thought laid as it could not well faile and the day once prefixed for execution they did in their publicke Devotions long before recommend by their Prayers the good successe of a great Designe much tending to the prosperity of the Kingdome and the advancement of the Catholick cause And for the facilitating of the Worke and stirring up of the people with greater animosity and cruelty to put it on at the time prefixed they loudly in all places declamed against the Protestants telling the people that they were Hereticks and not to be suffered any longer to live among them that it was no more sinne to kill an English-man then to kill a dogge and that it was a most mortall and unpardonable sinne to relieve or protect any of them Then also they represented with much acrimony the severe courses taken by the Parliament in England for the suppressing of the Romish Religion in all parts of the Kingdome and utter extirpation of all professors of it They told the people that in England they had caused the Queens Priest to be hanged before her own face and that they held her Majesty in her owne person under a most severe discipline That the same cruell Laws against Popery were here ordered to be put sodainly in execution and a designe secretly laid for bringing and seizing upon all the principal Noblemen and Gentlemen in Ireland upon the 23. of November next ensuing and so to make a generall Massacre of all that would not desert their Religion and presently become Protestants The Irish revive their ancient animosities against the English And now also did they take occasion to revive their inveterate hatred and ancient animosities against the English Nation whom they represented to themselves as hard Masters under whose government how pleasant comfortable and advantagious so ever it was they would have the world beleeve they had endured a most miserable captivity and envassalage They looked with much envie upon their prosperity considering all the Land they possessed though a great part bought at high rates of the Natives as their owne proper inheritance They grudged at the great multitudes of their faire English Cattell at their goodly Houses though built by their own industry at their own charges at the large improvements they made of their Estates by their own travails and carefull endevours They spake with much scorne and contempt of such as brought little with them into Ireland and having there planted themselves in a little time contracted great fortunes they were much troubled especially in the Irish Countries to see the English live handsomely and to have every thing with much decency about them while they lay nastily buried as it were in mire and filthinesse the ordinary sort of people commonly bringing their Cattle into their owne stinking Creates and there naturally delighting to lye among them These malignant considerations made them with an envious eye impatiently to looke upon all the British lately come over into the Kingdome Nothing lesse then a generall extirpation will now serve their turne they must have restitution of all the Lands to the proper Natives whom they take to be the ancient proprietors and onely true owners most unjustly despoiled by the English whom they hold to have made undue acquisitions of all the Land they possesse by gift from the Crown upon the attainder of any of their Ancestors And so impetuous were the desires of the Natives to draw the whole Government of the Kingdome into their owne hands The ends proposed by the first plotters of the rebellion to enjoy the publicke profession of their Religion as well as to disburthen the Country of all the British inhabitants seated therein as they made the whole body of the State to be universally disliked represented the severall members as persons altogether corrupt and ill affected pretended the ill humours and distempers in the Kingdome to be growen to that height as required Cauteries deepe incisions and indeed nothing able to worke so great a cure but an universall Rebellion This was certainly the disease as appeares by all the symptomes and the joynt concurrence in opinion of all the great Physitians that held themselves wise enough to propose remedies and prescribe fit applications to so desperate a Malady In those Instructions privately sent over into England by the Lord Dillon of Costeloz presently after the breaking out of the Rebellion the alteration of the supream power in the government and setling of it in the hands of the Earl of Ormond giving leave to the Grand Councell of the Kingdome to remove such Officers of State as they thought fit and to recommend Natives to their places were there positively laid down to be a more likely meanes to appease these tumults then a considerable Army In the Remonstrance of the County of Longford presented about the same time to the Lords Justices by the same Lord Dillon as also in the frame of the Common-wealth found at Sir John Dungars House not farre from Dublin and sent up thither out of Conaught to be communicated to those of Lemster peeces which publikely appeared soon after the breaking out of the Rebellion the main points insisted upon in them and severall others The true causes of the Rebellion were restauration of the Publick profession of the Romish Religion restitution of all the Plantation Lands unto the Natives and settlement of the present Government in their hands All the Remonstrances from severall parts and that came out of the severall Provinces of the Kingdome doe concurre in these Propositions with very little or no difference And therefore that the desires with the first intentions of those who are now out in Rebellion may more cleerly appear I have thought fit here to insert them as I found them Methodically digested into certain Propositions termed The meanes to reduce this Kingdome unto Peace and quietnesse 1 THat a generall and free pardon without any exception be granted to all his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdome and that in pursuance thereof and for strengthning the same an Act of Abolition may passe in the Parliament here 2 That all marks of Nationall distinctions between English and Irish may he abolished and taken away by Act of Parliament 3 That by severall Acts of Parliament to be respectively passed here and in England it be declared that the Parliament of Ireland hath no subordination with the Parliament of England but that the same hath in it self supream Jurisdiction in this Kingdom as absolute as the Parliament of England there hath 4 That the Act of 12. Henry the seventh commonly called Poynings Act and all other Acts expounding or explaining the same may be repealed 5 That as in England there past an Act for a Trienniall Parliament there may passe in Ireland another for a Sexenniall Parliament 6 That it may be enacted by Parliament that the Act of the 2d of Queen Elizabeth in Ireland and all other Acts made against Catholicks or the Catholick Religion
