 |
 |
 |
CHAPTER XVIII.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
In the years immediately
following on the plantation of Ulster three other plantations, in North Wexford
(1610-20), Longford and Ely O’Carroll (1615-20), Leitrim and the midland districts along the Shannon (1620),
comprising nearly half a million acres of land, were taken in hand. But, though
not one of these could be regarded as even moderately successful, and though
the market price of land in Ulster averaged not more than £50 for a thousand
acres, such were still the fortunes to be made in land-jobbing that it seemed
as if the natural boundaries of Ireland could alone set a limit to the craving
for Irish land. It was indeed an age of planters and plantation projects; and
the philosophical reasoning of Bacon was hardly required to convince men
willing to risk their lives and fortunes in trying to effect a settlement in
Virginia or on the inhospitable coasts of Newfoundland that they would find a
more remunerative sphere for their labors nearer home, and would at the same
time render the State signal service by spreading order and civility among the
Irish. For Ireland it was unfortunate that the former consideration largely
outweighed the latter. The whole aspect of affairs had changed entirely since
the days when Henry VIII had proposed to win Ireland by “sober ways, political drifts,
and amiable persuasions”. For this alteration the Irish had themselves been
largely to blame. Their inability or unwillingness to accommodate themselves to
English ideas, their repeated rebellions and intrigues with foreign Powers, had
exhausted the patience of English statesmen and forced them, at first more in
self-defence than from any other reason, to adopt a policy of extirpation and
plantation.
But, with whatever feeling of satisfaction the plantation policy might be regarded in England as offering a hopeful solution of the Irish problem, in Ireland it provoked widespread indignation, not merely on the part of those on whose ruin it was based, but amongst those whose loyalty to the English Crown had never been called seriously in question. To the old settlers of Anglo-Norman origin the new plantations constituted a grave political danger. Notwithstanding their loyalty they had long been feeling dissatisfied with their position. More than once they had formally protested against the unconstitutional methods of the Irish Government, and had insisted on the recognition of their rights as Englishmen.
James VI & I (1566-1625) King of Scots from 24 July 1567. On 24 March 1603, he became King of England and Ireland as James I. He succeeded his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been compelled to abdicate in his favour. In 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. James, in line with other monarchs of England of the time, also claimed the title King of France, although he did not actually rule France |
 |
Unfortunately for the favorable
consideration of their demands and the development of constitutional government
they were almost to a man Roman Catholics. Their hopes that with the accession
of James I their position would undergo a change for the better had been
disappointed; and, as the determination of Government to enforce the Act of
Uniformity became unmistakable, they could not close their eyes to the danger
that menaced them through the ever-rising tide of Protestant immigration. As
symptomatic of the change that had come over them, it was noticed by a
contemporary writer that whereas “until of late, the old English race, as well
in the Pale as in other parts of the kingdom, despised the mere Irish,
accounting them a barbarous people void of civility and religion”, now “the
slaughters and rivers of bloodshed between them are forgotten”, “and, lastly,
their union is such, as not only the old English dispersed abroad in all parts
of the realm, but the inhabitants of the Pale, cities and towns are as apt to
take arms against us (which no precedent time hath ever seen) as the ancient
Irish”. A common religious belief has furnished the cement to many strange
alliances; and in Ireland, where religion was becoming more and more the
touchstone of national life, it was little wonder if, in face of the danger
menacing them, the gentry of the Pale should have thought their only chance of
safety lay in a union with the native element. Whether the bond of religion
would prove strong enough to withstand the dissolving influences of social and
racial differences, it was for the future to decide.
It is significant of that strange antithesis between respect for the
letter of the law and indifference to its spirit, which ever and again shows
itself in the history of the English rule in Ireland, that, after wresting six
entire counties from the Irish by more or less equivocal methods, the
Government of James I should have thought it necessary to secure the assent of
Parliament to its proceedings. Still, if it had been merely a question of
obtaining a parliamentary confirmation of the plantation, precedents were not
wanting from Elizabeth’s reign to show that it might have been accomplished
without resorting to any methods that went beyond the constitution. But the
known intention of the Government to propose fresh measures of penal
legislation against the Catholics, and the natural apprehension that the
opportunity would be seized to use the plantation for securing a Protestant
majority in Parliament, forced the gentry of the Pale into a position of
extreme hostility to the Crown, when its intention of exercising its right to
create some forty new boroughs became known. In itself there was indeed nothing
very outrageous in this exercise of the royal prerogative; and, if some of the
newly-created boroughs were hardly to be found on the map, there was in this
respect, as James shrewdly remarked, no very great difference between them and
many of the older ones. The real objection was of course that they were merely
Government pocket-boroughs.
In announcing (November, 1611) the King’s intention to summon a Parliament, Chichester, with an appearance of the utmost candor, invited the nobility of the Pale to confer with one another as to the measures they thought necessary to pass for the benefit of the country.
Poynings' Law, it was initiated by Sir Edward Poynings in the Irish Parliament at Drogheda in 1494. In his position as Viceroy to Ireland and Lord-Deputy, as appointed by King Henry VII of England, coming in the aftermath of the divisive Wars of the Roses, assembling the Parliament on 1 December 1494, he declared that the Parliament of Ireland was thereafter to be placed under the authority of the Parliament of England. The Act remained in place until the Constitution of 1782 gave the Irish parliament legislative independence. |
This they refused to do, urging their right, according to a doubtful interpretation of a clause in Poynings’ Act, to be made acquainted as part of the Council of the realm with the measures intended to be passed in Parliament. But, finding Chichester absolutely determined not to admit their claim and confirmed in their worst anticipations of further penal legislation by the public execution or martyrdom, in February, 1612, of Cornelius O’Devany, Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, they addressed in November a strong remonstrance to the King.
O'Dovany, or O'Devany, Cornelius, embraced the rule of St. Francis in his youth, and was consecrated Bishop 27th April 1582. He was imprisoned in Dublin Castle for some three years preceding 1590, being obliged at times to keep himself alive by drawing up crusts of bread through a hole in the floor from other prisoners confined beneath him. After being at liberty for several years, he was again arrested in June 1611, on the charge of having assisted Hugh O'Neill with his counsel during his wars, and aided him in his flight to the Continent. In the face of a strong alibi, and the provisions of a recent Act of oblivion, he was sentenced to death, and suffered in company with the Rev. Patrick Locheran, his friend and companion, in a field near Dublin, 1st February 1612. They met their doom with fortitude, and after being half-hanged, were subjected to the barbarities then attendant on executions for high treason. The following night the bodies were dug up from beneath the foot of the gallows, and buried within the precincts of a neighbouring chapel. |
In it
they complained that they had not been consulted by the Deputy as the statute
required, and that the erection of corporations “consisting of some few and
beggarly cottages” could “tend to naught else... but that... penal laws should
be imposed upon your subjects”. No attention was paid to this protest; and in
April, 1613, the elections took place amid great excitement. No sooner had
Parliament met on May 18 and a motion to elect Sir John Davis Speaker been
made, than the long pent-up storm broke loose. On the ground that Davis, having
no residence in county Fermanagh, had been improperly
returned as a knight of that shire, the Opposition insisted on scrutinizing all
elections before proceeding to any other business. But, allowing themselves to
be persuaded to nominate a candidate of their own, and letting their choice
fall on Sir John Everard, the supporters of Sir John
Davis, following English precedent, retired from the chamber to tell their numbers.
During their absence the Opposition declared Everard elected and placed him in the chair. Apprised of what had happened, the
Government party finding themselves in the majority returned in hot haste, and,
having ejected Everard, installed Davis in his place.
Hereupon the Opposition, declining to take further part in the Parliament,
withdrew. Their friends in the Upper House made common cause with them; and Chichester, after vainly trying to effect a compromise,
yielded to their request to allow them to send a deputation to submit their
complaints to the King. In the meantime he prorogued Parliament.
The petition resolved itself into an elaborate attack on Chichester’s administration. It was, as James
confidentially admitted, a specious document; and, though he was convinced that
it was all a piece of Jesuitry, yet, inasmuch as he
was anxious that his Irish subjects should learn “rather to address themselves
to the sovereign by humble petition ...than, after the old fashion of that
country to run out, upon every occasion of discontent, to the bog and wood”, he
thought it advisable to appoint a Commission to investigate their complaints.
How far his impartiality extended was seen from his nominating Chichester head of a Commission. It reported on November 12;
and on April 20, 1614, James read the Irish deputation a severe lecture on
their undutiful and disgraceful behavior. Their charges against Chichester he pronounced wholly unfounded; and all that, as
a matter of grace, he would concede was the temporary disfranchisement of
several boroughs, provided the petitioners consented to sign a formal
instrument of submission.
But the opposition which he had encountered gave James reason to pause;
and when Chichester reopened Parliament in October he
was authorized to announce that the Bill against the Jesuits had been
withdrawn. The concession worked favorably on the Catholics; and under Sir John Everard’s leadership they offered no further
resistance to Government. With their support a subsidy Bill was passed in the
following session, and there was every prospect that with a little goodwill on
both sides a reasonable compromise might have been effected. Unfortunately at
this juncture Parliament was dissolved and Chichester recalled.
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester (1563-1625), Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1604 to 1615. His career in Ireland began when the Earl of Essex appointed him Governor of Carrickfergus in 1598, upon the death of his brother Sir John Chichester. John Chichester had been killed at the Battle of Carrickfergus the previous year. It is said that John Chichester was decapitated, his head being used as a football by the MacDonnell clan after their victory. James Sorley MacDonnell, commander of the clan's forces at the Battle of Carrickfergus, was poisoned in Dunluce Castle on the orders of Robert Cecil to placate Chichester. During the Nine Years' War he commanded crown troops in Ulster. His tactics included a scorched earth policy. He also encircled O'Neill's forces with garrisons, effectively starving the Earl's troops. In a 1600 letter to Cecil he stated "a million swords will not do them so much harm as one winter's famine". While these tactics were not initially devised by Chichester, he carried them out ruthlessly, gaining a hate-figure status among the Irish. In 1604 he succeeded Lord Mountjoy as Lord Deputy of Ireland. A year later he married Lettice Perrot. She was the daughter of John Perrot, a former Lord Deputy of Ireland. They had one child the following year, who died in infancy. Lord Deputy Chichester saw Irish Catholicism as a major threat to the crown. He oversaw widespread persecution of Catholics, and ordered the execution of two bishops.
