being daily inform'd writes this Letter C. R. RIght trusty and Right well beloved Cousen and Councellor we greet you well by our Letters of the 23. of the last month We gave you our Command to Treat and Agree upon a Cessation of Arms for one year with those our Subjects in that our Kingdom who have taken up Arms there against our Authority and having since seen the Propositions which you and the rest of our Commissioners sent us from our said Subjects We find the same to be of such great importance and many things therein alledged so necessary to be further examined and inquired into as we have been the rather induced to have such a Cessation as we have formerly written unto you so as it may be with Honour to us and without prejudice to our Interest and Service This Bearer Mr. William Brent is a Person whom we have purposely sent over to give us an account of your proceedings in a Business of this Consequence to whom you may give credit and by him we shall desire to hear from you when you shall have any Matter of moment to send over unto us Given at our Court at Oxon the 3d. of May 1643. To our right trusty and entirely beloved Cousen and Counsellor James Marquiss of Ormond Lieutenant General of our Army in Ireland This upon the Treaty the Confederates Commissioners acknowledge to have seen but insisted upon one formerly mention'd of the 23. of April more important they conceive which upon promise that upon the agreement of the Treaty perfected they should have a Copy of the Treaty went on though as to his Majesty that there might be a further evidence of his Intentions to subdue the Rebellion in Ireland he being presented the 5th of May 1643. by Sir Robert King William Jephson and Arthur Hill Esquires from the Parliament with a Bill entituled An Act for the speedy payment of Moneys subscribed towards the reducing of the Rebels in Ireland which yet remain'd unpaid was so far from denying to pass the said Act though driven from his Parliament with far the Major part of both Houses that he inclin'd to pass the Act if he might be assured to have it imployed to no other purpose then the Reducing of the Rebels c. Which Conditions not being answered no more was attempted by that Bill a defect not resting in his Majesty but those that sent it whereby the straights in Ireland still increasing the Lords Justices writ to his Majesty as a little before they had done to the Parliament the ensuing Letter May it please your Most Excellent Majesty AS soon as we your Majesties Justices entred into the charge of this Government we took into our consideration at this Board the state of your Army here which we find suffering under unspeakable extremities of want of all things necessary to the support of their Persons or maintenance of the War here being no Victuals Cloaths or other Provisions requisite towards their sustenance no Money to provide them of any thing they want no Arms in your Majesties Stores to supply their many defective Arms not above 40 Barrels of Powder in your Stores no strength of serviceable Horses being now left here and those few that are their Arms for the most part lost or unserviseable no Ships arriv'd here to guard the Coasts and consequently no security rendred to any that might on their private Adventures bring in Provisions of Victuals or other necessaries towards our subsistence and finally no visible means by Sea or Land of being able to preserve for you this your Kingdom and to render deliverance from utter destruction to the Remnant of your good Subjects yet left here We find that your Majesties late Justices and this Board have often and fully by very many Letters advertised the Parliament in England of the extremities of Affairs here and besought relief with all possible importunity which also have been fully represented to your Majesty and to the Lord Lieutenant and to Mr. Secretary Nicholas to be made known to your Majesty And although the Winds have of late for many days and often formerly stood very fair for accessions of supply forth of England hither and that we have still with longing expectations hope to find Provisions arrive here in some degree answerable to the necessities of your Affairs yet now to our unexpressible grief after full 6 months waiting and much longer patience and long-suffering we find all our great expectations answered in a mean and inconsiderable quantity of Provisions viz. 75 Barrels of Butter and 14 Tun of Cheese being but the fourth part of a small Vessels Lading which was sent from London and arriv'd here on the 5th of this Month which is not above 7 or 8 days Provision for that part of the Army which lies in Dublin and the out-Garrisons thereof no Money or Victuals other then that inconsiderable proportion of Victual having arriv'd in this Place as sent from the Parliament of England or any other forth of England for the use of the Army since the beginning of November last We have by the blessing of God been hitherto prosperous and successful in your Majesties Affairs here and should be still hopeful by the mercy of God under the Royal Directions of your Sacred Majesty to vindicate your Majesties Honour and recover your Rights here and take due vengeance on these Traitors for the innocent blood they have spilt if we might be strengthned or supported therein by needful supplies out of England But these supplies having hitherto been expected to come from the Parliament of England on which if your Majesty had not relyed we are assured you would in your high Wisdom have found out some other means to preserve this your Kingdom and so great and apparent a failer having hapned therein and all the former and late long continuing Easterly winds bringing us no other Provisions then those few Cheese and Butter And no advertisement being brought us of any future supplies to be so much as in the way hither whereby there might be any likelihood that considerable means of support for your Majesties Army might arrive here in any reasonable time before that we be totally swallowed up by the Rebels and your Kingdom by them wrested from you we find our selves so disappointed of our hopes from the Parliament as must needs trench to the utter loss of the Kingdom if your Majesty in your high Wisdom ordain not some present means of preservation for us And considering that if now by occasion of that unhappy and unexpected failing of support from thence we shall be less successful in your Services here against the Rebels then hitherto whilst we were enabled with some means to serve you we have been the shame and dishonour may in common construction of those who know not the inwards of the Cause be imputed to us and not to the failing that disabled us And considering principally and above all things the
in Dublin who consumed all the Provisions sent over for their supply lying idle there and oppressing the poor English Inhabitants and such English as had taken sanctuary there Or else making but small expeditions abroad wasting not the Enemy so much as they did their own Provisions It was moved therefore and furthered by this Committee that a considerable Force should be sent forth Whereupon it was resolved 4000 men should be sent out to take Ross or some other Town thereabouts where they might Winter and live in part upon what they could take from the Enemy whereupon many difficulties being found in the Design the Lord Lisle General of the Horse accepted of it with Colonel Monk and others who made ready to go the Lieutenant General of the Army the Earl of Ormond being then much indisposed But as soon as his Lordship recovered he came to the Council Board and there declared that he could not in Honour permit such a considerable part of the Army to go out upon such an important Service under any other Command then his own and so undertook the leading out of the Army himself and carried it to Ross of which you shall hear more in its due place The Parliaments Committee imbarked for London by long Sea the 27th of February 1642. the difference of whose Carriage was observable so much Integrity Discretion and Humility appear'd in the one and so much Pride Arrogancy and Intemperancy in the other as the one went away highly valued and well esteem'd and the other extreamly hated and despised As for Tucker he was the City's property which every one improved to their own humour During their continuance in repute hearing that Balanokil was Besieged by Preston the most reputed Captain amongst the Rebels Colonel Monk was sent forth with 600 Foot and two Troops of Horse the 5th of December 1642. to relieve it which he soon did the Enemy raising the Siege upon his reproach but in his return he met Preston with 3000 men in a disadvantagious Place and though he saw evident danger in so unequal a Fight yet he thought there would be more in a Retreat Wherefore having intrench'd himself so as to fear no attack but in the Front he resolved to receive them bravely and taking care that his Musketiers should not spend their shot in vain he saluted the Rebels in their approach with such a shower of Bullets as killed the boldest of them and made the rest begin to give way which the English perceiving came hotly upon them But the Fight was soon ended by the cowardliness of the Irish who with much more shame than slaughter losing not above 60 Men there betook themselves to the next strong Place and Colonel Monk without the loss of one Man return'd to Dublin The Committee of Parliament whilst they remain'd at the Council interpos'd in many things Amongst the rest it being desired by the Officers of the Army that Major Wodowes might repair to his Majesty to express their service the Committee demonstrated that the Parliament would certainly withdraw their Supplies on notice of such an Address Upon which the Ships were stayed yet the Business was so argued as the Major had licence to proceed in his Journey And now the Committee being discharg'd the Council where the prosecution of the War was to be managed the Parliament took it ill inasmuch as the want of all things afterwards was exceeding great and the main part of the remaining Army was quarter'd within the City and Suburbs of Dublin upon the poor Inhabitants altogether unable to bear the Necessities of their Families much less support 7 or 8000 Men. In alleviation of which the Lords Justices and Council the 31st of December 1642. publisht a Proclamation That all Custodiums should send to his Majesty's Granaries or Stores of Corn half the Wheat gather'd there at 10 s. the Barrel in ready Money c. to the Relief of that and the adjoyning Garrisons Yet small Supplies coming in thereupon the Lords Justices and Council order'd by another Proclamation the 15th of January That all Corn-Masters and others should sell their Corn at a lower rate than was propos'd the 28th of December 1641. and that Bakers accordingly should size their Bread About the 20th of January 1642. Sir Richard Greenvile with a Party of 200 Horse and 1000 Foot with 600 Suits of Cloaths and Money reliev'd Athlone In his return he was encounter'd at Raconnel by 5000 Rebels which he routed took their General Preston's Son Prisoner killed many gained 11 Colours and surprized many Prisoners for which service Captain William Vaughan was by the Lords Justices to whom he brought the News Knighted The Irish thought much of this Victory for that there was an old Prophesie That who got the Battle of Raconnel should conquer all Ireland The Army return'd to Dublin the 10th of February with the remnant of Sir Earnley's Regiment and others who for their better Accommodation would have had some of these Cloaths which was denied and they laid up in the Castle where with others they afterwards prov'd unserviceable to his Majesty's Forces much in want of them in the depth of Winter The Lords Justices being driven to great strait and left without hopes of Relief from England and the Inhabitants of Dublin being no longer able to support the Necessity of their Families and relieve the Souldiers their Insolencies being high the State entertain'd a Design of sending the greatest part of the Army then quarter'd in Dublin into some Parts distant from that City where they might live upon the Rebels and for this end coin'd their own Plate encouraging others to the same Advance of the State 's service whereupon at first they order'd Pieces of Money marked to their Weight Many brought in freely those indeed who considering their imployment and what was expected from them had least reason to do it whilst others issued only out their Warrants and Receipts never yet discharged Yet by the help of what came in and some supplies out of England which had not wholly deserted Ireland the Army march'd out 2500 Foot and 500 Horse under the Command of the Marquess of Ormond whose carriage in that Business and his success at the Battle of Ross we shall leave to the Lords Justices and Council's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons in England the 4th of April 1643. where besides the Account of that Battle they present a true state of their Affairs Civil and Military SIR OUr very good Lord the Marquess of Ormond having in his March in his last Expedition consulted several times with the Commanders and Officers of the Army in a Councel of War and so finding that subsistence could not be had abroad for the Men and Horses he had with him or for any considerable part of them it was resolved by them that his Lordship with those Forces should return hither which he did on the 26th of March In
solicite for considerable Aids in Moneys to be sent timely the preservation of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom depending thereon If you find upon the place that a settlement of Peace cannot be had according to the several Instructions that go with the Commissioners to his Holiness and Christian Majesty and Prince of Wales nor such considerable Aids that may probably prove for the Preservation of the Nation then you are to inform your self by correspondence with our Commissioners imployed to Rome whether his Holiness will accept of this offer of being Protector to this Nation and if you find he will not accept thereof nor otherwise send such powerful and timely Aids as may serve to preservation then you are by advice of other the Commissioners imployed to his Majesty and Prince of Wales and by correspondence had with the Commissioners imployed to Rome and by correspondence likewise with our Commissioners imployed since if it may be timely had to inform your self where the most considerable Aids for preserving this Nation may be had by this offer of the Protectorship of the Nation in manner as by other Instructions into France grounded on the same of the Assembly is contain'd and so to manage the disposal of the Protectorship as you and the rest of our said Commissioners shall find most for the advantage of the Nation The like Instructions for Spain bearing the same Date Upon these and other considerations ever in his view the Marquess thought it much more prudent and agreeable to the Trust reposed in him to deposite the Kings Interest and Right of the Crown of Ireland into the hands of the Lords and Commons of England who still made great profession of Duty and Submission to his Majesty from whom it would probably return to the Crown in a short time then to trust it with the Irish from whom less then a very chargeable War would never recover it in what state soever the Affairs of England should be and how lasting and bloody and costly that War might prove by the intermedling and pretences of Foraign Princes was not hard to conclude In that such Auxiliaries many times prove dangerous Assistance not being over-tender or much distinguishing betwixt the Party they come to assist and that they come to subdue when they are made Umpires in such Quarrels as may be guessed by the Accompt in the 14th Appendix of which the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland being very sensible they thus in March expressed themselves and their condition to the Parliament of England The Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled in Ireland of the present Estate and distressed Condition of the Protestants in the said Kingdom and their Address unto the most Honourable the Parliament of England for Relief WE the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland having by the Mercy of God your Care of us and the Industry of those intrusted by his Majesty with the Government here preserved unto us the means of sitting together and of delivering freely our thoughts concerning the condition of this miserable Kingdom whereof we are the representative Body and finding withall the Government our Selves and indeed the Protestants in the Kingdom reduced to that final point of Extremity that if not very speedily supported and preserved all in these Parts must become a Prey unto the bloody and inhumane Rebels and this City of Dublin the chief Seat and Cittadel of this Kingdom with the other Garrisons depending thereupon be turn'd into the prime Seats and Strengths of those who have given evident proof that they aim not at less then the extirpation of all Protestants and the setting up the abominable Idol of the Mass and Superstition and at the shaking off of all Loyalty and Subjection to the Crown of England We therefore hold it our duty as being also perhaps the last which we by reason of the near approach of a powerful and pernicious Enemy may have the means to discharge in this Capacity to make the present Address and Representation of our miserable Condition to the most Honourable the Parliament of England which as it hath in all times of common Danger been the Fountain from whence the Power and Lustre of the Crown of England in this Kingdom hath sprung so it is now the onely Sanctuary unto which in behalf of our selves and the distressed Interest thereof we can fly for Succour and Preservation We hold it un-necessary to particularize our present Wants and Miseries and Imposibilities of further subsistance of our selves since they are too well known even to our Enemies in so much as it may be feared that the benefit which we confidently expect by the great diligence and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England may not arrive timely for our Relief and Preservation nor can we so misdoubt the Wisdom Justice and Piety of those Honourable Houses whereof we have had heretofore very real and great experience which we do here with all thankfulness acknowledge as to fear that they will suffer the Protestant Religion the Interest of the Crown of England and of the Protestants in these important Garrisons and Quarters to be sacrificed unto the fury of the merciless Rebels But on the contrary as we do earnestly desire so are we most confident that the Goodness and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England will so seasonably send over a sufficient Power as well to subdue and suppress these merciless and bloody Rebels as to maintain these places accompanied with an assurance from the most Honourable the Parliament of England for enjoying those Conditions of Honour subsistance and safety which have been lately offered by their Commissioners for and in the name of the most Honourable the Parliament of England to those who have hitherto govern'd and preservd them and to his Majesties Protestant Subjects and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them unto which they may be pleased to joyn such further additions of Grace and Bounty as to their Wisdoms and Goodness shall be thought fit as that they and all the Protestants and such others as have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them may find Security and Preservation therein whereby we may heartily joyn under those whom the said most Honourable the Parliament of England shall appoint in prosecuting so Pious a War and being Gods Instruments for the bringing just Vengeance upon such Perfidious Rebels and in restoring the Protestant Religion and Interest of the Crown of England in this Kingdom to its due and former Lustre which we will ever strive with the hazard of our Lives and Fortunes to maintain While the Marquess was in this deliberation being privy to the Parliaments actions he receiv'd information that the King was delivered by the Scots to the Commissioners of the two Houses of Parliament who were then treating with him for the settling of Peace in all his Dominions and at the same time several Persons of
