeitures had it in his power to reward such as would serve him in the reducing of the rebels ; and now that the insurrection was become general, those forfeit- ures were grown so vastly great, that they were a suffi- cient fund of credit for an immense sum, if there were occasion to borrow it; and his majesty, by making grants thereof, might easily in any exigence of his affairs raise what money would be necessary for his service. It was therefore thought good policy to take away his preroga- tive in this respect; and at the same time to deprive his majesty of another branch of power — the last certainly in which any prince should be abridged — I mean the power of shewing mercy. The experience of all ages and the — 245' towards the relief of Ireland. (1642.) 223 histories of all nations shew, in numberless instances, the mighty effects which a pardon oft'ercd in season to a body of people in arms, even exclusive of the ringleaders, have produced towards quelling commotions and insurrections ; and whilst his majesty retained the prerogative of par- doning, and might extend it to such as had not been originally concerned in the rebellion, or in the murders and rapines which distinguished it above all others in cruelty and horror, to such as had been unwarily drawn or forcibly driven in to join the rebels, or stand upon their guard, he had always a great deal in his power, whenever he should think fit to exert it, towards restor- ing the peace of Ireland, and putting an end to a war, the continuance of which was absolutely necessary for the success of those schemes which the heads of the par- liament party had formed for raising the like war and rebellion in England. With these views, a bill was brought in for raising by subscription a million of money, upon the security of two millions and a half of forfeited acres in Ireland, which were to be assigned by lot to the subscribers, to be enjoyed by them and their heirs as soon as it was declared that the rebellion was ended; 302 and this declaration was reserved to the two houses of parliament. All the forfeited lands were for this end nominally vested in the king, but he was by a particular clause inhibited to dispose of any of them, even of such as exceeded the number of acres assigned by this bill for the security of adventurers ; and all grants made or to be made by the crown of any goods or lands of rebels since Oct. 23, 1641, were declared null and void; and all pardons which should be granted after the said day to any of the rebels before attainder (without the assent of both houses) to be adjudged void and of none effect. The survey and admeasurement of forfeited lands, after the rebellion was declared to be ended, and the allot- ment of them afterwards to subscribers, was placed in 224 Act of parliaineut for adventurers Til. 245- the power of commissioners to be a])pointed by the lords and commons in parliament ; who were likewise invested with authority to regulate plantations, to create corpo- rations, to erect churches, and maintain preaching min- isters within the limits and precincts of the land so to be divided, in such manner as they should see fit ; and all sums of money subscribed were to be paid to four of their confidents, appointed by them to attend at the chamber of London to receive them. Thus having arro- gated to themselves in a great measure the power of which they deprived the king, they ensured the continu- ance of the war of Ireland as long as they pleased, and having before, by getting the management of that war into their hands, been enabled to raise an army, under the command of officers appointed by themselves, and entirely devoted to or de])endent on them, they by this act got a sum of money into their disposal ; ready for purposes which they had more at heart than the sup- pressing of the Irish rebellion. For though it was pro- vided in the act, that no part of the money which should be paid in according to the said act should be applied to any other ])urpose than to the reducing of the said rebels ; yet they made no scruple of violating the public faith in that point, and soon after, neglecting the relief of the protestants of Ireland, employed it for carrying on their rebellion in England. 246 This act, which had the royal assent on March 19, the treatment which the gentlemen that surrendered themselves had met with from the lords justices, and the rejecting of all offers of submission, put an end to all thoughts of that nature, and convinced all the gentlemen of English race who had engaged in the insurrection that there was no longer room to hope for pardon, nor any means of safety left them but in the sword. It was not an age of such abstracted principles of loyalty as might engage men to sacrifice themselves, their families. -246. towards the relief of Ireland. (1642.) 225 and estates, rather than swerve from the strict rules of their duty. The lords of the pale, out of a strong jea- lousy of the designs which the state had formed against them, and out of a dread of such a treatment as sir J. Read (who had a like invitation to confer with them) afterwards found from the lords justices, had jnit them- selves into arms, and stood upon their guard. They had soon found themselves drawn in to go further lengths, and to make a formal declaration of their conjunction Mith the Ulster rebels. This union was far from being hearty, neither party having forgot their reciprocal pre- judices and animosities. Hence the lords of the pale, when they applied themselves to raise an army, used all possible endeavours to keep their forces from falling under the command of any of the old Irish, and to en- gage the neighbouring counties to acknowledge the lord Gormanston for their general. They seemed so much afraid of the success of those Irish, that, after a parti- cular inquiry into their conduct at this time, I cannot, in all the relations I have met with, find any account of any gentleman of the pale's carrying any party of forces to the siege of Drogheda, except Piers Fitzgerald, called JVIac Thomas, may be said to be of the pale, who, after seizing Castle-Dermot, carried his men to that siege, and 303 commanded (as the Irish writers say) in conjunction with Hugh Byrne that detachment of the Irish army which was attacked by the earl of Ormond at Killsaghlan. It aj)pears from the letters of the state, that the lords Fin- gall, Gormanston, and Slane, and probably some others of the chiefs, made visits to the Ulster commanders in their quarters about Drogheda, but it does not appear, either from dean Barnard's particular account of that siege, or from any other that I have read, that they con- tinued there, or were engaged in any attempt upon the place, or indeed in any other action during the siege. This looks very surprising, and is not easy to be ac- VOL. II. Q 226 The king's offers of going in person III. 246- counted for from any other notion, than tliat they flat- tered themselves with vain hopes, that by standing barely on their guard they should not be embarked in the af- fair past a possibility of retreat. They had taken pos- session of several towns, and put garrisons therein ; but M'hen the earl of Ormond ap])roached with his majesty's army, they quitted the towns of Newcastle and the Naas ; and when his lordship, pursuant to the positive orders given him by the lords justices, at a time when reports were spread and jealousies entertained to his prejudice in England, sent out parties everywhere into the jjale, burning all the country for seventeen miles in length and twenty-five in breadth, they made not the least ojiposition to any of those parties that were de- tached to make that general devastation. They now saw the vanity of those hopes ; they saw themselves and their posterity unavoidably exposed to utter ruin, and that their conduct, far from preventing, had only ensured that utter eradication which was threatened them, and hung over their heads. This affected the lord Gormanston, the principal mover in the union with the Irish, so much, that he died not long after of grief; and the rest, grown desperate, laid aside all thoughts of pardon or treaty, and joined all their forces for the support of the common cause, in which many others, who had yet stood out, soon joined, fearing that they should at last be involved in the others' fate, since a total extirpation was intended, and reposing for the future all their hopes in the success of their arms. 247 When extirpation is the declared design of a war, it cannot fail of being very bloody, and obstinately fought out almost to the last man ; and whatever the event pro- cured, it could not be carried on without the loss of an infinite number of subjects, and a terrible desolation all over the kingdom. There was not at this time, in all human appearance, any method that could possibly pre- — 247- to Ireland againd the rebels. (1642.) 227 vent these lamentable consequences, but the king's going- over in person into Ireland. He had made repeated of- fers of this sort to the parliament, who treated them with neglect; but now, having observed the shameful back- wardness of that body, who had undertaken the affair, in sending supplies to Ireland, the resolution of the lords justices to receive no submissions of repenting rebels, and the designs of both for the extirpation of the old English, the perpetuating of the war, and the desolation of the realm, (by which, whoever was a gainer, his ma- jesty was sure to be a loser,) he declared his fixed reso- lution of going thither. This he did by a message deli- vered to the two houses on April 8 ; ^wherein, having expressed the most moving grief for the calamities of his good subjects of Ireland, and how tenderly sensible he was of the false and scandalous reports dispersed among the people concerning the rebellion there, which not only wounded his majesty in honour, but likewise greatly re- tarded the reducing of that unhappy kingdom, and mul- tiplied the distractions at home, by weakening the mu- tual confidence betwixt him and his people, he declares, that, out of zeal to the honour of God, in establishing the true protestant religion in that kingdom, and his princely care for the good of all his dominions, he had firmly re- 304 solved, with all convenient speed, to go into Ireland to chastise those detestable rebels, thereby to settle the peace of that kingdom and the security of this ; that to- wards this work, he intended to raise forthwith, by his commissions in the counties near Chester, a guard for his own person, (when he should come into Ireland,) consist- ing of two thousand foot and two hundred horse, which should be armed at Chester from his magazine at Hull, at which time all the officers and soldiers should take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance; the charge of raising and paying whereof he desired his parliament to & Husbands' Collection, p. 133. Q 2 228 The king's offers of going in 2)^r son III. 247 — add to tlicir former undertakings for that war ; which his majesty would not only well accept, but if their pay were found too great a burden to his good subjects, he was willing (by the advice of his parliament) to sell or pawn any of his parks, lands, or houses, towards sup})lying the service of Ireland ; that with the addition of these levies to the former of English and Scots agreed n})on in par- liament, he hoped that kingdom might in a short time be wholly reduced, and restored to peace, and to some measure of happiness, whereby he might cheerfully re- turn, to be welcomed home with the affections and bless- ings of all his good English people ; that towards this good work he had lately made despatches unto Scot- land to quicken the levies there for Ulster, and desired his parliament to give all possible expedition to those which they had resolved for Munster and Connaught ; that he should be always very careful of the adventurers' interest, and hoped they would receive such encourage- ment by his thus venturing his person, (and by the com- mission for the affairs of Ireland, which he had lately signed, to such persons as were recommended to him by both houses of parliament,) that they would raise the full sums of money for the doing thereof. B This resolution of his majesty alarmed the parliament of England and the lords justices of Ireland. It w^as likely to defeat the measures of both, and therefore both set themselves in their different methods to prevent its being executed, the former, by declaring expressly against it, the latter, in the humbler and more artful way of dis- suasion. The king had notified his intentions to the lords justices by a letter of the 13th, which they had received on the 1 8th of April. They had a little before (in their letter of March 31 to the speaker'^) signified to the house of commons, that considering the parliament of Eng- '' See their letter to Mr. Secretary Nicholas, April 23, 1642. — 248. to Ireland arovision of bread for the army, lest the want thereof should distress them abroad, where they were not sure to be sufficiently provided, as of the sick soldiers and many poor unserviceable English, who had been brought away from the castles relieved ; that the army of the rebels was posted at a great advantage ; that they might at their pleasure get from them into a bog or wood, both which lay very near them, and might easily break down the bridge of Mageny, which lay between their forces. For these reasons it was resolved in council not to attack the enemy, especially being so very numerous, in their advantageous post, but rather to bend their course to- wards Dublin ; and if the enemy offered to hinder their march, not to suffer such an insult from them, but to force a passage in despite of the rebels, at any hazard whatsoever. 263 In pursuit of this resolution, the lieutenant-general, leaving three companies, with all necessaries for their defence in A thy, marched from thence on the 15 th about six in the morning. He had disposed of so many of his men in several needful garrisons, and there was such a number sick, that his whole army did not in able fighting men exceed above two thousand four hundred foot and four hundred horse, which marched in this order : First, 250 The battle of Killrush. 1 1 1 . 2 63 - cornet Pollard with thirty horse, as avautcouriers to see the passages free from ambushes, supported by about one hundred firelocks, which were followed by the baggage belonging to the horse. Next marched six troops of 3 15 horse led by sir T. Lucas in two divisions, followed by the baggage of the foot, and the bread and ammunition wag- gons. Then came the earl of Ormond with a troop of volunteers, wherein w^ere the lord Dillon (eldest son to the earl of Roscommon), the lord Brabazon, sir Robert Farrer, colonel John Barry, sergeant-major John Ogle, and divers other gentlemen of good quality. After him marched four divisions of foot, of about three hundred each, followed by the artillery, and the ammunition be- lonoins' to the train. After them, four other divisions of foot, making about the same number. Then three troops of horse under sir R. Grenville, and the rear of the foot commanded by sir C. Coote. The train and baggage were a ijreat hinderance to them in this march, and un- avoidablv weakened the strength of the army by inter- posing betw^een the van and the rear. 264 They had scarce marched a mile in this order, when they discovered the rebels on their right, on the other side of a bog by a castle called Killika, about three miles distant, but marching with all possible haste either to overtake them, or to seize a passage near Ballysonan, through which the army was necessarily to pass in their way to Connell, where it was resolved to quarter. The lieutenant-general thereupon caused the ])ioneers to make Avays into the enclosed grounds, that the foot might march in the flank of the baggage, as well for its security as to avoid the cumber thereof, in case the light-armed rebels should fall suddenly upon them, ordering cornet iVlagragh with thirty horse carefully to observe their march, and sending out other scouts to bring him continual notice of the motions and approach of the enemy. As the rebels, being not encumbered with any baggage, marched faster -265. The battle of Killrush. (1642.) 251 than his men, and the aforesaid pass was of great import- ance, he gave orders to sir T. Lucas to advance with all the troops of horse in the van (except his lordship's own troop and the volunteers) with all expedition, to secure it, and to make it good till the rest of the troops could come up. By the time the army had marched about two miles further, the scouts brought intelligence that the rebels were on the other side of an hill, which had for a good while covered them from their sight, and made ex- traordinary haste to possess themselves of the pass. Sir T. Lucas had already seized it, and facing their van, brought their whole army to a stand ; upon which the lieutenant-general caused the carriages and baggage to draw off behind him under the guard of the avantcouriers, and sent orders to sir C. Coote and sir R. Grenville to advance as fast as they could with the rear, and to sir T. Lucas to join him with his horse. 265 In the meantime, the earl of Ormond having discovered divers of the rebels' colours drawn up on an hill on the right hand, instantly made a stand with the first four divisions of foot, drew them up in an handsome order of battle, adapted to the place on which he stood, and faced the enemy within two musket shot of them, leaving room for the other troops of horse and foot when they should come up, according to the nature of the ground, and the order in which he designed they should fight. In this order, and in expectation of the other troops, he stood for a while ; the rebels in the meantime drawing up, and ordering their troops. As soon as sir T. Lucas and the rest came up, the earl advanced against the enemy, who were drawn up in two divisions ; till by the interposition of an hedge and hollow way, some of the troops were forced to go about, and then draw up again in the same order, on the other side of the hedge, almost within musket shot of the rebels ; parties of firelocks and mus- keteers being sent out to begin the fight, and some shot 252 The battle of KillrmTi. III. 265— being made by the artillery, with more terror than damage to the enemy. This firing at a distance lasted but a short while, for sir T. Lucas espying a breach in the hedge, where four horses could march abreast, passed through it, 316 and advanced with three troops on a round trot against their left wing, which was flanked with a troop of horse on each side. They could not stand his charge, but broke immediately, flying towards a bog, and leaving behind them divers of their colours and arms. Sir R. Grenville then, with three other troops, charging the party of horse on the left of that division, soon made them betake them- selves to flight, as the foot in that division also did, being broke by sir T. Lucas's three troops, and warmly pursued by the others. All this time the right wing of the army of the rebels stood firm, without moving. There were in it the lord Mountgarret, Hugh Byrne, and several others of the principal rebels. Against this body, in which the enemy rej)osed their greatest confidence, the earl of Or- mond advanced with his troop of volunteers, and three hundred foot commanded by sir John Sherlock, lieutenant- colonel of the lord Lambert's regiment. The rebels stood the exchanging of several volleys of shot, and then re- treated in some order, till they got to the top of an hill near them, when they broke at once, and ran for their lives to a bog not far from thence, whither all the rest of the party before routed had betaken themselves for safety. In this battle there were twenty English slain, and about forty wounded ; but the rebels lost above seven hundred killed outright, among which were several colonels and gentlemen of distinction ; and had not the bog been so near, the execution had been much greater. The ''chiefs of the routed army fled ditterent ways ; the lords Mount- garret and Ikerrin got that night to Tullogh, Roger More and his brother Lisagh to his own house near the Boyne, ^ Letter of sir C. Coote to the earl of Ormond, April 2,3. B. 52. — 266. Synodical acts of the Romish clergy Sgc. (1642.) 253 and Hugh Byrne with the Wicklow men to the fastness of Glangaran, all in no little distraction, and their forces entirely dispersed. The relation of this victory published by order of the house of commons celebrates the earl of Ormond's conduct on this occasion, and the important service which he did in his own person, ordering the bat- tle and manner of fight in all the parts of it, and doing it with very great judgment, laying hold quickly and seasonably on all opportunities of advantage that could be gained, and sj)aring not resolutely to expose his own person to hazard, equally with any other commander. The day after this victory, which for want of victuals and ammunition he could not improve, the earl marched to the Naas, and leaving sir C. Coote with his regiment and three hundred horse there in garrison, returned on the 17th to Dublin. 266 The Romish clergy, who (as the lords justices*^ say) had hitherto walked somewhat invisibly in all these works of darkness, now began openly to justify that rebellion which they were before supposed underhand to promote. Hugh O'Neile, titular primate of Ardmagh, summoned the bishops and clergy of his province to a synod at Kells. <^They met on March 22, and after making some consti- tutions against murderers, plunderers, and the usurpers of other people's estates, they declared the war (so they called the rebellion) of the Irish to be lawful and pious, and exhorted all persons to join in support of the cause. Thomas Diaz, or Desse, titular bishop of Meatli, had been summoned to this synod ; but neither came in person nor sent a proxy to appear for him. He had not sent so much as an excuse for his absence, nor admonished any of the dignitaries of his church to go thither. He had laboured earnestly to keep the nobility and gentry of his diocese from embarking in the war, which he maintained c Their letter of March 1 9, 1 641 . ^ The Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 46 1 . 254 Sy nodical ads of the Romish clergy S^c. III. 266— to be groundless and unjust ; and had succeeded so well, particularly with the earl of Westmeath, (in whose house he lived,) and several gentlemen of the Nugent family, 31 7 that they had not stirred. This the rebels thought so much to their prejudice, that they imputed to it their miscarriage at Drogheda, affirming, that if they had but been assisted with the thousand men which they expected from the county of AVestmeath, they should certainly have taken the place. It was necessary in policy to cen- sure a prelate that had done them so much mischief, and to destroy the credit which he had with his flock.^^They ordered him to recant an opinion so contradictory to their own, to subscribe the acts of the synod, and to submit himself in three weeks, under pain of incurring suspicion of heresy, and of being informed against to the pope ; and in case he did not submit within that time they declared him suspended ab officio. 267 To the authority of a provincial synod, it was thought proper to add that of a general synod of all the bishops and clergy of Ireland, which met on May lo'^ at Kil- kenny. The three titular archbishops of Ardmagh,Cashel, and Tuam, with six other bishops, and the proxies of five more, besides vicars general and other dignitaries, were there present, and declared the war to be just and lawful. Among other constitutions, they ordered an exact register to be kept in each province of the burnings, murders, and cruelties committed by the protestant forces, and passed censures on such of their o\mi peojjle as were guilty of the like outrages. They provided, that no dis- tinction should be made of old and new Irish, and that all who had taken arms should be united by a common oath of association ; that all who should refuse to take the oath, or were neuters, or who assisted the enemy with victuals, arms, advice, or intelligence, should be ex- i' The Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 468. — 268. Lord Lisle" s expedition into the King's Gounty. 255 communicated, and deemed enemies of the cause and betrayers of their country. They directed all ecclesias- tical revenues to be received by particular collectors, and after a competency being allowed to the proprietor, the rest to be applied for the service of the war. For the better exercise and support of their confederacy, they made several regulations with regard to the provinces, appointing provincial councils, composed of clergy and laity together, to be settled in each, and a general coun- cil of the nation to be formed at Kilkenny, to which the others were to be subordinate. They resolved also to apply to foreign potentates, and ordered that in the next general assembly a prelate, a nobleman, and a lawyer should be deputed to the pope, the emperor, and the king of France, to solicit for assistance. These were acts purely of the clergy, but the nobility and gentry then at Kilkenny joined in forming the oath of association, in naming the members of the supreme council, of which lord Mountgarret was chosen president, and in appointing a general assembly of the whole nation to meet in that city in the October following. 368 Soon after the earl of Ormond's return to Dublin, Philip lord Lisle landed there from England, with his own regiment of six hundred horse carabineers, and an- other of three hundred dragoons. The latter of these was immediately sent northward, and divided between Drogheda and Dundalk ; but lord Lisle's was kept about Dublin, ready to go upon service in those parts, for which, as that young nobleman impatiently longed, there was soon offered an occasion. Lettice lady of Offaly had been besieged for some months in her seat of Castle- Geasell in the King's County, and was now reduced to great extremity. She found means to send to sir C. Coote, who was then at the Naas, an account of the mi- serable condition of the place, as sir John Giffard did at the same time of his distress in Castle- Jordan. Sir 25G Great caution of the state III. 268 — Charles wrote to the earl of Ormond for orders to under- take the rehef of those j)laces, and for a troop of horse, carabineers or dragoons, to enable him to execute that enterprise with success. Lord Lisle would needs be of the party, and a coni])linient being made him of the chief3i8 command, he set out from the Naas with Robert lord Digby, son to the lady Offaly, sir C. Coote, sir G. Went- worth, and a body of three hundred and fifty horse or dragoons, and one hundred and fifty foot ; and marched to Philips -Town without any encounter with the enemy. They found that town abandoned, and having carried the fort by storm, advanced to Castle-Geasell, which they supplied so plentifully with all necessaries, that the noble lady, though far distant from any friendly garrison, re- solved still to abide in her castle. In their return they rendered the same service to sir John Giffard in Castle- Jordan, and burning the country all the way as they marched, took by force the town of Trim, which the lords Fingall, Gormanston, Slane, and Trimbleston had quitted at their approach, leaving a party of three or four hundred men to defend it. The place was of con- sequence by reason of its situation on the Boyne, in a country the best in all Ireland for horse service, at about twenty miles distance from Dublin, and very convenient for annoying the rebels in the counties of Cavan and Westmeath. Sir R. Grenville, who had the principal share in the taking of it, was of opinion that it should be held by a garrison, and might be made one of the strongest towns in the kingdom. The other officers agreed in the same sentiment, and lord Lisle wrote to the lords justices to send him three troops of horse and one thousand two hundred foot to push his conquests on that side. 269 They were much afraid of his youthful ardour, and were unwilling to send them. A great debate arose in the council upon this occasion ; some were for recalling — z6g. in giving orders. (1642.) ^257 the troops lately sent, instead of sending more ; but at last it Avas resolved to send lieutenant colonel Gibson with one thousand two hundred foot and a troop of horse to reinforce the party at Trim. They were to begin their march on May 7, but before they set out, lord Lisle, having left that place on the 6th, arrived at Dublin to press the hastening of the succours, the troops which were possessed of Trim being in continual expectation of an attack from the enemy. His lordship was prevailed with to stay behind, which he the rather submitted to, because the justices at the same time that they sent away the recruit, sent orders to sir C. Coote not to ad- venture the making of any inroad into the county of Cavan or that way^ They delivered to lord Lisle their letter containing these orders, but whether their uncon- querable aversion to the running of any hazard, or any other reason, were the ground of their suspicion, they afterwards entertained a notion that his lordship had not sent away their letter. Anxious about the event, they desired the earl of Ormond to write to sir C. Coote to make what haste he could back to the Naas, and not to stir northward till he received directions from the state. They were not long in pain on that head, advice coming soon after from sir R. Grenville^' that the rebels, taking- advantage of the weakness of the garrison, which, by lord Lisle's and another convoy sent to Dublin, and by safe- guards put into two strong houses in the country, was reduced to fifty horse, eighty dragoons, thirty firelocks, and one hundred musketeers, had attacked Trim on the 7th, about daybreak in the morning, with a body of three thousand men, but had been beaten off with loss, the garrison being prepared to receive them ; and that sir C. Coote, sallying out with a party of horse and dragoons to improve the success, had been shot dead in the field. f Letter uf sir W. Parsons to the earl of Ormond, May 9. & Letter to the earl of Ormond, Mav 8. VOL. II. S 258 Distress of the army. III. 269 — The iiiauner of his death was variously reported, and it remained uncertain whether the fatal shot came from the enemy or from one of his own troopers. His corpse was sent the next day under a convoy towards Dublin. The death of this gentleman did not quiet all the fears of the lords justices : sir R. Grenville, who now com- manded in Trim, had the like enterprising genius, and 3^9 they were a]>prehensive he would make some attempt upon the rebels in the county of Cavan. They sent him^' orders to spoil and kill all the rebels on this side the Boyne first, and after on the other side, as far as he could go for a day and night ; but not to place men in Atliboy, nor to attempt Kells, unless upon a sudden and certain surprise, and in that case not to leave any garri- son in the place. 3 This timorous way of proceeding against an unpro- vided and ever-beaten enemy might possibly arise from an extreme caution, natural enough to old men, who are seldom enterprising in matters of war, which depend as to the event so much upon unforeseen accidents that they are scarce to be reduced to a certainty. But their apprehensions of terrible consequences that would follow any ill success were certainly much increased by the temper and condition of the forces. The English lately sent over did not well agree with the old or new raised forces in Ireland ; and though these latter were all pro- testants, and generally English, the former, out of a ma- lapert kind of vanity in respect of their own country, and too great a contempt for that into which the others had been transplanted, (an humour too much indulged by the English at all times,) were continually upbraiding them with reproachful language, calling them Irish rebels; which produced frequent quarrels among the soldiers, whom for want of pay it was impossible to keep in disciplined The h C. 130. ' Letter of the lords justices to the lord lieutenant, May 9, 1642. — 271. Distress of the a rmy . (1642.) 259 distress of the army was such, that the lords justices were every moment uneasy and distracted in their minds for fear of a mutiny. When they were met in council, on May 6, several captains, w^ho with their soldiers were ap- pointed to march to Trim, came to the council chamber and desired an audience. Being immediately admitted, they plainly told the board, in a strange and unusual manner, that they themselves were not able to march for want of money, and that their men absolutely refused to move or stir from Dublin without their pay, and withal for want of shoes and stockings. JNIany of the soldiers indeed in their late marches had been forced to go bare- footed, and by the hardness and cragginess of the ways their feet had been so hurt that they bled most of the way that they marched, and abundance, unable longer to walk, had been driven to be carried in cars, by which and other hardships, as well as by unwholesome diet, all aris- ing from want of money, they had fallen sick, and died in great numbers. 271 If this had been the resolution of only a few of the soldiers, the state would have proceeded against them with some severity, for a terror to others ; but they found that all the common soldiers in general were of the same mind ; perhaps by underhand encouragement therein from some inferior officers, whose case w^as really very hard, being reduced to very great extremity for want of their pay. In this case they durst not adventure upon ])unishing, for fear the event might prove fatal, and there- fore used all possible means to get a little money to supply them. They neither had nor could borrow any ; but a thousand pounds collected in England for relief of the despoiled protestants having been lately remitted over, and a small part of it yet unissued, they were ne- cessitated to make use of that money to content the offi- cers, who were at last with much difficulty persuaded to march. The common soldiers still refused, and one of s 2 UdO Stqii'lies arrive from E.igland. III. 271- tliem contested liis refusal in so high a iiiaiiiier, and with sucli seditious and insolent words, that the justices were forced to give order he should be hanged in the head of the troops, as they wen; all drawn out to march in the morning to Trim. This had like to have occasioned a general mutiny; the soldiers began all to exclaim, calling aloud for their pay, and were going to rescue the man from the gallows; nor was it without great difficulty and some force that the officers restrained them from that 320 action, respiting the execution till they could send to the lords justices, and know their jileasure. They, upon ma- ture deliberation of tlie case, thought fit, for their own preservation, and for the preventing of worse evils, to reprieve the man ; and then the forces marched away. n- They were not in less pain with regard to those left in Dublin, who were in such miserable distress for want of money that they were hardly kept from plundering the city. To keep these men from starving, they had been forced to advance them victuals towards their pay, which had in a manner exhausted their stores ; nor could they possibly have subsisted so long but by the help of provi- sions which had been brought by some ships from France**, whilst in all their extremity, for six months after the re- bellion, they were relieved with none from England. The wants of the soldiery were not confined only to their pay, clothes, and ])rovisions ; but extended to ammunition and match, both which began to fail ; and there were four hundred of them rendered unserviceable for want of arms, they having either been sent over without any, or having spent them in service. !73 In these circumstances, when the soldiers were muti- nying even in garrison, there was no drawing them out into the field, or undertaking any expedition. At last, in the beginning of June, captain Butler brought over a ^ Letter of the lord? justices to the lord lieutenant, July 8, 1642. — 274- State of Connaiiqht. (1642) SGI supply of eleven thousand tive hundred ])ounds', a sum so unanswerable to the long expectation of the soldiers, and so far short of enabling the, state to give them any reasonable satisfaction, or to contain tiiem from breaking out into disorder and violence, that the lords Justices still lay oj>en to the danger of a mutiny, their persons and pro- ceedings were arraigned with terrible exclamations, their authority treated with disesteem and neglect. The regi- ments of lord Ranelagli and sir Michael Emle arriving soon after, and two other regiments lying at Chester ready to embark, the lords justices thought themselves strong enough to send two thousand foot and two troops of horse to the assistance of the president of Connaught, who had been a long time blocked up by the rebels in his castle of Athlone. They had in their letters to Eng- land declared more than once their opinion that three thousand foot and four hundred horse were absolutely necessary for the relief of that province ; but the force above mentioned was all that they durst venture as yet to spare from Dublin. 274 Sir Roger Jones viscount Ranelagh was president of Connaught, and commanded the whole province, except the county of Galway, of which the earl of Clanrickard was governor. They had kept all those parts reasonably quiet, by their prudence rather than by their power, till after the defection of the lords of the pale, which occa- sioned a great revolution in the inclinations and senti- ments of gentlemen who had appeared very well affected before™. Those of Mayo then rose in arms, seized on lord Dillon of Costello's house and estate, and jiillaged all the English within the county. Miles Bourke vis- count JNIayo had raised some companies for the security of the country, but as lie wanted arms to put into their 1 Letter of the lords justices to the lord lieutenant, .Tunc 7. "1 Lord Clanrickard'? Memoirs. 262 State of Connaupht. Til. 274 — liands, be was too weak to make head against their niim- l)ers, which were such as gave them confidence to threaten the county of Galway. That of Roscommon had been at first infested only with the incursions of the rebels of Leytrim, but insurrections now arising within it, the pre- sident, Avho had only a trooj) of horse and four companies of foot for the defence of his whole government, was re- duced to great difficulties and distress. Morogh Nadoe O'Flaherty surprised the castle of Aghenenewre in Irr- connaght, a wild mountainous tract of country in the west of the county of Galway, and got together a body of the 321 savage people which inhabit it, ready upon any opportu- nity to join with the Mayo rebels, and fall into the other parts of the county, which yet continued in their duty and allegiance. The earl of Clanrickard was desirous to recover that castle, but it was dangerous to march with the small number of men he had into that remote corner of the county. All the force he had at first for the de- fence of the whole was one old standing company of fifty men, which he now had leave to make up an hundred. He had prevailed with the gentlemen to raise two troops of horse and eight companies of foot, and to maintain them at their common charge : but they were sorrily armed, and, considering the extent of the county, too few for its defence. To march with them into Irrconnaght would have exposed all the rest of it to the ravages of the enemy, for which reason that expedition was laid aside. He rather applied himself to fortify the avenues and passages upon the borders of the county towards Sligo and Roscommon, to prevent any incursions from thence, and to take order for repressing the insolence of robbers, and other disorders within the country, which are ever sure to happen when means and power are want- ing to su})j)ort authority. His care was so effectual in this respect, that the county was preserved free from any . 275- Defection of Galway. ( 1 64 2 . ) 263 ravage or commotion, till an unhappy difference between the town and the fort of Galway had like to have put the whole in a flame. 275 Captain Anthony Willoughby, son to sir Francis Wil- loughby, commanded the fort with two companies, M'hich he filled up to two hundred men in garrison. He was young, and without experience, hot and violent in his nature, and treated the townsmen, who were proud and haughty, with too little management, imprisoning some of them, and clapping guards of musketeers on their goods in ships. Hence arose jealousies and quarrels be- tween them ; and the town having freely supplied the fort with four months' provision at the beginning of the troubles, refused to furnish any more without ready money. The earl of Clanrickard interposing in the af- fair, prevailed with the town to continue their supplies to the fort, and pieced up their quarrels, till, about March 19, they broke out more violently than ever. There was an English ship in the port, which had on board twelve pieces of ordnance, about a dozen muskets, and seven or eight barrels of powder. Whilst the master of it, one Clarke, was in the fort, and several of his men were employed in fetching stones for ballast, Dominick Kirouan, some other merchants, and young men of the town, disguised among boatmen that used to come for salt, attacked the crew, killed the mate and one more, w^ounded two or three, and made themselves masters of the ship. As soon as they returned into the town, they disarmed all the English that were there, and entered into an oath of confederacy, which sir Valentine Blake, Francis Blake, Walter Lynch, titular warden of Galway, and some friars, were very zealous in promoting. Cap- tain Willoughby hereupon burnt the east suburbs, and the townsmen set to work upon fortifying the place, raised a battery against the fort, and blocked up all pas- sages to it, in order to reduce it by famine. Some few ^()4 Stfbmission of Galway. III. 275- gentloineii joined them out of the country, and about thirteen or fourteen hundred men from Irrconnaght, and a great force was expected from the county of jNIayo for their assistance. 276 The earl of Clanrickard got together about one hun- dred and forty carriages of provisions, which were scarce in the fort, and sent tliem under a convoy to his castle of Oranmore, from whence they were safely conveyed to captain Willoughby. Tie raised the whole force he could muster in the county to the number of seven hundred foot and near two hundred horse ; and as he found it daugerous to attack the besiegers, who were intrenched in a craggy place, where his horse could be of no service, he resolved to distress them by cutting off their supplies of provisions, whereof they had no great plenty. With this view he placed strong garrisons in his castles of Oran-322 more, Clare, and Tirellan, which lay about the town, and the last of which was seated upon a neck of land which commanded the river of Galway. The rest of his foot he quartered upon the tenants and estates of the townsmen and their friends in the barony of Clare, and with his horse scoured the plains, hindering all resort to the market, and iuterrupting the coming of provisions to the relief of the besiegers. This soon produced discontents among them, and the better sort of people in the town being very averse to these violent proceedings, the earl found means to sow divisions in the minds of the un- settled multitude, and to break their measures. 277 When by this means they were brought to a disposi- tion of hearkening to a j)acification, he entered into a treaty with them for a cessation of arms to the end of INIay, thinking it the best expedient in his present cir- cumstances to gain time, till either his majesty came over in person into Ireland, (which was expected at that time,) or the state could send him such supplies as would enable liim to reduce them by force. He had not strength suf- — 277- Submission of Galway. (1642.) 265 ficiuiit to raise the siege, and liad no ])resent ])rosj)ect of timely succours. It was im])ossible for him to maintain his own followers in the field, and tlie gentlemen who assisted him had been exhausted by maintaining the companies for eight months at their own charge, without the least supply of any nature from the state ; so that he could not continue much longer at the siege, and the deserting of it would have been such an invitation to all ill-disposed persons to flock thither in multitudes, that the town would have been confirmed in their rebellious courses ; which, considering the ticklish temper and dan- gerous situation in which not only the county but the whole i)rovince were at that time, M^ould have drawn after it the loss of all Connaught. Being thus hopeless of gaining the town of Galway by force, and dreading the consequences of departing thence without some settle- ment, he began a treaty of cessation with the town, but before it was settled, captain Ashley coming with the Employment, a ship of thirty guns, four hundred ton, and one hundred and thirty men, with a succour of two pieces of cannon, forty barrels of powder, thirty thou- sand weight of biscuit, and other provisions for the fort, he would accept of nothing but an absolute submission. By the terms of it, the town was to dismiss their garrison of rebels ; to send away the army from the camp before the fort ; to lay down their own arms ; to restore all the goods stolen from the English ; to dismount the ordnance pointed against the fort, and demolish the new fortifica- tions and bulwarks of the town, as the governor of the fort saw fit; to sell or issue out no powder, ammuni- tion, or arms, but by warrant from his lordship, and to deliver all the powder and ammunition which was then in town into the hands of special commissioners ap- pointed by him. The earl of Clanrickard insisted further, that for the future no powder nor arms should be ad- mitted to land in the town, but be brought directly into 266 Suhmmion of Galway. III. 277 tlie fort, and the owners thereof paid by his majesty. This condition was at first rejected, but their camp before the fort being greatly distressed, and breaking iij) at last, and the earl having taken jiossession of their trenches, saluted them with thirty-three great shot into the town, and summoning them by a trumpet to surrender, it was agreed to by the townsmen. Upon the performance of these conditions, and the giving hostages for their future obedience, his lordship received the town of Galway into the king's protection, till his majesty's pleasure concern- ing them was known. This submission was made on the 13th of May, much to the surprise of the world and the honour of the earl of Clanrickard, who by his own strength, credit, and interest, without the least aid or supply, and almost without any countenance from the state, had found means to quell so dangerous an insur- rection, to reduce one of the strongest and most im-323 ])ortant towns in the kingdom, almost without bloodshed, and to perform a work attended with such difficulties, that nobody else could have surmounted them with much greater forces. 