Following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, Chichester was a leading figure during the Plantation of Ulster. Initially he intended that the number of Scottish planters would be small, with native Irish landowners gaining more land. However, after a rebellion in Donegal in 1608, his plans changed and all the native lords lost their land. Most of the land was awarded to wealthy landowners from England and Scotland. However Chichester successfully campaigned to award veterans of the Nine Years' War land as well, funded by the London Livery Companies.
Chichester was instrumental in the founding and expansion of Belfast, now Northern Ireland's capital. In 1611 he built a castle on the site of an earlier 12th century Norman Motte-and-bailey. In 1613 he was given the title Baron Chichester of Belfast. In 1614 ill health led to his retirement. In his final years be built a mansion in Carrickfergus and served as an ambassador to the Habsburg Empire. He died from pleurisy in London in 1625. He was buried seven months later in St Nicholas' Church, Carrickfergus. The barony of Chichester became extinct on his death but was revived the same year in favour of his younger brother Edward. Edward's son was also named Arthur Chichester and was the first Earl of Donegall. The family's influence in Belfast is still evident. Several streets are named in their honour, including Donegall Place, site of the Belfast City Hall and the adjacent Chichester Street. |
1626-34] The “Graces”. Wentworth
appointed Deputy.
Where he had failed, there was little reason to expect that either Sir
Oliver St John (1616-22), or Lord Falkland (1622-9), would prove more
successful, hampered as they were in their anti-Catholic line of policy by
having to regulate their conduct according as the wind blew from Spain or in a
contrary direction, and by the perennial bankruptcy of the Irish treasury. The
time had passed away when the Counter-reformation could be dammed in by shilling
fines for non-attendance at church and futile proclamations for the banishment
of the Catholic clergy. Such proceedings and the constant rummaging of the land
for plantation purposes served only to irritate. Year by year the dissatisfaction
grew; and in 1626 it was more than doubtful whether Government could command
the majority in Parliament which it had possessed ten years earlier. Anyhow,
the experiment was one that Charles preferred, if possible, to avoid. But, with
a war with France likely to be added to that with Spain, it was imperative that
Ireland, which was openly spoken of as the backdoor to England, should be put
in a posture of defence. For this purpose Falkland was authorized (September,
1626) to sound the nobility and gentry as to their willingness, in return for
certain valuable concessions, to undertake on behalf of the country to maintain
an army of 5000 foot and 500 horse. These concessions, known as the “Graces”,
were skillfully contrived so as to appeal to the interests of every class in
the community and were coupled with the promise of a speedy confirmation by
Parliament. To the Catholic landowner in Connaught (map) in particular, whom fear of
a plantation kept in a constant state of anxiety, the offer of the Crown to
accept sixty years’ possession as a bar to all claims came as a special boon.
Nevertheless, so general was the repugnance to this extra-parliamentary method
of taxation that the agents representing the landed gentry only with the
greatest difficulty could be induced (May, 1628) to bind the country to
contribute £120,000, to be spread over three years, and to be deducted from
whatever subsidies might be granted by Parliament. The contribution began at
once; and Falkland in fulfillment of his part of the transaction made
preparations for calling a Parliament. But whether Charles deliberately meant
to cheat the nation, or whether, as seems more likely, his courage to confront
the difficulties of the situation evaporated, time went by, and no Parliament
was summoned. In 1629 Falkland was recalled. By reducing the army one-half and
by exercising the strictest economy his successors, the Lords Justices Loftus
and Cork, managed to spread the contribution over four years. The neglect to
call a Parliament was, however, an irreparable blunder, not merely because it
rendered such contributions precarious in the future, but chiefly because, by
weakening the general confidence in the sincerity of Government, it created a
situation of which the Jesuits were not slow to take advantage. Indeed the only
interest which the period possesses is that which attaches to the extraordinary
progress made in it by Roman Catholicism. The fact is bewailed in nearly every
State-paper of the time; but, beyond knocking down a few mass-houses and
digging up St Patrick's purgatory, the Lords Justices could suggest no means of
counteracting it. Without the courage, and perhaps the will, to take the only
step that promised safety they looked on helplessly, while the country drifted
into anarchy.
Charles I (11600-1649) second son of James VI of Scots and I of England. King from 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles believed was divinely ordained. Many of his English subjects opposed his actions, in particular his interference in the English and Scottish Churches and the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent which grew to be seen as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His failure to successfully aid Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War, coupled with such actions as marrying a Catholic princess, generated deep mistrust concerning the king's dogma. Charles further allied himself with controversial religious figures, such as the ecclesiastic Richard Montagu, and William Laud, whom Charles appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Many of Charles' subjects felt this brought the Church of England too close to the Catholic Church. Charles' later attempts to force religious reforms upon Scotland led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish Parliaments and helped precipitate the king's downfall. Charles' last years were marked by the English Civil War, in which he fought the forces of the English and Scottish Parliaments, which challenged the king's attempts to overrule and negate Parliamentary authority, whilst simultaneously using his position as head of the English Church to pursue religious policies which generated the antipathy of reformed groups such as the Puritans. Charles was defeated in the First Civil War (1642–45), after which Parliament expected him to accept its demands for a constitutional monarchy. He instead remained defiant by attempting to forge an alliance with Scotland and escaping to the Isle of Wight. This provoked the Second Civil War (1648–49) and a second defeat for Charles, who was subsequently captured, tried, convicted, and executed for high treason. The monarchy was then abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England, also referred to as the Cromwellian Interregnum, was declared. Charles I was canonised as Saint Charles Stuart and King Charles the Martyr by the Church of England and is venerated throughout the Anglican Communion. |
Such was the situation of affairs in January, 1632, when Charles
announced the appointment of a new Deputy. More than a year and a half elapsed
before Wentworth landed at Ringsend; but his
influence had long before then made itself felt in the affairs of the country.
With the single object before him of making Ireland a source of strength to the
Crown instead of one of weakness, as it had hitherto been, he succeeded, by
alternately playing on the fears and hopes of the Catholic party and flattering
the loyalty of the Protestants, in obtaining a prolongation of the contribution
for two years. Thus he secured for himself breathing-space in which to develop
his policy. Starting with the axiom that a prosperous people is also a loyal
people, Wentworth bent all his energies to the development of the natural
resources of Ireland. And it must be said for him that, if in trying to
accomplish his purpose he spared no one who ventured to oppose him, neither did
he spare himself. His eye was everywhere. If the exportation and manufacture of
wool had to be discouraged as detrimental to the staple trade of England, he,
by way of compensation, personally superintended the development of the linen
industry, and insisted on a free export of hides and tallow. He arranged the
details of a commercial treaty with Spain, calculated to encourage the fishing
industry; he brought over experts to explore the mineral resources of the
country; laid down stringent regulations for the preservation of the rapidly
disappearing forests; exerted himself to improve the breed of cattle; cleared
the narrow seas of the pirates that infested them and rendered commerce
insecure; and, by buying out all private interests detrimental to the Crown,
succeeded in more than doubling the revenue of the State. Knowing the value of
order and decorum in public life, he insisted on a strict observance of Court
etiquette; repaired Dublin Castle; cleared out the wine-vaults under Christ
Church; and by his own example infused a spirit of emulation in the army which
shortly raised it to the highest pitch of efficiency. For the rest, he was
content to bide his time. What he could do to realize his friend Laud’s wishes
in the matter of ecclesiastical uniformity and discipline by pressure on the
episcopacy, and to restore dignity to the Church by the recovery of its
property, he did. But it was no part of his policy to irritate the Catholics by
fining them for non-attendance at church when, as was too often the case, there
was no church for them to attend. Doubtless he made many enemies by his policy
of “thorough”; but in his struggle with Cork, Wilmot, Mountnorris,
Crosby, and the rest, we cannot deny him a certain measure of sympathy. Under
his controlling hand Ireland emerged from the state of anarchy into which she
had drifted, and, feeling confident of his ability to steer an independent
course, he obtained Charles’ reluctant consent to risk a Parliament.
The event more than answered his expectations. Parliament met on July
14, 1664. It was the most splendid scene Dublin had ever witnessed. In his
opening speech Wentworth announced the King’s intention to hold two sessions,
the one for himself, the other for the benefit of his subjects. The proposal to
separate grievances from supply was agreeable to neither Catholics nor
Protestants; but so evenly balanced were they that, as Wentworth put the case,
neither party would allow the other to rob it of applying the whole grace of
His Majesty’s thanks to itself. Hence, when the motion for supply was made,
both “did with one voice assent to the giving of six subsidies to be paid in
four years”. But, if the Commons ever imagined that their loyalty would be rewarded
by a candid confirmation of the long-promised Graces, they were speedily
disabused of the idea. There was nothing on which Wentworth depended more for
an improvement of the revenue than a new plantation and a strict revision of
the old ones. He was therefore determined at any cost to prevent the
confirmation of any Grace which threatened to cross his purpose, and
particularly of that which accepted sixty years’ possession as a bar to all
claims on the part of the Crown. To this end he divided the Graces into three
classes : viz. those which he thought not fit to be granted, those which might
be continued by way of instruction, and those proper to be passed into laws. By
neglecting, as by Poynings’ Law he was able to do, to
transmit any except those in the last class, he transferred all responsibility
in the matter from the Crown to himself and the Irish Council.