1647. they unanimously publish'd a Declaration to that end exactly drawn up with great Reason Perspicuity and Eloquence The time that the Marquis of Ormond agreed with the Parliaments Commissioners was near the time that the Army had gotten the King into their hands having taken him from Holmbey out of the custody of the Commissioners to whom the Scots had delivered him And the Marquis of Ormond at his arrival in England found so many specious pretences and professions publish'd by that Party which then had the whole Power of the Army and consequently of the Kingdom that very many believ'd his Majesties Affairs to be in no ill condition more seeming respect was paid to his Person and less restraint upon the resort of his faithful Servants to him than had been from the time that he first put himself into the Scots power The Army took upon them the Government of the Kingdom having solemnly declared That there could be no reasonable hope of a firm and lasting Peace if there were not an equal care to preserve the Interest of the King Queen and Prince as of the Liberties of the People and that both should be with equal care provided for together In this time of freedom and hypocritical compliance the Marquis had free liberty of repairing to the King where he gave him an account of all his actions and of the course he had taken for the reviving and preserving his Majesties Interest in Ireland by setling a Correspondence with many Persons of Honour there who would keep the two Houses of Parliament how great an advantage soever he had given them by the delivery up of Dublin c. into their power if they refus'd to return to his Majesties obedience from obtaining any absolute Dominion in that Countrey and who were most like to reduce the Nation from the Distemper with which they were transported and to incline them to that submission that was due from them to the King with all which his Majesty was very graciously and abundantly satisfied and gave the Marquis direction in case the Independent Army should proceed otherwise than they pretended how he should behave himself and comply with the Irish if he could reduce and dispose them to be instrumental towards his or their own delivery And when his Majesty discovered by the double dealing and hypocritical demeanour of the Officers of the Army of whom he had earlier jealousie than other men as seeing farther into their dark Design the little good they meant him he found it fit to receive some Overtures from the Scottish Commissioners who were still admitted to reside at London and to bear a part in the Managery of the Publick Affairs and now plainly saw that the Independent Army which they had so much despised was grown superiour to them and meant to perform nothing less than what they had so Religiously promised before the King was delivered up at Newcastle The King hereupon commands the Marquis of Ormond to confer with the principal Persons of that Commission who seem'd very sensible of the dishonour their Nation had incurr'd and resolved by uniting the power of that Kingdom for his Majesties Service to undo some of the mischief they had wrought And desired that the Marquis of Ormond would likewise transport himself into Ireland to try once more if he could compose the humours of that People to his Majesties obedience that so those two Kingdoms being entirely reduc'd to their duty might with that assistance they were like to find in England perswade the violent Party to comply with those moderate and just Conclusions which would establish the Peace and Tranquility of the whole in a full happiness to Prince and People And from hence was that first Engagement design'd which was afterwards so unfortunately conducted by the elder Duke Hamilton and concluded with the ruine of himself and of many Worthy and Noble Persons When the Army had by their civil and specious carriage and professions disposed the Kings Party to wish well to them at least better than to the Presbyterians who seem'd to have erected a Model of a more formid and insupportable Tyranny and were less endu'd with the appearances of Humanity and good Nature and had by shuffling themselves into new shapes of Government and admitting Persons of all Conditions to assemble and make Propositions to them in order to the publick Peace given encouragement to most men to believe that all Interests would in some degree be provided for and so had brought themselves into an absolute Power over all Interests they began to lessen their outward Respects and Reverence to the King to inhibit some of his Servants absolutely to resort to him and more to restain the frequent access of the People who out of their innate Duty and Affection delighted to see his Majesty they caused reports to be raised and scattered abroad of some intentions in desperate persons of violence upon his Majesties Person and upon this pretence doubled their Guards and put Officers of stricter vigilance and more surly disposition about him so that whatsoever he said or did or was said unto him was more punctually observed The Marquis of Ormond was look'd upon with a very jealous eye and was forbid to continue his attendance on him or to come within 25 miles of London and that Article in the Agreement at the delivery of Dublin viz. That he should engage his Honour not to act any thing to the prejudice of the Parliament in a twelvemonth there was an intention to put him in mind of by a Letter from the Committee at Derby-house but before the Messenger came where he had been near Bristol he knowing of the King 's being close Prisoner in Carisbrook-Castle and that it would be to little purpose to contest his Articles with the Parliament privately shipt himself away for France where he arrived safely about the end of the year 1647. having spent in England little more than six months For a time we must leave the Marquis in France and return to Colonel Jones in Dublin who with those Forces that were left there by the Marquis of Ormond and such as he brought and received out of England amounting in all to 3000 marched against Colonel Preston approaching with his Leimster Forces to infest Dublin and met him about 12 miles from Dublin who having gotten great advantage of ground routed Jones killed many of his men and took not a few Prisoners Jones himself escaping with much difficulty to Dublin Whether upon this accident or otherwise I cannot determine but great divisions then arose betwixt the old English who had Preston for their General and the old Irish who had Owen Roe O Neal for theirs The old English had a gallant Army consisting of near 10000 Foot and Horse well Arm'd and well Disciplin'd who thought that if they would offer themselves Instruments to destroy the old Irish they might at any time have good Conditions from England therefore under
opinion that all that was done both by Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Monk was transacted by the privity if not consent of the Grandees in England but the Grounds to fasten this upon them could never be found though the business hath been narrowly search'd into Known it was that there was a Person sent over and many Overtures made by a Priest O Rely to the Committee of Derby-house but with whatreception the certainty yet remains in the Clouds However Sir Charles Coot having by this means delivered himself from the straitness of a Siege and having received some new supplies of Men and Provisionsout of England Colonel Hunks being sent from Cromwel with Forces to his Relief presently marched out and clear'd the Countrey about him and afterwards in October got such a strength together as he went to Colerain and took in that Town by Anslat and so went on to the Siege of Carigfergus However he so resents the Parliaments slow supplies as in June this year there is exhibited his complaint truly a sad one in reference to their neglect and in conclusion desires either to be suppli'd answerable to his condition or to be discharg'd from his Employment But to look backwards All the Places of Moment near Dublin being as we have shew'd reduc'd by the Marquis Ormond's Party who on the 24th of July took a view of his whole Army and found it to consist of no less than 7000 Foot and about 4000 Horse others write more which though a good Force was not equal to the work of forming a Regular Siege of so large and populous a City as Dublin and as unfit to storm it therefore it was resolv'd still to continue the former design of straitning it until the necessities within abated the obstinacy of that People for the better doing whereof the Lord Viscount Dillon of Costiloe was appointed to remain still on the North-side of the Town with a Body of 2000 Foot and 500 Horse to block it up having two or three small Places of strength to retire to upon occasion and that the Sea as far as his Power might extend might not be unprovided his Excellency granted Letters of Mart the 6th of July signed by Secretary Lane to Captain Joseph Containe of Waterford and others And then the Lord Lieutenant march'd with the remainder of the Army over the River of Liffy to the South-side to a Place called Rathmines where he resolved to Incamp and from whence by reason of the narrowness of the River he might discourage an attempt of sending Relief into the Town by Sea from England And in truth if he had come time enough to have rais'd a Work upon the Point some interruption might have been given to that Enterprise but it pleased God that that very same day the 25th of July the Marquis marched thither in sight of his Army a strong gale of Wind from the East brought into Dublin Harbour Colonel Reynolds Colonel Hunks and Colonel Venables with a good supply of Horse viz. 600 and 1500 Foot Money and all other necessaries whereof the Garrison stood in need which marvellously exalted the spirits of those who were devoted to the obedience of the Parliament and depressed the minds of them who watched all opportunities of doing service to the King There were then in Dublin 5000 Soldiers besides Inhabitants However the Marquis pursued his resolution and encamped that night at Rathmines and the next day made himself strong there till upon information he was sure to receive an account of the state and condition of the Enemy that he might better conclude what was next to be done There were many men within the City who found means to send the Marquis still advertisement of what was necessary for him to know some Ships which brought Supplies for the Parliaments Forces there brought likewise intelligence from those that wished well to the Kings service unto the Lord Lieutenant and unto other Persons of Honour that were with him and from several Persons of known Integrity and who were like enough to know what was transacted in the Councils of the Parliaments Party It was informed that this Supply which was already landed at Dublin was all that was intended for that Place and believed it to be sufficient to defend it against any Army the Marquis could bring to attaque it and that Cromwel who was known to be ready in England to Embarque with a great Army meant to land in Munster a Countrey but lately fall'n from their Devotion and where there were still many inclined to him and thereby to compel the Lord Lieutenant to rise from Dublin And it is very true that at that time Cromwel was resolv'd to have proceeded in that manner after he had with much seeming difficulty been brought to accept of the Place the Presbyterians laying Wagers he would never come and the Independents sought to divert him from it by their unexpected Mutinies on a Tenent That all were to enjoy their own Principles Yet upon this joynt intelligence of Cromwel's advance for it came from some Persons to the Lord Lieutenant and from others to the Lord Inchiquin it was upon consultation with the General Officers concluded absolutely necessary that the Lord Inchiquin being Lord President of Munster should immediately with a strong Party of Horse repair into that Province whereby at least the Garrisons there might be supported against any sudden attempt of the Enemy if they should land there and that the Army being thus weakned by the Quality as well as the Number of this Party who were the best Horse of the Body the Lord Lieutenant should retire to Drumnagh being a Quarter of greater strength and security than that of Rathmines was or could be made and was at such distance as might as well block up the Enemy as the other and from thence an interrupted Communication might be held with that Party which encamp'd on the North side of the River And upon this Conclusion the Lord Inchiquin departed towards Munster When it was known that his Excellency was to retire the Officers and Soldiers expressed much trouble and seem'd to believe the reducing of the Town not to be a matter of that difficulty as was pretended if they could hinder the Parliamentarians Horse from grasing in the Meadows near the Walls which was the onely Place they were possessed of to that purpose they could not be able to subsist five days and it would be in their power to take that benefit from them if they possess'd themselves of the Castle of Baggatrath very near adjoyning to that Pasture which was already so strong that in one night it might be made sufficiently fortifi'd And this discourse which was not indeed unreasonable got so much credit that the Council of War intreated the Marquis to decline his former resolution of retiring to Drumnagh the Earl of Castlehaven General Preston Sir Arthur Aston and Major General Purcel having viewed Baggatrath and assured the Lord
Answers they had Humbly offered pretending not to be Judges but submissive Petitioners for what was committed to their Charge APPENDIX XIII Fol. 144. The Humble Propositions of your Majesties Protestant Agents of Ireland in pursuance of the humble Petition of your Majesties Protestant Subjects as well Commanders of your Majesties Army there as others presented to your Majesty the 18th day of April 1644. and answered by your Majesty the 25 of the same 1. WE most humbly desire the Establishment of the true Protestant Religion in Ireland according to the Laws and Statutes in the said Kingdom now in force 2. That the Popish Titular Arch-Bishops Bishops Jesuits Friers and Priests and all others of the Roman Clergy be banished out of Ireland because they have been the stirrers up of all Rebellion and while they continue there there can be no hope of safety for your Majesties Protestant Subjects And that all the Laws and Statutes established in that Kingdom against Popery and Popish Recusants may continue of force and be put in due Execution 3. That Restitution may be made of all our Churches and Church Rights and Revenues and all our Churches and Chappels re-edified and put in as good Estate as they were at the breaking out of the Rebellion and as they ought to be at the Charge of the Confederate Roman Catholicks as they call themselves who have been the occasion of the Destruction of the said Churches and possessed themselves of the Profits and Revenues thereof 4. That the Parliament now sitting in Ireland may be continued there for the better settlement of the Kingdom and that all Persons duly indicted in the said Kingdom of Treason Felonie or other heinous Crimes may be duly and legally proceeded against outlaw'd tried and adjudged according to Law And that all Persons lawfully convicted and attainted or to be convicted and attainted for the same may receive due punishment accordingly 5. That no Man may take upon him or execute the Office of a Major or Magistrate in any Corporation or the Office of a Sheriff or Justice of Peace in any City or County in the said Kingdom until he have first taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance 6. That all Popish Lawyers who refuse to take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance may be suppress'd and restrain'd from practice in that Kingdom the rather because the Lawyers in England do not here practice until they take the Oath of Supremacy And it hath been found by woful Experience that the Advice of Popish Lawyers to the people of Ireland hath been a great cause of their continued Disobedience 7. That there may be a present absolute Suppression and Dissolution of all the assumed Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power which the said Confederates exercise over Your Majesties Subjects both in Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal 8. That all the Arms and Ammunition of the said Confederates be speedily brought into Your Majesties Stores 9. That Your Majesties Protestant Subjects ruin'd and destroy'd by the said Confederates may be repair'd for their great losses out of the Estates of the said Confederates not formerly by any Acts of this present Parliament in England otherwise dispos'd of whereby they may the better be enabl'd to re-inhabit and defend the said Kingdom of Ireland 10. That the said Confederates may rebuild the several Plantation-Houses and Castles destroy'd by them in Ireland in as good state as they were at the breaking out of the Rebellion which Your Majesties Protestant Subjects have been bound by their several Patents to build and maintain for Your Majesties Service 11. That the great Arrears of Rent due to Your Majestie out of the Estates of Your Majesties Protestant Subjects at and since Michaelmas 1641. may be paid unto Your Majestie by such of the said Confederates who have either receiv'd the said Rents to the uses of the said Confederates or destroy'd the same by disabling Your Majesties Protestant Subjects to pay the same And have also destroy'd all or the most part of all other Rents or means of support belonging to Your said Protestant Subjects And that Your said Protestant Subjects may be discharg'd of all such Arrears of Rents to Your Majestie 12. That the said Confederates may give satisfaction to the Army for the great Arrears due unto them since the Rebellion and that such Commanders as have rais'd Forces at their own Charges and laid forth great sums of Money out of their own Purses and engag'd themselves for Money and Provisions to keep themselves their Holds and Souldiers under their Commands in the due necessary Defence of Your Majesties Rights and Laws may be in due sort satisfied to the encouragement of others in like times and Cases which may happen 13. That touching such parts of the Confederate Estates as being forfeited for their Treasons are come or shall duly come into Your Majesties hands and possession by that Title Your Majesty after the due satisfaction first made to such as claim by former Acts of Parliament would be pleased to take the same into your own hands and possession and for the necessary encrease of Your Majesties Revenue and better security of the said Kingdom of Ireland and the Protestant Subjects living under your gracious Government there to plant the same with Brittish and Protestants upon reasonable and honourable Terms 14. That one good walled Town may be built and kept repair'd in every County of the said Kingdom of Ireland and endow'd and furnish'd with necessary and sufficient means of legal and just Government and Defence for the better security of Your Majesties Laws and Rights more especially the true Protestant Religion in time of Danger in any of which Towns no Papist may be permitted to dwell or inhabit 15. That for the better satisfaction of Justice and Your Majesties Honour and for the future security of the said Kingdom and Your Majesties Protestant Subjects there exemplary punishment according to Law may be inflicted upon such as have there traiterously levied VVar and taken up Arms against Your Majesties Protestant Subjects and Laws and therein against Your Majesty especially upon such as have had their hands in the shedding of Innocent blood or had to do with the first Plot or Conspiracy or since that time have done any notorious Murther or Covert Act of Treason 16. That all Your Majesties Towns Forts and places of strength destroy'd by the said Confederates since the said Rebellion may be by them and at their Charges re-edified and deliver'd up into Your Majesties hands to be duly put into the Government under Your Majestie and Your Laws of your good Protestants And that all Strengths and Fortifications made and set up by the said Confederates since the said Rebellion may be slighted and thrown down or else deliver'd up and disposed of for Protestant Government and Security as aforesaid 17. That according to the Presidents of former times in cases of General Rebellions in Ireland the Attainders which have been duly had by Outlawry for