278 This service was the greater, and the success the more M'onderful, because one Francis Darcy, with a ship loaden with corn, arms, and ammunition, had two or three days before the submission put into a creek in Irrconnaght, and carried the ]iowder to Galway ; and by this means ten pieces of ordnance, sixty muskets, and two thousand seven hundred pound weight of powder were put into the earl of Clanrickard's hands, (which enabled him to supply the lord president, sir C. Coote, and sir Arthur Blondel with a sufficient quantity to supply the wants of their several garrisons, and enable them to hold out till further relief was sent,) and the provisions were delivered for the use of the fort. The bishops of Tuam and Kil- lala, Mith about four hundred Knglish that were in the town, and would ])robably have feJt the fury of the po- — 279- Tlw date disapprove it, Sfc. (1642.) 267 ])ulace if matters had been carried to higher extremities, were by this means preserved, and had liberty to depart thence \\\i\\ their effects ; tlie great care tal/ f/ie llna^s orders. (1642.) 349 liad not yet parted with all his royalty in Ireland ; his commission was as yet necessary to distinguish faithful subjects from rebels; and sir F. Huncks' readily sub- mitted his own commission and interest to his ma-jesty's pleasure and engagement in favour of sir F. Willoughby. This act of duty was so pleasing to the king, that he wrote to the lieutenant general to give sir Fulk the first old troop of horse that should happen to become void in actual service, and to see that he was advanced likewise to such other place or charge either in the army or king- dom, as should be suitable and proper for him ; but it \vas not so agreeable to the council of Ireland. Sir John Borlase lord justice, and sir Adam Loftus vice-treasurer of the kingdom, severally moved sir Fulk Iluncks to stand upon his commission from the lord lieutenant. The mar- quis of Ormond, in obedience to his majesty's command, was obliged to name these two counsellors, but signified at the same time that there wanted not others, wdio equalled, if not exceeded them in aifections and expres- sions tending to a lessening of his majesty's authority, whereof there was too frequent and manifest proof; and therefore it was his humble opinion, that as yet there should be no particular mark set upon them ; and this the rather, because he undertook, when his majesty should hold it seasonable to look into the carriage of his affairs at Dublin, to furnish him with other kind of matter than this was. But yet if it was his pleasure, he was then ready to make good every tittle of what he had written. 339 The lords justices thought the marquis of Ormond's3<^4 command over the army a great obstruction to their measures, and therefore used all means in their power to distress him in that command". They did not care he should go upon any expedition ; and when he did, they t The king's letter to the earl of Ormond, June 15. u See Collection of Letters, No. CVII, CVIII. 350 They obstruct the marquis of Ormond''s III. 339. took care to restrain him in the exercise of his authority, and to tie him down by particular orders, as express as ever were given to an inferior officer sent out at the head of a small party. He submitted to this usage, rather than to disserve the king by throwing up his commission, or by following his own judgment, to run the hazard of the event, M^hich in all undertakings, especially those of war, is doubtful ; it being very necessary for him, whose every word and action were observed, to have a full and au- thentic ajiprobation of all he did, if he would not lay himself open to what interpretation they should be pleased to make of his actions, with whose sentiments of him, and designs against him, he was too well acquainted. lie had proposed to them the siege of Wexford, a place of great consequence, where the rebels expected their foreign suj^plies to land, very necessary to be undertaken before those supplies arrived. He thought the taking of that town would be the greatest prejudice that could happen to the rebels, who proposed to make it another Dunkirk, and desired nothing more than to march out with the best equipage he could, and with such part of the army as could be spared from the garrison of Dublin. He pressed this expedition day by day at the council- board, where it was the subject of several debates, but was at last determined that it should be laid aside for the present, the board being of opinion ", that there was not so much ammunition to be spared out of the store at Dublin as was necessary for the work, nor men sufficient, if a competent number were left in the city, though the marquis offered to undertake the design with three thou- sand six hundred foot, six hundred horse, and four ])ieces of battery. That i)ro])osal being rejected, the lieutenant general desired that part of the army might be emj^loyed for the taking in of Tecroghan, Ballisonan, and Castle ^ Letters of the lords justices, July 8, 23, Sept. i and 13. 339- cormaand of the array. (1642.) 351 Deriuot, being the most considerable inland places of Leinster, and the greatest strengths, which the rebels had in those parts. This proposition proceeded so far indeed, that orders were in part given ont by the mar- quis of Ormond for the numbers of men to be employed in it, and the day appointed when they were to begin their march ; but upon his falling ill, that affair was re- considered, and the design laid aside. Tt was not only on these occasions, but on many others, that he was very earnest for going u])on some eminent service, but had been constantly put off, not without language that might have been well enough spared at that time, and would not have been given him at another by those whose ma- lice made them hinder every service that he proposed. It was no small mortification to a person, that had his majesty's service and the suppression of the rebellion so much at heart, to find that good designs must either fall to the ground, because he should not have the honour of executing them, or at least must stay till some other came to manage them ; yet this was the marquis of Or- mond's uncomfortable case. Before he fell sick, all his propositions of going or sending forth upon service were answered by the emptiness of the store and the wants of the army; but when he was confined by a dangerous sickness, then provisions were found for a three weeks' expedition. Lord Lisle, lieutenant general of the horse, was employed in it with one thousand five hundred men ; and having marched to Trim, Clonin, Kells, and Virginia, without any opposition from the rebels, destroying the houses, and wasting the lands of the earl of Fingall and others, and burning all the corn, hay, and turf that he found in the country, advanced at last to Carrickmacrosse in the county of JMonaghan, where he left a garrison in 365 the castle, which maintained the place till the end of October, when it being found a work of great difficulty 352 The marquis of Ormond falls sick. 111. 339 — and danger to supply it with provisions, the castle was ordered to be demolished. 340 The illness M'hich confined the marquis of Ormond was a violent fever, which seized him at first with such ter- rible symptoms, that there was little hope left of his life. In apprehension thereof, though he had above two years before settled his estate by deed, he thought fit, on Sept. I, to make a will, therein making a new provision for his youngest son Walter, his daughter Elizabeth, and for a child whereof his wife was then pregnant, and ap- pointing sir Maurice Eustace and sir Philip Percival to be his executors. He made use of the hand of the last of these to write a letter y to the king, representing to him the condition of his estate, which was torn and rent from him by the fury of the rebellion, and nothing left to support his wife and children, whilst the rebellion should last, but his majesty's great goodness, which had never failed him, and which he besought his majesty to extend towards them, by making some honourable pro- vision for them, till his own estate might be so settled, as thereout they might receive convenient maintenance. He added, that his estate was at present in such cir- cumstances, that if his majesty did not in his abundant goodness think of some course how his debts (as great part whereof had been contracted and drawn upon him in his majesty's service) might be thereafter satisfied, his house and ])osterity must of necessity sink under the weight thereof, since they were many and great, and the interest growing thereupon would in a short time exceed the debts. As an help towards the payment thereof, or at least as a means to prevent their increasing, he besought his majesty to grant the wardship of the body and lands of his son and heir the lord Thurles, and if he died in his minority of his next heir, unto sir Robert Poyntz y See Collection of Letters, No. CV. — 342- The marquk of Oruiond falh sick. (1642.) 353 and sir Patrick Wenijss, without fine or rent, to the use of himself, towards the payment of his father's debts. And since he had been dispossessed by the rebels in Kilkenny and those parts of his principal dwelling- house and of all his lands and possessions there, he be- sought his majesty to grant him, or (if he died of that sickness) to the lord Thurles, so much of the tenements and hereditaments in the city and suburbs of Kilkenny as should accrue to his majesty by forfeiture, and owed rent or service to him or his wife ; this being conceived to be in the king's free disposal, as not being within the intent of the late act in England, which seemed to ex- tend only to lands to be admeasured, and not to houses. 341 The king, who was the truest and best friend in the world, immediately signed a ^warrant for letters patents to be issued under the great seal for the grant both of the wardship and houses ; but the marquis had no occa- sion to make use of the former, his sickness not proving mortal. He was out of danger, but still weak, when the marchioness of Ormond^ was taken so ill, that for a good while they despaired of her life. When she was at the worst, his eldest son Thomas viscount Thurles, afterwards styled earl of Ossory, fell desperately sick of the purples and smallpox ; but it pleased God that they all reco- vered. 342 During the marquis of Ormond's sickness, the lords justices made an alteration in the command of the forces in the counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Derry, commonly called the Laggan forces% which he had opposed before, when it was proposed in council. Those forces consisted of the regiments of foot com- manded by sir W. and sir Robert Stewart, sir llalph Gore, and sir W. Cole, three troops of horse under the two first and captain Dudley Philips, six companies of366 Derry commanded by the mayor and sir John Vaughan, '■ A. p. 202. a D. 6. VOL. II. A a 354 Dispute abotit the command of III. 342. six others of Colerain under the mayor of that place, and the independent company of cai)tain Tiiomas Philips. These forces had behaved themselves with great bravery upon all occasions, and had done eminent services against the rebels, tlie colonels taking the command and post of honour by turns, and acting with great unanimity, and all these officers being equally empowered by virtue of a commission directed to them for the government and or- dering of the forces in those counties. Of these com- manders none was so agreeable to the lords justices as sir W. Stewart, on account of his principles, which in- clined him to favour his countrymen the covenanters of Scotland, and they had a mind to make all the other officers and regiments subordinate to his command. He liad formerly made a campaign abroad, and had a post in the old army ; but as he had discontinued the service for many years, and had never seen much, he was much inferior, in point of capacity for command, to sir Robert Stewart of Cullmore, who had served for many years in foreign wars without discontinuance, (having upon his long service there risen to the post of a colonel,) till very lately that he returned to Ireland, and was made an officer of the army. Hence, when they were in the field together, and differed in opinions, that of sir Robert had been generally approved by the other officers, and found most available to the service. Sir William was grown old, could not bear the fatigue of winter service, and often sent his men, when he did not go himself, to join the other forces ; whereas sir Robert was always in ac- tion, in all seasons, and never ventured his men but where himself was present. The ''lords justices, by their commission of Sei)t. 4, appointed Sir W. Stewart to com- mand those forces in chief, and, in case of his absence, sir Robert Stewart to succeed to the like jjower. The reasons alleged for this })reference were, that sir William bC. 275. 342. the Laggan forces. (1642.) 355 had a great estate in land, had been long an officer in the old army, was a baronet and privy counsellor; cir- cumstances which would not terrify or annoy the enemy a jot the more than if he had been of a meaner rank, and which are not usually much considered in a military way, where officers stand upon their right. Sir Robert Stewart*' had, out of the fortune which he had acquired in foreign parts, spent, in furthering the service and main- taining his own regiment, twice as much as sir William had done out of his great estate, and insisted upon his right, the commission he had of colonel bearing date the same day as the other's. He declared that in military affairs he conceived himself at that time to be only under the direction of the lieutenant general ; that he should not mind an order of the board made in such cases when the marquis of Ormond was absent, but if his lordship pleased to lay his commands upon him, he was ready to obey them with all possible readiness and submission ; though this new regulation would be found very incon- venient, and prejudicial to the service in those parts. Sir W. Stewart was of an insulting nature, apt to entertain prejudices against persons, and affecting power, was not likely to use it with that temper and moderation which were necessary. He was not agreeable to the other offi- cers, and his new authority was less so, because it di- vested them of what they had enjoyed before, after hav- ing shewn that they deserved it by the eminent services which they had performed. Captain Dudley Philips in particular had done more service (as sir Robert Stewart averred upon his own knowledge) than either himself or sir W. Stewart had done ; and both that officer and the other conmiissioners were still capable of doing more, if their power was not taken away. This affair ended in restoring matters upon the former foot, by superseding 3*^7 sir W. Stewart's new authority, and by issuing out, on c D. 6, 7, and 8. A a 2 356 Preston lands ivith III. 342- Dec. 15, a commission to the former commissioners, with some others added to the number, empowering them to act as before in the government of those parts. 343 Before the marquis of Ormond was recovered, colonel Thomas Preston landed about the middle of September at Wexford. He was a brother of lord Gormanston, had served many years abroad, and coming over to Ireland in 1634, had carried from thence a regiment of two thou- sand four hundred men for the service of the king of Si)ain. He served at the head of that regiment in the wars of Flanders, and had distinguished himself in the defence of Louvain, when it was besieged by the Dutch. He was governor of Genep in 1641, and held it out longer than could be expected against Henry Frederic prince of Orange. The Dutch lost abundance of men before the place, and the governor, after the walls were sapped, and having stood the storm of a breach that al- lowed fifteen men to enter abreast, surrendered it at the end of July upon honourable terms'^, with no little glory to himself, and with great applause from the enemy. He had married a noble Flemish lady, by whom he had se- veral children, and was in a fair way of aggrandizing him- self in Flanders, when he left all to go into Ireland, being- sent for thither by the nobility and gentry of Leinster, when they took arms upon apprehension of a general ex- tirpation of the Roman catholics of that kingdom. ''He came from Dunkirk in a ship that carried thirty pieces of cannon, attended by two frigates, each of twenty-four guns, and five or six other vessels laden with ordnance for battery, fieldpieces, and a vast quantity of arms and ammunition. He brought with him the colonels Cullen, Synnot, Pluncket, and Bourke, a good number of engi- neers, and five hundred other officers, that had been long employed in foreign service. Before his arrival, two ves- ^ Ahh6 Siri Mercurio lib. 2. p. 434. fi Lords justices' letters, Sept. 23 and 29. -345- supplies for the Irish. (1642.) 357 sels had come into tlie same port, fraught with arms and ammunition ; and he was soon followed by twelve others, with the like warlike provisions and accoutrements, which had been fitted out at Nantes, St. Malo, and Rochelle. ^In these came over not only many great pieces of artil- lery, and a plentiful store of arms and ammunition ; but also abundance of officers and old soldiers, the cardinal de Richelieu having discharged all the Irish forces that were in the French service ; to allow them on this occa- sion to return into their own country ; and being ready to sup])ly them further with moneys, in case of need, (as the Irish gave out,) to the value of a million of crowns. 344 Thus were tlie Irish supplied abundantly with all man- ner of necessaries for war, whilst the English army, through the neglect of the parliament of England, la- boured under a want of all things. Their distress in Dublin, through the great scarcity of provisions, was now likely to be increased, the vessels of the enemy arrived at Wexford being masters of the sea, interrupting the commerce between Chester and Dublin, and intercepting several barks laden with provisions as they were passing through St. George's channel. It was expected that the rebels would have immediately entered upon some im- portant action, but they had at first some affairs to settle among themselves, before they could draw all their forces together, and act with concert against their common enemy ; which allowed the marquis of Ormond time to send a party under sir R. Grenville to bring off" the lady Offaly and her family from Castle Geeshell, and supply the forts of Catherlogh, Maryborough, and Ballinekil, which lay the most exposed with ])ro visions. 345 It was absolutely necessary for the rebels to have a^^c^ foraa of authority established among them ; which might make the orders of superiors obeyed, and prevent that f Lords justices' letter, Sept. 13. ? Cliinrickard's Memoirs, Sept. 6. 358 General assembly of the rebels III. 345 — confusion and those mischiefs which always attend com- ])etitions for poM'er, and uncertainty in the right of com- mand. This was done in the general assembly of depu- ties out of all the provinces of the kingdom, which met on Oct. 24, at Kilkenny. ''The first act they did was to protest, that they did not mean that assembly to be a parliament, confessing that the calling, proroguing, and dissolving of that great body was an inseparable incident to the crown, upon which they would not encroach ; but it was only a general meeting to consult of an order for their own affairs, until his majesty's wisdom had settled the present troubles. They formed it however according to the plan of a parliament, consisting of two houses, in the one of which sat the estate spiritual, composed of bishops and prelates, together with the temporal lords, and in the other the deputies of counties and towns sat, as the estate of the commons by themselves. The meet- ing was at the house of Robert Shea, son of sir Richard Shea, the lords, prelates, and commons all in one room ; ]\Ir. Patrick Darcy, bareheaded upon a stool, representing all or some of the judges and masters of chancery, that use to sit in parliament upon the woolsacks. Mr. Ni- cholas Pluncket rejiresented the speaker of the house of commons ; and both lords and commons addressed their speech to him. The lords had an upper room, which served them as a ])lace of recess for private consultation, and when they had taken their resolutions, the same were delivered to the commons by INIr. Darcy. The clergy, who were not qualified by their titular sees or abbeys to sit in the house of lords, met in an house called the con- vocation, where it was reported among the laity that they handled oidy matters of tithes, and the settling of church possessions ; in which points so little deference was paid to their debates, and their proceedings were treated with " Mr. R. Martin's letter to the earl of Claririckard, Dec. z, 1642, and Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 4915. — 34<5- at Kilkenny. (1642.) 359 so much contempt by the lay impropriators and gentle- men, that the provincial of the Aug-ustins was hissed out of the house, who threatened to wipe off the dust from his feet and those of his friars, and to bend his course beyond the seas, if the possessions of his order were not restored. 346 For the rule of their government they professed to receive magna charta, and the common and statute law of England, in all points not contrary to the Roman catholic religion, or inconsistent with the liberty of Ire- land, and the form of it was settled in the same method as before. Several judicatories were established for the administration of justice and regulation of all affairs. Each county had its council, consisting of one or two deputies out of each barony ; and where there was no barony, of twelve persons chosen by the county in ge- neral ; with power to decide all matters cognizable by justices of the peace, pleas of the crown, suits for debts and personal actions, to restore possessions usurped sinc(^ the war, to name all the county officers, except the high sheriff, who was to be chosen by the supreme council out of three which the council of the county were to recom- mend. From these there lay an appeal to the provincial councils, which consisted of two deputies out of each county, and were to meet four times a year, and oftener if there was occasion, to examine the judgments of county councils, to decide all suits like judges of assize, and to establish recent possessions, but not to meddle in other suits about lands, except in cases of dower. From these there lay a further appeal to the supreme council of twenty-four persons, chosen by the general assembly, of which twelve were to be constantly resident at Kilkenny, or wherever else they should judge most expedient, with 3*^9 equal voices, but two thirds to conclude the rest; never fewer than nine to sit in council, and seven to concur in the same ojiinion. Out of these twenty-four a president ^CO General assembly of the rebels 111. 346 — was to be named by the assembly, and was to be always one of the twelve resident, and hi case either of his death, sickness, or absence, the other residents were out of the twenty-four to choose a vice-president. This council was vested with power over all generals, military officers, and civil magistrates, who were to obey their orders, and send duly an account of their actions and proceedings; to determine all matters left undecided by the general assembly, their acts to be of force till re- scinded by the next assembly ; to command and punish all commanders of forces, magistrates, and all others, of what rank and condition soever ; to hear and judge all capital, criminal, and civil causes, (excei)t titles to lands,) and to do all kind of acts for promoting the common cause of the confederacy and the good of the kingdom, and relating to the support and management of the war. This council was to be confirmed or changed at the end of each assembly. 347 This order of government being settled, the provincial generals were chosen, Owen O'Neile for Ulster, colonel Preston for Leinster, colonel Garret Barry for Munster, and colonel John Bourke for Connaught, though this last had only the name of lieutenant general, in hopes one day of prevailing with the earl of Clanrickard to accept the chief command of that province. After this, the raising of the coin came to be debated, and was much 0])})osed, as being an unnecessary invasion of the prero- gative royal ; and because there being no public treasure, no public benefit could arise thereby ; and the coin being raised, the price of commodities would rise proportion- ably : however, the violence of some jieople carried the point, though the inconvenience thereof was upon trial soon discovered. The Benedictine monks desired a resti- tution of all their possessions that were recovered from jinritans or piotestants, omitting, it seems, for a while those possessed by Roman catholics. But the general assembly -348. at Kilkenny. (1642.) 361 refused to gratify them in any part of their request, as well because the fee thereof, being established by act of parliament, could not be dissolved by the assembly, which was no parliament, as because those possessions were the inheritance of divers persons bought for valuable con- siderations, and a great part thereof settled for jointures, allowed by tlie bulls of the pope, confirmed by cardinal Pole after the dissolution of abbeys, and warranted by the laws of England, which they had solemnly sworn to observe. To prevent dissensions between particular per- sons about their rights and titles to estates, they ordered that all lands and hereditaments should be quietly en- joyed by those who had been in possession thereof for three years before the troubles, and no suits for land should be carried on, except in relation to mortgages, leases, and the possession of lands, the right whereof was otherwise determined. They provided that no distinc- tion or comparison should be made between the old Irish and new English, septs and families, citizens and townsmen, under grievous penalties to be inflicted on the contraveners of that ordinance ; and that all persons, as united in the confederacy, should be bound together by a new oath of association. This did not prevent some divisions appearing, even in this assembly, between sir Phelim O'Neile, lately married to general Preston's daughter, and Owen Roe O'Neile, who was absent, but represented by the bishop of Down, and between Roger O'More and others of Leinster, who supposed themselves despised in the disposition of the public ministry ; but these were composed, at least for a time, and in ap- pearance. 348 Several other regulations were made in this assembly, but of too little consequence to deserve mention. One passage must not be omitted, though it did not come to be matter of debate in public. Some persons confidently 370 whispered in secret, that much money might be had from 362 The rebels draw vp a remonstrance III. 348 — foreign princes for carrying on the war, upon pawning to tliem some of the seaport towns of Ireland ; but this se- cret proposition was rejected by the interposition of some, who foresaw and dreaded the consequences of such a pro- ceeding. It is not unlikely but cardinal de Richelieu, who was as yet living, but died at the time this assembly broke up, might be desirous of some such cautionary town to get footing in Ireland ; yet neither in the letter wrote to him by the supreme council on Nov. 28, nor in any other of their letters sent to foreign princes, is there any oifer made of such a nature, in order to procure the suc- cours which they solicited. ^Tliey employed several per- sons abroad in negotiations for that purpose ; as F. Mat- thew O'llartegan, and Geffrey Baron, to the king of France ; F. Luke Wadding, a Franciscan, to the pope ; count Gall, and F. Hugh Burke, to the emperor, the archbishops of Mentz and Saltzburg, the duke of Bavaria, and the Roman catholics of Holland ; the last of these agents and Nicholas Shea to the bishop of Liege, the go- vernor, the general, and the admiral of the Low Coun- tries, who had contributed to the succours which were arrived. 349 At the same time that they sent letters to these princes and great men desiring further supplies, they did not neglect to make use of those which they had already received. The pope had furnished them with two thou- sand muskets, which arrived on Oct. 20 at Wexford and Dungarvan ; five hundred of these they sent to Owen O'Neile, who was absent, and divided the rest between the three other generals who were present. Preston had brought a sufficient store of arms for the Leinster army; and they expected daily ships at Wexford with four thou- sand muskets, one thousand cases of petronels, one thou- sand carabines, two thousand swords, and a quantity of fireworks, being furnished with these succours by the ' Register of letters of tlic council of Kilkenny. — 35°- of grievances. (1642.) 363 governor of Biscay and some Spanish noblemen in Flan- ders. There was no want but of money, and that they endeavoured to raise by an applotment on the country. To shew at the same time their desire of peace, and to advance a pacification, they resolved upon making an address to the king ; and accordingly two ^ petitions were prepared, one directed to the king, the other to the queen, which were read in the house the last day of the assembly, and were recommended to the supreme council, to be conveyed to their respective majesties. 350 The compiler of the nuncio's memoirs^ recites at length (but translated into Latin) a declaration or remonstrance of their grievances intended to accompany the petitions to his majesty, which (he says) was drawn up by this as- sembly, though I am persuaded it was only approved of in this, but drawn, at least part of it, in that assembly which sat in the May before. This instrument takes notice of the violent proceedings of the parliament to extirpate the Roman catholics in England and Ireland ; their assuming a power over the whole kingdom and parliament of Ireland, which was no way dependent upon them nor on any other, but his majesty alone ; the peti- tion of the Ulster puritans to the English house of com- mons, who had approved it, and intended to put in exe- cution the extirpation of popery and episcopacy therein desired ; the hardships which they had suffered in Ire- land for forty years past in their goods and fortunes, out of hatred to their religion, having all that time been de- barred of all favour, promotion, and office in the state, and of all honourable posts, as well military as civil, though they had given as good proofs of their readiness to serve the crown as any other subjects whatever ; the late protestation and terrible laws made in Scotland to harass the Roman catholics ; the prorogation of the par- k See Collection of Letters, No. CXI. and CXII. 1 Fol. 505. 364 The rebels draic up a remonstrance 111. 350- liament of Ireland at the time that his majesty's graces were to be confirmed ; the want of places for the educa-371 tion of their youth, they being excluded the only uni- versity in Ireland, not alloMed to be brought up in fo- reign parts, nor so much as a schoolmaster of their reli- gion suffered in the kingdom ; the denying of the juris- diction of the Irish parliament to take cognizance of the misdemeanours and oppressions of judges and other great officers ; the governors of the kingdom having procured their creatures and dependents (who had no lands nor settled habitations there) to be unduly elected and re- turned to ])arliament as legal members thereof, and so outvoting the regularly chosen members, and transmit- ting into England, to be remitted thence, several viru- lent and sanguinary laws, that they might be passed in Ireland, to effect the utter ruin of the nation ; the griev- ances suffered by the plantations, and the divesting pro- ]irietors of their estates and inheritance by certain ficti- tious titles fetched from ancient times of above three hundred years' standing. In this point they particularly complained of sir W. Parsons, that having taken on him the care of allotting and measuring the lands to be planted, he allotted them in a most iniquitous and cor- rupt manner, in making the allotment, putting down farms as uninhabited and unprofitable, which were really the most fruitful of all ; and in bis measuring, assigning one half of tlic lands to the English })lantation, and what exceeded their [)roportion [which in the Wexford and Wicklow plantations should have been but one fourth, though it proved more in value than the other three] to be thrown in to their lot as fragments, making each parcel less than one hundred acres to be such a fragment, by which the old possessors of those lands were entirely cut off, and the king defrauded of that rent and profit which ought to have accrued to the crown, and which sir W. Parsons converted to his own advantage. They mention 351- of grievances. (1642.) 365 a petition presented in the session of parliament just be- fore the rebellion, by the inhabitants of the territory of the Byrnes in the county of Wicklow, against the said sir W. Parsons, in which his frauds and iniquity in sum- moning juries, and in using other contrivances to make out his majesty's title to that territory, (a great part of which by such clandestine and irregular practices he got into his own hands,) were laid open to all the world, and that, to prevent his ow^n conviction and censure, which would have been the consequence of a parliamentary in- quiry, he resolved before the war broke out to get the parliament prorogued, though his majesty had expressly directed him to continue the sessions, that the graces which he had transmitted over might be established by the authority of parliament. They urge the cruel de- stroying of great numbers, in an arbitrary manner by martial law, and the false verdicts of juries, who were either incited to find indictments either by the corrupt influence of the chief governors, particularly sir W. Par- sons, promising to give tlie juroi'S part of the possessions of those on whom they were to pass judgment in behalf of his majesty, or biassed by some other premium, by the instances and threats of the judges, or by the fears of fining, stigmatizing, or other censures. This, with a re- cital of some of the complaints made in the remonstrance of parliament against the earl of Strafford's government, (among which they exaggerate the revenues gained by that lord to the church as amounting to three hundred thousand pounds a year,) is the substance of what is most remarkable or peculiar in this declaration or remonstrance, addressed by the general assembly to his majesty. 351 Before the general assembly rose, the parliament of Ireland -svas sitting, and had under their consideration se- veral matters which deserve notice on account of the na- ture thereof, which shews the complexion of the houses, as by reason of the share which the marquis of Ormond 366 Passages in the Irish parliament III. 351 — had in the debates on those occasions. He had been ab- sent when the preparatory meeting was held in June, in 372 order to draw up heads of bills to be transmitted into England, in order to be remitted thence and passed in the ensuing session. On the third and last day of that meeting, the house of lords had dismissed the accusation of treason that had been brought by the house of com- mons in 1640 against sir Richard Bolton lord chancellor, and sir Gerard Lowther lord chief justice of the common pleas. When the parliament, pursuant to their adjourn- ment, met again on Aug. i, '"the lord of Ormond moved the lords that the lord chancellor, being dismissed of the accusation against him, might be restored to the house. Sir William Ryves justice of the king's bench had for some time executed the office of speaker of the house of lords in virtue of letters patents, during his majesty's pleasure, and in the absence of the lord chancellor. Those letters were upon this occasion read, and an order made that the lord chancellor should be admitted to his attendance, and restored to his place. Sir Gerard Low- ther, upon a like motion of the bishop of Clonfert, was also admitted to attend, as required by his majesty's writ of summons. The impeachment against the bishop of Derry and sir G. Radcliffe was not yet dismissed. The bishop had stayed in Derry after the troubles till some Scots of the covenanting tribe had planted a piece of cannon pointing against his house, as a warning to him to be gone ; upon which he had embarked for England, where sir G. Radcliffe also was at this time. The lords sent Mr. justice Mayart and baron Hilton to the com- mons, to know if they had any more reason for retaining the accusation of high treason exhibited by them against the bishop of Derry and sir G. Radcliffe, than there was against the lords chancellor and chief justice, who had been lately dismissed upon a message from that house, '" .Tounial of the House of Lords. — ]^2. in August. (1642.) 367 and the lords were the rather desirous to know their reason, because their lordships conceived there had been hitherto no prosecution against them on the said im- peachment. They were both excellent men, of great parts, virtue, and integrity ; but zealous for the rights of the church and crown, inviolably attached to his ma- jesty's cause, and very capable of serving him. This was their original sin ; and the house of commons, now com- posed almost entirely of puritans, and the creatures or dependants of the lords justices, resolved not to dismiss their accusation ; for which it will be difficult to assign a reason, but that the retaining thereof would deprive his majesty so much the longer of the benefit of their ser- vices. 352 The bills which had been drawn in the pre})aratory meeting, for establishing in Ireland all the penal laws against Roman catholics which were of force in England, and for enacting new ones still more severe, were not yet remitted, and according to Poyning's law there was no proceeding upon those bills till they were approved and affirmed by the king and his council of England. The lords justices, loath to be balked in their measures, had in this exigence recourse to an expedient which they had" before proposed to the house of commons of Eng- land, in order to have the advice and direction of that body as to the best manner wherein all that were ac- cused of the rebellion might be attainted, and the in- tended extirpation of the Roman catholics effected. They proposed, that upon the plan of the act passed on Feb. 21, in 11 Eliz., a bill should be prepared, to give the parliament power to pass acts for the attainting such as were or should be in the present rebellion, without transmitting them into England, notwithstanding Poyn- ing's or any other act of parliament to the contrary. This " Their letter to the speaker, March 31, 1642, and paper annexed. 368 Passaaes in the Irish parliament ITT. 352- bill (they said) before the transmitting of it, was neces- sary to be agreed n])on by the greater number of lords and commons in a session of the Irish parliament, and this might be done upon the first sitting of the next ses- sion. A bill was accordingly brought in to this effect, 373 and it met with a ready reception in the house of com- mons, who, upon Aug. 6, sent it to the lords by Mr. Brereton with a message, recommending to that house the draught of an act, which they conceived necessary to be passed, to suspend a part of the statute called Poyn- ing's act, concerning acts to be passed for the abolishing of popery and the attainder of the rebels. The draught was referred to the lords of Ormond, Roscommon, Moore, Baltinglas, Ilowth, Lambert, and the bishops of Clonfert and Kilfenora, to consider of it, and re})ort their opinion to the house. The draught took notice of the adven- turers' act lately passed in England, and was calculated to enlarge the forfeitures alienated already in a very large measure ; so that Mhen the lord of Ormond made the report from the committee on Aug. 9, he made an objec- tion to the proviso for suspending part of Poyning's act, as mentioning the act passed in England for disposing of lands in Ireland, and moved, pursuant to the 0])inion of the committee, that a conference should be had with the commons in relation to a doubt made, whether the pro- viso did not admit of acts passed in that parliament, to oblige the kingdom of Ireland without being there con- firmed ; a concession which would be very prejudicial to this latter kingdom. The conference was held, and a re- port made on the 1 2th, that the objection had been de- livered to the commons, and the draught left with them to be considered. This was a very tender point; the independency of the kingdom and parliament of Ireland was concerned in it ; the Irish peers resented the denial of their judicature lately made by the lords of England, and were jealous of further encroachments on the power —2S3- ^^ August. (1642.) 369 of their parliament; the whole nation were apprehensive of hardships being laid upon them by the English, in points where their trade and interests clashed, and thought they should cease to be a free people when go- verned and obliged by laws not of their own making, but imposed upon them by another nation without their consent. The commons were at a loss how to remove the objection, and indeed the proviso was likely to pro- duce so many inconveniences, that they proceeded no farther in it at this sitting. 353 The officers of the army had made to the state a "re- presentation of the distresses of the army, the soldiers suffering exceedingly by sickness, unwholesome diet, bad medicaments, wretched clothing, and want of provisions in the field ; for which they proposed convenient reme- dies. To these they annexed their own particular hard- ships, as well in their never having received any regular pay since the beginning of the war, but only some small advancements impressed to them, scarce sufficient to keep them from starving, as by that small pittance being- paid them in Spanish royals of eight, at the rate oi ^s. Sd. apiece ; whereas the best of them was not worth above 4.S. 2d., and many of them were light, and not worth near so much; which was greatly to the loss and detriment both of officers and soldiers, the price of all commodities at Dublin being raised by the citizens according to the true value of the money ; and English merchants desist- ing from bringing any necessaries to the army, finding they had no commodities to barter with them, and that the money going at so high a rate in Ireland, they must be losers by the return ; a matter which would in time starve the army, and yet was of no benefit to his majesty, but only to some private persons through whose hands such returns passed. The house of lords took into their consideration this point of the money, which affected in o D.I 15. VOL. II. B b 370 Passages in the Irish parliament ^^^- 55y truth all sorts of people in the kingdom, and appointed a committee to wait upon the lords justices ; to represent to them the great loss which his majesty's subjects of all sorts sustained by the making of Spanish royals of eight current in Ireland for fourteen groats, wdiereas they were 374 of much less value in England, and in many places there not current at all ; and to move them to make those royals current only for thirteen groats, if they had power to do so, or otherwise to think of some way of acquaint- ing his majesty thercMith, that they might be reduced to that price after INIichaelmas. 354 The house of lords had application made to them by some persons who were prisoners in the castle of Dublin, and prayed relief from the hardships which they there suffered. Among others, the lord Dunsany sent to the house a petition, complaining of the ill treatment which he received from the constable of the castle, and desiring to be removed to another prison. This gave occasion to several motions. The bishop of Clonfert was for having the constable sent for immediately to answer so much of the petition as concerned him. The lord chancellor was of opinion, that a message should be sent to the lords justices, that, if it Mas agreeable to their pleasure, the lord Dunsany and other petitioners should be removed to some other prison. The houses seldom interposed in such cases, out of deference to the chief governors, Avhose authority and conduct were therein concerned ; so that the bishop of INIeath, who at first moved that the house w^ould take cognizance of the matter, and give order that lord Dunsany, a member of their body, should be re- moved to another prison, came over to this opinion, and agreed that the petition should be sent to the state to do therein as they saw fit. This was accordingly ordered : the lords justices said they would consider of the matter, but still continued the prisoners in the castle. 355 There was another petition })resented to the house, -355' ^^ August. (1642.) 