When Parliament reassembled in
November the indignation of the Catholics knew no bounds, and finding
themselves accidentally in the majority, they rejected without consideration
all and every measure submitted to them. For a moment Wentworth thought of
adjourning Parliament; but the Protestants came to his rescue and enabled him to
bring the session to a satisfactory conclusion. For the next four years his
course was clear; and with characteristic energy he at once took up his
plantation project.
Hitherto, however they might have answered their purpose of substituting
a British for a native proprietary, the plantations had proved singularly
unprofitable to the Crown. Not only had vastly more land, for which they of
course paid no rent, been passed to the undertakers than was set out in their
patents, but their eager haste to turn their estates to immediate profit had
led to such a general breach of the conditions of plantation as constituted a
serious danger to the State. So notoriously was this the case in regard to the
London Society that in 1632 the Star Chamber had ordered the suspension of its
charter and the sequestration of its rents. Though not responsible for this
step, Wentworth fully approved it; and, on the confiscation of the Society’s
Charter in 1635, he suggested the conversion of its estates into an appanage for the Duke of York. But the Londoners were not
the only offenders; and, though it was impossible to deal with private
individuals in the same drastic fashion without imperiling the whole
settlement, the Commission for the remedy of defective titles was admirably
contrived to make them pay handsomely for their defaults and at the same time
to teach them a salutary lesson for the future. As for the plantations which he
intended himself to set on foot in Connaught and elsewhere, though
inconsiderable in comparison with those already established, he hoped, by a
stricter admeasurement of land and by making estates only in capite, to render them not less
profitable to the Crown, and by at the same time restricting them to English
undertakers, to create a counterpoise to the Scottish settlers in the north.
For himself, he was perfectly convinced of the validity of the Crown’s title to
the lands he intended to plant; but, wishing to give an air of legality, not to
say of beneficence, to his proceedings by eliciting a voluntary recognition
from the reputed landowners in question, he was enraged beyond measure when the
jurors of Galway county, declining to follow the lead of those of Roscommon, Sligo, and Mayo, refused to find a title for the King. It
was a comparatively easy matter to punish them in the Court of Castle Chamber
and by an order in the Court of Exchequer to procure a reversal of their
verdict; but all this required time, and, before things could again be brought
into order, his attention was absorbed by more important matters.
New plantations. The
Scottish Rebellion. [1637-40
 |
The little cloud which had been gathering over Edinburgh in the summer
of 1637 had spread with such alarming rapidity as at the beginning of the
following year to cast its shadow over Ireland also. From Scotland the
contagion of the Covenant had spread to Ulster, and, faster than either he or
his chief ecclesiastical agent, Bishop Bramhall, was
aware, the country was slipping out of his control. As the prospect of war between
England and Scotland grew more certain, and it became necessary to reckon up
his resources, Charles was unreasonably annoyed when reminded that the Irish
army barely sufficed to guarantee order in Ireland itself; and, while accepting
the Deputy’s offer of 500 men to garrison Carlisle, he could not avoid
contrasting the scanty help thus furnished him with the recent magnificent
promise of the Earl of Antrim to attack Argyll in his own country with 10,000
men. It was ever Charles’ misfortune to be unable to look facts fairly in the
face; and, finding it impossible to convince him that Antrim’s offer was merely
intended as a “handsome compliment”, Wentworth moved the bulk of the army to Carrickfergus, by way of giving what countenance he could
to the project.
The Treaty of Berwick (also known as the Peace of Berwick or the Pacification of Berwick) was signed on 18 June 1639 between England and Scotland. Archibald Johnston was involved in the negotiations before King Charles was forced to sign the treaty. The agreement, overall, officially ended the First Bishops' War even though both sides saw it only as a temporary truce. After the treaty was signed, King Charles immediately began to gather the resources he needed in order to strengthen his armies. At the beginning of the Second Bishops' War, the agreement was broken. After a disastrous skirmish at Kelso between the English advance guard and the Scottish Covenanter Army, the Earl of Holland fled back to the king’s headquarters at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The Earl of Antrim failed to establish negotiations in order to bring the Irish army over. This, along with the unsuccessful English naval campaign at Hamilton, meant that Charles was forced to sign a truce. He conceded to the Scots the right to a free church assembly and a free parliament. These rights were asserted (with the right to keep the existing legal structure instead of a separate parliament) along with the extension to Scotland of The Bill of Rights (which set out the conditions and powers of a monarch) in the Treaty of Union, 1707, which united England and Wales with Scotland. |
The Treaty of Berwick afforded a slight breathing-space; and, the Deputy’s quarrel with Lord Chancellor Loftus having brought him to London in September, 1639, Charles eagerly turned to him for advice. Wentworth’s remedy was a Parliament. He remembered how, when everybody had predicted failure, he had been splendidly successful in Ireland in 1634. Let Charles follow his example: he was convinced that no Englishman would refuse money for driving the Scots out. To hearten the experiment he would himself hold a Parliament in Ireland; of the result there could be no doubt. How little he knew his own countrymen was soon to appear; but so far as Ireland was concerned his experiment was crowned with success. He returned to Dublin Earl of Stafford. Parliament was already in session. On March 23, 1640, the Commons with one voice voted four subsidies, or £180,000. Never had such a scene of unanimity been witnessed; hats were thrown in the air and assurances given that if more money was wanted more would be forthcoming, even if they left themselves nothing but hose and doublet.
Christopher Wandesford (1592 – 1640), Lord Deputy of Ireland, |
 |
Overjoyed at his victory,
Strafford, after appointing Sir Christopher Wandesforde his deputy and leaving instructions with the Earl of Ormonde to add 8000 men to
the army, hastened back to England. He had calculated that the example of the
Irish Parliament would find imitation in England; he had not considered that
the conduct of the English Parliament might cause a reaction in Ireland. But it
was no sooner evident that the day of his power was over than the Commons of
Ireland joined with their brethren in England to bring the fallen Minister to
justice. To Strafford’s plea of good government they replied with a
remonstrance under fifteen heads, which formed the backbone of his impeachment.
For a time the universal hatred with which he was regarded kept them unanimous.
Pillar after pillar of the building which he had raised with so much care was
thrown to the ground amid general applause. Step by step the country drifted
back into the state of anarchy from which he had rescued it. The Nemesis that
lies in wait for despotism had overtaken the policy of “thorough”. On November
12 Parliament was adjourned to January 26, 1641. During the recess Wandesforde died, and after some wrangling Sir William
Parsons and Sir John Borlase were appointed Lords
Justices. In Parsons the new settlers had obtained a ruler after their own
hearts.
Meanwhile all eyes were directed
to the army, which under Strafford’s instructions Ormonde had raised to nearly
10,000 men. “You have an army in Ireland you may employ here to reduce this
kingdom”, Strafford was reported to have advised Charles. Whether “this kingdom”
meant England or Scotland might be disputed, but there could be no question as
to the deadly insult to public opinion implied in the suggestion. No words can
adequately express the loathing and utter abhorrence which the mere suggestion
of employing Irish soldiers in England excited in the breasts of Englishmen. To
the demand of the English Commons for its instant disbandment Charles returned
an absolute refusal. The fact was that the Irish army was beginning to assume a
new importance to him, as the idea of playing off the Irish Catholics against
the English Parliament took hold of his mind. Granted that he could detach the
Scots from their bond with the Parliament, which was his immediate object, it
would not, he imagined, be impossible by conceding the Graces and by extending
practical toleration to the Catholics to win over the Irish Parliament to his
side. Scotland and Ireland conciliated, the Irish army would materially
strengthen his hands in dealing with the English Parliament. It was therefore
of the utmost importance that it should be kept together. His intentions were
suspected, and being driven to consent to the disbandment of the new levies he
tried a middle way by issuing warrants for their transportation to Spain.
Origin and outbreak of
the Rebellion. [1641
 |
Curiously enough, this step was strongly opposed by both parties in the
Irish Parliament : by the Protestants on the ground that, in case of invasion,
it was extremely dangerous to permit so many Irishmen well acquainted with
every creek and haven in the kingdom to enter the Spanish service; by the
Catholics on the ground that it was the height of madness to allow so many men
to leave the country when its liberties were menaced by English Puritans and
Scottish Presbyterians. The difficulty of finding money to pay their arrears
caused some delay; but towards the end of July this obstacle was overcome, and
the soldiers were already assembling at the ports appointed for their
embarkation, when secret instructions arrived from Charles to the Earls of
Ormonde and Antrim, requiring them to keep the army together, and if possible
to raise its strength to 20,000 men. The message arrived too late; and an
express sent to inform the King of the fact found him at York on his way to
Scotland. From York the order came to get the men together again and hold them
in readiness, if the occasion arose, to declare for the King. The officers in
charge of the disbanded soldiers readily fell in with the plan; and steps were
taken to sound the gentry of the Pale and the leaders of the old Irish as to
their views on the subject.
It was at this point that the
plot, if we may so designate a movement authorized by the King, ran into
another of quite independent origin. We know now, what no one at the time
suspected, that a rebellion had long been brewing in the north, having for its
object the recovery of Ulster and ultimately of Ireland for the Irish, and
depending for its success on support promised by Owen Roe O’Neill, commanding
in the Spanish service in the Low Countries. On him, since definite tidings had
arrived of the death of John O’Neill, commonly called the “Conde de Tirone”, before Monjuich, the mantle of leader had
fallen. Everything had been prepared, and only the opportunity was wanting for
a general rising in Ulster. To Rory O'More, Lord Maguire,
and the other northern conspirators nothing could therefore have happened more
in accordance with their wishes than the chance thus afforded them of
accomplishing their own designs under color of assisting in a quasi-legal plot.
It was the cue of the King’s party to lie quiet and wait instructions; but, as
September drew to a close, a rumor got about that the plot was abandoned, and O’More and Maguire reverted to their old plan.