Nettervile and others assemble at Swords fol. 41 Some of the Nobility desire the King to compose Extreams betwixt the Protestants and Confederates fol. 145 The Northern Scotch Forces refuse to aid ours in Lemster fol. 83 The Nuncio arrives in Ireland fol. 153 his exorbitant carriage fol. 161 besieges Dublin fol. 162 166 forbids those delegated to treat with the Lord Lieutenant about the Peace to proceed on censure of Excommunication fol. 163 his Excommunication fol. 165 is persued by the Confederates to Gallway fol. 190 a Narrative of his insolent carriage in Ireland fol. 191 his Answer to it from fol. 192 to 194 Summons a National Synod fol. 190 Quits the Kingdom ibid. O THe Oath of Association with several Acts depending thereupon fol. 95 to 98 of the Confederates against the Nuncio App. 99 against the Peace of 1646. taken by the Officers in Tredagh fol. 62 Owen O Conally's Examination fol. 20 sent to the Parliament with Letters fol. 27 rewarded fol. 36 slain fol. 225 The Lady Offalia's generous carriage against the Rebels fol. 77 Certain Officers out of Ireland their Address to the King fol. 112 receive his Answer fol. 113 Offers made to the Parliament disown'd by Inchiquin fol. 196 Sir Phelim O Neil's cruelties in the North for his Repulse at Tredagh fol. 68 besieges Charlemont fol. 28 present at Loghress when the Plot was determin'd fol. 24 approaches Lisnegarvy fol. 38 besieges Tredagh fol. 59 is beaten near Raphoe fol. 83 assists Clanrickard fol. 302 his Trial at the High Court of Justice fol. 304 hang'd drawn and quarter'd fol. 327 his character ibid. Daniel O Neil moves his Excellency to come with an Army into England fol. 152 sent by his Excellency to win over his Uncle fol. 227 Owen O Neil endeavours to surprize the Lord Lieutenant fol. 161 his Declaration for the Catholick Religion King c. fol. 194 persued by the Confederates retires to the great Towns fol. 190 endeavouring to relieve Port-Falkland worsted fol. 196 offers to be entertain'd by the Parliament ibid. falls upon Clanrickard's Party fol. 201 and the Parliaments party agree fol. 214 his Service in relieving Londonderry fol. 217 agrees with the Lord Lieutenant but before he brought his Forces to him dies fol. 228 The Order of Parliament of England concerning Ireland fol. 36 The Earl of Ormond made Lieutenant General of the Army fol. 37 visits Tredagh fol. 67 Gallantry at Kilrush fol. 75 The Marquiss of Ormond's Expedition to Ross fol. 108 just Edict against plundering fol. 111 unwillingness to yield to the Rebels unjust demands fol. 153 concludes the Peace 1646. fol. 155 Lord Lieutenant goes to Kilkenny fol. 159 besieged by the Nuncio in Dublin fol. 167 makes a shew to deliver the City to the Parliament ibid. forced to return to Dublin fol. 172 his Reason for his delivery up of his Power to the Parliament fol. 177 hath the King's concession fol. 179 delivers up Dublin fol. 183 goes into England ibid. has free access to the King fol. 184 is suspected by the Army fol. 185 Meditates to return to Ireland fol. 189 lands in Ireland fol. 197 his Declaration then ibid. Letters to the Councel of Kilkenny fol. 200 is congratulated by the Supream Councel ibid. concludes the Peace 1648. fol. 202 his Speech then ibid. endeavours to win Jones to his Party fol. 209 his Difficulty in forming his Army fol. 211 Marches towards Dublin fol. 212 appears before Dublin fol. 213 his Declaration touching affairs in Ulster fol. 215 blocks up Dublin fol. 218 after Rathmines defeat retires to Kilkenny fol. 222 not obey'd by the principal Towns fol. 224 intends to fight Cromwel fol. 226 uses means to bring in Owen O Neil fol. 227 his endeavour to impede Cromwell's return to Dublin fol. 230 his Gallantry in relieving such who intended to surprize Passage fol. 231 denied leave to hut his men under Waterford fol. 232 gives the King an Account of the Affairs in Ireland ibid. demonstrates to the Commissioners of Trust his ill usage fol. 233 receives the Grievances of the Deputies of the Counties fol. 239 goes to Limerick ibid. Summons the Romish Bishops thither fol. 242 Conference with them ibid. receives not outward Civility there fol. 243 calls an Assembly at Loghreogh its Effects ibid. 244 another Assembly at Loghreogh fol. 245 is addressed to by them fol. 246 Answer worthy himself fol. 247 248 Proposals to be received into Limerick fol. 251 is ill used by the Maior of that Town fol. 252 his Commission to the Bishop of Clogher on O Neils death ibid. Resentment of the Bishops voluntary meeting at Jamestown fol. 257 Answer to the Bishops Declaration at James-town fol. 261 clears himself of their Accusation from 261 to 267 Declaration upon the Confederates Resentment of the Declaration made in Scotland against the Peace 1648 fol. 269 272 is affronted by the Guard at Gallway fol. 273 his reply to the Confederates reasons for the removal of his Authority in him from 273 to 277 Deputes Clanrickard Deputy fol. 278 departs the Kingdom ibid. P THe Papists ready to contribute that a toleration might ensue fol. 1 of the Pale equasly involv'd in the Conspiracy fol. 41 countenanced the Robberies c. at Clantarf and Skerries fol. 43 join to infest Dublin ibid. after the Relief of Tredagh offer to come in fol. 66 rejected and why ib. Petition sent to the King fol. 112 The Parliament at Dublin why called fol. 3 meets fol. 32 prorogued fol. 35 's of Ireland Declaration to the Parliament of England fol. 178 Remonstrance to the Lord Lieutenant fol. 182 of England declares all Traitors who deserted the Service of Ireland fol. 223 A Parliament summon'd at Dublin fol. 319 under the Precedency of Sir Maurice Eustace and the Earl of Orrery Lords Justices and continued under the Duke of Ormond its Acts fol. 320 Sir William Parsons Lord Justice fol. 6 accused of misdemeanors fol. 123 Amiscreant Party no true Protestant ever justly charg'd with the King's Murther fol. 304 The Peace of 1646. concluded fol. 155 's Articles fol. 156 as necessary as the Cessation fol. 159 disclaim'd at Waterford fol. 160 1648. concluded fol. 204 's Articles fol. 205 refused by O Neil Antrim and the Scots fol. 206 The Peoples devotion to the Clergy fol. 267 Pope Urban the Eighth's Bull fol. 135 Indulgence to Owen Roe fol. 136 Milo Power 's good Service to the Lord Lieutenant fol. 231 The Presbytery at Belfast endeavour to draw Sir Charles Coot to their Party fol. 207 The President of Connaght esteem'd remiss fol. 101 Preston and O Neil's Letter and Demands to the L. Lieutenant fol. 166 beats Jones fol. 186 A Proclamation by the Lord Falkland against the Popish Clergy fol. 1 discovering the Plot fol. 22 forbidding strangers the City fol. 28 publishing the King's detestation of the Rebellion fol. 30 against people flocking to the City fol. 32 prizing Corn fol. 48 against Pillagers ibid. prohibiting the Souldiers to return to England
Conspiracies hatch'd our ruine not discernable ere the Monster arriv'd at its Birth a Prodigy scarce credible in so vigilant a State Though when it 's consider'd how tenderly the great concerns of Religion the principal wheels of all Commotion in a State were handled the astonishment that things aspir'd to so much Villany may easily be unridl'd Towards the end of the Lord Falkland's Government there being great need of Money for support of the standing Army in Ireland and maintaining of 500 Horse and 5000 Foot much by extraordinary means having been otherwise disposed the Catholicks of Ireland glad of the occasion seem'd very forward to supply the State in hopes of a Connivance if not a Toleration of their Religion though therein they were onely to bear their share or rather offered their Mite with the Protestants which they improved to so great an insolence as the Lord Falkland with the Council was forced to take notice in a Proclamation dated the 1st of April 1629. That the late Intermission of Legal Proceedings against Popish pretended Titulary Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Deans Vicars General Jesuits Friers and others of that sort that derive their pretended Authority and Orders from the See of Rome in contempt of his Majesties Royal Power and Authority had bred such an extraordinary insolence and presumption in them as he was necessitated to charge and command them in his Majesties name to for bear the exercise of their Popish Rites and Ceremonies Notwithstanding which their Insolencies afterwards so increased as that the power of the High Commission rais'd in respect of them being withdrawn they erected a new University at Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there continuing their Nunneries and Monasteries that thence many things were objected against the Lord Falkland's Government to clear which the Council of Ireland in his defence to the King the 28th of April 1629. declared That towards the insolencies of the Papists and the late outragious presumption of the unsetled Irish in some parts your Deputy and Council of late us'd particular Abstinence holding themselves somewhat limited concerning them by late Insinuations Letters and Directions from England And yet afterwards so mindful too were the Lords of the Council in England of what had been by the State of Ireland happily supprest that the 31 of January 1629. they return'd their acknowledgment and put the State of Ireland in mind How much it concern'd the good Government of Ireland to prevent in time the first growing of such evils for that where such People are permitted to swarm they will soon grow licentious and endure no Government but their own which cannot otherwise be restored than by a due and seasonable execution of the Law and of such Directions as from time to time have been sent from his Majesty and Council c. further encouraging them to carry a soft or harder hand according to their discretions Which I do not find but they prudently observ'd though all was too little to root out the Leven that had season'd the Batch during the Government of the then Lords Justices As Dr. Bedel the Reverend Bishop of Kilmore takes notice of at large with a deep and hearty resentment worthy his Piety Courage and Learning till the arrival of Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth who by his singular Wisdom Courage and quick Intelligence so managed affairs there though some thought they were carried on too severely as doubtless the Nation in general was never more seemingly in obedience what ever afterwards was aggravated against that Noble Person whose behaviour was less pleasing to some men interess'd in the detection of their morose and sinister dealings than to the Nation which flourish'd under his Auspicious Government Reverence is that wherewith Princes are girt from God Yet then the contrivance of some Spirits was so restless as Anno 1634. being the 10th of King Charls the First they design'd to have engag'd the Nation in a War which one Ever Mac-Mahon an eminent Popish Priest privately discovered to some of the Privy Council at Dublin at whose feet he prostrated himself for mercy having with others been employ'd abroad to Foreign Princes viz. the Pope the Kings of France Spain and other Princes on that service as in the Relation writ by the Lord Macquire in the Tower is apparent the Design having been of as ancient a Date as the Isle of Rhee's Enterprise 1628. About which time the Earl of Tyrone and Cardinal Richlieu held an intimate correspondence though the King of France's Wars then in Italy frustrated for that time the Insurrection and Invasion Upon the discovery of which Ever Mac-Mahon seeming penitent had his Pardon So that the thing being onely treated of in general the prudence of the Governour giving the People no suspicion that he feared it and yet watched against it blasted their design The same Providence we may also believe this Noble Person had in the antecedent warnings which the Reverend Dean of Kilmore particularly mentions though he in reference to the Intregues of State mov'd not so visibly as to make every one capable of his foresight Prime Ministers are not to level their proceedings to the capacities of all who pretend vigilancy of the State yet thence during his Government all things in the Publick proceeded with a serene countenance so as the Lord Deputy Wentworth came for England and return'd into Ireland several times with his Majesties greatest Approbation and the Peace of the Nation Anno 1634. a Parliament was summon'd in Ireland by his motion 1. For that the Contribution from the Countrey towards the maintenance of the Army ended that December 2. For that the Revenues there fell short of his Majesties Charges 20000 l. yearly 3. That there was a Debt of 80000 l. upon the Crown 4. For that there had been no Subsidies but one since the beginning of King James's Reign and the People were now grown wealthy being continued in their Estates who ever had enjoy'd them twenty years By the Supply of which Parliament the Lord Deputy paid the 80000 l. Debt due from the Crown than which nothing was more to his Majesties Honour and his Servants Integrity in testimony of which his Majesty saith That they cannot but witness who know that Kingdom that during the Government there by Lieutenants of his choice that Kingdom enjoyed more Plenty and Peace than ever it had since it was under the subjection of the Crown of England Traffick by Sea and Trade by Land increas'd Values of Land improv'd Shipping multipli'd beyond belief never was the Protestant Religion more advanc'd nor the Protestants protected in greater security against the Papists Inasmuch as we must remember you the Parliament capitulating with him to nominate a Governour for Ireland that the present Rebellion was begun when there was no Lieutenant there and when the Power which had been formerly us'd in that Kingdom was question'd and disgrac'd when those in the Parliament there by whom that Rebellion was hatch'd
were countenanc'd in their Complaints and Prosecution And as to the Progress of Religion there receive from the Bishop of Derry this account in his Discourse of the Sabbath where having occasion to mention the incomparable and pious Primate Archbishop Usher he takes notice That having liv'd sundry years a Bishop in the Province of Ulster whilst the Political part of the care of that Church lay heavy upon his shoulders he prais'd God they were like Candles in the Levitical Temple looking one towards another and all towards the Stem no contention arising amongst them but who should hate contention most and pursue the Peace of the Church with swiftest paces inasmuch as if the high-soaring Counsels of some short-wing'd Christians whose eyes regarded nothing but the present Prey with the Rebellious practises of the Irish Enemy tied together like Samson's Foxes with Firebrands at their tails had not thrust them away from the Stern and chas'd them from their Sees with Bellona's bloody Whip They might before this time without either persecution or noise have given a more welcome and comfortable account of the Irish Church than our Age is likely to produce The last time this Noble Person the Earl of Strafford enter'd Ireland was the 18th of March 1639. when he arriv'd at Dublin Lord Lieutenant a little before having in an extraordinary Solemnity and conflux of Ambassadors and Peers been made Earl of Strafford at which time he appear'd in Parliament begun the 16th of March in the 14th of King Charles the I. expressing his Majesties Necessities in such terms as immediately Four entire Subsidies without further expostulation were unanimously consented unto the freedom of which added much to the largeness of the gift with which he rais'd 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse additional to the Veterain Forces which at the breaking forth of the Rebellion consisted but of 2297 Foot and 943 Horse And so having setled his Majesties affairs in Ireland he went for England to the Parliament at Westminster summon'd by his Mediation the 13th of April 1640. being attended from Ireland with the acclamations of the whole House of Parliament yet legible in a very remarkable manner in the Preamble of their Act of Subsidies Anno 16 Car. 1. yet afterwards we know his fate Never writes Perinshief sufficiently bewail'd by the King till the issue of his blood dri'd up those of his tears All the actions of his Government were narrowly sifted and though no one thing after the mercenary Tongues of the Lawyers had endeavour'd to render him a Monster of men could be found Treason many accumulated were so voted That him whom even now the Parliament of Ireland extolled as an excellent Governour and one for whose due and sincere Administration of Justice they had principally consented to so great a Subsidy they afterwards pursued as the cause of all their mischiefs and so by their Agents even those who afterwards complotted the Rebellion incens'd the Parliament at Westminster against him as they denied all that they had attributed to his Worth fixing on him what-ever might contribute to a praevious Government or the Kingdom 's impoverishment the state of which cannot be better clear'd than by what his Majesty in a full Council at White-hall the 27th of Ian. 1640. seem'd clearly to acquiesce in upon the Earl of Strafford's avowing of the Answer to the Irish Remonstrance against him ordering that a Copy thereof should be forthwith given by the Clerk of the Council to the Committee of Ireland then attending upon him since Registred among the publick Records Thus was this great Man accused thus justifi'd yet all was not sufficient to exempt him from the destructive Bill of Attainder suggesting His tyrannous and exorbitant Power over the Liberties and Estates of his Majesties Subjects in Ireland laying and assessing of Soldiers by his own authority upon the Subject against their consent saying also that he had an Army in Ireland which his Majesty might make use of to reduce this Kingdom meaning England as appears by the Act which passed the 10th of May 1641. His Majesty having Sign'd a Commission to the Earl of Arundel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord High Chamberlain and others to that intent which had an after Act vacating the authority of the precedent for future imitation sufficiently thereby saith his Majesty telling the World that some remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard measure and such as they would be loth should be repeated to themselves And that it might remain to Potesterity to whom the Age is accomptable for her Actions what he suffered in his Trial and by what artifices he was brought to it the Act for the reversal of the Earl of Straffords Attainder Anno xiv Car. II. fully shows to which it may seem impertinent to add more Histories and the Occurrences of those times having presented his Actions at his Trial more significant than I dare pretend to such a Scene of Justice attended with that Magnificence in its Structure such Seats for their Majesties for Ambassadors and the most discerning Audience of England not being to be parallel'd Therefore I shall conclude as to Him with what his Majesty speaks in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That his great abilities were prone to create in him great confidence of undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous a Lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condens'd by a Popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the brightest Merit and Integrity c. Yet saith this Excellent King I could never be convinc'd of any such criminousness in him having heard all the particulars of his great Cause from one end to the other as willingly to expose his life to the stroke of Justice and the malice of his Enemies However He suffered on Tower-hill the 12th of May 1641. taking his death with as much Christianity as Courage though some account nothing Christian that is not Effeminate of whom we should say more but must refer the rest to what is extant in Print The 19th of May following Robert Earl of Leicester was designed by his Majesty Lord Lieutenant of Ireland newly return'd from his Embassy in France where he had discharg'd his Trust with singular Prudence and Courage as he had done before in Denmark and elsewhere The choice of whom exceedingly endear'd his Majesties Wisdom to the most knowing and intelligent Party of the Nation the Earl having been one never engag'd in Monopolies one of the Grievances of the Times or the publick Complaints of the Kingdom but being long experienc'd in State-affairs promised nothing save his Majesties Honour and the Kingdoms security Being thought by his knowledge in Martial Affairs and other his great Abilities to be no doubt abundantly capable to reduce the Irish to
a due obedience Yet after all having attended his Majesty at York and other Places as the Court mov'd for his Dispatch he came in Novem. to Chester in expectation of an easie remove thence into Ireland but falling indispos'd at Chester was commanded back to Oxford about the beginning of Ian. 1642. so as in conclusion he ever going never went His stay was at first resented by the King then the Parliament to evidence the truth he writes a Letter from York to the Earl of Northumberland which by Order of Parliament the 26th of Septemb. 1642. was printed wherein he writes That he besought his Majesty that he might not be staid at Court for that the Affairs of Ireland requir'd his speedy repair thither or at least that some Governour if he were not thought worthy of it should be presently sent into that Kingdom And upon the 21 of Septemb. he appear'd in Parliament informing the Houses That he could never since his first going to his Majesty get his Commission Seal'd till the 18th of Septemb. referring himself to the pleasure of the Houses whether they would dispatch him for Ireland or no. Whereupon the 1st of October following his Case was again debated and it was Voted for the future That the said Earl should not put in execution any Instructions from his Majesty concerning the Affairs in Ireland until such time as they should be made known and approved by them After which many things in his Instructions were debated and it being mov'd the 4th of Novemb. in a Conference of the Houses that he was ready to set forward for that Service he had his Dismiss So as I have said he came to Chester and was remanded back to Oxford the important Affairs of Ireland being in another Channel than as yet they appear'd visibly to run in Though it was a good while after before he had his discharge from that Employment being kept in suspence till others had perfected their Design by which there accrued to him a great Arrear somewhat consider'd in the Act of Settlement though short of what he was prejudic'd thereby Upon the Earl of Straffords quitting Ireland Christopher Wendesford Esq Master of the Rolls the 3d. of April 1640. was sworn Lord Deputy He managed the Government with much Policy advantage to his Majesty and faithfulness to his intimate Friend and Ally the Earl of Strafford adjourning the Parliament in November following somewhat to the dis-satisfaction of the Members who before their Dissolution made shift to form a Remonstrance against the Earl of Strafford which he would have prevented to have been sent for England could he as he endeavour'd have staid the Committee of the Parliament in Ireland from going over the greatest part of which were Papists which the Irish took as a good Omen But he being not able to hinder them they finding conveniences from every Port grew thereupon much discontented and having quick intelligence how affairs were carried against the Earl of Strafford He died the 3d. of December following betwixt whom even from their Youth there had been an especial intimacy nor did it afterwards grow cooler but more strengthned in Judgment After his decease Robert Lord Dillon of Kilkenny-West and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Court of Wards Decemb. 