371 for which the lord of Orraond was more particularly con- cerned. Alderman Edward Jans, a considerable mer- chant in Dublin, a man of a fair character, but a Roman catholic, was a prisoner in the castle, and thereby inca- pacitated to attend his own business, or manage the af- fairs intrusted to him by others. He was well known to the lord of Ormond, and had been employed some years by the countess dowager, widow of the famous Thomas earl of Ormond, and married after his death to sir Thomas Somerset, in collecting the prisage wines in Dublin and other ports, which was part of her jointure. He had been indicted of high treason upon a charge which if proved did not amount to that crime ; but the grand jury, as of course in such indictments at that time, having found the bill, he was kept in prison, to the great prejudice of his affairs, and, on Aug. 8, petitioned to be admitted to bail. The judges being consulted, gave their opinion that he was not bailable, being charged with treason, and the indictment found. The lords however ordered the clerk of the crown in the king's bench to bring before them the indictment found against Jans, and the exami- nations whereupon the same was grounded. The record was accordingly brought into the house upon the i2tli, and the examination of William Hilton, esq. baron of the exchequer, both which and the names of the jury were read in the house. The foreman of that jury was summoned, but being sick did not appear. That defect was supplied by the presence of JSIr. Dopping, a member of the house of commons, who being called in, and asked if he were one of the jury who had found the bill, an- swered he was. Being demanded, whether the jury had any other evidence produced before them besides the deposition of baron Hilton, or if they had any evidence of their own knowledge for the finding of the bill, he answered, that to the best of his memory nothing of that nature was pretended, nor any other evidence produced, B b 2, 372 Passaaes in the Irish parliament 111. 355- besides that examination of the baron, and tliat for his part he had no knowledge at all of the fact. The record was taken back to the oflice, but the copy of the exami- nation and tlie names of the jury ordered to be left with the clerk of the house. The earl of Orniond conceived the matter of Jan's petition fit for the house to proceed 375 upon and bring to an issue ; and that it would be a fit- ting act of respect to the state to report to them the ground of the indictment, and certify to them, in case the house agreed in the opinion, that they thought fit the petitioner should be bailed. In order to which he moved that the judges might deliver their opinion as to the ground of the indictment of alderman Jans for trea- son, whether it were sufl^cient to deny him bail. Baron Hilton readily declared that he thought his examination was no evidence of treason, and lord chief justice Low- ther and INIr. justice Mayart were of the same oi)inion ; but they all agreed that the bill having been found by a jury, and of record, it was to be deemed more than a surmise, and therefore it was not fit to bail him upon the statute of 1 6 Edw. IV. The earl of Ormond thereupon moved, that the case might be recommended to the lords justices, and they be desired to give way to the bailing of alderman Jans, upon reading the examination annexed to the indictment, and the deposition of one of the jury. The lords came to a resolution accordingly, and ordered the message to be delivered to the lords justices by the earls of Kildare and Ormond. They delivered the mes- sage agreeable to the order, and reported, on Aug. 16, to the house, that they had attended the lords justices, and acquainted them with the ground of the indictment against JMr. Jans, and with the opinion of the lords for bailing him ; but that the justices had alleged, that there were many in the same case, and the bailing of him would be a precedent for others, and in conclusion did not think fit to do it. This message seems not to have — ^^6. in November. (1642.) 373 been more pleasing to the lords justices than the exami- nation of one of their members without leave of the house was to the commons, (who Mere about to engage in a dispute \dth the lords upon that subject, and had retaliated the breach of privilege by taking a servant of lord Lambert's into the custody of the sergeant at arms, who was by the lords ordered to discharge him,) and the same day, after the earl of Ormond had reported the answer of the lords justices, he acquainted the house likewise that it was their pleasure the parliament should be adjourned to Nov. 10. 356 The two houses sat to do business on the 1 7th of that month, when his lordship was introduced into the house of lords between the earls of Kildare and Roscommon, and took his place as marquis of Ormond, his patent, which was dated at Nottingham, Aug. 30, 18 Car., being read and entered at length in the journal. The lord Dunsany and other prisoners, uneasy at the hardships they suffered in their confinement in the castle, and desirous of being bailed, applied again to the house, who referred the petition of the first to the marquis of Ormond, and eight other lords, as a committee of grievances. A joint petition of the same lord with the rest of the prisoners was, though the lord chancellor thought the bailing of them ought to be left to the king's bench, considered in a committee of the whole house, and it was ordered upon the report, that the clerk of the crown in the king's bench should forthwith certify what persons accused or indicted of high treason since the beginning of the present rebel- lion had been bailed in that court ; and should, on Nov. 24, produce the several examinations taken against lord Dunsany and other prisoners in the castle of Dublin, that the house might consider thereof, and form a judgment who were fit to be bailed, and who not. The marquis of Ormond, thinking it would be of as little effect as in the case of Jans to apply to the lords justices in their behalf, 374 Passages in the Irish parliament 111,356- and that the interposition of the house on that occasion would only serve as an handle to throw a blemish on the king's service, was of opinion that the lords should not intermeddle in the case, but remand back the examina- tions untouched. Upon which the house considering the nature of the cause for which they stood committed, came to a resolution, that the examinations should be referred 376 to the court of king's bench, the judges whereof should make use of them as they saw cause, and as was practised in the like eases. Some of the lords still thought the case and treatment of those prisoners to be very hard ; and notwithstanding the said resolution, the bishop of Meath moved that the house would form some rule or other upon their petition. The marquis of Ormond said, if it was not enough to leave that business to the ordi- nary course of the king's bench, it might be referred to the lords justices, to shew favour to such as deserved it, but was entirely of opinion that the house should not take upon them the handling of that affair. In vain did the bishop of Meath urge that the lords justices had been already moved to bail them, but had refused ; for the house resolved not to interpose or intermeddle in the case, but refer it to the usual course of proceedings. 357 The prisoners, seeing their petition for being bailed had not produced the effect they hoped, presented, on Dec. 6, a second petition, desiring that at least their prison might be changed. This occasioned a fresh order, that the several examinations against the lord Dunsany and others the petitioners should be produced by the clerk of the crown, and that the archbishop of Dublin, the marquis of Ormond, the viscount Moore, the bishop of Meath and lord Lambert should meet to peruse them, and report to the house Avhat was fit to be done in the case. All the lords of the committee (except the marquis of Ormond) met on the loth, read the examinations of lord Dunsany, sir John Netterville, William Malone, Gerald Fitzgerald, -^5 8. in November. (1642.) 375 sir Andrew Aylmer, Lawrence Dowdall, Patrick Barne- wall, John Talbot, sir Nicholas White, and his son of the same name ; and reported to the house that the lord Dunsany, sir Andrew Aylmer, Lawrence son of Edward Dowdall, and Nicholas White were lit to be recommended to the lords justices and council, to be sent to some prison or other place of safety in the city, as their lordships should think most fitting. Hereupon the archbishop of Dublin and the earl of Kildare were appointed by the house to recommend that matter to the justices and council. 358 There was another affair came before the house of lords, in which they acted with more vigour, and pro- ceeded with less deference to the lords justices. As soon as Reynolds and Goodwin, sent over by the English house of commons to make proselytes to their cause, and dis- tress the king's affairs in Ireland, arrived at Dublin, Pthey took upon them the sovereign direction of all matters, they were allowed by the lords justices (without the privity or warrant of his majesty) a seat in the privy council, and their opinion carried with it and governed the whole council-board. *iTheymade their appearance in the coun- cil on Nov. 2, when sir W. Parsons (being whispered in the ear by lord Lisle) directed them to sit down and take their places, before their instructions or powers were seen or offered to the board. They had authority from both houses of parliament to do service in that kingdom ; and as soon as their letters of credence and instructions "were read, they offered twice to withdraw ; but sir W. Parsons told them there was no occasion for it, the business to be debated being only war ; upon which they sat down again, and clapt on their hats without being bidden to do so. All this was done by sir W. Parsons alone, without so P Clanrickard's Memoirs at the end of Nov. and Dec. 1642. q See the marquis of Ormond's notes of the council, Nov. 2, 1642. D.4. 376 Proceedings about Jerome. III. 358- much as consulting the board, and from that thiie the committee came and sat as if they had been constant members thereof. They brought over Avith them a new oath of fealty, or test of the affections of persons to the cause of the parliament of England. They applied them- selves particularly to gain the officers of the army, and 377 employed the twenty thousand pounds which they had brought over in such a manner as might best advance that design. They wanted to get the command of the army and the government of Dublin into the hands of the partisans of the parliament, but nothing could lessen the marquis of Ormond's credit with the officers ; their schemes for putting the power of the army under the management of lord Lisle failed, ''nor could lord Lambert be prevailed with to resign the government of the city. They neglected no persons whatever, endeavouring to create an universal disaffection to his majesty, and thereby causing great distractions in Dublin. Among other in- struments for that purpose, they made use of a parcel of seditious lecturers, which having been found so eminently serviceable to the ends of the faction in London, were now thought proper to be set up and encouraged in Dublin. 359 Among these one Stephen Jerome, an empty, illiterate, noisy, turbulent person, and a very incoherent, nonsen- sical, ludicrous preacher, was put in to preach^ a lecture every Sunday morning at seven of the clock in St. Pa- trick's church, and to bestow some particular instructions upon the soldiers of the army, who were to attend his lectures. The man, assisted by his matchless impudence, and encouraged by the countenance which the state gave him, to vent all the scandal and sedition that the warmth and virulence of his nature, or the malignity and corrup- tion of his heart could suggest, employed his talents of ' Tucker's Journul, fol. 52. s Order of the lords justices, Nov. 15. D. 22. -359- Proceedings about Jerome. (1642.) 377 noise and nonsense so much to the satisfaction of the lords justices, that it was thought pro})er he should preacli at Christ Church, whither the state and most persons of quality usually repaired for divine worship. There, on Sunday Nov. 13, in the afternoon, he delivered in his sermon many things unfit to be uttered in any auditory, and intolerable before such an assembly, which ought not to be supposed to hear with patience any invectives against the king, the queen, the council, and the army, who were all at once traduced. Lancelot Bulkeley, arch- bishop of Dublin, seeing the man's shameful abuse of the liberty of preaching, to prevent the pulpit's being any more prostituted for the spreading of slanders, and the carrying on of seditious purposes, thought fit the next day to silence him, and inhibit him from preaching any longer tlie lecture which he had lately undertaken at St. Patrick's. Jerome applied himself to his patrons the lords justices, who the day following signed an orders requiring him to continue the same lecture in the same place, with- out interruption, until good cause were shewed unto them (the lords justices) to the contrary. This order was im- mediately sent and delivered to the archbishop, that he might not plead ignorance of their pleasure, if he should dare to prosecute or censure Jerome for disobedience to his inhibitory mandate. There were some passages in the sermon, which were meant to insinuate reflections on the marquis of Ormond's granting protections for the houses, goods, and stock of some Roman catholic gentle- men and ladies that lived quiet in the country ; but the marquis (who was at church and heard the discourse) thought the man so worthless and inconsiderable, that it was below him to take notice of what he had sug- gested. But others of the lords resolving it should not pass without censure, the lord Howth, on Nov. 18, ac- quainted the house, that he had been informed by a re- = Order of the lords justices, Nov. 15. D. 22. 578 Proceedings about Jerome. III. 359 — verend bishop of some scandalous reflections which one Jerome had thrown on their majesties and others in his sermon the last Sunday, and which he thought well de- served the consideration of their lordships. The bishop of Meath assuring the house that he was present, and heard the reflections mentioned, an* order was made for 378 the taking of Jerome into custody, and for bringing him before the house to answer such matters as should be ob- jected against him. The next day the bishop of Meath informed the house that Jerome had the day before in the same place made another sermon no less scandalous than the former, and desired he might be brought in and punished ; it being the more necessary for the house to take cognizance of that aftair, because the man being forbidden by his diocesan to preach, had, in contempt of the authority of his proper superior, been ordered by the lords justices to go on with his sermons. Je- rome absconded, and was not taken into custody till the Tuesday following, when he was committed to the cus- tody of the sergeant at arms, till the charge against him was examined. 360 The marquis of Ormond seeing what lengths the jus- tices were inclined to go, and that such seditious seiTnons were likely to grow common, thought it high time for the lords to interpose and exert their authority to put a stop to a practice which could not fail of producing great distractions in the city, and was intended to bereave his majesty of the affections of his subjects, and to ruin his affairs in Ireland. To prevent those mischiefs, he moved the house on Nov. 11, that Jerome's business might be referred to a committee ; and accordingly an" order was made that the archbishop of Dublin, the marquis of Or- mond, the earls of Kildare and Roscommon, the viscount Fitzwilliams, the bishops of INIeath and Killala, with the lords Howth and Lambert, should meet on the next ' See the order. D. 24. » D. 26. o6o Proceedings about Jerome. (1642.) 379 Thursday at eight of the clock in the morning, in the house, as a committee, to have a free conference upon that subject, at which the judges were likewise to attend. The committee examined'' the archdeacons of Dublin and Kildare, and four other clergymen, who were present at Jerome's sermon on the 13th, in relation to the passages thereof which gave offence. It appeared from their tes- timonies, that a great part of his sermon was full of idle and ridiculous passages, and an invective against the army, the bishop of Meath, and other great men, who had not come to hear his sermon on Sunday morning ; and the discourse in general was so rambling and incoherent, and attended with such laughing and coughing of the people, that it was difficult to remember the passages of greatest moment. They all however remembered certain expressions ; as, that " there was a darkness wrought by lust, and a blindness wrought by dust ; that white and yellow dust blinded the eyes of great ones, and procured from them several things, offices, places, and, amongst the rest, protections ; that blindness was brought upon men by lust, and as king Solomon by marrying with strange women became an idolater, so princes now were blinded by lust, and were married to wives of other religions, idolatrous women, Jezebel's daughters, thereby endanger- ing their kingdoms and religion, adding these w^ords, Now I touch to the quick, I speak to those that imderstand me ; that perjury (amongst other sins) caused blindness and darkness, that princes who broke their oath and covenant with their people were blinded, and the Lord suffered their eyes to be pulled out, as Zedekiah's were by Nebu- chadnezzar for breaking his oath and covenant ; that these times were Rehoboam's times, wherein the prince followed the counsel of his young men, and forsook the counsel of the old men, his sage and wise council ; that " See their several depositions from D. 31 to 36. 380 Proceedings about Jerome. III. 360- wliilst it was so, no other times than such as these could be expected ; that the royalists or cavaliers of England were no better than the rebels of Ireland ; they were birds of a feather, and therefore might fly together." 361 The committee on the 26th reported the matter as they had found it to the house, which^ not being able, by reason of the absence of many of their members ne-379 cessarily employed in his majesty's service, to give all the despatch they wished to Jerome's prosecution, and think- ing that a prosecution from the state would be a more effectual means of preventing the like seditious sermons, ordered, that authentic copies of the examinations taken in that cause should be delivered by the marquis of Or- mond and lord Lambert (as a committee of the house) to the lords justices and council, and that the said cause should be recommended to the lords justices, as a matter of great moment and consequence, fit to be taken into their lordships' consideration, and to be proceeded on in such a manner as they in their wisdoms should think fit. Jerome was at the same time committed to the custody of Thomas Pemberton, one of the sheriffs of Dublin, there to remain till further order either from the lords justices or the house of lords. 363 The lords justices were far from prosecuting a man whose conduct was agreeable to their own views, and perhaps the effect of their express directions ; and some days passed before the lords took any further notice of the matter. This impunity, or rather encouragement of Jerome, emboldened others to follow his example ; the practice was growing general, and a strange license was exercised in venting parliamentary jwlitics from the pulpits of Dublin. Tliis occasioned a fresh complaint to the house on Dec. 6, when the ^ lords taking notice of the liberty, which, since the committal of Stephen Jerome for seditious preaching, had been taken by others in pro- '- D. 29, 30. a D. 47. — 3 64- Proceedings about Jtrohw. (1642) 38 1 secuting' the like arguments, ordered the former com- mittee (the marquis of Orniond and lord Lambert) to ac- quaint the lords justices therewith, as a matter deserving their lordships' care, in prevention of the evil conse- quences which were likely thereupon to ensue. 363 The lords justices determined to do nothing in the affair themselves, and to prevent as far as they could the house of lords from proceeding further in it, let the matter rest till Dec. 14, the day which they had fixed for the prorogation of the parliament. Sir W. Parsons then sent for the clerk of the house, and commanded him, in the name of the lords justices and council, to deliver the copies of the examinations about Jerome to the lord chancellor, and to desire his lordship from them to deliver the same to the house of lordSj with the sense of the lords justices and council thereupon, viz. that they con- ceived the said Jerome to be worthy of punishment for so much of his sermon as should be taken to reflect upon his majesty ; but because the lords' house were possessed of it, and had proceeded to take examinations in the cause, they did not think fit to take it out of their hands, but left it wholly to the lords to inflict such punishment on the delinquent (whom they esteemed a rash distracted man) as their lordships in their wisdoms should think fit^. The lord chancellor accordingly acquainted the house with this message, and delivered in the copies of the examina- tions. 364 The lords were not a little nettled at the treatment they had received from the lords justices, who had done nothing in a matter so earnestly recommended to them by the house, and after affecting a perfect silence on the subject for near three weeks, had at last referred it back to them, under a pretence of deference to the house, in the very instant of their prorogation, when it was impos- sible for them to do any thing in the cause. They re- '-- D.67. 382 Proceedings about Jerome. III. 364 — solved however to declare at least their sense of that pro- ceeding, and immediately resolved themselves into a committee, of which the marquis of Ormond was chair- man. The house was soon resumed, and the marquis reported from the committee, that they had drawn up an order in the case of Jerome, which they conceived fit to 380 be entered as an order of the house. This was immediately read, and unanimously approved. It ^begins with a re- cital of the former order of Nov. 26, mentions the fact of the lords justices, their returning the copies of the examinations, and the purport of their message, and then goes on in these terms : "And whereas also his majesty's writ of prorogation was at the same time in the lord chancellor's hands, and forthwith delivered into this house for the prorogation of this parliament from this day to the 20th of April next, by means whereof this house is disabled to proceed to the final hearing of the said cause, in such manner as the merits of the same may require ; and for that the said Stephen Jerome is by the said lords justices thought worthy of punishment, it is therefore ordered by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that the said copies shall be carried again to the said lords justices by the former committee, letting their lordships know, that they do conceive his majesty's honour and the honour of the government much concerned in the premises, and that the 20th of April is too long a time to defer the said punishment ; considering the good that a timely exami)le may do in deterring others from committing the like offences ; and therefore to desire their lordships from this house, to proceed therein in such a way as their lordships shall think fit ; this house con- ceiving it proper for their lordships who represent his majesty's person, and have his authority to vindicate the same. And forasmuch as tlie said Jerome stands com- mitted by order of this house, it is also ordered, that he c D. 69. —^6^. The relets' oath of association. (1642.) 383 shall so continue, or be bailed, or otherwise discharged, as the lords justices shall direct." The lords had scarce passed this order, when a message was delivered them from the house of commons, that they had received notice of an intent to prorogue the parliament, and because they had then some business of consequence actually in agitation before their house, they desired that the parlia- ment might not be prorogued till some other day, or at least not till the afternoon. The lords returned in an- swer, that they had also business of consequence in hand ; notwithstanding which, they had thought fit to conform themselves to the pleasure of the state in proceeding with the said prorogation. Thus was the parliament pro- rogued in a morning, an unusual circumstance of time expressing an uncommon haste, and suddenly, without any previous notice given to either house for the adjust- ing and despatch of the business before them in order to a recess. The lords justices, no doubt, had their motives for this proceeding ; but it is to be feared they arose rather from a desire to gratify the malice and advance the designs of the rebellious faction in England, than from any sense of their duty to his majesty, or any view of promoting his service. 365 The general assembly of the Irish having broken up at the latter end of November, the supreme council applied themselves to execute the resolutions therein taken. Orders were sent to tender the oath of association to all persons in every parish throughout the kingdom. By the form of that oath, every body that took it swore to bear true faith and allegiance to the king, his heirs and lawful successors, and to defend and maintain all his and their just prerogatives, estates, and rights, the power and privileges of the parliament of Ireland, and the fundamental laws of that kingdom. But the associators thereby obliged themselves also, to defend and uphold the free exercise of the Roman catholic faith and religion throughout the 384 They take Biirro^, Bin', III. ^6^- land, and the lives, liberties, estates and rights of all that had taken or should take the oath and perform the con- tents thereof; to obey all the orders of the supreme council concerning the said public cause; neither to seeks^i nor receive, directly or indirectly, any pardon or protection for any act done or to be done touching the said general cause, without the consent of the major part of the said council, nor to do any act to the prejudice of the cause, but, with the hazard of life and estate, to assist, prosecute, and maintain the same. This was the substance of the oath of association, which was pressed upon all persons, and such as refused it, particularly the earl of Clanrickard, and the gentlemen who adhered to him in the county of Galway, were excommunicated by the clergy. 366 It had been resolved in the assembly to raise in Lein- ster a body of thirty-one thousand seven hundred men ; the greatest part of them to be kept in the garrisons of that province, but about six thousand foot and six hun- dred horse to be formed into an army under general Preston, under whom the earl of Castlehaven served, as lieutenant general of the Leinster horse. Preston hav- ing got together about two thousand five hundred foot, and some troops of horse, invested the castle of Burros in the Kind's Countv, which was surrendered to him on Dec. 30. From thence he marched to Birr*^, having in- telligence that the garrison had not powder to stand two hours' assault. He came before it on Jan. 13, viewed the ground, raised a battery, and tried to undermine the place. At last, on the i8th, being instructed by a mason who had been employed in the building of the castle, they hit upon the right ground, a green clayish bank on the west side of the castle. The mouth of the mine was not above four yards distant from the very foundation of the walls. The garrison hearing the sap, fired some shot and rolled c Deposition of major Chidley Coote, Apr. 1 1, 1643. — 2,66. and fort Falkland. (1642.) 385 great stones down the bank upon the enemy ; but by break of day they were got under the ground, and out of all danger. The garrison had not in fourteen months' time received from the state above one hundred pound weight of powder, and were uiaprovided for a defence. They beat a parley on the 1 9th, and capitulated to march out the next day, horse and foot, with arms, half their plate, and money; their clothes, and as much provision as they could carry. The articles were faithfully performed, and the earl of Castlehaven convoyed the garrison and inhabitants, to the number of eight hundred persons, in a long march of two or tliree days together, through the woods of Iregan and waste countries, safe to Athy, the next friendly garrison. Preston advancing further, took Bannogher, and came'^ on Jan. 26 before fort Falkland, a place of considerable strength, and which might very well have held out against him longer than he could have stayed before it, in that season of the year, and for want of victuals. Those within the place were numerous, but few of them were serviceable ; they were somewhat straitened in point of provisions, and were much discouraged by a long and vain expectation of succours from the state, by which they had been entirely neglected. They never could have been able to subsist so long, but for the relief which had been sent them from time to time by the earl of Clan- rickard, who was now surrounded with so many difliculties in his own country, that they had very little prospect of any from that quarter. Preston's fair carriage at Birr, and his faithful observance of the articles of capitulation, in- clined the besieged to surrender themselves to him, rather than to fall afterwards into worse hands. These reasons determined the lord Castle Stewart, without waiting a battery, to surrender the fort, the day after Preston came before it, and he was convoyed with his company safe to the fort of Galway. Preston, before the taking of Burros, d Clanrickard's Memoirs, Jan. 1642-3. VOL. II. C C 386 Condition of the earl of Clanrickard III. 366- had made an attempt upon Bally nekil in the Queen's County; but colonel Monck and captain Yarner witli^ six hundred foot and two hundred horse relieved the l)lace, and defeated him, though near double their num- ber, at Tymochoe. His loss was not greater than of about 382 sixty men killed ; and having strengthened himself with new forces, he thus reduced all the forts in the King's County. 367 During this expedition, Preston wrote from Birr^ to the earl of Clanrickard, endeavouring by various argu- ments to draw him over to the same party which he had embraced himself; but received from his lordship an answer, clearly refuting all the pretences made use of to fifloss over the cause of the rebels, and sufficient to discourage him from the like attempts for the future. The earl's letter had a very good effect on colonel Ed- mund Butler, son to lord Mountgarret, and several others engaged in the confederacy, and opened their eyes so as to convince them of the disloyalty of their proceedings, and of the misery that Mould thereby be brought upon their country. But it was not so much the prospect of that success, as the situation of the earl of Clanrickard's affairs, which obliged him to send an answer to that general, to the noblemen of the supreme council, and the titular bishops, who solicited and importuned him with letters on the same subject. lie was in a remote part of the kingdom, to which it was now scarce possible for the state to send him any supply, and having been en- tirely deserted by them from the very beginning of the troubles, he had still the less reason to expect any relief. The enemy was very strong in all parts about him, and he having spent all his revenue in ])roviding hitherto for the defence of the country, had nothing to support him, but the affections and esteem of the neighbouring gentlemen, e Letter of the lords justices, Jan. 20, 1642-3. f See collection of Letters, No. CXX. CXXI. — 3"^^- and county of Galway. (1643.) 387 who still adhered to him. These were Roman catholics, and when the clergy were so busy in thundering- out their excommunications against all that did not engage in the association, he could not tell whether they were proof against the censures of their church, but had abundant reason to fear the worst. His wife and family were in the country, in a place not defensible against an army ; he had no power to give either reward or encourage- ment his own friends, nor any ability to o])])ose the violence of others, but only such arguments as he was upon these occasions enforced to use. These were how- ever very useful to him in those distressed circumstances, retainino: a o-reat manv lientlemen in their attachment to him, and in their duty to his majesty, and restraining the enemy from attacking him openly. But they could not hinder the defection of the town of Athenry in the be- ginning of January, nor the surprisal of his castle of Clare on the last day of that month. 368 As the rebels about him grew stronger, he saw all means of safety impairing and flying still farther from him by the sudden and unexpected departure of the lord Ranelagh, president of the province, sir Cha. Coote, and other English commanders in the county of Roscommon, the only country with which he could hold any corre- spondence, or from whence he could receive the least assistance. The president had been for a considerable time blocked up in Athlone, and the forces in that county were reduced to great extremities?. To relieve these in some measure, the lords justices were forced, out of their scarcity at Dublin, to spare them forty barrels of powder, thirty-nine of match, fifteen of salt, six hundred suits of clothes, and as many shirts and caps. Sir R. Greiivillo with nine hundred foot and two hundred horse was ap- pointed to convoy these provisions. In his march he was encountered by the rebels, but forced his way through all Z Letter of the lords justices, Feb. 20, 1642-3. C C 2 388 Lord Ranelagh accused. III. 368 — opposition to IMullingar, where lie arrived 011 Jan. 29, and advanced the next day to Athlone, where he delivered the provisions under his care to the lord president. The soldiers had long suffered under terrible necessities, and had borne them in some expectation of relief; but now seeing all their succours consisted in a small quantity of ammunition, that there was no corn, and (what was worse) no money sent them for their pay, were exceedingly dis-383 contented, and resolved to stay no longer in a country to which they seemed to have been sent only to be starved. Sir JNJichael Ernie, sir Edward Povey, and six hundred of their men, most of them sick and weak, took up this resolution; and'^ the president, not caring to be cooped up longer within the walls of a castle, and hoping that his representations might produce some good effect, as well for the relief of those parts against the rebels, as for the preservation of the king's interest among the troops, which were corrupted by some disaffected and puritanical officers, determined to return with the con- voy to Dublin. Sir R. Grenville having rested two or three days at Athlone, set out with his army about Feb. 5, and having passed jMuUingar was met on the 7th of that month by a body of the enemy at Rathconnel, in a place of great disadvantage to him. The rebels were three thousand four hundred foot and six troops of horse, but were defeated with tlie loss of two hundred and fifty of their number killed, and colonel Anthony Preston, the general's eldest son, with some others taken prisoners. 369 The lord president's intention was to lay before his majesty a full account of tlie state of his province, and of the ill effects of the orders and proceedings of the lords justices, and of the methods taken by them in the ma- nagement of the war ; but as soon as he arrived at Dublin, he found himself traversed in that design. Sir Cha. Coote and sir jVI. Ernie charged him with all the necessities and '• Clanrickard's Memoirs, Feb. 1642-3. -369. Lord llanelagh accused. (1643.) 389 extremities which the troojis had suffered in Coniiaught, though they arose from tlie Avant of those supplies of money and provisions which ought to have been sent from Dublin, and which the president himself had just reason to complain had been never sent. To make up in number what was wanting in the weiglit or justice of the heads of accusation against him, 'they exhibited seventy- four articles against him, which were first presented to the marquis of Ormond, and afterwards laid before the council- board ; nor did they scruple in some particulars thereof to insinuate things which might occasion a misconstruc- tion of the actions of the earl of Clanrickard, who had done so much for their subsistence and preservation. These articles, which seem to be a contrivance to prevent lord Ranelagh's repair to the king'^, were fully debated at the board on March 5, in the marquis of Ormond's absence in the expedition to Rasse ; and after the judges had delivered their opinions on the subject, it was re- solved that his lordship should put in no answer, but the articles be transmitted to his majesty, to receive his fur- ther directions. The lord president desired a copy of the charge against him which was resolved to be sent over, but was refused. He then earnestly moved for a license to go for England ; this was not only denied him, but likewise an inhibition and absolute command was laid upon him uot to depart the kingdom. To receive articles against a nobleman in so high a command \ to transmit them for his majesty's consideration, to press for as speedy a signification of his royal pleasure upon perusal thereof as could conveniently be given, and at the same time to keep the person accused in utter ignorance of what was objected to his conduct, and to deprive him of all possi- j Clanrickard's Memoirs, Feb. 1642-3. ^ Letters of Edw. Brabazon and sir Ph. Percival, March 6, to the marquis of Ormond. D. 260, 261. 1 Letter of the lords justices to Lucius lord Falkland, March 10. 390 Major IVoodhouse sent lo'ith the complaints 111. 369- bility of making Lis defence, till possibly lie miolit be sentenced as guilty, or removed from liis employment, (which could not well in such a time be kept vacant without detriment to the service,) does not seem a very equitable way of proceeding in the lords justices. ™But they manifestly favoured the ambition and pretensions of sir C. Coote, Mho was a man after their own heart, en- tirely for their scheme of extirpation, and as strongly attached to the parliament cause; which he would be3H4 much more capable of serving, if he were made (as he desired to be) lord president of Connaught in lord Rane- lagh's stead. His lordship could not but resent this treat- ment, and being, through ignorance of his crime, disabled to make his own defence, he took the only method left him of obstructing the malice and designs of liis enemies, and exhibited articles against his rival sir C. Coote to the council-board, who w^ere obliged to transmit them like- wise to his majesty. Lord Ranelagh had afterwards license given him by the king to repair into England, where he fully cleared and acquitted himself of those aspersions which in that charge had been throAvn on his conduct. 70 Lord Ranelagh was not the only person whom the lords justices endeavoured to hinder from repairing into England. They did not care the king should receive any accounts from Ireland but what came dressed up in their own glosses, and they very rarely sent him any informa- tion of ])assages, scarce ever applying to him, except on such occasions as that above mentioned, where it was necessary in point of form, and then confining the matter of their letters purely to such particular subjects. They thought fit to deny major Woodhouse a license to go over on the following occasion : The army in and about Dublin was (as hath been said) in very great disti^ss, "1 Letter of the lords justices to Lucius lord Falkland, March 15. J642-3. -370. of the army to the hliig. (1643.) 391 even after the arrival of the parliament committee at the end of October. The twenty thousand pounds which they brought was a supply far short of what the necessi- ties of the army required. "The state had endeavoured to give some contentment to the soldiers in defect of their pay, by supplying them with victuals for their sub- sistence ; but the captains and other officers, having had no relief that way, were reduced to great extremity. They had received no pay at all, other than very small and inconsiderable sums, allotted them by dividends, pro- portionable to the small supplies of money sent from England. These were so far short of enabling them to pay the many debts they had contracted in Ireland, or to buy themselves either necessary food to keep them alive, or raiment to cover their nakedness, that it was a lament- able sight to behold the miseries they endured, much unbe- fitting their qualities and the merits of such persons, who had in the service shewn so much valour and resolution, as w^as greatly to the honour of the English nation, and no little terror and astonishment to the rebels. The committee of jjarliament had, to engage the officers in the interests of the English parliament, framed an oath for them to take, which (with a like interpretation as was used with regard to the protestation, and in other cases where his majesty's name was put in only for form) would have been called an oath of fealty, and have bound them to the service of the parliament ; they had terrified them by a very strict examination into the fulness or defects of their companies, with the fears of a defalcation of their pay, and had fed them with fine promises of pay- ment of all their arrears ; but these being out of humour, and either not crediting those assurances, after having been so long and often deceived in their hopes, or not caring to come into the measures proposed to them, the English committee bethought themselves of a way to n Letter of the lords justices to Lucius lord Falkland^ Jan. 20. 392 Major Woodhouse sent with the compJainis III. 370 — draw them in, without obliging the parliament to supply them with any money, which (these gentlemen knew) they did not care to spare at that juncture for Irish ser- vice ; a way that would not appear suspicious to those officers, as eno-aoino: them to no declaration inconsistent with their duty to the king, and which yet would make them absolutely dependent upon the parliament for the satisfaction of their arrears. They made a book, wherein they desired that all the officers of tlie civil list, as well as the army, should subscribe, and declare their free con- sent, that a certain part of their pay and the arrears due 385 to them for their service in Ireland should be satisfied out of the rebels' lands, when they were declared to be subdued. This was to put them upon the same foot as the adventurers, and to subject them equally to the au- thority and decisions of the two houses, who had arrogated to themselves the power, as well of declaring when the rebels were actually subdued, as of allotting lands to the subscribers afterwards. 371 This project was set on foot without ever being com- municated to his majesty. The lords justices, and the officers of the civil list, who depended upon them, to set an example, which might invite others to do the same, subscribed considerable sums. Several of the officers of the army, not seeing into the design, which was to with- draw them from their duty to his majesty, were draMu in at first to subscribe. The inducement thereto was a ''voluntary proffi?r made on Jan. 3, by Mr. Reynolds to colonel Monk and others, of giving it under his hand that the parliament should confirm their subscriptions, and make »'ood what he undertook in their behalf. He accordingly drew up something in Mriting, but did not give it to the officers. Such as had not subscribed were curious to see this writing : those who had, not being able to get a sight of it, grew uneasy, and petitioned the justices and council to engage their estates for security o Tucker's Journal, fol. 52. — 372- of the arrinj to the king . (1643.) ^93 that the parliament should deal fairly with them (for as yet there was no act of parliament to warrant their sub- scriptions). The state absolutely refused to do so, which made the subscribers insist to have their subscriptions cancelled, and there was no satisfying them till the book was delivered uj) by the committee. 373 What discouraged these officers the more in subscrib- ing was the slowness and inconsiderableness of the sup- plies already sent, which persuaded them that the par- liament had no intention of speedily suppressing the re- bellion ; and they knew, that for want of supplies they should never be able to go on with the war. They saw themselves so entirelv nesdected, and reduced to so ffreat miseries for want of their pay, in spite of all their services and repeated representations of their distress, that it looked as if they were sent over only to be knocked on the head or to be starved in Ireland. In a just sense of this cruel treatment, the earl of Kildare and all the prin- cipal commanders of the army, then in Dublin, (except the lord Lisle,) drew up aP remonstrance of the hardships they endured. In the preamble thereof they take notice of major Henry Warren's being sent into England, with a representation of the great extremities to which they were reduced, and to solicit for relief, of which there was no appearance, though they had waited for it with all pos- sible patience and penury till the major's return, who (afteri earnest but vain solicitations of jNIr. Pym and the other commissioners for the affairs of Ireland) had brought back with him no hopes of any amendment of their con- dition from that quarter ; which forced them to seek elsewhere for redress of their grievances, and obliged them to appeal to his sacred majesty, the fountain of justice, in full assurance of his princely favour. In the body of P See Collection of Letters, No. CXXVIl. q Letters of major Warren to the marquis of Ormond, Oct. 4. and Nov. I, 1642. 394 Major Woodhouse sent vntJi the complaints III. 372. the remonstrance they represented, i. That as well by the act of parliament in England, as by covenants with the lord lieutenant, and by the promises of the lords justices and council of Ireland, they Avere to have their pay duly made good to them, as well for their carriages as themselves and their soldiers. 2. That both officers and soldiers had faithfully answered all services that could be expected from them, not only in the frequent hazard of their lives, but also in the constant discharge of their duties. 