At a meeting of the conspirators
on October 5 the rising was finally fixed for Saturday the 23rd. The rebellion
broke out simultaneously all over Ulster on the day appointed. The attempt to
capture Dublin failed. Derry, Coleraine, Lisburn, Carrickfergus, Enniskillen escaped; but Dungannon, Charlemont, and Newry were
captured by the rebels. There was no general massacre; but everywhere the
colonists were turned out of house and home, stripped of their possessions, and
too often left without a rag to cover their nakedness. Large numbers perished
of cold, hunger, and ill-treatment; and many, there is no doubt, were butchered
in cold blood; but the great majority managed to escape.
The Rebellion took everyone by surprise, none more so than the quondam
allies of Maguire and O’More. Charles, whose
conscience may perhaps have reproached him for his share in the mischief, and
who was really alarmed when he heard that the rebels were pretending to act by
his authority, was the first to insist on active measures being taken for their
suppression. And, indeed, had Government shown a firm hand, the rebellion might
easily have been confined to Ulster. Munster, Connaught, and Leinster showed at first no signs of rising. The Catholic
gentry of the Pale, though ready enough to countenance any coup d’état which promised to secure them a practical toleration of
their religion, together with a recognition of their proper position in the
State, were by no means anxious to throw themselves into a movement which
seemed likely to be attended with little advantage to themselves and which was
already discredited by its barbarity. Even in Ulster itself the ease with which
the colonists, after they had recovered from their first surprise, were able to
hold their own, was evidence enough that with a little courage the rebellion
might have been crushed in its beginning. Unfortunately the Government was not
prepared to act vigorously. The Lords Justices, who had saved themselves as it
were by a miracle, seemed to have lost their senses entirely. Their first
impulse to trust the Catholic gentry by providing them with arms to defend
themselves yielded to an ill-defined dread lest they might thereby be arming
their enemies. They could think of no action beyond putting Dublin in a state
of defence, concentrating all the available troops in the neighborhood, laying
waste the districts around, and husbanding their resources until their piteous
appeals for help from England were answered. Judging from their conduct it
might have seemed as if they were rather anxious than otherwise to force a
general insurrection. This at any rate was its effect. For, finding themselves
so utterly distrusted and unable to maintain a position of neutrality, the
gentry of the Pale, impelled by their fears and encouraged by the defeat of a
small force detached for the relief of Drogheda and the apparent impossibility
of that town holding out against the forces investing it, finally, in December,
threw in their lot with the northern rebels. In announcing the fact to their friends
in England, the Lords Justices warned them against attaching too much
importance to what they called the defection of “seven Lords of the Pale”. For,
though it might seem to add some reputation to the rebels, they who knew that
their tenants and followers had long before gone over to the rebels knew that
it added no real strength to them. This point they desired to emphasize, lest
the State might be misled into consenting to conditions injurious to His Majesty,
when on the contrary “their discovering of themselves now will render advantage
to His Majesty 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”. As
the event proved, the Lords Justices erred greatly in their forecast of the
probable consequences of the defection of the Pale; but their suggestion of a
new plantation did not miss its calculated effect.
O'Neill was the son of Art O'Neill, a younger brother of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone (the Great O'Neill), who held lands in County Armagh. As a young man he left Ireland, one of the ninety-nine involved in the Flight of the Earls escaping the English conquest of his native Ulster. He grew up in the Spanish Netherlands and spent 40 years serving in the Irish regiment of the Spanish army. He saw most of his combat in the Eighty Years' War against the Dutch Republic in Flanders, notably at the siege of Arras, where he commanded the Spanish garrison. He also distinguished himself in the Franco-Spanish war by holding out for 48 days with 2,000 men against a French army of 35,000. O'Neill was, like many Gaelic Irish officers in the Spanish service, very hostile to the English Protestant presence in Ireland. In 1627, he was involved in petitioning the Spanish monarchy to invade Ireland using the Irish Spanish regiments. O'Neill proposed that Ireland be made a republic under Spanish protection to avoid in-fighting between Irish Catholic landed families over which of them would provide a prince or king of Ireland. This plot came to nothing. However in 1642, O'Neill returned to Ireland with 300 veterans to aid the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The subsequent war, known as the Irish Confederate Wars, was part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms -civil wars throughout Britain and Ireland. Because of his military experience, O'Neill was recognised on his return to Ireland, at Doe Castle in Donegal (end of July 1642), as the leading representative of the O'Neills and head of the Ulster Irish. Sir Phelim O'Neill resigned the northern command of the Irish rebellion in Owen Roe's favour, and escorted him from Lough Swilly to Charlemont.But jealousy between the kinsmen was complicated by differences between Owen Roe and the Catholic Confederation which met at Kilkenny in October 1642. Owen Roe professed to be acting in the interest of Charles I; but his real aim was the complete Independence of Ireland as a Roman Catholic country, while the Old English Catholics represented by the council desired to secure religious liberty and an Irish constitution under the crown of England. More concretely, O'Neill wanted the Plantation of Ulster overturned and the recovery of the O'Neill clan's ancestral lands. Moreover, he was unhappy that the majority of Confederate military resources were directed to Thomas Preston's Leinster Army. Preston was also a Spanish veteran but he and O'Neill had an intense personal dislike of each other. Although Owen Roe O'Neill was a competent general, he was outnumbered by the Scottish Covenanter army that had landed in Ulster in 1642. Following a reverse at Clones, O'Neill had to abandon central Ulster and was followed by thousands of refugees, fleeing the retribution of the Scottish soldiers for some atrocities against Protestants in the rebellion of 1641. O'Neill complained that the devastation of Ulster made it look, "not only like a desert, but like hell, if hell could exist on earth". O'Neill did his best to stop the killings of Protestant civilians, for which he received the gratitude of many Protestant settlers. From 1642-46 a stalemate existed in Ulster, which O'Neill used to train and discipline his Ulster Army. This poorly supplied force nevertheless gained a very bad reputation for plundering and robbing friendly civilians around its quarters in northern Leinster and southern Ulster. In 1646 O'Neill, furnished with supplies by the Papal Nuncio, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, attacked the Scottish Covenanter army under Major-General Robert Monro, who had landed in Ireland in April 1642. On 5 June 1646 O'Neill utterly routed Monro at the Battle of Benburb,[1] on the Blackwater killing or capturing up to 3000 Scots. However after being summoned to the south by Rinuccini, he failed to take advantage of the victory, and allowed Monro to remain unmolested at Carrickfergus. In March 1646 a treaty was signed between Ormonde and the Catholics, which would have committed the Catholics to sending troops to aid the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. The peace terms however, were rejected by a majority of the Irish Catholic military leaders and the Catholic clergy including the Nuncio, Rinuccini. O'Neill led his Ulster army, along with Thomas Preston's Leinster army, in a failed attempt to take Dublin from Ormonde. However, the Irish Confederates suffered heavy military defeats the following year at the hands of Parliamentarian forces in Ireland at Dungans Hill and Knocknanauss, leading to a moderation of their demands and a new peace deal with the Royalists. This time O'Neill was alone among the Irish generals in rejecting the peace deal and found himself isolated by the departure of the papal nuncio from Ireland in February 1649. So alienated was O'Neill by the terms of the peace the Confederates had made with Ormonde that he refused to join the Catholic/Royalist coalition and in 1648 his Ulster army fought with other Irish Catholic armies. He made overtures for alliance to Monck, who was in command of the parliamentarians in the north, to obtain supplies for his forces, and at one stage even tried to make a separate treaty with the English Parliament against the Royalists in Ireland. Failing to obtain any better terms from them, he turned once more to Ormonde and the Catholic confederates, with whom he prepared to co-operate more earnestly when Cromwell's arrival in Ireland in August 1649 brought the Catholic party face to face with serious danger. Before, however, anything was accomplished by this combination, Owen Roe died on 6 November 1649 at Clough Oughter castle in County Cavan. The traditional Irish belief was that he was poisoned by the English, but now some believe it is more likely that he died of disease. Under cover of night he was buried in the Franciscan friary at nearby Cavan town. His death was a major blow to the Irish of Ulster and was kept secret for some time. The Catholic nobles and gentry met in Ulster in March to appoint a commander to succeed Owen Roe O'Neill, and their choice was Heber MacMahon, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher, the chief organizer of the recent Clonmacnoise meeting. O'Neill's Ulster army was unable to prevent the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, despite a successful defence of Clonmel by Owen Roe's nephew Hugh Dubh O'Neill and was destroyed at the Battle of Scarrifholis in Donegal in 1650. Its remnants continued guerrilla warfare until 1653, when they surrendered at Cloughoughter in county Cavan. Most of the survivors were transported to serve in the Spanish Army. |
Measures of the English
Parliament. [1641-2
Meanwhile the rebellion had been seriously occupying the attention of
all parties in England. On the main point all were of one opinion; and, had it
been simply a question between England and Ireland, money and men would have
been speedily forthcoming to gratify the national desire for revenge. In the
first flush of its wrath, the House of Commons voted that 10,000 foot and 2000
horse should forthwith be raised for its suppression and that the offer of
Scottish assistance should be accepted. Gradually cooler counsels prevailed.
The more the leaders of the parliamentary party came to know of Charles’ intrigues,
the more they were convinced that the Irish rebellion was only part of the
general problem they were trying to solve. To place a victorious army in
Charles’ hands was merely to fashion an instrument for their own destruction :
until security was obtained on this point nothing of importance could be done.
Towards the end of December Sir Simon Harcourt arrived at Dublin with 1500 men;
in February, 1642, Sir Richard Grenville brought 1500 foot and 400 horse to the
relief of the President of Munster; in April Robert Munro reached Carrickfergus with 2500 Scots. These forces, and a
contribution of £37,000, were the whole of the aid furnished to the Government
of Ireland during the first six months of the Rebellion. Meanwhile, however, no
opportunity was neglected of exasperating public opinion against the Irish, so
as to render a reconciliation between them and Charles impossible. On December
8, 1641, it was resolved that the King should be asked to declare that he would
never consent to a toleration of the popish religion in Ireland. On February 24
following, the Lords and Commons voted that, as several million acres of “profitable
lands” in Ireland were calculated to have been rendered liable to confiscation
by the Rebellion, the proposal of “divers worthy and well-affected persons” should
be accepted for raising £1,000,000 by the sale of “two millions and a half of
these acres, to be equally taken out of the four provinces of that kingdom” in
the proportion for each adventure of £200, £300, £450, and £600 of one thousand
acres in Ulster, Connaught, Munster, and Leinster respectively. On March 19 Charles was forced to give his consent to this atrocious
scheme of national robbery. With these two Acts the English Parliament closed
the door against any hope of reconciliation.
 |
In Ireland, matters were not progressing favorably for the rebels. In
March their lack of artillery compelled them to raise the siege of Drogheda; a
month later the Earl of Ormonde inflicted a crushing defeat on them at Kilrush; in May they were driven out of Newry.