30. were sworn Lords Justices But it was not long before the Committee of Ireland then at Court so prevail'd as that his Majesty displac'd the Lord Dillon a Person of notable Parts and one by his Son's Marriage with the Earl of Strafford's Sister passionately concern'd in the Earl's Case Yet lest the Execution of his Majesties Graces to his Subjects of Ireland obtain'd by their late Committee's sollicitation should be deferr'd till those who were design'd to succeed the Lord Dillon were in Office his Majesty was pleas'd to direct a Letter dated the 4th of Ianuary in the 16th year of his Reign to his Privy Council of Ireland and Sir William Parsons and Sir Iohn Borlase then design'd Justices to grant amongst other things that his Subsidies there should be reduced to a lesser rate than formerly and that all Letters directed to the Lord Deputy Justices Chief Governour or Governours or to any other Officers or Ministers of that Realm either concerning the publick Affairs or private Interests of any Subject there might be entred into his Signet-Office in England to the end that they might be upon occasion found to take Copies of for the Subjects better information in such publick things as may concern them as also that all Dispatches from Ireland should safely be kept apart that like recourse may be had to them for the better satisfaction of the Subject who shall be concern'd therein And whereas in the former Governour 's time there were endeavours to hinder some Agents of Parliament to have recourse into England his Majesty taking notice That for asmuch as the Committee of the Parliament of Ireland John Bellew Esq and Oliver Cassel with others employ'd thence have repair'd into his Kingdom of England to represent their Grievances He hath manifested his gracious condescensions to them admitting them into his Royal Presence forbidding his Counsellors in Ireland or any other Officers or Ministers of that State to proceed any ways against them or any of them for the same And that his Subjects shall have Copies of Records Certificates Orders of Council Publick Letters or other Entries for the Declaration of their Grievances made In grateful acknowledgment of which the Parliament then sitting the 10th of Febr. 1640. order'd That the said Letter should be forthwith Entr'd amongst the Ordinances and Records of that House So that if there had not been a general defection long anvil'd in the minds of that People the event of so unnatural and horrid a Rebellion as few months after happen'd could not have been the issue of such remarkable Condescensions The 10th of Febr. 1640. his Majesty instituted Sir William Parsons Master of the Court of Wards before mention'd long experienc'd in the Affairs of Ireland and Sir Iohn Borlase Knight Master of the Ordnance Lords Justices One well known to his Majesty by the Eminency of his Imployments abroad and the opinion He had of his integrity and skill in Military Affairs the Discipline of the Army having been ever under his Charge since his arrival there These writes an Honourable Person appli'd themselves with all manner of gentle Lenitives to mollifie the sharp humours rais'd by the rigid passages of the former Government They declar'd themselves against all such proceedings as they found any way varying from the Common Law They gave all due encouragement to the Parliament then sitting endeavouring the reasonable ease and contentment of the People freely assenting to all such Acts as really tended to the Legal Reformation They betook themselves wholly to the advice of the Council and caus'd all matters as well of the Crown as Popular Interests to be handled in his Majesties Courts of Justice no ways admitting
the late exorbitances so bitterly decried in Parliament of Paper Petitions or Bills in Civil Causes to be brought before them at the Council-board or before any other by their Authority reducing by his Majesties approbation the Subsidies from 40000 l. a Subsidy to 12000 l. a Piece Bringing all things to that compliance as best suited with his Majesties Interest and the quiet of the Nation that if it were possible there might not be the least discontent or jealousie rais'd amongst the People and for a season all things seem'd so peaceable as never any Government was less excepted against Yet then in the end of the year 1640. his Majesty being inform'd of an intention to raise Troubles in Ireland commanded Sir Henry Vane his Principal Secretary to write unto these Lords Justices this Letter Right Honourable HIs Majesty hath commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an advice given him from abroad and confirm'd by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this distemper'd time and conjuncture of affairs deserves to be seriously consider'd and an especial care and watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other Parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise men for the King of Spain whereas it is observ'd among the Irish Friers there a whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaght Wherefore his Majesty thought fit to give your Lordships this notice that in your wisdoms you might manage the same with that dexterity and secresie as to discover and prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful eye on the proceedings and actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever And so herewith I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Henry Vane White-hall March 16. 1640. Which was delivered to the Lord Justice Parsons and since his death found in his Study and by Sir James Barry Lord Baron of Santry a right Honourable and worthy Person presented to his present Majesty who look'd upon it as a precious Jewel discovering his Father's Royal thoughts towards the preservation of his Protestant Subjects and People But how far it was at first communicated is uncertain though being of so great a Trust it may very well be believed to have been often reflected on with caution and prudence Certain it is that notwithstanding that there was an Item that there should be an especial care against levying of Soldiers for Spain yet Colonel John Barry Colonel Taaff Colonel Garret Barry and Colonel Porter had all Warrants to transport 4000 Men thither which several of the House of Commons in Ireland and England too with much artifice though with divers ends endeavour'd to prevent on plausible terms As that from the experience of what they might learn abroad they afterwards might prove ill Instruments at home whereas it was more necessary that they should be employ'd on Husbandry whereof that Kingdom had great need And many of the active men of the House of Commons in Ireland as Darcy the Lawyer Plunket Chevers Martin and others urg'd their stay with a passion seemingly much concern'd for that amongst many Reasons which I will not undertake at so long a distance positively to remember though I had the honour to be a Member of that House yet I cannot forget that their chief Argument was drawn from the Spaniards having long born an ill will to England and her Empire And therefore they did not know mark the insinuation how soon those very Regiments acquainted with every Creek of the Kingdom might be return'd on their own Bowels having naturally a love to their Religion which such an Incendiary as the King of Spain might soon inflame to the highest prejudice Which I the longer insist on for that the Collection of Murthers committed on the Irish published by R. S. 1662. would insinuate the better to invalidate the Abstract of Murthers committed by the Irish that the Catholick Members of the House of Commons in Ireland never hindred as that Abstract affirms the Transportation of the Earl of Straffords disbanded Soldiers into Spain purposely to advance the Rebellion which is clear they did Inasmuch as upon these and other Arguments their Transportation was deferr'd though if the discontented Irish Army had been disposed of beyond-Sea according to the Contracts with the French and Spanish Ambassadors it was very clear as is judicially affirmed that there could have been no Rebellion in Ireland the Pretence and Means thereof having been thereby taken away though some were of opinion that where-ever these Forces had been they could yet easily have been brought over again as others have been since the principal Heads of the Rebels Army being led by old experienc'd Soldiers who at the breaking out of the Rebellion were generally beyond-Sea as the Leimster Forces by Colonel Preston a branch out of the House of Gormanston the Ulster Forces by Owen Roe O-Neal both bred in Flanders Munster Forces by Garret Barry and the Connaght Forces by one Burck animated with their Cause and the Pope's encouragement And it cannot be denied that the promiscuous compleating of the Army lately rais'd of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse in Ireland taught many of the Common Soldiers the use of Arms who otherwise would have been ignorant thereof And evil in Perrot's and Fitzwilliam's Government much took notice of and by Camden in his Eliz. Anno 1593. towards the end observ'd in the like case to be most improvidently done as afterwards was found the Irish being always disloyal to the English Upon which I cannot but reflect on what Antalcidas in Plutarch * tells Agesilaus of being sorely hurt by the Thebans That they had paid him his deserved hire for teaching them against their wills to be Soldiers who before had neither will nor skill to fight Certain it is that most of these Soldiers thus rais'd betook themselves to the Rebels Party although very few of their Officers if we may credit a late Historian were polluted with the crime Yet notwithstanding the Letter fore-cited and many troublesome passages in Parliament wherewith the Lords Justices and Council were not seldom alarm'd sufficient to waken their confidence no Cloud not the breadth of a hand appear'd but the Lords Justices kept a fair correspondence with the Parliament giving all the furtherance they could to the going of their Committee into England hoping that what his Majesty should be pleased to grant at their requests might redound to the common benefit of the Nation Neither did the Lords Justices or Council transmit unto his Majesty or any of the State of England any mis-reprehensions of the proceedings and actions of that Parliament as some maliciously insinuated in as much as a Noble Person a Peer in the Lords House said That the Lords Justices had
always cheerfully receiv'd their Requests and Messages and were ready to comply with them desiring that this their compliance might be entred in the Journal to the end that it might remain to Posterity Having by his Majesties Commission dated the 4th of January 1640. authority to Continue Prorogue or Determine the Parliament as they thought fit which liberty they indulg'd much to the freedom of the Parliament However being resolv'd as the sequel prov'd to pretend any thing rather than not to have some exceptions against the Government the Irish Parliament sent to his Majesty a Declaration therein magnifying the Six entire Subsidies they had given in the 10th year of his Majesties Reign and the Four Subsidies in the 15th year of his Reign pretending moreover that they had been ill presented to his Majesty which was clearly evinc'd to the contrary and several Graces vouchsaf'd them thereupon Amongst other things the State at that time found difficult to do the Disbanding of the new rais'd Army was not the least which the Parliament of England had great jealousies of and besought his Majesty that it should be dissolv'd In answer whereof his Majesty repli'd That the thing was already upon consultation but he found many difficulties in it and therefore told the Parliament He held it not onely fit to wish it but to show the way how it might conveniently be done However in August 1641. it was effectually perform'd for which afterwards the Lords Justices had his Majesties gracious approbation and the Arms and Ammunition were carefully brought into his Majesties Stores by the vigilance of the Master of the Ordnance the Lord Justice Borlase else certainly most of those Arms as well as the Men had been undoubtedly listed in the Confederates Army which many of their Party in the House of Commons in Ireland having an eye to made them so averse to have them Disbanded And the Plot proceeded being so cunningly manag'd by some of the Members of Parliament subtil in their insinuations that many of the Protestants and well-meaning people of the House blinded with an apprehension of Ease and Redress lying under the same pretended Yoak with the rest were innocently decoi'd into their acting violently with them Hence Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland was impeach'd of High Treason and others of the prime Officers and Ministers of State were Articled against yea some of the Bishops were not spar'd contrary to all presidents of that nature as was certifi'd by the Lords Justices to the Principal Secretary on search made upon his Majesties commands for that purpose So as besides some of the active men of the House Lawyers Darcy Martin Plunket Cusack Brown Linch Bodkin Evers and others took upon them with much confidence to declare the Law to make new Expositions of their own upon the Text as That killing in Rebellion was no forfeiture of Lands and to frame 21 Queries Which in a solemn Committee of the House Adjourn'd from time to time they discuss'd at their own freedom in the Dining-Room at the Castle disdaining the moderate Qualifications of the Judges who gave them modest Answers such as the Law and Duty to their Sovereign would admit and in stead of them vented their own sense as if the State were then in its Infancy and from them meerly to receive its Constitution as Sir John Temple observes resolving upon an alteration in the Government and drawing of it wholly into the hands of the Natives Sir Phelim Oneal making it plain in his Letters of Triumph to his Holy Confessor That his purposes were Conquest and not defence of Religion his Majesties Prerogative or their Liberty No! No King of England writes Mahony a Jesuit nor Crown nor People nor state of that Kingdom having at any time any kind of Right to the Kingdom of Ireland or any part thereof that the English Title to it was but meer Usurpation and Violence and that therefore the old Natives i. e. the meer Irish might chuse and make themselves a King of one of their own Irish and in the then Circumstances of Charles the First of England ' s being a Heretick ought i. e. were bound in Conscience to do so and throw off together the Yoak both of Hereticks and Foreigners Which Tenents being roughly drawn the Confederate Irish seem'd afterward to condemn forsooth in a Council of their own at Kilkenny Yet it is very observable and that from Walsh himself who says He can never forget it having extraordinary great admiration thereat That there was not one in the National Congregation met by an extraordinary favour the 11th of June at Dublin 1666. that open'd once his mouth for confession of any Villanies committed against the King at any time in the late Rebellion or Civil War or even to speak a word for so much as a general Petition to be exhibited to his Majesty imploring his Majesties gracious Pardon Notwithstanding the first Rebellion 1641. and what follow'd upon the Nuncio's access and the violation of the first Peace 1646. and the Nuncio's Censures against the Cessation with the Lord Inchequin and the Peace 1648. And the Declaration and Excommunication of the Bishops as James-Town 1650 against the Lord Lieutenant the Marquis of Ormond and those who obey'd him Emphatically enough exprest by P. W. No. 1. He enforces this Argument further There was no crime writes he at all committed by All or any of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland nor even at any time nor in any occasion or matter hapen'd since the 23d of October 1641. that needed Petitioning for Pardon either for themselves or any other of the Irish Clergy if we must believe the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket pleading for them in so express terms and the tacit approbation of his words by the universal silence of that Assembly In pursuance of which the Protestant Commissioners of Ireland in their Answer to the Objections the Rebels Agents put in against the Preamble of the Bill of Settlement took notice that in the whole Volume of Papers which were put in by the Catholicks about that Affair there was not one grateful Acknowledgment or so much as one civil mention of his Majesties singular Condescention They having the favour to inspect that Act of Settlement and object as they pleas'd as if all his Majesty could do for them were no more than he ought And further it is these Commissioners observation That in all the Irish Papers they do not own the slaughter of so many thousands to be a Rebellion or once give the Title of Rebels to those who were the first Agents in that horrid and bloody Massacre which being not acknowledged by them more easily absolves the rudeness of their Ingratitude for his Majesties favours And a Person of Honour in his Animadversions on Fanaticism who deserves much for his excellencies in the case takes notice That no Catholick ever made any profession against the Rebellion or manifested his detestation or dislike of
of Ulster to give publick notice to all the Undertakers of what his Majesty had graciously granted and intended to them which accordingly they undertook to do the Lords Justices leaving as they thought nothing omitted which might evidence their compliance with his Majesty's gracious Intentions acting during this recess of Parliament so vigilantly and with that vigor in relation to all the Committee's Transactions in England and his Majesty's Service that they had little time if any to spare for their other occasions that if we reflect on their unwearied and faithful Endeavours it cannot but be imputed as the greatest act of ingratitude that ever a Nation was guilty of to calumniate such a Government which had been mainly instrumental to accomplish those Graces that Favour such Indulgence as never any of his Majesty's Predecessors would vouchsafe Yet then in the midst of this Condescention many of those even the major part which were Papists who had been thus graciously heard by his Majesty countenanc'd in England carassed at Court most treacherously conspired against his Crown and Dignity the original of this Rebellion being brought over deposeth Prisley of Mac-Mahon by the Irish Committee who were imployed by the Parliament to his Majesty for the redress of their Grievances in that Kingdom complotting thereby the most execrable and bloody Rebellion History can parallel improving their Neighbourhood at that time to a mighty access of Visits and Freedom especially in Ulster where the Irish seem'd to mind nothing else but Entertainment lodging under colour of friendship the night before themselves with those whom they intended to kill the next morning That with his Majesty in his Solitude I may say that That Sea of Blood which these Men have cruelly and barbarously shed is enough to drown any Man in eternal both infamy and misery whom God shall find the malicious Author or Instigator of this effusion And all this perpetrated not for Religion as with great industry they endeavour to make foreign Princes believe No! It was their inbred malice and hatred to the English which from the first Conquest to this present may by very sad Examples be clearly demonstrated all Rebellions to Hen. 8. his time that the Reformation in Religion seem'd more favourable being wholly to extirpate the English then with them all of one Religion as may be easily shewed in a constant Series of Affairs were not every History concerning Ireland full of this Truth with horrible Presidents of Treachery and Barbarism And since Hen. 8th's time that the Protestant Religion hath had greater freedom it is evident too as Cambden notes That their Rebellions sprung from their zeal to the Romish Religion and their malice to the New English not to leave one alive So that Giraldus Cambrensis his Character of them in his Typography is suspected to remain yet too great a Truth to which we shall refer you concluding this with what a late Historian in fewer words observes Hiberni magna ex parte fallaces sanguinarii faedifragi diversis micantes inter se factionibus alter in alterius viscera ferrum immittere quam cum hoste communi congredi paratiores To which we may add that of the Orator not more pathetical than truely That Ex omnibus Gentibus vix ullam reperias cui peccare flere magis naturale est But as to my own Inclinations I truely reverence what the judicious and learn'd Bishop of Meath in his Epistle to his Excellency the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant in his Sermon of Antichrist observes That the Irish of themselves were a People peaceable harmless and affable to strangers and in themselves and to all pious and good whilst they retain'd the Religion of their Forefathers Yet that we may come more closely to the Business it will not be impertinent to recount what Rebellions ensued upon Queen Elizabeth's Reign and since to the fatal year 1641. That the practice of the Irish formerly being summ'd up it may appear what seeds of Rebellion were ever sown in their hearts and soil ripen'd constantly as opportunity and season gave them hopes of a harvest all their submissions as Sir John Davies observes being meer mockery and imposture Nor are we now without jealousies of what may yet be were there opportunity for it writes that excellent Bishop before cited in the said Epistle Soon after this glorious Queen whom the Bishop of Rhodes calls one of the most Heroick and Illustrious Princes of her Age came to the Crown all the Interests and Powers of Rome were animated against her she having clear'd the light of the Gospel by dissipating the fogs and mists of Superstition so as thence the Spirits of Darkness rag'd every where the Confederates of the Beast exalting their Power 1. Anno 1567. Shane O-Neal rais'd a notable Rebellion in Ulster meerly in hatred to the English erecting a Castle upon Lac-Eaugh which he nam'd Feognegall i. e. The hatred of the English and prevail'd much till Sir Henry Sidney routed his Forces 2. The Fitz-Geralds in Munster 1569. to whom the Birns Tools and Cavenaghs joyn'd rag'd in Rebellion till they were subdu'd by Sir William Drury All Attainted by Parliament 27 28 Eliz. Of the Justice of which War an Edict was shortly after divulg'd which in respect of those Tenents yet maintain'd in the bleeding Iphigenia and is indeed the sum of all their Infelicity and Malice we have thought good to insert immediately betwixt the first and second Appendix 3. Hugh O-Neal Anno 1595. succeeded in his Villanies the War being call'd Tyrone's Rebellion till 1603. the War determining with that Glorious Queen Of which three Rebellions the Analecta de rebus Catholicorum in Hibernia publish'd Anno 1617. has summ'd up these notable and just Remarks 1. Praecesserat Spiritus grandis fortis subvertens montes conterens petras id factum est in famoso illo Dynasta Johanne Nealo initio Regni Eliz. instar saevientis procellae omnia provadente populante qui nec montibus pepercit nec collibus aut petris divina pariter humana miscens Post multas strages quas fecit accitis etiam è Conacia Momonia Primipilaribus quos sui Consilii participes fecit deinde post probra opprobria quae contraxit plurima cum vellet haberi restitutor Patriae Libertatis avitae Religionis quia non erat de Numero eorum per quos salus facta est in Israel Qui seminavit ventos non messuit nisi Turbinem Fatus ipse turbo impellens in parietem in vindictam Caedis antea per eum perpetratae filio Paterni Sanguinis ultore Scoto in Rixa Scotorum Hibernorum interiit itaque non in Spiritu tam praecipiti praepostero Dominus 2. Post hunc Spiritum sequuta est gravis Commotio quam suscitavit in Monronia Jacobus Geraldinus Mauritii filius cui accessit Johanne Geraldi Desmoniae Comitis Germanus frater ipse postmodum Comes Geraldus
