Resumption of all the Grants made by the Crown since the last day of the Reign of King Edward the Second Lib. G. except some Particulars mentioned in the Act and another Act Rot. Parl. c. 41. attaints the Earl of Kildare and his Brother James for High Treason for corresponding with O Hanlon and seizing the Castle of Caterlogh for extorting Coyn and Livery and for treating with the King of Scotland however he was afterward acquitted in England and received into favour and perhaps there was another Act to dissolve the Fraternity of S. George for it is certain that about this time that Brotherhood fell and so I have done with this Famous Parliament when I have told you that it is a Mistake in the Printed Statute-Book to place it anno 1495 because it is manifest That November 1494 was in the tenth Year of this King's Reign It is scarce worth mentioning Ware 43. That during this Parliament the Lord Deputy made another Expedition into Vlster because the Irish fled into their Fastnesses so that he reaped but small Fruit for his Journey In his Absence he left a Commission with the Chanchellor to continue adjourn prorogue or dissolve the Parliament as he saw cause About this time Cormock mac Teige mac Carthy of Muskry 1495. was basely murdered by his Brother Owen Ancestor of the Mac Carthyes of Cloghroe and was buried in the Abby of Kilcrea which he himself had founded But let us return to Perkin Werbeck who set sail from Flanders with about six hundred Men and arrived on the Coast of Kent but he found ill treatment there for one hundred and sixty of his Men were taken Prisoners and afterwards executed Thence he sailed to Ireland where he staid some time in Munster probably at Cork but finding the Irish unable to give him any considerable Assistance and fearing the Forces of the Lord Deputy he went thence into Scotland and by that King's Consent married the Earl of Huntly's Daughter who was nearly related to the Crown of Scotland The King of Scots did invade England in favour of Perkin but finding that none of the English came to assist the Impostor he wasted Northumberland and returned And thus Sir Edward Poynings drove Perkin out of Ireland and suppressed his Abettors and established many good Laws which though for the present they extended no further than the Pale yet their Effect and Influence increased and inlarged as fast as the King's Authority did so that those Statutes are at this day in full force over all the Kingdom And the King finding Ireland in so quiet a condition recalled the Lord Deputy and for his good Service made him Knight of the Garter And in his place appointed Henry Dean 1495. Bishop of Bangor Chancellor of Ireland and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury 1496. to be Lord Justice and on the twenty sixth of April William Ratcliff was made Vice-Treasurer and John Pimp Treasurer at War and on the twenty fifth of June the Lord Delvin was made General for defence of the Pale and in July Octavianus Archbishop of Armagh held a Synod at Droghedah the Acts whereof are not to be found and in August Hugh O Donel being returned out of Scotland encountred and defeated O Connor near Sligo Whereupon he besieged the Castle of Sligo but without Success for being frightned with the News of the Approach of the Burks of Clanrickard he raised the Siege and retired in hast towards Tyrconnel But Burk was not so satisfied but burnt and destroyed all the adjacent Territories that belonged to O Donel's Partisans But the Earl of Kildare was still kept in Prison in England for Grief whereof his Countess died The Earl was accused of burning the Church of Cashel and many Witnesses were ready to prove it when contrary to all their Expectations he readily confessed the Fact and swore by Jesus That he would never have done it but that he thought the Archbishop was in it Which being uttered with a bluntless peculiar to this Lord did exceedingly work upon the King for whilst the Earl did so earnestly urge that for his Excuse which was the greatest Aggravation of his Crime the King easily perceived That a Person of that Natural Simplicity and Plainness could not be guilty of those Finesses and Intrigues that were objected against him It is reported of this Earl That he desired the King to permit him to have Council to manage his Cause since he was altogether unqualified to deal with such cunning Knaves as his Adversaries The King told him He should have what Counsel he would choose and that it concerned him to get Counsel that were very good for that he doubted his Cause was very bad The Earl replied That he would pitch upon the best Counsel in England Who is that said the King Marry even your Majesty quoth the Earl Whereat the King laughed But nevertheless he so requited Kildare for his Complement that when the Adversary concluded his Oration That all Ireland could not govern this Man the King took that occasion to make reply That therefore he was the fittest Man to govern Ireland Ware 49. And so for his Jest-sake made him Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom by his Letters Patent of the sixth of August and restored him to his Honour and Estate Nevertheless the King kept the Earls eldest Son Girald as Hostage of the Father's Fidelity which proved to be a matter of Caution rather than of Necessity for no body could behave himself with more Loyalty to his Prince nor more Vigor against the Irish than the Earl of Kildare did from henceforward But to proceed Girald Earl of Kildare 1496. being made Lord Lieutenant in a short time after he had received the Sword marched towards Thomond against O Brian he went through the City of Limerick and took the Castle of Feyback from Finin Mac nâ—marra and afterwards took and rased the Castle of Ballyniti or Ballynice and so returned to Dublin and was reconciled to the Archbishop of Armagh to their mutual Ease and Quiet and to the great Advantage of Publick Affairs which often suffer especially in Ireland by the private Animosities of the Grandees But the Bishop of Bangor was recalled into England and Walter Archbishop of Dublin was made Lord Chancellor in his stead This good Archbishop in a Synod at Dublin anno 1492 procured a Pension for a Divinity-Reader there to be paid by him and his Suffragans and their Successors for ever And it is reported of him That being present when a famous Orator made a most eloquent Speech to the King his Majesty asked the Archbishop How he liked the Oration The good old Man replied That he saw no other Fault in it but Flattery As God shall love me quoth the King That is the very Fault I my self espied The King by advice of the Lord Lieutenant resolved to pardon those great Men that had been concerned with Perkin Warbeck lest Despair might induce
Necessaries as an early Campaign he marcht out of his Winter-quarters in the latter end of February with 3000 Men and even that small Army was divided into two parties with the one Cromwell marched to Cahir which he took as he also did Kilfinin Gowlenbridge Fethard Cashell Clogheen and Roghill and sat down before Callan and Ireton with the other part being re-inforced by Reynolds and Zanchy took Ardkenon Dundrum Knocktopher Ballynard and other Castles and joyned Cromwell at Callan Which last place as also Graige and Thomastown were easily subdued by their united Forces so that they marched to Gowran to joyn Collonel Heyson who with a Detachment from Dublin had taken Ballysannon Kildare and Leighlin and met them at Gowran which was after too long Resistance surrendered by Collonel Hammond upon hard Conditions so that he and most of the Officers were shot to death And then the Army being very considerable and numerous especially in Horse besieged Kilkenny from whence Castlehaven and his Forces were withdrawn by reason of the Plague and the General Assembly was fled to Athloane so that there was but 600 Foot and 50 Horse under Sir Walter Butler and Major Walsh left in the City nevertheless they made a vigorous Defence and bravely repulsed the first Assault and afterwards having no hopes of Relief surrendered upon very honourable Conditions on the 28th of March 1650. From thence Cromwell marched to besiege Clonmell 1650. which he found well provided of all things necessary for its Defence so that it proved the hardest Task he undertook in Ireland Moreover the Titular Bishop of Ross had gathered about 5000 Men together and that Army was daily increasing with design to raise the Siege But it happened luckily that the Lord of Broghill being at Castlelyons had secret intimations from his brother-in-Brother-in-law General Barry That the Irish had cast off the King's Authority and had put all into the hands of the Clergy and that Ormond had discovered their design and therefore gave liberty to the Protestants of his Army to treat with Cromwell And that the Irish designed to make Kerry and Conaught the seats of the War and that 20000 Men would suddainly be in Arms under the Command of the Titular Bishop of Ross who always advised to kill the English unless that Cockatrice be destroyed in the Egg. Hereupon the Lord Broghill posted to Cromwell and having obtained 2000 Horse and Dragoons and 1600 Foot he marched with incredible Celerity to Kilkrea and thence to Carrigadroghid which he found garrison'd with the Bishop's Souldiers however he left his Foot there and marched with the Horse to Maccroom Upon his approach the Irish fired the Castle and retired to the rest of their Army which to the number of 5000 were in the Part but the Lord Broghill lost no time but fell upon them briskly whilst they were amazed at an Assault they little expected In fine he totally routed the Army Battle of Maccroom 10 of May. and took the Bishop prisoner to whom he profered his Life if he would cause Carigdroghid to be surrendered and the Bishop promis'd fair but which he came to the Castle instead of ordering the Garrison to surrender he advis'd them to hold it out to the last whereupon he was immediately hanged and soon after Carigdroghid was taken by a very slight Stratagem for the English got two or three Teams of Oxen and made them draw some great pieces of Timber towards the Castle which the Irish thinking to be Cannon presently began to parly and upon Articles gave up the place But we must return to Cromwell whom we left at the Siege of Clonmell where having made a breach he caused it to be assaulted but as himself expressed it he had like to bring his Noble to Nine-pence for he lost above 2000 of his best Men and yet did not take the Town at that time but in a few days the Governor Hugh O Neal having spent his Powder and finding that the Town would be lost he withdrew all his Souldiers secretly and by night over the Bridge to Waterford and Cromwell not knowing of it gave the Town 's Men good Conditions for themselves upon which they surrendered It was at this Siege that Cromwell received possitive Orders to return to England and in obedience unto them he embarqued at Youghall on the 29th day of May and left the Command of the Army with his Son-in-law Ireton who was before Major-General of the Army and Lord-President of Munster But it is time to return to the Marquess of Ormond whom we left at Limerick with the Popish Clergy and the Commissioners of Trust where notwithstanding the respectful Answer and promises of the Clergy already mentioned the Citizens of Limerick were so far from complying with his expectation that they were deficient in common and outward Respect they did not permit access to him without special orders of the Mayor which was sometimes with difficulty obtained And they imprison'd the Lord Killmallock for quartering some Horse one night within their Liberties by his Excellency's order And the Officer of the City-Guards did neither come to receive the Word from his Lordship nor bring it to him Wherefore not willing to expose the King's Authority to so many Affronts he went to Loghreagh and the Popish Clergy adjourned thither also and there he gave them the Answer to their Paper of Advice mentioned Appendix 45 wherewith they seemed to be so well satisfied that on the 28th of March they issued the following Declaration The Declaration of the Undernamed Bishops in the Name of Themselves and the rest of the Bishops Convoked at Limerick as deputed by them Presented to the Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord-Lieutenant for his Majesty and General Governour of Ireland c. MAY it please Your Excellency to be informed That We are very sensible of the Jealousies and Suspicions conceived of Vs as was intimated unto Vs that we believe arising from some disaffected and misunderstanding Persons that spare not to give ill Characters of Vs as if these deplorable Times wherein Our Religion King and Country are come to the vertical Point of their total Ruine and Destruction it should be imagined by any that we behave ourselves like sleeping Pastors in no ways contributing our best Endeavours for the Preservation of the People which ought to be more dear unto us than any worldly Thing that may be thought of Wherefore as well for the just Vindication of our own Reputation against such undeserved Aspersions as for future Testimony of our Sincerity and Integrity to endeavour always the Safety of the People and to manifest to Your Excellency as the King's Majesty's Lieutenant and Chief Governour of this Kingdom That no Labour or Care of ours hath been or shall be wanting to proceed effectually to any Proposals you will please to make known unto us that may conduce to those ends We thought it therefore fit to present this Declaration of our real Intentions in the
Disobediences and Affronts put upon the King's Authority and consequently suggested Matter to his Majesty of making his Declaration against the Peace Secondly We have perused the King's Declaration disavowing of the late Peace and are of Opinion for ought to us appearing That the King hath thereby withdrawn his Commission and Authority from the Lord-Lieutenant This is clearly proved out of a Branch of the said Declaration taking away and nulling all Commissions granted by him In that Declaration the King will have no Friends but the Friends of the Covenant Hence it is evidently inferred That his Majesty's Authority is taken away from the Lord-Lieutenant unless he be a Friend to the Covenant as we conceive he is not but if he be he is not our Friend nor to be trusted by us in having Authority over us In the same Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels are cast from the Protection of the King's Laws and Royal Favours It may not therefore be presumed That he would have his Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them We do joyn with you in that you represent to wit There is no Safety to be expected from Covenanters or Independents for the Catholick Religion or this Nation If that of the Peace be proved the only Safety we are for it However we conceive the benefit thereof is due to us having made no breach of our part Thirdly Something of our sense concerning what way may tend best to the Nation 's preservation we will say beneath and do offer our clear intentions before God to joyn with you and all Men in what will be found the best and fafest way to such preservation Fourthly We are of Opinion and did ever think all our Endeavours should be employed to keep the King's Authority over us But when his Majesty throweth away the Nation from his protection as Rebels withdrawing his own Authority we cannot understand this Mystery of preserving the same with us and over us or how it may be done Whereas you say That many of those considerable will instantly make their Conditions with the Enemy if the King's Authority be taken away by himself as by his Declaration it is and not driven away by the Subject In such case when the People may not hold it likely they will not agreewith the Parliament for not having it We are of Opinion the best remedy the King's Authority being taken away as was said of meeting this Inconvenience of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is returning to the Confederacy as it was intended by the Nation in case of breach of Peace on his Majesty's part This will keep a Union amonst us if Men will not be precipitantly guilty of breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies is to continue binding if any breach of the Articles should happen of his Majesty's part The King's Authority and the Lord-Lieutenant's Commission being recalled by the Declaration abovesaid we are of Opinion the Lord-Lieutenant hath no such Authority to leave If we must expose Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting for making good that Peace seeing the danger and prejudice is alike to defend that or get a better Peace Why should we bound ourselves within the limits of those Article to disavowed Upon consideration of the whole matter we may not consent with safety of Conscience to the Proviso's of revoking our Declaration and Excommunication demanded by his Excellency or granting any Assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like in the future and that for many Reasons especially for I. That the King's Authority is not in the Lord-Lieutenant nor Power in us to confer a new Authority on him being also destructive to the Nation to continue it in him and preservative if in another And that was our sence when we declared against the King's Authority in his person II. We much fear we should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as we lost under him all the Churches of the City of Waterford and Kilkenny and the Towns of Wexford Ross Clonmell Cashell Fethard Kilmallock c. in this agreeing with the Maccabees Maxims Maximus vero primus pro sanctitate timor erat templi III. His Excellency having declared at Cork that he will maintain during his Life the Protestant Religion according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches which may be the same in substance with the Oath of Covenant for ought we know we may not expect from him Defence of the Catholick Religion IV. The Scandal over all the World to make choise of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where his Holiness in his Agreement or Articles with the Queen of England had a Catholick Governour granted tho' not performed And we do fear the Scourges of War and Plague that have fallen so heavy upon us and some Evidences of God's Anger against us for putting God's Cause and Churches under such a hand whereas that Trust might have been managed in a Catholick Hand under the King's Authority V. That we shall find no Succour or Countenance from any Catholick Prince of the Church or Laity he governing but Reproach and Disgrace VI. That the Souldiers by the ill Success of his Conduct have not the heart to Fight under him and so we shall be lost if we come to fighting VII We find the People generally in great fear to be lost under his Government and are of Opinion That the greater part of the People will agree with the Parliament if the Authority were continued in him despairing of Defence under him VIII That we declared against him having the King's Authority out of no Spleen or Malice against his person so save us God but for the fear we had upon good deliberation of the utter Ruine and Destruction of the Nation under his Government and that now finding no reasons or ways of Preservation by him we may not with reason be induced to alter our Opinion especially the King's Authority being not in him IX That those two considerable Corporations remaining are at great distance with his Excellence for giving Commissions to take away their Goods and other reasons and are thought to be resolved not to submit to him ☞ though they resolve to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceive they are Faithful to the Crown and to the King's Authority Obedient if placed in another person Ormond's Reply WE had reason to hope that if the Offer we made should not meet with the success we desired yet that so affectionate a Manifestation of our Love to the Nation transporting us to an Overture of Reconciliation with those that had so much injured us would not have given ground for repeating old and casting new Aspersions upon us But for Answer to this Paragraph we refer to our Letter and to our Answer to the eleventh Article of their Declaration Appendix 48. Here they readily declare their Opinion concerning
the Pale from appearing at Dublin and forc'd them to defend themselves however they sent his Majesties sworn Servant Lieutenant Collonel Read to represent their Case to his Majesty but he was not only stopped but also Racked at Dublin 10. That the Lord President of Munster by direction of the Lords Justices that Province being quiet put to death Men Women and Children without distinction and mistrusted and threatned the Catholick Nobles and Gentry and Arm'd inferior fellows and the Province of Conaught was used in like manner so that in these Provinces the Catholicks were forc'd on their defence still waiting his Majesties Pleasure and ready to obey his Commands whilst the Lords Justices c. were busie by Addresses to the Malignant Party in England to deprive the Irish of all hopes of his Majesties Justice and Mercy and to plant a perpetual enmity between the Enemy and them 11. That whereas Ireland since the Reign of Hen 2. hath had its own Parliament with equal Power Priviledges c. to that of England and only dependant on the Crown in all which time there is no President that a Statute made in England had any force in Ireland until Enacted there Now by false suggestions an Act of Adventurers 17 Car. hath past in England whereby the Irish unsummon'd and unhear'd are declared Rebels and two Millions and a half of Acres of their Land dispos'd of which Act tho' forc'd on his Majesty and in it self unjust and void yet continues of evil consequence and extream prejudice to his Majesty and totally destructive to the Irish Nation for tho' the scope seems to aim at Rebels only yet the words include all the Irish and takes away many of his Majesties Tenures and much of his Revenue and therefore they protest against it as an Act without President and against the Kings Prerogative and the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and by colour whereof the Protestant Army disavow his Majesties Authority and depend on the Parliament 12. That strangers in Dublin being banish'd thence by Proclamation were by direction of the Lords Justices pillaged as soon as they got without the Town and what they left in the Town was confiscated and their desire to return under Protection was denyed that Catholicks quiet and under Protection were by the Lords Justices Order sooner destroy'd plundered or killed than those in Action and Quarter daily violated and others that came to Dublin for retreat and shelter were Imprisoned and Tryed for their Lives and Dublin Cork Youghall Kinsale and Tredagh that opened their Gates to his Majesties Forces are worse us'd than the Israelites in Egypt so that it will be made appear that more murthers breaches of publick Faith and Quarter more destruction and desolation and more cruelty not fit to be nam'd were committed in less than Eighteen Months by the direction and advice of the Lords Justices and their Party of the Council than can be parallel'd to have been done by any Christian people 13. That the Lords Justices have against the fundamental Laws procured several Sessions of Parliament tho' Nine parts of Ten of the genuine Members are absent it being inconsistent with their safety to come under the Power of the Lords Justices and in their room are Clerks Soldiers and Serving-men introduc'd into the House of Commons not at all Elected or not Legally Chosen and not having Estates however they have made Orders and releas'd Traytors Impeach'd in full Parliament and passed or might have passed some Acts against Law and prejudicial to his Majesty and the Nation and have also kept Terms only by false and illegal Judgments and Outlaries to Attaint many thousand good Subjects without Summons or Notice and obscure Men are made Sheriffs and Servants and Mechanicks are made Jurors to pass upon the Lives and Estates of those who came in upon Protection and publick Faith Wherefore and to settle the Revenue and prevent desolation and effusion of Blood and to procure the satisfaction of his Subjects who were willing to imploy 10000 men in defence of his Royal Rights they pray his Majesty to give gracious Answers to these Just complaints and to call a Free Parliament in an indifferent place before some Person of Honor and Fortune of approved Faith to his Majesty and acceptable to the People of Ireland who may be speedily Invested with the Government and that in such Parliament their grievances may be redress'd and Poynings Act suspended pro hac vice and either continued or Repeal'd as shall be thought fit and that no matter whereof complaint is made in this Remonstance may debar Catholicks from Sitting and Voting in such Parliament c. Delivered by the Lord Gormanstown Sir Lucas Dillon Sir Robert Talbot John Welsh Authorized by the Confederates 17 March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim to be presented to the King Appendix VI. The Substance of the Answer of the Protestant Committee to the false and scandalous Remonstrance of the inhumane and bloody Rebels of Ireland given unto His Majesty at Oxford in May 1644. THAT the Remonstrants were not necessitated to take up Arms for their Religion for they were not troubled or so much as questioned about it for a long time before the Rebellion nor for His Majesties Prerogative for there were no Opponents of it in Ireland except the Remonstrants who have usurped all the King's Prerogatives as well as the Subjects Estates and have printed an Order of their general Assembly to exclude all Temporal Government and Jurisdiction but what is approved or instituted by that Assembly or the supream Council nor for their Lives Liberties and Estates because they had the Protection of the Law and His Majesties Government and not one Instance can be produced that a Papist quatenus a Papist ever suffered unpunished Violence from a Protestant either in Person or Estate except in open Rebellion And as to the just Liberties of Subjects wherein the Protestants are as much concerned as the Remonstrants they were never so fully and freely enjoyed in Ireland as at the Time of the Insurrection so that there was no Necessity to murther and rob the Protestants for the Preservation of the Confederates Nor have any of their Addresses since the Rebellion been slighted or suppressed Their first was from Cavan of the Sixth of November and received a mild and favourable Answer and was forthwith certified to the Lord Lieutenant The second was from seven Lords of the Pale then in Rebellion who refused upon safe Conduct to come to the State but desired Commissioners might be appointed to confer with them and though such a Condescention was thought dishonorable since it was the others duty to come to the Government yet both the Request and Answer were transmitted to the Lord Lieutenant Their third Address was from the united Lords by the Mediation of the Earl of Castlehaven 23 d. of March when His Majesties Army had raised the Siege of Tredagh and were Masters of the Field however
our Reign 1641. Appendix XIV The Oath of Association taken by the Irish Rebels The Preamble WHereas the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom have been inforced to take Arms for the necessary Defence and Preservation as well of their Religion plotted and by many foul Practices endeavoured to be quite supprest by the Puritan Faction as likewise their Lives Esttates and Liberties as also for the Defence and Safeguard of His Majesties regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between ALL the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premises and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better Assurance of their adhering Fidelity and Constancy to the Publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association J. A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and his Angels that I will during my Life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to his Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my Power during my Life defend uphold maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the Power and Priviledges of the Parliament of this Realm the fundamental Laws of Ireland the free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Faith and Religion throughout this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof and that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said publick Cause and that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching this general Cause without the Consent of the Major part of the said Council and that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same Moreover I do further swear that I will not accept of or submit unto any Peace made or to be made with the said confederate Catholicks without the Consent and Approbation of the General Assembly of the said confederate Catholicks And for the preservation and strengthening of the Association and Union of the Kingdom that upon any Peace or Accommodation to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the utmost of my Power insist upon und maintain the ensuing Propositions until a Peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of Peace be established and secured by Parliament So help me God The Propositions mentioned in the aforesaid Oath 1. THAT the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity to their several Capacities have free and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full Lustre and Splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or any other Catholick Kings his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in Ireland or England 2. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Arch-Bishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all other Pastors of the Secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all Manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges Immunities in as full and ample Manner as the Roman Catholicks Secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any Time during the Reign of the Late Henry the Seventh Sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland Any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power and Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the Twentieth Year of King Henry the Eighth whereby any Restraint Penalty Mulct Incapacity or Restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the Clergy or of the Laity for such the said free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion within this Kingdom and of their several Functions Jurisdictions and Priviledges may be repealed revoked and declared void by one or more Acts of Parliament to be passed therein 4. That all Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancellors Treasurers Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick Secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have hold and enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample Manner as the late Protestant Clergy respectively enjoyed the same on the First Day of October in the Year of our Lord 1641 Together with all the Profits Emoluments Perquisites Liberties and the Rights to their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in all places now in the Possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Cathollcks from the adverse party within this Kingdom saving to the Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land Appendix XV. The Pope's Bull to the Irish HAving taken into our serious consideration the great Zeal of the Irish towards the propagating of the Catholick Faith and the Piety of the Catholick Warriers in the several Armies of that Kingdom which was for that singular fervency in the true worship of God and notable care had formerly in the like case by the Inhabitants thereof for the maintenance and preservation of the same Orthodox Faith called of old the Land of Saints and having got certain notice how in imitation of their Godly and Worthy Ancestors they endeavour by force of Arms to deliver their thralled Nation from the Oppressions and Grievous Injuries of the Hereticks wherewith this long time it hath been afflicted and heavily burthened and gallantly do what in them lieth to extirpate and totally root out those workers of Iniquity who in the Kingdom of Ireland had infected and always striven to infect the Mass of Catholick Purity with the pestiferous Leaven of their Heretical contagion We therefore being willing to cherish them with the gift of those Spiritual graces whereof by God we are ordained the only disposers on Earth by the mercy of the same Almighty God trusting in the Authority of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and by vertue of that power of binding and loosing of Souls which God was pleased without our deserving to confer upon us To all and every one of the faithful Christians in the aforesaid Kingdom of Ireland now and for the time Militating against the Hereticks and other Enemies of the Catholick Faith they being truly and sincerely penitent after Confession and the Spiritual refreshing of themselves with
if valid are a good Title against Mr. Sullevan and his Abettors I will therefore endeavour to Rescue them from his Objections And as to the first though misinformation or false Suggestion may avoid the Grant of a Prince to his Subjects yet that Rule does not hold between Princes else all Contracts Leagues and Treaties in the World would be avoided on slight Pretences of being misinformed in one Point or other Besides the Pope Alexander III. after some Years Experience and full information of the English Conduct and Proceedings in Ireland gave a new Bull of Confirmation as aforesaid Hanmer 141. And says the Book of Houth he besought the Devil to take all those that gainsaid the Kings Title to Ireland but after all the Suggestions were no other but that the Country was Barbarous and needed Reformation which was so true that the Irish Historians themselves do frequently confess it As to the Second the very Bull mentions That the King shall be their Liege Lord and Sovereign And Henry II was accordingly received as King by the Clergy Nobility and People and both he and his Successors had always the Title of Sovereign Lords and did continually exercise and enjoy Monarchical Authority and Royal Jurisdiction in Ireland Daviâ— 2. 4 Inst 357. under the Name and Stile of Lords And Vrban III granted Power to the King to appoint which of his Sons he pleased King of Ireland Moreover Henry VIII by all the Kingdom in Parliament was acknowledged and declared King of Ireland Which Pope Paul IV considering he officiously erected Ireland into a Kingdom Council of Trent 367. and granted it to Queen Mary that so it might seem as if she derived that Title from him or his Authority which she had before by a better Right As to the Third The Peter-Pence which are but a sort of Proxies propter Beati Petri visitationem and must of Necessity determine with the Jurisdiction of the Visitor which is long since banished out of his Majesties Dominions are mentioned by way of Reservation and not by way of Condition and are to be paid by the People and not by the King And the Reformation of the Irish is proposed by way of Direction and Advice and doth not make the Bull Conditional Besides Conversion is the effect of Grace and the Act of God for which no Man can undertake and therefore such a Condition would be Impossible and Void However the English have heartily endeavoured to Reform that People and to bring that Noble Country into a general Practice of True Religion and Civility and though we do not boast much of our Success hitherto yet now that it is likely better and more effectual Methods will be used than heretofore we do not doubt but that they will produce suitable Effects But I have spent too much time about these paltry Bulls and therefore I will leave them and proceed to the solid and legal Titles which the Crown of England hath to the Kingdom of Ireland and the first is that of Descent from Eva Daughter of Dermond Mac Morough who was actually King of Leinster and whose Ancestors were Monarchs of Ireland The second is by lawful Conquest in a just War The third is by many solemn Oaths Compacts and Submissions of the Princes Nobility Gentry and People of Ireland The fourth is by several Statutes and Acts of Recognition And the last which alone were sufficient is by above five hundred years Prescription But two Things are to be wondred at Isti Reges non fuerunt ordinati solemnitate alicujus Ordinis nec Vnctionis Sacramento nec jure haereditario vel aliqua propâ—ietatis successione sed vi armis quilibet regnum suum obtinuit Davis 16. First That the Irish who never observed the Right of Succession but dethroned and succeeded one another by force as they were able sometimes the Posterity of Hiber sometimes of Herimon and sometimes the Issue of Ithy getting into the Monarchy should yet complain of Force in others or that Rotherick O Connor who drove Dermond out of Leinster should think it unreasonable that Dermond should drive him out of Connaugh assoon as he could The Second is That any body in Ireland should dispute the English Title to that Island after they and their Ancestors for above five hundred years have been born and bred under the Allegiance of the Kings of England But that which is most strange is Burks Butlers Breminghams Barryes Roch Condon Power Fitzgirald c. That four parts in five of the Inhabitants in Ireland are of English Extraction and have setled there since the Conquest and by vertue of it and yet many of them are so blinded with an ignorant Zeal for Popery that they have endeavoured to cut the Bough they stand on and have Associated with Mr. Sullevan and his Complices to destroy the English Government of Ireland and have been frequently in Rebellions to that purpose not without expressing Inveteracy against the English Name and Nation and all for want of duly considering that thereby they made way for their own Extirpation since the old Irish who say the Country was given them by God would if they had power no more endure the first Conquerors than the last Settlement Sale of Ireland nor allow the Title of the Fitzgiralds the Butlers and the Burks any more than that of the Boyles the Coots or the Clotworthyes I must yet continue this Digression to give an Account of the Complaints that are made against the English Government of Ireland and they are these First That the English profan'd the Churches and Sacred Places and instances Philip of Worcester and Hugh Tyrrel who took a Brass Pan from the Priests of Down and Gerald Earl of Kildare who burnt the Church of Cashel and put it off with a Jest That he would not have done it but that he thought the Archbishop was in it Secondly That Offices of Profit and Places of Trust were mostly given to Englishmen Thirdly That they suffer none of the Potentates to sit in Parliament but such as are qualified by the English Law and therefore the Parliaments are void Vnde deducitur omnia Parliamenta Regum Britannorum authoritate coacta in Hibernia deincepsque more pristino celebranda prorsus inita infirma injusta violenta esse says my Author Fourthly That Benefit of Law is not given but to the Quinque Sanguines so that the Irish are as it were Outlaws in their own Countrey and may be slain as Enemies Lastly The Irish were perswaded to surrender their Estates on promise to re-grant them in a better and more legal Form whereas really they were cheated and the King reserved a Tenure to himself and gave the Irishman only the Possessions and Profits And for these and other Injuries says Mr. Sullevan pag. 61. the English Kings could never enjoy Ireland quietly but were disturbed with many and almost continual Rebellions Little did this Objector think that his