These and other disasters, though in a measure counterbalanced by the rapid
extension of the rebellion, did not fail to exercise a depressing influence on
the gentry of the Pale; and after the retreat of the northern rebels from
Drogheda they made a desperate effort to extract themselves from the critical
position into which their fears had driven them. But the Lords Justices, whom
success and the prospect of confiscation rendered pitiless, not only rejected
every overture for a compromise, but endeavored by every means within their
power to prevent any such offers from reaching the King. Orders were issued
that no quarter should be given to any rebel found in arms, and that the
commanders of garrisons should not grant protection to the Irish, or enter into
any treaty with them on any pretext whatever, but prosecute them from place to
place with fire and sword.
 |
Finding the door of mercy thus resolutely closed upon them and the
Government bent on a war of extirpation, the gentry of the Pale took steps in
May to organize their resistance by appointing a Supreme Council of Nine to act
as a provisional government, pending the meeting of a General Assembly to
represent the nation at Kilkenny. Help for them was
already on the way. In July Owen Roe O'Neill arrived in Lough Swilly with a hundred veterans and considerable supplies of
arms and ammunition, and almost at the same time Thomas Preston and five
hundred men with artillery and other stores of war landed at Wexford. With
their arrival the rebellion passed out of the stage of sporadic insurrection
into that of regular warfare. On October 24 (1642), the day after the battle of Edgehill, the General Assembly of the Confederated
Catholics met at Kilkenny. It was virtually a
parliament of the Irish nation. But, regarding themselves as a merely
provisional assembly brought together under exceptional circumstances to devise
means for protecting themselves until His Majesty could take measures for their
preservation, the Confederates confined themselves to providing for the
administration of justice, the assessment of taxes, and the organization of
their military strength. The Supreme Council was reconstituted to consist of
twenty-four members, of whom twelve were to reside constantly at Kilkenny, or wherever they should judge most expedient, to
form a central and permanent government for the management of all affairs civil
and military. For the administration of local justice and carrying out the
behests of the Supreme Council, each county was provided with a separate
Council consisting of one or two deputies from each barony, and each province
with a provincial Council consisting of two deputies out of each county. For
military purposes each province was assigned its own army under its own chief
commander O'Neill in Ulster, Preston in Leinster,
Garret Barry in Munster, and John Bourke in Connaught. The form of government
having been thus settled and agents appointed to plead their cause at the
principal Courts in Europe, the General Assembly addressed two petitions, the
one to the King, explaining the reasons which had forced them to take up arms,
protesting their loyalty, and requesting permission to submit their grievances
to him; the other to the Queen, entreating her intercession with the King.
 |
To Charles it would have been extremely satisfactory, if by coming to
terms with the Confederates he could have set free his army in Ireland to fight
his battles in England. The obstacles to such an agreement appeared, however,
insuperable. For quite apart from the fact that the Confederates were not
likely to recede from their demands for civil and religious liberty, any attempt
to come to terms with the “Irish murderers” was sure to raise a storm in
England and dash his hopes of raising a party in Scotland. Nevertheless, the
deplorable condition of the royal forces in Ireland justified him in pleading
military necessity for trying to obtain a cessation of arms. Influenced by
these considerations, he authorized Ormonde on January 11, 1643, to sound the
Confederates as to the precise nature of their demands, at the same time,
however, privately warning him that he could on no account consent to a
legislated toleration of the Roman Catholic religion, or to any claim for
parliamentary independence, such as a repeal of Poynings’
Law implied.
When the commission was opened at the Council Board, Parsons and others
strenuously opposed the proposal to treat, and, the Confederates taking
exception to the terms of the letter requiring them to appoint agents to submit
their grievances, the Lords Justices, in the hope of breaking off the
negotiations, managed with difficulty to get 1500 men in marching order. This
force they proposed to entrust to the command of Lord Lisle; but Ormonde, who
was tired of submitting to their dictation in military matters, insisted on
commanding himself. On March 18 he won a complete victory over Preston at Ross;
but owing to lack of provisions was compelled to return to Dublin without
reaping the fruits of his success. Meanwhile the Confederates had reconsidered
their position; and on the day before the battle they handed in a statement of
their grievances to the commissioners appointed to receive them. Their demand
for a new Parliament and religious toleration afforded little prospect of a
settlement. Quite apart from the opposition of men like Parsons, it was
generally felt that the concession of a free Parliament at that time would
imperil the entire English interest in the country. Nevertheless, it was clear
to any but the blindest partisan that, with the army on the verge of mutiny and
without a penny in the treasury, nothing but a cessation of hostilities could
save the situation.
1643-4] Cessation of
arms. Irish troops in England.
After his defeat at Ross Preston had rallied his forces, and in May
managed to capture Ballynakill. On June 4 Castlehaven inflicted a crushing defeat on Sir Charles Vavasour in Munster, and a fortnight later Galway Castle
capitulated to Colonel Bourke. Against these successes the Confederates had to
set the defeat of Owen O'Neill by Sir Robert Stewart at Clones; but Stewart had
been unable to improve his victory, and a week or two later O'Neill was as
strong as ever. Each day added to the difficulties of Ormonde’s position. In April Charles had written again, insisting on a cessation, and
Ormonde once more opened negotiations for a truce. But the Confederates, who
were fully alive to the strength of their position, persisted in their demand
for a new Parliament and for a thorough investigation of their grievances.
Unable to offer them any guarantee on these points, Ormonde once more appealed
to the sword. This time, however, Preston avoided giving battle; and Ormonde,
having convinced himself that there was nothing for it but a cessation, availed
himself of new orders that had reached him from Charles in July to reopen
negotiations. The attachment of Parsons and other prominent councilors of his
faction about the same time on a general charge of obstructing the King’s service
rendered his task easier; and on September 15 a cessation for twelve months was
concluded in order to enable the Confederates to submit their case personally
to Charles, and, as it was hoped, to arrange a permanent settlement with him.
Murrough McDermod O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin and 6th Baron Inchiquin (1614–1674), known as Murchadh na atoithean ("of the conflagrations"). O'Brien studied war in the Spanish service and fought against the confederate Catholics on the outbreak of the Irish rebellion. |
 |
But, since the cessation had not been effected without considerable
friction among the Confederates themselves, and, as Carte candidly admits, “more
out of a sense of duty than policy”, so, no sooner was it proclaimed than it
was at once denounced by the adherents of the Parliament. The report of it
greatly injured the Royalist cause; but it enabled Charles to accomplish his
immediate purpose of setting free part of his army in Ireland. By the beginning
of Novemberfour regiments had arrived at Bristol from Munster, and more were
ready to follow as soon as Lord Inchiquin could find
means to transport them. In the same month 2000 men under Sir Michael Ernely landed in Flintshire to
form the nucleus of a small army under Lord Byron. But the assistance had been
dearly purchased. On January 25, 1644, Byron was defeated and his army routed
by Sir Thomas Fairfax at Nantwich. It was hard for
Charles to find his hopes thus dashed; but it was harder still to see these
same “Irish Papists”, for whom he had drawn upon himself the odium of his own
subjects, enlisting, after their defeat, in the service of his enemies. The
Irish danger had been averted; but Parliament was keenly alive to the necessity
of preventing such expeditions in the future by furnishing Ormonde with
sufficient occupation at home. While, therefore, a Scottish army under the Earl
of Leven prepared to invade England to assist the Parliament, messengers were dispatched
to Ulster to assure Munro and the northern commanders of the speedy arrival of
money and provisions, and to promote a general engagement to the Covenant.
Strange to say, Munro’s refusal to recognize the cessation was not distasteful
to Charles, who calculated, not without reason, that it would prevent any help
from that quarter reaching Leven. Moreover he was not without hope that, if
Antrim succeeded in transporting, as he professed himself able to do, 2000
redshanks into Scotland to cooperate with Montrose, Leven might speedily find
himself recalled. Hitherto Antrim had not proved very deserving of confidence;
but in July he actually managed, with Ormonde’s assistance, to land 1600 men in Scotland, where under the leadership of Alaster MacDonnell they not a little contributed to
Montrose's success.
Meanwhile the agents appointed by the Confederates to arrange the terms
of a settlement with Charles had arrived at Oxford in March. Conscious of their
improved position, they insisted on the repeal of all penal laws against the
Catholics, the abrogation of all acts and ordinances of the Irish Parliament
since August 7, 1641, the summoning of a freely elected Parliament, and a
general Act of Oblivion. These terms granted, they bound themselves to furnish
him with 10,000 men, and to expose their lives and fortunes in his service. But,
tempting as the offer was, it was impossible for Charles to consent to its
conditions without forfeiting the support of his own followers. In his dilemma
he referred the matter back again to Ormonde. But unfortunately, at the very
moment when it behoved him to strengthen the hands of
his much-tried Deputy by every means within his power, he had the inconceivable
folly to add immeasurably to his difficulties by refusing the well-grounded
request of Inchiquin for the Presidency of Munster.