Irish and out of their zealous affectioÌ„s for the conversion of a barbarous people applied theÌ„selves with great care and industry to the instructing of them in the true grounds and principles of Christian religion And with so great successe and such unwearied endeavours did S. Patrick travail in this work as if we will give credit to some writers we must believe that the Church of Armagh was by him erected into an Archiepiscopal See three hundred and fifty Bishops consecrated great numbers of Clergy-men instituted who notwithstanding the notorious impiety and continued prophanesse of the common sort of people being most of them Monks by vow and profession of great learning very austere and strict in their discipline were so much taken notice of in those rude ignorant times by other Nations as in respect of them some gave unto the Island the denomination of Insula Sanctorum But so quickly did the power of holinesse decay in the land as the name was soon lost and even the very prints and characters thereof among the very Clergie themselves obliterated the life of the people so beastly their manners so depraved and barbarous as that King Henry when he entertained the first thoughts of transferring his Arms over into Ireland made suit unto the Pope that he would give him leave to go and conquer Ireland and reduce those beastly men unto the way of truth Rex Anglorum Hen. nuncios solennes Romam mittens regaâ—it Papam Adrianum ut sibi liceret Hibernia Insulam intrare et terram subiugare atquehomines illos bestiales ad fidem et viam reducere veritatis Mat Paris an 1156. Answerable whereunto was the tenor of Pope Adrians Bull as appears at large in Parisiensis whereby he gave him liberty to go over and subdue the Irish nation A sufficient demonstration of the condition of that people and what opinion was held of them as well by their holy father the Pope as other Princes And the King at his arrivall found them no other than a beastly people indeed For the Inhabitants were generally devoid of all manner of civility governed by no setled lawes living like beasts biting and devouring one another without all rules customes or reasonable constitutions either for regulation of Property or against open force and violence most notorious murthers rapes robberies and all other acts of inhumanity and barbarisme raging without controll or due course of punishment Whereupon He without any manner of scruple or farther inquisition into particular titles resolving as it seems to make good by the sword the Popes donation made a generall seizure of all the lands of the whole kingdom and so without other ceremony took them all into his own hands And that he might the more speedily introduce Religion and civility Rex antequam ab Hibernia redibat consilium congregavit apud Lismore ubi leges Angliae ab omnibus gratantur sunt accepta et iuratoria cautione prestita confirmata Mat. Paris an 1172. and so draw on towards the accomplishment of that great work which he had so gloriously begun he first in a great Counsell held at Lissemore caused the Laws of England to be received and setled in Ireland then he afterwards united it to the Imperiall Crown of England making large distributions to his followers by particular grants allotting out in great proportions the whole Land of Ireland among the English Commanders who made estates and gave severall shares to their friends and commilitants that came over private adventurers with them But before I passe further I shall take the liberty here to insert one observation out of Giraldus Cambrensis concerning the causes and reasons of the prosperity of the English undertakings in Ireland He saith that a Synod Ireland divided by K. Hen. 2. among his followers and other adventurers or Counsell of the Clergy being there assembled at Armagh and that point fully debated it was unanimously agreed by them all that the sins of the people were the occasion of that heavy judgement then fallen upon their Nation and that especially their buying of English men from Merchants and Pirates and detaining them under a most miserable hard bondage Decretum est itaque praedicto concilio et cum universitatis conscensu publice Statutum ut Angli ubique per insulam servitutis vinculo mancipati in pristinam revocentur libertatem Gir. Camb. expug Hib. c. 18 had caused the Lord by way of just retalliation to leave them to be reduced by the English to the same slavery Whereupon they made a publique act in that counsell that all the English held in captivity throughout the whole Land should be presently restored to their former liberty If so heavy a Judgement fell then upon the Irish for their hard usage of some few English what are they now to expect or what expiation can they now pretend to make for the late effusion of so much innocent English blood after so horrid despitefull and execrable a manner There being since the Rebellion first brake out unto the time of the Cessation made Sept. 15. 