Fastnesses of that Country at a Place called the Earls Pace he was briskly assaulted by O Rian and his Followers but O Rian being slain by an Arrow shot at him by Nichol the Monk the rest were easily scattered and many of them slain It was here that Strongbow's only Son a Youth about seventeen Years old frighted with the Number and Ululations of the Irish run away from the Battle and made towards Dublin but being informed of his Fathers Victory he joyfully came back to congratulate that Success but the severe General having first reproach'd him with Cowardize caused him to be immediately executed by cutting him off in the Middle with a Sword so great an Abhorrence had they of Dastardliness in those Days that in imitation of the Old Romans they punish'd it with a Severity which how commendable soever it may be in a General was nevertheless unnatural in a Father The Tomb both of Father and Son is yet to be seen in the Body of Christ-Church in Dublin whereon formerly was this bald Epitaph alluding to this Story Nate ingrate Hanmer 147. mihi pugnanti Terga dedisti Non mihi sed Genti Regno quoque Terga dedisti When Strongbow came near Wexford he received the ill News of Fitz-Stephens his Misfortune as also that the Irish had burnt Wexford and were retired to the Island Begory or Betherni and were resolved to kill Fitz-Stephens if they were farther pursued Wherefore he turned aside towards Waterford and march'd to that City where he met Hervy who was returned with Letters from the King wherein the Earl was ordered immediately to repair into England Strongbow presently obeyed and met the King at Newnham near Glocester on his Journey towards Ireland with an Army The Earl behaved himself so dutifully that the King was soon appeased for Strongbow did not only renew his Fealty but did also surrender to the King the City of Dublin and two Cantreds adjoyning and all Forts and Towns bordering on the Sea And on the other side the King was contented that the Earl should enjoy all the rest to him and his Heirs to be held of his Majesty and his Successors and so they marched by Severn-side through South Wales to Pembrook August 1172. and at length embarqu'd at Milford Haven In the mean time O Rorick and the King of Meath took Advantage of Strongbow's Absence in England and Reymond's at Waterford and with their united Forces besieged Dublin But Miles Cogan had the Courage to sally and the Good Fortune to defeat them with the Slaughter of Orourk's Son and many of his Followers On the eighteenth of October Regan M. S. King Henry arrived at Waterford with four hundred Knights and four thousand Soldiers The People of Wexford came with the first to make their court and complimented him with their Prisoner Fitz-Stephens whom the King continued in Prison and smartly chid him for invading Ireland without his Majesties special Licence But this was but a piece of King-craft to ingratiate with the Irish and to get the City of Wexford which Fitz-Stephens was forc'd to part with and to make his humble Submission and then at the King 's second coming to Waterford he was restored to his Liberty and the rest of his Estate To the King at Waterford came Dermond Mac Carthy King of Cork and voluntarily submitted and swore Allegiance He also agreed to pay a certain annual Tribute which being done the King marched to Lismore and thence to Cashel near which on the Banks of the Shure came Daniel O Bryan Prince of Limerick who in like manner submitted and swore Allegiance Whereupon Garrisons were sent to Cork and Limerick and the King returned to Waterford In like manner submitted Daniel Prince of Ossory O Phelin Prince of Decyes and all the great Men of Munster And the King gave each of them a Present and to all of them gracious and kind Reception All the Archbishops Brady 360. Bishops and Abbots of Ireland came unto the King of England at Waterford and received him as King and Lord of Ireland and sware Fealty to him and his Heirs and from every Archbishop and Bishop he received a Chart by which they acknowledged and constituted him King and submitted unto him and his Heirs as their Kings for ever And according to their Example the foresaid Kings and Princes received him as King and Lord of Ireland and became his Men and swore Fealty to him and his Heirs against all Men. These Charters were transcrib'd and the King sent the Transcripts to Pope Alexander who confirm'd by Apostolick Authority to him and his Heirs the Kingdom of Ireland according to the Form of those Charters as aforesaid The King left Robert Fitz-Barnard and his Houshold at Waterford and marched to Dublin through Ossory by the way he received the Submissions of the Prince of Ossory O Carol O Rurk O Chadess O Toole and several others but Rotherick the Monarch came no nearer than the Shannon-Side where Hugh de Lacy and William Fzadeline by Commission received his Oath of Allegiance and agreeed with him for a Tribute and as the rest did he likewise gave Hostages for his Performance so that there was no Prince or great Man in any part of Ireland except Vlster but by his Deputies or in Person did submit to the King Then did the King command to assemble a Synod at Cashel whereunto the Archbishop of Armagh consented afterwards though by reason of his great Age he was not present at the Synod Where after Christmas appeared Christianus Bishop of Lismore the Pope's Legate Donagh Archbishop of Cashel Laurence Archbishop of Dublin and Catholicus Archbishop of Tuum with their Suffragans and Fellow Bishops with divers Abbots Archdeacons Priors Deans and other Prelates And the King sent thither Ralph Abbot of Buldewais Ralph Archdeacon of Landaff Nicholas the Chaplain and divers other good Clerks and they made these following Canons First Cambrensis cap. 35. It is Decreed That all Good Faithful and Christian People throughout Ireland should forbear and shun to marry with their near Kinsfolk and Cousins and marry with such as lawfully they should do Secondarily That Children shall be Catechiz'd without the Church Door and Baptiz'd in the Font appointed in the Churches for the same Thirdly That every Christian Body do Faithfully and Truly pay yearly the Tithes of his Cattle Corn and other his Increase and Profits to the Church or Parish where he is a Parishioner Fourthly That all the Church-Lands and Possessions throughout all Ireland shall be free from all Secular Exactions and Impositions and especially that no Lords Earls or Noblemen nor their Children nor Family shall extort or take any Coyn and Livery Cosheryes nor Cuddyes nor any other like Custom from thenceforth in or upon any of the Church-Lands and Territories And likewise That they nor no other Person do henceforth exact out of the said Church-Lands Old Wicked and Detestable Customs of Coyn and Livery
which they were wont to extort upon such Towns and Villages of the Churches as were near and next bordering upon them Fifthly That when Earick or Composition is made among the Lay-People for any Murther That no Person of the Clergy though he be kin to any of the Parties shall contribute any thing thereunto but as they be guiltless from the Murther so shall they be free from Payment of Mony for any such Earick or Release for the same Sixthly That all and every Good Christian being Sick and Weak shall before the Priest and his Neighbours make his last Will and Testament and his Debts and Servant's Wages being paid all his Moveables to be divided if he have any Children into three Parts whereof one Part to be to the Children another to his Wife and the third Part to be for the Performance of his Will And if so be he have no Children then the Goods to be divided into two Parts whereof the one Moyety to his Wife and the other to the Performance of his Will and Testament And if he have no Wife but only Children then the Goods to be likewise divided into two Parts whereof the one to himself and the other to his Children Seventhly That every Christian being Dead and dying in the Catholick Faith shall be reverendly brought to the Church and to be buried as appertaineth Finally That all the Divine Service in the Church of Ireland shall be Kept Used and Observed in the like Order and Manner as it is in the Church of England For it is Meet and Right That as by God's Providence and Appointment Ireland is now become Subject and under the King of England so the same should take from thence the Order Rule and Manner how to Reform themselves and to Live in better Order For whatsoever Good Thing is befallen to the Church and Realm of Ireland either concerning Religion or peaceable Government they owe the same to the King of England and are to be thankful unto him for the same For before his coming into the Land of Ireland many and all sorts of Wickedness in Times past flowed and and reigned among them all which now by his Authority and Goodness are abolish'd And so says Cambrensis they having owned the King Supreme in Church and State he confirmed their Canons by his Royal Authority And it seems to me That at the same Synod the King declared his Pleasure to govern Ireland by the Laws of England Whereto they consented and swore Obedience accordingly for thus my Author phrases it Leges Angliae sunt ab omnibus gratanter receptae juratoria cautione praestita confirmatae Temple 5. And though others say This was done at a Synod Matth. Paris held about this Time at Lismore Yet I rather believe That the Bishop of Lismore his presiding at Cashel as he did being the Pope's Legate gave rise to the Mistake of the Place than that there should be two such famous Synods celebrated in the same Province in one Year But however that be this is certain That the King soon after his return into England caused an antient Treatise 4 Inst. 12. called Modus tenendi Parliamentum to be transcribed in a Parchment-Roll and to be sent into Ireland for their better Instruction The King kept his Christmas at Dublin in as great State as that Place would admit of for there was not any House to be found there that was capable of his Retinue and therefore he was necessitated to build a long Cabin with smooth'd Wattles after the Fashion of the Country and almost in the Nature of a Tent which being well furnished with Plate Housholdstuff and good Chear made a better Appearance than ever had been seen in Ireland before that Time and accordingly it was admired and applauded by the Irish Potentates who flocked thither to pay their Duty to the King But it was Time for Henry to mind his Foreign Affairs and therefore in order to his return to England he went to Wexford and there he staid almost three Months during which Time the Weather was so tempestuous that Ships durst not adventure to Sea so that the King could neither get to England nor receive any Intelligence from thence At length after Mid-Lent a Vessel arrived with the bad News of the King's Sons being in Rebellion and of the coming of the Pope's Legates to Interdict the Kingdom for the Murder of Becket He was also distressed in Ireland by the Plague which raged in his Army and by the want of Victuals which now began to be very scarce and dear so that he was necessitated to hasten to England although he was much troubled to leave Ireland in that unsetled Condition and without some Castles and Fortresses which he design'd and thought necessary for its Conservation But the Kings Jealousie was not so much of the Irish as it was of Strongbow whose Reputation and Interest were very great And therefore to ballance him the King raised several Grandees and gave them large Portions of Land together with great Jurisdictions and Priviledges particularly he gave Vlster to the famous John de Courcy and Meath to Hugh de Lacy and left Lacy with twenty Gentlemen and Robert Fitz-Stephens and Maurice Fitz-Girald with twenty more Governours of Dublin Waterford was committed to the Care of Humphry de Bohun Robert Fitz-Barnard and Hugh de Gondeville who had twenty Gentlemen to attend them and William Fitz-Adelme Philip of Hastings and Philip de Bruce had the like number of Gentlemen to keep Wexford And so in the Morning on Easter-Monday the King went on Board and was by Noon the same Day landed at S. Davids in Wales He left Hugh de Lacy Chief Governour Some call him O Râ—â—â—k or Lord Justice of Ireland who kept his Residence at Dublin and thither came to him O Mlaghlin of Meath to complain of some Hardships and Inconveniences he pretended to suffer in that Country or rather to adjust Matters between them about their respective Interests and Estates in Meath for he desired a Parly at the Hill of Taragh To which Lacy very readily consented And so after reciprocal Oaths for each others Safety 1173. they met at the Time and Place appointed O Mlaghlin had treacherously prepared an Ambush and when he found his Opportunity he gave them the Signal and upon their Approach he with a Pale Grim Countenance and with a Spar in his Hand made up to Lacy and assaulted him But it happened That one Griffith the Night before the Parly had dreamt That a parcel of Hogs fell upon Lacy and had killed him if he had not slain the great Boar This Dream being told to Maurice Fitz-Girald he gave such regard to it as Superstitious Men commonly do to such Whimsies and believing that it did forbode some Danger to Lacy he caused Griffith and six more secretly to arm themselves and to ride near the Place of Parley as it were for Pleasure and to be ready
Lord Justice was not less active in Leinster for he defeated O Morrough at Bally lethan and made a great Slaughter of the Rebels at Tristle Dermond and slew about four hundred of the Irish of Omayle There is a Writ in Mr. Prin's Animadversions on the 4th Institute Prin 261. too long to be here recited whereby it appears That an Englishman was punishable by Death for Killing Burning Theft or Robbery committed against an Englishman but an Irishman was only punishable at the discretion of the Brehon for Theft or Robbery of an Englishman but that in time the chief Governors did commute the punishment of any Felony even Murder of an Englishman for Money and thereby Witnesses were discouraged to testifie the Truth lest the surviving Felon might revenge it Therefore the Writ requires to assemble the Lords and COMMONS to advise c. In the same Writ is mentioned that the Irish petitioned for an Annual Parliament and because it is certain there were not Parliaments every year even in this Kings Reign Prin 263. Mr. Prin conceives that my Lord Cooke mistook that Petition for an Order for an Irish Annual Parliament which he says was at this time made but the Manuscripts M. and GGG at Lambeth 4 Insl 350. do agree with my Lord Cooke that there was such an Order But let us return to Bruce who on Midsummer-Day summoned Carigfergus and though eight Ships were sent thither from Tredagh yet the Garrison were reduced to the extremity of eating Leather and of feeding on eight Scots who were their Prisoners and so were at length forced by Famine to surrender in the latter end of August Nor did better News come from Connaught where O Connor defeated a Party of the English and slew the Lord Stephen of Exester Miles Cogan and eighty of the Barryes and Lawleys But this Misfortune was not long unrevenged Frag. 6. for on the fourth Day of August William de Burgo and Richard de Bremingham encountred Fylemy O Connor King of Connaught and a numerous Army of Irish near Athenry with prodigious Success for they slew the King of Connaught and eight thousand of his Men Aug. 1316. The Valour of Hussy a Butcher of Athenry was very remarkable on this Occasion for he fought with O Kelly and his Squire together and slew them both for which he was knighted and is Ancestor of the reputed Barons of Galtrim They say Athenry was walled with the Plunder of this Battle Cambd. 172. and that the brave Brimingham was made Baron of Athenry for this noble Service and his Heir is now the first Baron in Ireland About the same time viz. in August 1316. O Hanlon came for Contribution to Dundalk but the Townsmen under Robert Verdon who lost his Life in the Service entertained them so valiantly that O Hanlon was forced to leave two hundred of his Followers behind him About the end of August died the Noble Earl of Kildare Ibid. 173. and was succeeded by his Son Thomas On the fourteenth of September Ibid. Burk and Briminghan got another Victory in Conaught and slew five hundred Irish and their Captains Connor and the Mac Kelly and in the latter end of October John Loggan and Hugh Bisset routed the Scots in Vlster and slew one hundred with double Armour and two hundred with single Armour besides many of their naked Followers and sent Prisoners to Dublin Sir Alen Stewart Sir John Sandale Ibid. and other Scotchmen In December the Lacies procured themselves to be Indicted and Acquitted of introducing the Scots into Ireland and then had the King's Charter of Pardon Ibid. whereupon they renewed their Oath of Fealty and took the Sacrament to corroborate the same The Scots being joyned with the Irish of Vlster gathered a numerous Army computed to be near twenty thousand Men and in Lent they marched as far as Slane destroying the Country as they went The Earl of Vlster was then at S. Mary Abbey near Dublin but some Misunderstanding hapning between him and the Citizens 1316. Robert Notingham then Mayor of Dublin caused the Earl to be imprisoned in the Castle of Dublin and in the Fray seven of the Earl's Servants were slain and the Abby was spoiled and some of it burnt Hereupon Bruce marched toward Dublin Febr. 24. and took the Castle of Knock and the Lord Hugh Tyrrel in it who with his Wife were afterwards ransomed for a piece of Mony The Dublinians burnt the Suburbs to secure the City some Churches were destroyed in this Hurry and the Cathedral of S. Patricks did not escape But Bruce understanding the City was well walled and that the Citizens resolved to defend it he turned aside to the Naas being conducted and advised by Lacy notwithstanding his aforesaid Oath At the Naas they staid two Days spoiled the Churches opened the Tombs to search for Treasure and at last burnt the Town and thence marched to Castledermot Gauran and Callan destroying the Country as they went And what better could be expected when the King's Authority was so little regarded in Ireland that his Writ to bail the Earl of Vlster was disobeyed by the Mayor of Dublin Some of the Vlster-Men pretended an Aversion against the Scots Camb. 174. and desired Aid and Commission from the King they had the Commission at last and the King's Standard was delivered to them but they did more harm with it than the Scots had done they so behaved themselves if you believe my Author that they purchased the Curse of God and Man Bruce marched near Limerick to Kenlis in Ossory and about Palmsunday he came to Cashel and thence marched to Nenagh wasting all the Lord Justice's Estate in the Counties of Kilkenny and Typerary In the mean time the English Lords were Assembled at Kilkenny Davis 169. says Desmond was General and had gathered a numerous Army consisting of all sorts of thirty thousand Men and under the Conduct of the Lord Justice and Earl of Kildare designed to pursue the Scots 1317. when on Thursday in Easter-week there arrived at Youghal Roger Mortimer Lord Justice cum triginta octo Militibus who immediately sent word to the English Generals not to fight till he came but Bruce upon notice of his Arrival marcht toward Kildare and so to Naas and tho' he lurkt almost a week in the Woods near Trim to refresh his Men yet afterwards he made such haste that in the beginning of May he got into Vlster The Lord Justice seeing Bruce had retreated suffered his voluntary Army which the Irish call a rising out to return to their own homes the better to refresh themselves till a new Summons and went himself to Dublin and with the Lord Wogan Sir Fulk Warren and thirty Knights more he held a Parliament at Kilmainham where the deliverance of the Earl of Vlster was the chief thing treated of and it was at last effected at a second Meeting of the Parliament about
But it may be that I am some frantick Cassandra being Partner of her Spirit in telling the Truth and Partaker of her Misfortune in that I am not when I tell the Truth believed of your Lordship whom God defend from being Priamus Weigh therefore my Lord the Nobility of your Ancestors remember your Father's late Exhortation forget not your Duty to your Prince consider the Estate of this poor Country with what heaps of Curses you shall be loaden when your Souldiers shall rifle the poor Subjects and so far endamage the whole Realm as they are not yet born that shall hereafter feel the smart of this Uproar You have not gone so far but you may turn home the King is merciful your Offence as yet not over-heinous cleave to his Clemency abandon this headlong Folly which I crave in most humble wise of your Lordship for the Love of God for the Duty you ow to your Prince for the Affection you bear the Country and for the respect you have to your own Safety whom God defend from all traiterous and wicked Attempts Having ended his Oration which he set forth with such a lamentable countenance as his Cheeks were all blubber'd with Tears the Horsemen namely such as understood not English began to divine what the Lord Chancellor meant with all this long Circumstance some of them reporting that he was preaching a Sermon others said that he stood making some Heroical Poetry in the praise of the Lord Thomas And thus as every Ideot shot his foolish Bolt at the wise Chancellor's Discourse who in effect did nought else but drop precious Stones before Hogs Holingsh 91. one Bard de Nelan an Irish Rithmer and a rotten Sheep able to infect a whole Flock was chatting of Irish Verses as though his Tongue had run on Pattens in commendation of the Lord Thomas investing him with the Title of Silken Thomas because his Horsemens Jacks were gorgeously embroidered with Silk and in the end he told him That he lingred there over-long Whereat the Lord Thomas being quickned did cast his Eye towards the Lord Chancellor and said thus My Lord Chancellor I come not hither to take Advice what I should do but to give you to understand what I mind to do It is easie for the sound to counsel the sick but if the Sore had smarted you as much as it festereth me you would be percase as impatient as I am As you would wish me to honour my Prince so Duty willeth me to reverence my Father Wherefore he that will with such Tyranny execute my innocent Parent and withal threaten my destruction I may not nor will not hold him for my King And yet in truth he was never our King but our Lord as his Progenitors have been before him But if it be my hap to miscarry as you seem to prognosticate catch that catch may I will take the Market as it riseth and will chuse rather to die with Valiantness and Liberty than to live under King Henry in Bondage and Villany And yet it may be as strong as he is and as weak as I am I shall be able like a Flesh-worm to itch the Body of his Kingdom and force him to scratch deeply before he be able to pick me out of my Seam Wherefore my Lord I thank you for your good Counsel and were it not that I am too crabbed a Note in descant to be now tuned it might be that I would have warbled sweeter Harmony than at this instant I mean to sing With these Words he rendred up the Sword and flung away like a Bedlam being guarded with his bruitish Drove of Brain-sick Rebels Mr. Sullevan blames him very much for surrendring the Sword Sullevan 78. and says it was foolishly done for under pretence of Authority had he kept it he might have held what Castles and Fortifications he pleas'd and put in what Governours he would he might have seduced many of the King's Subjects and have cut the Throat of Alan and the rest of his Enemies but I suppose that Author did not duly consider the Perfidiousness and Treachery of the Action he advises The Council sent private Orders to the Mayor to apprehend the Lord Thomas but the City being depopulated by the Plague was too weak for such an Attempt and therefore Archbishop Alan and Chief Baron Finglass for their security got into the Castle under the Protection of the Constable thereof John White who was afterwards Knighted for his Service in this Uproar Now was the Sword drawn and the Scabbard flung away and no room left for an Accommodation and therefore Fitz Girald did all he could to strengthen his Party and thinking that if his Cozen the Lord Butler could be perswaded to enter into the Confederacy that all the Kingdom would either side with them or fall before them he wrote a pressing Letter stuffed with large Premises to invite the Lord Butler into the Association to which the Loyal Butler returned this unexpected Answer Taking Pen in hand to write you my resolute Answer Holingsh 9â— I muse in the very first Line by what Name to call you My Lord or My Cozen seeing your notorious Treason hath distain'd your Honour and your desperate Lewdness shamed your Kindred you are so liberal in parting Stakes with me that a man would ween you had no Right to the Game so importunate in craving my company as if you would perswade me to hang with you for good Fellowship Do you think that James was so mad as to gape for Gudgeons or so ungracious as to sell his Truth for a piece of Ireland Were it so as it cannot be that the Chickens you reckon were both hatched and feathered yet be thou sure I had rather in this Quarrel die thine Enemy than live thy Partner For the Kindness you proffer me and good Love in the end of your Letter the best way I can propose to requite that is in advising you though you have fetch'd your Feaze yet to look well ere you leap Ignorance and Error with a certain Opinion of Duty have carried you unawares to this Folly not yet so rank but it may be cured The King is a Vessel of Bounty and Mercy your Words against his Majesty shall not be counted Malicious but rather belched out for Heat and Impotence except your self by heaping Offences discover a mischievous and wilful meaning Netled with this round Answer Fitz-Girald designs to invade the County of Kilkenny but first he forces an Oath of Fidelity on the Inhabitants of the Pale and those who refused he imprisoned as fast as he caught them and sends Charles Rynold Arch Deacon of Kells his Ambassador to Pope Paul the Third and Dominick Poer to the Emperor Charles the Fifth to whom he sent twelve great Hawks and fourteen fair Hobbies but these Ambassadors came too late and not till their Master was executed And so great was this Rebellion and the King's Authority so weak that even the Territory
and after half a years abode there they went to Kilbritton in the County of Cork where Elianor Fitz-Girald Mac Carty Riagh's Widow then lived Soon after she married with O Donel and made it one of the Articles of her Agreement That he should protect her Nephew the young Fitz-Girald which he faithfully promised and thereupon they went together to Vlster but they were not there a Twelve-month before the Lady understood that her perfidious Husband had agreed to betray her Nephew and therefore she sent him privately into France and gave him sevenscore Pieces of Gold call'd Portugueses to bear his Charge and afterwards upbraided O Donel with his Treachery and told him That as nothing but the Preservation of her Nephew could have prevailed with her to marry such a clownish Curmudgen so since he villanously endeavoured to betray her in that Particular she would stay with him no longer and so away she went and never saw him more But the Young Fitz-Girald arrived safely at S. Maloes and being sent for up to Paris the English Embassador there demanded him of the French King by virtue of the Peace lately concluded The French King gave him a dilatory Answer and in the mean time Fitz Girald escaped to Flanders at Valencienes he was overtaken by James Sherlock whom the Embassador sent to pursue him but the Governour of that Town committed Sherlock and so Fitz-Girald got safe to Brussels but the English Embassador demanded him there also so that he was forced to remove to Leige and was by the Emperor recommended to the Bishop of Leige and allowed a hundred Crowns a Month for his Expence But he staid there not above half a Year before his Kinsman Cardinal Poole sent for him to Rome and placed him successively with the Bishop of Verona the Cardinal of Mantua and the Duke of Mantua and allowed him an Annuity of three hundred Crowns per annum and the Duke of Mantua gave him the like Pension With them he staid a Year and a half and then removed to Cardinal Poole's Palace in Rome where he continued three Years The next Year after he spent in Service with the Knights of Malta and behaved himself exceeding valiantly Then he became Master of the Horse to the Great Duke of Tuscany and continued in that Office three Years One Day as he was hunting Holingshead 99. in the company of Cardinal Farneze he fell into a Pit twenty nine Fathom deep and had the good Luck within two Fathom of the Bottom to quit his Horse and take hold of some Roots or Bushes that were on the Side of the Pit and by degrees he let go his Hold and gently descended upon his Horse which was dead in the Bottom of the Pit and there he stood three Hours up to the Ankles in Water until his Grey-hound called Griff-hound missing his Master hunted him to the Pit and there fell a howling till the Company came in and with a Rope and a Basket drew him up alive and well to all their Admirations to mine too if I did not think this part of the Story to be a little Monkish And since I am upon Digressions Analecta Hib. Sullevan Cath. Hist. 71. it will be fit to remember That Doctor Traverse who was an active Man in Fitz-Girald's Rebellion and was therefore executed at Tyburn as the Traytor well deserved has nevertheless found a Room in the Irish Martyrology and is mentioned as an Instance of the English Cruelty by the Irish Historians And so we will conclude the Year 1535 with the Consecration of George Brown Archbishop of Dublin Ware de Praesulibs which was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Rochester and Salisbury on the nineteenth or rather twenty ninth of March he had formerly been Provincial of the Fryers of the Order of S. Augustine Bish Brown's Life in England And whilst he was so he used to Preach That Salvation was to be obtained by the Merits of Christ and advised to make Application to him only for which Doctrine he was much taken notice of He became the first Protestant Convert of the Clergy in Ireland and was an exceeding Charitable and Meek Man He was the first that caused Images and other Superstitious Reliques to be removed out of the two Cathedrals in Dublin and out of the rest of the Churches within his Diocess And he caused the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and the Creed to be placed in gilded Frames about the Altar in Christ-Church Dublin It seems that the King did send Commissioners into Ireland to remove the Pope's Authority thence and to reduce it to conformity with England if so undoubtedly Archbishop Browne was one of the Commissioners as will appear by the following Letter sent by him to Cromwel Lord Privy Seal who was the chief Mannager of that Matter My Most Honoured Lord YOVR humble Servant receiving your Mandate Septemb. 4. 1535. as one of His Highnesses Commissioners hath endeavoured almost to the Danger and Hazard of this Temporal Life to procure the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation to due Obedience in owning of his Highness their Supreme Head as well Spiritual as Temporal and do find much oppugning therein especially by my Brother Armagh who hath been the main Oppugner and so hath withdrawn most of his Suffragans and Clergy within his See and Jurisdiction He made a speech to them laying a Curse on the People whosoever should own his Highness's Supremacy saying That this Isle as it is in their Irish Chronicles Insula Sacra belongs to none but the Bishop of Rome and that it was the Bishop of Rome's Predecessors gave it to the King's Ancestors There be two Messengers by the Priests of Armagh and by that Archbishop now lately sent to the Bishop of Rome Your Lordship may inform his Highness That it is convenient to call a Parliament in this Nation to pass the Supremacy by Act for they do not much matter his Highness's Commission which your Lordship sent us over This Island hath been for a long time held in Ignorance by the Romish Orders And as for their Secular Orders they be in a manner as ignorant as the People being not able to say Mass or pronounce the Words they not knowing what they themselves say in the Roman Tongue The common People of this Isle are more Zealous in their Blindness than the Saints and Martyrs were in the Truth at the beginning of the Gospel I send to you my very good Lord these things that your Lordship and his Highness may consult what is to be done It is feared O Neal will be ordered by the Bishop of Rome to oppose your Lordships Order from the King's Highness for the Natives are much in Numbers within his Powers I do pray the Lord Christ to defend your Lordship from your Enemies On the twenty eighth of April the King sent Orders to the Town of Galway to use the English Order 1536. Lib. H. Habit
those in Authority there was so great scarcity of Victuals that a halfpeny Loaf was worth a Shilling And within four or five days the strong Castle of Carrigonel was lost by treachery but it was presently retaken with the Slaughter of sixty Rebels however the Wants of the Army occasioned a Mutiny so that the Soldiers refused to march for want of Pay and the Garrison of Loghguir deserted and a thousand other Inconveniences hapned On the twenty third of April 1537. the Lord Deputy began his Expedition into Offaly against O Connor to revenge the Insolencies of the last year but he was hindred by the abundance of Rain that fell at that time from doing the Execution he design'd Ware 147. so that he was fain to end this Quarrel by a dishonourable sort of Arbitration for although the Damages which O Connor had done were estimated at five thousand Marks yet the Lord Deputy compounded for eight hundred Beeves or six shillings and eight pence apiece in lieu of them but not long after he attack'd the Cavenaghs and O Carol with better Success and forced them to submit and give Hostages It seems that the Lord Deputy had new Instructions to oblige all the Irish by Indenture to own the King's Supremacy and to renounce the Popes Usurpations and to contribute something towards the support of the Government and to send a Quota of Men to every Hosting and to effect this the Lord Deputy marched to Offaly the seventeenth of June and on the eighteenth encamped in O Mulmoyes Country and took the Castle of Eglis on the nineteenth he took Bi r and Modrimye in O Carols Country on the twenty fourth O Kenedy submitted to him in Ormond and the twenty fifth Mac Brian Arra likewise submitted On the twenty sixth the Lord Deputy came to Abby Owny where O Mulrian Vlick Burk of Clanrickard and Tybot Burk Mac William made their Submissions and so on the twenty eighth he came to Limerick where the Mayor and Aldermen took the Oath of Supremacy and swore to renounce the Bishop of Rome's usurped Authority and the Bishop of Limerick did the like without scruple or hesitation and Order was left for the Clergy and Commonalty of that City to follow that Example and that Certificates of their performance be returned into Chancery And it is observable that here one of the O Bryans made Peace for a year and promised to do Service against his Brother Mortagh On the fourth of July the Army came to Bryans-Bridge and had a Skirmish with the Rebels without any Loss and on the sixth demolished the Castles and Bridge and on the eighth the Lord Deputy marched into Thomond and took the Castles of Clare and Ballycolome and on the ninth he came into Clanrickard and took the Castle of Ballyclare and delivered it to Vlick Burk and on the eleventh he came to Galway where the Corporation treated the Lord Deputy and all the English Soldiers gratis for seven days and Vlick Burk did the like to the Irish and the Mayor and Aldermen followed the example of Limerick and took the Oath of the King's Supremacy and renounced the Pope's usurped Authority And here O Flaherty O Maddin and Mac Yoris made their Submissions On the twenty first the Lord Deputy removed to O Kelly's Country where O Connor Mac Henry submitted and thence he went to Mac Coughlan's Country where he took a Castle because Mac Coughlan had not kept his Word with him and so on the twenty fifth he returned to Minooth And it is to be noted That all those that submitted were bound by Indenture as well as Oath to own the King's Supremacy and to renounce the Popes Usurpations but when the King had an Account of what was done be answered by his Letter to the Lord Deputy That their Oaths Submissions and Indentures were not worth a Farthing since they did not give Hostages and so it afterward proved The Earl of Desmond mollified by the Misfortunes of the last Year Ware 147. and fearing the Power of the Lord Deputy who was in the Field with his Army as I have already related sent Letters to the Deputy with Offers of Submission upon Terms but the Expostulations about it were so tedious that the Army for want of Provisions was forced to return however Commissioners were employed to continue the Treaty and conclude an Agreement if they could and in order to it they went to Clonmel but the Earl of Desmond refused to come into a walled Town insisting upon a Fantastical Priviledge which he claimed and thereupon the Commissioners forgetting the Dignity of their Character and the Royal Person they represented dishonourably condescended to go to Desmond's Camp and there they took his Oath of Fidelity and received his Bastard Son Thomas Roe as a Hostage for his performanoe But now the Jealousies between the Lord Deputy and the Earl of Ossory broke out into open Hostility and the Deputy was so extravagantly transported that he sent part of the Army to spoil the Territories of the Butlers he also quarrelled with Archbishop Brown and Allen Master of the Rolls and although Lib. D. by the King's Order their Complaints were heard before the Council of Ireland and the new Commissioners hereafter named and a Reconciliation made between them at least in appearance yet some of them stuck so close to him that at length they procured his Ruine But it should have been remembred that on the first of May Fylemy Roe submitted and on the twelfth of May Cavenagh alias Mac Murrough did the like but O Neal was so far from it that despising the Agreement he had not long before made with the Lord Deputy he undertook to reduce Arglass and in order to it sent an Army under his Son to attack that Town and Castle but assoon as he understood the Lord Deputy was ready to take the Field he immediately proposed a Treaty and on the fifteenth of June he made an Agreement with the Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Meath and Chief Justice Ailmer Commissioners appointed for that purpose and he swore to fight for the King contra omnes homines Mundi Ibid. and not long after died Sir Hugh O Donel Lord of Tyrconnel and was succeeded by his Son Manus who was according to Custom inaugurated on the Rock near Kilmacronan Church But in September there came over four Commissioners viz. Sir Anthony Saintleger Sir George Pawlet Sir Thomas Moyle and Sir William Barnes their business was to enquire into the Abettors of the late Rebellion and afterwards to give a General Pardon And though they were very moderate yet it fell heavy on many of the Pale who were compelled to joyn with the Rebels they had also Authority to assist the Lord Deputy and Council in setling the Revenue and to set the Crown Lands for one and twenty Years for a yearly Rent It was to these Commissioners that Bernard Fitz Patrick made his Submission October 8. and they