In his wrath Inchiquin openly declared for the
Parliament in August. The necessity of coming to terms, and that speedily, with
the Confederates was more pressing than ever. But it was with a heavy heart and
little hope of success that Ormonde reopened negotiations in September, only to
break them off a week or two later owing to his inability to satisfy the
Catholic demands without sacrificing the Protestant interests. He asked to be
relieved of his post; but Charles knew his worth too well to accede to his
request. At the same time, however, recognizing that he was hardly the right
instrument to carry out his crooked policy, he yielded so far as to appoint the
Earl of Glamorgan, whom he had already designated to
command the Irish levies, to assist him in negotiating with the Catholics.
Various circumstances prevented Glamorgan from reaching Ireland before the beginning of
August. In the meantime fresh instructions reached Ormonde, authorizing him to
conclude a peace, and if necessary to concede the demand for the repeal of the
penal laws and the suspension of Poynings’ Act. Armed
with these new powers Ormonde reopened negotiations with the Confederates in
April, 1645, but only to find that, under the influence of the papal agent Scarampi and the clerical party, they had added to their
demands another for the retention of all such churches, chapels, and abbeys as
were then in their possession. Exasperated beyond measure at this new demand,
Charles declared that rather than consent to it he would withdraw his army from
Ireland, whatever hazard that kingdom might run by it.
 |
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688) was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he lead the fighting against the Irish Catholic Confederation. From 1649 to 1650 he was top commander of the Royalist forces fighting against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. In the 1650s he lived in exile in Europe with Charles II of England. Upon the restoration of Charles II to the British throne in 1660, Ormonde became a major figure in English and Irish politics, holding many high government offices- |
1645-6] Glamorgan’s intrigues discovered.
Affairs were in this critical position when Glamorgan arrived with a commission authorizing him to treat directly with the
Confederates, but couched in such curious terms and conferring on him such
extraordinary powers as raised strong, but apparently unfounded, doubts of its
genuineness. Finding on his arrival that the only hindrance to the conclusion
of the treaty was the newly raised question of the churches, and being
determined to secure at all costs the military support, which was to be the
price of the bargain, Glamorgan persuaded the
Confederate commissioners to embody their demand in a secret article, to which,
on the strength of his commission, he pledged the King’s conditional assent.
Matters being thus smoothed over in a way unknown to Ormonde, the public
treaty, as it must now be called, made rapid progress; and, the Assembly having
voted the 10,000 men, Glamorgan was delighted with
the success of his plan, when an accident put a sudden end to his hopes. On
October 17, in an attempt to recover Sligo, the Irish
were defeated with heavy loss by Sir Charles Coote.
Among those killed in the battle was the warlike Bishop of Tuam, Malachias Quaelly or Keely. In his pocket was found a copy of the Glamorgan Treaty. Its subsequent publication by the
Parliament caused a profound sensation, and did more than anything else to ruin
the King’s cause. But, even before his intrigues had come to light, Glamorgan had encountered a new and unexpected obstacle in
the person of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, recently
appointed Legate by Pope Innocent X. Hitherto, under the restraining influence
of Innocent’s predecessor, Urban VIII, clerical influence had made itself little
felt in the counsels of the Confederates; but after the arrival of Rinuccini at Kilkenny on November
12, with a considerable supply of money and ammunition, the clerical party
began rapidly to gain the upper hand. Naturally, he had to be made acquainted
with the secret treaty, and, being from the first more intent on promoting the
papal than the royal cause, he made no secret of his dislike to the conditions
attached to it. However, at an interview with him on December 20 Glamorgan, by pledging the King’s conditional assent to the
appointment of a Catholic Viceroy and the admission of the Catholic Bishops to
sit in Parliament, succeeded in winning from him a reluctant consent to his
scheme.
Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester (1601-1667) In December, 1644, the King intimated to Ormond that the Earl of Glamorgan was coming to Ireland, to further the peace there. Glamorgan was probably selected for this mission as likely, being a zealous Catholic, to be specially acceptable to the Confederates. He crossed to Ireland the following July and, on landing, at once proceeded to Kilkenny, where he exhibited privately to the Council an authorisation from King Charles, given under his signet, to negotiate and conclude a treaty. This authorisation was most explicit. On August 25th (1645), he concluded with the Confederates a treaty on the following basis : Free and public exercise of the Catholic religion should be permitted throughout Ireland. All statutes against the Catholics should be repealed. All churches held by the Catholics since October 1641, should be retained by them. In return for all this, the Confederates should send 10,000 men to the King’s assistance. It was considered to concede too much to the Catholics there; he himself was a Catholic. In extricating himself from that position, he became a close ally of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, and a potential replacement for James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde as royalist leader. His plans to bring Irish troops over to England were overtaken by events, and he left for France with George Leyburn. He was formally banished in 1649, but after four years in Paris returned to England in 1653. He was discovered, charged with high treason and sent to the Tower of London; he was treated leniently by the Council of State, and released on bail in 1654 |
Glad to have overcome this difficulty, Glamorgan hastened to Dublin to get things in readiness for transporting his men, when,
in consequence of his secret treaty having come to light, he was arrested at
the instance of Lord Digby. His arrest spread
consternation among the Confederates. None of them questioned his bona fides, and, in consequence of their
strong remonstrance, coupled with a threat of renewing the war, Ormonde
consented to release him on bail on January 21, 1646. Returning to Kilkenny, he endeavored by every means within his power to
bring the treaty to a conclusion; but, now that his disavowal by the King was
known, Rinuccini absolutely refused to abate one jot
of his demand for a confirmation of the concessions in the secret treaty before
he would agree to the conclusion of the peace, professing to have information
of a treaty in progress between the Pope and Sir Kenelm Digby on behalf of the Queen, containing more favorable
terms even than the secret treaty.
On the other hand, the majority of the Supreme Council were anxious to
conclude the peace on the basis of the agreement with Ormonde, leaving further
concessions, on the guarantee given by Glamorgan, to
Charles’ generosity. The time, they urged, had nearly passed when their
assistance could be of any service to him; and their own position was suffering
in consequence of the delay. Accordingly, after a long and stormy debate,
Articles of Peace, containing many valuable concessions, but leaving the
question of religion to the King’s decision, were signed on March 28. In
deference to the Nuncio it was agreed to postpone its proclamation till May 1,
in order to afford him time to obtain a copy of the pretended papal treaty, but
in the meantime to dispatch the long delayed assistance to the King with all
possible speed.
Unfortunately, the opportunity for this had passed away. By the end of
spring every available sea-port along the western coast of England was in the
hands of the Parliament. The collapse of the King’s cause in England and the
activity of the parliamentary party in Ireland, especially in Connaught,
brought forcibly home to the Confederates the necessity of immediate and united
action, if their own cause was to avoid a similar fate. Accordingly, nothing having
been heard of the papal treaty, and Ormonde refusing absolutely to sanction Glamorgan’s, the Supreme Council passed a resolution authorizing
the ratification and publication of the peace. The resolution had been carried
in face of the fiercest opposition of the Nuncio. Outvoted in the Council, Rinuccini, after entering a formal protest against the
resolution, summoned Owen O'Neill to his support. His messenger found that
general in the full flush of victory, having on June 5 almost annihilated the
Scottish army under Munro at Benburb. It was the only
great success that the Confederate arms had achieved, and its consequences
might have been even more important than they were, had O'Neill been allowed to
carry out his intention of attacking the Scots in their own quarters. Recalled
from his pursuit of them, he gave instant obedience to Rinuccini’s summons; while the Legate, relying on his support, convoked a meeting of the
clergy to Waterford, where on August 12 a resolution was passed condemning the
peace and forbidding its proclamation under pain of excommunication. The
Supreme Council was powerless to resist him; and, though the peace was
proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny, it was everywhere
else rejected. On September 18 Rinuccini entered Kilkenny in triumph, and, having caused his opponents to be
arrested, he appointed a new Council, consisting of his own immediate
followers, with himself as President, pending the election of a new General
Assembly. It was a most successful coup
d'état, and Rinuccini could with reason boast
that under his leadership the much despised clergy of Ireland had as it were in
the twinkling of an eye made themselves masters of the kingdom. His victory
ruined the national cause.
Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592-1653) Roman Catholic. He was a chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV, who made him the Archbishop of Fermo in Italy. He is best known for his time as Papal Nuncio to Ireland during the time of conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars (1645-49) during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was sent to Ireland in 1645 by Pope Innocent X, succeeding there Pierfrancesco Scarampi. Rinuccini embarked from La Rochelle and arrived in County Kerry with a retinue of twenty-six Italians, several Irish officers, and the Confederacy's secretary, Richard Bellings. At Kilkenny, the confederate capital, Rinuccini was received with great honours, asserting in his Latin declaration that the object of his mission was to sustain the King, but above all to help the Catholic people of Ireland in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property. Rinuccini sent ahead arms and ammunition. He arrived twelve days later with a further two thousand muskets and cartridge-belts, four thousand swords, four hundred brace of pistols, two thousand pike-heads, and twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder, fully-equipped soldiers and sailors and 150,658 livres tournois to finance the Irish Catholic war effort. These supplies gave him a huge input into the Confederate's internal politics, because the Nuncio doled out the money and arms for specific military projects, rather than handing it over to the Confederate government, or Supreme Council. Rinuccini hoped that by doing this he could influence the Confederate's strategic policy away from doing a deal with Charles I and the Royalists in the English Civil War and towards the foundation of an independent Catholic-ruled Ireland. In particular, Rinuccini wanted to ensure that Protestant churches and lands taken in the rebellion would remain in Catholic hands. This was consistent with what happened in Catholic-controlled areas during the Thirty Years' War and can be seen as part of the wider counter-reformation in Europe. The Nuncio also had unrealistic hopes of using Ireland as a base to re-establish Catholicism in England. However, apart from some military successes such as the battle of Benburb, the main result of Rinuccini's efforts was to aggravate the infighting between diffent factions within the Irish Confederates. |
1646-7] The Confederates
besiege Dublin.