1643. which was not full two years after above 300000 Brittish and Protestants cruelly murthered in cold blood The numbers of British and protestants destroyed since the Rebellion destroyed some otherway or expelled out of their habitations according to the strictest conjecture and computation of those who seemed best to understand the numbers of English planted in Ireland besides those few which perished in the heat of Fight during the war King John came into Ireland during his minority though to little purpose The fruitlesse expeditions of K. Iohn and K. Richard 2. into Ireland but after about the twelfth year of his Raign upon the generall defection of the Irish he made a second expedition and during his stay there built severall Forts and strong Castles many of which remain unto this day he erected all the Courts of Judicature and contributed very much towards the settlement of the English Colonies as also of the civill Government King Richard the second made likewise in the time of his Raign upon the same occasion two other expeditions into Ireland in his owne person But both those Princes out of a desire to spare the effusion of English blood as also the expence of treasure being likewise hastened back by the distempers of their own Subjects in England were both content to suffer themselves to be again abused by the fained submissions of the Irish who finding their own weaknesse and utter disability to resist the power of those two mighty Monarchs came with all humility even from the farthest parts of the kingdom to submit to their mercy And yet it is well observed by some that say they returned back not leaving one true subject more behind them than they found at their first arrivall Howsoever by the very presence of these Princes and by the carefull endeavours of the Governours sent over by other of the Kings of England those
Parliament then sitting to endeavour the reasonable ease and contentment of the people freely assenting to all such Acts as really tended to a legall reformation They betook themselves wholly to the advice of the Councel and caused all matters as well of the Crown as Popular interest to be handled in His Majesties courts of Justice no wayes admitting the late exorbitancies so bitterly decried in Parliament of Paper-Petitions or Bils in Civil causes to be brought before them at the Councel-board or before any other by their authority They by His Majesties gracious directions gave way to the Parliament to abate the Subsidies there given in the E. of Straffords time and then in collection from 40000 li. each Subsidy to 12000. li. apeece so low did they think fit to reduce them And they were further content because they saw His Majesty most absolutely resolved to give the Irish Agents full satisfaction to draw up two Acts to be passed in the Parliament most impetuously desired by the Natives The one was the Act of Limitations which unquestionably setled all estates of land in the kingdome quietly enjoyed without claim or interruption for the space of sixty years immediately preceding The other was for the relinquishment of the right and title which His Majesty had to the four counties in Conaght legally found for him by severall inquisitions taken in them and ready to be disposed of upon a due survay to British undertakers as also to some territories of good extent in Munster and the county of Clare upon the same title Thus was the present Government most sweetly tempered and carried on with great lenity and modetation the Lords Iustices and Councel wholly departing from the rigour of former courses did gently unbend themselves into a happy and just compliance with the seasonable desires of the people And his Maiesty that he might further testifie his own setled resolution for the continuation thereof with the same tender hand over them having first given full satisfaction in all things to the said Committee of Parliament still attending their dispatch did about the latter end of May 1641. The Earl of Leicester declared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland May 1641. declare Robert Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant Generall of the Kingdom of Ireland He was heir to Sir Phillip Sidney his uncle as well as to Sir Hen. Sidney his grandfather who with great honour and much integrity long continued chief Governour of Ireland during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth and being a person of excellent abilities by nature great acquisitions from his own private industry and publique imployment abroad of exceeding great temper and moderation was never engaged in any publique pressures of the common-wealth and therefore most likely to prove a just and gentle Governour most pleasing and acceptable to the people The papists permitted privately to enjoy the free exercise of their religion Moreover the Romish Catholiques now privately enjoyed the free exercise of their religion throughout the whole Kingdom according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome They had by the over great indulgence of the late Governours their titular Archbishops Bishops Vicars generall Provinciall consistories Deans Abbots Priors Nunnes who all lived freely though somewhat covertly among them and without controll exercised a voluntary jurisdiction over them they had their Priests Jesuits and Fryars who were of late years exceedingly multiplyed and in great numbers returned out of Spain Italy and other forraign parts where the children of the natives of Ireland that way devoted were sent usually to receive their education And these without any manner of restraint had quietly setled themselves in all the chief Towns Villages Noblemen and private Gentlemens houses throughout the Kingdom So as the private exercise of all their religious rites and ceremonies was freely enioyed by them without any maner of disturbance and not any of the Laws put in execution whereby heavy penalties were to be inflicted upon transgressours in that kinde The good agreement betwixt the Irish and English in all parts of the Kingdome And for the ancient animosities and hatred which the Irish had been ever observed to bear unto the English Nation they seemed now to be quite deposited and buried in a firm conglutination of their affections and Nationall obligations passed between them