16 of January came to Cahir to Commissioners appointed for that purpose and there he renewed his Oath of Allegiance and delivered his Son Girald to be Hostage of his Loyalty and to be bred after the English manner and by Indenture he renounced that fantastical Privilege which he and his Predecessors had for a long time claimed of not being obliged to appear at the Parliament Lib. D. or come within any walled Town but at their own Pleasure and by the same Indenture did utterly deny and promise to forsake the Bishop of Rome's usurped Primacy and Authority and Covenanted that he would with all his Power resist and repress the same and all that should by any means use or maintain it and that he would contribute and pay his share of Taxes granted by Parliament as the Earl of Ormond and other Noblemen do And afterwards he did come to Dublin and made his Submission in a set Form of Words before the Lord Deputy and Council And it seems that about the same time Hugh Burk made his Submission Ibid. and by Indenture Covenanted to pay the King forty pound per annum for the Captainry of the Burks Country and an hundred Mark upon every Succession of Captainry and to find eighty Gallowglasses and forty Horsemen for six weeks every Hosting and his whole Force for three days whenever the Lord Deputy comes into the Country and also to give Bonnagh or Maintenance for eighty Gallowglasses for six Weeks every year and this Example was followed by many others varying the Proportions of every mans Contribution according to their respective Circumstances And about the same time Lib. 6. was Coyned that Piece of Money Ware 159. which they call King Harry's Groat and two-penny Pieces and Pence of the same Stamp and on the nineteenth of November they were made currant by Proclamation and the carrying them to England was prohibited under severe Penalties The Lord Deputy in the latter end of May went to Limerick 154◠to confer with O Brian about his Submission which I suppose was there performed and soon after he returned to Dublin to meet the Parliament which was summoned to sit there on the thirteenth of June which it accordingly did and continued until the twentieth Day of July and so after several Prorogations and Adjournments mentioned in the Statute Book it was finally dissolved on the nineteenth day of November 1543. There were present at this Parliament the Archbishops of Dublin Ware 160. Cashel and Tuam and the Bishops of Waterford Fernes Emly and 〈◊〉 and to oblige the principal Gentry the King 〈…〉 profuse of Honour than he used to be Enobling no less than six of them at the beginning of this Parliament viz. Edmond Butler Baron of Dunboyne and Bernard Fitz-Patrick Baron of upper Ossory June 11. Sir Oliver Plunket Baron of Louth June 15. William Birmingham Baron of Carbry June 17. John Rawson late Prior of Kilmainham Viscount Clantarfe June 20. and Thomas Eustace Viscount Baltinglass June 29. This Parliament made several good Laws viz. 1. That the King and his Successors be KINGS of Ireland and that it be so proclaimed in every Shire in the Kingdom and that all opposition to this Act or to that Style or Title be Treason 2. That no body shall buy Goods or Merchandizes to sell again except in open Market or Fair on pain of being punished as a Forestaller except Tanners buying Hides to Tan. This Act made perpetual by 11 Eliz. c. 5. 3. That the Plaintiff in Assize may abridge his Plaint 4. That Consanguinity or Affinity not being within the Fifth Degree shall be no principal Challenge against a Jury-man 5. That it shall be Felony in any Servant Apprentices under eighteen years of Age excepted to carry away or inbezil his Masters Goods to the value of forty shillings or upward 6. That Marriages solemniz'd in the Face of the Church and consummate with carnal Knowledge by Persons without the Levitical Degrees shall not be dissolved on any Pretence whatsoever without Carnal Knowledge Vide 2 Eliz. c. 1. 7. That because by reason of Secret Conveyances it is difficult to know the Tenant the Lords may avow the taking of a Distress on the Land without naming the Tenant and that the Avowant shall have Costs and Damages if it be found for him or the Plaintiff be nonsuit 8. That all Religious Persons belonging to the dissolved Abbies and Monasteries c. be capacitated to Purchase Sue c. 9. That the Justices of Peace at their Sessions after Easter and Michaelmas shall appoint the Wages of Artificers and Servants Perpetuated 11 Eliz. cap. 5. 10. That Joynt-Tenants and Tenants in Common may force a Partition by Writ and either of them may have Aid of the other to deraign the Warranty Paramount as in case of Partition between Coparceners 11. That Lessees for Years as to their term only may falsifie covinous Recoveries as the Tenant of the Freehold might do at Common Law and so may Tenants by Elegit or Statute Staple and the Recoverers shall have the same Remedy for Wast and Rent as the Lessors might have had 12. That the Impropriators and other Lay-men entituled to Tithes may sue for them in the Spiritual Court and that in all cases of Appeal from a Judgment for Tithes the Appellant shall pay Costs the Adversary giving surety to refund if it be adjudged against him on the Appeal and upon the Certificate of the Ecclesiastical Judge That he has given a definitive Sentence in case of Tithes two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum may imprison the Party without Bail or Mainprise until he give sufficient Security to obey the Sentence and that all such Writs and Remedies as Fines Writs of Dower c. shall as well be had for Tithes as for Lands by any Person that has a Temporal Interest therein only the Suit for substraction of Tithes must still be prosecuted in the Spiritual Court 13. That the Purchaser of a Signiory or Reversion by common Recovery may distrain or avow without Attornment and that all Avowants may recover Costs and Damage if the Plaintiff be barred in his Action 14. An Act to enable Commissioners therein named to to erect Vicaridges c. 15. An Act against Idlers and Vagabonds which had it been well executed would have reformed Ireland long agone for most of the Mischiefs that have happened to that Kingdom either in War or Peace have proceeded from such loose Fellows as were punishable and might have been reformed by the Statutes against Idlers Rogues and Vagabonds And at another Sessions of this Parliament begun at Limerick the fifth of February 1541. and not 1542 as the printed Statutes make it a former Act restraining the Parliament from sitting any where but at Dublin or Tredagh or from Proroguing or Adjourning above twice or from admiting any Knight Citizen or Burgess to sit unless he were resident at the Place of
Election and had a Freehold of forty Shillings per annum the Town of Drogheda excepted was repealed and in lieu of it this Parliament enacts I. That Electors in Counties must have Freehold worth forty Shilling per annum ultra reprizas on pain of one hundred Shillings and that the elected in Counties Cities or Towns must be resident and the Sheriff shall forfeit one hundred Pound if he makes a Return contrary to this Act and the Party one hundred Pound more II. That on the Death Absence or Resignation of the chief Governour the Chancellor shall issue Writs to all the Privy-Counsellors in the Counties of Dublin Meath Louth Kildare Kilkenny Typerary Wexford Waterford Cork Kerry and Limerick and they being assembled shall chuse a Lay-man of English Birth to be chief Governour during the King's Pleasure and if no such Man fit for the Place can be got then the Council shall chuse two Lay Persons of English Blood and sirname to be Lords Justices to whom the Lord Chancellor shall administer the Oath and give Patents Note this Statute recites That the former Act already mentioned 10 Hen. 7. That in these Cases the Lord Treasurer should be chief Governour was repealed 13 Hen. 7. although the Roll be lost but whether it be so or not is not worth the Enquiry III. An Act touching mispleading and Jeofailes IV. That although all Estates are forfeitable for Treason yet because several of the Nobility lately created and others whom the King designs to enoble are very ignorant in the Knowledg of the Duty of a Subject they are the Words of the Act to the end they may not pretend Ignorance it is enacted That if any Person confederate with the King's Rebels against his Majesty or attempt any wilful War or Invasion against his Subjects or do transgress their Allegiance in any treasonable manner or do break their voluntary Pacts or Covenants made at the time of the King's Grant that then being convict thereof they shall forfeit all the Benefit and Effect of the King's Patents and for the time to come there shall be a conditional Clause inserted into every Patent to that effect V. An Act for the suppression of Kilmainham and other Religious Houses And in a 3d Session of this Parliament held at Dublin on Monday next after the Feast of All saints anno Dom. 1542 and 34 Hen. 8. it was enacted First That Meath be divided into two Shires viz. Meath and West Meath Secondly That Persons bound by Recognisance to appear in any Court shall be excused if they are in the King's Service and if their Recognisance be estreated they shall be discharged by Writ giving a new Bond for their Appearance at another Day And at another Session of this Parliament at Dublin the seventeenth Day of April 1543 it was enacted That the Castle and Mannor of Dungarvan should be united to the Crown And although all these Acts were Seasonable and very Good for that time yet there was not any one of them was of more Advantage to the Crown or that pleased the King better than that of making him King of Ireland for though it is manifest as the Act mentions that the Kings of England did always enjoy Regal Authority and Jurisdiction in Ireland under the Stile and Name of Lords yet the Irish did not pay that Reverence to the Name of Lord as they did to the Name of King or at least those that were traiterously disposed did make use of the distinction between Lord King Ware 161. to deceive and inveigle the Common People as hath been already related And therefore it being believed That this Statute would suppress and silence all those trifling Objections and Pretences there was exceeding Joy at the Publication of it in Dublin which was performed with great Solemnity at S. Patrick's Church in the presence of the Lord Deputy the Earls of Ormond and Desmond and others of the Nobility in their Parliament Robes and several of the Bishops and Clergy and the same Day a General Pardon was given to all Criminals and after much Feasting and Drinking and other Expressions of Joy the Ceremony was concluded with Bonfires And because some of these Laws were not practicable in Munster which was not so much inured to Civility as the Pale and those Countries near Dublin and where the use of the Laws of England except in some Cities and Towns where it was also much corrupted had been discontinued for almost two hundred Years The Lord Deputy and Counsel in magno Parliamento did publish certain temporary Constitutions Pro reformatione inhabitantium hujus Regni in partibus Momoniae qui nondum sic sapiunt Leges Jura ut secundum ea jam immediate vivere aut Regi possunt and they were notified to the Subject by way of Proclamation the twelfth of July 1542 and were as followeth 1. That King Henry be received and called King of Ireland 2. That Bishops may exercise their Jurisdiction in their Diocess according to the Law of God and the Canons 3. That Laymen nor Boys be not admitted to Ecclesiastical Preferments and that such as be in already shall be immediately deprived 4. That the Demesnes of Bishops and the Gleabs of Rectors and Vicars not exceeding ten Marks per annum be exempt and priviledged from Taxes 5. That all those who have Dignities or Benefices Ecclesiastical shall take Orders and Reside 6. That a General Peace be proclaimed throughout Munster and afterwards he that commits Murder or Robbery shall be fined forty Pound half to the King and half to the Lord of the Fee 7. That Larceny above the value of fourteen Pence shall be punished with the loss of one Ear the first time and tother Ear the second time and the third time with Death 8. No Horseman shall keep more Garsons or Boys than Horses on pain of twenty Shillings 9. That every Father shall answer for his Children Master for his Servants Gentleman for his Followers and Brother for his Brethren under his Tuition and shall give in a List of them 10. That every Kerne that has not a Master that will answer for him be taken as a Vagabond 11. That there be no more Exactions to maintain Horse or Foot or Kernes or to war against one another and that no more Coyne or Livery be taken but by the Deputies Order at a General Hosting 12. That nevertheless the Captain of the County must have the usual Contribution of the Country for the Publick and his own private Defence 13. That Petty Larceny be punished by a Fine of three Pound six Shilling and eight Pence whereof forty Shillings shall be paid to the Captain or Lord of the County and twenty Shillings to the Tanist si non est particeps criminis and six Shillings and eight Pence to the Informer 14. That no Man buy Goods above the Value of five Shillings from any suspected Person at his Peril if they prove to be stolen 15. Depopulatores
November 1558. And it is observable That though she was a very zealous Papist yet the Irish were not quieter during her Reign than they were under her Brother but on the contrary their Antipathy against Englishmen and Government induced them to be as troublesome then as at other times and prevailed with Mr. Sullevan to give this severe Character of her Reign Sullevan cath hist. 81. That although the Queen was zealous to propagate the Catholick Religion yet her Ministers did not forbear to injure and abuse the Irish Quae tametsi catholicam Religionem tueri amplificare conata est ejus tamen Praefecti Conciliarii injurias Ibernis inferre non destiterunt THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH QUEEN OF England France AND IRELAND ELIZABETH 1558. the only surviving Child of Henry the Eighth succeeded her deceased Sister Queen Mary on the seventeenth day of November 1558. and in the five and twentieth year of her Age the Parliament who were all Papists then sitting she was by their common consent immediately Proclaimed Queen And though Mary and Elizabeth could not be both legitimate no more than their Father could have two Wives at once for if the first Marriage and Dispensation were not good then was Queen Mary spurious and if they were valid then was Elizabeth the Issue of an adulterous Bed yet by a rare Example of Fortune they both enjoyed Successively the Dominions of their Father and Elizabeth succeeded as Heir to Mary But nothing in History is more strange than that the Papists who had the whole Power in their hands should so peaceably accept of a Queen who according to their Doctrine and by Act of Parliament primo Mariae was a Bastard and by Report was a Protestant and not so much as make one Essay in behalf of the Queen of Scots who was a Catholick Princess and in their Opinions the right Heir But the true Reason was because they believed Elizabeth would declare her self a Catholick and also marry the King of Spain both which Matters she managed so wisely that even the King of Spain himself was deceived thereby iâ— perhaps his Dread and Hatred of the Scots the ancient Allies of France did not prevail with him to favour Elizabeth even though she should prove a Protestant rather than see the English Crown placed on the Queen of Scotland who had espoused the Interests of France and was inseparably linked to them Nevertheless it must be confessed That the Statesmen of that time whose Interests and Designs were Popish were much overseen and did not build their Conjectures upon Reasons that were any thing solid for it was Elizabeth's greatest Interest to regard her own Legitimacy and it was notorious that by marrying King Philip her Sister's Husband she must justifie by her own example the Marriage of Henry the Eighth with his Brothers Wife and by submitting to the Authority of the Pope she must at least tacitly allow his Dispensation for the Marriage of Henry the Eighth and Princess Katherine both which things would by consequence bastardize her and render her Reign and Life precarious The Papists quickly perceived their Oversight and to redeem that Error fell into a worse and refused to Crown their Sovereign whom they had but a little before unanimously Proclaimed but at length it was performed by Doctor Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle on Sunday the twenty fifth of January 1558. Thomas Earl of Sussex was Lord Deputy of Ireland and with an Army of one thousand three hundred and sixty Foot and three hundred and twenty Horse had kept that Kingdom for some time in a more peaceable and quiet condition than usually him the Queen continued for a while and sent him Instructions written by Sir William Cecil's own hand viz. That a new Survey should be made of all Lands Spiritual and Temporal and no Leases to be made but on the best Survey Secondly Lib. C. The Leases for Customs of Ports not to be renewed without increase of Rent Thirdly Leix Offaly Irys Glanmaliry and Slewmarge to be distributed according to Act of Parliament to Tenants and their Heirs Males Fourthly The Exchequer to be regulated according to that of England and a Book about the Methods of the Exchequer Signed by the Queen and subscribed by the Officers of that Court was sent to the Deputy but not long after he was recalled and thereupon the Council elected Sir Henry Sydny Lord Deputy whose Government was something troublesom by means of Shane O Neal who took upon him the Name of O Neal and disclaimed the English Jurisdiction because by the Laws of England he could not inherit for Henry the Eighth had given the Earldom of Tyrone to Con O Neal with Remainder to his Son Matthew whom for the present he made Baron of Dungannon as hath been already related This Con had two Sons Matthew and Shane but Shane alledging that Matthew was a Bastard and the Son of a Smith of Dundalk as inded he had been reputed for fifteen years did claim the Inheritance and having murthered his Brother Matthew and imprisoned his own Father who thereupon died with grief he set up for himself and broke out into Rebellion The Lord Deputy marched to Dundalk to fortifie and defend the English Pale and sent for Shane O Neal who lay at a House of his six Mile from Dundalk to come to him thither but Shane desired to be excused and prayed that the Lord Deputy would be pleas'd to be his Gossip and that then he would come and do all that should be requisite for her Majesties Service and though this seem'd dishonourable that the Deputy should be Gossip to a Rebel before Submission yet the necessity of the Queens Affairs required it and therefore he consented and on the last day of January he and James Wingfield Christned the Child After the Solemnity was over the Deputy expostulated with Shane about his Rebellion O Neal alledged the Bastardy of Matthew and that Con's Surrender was void because he had but an Estate for Life in his Principality nor could have more by the Law of Tanistry nor could surrender but by consent of the Lords of his Country and that even by the English Laws the Letters Patens were void because there was no Inquisition taken before they were pass'd nor could there be any Inquisition till Tyrone were made Shire-ground That he was elected O Neal by the Country according to custom and that he is the legitimate Son and Heir of his Father and that his Title to all he claims is by Prescription The Deputy replied That the Matter was of great moment and that he doubted not but that the Queen would do what was right and just and therefore advised him to a quiet and loyal Deportment till her Majesties Pleasure were known and so they parted in a friendly manner and by this means Shane O Neal continued pretty quiet during this Deputy's Government but on the twenty seventh of August Thomas Earl of Sussex 1559.
Boyle Esq Countess of Barrymore Lady Digby Lady Goring Countess of Kildare Lady Ranelagh Lady Loftus Countess of Warwick Posterity he had to leave his Estate unto who enjoyed it until their Interests were buried under the sad Ruins that now cover that poor Country By some of whom or some other proper to preserve the Memory of so worthy and useful a Person I hope he may be afforded as he deserved a History by Himself and therefore I shall say no more of him here These Lords Justices surrendred the Swor'd toâ— the Earl of Strafford who being well known to the World to be a Man of whom a Prince might rather be afraid than ashamed I shall only add this of him That he very much improved Ireland both in Revenue and Value during his Government and that he did heartily dedesign the Advancement of the English Interest and Religâ—on in that Kingdom does sufficiently appear to me by the Care he took of the Protestant Church which for the most part he supplied with a Learned Pâ—ous and Orthodox Clergy and by the Malice and Hatred the Irish generally â—ore him As for the Lord Dillon afterwards Earl of Roscomon and Sir Christopher Wandesford we need say no more but that they were Loyal Men true to their King and â—ust to their Friend the Earl of Strafford by whose Directions and Sentiments they Govern'd the Kingdom The next that had the Title tho' not the actual Possession of the Government was the Noble Earl of Leicester and happy had it been for that Kingdom if he had gone over in time For altho' the Lords Justices Persons and Burlace were very worthy Men and did not deserve such Reproaches as the Irish aspersed them with yet the Government is not so strong nor so vigorous in Two Hands as in One especially unless they can be perfectly of One Mind in every Thing which these Two were not And so we are come to the Vespers of a Bloody Scene being that of a great Rebellion And as it was Unnatural in many Regards so particularly in this That altho' the Queen was a Roman Catholick and very zealous in Her Way and partially indulgent to all that were of It the Irish could even then be Disloyal and afflict Her Indulgent Husband while He was otherwise distrest But as Her Popery had no manner of Effect at a Time when there was some Reason or Motive that it might have done Good so in most other Cases it proved very detrimental and weâ— pray leave to trace it to the Original since it deserves some particular Remark France was hardly Match enough for Spain when King James meditated a Spanish Wife for His most excellent Son And the more formidable this Power then appeared unto Him the more intent He was on it being governed by Fear and too obsequiously humour'd therein by His next Governor the Duke of Buckingham His Favourite The First Instance of Spanish Authority in our Court may be that of Gondamour their Embassador who was able to bring Sir Walter Raleigh to the Block Surely it was a Case of the First Impression that a Man should suffer for acting by the Commission of his own Prince But because this was so incongruous and harsh they rake into an old Fault which in the Opinion of all Men was extinguish'd by his new Commission For who was ever made a General and intrusted with the Lives of other Men who was not understood at the same time to be Master of his own But the Second and more unfortunate Step was what we noted in His Treaty and Designation of a Lady of a different Religion for the Prince He had not done this in His own Case and there wanted in all Europe an Instance where any Roman Catholick Sovereign admitted of a Protestant for His Consort In this I reckon the Partition-wall was undermined and it was a Day of unhappy Counsel to the Prosperity of England But the Case having been decided by the Father and the same Favourite succeeding to the Son 't is probable the main Question never came so much as in Debate For King Charles coming then to the Crown and having resented the ill Treatment he found in Spain he presently took in with the alternate Power and Married a Daughter of France This was a Lady who had Wit and Beauty and the King being a Man of strict Vertue proved an indulgent Husband But He was often troubled with Her busie and intriguing Temper and the ill Company She brought with Her from France so that being at length scandalized at their Insolence and their tampering in Matters of Religion he dismist them into their own Country and War thereupon immediately ensued with the French King However thus it came to pass that Popery got Footing in our Court and tho' it were bounded and chained down by Articles yet when those who were to obey thought it Merit to transgress 't is possible this Serpent might creep sometimes out of its Circle and give occasion to Censures that were just Yet was it a Work of Time and there needed many other angry Conjunctures in Government before the Discontented could venture as afterwards to asperse and involve the whole Court in the Calumnies of Popery And as the World hath since had leisure to see why these Outcries were extended and what Ruins were thereby brought about so have they been convinc'd that most of those who were blasted in that Contagion have stood firm Pillars of the Church and above all the King Himself who died an insuperable Martyr for it However as to the Queen whether it were by Fatality or a mistaken Zeal surely the Event hath shewn that all Her intermedling in Affairs did but afflict the Cause of that Pious King Her restless Mind was like the Worm in the Gourd which tho' much restrain'd while He was alive yet since hath it eaten to the Root in a fatal perverting of His Offspring and laying the Foundations of their present Calamity But my Province being limited to Things of Ireland I shall only from the Topick which is touch'd observe That the greatest Obstacle and Contradictions that arose in Reclaiming the Irish and bringing them or the Forces that fought against them to His Majesty's Assistance was by those Two Emissaries that Her Majesty employed Sir Kenelm Digby in 1644. to Rome and the Earl of Glamorgan in 1645. into Ireland For both of these moving in different Measures from the Marquis of Ormond who was Lord Lieuteuant he was infinitely perplex'd thereby in his Treaty with the Irish they still pressing for more than he had either Instructions or Inclinations to allow them And when at last he compass'd a Treaty with them in 1646. it was presently broken and shamefully overthrown as in the following Story will be manifest The Truth is they needed but little Countenance of pretended Authority when the Fundamental Doctrines of their Church or at least the Documents of their Clergy led them from the Beginning unto all
this Contention was drown'd in 1618. upon which his Lady brought her young Son over from Ireland whither he had been carried at the Age of Three years and now he was about Nine She put him to a Private School under a Roman Catholick but by Order of King James he was removed to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Doctor Abbot and by him he was wholly maintain'd for Five or Six years without any Pension from Court or possibility of Help from home where all was sequestred and deprest By him also was he first instructed in the Protestant Religion and in the Doctrine of the Church of England unto which he stuck fast to his Death In 1628. his Grace was at Portsmouth to take Share in the Expedition then preparing for the Relief of Rochel but the sudden Death of the Duke of Buckingham put him upon other Measures for in a while after he married the Lady Elizabeth Preston which ended and reconciled the long Contentions of the Family This Lady was by the Marriage aforementioned the only Child of the said Earl of Desmond who being also lately drown'd she fell in Wardship to King Charles the First and His Majesty bestowed the Wardship upon the Earl of Holland then Lord Chamberlain She was intended for a Nephew of the Duke of Buckingham's which drew him into that Partiality and his Grace was in particular forbid by His Majesty to pretend unto His Ward However the young Lady saw none in the whole Court who either for Beauty or for Parts could outshine her Kinsman And Both being agreed he was forced to pay down Fifteen thousand Pounds to the said Earl of Holland for her Wardship These were all the Favours that either he or his Family could then meet with in the Court of England So hastning with his Lady to Acton near Bristol and there staying about a Year with his Uncle Sir Robert Poyntz he went for Ireland at the end of 1630. soon after which as the Manner there was he purchas'd a Troop of Horse in the Standing Army The Lord Wentworth afterwards Earl of Strafford went over Lord Deputy in 1633. In a while after he call'd a Parliament which being appointed to meet within the Castle of Dublin a Proclamation issued That none of the Members either Peers or Commons should enter with their Swords All obey'd the Order save this young Lord who told the Black Rod at the Door He should have no Sword of his except in his Guts So being the only Peer who sat that day in defiance of the Proclamation it fired the Lord Deputy as not wâ—nt to be disobey'd His Grace was call'd upon in the Evening to answer for it who thereupon shew'd His Majesty's Writ calling him to Parliament Cinctus cum gladio which sort of Answer being not expected and finding him like to prove an untractable Companion it was in deliberation that Night between the Lord Deputy and his Two-Friends Sir George Ratcliff and Mr. Wandesford Whether to trample him quite under foot or to oblige so daring a young Man who was now also grown very Popular But Sir George being for the more benign Extreme he was taken into Favour caress'd and made one of the Privy Council No Opportunities were from that time forward omitted to oblige him or set him forth in a high Character to His Majesty So that in the Year 1639 the Lord Lieutenant made him Lieutenant General of the Horse in the Army which was then newly rais'd but as soon disbanded Upon the neck of this the Earl of Strafford fell into those Troubles which in May 1640. hurried him to the Scaffold But the Earl having heard with what vigour his Grace contended to oppose and overthrow these Accusations which came against him from the Parliament of Ireland as it was the last Request this Earl made to His Majesty That he would be pleas'd to bestow his Blue Garter upon his Grace so in June following his Grace had notice of His Majesty's Gracious Intentions to confer it accordingly The Earl of Leicester was at this time appointed to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland tho' by some Accidents he never went over It was on the 23d of October 1641. that the Rebellion broke out the News whereof being brought to His Majesty then in Scotland His Majesty does by Letter to his Grace from Edinborough of the 31th of the same Month lament that Calamity and desires and presses his Grace to take on him to be Lieutenant General of the Army This was in effect by Necessity thrown on him even before that Command cameâ— but in May 1642. it came to him in Form by Commission from the Earl of Leicester as General In August after His Majesty being at Nottingham where He set up His Standard sent his Grace a Patent for the Honor of Marquis and in September following His Majesty by the Advice and Consent of the Lords Justices appointed him to â—old the said Command of Lieutenant General immediately from Himself by Patent under the Broad Seal It was by these Steps that his Grace came suddenly to be embark'd in a Course of Life to which he was utterly a Stranger He had not had the Means for Travel or ever seen War either abroad or at home He was made a General before he was a Soldier His very first Essay was to oppose a bloody Rebellion then newly broke out And how far he was able by a vigorous Body and the vivacity of his Parts and a boundless Zeal for the Crown to discharge and sustain that Trust or how he bore up in all those Vicissitudes of Exaltation and Banishment of Plenty and of Want of Dignity and Depression which did in the Course of about Fifty Years after so often befal him may prove Matter for a larger Place The last who manag'd the Sword of State was the Marquis of Clanrickard who was also an English Peer and Earl of St. Albans He was the First Roman Catholick that had been entrusted with the Chief Government since the Reformation But the Irish were come to that pass as not to endure a Protestant to be over them and so this brave Gentleman was deputed by the Marquis of Ormond to take his Place And tho' his Religion was pleasing to the Irish yet the King's Authority wherewith he was clothed was by no means acceptable to them that design'd to shake off the Yoke of England and therefore they proved as troublesom and refractary to him as they had been before to the Lord Lieutenant So that after Two Years vexatious Agitation amongst them and after he had in vain tried all ways to support the sinking State he laid down Arms and had Liberty to retire into England where he died He was a Person of sound Understanding and unblemish'd Loyalty and did from the beginning abhor their Courses towards the English And altho' the Nuncio and the Clergy made frequent Trials to seduce him from his Integrity yet being evermore fixt in his Principles he resisted all
and other the Contents of their Petition His Majesty replyed It needed not any more than to prove the Sun shines when we see it The next Objection is The Eight Question That the Lords of the Pale and the Earl of Castlehaven in particular were necessitated for their own safety to joyn with the Rebels Vindiciae Catholicâ—â—â— 3. finding no Protection from the Government for the Lords Justices might easily have suppressed the Insurrection at first but they desired it might encrease that so there might be more Forfeitures But this is Gratis dictum and without Foundation as appears not only by the Commissions and Arms given to several Lords of the Pale which they perfidiously abused to the prejudice of the State Temple 33. and by the Lords Justices design to Arm all those of the Pale if need were but also by the very instance of the Earl of Castlehaven for tho' the Lords of the Pale went into Rebellion the Second of December yet he lived quietly at his House at Madingston many Months afterwards as himself Confesses and 't is certainly true that even he and the Marquiss of Antrim who was at his house came down to the English Army near Killcullen in March after to visit the Earl of O rmond and was kindly received by him and some few days afterwards being Victorious at the Battel of Killrush Castlehaven treated him at Madingston and mutual Civilities passed between them And about the same time he had such Correspondence with the State that he took upon him to intercede for the Lords of Gormanstown Slane and others so that he might have been safe enough if he pleased and was not under any necessity to go out into Rebellion as he afterwards did And tho' I believe that this Lord was not in the first Conspiracy yet it will appear by what has been said in the Answer to the former Objection that most of the other Lords of the Pale were nor indeed could the Irish have undertaken the Rebellion without them for they were not able to carry on the War by themselves P. W. Remonstrance 595. without the Assistance of the Old English for as Peter Welsh very well observes It is well known that the Irish never signified any thing considerable in any of their Vndertakings and had been presently crushed in this if the English Colonies had not joyned with and supported them But whoever frames an Idea of those times in his own thoughts and reads the passionate Letters of the State for Succours cannot conceive any thing so ridiculous as that the Lords Justices delighted in those sad Spectacles of misery which daily flocked to Dublin or in the report of the most barbarous Inhumanities every day committed on their Friends and Country men but above all the continual Danger they were in themselves and their disadvantage and loss by the Rebellion do sufficiently vindicate them from endeavouring to make this Rebellion more general and formidable than really it was But what did the Lords Justices get by this Rebellion or did they Act or send any dispatch without the Council or did they not importune Aid from England even to the degree of being troublesome or did they not ask enough to make a speedy end of the War or had they a Free-hold in their Places or an unconroulable Power while they held them or what solid Foundation is there for all the Clamour that the Irish have made in this Case against the Lords Justces The Ninth Question The Ninth Question will be whether King Charles II. upon his Restoration stood obliged by the Articles of the Peace made Anno 1646. or the other Peace made Anno 1648. because the Lords Muskery Taaf and others did not faulter in their Allegiance from that time forward and therefore could not forfeit the benefit of those Articles To which I Answer That the Peace of 1646 cannot come in Dispute not only because the Congregation of the Popish Clergy at Waterford did publickly declare against it and Limerick Waterford and Clonmel c. never received it and the Irish Armies perfidiously broke it by indeavouring treacherously to intercept the Lord Lieutenant near Kilkenny and afterwards actually besieging him in Dublin but also because the general Assembly the proper Representative of their Party and Nation did publickly disown and reject that Peace by their Declaration recited Appendix 36. And as for the Peace of 1648. it was made with a Society or a Confederate Body and not with particular Persons and if that Society hath no Right to the benefits of that Peace it is certain that no particular Person can have any because his Claim and Title to it is as he is a Member of that Body Politick and his Case is the same with that of an innocent Freeman in a Corporation whose Charter is forfeited However this Body Politick or Imaginary is composed of particular Men and may forfeit its whole Right by the fault of some of its Members for malum ex quocunque defectu but if the greater part be Guilty there can be no ground for a doubâ— This being Premised it appears by the 29th Article That the Confedrates and their Garisons Towns and Forts were to be Commanded Ruled and Governed in chief upon occasion of necessity as to Martial and Military Affairs by such as the Lord Lieutenant should appoint But this Clause of that Article of the Peace was entirely violated by the Towns of Wexford Ross Waterford Clonmel Limerick and Galway even to the degree of depriving his Majesty of all the benefits and advantages he expected from this Peace and at length to the loss of the whole Kingdom Secondly Those Towns were to be restored to his Majesty whenever the Articles of the Peace were performed on his Part but the Confederates by their own Fault and their own Act gave them up especially Limerick and Galway to the Kings Enemies These were the Jewels his Majesty bought so very dear and yet the Confederates are so unreasonable to expect the Price without delivering the thing contracted for And if they Reply That those Towns were forced from them and without their fault yet that if true as it is not would not Entitle them to the benefits of the Peace For if a Man sell Land and it be evicted from him before he delivers Possession no Body will say he has Right to have the Purchase-Money from the Buyer and yet that is a parallel Case Nor have the Confederates the least Spark of Equity on their side because they might have surrendred the Towns to their King and ought to have done so but they neither did that nor submitted to his Authority as far as they had promised and therefore since they did take upon them to keep these Towns it is certainly at their Peril if they lose them Thirdly They did dissolve and renounce this Peace and the Kings Authority which is the first and chiefest Article tho' placed by way of Introduction for the
Rebellion than ever had been in Ireland to that time For the Lord Deputy having sent Proclamations of the King's Succession to all Cities and Burroughs not doubting but that they would be chearfully published in every place to his great amazement received this Account from Cork That Captain Morgan came thither with the Proclamation on the Eleventh of April and immediately Sir George Thornton one of the Commissioners of Munster went with it to Thomas Sarsfeild then Mayor who answered That by their Charter they might take time to consider it Sir George replied That since they knew the King's Right and that he was proclaimed in Dublin it would be taken ill if they delayed it The Mayor answered That Perkin Warbeck was also proclaimed in Dublin and that nevereheless much Damage hapned to the Country by their precipitation therein Whereupon Saxy Chief-Justice of Munster said That they ought to be committed if they refused But William Mead the Recorder told him That no body there had Authority to commit them Hereupon the Mayor and his Brethren c. went to the Court-house to consider of so important a Matter Sir George Thornton in the mean time staying in the Walk to expect their Resolution After an hours stay there he sent to know their Mind they put him off for an hour more and when that was expired they plainly told him They could not give their Answer till the next day Whereupon he said He would proclaim the King without them But they let him understand That he had no Authority within their Liberties to do so neither would they permit him to do it And so they put it off till the Thirteenth of April and then Sir George Thornton and the Lord Roch and about 800 Soldiers and others proclaimed the King in the North Suburbs near Shandon-Castle but the Mayor and Citizens deferr'd it till the Sixteenth and then wrote a sawcy Letter to the Lord Deputy importing That they had receiv'd the Proclamation on the Eleventh of April but had delayed publishing it till the Sixteenth for the greater Solemnity and they desired that Halbowling Fort not being in the Hands of a sufficient Commander to secure it might be put into the Hands of the Mayor and Citizens for whose Defence it was made But the Citizens not expecting an Answer to their minds from the Lord Deputy designed to set up their Religion by force and to that end they kept strong Guards on their Ports and Gates and stopt the King's Boats going with Victuals to Halbowling so that the Commissioners were forced to relieve that Fort with Ammunition and Victuals from Kinsale they also carried the Cross in Procession about the City and forced People to reverence it they also defaced Sentences of Scripture that were written on the Church-walls and painted the places with Pictures they re-consecrated the Churches and went daily in Procession they also took the Sacrament to spend their Lives in defence of the Roman Catholick Religion they disarm'd such Protestants as were in their Power and rejected the mixt Moneys and refus'd to suffer the King's Provisions to be taken out of the Store until they should be assured that the Soldiers should be sent out of the Liberties of the City they also endeavoured to get the South Fort into their Hands so that Sir George Thornton was forced to shelter himself in Shandon Castle Upon notice of these Proceedings Sir Charles Willmot who was besieging Mac-Morris in Ballingary Castle immediately repair'd to Cork and finding that no good was to be done by Treaty he sent 600 Men over the Ford by Gillabby into the South Fort and thô two of them were kill'd in their Passage by Shot from the Walls yet the rest got in safe and secur'd the Fort However the Citizens mounted some Guns and shot at the Bishop's Palace and Shandon Castle thô the Lord President Carew his Wife was in the one and the Commissioners of Munster in the other Nevertheless on the 28th of April the Lord Deputy wrote a kind Letter to the City of Cork and required them to suffer the King's Stores to be issued out to the Army but they excus'd themselves and answered That they did not know but those Stores if delivered out might be made use of against the Town Whereupon the Lord Deputy wrote a smart Letter to them on the First day of May but before it came to their Hands the Citizens under the Conduct of Christopher Murrough had removed the King's Stores into their own Cellars Morison 291. and being taught by a Seditious Priest That he could not be a Lawful King who was not approved by the Pope nor sworn to maintain the Catholick Religion they took a Resolution in Publick Council to excite the other Cities and Towns to Confederate with them for the Preservation of the Catholick Faith and resolved to defend themselves by Force It hapned that some few were slain on either Side and particularly a Minister was kill'd by a Shot from the Town and one of the Bishop's Servants was wounded and taken Prisoner and was told by them That the Traytor his Master should not escape Death if they could get him within their Power But their Insolence will best appear by their own Letter to the Lord Deputy the Substance of which is to be found here Appendix 1. In the mean time the Commissioners of Munster finding that they wanted Artillery sent for some to Halbowling but the Citizens having notice of that Design Mann'd out some Boats under William Terry to intercept them Nevertheless they arrived safely and thereupon the Citizens being frightned with the noise of the Great Guns agreed to a Cessation until the Lord Deputy should come But the City of Cork was not the only Place that was Rebellious at this Junctuâ—e Waterford was altogether as ill inclined tho' it had not an Opportunity of doing so much Mischief However they did their Share and first they pulled down Sir Nicholas Welsh their Recorder from the Cross where he was reading the Proclamation of the King's Succession They also broke the Doors of the Hospital and admitted Dr. White to preach a Seditious Sermon in St. Patrick's Church wherein amongst other inveterate things he said That Jezebel meaning Queen Elizabeth was dead They also took the Keys of the Cathedral from the Sexton and caused a Priest to celebrate Mass there Nor were the Towns of Clonmell and Wexford free from the like Insolencies but they being the weaker and the less populous Places were sooner sensible of their Faults than were other Towns where Tumult and Noise gave less opportunity of Thinking and Number and Fortification encourag'd to Obstinacy and therefore these Corporations restored the Churches and submitted to the Lord Deputy's Commands before the Army approached their Walls whilst on the contrary Limerick which has seldom been backward in an Irish Rebellion was one of the forwardest in this and gave their Priests the Possession of all their Churches where they erected Altars