For the moment, however, he was master of the situation, and he at once
turned his attention to the capture of Dublin. It was late in the year to begin
operations; but, having effected a reconciliation between Preston and O'Neill,
whose mutual jealousy had constantly weakened the Confederates, he determined
to make the attempt, and in November sat down before the city with 16,000 foot
and 1600 horse. Believing himself unable to offer any successful resistance,
Ormonde had already in September made overtures to hand over the city to the
Parliament; and, shortly after the siege had begun, commissioners arrived to
arrange the terms of its surrender. Influenced, however, by reports of fresh
dissensions in the camp of the Confederates and of their being prevented by the
bad weather from pursuing the siege with vigor, he plucked up courage to reject
the terms offered by Parliament. But his confidence was short-lived, and in
February, 1647, he renewed his offer to surrender on the terms formerly granted
him.
Several months elapsed before the negotiations were completed, and it
was not till July 28 that he formally handed over the sword of State to the
Commissioners appointed by Parliament to receive it. Aroused to a sense of
their danger, the Irish exerted themselves to recover the advantage of which their
dissensions had robbed them; and, O'Neill having withdrawn with his army to
Connaught, Preston prepared to resume operations against Dublin by breaking
down the girdle of fortified places surrounding it. But it was too late.
Michael Jones, to whom the defence of Dublin had been committed, had lost no
time in restoring confidence and discipline to his troops, and in strengthening
his position by opening up communication with Sir Henry Tichborne at Drogheda. At the beginning of August, hearing that Preston was trying to
capture Trim, he sallied forth with the united garrisons of Dublin and Drogheda
for the purpose of forcing a battle. Compelled by Jones' approach to change his
plans, Preston endeavored by a flank movement to cut off his communications
with Dublin. The two armies met at Dangan Hill, a few
miles south-east of Trim. The advantage of position lay with Preston, but Jones
was superior in cavalry, and it was the cavalry that decided the day. In the
battle that followed (August 8) Preston was completely defeated and his army
almost exterminated, with the loss of all his artillery. Through the
intervention of O'Neill, Jones was prevented from reaping the full fruits of
his victory, but its effect was tremendous. Disaster followed quickly on
disaster. Inchiquin, whom Castlehaven and his own necessities had long kept inactive, had at last been able to assume
the offensive. By the end of August he had recovered the greater part of
Munster; on September 13 he stormed the rock of Cashel, putting the garrison
and many of the inhabitants to the sword with a savagery that has handed down
his name to the execration of posterity; on November 13 he routed and almost
destroyed the Confederate army under Lord Taaffe at Knockninoss near Mallow; and by the end of the year his
light cavalry had swept the country almost to the very walls of Kilkenny. Nor was this the sum of the Confederates’ misfortunes.
In July Parliament appointed Monck commander of all the forces in Ulster with
the exception of the Scottish regiments under Munro. Though hampered in his
action by lack of provisions, his presence served to stiffen resistance there;
and by the beginning of October he was able to hold out a helping-hand to
Jones.
North, south, and east, the Confederates had lost ground. Under the
influence of these losses the moderate party among them recovered their
authority, and, being readmitted to their places in the Supreme Council, they
insisted on appointing commissioners to proceed to Paris to arrange the terms
of a treaty of peace with the Queen, and at the same time to invite the Prince
of Wales to Ireland. They could not have chosen a more propitious time for
their purpose, in view of the widespread dissatisfaction created by the breach
between the Parliament and the army, and of the opportunity which it furnished
for an alliance between the Royalists and the Presbyterians against their
common enemy, the Independents. Among the first to take the alarm was Inchiquin, who after carefully sounding Ormonde in the
matter openly declared for the King in April, 1648. A month later he succeeded,
in spite of the opposition of the Nuncio, and the general abhorrence with which
he was regarded by the Irish, in concluding a cessation with the Confederates.
The ground being thus prepared for a Catholic-Royalist alliance, Ormonde
returned to Ireland early in October, and on January 17, 1649, a treaty was signed
at Kilkenny on the basis of the Peace of 1646,
whereby the Irish were secured in the free exercise of their religion and the
independence of their Parliament, and in return for which they agreed to
furnish Ormonde with 15,000 foot and 500 horse. As was to be expected, Rinuccini opposed the peace with all his might, but his
period of power was over, and in February he quitted Ireland.
To Ormonde the prospect seemed brighter than ever before, and he sent a
pressing message to the Prince of Wales to put himself at their head. Even the
execution of Charles served rather to improve the situation than otherwise. For
though nothing could shake the fidelity of Jones, or Monck, or Coote, the “old Scots” in Ulster declared for Charles II,
and, after they had managed to surprise Carrickfergus and Belfast, Monck was driven to seek refuge in Dundalk,
and, after the surrender of that place to Inchiquin in July, to retire to England. Want of provisions prevented O’Neill from
opposing; and Jones, deprived of Inchiquin’s support,
was obliged to confine himself to defensive operations. Dublin, Drogheda, and
Derry alone held out. Towards the end of January Rupert appeared before Kinsale with eight vessels. Nothing but one determined
effort was, it seemed, wanting to win the whole of Ireland. But appearances
were delusive. The country was exhausted; provisions of all sorts were scarce; money
was nowhere to be got ; O’Neill’s attitude was at best doubtful; the loyalty of Inchiquin’s army uncertain; the fleet under Rupert, owing
to his jealousy of Ormonde, useless. Still, the situation was beyond all
question really critical.
1649] Battle of Rathmines. Landing of
Cromwell.
Believing it to be such, Cromwell on March 30 definitely accepted the
command of the army destined for Ireland, and, pending the conclusion of his
preparations, dispatched 2000 men to reinforce the garrison of Dublin. It was
June before Ormonde could take the field with about 6000 foot and 2000 horse.
Marching on Dublin, he took up his position between Castleknock and Finglas, while Inchiquin with a considerable force advanced against Drogheda. Before the end of the
month Drogheda surrendered, and shortly afterwards Dundalk,
Trim, Newry, and Carlingford.
Ormonde had now about 7000 foot and 4000 horse; and he determined to
push his lines closer up to the city in the direction of Baggotrath,
with the intention of cutting off Jones’ foraging grounds. While thus engaged,
and having unfortunately sent Inchiquin with a
considerable force to Munster on a report that Cromwell intended to land there,
he was suddenly attacked at Rathmines by Jones on
August 2. His army was completely routed, with the loss of 1800 prisoners, all
his military stores and artillery, and his money-chest.
The battle of Rathmines decided the issue of
the war. When Cromwell landed at Dublin a fortnight later with 8000 foot and
4000 horse Ormonde could oppose to him nothing but the shadow of an army. Recognizing
that neither he nor the Commissioners of Trust, acting for the Confederates,
could put another army in the field, and that the sole hope of resistance
rested with O’Neill and the garrisoned towns, he threw 2300 of his best troops
under the command of Sir Arthur Aston into Drogheda, and opened negotiations
for a re- conciliation with O’Neill. But the time when cooperation could be of
use had passed away. Himself stricken down by a fatal disease and hardly able
to support his own army, O’Neill, though expressing his willingness to come to
his assistance and actually sending him 3000 men under his nephew Hugh O’Neill,
could do no more. On November 6 he died at Cloughoughter in county Cavan. Left to himself, Ormonde could only
look on in helpless inactivity. On September 3 Cromwell appeared before
Drogheda with 10,000 men. A week later he stormed the town, and put to the
sword the whole garrison and not a few civilians, including every priest on
whom he could lay his hands, in all about 2800 persons. “I am persuaded”, he
wrote, “that this is a righteous judgment of God upon those barbarous wretches
who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will tend
to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are the satisfactory
grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret”.
As a matter of fact the sack of Drogheda, however it may be excused by the laws
of war, was a most useless and unjustifiable measure useless, because after the
first terror had passed away it did not serve to weaken the resistance of a
single garrison, and unjustifiable, because not one man of the garrison had in
all likelihood been concerned in the “massacre”. But that Cromwell could in all
sincerity urge the “massacre” as a justification of his proceeding only shows
how successful the propaganda carried on for the last eight years by such men
as Parsons, Jones, and Temple, supported by an unscrupulous press in England,
had been in misleading public opinion as to the real facts of the case.
For the moment, however, the terror inspired by the fate of Drogheda was
indescribable. Dundalk and Trim were deserted by
their garrisons. Wexford, with a better chance of resistance, was betrayed and
shared the fate of Drogheda, while New Ross capitulated without a blow. But
Duncannon and Waterford successfully defied the besiegers; and, with an army
sadly diminished by dysentery and fever, it might have fared hard with
Cromwell, had not the revolt of Inchiquin’s army and
the Munster garrisons at this juncture, besides providing him with safe
winter-quarters and the means of recruiting his forces, broken down Ormonde’s strongest line of defence. As Ormonde’s ability to offer an effectual resistance declined, so likewise did his
authority. In December, a meeting of the Catholic clergy at Clonmacnoise published a manifesto calling on the nation, whether old English or old Irish,
new English or Scots, to unite against the common enemy in defence of their
religion, lives, and fortunes. As threatening a prolongation of the war, the
manifesto greatly angered Cromwell, and so soon as the weather permitted he
marched against Kilkenny in the hope of crushing the
Confederacy in its stronghold. But Kilkenny,
plague-stricken though it was, offered a more stubborn resistance than he expected,
and it was only after conceding terms, which he had hitherto denied, that he
got possession of it. Against Clonmel, where Hugh
O'Neill had entrenched himself with 1200 men, he was even less successful. An
ineffectual attempt to storm the place cost him 2000 men; and, when in the end
it capitulated on May 10, 1650, it was only to find that O'Neill and the
garrison had made good their escape. A fortnight later Cromwell quitted
Ireland, leaving the work of further conquest to his son-in-law Ireton.