The two Nations had now lived together 40 years in peace with great security and comfort which had in a manner consolidated them into one body knit and compacted together with all those bonds and ligatures of friendship alliance and consanguinity as might make up a constant and perpetuall union betwixt them Their intermarriages were frequent gossipred fostering relations of much dearnesse among the Irish together with all others of tenancy neighbourhood and service interchangeably passed among them Nay they had made as it were a kinde of mutuall transmigration into each others manners many English being strangely degenerated into Irish affections and customes and many Irish especially of the better sort having taken up the English language apparell and decent manner of living in their private houses And so great an advantage did they finde by the English commerce and cohabitation in the profits and high improvements of their lands and native commodities so incomparably beyond what they ever formerly enioyed or could expect to raise by their own proper industry as Sir Phelim O Neale and many others of the prime leaders in this rebellion had not long before turned their Irish tenants of their lands as some of them said to me when I enquired the reason of their so doing even to starve upon the mountains while they took on English who were able to give them much greater rents and more certainly pay the same A matter that was much taken notice of and esteemed by many as most highly conducing to the security of the English interests and plantation among them So as all these circumstances duly weighed together with the removall of the late obstructions the great increase of trade and many other evident Symptomes of a flourishing common-wealth it was believed even by the wisest and best experienced in the affairs of Ireland that the peace and tranquility of the Kingdom was now fully setled and most likely in all humane probability to continue without any considerable interuption in the present felicity and great prosperity it now enioyed under the government of his Maiesty that now raigneth In August 1641. The Parliament adjourned August 1641. the Lords Justices and Councel finding the Popish party in both Houses of Parliament to be grown to so great a heigth as was scarcely compatible with the present Government were very desireous to have an Adjournment made for three moneths which was readily assented unto and performed by the members of both Houses And this was done not many dayes before the return of the Committee formerly mentioned out of England The Irish Commissioners return out of England and land at Dublin They arrived at Dublin about
should arrive out of England The popish party among them was so prevalent as that after a most serious consultation and very solemn debate among themselves they returned this answer that they were not able to furnish above 40 l. and part of that was to be brought in in cattell There remained at this time imbarqued within the harbour of Dublin four hundred Irish souldiers ready as was pretended Severall Irish souldiers imbarqued under pretence of being carried into Spain at the very time of the first breaking out of the Rebellion to set sail for Spain under the command of Colonell Iohn Barry who with some other Irish Gentlemen had procured leave from his Majesty to leavie certain numbers of voluntiers to be transported over for the service of the King of Spain And those levied in other parts as well as at Dublin were brought together just at the very time designed for the execution of the great plot The pretence was specious but certainly their intentions how finely soever covered over were to have those men in a readinesse together at the very time appointed for the first breaking out of these unnaturall troubles And as for those men which lay within the Harbour of Dublin they were so great a terrour to all the Protestant inhabitants in the City as it exceedingly perplexed the Lords how to dispose so of them as might prevent the mischief justly feared in case of their landing Their Commanders had so handsomely ordered the matter as though they were designed for a long voyage yet stay on ship-board any longer they could not by reason they had no victuals not even enough to carry them out of the Harbour and no man had order in the absence of Colonell Barry who retired himself some few miles out of the town the very evening before the Castle should have been taken to provide for the further supplying of them To suffer them to land was to adde so many instruments of mischief to those already gathered within and about the City Therefore it was resolved that the Captain of the Kings Pinace then in the Harbour should by force keep them from landing which he did severall dayes together till it was apparent they would inevitably starve if a course were not suddenly taken to afford them some relief Whereupon the Lords having no means to victuall them aboard gave them leave to land having first taken order they should not come into the City The Lords Justices and Councell thought fit within very few dayes after the landing of these men the more to deter them and all other ill-affected persons from repairing to the City of Dublin Several Proclamations issued out by the Lo. Iustices and Councell to issue out a Proclamation for the discovery and present removall of all such as did or should come and continue there without just or necessary cause But so carefull were they in this and all other their actions not to give any distaste to the Irish or other inhabitants of the countrey as they forbear to inflict any punishment upon any that continued in the City contrary to their Proclamation sparing severall persons whom they had not only just cause to be jealous off but who were brought before them and convinced to have uttered speeches clearly discovering their ill affections And having by late Proclamations prorogued the Parliament and adjourned Michaelmas Term that under pretence of repair to either of them unnecessary concourse of strangers might not be