cruel and inhumane outrages and acts of Hostility within this Realm The said Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being justly mov'd with a right sense of the said disloyal rebellious proceedings and actions of the Persons aforesaid do hereby protest and declare That the said Lords and Commons from their hearts do detest and abhor the said abominable actions and that they shall and will to their uttermost power maintain the Rights of his Majesties Crown and Government of this Realm and the peace and safety thereof as well against the persons aforesaid their Abettors Adherents as also against all Foreign Princes Potentates and other Persons and attempts whatsoever And in case the Persons aforesaid do not repent of their aforesaid Actions and lay down Arms and become humble Suitors to his Majesty for Grace and Mercy in such convenient time and in such manner and form as by his Majesty or the Chief Governour or Governours and the Council of this Realm shall be set down The said Lords and Commons do further protest and declare That they will take up Arms and will with their Lives and Fortunes suppress them and their attempts in such a way as by the Authority of the Parliament of this Kingdom with the approbation of his Excellent Majesty or of his Majesties Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom shall be thought most effectual Copia vera exam per Phil. Percivall Cleric Parliament And after that the Parliament had sate two days to whom the Lords Justices had imparted his Majesties gracious intentions not to depart from any his former favours promised to them for setling their Estates who should remain faithful and Loyal and that the Lords Justices had shorten'd the Prorogation to the 11th of January the Lord Viscount Costelough impower'd by the Lords went for England not long before having been sworn a Privy Counsellor in Ireland even since the Rebellion with whom the Lord Taaff also embarck'd having before presented to the Lords Justices and Council from many of the Gentry and Inhabitants of the County of Longford in Rebellion a rebellious and scandalous Letter in the nature of a Remonstrance full of pretended Grievances and unreasonable Demands as namely to have freedom of Religion a Repeal of all Laws made to the contrary and the like Upon the information of which especially that there should be a toleration of the Popish Religion in Ireland it was resolv'd on the 8th of December 1641. upon solemn Debate by the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England That they would never give consent to any Toleration of the Popish Religion in Ireland or in any other his Majesties Dominions Which Vote hath been since adjudged a main motive for making the War a cause of Religion consequently of calling in Foreign Princes to their aid and assistance which before ever this Vote past to ground the least pretence thereupon the Irish made Religion the principal end of their Insurrection and this Proposition was as you see one of the first to be demanded which gave the Parliament a cause for the Vote fore-mention'd In pursuance of which Sir Benjamin Rudyard whom the cause ever made eloquent thus delivered his sense Mr. Speaker PEradventure I could have wish'd that Toleration of Religion had not at this time come in question but now it is brought on the Stage I am brought to the Stake When Religion is so nearly concern'd I love not to take any Civil or Politick respects into consideration Reason of State hath almost eaten up all the Laws and Religion of Christendom I have often heard it discours'd whether we should make Religion an Argument of any of our undertakings abroad wherein the wiser sort have been very nice and tender believing that the over-number of Papists would overwhelm us yet I have been long of opinion that our Attempts and Assistances have so often miscarri'd because we have not boldly and publickly avowed our Religion It may be God thinks we are too many who can conquer as well with few as with many Shall the Irish now make their Religion the cause of their Rebellion and shall we be asham'd or afraid to maintain our Religion in reducing them to their Duty and Obedience God will not honour them who do not honour him Let us remember that expostulation in the Chronicles Why transgress ye the commandments of God so that ye cannot prosper This is a great transgression to shrink from God in his truth When we deny the Irish a Toleration we do not withdraw the eases and favours they have heretofore enjoy'd Greater I am sure than they would afford us if we were in their power Wherefore Mr. Speaker let us uphold our Religion and trust God with the success Upon which and other motions thereupon the Vote mention'd proceeded without dispute and that the cause thereof might appear we shall refer you to the Longford Letter it self What reception it had at the Council-board may easily be conceiv'd by these Lords speedy repair into England who afterwards centred in that which in time brought on a Cessation of Arms with the Rebels in its own place to be spoke of The Lord Dillon upon his coming into England was seiz'd on by the Parliament and his Papers rifled according to a Vote in Parliament the 3d. of November which by the Confederates was look'd upon as a heinous crime though the discovery of the Concerns in Ireland as well as the management of the War were entrusted to the English Parliament so no crime in them But he escaped from them at last and went to the King having in his private Instructions orders to move that no Forces might be sent over out of England but that the whole work might be left to the Remonstrants and that they would then undertake to suppress the Rebels themselves In the interim we must not omit that some of both Houses of Parliament in Ireland lately met but now Prorogu'd were appointed to treat with the Rebels So they receiv'd their Instructions from the Lords Justices who were to impower them under the great Seal thereunto But instead of any happy effects thereon the Rebels were so puffed up with their Victories over the poor surpriz'd unresisting innocent English as they barbarously tore the Order of Parliament together with the Letter sent unto them promising themselves success and Dominion in all their Attempts By this time the State had receiv'd an Answer from the Lord Lieutenant of the Account they had given him of the Rebellion wherein he certified the Lords Justices that he understood his Majesty had receiv'd some Advertisements out of the North of Ireland of the present Rebellion and that the Business of Ireland might not suffer by his stay in Scotland which was somewhat longer than he expected his Majesty had refer'd the whole Business of Ireland to the Parliament of England who after a most serious and solemn information of this horrid Plot by a select Committee
those who shall hereafter joyn with them or commit the like acts on any of our good Subjects in that Kingdom to be Rebels and Traitors against our Royal Person and Enemies to our Royal Crown of England and Ireland And we do hereby strictly Charge and Command all those Persons who have so presumed to rise in Arms against us and our Royal Authority which we cannot otherwise interpret than acts of high Rebellion and detestable Disloyalty when therein they spoil and destroy our good and loyal Subjects of the British Nation and Protestants that they immediately lay down their Arms and forbear any further acts of Hostility Wherein if they fail we do let them know that we have authorised our Justices of Ireland and other our Chief Governour or Governours and General or Lieutenant-General of our Army there and do hereby accordingly require and authorise them and every of them to prosecute the said Rebels and Traitors with Fire and Sword as Persons who by their high Disloyalty against us their lawful and undoubted King and Soveraign have made themselves unworthy of any Mercy or Favour Wherein our said Justices or other chief Governour or Governours and General or Lieutenant-General of our said Army shall be countenanc'd and supported by us and by our powerful Succours of our good Subjects of England and Scotland that so they may reduce to obedience those wicked disturbers of that Peace which by the blessing of God that Kingdom hath so long and so happily enjoy'd under the Government of our Royal Father and us And this our Royal pleasure we do hereby require our Justices or other chief Governour or Governours of that our Kingdom of Ireland to cause to be published and proclaim'd in and throughout our said Kingdom of Ireland Given under our Signet at our Palace at Westminster the 1st of January in the 17th year of our Reign 1641. Which coming forth so late and but 40 of them onely ordered to be Printed was by the Parliament in their Declaration of the 19th of May 1642. interpreted as a countenance to that Rebellion in answer whereunto his Majesty in his reply to that Declaration shews That the Proclamation not issuing out sooner was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdom desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for the expedition of that service commanded to be Printed a Circumstance not required by them thereupon we Sign'd more of them then our Justices desired And that it might further appear how deep a sense his Majesty had of the Rebellion which called upon Him and his People of England for a general Humiliation of all Estates before Almighty God in Prayer and Fasting for drawing down his Mercy and Blessing upon Ireland His Majesty was pleased by a Proclamation dated at Whitehall the 8th of January 1641. Straightly to Charge and Command That the last Wednesday of every Month during the troubles in Ireland a Solemn Fast should be observ'd through his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales shewing in his own Person and the Court and example thereof which accordingly for some years was observ'd and considerable Collections were gathered at most Churches that day for the miserable People of Ireland Several but especially Sir Benjamin Rudyard excellently speaking on that Subject which being much in a little accept of in his own Words Mr. Speaker THis Day is appointed for a charitable Work a Work of Bowels and Compassion I pray God we may never have the like occasion to move to stir up our Charity These miserable People are made so because of their Religion He that will not suffer for his Religion is unworthy to be saved by it and he is unworthy to enjoy it that will not relieve those that suffer for it I did know but the last year here in England some and they no Papists who were resolv'd to make Ireland their Retreat as the safer Kingdom of the two We do now see a great a dismal Change God knows whose Turn shall be next it is wrapp'd up in his Providence that which happens to one Country may happen to any Time and Chance comes upon all though guided by a certain Hand The right way to make a Man truely sensible of another's Calamity is to think himself in the same case and condition and then to do as he would be done unto Wherefore Mr. Speaker let our Gift be a matter of Bounty not of Covetousness that it may abound to our Account in the Day of Reckoning He that sowes plentifully shall reap plentifully I am sure he that lends to the Lord hath the best Security and cannot be a loser The first President of the Fast before-mention'd which usher'd in the Charity that succeeded was before it came to be Monthly by the Lords House kept in the Abbey of Westminster where the Archbishop of York and the Lord Primate of Ireland preach'd to the Lords as in St. Margrets Westminster Mr. Calamy and Mr. Marshall to the House of Commons Though when his Majesty afterwards found by the ill use made thereof that the Lecturers in their Sermons and Prayers stir'd up and continued the War rais'd against Him in England the great Promoters too thereof deserting the Care of Ireland He the 6th of October 1643. forbad it to be kept and instead thereof expresly commanded a solemn Fast to be observ'd every second Friday of the Month through England and Wales But to return to the King's Proclamation against the Rebels which the bleeding Iphigenia and others of that lying Spirit would have to be grounded on the information of a malignant Part of the Council informing his Majesty that the Catholicks of Ireland without discrimination had enter'd into a Rebellion whereas there was never any such general Information Nay in all the Accounts they gave to his Majesty they still intimated that they hoped the Pale and other Parts would continue their Loyalty affording the Lords of the Pale as other Towns which afterwards shamefully revolted Arms Ammunition Commands informing his Majesty only of what they had discovered in the North with the suspicions that they had learnt on Examinations from others which would have been Treachery in them to have conceal'd and grand Disloyalty Nor doth his Majesty take notice in his Proclamation of any other than that divers lewd and wicked Persons had of late risen in Rebellion in his Kingdom of Ireland not so much therein as naming Papists or Catholicks that thence any of that profession should take Umbrage Nay so circumspect were the Lords Justices and Council at that time that they avoided all expressions which might any ways encourage the Irish to apprehend the English intended to make it a War of Religion However the Rebels were so far from paying obedience to his Majesty's Proclamation afore-mention'd saying it was counterfeit or done by Coertion as they acted now not as before apart but united in
Or their perfidious breach of Quarter as that of Captain Sanders which we rather remit to future Story not touching what they do in open War but their putting the blood of War in their Girdles in the time of Peace Though we must say that when the Instructions for the Protestant Agents of Ireland came afterwards to be consider'd great artifice there was that the cruelties committed against the Protestants after Quarter given Promises and Oaths for security or safe Convoy should be struck out But no more of this The State considering these sad truths and that none but a considerable Army was to appear abroad they provided 4000 Foot and 1500 Horse to be sent out under the Command of the Earl of Ormond Lieutenant General of the Army While Preparations were making for this Expedition Sir Simon Harcourt who loved always to be in action the 26th of March 1642. took a small Party of men and went out towards the County of Wickloe where he found the Rebels had possessed themselves of a Castle called Carrickmain within four miles of Dublin and seeing him draw near to it with those small Forces and finding him to have no Artillery so as their Walls were of sufficient strength to bear them out against any attempts he could make they began to brave him from within and to use reproachful signs from the top of the Castle thereby to express their contempt and scorn of him This his spirit was not well able to brook and considering the Castle was not invincible and that it would be very great advantage to the City of Dublin to remove so ill a Neighbour and that with two Pieces of Battery he could take it in some few hours he sent presently away to the Lords Justices to acquaint them with his Design and to desire them to send unto him the two Great Guns for the effecting of it They very well approv'd his Design and gave present order for the carrying them out together with all necessaries and provisions fitting for the service In the mean time he took special care for the surrounding of the Castle and disposing of his Men so as they might prevent the Rebels issuing out In which Service Serjeant Major Berry with 200 Fire-locks viewing the Castle was shot in his side though he died not till eight days after of a Feaver All things being put in order whilst they attended the coming of the Great Peeces now on their way Sir Simon Harcourt with some of the Commanders laid themselves down under the side of a little thatch'd house standing near the Castle which they took as a shelter to keep off the Enemies bullets from whence he suddainly rose up to call to the Souldiers to stand carefully to their Arms and to their Duties in their several Stations Which one of the Rebels from within perceiving discharged his Piece at him and shot him into his right breast under the neck bone and being so wounded he was carried off expressing his submission to the good hand of God and much joy'd to pour out his last blood in that Cause The pain of his Wound was so great as they could not bring him to Dublin but carried him to Mirian a house of the Lord Fitz-Williams where the next day he died to the great grief of the English and the prejudice of the Service His Lieutenant Colonel Gibson took the Command of that Party and the great Guns being come within the space of very few hours made a breach sufficient for the Souldiers to enter who being mightily enraged with the loss of their most beloved Colonel entred with great fury putting all to the Sword sparing neither Man Woman or Child The first Officer that led them on in the breach was Robert Hammond Brother to Doctor Hammond that famous and excellent Divine Ensign to Sir Simon Harcourt who carried himself very gallantly in this Service and from thence return'd into England where in the ensuing War by the several exploits he perform'd in the Reduction of the West of England under the Command of the Parliament he attain'd unto a very great Reputation and one of the chief Commanders in their Army And at the King 's coming to the Isle of Wight was Governour of Carisbrook Castle and of the Isle and upon his notice to the Parliament that the King was arriv'd there had Command to attend his Majesty with Respect and Honour with a promise that nothing should be wanting to defray the Kings expences in which service a ticklish task at that time I do not find that he forfeited his trust or otherwise demean'd himsélf then was well accepted At the time that Sir Simon Harcourt went forth the Lords Justices and Council finding what ill Instruments the Priests continued to be in kindling and fomenting the Rebellion caused as many of them as were in Town to be seized on who being put into French bottoms were shipt into France By this time the intended preparations to march forth under the Lieutenant General the Earl of Ormond were ready The Design was to relieve several Places of strength some besieged others much distressed by their wants and necessities but which way the Army was to march or what Place they were first to go to was kept as a secret However the Army Saturday the second of April 1642. marched from Dublin towards the Naas with 8000 Foot and 500 Horse arriving at Athy the 5th being 27 miles from Dublin from whence they sent out several Parties to relieve Carlow Marryburrough Balinokill the Burr Caterlagh Clogh-grevan Ballylivan and several other Castles and Towns then in distress which they did without much opposition releasing many Women Children and other unprofitable People much incommoding those Places Sir Patrick Weams Captain of the Lieutenant Generals Troop Captain Armstrong Captain Yarner Captain Harman Captain Schout Colonel Crafford Sir Richard Greenvile Sir Thomas Lucas and Sir Charles Coote in their several Commands doing excellent service in their Relief of these Castles and strong Holds The last passing with no little danger through Mountrath Woods whence Sir Charles Coote's Heir had his title worthy his and his Fathers merits to Marryburrough a Place of great consequence seated amongst ill Neighbours Whilst these things were acting the Rebels having gathered their Forces from Wickloe Wexford Caterlagh Kildare Queen's County Kilkenny Tipperary and West-Meath on Easter Sunday the 10th of April they displayed 40 Colours within two miles of Athy near the Barrow of which Colonel Crafford gave speedy intelligence under the Command of the Lord Viscount Mountgarret the Lieutenant General 's great Unkle making of the old English and Irish near 10000 men Horse and Foot which the Lieutenant General perceiving on the other side of the River of the Barrow to have sent out some Horse near Tankardstown over against Grangemellain His Lordship return'd to Athy giving out he would fight them the next day but their numbers vastly exceeding his and he having done the