3. Tliat notwithstanding the starving condition of 386 the army, all the extremity of strictness in musters was put upon them, with an oath tendered as well to the soldiers as officers, which could not but leave upon them a cha- racter of distrust of their integrity in the cause ; and yet they had no assured hopes of assistance, but rather their fears increased of having the highest severities used to them in their checks, which, in an army so ill paid and oppressed with want and misery, was without precedent. 4. That in all armies military offences, of what nature soever, had ever been punishable by martial law only, and no other ; a privilege which they pleaded, and main- tained to be inseparable to their profession. 5. That there never had, since the beginning of the service, been any account made with them, so as if they should miscarry, their heirs were ignorant what to demand ; which not only discouraged the officers, but disabled them to subsist and continue in the service. 6. That with all humility they craved leave to present to the memories of the lords justices and council, what vast sums of money had been raised and paid in England for the advancement of the service and sujiply of their wants in Ireland, a great part whereof had been otherwise applied, even when their necessities were most pressing, and the cause most hope- ful. 7. That when their expectations were most set upon the performance of what Mas justly due to them, the small pay issued out was given them in a coin much a of the army to the kinq (1643.) ^^^ stranger to that wherein the parliament had paid it, and yet continued to be so, though publicly disallowed by them ; by wliich means the officers suffered an insupport- able loss, whilst others wanted not the confidence to ad- vance their own fortunes out of their general calamities : a crime, they conceived, highly censurable ; and if in in- digent times so much strictness were needful in the army, they conceived it as necessary for the state to find out such ofll'enders, and to measure out a punishment suitable to an offence of so high an abuse. 8. That their arrears, which were great, might he duly answered them in money and not in sid)scriptions, which they conceived to be an hard condition for them to venture their lives on: and likewise humbly ofl'ered it to consideration, whether they might not be thought to deserve rewards in land, without other price, as well as in former rebellions in that kingdom, others had done. For these reasons, in acquittal of them- selves to God, the king, the cause, the country, and the state of Ireland, they had thus represented their condition, craving what their rights and necessities required for them, that they might be duly answered what was or should be due to them in their employment according to their capitulation, their services justly esteemed ; mus- ters without oath, unless duly paid ; checks according to the articles of war ; their offences limited to the proper judicatory ; their own oppressors found out, and punished exemplarily, with satisfaction to those they had wronged ; that their pay might be converted only to the use the act of parliament had prescribed ; their accounts speedily made up according to their several musters, their arrears secured, and due provision to be made for the subsistence of officers and soldiers. All this they desired miglit be answered otherwise than by verbal expressions, and that their lordships would speedily make it appear there was a real care taken for their certain subsistence ; or other- wise, they receiving so small hope of further assistance 396 Major Woodhouse sent with the complaints III, 373- from the parliament [of England] their lordships would leave them to themselves, to take such course as should best suit to the glory of God, the honour of the king, and their own urgent and present necessities ; adding, by way of conclusion, that this was the sense of all and every one of them, who subscribed the instrument, to the number of above forty of the prime officers of the army. 373 The marquis of Ormond was, on Dec. 17, 1642, sitting 387 at the council-table, when the doorkeeper acquainted him that some officers of the army were without, and desired to speak Mith him. U})on his going out, sir Fulk Huncks, colonel Richard Gibson, and others, delivered to him this remonstrance, desiring him to present it to the lords justices and council. This he did on the in- stant, and two days afterwards sent an express with a copy thereof to his majesty. The lords justices endea- voured to satisfy the officers, as usual, with fair promises and hopes; but that coin would no longer pass with them. The council, to shew their real desire of gratify- ing them, endeavoured to raise a little money for that purpose, and, on Jan. 5, made an order*" that every body should bring in half their plate to be converted into money for the present relief of the officers of the army. None being brought in pursuant to this order, and being daily importuned ])y the officers for relief, they, to quicken otliers by their example, declared in council, on Jan. 16, that they would send in their own plate the next day, and the members who were then present subscribed a writing to that effect. The names of the absent mem- bers were taken, and a messenger sent to them with the said writing, that they also might subscribe thereunto. Arthur Padmore the messenger coming the same day with the paper of subscrijition to Anthony Martin, bi- shop of Meath, shewed it to him, expecting that he »■ D. 1 76 and 159. — ^J^. ofthearmi/totheking. (1643.) ^9*7 among others should make the like offer. The bishop thereupon told him, that he had neither plate nor any thing- else to make money of but a few old gowns, his house being pillaged and burnt in the beginning of the troubles, and all that he had seized upon by the rebels. The bishop was not agreeable to the parliament commis- sioners on account of his character, nor to the lords jus- tices by reason of his disliking and opposing their mea- sures in parliament, so that though he was a member of the board, he was hardly ever summoned to council. They resolved on this occasion to make him an example of their resentment ; they interpreted his answer to be a slight of the dignity and authority of the board ; and having considered four days upon the matter, caused Padmore to draw up the bishop's answer in an affidavit, and summoned his lordship to attend the board on Satur- day the 2 1 st of that month. He then appeared accord- ingly before their lordships and the committee sent from the parliament of England, and was committed prisoner to the custody of Mr. John Pue, one of the sheriffs of Dublin. The warrant is signed at the top by the lords justices, and at bottom by the lord Conway, sir G. Lowther, sir J. Temple, sir T. Rotheram, and sir R. Meredith. The mar- quis of Ormond was not present at this commitment ; he had been taken ill about Christmas, but was now recovered and out of danger, though perhaps not well enough to go abroad. Yet it looks as if there were some dissenting^ voices at the board, because the bishop in his ^petition to the king, stating his case, says, he was censured to be committed by the lords justices and some members of the board. The bishop of JMeath petitioned the board the next week, representing the troublesomeness and ex- pense of his confinement, and desiring to be removed to his own dwellinghouse, till they should think fit to give order for his further releasement ; but this petition was s D. 159. 398 Major Woodhouse sent with the complaints III. 373- rejected. Finding no redress from the aiitliors of his imprisonment, he applied to the king for relief, repre- senting the occasion and order for his committal, not- withstanding he had pleaded that the bare and single testimony of the messenger, being a man of obscure con- dition, was not convincing proof against a bishop; that he challenged some respect as a ytrixy counsellor ; that he had a place and voice in parliament, and therefore stood upon the immunity which was due to him at a time when privilege was in force; and that he had not 388 wherewith to defray the charges of his imprisonment. Yet all these allegations could neither prevent the cen- sure nor procure any mitigation of the same, but that he still remained in restraint, to the undoing of himself and his poor family, the disheartening of others of his ])lace and function, and the rejoicing of many busy spi- rits, who, under colour of piety, disturbed the peace and prosperity of God's church ; and praying his majesty to give direction for his present enlargement, he being al- ready brought to a very low condition of want, living in a place where he was hopeless of any comfort, and desti- tute of all means of support ; and if his majesty should hereafter think fit to have his cause further examined, he would in all humility submit to any course which his majesty should think meet to be taken therein. 374 This subscription of plate did not bring in above one thousand two hundred pounds, a sum too little to relieve the necessities of the officers ; who thereupon made a second a])plieation to the lords justices and council, kle- siring them either to help them some other way, or to give them leave to make their application to his majesty for a more ample supply of their wants, which were so daily increasing upon them, (notwithstanding their lord- shij)s' so often and most earnest soliciting the parliament I Sec Collection of Letters, No. CXXV'III. — 374- of the army to the king . (1643.) 399 in their behalf, and the lively representation which their committee of great trust had made unto them,) that they were likely to perish under the burden thereof, for ought they saw, unless they betook themselves for their relief to the fountain of justice and piety, their gracious sove- reign, who they doubted not would be most ready to succour them. They drew up at the same time an ad- dress to the "kiug, representing, that though through the want of men, money, arms, munition, and indeed every thing without which a war could not be continued, they had long since been in no good condition for the effecting of the business which brought them to Ireland, (the extirpation of the rebels there, and the forcing that kingdom to its due obedience to his majesty,) yet having a more tender and mannerly sense of his majesty's trou- bles at home, than to offer to sharpen them to him by their complaints for another country, whilst their suffer- ings were no greater than they could live with them, they had expected a relief with so much patience, whilst the lords justices and committee had not been able to redress them by all their care, and those representations which they had made to the houses of parliament of their necessities, that at last their case was become so desperate, that unless his majesty should be pleased to interpose his princely protection, they could not discover any thing that might stand betwixt them and absolute destruction ; and therefore thinking they could not an- swer it to God nor to his majesty, (to whom next to God they owed themselves,) if without his knowledge they let so many of his loyal subjects run to ruin, and being ashamed to own so little as under their impossibilities must needs be performed by them in his service, they craved leave in all humility to recommend their dis- tressed estate to his royal consideration ; beseeching his ^ See Collection of Letters, No. CXXIX. 400 Major WooMouse sent icith the complaints III. 374 — majesty so to dispose of them, that having wherewithal to support them to a more happy conclusion, they might not be reduced to one so useless to his majesty's occa- sions as that of being starved; which nature had not taught them to decline for any reason more, than their duty to his majesty had made them to abhor it, as being too modest a witness of the great desires they had to approve themselves his majesty's most loyal and most faithful servants and subjects. 375 This loyal and affectionate address of the officers to his majesty did not please the committee of parliament, so that when a pass was desired for major Michael Wood- 389 house to go into England and deliver it to the king, the ''committee took occasion to declare, that the parliament would certainly withdraw their supplies u])on notice of such an address. It would certainly give that body no advantageous opinion of the dexterity which their agents had used in their negotiations and endeavours to corrupt the army; so that they engaged the lords justices at first to refuse Woodhouse a license to repair to the king. yPor fear he should get over without license, the com- mittee, on Jan. 28, solicited the lords justices to lay an embargo on all ships in the harbour, and to persuade the officers to delay sending him till they had received an answer from the parliament. The justices granted the first part of their request, and promised to use their en- deavours to gratify them in the latter ; but did not meet with the desired success. Two days afterwards (Jan. 30, in the morning) the earl of Kildare, sir Fulk Huncks, and colonel Gibson came to the council-table, and de- manded a pass for major Woodhouse to go to England with their letter to the king. They were put for an answer till the afternoon; the manpiis of Ormond was then present, and moved that the answer might be im- * Borlacc, p. 1 05. y Captain Tucker's .Tournal, fol. 55. — ^j6. of the arm y to the king. (1643.) 401 mediately given ; yet it was deferred till the next day. I do not find what answer was then given ; but as the embargo was taken off the shipping, (being indeed too inconvenient for the affairs of that kingdom to be con- tinued,) and as this matter caused a great clamour and discontent in the army, they were either obliged to give the major leave to go, or he got off without license, for he delivered the address to the ^king on Feb. 8, at Oxford. His ^niajesty on that occasion expressed the most touching grief for the distresses of such a body of noble, eminent, and well deserving persons, and for his own inability to give them present relief. He was per- sutided most (if not all) of them knew whence the ob- structions to their relief came, and how much he was himself distressed by his rebellious subjects in England ; yet he would not omit any opportunity wherein he might either relieve his distressed kingdom of Ireland, or en- courage and recompense such there as had deserved so eminently of him, desiring the marquis of Ormond to return his thanks in particular to the earl of Kildare, sir Fulk Huncks, colonel Gibson, and sir R. Grenville, for their respective great services, and singular respect to him and his government, and to assure them of his royal favour and regard in whatsoever might tend to their advantage. 376 Major Woodhouse was instructed likewise by the mar- quis of Ormond to acquaint his majesty with many par- ticulars and passages concerning the army since the com- mittee came into Ireland, with the attempts of the lords justices, during the marquis's late sickness, to abridge and eclipse his command over the army, which was the greatest obstruction to their measures, and with many other affairs of great consequence to his service ; most of which relations were entirely new to his majesty, and ^- Letter of M. Woodhouse to the marquis of Ormond, Feb. 9. a See Collection of Letters, No. CXXXVL VOL. II. D d 402 Commission sent to the tfiarquis of Ormond III. 376 — convinced him of the necessity he lay under of putting the administration of affairs in that kingdom into other hands. The committee of parliament, though they wanted success in their application to the officers ahout Dublin, did not want diligence in using their best endeavours to seduce them in other places. ^When they found that they could not stop the address before mentioned, they went, on Feb. 3, to see all the considerable garrisons in Leinster, particularly Trim, Drogheda, and Dundalk, and to try if the same arguments which had been suggested to those of Dublin might not prevail with the officers in these garrisons ; but they found them as loyal as their enemies had found them brave, and met with the same ill success and disappointment everywhere. The officers 39° in those places all signed a letter to his majesty, avowing the letter sent by major Woodhouse to be their unani- mous sense, and professing further to be always ready to obey his commands. 377 There was another affair happened about this time, from which the committee hoped to derive a great ad- vantage to their negotiations, and they had their agents constantly at work without intermission to get from the officers and other protestant inhabitants of Dublin some Avriting, to manifest their discontent at a commission which his majesty had lately granted to the marquis of Ormond and others, of which an account is now to be given. It hath been already observed, that the lords and gentry of the pale, when out of a jealousy of the lords justices, and an apprehension that an extirpation of them and their religion was designed, they stood upon their guard, joined in an '^address to his majesty, desiring liberty to lay before him their just grievances, and pro- mising, upon redress thereof, and security of their estates and religion, to lay down their arms. They professed the b See Collection of Letters, No. CXXVI. c lb. No.XLVI. XLVII. XLVIII. "377- to receive the p7'opositions of the Irish recusants. (1643.) 403 like readiness uj3on the news of the king's proclamation, and sent lieutenant colonel Reade, on March 9, 1 641-2, to the lords justices to propose a cessation. Receiving- no answer to that proposition, they renewed it, by means of the earl of Castlehaven, on the 23rd of the same month. About the same time '^sir Lucas Dillon, Hugh Oge O'Conner, and other gentlemen of the county of Roscommon, proposed a like cessation to the earl of Clanrickard and the president of Connaught. In the fol- lowing month the lords of the pale repeated the same proposition, and •'lord Clanrickard had, at the request of the rebels in general, on May 19, recommended to the state the agreeing to a general cessation, until his ma- jesty's pleasure were further declared upon their humble supplications. His lordship thought that proposal fit to be accepted, as likely to restore the peace of the nation, and necessary to preserve the lives of thousands of his majesty's subjects, and to prevent the utter desolation of the kingdom. He was entirely of opinion that a dis- tinction ought to be made of punishment between rebels guilty of cruelties and others that were less criminal, and that by a cessation for a time the confederacy would have been broken, such as were unwarily engaged, and had felt the miseries of war, would begin to relish the blessings of peace, the most guilty vi'ould have been forsaken, ab- horred, and left to destruction ; others to have had their shares of severity, according to the nature of their crimes, and all men, by the law joined with power, brought in- sensibly, without danger, into a fit and sure subjection without effusion of much innocent blood. But the jus- tices entertaining different sentiments, and resolving d See their letter to lord Clanrickard, March 14, 164 1-2, and his letter to ditto, April 14, 1642. e See Collection of Letters, No. LXXXV, and his letters of May 19 and June 28 to sir W. Parsons. D d 2 404 Commission sent to the marquis of Ormond III. 377- upon a severe j)uiiishment of all without distinction, ab- solutely rejected the cessation. ?8 This did not suppress the desires which the Roman catholic nobility and oontry in arms had of j)uttin<»- an end to the war, though it put them upon other methods of ai)plication than to the lords justices. Hence, being* assembled together in great numbers at Kilkenny in July 1642, '^they drew up a petition to his majesty, taking notice of their frequent endeavours of having ac- cess by their agents to his royal throne, and of their being still prevented by the unwearied watchfulness of their adversaries, and beseeching his majesty to appoint some way Avherein they might safely approach his pre- sence, to inform him truly of the whole scope of their resolutions, and receive his commands ; and that his ma- jesty would be pleased to enjoin a cessation on both sides, whereby the lives of many of his subjects would be pre- served, and the improvement of many years kei)t from desolation. This petition they sent enclosed in a letter 39^ to the marquis of Ormond, in order to be transmitted to his majesty, an office which they conceived he could not in justice to them, or duty to the king, refuse to do, and pressing a speedy transmission thereof, since the retard- ing to send it over would be in effect to suppress it. His lordship received the petition on the 6tli of August, and immediately communicated it to the lords justices and council, who resolved to send it over to the king, together with their own sense upon the subject. They were not very fond of executing this resolution, so that the lord of Ormond observing a delay, the reason of which he would not take upon him to know, thought it his duty to transmit it to his majesty in &his letter of the 13th of that month. At last the lords justices, on ''the 26th, f See Collection of Letters, No. C. g lb. No. CIV. •' Letter to sir E. Nicholas, Aug. 26, 1642. to receive the propositions of the Irish recusants. (1643.) "^^^ finding that sir John Dungan and Mr. Henry Talbot had gone off for England without license, and imagining that the king would some way or other be made acquainted with the affair, sent over a copy of the petition, attended with their own glosses and reflections on the matter thereof, and with their advice to his majesty not to grant the request of the petitioners. All the strength of their glosses lies in their confounding the nobility and gentry of Leinster and Munster (who had taken arms upon pub- lishing the design of tlieir extirpation, who had been guilty of no cruelties to the English, and who had ever from their first rising been humble suppliants for an au- dience and cessation) with the Ulster rebels, who had broke into rebellion without any provocation, who had committed numberless barbarities and massacres in the north, and who, despairing of mercy, had never made any address for a cessation. The reason of their advice is founded upon their darling scheme of an extirpation of the old English proprietors, and a general plantation of the whole kingdom with a new colony ; for this is the meaning of what they allege, to shew it to be unsafe for his majesty and destructive to the kingdom to grant the petitioners' request, as being altogether inconsistent with the means of raising a considerable revenue for his crown, of settling religion and civility in the kingdom, and of establishing a firm and lasting peace, to the honour of his majesty, the safety of his royal ]iosterity, and the comfort of all his faithful subjects. The king had too much reason at this time to suspect the proceedings of the lords justices, and thought it an act of little respect to his dignity to send him only a copy of the petition, whilst they kept the original to themselves. They were reprimanded for that neglect, and ordered to send over the original, which was done on Oct. 1 2. This occasion- ing a delay in returning an answer to the petition, the confederated nobility and gentry assembling again at 406 Commission sent to the marquis of Ormond III. ;]78- Kilkenny at the latter end of that month, and not know- ing the fate of their last, agreed upon another 'petition to his majesty, renewing their request for leave to inform him of their grievances, and to receive his commands, and beseeching him to leave them free in their profes- sion of faith, to secure their estates and liberties accord- in o- to law, to make no distinction between them and the other nations subject to his empire but by the iiiithful services \vhich they should render him, and then they should bo ready to shew their earnest desire to advance his service, and carry their forces upon any design which his majesty should appoint. They drew up at the same time an ''address to the queen, desiring her intercession with his majesty in their behalf. 379 The king considering the occasion and circumstances which had engaged such a body of nobility and gentry of English race to have recourse to arms, the apparent moderation of their demands, their earnest desires of lay- ing their grievances before him, and submitting them to 392 his determination, their repeated motions for a cessation of arms, the blood that must be shed, and the ruin that would attend the kingdom, if the war continued, the little care that the parliament had taken hitherto to send sup- plies to Ireland, and the improbability of their sending any more now that all their thoughts, money, and forces were employed in making war upon himself in England, the inability he was under of sending assistances equal to the necessities of his kingdom, and the utter impossibility cither of subsisting the army in Ireland, or of preserving his protestant subjects there from ruin, now that their distresses were grown so extreme, and the forces of the enemy so much increased by the supplies they had re- ceived from abroad ; the king, ] say, considering these things, and not seeing any reason why, as the common i See Collection of Letters, No. CXI. - ^ ib. No. CXII. — 3^0' ^^ receive the propositions of the Irish recusants. (1643.) ^^'^ parent of all his subjects, he might not as well hear the grievances, and receive the propositions of his Irish, as he had formerly done those of the Scots, and was ready to hear and receive those of the English rebels, resolved to issue out a commission under the great seal of England, to empower certain persons to meet with the principal of the recusants who had sent the petition before-mentioned, to receive in writing what the petitioners had to say or propound, and to transmit the same to his majesty. 380 The 'commission was dated Jan. 11, and directed to the marquis of Ormond, the earls of Clanrickard and Ros- common, the viscount Moore, sir Thomas Lucas, sir Mau- rice Eustace, and Thomas Bourke, esq., any three or more of them being authorized to act and meet for the pur- poses aforesaid. It was sent over into Ireland by the last of these commissioners, who had attended in the parlia- ment of that kingdom on the two days which it sat in Nov. 1 641, and immediately after the prorogation had gone into England, where he had constantly attended liis majesty. He was a gentleman of very good parts and great integrity ; was very affectionate to his majesty's service, and so unquestionably loyal, that even sir W. Parsons had just before recommended him as fit to be employed in a commission of a like nature. Contrary winds hindered him from landing at Dublin till the 30th of January, when he delivered the commission to the marquis of Ormond, and a letter from the king notifying to the lords justices the purport of it, and requiring them to be assistant to the commissioners in the execution thereof. The lords justices did not like the affair, and had a mind to put some stop to the execution of the commission, notwithstanding his majesty's commands. The committee of the parliament exclaimed against it, and particularly against Mr. Bourke's being employed in it, whom they excepted to as being a Roman catholic, ' See Collection of Letters, No. CXVl. 408 Commission sent to the marqah of Oimond S^c. III. 380- (thougli the same objection, if it were of any weight, lay equally against the earl of Clanriekard,) "^ancl endeavoured meanly to asperse him, as having been a fomenter of the rebellion, and an agent for the rebels in England, for which slander there was not the least foundation. These misrepresentations, and others which were suggested by the malice of persons that designed the j)rejudice of his majesty and the final destruction of that gasping king- dom, were so industriously propagated and so confidently asserted, that they had like to have had an ill effect upon the officers of the army. But the marquis of Ormond, shewing the principal of them the commission itself, and refuting the other calumnies and false reports that had been raised, they were at last very well satisfied ; and indeed one of the chief pretences was soon removed by JNIr. Bourke's death, who was carried off by a fever, which seized him two or three days after his landing. 381 "Reynolds and Goodwin endeavoured to get some of 393 them, and of the inhabitants of Dublin, to sign a paper declaring their discontent at the commission ; but could not prevail with any man of note, or indeed with any body but such as were of that malignant party then called roundheads. Their chief interest lay in the mob, and in persons of very mean condition, easily wrought upon by the seditious preaching and practice of a set of lecturers, who since their coming over had been too much countenanced and followed in that city, as indeed all men and ways were, that could advance the designs of the rebels in England. A party had been formed in Dublin, which did not scruple to wish success to those rebels, and to maintain the cause of the parliament ; and though at this juncture they were more cautious in de- claring their sentiments than they had been some time ni Marcjuis of Ormond's letter to lord Clanriekard, Feb. 3. See Col- lection of Letters, No. CXXIII. " Ibid. No. CXXVI. — ^Sz. Lord Lisle Sfc. admitted into the privy -council. (1643.) 409 before, yet they were rather silenced by the prosperous condition of his majesty's affairs, than truly altered in their wishes and affections to them. The chief support of that party, and the greatest credit which the English rebels had, was derived from the countenance given to them by the lord Lisle, son to the lord lieutenant, who had more publicly avowed his inclinations than others durst. 382 He was no privy-counsellor, but by the favour of the lords justices, for reasons they best knew, had since his first coming over been admitted to be at council, even when matters of the greatest consequence had been de- bated and voted, and when his majesty's letters had been read. This the marquis of Ormond for some time took to be only a civility to him from the justices, offered by them to make their court to his father the lord lieu- tenant, and desired by him for no other end but to ac- quaint himself with the state of the kingdom, that so he might be the better able to contribute assistance to the public service against the rebels. But when he found he had reason to suspect that lord Lisle made use of that privilege (the first of the kind that was ever heard of) to interrupt his majesty's designs, and to further those of the parliament, the marquis thought it his duty to be no longer silent, out of any respect or fear on that head, but to inform his majesty thereof, and to offer it to his con- sideration, whether the admitting of persons unsworn to be present at the most weighty and private debates of the council, was not a power too great to be intrusted with or assumed by any governors. How far it might hinder the freedom with which counsellors ought to deliver their advices, when there were others present who were not obliged to secresy, but perhaps brought thither to awe them, might easily be judged. That this was evidently the case with the council at Dublin he assured his majesty, and begged leave to offer his humble advice, grounded 410 Lord Lisle, Reynolds, and Goodwin^ III. 382- upon observations of what had passed there, that his majesty would be pleased by his letters to the justices to take such notice thereof, that they might find he was not pleased with it ; which would very much encourag-e, if not increase, his majesty's friends there, discourage and lessen the party which (as the case then stood) too boldly opposed his will, and would in the conclusion procure a ready obedience to whatsoever he should hereafter please to command. 383 The marquis of Ormond had before given the king an account of the justices admitting the parliament com- mittee into the council, where they intermeddled and presided in all debates, voted as if they had been really members, and overruled those that were of the board at their pleasure, so that none cared to attend there, but such as were absolutely devoted to their measures, to the great prejudice of his majesty's affiiirs. The king upon this advice wrote, "on Feb. 3, to the lords justices, telling 394 them, "that he understood they had without his order or knowledge admitted to sit in council with them one Mr. Robert Goodwin and Mr. Reynolds, who were thereby become so bold as to take upon them to hear and debate of matters treated of in council, which was so great a pre- sumption as none of their predecessors ever durst offer to have done or endured, and argued so great a neglect in them of his honour, counsels, and affairs there, that any persons giving way thereto, without his license first ob- tained, could not be deemed to have so right affections to his honour and service as they ought ; that he was not acquainted with what business those men had in Ireland, but if they should be there suffered to sow sedition among his good subjects, he should require an account thereof at the hands of the justices. In the mean time his ex- press command was, that they should not be permitted to ° See Collection of Letters, No. CXXV. -384. admitted hy the lords justices into the privy -council. (1643.) '^^^ sit or be present anymore at the council-table; but if they had any business, they might attend like others of their quality ; and he required the lords justices upon their allegiance to take an especial care that they be- haved themselves as dutiful subjects; whereof he should expect a strict account from them, answerable to the trust reposed in them." The lords justices finding that there was no gaining of the army, which was entirely devoted to his majesty's service, and under the command of the lord of Ormond, had no party to take, but to obey so positive a command from the king, and to make the best excuse they could for their own conduct. Their apology Pwas, that they had erred out of infirmity and weakness of judgment, in a case for which they had no precedent to guide them, (there never having been a com- mittee of parliament at Dublin before,) and for the want of his majesty's directions [wdiich they had never sought]; that thev were afraid of discontenting the parliament of England, and widening the distractions there, if they had not treated those persons with deference, and therefore had admitted them to sit in council, but on a form apart by themselves. In this apology they took no notice of their allowing those persons to vote as well as debate, nor of their admitting, on Nov. 3, (the day after the par- liament committee had taken their seats there,) captain Tucker, who w^as only agent for the London adventurers, to sit likewise in council, and be present at all debates ; but making strong professions of duty to his majesty, pre- pared to obey his commands, and signified to Reynolds and Goodwin, that they should not any more be present at the council-board in the manner as formerly they had been, but should be heard, if they had any business. 384 The committee did not think it proper to stay in Dub- lin after such a blow given to their reputation, and being- stripped of the power which they had usurped in the P Letter of the lords justices to the king, Feb. 24, 1642-3. 412 The parliament committee leaves Dublin. III. 384 — debates of council and the management of affairs. It was indeed high time for them to decamp, when their con- duct had justly rendered them objects of the king's dis- pleasure, and obnoxious to the severest punishments of the law. When his majesty's late commission, and his letters to the lords justices on that subject, were, on Jan. 30, presented by the marquis of Ormond to the board, the justices and their party were much troubled at it, ^looking upon the commission as a step towards the peace of the kingdom and their own ruin. The com- mittee, who knew the mind of their constituents to be for keeping up the war in Ireland, till they had subdued the king and his faithful subjects in England, and that their design was a total extirpation of the old English natives of the former kingdom, and the planting it with a new colony of their own stamp, took occasion thence 395 (after the marquis was gone from the council) to declare, that if the commission had come a year before, it would have saved the parliament much money. The reflection was unjust, because the small sums remitted to Ireland had been raised on the credit of forfeitures which be- longed to the king, and out of these they had got vast sums of money which they employed for paying their own army, and carrying on their rebellion against his majesty. The committee broke out into other indecent language, naturally enough to be expected from one of them, whose excessive pride, arrogancy, and intemperance (as Dr. Bor- lace ""says, meaning Mr. Reynolds) shocked every body, and made him extremely hated and despised. They had before acted with some caution, and in a covert maimer, in their endeavours to debauch the army ; but now they acted openly, and bestirred themselves in soliciting the officers to oppose the execution of the commission, and to declare themselves for the parliament, who would re- ward their disaffection, and su]i])ort them in their opposi- q See Collection of Letters, No. CXXIII. >• P. J 04. '3^5- T/ie parliament committee leaves Dublin. (1643.) 413 tioii to liis iiuijesty's commands. '^Tlie king being adver- tised of these proceedings of theirs, and of their treason- able actions, as well as words, against his royal person, crown, and dignity, issued out two warrants on March i, under his sign manual, for the apprehending and com- mitting them to safe custody, the one directed to the lords justices, the other to the marquis of Ormond, by whom he was sure to be obeyed. There was no oppor- tunity of executing these orders, Reynolds and Goodwin having left Dublin six or seven days before the date of the warrants. They found themselves disabled from doing the king any further mischief in that city, and resolved to try if they might not have better success in their endeavours to debauch the officers of the army in other parts. The lords justices for that purpose furnished them with one of the king's pinnaces, which used to attend the state, called the Confidence, captain Thomas Bartlet com- mander. This ship carried them along the coast to the garrisons and forces in the north of Ireland, where they succeeded better in sowing the seeds of sedition and dis- aifection, which broke out afterwards. Having spent several weeks in this expedition, they sailed at last to London, where, though it was one of the ordinary pin- naces on the station, paid by the king, and of the other two, the Phoenix had been lately cast away, and the Sw^an was absent, and Hliere was no ship sent from England for guarding the sea about Dublin, which was then infested by the Dunkirk and Wexford privateers, who were daily taking ships even in the harbour of that city, they detained the captain and his crew, and seized the ship for the use of the parliament. 385 The marquis of Ormond had so much credit with the officers of the army under his immediate command, that he easily executed the king's instructions sent by major Warren, and engaged them in his majesty's service. The s D. 257, 258. t See Collection of Letter?, No. CXL. 4<14 Treaty previous to the congress at Trim. III. 385- king, to enable him the more effectually to perform his commands", offered at that time to make him lord lieu- tenant of the kingdom ; but his lordship, satisfied of his majesty's goodness, and not finding the power of that post necessary for the accomplishment of the king's de- sires, modestly declined that eminent mark of his prince's confidence, and made it his humble suit, that as his majesty had hitherto delayed the sending him an au- thority to take that cliarge upon him, so he would be pleased to delay it yet longer, if he should not think fit to lay him wholly aside for that, and employ him where he might do his majesty better service, and in a way more asreeable to his own inclinations and abilities. The king granted his suit, but resolved that the lieutenant general of the army should not be interrupted in his39'^ measures, nor his own service hurt by the arrival of a more powerful head. 386 The marquis and tlie other commissioners having con- sulted together, sent, on Feb. 3, a summons^, to the lords and gentlemen assembled at Kilkenny to send their agents to meet them on Thursday the 23d of that month at Drogheda, where they would be ready to hear what the others had to say or propound, and to receive what they should set down in writing to be transmitted to his ma- jesty. The letter of summons w^as signed by the marquis of Ormond, the earl of Roscommon, the lord Moore, sir T. Lucas, and sir M. Eustace, and was directed to the lords Gormanston, Mountgarret, Ikerin, and seven others, or any two of them, who had signed the petition to his majesty. The two first of these were members of the supreme council, which was at this time removed from Kilkenny to Ross, where the trumpeter, sent with it, delivered them the summons, with a safe-conduct from ^ See Collection of Letters, No. CXLIII. which letter was wrote and should be dated 31 Jan. 1642-3. V D. 200. -386. Treaty previous to the con(fre>is at Trim. (1643.) ^^^ the lords justices for the agents, and their attendants in their repair to, and return from, the place appointed. They were much elated with their late successes and their present advantages, and despatched the trumpet on the 9th with a slight answer. The marquis of Or- mond was apprehensive that the ambition of the Roman catholic clergy would make them obstruct every step that led to peace, and therefore at the end of the sum- mons had added some premonitions, signed by the com- missioners, wherein it was desired that no agents mig-ht be employed in that business but only laymen. It was likewise desired that the number of the agents trusted might not exceed thirty, and that the agents might be directed to come before the commissioners with that re- spect which ought to be given to such as M'ere honoured with his majesty's commission, by those who were in the nature of petitioners. These premonitions were given to prevent any impediments arising to hinder the execution of the commission, but were excepted against by the su- preme council. They complained of them as limiting the number, and directing the quality and behaviour of their agents, and insisted on a sight of the commission. They declared that they expected their agents should not be named to their hand, nor they confined in the choice of them, and that they might be assigned a place of meeting less incommodious and more indifferent, and a secure course taken for the safety of their agents, more than was provided for by the safe-conduct from the lords jus- tices, whose very proclamations formeily had not proved a sufficient security. But what gave them still greater offence, and made them outrageous, was some expressions in that safe-conduct, wherein the recusants of Ireland were styled actors or abettors in so odious a rebellion. They fancied these words had been clapped in by the lords justices purely to incense and ensnare them ; they "^ See Collection of Letters, No. CXXXII. 416 Treaty previous to the conqress at Trim. III. 386- made great professions of their loyalty, (as was the fashion of all rebels in those days,) and vowed, that they would be esteemed loyal subjects, or die to a man, Tliey pro- tested against the name of rebels, and declared that they would not meet, nor entertain any thoughts of accommo- dation, until that foul imputation of rebellion, unde- servedly laid to their charge, was taken away. 387 The earl of Castlehaven was at this time at his brother colonel Richard Butler's house of Kilkash, and hearing a general account of the summons and answer, repaired in great haste to Kilkenny, whither the council was returned. Findino- his information to be true, he sent for sir Robert Talbot, sir Richard Barnewell, colonel Walter Bagnal, and some others in the town, that were well affected, and leading men of the general assembly, though not of the council. Acquainting them M^th what he understood, they disliked the answer which had been returned, and 397 they all agreed to go to the council then sitting, to re- present to them, that the consideration and resolutions concerning ]ieace and war, were reserved only to the general assembly, and that the king's offer of hearing their grievances, a step necessarily previous to a peace, and which the assembly had desired in order to that end, ought not to be answered in so slighting a manner, that it looked like a rejection. The council did not much oppose the thing, and taking the matter again into their consideration, though they had received no return to their letter of the 9th, they wrote, on Feb. i8>', another letter to the commissioners in much humbler terms, making an apology for their former, and entreating their lordships, that his majesty's gracious intention towards them, and the right understanding he was pleased to receive of their proceedings, might not be frustrated by any, wjio in order to countenance their own bad inclinations, and second their many professions of destroying them root and branch, > D. 231. -388. Treaty precious to tlie congress at Trim. (1643.) 