brought unto the town they proceeded on to some other Acts which as they conceived would not only render great security to the City but lessen the distempers abroad bring safety to the Pale and keep the dangers at distance and far off from them And for this purpose they being informed that a multitude of the meaner sort of people were ignorantly involved in the guilt of this rebellion and by the wicked seducement of the first Conspirators had been drawn on to dispoile their English neighbours they issued out a Proclamation about the beginning of the moneth of November declaring unto all such as were not Freeholders within the County of Meath Westmeath Lowth and Longford that if they would come in and submit make restitution of the goods so taken they should be received to his Majesties mercy and no further prosecution held against them Much about the time of the sending forth of this Proclamation some of the chief of the Sept of the Relyes A Remonstrance sent up to the Lords Iustices and Councell from the Rebels in the county of Cavan and other prime Gentlemen in the County of Cavan sent up a kinde of Remonstrance to the Lords Justices and Councell Whereunto they returned them a very fair answer assuring them of their readinesse to give them all just redresse of their grievances expressed therein so they would in the mean time retire peaceably to their houses restore as they were able the English mens goods forbear all further acts of rapine and violence And they did presently send over their Remonstrance to the Lord Lieutenant to be presented to his Majestie according to their desires But these wayes of moderation and peaceable perswasions proved of very little effect they had no manner of influence into the resolved mindes of the Leaders or of operation upon the hardned hearts of the people they were too deeply engaged so sleightly to retire They had now drenched themselves in the blood of the English and were greatly enriched with their spoiles It was not possible for them to make restitution and they hoped to go through with the work and by the united power of the Kingdome to draw the whole management of the affairs into their own hands And now likewiise the Lords Justices and Councell that they might shew the great confidence they had in the Lords and chief Gentlemen of the Pale Commissions of martiall law granted unto severall persons by the Lords Iustices and give them both oportunity and means to expresse their loyalty and affections to his Majesties service resolved according as the constitution of their affairs then required to do some such acts as might clearly perswade them of the great trust they really reposed in them And therefore first they gave out severall Commissions of Martiall law for executing without attending a proceeding according to the ordinary course of the Common law of such Traitors and Rebels as should be apprehended doing mischief in any parts of the countrey about them And these they directed to the most active Gentlemen though all Papists inhabiting in the severall Counties As to Henry Talbot in the County of Dublin John Bellew Esq in the county of Lowth Richard Dalton and Iames Tuit Esq in the county of West-Meath Valerian Wesley in the county of Meath Iames Talbot in the County of Cavan Commissions of government of the severall counties within the Pale granted to severall Lords and Gentlemen without distinction of Religion Next they made choice of the
apparent danger and disturbance and that peradventure they might there finde as ill affections as they brought and so both joyning together they might easily destroy the state with the poore remainders of the English Nation in these Parts Whereupon the Lords thought fit to hold to their Prorogation yet to endeavour so to attemper and sweeten it as those who were most averse might in some measure rest satisfied therewith And therefore after a long debate of all particular circumstances they came at length to this resolution that the Earle of Ormond the Master of the Rolls and Sir Pierce Crosby three Members of the Board should have a meeting with Mr Darcy Mr Burk and some others of the most active and powerfull Members of the House of Commons and that they should let them know from the Lords that they have understood of their good affections and desires to doe somewhat in the House that might tend towards the suppression of this present Rebellion that they approved extreame well thereof And that howsoever they could by no meanes remove absolutely the Prorogation yet that they would descend so far to their satisfaction as to limit it to a shorter time and that at present they would give them leave to sit one whole day in case they would immediatly fall upon the work of making a cleer Protestation against the Rebels As also that they should have liberty if they pleased to make choyce of some Members of their own House to send down to Treat with the Rebels about laying down of Arms And for their grievances that their Lordships would with all readinesse receive them and presently transmit them over to his Majesty for a speedy redresse All this was accordingly performed the meeting was in the Gallery at Cork House Those of the House of Commons seemed at first to be extreamly troubled when they found there was no possibility of altering the present Prorogation But upon a further debate when they came to understand how ready the Lords were to yeeld to their satisfaction and that the time of the Prorogation should be shortned they seemed to rest indifferently contented undertook to make the Protestation in such full and ample manner as was desired and that they would fall immediately upon it and make it the work of the whole day Upon the 17 of November the Lords and Commons met in Parliament which was held in the usuall place of his Majesties Castle of Dublin And for the better security of the place as well as of the persons of those that were to meet there was a Guard of Musketiers appointed to attend during the time of their meeting but such care taken that they should carry themselves so free from