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A44735 Mercurius hibernicus, or, A discourse of the late insurrection in Ireland displaying (1) the true causes of it ..., (2) the course that was taken to suppresse it, (3) the reasons that drew on a cessation of arms, and other compliances since : as also, touching those auxiliaries which are transported thence to serve in the present warre. Howell, James, 1594?-1666. 1644 (1644) Wing H3094; ESTC R5988 10,893 34

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misapplied those moneys and mis-imployed those men which were levyed with His Majesties royall assent for the reduction of Ireland They who set afoot that most sanguinary designe of extirpating at least of enslaving a whole ancient Nation who were planted there by the hand of Providence from the beginning They who hindred His Majesties transfretation thither to take cognizance of his own affairs and expose the countenance of His own royall person for composing of things They They may be said to be the true causes of that unavoidable necessity and as the heathen Poet sings The Gods themselves cannot resist Necessity which enforced His Majesty to capitulate with the Irish and assent to a Cessation It was the saying of one of the bravest Roman Emperours and it was often used by Henry the Great of France Her Majesties Father That he had rather save the life of one loyall Subject then kill a hundred Enemies It may well be thought that one of the prevalentst inducements that moved His Majesty besides those formerly mentioned to condescend to this Irish Cessation was a sense he had of the effusion of his owne poor Subjects blood the hazard of the utter extirpation of the Protestants there and a totall irrecoverable losse of that Kingdome as was advertised both in the petition of the Protestants themselves the relation of the Committee imployed thither to that purpose and the expresse letters of the Lord Justices and Counsell there To prove now that this Cessation of Arms in Ireland was more honourable and fuller of Piety Prudence and Necessity then either the Pacification or Peace with the Scot I hope these few ensuing arguments above divers others which cannot be inserted here in regard of the fore intended brevity of this Discourse will serve the turne 1. Imprimis When the Pacification was made with Scotland His Majesty was there personally present attended on by the floure of His English Nobility Gentry and Servants and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him At the concluding of the Irish Cessation His Majesty was not there personally present but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner and it hath been held alwayes lesse dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his owne Subjects by his Deputy then in his owne person for the further off he is the lesse reflects upon him 2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was an Amnestia a generall pardon and an abolition of all by-passed offences published there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing 3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots there was mony given unto Them as it is too well knowne But upon the setling of this Cessation the Irish gave His Majesty a considerable summe as an argument of their submission and gratitude besides the maintainance of some of his Garrisons in the interim and so much partly in poynt of honour 4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was a vigorous fresh unfoiled English Army afoot and in perfect equipage there wanted neither Ammunition Armes Money Cloaths Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the Souldier and elevate his spirits But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion but were ready to perish though there had been no other enemy then hunger and cold And this implies a farre greater necessity for the said Cessation 5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant losse of the whole Kingdome and consequently the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there as was certified both to King Parliament by sundry letters petitions which stand upon record There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland either in respect of Religion or Kingdome therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland by plucking both as it were out of the very jawes of destruction by the said Cessation We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties of two evils the least is to be chosen and a small inconvenience is to be borne withall to prevent a greater If one make research into the French Story he will find that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of Armes were covenanted twixt that King and some of his Subjects trenching farre more upon regall dignity then this in Ireland The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states before they could be brought to treat of a truce And now the Catalans screw him up almost to as high conditions But what need I rove abroad so far It is well known nor is it out of the memory of man that in Ireland it selfe there have been Cessations all circumstances well weighed more prejudiciall to Majesty then this But that which I heare murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation is the transport of some of those Souldiers to England for recruting His Majesties Armies though the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants and were those whom our Parliament it selfe imployed against the Irish But put case they were all Papists must His Majesty therefore be held a Favourer of popery The late King of France might have been said as well to have been a Favourer of Protestants because in all his wars he imployed Them most of any in places of greatest trust against the House of Austria whereas all the World knows that he perfectly hated them in the generall and one of the reaches of policy he had was to spend and waste them in the warres Was it ever knowne but a Soveraigne Prince might use the bodies strength of his own naturall-born Subjects and Liege men for his owne defence When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot and all other Engines of hostility and violence When he is in danger to be surprized or besieged in that place where he keeps his Court When all the flowers of his Crowne his royall prerogatives which are descended upō him from so many successive progenitors are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot When there is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born baptized bred in When he is in danger to be forced to infringe that solemn Sacramentall Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion with the Rights Rites of the holy Anglican Church which some brain-sick Scismaticks would transform to a Kirk and her Discipline to some chimericall forme of government they know not what Francis the first and other Christian Princes made use of the Turke upon lesse occasions and if one may make use of a Horse or any other bruit animall or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his owne defence against man much more may man be used against man much more may one rationall Creature be usd against