besiege the Town with a Fleet and having taken possession of the Abbey near adjoyning landed many of his Battering Guns But before he attempted any thing according to his Commission he first advised with the present Governour the Lord of Clanrickard affectionate to his Majesties Service As the Town seem'd to be placing his Majesties Colours on the top of their Tower charging Captain Willoughby Governour of the Fort with the breach of Pacification an Agreement it seems assented to by the State though in vindication of himself he and Captain Ashley alledg'd much Great straits he had been put to though at length happily reliev'd by the Earl of Clanrickard when he was closely Beleaguer'd together with the Archbishop of Tuam Richard Boyle and his Family besides 36 Ministers 26 of which serv'd as Soldiers and did their Duty After all the Lord Forbes being by the Town the Earl of Clanrickard and the President of Connaght with whom he had had several ineffectual Conferences daily delay'd in what he endeavour'd to give Captain Willoughby satisfaction in prepar'd to make his approach to the Town but not being strengthen'd by any supply he could get from the Lord President or Sir Charles Coot and dishearten'd by Captain Willoughby in that every House in the Town was a Fort he drew off being perswaded to a Composition to be paid in Money within two months which he never got And at the Lord Presidents return to Athlone the Soldiers Mutini'd both Officers and Soldiers offering to go to Dublin but the Common Soldiers being very weak not able to draw into a considerable Body the Irish Kerns killing all sick and fainty persons that could not accompany the Body of the Army that intent for the present was deferr'd though not long after they return'd with Sir Richard Greenvile whose seasonable relief and the Battel of Raconnel will be mention'd in its due place Whilst the Lord Forbes sail'd up Limerick River relieving some Places and without much opposition took in Fits-Geralds the Knight of the Valley or Glyn Castle furnish'd with all Utensils and Provisions for a Family About the 20th of June 700 Foot and two Troops of Horse under the Command of Colonel Gibson went into Wickloe where the Rebels not daring to face them they got much Prey burnt many Villages and return'd with success The Kings affairs now growing every day more straitned in England than other Sir Lewis Kirk at Court withdrew Sir Henry Stradling and Kettleby from guarding the Irish Coast whereby presently after there came in both Arms and Ammunition in great quantities to Wexford as also several Irish Commanders as Preston Cullen Plunket and others who having been Colonels in France were readily entertain'd there much to the heartning of the Rebels However in Ulster the 28th of June Sir Robert Stewart and Sir William Stewart Persons deserving excellently well of the State near Raphoe got a considerable Victory over the Rebels under Sir Phelim O-Neal slaying near 2000 of them though much inferiour in number Arms and Ammunition whilst Monroe sought them towards the Newry but had not so good luck to encounter them as he had the 23d of May preceding when he gave the Irish Committee of the Parliament of England this account That with 2000 Foot and 300 Horse he beat Owen Mac-Art O-Neal Sir Phelim O-Neal and Owen Mac-Art the General 's Son being all joyn'd together with their Forces and forced them to return upon Charlemont after quitting the Generals house to be spoil'd and burnt by them with the whole Houses in Louhgall being the best Plantation in Ulster and straightest for defence of the Rebels Thus in some places whilst we find the War succeeded the Lords Justices in the midst of August suspecting Preston's Forces should increase and according to the resolution of the Parliament at Kelkenny should first gain the Out-Garrisons and then besiege Dublin were forced to require the Lord Conway to come unto their aid with 3000 Foot and all the Horse he could procure to prosecute the War in Leimster Who return'd an Answer That their Companies were so weak they could not draw them together and that the Rebels having then receiv'd new Supplies were strong and that he was engag'd to meet the Earl of Leven the Scots General to encounter Owen O-Neal with all the Forces he could get Thus that Province reserved to it self its own strength not coming in as by the Tenth Article with the Parliament of England the Scots were engaged to In Munster the Scene was hot for the Parliament of England having sent over as into Leimster several Regiments of Foot and some Troops of Horse unto Sir William St. Leger Knight who having long serv'd in the Low-Countreys with singular reputation was some years before the Rebellion made Lord President of Munster a Command he discharg'd with much vigilance and courage in as much as the Enemy now fear'd no man more What he did upon the first breaking out of the Rebellion in hope to have stopt its current in that Province we have already mention'd and should have told you that the State to impower him thereunto admitted him to raise a Regiment of Foot consisting of 1000 men and two Troops of Horse 60 to each Troop which afterwards besides the supplies mention'd were listed in his Majesties Musters with Pay accordingly But the Design being general Munster at length was as well disturb'd as the rest of the Kingdom Cashel Clonmel Dungarvan and Featherd with other Places were all on an easie summons soon yielded to the Rebels raging through the Countrey which the Lord President endeavour'd to suppress as far as those small Forces he had with him would admit resolving near Redsheard to have given them Battle having at that time in his company the Earl of Barrymore the Lord Dungarvan the Lord Broghil Sir Hardress Waller Sir Edward Denny Serjeant Major Searl Sir John Brown Captain William Kingsmil with 600 Foot and 300 Horse But the Rebels on the other side the Mountain privately avoided them though four to one and getting to Cashel held there a general Rendezvous from whence Mountgarret went with his Forces to Kilmallock a Town treacherously surrendred to the Rebels a little before on demand situated on the Frontiers of the County of Limmerick towards Cork environ'd with a strong Wall which held out Loyally for the Crown all Tyrone's Wars though sometimes strongly besieged and highly distressed And the 9th of February 1641. he went to Butavant where the Gentry from all parts appear'd It is an antient Town belonging to the Earl of Barrimore in the Barony of Orrory an old Nest of Abbots Friers and Priests There the General Mountgarret exercis'd his greatness with reserv'd gravity and distance so as none except Serjeant Major Purcel who had now joyn'd himself with the Confederates contrary to the expectation the Lord President had of him were admitted to any Command in the Army more then they had over the Men they brought
Walls of Cork with great Forces not far from whence the Confederates promising General Garret Barry with the consent of his Council of War the Lord Muskery and others planted his Camp at Rochforts Town holding thereby Cork in a manner besieg'd on the North-side whilst my Lord Roch the Lord of Ikern Dunboin the Baron of Loghmo Mr. Richard Butler with the Tipperary Forces were drawing down on the South till by the valour of those few English then in Town viz. the Lord Inchiquin Col. Vavasor and 400 Musketeers and 90 Horse they were beaten off with the loss of 200 of their Men their Tents and whole Bag and Baggage being taken In the whole Service Sir William St. Leger as long as he had health was active with the meanest Officers of the Army doing many times a private Soldiers duty as well as a careful Generals But finding at length the Rebels multitudes to increase and his Men to decay even in being victorious and the Supplies of Men and Money with Provisions which he expected out of England to come over very slowly and far short of what the necessities of that Province required well understanding too the difference then in England betwixt his Majesty and the Parliament and what were the designs of some putting fair Glosses on the Rebellion of Ireland which his Soul apprehended as one of the most detestable Insurrections of the World These things so troubled his Spirit as being discouraged in the desperate undertakings necessity and the honour of his Nation put him daily upon so deep an impression fixed in his mind as the distemper of his body increasing he wasted away and died at his house at Downrallie four miles from Cork in the County of Cork 1642. and was there buried a little before whose death he writ the second of April 1642. a most significant Letter to the Lord Lieutenant touching the Affairs of that Province and his utter detestation of the Rebels Remonstrance sent him after a motion made for a Cessation which he would have seconded with further testimony of his aversion to their insolency as would have tended much to their dis-encouragement had he been enabled with any reasonable strength so to have done The Command of the Forces in this Province was after the death of Sir William St. Leger for the present by the Lords Justices and Council committed to the Lord Inchequin who had married his Daughter and during his Father in Law 's life had shewed himself very forward in several Services against the Rebels He was a meer Irish-man of the antient Family of O-Brian's but bred up a Protestant and one that had given good testimony of the truth of his Profession as his hatred and detestation of his Countrey-mens Rebellion and having match'd into the Lord President 's Family was held the fittest Person to cast the Command upon till there were another Lord President made by the King or he confirm'd by his Majesty in that Province In the mean time the Lord Inchequin takes some opportunity and having beaten the Rebels Forces at the Battel of Liscarrol in the County of Cork got great reputation by that action The Battel was fought on Saturday the 3d. of September 1642. in which on the English Party was kill'd Lewis Boyle Lord Viscount Kynalmeaky second Son to the late Earl and Brother to this of Cork who behav'd himself most nobly in that Expedition and was buried at Youghall in his Fathers Tomb. And on the Irish side was slain Captain Oliver Stephenson Grandson of him who in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth had done eminent service in the Wars against the Earl of Desmond And afterwards the Division increasing in England the sending over a new Lord President was neglected so as the Lord Inchequin continu'd in the Government managing affairs there sometimes for the King against the Parliament sometimes for the Parliament against the King as he conceiv'd might bring on the absolute settlement of that Government upon himself of whom we shall speak more hereafter And now having shewed you the effects of the English Courage strangely reviv'd and managed against the Rebels it will be seasonable to acquaint you by what means the Forces there have been animated to so eminent a Service You have already read the generous resolutions of the Parliament in England upon the first discovery of the Rebellion as the encouragement his Majesty gave them upon his first and second appearance in the House of Lords after his return from Scotland And you have read if it would have been admitted how he would have adventured his Royal Person thither and have rais'd 10000 English Volunteers speedily for that Service if so the House of Commons would have declared that they would pay them which would not be accepted but instead thereof the 24th of January following the Town and Castle of Carickfergus were advised by the two Houses to be given in Command and Keeping to the Scots 2500 of which were to be transported thither and paid by England so as to be accountable according to their Order the 22. of Jan. to the King and Parliament and the Lord General in his Place for all their actions in that Service Which his Majesty was loath to grant as prejudicial to the Crown of England and employing too great trust for Auxiliary Forces Though at the importunity of the Parliament it was so setled at Windsor the 27th of January 1641. But what service the Scots did in those Parts more than subsist by English Pay deserves an enquiry It will now be convenient to acquaint you that after many necessary Propositions to the King from the Parliament passionately affected with the miseries of Ireland it was in the Petition of the House of Commons December the first mov'd That his Majesty would be pleas'd to forbear to alienate any of the Forfeited or Escheated Lands in Ireland which shall accrue to the Crown by reason of this Rebellion that out of these the Crown may be the better supported and some satisfaction made to his Subjects of this Kingdom England for the great Expences they were like to undergo in this War To which his Majesty answer'd That concerning Ireland he understood their desire of not alienating the forfeited Lands thereof to proceed from their much care and love and likewise that it might be a Resolution very fit for him to take But whether it be seasonable to declare resolutions of that nature before the event of a War be seen that he much doubted Howsoever we cannot repli'd his Majesty but thank you for this care and your chearful Engagement for the suppression of that Rebellion upon the speedy effecting whereof the Glory of God in the Protestant Profession the safety of the British there our Honour and that of the Nation so much depends all the Interests of this Kingdom being so involv'd in that business We cannot but quicken your affections therein and shall desire you to frame your
Councils and to give such Expedition to the Work as the nature thereof and the pressures in point of time require and whereof you are daily put in mind by the insolencies and increase of the Rebels Upon which the Parliament willing to omit no time precious in so weighty a Concern past a Bill of Loan towards the Relief of Ireland beginning thus Whereas sit hence the beginning of the late Rebellion in Ireland divers cruel Murthers and Massacres of the Protestants there have been and are daily committed by Popish Rebels in that Kingdom by occasion whereof great multitudes of Godly and Religious People there inhabiting together with their Wives Children and Families for the preservation of their Lives have been enforced to forsake their Habitations Means and Livelihood in that Kingdom and to flee for succour into several parts of his Majesties Realm of England and Dominion of Wales having nothing left to depend upon but the charitable Benevolence of well-disposed Persons The Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament taking the same into their charitable considerations for the Honour of Almighty God and the preservation of the true Protestant Religion and Professors thereof have resolv'd presently themselves to contribute towards the necessities of the said poor distressed Christians who being many in number it is thought expedient that through all his Majesties Realm of England and Dominion of Wales a general Collection should be with all expedition made for that purpose c. Other Expedients considering the state of the Kingdom at that time not being convenient to be urg'd the effect of which was incredible so vast and free a Sum flowing in thereupon as nothing but a compassionate sense of the sufferings of their Brethren and a duty to their Religion could ever have rais'd so much Yet that being short of their Exigencies the State was then forc'd to another Act pass'd for Subscriptions on certain Propositions for Lands of the Rebels in Ireland To which those of the United Provinces of Holland were also encourag'd by a Declaration of both Houses the 2d of Feb. 1642. which is worthy often to be considered but being long though excellently and with much caution pen'd we shall refer you to the Act it self Anno 17. Carol. primi Immediately upon which Act divers Captains entertain'd for the Irish service adventur'd their first 6 Months Pay upon the Propositions Yet before these Propositions could be brought into an Act that no time in so great a Concern might be omitted both Houses of Parliament joyn'd in a Letter to the High Sheriffs of England that they might publish at the ensuing Lent-Assizes all the Propositions touching his Majesty's Promise to pass the two Millions and half of Acres of Land in Ireland for an encouragement to such as should in the interim subscribe After which the Act fore-mention'd immediately ensued upon the passing of which Act these subscrib'd in the House of Commons Mr. Walter Long 1200 l. Sir Robert Pie 1000 l. the 8th of March 1641. Mr. Samuel Vassall 1200 l. Sir Samuel Rolls of Devon 1000 l. William Lord Munson 2400 l. Sir John Harrison 1200 l. the 19th of March Sir William Brereton 1000 l. the 21. of March Sir Edward Aishcough 600 l. Mr. John and Mr. Edward Ash 1200 l. the 24th of March Sir Gilbert Pickering 600 l. the 25th of March 1642. Sir John Clotworthy in Money 500 l. Sir John Clotworthy for his Entertainment as Colonel in the Irish Wars 500 l. Mr. Henry Martin 1200 l. the 26th of March Mr. Arthur Goodwin 1800 l. Sir Arthur Haslerigge of Leicestershire 1200 l. Mr. Robert Reynolds 1200 l. Sir Robert Parkhurst 1000 l. Sir Thomas Dacres 600 l. Sir John Pots 600 l. Sir Arthur Ingram 1000 l. Dr. Thomas Eden 600 l. Mr. Oliver Cromwel 500 l. Mr. Nathaniel Fines 600 l. Mr. John Pym 600 l. Sir Walter Earle 600 l. Mr. Cornelius Holland 600 l. Sir John Northcot 450 l. Mr. Roger Matthew 300 l. Sir Nathaniel Bernardston 600 l. Sir William Masham 600 l. Sir Martin Lomley for Martin Lomley Esq his Son 1200 l. Mr. Thomas Hoyle of York 600 l. Mr. Anthony Bedingfield and Mr. William Cage 700 l. Sir William Allenson of York 600 l. Mr. William Havengham 600 l. Mr. Harbert Morley 600 l. Sir William Morley 1200 l. Sir John Culpeper 600 l. Sir Edward Partherick 600 l. Richard Shuttleworth Esq 600 l. Mr. John More and Mr. William Thomas 600 l. Mr. John Lisle 600 l. Mr. John Blackston 600 l. Sir Gilbert Gerrard 2000 l. Mr. Bulstrod Whitlock 600 l. Sir Edmond Momford and Mr. Richard Harman 600 l. Mr. John Trenchard 600 l. Mr. John Gurdon 1000 l. Mr. John Barker 1000 l. Mr. William Harrison 600 l. the 29th of March Mr. John Wilde Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Lane 1000 l. Nathaniel Hallows of Derby for himself and others 1400 l. John Franklin 600 l. Mr. George Buller of the County of Cornwal 600 l. Sir Henry Mildmay 600 l. the 1. of April Mr. Oliver St. John 600 l. Sir John Wray 600 l. Sir Thomas Barrington 1200 l. Mr. Robert Goodwin and Mr. John Goodwin 600 l. the 2. of April Mr. Denzil Hollis 1000 l. Mr. John Crew 600 l. Sir John Peyton 600 l. the 4th of April Sir William Plactors 600 l. Sir William Strickland 600 l. Sir Thomas Savine 1000 l. Alexander and Squire Bence 600 l. Mr. John Rolls of Devon 450 l. Mr. John Hampden 1000 l. Mr. William Jesson 300 l. Sir Edward Baynton 600 l. Thomas Lord Wenman and Mr. Richard Winwood 1200 l. the 5th of April Sir William Drake 600 l. Mr. William Spurstow 600 l. Sir John Welyn of Godstow in the County of Surrey for himself and others 1500 l. the 7th of April Mr. Miles Corbet 200 l. the 9th of April And that this intended Design might proceed till the whole made up a considerable sum the Gentlemen of the County of Buckingham freely offer'd unto the House of Commons to lend 6000 l. upon the Act of Contribution for the Affairs of Ireland and to pay in the same before the first of May 1642. which the House took in very good part and accepted of and order'd the 9th of April 1642. that the said 6000 l. should be repaid out of the first Moneys that shall be rais'd in that County upon the Bill of 400000 l. and that Mr. Hampden Mr. Goodwin Mr. Winwood and Mr. Whitlock should return thanks to the County of Bucks from this House for their kind offer and acceptable service And it was further order'd and declared by the House of Commons That if any other County or Persons shall do the like it will be kindly accepted of by them and that the Moneys so lent shall be repaid them with Interest if they desire it out of the Moneys that shall be rais'd in those Counties where such Persons inhabit out of the Bill of 400000 l. To strengthen which precedent Act for Subscriptions c. there was an