giving any offence as no manner of umbrage might be taken at their attendance there The Houses were both very thin there were only in the House of Peeres some few English Lords three or foure Lords of the Pale and some two or three Bishops In the House of Commons they took into their consideration upon their first meeting the framing of the Protestation against the Rebels But those of the Popish party spake so ambiguously and handled the matter so tenderly as they could not be drawn to stile them by the name of Rebels so as they sent up unto the Lords a very meager cold Protestation against them which being in their House taken into debate it was strongly contested by the Protestant Lords that they should be stiled Rebels but that as stiffely opposed by the others They therefore fell upon a meane betwixt both which gave a kinde of accommodation saying they had Rebelliously and Traiterously raised Armes and so both parties being reasonably satisfied the Protestation was drawn up and returned back to the House of Commons in this Tenour as followeth The Protestation and Declaration of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in Parliament assembled WHereas the happy and peaceable Estate of this Realm hath been of late and is still interrupted by sundry persons ill-affected to the Peace and Tranquillity thereof who contrary to their Duty and Loyalty to His Majesty and against the Lawes of God and the fundamentall Lawes of the Realm have Trayterously and Rebelliously raised Armes have seized upon some of his Majesties Forts and Castles and dispossessed many of his Majesties faithfull Subjects of their Houses Lands and Goods and have slaine many of them and committed other cruell and inhumane Outrages and Acts of Hostility within this Realme The said Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being justly moved with a right sense of the said disloyall Rebellious Proceedings and actions of the persons aforesaid doe hereby protest and declare that they the said Lords and Commons from their hearts doe detest and abhorre the said abhominable Actions and that they shall and will to their uttermost power maintaine the Rights of his Majesties Crown and Government of this Realm and Peace and Safety thereof aswell against the persons aforesaid their Abettors Adherents as also against all forreine Princes Potentates and other persons and Attemps whatsoever and in case the persons aforesaid doe not repent of their aforesaid Actions and lay down Armes and become humble Suitors to his Majesty for Grace and Mercy in such convenient time and in such manner and forme as by his Majestie or the chiefe Governour or Governours and Councell of this Realm shall be set down The said Lords and Commons doe further protest and declare that they will take up Armes and will with their Lives and Fortunes suppresse them and their Attempts in such a way as by the Authority of the Parliament of this Kingdome with the Approbation of his most Excellent Majesty or of his Majesties chiefe Governour or Governours of this Kingdome shall be thought most effectuall Copia vera Exam. per Phil. Percivall Cleric Parliament Both Houses of Parliament sate two dayes and the time of the Prorogation being shortned unto the 11. of Ian. The Lords made choyce of the Lord Viscount Costelo to goe into England to carry over their desires to his Majesty concerning the meanes they thought fit to be used for the quenching this present Rebellion And besides those instructions formerly mentioned he had as I heard from the Popish Lords some more private which were to negotiate the staying such Forces as were intended to be sent out of England for that end Both Houses joyned together to appoint certaine Lords and some Members of the House of Commons to goe down to the Northen Rebels The Houses of Parliament send to Treat with the Rebels to understand the cause of their rising in Armes and referred them to the Lords Iustices for their instructions which accordingly they received together with a Commission under the Great Seale But the Rebellion having a farre deeper root then was at that time discovered this Commission was of little operation and the intended Treaty soone vanished The Northern Rebels were then so puffed up with their late victories
him upon his knees And howsoever before this glorious work was fully accomplished it pleased God to put a period to her dayes yet lived she long enough to see just vengeance brought down upon the head of that unnaturall disturber of the peace of the kingdome himself in a manner wholly deserted his country most miserably wasted and a generall desolation and famine brought in mightily consuming what was left undevoured by the sword It is very easie to conjecture in what a most miserable condition Ireland then was The miserable condition of Ireland when K. Iames came to the Crown of England the English colonies being for the most part barbarously rooted out the remainders degenerated into Irish manners and names the very Irish themlelves most mightily wasted and destroyed by the late wars and thereby much of the kingdome depopulated in every place large monuments of calamity and undiscontinued troubles King James of blessed memory found it at his first accession to the Crown of England in this deplorable estate whereupon he presently took into his care the peaceable settlement of Ireland and civilizing of the people And conceiving that the powerfull conjunction of England and Scotland would now overawe the Irish and contain them in their due obedience His lenity towards the Irish rebels and his endeavours for a civill reformation He resolved not to take any advantage of those forfeitures and great confiscations which he was most justly intitled unto by Tyrone's rebellion but out of his Royall bounty and Princely magnificence restored all the Natives to the entire possession of their own lands A work most munificent in it self and such as he had reason to believe would for the time to come perpetually oblige their obedience to the Crown of England And in this state the Kingdom continued