Religion Now there is no Nation upon earth that the Irish hate in that perfectiō with a greater Antipathy than the Scot or from whom they conceive greater danger For whereas they have an old prophesie amongst them which one shall heare up and downe in every mouth That the day will come when the Irish shall weep upon English mens graves They feare that this prophesie will be verified and fulfilled in the Scot above any other Nation Moreover the Irish entred into consideration that They also had sundry grievances and grounds of complaint both touching their estates and consciences which they pretended to be farre greater than those of the Scots For they fell to think that if the Scot was suffered to introduce a new Religion it was reason they should not be so pinched in the exercise of their old which they glory never to have altered And for temporall matters wherein the Scot had no grievance at all to speak of the new plantations which had been lately afoot to be made in Conaught and other places the concealed lands and defective titles which were daily found out the new customes which were imposed and the incapacity they had to any preferment or office in Church and State with o●her things they cōceived these to be grievances of a farre greater nature and that deserved redresse much more than any the Scot had To this end they sent over Commissioners to attend this Parliament in England with certaine Propositions but those Commissioners were dismissed hence with a short and unsavoury answer which bred worse blood in the Nation than was formerly gathered and this with that leading case of the Scot may be said to be the first incitements that made them rise In the course of humane actions we daily find it to be a true rule Exempla movent Examples move and make strong impressions upon the fancy precepts are not so powerfull as precedents The said example of Scotland wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish and filled them as I touched before with thoughts of emulation that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot their Country being farre more beneficiall and consequently more importing the English Nation But these were but confused imperfect notions which began to receive more vigour and forme after the death of the Earle of Strafford who had kept them under so exact an obedience though some censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stirre Adde hereunto that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholicks in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament and what further designes were afoot against them and not onely against them but for ranversing the Protestant Religion it selfe as it is now practised which some shallow-braind Scismaticks doe throw into the same scales with Popery They thought it was high time for them to forecast what should become of Them how they should be handled in poynt of conscience when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election approbation at least should come over Therefore they fell to consult of some meanes of timely prevention And this was another motive and it was a shrewd one which pusht on the Irish to take up Armes Lastly that Army of 8000. men which the Earle of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot being by the advice of our Parliament here disbanded the Country was annoyed by some of those stragling Souldiers as not one in twenty of the Irish will from the sword to the spade or from the pike to the plough againe Therefore the two Marquesses that were Ambassadours here then for Spaine having propounded to have some numbers of those disbanded forces for the service of their Master His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy Counsell to occurre the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose casheered Souldiers yeelded to the Ambassadours motion who sent notice here of to Spaine accordingly and so provided shipping for their transport and impressed mony to advance the businesse but as they were in the heat of that work His Majesty being then in Scotland there was a suddē stop made of those promised troops who had depended long upon the Spaniards service as the Spaniard had done on theirs And this was the last though not the least fatall cause of that horrid insurrection All which particulars well considered it had been no hard matter to have been a Prophet and standing upon the top of Holy-Head to have foreseen those black clouds engendring in the Irish aire which broke out afterwards into such fearfull tempests of blood Out of these premises it is easie for any common understanding not transported with passion and private interest to draw this conclusion That They who complied with the Scot in his insurrection They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitick answer They who took off the Earle of Straffords head and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earle of Leicester They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to goe for Spaine may be justly said to have bin the true causes of the late insurrection of the Irish and consequently it is easie to know upon the account of whose soules must be laid the blood of those hundred and odde thousands poore Christians who perished in that war so that had it been possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the doores and in the presence of some men I beleeve they would have gushed out afresh into blood for discovery of the true murtherers The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered let us examine what meanes His Majesty used for the suppression of it He made his addresse presently to his great Counsell the English Parliament then assembled which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldome use to doe but onely to their Privy Counsell in such cases who had the discussing and transacting of all forreigne affaires for in mannaging matters of State specially those of war which must be carried with all the secrecy that may be Trop grand nombre est encombre as the Frenchman saith too great a number of Counsellours may be an incumber and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages whereas in military proceedings the work should be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad Well His Majesty transmitted this businesse to the Parliament of England who totally undertaking it and wedding as it were the quarrell as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemne vote the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also by a publike joynt Declaration which in regard there came nothing of it tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad His Majesty gave his