Parliament in Ireland till the Eleventh Year of this King's Reign Sullivan 211. and that Sullivan himself brings this very Neal Garuff on the English side again Anno 1608. But to proceed Sir ARTHUR CHICHESTER was sworn Lord Deputy on the Third of February 1604. and soon after establish'd a new Circuit for Judges of Assize for the Province of Connagh 1604. and retrived the Circuit of Munster Davis 265. which had been discontinued for Two hundred Years It must be observed That until this time the Papists generally did come to Church and were called Churchâ—Papists but now the Priests began to be seditious and did not only scandalize the Publick Administration of Affairs but also took upon them to review and decide some Causes that had been determin'd in the King's Courts and to oblige their Votaries on pain of Damnation to obey their Decision and not that of the Law they did also forbid the People to frequent the Protestant Churches and they publickly rebuilt Churches for themselves and erected or repaired Abbies and Monasteries in several Parts of the Kingdom and particularly at Multifernam in the County of Westmeath Killconell in the County of Gallway Rossariell in the County of Mayo Buttivant Kilkrea and Timoleague in the County of Cork Quin in the County of Clare Garinlogh in Desmond and in the Cities of Waterford and Kilkenny Sullivan 206. Intending says Mr. Sullivan to restore the Splendor of Religion And as many as pleased sent their Children to Foreign Seminaries without control And perhaps all this might have passed if they had not as foolishly as impudently publish'd every where and in all Companies That the King was of their Religionâ— 1605. But then the Government was necessarily obliged for the Vindication of his Majesty and to prevent the Growth of Popery and suppress the Insolence of the Papists to publish a Proclamation on the Fourth of July 1605. commanding the Popish Clergy to depart the Kingdom before the Tenth of December following unless they would conform to the Laws of the Land But this Proclamation being too faintly executed as Laws against Popery have hitherto always been produced more Noise than Effect so that it did little service in Ireland and yet furnished the Irish Papists with matter of Complaint beyond Seas where they usually make a great Clamour for a small Matter But on the Fifth of November was discovered the Damnable Popish Plot well known in England by the Name of The Gunpowder Treason the Design of it was to blow up at once the King the Nobility and the Principal Gentry of that Kingdom then assembled in Parliament The Papists did for some time with great Artifice and Confidence impose upon the World that this was a Plot of Cecill's making but finding at length that that Cobweb Pretence was too thin and was easily seen through they laid the blame upon a few desperate Villains as they always do when the Fact is too notorious to be denied But now that Matter is pretty well setled by the Confession of * Wilson Hist of K. James p. 32. Weston of the Earl of Castlehaven the Lord Stafford and Peter Walsh This Year the barbarous Customs of Tanistry and Gavelkind were abolish'd by Judgment in the King's Bench Davis's Reports and the Irish Estates thereby made descendible according to the Course of the Common Law of England and the City of Cork and the Liberties thereof were separated from the County of Cork and made a distinct County of it self reserving nevertheless Places in the City for a Gaol and a Court-house for the County at large In the Year One thousand six hundred and six 1606. the famous Robert Lalor Vicar-General of Dublin and other Diocesses in Leinster for disobedience to the aforesaid Prolamation was apprehended in the City of Dublin it being the Custom of these Ecclesiastical Spies to lurk about the Metropolis of every Kingdom he was in Michaelmaâ— Term indicted upon the Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. for advancing and upholding Foreign Jurisdiction within this Realm but he humbled himself to the Court and voluntarily and upon Oath on 22d December 1606. made a Recognition in haec verba First He doth acknowledge that he is not a lawful Vicar General in the Diocess of Dublin Kildare and Fernes and thinketh in his Conscience that he cannot lawfully take upon him the said Office Item He doth acknowledge our Soveraign Lord King James Davis Rep. 83. that now is to be his Lawful Chief and Supream Governor in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that he is bound in Conscince to obey him in all the said Causes and that neither the Pope nor any other Foreign Prelate Prince or Potentate hath any Power to controll the King in any â—ause Ecclesiastical or Civil within this Kingdom or any of his Majesties Dominions Item He doth in his Conscience believe that all Bishops ordained and made by the Kings Authority within any of his Dominions are lawful Bishops and that no Bishop made by the Pope or by any Authority derived from the Pope within the Kings Dominions hath any Power or Authority to impugne disannul or controll any Act done by any Bishop made by his Majesties Authority as aforesaid Item He professeth himself willing and ready to obey the King as a good and obedient Subject ought to do in all his lawful Commandments either concerning his Function of Priesthood or any other Duty belonging to a good Subject Upon this Confession he was indulged with more Liberty and the free Access of his Friends and would undoubtedly have been enlarged the next Term if he had not privately denied what he had publickly done protesting that his Confession did not extend to the Kings Authority in Spiritual Causes but in Temporal only this being told to the Lord Deputy it was resolved to try him upon the Statute of 16. R. 7. cap. 5. of Premunire and it was discreetly done rather to Indite him upon that than upon any new Statute made since the Reformation Davis Rep. 85. that the Irish might be convinc'd That even Popish Kings and Parliaments thought the Pope an Usurper of those exorbitant Jurisdictions he claim'd and thought it inconsistent with the Loyalty of a good Subject to uphold or advance his unjust and unreasonable Incroachments on the Prerogative of the King and the Priviledge of the Subject which tended to nothing less then to make our Kings his Lacquies our Nobles his Vassals and our Commons his Slaves and Villains Upon this Indictment he was tryed and found Guilty and upon his Tryal his aforesaid Recognition which he made upon Oath was publickly read which netled him exceedingly and the rather because he was asked whether he had not denied this Confession to some of his Friends to which he answered that he had not but only told some of them that he had not own'd the Kings Supremacy in Spiritual Causes which he said was true for the word
the last Six years over and above 3 d. per Pound Impost and that he had the Consent of the principal of the Council and the Approbation of his Majesty who consented to an Act of Parliament for the Confirmation of it that the Council Sign'd the Proclamations and if any were Pillory'd Whipt c. it was for Perjury or like Crimes and the Fines were only in terrorem little of them being Levied and concludes that he is no Gainer by that Monopoly The Thirteenth Article was That he also Monopoliz'd all the Flax of the Kingdom by his Proclamations of 31st May 12 Car. 1. and 31st January in the same year prescribing and enjoyning Rules and Methods of making Yarn and Thread which the unskilful Natives could not Practise and ordering all Linen Yarn and Thread made in any other manner to be seized which was accordingly executed with Severity whereby multitudes were undone and many Starved To which he Answers That what he did was to incourage the Linen Manufacture in Ireland and to â—â—â—ing the Irish to a more Artificial way of making Linen Yarn Thread and Cloth that the Council concurr'd in the Proclamations which are Temporary Laws in Ireland and that he was a Loser of 3000 l. by this Project for the Good of that Country that the evil Consequences if any were Collateral and Accidental and that the misdemeanors of inferior Officers could not be Charged on him That he never used more than 400 l. worth of Yarn in a Year which could not undoe much less Starve such multitudes as they pretend The Fourteenth was That he impos'd a new Oath to make true Invoyce c. on Masters of Ships c. but the Managers declin'd this Article The Fifteenth was That he Arbitrarily impos'd Illegal Taxes on the Towns of Bandonbridge Baltimore Tallow c. and Cessed Souldiers on them till they paid them and by force of Arms expell'd Richard Butler from Castlecumber and imprison'd several of the O Brenans and their Wives and Children until they surrendred and releas'd their Rights and Estates To this the Earl Answers That when the Country granted the King 120000 l. in Nature of a Subsidy it was agreed between the Lord Deputy Falkland and Them that it should not be entered upon Record but be Levied by Captains by Paper Assignments by Warrant from the Lord Deputy and so it was done and the Money levied on Bandon c. was Arrears of that Contribution and it was levied without Force and that Castlecumber was Legally evicted and what Soldiers were sent there being but twelve were sent to Guard Mr. Wandesford's House against Tories but used no Force to Mr. Butler or any quiet Subject and that it was usual in Ireland to lay Soldiers on Delinquents The Sixteenth Article That he procured his Majesties Order 17th February 1631. that no Complaint should be received in England about Irish Affairs until it were first made in Ireland to the Lord Deputy and that by Proclamation of the 17th of September 11 Car. 1. All Persons that had Estate or Office in Ireland except such as had imployment in his Majesties Service in England or attended there by his special Command should reside in Ireland and not depart without Licence whereby People are hindred from complaining against the said Earl And One Parry hath been punish'd for so doing To this he Answers That it was by him and the Council conceived fit to prevent unnecessary Clamours here but that he never denied Licence except to the Lords of Cork Mountnorris and Roch because there were Suits against them in the Castlechamber and to Sir Frederick Hamilton by the Kings Command which was taken off when he knew the Design of his Voyage was to complain against him and to Lord Esmond for a short time because he was Major General of the Army and he saith that Parry was punish'd for other Misdemeanors by the Consent of the whole Council The Nineteenth was Rushw 494. That by Proclamation of May 20. 1639. he imposed a New Oath viz. I N. do faithfully swear profess and promise That I will honor and obey my Sovereign Lord King CHARLES and will bear Faith and true Allegiance to Him and will defend and maintain His Regal Power and Authority and that I will not bear Arms nor do any Rebellious or Hostile Act against him or protest against any his Royal Commands but submit my self in all due Obedience hereunto And that I will not enter into any Covenant Oath or Bond of mutual Defence or Assistance against all sorts of Persons whatsoever or into any Oath Covenant or mutual Defence or Assistance against any Person whatsoever by force without His Majesty's Sovereign and Regal Authority And I do renounce all Covenants contrary to what I have sworn and promised So help me God in Christ Jesus And that he grievously fined those that refused to take it and particularly Henry Stewart and his Wife were fined 5000 l. apiece and their two Daughters and James Gray Three thousand Pounds apiece and imprison'd them for not paying it and explain'd the Oath to oblige in point of Allegiance to the Ceremonies and Government of the Church establish'd and to be establish'd by His Majesty's Authority and that he would prosecute to the Blood such as should disobey c. whereby many were undone and more fled the Kingdom and that he said If he return'd again he would root out Stock and Branch of the Dissenting Scots To this he answers That it was in a dangerous Time and for the Security of the Kingdom and upon their own Petition and that he had His Majesty's Orders for it dated 16 January 1638. That as to the Fine of Stewart c. it was setled before it came to his Vote so that he did but concur with the rest and that he did not speak against the Scotish Nation but against the Scotch Faction of the Covenanters The Twenty second Article was That he procured the Irish Parliament to declare their Assistance in a War against the Scots and gave Directions for Raising Eight thousand Foot and One thousand Horse which were most Papists and confederated with Sir George Ratcliff to employ that Army to Invade England and subvert the Fundamental Laws and Establish'd Government thereof To this he answers That he rais'd that Army by His Majesty's Order and denies any other Design than to assist and serve the King as they ought There was also some mention made about one Trueman who was executed for a Plot to betray Carigfergus to the Scots touching whom Sir John Clotworthy made this Deposition That Trueman was an Englishman that dwelt not far from Carigfergus and one that was sent about the Country but by whom he knows not but there were vehement Suspicions that he was employ'd to find out those that would engage in Discourse concerning the Scotch Business He spake with one Captain Giles who feigned himself a great Friend of the Scotish Nation and said That he
Attempt upon Cappoquin but were on the Twenty Seventh of June repulsed thence with Loss and on the Second of July the Earl of Castlehaven met with the same Fate at Lismore and then marched towards Leinster And on the First of July Colonel Myn beat the Irish on the Plain on the Northside of Tymoleague River and soon after took the Castles of Tymoleague Aghamilly and Rathbarry But in Connaught the Protestant Affairs were in a worse Condition for tho' they made a shift to repell the Incursions of Owen Roe and at lenghth to drive him out of that Province yet in August the Fort of Gallway was surrendred to the Irish whereupon the Rebels marched to the Siege of Castlecoot to which the Town of Gallway contributed Three hundred Pound and altho' the Irish had Notice of a Cessation by a Messenger sent on purpose yet they imprisoned him as a Spy and shot the more furiously against the Castle ☞ until at length perceiving their Labour was in vain they claimed the benefit of the Cessation to secure their retreat And in Ulster I find no other Account than what Monroe gives in his Letter of the Twenty third of May viz. that with Two thousand Foot and Three hundred Horse he did beat Owen Roe and his Son and Sir Phelim O Neal being joyned together with their Forces and compelled them to return to Charlemont after quitting the Generals House to be burnt and spoiled by them with all the Houses in Loghgall being the best Plantation in Ulster and the straightest for defence of the Rebels Peview 81. only that my Lord of Castlehaven says that Colonel Mervin and Sir Theophilus Jones and the English had a hand in this Victory and so we are come to the Treaty of the Cessation which was managed in this manner On the Twenty third of June 1643. the Irish Commissioners viz. the Lord Gormanstown the Lord Muskery Sir Lucas Dillon Sir Robert Talbot Tirlogh O Neil Geoffery Brown Ever Macgenis and John Walsh presented themselves unto the Marquess of Ormond in his Tent near Castlemartin his Lordship sitting in his Chair covered and they uncovered his Lordship told them He was come according to their Desires and expected their Propositions in writing and the next day they desired a sight of his Commission alledging that they were ready to shew theirs and give a Copy and since no Body was named in the Kings Commission but his Lordship and their Authority was likewise to treat with him only they desired The Negotiation might be kept secret and concealed from all others till the matter be fully concluded To which the Marquess replyed That for the way of proceeding he was by his Majesty trusted therewith and should do nothing therein but what he conceived to be fit then having received a Copy of their Commission and sent them a Copy of His Majesties Letter of the Third of May 1643 and Promised them upon conclusion of the Treaty a Copy of his Majesties Letter of the Twenty third of April 1643 they tendered Propositions and having agreed that the time of the Cessation should be a Twelvemonth the Marquess proposed that they would first declare what they would contribute towards the support of His Majesties Army during the Cessation to which they Answer That when they know what they have to give they assist His Majesty according to their utmost Abilities as upon all occasions they have heretofore done The next meeting was at Siggingstown where on the Twenty eighth of June they declared That the Cessation being first agreed upon they will treat of Supply and not before on the Twenty ninth the Marquess not admitting the Name or Title attributed by the Commissioners to their Party nor the Protestation That they took Arms in defence of their Religion His Majesties Rights and Prerogatives and the Liberties of this Kingdom and no ways to oppose His Majesties Authority gave an Answer in writing to their Proposals and Tacked to it Four demands viz. 1. For supply 2. A Declaration how far the Quarters of each Party extended 3. For Caution of Payment of such Supply as they should Promise And 4. That all Castles Towns Forts and Houses that may be taken during the Treaty should be restor'd on the Cessation Hereupon the Treaty was adjourn'd that the Commissioners might consult their Principals and then 12 July from Kilkenny they answer to the First That 't is not warranted by His Majesty's Letter however on the Conclusion of the Cessation they will do what is fit To the Second They agree to settle that Point To the Third That a Free Gift needs no Caution and for performance of Articles they will agree to an Equal Course at Meeting And to the Fourth if reduc'd to Particulars they will answer it at the next Congress On the Fifteenth of July Ormond writes to them That tho' their Answers are neither so particular nor so satisfactory as he expected yet he design'd to meet them but that his necessary Attendance on other Business prevents it which being over they shall have timely notice of a Day of Meeting To this on the Nineteenth of July the Irish Commissioners reply That they are loth to give an ill Construction of this Delay until they know of that Service that taketh place of This but must take notice that they meet in These as in all other Proceedings whereby they may have any expectation to enjoy the Benefit of His Majesty's Grace and Favour some Interruption and Slackness in conveying any part of His Good Intentions to His Faithful Subjects the Catholicks of Ireland which they may add to their other Grievances and will endeavour in discharge of the many Harms which may ensue by reason of this Protraction to have it rightly represented to His Majesty To this smart Reply Ormond on the Twenty first of July return'd this Answer That he was not accountable with the Knowledge of any of his Majesty's Services wherewith he had the Honor to be intrusted to any but His Majesty That nevertheless they were not ignorant of the Cause of that Interruption since their General Preston with their Forces approach'd so near as Castle Carbery in the County of Kildare But on the Fifth of August the Lords Justices Borlace and Titchborn together with the Marquis of Ormond sent the Commissioners a Letter importing That they had received His Majesty's Letter authorizing Them to conclude a Cessation for a Year and that pursuant to it Ormond would meet the Commissioners at Sigginstown on the Seventeenth of August and proceed where he left off But afterwards at the desire of the Confederates Note In the New Commission Lord Gormanstown was omitted and Nicholas Plunket and Sir Richard Barnwall were added their Commissioners being dispersed the Meeting was appointed the Twenty sixth of August and then insisting upon the Title Name and Protestation aforesaid they give a Reply in Writing to the Answers formerly given by the Marquis On the Twenty eighth of August
Cessation pretending that they were just then come to hand and that he was sorry they did not come sooner 2. By the like Action in continuing the Siege of Castle Coot after notice of the Cessation as aforesaid 3. By Publishing the Pope's Bull after the Cessation which was an Encouragement to the Rebels to persist in their Rebellion and did seduce others of the Papists that were not then engaged in it 4. By taking 369 Head of Cattel from the Suburbs of Dublin on the 18th of September 5. By seizing on the Black Castle of Wicklow and murdering the Protestants there And 6. In not sending any formed Troops or Regiments to the King's Assistance as they promised to do And lastly In not paying the 30800 l. according to Agreement But if we are curious to know what was done in England in reference to the Affairs of Ireland we may find That on the 5th of May Sir Robert King Mr. Jepson and Mr. Hill waited on His Majesty with a Bill For a speedy Payment of Moneys subscribed towards the Reducing the Rebels in Ireland Husbands 2. Part. 161. which yet remains unpaid which they prayed Him to pass into an Act but His Majesty desired first to be satisfied how the rest of that Money was disposed of and how he should be secured that what is yet unreceived shall not be misemployed and whether it be fit to compel voluntary Subscribers by a greater Penalty than was at first made known to them viz. The loss of what they have already paid and whether the Power given by this new Bill to Warner Towse and Andrews whose Integrity he has no assurance of be not too great and whether Purchasers and Creditors may not be prejudiced by the Extents mentioned in this new Act. And on the 16th of June both Houses issued a Declaration purporting That the Kingdom of Ireland is in a sad condition but that the Papists are in as much want as the Protestants and therefore if the later were well supplied the former would be easily subdued that their Ambition to be independent from England and their inveterate Hatred against the Protestant Religion Ibid. 217. have been the causes of their Barbarousness to the English that they have been assisted by the Catholicks of other Countries And can it be say they that God's Enemies should be more violent and indefatigable for restoring Idolatry in a Kingdom foreign to theirs than we zealous in propugning God's Truth in our own against Barbarous Traytors and Monstrous Idolaters Shall the common Incendiaries of both Kingdoms strip themselves of all they have to accomplish our Destruction by devouring that rich and fruitful Island And shall the good People of this Nation of the same Blood and Religion with them think any thing too dear to redeem them seeing thereby we secure our selves by preventing the Rebels from coming hither We will therefore even in this distracted time assess 200000 l. on the Kingdom of England to be paid in two Years which will give credit for the present Relief of the Starving condition of Ireland and shall be reprized to the several Counties in the nature of the Adventurers for Land in Ireland Therefore we cannot doubt of chearful Submission hereunto since we cannot expect that God should bless us if we be wanting to our distressed Brethren and indeed to our selves for the malice of the Rebels is such that if they can root us out of that Kingdom they will not despair of extirpating us out of this and therefore we recommend all well-affected persons to a liberal Contribution to such a pious and commendable Work And on the 14th of July they issued another Declaration Ibid. 233. for the farther encouragement of Adventurers And on the 25th of July the Parliament publish'd their long Declaration which deduces the Affairs of Ireland historically from the beginning of the King's Reign and concludes that the Irish Rebellion was projected and incited by those Councils then prevalent with the King and that the Queen and her Priests and the Papists of all the three Kingdoms have been principal Actors and Sticklers therein And on the 5th of September they made an Ordinance That no man upon pain of losing his Ship do transport any Person out of Ireland into England without license c. And on the 18th they made an Ordinance for a Collection for the Clergy of Ireland and on the 18th of October they made a Weekly Assessment for the Support of such Forces in Ireland as oppose the Cessation and on the 24th they order That no Irish man or Papist born in Ireland shall have Quarter in England and in November they ordered That the Solemn League and Covenant should be taken in Ireland But the Cessation being confirmed by Patent under the Great Seal the Lieutenant General pursuant to His Majesty 's repeated Orders was busie in sending Forces to the Kings Assistance in England and because the Soldiers were generally very unwilling to fight against their own Country men whilst the Irish Rebels would insult over their distressed Companions and Relations that should be left behind there was an Oath of Fidelity contrived Sâ—e it Burlace 133. which every one of them were forced to take and several Penal Edicts were published against those who should desert or return and so in January the Regiments of Sir Michael Ernly Sir Richard Fleetwood Colonel Monk Colonel Gibson Colonel Warren c. were sent from Leinster as Sir William Saintleger and Colonel Myn were from Munster and though most of the former met with their Destiny at Nantwich and the later at the Siege of Glocester yet the arrival of these and other Forces out of Ireland did influence the Parliament to consent to the Treaty at Uxbridge which nevertheless did not produce that happy effect which all good men desired And little more than this was done in Ireland except Contests about setting out of Quarters and other Executions of the Articles of Cessation which shall be mentioned in each Province apart and the Preparations for the Treaty at Oxford which shall also be taken notice of in our account of that matter until the 21th day of January at which time JAMES Marquis of ORMOND was sworn Lord-Lieutenant at Christchurch in Dublin and took the following Oath Viz. You shall swear That you shall faithfully and truly to your power serve our Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty in the Room and Authority of Lord Lieutenant and Chief Governor of this His Realm of Ireland you shall maintain and defend the Laws of God and the Christian Faith you shall to your power not only keep His Majesty's Peace amongst His People but also maintain His Officers and Ministers in the Execution and Administration of Justice you shall defend His Majesties Castles Garisons Dominions People and Subjects of this Realm and repress His Rebels and Enemies you shall not consent to the Damage and Disherison of His Majesty His Heirs nor Successors neither shall you
and One hundred and fifty Horse and many Colours and some Prisoners of Note and it was at this time that the Articles of Glamorgans Peace were found in this Prelates Trunk or Pocket as hath been already mentioned And soon after this small Party being reinforced with part of the Legan Army took in Thirteen Castles in the Barony of Tyreragh with much Corn and other Provisions therein which exceedingly enlarged their Quarters and plentifully supplied them with some Accommodations which else they would have sensibly wanted in the following Winter And as to Ulster the Military Transactions were inconsiderable this Year for Owen Roe had so small a Force that he Acted defensively and the Lagan Army was employed in Conaught and the Scots were for the most part called home to quench the Flames in their own Country so that I find nothing worth mentioning except a defeat given to Five hundred of Owen Roe's Men by a far less Party of Sir William Cole's which hapned near Lowtherston on the 20th of November But in October Mr. Annesly Sir Robert King and Colonel Beale who had in May before been by the Parliament appointed Commissioners for Ulster arrived in Ireland and brought with them Provisions and Ammunition and Twenty thousand Pound in Money but for want of a Quorum of Scotch Commissioners to joyn with them little or nothing was methodically done However their Arrival yielded an opportunity to the Lord Lieutenant to begin a Treaty with them wherein he proposed to himself one of three things viz. Either that he might be able to perswade them to unite against the common Enemy or during that Negotiation might convert some part of the British Army to his Majesties interests or by the fear and apprehension of these things quicken the Irish to a speedy and reasonable Peace And Mr. Galbreth who was entrusted with this important Secret did so well execute his Commission that he mist his design very narrowly and these Commissioners were amused to that Degree that they wrote the following Letter to the Speaker but in two or three days after they found out the Secret of this Affair and so the design vanished Honourable Sir THere are some Passages which we omitted in our Letters to the Committee because we judge it expedient to express them in Cipher the Rebels grew higher in their Demands since the Kings Affairs have been in a declining Condition which with abusing the Kings Name and Authority in the taking our Garison in Conaught and turning the English out of some of them hath so incensed the Marquis of Ormond that he desires but Power and Opportunity to break off all Treaty and fall upon them and in Order thereunto we have had an Overture by one that came from him to us for the British and Scots Forces to joyn with him against the Rebels upon these Conditions First That the Treaty between England and Scotland should be observed Secondly That the Covenant should not be prest upon the Forces under his Lordships Command and that it should be left free for those of them that would to use the Common Prayer Book and the established Government till the King and Parliament settle some other Thirdly That the British Army be left to the chief Governour for the time being he appointing them a Governour of their own chusing Fourthly That every Party out of his Estate or Charge be restored Fifthly That none be sent out of the Kingdom without Consent on both Parts Sixthly That some Ammunition be lent to them of Dublin Seventhly For our Security Drogheda should be given into our hands We giving Assurance that use should not be made of it against his Lordship Eightly Both Parties to swear to perform We suppose some good effect might be produced from these beginnings but without the Scots Commissioners we have no Power and therefore expect your Directions therein and desire that in the mean while they may be kept Secret for if any Notice of a Transaction in this kind come to the Rebels it would hazard the putting Dublin and those Parts into their hands the Proposition is the more considerable because your Armies here will much want a Port in Leinster for a Magazine but we shall do nothing in it till we hear from you but what may keep you on Expectation Having nothing more to advertise of them at Present We remain Your most humble Servants Arthur Annessey Robert King William Beale Belfast this 19th of Novemb. 1645. If you think fit to proceed we doubt not but to bring the Business into far better Conditions then proposed But on the Sixteenth of February these Commissioners did by their Letter from Belfast offer to treat with the Lord Lieutenant but he foresaw they would not submit to His Majesty's Authority without which he could not incorporate with them Besides he was too far advanced in the Treaty with the Irish to stop it upon such slender Expectations and therefore he was reserv'd in his Answer to this Address And they finding by his Coldness to them that he had closed with the Irish or at least design'd it they broke off this Negotiation the very same day whereon the Irish Peace was concluded 28 March 1646. The Year 1646. 1646. opened with the Conclusion of the Peace the Articles of which being drawn by Mr. Darcy and Mr. Browne were perfected on the 28th of March and deposited as an Escrol in the Hands of the Marquis of Clanriccard until some Conditions promised by the Irish in a separate Instrument which were to be fulfill'd by the First of April should be performed which were never done and if they had been honestly performed yet those Succors would have come too late for thus the Secretary of State writes from Oxford 26 March That for want of Supplies from Ireland the Army in the West of England is disbanded so that now Supplies will do no good Nevertheless the Irish knew nothing of this and therefore pretended to be very diligent in getting their Men together and Ships were prepar'd and the Lords of Antrim and Glamorgan were at Waterford to forward the Business and on the Third of April the Supreme Council wrote to the Lord Lieutenant That they had Six thousand Men ready and desired they may be Mustered But notwithstanding all this it is believed that they never really intended to send any Succors to the King for the Lord Muskery the very same day viz. the Third of April and by their Command signified to the Lord Lieutenant the Difficulties of their Enterprize in England and desired that they might be imployed against the King's Enemies in Ireland And being resolv'd to imploy those Forces as they pleas'd whatever Directions Ormond should give to the contrary they did on the same Third of April discharge the Ships at Waterford from Demurrage and without expecting an Answer to their Message they did within a day or two after without the Lord Lieutenant's privity imploy most part of those Forces
Religion And they afterwards strictly prohibited all their people from obeying the Peace or paying Contributions to the King or to any that obeyed it on pain of Excommunication ipso facto which on the Fifth of October was formally issued with Notes as it is recited Appendix 31. But now it is time to look after our Heralds who as hath been already mentioned left Dublin on the Sixth of August in order to proclaim the Peace in the other Cities and Corporations They came to Waterford the Eighth where they were so unwelcome to all the people that no body would shew them the Mayor's House until at length a little Boy did it for Sixpence but the Mayor would not be seen for above four hours and when he was told their Errand he asked why they did not first proclaim the Peace at Kilkenny and they answered That they pursued their Orders and supposed the Reason might be because Waterford was next to Dublin one of the most ancient and considerable Cities in the Kingdom However after three day stay they could get no other Answer but that the Peace should be first proclaimed at Kilkenny and the Rabble threatned to send them packing with Withes about their Necks unless they made haste away From Waterford they went to Kilkenny where they were received with Respect and the Peace was there proclaimed even with excess of Joy and Pageantry It was also proclaimed at Calan Fethard and Cashell but Clonmell would not receive it until it should first be published at Limerick It was in the Evening of the Twentieth of August when they came to Limerick where they found the Gates shut so that they had no admittance till the next day Noon and then were civilly treated by the Mayor who was for the Peace however that day they could not agree but on the Twenty second it was carried by the major Vote of the Aldermen and Council That the Peace should be proclaimed and all things were prepared accordingly Whereupon Fryer Wolf with an armed Rabble of above 500 came to the High-Cross and denounced Excommunication against the Adherers to the Peace Nevertheless the Mayor who lived near the Cross was coming out in his formalities to make the Proclamation but the Rabble with hideous Outcries drove them back again and followed them into the House and pursued them even from Chamber to Chamber they wounded the Mayor and the King at Arms and drag'd them to Prison and they mortally wounded the Pursivant Henry King and most of the rest were likewise wounded and all were Imprisoned for about 10 days and the Mayor's House was broken and pillaged and during all this Tumult the Fryers cryed out Kill kill kill and I 'le Absolve you And what is yet more strange is That the Mayor was afterwards turned out and Dominick Fanning a principal Incendiary in this Commotion was made Mayor in his room and was by Letters from the Nuncio thanked for what he had done and encouraged to go on and the Apostolical Benediction was imparted to him for committing such an Outrage upon the Privileged Person of an Herald as all other Nations in the World would abhor But to proceed The Congregation at Waterford did also under the pain of Excommunication prohibit the Lords Mountgarret and Muskry from going to Dublin to consult the execution of the Peace nevertheless they went and in the Name of the Supreme Council invited Ormond to Kilkenny as well to countenance the Peace as to stop Insiquin's progress in Munster who triumphed over all Opposers and put the Country under Contribution as far as the Black Water Hereupon Ormond having first sent Daniel O Neal with great Offers to Owen Roe whom nothing could satisfie but the British Estates in Ulster prepared for his Journy and in the latter end of August he went to Kilkenny with about 200 Horse and 1200 Foot which small Party was a Guard more for State than Security for what need an Army amongst Friends His Excellency was received at Kilkenny with all imaginable Triumph and Respect and intended in conjunction with the Irish to march into Munster to force Insiquin likewise to submit to the Peace but when he understood what the Clergy had done and were doing at Waterford he sent some of Quality thither to perswade them not to interrupt the Peace which was likely to be so advantageous to the King and the People he offered his Lady and Children for Hostages that they should not be disturbed in the Possession of the Churches they then had which was the Secret Article not mentioned in the Publick and purposely so contrived by the Popish Bishop of Clogher ☜ that on occasion they might the easier incense the Rabble by shewing that there was no provision for Religion in the printed Articles But all that he or the Supreme Council could do was to no purpose for the Nuncio and Clergy were resolved to * * Colonel Fitâ—-Williams's Letter to the Lord Lieutenant have their wills or perish And that this may plainly appear it will be fit to give a short Account of the Negotiation between the Supreme Council and the Popish Clergy which was thus On the 24th day of August 1646 the Congregation at Waterford published a Declaration to be transmitted with the following Propositions at large and in Print to the Supreme Council I. That the Earl of Glamorgan's Articles grounded upon the King's Authority be printed and be made as firm and obliging as the present Peace that the Confederates do oblige themselves by Union Oath and otherwise to insist upon the same Articles and them to maintain till confirmed with the present Peace next Parliament And whereas it appears by His Majesty's Letters taken at Naseby that Ormond had Power to Repeal Penal Laws and Suspend Poyning's Act the Confederates expect the benefit thereof to be added to the Articles of the Peace and that those Letters be made Publick II. That the Generals of Ulster and Leinster be made General of the Horse and Major General of the Field and all other Catholick Officers continued if not advanced III. That no Garison be added nor Tax be imposed upon them till Parliament without Confent of some or one of the Commissioners of the Interval to see Equality IV. That the 7th Article of the Peace be changed as touching Universities and that the Institution and Discipline of them be Catholick V. That in all places to be recovered from the Parliament Roman Catholicks be restored to Estates Privileges c. and that the Free Exercise of their Religion be secured to them and all other Catholicks that shall please to dwell there And if the Supreme Council do not approve of these Propositions ☞ then let them do one of these things viz. Retain their Civil and Military Power within their own Quarters independent as heretofore until His Holiness's and His Majesty's Pleasure can be known and in the mean time both Parties persue the Common Enemy Or else let them refer