417 were for involving the kingdom in a war on both sides destructive to his majesty's interests ; and beseeching them to believe that they conceived a greater blessing- could not befall them, than the assurance of any way by which they might transmit their grievances to the foun- tain of justice, his sacred majesty ; and that though they were as yet enforced to bear all the aspersions that malice could dictate, yet they were confident to make it appear how much they had been wronged thereby. They prayed their lordships further to be satisfied, and so to inform his majesty, that his commands should find obedience in the disposal of their men and arms, and that they would be ready (as far as the necessity of that much wasted kingdom would give way) to express their hearty zeal to serve him, in which surely there appeared nothing like the propositions of actors and abettors in an odious rebel- lion ; and as they could not but resent these expressions, they insisted that no such words should be inserted in any instrument directed unto them ; that they might have a copy of the commission, a more commodious place, and a competent time appointed for the meeting, and a course taken for the safety of their agents, who should be so chosen by them, as might best further the appeas- ing of the present troubles ; or if their misfortunes and the power of their enemies was such, that there could be no meeting ujDon these terms, they would however prepare their petition of grievances and propositions to be transmitted to his majesty, if the commissioners were authorized so to receive it. 388 The commissioners, upon receipt of the council's first letter, which was delivered to them on the 14th, were for some time in doubt whether they should proceed fur- ther in the affair, and attempt to remove their scruples. At last, considering the great jealousies entertained of the lords justices, and imagining that the high resent- ment at the words in the safe-conduct arose from a VOL, II. E e 418 Treaty previous to the congress at Trim. III. 388- notion that they had been inserted there without warrant, thej resolved, on the same day whereon the last letter was dated, to send an "answer to the first. They sent along with it a copy of the king's commission, in which the king declaring his e.vtrcme detestation of the odious rebellion which the recusants of Ireland had without any ground or colour raised acjainst his person, croum, and dignity, the very w^ords that stung them were found. They were so likewise in the king's letter of Jan. 1 1 to the lords justices, who had borrowed them from thence to insert in the safe-conduct which was sent. The com- missioners assured the members of the council to whom they wrote of this fact, acquainting them, at the same time, that the place, as a matter of less importance, might be varied, and another time appointed, so the same were 398 with speed and conveniency desired by them ; however, they expected an answer as soon as might be by the drum who carried their letter. 389 The council of Kilkenny returned on the 25th an an- swer to this letter, making an apology for their resent- ment at the words to which they had objected, but pro- fessing still their loyalty, and naming six persons (none of them ecclesiastics) for their agents, three or more of which were to attend the execution of the commission, and to present their grievances and demands in writing. They proposed the 17th of March for the day, and Trim for the place of meeting, and that provision might be made for the safety of their agents and their retinue ; and that no act of theirs might countenance the opinion of any such disloyalty in them as had been represented to his majesty, they protested, in the presence of the God of truth, that they had been necessitated to take arms to prevent the extirpation of their nation and religion threatened and contrived by their enemies, to maintain the rights and prerogatives of his majesty's crown and '■ D. 232. — 390- Reasons of the expedition to Ross. (1643.) '^19 dignity, the interests of his royal issue, the just liberties of their country, and for no other end whatever. The commissioners on JMarch i agreed to the time and place, as well as to the number and persons of the agents pro- posed, for whom it was resolved safe-conducts should be sent on the i6th to Tecroghan, and a convoy from the marquis of Ormond to meet them on the 17th at ten in the forenoon at Killyan to escort them safe to Trim. 390 Whilst these points were settling, the lords justices resolved to send the army out into the field, either be- cause it could no longer subsist in Dublin, or in hopes that some event might haj^pen which would put a stop to the meeting at Trim. The first of these motives ap- pears plainly enough from the miserable condition in which they were^ being in as much danger of being de- voured by their wants as by the sword of the rebels. Their want of corn was extreme, because, in confidence of being supplied plentifully out of England, they had destroyed and burnt all the corn in the country ; and now their supplies from England failed. ^Some pro- testant merchants of Dublin, (the papists having in a manner given over all trade,) as well English as strangers, had indeed used to bring in sundry commodities, not questioning but money would be plentifully supplied from England for the purchase thereof. But none coming, the state having nothing to give the officers and soldiers for their subsistence, were forced, when their means from thence failed, and their credit could hold out no longer, to seize their commodities, not only such as they had imported to Dublin, but even many of the native commodities of the kingdom which those mer- chants were about to export thence, and to make use of them, upon undertaking that payment should be made them in London. But the parliament failing in those a Letter of the lords justices to the speaker, Feb. 20, 1642-3. b Ibid. Feb. 25. See Collection of Letters^ No. CXXXIV. E e 2 420 Reasons of the exj)edition to Ross. III. 390- payiueiits, matters were come to such a pass that those M'ho woukl bring in victuals and other needful provisions, and supply the state with them for ready money, or on tickets to be paid at London, if ])ayment had been made there on former engagements to that j)urj)ose, Mere so disheartened, as few or none durst come thither with any commodities. And indeed the merchants, having all their remaining stock thus seized and wrested from them by the state, were no longer able, even if they had been willing to supply them ; so that the little trade left was like to be destroyed, a stop was put to those supplies from abroad, which had hitherto been a great means of their preservation, and the small quantity of native commodi-399 ties, which could not be manufactured in these times, could not gain them any returns. The scarcity of pro- visions was as great in the out-garrisons as it was in Dublin; in which last place if the army continued, they must unavoidably perish within a few days, unless pro- visions arrived out of England. If part of the forces were sent into the field to get their victuals by the sword, they must march in a considerable strength, and there was no dependence upon competent provisions being found abroad to enable so many men to live. There was no sending out such a strength as was neces- sary, and yet leaving a sufficient force for the defence of Dublin, in case it should be assaulted in the absence of the army ; there was not poM der and match in the store sufficient for both services; there was no possibility of accommodating the officers and soldiers for so long a march, nor money to defray the expense of carriages, and answer many other charges incident to such an expedi- tion. These difficulties were attended with other dangers ; for if the forces to be sent abroad should be defeated, or be constrained, through want either of ])rovisions or am- munition, or otherwise, to return to Dublin, before store of victuals arrived from England, the army must of ne- -39^' Reasons of the expedition to Ross. (1643.) ^^^ cessity disband, and so the state dissolve, and the M'hole kingdom suddenly fall into the hands of the rebels. In this terrible situation, after many debates in council, since the case M'as such, that if none of the forces moved from Dublin, they must all perish, and that if those forces went abroad, they might possibly live for a time, till supplied from England, the state resolved, that a considerable part of the army should immediately march into the country, to try what might possibly be done; and though they could not go in that strength, nor with that accommoda- tion which was necessary, nor leave behind them enough of either for the security of that city, yet they chose to adventure it on those hazards, rathei- than to sit still and perish doing nothing. 391 What makes it probable that the justices had some- thing of the other design in view is, that *^they had op- posed a cessation of arms, when, upon the marquis of Ormond's delivering them the king's commission for re- ceiving the propositions of the recusants, it was, on Jan. 30, proposed in council to be made for the time that the meeting and treaty were in agitation, and this enterprise was first concerted with the parliament committee, be- fore they left Dublin, and that lord Lisle was designed to be general of the forces in this expedition ; the fittest person in nature to execute such a scheme. The mar- quis of Ormond too seems to have had some suspicion of such a design, for otherwise it is not easy to account for his desiring to march with an army so ill provided on an expedition of so much danger, that it was much more likely to furnish occasions of reproaching him to his ene- mies, than to procure any glory to himself. The forces were ready to march, and the lord Lisle to put himself at their head, when the marquis of Ormond signified to the lords justices, that being particularly intrusted by his majesty with the charge of the army, he could not let so c Tucker's Journal, fol. 56. 422 Custodiums a great detriment to the service. Ill, 391 — considerable a part of it be sent abroad without going himself with it, and therefore, if the expedition went on, he was resolved to take upon himself the command, and march at the head of the forces. This disconcerted all their measures, and made them very cool with regard to an enterjDrise for which they had before expressed the greatest zeal. 392 The design was to take Ross and Wexford, an enter- prise much more feasible the last summer, when the marquis of Ormond proposed and pressed it often to be undertaken ; but it was then rejected by the state, (as captain W. Tucker, agent for the adventurers, says in '^his journal of passages at Dublin from Nov. 3 to Feb. 400 17, 1642,) because the honour of it must be reserved for the lord lieutenant, who was expected over about that time. The inactivity of the army in general, during that summer, this agent indeed ascribes to the custodiums which the lords justices had granted of the lands of re- bels and of others, whom though innocent they had taken care to have indicted as such ; which last was the case of sir Nicholas White, whose ^estate of Leixlip and other lands to the value of two thousand pounds a year were granted in custodium to lord Lisle. The lords jus- tices had granted so many of these custodiums to their favourites, such numbers of soldiers were employed in maintaining them, and the gentlemen Avho had them found so much private profit therein, that the soldiers would hardly be drawn from thence for the public ser- vice. But though this might be a collateral motive in the case, yet captain Tucker asserts undoubtedly the other to be the true reason why this particular expedi- tion was at that time laid aside. 393 Having this occasion of mentioning custodiums, it may not be improper here to correct a mistake which «1 Ireland, IV. fol. 54. e Ibid. fol. 44. — 393' Custodiums a great detriment to the service. (1643.) ^^^ some writers, for want of examining the matter thorough- ly, have made upon that subject. The lords justices breaking that matter to the commissioners for the affairs of Ireland, tell them*^, that many persons, noblemen and others, deeply involved in the guilt of the rebellion, and who had estates in the country, and some of them in Dublin, had been constrained by the power of his ma- jesty's army to quit their habitations, which lay waste; that in those places in the country there was some corn actually growing, and store of grass for hay and feeding of cattle ; that divers of the army and others, who had sustained loss by the rebellion, had been suitors to them for custodiums as well of those places as of houses in the city belonging to rebels ; that as this might be some pre- sent relief for those sufferers ; as it might encourage the soldiers, by letting some of them make a gain thereby; as it was necessary to preserve as much of the corn and grass for hay as might be, (which otherwise might be lost or fall to the rebels,) as it might be some benefit in point of profit to his majesty, or at least some advantage to his service might be gained by preserving the corn and grass to supply the markets, and consequently relieve the army and other good subjects ; as the settling of some persons in those places might be a means to keep out the rebels, who otherwise having the advantage and relief thereof, would lodge too near Dublin ; and as the rebels' houses in that city might serve for some of those good subjects who by the rebellion were disabled as yet to hire or rent houses, as they formerly could ; they had for these rea- sons resolved at the board to grant custodiums to fit per- sons of good proportions of those lands and houses, and had already granted some, yet so as to be temporary and alterable at the pleasure of the board ; and therein de- sired to understand the good pleasure of his majesty or of their lordships, (the commissioners,) to guide them, f Their letter of June 7, 1642. 424 Cududiums a great dctruaent to the service. III. 393 — that they niiglit proceed or stay, as to tliein should be thought fit. Far from having his majesty's directions, I do not find that this proposal was ever communicated to him ; but the others' ai)probation was sufficient, and the lords justices granted a vast number of custodiums. 394 Specious reasons are never wanting, even in cases where private profit is only designed ; and those men- tioned in this letter have passed so well with some writers who had seen it, that without inquiring into the fact they have readily imagined that the granting of such custodiums really produced those benefits and conveni- ences which are there represented. But captain Tucker is an unexce])tionable witness how much in fact these custodiums obstructed the service. '^He was present in council when a remarkable instance of this nature hap- 401 pened. It was there debated, on Jan. 17, whether it was proper to relieve the garrison of the Naas, which was then in great distress, or to quit the place. If it were quitted, the enemy would seize and straiten Dublin exceedingly : it was determined therefore, notwithstanding their great wants in that city, to send a month's provision from thence to the Naas. Sir Arthur Loftus, the governor of it, offered at that time to supply it with two months' j)ro- vision, and to maintain it without any relief from the state, if they would but allow him one troop of horse to scour the country therealjouts and fetch in provisions. This i)roi)osal was rejected by the council, because the troops were employed upon the officers' custodiums, and none could be spared from thence. These custodiums opened indeed a vast field of private profit to the lords justices, and, enabling them to oblige and serve their own creatures, were a mighty accession to them of power and influence; so that there is the less reason to wonder at the deference and compliances of the members of the board and others who were subservient to them in their £ Tucker's Journal, ibid. p. '54. — 395- Custodmms a great detriment to the service. (1643.) '^^^ measures. If any persons less obsequious were entitled to these custodiums, the marquis of Ormond had the best pretensions of any body, on account of his superior losses and services. lie had lost by the rebelhon a better estate than all the council besides had in Ireland, and it was now entirely possessed by the enemy. He had con- stantly attended the service, and expended in it great sums of money out of his own purse. He was general of the army, and had been successful in every expedition that he undertook. Yet, notwithstanding the rights or claims of his charge, the merit of his services, the great- ness of his losses, and the difficulties under which, being stripped of his all, he laboured for subsistence, I do not find the least ground to imagine that he ever had any custodium of either house or land granted to him. Those to whom they had been granted were so intent upon making their own private gain out of the public necessi- ties, that these custodiums do not seem to have been attended with those advantages of supplying the markets with corn as it was suggested they would. *'For on Feb. 4, at this time, when the army was in so terrible a distress for want of corn, that it was to be sent out to Ross, be- cause it could not subsist in Dublin, those gentlemen did not think ten shillings a barrel (the price fixed by the state) a sufficient inducement to make them open their hoards of corn, and bring it to market ; and to remedy that inconvenience, it was moved in council that the price should be raised to twenty shillings a barrel, that they might be tempted to produce the corn out of their custodiums, and supply the city. 395 It is scarce necessary to say any thing more to shew the little benefit derived to the service from these cus- todiums ; and yet it may not be amiss to take notice of one fact more, because it will help to explain a passage which will be hereafter related in this history. 'Sir John h Tucker's Journal, ibid. p. 58, > lb. fol. 45. 426 Castodiums a great detriment to the service. III. 395 — Temjile had a grant made biin of the railnes and fishing at Kihnainham belonging to one Macenoy that was in rebellion. All the corn for the use of the army in Dub- lin was ground at those milnes, and a sixteenth part of that corn was taken by him for toll ; so that in sixteen days' time he received the full value of what would sup- ply the whole army in bread for a day. If the state had made a better provision in the case, all that charge might have been saved ; and as the case stood, it was but equit- able that the corn for the use of the army should be ground at none at all, or at least at very little charge. Sir John Temple had the custodium granted him, when he took upon him the care of overseeing the provisions for the army ; but the grant (if like others) was only temporary, and revocable at the pleasure of his majesty or the board. Sir Philip Percival, now commissary-general 4°^ of the victuals, moved, on Dec. 17, 1642, that this affair might be rectified, and the charge of grinding for the army either saved or lessened. But nothing was done in it, and sir John continued to enjoy his custodium till he fell into disgrace in the summer following, when it was taken from him by his majesty's order. 396 The lords justices and some of the council had melted their plate to raise money, and had with great difficulty provided victuals and all necessaries for lord Lisle's march '^, when the marquis of Ormond, on Feb. 18, de- clared his resolution of going with the army in person. The committee of parliament and captain Tucker had advanced five hundred pounds apiece for the service, most of the bills were accepted, and four hundred and seventy pounds of the money was actually in the vice- treasurer's hands. Reynolds and Goodwin were for re- calling that money, and would not lend what they had taken up, since lord Lisle was not to have the chief com- mand. In vain did Tucker represent to them, that the ^ Tucker's Journalj ibid. p. 6^. — 397- The marquis of Ormond marches to Ross. (1643.) 427 marquis of Ormond had engaged liis honour at the coun- cil-table to go upon the same design as was to have been executed by lord Lisle ; that it would be an intolerable affront to put by the marquis at this time, when he had formerly been the proposer of the same expedition, and had been refused out of private respect to lord Lisle's father ; that the expedition ought to go on, whoever had the command of the army ; and if it could not be under- taken for want of that money which they had in their hands and had promised to furnish, they should be cen- sured as hinderers of the service, which w^as neither for their own reputation, nor for the honour of the par- liament which employed them. Whether this was the occasion or no, the lords justices w^ere so cool in the matter, after the marquis of Ormond had undertaken the expedition, that they made, on Feb. 27,^ an order in coun- cil, which was undersigned by the counsellors then pre- sent, that the intended expedition should be left wholly to the lieutenant general of the army and the council of war, notwithstanding any former debate or resolution taken at the board concerning the same. 397 The expedition being resolved on by the council of war, the lords justices™ empowered the lieutenant general, whilst the army was abroad, to command and employ any ships on the coasts of the kingdom for the public ; and though they recommended to him the taking vengeance on the rebels and their relievers by fire and sword, yet considering the unavoidable necessity enforcing the send- ing out of the army to find subsistence in the enemies' country, they allowed him, in case he could not gain by the sword sufficient provisions for that purpose, to re- ceive voluntary relief of victuals from some of the rebels, and on that account to spare from destruction such houses and places as he should think fit, for as short a time as might be, but no longer than whilst the army was abroad 1 D. 248. ra D. 254. 428 The marquis of Ormond marches to Ross- III. 397- in this expedition. The marquis of Ormond, on jNIarch 2, left Dublin with the army, (consisting of two thousand five hundred foot and five hundred horse,) two demi-cul- verins for battery, and four fieldpieees. The next day he took Castle-martin, Kildare, and the castle of TuUy, as he did Tymolin the day following ; and advanced to Catherlogh by easy marches, to allow time for the car- riages to come up with some provisions, (" the carriage of which he was forced to defray himself,) and for the ship, which the lords justices were to send him with bread and ammunition, to arrive at Duncannon. When the army was advanced near Catherlogh, a council of war was held, where it was resolved to besiege Ross. He sent a party of horse on the 1 1 tli to view it, and came before the place on the 1 2th, and immediately planted a battery to make a breach. There were in it only two companies of foot, 403 but the rebels being encamped with four thousand men within three miles of Ross, and having the barrow open to them, they threw that night, from the other side of the river, five hundred men into the town, and the next day fifteen hundred more. 398 The ° marquis was much surprised to find the ship from Dublin not arrived ; but when he considered how meanly he was provided at his setting forth, and with what great difficulty and delay the sorry accommodation he had was at last gotten, he easily judged where the failure lay. He had left instructions in writing for the master of the ship M'hich was to bring him the necessary provisions of bis- cuit, powder, match, bullets, and salt, and forty pounds, with sir Philip Percival, to be advanced to him towards his pay. When he marched from Dublin the wind was very fair, and the shij) might have been in two days at Duncannon. P There were three vessels in the harbour of Dublin fit for the service; but the day the lieutenant n Letter of sir P. Percival to the marquis of Ormond, March 6. " His letter to lord Esmond, March 13. P D. 258, 259. — 399- The marquis of Or mond marches to Ross. (1643.) "^^9 general set out, captain Hart was ordered to be unloaden ; and captain Hill being named to the lords justices by the marquis's agent, and ready to go, they disapproved of him the next day, and sent for cai)tain Lucas, a furious par- liamentarian, \vho was not fully unloaden, and could not be made fit without twenty men more to be pressed, and three pieces of ordnance to be lent him, he having only five in his ship, and ten men on board. His demands were high, and he was referred to sir Philip Percival and the marshal of the admiralty, mIio could not agree with him under one hundred and thirteen pounds per month, and to give him time till Monday, March 7, to be ready. The bread was by sir Philip's care instantly put on board, but the ordnance (of which he had no charge) and other provisions were not loaden, nor the ship ready to sail till the 1 2th, when the wind was turned. 399 Had that ship been by that day before Ross, the enemy might have been prevented from sending supplies cross the river to reinforce the garrison, and the town had been taken in four and twenty hours. But by that disappoint- ment the army was in a terrible distress, incommoded with the weather, which was continually rainy, and destitute of provisions as well as ammunition. iThe marquis of Ormond sent to lord Esmond, governor of Duncannon, for a supply of both, who readily furnished him with all he could spare, which was ten thousand weight of biscuit, fifteen barrels of powder, as many firkins of bullets, sixty culverin, and thirty minion-shot, and nine hand granadoes ; and sent on the 14th a little ship, then in the river by Duncannon, and his own bark, to be ready for any service in which the lieutenant general should think fit to em- ploy them. These small vessels annoyed the town with their shot ; but the enemy having raised a battery of two pieces of cannon on the other side of the river, played upon them as they lay at anchor; and the wind being u D. 276, 277, 281 , 294, and 298. 430 The marquis of Ormond marches to Boss. III. 399 — contrary as well as stormy, they were not able to get from under the command of their guns, which pierced the ves- sels through, and tore their rigging. The only shift the mariners could make was to desert the ships at low water, having first bored holes in them to sink them, be- cause it was impracticable to get them off, and to betake themselves to the army, where they did afterwards good service. 400 The marquis, hopeless of any other supply of provisions, found it impossible for him to lie any time before the town ; and his two demi-culverins having made a breach, he caused an assault to be given. Sir Fulk Huncks and major Morrice (the same who was afterwards concerned in the surprise of Rainsborough at Doncaster) had the management of that service ; but the defendants were so numerous, and had so stopped up the breach with wool- 4^4 packs and other materials, that the assailants were re- pulsed with the loss of some few men, major Morrice being dangerously wounded in the attack. Preston hav- ing in the mean time assembled all the forces of the rebels, advanced as far as Old Ross, with six thousand foot and six hundred and fifty horse, and quartered within a league of the army, which hindered the horse from fo- raging abroad. Tlie '"provisions which lord Esmond had sent, afforded each man in the army but four biscuits apiece, and were scarce sufficient to serve them in their retreat, being only enough for three days, and they sixty miles from Dublin. The marquis of Ormond submitting to the necessity, and pursuant to the resolution of a coun- cil of war, raised the siege on the 17th, and advanced towards the enemy, who, perceiving his march, retired farther off to a fastness of wood and bog, where they were joined by the forces that had been thrown into Ross. The lieutenant general encamped the first night about «■ Sir Fr. Willoughby's relation in the bishop of Clogher's MSS. No. III. p. 426, &c. —40 1 . The battle of Ross . ( 1 643 . ) 431 two miles from Old Ross upon an heatli, from whence he could discover where the enemy quartered. The next day he marched towards the place where the rebels were posted, and observing them to quit their quarters and advance towards him, he rode up to sir Fr. Willoughby, sergeant major general of the army, told him that he conceived the enemy intended to fight, their forces being drawn up in battalia, and ordered him to draw up the army in order of battle. This was done immediately, upon the side of an high ground, the six pieces of ord- nance being placed between the divisions, and about half a cannon shot from the enemy. 401 The marquis of Ormond sent out a small party of horse to discover how the enemy lay, who, as soon as they ap- peared within view, detached a stronger body to en- counter them : upon which the former retreated, and the others followed in their rear, till, seeing the army in bat- talia, they retreated likewise to their main body. There was a small height of ground between the two armies, which so far intercepted the sight of each other, that no- thing could be seen over it but the heads of the horse- men. The marquis observing the situation of that ground, which lay at some distance off, told tbe sergeant major general that if they could but possess themselves of that ground, they should not only have a full view of the order of the rebels' army, and be the better able to dispose their own for the fight, but should get also the advantage of the wind and sun. Hereupon orders were given for the whole army to move all at once in battalia as they were drawn up, with still drums, till, having mounted that height of ground, they saw the enemy before them, stand- ing in order of battle in a large field surrounded with ditches, not far from a great bog, and within half musket shot of them. The lieutenant of the ordnance had ne- glected to make the artillery advance, as the army did ; so that when sir Fr. Willoughby thought to plant it to 432 The lattle of Boss. III. 401- the best advantage he found it missing, and was forced to ride back for it to the place where the army was be- fore drawn u]i, leaving captain Atkins, who commanded the forlorn lioi)e, with a party of musketeers, placed along the ditch side that was before them, to ply the enemy in the mean time. At his coming back, he found all the rebels' horse drawn into a spacious highway or lane, which had high ditches on each side, ready to issue out for an attack. To oppose them, he posted two regiments of foot at the mouth of the lane which opened towards him, and behind these he planted the two demiculverins, when they came up. The other four fieldpieces were planted between the divisions, in the most convenient places. This done, he caused the two regiments posted at the mouth of the lane to open to the right and left, and the two pieces of cannon to fire down the lane upon the rebels' horse, which was done with so much care by Mr. Molineux the chief gunner, that eighty men and 405 horses were killed at the first fire. The enemy did not care to stand a second, but set up a great cry, and hasted with all speed out of the lane into the open field adjoin- ing, the ordnance playing continually upon them as fast as they could charge and discharge. The English horse were then ordered to charge the enemy's before they had formed again, M'hicli was not easy for them to do, because the cannon bore upon them all the while, and the guns played diligently, through the good assistance given by lord Esmond's seamen, who understood that affair better than any of the train of artillery sent with the army. Lord Lisle was lieutenant general, and sir T. Lucas com- missary general of the horse, and both passed over a ditch into the field to charge the enemy ; but the latter's horse stumbling and falling with him, he received a dangerous wound in the head before he could be recovered. Lord Lisle's horse also received a shot in the knee, which obliged him to mount another. The two bodies of horse -4o;,. The Utile of Ross. (1643.) 433 were mingled together, slashing one another for a time, till at last both rode away together, and disappeared, being entirely out of sight, leaving both armies of foot standing in the field in battalia. 402 They had all this while fiiced one another without moving, the enemy, though much more numerous, not daring to advance, and much amazed at the cannon (of which they had none) playing upon them continually. The marquis of Ormond, uncertain of the fate of his horse, resolved to pass over the ditch, and attack the rebels in the field, where they were drawn up. This was done, whilst a party of musketeers plied the enemy with their shot, and the English setting up a great shout as they were ready to charge their battalions, the enemy almost without striking a stroke ran away, one division after another flying over a bog that was near them, till they came to an hill beyond it, where they had formerly quartered. There they seemed to rally again, but four regiments being ordered to attack them, they fled into a neighbouring wood, and never left running till they had got over the Barrow. As soon as they had crossed the river, Preston ordered the bridge to be broke down, for fear he should be pursued by the victorious army. He lost about five hundred men in this battle, (among which were several commanders and persons of quality,) besides all his baggage and ammunition. Among other prisoners was taken colonel Cullen, a native of Dublin, who having had the command of a regiment in the French service, had quitted it to come over to the assistance of the rebels, and was made by them lieutenant general of the Leinster army. The marquis of Ormond having had only about twenty of his men slain, and a few more wounded, in the battle, encamped with his army that night (March 18) in the place where he had gained the victory. 403 There is something very mysterious and unaccountable in what is said of the engagement between the horse in VOL. II. F f 434- Tlie hattle of Ross. III. 403- this battle : the relation of it is so confused, that it looks as if sir Fr. Willoiigliby knew more than he durst or cared to speak. Some imagined at that time, that there was a design to lessen the glory which the marquis of Ormond might gain by a complete victory, and a great carelessness and indifference in the chief commander of the English horse as to the event of that day's action, since a treaty Mas set on foot that might probably end in a peace, which, to further schemes wherein he was engaged, he was desirous to prevent at any rate. It is certain that there was no great disproportion in their num- bers between the English and the Irish horse, the one being five hundred, the other bnt six hundred and fifty ; that the English horse were much better trained and mounted than the others, whose men were unexperienced, and whose horses were most of them no better than garrons ; that in all actions hitherto the English had easily beat the enemy's horse, and all the victories which 406 hitherto were gained had begun with the defeat of the Irish cavalry ; and that the English never began an attack with so much advantage as they did this day against the Irish, among whose horse such havock was made, and such terror and amazement struck by the unexpected salute of the cannon which the sergeant-major-general had planted at the mouth of the lane, unseen till they were felt, playing through the expertness of the sailors without any intermission u]»on the enemy, and doing great ex- ecution among them. The English horse, after the defeat of the Irish, marching off out of the field, so that nobody knew what was become of them, might have been of fatal consequence, and was undoubtedly very ])rejudicial to the service ; for if the marquis of Ormond had upon the flight of the enemy's foot had but three or four troops with him to send upon the pursuit, few or none of them would have escaped. But either emulation or rashness, or some motive of a worse nature, prevented that advantage, and -404. The battle of Ross. (]643.) 4<35 lost a favourable opportunity of giving the enemy a blow, which they would not easily or soon have recovered ; the flower of their Leinster forces, which Preston had taken great care to discipline, and which were the best armed of any they had, being assembled in that army, which being cut in pieces, though they might possibly have re- paired the destruction of their soldiers by new recruits of men, yet they could hardly have supplied the loss of their arms. 404 It was very convenient for the English army that Pres- ton broke down his bridge over the Barrow, because it allowed them to range all over the country at their plea- sure for their subsistence, and to continue their march with great security to Dublin. Otherwise his loss was so inconsiderable, that recollecting his forces, he might have harassed them exceedingly, and cut off great numbers of them in their march. The army was much encumbered with their ordnance and a multitude of carriages, and was to pass through many great straits, woods, stony and rocky passages, wbicli having no impediments in their way, but the badness of the roads and the incle- mency of the weather, they had enough to do to make their passage through them. Had the rebels intercepted them upon those passages, it is certain the whole army would have been endangered, not having above two days' bread, or scarce so much ; and by being hindered or re- tarded in their journey, they would, through want, have been in extreme danger of being lost. Preston had the reputation of a knowing man in his profession, but he did not behave himself on this occasion answerable to that character, nor take his measures with that judgment and conduct which might have been expected from an officer of his experience. The breaking down of the bridge over the Barrow might be the effect of hurry, and was naturally enough suggested by the consternation and dis- persion of his forces; but nothing can excuse his gross F f 2 436 The marquis of Ormond returns to Dublin. III. 404- error in quitting his camp, and advancing to meet an enemy whom he might have destroyed without fighting and without hazard. The Irish seldom wanted intelli- gence, and he could not well be ignorant of the situation and starving condition of the English army. Yet he quitted his hold to expose himself to all the uncertainties of a battle in the open field, without any advantage on his side, when he might have waited for his enemy in the place where he was strongly posted, in a narrow passage, through which they were necessarily to pass, and where it was in a manner impossible to force him. When the English oflScers after their victory took a careful view of the place, they found it impassable for their ordnance, had they met with any resistance, having trouble and difficulty enough to get their own persons through the pass, even when they had no enemy to withstand them. 405 The marquis of Ormond after his victory continued his 407 march towards Dublin, where having had advice of Pres- ton's march, and of the great strength of his forces, they were in no little pain about the fate of the army. ^The lords justices, though they had eased themselves for a time of so considerable a part of the forces as composed it, were yet exceedingly puzzled how to keep alive the residue that were left in that city, and some garrisons thereabouts. Their stores of victuals were exhausted, and if the soldiers were left to take it in their own way from the inhabitants, there must necessarily ensue such disorder and confusion as would instantly enforce the disbanding of the forces and the dissolving of the go- vernment, and consequently the loss of the kingdom. They resolved, as the last and uttermost expedient, to distribute the soldiers for their victuals, with as much equality as they could, among the inhabitants of the city and suburbs of Dublin. They had deferred this as long as possibly they could, as well to conceal from the rebels s Their letter of March 23. See Collection of Letters, No. CXLI. — 4o6. then in great distress for loant of provisions. (1643.) 437 the desperate condition to which they were reduced, as because they were sure this way coukl not long hokl out in a place where the inhabitants of all sorts had been despoiled of their estates and fortunes by the rebels; where all trade was ruined, and there was little hope of being supplied with provisions, because there was no money to buy them. They distributed in this manner, on March 13, about two thousand foot and some troops of horse in Dublin, and quartered about five hundred foot more upon that part of the county which w^as not yet entirely wasted. This burden was so heavy upon the city, and the bearers of it so few and indigent, that in ten days' time many poor inhabitants, who were hardly able to feed themselves, being charged with feeding the soldier, were constrained to break up housekeepino- ; others, to scatter their children and families ; others, to prepare themselves for departing the kingdom ; and many heavy and lamentable complaints were dailv brought to the state from poor and miserable people concerning the same. The lords justices and council, what with the sense of the miseries of the soldiers, who were starving before their faces on the one side, and the poor inhabitants' extremities on the other, were in an inconceivable perplexity and disquiet of mind. Their distraction was the greater, because they found that even in this lamentable way, which was their last re- source, subsistence could not be expected for any consi- derable time ; nay, if it continued but a few days longer, the city would be at the best but plundered in an orderly way, and so left desolate. Besides, if the army then abroad should by any distress, or through want, be forced back to Dublin, nothing could be expected but present destruction of all. 406 This misfortune came upon them sooner than they imagined. The marquis of Ormond having in his way homewards burnt and spoiled the enemies' country with- 438 The marquis of Ormond returns to Dublin. III. 406 — out the least opposition, was at this very time advanced as far as Castle-Dermot. From thence he sent the next day (INIarch 24) a convoy with sir T. Lucas and other wounded officers to Dublin, and * wrote to the lords jus- tices, that he found it impossible to keep the army any longer abroad without further and continued supplies of victuals, and if their lordships were in a condition to furnish them therewith, yet it would be very difficult to keep the troopers and carriage horses alive, so great was the scarcity of all kind of forage, especially in those parts which were fittest to maintain an army. This was the sense of all the chief officers with whom he had advised on this occasion, and it had been resolved to continue their march with all possible speed to Dublin. The lords justices were not able to supply him with any provisions for the horses, yet would have sent him on the 26th six thousand weight of biscuit, with some ammunition, but 408 they wanted carriages, and the army arrived that day at Dublin. The charge upon that city became thereby the greater, when there were fewer to bear it, by reason of the number of inhabitants that had broke up house- keeping and deserted the place. The lords justices" were forced thereupon to expel all strangers thence, and send into England some thousands of despoiled English, whose very eating there was become insupportable. They made a fresh search into the stores of the merchants, and took away from them all the commodities which had been left unseized before. This was all the shift they could make, yet it was so far from relieving the necessi- ties of the army, that on April 4 several officers pre- sented at the board a paper demanding money for their pay, and victuals for the soldiers, in such a threatening style, that it was evident, if they were not satisfied, it must end in a mutiny. t See his letter. D.323. " See their letter to the speaker, April 4, 1643. — 4oy. Bemonstrance of the rebels. (1643.) 439 407 Whilst the marquis of Ormond was out upon this ex- pedition, four of the king's commissioners, viz. the carls of Clanrickard and Roscommon, the viscount Moore, and sir INIaurice Eustace, met, on IMarch 1 7, at Trim, with the lord Gormanston, sir Robert Talbot, sir Lucas Dillon, and John Walsh, agents for the confederate Roman ca- tholics, and received from them in writing a remon- strance^, containing the particulars of their grievances, and desiring redress of the same. In this instrument they protest solemnly that they entertained no rebellious thoughts against his majesty, though he had censured them as guilty of an odious rebellion : they magnify their former merits in the grant of subsidies to his majesty, and endeavour to apologize for their taking arms by va- rious pretences; such as the terrible severities of the English parliament against all of their religion, their cruel insisting upon the execution of Romish priests merely for being so, and their declared intention of in- troducing laws for the extirpation of their religion throughout the three kingdoms ; the petitions from Dub- lin and Ulster for the extirpation of it in Ireland, and the declarations of sir W. Parsons and others expressing the like design ; the adjournment of the parliament in August, and prorogation thereof in November, 1641, to prevent his majesty's graces from being enacted into laws; the jealousies entertained of them by the state; the disarming of the Roman catholic inhabitants of Dub- lin, and the banishing thence of all gentlemen not usually there resident to their country houses, and after they had lived quietly and inoffensively there, pillaging and burning those houses, and bringing their persons to Dub- lin to be tried for their lives ; the murders committed by sir C. Coote iu the county of Wicklow and at Santry, the burning of Clontarf, the racking of sir John Read, and the severities of the lord president in JNIunster ; the X See Collection of Letters, No. CXXXVII. 440 Remonstrance of the rebels delivered at Trim. III. 407 — waste and desolation of the kingdom by the orders of the state, and the lords justices causing thousands to be attainted, and restraining the general pardon they were directed to offer, to two or three counties only, with an express exception of freeholders, to shew they aimed chiefly at estates ; and their not being suffered to lay their complaints before his majesty, being always frus- trated in their attempts of doing so by the power and vigilance of the lords justices, assisted by the malignant party in England then in arms against his majesty, in order to obtain with less difficulty the bad ends which these aimed at, of extirpating their religion and nation. 