royall assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men mony and armes to performe the work But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty should absolutely give over his own personall care and protection of that his Kingdome it being a Rule That a King can no more desert the protection of his owne people then they their subjection to him In all his Declarations there was nothing that he endeard and inculcated more often and with greater aggravation and earnestnesse unto them then the care of his poore Subjects their fellow-protestants in Ireland Nay he resented their condition so f●rre and took the businesse so to heart that he offered to passe over in person for their reliefe And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and King-like resolution Which the Scots by publike act of Counsell did highly approve of and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in His Majesty And questionlesse it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people who are daily ore-heard to groan how they have bin any time these 400. yeeres under the English Crowne and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upō Irish ground though there be but a salt ditch of a few hours sail to passe over And much more welcome should His Majesty now regnant be amongst them who by generall tradition They confesse and hold to come on the paternall side from Fergus by legall and lineall descent who was an Irish Prince and after King of Scotland whereas the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at alwayes by the vulger His Majesty finding that this royall proffer of engaging his owne person was rejected with a kind of scorn coucht in smooth language though the m●ine businesse concerned himselfe neerest and indeed solely himselfe that Kingdome being his owne hereditary Right Understanding also what base sinister use there was made of this insurrection by some trayterous malevolent persons who to cast aspersions upon His Majesty and to poyson the hearts of his people besides publike infamous reports counterfeited certaine commissions in His Majesties name to authorize the businesse as if he were privy to it though I dare pawn my soul His or Her Majesty knew no more of it then the great Mogor did Finding also that the Commissioners imployed hence for the managing and composing matters in that Kingdome though nominated by the Parliament and by their recommendation authorized by His Majesty did not observe their instructions and yet were connived at Understanding also what an inhumane designe there was between them and the Scot in lieu of suppressing an insurrection to eradicat and extinguish a whole Nation to make booty of their l●nds which hopes the London Adventurers did hugge and began to divide the Beares skin before he was taken as His Majesty told them an attempt the Spaniard not any other Christian State ever intended against the worst of Savages The conceit whereof infused such a desperate courage eagernesse and valour into the Irish that it made them turn necessity into a kind of vertue Moreover His Majesty taking notice that those royall Subsidies with other vast contributions whereunto he had given way with the sums of particular Adventurers amongst whom some Aliens Hollanders were taken in besides the Scot to share the Country were misapplyed being visibly imployed rather to feed and English Rebelliō then to suppresse an Irish Nay understanding that those charitable collections which were made for the reliefe of those distressed Protestants who being stripped of all their livelihood in Ireland were forced to fly over to England were converted to other uses and the Charity not dispensed according to the Givers intention Hearing also that those 5000. men which had been levyed and assigned to goe under the Lord Wharton the Lord of Kerry Sir Faithfull Fortescue and others were diverted from going to the west of Ireland and imployed to make up the Earl of Essex Army And having notice besides that the Earl of Warwicke had stayd certaine ships going thither with supplies and that there was an attempt to send for over to England some of those Scottish Forces which were in Vlster without his privity Lastly His Majesty finding himself unfitted and indeed disabled to reach those his distressed Subjects his owne royall arme all his navall strength revenues and magazines being out of his hands and having as hard a game to play still with the Scot and as pernicious a fire to quench in England as any of his Progenitors ever had Receiving intelligence also daily from his Protestant Nobility and Gentry thence in what a desperate case the whole Kingdome stood together with the report of the Committee that attended His Majesty from them expresly for that service who amongst other deplorable passages in their petition represented That all means by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdome seemed to be totally obstructed and that unlesse timely reliefe were afforded His loyall Subjects there must yeeld their fortunes for a prey their lives for a sacrifice and their Religion for a scorne to the mercilesse Rebels His Majesty as it was high time for him taking into his Princely thoughts those wofull complaints and cryes of his poore Subjects condescended at last to appoint some persons of honour to heare what the Irish could say for themselves as they had often petitioned and God forbid but the King of Ireland should receive his Subjects petitions as well as the King of Scotland But His Majesty being unsatisfied with what they propounded then the Lord Marquesse of Ormond marched with cōsiderable Forces against them and though he came off with honour yet no reliefe at all cōming thither for many moneths after from the Parliament here who had undertaken the businesse and had received all the summes and subsidies with other unknown contributions to that end matters grew daily worse and worse To sum up all His Majesty receiving expresse and positive advice from his Lord Justices and Counsell of State there that the whole Kingdome was upon poynt of utter perdition which was co-intimated the same time to the Parliament here by a speciall letter to the Speaker I say His Majesty finding that he had neither power of himselfe it being transmitted to others and that those Trustees did misapply that power and trust he had invested in them for the time to make good their undertaking for preservation of that his fruitfull Kingdome being impelled by all these forcible reasons His Majesty sent a commission to the Lord Marquesse of Ormond his Lieutenant Generall a most known sincere Protestant to hearken to a treaty according to their petition and if any thing was amisse in that treaty in poynt of honour as it shall appeare by comparing it with others there was none we know whom to thank For out of these premises also doth result this second conclusion That they who