The second is part of a Letter to the Marquis of Clanrickard Dated at Paris the Tenth of February 1646. And the third is an Account of Mr. Jeofry Baron his Embassy to France THat Glamorgan was The Letter to the Queen for this only Reason imprisoned That being a Catholick he was carrying to the King such Catholick Succours as might deserve His Majesty's Favour to himself and the Catholicks of Ireland That the Kingdom being clear'd of the common Enemy by the Catholicks of Ireland which we suppose may be easily done this Summer we may all unanimously go to assist our King That we dislike the late Peace because all things are referred to the Pleasure of the King which we would readily submit to if he were not environ'd on all sides with the Enemies of our Religion and so far off from Your Majesty And in the mean time the Armies Garisons and Jurisdiction of the Confederates even the Supream Council it self are subjected to the sole Authority and Dominion of the Marquis of Ormond a Protestant Viceroy But we have no small hopes and Confidence in Your Majesty's gracious and effectual Intercession with the Pope That Bounds being set to the Protestants within which their Armies and Government may be confin'd they may not disturb the Catholick Religion the Churches nor Ecclesiastical Persons or Things QUod Glamorganus eo solo capite detrudi in Carcerem quod Catholicus ad Regem ferit Catholicorum Subsidia quibus sibi Catholicis Hibernis Regios Favores promeretur Ut purgata ab Hoste Communi per Catholicos Hiberniae quod satis facile ni fallimur poterat hoc Autumno fieri unanimos ire ad nostri Regis Subsidium Pax ideo nobis displicet quia omnia referuntur ad Arbitrium Suae Majestatis i.e. Regis quod subiremus libentissime si ab Hostibus nostrae Religionis undequaque cincta à MAJESTATE Vestra tam procul non esset Interim subjici Exercitus Arma Castra omnem Confederatorum Jurisdictionem ipsum Concilium Supremum soli Authoritati Dominio Marchionis Ormoniae Proregis Protestantis Non modica nobis restat Spes Fiducia in Majestatis Vestrae benigna efficacissima Intercessione apud Summum Pontificem ut praescripto Protestantibus limite intra quem eorum Arma Imperium contineantur ne Religionem Catholicam Ecclesias Ecclesiasticasque personas acres turbare liceat THE new Agent of the Supream Council The Letter to the Marquiss of Clanrickard Colonel Fitz-Williams is very violent in his Office It is believed that Hartegan hath inchanted or infected the Employment insomuch that all his Successors prove like to him He the Colonel is very liberal in the disposing of Places and Offices in the Kingdom He told the Countess of Arundel That he could make the Earl her Husband if he pleased Lord-Lieutenant and 't is imagined he says the same of the Marquis of Worcester to his Friends that is That he shall be Lord-Lieutenant and this was just Hartegan's way of Proceeding Shall we never have a discreet Person come from those parts who may impartially do our Affairs here Such a Party would Advantage and Honour your Country Colonel Fitz-Williams hath said in great heat That Dublin should be taken as soon as Mr. Baron returned and that the Confederates are so puissant that he wisheth with all his Heart that there were in Ireland 40000 English and Scots that they might have the Honour to beat them And another said The Confederates had taken Dublin if it were not for their Respect to the Queen Her Majesty declares That tho' she hath sent Mr. Winter Grant yet it is only with reference to the Marquisses of Ormond and Clanrickard to be consulted with and without their Advice and Consent he is not to engage her Majesty's Authority in any one thing Colonel Fitz-Williams endeavoureth now by his Friends to get a good Opinion in this Court from our Queen and he clasheth with Dr. Tirrel and pretendeth at Court That he suffers for adhering to my Lord of Ormond and our King's Party however at his Arrival here Hartegan was not more violent than he was against my Lord of Ormond and that Party MR. Jeofry Baron landed at Waterford on Friday the Eleventh of March 1646. and came the next day to Kilkenny The Account of Mr. Barons Ambassy and being indisposed two or three days he came not into the Assembly till the Sixteenth at which time being asked for an account â—f his Negotiation he answered That for the most part it consisted in the Letters he had brought with him and made some scruple to communicate them to any other than a sworn Council because the matter required Secrecy At length a Committee was appointed to peruse the Letters and Sir Lucas Dillon the Chairman reported from that Committee That it was requisite the Letters should be read in the Assembly which was done accordingly The first was a Letter of 30 January from Dr. Tirrell one of the Irish Agents importing That the Repture of the late Peace did at first seem to both the Courts in France to trench far upon the publick Faith of the Kingdom but when some slight Objections were solidly refuted and full Information given then the Rejection of the Peace was confirmed by the King and Queen of France and by Cardinal Mazarine but when they heard of the Return of the Irish Forces from Dublin they suspected their Weakness and Division wherefore he advises them to unite their Forces and attack that City again and make themselves Masters of the Kingdom and thereby they will regain the good Will of the King and Queen of France And that the Queen and Prince of Wales are coming to Ireland and advises not to agree upon slight Terms for when they come the Irish will have their Wills The second was a Letter from the King of France of 26 September to this effect That being well informed of the Inclinations the Kingdom hath to him he will take a particular Care of their Interests c. The third and fourth were from Cardinal Mazarine containing general Promises and that the Settlement of His Majesty of England would much rejoyce the King of France The Fifth was from Colonel Fitz-Williams Assuring them That if they would provid a good Reception from the Queen and Prince in Ireland most of their Demands would be granted That the Queen denies to have any Power to treat with the Irish but that she will send for it That the French will sâ—â—d Ships for Two Thousand Irish That if they aid Antrim in Scotland the Scots must look to their own Country and without them the Parliamentarians can do the Irish no hurt That the Presbyterians and Independents will certainly fall out That the Irish should not decline any of their Proposals for Peace for he is sure they shall have all Only he Supplicates them to leave one Church open in Dublin for the King's Religion lest the
prevent a Famine had turn'd out of the City and on the 20th the Lord-Lieutenant being informed that Jones had for want of Forrage sent part of his Horse to Tredagh his Excellency ordered Insiquin to pursue them which he performed with great success and having surpriz'd one whole Troop and routed Collonel Chidly Coot and 300 Horse whereof many were killed he follow'd the blow to Tredagh and being re-inforced with two Regiments of Foot and two Pieces of Artillery he besieged that Town whilst it was under consternation at the late Defeat Nevertheless the Garrison consisting of 600 Men defended the place with exceeding bravery until their Powder was spent and then they did a 30 June Surrender on Honourable Conditions and Collonel Coot with 150 Horse and 400 Foot marched to Dublin But whilst Insiquin staid at Tredagh he had notice that Lieutenant-General Farrell with 500 Foot and 300 Horse was gone to Convey a considerable quantity of Arms and Ammunition which Collonel Monke had upon Articles given to Owen Roe whereupon Insiquin sent a detached Party which met with and routed this Convoy and killed 500 of the Men and took all the Arms and Ammunition and what other Booty they had with them And it was from some of the Prisoners then taken that Insiquin was informed of the weak condition of Dundalk wherefore being resolved to prosecute his good Fortune he marched to besiege it and being assisted by the Lord of Ardes he forced Monk in two days time to Surrender the place whereunto he was necessitated by the Mutiny of the Garrison which else would have given him up Hereupon Monk went to England and was imprisoned for a short time as shall be hereafter related and Insiquin took possession of Dundalk and a considerable Magazine that was in it After this prodigious Success the lesser Garrisons became an easy Prey Newry Narrow-water Greencastle and Carlingford submitted to the Conqueror of course and Trim itself did not hold out above two days and so Insiquin having no more to do return'd trimphantly to the Royal Camp at Finglass with more Men than he first carried out And there we must leave him till I give a brief Account of the second Army viz. that of the Presbyterian British and Scots which was so powerful under the Command of the Lord of Ardes that it seized upon Belfast and Carifergus and most part of Ulster and some places in Conaught But they had entertain'd such inconsistent Principles that it was impossible for any other Party to joyn with them and yet they were too weak to stand alone so that their Ruine was inevitable nevertheless it was hastned by their Divisions for when their General the Lord of Ardes perceived that by the Manifesto they published they declared an Abhorrence of the Murder of the late King which rendered their Conjunction with the Parliamentarians impossible and that they published no less Aversion against the Irish so that they rejected any Correspondence either with Owen Roe or the Supreme Council and as well for that reason as because they would not own the new King there was no hopes of their Union with the Cavaleers he saw the necessity of his doing something without them that might strengthen their Party by a powerful Alliance and Conjunction and being offered by the Lord-Lieutenant a Commission to be Chief Governour of Ulster he was easily prevailed upon to submit to the King's Authority which he did in the latter end of April and being joyn'd with the Lagan Forces which were weakned by the Surprize of Sir Robert Steward and Collonel Mervin at a Christning by Sir Charles Coot who sent them Prisoners to England he went to besiege London-Derry where we will likewise leave him and give an Account of the third Army viz. that of the Supreme Council's This Army was mix'd I cannot say incorporated with the King 's by the late Peace and so continued until after the Defeat at Rathnines but having a distinct Interest from the Protestant part of the King's Army and a National and Religious Aversion unto them they never did any service together where ever the Irish were the Majority and in the end most of the Irish being seduced by the Clergy did desert the King's Service some privately and others more openly their Towns became ungovernable and their Clergy grew Mutinous and rejected the King's Authority in the Lord-Lieutenant so that at length their pretended Loyalty became the Scorn and Contempt of their most inveterate Enemies as shall be related in its proper place And as for the fourth Army which was under the Command of Own Roe it consisted of natural Irish and fierce Nuntiotists and this General was so enraged at the Supreme Council both because they did not comply with the Nuntio and because they did not in their Articles of Peace provide for the Restitution of the Escheated Lands in Ulster that he chose rather to correspond with the Parliament then with them And therefore he did on the 8th day of May enter into Articles with Collonel Monk not only for a Cessation for three Months but for mutual Assistance within that time and that Monk should furnish Owen Roe with Ammunition if he wanted and should suffer Ships with Arms Money c. that should be sent to Owen Roe to Harbour in any of the Parliament's Ports And it was in vertue of this League that Lieutenant-General Farrell had the Ammunition from Dundalk which Insiquin took from him as hath been already related And this Irish General did at the same time make some extravagant Proposals which being granted he and his Army would embrace the Service and Interests of the Parliament of England But tho' they were never consented to yet during this League of three Months he did faithfully observe his Agreement to the great prejudice of the King's Army and to the great advantage of the Parliament's Forces which else would have been in an ill condition Moreover he did on the 22th day of May make a League with Collonel Richard Coot in the behalf of Sir Charles Coot and pursuant thereunto and in consideration of 2000 l. in Money and 2000 Cows and some Ammunition he did oblige the Lord of Ards and the Lagan Forces to raise the Siege of London-Derry on the 8th day of August Nevertheless when the Parliament of England were acquainted with these Transactions they Disavowed what the one and the other of these Commanders had done with Owen Roe And tho' Sir Charles Coot being absent escaped with a severe Check only yet Monk who was then in England was Imprison'd and Displac'd and tho' when he was brought to the House he gave good reasons for what he had done and demonstrated the Advantages that the Parliament had acquired by it yet the House would by no means approve it but on the contrary made the following Votes Resolved c. That this House doth utterly Disapprove of the Proceedings of Collonel Monk in the Treaty and Cessation made
Majesty how his Authority was despised by those great Pretenders to Loyalty to which his Majesty answers by his Letter of the 2d of February That he wonders at the Ingratitude of the Irish in the apparent breach of their Recognition of him in the beginning of the Articles of Peace and their solemn Protestations to himself And orders That if Ormond finds them incorrigible ☞ he should timely advise the King of it that not believing himself bound to the Conditions of Peace whilst they are destructively infringed by the Irish and made useless to his Majesty he may use other means for his Restitution and that Ormond should withdraw as soon as he thinks fit In the mean time the Popish Prelates and Clergy met proprio Motu at Cluanmacnoise and though it was expected that by the means of the Marquess of Antrim they would do something or other that would be very disobliging and seditious yet on the contrary they made most pathetical and pious Exhortations to Unity and to lay aside all National and other Animosities and declared it was in vain to expect any tolerable Conditions for their Religion Liberties and Estates from Cromwell in a word they said so much and so well that the Lord-Lieutenant was almost deceived into fresh hopes of their Loyalty and Integrity But an Adder cannot be without a sting nor a Popish Ecclesiastical Congregation meet in Ireland without doing something disobliging to the Royal Authority whilst in Protestant hands and even this meek and pious Assembly could not dissolve until it had spit some of its Venom in a Schedule of Grievances But it is yet more strange P. W.'s Remonstrance 83. that some body had the confidence to obtrude a spurious Paper of Greivances on the Commissioners of Trust instead of the true one and they gave it to the Lord-Lieutenant Whereupon he being highly incensed demanded of the Bishops whether they own'd that Paper and they denied it and on the first of April and not till then produced the true one which was pragmatical enough but not near so bad as the other But that the whole Kingdom might be satisfyed that there were no real Greivances nor just cause of Complaint since all the Mischiefs that had hapned were occasion'd by the Obstinacy of the Ungovernable Corporations Ormond did permit the Commissioners of Trust to issue their Circular Letters for Deputies from all parts of the Kingdom to represent their Grievances and accordingly they came in the latter end of January but being alarum'd at Kilkenny these Deputies adjourned to Juny I suppose Innis in the County of Clare where they made much noise but never had the confidence to reduce their clamour into writing and the Lord-Lieutenant left the City under the Government of the Earl of Castlehaven and went himself to Limerick to which place by his Letters of the 27th of February he invited the Popish Prelates and Clergy and they being come accordingly on the 8th of March his Excellency proposed to them That unless the People might be brought to have a full Confidence in him P. W.'s Remonstrance 75. and yeild a perfect Obedience unto him and unless the City of Limerick in particular would receive a Garrison and obey Orders there was no hopes of making any considerable Opposition to the Enemy and desired them to deal freely if they had any mistrust of him or dislike of his Goverment since he was ready to do any thing for the Peoples preservation that is consistent with his Honour and his Duty to the King And since it was manifest that the Name without the Power of Lord-Lieutenant could bring nothing but Ruine upon the Nation and Dishonour upon him they should either procure entire Obedience to his Authority or propose how the Kingdom might be preserved by his quitting it To all which they answer'd with many expressions of Respect and Affection and gave his Excellency a Paper of Advice mention'd Appendix 45 and so we must leave them for a while and see what was done in the rest of the Provinces In Ulster the Presbyterians and especially the Scots were fierce against the Parliament of England insomuch that the Presbytery of Belfast did on the 15th Feb. 1648 publish a Paper entituled A necessary Representation of the present Evils and eminent Dangers to Religion Laws and Liberties arising from the late and present Practises of the Sectarian Party in England together with an Exhortation to Duties relating to the Covenant The design of which is to exhort the People from associating with Sectaries or Malignants To which Sir Charles Coot and others of the Parliament party made an answer wherein they observe That if they decline the Parliament Burlace 207. they shut the door against all Succours and Supplies from England And secondly They make a Rent and Division amongst themselves And thirdly Must joyn with the Rebels or desert the Kingdom And lastly Must fight against an Army that hath been the Instrument of the Liberty of England and the Quiet of Scotland And it is certain that for want of due regard to the Dilemma in the third Observation the Presbyterian party fell into the Inconvenience mentioned in the second for the Lord of Ards Sir George Monroe and others joyned with the Lord-Lieutenant and the Irish in submission to the King whilst many of the Preachers declaimed so passionately against both Malignants and Sectaries as they called the King's party and the Parliament's that Sir George Monroe was fain to send many Letters and some Threatning Messages to silence them But this Division became the occasion of their Ruine for though they had once all Ulster except London-Derry which was also besieged yet they were in very few Months subdued for as soon as that Siege was raised by Owen Roe Sir Charles Coot marched abroad and took in Colâ—rain And Venables being by Cromwell detach'd from Tredagh had Belfast surrendered to him and though Collonel Trevor did fall upon Venables in his Quarters on the Road to Belfast yet he was bravely repulsed by the Valour of Captain Meredith and then Venables marched to Carrifergus which submitted to him even before his Foot came up and being joyned with Sir Charles Coot they beat Monroe and the Scots on the Plains of Lisnegarvy on the 6th of December and so the Parliament became Masters of most part of what the Presbyterians possest in Ulster But it must not be forgotten that Lieutenant-Collonel Owen O Conally the first Discoverer of the Irish Rebellion marching with a party of Horse from Belfast to Antrim was fallen upon by Monroe and totally routed and himself slain And as for Conaught Beling 196. I find no other mention of any Action there but that the Marquess of Claâ—rickard took Sligo in the Month of May 1649 I suppose from some of the Parliament party In the mean time Cromwell took advantage of the fair Weather ☜ and knowing that nothing could be so destructive to the Irish who wanted all
but the Foot fought stoutly even to club-Musket and push of Pike but the issue was that the Irish were totally routed and then the Horse did great execution in the pursuit which was continued farther than ever was heard of before viz. above thirty Miles for at Omagh Major King with his three Troops begun the pursuit afresh and gleaned up what had escaped from the Battle so that it was believed that 500 of all this Army did not escape and even the Bishop himself was also taken by Major a Afterwards Lord Kingston King and by order of the Lord-President was the next day hanged Nor is it amiss to observe the Variety and Vicissitude of the Irish Affairs for this very Bishop and those Officers whose heads were now placed on the Walls of Derry were within less than a Year before confederate with Sir Charles Coot and raised the Siege of that City and were jovially merry at his Table in the quality of Friends Nor must it be omitted that the Duke of Lorrain sent his Agent Collonel Oliver Synot into Ireland he landed on the 29th of April 1650 and made a great noise of his Master's affection to the King and his zeal to the Catholick Religion and pretended that he had brought Money with him and that he would lend 1000 l. for his Majesty's service on the Mortgage of any Town or Fort that was considerable Whereupon the Lord-Lieutenant appointed the Lords Taaf and Athenry and Jeoffory Brown to treat with him and proposed to Mortgage Galway for that Sum But at length it was found to be a juggle on Synot's side and that either he had no Money or no intention to part with it And the Secret of this Affair is that the Duke of Lorrain was engaged in a Negotiation at Rome to Legitimate some Children that he had by Madam de Causecroix in the life-time of his first Wife Nichol de Lorrain and the easier to accomplish his design he dissembled such an extraordinary Zeal for Religion as would transport his Arms into Ireland to the relief of the Catholicks there but when he had effected his business at Rome his Devotion to the Irish Service abated so that being seperately and at several times sollicited by the King and by the Agents of the Confederates to the first he answered That the King had nothing left in Ireland and therefore it was in vain to treat And to the others he answered That he could not treat with them any farther without the approbation of their King And so with his usual dexterity he extricated himself out of this Affair In the mean time Collonel Reynolds and Sir Theophilus Jones beat back some Forces that were sent to the Relief of Terroghan and disturbed a Consult that was held in Westmeath between the Lord-Lieutenant the Lords of Clanrickard and Castlehaven and the Titular Bishop of Clogher and they also in Trim Ballyhuse and Feynagh And thus matters still growing worse and worse and the Parliamentarians daily getting ground the Popish Clergy did Proprio Motu assemble at Jamestown on the 6th of August and on the same day did give Commission to the Bishop of Fernes and Hugh Rochford to Treat with forreign Princes as Appendix 46 and afterwards did several things more extravagant Nevertheless to dissemble the Matter and as preparatory to their Meeting they sent the Lord-Lieutenant the following Letter May it please Your Excellency THis Nation become of late the Fable and Reproach of the Christianity is brought to a sad Condition Notwithstanding the frequent and laborious Meetings and Consultations of the Prelates we find Jealousies and Fears deep in the hearts of Men Thorns hard to take out We see most Men contributing to the Enemy and rendring their Persons and Substance useful to his Mallice and destructive to Religion and the King's Interest This kind of Men if not timely prevented will betray irremediably themselves and us We find no Stock or Substance ordered for maintaining the Souldier nor is there an Army any way considerable in the Kingdom to recover what is lost or defend what we hold So as Humanely speaking if God will not be pleased for his Mercy 's sake to take off from us the heavy Judgments of his Anger we are in a fair way for losing Sacred Religion the King's Authority and Ireland The four Archbishops to acquit their own Consciences in the Eyes of God have resolved to meet at Jamestown about the sixth day of the next Month and to bring about as many of the Suffragans as may repair thither with safety The end of this Consultation is to do what in us lieth for the amendment of Errors and recovery of this afflicted People If your Excellency shall think fit in your wisdom to send one or more Persons to make Proposals for the Safety of the Nation we shall not want willingness to prepare good Answers nor will we despair of the Blessing of God and of his powerful Influence to be upon our sincere Intentions in that place Even so we conclude remaining June 14th 1650. For his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland Your Excellency's Most Humble Servants Fr. Thomas Dublin Jo. Archiepiscopus Tuamen This Letter was answered by his Excellency as followeth AFter Our hearty Commendations We received yours of the 24th of July on the first of this Month and do with much Grief acknowledge that this Nation is brought into a sad Condition and that by such means as when it shall be known abroad and by Story delivered to Posterity will indeed be thought a Fable For it will seem incredible that any Nation should so madly affect and violently pursue the ways leading to their own Destruction as this People will appear to have done and that after the certain Ruine they were running into was evidently and frequently discovered unto those that in all times and upon all other occasions have had power to perswade or compel them to whatever they thought fit And it will be less credible when it shall be declared as with truth it will be that the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Interest and Safety even of those that had this power and that have been thus forewarned did consist in making use of it to reclaim the People and direct them into the Ways of Preservation To be plain it cannot be denied but the Disobedience we have met with which we at large declared unto many of you who with divers others of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled at Loghreogh in April last was the certain ready way to the Destruction of this Nation as by our Letter of the first of May to that Assembly we made appear Ancient and late Experience hath made evident what power those of your Function have had to draw the People of this Nation to what they thought fit Whether your Lordships have been convinced that the Obedience which we desire should be given to his Majesty's Authority in Us pursuant to the Articles of Peace was the way
to preserve the Nation we know not or whether your Lordships have made use of all the means at other times and upon other occasions exercised by you to procure this necessary Obedience we shall not now determine Sure we are that since the said Assembly not only Limerick hath persisted in the Disobedience it was then in and aggravated the same by several Affronts since fixed upon the King's Authority but Galway hath been seduced into like Disobedience For want of due Compliance from those places but principally from Limerick it hath been impossible for us to raise or imploy an Army against the Rebels For to attempt it any where on the other side of the Shannon but near Lymerick and without the absolute Command of that City to secure it could be no other than the certain ruine of the Design in the very beginning of it the Rebels power being such as to dissipate with ease the foundation that should be laid there And to have done it on this side the Shannon was impossible since the Ground-work of the Army must be raised and supported from thence which whilst it was in forming would have exhausted all the substance of these parts and not have effected the Work For want of such an Army which with God's assistance might certainly have been long since raised if Limerick had obeyed our Orders the Rebels have without any considerable resistance from abroad taken Clonmell Tecroghan and Catherlagh and reduced Waterford and Duncannon to great and we fear irrecoverable Distress The loss of these places and the want of any visible power to protect them hath doublessly induced many to contribute their Substance and personal Assistance to the Rebels from which whether they might have been withheld by Church-censures we know not but have not heard of any such which issued against them And lastly for want of such an Army the Rebels have taken to themselves the Contribution which might considerably have assisted to support an Army and preserve the Kingdom If therefore the end of your Consultation at Jamestown be to acquit your Consciences in the Eyes of God the amendment of all Errors and the recovery of this afflicted People as by the Letter giving us notice of your meeting is professed We have endeavoured briefly to shew That the Spring of our past Losses and approaching Ruine arises from Disobedience and it will not be hard to shew that the Spring of those Disobediences arises from the Forgeries invented the Calumnies spread against Government and the Incitements of the People to Rebellion by very many of the Clergy That these Errors are frequently practised and fit for amendment is no more to be doubted than that without they be amended the affliction of the People will continue and as it is to be feared end in their utter Destruction Which if prevented by what your Consultation will produce the happy effect of your meeting will be acknowledged without questioning the Authority by which you meet or expecting Proposals from us Which other than what we have formerly and now by this our Letter made we hold not necessary And so we bid your Lordships Farewel From Roscomon the 2d of August 1650. Your Lordships very Loving Friend ORMOND To which the Congregation at Jamestown made the following Reply May it please Your Excellency WE received your Excellency's Letter of the second current Where to our Grief and Admiration we saw some Expressions that seem meant for casting a blame upon us of the present sad Condition of the Kingdom which we hope to answer to the satisfaction of your Excellency and the whole Nation In the mean time we permit this Protestation as we are Christian Catholick Prelates that we have done our Endeavours with all â—arnestness and candor for taking away from the hearts of the People all Jealousies and Diffidences that were conceived the occasion of so many Disasters that befel the Nation and that in all occasions our actions and co-operations were ready to accompany all your Excellency's Designs for Preservation of all his Majesty's Interests in this Kingdom Whose state being in the present desperate Condition we thought it our Duty to offer unto your Excellency our sence of the only possibility we could devise for its Preservation and that by the intervention and expression of my Lord of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam who shall clearly deliver unto your Excellency our Thoughts and good Intentions as to this effect praying your Excellency to give full credit to what they will declare in our Names in this Business which will be still owned as our Command laid upon them and the Declaration of the sincere Hearts of Jamestown dated the 10th of Aug. 1650. For his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland c. Your Excellency's Most Humble Servants Hen. Ardmach Jo. Archiepiscop Tuam Eugenius Killmore Nich. Fernensis Procurator Archiepis Dubliniensis Walt. Clonferten Procurator Leghlin Fr. Anto. Clonmacnocensis Episcopus Arthurus Dunensis Connerensis Th. Higgin Procurator Ossor Fr. Ricardus Kelly Procurator Kildar Rathbran Ord. Praed And the Message mentioned in the aforesaid Letter was on the 12th of August together with that Letter delivered in haec Verba and was the next day at his Lordship's request reduced into writing Viz. May it please Your Excellency WE being intrusted from the Clergy met at Jamestown to deliver a Message to your Excellency purporting their Advice what the onely Means is as they conceive that may serve to free the Nation from the sad Condition whereunto it is reduced at present do in Obedience to your Excellency's Command signified for giving in the substance of the said Message in writing humbly represent the same to be as followeth That whereas they doubt not your Excellency hath laboured by other hands to bring the best Aids that possibly could be had from abroad for Relief of this gasping Nation yet finding now in their Conscience no other Expedient or Remedy for the Preservation thereof and of his Majesty's Interests therein more prevalent than your Excellency's speedy repair to his Majesty for preventing the Ruine and Desolation of all and leaving the King's Authority in the hands of some Person and Persons faithful to his Majesty and trusty to the Nation and such as the Affection and Confidence of the People will follow by which the Rage and Fury of the Enemy may receive interruption They humbly offer this important Matter of Safety or Destruction of this Nation and the King's Interest to your Wisdom and Consideration hoping the Kingdom by your Excellency's presence with his Majesty and entrusting safely the King's Authority as above may with God's blessing hold out until relieved with Supplies from his Majesty The Prelates in the mean time will do what lieth in their power to assist the Person and Persons so entrusted The great Trust his Majesty doth repose in your Excellency the vast Interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred you have in the Nation and your Experience in
the Management of Affairs of greatest consequence will we doubt not added to other the reasons proposed by us induce you to embrace this Advice as proceeding from our Pious Intentions that look only on the Preservation of the Catholick Religion the Support of his Majesty's Authority and the Estates Liberties and Fortunes of his Subjects of this Kingdom Which we humbly offer as August 13th 1650. Your Excellency's Most Humble Servants Fr. Ol. Dromore Char. Kelly Upon receipt of this Message his Excellency imparted it to the Commissioners of Trust who were very much surprized at it and desired his Lordship not to answer that point but rather to propose a Conference with them at Loghreagh on the 26th of August which accordingly he did and in expectation to meet them there he travelled to Loghreagh but they did not vouchsafe to come or to send any body to confer with his Excellency upon that Subject but they appointed the Bishops of Cork and Clonfert to attend him there and receive his Answer whereupon his Excellency on the last day of August sent them the following Letter An Answer to the Message delivered to Vs by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam from the Prelates met at Jamestown by vertue of their Letter desiring us to give full Credence to the said Bishop and Dean Dated at Jamestown the 10th of August 1650. The Substance of which Message may be reduced to these Particulars I. THe Message or Advice which is For our speedy Repair to his Majesty to procure Supplies for the Relief of this Kingdom leaving the King's Authority in the hands of some person or persons faithful to his Majesty and trusty to the Nation than which they say they can find no other Expedient or Remedy for the Relief of this Gasping Nation and Preservation of his Majesty's Interests therein or to prevent the Ruine and Desolation of all II. The reason of this Advice which is That through the Trust reposed in Us by his Majesty and Our own Interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred in the Nation they hope those Supplies may more easily and speedily be obtained by Our Mediation than by any other means III. The Prelates promise undertaking That in the mean time which we understand to be during Our absence they will do what lieth in their power to assist the person or persons that shall be entrusted with the King's Authority Whereunto we answer That as the principal Motives inducing Us through some Hazards and many Difficulties to come into this Kingdom were the Obedience we owe to his Majesty's Command and our earnest desire to preserve this Nation in their Allegiance to Him wherein we always have and ever shall place our Interest and the Interest of such Kindred and Allies as will be guided by our Advice and Example so we shall always readily expose ourself to the like or greater Hazards and Difficulties to remove out of the Kingdom when We receive his Majesty's Command for it or shall be convinced that our Removal tends more to His Service and the Preservation of the Nation than our stay We confess that observing the Destructive Disobedience and Obstinacy of divers Persons and Places We were once of opinion that we might have done Our King and Country better Service by withdrawing Ourself than by continuing here by how much there would then have been less ground for Division when the Nation should be governed by one or more of their own Religion And sure we wereâ— that the stronger the Resistance were that should be made against the Rebels under what Conduct whatsoever the better it would be for the King and for the Nation And though We hold it not fit for Us even in point of Honour in flat terms to propose Our Removal which might have met with as great Misinterpretation as other Actions and Propositions of Ours intended for the good of the People have done yet in a Discourse had with many of the Prelates first at Limerick and afterwards here We did in a manner lead them to the Proposition they have now made And We freely acknowledge that if they and the Nobility and Gentry here met in April last had not in Writing and in Discourse given Us assurance that they not only desired Our stay but would endeavour to procure such Obedience to Us as might enable us with Hope and Success to have gone on in the War We should have made use of the Liberty given Us or Command then laid upon Us by his Majesty to have freed Ourself from the Vexation We have since endured and the Dishonour We foresaw We should be subject unto for want of that Power without which as we then told the said Bishops c. We should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or Nation Those Assurances We have transmitted to his Majesty as also Our Resolution to attend the Effects of them But those Disobediences still continuing We have again acquainted Him with the state of His Affairs here and do daily expect His pleasure upon the Representation We have made to Him without which unless forced by inevitable Necessity We cannot answer Our Removal out of the Kingdom Which is Our first and Principal reason why We might not comply with the Advice given Us. Another reason is That We plainly observe that though the Division is great in the Nation under Our Government yet it will be greater upon Our Removal For which in a free Conference We should have given such pregnant Evidence as We hold not fit this way to declare The Third is That though since the Meeting here where we were assured of such effectual Endeavours to procure Obedience to the King's Authority placed in Us the particular Disobediences We then instanced have continued and been improved by many other Affronts yet it hath pleased God to raise His Majesty Affairs elsewhere to so hopeful a Condition that may occasion His Majesty's sending us such Commands as we should be sorry should not find us upon the place In the last place it is most certain that no Meditation of ours will prevail with his Majesty for sending Relief and Supplies hither as the Representations We desire to be enabled to make of the Dutifulness and Obedience of the People where unto to dispose them We do again call upon You to make use of all the means within Your power Given at Loghreagh the 13th of August 1650. ORMOND But all this Labour might have been saved if his Excellency had known what these Prelates had done for on the very same day the aforesaid Message was delivered to the Lord-Lieutenant by the Bishop of Dromore and Doctor Kelly viz. the 12th of August and without expecting any answer to it they issued the fatal and bloudy Declaration and Excommunication at Jamestown against the Lord-Lieutenant and all his Adherents recited at large Appendix 47 wherein the Bishop of Ferns says they were Unanimous and boasts that this Rejection of the