408 As to the grievances whereof they complained, some of them were conmion to all sorts of men in the king- dom ; such as the oppression of the court of wards ; the avoiding of letters patents, and want of a limitation of the king's title, which rendered the possession of all estates precarious ; the intended plantation of the pro- vince of Connaughtj and the counties of Clare, Tipperary, 409 and Limerick ; the sending over needy ministers to raise estates to themselves by the oppression of the Irish ; the invasion of the privileges of the parliament of Ireland, by the English commons taking upon them to question and send for the members thereof; by both houses deny- ing the power of judicature to be in an Irish parliament, though the most essential right of that body ; and by the English parliament's assuming a power to make statutes to bind Ireland, (though there never was a precedent thereof from the reign of Henry II to the present time,) by which the independency of their kingdom was de- stroyed. Others of their grievances were peculiar to themselves; such as the late act for the Irish adven- turers, by which two millions and an half of acres were alienated and all the rest of the lands in Ireland made liable to be likewise distributed, in whose possession so- ever they were, his majesty's tenures destroyed, his re- -409. The Mng''s instructions about the recusants. (1643.) 441 venue impaired, and his power of pardoning and of grant- ing those lands taken away ; and the incapacity, which in consequence of tlie penal laws in 2 Eliz. the Roman catholics lay under of enjoying places of honour or trust, in church or commonwealth, and of being educated in a way of learning eitlier in the university or public schools of the kingdom. Their desires were to have these griev- ances redressed in a free parliament, to be called in such convenient time as his majesty should think fit, in an indifferent place, and before a governor of approved faith to his majesty, and acceptable to the kingdom, and that Poyning's act might be suspended during that parliament, as it had been formerly in the nth of queen Elizabeth upon occasions of far less moment, and that nothing com- plained of in this remonstrance might hinder Roman ca- tholics from sitting in that parliament. This is the sub- stance of the grievances of which they prayed redress, and upon the obtaining thereof made an offer of employ- ing ten thousand men under experienced commanders in defence of his regal rights and prerogatives. 409 The marquis of Ormond upon his return from Ross received this remonstrance from the other commissioners, and on March 29 transmitted it to his majesty y, though he did not think the propositions in it (as they yet stood) for his service, or indeed such as the king would think fit to grant. The king, on Jan. 12, when he sent him that commission, had taken care to declare to him his sentiments on those points which he imagined the Irish would insist upon in their propositions for peace, that they might serve the marquis for a guide in his con- ferences with their agents at the intended meeting, or in a treaty, when it should be set on foot. With regard to a toleration of the Romish religion, or (which was in ef- fect the same thing) an abrogation of the penal statutes concerning religion, the king declared that he could not y See Collection of Letters, No. CXLII. 442 The king's instructions about the grievances III. 409- consent thereto ; those penal statutes in Ireland were not strict, and he could never admit of more liberty in this respect, than such a connivance in the execution of them as had been used in his predecessors' reigns, and in his own before the rebellion. He thought the Irish had much to say for themselves in the point of their not being commanded by orders of the parliament of England, nor obliged by any statutes made there, till they should be confirmed by their own parliament. This had ever been the notion not only of the people of Ireland, but of the kings and council of England, so that even king Henry VIII got all the acts for abolishing the papal power and suppressing religious houses, which had passed in England, to be enacted likewise in Ireland ; which was the con- stant practice on the like occasions. The English colony settled in Ireland never imagined that they became slaves by being transplanted into the latter kingdom, but that they had still the same right of being bound by no laws, 410 except such as were made with their own consent, which they had enjoyed before they had the merit of reducing that country to the king's obedience ; and this claim had been so far warranted by practice, that in the space of near four hundred years, which had passed since the conquest, no invasion had ever been made upon it, till the time of the parliament which now sat in England. However sa- tisfied the king was in this respect, he still required this caution to be observed, that what should be agreed upon concerning the same should be admitted only by way of declaration of what was actually their right, not as granted de novo. 410 The Irish were uneasy that they could neither make nor propose a law for their own benefit without the ap- probation of the privy-council of England, and therefore were likely to insist on the repeal of Poyning's law, or at least on the grant of a proposing power without such an approbation. Ilis majesty declared himself against — ^411' of the recusants. (1643.) 443 both these propositions, as being contrary to that policy which had for many ages preserved that kingdom in peace, and as what might possibly be attended with greater consequences than at first sight appeared. It was thought that the native Irish would propose to be restored to the ])lantation lands, of which they pretended to be unjustly dispossessed ; but in this point the king would allow no retrospect, except from the beginning of his own reign. He had proposed indeed a general plan- tation of the province of Connaught and the county of Clare, but this had not been executed, and by the advice of the council of England he had consented just before the rebellion to give up that point ; so that very few plantations had been actually made in his time upon the finding of his title to some lands in the counties of Tip- perary, Limerick, Wicklow, Wexford, and Kilkenny. But few as they were, he was against concluding any thing positively for the present ; but thought it might be proper enough to refer that matter to the examination of some fit commissioners, whereby the conclusion of it would be subsequent to the treaty, and then it might be more easy for him to give satisfaction to his British sub- jects who had lately planted them, or to the Irish who had formerly possessed them. 411 It was imagined that the Irish would insist on being governed by ministers of state and oflScers of their own country; but if this was proposed so as to exclude the British, his majesty was absolutely for rejecting it, as what he could not either in honour or safety grant. But if it was desired only to enable the Irish in such capaci- ties, the more way might be given to it, because it would be always in his majesty's choice whom he would intrust with those charges. Nor could there be any great danger or inconvenience if some of the more subordinate minis- ters w^ere Irish, so long as they should be controllable by the major part of the English ; and by degrees his ma- 444 Letter of the lords justices dissuading a peace. III. 411 — jesty might with more safety reduce the frame of the government to its former condition. Snch were the king's sentiments and instructions upon these heads, founded upon an impartial consideration of the English and Irish interests in that kingdom, and making an equitable provision for the security of both. It is easy to see how much the demand of a redress of grievances in a parliament unrestrained by Poyning's law clashed with these instructions, and it was as easy to foresee other ill consequences that would arise from granting that de- mand. In a sense hereof, the marquis of Ormond thought the propositions of the Irish (unless they should recede from, or qualify them on a treaty) to be contrary to his majesty's service. 412 2 He made the same judgment of a letter % which had been in his absence wrote by the lords justices and some of the council to his majesty, disadvising peace with the rebels. Those gentlemen were against it upon any terms 411 less than an universal forfeiture of the estates of all that had taken arms, without distinction of persons, or regard to the different circumstances of their case, and manner of their behaviour. This would have made their intended plantation as general as they could have wished, and would have afforded sir W. Parsons a fine opportunity of exercising his talents of surveying. In order to this scheme they had rejected all the overtures made by the lords of the pale for a submission upon the king's procla- mation, and all the proposals made by them and others for a cessation of hostilities, had wrote into England rea- sons after their declamatory manner against the accept- ing of those offers, and had confidently answered for a speedy reduction of the rebels by force of arms and the power of his majesty's forces. With this view, on ^Jan. 31, when the king's late commission, Mhich had been '^ See Collection of Letters, No. CXLII. ^ Sir R. Coxe, Appendix IV. ^ Tucker's Journal, pp. 56, 57. — 412. Letter of the lords justices dissuading a peace. (1643.) 445 presented the day before to the board, was taken into consideration, in the presence of the ])arhament com- mittee, tliey proposed to ^yrite a letter to the king to dissuade a treaty by representing the cruelties of the rebels, their invasion of his majesty's authority, and set- ting up a new form of government. This was then op- posed with so much reason, that the lords justices could get but two of the council to declare themselves of their opinion ; the rest who were present (viz. the marquis of Ormond, the lords chancellor, Moore, Brabazon, and Lambert, sir Ger. Lowther, sir Fr. Willoughby, sir T. Lucas, sir James Ware, sir G. Wentworth, and sir Rob. Meredith) being either absolutely against it, or else si- lent on the occasion. The lords justices however ordered a letter to be drawn, and taking advantage of the mar- quis's absence during his expedition to Ross, resolved to lay hold on the opportunity and resume the debate ; which they did on JNIarch 16. They had two or three days before gained the consent of the council to an act, which could only serve to exasperate the rebels, and pro- duce a retaliation that might inflame matters to such a degree as to put a stop to all further treaty. Sir R. Grenville had taken at Longwood Mr. Edw^ard M'Lisagh Connor, and in the battle of Rathconnel, on Feb. 7, he had also taken one Dowdall, another gentleman named Betagh, and one Aylmer, son of Garret Aylmer, a lawyer, eminent in his j^rofession, all gentlemen of considerable families. Sir Richard, though very severe in the prose- cution of the war, was yet a man of great spirit and ho- nour, and not likely to violate the quarter he had given. They wrote therefore to him, that they had occasion to examine the said prisoners, and "^ordered him to send them for that purpose to Dublin under a safe guard. They signed at the same time another order to sir H. Tichburne, to examine only if those prisoners were so <"• See both orders of March 13. D. 199 and 200. 446 Letter of the lords justices dissuading a peace. III. 412- taken, and to cause them immediately to be executed by- martial law. They expected a like compliance from the council in the case of the letter which they had ready drawn up to their own mind, and were not mistaken, though it met with opposition from some of the mem- bers that were present. 413 The letter was drawn upon the plan before proposed, representing the cruelty of the Ulster Irish and their declarations for making sir Phelim O'Neile their king, and fleaing king Charles alive, and driving out him and his posterity for ever ; and then charging all this to the account of the old English, who had taken arms afterwards for fear of extirpation, who had made no such declara- tions and detested those cruelties as much as the justices themselves. Against these old English the late assem- bly at Kilkenny, and the order which in the necessity of their affairs they had set up for their government during the troubles, was urged as an unpardonable invasion of his majesty's authority; which seemed to be disclaimed by their soliciting of succours from abroad, and by the oath of association which they had taken. These heads, 412 with a few late facts, (in the relation of which they are not scrupulously rigorous in adhering to truth,) and some observations of their own upon the conduct of the affairs of Ireland in former times, very different from those which sir John Davys makes on the same subject, are the sub- stance of a very long letter so full of declamation, that there was no room left for reasoning. The whole of if is calculated purely to persuade the king that no peace should be made with the rebels, and that the English could not be safe in their possessions, nor the kingdom civilised and improved, without an utter extirpation of all tlie Roman catholic gentlemen and proprietors. But how this should be effected they do not offer to say, nor take any notice of the great poAver of the rebels, a matter well worthy of consideration on such a subject. They — 4H- Letter of the lords justices dissuading a peace. (1643.) '^^•7 confess indeed that they were at this time in a very ter- rible want of means to support a war, as they had often and lately to the full declared thither, whence only they were to expect reinforcement ; and they foresaw that un- less supplies of money, munition, arms, clothes, and other habiliments of war were speedily sent them, they had little hope of escaping utter destruction and loss of the kingdom. They were brought to this hard condition only by the unexpected failing of provisions timely ministered unto them, without which they had always signified thi- ther (to the parliament of England) that the kingdom of Ireland could not be sustained out of any subsistence within it. But still they did not despair of God's good- ness in sending them supplies ; and if those supplies ar- rived in time, they would take ample vengeance on the rebels, and reduce them into such a state as they should not easily relapse into their affected commotions, and so find a way to a peace which should not be attended with a lingering ruin, but be suitable to his majesty's great- ness, and establish the future safety and happiness of his posterity and of the kingdom. It is not wisdom in the most powerful state to make a whole nation, how con- temptible soever, desperate, and the Avork of extirpation had by this time appeared so very difficulf^, that the term now began to be worn out, and the prime authors of that scheme were ashamed of acknowledmnof their intention. The lords justices accordingly in this letter thought fit to disclaim it in Avords, at the same time that they laboured all they could to effect it by representing it as necessary, and indeed as the only means of establishing the peace of the kingdom on a sure and lasting foundation. 414 The marquis of Ormond had just reason to disapprove a letter calculated to effect the utter desolation of his country, which was already much advanced by the terrible havock made in obedience to the orders of the lords jus- J See Collection of Letters, No. CXLVII. 448 Letter of the lords justices dissuading a peace. III. 414 — tices for destroying every thing by fire and sword ; orders ■which though they rendered a new plantation necessary in all the counties about Dublin, were yet a great occa- sion of the miseries suftcrcd by the army in that city for want of provisions, and the cause of their not being able to undertake any expedition of consequence against the rebels. He saw the letter was designed to distress the king, and to mislead him into measures prejudicial to his service. He had it now in his power to send fit persons to give his majesty a true account of the state of his affairs (more fully than he either could or it was prudent to do by writing) without asking leave of the lords jus- tices, and being obliged to tell them the reasons of his sending. They had, on June 27, 1642, upon the return of sir P. Wemyss from England with new powers to the lord of Ormond, made an order in council that the lieu- tenant general of the army should license no commander, officer, or soldier of the army to depart out of the king- dom upon any pretence whatsoever, without the allow- 4 13 ance of the board, first had and obtained in that behalf. It is difficult to find another precedent of the general of an army's being inhibited the power of granting passes, and of sending expresses to certify his prince of the state and proceedings of the army intrusted to his command ; but by reason of this order he could not send sir P. Wemyss over in the August following, nor major Wood- house in January afterwards to the king, without a pass from the lords justices. They made this order after they had for above two months left off corresponding with the king, as if they had a mind he should have no intelligence from any body else. AV^ien the king hearing from other hands of Reynolds and Goodwin presiding in the council, and awing the members, ordered the lords justices not to suffer them to be present there, they made an apology for their long silence on account of their having corre- sponded all the time with the parliament, to whom he "4 '5- Marqiiis of Ormond''s motion E. 13. 464 Sir W. Parsons' s manyter of treating the council. TIL 433 — on April 4, the same account to his majesty, as they gave in their letter of the same date to the speaker ; and lord Parsons proposed the" next day in council, that some of the board should be sent over to the king with that letter. He conceived that it was necessary to send over two per- sons, one of the military list, the other of the civil, and for this purpose he named sir F. Willoughby and sir J. Temple, as the most proper persons. Sir Adam Loftus and some others approved of his choice ; but it was ob- jected, that there was no occasion for more than one to be employed, and it was moved that sir F. Willoughby might go alone, because they conceived much better use might be made of sir J. Temple at Dublin, in regard he had been so successful, and knew so well the ways of procuring means from merchants and others for the sub- sistence of the army in that necessitous time. Those who declared themselves of this opinion were the major part of the council ; whereupon, after a long debate pro and C071, sir James Ware moved, that it might be put to the vote of the board, whether sir J. Temple should go or no. This motion being seconded by others, sir Robert Meredith said, he saw no reason why it should be put to the vote ; but that the lords justices, to whom it did pro- perly belong, should of their own power order how many and who should go. To this the marquis of Ormond re- plied, that the letters were signed by the whole board, and if the board might not have the nomination of the messengers, he desired that he might cross his name out of the letters ; and then the lords justices and such of the council as should join with them, might wvMe what they would, and send whom they pleased. This motion 422 was so far approved by others, who were of the same opinion against sir J. Temple's going, that they desired likewise to strike out their names, if the major part of the board might not nominate the messenger. After a nE.31. -433- The king^s letter to the council of Ireland Si^c. (1643.) '^^^ little while, sir W. Parsons said with some discontent, that sir J. Tem])le had done more service than any one of the board, (which nobody denied, being sensible of that gentleman's services, though they were not for making comparisons,) but observing the plurality of voices to be against sir John's going, he said, that since so many s])oke against it, nobody should go, and he would send the letters by the packet boat. I have mentioned this de- bate chiefly to shew how sir W. Parsons carried matters, even at a time when the council had recovered and as- serted their liberty. 433 He could not bear any opposition, and to prevent any extraordinary measures to remove it, it was thought ne- cessary for the king to send an'' order to the lords jus- tices, (the form of which was drawn by sir M, Eustace,) expressing, that, " as there were so many irregular and unwarrantable courses taken in those licentious times, in his majesty's kingdom of England, against such as any ways declared themselves to be faithful and loyal sub- jects ; and as he knew not but the like might by practice from thence be and was attempted against some of his good subjects in Ireland, his majesty therefore com- manded them, that if any warrant, order, or direction whatever should be sent from England (other than from himself) for the summoning of any of the council or ministers of state in Ireland, or any other of his subjects in that kingdom to appear before any judicature what- ever in England, or for the attaching or molesting them or any of them in their persons or estates, or any manner of way whatsoever, they should take special care to prevent the execution of any such warrant, order, or direction, till they had signified the same to his majesty, and re- ceived his approbation thereof; charging likeAvise all his ministers of state, and others his subjects, upon their allegiance, to pay no obedience thereto, without his oE. 54 and 55. VOL. II. H h 466 Petitions of the prisoners III. 43 3 — special allowance and approbation." This order was signed on April 16, but the change of government now made rendered it less necessary. 434 A little before sir W. Parsons was removed, the mar- quis of Ormond was obliged to do an act of justice to some prisoners, who were confined in the castle of Dub- lin, and had suffered there great hardships from the rigour of the lords justices for twelve or fourteen months past. These were the lord Dunsany, sir John Netterville, sir Andrew Gerald, and George Aylmer, Edward Laurence, Nicholas and Stephen Dowdall, sir Nich. White and his son, John Talbot, Gerald Fitzgerald, Patrick Barnewall and W. Malone. They were all of them gentlemen of the pale, and had either submitted to the lords justices in Dublin, or to the marquis of Ormond in his expedition to Drogheda. They had all of them lived quietly in their own houses, to which the justices by their procla- mation banishing them from Dublin had ordered them to repair, and had never been concerned in any hostile act ; yet the justices, to discourage the like submissions, had prosecuted and treated them with excessive rigour. One of them had been racked, and all of them had been ex- amined, some by menace, others by torture, and most of them necessitated to subscribe to what the examiners pleased to insert, who usually refused to write down such particulars as served to extenuate or avoid the offence pretended, only entering what made for their condemna- tion. In consequence of these examinations, and perhaps of other kinds of management, they had all of them been indicted of high treason ; their goods had been wholly destroyed and taken away by the rebels and soldiers, and 4^3 themselves, being denied the favour of being bailed, were ready to perish in prison for want of relief. The pretence for refusing to bail them was drawn from the indictments which had been found against them, and above a thou- sand others, by a grand jury in the space of two days. -435* in DMin castle to he hailed. (1643.) '^^'7 There was certainly too much liiirry in tlie finding of tliese indictments (of which above three thousand were upon record) to allow time for the examination of each parti- cular case, and they were too generally found upon very slight evidence. The Roman catholics comjjlained that there were strange practices used with the jurors, menaces to some, promises of rewards and parts of the forfeited estates made to others ; and though great numbers of the indicted persons might be really guilty, there was too much occasion given to suspect the evidence. I am the more inclined to suspect there Avas a good deal of corrup- tion and iniquity in the methods of gaining these indict- ments, because I find a very remarkable? memorandum made by the marquis of Ormond, in his own writing, of a passage in the council on April 23, 1643. There was then a letter read at the board from a person who claimed a great merit to himself in getting some hundreds of gentlemen indicted, and the rather ybr that lie had laid out sums of money to procure icitnesses to give evidence to a jury for the finding of those indictments. This was an intimate friend of sir W. Parsons, and might very well know that such methods would be approved by him ; but such a letter was not so very proper to be read at a board, where, besides the justices, the marquis of Ormond, the lords Brabazon and Lambert, the bishop of jVIeath, sir Adam Loftus, sir G. Wentworth, and sir R. IVIeredith were present. 435 But whatever ready reception indictments met with from grand juries, they did not pass so readily with the petty juries. Sir ^ John Bowen, who had submitted to the marquis of Ormond a few days before the battle of Kil- rush, and had from that time been kept close prisoner, was tried on Feb. 9, and acquitted. Two days before him were likewise acquitted two gentlemen of the name of P E. 35. fol. vers. ^ Tucker's Journal, p. 60, 61, 62. H h 2 468 Petitions of the prisoners in Dublin castle. III. 435 — Harman, and two others of the families of Bourke and Brian. Sir John Dungan's indictment on Feb. 13 met with the same fate. But, as the juries were composed chiefly of despoiled English, whose losses might incense them too much for an impartial judgment, the prisoners beforementioned ^ represented their case to the king and to the parliament of England, and petitioned both that they might be set at liberty, and freed from the danger of their lives and estates ; the rather in that they never committed any act of hostility, nor had their hands in the blood or spoil of any ; and that his majesty would graciously pass by their lesser offences, being inevitable, by reason of the general and sudden commotions and dis- tractions almost in all parts of the kingdom. On this occasion they called upon the marquis of Ormond, in con- fidence of whose honour they had voluntarily come to him, to transmit their petitions and mediate with the king and jmrliament in their behalf. This they thought w^as the least he could do for clearing himself from hav- ing any hand in the proceedings against them, and to vindicate his honour to posterity. His lordship did not fail to send their petitions, accompanied with his own attestation of the facts therein related, concerning as well their voluntary submission to him, as their rigorous treat- ment afterwards. He assured both his majesty and the house of commons, that he never heard of any outward hostile act that had been done by any of these gentlemen, and as he could not pretend to judge whether any trea- son was ever hatched in their hearts, he recommended their case to them who were the best judges, to whom it 424 was proper to distribute mercy for the most advantage of the present service. The marquis of Ormond had car- ried himself so unexceptionably in all his conduct, that he ^stood as yet very well in the opinion (at least as* far r See Collection of Letters, No. CXXXVIII, CXXXIX, CXL. » Captain Tucker's letter to the marquis of Ormond, April 15, 1643. — 43^- H^^ majesty s orders to the marquis of Ormond. (1643.) ^^9 as they declared it) of most of that house, though some were jealous of his having had an hand in the late com- mission for hearing the grievances of the Irish recusants, and (what is more surprising) others made such strong objections to him on account of his entire affections to the lord Mountnorris, that captain Tucker thought him- self obliged in friendship to give him a caveat upon that head. But I do not find that any thing was done in par- liament towards the liberty of these gentlemen, who, upon the king's orders, that such as submitted upon the faith of his proclamation should be allowed the benefit thereof, were admitted to bail on the August following, a little before the cessation. 436 That affair came now into consideration. The king found the propositions couched in the remonstrance of the confederate Roman catholics to be such as gave him no reason to expect a general submission, because he could not consent to their demands. How far they might recede from any of them was uncertain, and to bring them by a treaty to that moderation of their desires which was necessary for a peace, required more time than the necessities of the kingdom could allow. It had been usual for the state of Ireland in such exigences to make temporary cessations with the rebels to gain time for re- ceiving supplies out of England ; and these had been found by experience very serviceable to the preservation of the kingdom. A day or two had usually suflficed for the settling of these cessations, so that it was considered as the shortest expedient, and certainly it was the only one that could be made use of by the king at this time, to subsist the army and preserve the kingdom in the terrible extremity to which both were reduced. The miserable condition of affairs at Dublin, (from whence all Leinster and Connaught were to be supplied,) as well as Colerane and Derry, hath been already represented a 470 State of Mufister. III. 436- little before in the words of the letter of the lords jus- tices of April 22. 437 That of jNIuiister at the latter end of the foregoing year hath been formerly related, nor was its situation mended since. The lord Inchiquin had received from the parliament no supplies, except of men, which he did not want. They had a mind to give lord Kerry a regiment ; the men were raised in England, and sent over to Cork about the latter end of November, without arms; but these it was said lord Forbes should furnish out of the stores of his fleet. Lord Inchiquin* thought they only came to accelerate his ruin, for they brought with them neither money nor victuals, nor so much as the hopes of either. He had sent agent after agent to England to solicit for these, yet none were sent, "nor could he pos- sibly have got provisions to subsist his forces, if the Irish had not supplied the markets of Cork, Kinsale, and Youghall, and if he had not been very industrious in saving some corn about Mallow and Donneraile, (and by fair means prevailed with the neutral Irish to help him,) to get some means to relieve a thousand men there for three months after his victory at Liscarrol. But then that means failing, and sir Hardress Waller sending him advice from England that the parliament was so taken up with their own danger, that a word of Ireland would not be heard, he applied to the state of Dublin for some provisions, his own store not being able to hold out three weeks. The ^lords justices, considering his great distress, ordered six hundred barrels of salt herrings to be shipped in Christmas holydays on board captain Hart, to relieve the necessities of the Munster forces. Sir Philip Percival t Lord Inchiquin's letter to the marquis of Ormond, Nov. 28, 1642. u Ibid. Dec. 6. ^ Sir Philip Percival's Representation to the House of Commons, fol. 7. — 43^- State of Munster. (1643.) ^^^ paid the freight and other charges of the same, but be- 425 fore the ship sailed, the distress of the Leinster army in- creased so much, that the justices were forced to order it to be unladen, and the herrings to be distributed to the soldiers at Dublin, to the loss of all the charges that had been paid, and the great discontent of both armies. Lord Inchiquin, thus disappointed, had no means of preserving his men, either from disbanding or starving, but to seize upon all the magazines of tobacco, (belonging to lord Strafford, and the farmers of that commodity, who never received a farthing consideration for it till after the re- storation,) and to sell it for money or cattle to the Irish. This, Mith some small supply of ])rovisions, which he re- ceived from Bristol, enabled him to hold out till Febru- aryy, when, thinking the loss of the province inevitable^ and seeing evidently the approaching ruin of many thou- sands of English protestants, he caused some of the ships of lord Forbes's squadron that were in the harbour of Kinsale to be stayed, and drawn ashore. This was done by the order of a council of war on Feb. 16, in order to search the ships for arms and ammunition. Lord Forbes had been directed by order of parliament to furnish arms for lord Kerry's regiment ; by which it was supposed he had brought a sufficient number of spare arms out of England, and he had certainly got a great quantity in several ships which he had taken off the coast; yet when these were demanded, lord Forbes pretended he had not arms for above three hundred men. His lordship was every whit as sparing of the ammunition which he was likewise ordered to furnish. Lord Inchiquin riding abroad one day, after receiving a very slender proportion thereof, heard an hundred great guns go off at Kinsale, and find- ing upon inquiry that it was only on occasion of an entertainment made by a captain of one of the ships, thought it intolerable that so much powder should be y Letter of lord Inchiquin to the speaker, Feb. 25. 47^ State of Munster. III. 437 — lavished upon healths, when the province was on the point of being lost for want of ammunition. This made him resolve to search the ships ; but his main reason for stay- ing tlieni was, that they might be ready to transport the great numbers of distressed protestant English that had lived hitherto under his protection, and must now retire into England, or else be necessarily exposed either to the sword or famine. For as to the officers of the army, they were resolved to shew the world it was not fear should make them quit the province, being determined, if their enemies went on with their design, (as there was good reason to believe they would,) though they were ten to one, to put all to the hazard of a day of battle. 438 The enemies' design was to ruin all the country about Cork and Youghall, (which had hitherto supplied the English army,) and were ready to advance with great forces into those parts. If they had been able to effect their design, it was impossible for lord Inchiquin to sub- sist three weeks without supplies from England, which he had little grounds to expect. He had just before taken away all the money of the to^^^lsmen of Cork, and caused all the cattle, corn, provisions, and commodities that were to be found in Barrimore, Smokelly, and other countries adjacent to Cork, Youghall, and other garrisons, to be taken from the inhabitants, who lived under pro- tection, who had never oftended those garrisons, and con- stantly supplied their markets, to be brought into Cork, and there distributed among the soldiers. Enforced by that necessity which confounds all rules, and makes no distinction between friend and foe, he soon after seized what was left of the effects of all the merchants of Cork, Youghall, and Kinsale, and ship})ed their hides, tallow, wool, and other commodities, against their wills, sending them to France to be sold or bartered there for corn to relieve the army, then destitute and hopeless of any other supply. He gave the owners indeed certificates for the 436 — 44° • State of Mu nster. ( 1 6 43 . ) 473 same, that they might be paid by the parliament certain sums to which the value of the said goods amounted, as was usual in the like cases ; but the parliament refused payment. This being his last resource, and what deprived him of any other in Ireland, he applied once more to the house of commons of England in the following letter : " Mr. Speaker, 429 " I have so often troubled this honourable house with the sad relation of the desperate estate of this province, and the necessi- ties of this army, that I should blush to repeat the particulars ; and the rather, because it may be supposed I have in my former letters endeavoured to make our wants appear greater than really they were. Wherefore I have now in my last extremity sent this gentleman unto you, whom, I assure myself, you will believe, and who is well able to satisfy you how just cause I had long ago to think it impossible for this army to subsist thus long here, with- out a far greater measures of asistance out of England, and by what unexpected means (when we were even upon the brink of ruin) it hath pleased God to send us unhoped for ways of sup- port. But now we are upon so extreme an exigent, as that unless it please God to put into your hearts an effectual sense of our miseries, and to dispose you to a speedy course for our sudden relief, I fear the next news you will shortly hear will be the total loss of this province, and that our approaching ruin will pre- vent any further request to be made herein by " Your affectionate friend and servant, Cork, 25 March 1643. " InCHIQUIN." 440 His lordship heard nothing for some months afterwards from the parliament, but soon found how little he was to rely upon any assistance from thence. John Hodder, deputy commissary of the victuals at Cork, had not only been singularly active and provident in gaining and pre- serving provisions, but had also, out of his own estate, and upon his own credit and the engagement of very many of his friends, from time to time replenished the stores with sundry considerable quantities of victuals, when they were at the lowest ebb, and the army in the 474 No hopes of relief from the parliament. III. 440 — extremest distress for want of seasonable supplies. He had by this means contracted several deep engagements and debts upon himself and his friends, and for payment thereof had addressed his bills of exchange to England, drawing them upon the chamberlain of London, accord- ing to an order of the house of commons formerly pub- lished in that behalf 'These bills were not accepted, to the utter undoing of that gentleman, (who had strained himself to relieve the army,) and of those who upon hope and confidence of repayment had trusted their estates in his hands. The commissary was not only thereby dis- abled from procuring, upon his credit or otherwise, any more provisions, but all means of subsistence within the province, which had hitherto chiefly depended upon what was taken upon trust by giving tickets to proprietors, M'as thereby destroyed. 441 Such was the condition of the English forces and the protestants in Ireland at this time ; they were unable to subsist any longer without supplies from England, and yet had very slender grounds to hope for those supplies from any quarter whatever. The king could not, and the par- liament would not send them any relief. The principal ofiicers of the army about Dublin had applied to that body in the October and November before ; they had represented their hardships and wants in petitions and remonstrances ; confirmed by the authority and testimony 427 of the lords justices and council, who certified at the same time the utter impossibility of preserving the kingdom without speedy supplies. Sir Fr. Butler and major War- ren were sent to solicit them, but after attending for two months or more in vain, they returned with a very un- comfortable account to Ireland. They^ declared there at the council-board in how gracious a manner the king had received them, and how ready his majesty was to '' Letter of lord Inchiqiiin to the speaker, April 21, 1643. '' Sir Philip Percival's representation to the House of Commons. — 441- No hopes of relief from the parliament. (1643.) 475 contribute to the relief of the army and kingdom ; but with regard to the parliament, though they had so long attended at London, they could not in all that time so much as procure a committee of that body, or of the com- missioners for Irish affairs, to meet ; nor could they find any hopes to expect their pay, to enable them to subsist in that war ; that a principal person of the committee told major Warren, that if Jive hundred pounds would save Ireland^ it would not he spared ; and another told him, that they had not leisure to step over the threshold for Ireland. Those officers waited upon the king as they returned from this unsuccessful solicitation of the parliament, and gave him this account. His majesty waited six months longer to see if that body of men who were pursuing him with the keenest malice, and spared for nothing to deprive him of his crown of England, would at last shew any com- passion for the bleeding condition of Ireland. He found on this occasion that rebels of all countries and all reli- gions are the same, full of professions that have no mean- ing, and of pretences that have no foundation. The pre- vailing faction in the parliament of England 'pretended to have the utmost abhorrence of the Irish rebellion, at the same time that it encouraged and enabled them to support their own. But if we consider their actions, (the surest rule to judge of the real sentiments of mankind,) and how little they did to suppress it, we shall find reason enough to lay no more stress upon those pretences, than upon their strong professions of duty, and repeated assur- ances to his majesty of making him a glorious king ; all of them serving rather to raise the indignation of a ge- nerous mind, than be any foundation of hope to the most sanguine temper. The king, after waiting so many months, and seeing no supply sent in all that time to Ireland, nor so much as the hopes of any for the future ; being pressed from thence either to send a relief which it was not in his power to give, or at least to send some directions what 476 The king sends the marquis of Ormond a commission III. 441 — to do in that country, to prevent the destruction of his army and protestant subjects in that kingdom ; and there being no other visible means of preserving either, but by a cessation of arms, he resolved to send instructions to the marquis of Ormond to treat with the confederate Irish upon that subject. 442 For this purpose his majesty sent the marquis a ^'com- mission on April 23, which if it was not exact in point of form, was however very full with regard to the powers meant to be conveyed thereby, as giving him not only authority to conclude a cessation, but referring likewise entirely to him the terms upon which it should be set- tled. The king in this commission sets forth, that since his two houses of parliament (to whose care at their in- stance he had left it to provide for the support of the army in Ireland, and the relief of his good subjects there) had so long failed his expectation, whereby his said army and subjects were reduced to very great ex- tremities, he had thought good for their preservation to resume the care of them again to himself; and that he midit the better understand as well the state of that kingdom, as the cause of the insurrection, he had thought fit to command and authorize the marquis of Ormond, lieutenant general of his army there, with all secresy and convenient expedition, to treat with his subjects in arms, 428 and agree Avith them for a present cessation of arms for one year, in as advantageous and beneficial a manner as his wisdom and good affection to his majesty should con- ceive to be most for his honour and service; and as, through the want of a full information of the true state of the army and condition of the country, he could not himself fix a judgment in the case, so as to be able to prescribe the particulars thereof, he therefore referred the same entirely to the lieutenant general, promising to '' See Collection of Letters, No. CLII. CLIII. -444- to conclude a cessatmi. (1643.) 4<77 ratify whatsoever he, upon such treaty, should conclude and subscribe with his hand in that business. 443 A ^letter was sent him at the same time, directed to the lords justices and council, notifying to them the grant of this commission, and requiring them to further the execution thereof by their best endeavours. This was to be delivered at such time as the marquis of Or- mond saw convenient, and when their assistance became necessary to advance the aflfair. There was no occasion to communicate it at all, till it was seen whether the rebels would desire a cessation ; the king's dignity re- quiring that the first motion of that sort should proceed from them. But what increased the necessity of such a step on his majesty's part, either lessened their inclina- tion to it, or made them affect delays in a matter wdiich was likely to defeat them of the advantages of their pre- sent situation, and put a stop to the success and progress of their arms. 444 Preston, after his defeat near Ross, had rallied his forces'', and sat down with a body of four thousand foot and five hundred horse before Ballynekill ; a place of considerable strength, and maintained by two companies under the command of captain Ridgeway, a very brave officer, and son to the late earl of Londonderry. The place being situated within eight miles of Kilkenny, the garrison annoyed the enemy exceedingly, making conti- nual excursions up to the very walls of that city. The citizens, uneasy at their continual losses, pressed that the siege might be undertaken, offering to supply the forces with a thousand loaves of four pound and an half each a day. Colonel Lawrence Crawford was sent out of Dub- lin on April 13, with one thousand three hundred foot and one hundred and fifty horse, to endeavour to raise the siege; he advanced towards the place, but was forced c See Collection of Letters, No. CLI. '^ E. 56, 66, 6-j, 109, 1 1 7, 125, and 128. 