under some indifferent terms of peace and tranquility untill the sixth year of his raigne Then did the Earl of Tyrone take up new thoughts of rising in arms and into his rebellious designe he easily drew the whole province of Vlster then entirely at his devotion But his plot failed and he finding himself not able to get together any considerable forces he with the principall of his adherents quitting the kingdom fled into Spain leaving some busie incendiaries to foment those beginnings he had laid for a new rebellion in Ireland and promising speedily to return well attended with forraigne succours to their aid But by the great blessing of Almighty God upon the wise Councels of that King and the carefull endeavours of his vigilant Ministers the distempers occasioned by the noise of that commotion were soon allayed and Tyrone never returning the peace of the kingdome much confirmed and setled King James hereupon being now so justly provoked by the high ingratitude of those rebellious traitours caused their persons to be attainted their lands to be seized and those six Counties within the Province of Vlster which belonged unto them to be surveyed and all except some small parts of them reserved to gratifie the well-affected natives to be distributed in certain proportions among British undertakers who came over and setled themselves and many other British families in those parts By this meanes the foundations of some good Towns soon after encompassed with stone wals were presently laid severall castles and houses of strength built in severall parts of the country great numbers of British inhabitants there setled to the great comfort and security of the whole kingdome And the same course was taken likewise for the better assurance of the peace of the country in the plantation of severall parts of Lemster where the Irish had made incursions and violently expelled the old English out of their possessions But howsoever the King was by due course of law justly intitled to all their whole estates there yet he was graciously pleased to take but one fourth part of their lands which was delivered over likewise into the hands of British undertakers who with great cost and much industry planted themselves so firmly as they became of great security to the country and were a most especiall means to introduce civility in those parts so as now the whole kingdome began exceedingly to flourish in costly buildings K. Charles great readinesse to redresse the grievances presented unto him by the Irish Commissioners 1640 The Lords L. Vicount Gormanstone L. Vicount Kilmaloc L. Vicount Costeloe L Vicount Baltinglas Commons Lemster Nic. Plunket Digbie Richard Fitz-garret Nic Barnewall Esq Munster Sir Hardresse Waller Io. Welsh Sir Donnogh Mac Cartie Conaght Robert Linch Geffrie Browne Thomas Burke Vlster Sir William Cole Sir Iames Mongomerie and all manner of improvements the people to multiply and increase and the very Irish seemed to be much satisfied with the benefits of that peaceable government and generell tranquility which they so happily enjoyed ANd now of late such was the great indulgence of K. Charles our Soveraign that now reigneth to his Subjects of Ireland as that in the year 1640. upon their complaints and a generall Remonstrance sent over unto him from both Houses of Parliament then sitting at Dublin by a Committee of foure temporall Lords of the upper house and twelve Members of the house of Commons with instructions to represent the heavy pressures they had for some time suffered under the government of the Earl of Strafford He took their grievances into his royall consideration descended so far to their satisfaction as that he heard them himself and made present provisions for their redresse And upon the decease of Mr. Wandsford Master of the Rols in Ireland and then Lord Deputy here under the said Earl of Strafford who still continued Lord Lieutenant of this kingdome though then accused of high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London by the Parliament of England His Majesty sent a Commission of Government to the Lord Dillon of Kilkenny west and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Wards in Ireland Yet soon after finding the choice of the Lord Dillon to be much disgusted by the Committee he did at their motion cause the said commission to be cancelled and with their consent and approbation placed the government upon Sir William Parsons and Sir Iohn Borlace Knight Sir Will. Parsons and Sir Iohn Borlace made L. Iustices Master of the Ordnance both esteemed persons of great integrity and the Master of the Wards by reason of his very long continued imployment in the State his particular knowledge of the kingdome much valued and well beloved among the people They took the sword upon the 9. of Febr. 1640. And in the first place they applied themselves with all manner of gentle lenitives to mollifie the sharp humours raised by the rigid passages in the former government They apply themselves to give contentment to the people They declared themselves against all such proceedings lately used as they found any wayes varying from the Common Law They gave all due encouragement to the