Lord-Lieutenant and consequently of the King's Authority placed in him was done by the * Vnanimi universi cleri consensu vindiciae versae 25. Universal Consent of the Clergy Nor is this Affront to be wondered at being done with some sort of Order and Formality but it would amaze one to see the Captain of the Guard of young Men at Galway with the Rabble at his heels searching in every Corner for the Lord-Lieutenant as a Criminal or a Thief not but that they knew he was not in the Town but they did it at the instigation of the Clergy meerly to bring contempt on his Person and Authority and for the same reason that we hang fugitive Traytors in Effigie And which is yet more strange when Mr. Beling to lessen the Guilt of the Irish would palliate the matter by saying they did not force the Lord-Lieutenant out of the Kingdom Constat enim eum tum discessisse quia Prelati omnes unanimiter sub censuris vetuerant ne ullus illius pareret mandatis aut partes Sequeretur Vindiciae Eversae 173. The Reverend Father Ponce flies in his face and being loath to lose the merit of such a glorious Action he affirms That they did expel the Lord-Lieutenant and that they did force him away as much as a Man is forced to leave a sinking Ship 'T is true says he Ormond might have staid but no body would have obeyed him after our Excommunication and therefore we may truly say We compelled him to go And thus do these bigotted Zealots glory in their Shame and after all this have the confidence to claim the benefit of the Articles of 1648 which they had thus so publickly and so peremptorily not only violated but dissolved Non discessit ergo lubens nisi ut lubens voluntarit projicit quis metu naufragii merces in mare ne navis ipsemet una peâ—eat sic autem lubentem discessisse non arguit quin potestate Prelatorum factum sit ut discesserit Ibidem Sufficiebat ad expulsionem Ormonii Prelatos cavisse sub Excomunicatione ne quis partes ejus sequeretur ne quis obtemperet mandatis quamvis esset prorâ—â— Ibid. 174. But as these Prelates were exceeding rash in denouncing this Excommunication so they were altogether as light and inconstant in the publication of it for it was not promulged until the 15th day September and the very next day they suspended it again as appears by the following Letters to the Officers of the Army SIRS YEsterday we have received an Express from the rest of our Congregation at Galway bearing their sence to suspend the effects of the Excommunication proclaimed by their Orders till the Service of Athlone he performed fearing on the one side the Dispersion of the Army and on the other having received most certain intelligence of the Enemies approach unto that place with their full force and number of fighting Men and thereupon would have us concur with them in suspending the said Excommunication As for our part we do judge that Suspension unnecessary and full of Inconveniencies which we apprehend may ensue because the Excommunication may be obeyed and the Service not neglected if People were pleased to undertake the Service in the Clergy's Name without relation to the Lord of Ormond or any that may take his part Yet fearing the Censure of Singularity in Matters of so high a strain against us or to be deemed more forward in Excommunicating than others also fearing the weakness of some which we believe the Congregation feared we are pleased to follow the Major Vote and against our own Opinion concur with them and do hereby suspend the said Censure as above Provided always that after that Service performed or the Service be thought unnecessary by the Clergy or when the said Clergy will renew it it shall be presently incurred as if the said Suspension had never been interposed And so we remain Corbeg Sept. 16 1650. Your Affectionate Loving Friends In Christ Jesus Walter B. Clonfert Charles Kelly Nor is the following Letter less remarkable Our very good Lords and Sirs THe Colonels Mr. Alexander mac Donnel Bryen O Neil and Randal mac Donnel like Obedient Children of Holy Church have offered themselves to put up for the Clergy and that before publication of the Declaration and Excommunication God will bless their good intentions They go now to joyn with you on this side the Shannon and by making one Body to put forward our Cause This is the best way we can think of to encourage the Well-affected and curb the Malignant and Obstinate The Lord Bishop of Killaloe being taken Prisoner by the Lord-Lieutenant the Cavaliers would have had him forthwith hanged if his Excellency had given way thereunto His Excellency is giving Patents to as many Catholicks as are Excommunication-proof Ireland is an accursed Country that hath so many rotten Members Though things go hard with us God will bring the Work to a good end When you meet with those Colonels confer of what Service to take in hand Est periculum in Mora Praying to God to protect you in your Ways we remain To our very good Lords the Earl of Westmeath the Lords Bishops of Leighlin Cloanmacnois and Dromore Sir James Preston Colonel Bryan mac Pheilim and the rest of the Commanders of the Leinster Forces Galway Sept. 21st 1650. Your very Loving Friends Joan. Rapotensis Fr. Aladensis Nich. Fernensis But the folly of this Congregation was yet more manifest in that they set the People loose from all Government Civil and Military at a time when a potent Enemy was in the Field without directing them whom to obey any otherwise than by resorting to their Association until a General Assembly And if the Forces with Ormond and Clanrickard had obeyed this wild Declaration or thereby taken occasion to disperse the English would have passed the Shenin at both ends and would have spoiled both the Assembly and Congregation as they afterwards did And it is the more strange that the Popish Clergy should presume to dispose of the Supreme Authority and make themselves Judges of the Administration of Government because if the Articles of Peace had been violated the Commissioners of Trust were the proper Judges of that matter However those Prelates were resolved not to submit to any Government but in such manner and by such Persons as they should like which plainly shews how much it doth import the Temporal Magistrate not to trust them nor their Abettors with power enough to bring those matters in dispute In the mean time the Scots having already declared against the Peace with the Irish and having the Ascendant over the King to the degree of imposing the Covenant upon him did also prevail with him much against his will to publish a Declaration against the Peace made with the Confederates which was proclaimed at Dumferling on the 16th of August 1650 By which * Et plane Tiranicam Vindic Eversae 49. Tyranical Declaration
says Mr. Ponce the Irish are delivered and †Catholici hiberniae ab ea pace observanda liberantur ac ad confederationem priorem redire possunt Bishop of Ferns in Epist to Tyâ—ell freed from any obligation to the Peace and ought to resort to their first Confederacy says the Bishop of Fernes However this could not justifie their rejecting of the King's Authority by excommunicating the Lord-Lieutenant at Jamestown because that happened on the 12th of August which was four days before the other Nevertheless the King was exceedingly concerned at this Declaration and the scandal and prejudice it would bring to his Party in Ireland and therefore to obviate as much of the Inconvenience as was possible he hastned over the Dean of Tuam Dr. John King with a Verbal Message to the Lord-Lieutenant importing the necessity of his making the aforesaid Declaration and with what great regret he did it especially so precipitately since it might have been done gradually with Honour the greatest part of the Irish having broken that Peace and that he depended more upon Ormond than upon any Man living and desired him to use his utmost dexterity at this juncture and accordingly his Excellency did immediately write to the Commissioners of Trust as followeth AFter Our hearty Commendations Having lately received Assurance that his Majesty hath been induced to declare the Peace concluded in this Kingdom in the Year 1648 by vertue of Authority from his late Majesty of ever glorious Memory as also of his Majesty now Reigning to be void and that he is absolutely freed therefrom We have thought it necessary for the Vindication of our own Honour freely to declare unto you as well what hath passed from us to his Majesty that might give any colour for such a Declaration as what our resolution is thereupon It is very true that from time to time we endeavoured to give his Majesty a true account of his Affairs committed to our Charge in general and that therein we could not omit informing him of divers Affronts put upon his Authority by means whereof and the Disobediences of the remaining Towns if persisted in we were in dispair of doing him any considerable Service or defending the Kingdom from the Rebels But in our Dispatches we were careful that his Majesty should understand that the Nobility and greater part of the Gentry continued-faithful to his Majesty obedient to his Authority and worthy of his Favour and Protection Whether any of these Dispatches have come to his Majesty's hands or if they have whether before or since his making his Declaration against the Peace we know not but we find that his Majesty's Declaration is principally grounded upon the Unlawfulness of concluding the Peace with this Nation and the breaches on the part of the Nation are mentioned but in general terms and by the by so that however the Affronts put upon his Authority have been many and obstinately persisted in to this day and that in such places whereupon evidently depends the preservation or loss of the whole Kingdom to the Rebels Whereof we have several times given notice unto you and followed the Ways advised by you for reclaiming the said places without any success yet considering the Declaration gained from his Majesty is without hearing what could be said by the Nation in their own defence and such as involves it generally without exception in the guilt of Rebellion and that even those have with greatest Insolence invaded the Royal Authority and endeavoured to withdraw the People from their Allegiance do yet pretend that they will make their Complaint against us to his Majesty thereby implying that they will submit to his Judgement We have thought fit to let you know that notwithstanding the said Declaration by some undue means obtained from his Majesty we are resolved by all means it shall please God to offer unto us and through all Hazards in behalf of this Nation to insist upon and assert the lawfulness of the Conclusion of the Peace by vertue of the aforesaid Authorities and that the said Peace is still valid of force and binding to his Majesty and all his Subjects and herein we are resolved by the help of God to persist until that we and such as shall in that behalf be entrusted and authorized by the Nation shall have free and safe access to his Majesty and untill upon mature and unrestrained Consideration of what may on all sides be said he have declared his Royal Pleasure upon the aforesaid Affronts put upon his Authority provided always that in the mean time and immediately First That all the Acts Declarations and Excommunications issued by the Bishops met at Jamestown in August last whereby the People are forbidden to obey us as Lord-Lieutenant be by them Revoked and such Assurance as shall be agreed on by us and you the Commissioners authorized by us in pursuance of the Articles of Peace given by them that they nor any of them shall not attempt the like for the future and that they shall continue themselves within the Bounds prescribed by the Articles of Peace whereunto they are Parties Secondly That it be immediately declared by you that the said Declarations Excommunications and other Proceedings of the said Bishops is an unwarranted Usurpation upon his Majesty's just Authority and in them a Violation of the Peace and that in case they shall not give the Assurance before expressed or having given it shall not observe the same that you will endeavour to bring the Offenders to condign punishment pursuant unto and as is prescribed by the Laws of the Kingdom as Disturbers of the Peace of the Kingdom and Obstructers of the means of preserving the same Thirdly That a like Declaration be made by all that derive Authority from his Majesty Civil or Martial and by the respective Mayors Aldermen Common-Councel Burgesses and all other Magistrates in all the Corporations of the Kingdom Fourthly That we be admitted to make our free and safe Residence in in any place we shall chuse within the Limits not possessed by the Rebels Fifthly That we immediately be admitted to Garrison such places and in such manner according to the Articles of Peace as we shall find necessary for the defence of the Kingdom Lastly That a present course be taken for means for our Support in proportion answerable to our Place yet with regard to the State of the Kingdom which last we should not propose but that we are deprived of our private Fortune whereupon we have solely subsisted ever since we came to the Kingdom To all which we expect your present Answer And so we bid you heartily Farewel and remain at Enis the 13th of October 1650 Your very Loving Friend ORMOND Which Letter gave great Satisfaction to the Commissioners of Trust as appears by their following Answer May it please Your Excellency YOur Lordship 's of the 23d of this instant we have received and therein to our unexpressible grief we find that his Majesty
hath been induced to declare the Peace concluded in this Kingdom in the Year 1648 to be void and that he is absolved therefrom taking for the principal grounds for such his Declaration the Unlawfulness of the Act. And howbeit we cannot without a very feeling sence of the Grief the Nation with just cause may entertain of the prejudice thereby brought upon them and the blemish cast upon those hearty Endeavours of theirs to restore his Majesty to his former Estate and Power over his Subjects look upon those unexpected Fruits of their Blood and Substance so chearfully spent in his Service yet it greatly comforts us to understand that notwithstanding that Declaration by some undue means obtained from his Majesty your Excellency is resolved by all the means that it shall please God to offer unto you and through all hazards in the behalf of this Nation to insist upon and assert that Peace and persist in so doing until your Excellency and such as shall be entrusted and authorized by the Nation shall have free and safe access unto his Majesty And as to those Proviso's which are expressed as necessary Conditions whereby his Majesty's Authority which notwithstanding that Declaration we still do embrace and reverence may be continued among us besides our general profession to act what lies in our power in the ways of his Majesty's Service and to your Excellency's satisfaction we do return the ensuing Answers And To the first Proviso Concerning the Revocation of those Acts Declaration and Excommunication issued by the Bishops met at Jamestown and the Assurance demanded that nothing in that kind shall be attempted for the future we do humbly answer That your Excellency to whom we have often expressed our Resentment of such their Proceedings may be confident we shall labour so far as in us lies to see your Excellency satisfied in this particular and to that end we will all or some of us with your Excellency's allowance and as you shall think fit repair to Galway to treat with the Prelates upon this Subject To the second We humbly return as answer That albeit we know that by those Censures of the Bishops met at Jamestown his Majesty's Authority was invaded and an unwarranted Government set up contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom and that we are assured no Subject could be justly warranted by that Excommunication to deny Obedience to his Majesty's Authority in your Excellency yet being of opinion that a publick Declaration of this kind in this Conjuncture of Affairs ought properly and would with more countenance and authority move from an Assembly than from us and that by such a publick Declaration now from us we should wholly obstruct the way to prevail with the Prelates to withdraw those Censures or Act what is desired by the former Proviso and likewise endanger what Union there is at present in opposing the Common Enemy and prejudice the hopes of a more perfect Union for the future wherein the preservation of the Nation doth principally consist We do therefore humbly beseech your Excellency to call upon an Assembly of the Nation from whom such a Declaration as may be effectual in this behalf and may settle those Distractions can only proceed Yet if in the mean time and before the meeting of that Assembly those Censures now suspended shall be revived we will endeavour to suppress their influence upon the People by such a Declaration as shall become Loyal Subjects and Men entrusted to see all due Obedience paid to his Majesty's Government over this Kingdom To the third We do humbly return as answer That we shall at all times and in such manner as your Excellency shall think fit to prescribe invite all or any his Majesty's Roman Catholick Subjects to such a Declaration which yet until we shall understand the Clergy's sence upon the first Proviso we do humbly represent as fit for a time to be forborn To the fourth We humbly return as answer That whatsoever your Excellency shall find to be properly within our power and will direct to be done for procuring a free Residence for your Person in any place you shall chuse within the Limits not possessed by the Rebels we shall readily obey your Lordship's Commands therein To the fifth We humbly return as answer That upon debate with your Excellency of the place fit for to be Garrisoned and the number of Men fit to be received thereinto we shall according to the Articles of Peace use our utmost endeavours to have such Garrison so agreed upon admitted To the last We humbly return as answer That as we have at all times heretofore been ready and willing your Excellency's Charge should be supported out of the Revenue of the Kingdom so we are now very ready to concur in assigning any of the Dues already accrued or such as shall grow due hereafter or to impose a new Applotment upon the Subject towards your Excellency's Maintenance Thus humbly taking leave we remain Junis 24th Octob. 1650. Your Excellency's Most Humble Servants Athunry Lucas Dillon Rich. Bellings Jeff. Browne N. Plunket R. Barnewall R. Everard Gerald Fennel Upon receipt of this his Excellency did Indict a General Assembly to meet at Loghreagh on the 15th of November and in the mean time did give his consent that some of the Commissioners of Trust should repair to Galway to treat with the Committee of the Congregation there and accordingly Sir Lucas Dillon Sir Richard Barnwall Sir Richard Everard Mr. Beling Mr. Brown and Dr. Fennel went thither and proposed First A Letter of the Lord-Lieutenant's to them from Ennis 23d of October already mentioned Secondly They shewed the King's Declaration made touching the Covenant and the Disavowing the Peace and acquainted them with the present Condition of the Kingdom as in relation to the King's Party engaged to the Covenant and in relation to the Independents and urged that the only seeming Safety to the Nation is in that of the Peace Thirdly They desired to know of that Committee what they conceived would most conduce to the Preservation of the Nation and themselves Fourthly They proposed that an Union cannot be had or preserved for preservation of the Nation without keeping the King's Authority amongst them for that many even considerable Men will instantly make their Conditions with the Enemy the King's Authority being taken away and that there is no hopes of having that Authority left but by revoking the Excommunication and Declaration for it will not be left by the Lord-Lieutenant nor undergone by Clanrickard but upon those Terms To these Proposals the Committe gave the following Answer upon which as far as they related to himself the Lord-Lieutenant made some Animadversions which I have opposed to the Answers in a different Colume The Committee's Answer First THE abovementioned Letter was read containing his Excellency's Undertaking for asserting the Peace and his Demand of two Proviso's to that end where we observe his Excellency informed his Majesty of certain
his Majestys having recalled our Commission and take pains to prove it by an unavoidable Dilemma or that at least we are not their Friend nor to be trusted by them And by another strong Argument they endeavour to prove his Majesty would not have his Authority at all kept over this Nation When by this means they have as they think shewed it impossible that the Peace can be continued which they know it cannot without the continuance of the King's Authority then they say If the Peace be proved the only Safety they are for it and that however they conceive the benefit thereof is due to them having made no breach on their part If they would make it their business to seek for Arguments to keep the King's Authority over them they might perhaps find many and these as convincing as those they have found to dispute it out of the Kingdom as the Conclusion and Ratification of the Peace here by vertue of his Authority precedent to the Declaration seeming to Annul it ☞ The certainty that he was in a free Condition when he gave the said Authority and Ratified the Peace concluded by it and the question that may be made whether he was so when he declared against it And lastly That by the Articles of Peace he is obliged to continue his Authority here from which Obligation no Declaration at least importuned from him by his Subjects of Scotland can free him or take from this Nation who have no dependance on Scotland the benefit of the Agreement made by his Majesty with them Upon these grounds it was that until his Majesty had been fully informed in all that had passed here and declared his free sence upon it we offered to justifie the Lawfulness of concluding the Peace and the continuing Validity of it to those that had not forfeited their Interest in it if we might have had the Concurrence of these Bishops and Obedience in the Places by the strength and means whereof it might have been justified And surely this was an Offer not meriting the Scorn and Bitterness wherewith it was rejected If they that contrived this Paper have made no breach of the Peace on their part we have lost much labour in the fore-passed Discourse But we believe we have proved they have made many rindx and those the highest it was possible to make And surely they must be very partial on their own side if they think the benefit of a thing they reject is due to them This is only a Profession which requires no Answer from us To this we answer That if they were always of Opinion all their Endeavours should be employed to keep the King's Authority over them their Declaration and Excommunication is a strange way of manifesting that Opinion which Declaration and Excommunication bears date before his Majesty's Declaration wherein they say he throweth away the Nation as Rebels So that whatever his Majesty hath done in withdrawing his Authority it is apparent their endeavour to drive it away was first in Time In their Advice of returning to the Confederacy appears the scope of their Dilemma's and Arguments against the continuance of the King's Authority over them which that thâ—â— may be sure to be rid of they say we have no Authority to leave Their Reasons why in Conscience they cannot consent to the Revocation of their Declaration and Excommunication follow The King's Authority was in 〈◊〉 when the Declaration and Excommunication was framed by them they acknowledged And that it is still in us notwithstanding his Majesty's said Declaration we are able to make good if we could find it of advantage to his Service or the Safety of his good Subjects But that they confess it is not in them to confer a new Authority upon us is one of the few Truths they have set down yet why they may not pretend to give as well as take away Authority and why they may not to us as well as to others we know not They further say it is destructive to the Nation if continued in us and preservative if in another And this they say was their sence when they declared against the King's Authority in our person We would gladly know what we have done to change their scope since the time that by their many professions formerly recited they seemed to be of another Opinion if it be for doing little or nothing we believe we have made it appear they are principally guilty of our being out of Action That it will be preservative to the Nation to have the Authority to Govern it in another we shall he glad to be convinced by the Event The losâ— of the Places mentioned here is answered elsewhere We shall only add That aâ— Cashell was lately deserted by some of those Men esteemed Obedient Children of Holy Church so the same Men could neither be perswaded nor forced into Kilkenny when they bad Orders for it and by that means both Places were lost What we declared at Cork in this particular was before the Conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and published in Print and then well known to many of these Bishops So that they ought then to be aware how they had concluded a Peace with one that had made such a Declaration rather than now after almost two Years to make it a ground of breaking the Peace What our Opinion is of the Covenant or the best Reformed Churches we hold not ourself obliged to declare Resolved we were to defend the Peace concluded by us in all the parts of it which we have faithfully endeavoured to do and should still have endeavoured it if we had not been interrupted affronted and wholly disabled therein by the Contrivement of those very Bishops their Brethren and Instruments Now at length they are come plainly to shew the true ground of their Exception to us which they have endeavoured all the while to diguise under the personal Scandals they have endeavoured to cast upon us ☜ They are afraid of Scandal at Rome for making Choice as they call it as if they might choose their Governours of one of a different Religion If this be allowed them why they may not next pretend to the same fear of Scandal for having a King of a different Religion ☜ and to the Power of choosing one of their own Religion we know not Touching any Agreement made between the Queen of England and his Holiness for a Governour for this Kingdom we have never heard of any such and we are most confident that in the Agreement and consequently in the want of Performance her Majesty is falsly aspersed by the Framers of this Paper We believe that no Prince or State that could not be induced to Succour or Countenance this Nation being under Obedience to their Natural King will Succour or Countenance it if it suffer itself to be seduced into Rebellion upon the Motives suggested by these Men and their Brethren which were to give exil Example to their
six Persons free from all just exception and presuming to offer three of their own naming to our Election After this followed the breaking open our Trunks of Papers there the forcing of the Stores of Corn laid up for his Majesty's Army and therein some Corn belonging to ourself and disposing of all to such uses as they thought fit All which we passed by until that Murtagh O Bryen going unto that City with his Regiment and being there received and continued contrary to our Orders to multiply his Affronts unto us which rendred him the more acceptable to that City came forth with the said Men into the County of Clare and drive away the Cattle of divers of the Inhabitants of the Country who had formerly paid their Contribution unto such as were appointed to receive it Upon whose Sufferance and Complaint thereof we sent our Order unto the Mayor of Limerick to send to us the said Murtagh O Bryen in the condition of a Prisoner by a party of Horse and Foot that we sent thither to receive him To the Commander of which Party we gave order to seize upon the Cattle of the said City and in case Obedience would not be given to our said Warrant to drive them away The Officer did accordingly seize upon the said Cattle but could get no other answer than that the Mayor would send us his answer which came not to us at least in a week after neither did it then shew any thing of Obedience the substance of it being That the Government of that City was committed to Major-General Hugh O Neil and therefore that he would not intermeddle therein Whereas they made the Governour a Cypher and suffered him to act nothing but what they pleased who return'd us that answer unto our Command unto him to send us the said Murtagh O Neil Prisoner And whether the least of the said Offences deserved not worse Usage than Limerick had from us at least if all did not let any indifferent or moderate Men judge What ground we had for giving the like Commissions against Galway will presently be spoken of That the purpose of those Corporations was not to submit unto us is doubtless well known to and infused into them by those Bishops and their Instruments whom we admit not as competent Judges of the Faithful Actions of those Places to the Crown X. That no forreign Nation will Trade with us under his Government for the hard Usage of Captain Antonio and other Owners of Adventurers and especially of the Hollander the Owner of the Ship called the Seven Stars and so we must soon give up to the Enemy for want of Ammunition Eleventhly The vast Sums of Money and the Stock of the People consumed more being spent to lose the Kingdom than the Enemy bestowed to conquer us not accompted for tho' often demanded doth disanimate the People to come again under his Government Twelfthly The Event of War being uncertain if the Nation shou'd be reduced to the Condition of agreeing with the Enemy his Excellency were not a fit Man to agree for the Exercise of our Religion Churches Altars or any thing concerning the same Conclusion The best way offered unto us in this pressing Exigent for the Union of the Nation and keeping them from agreeing with the Enemy is that â—he Marquess of Clanrickard in whom according to the Sense of the Congregation at James-Town we desired the King's Authority should be left before the coming of the King's Declaration may Govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and the King's Authority from the Lord-Lieutenant which he conceives is in him until an Assembly and to that end that a free and lawful Assembly be made to sit to judge upon the People's preservation and to decree and order what shall be best and safest for the Defence of the Nation touching the King's Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they shall find best and most expedient Part of this is answered in our Answer to the fifth Article of their Declaration As to the ground of seizing the Hollander here mentioned it was amongst others for these Reasons First For that the Corporation of Galway this last Summer did unwarrantably assume to itself the Power of Judicature in Maritine Affairs and that the Mayor for that time being with what Assistance we know not adjudged and accordingly disposed of a Ship and her Lading as Prize notwithstanding our Inhibition to him at that time and our requiring him to shew upon what pretence he assumed such Power there being upon the place proper Judges deriving Authority from His Majesty to give Judgment in such Cases and notwithstanding that even in the time of Confederacy the like Power was never assumed by them but all Prizes were adjudged by Commission from the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks Secondly That notwithstanding we some time the last Summer having first made tender of Farming the Customs to the said Corporation and they refusing it Farmed the same to certain Persons who were at a day long since in part of Payment of the Customs to have delivered us a good proportion of Ammunition wherewith to defend this His Majesty's Kingdom and People against the Rebels yet the said Corporation pretending there was Money due of the Loan-Money promised by them in the beginning of the Year before which they can never make good as appears by their backwardness to come to Accompt gave or suffered violent interruption to be given to the said Farmers in receiving the benefit of their said Bargain and notwithstanding their Application to the Mayor and our Letters in their favour there was no Redress given them nor Punishment inflicted on the Disturbers Whereby we have wanted the Ammunition contracted for and lost many Opportunities of Service against the Rebels and many Places were taken by them for want of the said Ammunition and the remaining part of the Kingdom in apparent hazard of becoming a Prey to the said Rebels Thirdly That the said Corporation when it appeared necessary to us to the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard their Governour and to the Commissioners Authorized in pursuance of the Articles of Peace that for the Defence thereof a Garrison and Governour should be placed in the said Town refused and do still refuse to receive any such Garrison or Governour as by the Articles of Peace they were ☜ and are to receive Which is a breach of the said Peace and Disobedience of a high and criminal nature Fourthly That in the Month of September last there was Published and Declared in the Town of Galway a False Scandalous and Traiterous Excommunication and Declaration against any that shou'd Obey or Adhere unto His Majesty's Government and Authority in us who are onely therewith trusted as Lord-Lieutenant of this His Majesty's Kingdom and another Power and Government without and against His Majesty 's said Government ☜
ulla a Rege Vindic. Ever 105. yet as Father Ponce confesses or rather boasts they were endeavouring all they could to resort to their first Confederacy without any regard to the King But as soon as the Assembly understood the Lord-Lieutenant's Resolution to leave the Kingdom without appointing a Deputy they sent the Lords Clanrickard and Dillon and two more to him with the following Publick Act and Declaration of the Assembly The General Assembly's Publick Act and Declaration Dated at Loghreogh the 17th of December same Year 1650 upon and some few Days after Receipt of the precedent Letter from the Marquess of Ormond then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland WHereas the Archbishops and Bishops met at this Assembly have of their own free accords for removing of Jealousies that any might apprehend of their Proceedings declared and protested That by their Excommunication and Declaration at Jamestown in August last they had no other Aim than the Preservation of the Catholick Religion and People and did not propose to make any Vsurpation on his Majesty's Authority or on the Liberties of the People confessing it belongs not to their Jurisdiction so to do upon consideration of which their Declaration and Protestation and their Professions to that purpose in this Assembly and of his Excellency's Letter dated the 16th of November last recommending unto us as the chief ends for which this Assembly was called the removing of all Divisions as the best way for our Preservation We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Gentry met in this Assembly conceiving that there is no better Foundation and Ground for our Vnion than the holding to and obeying his Majesty's Authority to which we owe and ought to pay all dutiful Obedience do hereby declare and protest That our Allegiance to his Majesty is so inherent in us that we cannot be withdrawn from the same nor is there any power or authority in the Lords Spiritual or Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of the Kingdom that can alter change or take away his Majesty's Authority we holding that to be the chief Flower of the Crown and the Support of the Peoples Liberty which we hereby protest declare and avow and also do esteem the same essentially inviolably and justly due from us and the chiefest Mean under GOD to uphold our Vnion and Preservation And do unanimously beseech his Excellency in his great Affections to the Advancement of his Majesty's Service and his hearty desires to this Nation 's preservation to which he hath relation of highest Concernments in Blood Alliance and Interest to leave that Authority with us in some person faithful to his Majesty and acceptable to the Nation To which person when made known unto us we will not only afford all due Obedience but will also offer and propose the best Ways and Means that God will please to direct us to for preservation of his Majesty's Rights and Peoples Interests and Liberties and for begetting ready Obedience in all places and persons to his Majesty's Authority And we do farther declare That albeit Drogheda and all other places which were upon conclusion of the Peace in January 1648 in the Enemies power in this Kingdom the Cities of London Derry and Dublin only excepted were in his Excellency's time of Government and Conduct through many hazards in his person and loss in his Fortune reduced to his Majesty's Obedience God was pleased to bring us to the State and Condition we are at present yet we are fully satisfied that his Excellency had faithful Intentions and hearty Affections to advance his Majesty ' Interests and Service in this Kingdom Loghreogh 7th Decem. 1650. By Command of the Assembly Richard Blake Hereupon his Excellency sent them word That he had sent a Deputation to the Marquess of Clanrickard to Govern the Kingdom provided that their Declaration might be so far explained as to give the Marquess of Clanrickard full satisfaction that the Expressions they made touching the Obedience they owed and resolved to pay unto his Majesty's Authority was meant The Authority placed in his Lordship or any other Governour deriving or holding his Authority from his Majesty and that they esteem it not in the Power of any Person Congregation or Assembly whatsoever to discharge or set the People free from obeying his Lordship or any other such Governour during the continuance of the said Authority in him without which he said he could not in Duty to his Majesty leave his Authority subject to be tossed to and fro at the uncertain Fancies of any Man or Men and without any probability of saving the Nation which could be no otherwise effected than by an absolute chearful Obedience of the People unto the Authority placed over them And so having given charge to the Lord Clanrickard not to accept the Government upon other Terms and having refused a Pass from Ireton which a great Man yet living sollicitous of Excellency's safety had obtained and being accompanied with the Lord Insiquin and the Colonels Vaughan Wogan and Warren and about twenty more in a small Vessel of twenty eight Tun and four Guns he set sail for France about the middle of December leaving ULICK Marquess of CLANRICKARD Earl of Saint ALBANS Lord-Deputy to whom the Assembly applied themselves and besought him to assume the Government as Lord-Deputy of Ireland according to the Power left with him by the Lord-Lieutenant But the Marquess absolutely refused to do it except they satisfied the Proviso mentioned in the Lord-Lieutenant's Letter to them and that he saw such an Union amongst them as might free the King's Authority from the Affronts it had been exposed unto Whereupon they petitioned him again to assume that Authority without which the Nation as they said would be exposed to Ruine and they promised entire Obedience thereunto and for farther manifestation of the Sincerity of their Intentions they made the following Act By the General Assembly of the Kingdom of Ireland Logreogh 24th of Decemb. 1653. ALthough this Assembly have endeavoured by their Declaration of the 7th of this Month to give full Testimony of their Obedience to his Majesty's Authority yet for further Satisfaction and for removal of all Jealousies we do further declare That the Lords Spiritual or Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of this Kingdom shall not attempt labour endeavour or do any Act or Acts to set free or discharge the people from yeilding due and perfect Obedience to his Majesty's Authority invested in the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard or any other Governour or Governours of this Kingdom And in case of any such Labour Act or Endeavour by which any Mischief might ensue by seducing the people we declare That no person or persons shall or ought to be lead thereby but by their Disobedience on any such grounds are lyable and subject to the heavy Censures and Penalties of the Laws of the Land in force and practised in the Reign of Henry the Seventh and other Catholique Princes Nevertheless it is further