were in assuring them that without further Supplies of all kinds the Soldiers being so unruly as the Lieutenant General the 23d of May 1642. was forc'd to publish a sharp Proclamation against their exorbitancies it was not possible for them to carry on the War or to hinder the Incursions of the Rebels even into those parts which they had recovered out of their hands thought fit to take another course for the present And that the Forces they had in Ireland might be ready for action and in the mean time not wholely unserviceable they allotted after no little opposition to the contrary to several Captains and other Officers of the Army such convenient Houses and Villages as they had taken from the Rebels giving them leave to carry their several Troops and Companies under their Command to Quarter in them by which means they freed themselves from the present Charge of providing Victuals for them forcing them to live upon the spoils of their Enemies which they quickly found the way to do and made themselves Masters of all the Cattel and other Substance of those that lived within reasonable distance of them By which means all the considerable Places belonging to the Rebels within twenty miles of Dublin came to be in the hands of the Soldiers as having them granted by way of Custodium for the present unto them an Expedient acceptable to the Officers and extremely prejudicial to the Rebels The 10th of June the Lords Justices and Council finding themselves much prejudic'd by their Protections they had given to many who under pretext of labouring at the Plow had their Weapons hidden near them to cut off stragling Soldiers and Protestants as they passed by them single The State to prevent such inconveniencies withdrew their former Protections by a Proclamation of that Date A circumstance much insisted on by the Rebels but the Reasons of the State will best appear by their Proclamation no Protection being ever violated by the State with their privity or revoked but on time given And now that the State of Ireland might have the less charge upon them they thought it convenient to send the Lord Mac-Guire and Mac-Mahon into England whose Fates I shall here give you a particular account of though they suffered not till some years after Mac-Guire was one principally design'd for the surprizal of the Castle of Dublin and the securing or murthering of the Lords Justices and Council for which intent he came purposely the day before to Dublin but the Plot being that night detected he fled disguised from his usual Lodgings at one Nevils a Chirurgeon in Castle-street and secretly hid himself at one Kerns a Tailor in Cook-street where he was found in a Cock-loft by Mr. John Woodcock one of the Sheriffs of Dublin standing with his Cloak wrapped about him in an obscure place in which posture he was apprehended and brought before the Lords Justices and Council to whom he confessed sufficient to be committed to the Castle the 23d of October about the time he intended to have perpetrated his Villany in that Place from whence the 12th of June 1642. after several Examinations had of his Guiltiness he with Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon was sent into England where they both continued Prisoners some years in the Tower of London whence they made an escape the 18th of August 1644. and were retaken the 20th of October following Strange that in such a time they could not secure their Escape but vengeance would not suffer them to live Mac-Mahon in Michaelmass-Term the 18th of November that year was tried at the Kings-Bench-Bar in Westminster-Hall and shortly after executed at Tyburn Whilst the Lord Mac-Guire made such a defence for himself as his final Trial was not till the 10th and 11th of February 1644. in Hilary-Term at which time he was brought to the Kings-Bench where after his Indictment read for conspiring to disinherit the Kings Majesty to raise Sedition and breed a miserable slaughter amongst the Kings Subjects he first mov'd to have his Peers being Baron of Inskillin in Ireland and forceably brought to Westminster for that none ought to be condemn'd but by such in pursuance of which he pleaded the Statute the 10th of H. 7. whereby all the Statutes made in England should from thence-forth be in force in Ireland Upon which the King's Council Serjeant Roll and Whitfield beside Pryn and Nudigate demurr'd and the Defendant joyn'd in the Demurrer At length Judge Bacon declar'd that an Irish Baron was triable by a Jury in England so the Lord Grey was tried for Acts done in Ireland upon which an Order pass'd the 10th of February by the Lords and Commons for his Trial at which he desir'd respite for the summoning of his Witnesses which in consideration that his Lordship had had long time to expect his Trial and that no Witnesses could say any thing against what the Witnesses on the Kings side could prove was deni'd Afterwards he made a general Challenge against 23 that were Empannel'd for the first Jury which peremptory Challenge was accepted the Law allowing it And the Prisoner for that time was discharg'd with a Command to be brought again the next day which was done accordingly Then he mov'd that his Plea of Peerage might be referr'd to another Court or to the Lords but that was deni'd for that he had put himself on the Countrey besides the Lords and Commons had order'd his Trial. Then another Jury was nam'd which his Lordship accepted against for that he conceiv'd it not fit that those who had bought his Land should pass upon his Trial. To clear which after some heats in arguing betwixt the Kings Council and the Defendant the Judge consented that the Jury should be required upon Oath to answer whether any of them had any Adventure or share of the Rebels Lands in Ireland Which being answer'd in the Negative the Court proceeded and he being in several Circumstances besides his Confession found Guilty the Judge demanded why Sentence should not pass against him his Lordship amongst other things too tedious and of little concern to mention desir'd to know by what Seal the Judge proceeded against him Who answer'd By the Old and Order of Parliament To which the Lord Mac-Guire repli'd That under favour he conceiv'd that the Ordinance of Parliament for a new Great Seal made the old invalid To which the Judge repli'd That he acted by the old Seal being made a Judge at that time Besides there is nothing saith he done in this Court by the new Seal the Sheriffs are hereby a Charter that comes in from year to year and there is no other Seal in order of Execution After which the Judge proceeded to Sentence which he heard patiently having doubtless long the Sentence of death in himself and accordingly he was Drawn Hang'd and Quarter'd at Tyburn the 20th of February 1644. But to return to the State who in the manner before mention'd continu'd the Army
Quarter'd in several Custodiums not being able by reason of the want of Money Provisions and other necessaries otherwise to furnish any part of it out in such manner as might put them in a posture to undertake any great Action abroad some in the interim improving the present necessities to the advantage of a Design then in the womb However we find that though the Parliament in England wonder'd as one in eminent Place then heard that the Army in Ireland did little Yet it was to be admired writes he they did so much considering the small means they had to effect so great things They did then abound onely in sickness and hurt men which made the Regiments and Companies very weak Monies came not in at all and for Cloathes and Shoes few or none notwithstanding they had hearts manifested by their works for no Enemy but as soon as they looked on them instead of using their Arms exercis'd their Heels no Fort or Castle which they offer'd to keep which they ever deserted or any that they attempted but yielded to them In as much as that Noble Person which observ'd this in some passion could not but take notice That if all this were nothing let it be so esteem'd The Enemy in the interim having supplies of Men and Arms. Indeed that Affairs proceeded with no currenter a pace this year many obstacles contributed thereunto The Government was in the hands of Two though in the main entirely faithful and knowing yet vastly differing in their tempers one being of a sedentary the other of an active life He allied to most of the leading Men of the Council the other onely prevalent as his Reason and Gallantry wrought on the generous Besides some had such interest else-where as all was not resented with such integrity as was meant That in the management of Affairs at the Helm Authority it self was often Eclipsed nor could any who was necessitated to hold the Reins with others possibly evade the inconveniences they were then frequently inforced upon how well soever they had been vers'd in the Art of Government some will have it that there was much artifice used to lengthen out the War For at that time whether by the Governours of the City of Dublin's omission or some other Fate upon the Army hard for me to determine the Rebels on one side came often to the Gates giving frequent Alarms and took away the Cattle from under the Walls And in Lowth the most considerable Garrison was almost destroyed through those Persons who having the Government of the County protected their Tenants nor would those that had Power to force a Supply improve their interest being better able to disperse an Enemy than disoblige a Neighbour The Scots General the Earl of Leven in the North who with the recent and veterate Soldiers made up 20000 did little desirous rather it seems to keep themselves safe in Knockfergus and the Frontiers than venture much abroad as appear'd by their repulse at Charlemont whence they retir'd with no Honour and admitted Dunganon to be re-taken by the Irish after it had been bravely recovered by the vertue of an English Gentleman Indeed the English-Scots who joyn'd with the English Regiments did excellent service and that the other fail'd may be imputed to the rawness of their Men the want of Victuals of which they stood in great need and some hardship they endur'd happily not incident to their tenderness Now for Connaght such was the carriage of some there that two compleat Regiments consisting of full 2000 Men were in six months reduc'd through want though the Countrey thereabouts was stored with all manner of Provisions not having been harrass'd by an Enemy to 600. Upon which several Articles were preferr'd by Persons of Honour against those who were charg'd with that misfortune and the business referr'd to the Council of War which wav'd their Censure and the main Parties concern'd therein voluntarily undergoing afterwards a private Duel producing no ill to either Party no more was urg'd thereupon Though as to the carriage of that business in reference to the Soldiers Clothes and Necessaries it could not easily be wip'd of nor the deserting of a Government without Orders where there was more store of Ammunition Arms and other Necessaries than Soldiers to use them However in August this year 1642. the Lord Moor Sir John Borlase jun. and Colonel Gibson with 500 Men apiece went into the Counties of Lowth and Meath with two Pieces of Battery and two Field-Pieces with which they assaulted the Castle of Sedan obstinately defended thirty hours by Captain Flemming thrice stormed who at last fought with them out of the Ruines At which time the Lords of the Pale were not so resolute the Lord Gormanston flying from the Fort of the Nabar and the Lord Slane from the Castle of Newtown thereby leaving Lowth and Meath clear'd of the Enemy who finding good heels lost 500 onely at Sedan whilst Captain Burrows Pigot and Grimes with some others defeated 800 of the Rebels near Athy and slew about 200. And now in respect that the State found great inconveniencies by the Protections the Commissioners they had formerly given authority to gave the State of the Countrey being now far different from the Condition wherein it stood 27 of October 1641. at the granting of the said Protections and that the Rebels of all Degrees and Conditions had since with hateful and bloody obstinacy declared their Purpose to extirpate the British throughout the whole Kingdom without hope of reconcilement other then by the strength of his Majesties Forces They did the 19th of August 1642. revoke repeal make void and annul all such Protections from and after ten days from the date thereof more at large to be seen in the Instrument it self in the Appendix carrying weighty reasons for that Act. The 25th of August the Lords in a Letter to Secretary Nicholas sent a Copy of the Rebels Petition together with the Rebels of the Pales Letter to the Earl of Ormond in the answer to which exceptions were taken that they had not sent the Original and with all took notice that as his Majesty would be ready to punish the Rebels so he would not shut up his mercy against those who did unfeignedly repent upon which the Original was sent and his Majesties Pardon beg'd Soon after the Lord Lisle with the men under his Command marched towards the Counties of Westmeath and Cavan where they arriv'd about the middle of September having destroyed all where they had pass'd without striking a stroak the Rebels being according to their usual Custom retired to Places of strength confiding more in their Walls then Valour wherefore passing into the County of Monaghan he sate down before Carrickmacross a house of the Earl of Essex's very well Fortified where the Rebels having endured the battery of two small Pieces of Cannon for one day fled away the next night the outward Guards of the Besiegers being
his return from Ross which in the case our Forces stood he found difficult to be taken in as though our Ordnance made a breach in their Walls it was found necessary to desert the Siege he was encountred by an Army of the Rebels consisting of about 6000 Foot and 650 Horse well arm'd and horsed yet it pleas'd God so to disappoint their Councels and strength as with those small Forces which the Lord Marquess had with him being of fighting Men 2500. and 500 Horse not well armed and for the most part weakly horsed and those as well Men as Horse much weakned by lying in the Fields several nights in much Cold and Rain and by want of Man's Meat and Horse Meat the Lord Marquess obtain'd a happy and glorious deliverance and victory against those Rebels wherein were slain about 300 of them and many of their Commanders and others of Quality and divers taken Prisoners and amongst those Prisoners Colonel Cullen a Native of this City who being a Colonel in France departed from thence and came hither to assist the Rebels and was Lieutenant General of their Army in the Province of Leimster and the Rebel's Army was totally routed and defeated and their Baggage and Ammunition seized on by his Majesty's Forces who lodged that night where they had gain'd the Victory and on our side about 20 slain in the Fight and divers wounded We have great cause to praise God for magnifying his Goodness and Mercy to his Majesty and this his Kingdom so manifestly and indeed wonderfully in that Victory However the joy due from us upon so happy an occasion is we confess mingled with very great distraction here in the apprehension of our unhappiness to be such as although the Rebels are not able to overcome his Majesty's Army and devour his other good Subjects as they desire yet both his Army and good Subjects are in danger to be devoured by the wants of needful Supplies forth of England For as we formerly signified thither Those Forces were of necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Countrey so as to keep them alive till Supplies should get to us But that Design now failing those our hopes are converted into astonishment to behold the unspeakable Miseries of the Officers and Souldiers for want of all things and all those wants made the more insupportable in the want of Food whilst the City being all the help we have is now too apparently found to be unable to help us as it hath hitherto done And divers Commanders and Officers in the Army do now so far express the sense of their Sufferings which indeed are very great and grievous as they declare That they have little hope to be supplied by the Parliament and press with great importunity to be permitted to depart this Kingdom as it will be extream difficult to keep them here By our Letters of the 23d of March we signified thither the unsupportable burthen laid on this City for victualling those of the Army left here when the Marquess of Ormond with the Forces he took with him marched hence which burthen is found every day more heavy than other in regard of the many House-keepers thereby daily breaking up House and scattering their Families leaving still fewer to bear the burthen We also by those Letters and by our Letters of the 25th of February advertised thither the high danger this Kingdom would incur if the Army so sent abroad should by any distress or through want be forced back hither again before our Relief of Victuals should arrive forth of England When we found that those Men were returning back hither although we were and are still full of distraction considering the dismal consequences threatned thereby in respect of our Wants Yet we consulted what we could yet imagine feasible that we had not formerly done to gain some Food for those Men and found that to send them or others abroad into the Countrey we cannot in regard we are not able to advance Money for procuring the many Requisits incident to such an Expedition In the end therefore we were inforced to fix on our former way and to see who had yet any thing left him untaken from him to help us and although there were but few such and some of them poor Merchants whom we have now by the Law of Necessity utterly undone and disabled from being hereafter helpful to us in bringing us in Victuals and other needful Commodities yet were we forc'd to wrest their Commodities from them And certainly there are few here of our selves and others that have not felt their Parts in the inforced rigour of our Proceedings towards preserving the Army so as what with such hard dealing not less grievous to us to do than it is heavy to others to suffer and by our descending against our hearts far below the Honour and Dignity of that Power we represent here under his Royal Majesty we have with unspeakable difficulty prevail'd so as to be able to find Bread for the Souldiers for the space of one Month. We are now expelling hence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England thousands of poor dispoil'd English whose very eating is now unsupportable to this Place And now again and finally We earnesty desire for our Confusions will not now admit the writing of many more Letters if any That his Majesty and the English Nation may not suffer so great if not irrecoverable prejudice and dishonour as must unavoidably be the consequence of our not being reliev'd suddenly but that yet although it be even now at the point to be too late Supplies of Victuals and Munition in present to be hastned hither to keep life until the rest may follow there being no Victual in the Store nor will there be a 100 Barrels of Powder left in store when the out-Garrisons as they must be instantly are supplied and that remainder according to the usual necessary expence besides extraordinary accidents will not last above a month And the residue of our Provisions must also come speedily after or otherwise England cannot hope to secure Ireland or secure themselves against Ireland but in the loss of it must look for such Enemies from hence as will perpetually disturb the Peace of his Majesty and his Kingdom of England and annoy them by Sea and Land as we often formerly represented thither which Mischiefs may yet be prevented if we be yet forthwith enabled from thence with means to overcome this Rebellion We hope that a course is taken there for hastning thither the Provisions of Arms and Munition mention'd in the Docquet sent in our Letter of the 20th of January and the 600 Horses which we then moved might be sent hither for recruits and that the 7893 l. 3 s. for Arms to be provided in Holland besides those we expect in London hath been paid to Anthony Tierens in London or to Daniel Wibrants in Amsterdam and if that Sum had been paid as