since the twentieth yeer of King Henry the eight may be repealed 7 That the Bishopricks Deanaries and all other spirituall promotions of this Kingdome and all Frieries and Nunneries may be restored to the Catholick owners and likewise all impropriations of Tythes and that the Scits Ambits and Precincts of the Religious houses of the Monks may be restored to them but as to the rest of their temporall possessions it is not designed to be taken from the present proprietors but to be left to them untill God shall otherwise incline their own hearts 8 That such as are now entitled Catholick Archbishops Bishops Abbots or other dignitaries in this Kingdome by donation of the Pope may during their lives enjoy their spirituall promotions with protestation neverthelesse and other fit clauses to be laid downe for preservation of his Majesties rights of Patronages first Fruits and twentieth parts in manner and quantity as now his Highnesse receives benefit thereby 9 That all inquisitions taken since the yeer 1634. to entitle his Majesty to Conaught Thomond Ormond Eliogartie Kilnemanagh Duheara Wickloe and Idvagh may be vacated and their estates secured according to his Majesties late graces 10 That an Act of Parliament may passe here for the securing the Subjects title to their severall estates against the Crown upon any title accrewed unto it before sixty yeers or under colour or pretext of the present commotions 11 That all Plantations made since the yeer 1610. may be avoyded by Parliament if the Parliament shall hold it just and their possessions restored to them or their Heirs from whom the same were taken they neverthelesse answering to the Crowne the Rents and services proportionable reserved upon the undertakers 12 That the transportation of all native Commodities to all places of the world in peace with his Majesty may be free and lawfull his customes first paid and that the Statutes of 10 11 13. of Queen Elizabeth for restraining the exportation of native Commodities be repealed 13 That all preferments Ecclesiasticall Civill and Martiall in this Kingdome that lye in his Majesties gift may be conferred on Natives of this Kingdome onely such as his Majesty shall think meet without any distinction for Religion Provided alwayes that upon the Princes of his blood of England he may bestow what places he shall think meet 14 That a Marshall and Admirall of this Kingdome may be elected in it to have perpetuall succession therein with the same preheminence authority and jurisdiction as they respectively have in England and that the said places be ever conferred upon Noble-men Natives of this Kingdom 15 That there may be Trained Bands in all Cities Towns Corporate and Counties of this Kingdome armed and provided at the charge of the severall Counties Cities and Townes and commanded by the Natives of the same who shall be named by the Counties Cities and Towns respectively 16 That his Majesty may release all Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service in consideration whereof he shall receive a setled revenue of 12000. li. per annum being double the summe which he casually receives by them Reliefes Seismes Licenses for Alienations Escuage and Aydes neverthelesse to remain 17 That all Monopolies may be for ever taken away by Act of Parliament 18 That such new Corporations as have not the face of Corporate Townes and were erected to give voyces in the Parliament may be dissolved and their Votes taken away and hereafter no such to be admitted to voices in Parliament 11 That there may be Agents chosen in Parliament or otherwise as thought meet to attend continually his Majesty to represent the grievances of this Nation that they may be removable by such as did elect them and in case of death or removance others may be for ever successively substituted in that place and that such Agents may enjoy the freedome of their conscience in Court and every where else These are the means proposed by these Catholick Remonstrants for reducing of the Kingdom to peace these the great obstructions they would have removed the cōstant Counsel they would have followed in setling the tranquility present government of this Land so as we need seek no further evidence nor make any more curious enquiries into the secret causes of their first rising we have here enough out of their owne mouths to resolve the most scrupulous unbeleever of their first motives to this Rebellion The re-establishment of the Romish Religion onely a pretence for the rebellion And now for the matter of Religion howsoever I am very confident they ever really intended the re-establishment of that of the Church of Rome with all the Rites and Ceremonies thereof together with the utter extirpation of all of the reformed profession Yet considering the large indulgence and free liberty they universally enjoyed at that time in the full exercise of that their Religion throughout all the parts of the Kingdome it may be most justly suspected how zealously soever they now obtrude it that this was onely the bare outward couverture made use of by the principall undertakers to draw on a poore ignorant superstitious people to sacrifice their lives in this quarrell Neither can it by any reasonable man be ever presumed that such persons as made no conscience of committing treason so many cruell murders and all other kind of abominable villanies not to be paralleld in any other Country could be drawne meerly out of conscience towards God to act these for the regaining of the free and publike profession of their Religion This certainly was no more the true and main cause of their taking up Armes then the redresse of their pretended grievances All the grievances of the Kingdom redressed before the Rebellion brake out whereunto his Majesty had condiscended and out of his inclinations for their present reliefe had given much more satisfaction to their Agents lately in England then ever they could in any other time expect to receive or hope to enjoy Yet we see how little effect those great graces brought over not above two moneths before this Rebellion brake out took among them for presently after the return of their Agents with them this most detestable conspiracy which had been long in hatching began to work and to be put in execution And if we shall consider their maine designe and chiefe ends therein as they appear in their first principles or will give credit to the severall speeches and passages that we meet with among the Rebels in the very beginning of their breaking out as also to severall other testimonies that have since privately fallen from some particular persons among them we must beleeve that their designe cleerly was to destroy and root out all the British and Protestants planted within this Kingdom to cut off the Soveraignty of the Crowne of England and so to deliver themselves from their long continued subjection to the English Nation But to come to one maine particular taken into debate by the prime Movers