declared That this is not meant or intended by any thing herein contained that this Nation will not insist upon the performance of the Articles of Peace and by all just means provide against the Violation of the same And inasmuch as his Majesty is at present as we are informed in the power of a Presbiterian party of the Scots who declared themselves Enemies to this Nation and vowed the Extirpation of our Religion ☜ we declare That it is not hereby intended to oblige ourselves to obey or observe any Governour that shall come unduely nominated or procured from his Majesty by reason of or during his being in an unfree Condition that may raise Disturbance of the present Government established by his Majesty's Authority or redound to the Violation of the Articles of Peace By the General Assembly c. Logreogh 24th of Decemb. 1650. IT is declared That by the word OUGHT expressed in the said Declaration this Day voted in this Assembly it is not meant or intended to look back or have a retrospect into any former Proceedings of the Clergy However they would not consent the following Clause should be added viz. Or set free or discharge the People upon any pretence whatsoever from yeilding Obedience to the Power and Authority intrusted by his Majesty in any Governour of this Kingdom during the Continuance of his Commission or the Powers and Authorities from thence derived although the Lord-Deputy did very importunately desire it But now that the Confederates have gotten a Governour to their mind one of their own Religion and in truth a brave Man it is but reason to expect that the Assembly should take valiant and unanimous Resolutions for a suitable Defence but Experience hath convinced the World that they who are most quarrelsom are not always most stout and therefore it is not to be wondered that it should within very few Days and before any new Misfortune happened be proposed in the Assembly That they might send to Treat with the Enemy for the Surrender of all that was left However the major part of the Assembly rejected the Motion with Scorn whereupon the Bishop of Fernes proposed ☜ To resort to their first Confederacy and so proceed in their Preservation without any respect to the King's Authority And this disloyal Motion found so many Abettors especially of the Clergy that those who were zealous in opposing it were fain to reproach the Assembly by telling them That they now manifested that it was not their prejudice to the Marquess of Ormond nor their zeal to Religion that had transported them but their dislike of the King's Authority and their resolution to withdraw themselves from it That they themselves would constantly submit to it and defend it with their utmost hazard as long as they should be able and when they should be reduced to extremity that Treating with the Enemy could no longer be deferred they would in that Treaty make no provision for them but be contented that they should be excluded from any benefit thereof who were so forward to exclude the King's Authority ☞ But as some of the Irish that pretended Obedience and professed Loyalty were nevertheless daily undermining the Government in favour of the Nuntio and by b P. W. Remonstrance 583. mixing Truth and Lies indifferently and by clamour on the common Topick of ill Success did raise Sedition and foment Jealousies hoping to get rid of the Lord-Lieutenant and to get the Kingdom in their own power to dispose of it to the Pope or some other Forreign Prince as hath already been shewn So there were others that did actually correspond with the Cromwelists and poorly truckled to the prevailing Party for fear of whom they pretended at first to have rais'd their Rebellion insomuch that in a Letter of the Seventh of May the Earl of Castlehaven complains of the Marquess of Antrim's Defection and says That the Irish are so false that No-body is to be trusted for either the Husband or the Wife are still Treating with the Enemy and in their Camp And a greater Man than he in his Letter of June 26. to the King acquaints His Majesty That His Affairs are confounded by the ever-Disloyal Party of the Irish Clergy to whom Lying is as natural as Rebellion But that which is more wonderful is that the Popish Archbishop of Armagh and others should issue Precepts to pray for the Success of Cromwell's Forces P. W. Remonstrance 706 707. whilst Dominick Dempsy a Franciscan Fryer and Mr. Long the Jesuit asserted That the King being out of the Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him in particular or in general publickly except on Good-Friday as comprehended amongst the Infidels Jews Mahometans Pagans and Hereticks and even then it is lawful to pray but for the welfare of his Soul onely and not for his Temporal Prosperity But this will be the less admired P. W. Remonstrance when it is known that the same Archbishop of Armagh pleaded for favour from the Parliament to the Ulster Irish because says he They never had Affection to the King nor his Family And as for me says he I was never a Friend or Well wisher to any of the Four meaning the King the Dukes of York and Gloucester and the Marquess of Ormond And indeed the Irish began this Correspondence very early for in September 1649. Coll. Dungan writes to the Lord-Lieutenant That Kelly the Lord of Antrim ' s Priest was in Dublin with Cromwell And to manifest that it was not the Popish Clergy alone that entertained Disloyal Sentiments but that even some of their Nobility and greatest Men and such as had received both Honour and Estate from the King did ungratefully plunge themselves into the same Crimes I will add the substance of a Letter from Thomas Talbot to the Marquess of Ormond which I have faithfully extracted from the Original dated October 22. 1650 wherein he writes That General Preston being at the Lord Glanmalira ' s discoursing about the Clergy's Excommunication of all that should obey his Excellency's Orders wished The Plague had taken the Clergy that did not first seize on Ormond's Person and then they might go through with their Design c. That the General and Sir James Preston his Son after long and private Discourse with the Bishop of Dromore imployed Father Taylor to Ireton with many Instructions signed by Preston but written by the Bishop That Sir James Preston at Banchur expressed much bitterness against the King saying That he took the Covenant and Signed a Declaration against the late Peace with the Irish and wished The Devil would take all those that would Serve His Majesty after doing so base a thing and that for his part he would Treat with Ireton and was sure the Parliament would give the Irish advantagious Conditions That the said Sir James after long Discourse with Terence Coughlan told Mr. Talbot That Coughlan thought it Folly not to submit and take
and Garrisons of Inniskilling Culmore Cloghouter Castlejordan Carlingford Monaghan c. they made no considerable Resistance And in Munster Sir Henry Ingolsby went with a party to block up Limerick in July and had the good fortune to rout 4000 Irish that came to relieve it whereof 900 were slain and many taken Prisoners and Colonel Phair in August not only disturbed the Lord Insiquin's Levies in Kerry but also took in the Castle of Kilmurry and was very troublesome to the Lords Roch and Muskry But Ireton having refreshed his Army at Waterford marched through Wicklow and having taken a prey of 1600 Cows he sent Sir Har dress Waller with half of them to re-inforce the Blockade of Limerick and Waller in his march did take the strong Castles of Balliglaughan Ballycubane and Garygaglan and on the 9th of September summoned Limerick but it was in vain for the same Hugh O Neil that made the brave Resistance at Clonmell was now Governour of that City Ireton himself marched on to Sir Charles Coot and being joyned they went to Athlone but the Bridge being broke and the Town on Leinster side burnt Ireton left Coot there and having in his way taken two Castles in Mac Coghlan's Country together with Bi r which the Irish had deserted and burnt he came before Limerick but finding the Year too far spent and that Limerick could not be forced unless it were attacked on both sides the River he endeavoured to get Killaloo pass and so having taken Nenagh Castletown and Dromaneer he went into Winter-quarters to Kilkenny on the 10th of November In the mean time part of the Marquess of Clanrickard's Forces had retaken Bi r and the other two Castles in Mac Coghlan's Country and pretended to relieve Athlone if it should be distressed Whereupon Colonel Axtell Govenour of Kilkenny being joyned with the Wexford and Typerary Forces at Roscrea encountered them near Meleak-Island on the 25th day of October and gave them a sore Defeat killing 1500 Men and taking 200 Horse and all their Baggage In the mean time the Duke of Lorrain not having finished his Negotiations at Rome which I formerly mentioned continued his Dissimulation of Zeal for Religion and of concern for the Roman Catholick Irish whereupon the Lord Taaf whom Ormond had sent to the King to get forreign Supplies if possible finding that the King was in Scotland so that he could not get access to him made such importunate Application to the Duke of Lorrain that he procured the Abbot of Saint Catharines with some small Supplies to be sent to the Clergy and Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland Ormond being then in France This Agent or Ambassador landed in the latter end of February 1650 at Galway and as soon as he understood that Clanrickard was left Lord-Deputy he gave his Excellency notice of his Arrival and afterwards shewed him his Credentials and assured his Excellency that the Duke his Master had so entire an affection to the King of England the prefervation of whose Interest in that Kingdom was the chief motive to him to offer his Assistance that if he had known any person had been intrusted there with his Majesty's Authority he would have Addressed himself unto him and no other and that he finding his Lordship invested with that power did what he knew his Master expected at his hands apply himself unto him with and by whose Directions he would alone steer himself through that Negotiation He told him the Duke had already disbursed 6000 Pistols for the supplying them with those things he heard they stood most in need of which were brought over by a Religious Person who came with him and that he was ready to be informed of what they would desire from his Highness that might enable them to resist their Enemy and that he would consent to any thing that was reasonable for him to undertake Hereupon a Committee of the Commissioners of Trust and some Prelates was appointed to Treat with him but as the Abbot varied from his first Proposals so the Popish Clergy did change and very from the Lord-Deputy's Instructions and turned out some of the Committee who would not comply with them and put in others in their room and though the Lord-Deputy prohibited their further progress in the Treaty upon such dishonourable Terms as the Abbot now propos'd yet they would go on to conclude it and thought they had excused their presumption well enough by saying That the Abbot would not consent to any other and that it was better to submit to hard Conditions than to break of the Treaty Whereupon the Lord. Deputy was so disgusted that he left the Town and refused to receive a Visit from this Ambassador that had so manifestly prevaricated from his first pretences By this stifness in the Lord Deputy the concluded Treaty vanished into smoak but the Abbot knowing his Master's design would not totally break off the Correspondence but on the contrary began to talk more mildly and as if the Duke would do very kind things if Agents were sent unto him Which being made known to the Lord-Deputy he appointed Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown for that Embasie and gave them such Instructions as he thought fit But the Prelates did not like that a matter of this importance should be managed without them and therefore under pretence of solliciting the Archbishop of Mecklin the Bishop of Leige and other Ecclesiasticks for Assistance they * Episcopi clerus multi alii precipui nobiles ac Magistratus earum Duarum civium quae Catholicis restabant Vindiciae Eversae 21. Vide the Commission Appendix 47. drew in some of the bigotted Nobility and Gentry and together impowered the busie Bishop of Ferns to interest himself in the Treaty with the Duke of Lorrain which he did with that Confidence and Rashness that was peculiar to him and spoiled whatever he meddled with and particularly the Negotiation in hand And that the World may know P. W. 585. they regard Clanrickard no more than Ormond that this Bishop and those of his party had no more regard to the King's Authority in the Roman Catholick hands of the Marquess of Clanrickard than whilst it remained with the Heretick Marquess of Ormond it is necessary to add the Bishop of Ferns's Letter to these Agents Plunket and Brown who were then in the same City with him viz. Brussels I Do with all sincerity offer mine own Opinion what is to be done by you in this Exigent which is to the end the Agreement you are making with his Highness the Duke of Lorrain become profitable to the Nation and acceptable in the Eyes of God that you would immediately with humble hearts make a Submission unto his Holiness in the Name of the Nation and beg the Apostolical Benediction that the Light of Wisdom the Spirit of Fortitude Victories Grace Success and those Blessings of God we one time enjoyed may return again to us The necessity of doing
this is the greater that the * Clanrickard Person from whom you come with Authority is for several causes Excommunicated A Jure Homine and is at Rome accounted a great Contemner of the Authority and Dignity of Church-men and Persecutor of my Lord Nuntio and some Bishops and other Church-men some of his own Letter come fair for the proof hereof you may be pleased to call to mind that he though much and often moved thereunto never joyned with the Confederate Catholiques until he found the opportunity of bearing down the Pope's Nuntio and had the Lord of Insiquin who not long before dyed his hands in the blood of Priests and innocent Souls in the Church or Rock of St. Patrick in Cashel to close with him in Society of Army the Nation hath now no cause to joy in that Conjunction of those two Stars Do you think God will prosper a Contract grounded upon the Authority of such a Man if some other way be not found of reconciling him to us That therefore what is prophane may be holy and what is rotten sound say in the Name of the Nation with the Prodigal Child Surgam ibo ad Patrem dicam ei pater peccavi in Coelum coram te And even immediately go to his Holiness's Inter Nuntio in this City to make this happy Submission Quia nescit tarda Molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia This being done go on chearfully with your Contract with this most Catholique Prince who did he rightly know the business without such Submission would never enter upon a Bargain to preserve or rather restore Holy Religion in a Kingdom with Agents bringing their Authority from a withered accursed Hand and God will send his Angels of strength and light before that People at least many of them who lying in Darkness and shackled with the Irons of Excommunication c. And it was by the sollicitation of this Angry Bishop and the influence the Clergy had over them that the Agents waving the Authority of the Lord-Deputy that sent them were induced to joyn with the Lord Taaf and in the Name of the People and Kingdom of Ireland to make the following Articles with the Duke of Lorrain An Agreement betwixt Charles the Fourth Duke of Lorrain and Theobald Lord Viscount Taaf Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown Deputed and Authorized by the People and Kingdom of Ireland I. THE most Illustrious Duke is to be vested with Royal Power under the Title of Protector Royal of Ireland II. Because Religion is the prime End and Subject of the Treaty all is to begin with an imploring Application to the Pope for his paternal Benediction and Help that he will not be wanting in things Spiritual or Temporal in consideration whereof it is protested That constant perpetual Obsequiousness of Duty and Faithfulness shall be paid to his Holiness and the Apostolick See III. In consideration of this Royal Protector 's power granted the Duke is by War to prosecute the King's Enemies and afford him all possible Assistance IV. The said Duke is to do nothing in derogation of the King's Authority or Jurisdiction in Ireland but rather to amplifie it and having restored the Kingdom and Religion to its due pristine Estate is to resign chearfully the Kingdom to the King V. Before Resignation as aforesaid ☞ the Duke is to be re-imbursed all by him pre-impended in this Business and for this Re-imbursement a general and exact Obedience to the Duke in Faith and Fidelity from the Kingdom and People is made and to be observed without Reservation to any other Superiority whatsoever VI. The Duke is not to fail on his part to Expel out of Ireland Hereticks Enemies to the King and his Religion and to recover and defend all things belonging to the Faithful Subjects of Ireland VII The Duke is solely and absolutely to exercise all Military Power for the present and future in Ireland as to the Nomination of all Commanders ahd guiding all Martial Proceedings at his own pleasure and in his own person unless he in his absence substitute some other Catholique Person VIII The Duke is to introduce no Innovation in the Towns c. to him assigned repugnant to the Securities Priviledges Immunities Proprieties Lands Estates or Ancient Laws of the Irish reserving only to himself Authority to apply Remedies to any thing accruing wherein publick prejudice may be contained IX The Duke is not to interpose in Administration of Judicial or Civil Affairs but leave them to be proceeded in according to the Fundamental Laws and publick Form of the King 's Chief Governour and the Assembly instituted X. The Manner of calling Assemblies to be as formerly unless complaint arise against the Government or other extraordinary Emergencies hinder and then according to the Ancient Laws the cutting off the Assembly is to be at the pleasure of his Higness XI When the Work is done in Ireland by consent of a General Assembly the Duke promises to afford Assistance to the King against Rebelling Adversaries in other Kingdoms XII In case the Duke cannot go in person into Ireland it is free in his choice and pleasure to depute any other Man of Catholique Piety who shall be Independant in the Militia and in Civil Matters shall be received to all manner of Councils in the same right as any other Counsellor or Commissioner XIII All Cities Castles Lands taken from the English shall revert to the Owners if Catholicks who have connstantly persevered in the Catholick Quarters under the Duke yet the Duke's Military Power shall be entire over the same to garrison and dispose of them at his pleasure XIV All Pay to the Souldiers is to pass from the Duke as well out of the publick Revenues as the Duke's Coffers when that fails provided that the Duke's disbursements of his proper Money for publick Uses for the future to be repaid him as former Disbursements XV. All Goods of Enemies and Delinquents are to be converted to the publick Military Charges and towards rewarding great Merits by the Duke with Advice of the General Assembly XVI The Duke besides 20000 l. already contributed promises all further Accommodations and Supplements for War together with his power and industry what is not above the reach of his Faculties and beneath the Necessities of the War towards the Repayment whereof as well Principal as the Annual Provenue and Use thereof the whole Nation of Ireland is to be liable until the last Peny be paid and for Caution in the mean time the Duke is to be seized and possessed in his own hands of Galway Limerick Athenry the Castle and Town of Athlone ☜ and Waterford and the Royal Fort of Duncannon when recovered from the Enemy and these are to remain to him and his Heirs until full and intire Satisfaction receiv'd and to pay just Obedience and be Garrison'd and Commanded at his pleasure XVII In laying of publick Taxes and levying the same for the Duke's Satisfaction
into my hands they have violated the Trust reposed in them by having cast off and declined the Commission and Instructions they had from me in the King my Master's behalf and all other Powers that cou'd by any other means be derived from him and pretend to make an Agreement with your Highness in the Name of the Kingdom and People of Ireland for which they had not nor could have any warrantable Authority and have abused your Highness by a counterfeit shew of a private Instrument fraudulently procured and signed as I am informed by some inconsiderable and factious Persons ill-affected to His Majesty's Authority without any knowledge or consent of the generality of the Nation or Persons of greatest Quality or Interest therein and who under a seeming zeal and pretence of Service to your Highness labour more to satisfie their private Ambition then the advantage of Religion or the Nation or the prosperous Success of your Highness's generous Undertakings and to manifest the clearness of mine own Proceedings and make such deceitful Practices more apparent I send your Highness herewith an Authentick Copy of my Instructions which accompanied their Commission when I imployed them to your Highness as a sufficient evidence to convince them And having thus fully manifested their breach of Publick Trust I am obliged in the King my Master's Name to protest against their unwarrantable proceedings and to declare all the Agreements and Acts whatsoever concluded by those Commissioners to be void and illegal being not derived from or consonant to His Majesty's Authority being in Duty bound thus far to vindicate the King my Master's Honour and Authority and to preserve his just and undoubted Rights from such deceitful and rebellious Practices as likewise with an humble and respective Care to prevent those prejudices that might befal your Highness in being deluded by counterfeit shews in doing you greater Honour where it is apparent that any Undertaking laid upon such false and ill-grounded Principles as have been smoothly digested and fixed upon that Nation as their desire and request must overthrow all those Heroick and Prince like Acts your Highness hath proposed to your self for God's Glory and Service the Restauration of oppressed Majesty and the Relief of his distressed Kingdom which would at length fall into intestine Broils and Divisions if not forcibly driven into desperation I shall now with a hopeful and cheerful importunity upon a clear score free from those Deceits propose to your Highness that for advancement of all those great Ends you aim at and in the King my Master's behalf and in the Name of all the Loyal Catholick Subjects in this Nation and for the preservation of those important cautionary Places that are Security for your Highness's past and present Disbursements you will be pleased to quicken and hasten those Aids and Assistances you intended for the Relief of Ireland and I have with my whole Power and through the greatest Hazards striven to defend them for you and to preserve all other Ports that may be at all times of Advantage and Safe-guard to your Fleets and Men of War having yet many good Harbours left and also engage in the King my Master's Name for whatsoever may prove to your Satisfaction that is any way consistent with his Honour and Authority and have made my Applications to the Queen's Majesty and my Lord-Lieutenant the King being in Scotland further to agree confirm and secure whatsoever may be of advantage to your Highness and if the last Galliot had but brought 10000 l. for this instant time ☜ it would have contributed more to the Recovery of this Kingdom than far greater Sums delayed by enabling our Forces to meet together for the Relief of Limerick which cannot but be in great distress after so long a Siege and which if lost although I shall endeavour to prevent it will cost much Treasure to be regained And if your Highness will be pleased to go on chearfully freely and seasonably with this great Work I make no question but God will give so great a blessing thereto as that myself and all the Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom may soon and justly proclaim and leave recorded to Posterity that your Highness was the grâ—â—t and glorious Restorer of our Religion Monarch and Nation and that your Highness may not be discouraged or diverted from this generous Enterprize by the Malice or Invectives of any ill-affected it is a necessary Duty in me to represent unto your Highness that the Bishop of Ferns who as I am informed hath gained some Interest in your favour is a Person that hath ever been violent against ☜ and malitious to His Majesty's Authority and Government and a fatal Instrument in contriving and fomenting all these Divisions and Differences that have rent asunder this Kingdom the Introduction to our present Miseries and weak Condition And that your Highness may clearly know his Disposition I send herewithal a Copy of part of a Letter written by him directed to the Lord Taaf Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown and humbly submitted to your Judgment whether those expressions be agreeable to the Temper of the Apostolical Spirit and considering whose Person and Authority I represent what ought to be the Reward of such a Crime I must therefore desire your Highness in the King my Master's behalf that he may not be countenanc'd or intrusted in any Affairs that have relation to His Majesty's Interest in this Kingdom where I have constantly endeavoured by all possible Service to deserve your Highness's good Opinion and obtaining that Favour to be a most faithful Acknowledger of it in the Capacity and under the Title of Your Highness's Most Humble and Obliged Servant CLANRICKARD Athenree 20th Octob. 1651. These Letters were as pat to the Duk 's purpose as could be for it justified him in not sending Succours until there should be a New and more Authentick * Null is suppetias missurus antequam alius tractatus concluderetur Vindiciae Eversae 139. Treaty and it also justified his Answer not to Treat any farther with the Agents without his Majesty's †Progredi in tractatu noluit donec de regis voluntate constaret Ibid. Approbation Which being made known to his Majesty he sent the Lord Goring with Letters of the 6th of February from Paris to thank his Highness for refusing farther Treaty with the Irish Agents and to propose to enter into a new Treaty with him about the Relief of Ireland but the Duke by this time had finished his Intrigue at Rome and therefore gave a very short answer That his Majesty had nothing in Ireland to treat for The Year 1651 1651. could not well be otherwise than successful for on the one side the Irish were distracted and divided and on the other side the English Army was rendered Immortal by those constant and seasonable Supplies both of Men and Necessaries that were sent them from England so that notwithstanding their frequent Expeditions
and Justice Cook Assistants and it sat in the same place where the Supream Council us'd to sit Anno 1642. Afterwards the like Court was held at Dublin before the Lord Chief Justice Lowther and others and there Sir Phelim O Neal was tryed condemned and executed and it is observable that being urged both at his Tryal and Execution to discover the Commission he had from the King for the Rebellion of 1641 and that he should be pardoned both for Life and Estate he confess'd in both places That he had no such Commission but that he took the Seal from a Patent he found at Charlemont and fixed it to a Commission he had caused to be written in the King's Name and that Michael Harrison then present in Court and confessing the same was the person that sticht the Cord or Label of the Seal with Silk of the same colour These Commissions issued in the Name of the Commissioners of the Commonwealth of England for the Affairs in Ireland and that for Conaught bore date the 17th day of December 1652 and was signed by Fleetwood Ludlow and Jones and was directed to Sir Charles Coot Peter Stubbers Humphry Hurd Francis Gore John Desborough Thomas Davis Robert Ormsby Robert Clerk Charles Holeroft John Eyre Alexder Staples and others but I mention these because they sat upon the Tryal of the Lord of Mayo which began the 30th of December and ended the 12th of January at which time he was condemned by the Vote of seven of the Commissioners Gore Davis Clerk and Holcroft dissenting and accordingly he was shot to Death on the 15th But his Case being variously reported it will be convenient to give a faithful account of it as it appeared upon the Tryal which was thus Upon the Surrender of Castlebar which was besieged by the old Lord of Mayo and the Prisoner then Sir Tibâ—â—t Burk it was agreed by Articles that the English should march away with their Arms and be safely convoyed to Galway and though they were deprived of their Arms contrary to the Articles yet the Lord of Mayo and his Son the Prisoner with their Followers conveyed them safely to Ballynecarrow and the next day to Ballinroab and the third day to The Neal where they left Sir Henry Bingham on pretence of his being sick but as was suspected to preserve him from the subsequent Massacre the fourth day they came to Kinlagh and the next day to Shrule which it seems was two Mile out of the Road to Galway there they lodged that night and the next morning on the 13th of February 1641 an Ambush was laid on the other side of the Bridge which as soon as the English got over the Bridge fell upon them and by the help of the Convoy murdered about fourscore of the English the Protestant Bishop of Kiâ—lalla and a few others only escaping This matter of fact was thus proved Four Witnesses swore that the Prisoner was present at this Massacre and did not oppose it and that the Convoy were the Murtherers and that the Lord Mayo's Fosterers Servants and Followers were of that number and it was proved that the Lord Mayo the Father engaged by Capitulation to Convey the English safe to Galway and that they were disarmed by his Command and some of them were Plundered and Stript by the way by the Convoy and could get no redress from the Prisoner or his Father that the Convoy pricked forward the English over the Bridge towards the Murderers and the old Lord Mayo went to a little Hill hard by to look on that the Prisoner was seen to come over the Bridge from the Murtherers after several English-men had been killed and had been actually amongst them with his Sword drawn that the Father refused to Convoy them any farther than Shrule and that the Prisoner was the first Man that entered Castlebar after the Capitulation And the substance of the Prisoner's Defence was That he had no Command of the Party but with two Servants only came to attend his Father that on the Outcry he went over the Bridge and drew his Sword with design to preserve the English but being shot at by one of the Murderers he got a Horse having lent his own to the Bishop of Killalla to make his escape and rode away before the Murther was commited and if he had not fled he had been killed himself and that he was kind to the English and preserved many of them both before and after and that the Protestant Bishop of Killalla had declared That he believed this Action was done in spight to the Prisoner and by Letter acknowleged his Civility to himself But to proceed the like High Courts of Justice were held at Cork Waterford c. but so many of the Murtherers had been destroyed by the Sword and the Pestilence that not above two hundred suffered by the hands of the common Executioner In the mean time on the 12th of August they passed in England an Act for the settling of Ireland wherein the Marquess of Ormond the Protestant Bishop of Derry the Earl of Roscomon and the Lord Insiquin were by name excepted from Pardon for Life or Estate equally with many others therein named that were guilty of the first Rebellion And so we are come to the Year 1653 wherein I cannot find any thing that looks like War and yet it was the 26th day of September before it was declared That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended Whereupon they immediately proceeded to the Distribution of Lands to the Souldiers for their Arrears and to the Adventurers for their Money And thus ended a REBELLION which began with TREACHERY and CRUELTY and continued with OBSTINACY against all the Tenders of MERCY and the utmost CONCESSIONS a Gracious King could make and was supported by an OATH of ASSOCIATION and Propositions annexed thereunto wherein there is not a word but breaths HIGHTREASON except a few of the first Lines which sets up the KING's NAME and AUTHORITY in PAGEANTRY and MOCKERY to be Crucified and Contradicted by all that follows FINIS A LETTER To the AUTHOR of the History of Ireland CONTAINING A Brief Account of the Transactions in that Kingdom since 1653. SIR I Do very well approve of your resolution to close the Second Part of your History of Ireland with the end of the Irish Rebellion for besides that it is impossible for you at this distance from the Records and Council-Books in Ireland to give so full and satisfactory an Account of that Kingdom from 1653 forwards as you have given of the time before it is certain that the Intrigues of the Acts of Settlement and Court of Claims the Transactions in the late Reign and the present stupendious Revolution will afford matter more than enough for another Volume nor indeed can your History be so compleat as I expect it will be if it were closed with any thing less than the Glorious Issue of the present War However I do not offer this
agreed by and between the said Parties and his Majesty is graciously pleased that for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquility of the Kingdom That the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Lord Viscount Mountgarret c. or any Five or more of them shall for the present agree upon such persons who are to be authorised by Commission under the great Seal to be Commissioners of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Goal delivery in the several Counties and parts of Counties within the now Quarters of the Confederate Catholicks with such power as Justices of the Peace Oyer and Teminer and Goal delivery in former times of Peace have usually had which is not to extend unto any Crime or Offence committed before the Fifteenth of September 1643. And to be qualified with Power to Hear and Determine all Civil Causes coming before them not exceeding Ten Pounds provided that they shall not intermeddle with Titles of Lands provided likewise the authority of such Commissioners shall not extend to question any Person or Persons for any Cattle or Goods heretofore taken by either Party from the other contrary to the Articles of Cessations but that the same shall be left to be determined in such way as by these Articles is already prescribed which Commissioners are to continue till settlement by Parliament Si tam diu se bene gesserint and if any who shall be so intrusted shall misbehave himself in the execution of such trust within that time that then such other person or persons shall be appointed in his or their place as shall be agreed on by His Majesties Chief Governour or Governors for the time being by the Advice and Consent of the said Persons so to be intrusted or any Five or more of them and the said Commissioners are to make their Estreats as accustomed in time of Peace and shall take the ensuing Oath Viz. You shall Swear that as Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Goal delivery in the Counties of A. B. C. in all Articles of the Kings Commission to you directed you shall do equal right to the Poor and to the Rich after your Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and in pursuance of these Articles and you shall not be of Council of any Quarrel hanging before you and the Issues Fines and Amerciaments which shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall happen before you you shall cause to be entred without any concealment or imbezeling and truly send to the Kings Exchequer You shall not let for gift or other cause but well and truly you shall do your Office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol delivery in that behalf and that you take nothing for your Office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol delivery to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed And you shall not direct or cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but you shall direct them to the Sheriffs and Bayliffs of the said Counties respectively or other the King's Officers or Ministers or other indifferent Persons to do Execution thereof So help you God And that as well in the said Commission as in all other Commissions and Authorities to be issued in pursuance of 〈◊〉 Articles this Clause shall be inserted viz. That all 〈…〉 and Marshal shall be required to be â—iding and assisting 〈…〉 the said Commissioners and other persons to be Authoriâ—â—◠〈…〉 the execution of their respective Powers 27. It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased That none of the now Roman Catholick Party shall from henceforth untill there be a Settlement by Parliament Sue Implead or Arrest or be sued Impleaded 〈…〉 in any Court Place Judicature or Tribunal or before 〈…〉 Justice or Commissioner whatsoever other than 〈…〉 Commissioners aforesaid or in the several Corporations or other Judicatures within the now Quarters of the said Confederate Catholicks as hath or have Power derived from his Majesty 28. It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased that his Majesties Confederate Catholick Subjects do continue the possession of such of His Majesties Cities Garrisons Towns Forts and Castles which are within their now Quarters until settlement by Parliament and to be Commanded Ruled and Governed in chief by such as his Majesty or his chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom for the time being shall Appoint and his Majesty his chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom as aforesaid is to issue Commissions and appoint such Person and Persons as shall be named by his Majesties chief Governour of Governours for the time being by and with the Advice and Consent of the said Lord Viscount Mountgarret c. or any Five or more of them for the execution of such Command Rule or Government to continue until all the particulars in these present Articles agreed on to pass in Parliament shall be accordingly passed only in case of Death or Misbehaviour such other Person or Persons to be appointed for the said Command Rule and Government to be named and appointed in the place or places of him or them who shall so die or misbehave themselves as the chief Governor or Governors for the time being by the advice and consent of the said Lord Viscount Mountgarret and the rest of the above mentioned Parties to be authorised as aforesaid or any Five or more of them shall think fit and to be continued until settlement in Parliament as aforesaid 29. It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased that all Customs belonging to his Majesty which from the perfection of these present Articles shall fall due within this Kingdom shall be payed into his Majesties Receit and to his use any Request Clause or Demand in the Act of Oblivion or in any other former Propositions to the contrary notwithstanding Provided thet alliance very Person and Persons who are at the present intrusted within the now Quarters of the Confederate Catholicks by them the said Confederate Catholicks in the Entries Receits Collections or otherwise concerning the said Customs do continue their respective Imployments in the same until full settlement in Parliament other than as to such and so many of them as to the chief Governor or Governors for the time being by the advice and consent of the said Lord Viscount Mountgarret and the other Persons to be authorised as aforesaid or any Five or more of them shall be thought fit to be altered And then in such case or in case of Death or Misbehaviour or other alteration of any such Person or Persons such other Person or Persons to be imployed as shall be thought fit by the chief Governor or Governors for the time being by and with the advice and consent of