478 Success of the rebels in Leinster. III. 444- to retire to JNIonastereven, being sorely wounded in his retreat. A small quantity of provisions being with great difficulty procured, sir JNIichael Ernie w^as afterwards sent with a stronger ])arty on the same service ; but being advanced near Athy, he received intelligence that Bally- nekill Mas taken the day before. Preston had tried seven mines, and besieged it for a month in vain ; but having on jMay 4 begun to batter the place with a great piece of cannon carrying a ball of twenty-four pound, (which had been landed a few days before at Dungarvan,) it surrendered the next day, and he marched with his army in order to invest either Athy or Ballylenan. 445 The marquis of Ormond, upon advice thereof, sent major Verney with a reinforcement to sir M. Ernie *^, ordering him, in case Preston besieged any garrison, to watch his best opportunity to distress him with as little hazard to himself as possible. But if that general of the rebels, either through want of provisions, or for fear of his forces, retired, sir Michael was then to prepare the best he could for the taking of Ballysonan, in order to which no time should be lost in sending to the Naas two cul- verins, with ammunition and other necessaries for that en- terprise. Preston, not caring to hazard an engagement, intrenched himself at Ballynekill, resolving to wait there till want obliged the English forces to return to Dublin. There f was so little powder left in the stores of that city, and so little forage as yet upon the ground, that the jus- tices were apprehensive the horse could not subsist during the siege of Ballysonan, and that they could not, 429 without the utmost danger to the kingdom, admit of the expense of so much ])owder as the taking of that place Mould require. For these reasons they obliged the mar- quis of Ormond to countermand his orders for the attack of that castle four days after they had been given. They e Letter of May 8. E. 136. ^ Letter of the lords justices. E. 228. -44^' Success of tlie rebels in Leinster. (1643.) ^'^9 gave directions likewise to the commanders of the army to forbear burning, spoiling, and pillaging any of the corn, cattle, and goods in the territory of Allen, a sort of island surrounded by a bog, that the garrison of the Naas might be supplied from thence, as it had been for a long time, and indeed could not subsist without it ; in- somuch, that if that territory were destroyed, the garri- son must be dissolved, to the great dishonour of the state, and equal danger and inconvenience to the public service. But having in the beginning of June got a fresh supply of powder, and grass being grown in the field, they sent new and express orders to sir M. Ernie to be- siege and take Ballysonan, Kilka, and Castle-Dermot, and to keep the army abroad as long as it was possible for them to subsist. They had during this expedition supplied the forces at different times with one hundred and twenty thousand weight of bread, and had ten thou- sand weight more ready to send them on the 1 1 th of that month, when sir M. Ernie and colonel Gibson re- turned to Dublin, alleging that «they could not under- take services of that consequence by reason of the mise- rable condition of the soldiers, the greater half of them being either barefoot or otherwise disabled with exces- sive fatigues, so that a quarter part of their men were not able to march in their ranks : besides, both horse and foot were continually committing disorders, and were so hard to be commanded, that they were either forced to use such tyranny over them as could not fail of draw- ing upon them the hatred of the soldiers, or else to suffer themselves and other officers to be affronted to their faces, all order and discipline to be neglected, and conse- quently the army itself to fall to ruin. 446 To enable the forces about Dublin to subsist, lord '^ISIoore had been sent out at the same time that Craw- ford was, with a party to get what prey he could in the g E. 201. '' E. 60. 480 Success of the rebels in Connaught. III. 446- counties of Lowth and Cavan ; but met Avith so little in the field, that he was soon obliged to return into garri- son for want of forage and bread, having only taken Bal- lisoe, and secured it with a garrison. Lord 'Lambert for the same reason marched, towards the latter end of May, with one thousand foot and three hundred horse into the county of Wicklow, and having traversed thirty miles of the country, returned with a prey of seven hundred cows and one thousand five hundred sheep. This success was owing in some degree to sir M. Ernie's wasting the county of Kildare, which caused the cattle to be driven from those parts into others, which were imagined to be safer: and whilst that commander was besieging Bally- brittas, (which he took, and caused to be blown up, after making a great booty of lord Glamaleyra's household- stuff and goods,) lieutenant colonel Willoughby made another inroad into the same county, and returned with. the like success to Dublin. These actions, all that could be undertaken in the situation of affairs there, only served to keep the forces about that city a little longer alive, and to defer their disbanding for want of sub- sistence. 447 The condition of Connaught was still worse than that of Leinster, all the province being on the point of being lost. Colonel ^John Bourke had been by the general assembly of Kilkenny appointed lieutenant general there- of, and came to Galway about Christmas in the former year. lie was a man of good sense and address, mode- rate in his temper, considerate and i)rudent in his actions, and of great experience in military affairs, having been thirty-eight years in the Spanish service. He was the 430 fittest person that could be em])loyed in that province, not only on the account of his personal character and endowments, but as he was related to most of the gentle- • Lieutenant colonel Ogle's letter to sir T.Wharton. E. 235. ^ Clanrickard's Memoirs. "44^ • Success of Ihe reheh 171 Connauqht. (1643.) 481 men in the county of INIayo, and to many in tliat of Gal- way. With these last he began to correspond immedi- ately upon his arrival at Gahvay, endeavouring to work them up to a resolution of raising forces to besiege the adjoining fort. Captain Willoughby had sufficiently dis- posed them to such an attempt by his continual depreda- tions in the country, and spoils upon their estates. The Romish clergy exerted themselves to persuade, and is- sued out the censures of their church against all that would not take the new oath of association, and engage in the cause. In vain were the obligations of the oath of allegiance, and of the duty of loyalty to the king urged to the contrary ; such as would not be guilty of perjury by breaking the one, and of rebellion by acting inconsistent with the other obligation, were by the titu- lar bishop of Clonfert and other ecclesiastics declared guilty of a mortal sin, and involved in the sentence of excommunication. Captain Willoughby, whilst they lay under these temptations, furnished the gentlemen and the town of Gal way with other pretences. His affections to the parliament cause were well known ; he held an intimate correspondence with their ships, and encouraged and supported the commanders thereof in all their ra- vages upon the coast. One of these, captain Constable, being received by him into his garrison, used opprobrious and disaffected language with regard to his majesty, and calling aloud to the townsmen, told them, that their king was run away, and they .should soon have a new king. Hence it was either believed or pretended, that the fort was no longer in his majesty's obedience, but entirely at the disposal of the parliament. 448 The governor of the fort, not content with burning villages and depopulating the country, used other insults to the town, interrupting the commerce of the port, stop- ping the markets, and even battering the town with his artillery for several months incessantly from Feb. 9 when VOL. II. I i 482 Sticcess of the rebels in Connaught. HI. 448. he first began to cannonade the place. The earl of Clanrickard laboured in vain to keep the gentlemen from running into desperate courses ; but wanting power, his persuasions were of less force than the exhortations and censures of the clergy, and the resentments at captain AVilloughby's proceedings. Thus in the month of April, Francis and John Bermingham, grandchild and son of lord Athenry, sir Ulrick Burke, Hubert Burke of Duno- man, Redmond, Riccard and Thomas Burke of Kilcornan, Dermaclaghny and Anbally, the three Teige Kellys of Gallagh, Aghrim and JNIelaghmore, sir Valentine Blake, sir Robuck Lynch, and other principal gentlemen in the county, resolved to take up arms and besiege the fort of Galway. Colonel J. Bourke put himself at their head, and about the latter end of that month began to enclose it at a distance, to fortify some passages towards the sea to hinder any relief from that side, and to post a body of troops at Athenry to hinder any attempt for that purpose, which lord Clanrickard might make by land. A party sent out by captain Willoughby to make preys in Ircon- naght being most of them cut off, they were encouraged in the beginning of May to lay a closer siege to the fort, the town of Galway undertaking to defray the expense, and supply the forces which were drawn out of the country and the neighbouring county of IMayo for that enterprise. Two bulwarks and batteries were raised on the point beyond St. Mary's church in the west, called Kenitniane, and on that of Ronimore ; and a chain drawn cross the harbour. The fort had been well supplied in the winter by lord Clanrickard with provisions for some months. A ship had arrived in March from Dublin with a fresh supply. Captain Willoughby had store of money, plate, and commodities, kept a continual traffick with several ships that came out of l^^ngland and Wales, and 431 might have furnished himself plentifully with all neces- saries. But he had been so ill a manager of his provi- 44^- Success of the rebels in Conna.ug1it . (1643.) 483 sions, and had lavished away so much powder in his use- less and continual battery of the town from Feb. 9, that when the siege began he had scarce enougli of either to serve him a month. The relations which the besiegers had of this scarcity animated them to undertake the siege, which was carried on, not by any works against the fort, but by endeavours to prevent the throwing in of all relief. Captain Brook came with his ship in the beginning of June, but the batteries on the points hindered him from approaching the place. He endeavoured to throw in supplies by his long-boats in the night, but these were met by some of the town-boats, and forced to retire. Captain Willoughby, disappointed of succours, began to treat on the 13th of that month, and on the 20th sur- rendered it, with Oranmore, a castle of the earl of Clan- rickard's, situated on the bay of Galway. He had liberty to carry away with him two pieces of cannon, with all the goods and commodities which he had taken in the country, and was to be accountable for no damages that he had done. He had come thither with nothing consi- derable, but departed thence rich in money and other commodities, besides a debt of three thousand pounds from the crown, leaving the second fort of importance in the kingdom in the hands of the rebels, who soon after demolished it by order of the supreme council. The loss of this place threatened that of the whole province, and would in all probability have been immediately attended with that consequence, if the gentlemen of the county of Galway could have been drawn to have fallen on lord Clanrickard, or if the lord of JNIayo had not traversed the measures of John Bourke and opposed his command of the forces of that county; yet, notwithstanding the divisions which those noblemen sowed and encouraged amongst the rebels, they raised a considerable force, and marched under the command of that general to reduce the castles of the county of Roscommon, which (besides I i 2 484 Success of the rebels in Munsier. III. 448 — the lord Clanrickard's towns of Logreagli and Portumna) were all that held out in the province of Connaught. 449 In INIunster lord Inchiquin in the beginning of May drew his forces out of the garrisons, where they were on the point of starving, to see if he could get subsistence for them in the field. The same necessity which obliged him to march out unprovided of all things fit for a cam- paign forced him to divide his army. Lieutenant colonel Story was sent with twelve hundred foot and two hun- dred horse into the county of Kerry, where they subsisted very well, and made very great preys of cattle. Sir C. Vavasour was sent with a like number into that of Waterford, whilst lord Inchiquin, to amuse the enemy, and divert them from attacking those detachments, made a feint of besieging Killmallock, a place of great conse- quence, in the county of Limerick. Sir Charles, took in Mac Thomas's and other castles, and on June 3 had the strong castle of Cloghleagh surrendered to him. The de- fendants were sent away under a convoy, but such was the disorderliness of an unpaid soldiery, that they were plundered or murdered hj those to whom they were com- mitted for protection. Sir Charles hearing of this viola- tion of quarter, vowed to hang him who commanded the party, but was prevented, by being attacked the next day in his march at Killworth by the earl of Castlehaven and lord IMuskery. They had with them a body of two hun- dred and fifty horse, and with these, before their foot came up, they charged the English horse in a plain be- tween Fermoy and Killworth. Sir Charles had among his trooi)S too many volunteers that came for the sake of plunder, and was besides inferior in the number of ca- valry ; so that his horse upon the very first attack fled, and broke in u])on his foot, whereby the whole body was routed, six hundred killed upon the spot, sir Charles him- self, with several other officers, made prisoners, his cannon, 433 baggage, and seven hundred arms taken. The loss fell — 45° Success of the rebels in Munster (1643.) ^85 chiefly upon the foot ; the horse for the most part es- caped \ being seized M'ith so terrible a fright, that not thinking themselves safe under the protection of the can- non of Castle-Lyons, they made no stop till some of them recovered Cork, and the rest got into Youghall. The unfortunate commander suffered in his reputation on ac- count of this defeat, though unjustly ; his conduct and the disposition of his forces being commended even by the enemy : but the fault lay in his horse, who were much fonder of plunder than fighting, and could not be made to stand against their wills. This was the greatest loss that the English had suffered in the whole course of the war, and was a great discouragement to the soldiers, who were sufficiently disheartened before by the extremity of their wants, and the utter neglect shewed of them by the parliament. 450 In Ulster, the Scotch forces, though they had large ar- rears of pay due to them from England, were well enough supplied with victuals out of Scotland, and"^ in April five weeks' provisions for the English forces in those parts arrived at Carrickfergus ; but when these were spent, no other means of subsistence offered, the Scotch regiments quartered in Down and Antrim having im- poverished those countries. "Monroe marched in May with great expedition and secresy into the county of Ar- magh, to surprise Owen O'Neile in his quarters at Annagh Sawry, near Charlemont. O'Neile himself was the first that discovered them, as he was hunting, at the distance of two miles, and about four from his quarters, whither he immediately retired ; and drawing off his small party of four hundred men, after an hour's dispute with Mon- roe's whole force in a lane enclosed with quicksets, lead- ing to Charlemont, made his retreat thither without the loss of a man. Monroe seized the passes about that for- ' Letter of sir C. Vavasour to the marquis of Ormond, July 4, 1643. ™ Letter of lord Montgomery to the marquis of Ormond, May 12. » O'Neile's Journal. 486 Owen O'Xelle routed hj sir Rohert Stewart. ITT. 450— tress, intending to make what preys lie could in the country; but one of his parties being the next day at- tacked by lieutenant colonel Sandford, an hundred of his men killed, and the prey recovered, he thought fit to return into the county of Antrim. 451 As soon as he returned, about the middle of the same month, « colonel Chichester and lord ^Montgomery with two thousand foot and two hundred and fifty horse, made an irruption into the county of Ardmagh, and being joined by lord'' Moore, with a small party from Dundalk, (where the garrison was in great distress for want of corn and other provisions,) wasted all that county, burning K^inard and other places, ranged through all Monaghan and Cavan as far as Belturbet, pillaging all before them, and taking considerable preys of cattle, not seeing the face of an enemy in all their march for three weeks together. O'Neile knowing that they were not provided to under- take a siege, and that they only came for spoil, resolved to avoid rather than oppose them. For this purpose, he caused the cattle of the country to be driven away, and retired with his forces, escorting the women and un- serviceable inhal)itants towards the counties of Leytrim and Longford, where he proposed to stay till he had gotten an army together sufficient to meet the enemy in the field. 453 In his way thither, as he was marching through the county of MonaghanP, he was suddenly attacked by sir 11. Stewart at a place called Clonish or Clunnies on the borders of Fermanagh. Sir Robert had with him his own and sir W. Stewart's regiments and troops of horse, part of sir W. Balfour's troop, and colonel INIervyn's regiment, with five companies of foot from Derry, of which the king had made him governor upon the death of sir John 433 Vauohan. Owen O'Neile had with him about one thou- sand six hundred men in all, and among these, two troops o See his letters to the marquis of Ormond, May 19 and June 7. P Letter of sir R. Stewart to the marquis of Ormond, July 19. — 452- Oweyi O'Neile routed hy sir Bohert Stewart. (1643.) 487 and some gentlemen on horseback : he had a like number in a body attending the cattle, but they were at a dis- tance. His foot under the command of Shane Oge O'Neile, lieutenant colonel of sir Phelim O'Neile's regi- ment, an old officer, who had been twenty-five years in foreign service, he placed advantageously in a pass where it was difficult to force them, and advanced with his horse to take a view of the enemy. Sir R. Stewart, having marched very hard to come up with him, when he had intellio-ence from his scouts that he was advanced within an English mile of the Irish army, and that they had drawn up in order and taken advantage of the ground, caused his army to halt, and refresh themselves for an hour. After that short refreshment he continued his march, and detached a strong forlorn hope, which was attacked by a party of O'Neile's horse, who had advanced through a jjass of a narrow stone causeway, which lay between the two armies. The Irish, after a sharp skirmish, retreated, and were pursued by sir R. Stewart's horse, till these were stopped by the fire of an hundred musketeers, which O'Neile had planted to line the causeway. These mus- keteers being beaten off by a commanded party, a way was made for all the English horse to charge the enemy. This second encounter of the horse was very fierce for a time, and Owen O'Neile was in great danger, being en- gaged hand to hand with captain Stewart, commander of sir Robert's own troop ; but the latter being unfortu- nately wounded in that instant, and his horse borne to the ground, O'Neile was relieved by one of his own captains, who was taken prisoner. In the heat of this engagement of the horse, Shane O'Neile quitted the pass, where he was posted with his foot, and marching to support the horse, drew up his twelve companies in a full brigade. Sir R. Stewart thereupon quitted his horse, and putting himself at the head of his own regiment, advanced with the first division of it to attack them. The service was very hot for near half an hour ; but then the second divi- 488 Owen OPNeile routed hy sir Robert Stewart. III. 452 — sion (which had been hindered, as well as the rest of the army, by the narrowness of the way through which they had to march, and which Shane Oge had quitted) coming up, the enemy seeing them ready to charge, and the rest of the English forces advancing very fast, retired in great disorder, and were so hotly pursued, that they broke in upon the second battalia of their own army, and all the rebels, both horse and foot, ran for their lives. The Eng- lish horse, being mounted upon light nags and armed with Scotch lances, did great execution in the pursuit, which was continued for eight or ten miles, the ground being very good for riding. The rebels suffered in this action a greater loss than any they had met with before in Ulster, most of their arms being taken, and the greatest part of the foreign officers which came over with Owen O'Neile being either killed or taken prisoners. Among the for- mer were colonel Con Oge O'Neile, (who^, the Irish say, was murdered by a presbyterian minister after quarter given,) major Maurice O'Hagan, captain Ardall O'Hanlan, and other officers. Among the prisoners were Shane O'Neile, colonel Hugh O'Neile, nephew to the general, captain Art O'Neile, grandson to sir Turlogh Mac Henry, two other captains, and three gentlemen of quality. The loss of the English in this battle, which was fought on Tuesday the 13th of June, was inconsiderable, there being only six of them killed, and about tvt^enty-two wounded. 453 Sir R. Stewart was in no condition to improve this vic- tory ; all that he could do was to make preys of cattle, and range over the county of Tyrone about Dungamion, Charlemont, and Kinard. Having wasted that neighbour- hood, and some parts of Monaghan for eight days to- 434 gether, and being informed that Owen O'Neile had left the country, his victuals being spent, and no further ap- pearance of service to be done, he returned towards his quarters, and having taken the castle of Denge about '1 O'Ncilc's Journal. -455- The state solicit the parliament in vain for succours. (1643.) ^^^9 four miles from thence, dispersed his forces. O'Neile, after three days' stay in Charlemont, to which place he retired after his defeat, set out again on his intended journey to the county of Leytrim, where at INIohill he re- cruited his forces, and received a supjily of arms and ammunition from the supreme council ; which enabled him in a few days to appear again as strong as ever in the field. 454 The new lords justices and council were very sensible of this distressed condition of the provinces, and had in their letter of May 1 1 applied to the parliament of Eng- land for relief. Fearing that their application in that manner might be as unsuccessful as many others of the like nature had already been, and alarmed by the great- ness of their danger, through a want of powder, of which there were then only forty barrels in the store, they de- spatched sir T. Wharton to London to solicit the aifair. They could not have sent a person more acceptable to the parliament ; yet in ""twenty weeks' attendance and con- tinual solicitation of succours, all that was sent was a small supply of provisions, by captain Tlio. Bartlet's ship, (which was at last sent back,) and all that he could obtain a promise of besides, was the sum of one thousand pounds in money. 455 The lords justices seeing no appearance of supplies from that quarter, endeavoured to provide as well as they could for themselves. The violent seizure and forcino- of o goods from the owners w^ithout payment, in the time of sir W. Parsons, had utterly ruined all trade, and dis- couraged every body from sending provisions to Dub- lin. To remedy that mischief, they published a procla- mation to restore the confidence of merchants, and en- courage them to bring munitions of all sorts thither, assuring them, upon the word of the state, that they should r See the letters of sir T. Wharton to the marquis of Ormond, June 20; Jul}^ I, 18, and 25 ; Aug. 29; Sept. 5 and 19. 490 The marquis of Or mond's proceedings III. 455 — be paid ready money for what they brought. *A11 other means failing, to keep the army from disbanding or perish- ing by famine, they in the beginning of June hiid new customs upon commodities, and had recourse to a method unknown to the laws and gentleness of the English go- vernment, called in other countries, where it was used, an excise. Necessity, which overrules all law and order, forced them in their extremity upon this method, without any warrant from his majesty, and indeed without so much as consulting him ; and as the parliament had lately set them a precedent by establishing an excise in Eng- land to be enabled to defray the expense of their war against the king, they thought they might be excused for imitating that example, when they did it purely to preserve to his majesty one of his kingdoms, which was otherwise in imminent dano^er of beino- lost. The excise M'as exceeding high, amounting to half the value of the commodity: and yet through the poverty of the city of Dublin, where it was set on foot, the money raised there- by and paid in weekly was very inconsiderable, and dis- proportionate to the necessities of the army. In this situation no means appeared of saving the kingdom, but a cessation to gain time, till peace was restored in Eng- land, and succours might be sent from thence. 456 The marquis of Ormond had received his majesty's directions to treat on that subject : but thought it for the dignity of his prince, that the first overture thereof should come from the rebels. They had indeed formerly made application to the state, and by mediation thereof to his majesty for a cessation ; but it was proj)er for them to renew their request on this occasion. To engage 435 them to this step, he, on ]\Iay 16, gave passes to the lord Taafe and colonel John Barry to go to Kilkenny, where the general assembly of the confederates Avas to meet on s Letters of lords justices to the speaker and sir E. Nicholas, June 10. ' Ibid, to the speaker, July 11. — 45^' toivards a cessation. (1643.) 491 the 2otli of that month. Both tliese agents were Roman catholics, but very affectionate and zealous for the king's service ; the first having attended him as a volunteer in the English Mar, and being now come over upon his own motion and offer of disposing the Irish recusants to a pacification ; the latter was a particular friend of the marquis of Ormond, had accompanied him in all his ex- peditions against the rebels, was a person of very good sense, and as agreeable a man as any of his time, equally beloved and esteemed by all that knew him. "They met with many difficulties in their negotiation, having to do with a multitude of persons of different views and senti- ments, many of which were very ill judges of their own interests, full of that diflUdence which is the natural ef- fect of ignorance, dwelling on the outside or first appear- ance of things, without regard to the consequences, and too much influenced by some ambitious and covetous churchmen, whose interests or inclinations led them to labour for a continuance of the war, though it w^as more agreeable to their office and character to persuade peace and obedience. The confederate Roman catholics could not, consistent with their former measures and their con- stant pretences, decline moving for a cessation, which was a necessary step in order to their sending agents into England to represent their grievances, without which they could never be thoroughly known to his majesty, and to prepare and concert measures for a parliament, without which their grievances could not be redressed, nor the kingdom settled. They could not propose to obtain this at any other time, but whilst the confusions of England lasted^ and it behoved them to make use of that opportunity. A cessation was a likely way of getting rid of the Scotch army, which was considered as an intolerable grievance ; at least it would prevent much effusion of Christian " Letter of colonel Barry to the marquis of Ormond, May 27, and Clanrickard's Memoirs. 492 The marquis of Ormond's proceedings III. 456 — blood, and the utter desolation of the kingdom by sword and famine ; and the declining thereof would be an un- deniable refutation of all their pretences of necessity for their taking arms, and of their specious professions of having no thoughts of disloyalty to his majesty. These were the sentiments of the more moderate part of the assembly, but others insisted much on the great advan- tages which they had at present, by the distractions of England, by the miserable condition of the king's forces, the imj:)ossibility of any supplies being sent them from thence, their own superiority of power, the prosperous successes which they had lately met with, and the as- sured prospect of more ; all which advantages would be lost by the cessation. The act for the Irish adventurers was another objection, as having stripped the king of his power to shew them any grace or favour without the con- sent of parliament ; against which they had no defence, if English acts of parliament were admitted to bind Ire- land ; but in the unlimitedness of the royal prerogative, which might grant a pardon with a non obstante, and in the success of the king's arms against the malignant and republican party in England. These considerations made many even of the moderate members of the assembly ir- resolute ; for though they were really well affected to the king's service, they were still solicitous for their own safety, and desirous of securing it at any rate. "At last, after many interruptions and long debates, the major part of the assembly, six days after their meeting, agreed to a twelvemonth's cessation, and proposed certain ar- ticles to be settled by their agents, who were to meet for that purpose with the marquis of Ormond at such place as his lordship should appoint. 457 J'Lord Taafe, in his zeal to bring the assembly to this resolution, had encouraged several of the members to 436 ^ Letter of lord Taafe to lord Clanrickard, May 26. y Letter of the marquis of Ormond to colonel Barry, June i . — 457- towards a cessation. (1643.) ^9^ expect a free parliament, and a dissolution of the present ; and returning to Dublin with the resolution and propo- sals of that body, acquainted the marcjuis of Ormond with what he had undertaken to that effect. He had either before insinuated the same to his majesty, or took this occasion to recommend to him the calling of another parliament in Ireland. The marquis had no instructions from the king on this head, and though it was evident to all the world that a settlement could never be made of that distracted kingdom without a parliament, and that the constitution of the present was so much altered since its first election and meeting, that it was not proper to be continued when a work of such importance and diffi- culty was to be perfected ; yet it was still more improper to call a new one immediately, in the present situation of the kinofdom. The confederates were masters of most of the great towns and counties of the kingdom ; and to call a parliament whilst they continued so, and had the greatest part of elections absolutely in their power, was in effect to make them judges of their own actions, and to intrust them to make laws for others, who had little reason to depend upon them for their future security; a course too unequal for any indifferent person to ap- prove. The king, professing his ignorance of the parti- cular circumstances of the nation, and in consequence thereof his inability to judge of what was most expedient for the good of it, had referred it entirely to the marquis of Ormond to settle the terms and conditions of the ces- sation. The marquis, in a just concern for his master's and his own honour, did not think it fit to suffer any body to be deceived with such an expectation ; and therefore he wrote to colonel Barry, who was left at Kil- kenny, to undeceive persons in that point, and acquaint them that he had no directions in that particular, and they must expect no such undertaking from him ; but rely entirely on what they might afterwards obtain from 494 The marquis of OrmoYKTs proceedings S^c. III. 457 — the king upon humble and seasonable propositions to be made by their agents. He took occasion at the same time to let them know, it would be expected, if the ces- sation went on, that they should contribute in some rea- sonable proportion to the maintenance of the army in Ireland, since by their disturbance his majesty was de- prived of his revenue and subsidies, which, if paid, would have yielded a considerable support thereunto. This they might the readier agree to, because by a cessation they would be freed from the spoil and destruction made in all parts of the kingdom by the army ; and the benefit thereby accruing to the public would far surmount any thing they could give the army : and what should be thus paid towards the maintenance thereof, he would en- deavour with his majesty to get allowed in the subsidies which were yet behind. This was a condition absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the forces during a ces- sation, and was therefore to be settled by way of preli- minary ; so that if the assembly agreed to it, colonel Barry, upon giving notice thereof, was to receive further directions from him ; if they rejected it, he was to leave the place, and return to Dublin. 458 The confederates were not displeased at gaining the time spent in debating this preliminary, (to which they sent an answer, which was not clear enough to give sa- tisfaction,) that they might reduce the fort of Galway before the cessation took place. They agreed at last to the condition in general, leaving the particular sum to be settled by their agents, who were the lords Gorman- ston and JNIuskery, sir Robert Talbot, sir Lucas Dillon, Tirlogh O'Neile, Geffrey Browne, Ever Mac Genis, and John Walsh. ^This was not finally settled till about June 17, when the agents wrote to the marquis of Or- mond, acquainting liim with their commission and full powers to treat of and conclude a cessation, and desiring 437 z E. 243, 252, 269, and 28 i. -459- His motioii at the council-hoard. (1643.) 495 him to appoint a time and place for their meeting. Tlie marquis% who in all this proceeding had from the first consulted with the lord justice Tichhurne, and others of the council, (particularly the lord chancellor, sir Fr.Wil- loughby, sir T. Lucas, sir James Ware, sir G. Wentworth, Mr. justice Donnellan, and sir JNI. Eustace,) as soon as he found that the assembly were disposed to agree to a ces- sation, acquainted the whole board, on June 1 2, with his commission to conclude it. Some few of the members, attached to the cause of the parliament, expressed their dislike thereof, though none of them offered to suggest any way whereby it was possible to subsist the protestant army, or carry on the war. 459 The marquis of Ormond, ever tender of his reputation, resolved that his conduct in so delicate and important an affair, wherein he proposed to serve his prince, and save his country from ruin, should not be liable even to the reproach of his enemies. With this view, in the week following, on June 21, ^he delivered in writing at the council-board a motion to this effect, that if the lords of the council were of opinion that a cessation were either dishonourable to the king, unsafe to the protestant sub- jects, or dangerous to his majesty's armies, they would be pleased to signify as much by their letters to his ma- jesty; and likewise to propose some other more certain, honourable, and available way for the preservation of the kingdom, the safety of the protestant subjects, and the subsistence of the armies ; and in case of such letters and propositions, he undertook, in virtue of his majesty's au- thority, to proceed no further in the cessation ; but would immediately at his own peril break off the treaty. This motion he desired might be entered in the council books ; which was ordered by the board accordingly, sir W. Par- sons, among others that were averse to the cessation, signing the order. a E. 155 and 214. ^E 287. 496 The treaty begins. III. 460 — 460 Not satisfied with this motion, the marquis of Ormoiid made ^another the next day, that if ten thousand pounds might be raised, the one half in money, the other in vic- tuals, and to be brought in within a fortnight, he would in such case proceed in the war, endeavour to take in A\'exford, and break off the intended treaty for a cessa- tion. Hereupon the mayor and most substantial citizens of Dublin were summoned before the board ; and it was found that, by reason of the poverty of the place and in- habitants, it was impossible to raise either that sum of money or ])roportion of victuals. This vvas likewise en- tered in the council books, and signed by a full board. Neither of these motions producing any effect, and no- body offering to suggest any possible way of subsisting the army, or saving the kingdom without a cessation, the marquis of Ormond set out the next morning to meet the Irish at Castle-Martyn in the county of Kildare, at- tended by some of the council and chief officers of the army to assist him in the treaty. 461 The Irish commissioners delivered their ^propositions on the 24th. The first was a cessation for six months ; which they afterwards extended to a year. In the second, they desired that the exercise of their government, as settled by them at present, might continue without in- terruption during the cessation. The third article re- lated to a free commerce by sea and land. In the fourth, they moved that they might be at liberty to use hostili- ties against all tliat were in arms against his majesty and their adherents. In the fifth and sixth, they proposed that if any in the king's dominions committed hostilities against such as were comprehended within the cessation, they should be deemed enemies and rebels to his ma;jesty ; and if any of the king's enemies attacked or offended any of the confederate Roman catholics, and those who traded with them, these last should be protected and assisted by cE. 291. 'iE.318. — ^62. The treaty begins . (1643.) 497 his majesty's forts and forces, as occasions happened. 438 The seventh was for leave to send agents to his majesty, under safe-conducts in their going- and return. The eighth was for the enlargement of prisoners and hostages on both sides. In the ninth, they desired that his ma- jesty would call a free parliament for redress of griev- ances, to sit by the last of September, and be held be- fore the king himself, or some person of honour, for- tune, and approved faith to his majesty, as well as ac- ceptable to the jieople, in a convenient and indifferent place ; and that nothing which had happened since the beginning of the troubles, whereof complaint had been made in their kite remonstrance, might debar any from coming thither or sitting therein. Their last proposition was, that upon concluding the cessation, a way might be prescribed to distinguish those of the king's party from such as adhered to the malignant part of the parliament of England. 462 The marquis ofOrmond*" pressed to know what they would give by way of supply to his majesty for the sup- port of his army ; but they absolutely refused to treat of that matter till the cessation was settled. However, on the 29th^ he made answer to their several propositions, declining to answer the fourth and last, and utterly re- jecting the second and ninth. In regard of the fifth and sixth, he agreed, that they might prosecute such as op- posed the cessation, but were not to expect assistance from the king's forces ; and if such opposition were made by any, it should not be deemed a breach of the cessa- tion in other parts of the kingdom ; and in case of other breaches that might be pretended, no hostilities should ensue till the affair had upon complaint been examined by commissioners, and fourteen days allowed for making rejiaration and satisfaction ; and if none were given, till after as many days' notice that hostilities were intended ^E. 333,353,354, 355. ^E. 364. VOL. II. K k 498 The treaty hegins. III. 462- to commence. With regard to the seventh, he answered, that tliey should have safe-conducts for their agents, upon giving in their names, and demanding Hcense of the state, provided the agents were not above four, nor their re- tinue above sixteen in number, and that no ecclesiastic was among either. The eighth he restrained to persons that on the first day of the cessation should not stand indicted of any capital oft'ence, or that had not borne arms on either side ; but enlarged it in another respect by providing that all women and children, either impri- soned or otherwise residing with either side, should, within seven days after the cessation took place, be set at liberty, and permitted to depart to what place they pleased with their goods and chattels without interrup- tion. He agreed to the third about a free commerce, Avith these qualifications, viz. that the customs should be paid to his majesty as usual in 1640, and be collected by oflScers appointed by the state, for the security of whose persons, as well as for the return of the customs into the exchequer, they should give suflficient caution Mithin twenty days after the commencement of the cessation. And with regard to the first and main article, the cessa- tion itself, he agreed to it upon the said cautions and pro- visions, and upon condition that a sufficient supply were granted to his majesty towards the maintenance of his forces in Ireland. 463 The Irish commissioners^, two days after they received this answer, and the marquis's demands in behalf of his majesty, pretending tbat these required a serious consi- deration, desired the meeting might be adjourned till Thursday, July 13, when they Mould wait upon his lord- shi|> where he should appoint, to endeavour to bring the treaty to a conclusion. When that day came, they sent no answer to the ])ropositions in the marquis of Ormond's answer to theirs'', and a very slight one to the demands gE.374. hF.30. —464. Tlie treaty U hrokai off. (1643.) 499 in liis majesty's behalf, alleging that the demand of a supply was not warranted by the king's letters, and there- fore no answer to it was necessary, nor did they think 439 it proper for them to undertake the same ; however, to express their duty and affections, they would, on the con- clusion of the cessation, grant a supply, but for the quan- tity, manner, and time of payment, they referred the same to their meeting and conclusion ; and declined to give any caution for the performance thereof, it being in the nature of a free gift from the subject, and requiring no caution at all. 4*''4 The marquis* received their letter on the i4tli, and finding therein no particular and satisfactory answer to his demands, resolved to put off the treaty, and try (if possi- ble) the fate of a battle with Preston. lie w rote accord- ingly the next day to lord Gormanston, that the necessity of his attendance upon the public service of his majesty hindered him from meeting on the day intended ; but as soon as the occasion was over, he would a])point another time of meeting to proceed in the treaty, w hereof in such case they should have timely notice. The'^ commissioners took upon them to resent this delay as well as to demand M'hat the service was Nvhich occasioned it ; and w'ith an air of arrogance threatened to add it to their other griev- ances, and get it rightly represented to -his majesty. 'The marquis told them in answer to theirs, that he was not to acquaint them with any of the king's services, wherewith he had the honour to be intrusted, being ac- countable for them only to his majesty and the state ; that he did not doubt of acquitting himself to his majesty, and as they might easily imagine themselves some of the necessary reasons of deferring the treaty for a time, when they knew that Preston with his forces had taken the boldness to advance with his army so near the place of i F. 42. k sjcp ^i^ei,. letter of .July 19. E. 58. Ml is letter of July 21. F. 4. K k 2 500 The treaty is broken off. III. 464 — meeting, as Castle-Carbery ; so when tlie occasions of his majesty's service were over, he would appoint another time to resume the treaty. 465 The rebels were elated with the prosperous situation of their affliirs, and finding themselves in a condition to secure the harvest of the country, made no question of starving their adversaries. For this ])urpose, as well as for the enlargement of their quarters in case of a cessa- tion, Preston was come with a great force into the King's County. The marquis of Ormond"^ thought it necessary to send out a strong party to oppose his designs, and those of Owen O'Neile, who in twelve days after his defeat by sir R. Stewart was advanced with a strong body of men within fifteen miles of Mullingar, in the county of Westmeath. The lords justices thought colonel INIonck the fittest person to take on him the command of that party, but he having a pass from the lieutenant general to go for England, absolutely refused to under- take the command. The council tried in vain to persuade him, but when all their instances failed, sir J. Temple prevailed M'ith him to go on the expedition. He" marched from Dublin on June 27, with one thousand five hundred foot, and was joined afterwards with five hundred more, and three hundred and fifty horse °. Advancing as far as Castle- Jordan, which was threatened by Preston, who lay with seven thousand foot and seven hundred horse, a stronger army than the rebels had ever before brought into the field, within two miles of it, he brought off all the unnecessary people in the place. But finding no cattle in the field, and wanting supplies of bread and shoes, returned on July 8 to Dublin p, leaving Preston to take in Croghan, Tecroghan, Balliburley, Ballibritten, Edenderry, Kinefad, and all the forts in the King's County except Castle- Jordan. ra His letters to the lords justices, June 34 and 26. " E. 334. " F. 8. 14. 16, and 17. i' Sir J. Giffiud's letter, July 14. F. 36. -467. Ormond tries in vain tojight Preston. (1643.) 