Though the end was no longer doubtful, Ireland had still two years of
bloodshed to pass through before she collapsed. During the summer Ireton captured Carlow, Waterford, and Duncannon, while Coote and Venables were
successfully breaking down the Scoto-Irish
combination in Ulster. On June 21 the last remnant of Owen O’Neill’s once
formidable army, under the command of the Bishop of Clogher,
Ever MacMahon, was cut to pieces at Scariffholis, near Letterkenny,
and a week or two later the last outstanding fortress of Charlemont was surrendered by Sir Phelim O’Neill. Limerick,
Galway, and Athlone alone remained. On October 6
Ireton sat down before Limerick ; but, recognizing that the season was too far
advanced for regular siege operations, he shortly afterwards retired into
winter-quarters. Meanwhile, the clerical reaction that had shown itself in the Clonmacnoise manifesto was gaining ground among the Irish.
Though still in a measure possessing the confidence of the Confederates, as
represented by the Commissioners of Trust, Ormonde, especially since the
disavowal by Charles II of the Peace of 1649, had ceased to exercise any
practical influence on the course of events. And it scarcely needed the formal
demand addressed to him by the clergy on August 10, that he should surrender
his authority into hands more worthy of the confidence of the nation, to induce
him to retire from a position which had long been hateful to him. Accordingly,
having transferred his powers to the Earl of Clanricarde,
he quitted Ireland on December 11. For a moment an offer of assistance from the
vainglorious Duke Charles of Lorraine shed a ray of light through the gathering
gloom; but the conditions attached to it, though acceptable to the clerical
party as represented by the Bishop of Ferns and Sir Nicholas Plunkett, were
indignantly rejected by Clanricarde as “a total
transferring of the crown from His Majesty to a foreign Prince”.
1650-2] Articles of Kilkenny. End of the War.
It was late in the following year before Ireton took the field. Having
forced the passage of the Shannon in the face of Castlehaven,
he formally summoned Limerick on June 3. Nearly five months, however, elapsed
before the city, worn out by famine and pestilence, capitulated. As the
garrison marched out it was noted by Ludlow that two of the soldiers fell down
dead of the plague in the ranks. Ireton himself caught the infection, and died
on November 26, leaving Ludlow to finish the work of conquest. Meanwhile, Athlone had surrendered to Coote on June 18. At the beginning of 1652 Gal way and a few isolated garrisons alone
held out. Galway capitulated to Coote in April, on
terms which the Parliamentary Commissioners refused to ratify. But the country
was by no means conquered. Everywhere considerable bands of soldiers, amounting
together to several thousands, with whom the soldiers of the Commonwealth had
difficulty in coping, carried on an exasperating guerrilla warfare. Cromwell’s
decree of no pardon had long ago been given up; but all the same it seemed as
if the war would never come to an end. The cost of maintaining the army was
becoming unbearable and the Adventurers were clamoring for a speedy settlement
of their claims. Urged by these considerations, the Commissioners of Parliament
held out offers of more favorable treatment as an inducement to submit. On May
12 terms were concluded with the Earl of Westmeath on behalf of his Irish
forces in Leinster, permitting him and his men, with
the exception of such as had been guilty of murder, to transport themselves
abroad into any country at amity with the Commonwealth. These terms, known as
the Articles of Kilkenny, furnished the basis for
further surrenders. During the summer one leader after another submitted; and
when Fleetwood arrived in September most of the Irish had laid down their arms.
No fewer, it was calculated, than 34,000 Irish soldiers took the opportunity
thus given them to quit the country. A large number still remained,
insufficient indeed to offer any effectual opposition, but sufficient to frustrate
any scheme for the extirpation of the nation.
The settlement of Ireland could now begin; and no man could have been
found better qualified to carry it into execution than Fleetwood, by reason of
his profound belief in the efficacy of the plantation policy to secure the
permanent settlement of Ireland and the safety of England. Two great Acts of
State furnished the ground-plan of what is called the Cromwellian Settlement, viz., first, the Act of March 19, 1642, for raising £1,000,000 on
the security of two and a half million acres of Irish land, together with
certain subsequent Acts and Ordinances, commonly called the “Acts of
Subscription”, and, secondly, an Act passed on August 12, 1652, called an “Act
for the settling of Ireland”. By the Act of 1642 it had been assumed that two
and a half million acres of land had been forfeited by the Rebellion; by the
Act of 1652 measures were taken to realize the assumption contained in the
former Act. To this end all Irishmen (old Irish, Anglo-Irish and Scoto-Irish) who could not prove their innocence and good
affection to the Commonwealth of England were taken to have been guilty either
as actors or abettors in the Rebellion, and were to be punished either by loss
of life and property or of property alone (wholly or partially) according to
the degree of their guilt. To determine the cases of those who were to lose
their lives a High Court of Justice was immediately established. But that
property was the main thing aimed at is evident from a clause of the Act
exempting all laborers, ploughmen, and landless men generally from the
consequences of the Rebellion provided that they had not been guilty of murder
and submitted at once. A fund of land having been thus, as it were, provided
for the liquidation of the debts incurred in the suppression of the Rebellion,
and Commissioners having been appointed to survey the forfeited lands, the next
step was to settle their distribution. To this end an Act called the “Act of
Satisfaction” was passed on September 26, 1653. For the purposes of the Act
Ireland was regarded as divided into two portions the one comprising the
province of Connaught, including county Clare, the other the three other
provinces the former to meet all claims arising on the part of such Irish
proprietors as should manage to save any part of their lands in any part of the
kingdom; and the latter for the satisfaction of the Adventurers, soldiers, and
other creditors. As Connaught was to be wholly Irish, so the five counties of
Kildare, Dublin, Carlow, Wicklow,
and Wexford were to be formed into a new English Pale, from which all Irish
were to be excluded. Ten counties, viz., Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Queen’s and King’s counties, Meath,
Westmeath, Armagh, Down, and Antrim (to which were
added as a sort of reserve in case of deficiency Louth,
part of Cork and Fermanagh, together with a belt of
land round Connaught), were put aside to answer the claims of the Adventurers
and the army, which since June 5, 1649, had been engaged in the actual conquest
of Ireland. The remainder (excluding Dublin, Carlow,
Kildare, or the greater portion of these counties, and a moiety of county Cork,
together with all walled towns and ecclesiastical lands, which the State
reserved for itself) was assigned to answer all other debts, including the
arrears due to the parliamentary armies in England and Ireland prior to June 5,
1649, commonly called the “English” and “49 arrears” respectively.
The ground-plan of the settlement having been thus laid preparations
were made to put it in execution. For this purpose the lands designed for the
new settlers had first of all to be cleared of their old owners. The first step
in this direction had already been taken by an Order issued on July 2,
requiring all Irish proprietors to transplant themselves and their families to
Connaught before May 1, 1654, and afterwards, on October 14 (such at least
seems to have been the interpretation generally adopted), extended to all
Irishmen without exception.
When May 1 came it was found that
1589 certificates, representing 43,308 individuals, had been lodged with the
Commissioners at Loughrea, appointed to assign lands
in Connaught; but of a general transplantation there was not the faintest sign.
For a moment it seemed as if the transplantation policy would undergo
modification. But in the end the views of Fleetwood and the military party
prevailed. On November 30 a fresh Declaration was published requiring all
transplantable persons to betake themselves to Connaught before March 1, 1655,
under pain of death. This time, so far as the proprietors were concerned, the
Order did not remain a dead letter. During the winter hundreds of families
removed into Connaught. But nothing could induce the natives as a body to move.
A few were hanged as an example; multitudes men, women, and children were,
under the pretext of vagrancy, shipped off to Barbados and elsewhere. But it
was all to no purpose. Self-interest and humanity urged the abandonment of a
policy that was turning Ireland into a wilderness and leaving it a prey to the
wolf and the Tory. Meanwhile the necessity for a speedy settlement had become
imperative. The debt to the army was alarming. There had been a slight
disbandment and a partial settlement of “49 arrears” in 1653, for which purpose Leitrim had been withdrawn from the lands assigned to
the Irish; but there were still more than 30,000 men in pay. To add to the
difficulties of the situation, it was found that the land at the disposal of
the State was insufficient to answer all obligations. To remedy this
deficiency, the army consented to the rates at which the lands were to be
calculated being raised; a new and more accurate survey, known as the Down
Survey, under the direction of Dr William Petty was
ordered; and further lands in Connaught were added to the general fund.
Meanwhile the army was put in possession of the rents accruing from the lands
assigned for its satisfaction. In September, 1655, the first great disbandment
took place. In March, 1656, Petty had finished his survey; and by the close of
the year the army had, except the bulk of the “49 arrears”, been practically
settled on the lands allotted to it. By the end of 1658 most of the Adventurers’
claims had been satisfied.
There was still much to do in the way of settling all the obligations
incurred by Government , but under the mild rule of Henry Cromwell, who had succeeded
Fleetwood in September, 1655, though not actually appointed Deputy till
November, 1657, the country gradually emerged from the chaos in which the war
and the plantation had involved it. Infinite were the sufferings of the
dispossessed Irish. Murder and outrage stalked through the land. The new
planters, whithersoever they came, carried their lives in their hands. But the
dream of a new England across the Channel, as it had long floated before the
imagination of English statesmen, seemed at last to have been realized.
Two-thirds of the soil of Ireland had passed into the hands of Englishmen. By
the identification of its commercial interests with those of England, and the
incorporation of Ireland with that country for parliamentary purposes, under
the Instrument of Government, and by the care taken to secure a monopoly in the
representation to the new settlers, the Commonwealth had as it were placed its
seal on its victory. Henceforth the English interest in Ireland might be
considered safe. After the death of Cromwell the government of Ireland shared
the fate that overtook the Commonwealth. In vain Ludlow, to the last true to
his Republican principles, tried hard to avert the inevitable and to reconcile
men who would not be reconciled. The country was tired both of the rule of the
army and of a discredited Parliament; and when on December 16, 1659, Monck
declared for a free Parliament the army in Ireland under Coote and Broghill acquiesced. The Restoration brought many
changes with it, and among them a fresh land settlement; but, as an expression
of the will of England, the Cromwellian Settlement
was too firmly laid to be radically altered.
 |