in this present Parliament assembled is graciously pleased that it may be Enacted And be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same That from and after the First day of this Session of Parliament it shall and may be lawful to and for all the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion of what degree condition or quality to have use and enjoy the free and publick exercise and profession of the said Roman Catholick Religion and of their several and respective functions therein without incurring any Mulct or Penalty whatsoever or being subject to any restraint or incapacity concerning the same any Article or Clause Sentence or Provision in the said last mentioned Acts of Parliament or in any other Act or Acts of Parliament Ordinances Law or usage to the contrary or in any wise notwithstanding And be it also further Enacted That neither the said Statutes or any other Statute Acts or Ordinances hereafter made in Your Majesties Reign or in the Reign of any of Your Highnesses most Noble Progenitors or Ancestors and now of Force in this Kingdom nor all nor any Branch Article Clause and Sentence in them or any of them contained or specified shall be of force or validity in this Realm to extend to be construed or adjudged to extend in any wise to inquiet prejudice vex or molest the Professors of the said Roman Catholick Religion in their Persons Lands Hereditaments or Goods or any thing matter or cause whatsoever touching and concerning the free and publick use exercise and enjoyings of their said Religion function and profession And be it also further Enacted and Declared by the Authority aforesaid That Your Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects in the said Realm of Ireland from the first day of this Session of Parliament shall be and be taken deemed and adjudged capable of all Offices of Trust and Advancement Places Degrees and Dignities and perferment whatsoever within your said Realm of Ireland Any Acts Statutes Vsage or Law to the contrary notwithstanding And that other Acts shall be passed in the said Parliament according to the tenour of such Agreement or Concessions as herein are expressed and that in the mean time the said Roman Catholick Subjects and every of them shall enjoy the full benefit freedom and advantage of the said Agreement and Concessions and of every of them 5. It is Accorded Granted and Agreed by the said Earl for and in the bâ—â—â—lf of His Majesty His Heirs and Successors That his Excellency the Lord Marques of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or any other or others Authorized or to be Authorized by His Majesty shall not disturb the professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in their present possession and continuance of the profession of their said Churches Jurisdiction or any other the matters aforesaid in these Articles agreed and condescended unto by the said Earl until His Majesties pleasure be signified for confirming and publishing the Grants and Agreements hereby Articled for and Condescended unto by the said Earl 6. And the said Earl of Glamorgan doth hereby engage His Majesty's Royal Word and Publick Faith unto all and singular the professors of the said Roman Catholick Religion within the said Kingdom of Ireland for the due observance and performance of all and every the Articles Grants and Clauses therein contained and the Concessions herein mentioned to be performed to them 7. It is Accorded and Argeed That the said publick Faith of the Kingdom shall be ingaged unto the said Earl by the said Commissioners of the said Confederate Catholicks for sending Ten thousand men to serve His Majesty by order and publick Declaration of the General Assembly now sitting And that the Supream Council of the said Confederate Catholicks shall engage themselves to bring the said number of Men Armed the one half with Musquets and the other half with Pikes unto any Port within this Realm at the Election of the said Earl and at such time as he shall appoint to be by him Shipped and Transported to serve His Majesty in England Wales or Scotland under the Command of the said Earl of Glamorgan as the Lord General of the said Army which Army is to be kept together in one intire Body and all other the Officers and Commanders of the said Army are to be named by the Supream Council of the said Confederate Catholicks or by such others as the General Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom shall intrust therewith In witness whereof the Parties to these Presents have hereunto interchangeably put their Hands and Seals the 25 th day of August 1645. Glamorgan Signed Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of John Somerset Jeffery Barron Robert Barry Articles of Agreement made and concluded upon by and between the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Glamorgan and in pursuance and by vertue of His Majesty's Authority under His Signet and Royal Signature bearing Date at Oxford the Twelfth day of March in the Twentieth Year of His Reign for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and the Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Mountgarret Lord President of the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskerry Alex. M. Donnell and Nicholas Plunket Esquires Sir Robert Talbot Baronet Dermot O Brien John Dillon Patrick Darcy and Jeffery Browne Esquires for and on the behalf of His Majesty's Roman Catholick Subjects and the Catholick Clergy of Ireland of the other part 1. THE said Earl doth Grant Conclude and Agree on the behalf of His Majesty His Heirs and Successors to and with the said Richard Lord Viscount Mountgarret Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskerry Alex. Mac Donnell and Nicholas Plunket Esquires Sir Robert Talbot Baronet Dermot O Brien John Dillon Patrick Darcy and Jeffery Browne Esquires That the Roman Catholick Clergy of the said Kingdom shall and may from henceforth for ever hold and enjoy all such Lands Tenements Tyths and Hereâ—itaments whatsoever by them respectively enjoyed within this Kingdom or by them possessed at any time since the Three and twentieth of October 1641. And all other such Lands Tenements Tyths and Hereditaments belonging to the Clergy within this Kingdom other than such as are actually enjoyed by His Majesty's Protestant Clergy 2. It is Granted Concluded and Agreed on by the said Richard Lord Viscount Mountgarret c. on the behalf of the Confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland that Two parts in Three parts to be divided of all the said Lands Tyths and Hereditaments whatsoever mentioned in the precedent Articles shall for Three Years next ensuing the Feast of Easter which shall be in the Year of our Lord God 1646. be disposed of and converted for and to the Use of His Majesty's Forces employed or to be employed in His Service and the other Third part to the Use of the said Clergy resepectively and so the like
the Archbishop of Firmano Apostolick Nuncio in Ireland UPON the Question moved among us and Debated for many Days Whether they are to be declared as Perjur'd who do receive the Peace contained in the Thirty Articles transmitted to us by the Supream Council and if they be to be Excommunicated as Perjur'd Persons The Reasons and Opinions of every one being first heard and the Writings of some Doctors of Sacred Theology read It is Decreed Nemine Contradicente That all and every one of the Confederate Catholicks who shall adhere to the like Peace or shall consent to the Maintainers thereof or otherwise embrace the same be held Absolutely Perjur'd especially for this Cause That in those Articles there is no mention made of the Catholick Religion and the security thereof nor any care had for the Conservation of the Priviledges of the Country as is found promis'd in the Oath but rather all things are refer'd to the pleasure of the most Renowned King from whom in his present State nothing of certainy can be had and the Armies and Arms and Forts and even the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks are Subjected to the Authority and Rule of State and Protestant Ossicers of His Majesty ☞ from whom that we might be secure we took that Oath For which and many other causes we being moved only in our Consciences and having God only before our Eyes that it may be known to all and singular as well Irish as Foreigners that we have neither given nor shall give consent to such a Peace unless secure Conditions may be added for Religion and for the King and for the Country according to our Oath and that our Flocks and all Confederate Catholicks who in General Assemblies sometimes desired our sentence in this Spiritual Affair as only belonging to the Ecclesiastical Judge may assuredly know what hath been by us determined that in that Sense they as Pious and Faithful Catholicks may concur We have commanded this Decree to be Written and in all Places published in the English and Irish Tongues and have firmed it with our Hands and Seals but the other Question of Excommunication we have reserv'd to the next Session Dated at Waterford the 12 th of August 1646. Jo. Baptista Firmanus Nuncius Apostolicus Fr. Tho. Dublin Tho. Cassiliensis Fr. Boetius Elphin Fr. Patricius Waterford c. Lismore Jo. Laonensis Jo. Clonfertensis Fr. Edm. Laghlensis Rich. Ardfertensis Accadens Franciscus Aladensis Edm. Limiricensis Emerus Cloghorensis Nicholaus Fernensis Fr. Jacob Conaldus Abbas Benchonan Fr. Patr. Plunket Abbas B. M. Dublin Fr. Lan. Fitzharris Abbas de Sur. Fr. Jo. Cantwell Abbas de S. Cruce Fr. Jacobus Tobin Abbas de Kilcool Rob. Barry Vic. Apost Rossen Donaldus O Gripha Funiburiensis Fr. Geo. Farrell Prior Provinc Ordin Predicator Fr. Dionisius O Driscol Prior Provincial Erenâ—it S. Aug. Edm. O Teig Procurator Illustrissimi Armachani Gualter Linch Vicar Apost Tuam Gulielmus Burgat Vic. Apost Imaâ—ciensis Jacob Dempsy Vic. General Kildariensis Cornelius Gafneus Ardensis Vic. General Ol. Dese Vic. General Midensis Dominicus Roch Vic. General Corcag Simon O Connory Vic. General Cluanensis Edm. Giraldinus Vic. General Cluanmacnoise Carolus Coghlan Vic. General L Robertus Nugent Superior Societatis Jesu Fr. Anthonius Macgohigan Procurator Provincialis Fratrum Minorum Fr. Barnabas Barnwell Commissarius General Capucinorum Append. XXXI By John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo and by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Ireland A Decree of Excommunication against such as adhere to the late Peace and do bear Arms for the Hereticks of Ireland and do Aid or Assist them NOT without cause saith the Oracle of Truth doth the Minister of God carry the Sword for he is to punish him that doth Evil and remunerate him that doth Good Hence it is that we have by our former Decrees declared to the World our Sense and just Indignation against the late Peace concluded and published at Dublin not only iâ— its nature bringing prejudice and destruction of Religion and Kingdom but also contrary to the Oath of Association and withal against the Contrivers and Adherers to the said Peace in pursuance of which Decrees being forced to unsheath the Spiritual Sword We to whom God hath given power to bind and loose on Earth Assembled together in the Holy Ghost Matt. 16. 18 19. tracing herein and imitating the Examples of many Venerable and holy Prelates who have gone before us and taking for our Authority the Sacred Canons of holy Church John 20. 23. grounded on holy Writ Vt tollantur e medio nostrum qui hoc opus faciunt Domini nostri Jesu deliver over such Persons to Satan that is to say We Excommunicate Execrate Anathematize all such as after the Publication of this our Decree and notice either privately or publickly given to them hereof shall Defend Adhere to or Approve the Justice of the said Peace and chiefly those who bear Arms or make or joyn in War with for or in behalf of the Puritans or other Hereticks of Dublin Cork Youghall or other Places within this Kingdom or shall either by themselves or by their appointment bring send or give any Aid Succour or Relief Victuals Ammunition or other Provision to them or by Advice or otherwise Advance the said Peace or the War made against us Those and every of them by this present Decree We do declare and pronounce Excommunicated Ipso facto ut non Circumveniamini a Satana non enim ignoramus Cogitationes ejus Dated at Kilkenny in our Palace of Residence the 5th day of October 1646. Signed Johannes Baptista Archiepiscopus Firmanus Nuncius Apostolicus de Mandato illustrissimi Domini Nuncii Congregationis Ecclesiasticae utriusque Cleri Regni Hiberniae Nicholas Fernensis Congregationis Cancellarius Append. XXXII General Preston's Engagement the 21st of October 1646. I Thomas Preston General of the Forces of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland raised in the Province of Leinster do Swear and Protest that I really intend and will to the uttermost of my power sincerely and effectually prosecute the Service wherewith I am intrusted by the Council and Congregation of the said Confederate Catholicks in the imployment of General of Leinster and particularly in the present Expedition and Design upon the Enemy in the City of Dublin and to that end will to the best of my skill and knowledge Direct Guide Order and Advance with the Army under my Command and will to the uttermost of my Power Use and Exercise all Acts of Hostility against the Lord Marquess of Ormond and his Party when where and as often as I may and them Annoy and Indammage as much as in me shall lie and that I will with all Reality Diligence and Sincerity Help Advise with Counsel and Assist in that Service the Lord General of Vlcter now also with his Army imployed in that expedition So help me God and his holy Gospel Thomas Preston General
Fitz Girald at Kilkenny Noble Sir I Am now advanced thus far on my way home after my accustomed long fruitlessâ—attendance upon the publick affairs being hopeful that in all this time some good effects would have been produced out of the forward and chearful Resolutions and Endeavours observed in you and many other Noble Persons upon your departure from hence and the good concurrence that was expected from many others well affected to a happy and speedy settlement but after Nine Weeks expectation there hath nothing occurred to my knowledge but the following particulars which I shall distinctly set down both to prevent mistakes in you and clear the aspersions that may be cast upon others 1. By Vote of the Assembly the total rejection of the Peace and of all other both publick and private overtures and undertakings that had relation thereto destroying the only possible means that could have united the Kingdom unto any hopeful way of preservation as affairs now stand in the Kings Dominions 2. A new Union Sworn grounded upon impossible undertakings if not in the Propositions themselves at least in the most material circumstances of securing them thereby excluding all hopes of Peace and setling and confirming a lasting divided Government 3. That being compassed for some seeming satisfaction to those that were drawn into it a plausible shew of some other accommodation was contrived but that being brought up to Dublin by Mr. Doctor Fennel and Mr. Geffery Barron with much assurance given by divers of all the satisfaction that such a change of resolutions could produce there appeared but a Verbal Message of some few general Heads they refusing to give it in Writing or to testify under their Hands what they acknowledgd my Lord Lieutenant took Verbatim from them neither would they assume any Power to make any particular explanations and yet earnestly demanded Resolutions with expedition This unexpected delay and continued uncertainty in such a nick of time after so many former breaches on your parts and so many warnings and true intelligence given you by others of the King 's being delivered up to the Parliament the vast Preparations by them made for Reducing this Kingdom and even those most faithful to his Majesties Service in England as forward as any to joyn therein finding themselves destroyed by the failing of the Peace here and the promised Assistance thereupon Your not long since invading and destroying the only remaining Party Obedient to the Kings Authority the small regard had by you of the approaching dangers and the divisions fomented and still encreasing amongst your selves did by an unavoidable necessity as I conceive beget a resolution in my Lord Lieutenant and those of his Party about Dublin to try some other expedient for their preservation and redemption out of the languishing starving condition they have these many Years with much patience endured and for my own part having long observed the high Affronts and Disrespects put upon my Lord Lieutenant and many other of His Majesty's Ministers and Servants and the largest proportion of Malice cast upon them when they were most industrious in the preservation of the Kingdom hath produced the like resolutions in me to try my Fortune in some other Climate since my Three Years constant expence of time health and fortune for the advantage of the publick hath gained no other recompence than to be Printed against by Declarations Books and several other Papers the Forces of other Provinces poured down upon me to destroy my whole Estate those Forces under my Command thereby inforced to Disband the Officers and all other of my Servants and Followers prosecuted and nothing of means or quarter left me to maintain a Guard of Horse for my own Person my Wife and Family readily permitted to repair to Dublin but no allowance to return all which particulars put together I leave it freely to you to judge whether it be not high time for me to depart when the voice of the Kingdom represented in the Assembly have by a clear implication in their safe conduct declared their desires therein Since my coming hither I have seen some Letters and find much confidence in many that the whole Assembly and Clergy are now united to put a full power into my Lord Lieutenants hands and to make provision for his Lordship and his Party both for subsistence and maintenance of a War to which I may not presume to frame any Judgment at so late an hour of the day but this I conceive is most certain that if it doth not appear suddenly unanimously and clearly with a full power and trust and apparent provision to make it good it will hardly be relied upon and that failing there remains nothing for me to do but in another Country to labour the perfection of Praying as well for my Persecutors as Benefactors amongst the last of which you shall be still acknowledged and remembred by Tecrogham the 15th of March 1646. Your Affectionate Friend to Serve you Clanrickard Appen XXXVIII Articles of Agreement made concluded and agreed on at Dublin the Eighteenth day of June 1647. By and between the most Honourable James Lord Marquess of Ormond of the one part and Arthur Annesley Esquire Sir Robert King Knight Sir Robert Meredith Knight Collonel John Moore and Collonel Michael Jones Commissioners from the Parliament of England on the other part Not signed till the 19th FIrst it is agreed and concluded and the said Lord Marquess of Ormond doth conclude agree and undertake to and with the said Arthur Annesley c. That upon the nineteenth day of this month of June he will leave or cause to be left in the possession of the said Arthur Annesley c. the City of Dublin and all the rest of the places and Garrisons in his power and under his Command and the Ordnance Artillery Amunition Magazines and Stores there and likewise it is further agreed and concluded and the said Lord Marquess of Ormond doth conclude agree and undertake that upon the 28. of July next he will leave or cause to be left in the possession of the said Arthur Annesley c. Or any four of them the Sword and all other Ensignes of Royalty with all other things belonging to the Lord Lievtenant or Leivtenancy of the Kingdom of Ireland that shall be demanded before the said twenty eighth day of July and that in the mean time he will not intermeddle or take upon him to Command in any of the said Garrisons or places 2. Item It is agreed and concluded and the said Arthur Annesley c. do for and in behalf of the Parliament of England conclude agree and undertake to and with the said Lord Marquess of Ormond in the behalf of himself and others his Majesties Subjects that all Protestants whatsoever of the Kingdom of Ireland not having been in the Irish Rebellion though they have of late consented or submitted either to the Cessation of Arms or the Peace concluded with the Irish Rebels shall be
Forfeitures which shall happen before you you shall cause to be entred without any concealment or imbezling and send to the Court of Exchequer or to such other place as his Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom shall appoint until there may be access unto the said Court of Exchequer You shall not let for gift or other cause but well and truly you shall do your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Goal delivery in that behalf and that you take nothing for your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Goal delivery to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed and you shall not direct or cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the parties but you shall direct them to the Sheriffs and Bayliffs of the said Counties respectively or other the Kings Officers or Ministers or other indifferent persons to do execution thereof so help me God c. And that as well in the said Commission as in all other Commissions and Authorities to be issued in pursuance of the present Articles this clause shall be incerted viz. That all Officers Civil and Martial shall be required to be aiding and assisting and obedient unto the said Commissioners and other persons to be authorised as abovesaid in the execution of their respective powers 29. Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased that his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects do continue the possession of such of his Majesties Cities Garrisons Towns Forts and Castles which are within their now Quarters until settlement by Parliament and to be commanded ruled and governed in cheif upon occasion of necessity as to the Martial and Military affairs lindx by such as his Majesty or his cheif Governour or Governors of this Kingdom for the time being shall appoint and the said appointment to be by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon c. or any seven or more of them and his Majesties cheif Governor or Governors is to issue Commissions accordingly to such persons as shall be so named and appointed as aforesaid for the executing of such Command Rule or Government to continue until all the particulars in these present Articles agreed on to pass in Parliament shall be accordingly passed only in case of death or misbehaviour such other person or persons to be appointed for the said Command Rule and Government to be named and appointed in the place or places of him or them who shall so dye or misbehave themselves as the cheif Governor or Governors for the time being by the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon c. or any seven or more of them shall think fit and to be continued until a settlement in Parliament as aforesaid 30. Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased that all Customs and Tenths of Prizes belonging to his Majesty which from the perfection of these Articles shall fall due within this Kingdom shall he paid unto his Majesties Receipt or until recourse may be had thereunto in the ordinary legal way unto such person or persons and in such place or places and under such Controuls as the Lord Lieutenant shall appoint to be disposed of in order to the defence and safety of the Kingdom and the defraying of other the necessary publick charges thereof for the ease of the Subjects in other their Levies Charges and Applotments And that all and every person or persons who are at present intrusted and employed by the said Roman Catholicks in the Entries Receipts Collections or otherwise concerning the said Customs and Tenths of Prizes do continue their respective employments in the same until full settlement in Parliament accountable to his Majesties Receipts or until recourse may be had thereunto as the said Lord Lieutenant shall appoint as aforesaid other than to such and so many of them as to the chief Governor or Governors for the time being by and with the advice and consent of the said Tho. Lord Viscount Dillon c. or any seven or more of them shall be thought fit to be altered and then and in such case or in case of death fraud or mis-behaviour or other alteration of any such person or persons than such other person or persons to be employed therein as shall be thought fit by the chief Governor or Governors for the time being by and with the advice and consent of the said Tho. Lord Visc Dillon c. or any seven or more of them And when it shall appear that any person or persons who shall be found faithful to his Majesty hath right to any of the Offices or Places about the said Customs whereunto he or they may not be admitted until settlement in Parliament as aforesaid that a reasonable compensation shall be afforded to such person or persons for the same 31. Item As for and concerning his Majesties Rents payable at Easter next and from thenceforth to grow due until a settlement in Parliament it is concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said parties and his Majesty is graciously pleased that the said Rents be not written for or levied until a full settlement in Parliament and in due time upon application to be made to the said Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom by the said Tho. Lord Viscount Dillon c. or any seven or more of them for remittal of those Rents the said Lord Lieutenant or any other chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom for the time being shall intimate their desires and the reason thereof to his Majesty who upon consideration of the present condition of this Kingdom will declare his gracious pleasure therein as shall be just and honourable and satisfactory to the reasonable desires of his Subjects 32. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said parties and his Majesty is graciously pleased that the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol delivery to be named as aforesaid shall have power to hear and determine all Murders Man-slaughters Rapes Stealths Burning of Houses and Corn in Rick or Stack Robberies Burglaries Forcible Entries Detainers of Possessions and other Offences committed or done and to be committed and done since the first day of May last past until the first day of the next Parliament these present Articles or any thing therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided that the Authority of the said Commissioners shall not extend to question any person or persons for doing or committing any Act whatsoever before the conclusion of this Treaty by vertue or colour of any warrant or direction from those in publick Authority among the confederate Roman Catholick nor unto any Act which shall be done after the
occasion and we believe there is nothing contained in that Letter but is well known to be Truth and will be justified by many of best Quality in that Assembly What the words were which were heard to fall from us dangerous to the Persons of some Prelates when we are particularly charged with them we shall deny nothing that is Truth In the mean time let it be judged if we had such a desire of doing them hurt in their Persons whether in the Person of the Bishop of Killalloe who had signed this Declaration We had not in our Power a Subject whereon to have manifested our Disposition to revenge Whom yet the Bishops in a Letter of theirs to the Earl of Westmeath the Bishop of Leighlin and others which Letter is before recited upon another occasion do acknowledge to have been preserved by Our means Ante pag. 33. Part 2. though in the said Letter they untruly charge those they call Cavaliers with any Attempt or Purpose of doing the said Bishop's Person any further prejudice than to apprehend him and bring him before Us. As to the 11th Article Answer to the 11th Article We acknowledg to have represented to His Majesty That divers Places in this Kingdom were in disobedience to his Authority And that there were and are such places is a Truth as well known to these Declarers as any Work is known to the Workman that made it Which to have concealed from his Majesty had been to have betrayed the Trust by Him reposed in Us and to have taken upon Our Self the blame due to them We also acknowledg to have humbly desired his Majesty's leave to withdraw Our own Person out of the Kingdom in case those Disobediences were multiplied Which having received and those Disobediences being multiplied We had withdrawn Our Self from being an idle Witness of the loss of the Kingdom and the Ruin of many of Our Friends had not divers of these Declarers several times but more especially at Loghreagh disswaded Us from going and promised to do their uttermost endeavour to procure Us the Obedience We desired without which it was plain to all Men We could attempt nothing for the preservation of the Kingdom with hope of Success But We were not so bold as to direct his Majesty to remove his Authority or how else to dispose of it as the Declarers are But how really troubled they are that the People should be deprived of the King's Authority and the benefit of the Articles of Peace is apparent by this Declaration and Excommunication wherein they direct the People to return to their Association which is inconsistent with both And by the Answer of the Bishops at Galloway to the Commissioners whereof We shall have occasion to speak hereafter And where they charge Us with Envy to the Nation for doing Our Duty to the King We hope to have given such proof of the contrary as hath satisfied the most interested Men in the Nation And We conceive We could not have manifested Our Affection to it by a more Signal Instance than by offering to leave his Majesty's Authority in the Person of the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard and to withdraw Our Self to sollicite for Supplies when it was most probable they might be got finding that our being a Protestant gave these Declarers some advantage to withdraw the People from their Obedience to Us. As to the 12th Article Answer to the 12th Article we are not willing to look back so far as to the time when by his Majesties Command and Commission We bore Arms in the War against the Confederates but must justify Our Self that We were never active in unnatural execution against them but have many times suffered much Calumny for Our desire of preserving many of them that fell into our Hands as some in that Assembly can witness who were by Our means preserved and if they think fit may testify as much But if the Declarers oppose Our being active then to Our unactivity this last Summer as an Argument of Our want of desire to oppose the Enemy We answer That in the time they mention We had free election of Officers the absolute Power of Dublin and other Garrisons where We caused the Soldiers to be continually exercised their Arms kept in order and could in a short time when We pleased have drawn the Army together and marched with it where We pleased Advantages which rendred the Victories We gained full as easy as those gotten by the Enemy against Us have been upon the like advantage on their part It is true that all this last Summer We and the Lord Inchiquin have continued in Connaught and Thomond where there was no Enemy But it is also true ☜ that We were not suffered to have the means of preparing an Army fit to seek or oppose an Enemy as We have set down in Our Letter of the Second of August to the Bishops at James-Town recited formerly upon another Occasion And since they here mention the Lord Inchiquin with Us We think fit to mind divers in that Assembly to whom it is well known that many of the Bishops did long since upon several Occasions declare that all their Suspicion and the Suspicion the People held of Us was by reason of the Power the Lord Inchiquin had with Us. And that during his continuance in Imployment or the continuance of any of his Party in the Army it was not possible for them to remove that Suspicion out of the Minds of the People But that if his Lordship were once out of Command and his Party removed they doubted not full and chearful Obedience would be given Us. Hereupon his Lordship voluntarily withdrew himself from having to do with the Conduct of the Army ☜ yet is he by these Men charged for want of Activity When his Lordship had thus waved his Imployment and his Party were gone off and that they had wrought the like distrust of the remainder of the Party that came off to Us from Dublin and other Parts so that nâ—w We were forced likewise to send them away then they judgâ—â—â—t a fit time for them to declare also against Us. Then divers â—â—â—ops and other Church-men changed their Note and dealt undeâ—â—â—and with the Lord Inchiquin to stay in the Kingdom though We should go saying That the distrust and dislike of the People was only against Us and not against him Then they fell first to call their Meeting at James-Town and then to publish this Declaration from which they were with-held for fear all the time the foresaid Parties were with Us. This We suspected would be the issue of their working away the Protestant Party and of all their Promises Yet to leave them wholly without Excuse and to satisfy some that believed better of them We consented to part with those Men of whose Courage and Fidelity to his Majesty and Affection to Us We had good Experience and cast our Self wholly upon the Assurances these Bishops and
preceded their Declaration And if either his Majesty had refused them Hearing and Justice or if We had not submitted to his Determination there had been some colour for their proceeding as they did In the last part of their Conclusion they prepare the People with an Apology of the desperate State the Kingdom is left in by Us to bear the more patiently the utter loss of it under the Government they would set up and with a touch indeed of Episcopal Counsel to amend their Lives and depend upon God's Providence and Protection they dismiss them wherein what Example they have given Them We leave to the Judgment of God the Searcher of Hearts and the impartial Judg of the Thoughts and Actions of Men. In the Order attested by the Bishop of Clonfert for publication of the Excommunication which publication was made at Loghreagh the 15th of September it is expressed That the Order given to the Committee of Bishops at Galloway by the Congregation at James-Town was That in Case We would not depart the Kingdom upon their Advice and depute the King's Authority with Persons of Trust or that We denied to depart the Kingdom and no demonstration could be made how the Kingdom could be preserved under Our Government that then the said Declaration should be published It is further expressed in the said Order That We being solicited to the effect aforesaid with urgent Reasons absolutely denied to consent thereunto and that We neither did nor could demonstrate unto them any way of preserving the remainder of the Kingdom under Our Government and therefore according to the Trust reposed in them by the said Congregation they did publish the said Declaration denouncing to all Arch-bishops Bishops c. This is all We observe in this Order of Publication more than is contained in the Declaration at James-Town What We have to answer in this Order for Publication is breifly this They held it fit We should quit the Kingdom and depute the King's Authority with some Person or Persons of Trust that is pleasing to them We refuse so to do upon their Advice giving them some Reasons why We refuse and promising them more if they would at a free Conference hear them For not following this Advice without refuting the Reasons We gave for Our not going and without hearing or so much as asking what other Reasons those were which We were unwilling to write and yet would tell them at a free Conference by which Caution they might imagine they were of Moment they proceeded to their Declaration and Excommunication Here though We have formerly touched it let it be observed That having several Times and upon several Occasions offered to leave the Kingdom and to depute the King's Authority not to disparage the Nation with the * Clanrickard only Person in all respects fit for it and a Roman-Catholick this was not accepted of but We are made believe the Lord of Inchiquin being removed from any Charge of the Army and the Protestant Party gone there remained no further distrust or dislike of US and that then all Obedience would be given Us. All this and whatsoever else they advised being done on Our part Our Frigat which lay in Ire-Connaught whence We might have securely gone being sent away and the Harbours blocked up by the Rebels Ships they impose upon Us to effect an Impossibility namely to go out of the Kingdom without means of Transportation or else as far as in them lies We are rendred infamous throughout the World and to all Ages by their defamatory Libel Whatever Our Demerit had been and if We were the faithless the negligent the every-way unworthy Person they have described Us to be certainly they cannot free themselves from the guilt of so mean and base a Treachery Let it be next considered That if when a Company of Bishops or a Congregation of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. have a mind to set up themselves or any others as Governours over the Kingdom and this Power they assume at least in the interval of Assemblies and have now twice practised it and the Governor appointed by Royal Authority or when that is absent which should never be supposed by a just Representative of the Nation will not give them room by quitting the Government he is placed in at their desire without direction from the Power whence he derives his Authority or without unavoidable Necessity inforcing him if we say for his not doing a thing so contrary to the Trust reposed in him to the Sense of those intrusted by the People as the Commissioners of Trust were and contrary to the Sense of the most interested Persons of the Kingdom the foresaid Company of Bishops or Congregation may therefore with impunity deliver all Men to Satan that shall feed help or adhere to him It is in this Case easy to discover that such Bishops ☜ or a Congregation thus doing do aim at and will if so permitted easily compass the Supream Temporal Power If it be said they only do it upon evident Necessity for the preservation of the People in apparent Hazard of being lost and that in this Case only of so absolute necessity they pretend to such Power and when informed or convinced will lay it down to the King or Assembly We believe no King or State careful of their own preservation will allow they have this Power even in this Case For instance If the Bishops or Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Naples or of any Signiory under the State of Venice should pretend to a Power upon any Necessity whatsoever whereof the said Bishops and Congregation to be Judges of discharging the Subjects of the King of Spain from obeying the Vice-Roy of Naples or the Subjects of any Signiory under the State of Venice from obeying the Governor of any such Signlory appointed by the State directing them in the mean time to observe and obey such Form of Government as the said Congregation should prescribe till it should be otherwise ordered by the said King or State We suppose it would not pass for Orthodox Doctrine in that Roman-Catholick Kingdom or State that a Congregation is qualified with such Power Nor would the Necessity of their so doing nor yet the Sanctity of their Function or Persons protect them from severe Punishment That our King's Prerogative in that particular is as great in this Kingdom as the King of Spain's in Naples or that of the State of Venice in any Signiory of theirs it is Treason to deny as it is to affirm that in this Particular such a Congregation here hath more Authority than a like Congregation in that Kingdom or State But these Men have not only in this Case exceeded whatever at any time or in any place was pretended to by any of their Function but had less ground if less might be for such a Pretension than any others For here in a Solemn Assembly of the Nation a Peace was concluded most of the Bishops