501 466 The marquis of Ormond, upon his return from the treaty, did all that was possible to get provisions to enable the army to march. He sent out lord Lambert with a body of troops to Cloncurry, and summoning together all the forces he could raise, he made up a body of five thousand men, horse and foot, and with these, on July 23*1, he pos-44o sessed himself of the pass of Edenderry, took the castle, Croghan, and some other forts about Castle-Jordan ; but this was all the service he could do, Preston still retiring before him, and not caring to hazard a battle. The great diflficulty under which the army laboured was the want of victuals, which were all to be fetched from Dublin, and of carriages to bring them, not having more than would carry four or five days' provision at a time, and so much time being spent in going and returning thence, that it was impracticable to be supplied with a suflflcient quantity either to pursue Preston by a con- tinued march, or to undertake any service of greater im- portance. Not able to draw the rebels to a battle, and the forces being ready to starve for want of provisions, he returned about the end of the month to Dublin, abundantly convinced after this experiment, that there was no other way of preserving either the army or the king's protestant subjects but by a cessation ; and this was so very evident, that even sir*" John Clot worthy could not forbear acknowledging to him, at this time, that all men must confess the extremities to which his lordship had been exposed might have long since begotten that resolution. 467 There were some few members of the council still averse to that step, though they could offer no reasons against it to the board. Their motives seem to be drawn purely from their violent affections to the parliament cause, which might suffer by the pacification of Ireland ; 1 See his letter to the lords justices, July 24. and F. 71 . I' In his letter to the marquis of Ormond from London, July 25. 502 Sir W. Parsons and othei^s of the council attached III. 467- in consequence of which the king might make use of his faithful servants and forces there to help him in reducing the English rebels. Of these, sir W. Parsons was the chief, wlio had long held an intimate correspondence with the heads of the republican faction in England, and had been directed by them in his measures, whilst he was at the head of the government in Ireland. Soon after he was turned out of his ])ost of lord justice, on May 12% major Warren and sir Fr. Butler came to the council and presented a petition, accusing liim of high misdemeanours and treasonable matters, and requesting that his person and ffoods mioht be secured. *This matter was debated in a full council, thirteen members, besides the lords jus- tices and the marquis of Ormond, being present ; all of Avhich, except sir Robert Meredith, were against seizing his goods. With regard to his person, the lord Borlase, the archbishop of Dublin, sir R. JVIeredith, sir James Ware, and sir F. Willoughby, were for securing it ; the bishop of ]\Ieath and lord Lambert were for taking sureties of him ; but the rest w^ere absolutely against the motion, and thought no security necessary. There was another point debated, of greater consequence than either of the former, because it was well known he had corre- sponded with the parliament, and had been removed for secreting the matter of that correspondence from the king ; this was the seizing of his papers. The lord chan- cellor, the archbishop of Dublin, sir James Ware, sir F. AV^illoughby, sir T. Rotheram, and the bishop of Meath, were entirely for securing them, though the last thought they should not be looked into till they had orders from his majesty. Sir Adam Loftus, sir J. Temple, and sir G. Wentworth, were clearly against seizing: sir George Shirley and sir Gerard Lowther, the two lord chief jus- tices, were of opinion that it should not be done, nor any step of that nature taken without express directions '^ Borlase, J). I ?. I. ' E. 141. — 4''9- to the parliament are imprisoned. (1643.) ^^^ from the king ; to which the rest of the council agreed. This account is taken from the marquis of Ormond's notes of what jiassed in this debate ; but they do not mention what was his opinion in the affair ; yet from the humanity of his temper, and the natural aversion he had to acts of severity and oppression, as well as from the many acknowledgments which sir W. Parsons afterwards made44i of his great obligations to him, I cannot but fancy he Mas of the good-natured side of the question. 468 Sir W. Parsons did not enjoy his liberty above three months longer. There was too much reason during his administration to say", that the parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their commands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached for gospel. This occasioned a charge against him, and three of the council, who were his intimate confidents, and joined with him in most of his measures. The accusation was brought against them in England by the lord Dillon of Costello, Henry lord Wilmot, sir Faithful Fortescue, Daniel and Brian O'Neile. The king thereupon sent to the lords justices an order, which they received on the first of August, to secure the persons of sir W. Parsons, sir J. Temple, sir Adam Loftus, and sir R. Meredith, and to issue out a commission em- powering the lord chancellor, the marquis of Ormond, the earl of Roscommon, and sir M. Eustace, to examine into the articles of accusation, and report to his majesty the truth of the matter. The impeached persons were ac- cordingly committed close prisoners to the castle, but allowed the liberty of coming to the chapel there for the benefit of divine service. 69 '^The substance of the charge against them all in gene- ral was, that they had abused his majesty's trust in their several offices and employments, and endeavoured to draw the army in Ireland from his obedience to side with w See Collection of Letters, No. CLXVII. X Ibid No. CXCVII. 504" The charge af/alnst III. 469- tlie Englisli rebels, whom they by all means countenanced and upheld against his majesty; that they had taken and published scandalous examinations, with intent to asperse his majesty as authorizing the Irish rebellion ; that they had assisted Goodwin and Reynolds in their endeavours to debauch the army, had admitted them to the council- board, communicated to them all the affairs of the king- dom, and secrets of his majesty's despatches and direc- tions to the council, to be made known to the English rebels, and had afterwards conveyed them in one of his majesty's ships to those rebels, who had detained the same ever since ; and that they had at several times uttered many dishonourable speeches against his majesty, vilifying his power, commending the cause and carriage of the English rebels, and thereby endeavouring to destroy the king's power and authority with his army in Ireland. It was objected in particular against sir W. Parsons, that presently after the battle of Edge-hill he had reported publicly, with all the appearance of content, that his majesty was killed and gone, repeating it divers times ; against sir A. Loftus, that being paid sums of money due to the .army, in the current coin of England, he had for his pri- vate lucre changed the same, and paid the soldiers in dollars and other German coin at 4^. 8g?. whereas he bought the same for 35. 6cl. and 3^. 4.d. apiece ; and against sir J. Temple, that he had in the last JNIay and June wrote two scandalous letters to Reynolds and Good- win against his majesty, wliicli had been since read at the close committee, and use made of them to asperse his majesty as favouring the rebels. It was urged further against them all, that after one Jerome had been com- mitted by the house of lords in Ireland for a seditious and traitorous sermon, they had set him at liberty, and sent him into England, where he had been ever since with the rebels at Manchester, continuing his traitorous and railing manner of preaching against his majesty, jus- — 47°- sir W. Parsons and others. (1643.) 505 tifying liis sermons preached at Dublin, and applauding the lords justices and their affections to the })arliament ; and that one Adam Beaghan had been in the last De- cember committed by them to the castle of Dublin, and restrained divers weeks, only for saying that the earl of Essex was a traitor, and justifying his words by tUe kino-'s442 proclamation to that purpose. There is great reason to think that there was too much truth in these accusa- tions ; but breaches of trust, however heinous they may ap])ear in the eyes of men of honour, are rarely punish- able by the law of England. ^ Examinations were taken in the case, and sent over to the king ; but upon perusal thereof, the lawyers were of opinion that the proofs, though sufficient to convict them of high misdemeanours, did not amount to prove them guilty of capital crimes ; upon which orders were sent to bail them in the Novem- ber following. 470 The articles against these privy-counsellors were deli- vered in June, but the order for their imprisonment did not reach Dublin till the end of July, before which time new matter appeared against them. The commissioners appointed to inquire into the grievances of the army had complained of the custodium which sir J. Temple had got of the milnes of Kilmainham. ^This was done at a time when he had just procured a warrant from the king to the state, to allow him to keep possession of those milnes, and to reserve likewise in his hands the two hun- dred pounds a year rent which used to be paid to Fr. Macenoy the landlord, till this last was either convicted of rebellion or acquitted. The king being informed by that representation how much his service and the army suffered by that custodium, recalled his warrant, and, on May 25, ordered a commission to inquire into that particular affair, and the milnes in the mean time to be y See Collection of Letters, No. CXCVI. z D. 272. E. 106 and 182. 506 Some letters of sir TV. Parso?is III. 470- employed solely towards the relief and uses of the army. Sir J. Temple, who had made a prodigious gain by the toll of all the corn that was there ground for the forces about Dublin, resented this as an hard treatment arising from the malice of his greatest enemies, for such he re- presented the commissioners to be. This notion of his seems to be the effect of passion, if we consider either the thing itself, or the general character of the commis- sioners, who were the earl of Roscommon, the lord Bra- bazon, and sir James Ware, who (in the marquis of Or- mond's opinion) acted in this affair purely with regard to the public service, which was very materially concerned therein, and had no personal prejudice or particular spleen to the master of the rolls, though they could not but dis- like his continued disaffection to all the king's servants, and entire application to the faction opposing him in England. He was indeed, either by his own inclinations, or his attachment to the earl of Leicester, too great a favourer of the parliament cause, though he did not care that any of his particular friends should engage so far as to take arms in their quarrel. This, with a desire of re- venge upon the Irish, arising from their cruelties, and the natural severity of his own temper, made him averse to the cessation ; though he could not but own that it was impossible to carry on the war without supplies from England, of which there were no hopes. To prepossess that nation against it, or furnish the parliament with pre- tences to declare against an event which highly affected their private interest, he inveighed against it in several letters which he wrote on June 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 23, to the lord lieutenant, his brother Dr. Thomas Temple, and others. Sir W. Parsons and others did the like at the same time. These letters were sent in a bark, which was taken by a Wexford ship, and ^ being thus intercepted » See the marquis of Ormond's letter on this subject, April 29. E. 106. — 47 ^ • ^^^ others are intercepted. ( 1 64 3. ) 507 were sent on the 24th to the council of Kilkenny, and by them transmitted to their commissioners, who deli- vered the ^originals, as well as attested copies thereof, to the marquis of Ormond. 471 These letters contained some unbecoming reflections upon the council in general, and misrepresentations of their conduct in relation to sir jNI. Ernie's expedition ; 443 but the main drift of them was to condemn the treaty of cessation. They represented it as a contrivance of the rebels to gain time to gather in the harvest, (which who- ever were masters of would starve their adversaries,) and to make a benefit of their herring fishery along the coast about Wexford. They said, there never was a fairer op- portunity of making an end of the war ; that the rebels' strength M^as quite decayed, and they had no means to subsist or hold together, but by false reports of their power ; that they M'ere brought so low, that if the Eng- lish were duly supplied, they would have an easy victory over them ; that the rebels wanted munition in Leinster, that they were almost starved and worn out in Ulster, (jNIonroe being ready to take the few castles still left in their hands,) and were beaten in JNIunster ; that the news of sir C. Vavasour's defeat was false, and a mere inven- tion to further the cessation ; that sir Charles, going with twenty horse to view the enemy, had indeed fallen into an ambuscade and been taken, but that his party had routed the enemy. These misrepresentations could only impose upon the English, and such as, being at a distance, were strangers to the true state of the kingdom. No- thing of this nature had ever been urged at the council- board of Ireland, where the falsehood of these accounts was sufficiently known ; the rebels having never been in so powerful a condition as at this time, and the continu- ance of the war till after the harvest evidently proved that they could get it in without a cessation. The only ^ See these in E. 265, 274, 283, 284, 294, 301, 304, 305, 3 13, and 372. 508 Some leitei's of Parsons are intercepted. III. 471 — province in which the English appeared to have any ad- vantage was Ulster; and yet when iNIonroe, on the 13th of the next month, was, by a letter of the lords justices and council sent by sir Charles Coote, pressed to draw his forces into the field, and to join for the execution of an enterprise formed by that gentleman, he pleaded in- ability for excuse. '^He represented fully to sir Charles the state and present condition of his discontented army, who neither knew upon what condition they served, nor had been ever provided for to sustain nature, who also at that time were destitute of entertainment more than could serve for ten days to come. This had moved the army to represent by their commanders to the state of Scotland the miserable condition in which they stood, humbly suing for redress, and to know who should be their paymasters for the time to come, for they could ground nothing upon the treaty [with the parliament of England], being frustrated altogether of what was promised them by the said treaty, and left to starve for want, if by the com- miseration of their countrymen they had not been supplied with a little meal, unsufficient to sustain nature. This unparalleled misery sustained by them, and the aspersions laid upon them that they did no service, had stirred up the army to represent their estate to the kingdom of Scot- land, that it might be evidently seen w^here the fault lay, and they be cleared of the aspersions laid to their charge, humbly desiring either to be dismissed, or to be enter- tained in such a manner as that they might further the service as became men of honour. For at present, till they were supplied with victuals, they were not able to draw out into the field. Such was Monroe's own ac- count of the condition of his forces, very different from the representations clandestinely sent into England. Yet those false representations, and the danger of the re- sentment of the parliament of that kingdom, which was *^ Monroe's letter to the council, .Tuly 25,1643. F. 66, — 472- The ScoU declare for tlie parliament. (1643.) 509 urged to intimidate every body, even the marquis of Or- mond himself, were all the arguments that it was thought fit to allege against the cessation. 472 There was another consideration, which rendered that treaty more necessary to be immediately concluded, drawn from the situation of the king's affairs in England and 444 Scotland. The heads of the republican faction in Eng- land had been always confident'' that the rigid covenant- ing lords in Scotland would unite with them upon occa- sion ; and as they had courted and made use of the Eng- lish sectaries to further their designs in England, so to engage the kirk of Scotland, they*^ gave them hopes of a reformation according to their model in England, and a declaration published by the English parliament shewing their intention to extirpate episcopacy, with a letter from some English ministers to that effect, were sent down by the Scotch commissioners to the general assembly sitting at Edinburgh in the last week of July 1642. Answers were sent expressing their great content at the design of such a reformation, and the assembly breaking up on August 6, appointed a committee to sit frequently at Edinburgh, and to correspond with the parliament of England from time to time for advancing that work. Lord Maitland, who was sent with these answers^, re- turned in September with letters from the parliament of England, expressing their resolution to abolish episcopacy root and branch, and to call an assembly of divines for modelling a new church government, whereunto they wished the kirk to send commissioners. In November, the parliament?, afraid of the king's strength, sent down Mr. Pickering to Scotland, to treat for assistance of men and arms to carry on the war against his majesty. The king hearing thereof, sent down the earl of Lanrick, d Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, book vi. piirag. 1 12. edit. 1849. Bishop Guthry's Memoirs, p. 98 and 100. eJbid. J03. ' Ibid. 1 05. g Ibid. 106. 510 The Scots declare for the parliament^ III. 472 — with ^a letter to the privy-council, in opposition to the declaration of the jmrliament. This letter was ordered to be published, notM'ithstanding all the opposition made to it by the marquis of Argyle and his adherents. This nobleman sending advertisement thereof to Fife and the western shires, a number of ministers came from thence in January to Edinburgh, where, getting the committee of the general assembly to join with them, they desired the conservators of peace to deal with the council to explain their meaning in causing the king's letter to be printed, that it might not imply their approving it, and to cause the parliament of England's declaration to be printed ; to both which the council yielded. 'Whilst this was doing, a cross petition was framed by the royalists, signed bj fourteen noblemen, aud presented to the council, but re- jected with much indignation. The committee of the kirk published likewise a declaration against it, sending the same to all the presbyteries throughout the kingdom, with strict orders to all ministers to read it in their pul- pits, and comment upon it to the people. The conser- vators and committee having thus engaged, resolved to proceed further to sujiplicate the king for a parliament and general assembly. They nominated commissioners to go to his majesty for this purpose, and at their going away in the last week of February, the committee of the kirk appointed two fasts to be kept for their good success. 473 It was very plain to what all this tended ; and the queen being then landed at Burlington, with a consider- able supply of money, ammunition, and oflicers from Hol- land '\ the earl of INIountrose waited upon her there, at- tended her to York, and gave her an account of the in- tended measures. He told her, that thougli the king's ^ Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion, book vi. parag. 159. edit. 1849. 1 Guthry's Memoirs, p. 107, 108. ^ Ibid. 109, and Wishart's Reriini Montisrosan, Commentarius, j). 12, and E. 213. -474- <^'*^^ raise an army against the Jcing. ( 1 643.) 511 enemies in Scotland did not yet j)rofess so much, yet tliey certainly intended to carry an army into England, and to join with liis majesty's enemies there; and byway of remedy ort'ered, that if the king would grant a com- mission, himself and many more would take the field and prevent it; but this was to be done without loss of time, for if the covenanters once got an army on foot, they would easily crush all that should offer to oppose them. 445 The marquis of Argyle, afraid of the effect of JNIountrose's journey, made a private visit to the marquis of Hamilton, (for their profession at that time was to be at variance ;) and engaged him to go to the queen, and countermine Mountrose's measures. Hamilton being by her majesty acquainted with that nobleman's information and pro- posal, undertook, without raising arms for the king, to keep the party of his enemies quiet, and prevent their listing or sending any army into England. This assur- ance caused jMountrose to be dismissed unsatisfied ; upon which the king's enemies in Scotland discovered their intention more publicly than l)efore, and it was openly talked amongst them, that it was necessary to levy an army and send it into England, to mediate between his majesty and the parliament. 474 John Gordon viscount Aboyne, younger brother to George marquis of Huntley, and Randal Macdonnel earl of Antrim, came to York soon after Montrose, and made an offer to the queen of raising the two powerful clans of their names in the highlands of Scotland, to oppose the designs of the covenanters. Her majesty gave ear at first to the proposal, and ordered them a proportion of the arms which she had brought with her, and placed in the castle of Scarborough, to be sent from thence to the highlands. But resting secure in Hamilton's undertaking, she soon after ordered the arms to be stopped. Antrim, ever full of promises, and forward to undertake what he was not able to perform, resolved however to go into 512 The Scots declare /of the parliament III. 474 — ■ Ireland, either to look after his estate, or else to bring a party of his tenants and countrymen thence to begin the enterprise. He had been seized a year before in his own house by major-general JNIonroe, under pretence of having corresponded with the rebels ; at which time sir W. Par- sons vindicated him from that charge in a letter to sir Robert Pye, which was printed, and the earl about six months after, finding means to make his escape, took refuge in England. Coming back from thence in May this year, in a bark which he had hired in the Isle of Man, he sent a servant on shore in a boat to see if they were friends or enemies in the castle. Monroe chanced to be there, and seized the man, who being threatened with death, discovered the signals agreed uj)on, and that he was to place a shirt upon a stick to signify they were friends. The signal being given, Antrim was decoyed on shore, and immediately taken with some' letters about him, which were afterwards published by the parliament of England, and imported what is above mentioned, and no more. JMonroe sent them with his own comment and additions to the privy council of Scotland, and to the commissioners for Irish affairs in England, suggesting a terrible conspiracy against the peace of Scotland and the Scotch forces in Ireland. To spread jealousies of mis- chievous designs as far as he could, he wrote on the 25th of that month a like accoinit to colonel Lawrence Craw- ford, at Dublin ; who, receiving the letter just as Dr. Boate came in to dress his wounds™, gave it him to read before he had perused it himself. Crawford" shewed the letter on Friday, June 2, to sir Robert Meredith, who took no notice of it to the council, (not even in the two days on which they debated it,) till the Tuesday following, when upon Crawford's examination, and producing of the letter, which was become the public discourse of the city, 1 House of commoiijf' declaration about the Irish rebelhon, July 25, 1C43. '" E. 257. n lb. 190. — 47^- and raise an army against the king. (1643.) 513 he was forced to confess his having seen it: a proceeding which was not thought very agreeable to his duty or oath as a privy counsellor; and which did not fail of being represented to the king, when the letter itself was trans- mitted by the state to his majesty. 475 The commissioners sent from Scotland, to supplicate the king for a parliament", returned in the beginning of 446 May to Edinburgh, without obtaining their desire; his majesty seeing no reason of state to call one before the time which had been fixed at the dissolution of the last, when another was appointed to meet in June 1644. The covenanters however resolved to call one, under the style of a convention of the estates, and by public proclamation appointed it to meet at Edinburgh on June 22. A fast was likewise appointed to be observed on the 2nd of that month for the good success thereof. It was natural enough to think that those who were guilty of this high invasion of his majesty's authority would not stop there, and had only taken therein a necessary step to enable them to levy and support an army to join with their brethren of England against the king. 476 Before the convention met, Mr. Henderson was sent to the earl of INIontrose to resolve his doubts, and bring him over to the covenanters' party, who, judging of him by themselves, imagined that, being a man of high spirit, his late repulse at York might have alienated his mind from the king. Montrose at the conference managed Henderson with so much address, that he got out of him the secrets of his party, and was assured by him that it was their fixed resolution p to levy the strongest army they could to assist their brethren in England against the king. Montrose posted with this intelligence to the king, who soon after saw it verified. The convention met at the day appointed, resolved to raise an army against his majesty, and in order to maintain it, laid ° Guthry's Memoir?, p. 1 1 1 , 1 1 2 . p Wishart, p. 1 8. VOL. II. L 1 514 The king repeats his orders for a cessation. III. 476 — heavier taxes upon the nation than had been raised in it by all the kings that had reigned for the space of two thousand years before. 477 To pave the way for this resohition, the parliament of England had issued out a commission for an assembly of divines to sit at Westminster, in order to the reformation of the English church, and sent INIr. Corbet to present it to the Scots' convention at their meeting. That agent was soon followed by commissioners, who agreed upon a solemn league and covenant, to be taken by all persons in the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. iSome agents from the Scots' army in Ulster attended at this convention to solicit the payment of all their arrears, thinking it a favourable opportunity to get them by the mediation of their countrymen, whose assistance was so much wanted by the English parliament. The English commissioners pleaded poverty, so that the agents were forced to relax something of their demands ; but insisted peremptorily for a long time on the present pay- ment of at least four months of those arrears. At la^t, the convention, considering the distresses of England, prevailed with them to be content with sixty thousand pounds being paid them in present. The convention broke up on Aug. 19, having the day before published a'' pro- clamation in the king's name, commanding all fencible persons between sixty and sixteen throughout the nation to furnish themselves with ammunition, tents, provisions, and arms, as directed, and to bo ready upon forty-eight hours' warning to march when and where they should be appointed. In consequence hereof, they raised an army of eighteen thousand foot and two thousand horse, of which the earl of Levin was made general-in-chief, and David Lesly lieutenant general. 478 The king seeing this convention called against his ex- press will and command, and apprehensive of the storm q Letter of the lord chancellor Loudon. F. 151. "" F. 138, — 47^- 1'^^^ ^'^'^^9 >'^i^^^^^ ^'''*' orders for a cessation. (1643.) 515 which followed, was the more desirous to have the cessa- tion concluded in Ireland, that he might have at least one of his kingdoms in peace, and be able to draw some assistance from thence in case of necessity. Hence on July 2** he recommended to the marquis of Ormond to consider how his affairs there might subsist during a ces-447 sation, and if means were found for that purpose, to agree to a cessation for a year, expressing withal his inclination to call a new parliament, and to allow the Irish to send over agents to treat of that business, and whatever else was necessary to be settled in order to a just, honourable, and perfect peace. He knew not as yet what had passed in the late treaty : but when he received from the mar- quis a particular detail of all the proceedings therein, he* entirely approved of his answer to the Irish propositions, and of his conduct in every part of that treaty. He con- sidered that nobleman as better acquainted with the na- ture and state of the affairs of Ireland than himself, and consequently a much better judge of what was expedient for the good of the kingdom and the advantage of his affairs. He had found advices given him in England, where all the consequences of things which according to English notions and prima facie appeared reasonable, (as every thing did wherein a parliament was to intervene,) corrected by the marquis's more perfect knowledge and juster observations of the situation of affairs, and the tem- per and views of persons in Ireland, and relying abso- lutely on his prudence, judgment, integrity, and zeal for the rights of the crown, the support of the protestant religion, and good of the kingdom, (whereof he had abun- dant experience,) he resolved to leave it entirely to him, to enlarge, alter, or add to his answers, as he should see cause. His majesty therefore, on the last day of that month, sent orders to the lords justices and council, to issue out a commission under the great seal of Ireland, s See Collection of Letters No. CLXII. t ib. No. CLXV. L 1 2 516 Debates at Kilkenny about the cessation. III. 478 — authorizing the marquis of Ormond to treat and conclude a cessation of arms for a year upon such articles or agree- ments as to him in his judgment should seem most neces- sary for his majesty's service, or other^vise to break off the said treaty as he should see cause ; and in case of its being concluded, to pass letters patents, as well for con- firmation thereof, as for justifying and indemnifying the marquis and all persons attending and assisting therein from all manner of vexation, trouble, or damage on that account. 479 There were now iicav difficulties arisen in the way of the treaty. Peter Scaramp, a father of the congregation of the oratory, sent by the pope as his minister into Ire- land, ^arrived about the middle of July at Kilkenny, with large supplies of money and ammunition for the rebels. He brought Avitli him from the pope letters to the gene- rals of the provinces, the supreme council, and the pre- lates, with a bull, dated May 15, 1643, granting a general jubilee, and authorizing an absolution to all that were engaged in tliat insurrection for religion, of all crimes and sins how enormous soever. His coming added great weight to the o]iposition made by the clergy and old Irish to the cessation, which the "court of Rome would not a})prove unless attended with a free exercise of reli- gion as in Roman catholic countries abroad, and a con- finement of all public charges to the professors of that relifi'ion. These insisted much on the flourishine- condi- tiou of their affairs, the distress of the English, the pros- pect of further successes, and the assistance of foreign princes, which last would be withdrawn, as their advan- tages in the other respects would be lost, if they laid down their arms in that juncture. They remonstrated against giving such a supply to the king as Mould main- tain their omu army for half a year, and would, being in t Letter of sir J. Giffard to the marquis of Ormond, July 18. ^ Nuncio's Memoirs, p. 577 and 585. — 4^'- Debates at KilJcenm/ about the cessation. (1643.) 517 his hands, bo cmi)loje(l against them ; and moved, that at least the treaty might be deferred till the pope had been consulted, and given his directions in that attair. 480 Those who were for the cessation saw plainly the con- sequences of such a delay, and were therefore for con- 448 eluding it immediately before harvest. They ^repre- sented it as necessary to justify them from the calumny raised against them, as if they were rebels, and had re- solved to throw off the king's government ; and thought the supply proposed would be amply compensated by the country's being saved from the i)lunder of the armies. They considered the cessation as a likely means to ease them of the numerous forces brought into the nation, particularly of the Scots, and as very necessary to enable the king, no longer diverted by his care for Ireland, to employ all his thoughts and means to support himself against the English rebels. These reasons, which really seem to have more of duty than policy in them, were urged by the moderate members of the general assembly, who were inclined to peace, and by the endeavours of the lords Clanrickard, Castlehaven, Taafe, and other con- siderable persons, prevailed at last for renewing the treaty. The debates however were carried on till the latter end of August, and afforded an occasion of reviving the ancient animosity between the old English Roman catholics, who were always for maintaining the English government, and the Irish natives, who joined with the clergy in opposing any accommodation but M'hat would leave them masters of the kingdom. 481 There was no denying the advantages they had at pre- sent. The earl of Castlehaven had taken Ballenanry and Cloghgrenan in the county of Catherlogh, and besieged Ballylenan in the Queen's County. The governor of Athy marched with three hundred horse and seven hundred foot to relieve it, but was forced to retire, and the place sur- X Nuncio's Memoirs, p. 574. 518 The strength of the reheh. III. 481 rendered, on Aug. 7, for want of water. Preston was ad- vanced into !Meath, and Owen O'Neile into Westmeatb, both employed in securing their harvest. J Lord Moore was sent out against the former, recovered Atliboy, but was unable to subsist abroad for want of ammunition ; and when he dispersed his men into garrisons for the gathering in of the harvest, they were disabled from doing so through the same want. The soldiers were in all places ready to mutiny, and so disorderly, through defect of pay% that all the country people, who used to live about the garri- sons, and under their protection, fled away for fear of being ill treated by them ; so that there w^ere no hands to get in such part of the harvest as was in their power, and the Irish came by night and reaped and carried off the corn befoi-e morning. ^ The king, as soon as he was master of Bristol, fitted out and sent some shipping to guard the coast, which was not only infested by the AVexford privateers, but by the parliament ships, which intercepted vessels coming from Wales and England with provisions to Dublin, and terrified others from adven- turing. He had by his instances at the court of France (with which lie was very well since the death of the car- dinal de Richelieu) obtained a jiromise that no supplies should be sent from that kingdom to the rebels, and got a ship coming from Holland with provisions, and carried into Calais, released, and sent to Dublin : but he was not able to supply the want of money. Owen O'Neile, with five thousand foot and seven hundred good horse'\ pos- sessed himself of all the corn from the county of Cavan to the barony of Slane, which was intended for the sub- sistence of lord JNloorc's, sir H. Tichburne's, and colonel Crawford's regiments that lay in garrison at Drogheda, Dundalk, and the neighbouring castles, which were ready y F. 93, 95, 1 13, and 117. z Ibid. 133. a Letter of lords justices, Aug. 27. F. 152 and 198. ^ Lord Moore's letter, Sept. i. and F. 170, 174, 177, 178. — 4^2. Distress of the state. (1643.) ^^^ to be deserted through want : and being joined by sir James Dillon's forces, took the castles of Killelan, Bal- rath, Ballibeg, Beeklifte, Balsonne, and Ardsallagh, and besieged Atliboy, intending to take in all the garrisons of Meath, in some of which he had taken and disarmed several of the English companies. 482 The state had not strength to oppose so numerous an 449 army, and so well provided, which might also be easily joined by Preston, \\\\o was with a body of six thousand men in another part of the country, whence he could easily reinforce O'Neile upon occasion. They '^had sent orders in July for two thousand two hundred foot and three hundred and sixty horse to be sent out of Ulster towards Connaught upon an expedition then in view ; and of these they desired only five hundred Scotch foot, and one hundred and twenty of those horse which were ap- pointed to attend the Scots : but Monroe had perempto- rily refused to let any of them march, pretending to an independent command over all the forces of Ulster, though not warranted by the articles of the treaty with the Scotch commissioners ; by which that army might be called out of Ulster upon any occasion of service. They^ sent colonel Crawford to that general in the beginning of September, to second their renewed instances for him to advance with his forces to favour lord Moore as he marched to oppose Owen O'Neile ; but he pretending to attack Cliarlemont, and that none could be spared from that service, denied to march himself, or to send them any of his forces. They were forced in this distress to recall colonel Moncke out of the county of Wicklow, where he had taken possession of Bray and Newcastle. Lord Moore being reinforced by Moncke's party, ad- c Letter of lords justices to sir E.Nicholas, Aug. 16, and answer to Monroe, Aug. 1 1 . 'I Monroe's and Crawford's letters, Sept. 9 and 1 1 , and the latter's instruction. F. 221. 520 The treaty renewed. III. 482 — vanced towards the enemy, who quitting the siege of Athboy, posted themselves very advantageously at Port- lesterford upon the Black-water, O'Neile had put a ca})tain with sixty men into a place called the earl's milne, at some distance from the ford, and thrown up a breastwork before the door of the milne. Tliis place was attacked, on Sept. 12, by a party of lord jMoore's forces, but in vain, O'Neile's cannon playing on them during all the time of the attack. There was no great loss on either side, only lord INIoore being with a party of horse upon an eminence above the milne, giving directions for the assault, was killed by a cannon-ball shot at random, which, after grazing several times, struck him and lodged in his body. The army, after this loss, moved the next day to- wards the Nobber, not being able to subsist abroad with- out a fresh supply of bread from Dublin, Mliich was left so weak, that Preston made incursions within two miles of the city ; and the lord Castlehaven having taken pos- session of the places which Moncke had quitted in Wick- low, garrisoned Tymolin, jNIaddinstown, and Kildare, and reduced Dulerstown, Tully, Lacagh, and other castles in the county of Kildare, between the Barrow and the Liffy, scarce any of them making resistance, or standing so much as one cannon-shot. His farther progress was stopped by advice of the conclusion of the cessation. 483 It being necessary to renew that treaty, the lords jus- tices% on Aug. 5, sent notice to the Irish commissioners to meet on the 17th at Sigginstown, near the Naas, for that purpose. The lord Gormanston died on July 29. Lord Muskery was in IMunster, sir Lucas Dillon in the county of Galway, and others of the commissioners dis- persed in different places; so that only three of them were at Kilkenny, who desired the meeting might be put off till the last of the month, to allow time for them all to come together. This was a very inconvenient delay f" F. 94, I i?,j 206. -484. The treaip renewed. (1643.) 521 on account of the distress of the king's forces, particu- larly of those under lord Inchiquin, who pressed the marquis of Ormond ^to hasten the day, and not protract it longer in expectation of a formal commission ; for though they should not fully agree, yet he durst under- take the meeting would conduce to the preservation, if not of the whole, yet of a good part of the kingdom, and the settlement of many things tending to his majesty's advantage : so that, if his lordship in his own wisdom did not know some reason of more weight than the loss of 450 the Munster army, and of the province which depended thereon, he desired his advice to be followed, and himself with some of his officers to be commanded to attend him at the place of meeting; adding, that if he did not hear from his lordship in eight days, he must be forced to some desperate attempt, which Mould either undo himself or the enemy. The lords justices, finding that the treaty could not possibly begin till the 26th, sent an order to lord Inchiquin to conclude a particular cessation for that province, and to the earl of Clanrickard to do the like for Connaught. Lord Muskery and the commanders of the Irish forces in INIunster readily agreed to lord Inchiquin's motion, but lord Clanrickard's was rejected by lieutenant general Bourke, who then lay with an army before Castle-Coote, and was in hopes of reducing the place before a cessation was concluded, though he was disap- pointed therein by the brave defence of the garrison. 484 The commission, empowering the marquis of Ormond to conclude a cessation, did not pass the great seal of Ireland till Aug. 31, but the treaty began on the 26th. The Irish commissioners (who were the same as before, only sir R, Barnewall and INIr. Nicholas Pluncket were added, in the room of lord Gormanston) gave in their reply to the marquis's answer to their former proposi- tions, receded from their demand of a dissolution of the f" See his letter of Aug. 17. F. 132. VOL. II. M m 522 The treaty renewed. III. 484- present parliament, and shewed themselves very com- pliant in the other particulars : so that the treaty would have been finished in a week, had it not been for the dif- ficulties which arose about settling the quarters of both parties. The marquis of Orniond, without proposing it directly, sounded them upon the subject of a temporary cessation of all hostilities during the treaty, but they did not seem inclined to agree thereto. But after they had spent some days in disputes about the quarters, alleging, that more time was lost therein than they could have imagined, they, on Sept. 7, proposed a temporary cessa- tion for Leinster to commence from that day. The mar- quis was in his own judgment for agreeing to it, but would not determine till he had consulted the lords jus- tices and council. The Irish abstained from hostilities for two or three days till their answer came, which was express for rejecting it. Their reasons for it were grounded on a notion that the enemy would thereupon send all their forces into Connaught, and reduce the few castles left in that province, and on an expectation of colonel Crawford's prevailing with Monroe to enter the county of Cavan with his forces, whilst lord JNIoore fell upon the neighbouring parts of Meatli. But INIonroe refusing his help, the rejecting of that motion proved very unhappy, and allowed the enemy to extend their quarters considerably in the counties of ISIeath, Kildare, and Wicklow. 485 When the quarters of both parties were settled, the affair of the supply came into debate. The Irish offered thirty thousand pounds, the one moiety thereof in money, the other in beeves, five thousand pounds to be paid within one month after the cessation, five thousand pounds more in the month next following, the like sum in two months after, another five thousand pounds by the end of February, and the remaining ten thousand pounds by the end of INIay next following. The marquis — 4^6. The cessation concluded. (1643.) ^^^ would have got from tliem a larger sum, and have hast- ened the times of payment; but the othei*s pretending that they had offered to the utmost of their ability, and that they could neither raise more nor pay it sooner, this was accepted ; as was the eight hundred pounds which they offered in lieu of the fourth sheaf due from places under the protection of English garrisons, but in the possession of the Irish. 486 When all the articles of it were settled, the marquis of Ormond, who had with him the lords Clanrickard, Roscommon, Dungarvan, Brabazon, and Inchiquin, with several of the principal officers of the army, and some members of the privy council to assist in the whole course of the treaty, laid them before those noble persons of 451 honour and command, desiring their opinion thereof. They, considering the insupportable wants and miseries of the army, the great distress of many of his majesty's principal forts, the imminent danger of the whole king- dom, and the impossibility of prosecuting the war with- out large supplies, whereof they could not apprehend either hope or possibility in due time, did for those rea- sons conceive it necessary for his majesty's honour and service that the cessation should be agreed to upon the articles then drawn up and perfected. They subscribed a spaper expressing this their opinion, and the same day (Sept. 15) the marquis of Ormond and the Irish commis- sioners signed the instrument of the cessation, w^hich, being ratified by the lords justices and council, was noti- fied by a public proclamation to the whole kingdom. S See Collection of Letters, No. CLXXII. END OF VOL. II. K- '-,'•■• •■•st '*• ■f*,)'' ■'I •■ ■i' *7,,- ■,-' ,/. T* ■ ^ ■ t*- 7 f^'V.;-- ►• ^.. ' ftN., '\:'.' >>'^i , fj- .- u , - IK^V. ■ ■-"■■ r-f ;■; DATE DUE MI^R' > '■ \ -'■ ■ ' > JUN 2197S CAYLORO PRINTeO IN U.S.A. t'.'- 'i V : >■ -■1 "<■ ■, NIVERSITY OF CA , RIVERSIDE LIBRARY 3 1210 01074 53