until about 20 of the Rebel's Horse escaped away together leaving the rest of their Company to be killed and taken Prisoners as they were during which time the Foot and Cannon performing well their parts drove the Enemy to shift away to save themselves which Captain Hermon seeing pursued their Rear with some Horse with which he did notable good execution and to say the truth it is probable that most of the Rebels had that day been cut off had not the un-passable deep High-way betwixt both Armies hindred our left Wing of Horse from giving on upon their side and also the disorder that hapned to the right Wing of the Horse by their unhappy wheeling to the left hand But so soon as the Officers of those Troops could reduce their Men again into order my Lord Lisle and Sir Richard Greenvile presently pursued the Enemy with 2 Troops and sent Sir William Vaughan with 2 Troops more to pursue others flying away to the right hand And having followed the chase of them about 2 or 3 miles distant from the Army the Rebels having made their escape over Bogs and un-passable Grounds for Horse our Horse were fain to leave them and return to the rest of the Army where the Cannon stood In which service were 300 of the Rebels slain amongst which were a great number of their best Gentry and Commanders There were of the Rebels taken Prisoners Colonel Cullen their Lieutenant General Major Butler besides divers other Captains and some of their Ensigns of the English Forces were slain not full 20 Men in which service Sir Thomas Lucas unhappily received a very sore wound in his head That night the English Army lodged at Ballybeggan After which time the Army march'd without molestation of any Enemy until they return'd to Dublin whether the Rear of the Army came safe on Munday the 27th of the same month 1643. Where they were again Quarter'd even to the undoing and great desolation of that poor City which had now suffered so much and so long under the burden and insolencies of unpaid wanting Soldiers as they were unable to bear it longer and with loud cries and complaints made known their Grievances to the Lords Justices and Council wholely unable to relieve them And indeed such was the posture of the present affairs at that time as every thing tended to bring on a Cessation yet for the present the Lieutenant General that the Soldiers might be quieted publish'd a strict Edict Prohibiting all Soldiers to offer the least violence to any who brought Provision to the Market or any Inhabitants of the Town under the severest Penalties of the Marshals Court which for a time begat an obedience But the Army being ill Cloath'd meanly Victuall'd worse Paid and seldom employ'd in service necessity enforc'd them to those outrages Humanity could not take notice of many of them being the effects of a very pinching want though the Lords Justices and Council to the great dislike of the Army pursued some of the Offenders with exemplary Justice A sense of which with the Meagre return which Serjeant Major Warren brought out of England on his sollicitation for the Soldiers Pay and the dissatisfaction that thence arose some of the Officers not all there was a Party that presum'd they might have gone through with the work had there not been another in the Loom afterwards presented the State the 4th of April 1643. with a Paper in such a stile threatning so much danger as the Lords Justices and Council remitted the Copy of it to the Parliament of England which here follows My Lords AT our first entrance into this unhappy Kingdom we had no other design than by our Swords to assert and vindicate the Right of his Majesty which was here most highly abused to redress the wrongs of his poor Subjects and to advance our own Particulars in the prosecution of so honest undertakings And for the rest of these we do believe they have since our coming over succeeded pretty well but for the last which concerns our selves that hath fall'n out so contrary to our expectations that instead of being rewarded we have been prejudic'd instead of getting a Fortune we have spent part of one And though we behave our selves never so well abroad and perform the actions of honest men yet we have the Reward of Rogues and Rebels which is Misery and Want when we come home Now my Lords although we be brought to so great an Exigence that we are ready to rob and spoil one another yet to prevent such outrages we thought it better to try all honest means for our subsistence before we take such indirect courses Therefore if your Lordships will be pleased to take us timely into your considerations before our urgent wants make us desperate we will as we have done hitherto serve your Lordships readily and faithfully But if your Lordships will not find a way for our preservations here we humbly desire we may have leave to go where we may have a better being And if your Lordships shall refuse to grant that we must then take leave to have our recourse to that first and primary Law which God hath endued all men with we mean the Law of Nature which teacheth all men to preserve themselves Hence with what countenance some gave it it was thought the Rebels as to the bringing in of the Cessation and their further Aims prevail'd more than in all their Battels Treacheries and Surprizals About Easter the Rebels under Preston besieg'd Baranokil at which time even the 11th of April Colonel Crafford march'd forth of Dublin with 13000 Foot and 130 Horse a Culvering and a Saker Drake towards Monastar-Even that with his Party he might there live and if he should be advised by the Garrisons thereab outs he had Orders to set upon Preston who had with him 4000 Foot 500 Horse three Pieces of Battery and four Field-Pieces But here we must acquaint you that about November 1642. the Lords Justices sent his Majesty then at Oxford a short Petition in the name of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland which they had received from them desiring that his Majesty would appoint some persons to hear what they could say for themselves with many expressions of Duty and Submission Shortly after which Sir James Mountgomery Sir Hardress Waller Knights and Colonels Colonel Arthur Hill and Colonel Audley Mervin a Committee for Ireland in behalf of themselves and other Commanders in his Majesties Army there attended his Majesty at Oxford setting forth by their Petition as follows May it please your Sacred Majesty WE your Majesties most humble Subjects being entrusted from considerable parts of your Majesties Forces in the Kingdom of Ireland to petition your Majesty and your Parliament for Supplies and finding that your Majesty had committed the care and managing of that War to your Parliament here we address'd our selves unto the same whose sense of our miseries and inclination to redress appear'd
very tender unto us But the present distempers of this your Majesties Kingdom of England to our unspeakable grief are grown so great that all future passages by which comfort and life should be conveyed to that gasping Kingdom seem totally to be obstructed so that unless your Gracious Majesty out of your singular Wisdom and Fatherly Care apply some speedy Remedy We your distressed and loyal Subjects of that Kingdom must inevitably perish Our condition represents unto your Majesty the estate of all your Majesties faithful Protestant Subjects in Ireland the influence of Princely favour and goodness so actively distill'd upon your Kingdom of Ireland before the birth of this monstrous Rebellion there and since the same so abundantly express'd in Characters of a deep sense and lively presentment of the bleeding condition thereof gives us hope in this our deplorable extremity to address our selves unto your Sacred Throne humbly beseeching that it may please your Gracious Majesty amongst your other weighty cares so to reflect upon the bleeding condition of that perishing Kingdom that timely relief may be offered otherwise your Loyal Subjects there must yield their Fortunes a Prey their Lives a Sacrifice and their Religion a Scorn to the merciless Rebels powerfully assisted from Abroad Whilst we live we rest in your Majesties Protection if our deaths are design'd in that Cause we will die in your obedience living and dying ever praying for your Majesties long and prosperous Reign over us Montgomery Hard. Waller Arth. Hill Aud. Mervin Unto which his Majesty by his Principal Secretary the Lord Faulkland return'd this Answer from the Court at Oxford the 1st of December 1642. His Majesty hath expresly commanded me to give this Answer to this Petition THat his Majesty hath since the beginning of that monstrous Rebellion had no greater sorrow than for the bleeding condition of that his Kingdom and as he hath by all means labour'd that timely relief might be afforded to the same and consented to all Propositions how disadvantagious soever to himself that have been offer'd him for that purpose and at first recommended their condition to both his Houses of Parliament and immediately of his own meer motion sent over several Commissions and caused some proportion of Arms and Ammunition which the Petitioners well know to have been a great support to the Northern parts of that Kingdom to be conveyed to them out of Scotland and offered to find 10000 Volunteers to undertake that War but hath often since prest by many several Messages that sufficient Succours might be hastned thither and other matters of smaller importance laid by which did divert it and offered and most really intended in his own Royal Person to have undergone the danger of that War for the defence of his good Subjects and the chastisement of those perfidious and barbarous Rebels and in his several Expressions of his desires of Treaty and Peace hath declared the miserable present condition and certain future loss of Ireland to be one of his principal Motives most earnestly to desire that the present Distractions of this Kingdom might be compos'd and that others would concur with him to the same end So his Majesty is well pleas'd that his Offers Concurrence Actions and Expressions are so rightly understood by the Petitioners and those who have employ'd them notwithstanding the groundless and horrid Aspersions which have been cast upon him but wishes that instead of a meer general Complaint to which his Majesty can make no return but of Compassion they could have digested and offered to him any such desires by consenting to which he might convey at least in some degree comfort and life to that gasping Kingdom preserve his distressed and Loyal Subjects of the same from inevitably perishing and the true Protestant Religion from being scorn'd and trampled on by those merciless and Idolatrous Rebels And if the Petitioners can yet think on any such and propose them to his Majesty he assures them that by his readiness to consent and his thanks to them for the proposal he will make it appear to them that their most pressing personal sufferings cannot make them more desirous of relief than his care of the true Religion and of his faithful Subjects and of that Duty which obliges him to his Power to protect both renders him desirous to afford it to them Faulkland Upon the Petition of the Confederates of Ireland his Majesty granted a Commission to the Marquis of Ormond to meet and hear what the Rebels could say or propound for themselves by vertue of which the Earl of St. Albans and Clanrickard the Earl of Roscommon Sir Maurite Eustace and other his Majesties Commissioners met at Trim to whom the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Commissioners the Lord Viscount Gormanston Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Robert Talbot Baronet and John Walsh Esq produced a Remonstrance the 17th of March 1642. to be presented to his most Excellent Majesty by the name of The Remonstrance of Grievances presented to his Majesty in the name of the Catholicks of Ireland Yet though as you see this Remonstrance was solemnly received by his Majesties Commissioners and by them transmitted to his Majesty as before had been the presumptious Propositions from Cavan the Letter of the Farrals to the Lord Costilough Dr. Cale's Agency from the Rebels the United Lords Letter to the Earl of Castlehaven and the Lord Mountgarret's to the Lieutenant General and all other Addresses to the State as afterwards the Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland even to his Majesty by their Agents to himself at Oxford Yet the bleeding Iphigenia abounds in so much Impudence as to affirm that to this day the 23d of December 1674. they were not heard to speak for themselves Shameless Soul The Commission from his Majesty that the Rebels might be heard was brought over and confidently delivered at the Council-board the 22. of January by Thomas Bourk Esq a Contriver of the Rebellion to the amazement of All not acquainted with the Plot. In the Remonstrance there are pieced together saith that excellent and judicious Person who knew as well their Sophistry as the States Interest so many vain inconsiderable fancies many subsequent passages acted in the prosecution of the War and such bold false notorious Assertions without any the least ground or colour of truth as without all doubt they absolutely resolv'd first to raise this Rebellion and then to set their Lawyers and Clergy on work to frame such Reasons and Motives as might with some colour of justification serve for Arguments to defend it It is indeed to speak plainly a most infamous Pamphlet full fraught with scandalous aspersions cast upon the present Government and his Majesties Principal Officers of State within this Kingdom it was certainly framed with most virulent intentions not to present their condition and present sufferings to his Majesty but that it might be dispers'd to gain belief amongst Foreign States abroad as well as
took in the Castles of Timolege Roscarby and Rathbarry in the West and Lismore nobly defended it self under Captain Barderoe whilst the Lord Inchequin appearing with 2500 Horse and Foot rais'd the Siege whose Army upon news of the Cessation drew off then ready to give Battle In Connaght after the Battle of Raconnel till Midsummer there was not any considerable service done by our Souldiers and the Enemy either kept close in Garrisons or was drawn off to the Siege of Galloway's Fort And now the Enemies finding that without the Command of some experienc'd General and the uniting of their Forces they were able to do little yea not to defend themselves they got for Commander John Bourk or as they more commonly called him Shane O-Tlevij descended from the Bourks of Castle Barr or if you please of the Mac Williams His first exploit was against the Fort of Galloway to the taking and demolishing of which the Townsmen contributed both with Bodies and Purse very largely they wanted good battering Guns and therefore resolv'd to take it by Famine it being but poorly provided by such as the Parliament appointed to bring timely supplies by Sea knowing that in it they should get battering Guns to take in the rest of the English Garrisons in that Province To this end they made a Chain of Masts Casks and Iron across that part of the Harbour next to the Fort and planted strong Guards at each end of it They prepared some few Ship-Guns and a Morter-Piece which was well cast by a Runnagate out of the Lord Forbes Ships which afterwards they made use of at the Siege of Castle Coot so that with much Industry rather then Gallantry they at length got the Fort by Composition its Relief coming too late into the Harbour The event of which so much struck the Governour as he did not many months after survive the loss Upon the taking of the Fort the Irish were overjoy'd to be Masters of so many brave Guns and thought that the Reputation of this and the help of the Guns would reduce suddainly all Connaght they resolv'd first to fall on Castle Coot the most painant thorn in their side being confident that upon their success there they might in all probability expect to have the rest not because it had any great strength in its Walls but was well mann'd and vigilantly attended though with 4000 Horse and Foot and answerable Accommodations of War they question'd not but to Master it soon having Preston's Engineer Monsieur La Loo an expert Low-Countrey Souldier to manage their Works who upon the knowledge of the situation of the Place question'd not its surrender Galloway having for Fireworks and fitting expedients for that service furnished him with 300 l. However though they had made as regular and handsom a Fortification about the Castle as ever was attempted in Ireland yet the Garrison so nobly attack'd each Redoubt that thence ensued many brave Attempts much certainly to the prejudice of the Besieged the Garrison maintaining their own against all the Attempts the Besiegers ever adventur'd which in truth were many not without Skill as well as Courage maintain'd in as much as the Governour Captain Richard Coot since Lord Baron of Coloony having sent forth a private Messenger to Major Ormsby who before with the help of the English Garrisons had very successfully beaten Owen Roe-O-Neal out of the Province with great loss coming to set upon Boyle Jamestown Carrickdrumzoosh and Elphin at Tulsol to inform him of his wants very carefully consulted with Boyle and Roscommon who joyntly agreed upon a private Sign to relieve them of Castle Coot which the Enemy having notice of by one whom the Garrison had familiarly entertain'd the Treachery on the Enemies side was carried on as they set forth two parties as if one had made to the Castles Relief whilst the other oppos'd it to the countenance of which the Governour being from the Walls encouraged by the Souldiers though against his own suspicions adventured forth with 60 Musketiers but soon found the deceit of the business The Enemy all this while having skirmish with themselves as two Parties who now joyntly fall upon the Governour with those he drew out who so gallantly oppos'd them though in compute not less then 700 Men as they retired to their Camp and he secured his Retreat with much Honour to his Castle The Enemy in the Interim making a bold assault on the other part of the Castle which he came time enough to relieve beating off the Enemy with a considerable loss and having slain many of their men caus'd them decently to be laid out not beheaded as the Irish barbarously are accustomed to do for which their General sent him a Present of Tobacco then very acceptable However afterwards he beat them to inaccessible Places in Bogs and Woods their usual Refuge and recover'd at that time store of Tobacco Cloaths and 11 weeks Pay newly come to satisfie their Souldiers Yet they hearing of the Cessation but not yet having an Express from the Marquiss of Ormond more violently then ever shot at the Castle and having now a Messenger of the Cessation they so far suspected him as a spy as they imprison'd him endeavouring still to gain the Castle but finding their attempts vain Forces from Boyle Roscommon c. faithfully having relieved the Castle all joyntly gallantly set on the Rebels which their General perceiving grew so much enraged against his Souldiers as to profess he had rather be Captain of the 200 in the Garrison then General of the 3000 he had so as at length the Governour as well as Bourk having an Express from the Marquiss of Ormond both acquiess'd therein Thus his Majesties Forces where they were unanimous vigorously proceeded nay should I adventure to recount all their actions time would fail we are obliged to be brief though in omitting any injuries may be done excellent Persons whose pardons I beg whilst they had no better supplies then other Places However the necessities of the Army were daily aggravated yet they in some mens opinion not seeming sufficient to bring on a Cessation such as were principal opposers of it were thought requisite to be remov'd And the 23. of April 1643. Sir Francis Butler arriv'd from England with a Supersedeas for the Lord Parson's Government and a Commission to the Lord Borlase and Sir Henry Tichborn to be Lords Justices who accordingly the first of May were instituted in the Government Who betwixtthe unpaid and Refractory Souldiers and the difficulties that arose about the Cessation which they were to consent to but acted little in encountred no small difficulties in their Government whatever censure it hath since met with Soon after their admission fresh hopes of a more plentiful Supply exceedingly cheer'd the Souldiers but that failing Murmures Mutinies and a discontented Spirit raged every where highly fomented that necessity might be a main plea for the Cessation of which his Majesty
an Alarm even in the streets of Dublin who were gallantly repulsed by Colonel Crafford's Men killing 20 of them the Rebels by that means doing no more hurt than plundering and firing some few thatcht Houses All things tending to a Cessation the State held it their best policy not to retain their Forces wholly in their Garrisons and therefore though they had slender Provisions and less Treasure to encourage the Souldiers abroad the 27th of June 1643. Colonel Monk with 1300 Foot and 140 Horse was sent against Preston strengthned by Owen O Neal whom he encountred near Castle Jordan at a Pass upon the River Boine being 5 or 600 Horse and 6000 Foot putting his Foot to rout and killing many of his Men Yet for want of Provision he was forced to leave Clancurry and turn to Wickloe where he got store of Cattel But thence he was soon recalled to face the Rebels in Meath and hearing of Neal's Forces about Port Leicester Mill a great and secure Fastness near 5 miles Westward from Trim he with the Lord Moor vigilantly attended their motion But so it fell out that the Lord Moor observing Neal's encamping there had some notice of his levelling a Piece of Cannon towards his Army yet was so little concern'd at the advice danger in that Cause being never apprehended as after that the Bullet had once if not twice grazed he with other Gentlemen who were not without of what might ensue and intimated their suspicions still travers'd the Ground till most unfortunately the Bullet forc'd its passage through his Armour into his Body but was not of strength sufficient to go through however it there slew him upon whose Fall one readier to shew some sallies of Wit than Skill obtrudes this Distich Contra Romanos Mores res mira Dynasta Morus ab Eugenio canonizatus erat In Answer to which one readily writes this Olim Roma pios truculenta morte beavit Antiquos mores jam nova Roma tenet This Noble Gentleman was the first that adventur'd in this Cause and the last Victime under his Majesty's Commission a Gentleman of clear Spirit and Integrity He fell not many days before the Cessation which by several even of the Privy Council themselves was much disliked nor indeed till some of those were remov'd from the Council Board the Reasons they gave in being un-answerable could the Cessation be brought on without opposition and then not so easily as some thought many difficulties and those not easie to reconcile in reference to his Majesty's Exigencies and the Interest of the distressed Protestants pressing in on every Dispute Now the Parliament in England conceiving themselves much interess'd in the Affairs of Ireland as already hath been said to advise order and dispose of all things concerning the Government and Defence of that Kingdom made the 30th of September 1643. not knowing that the Cessation had been then 15 days before concluded a Declaration against any Cessation or a Treaty of Peace with the Rebels in Ireland for that amongst many other Reasons the Cessation would be for the preservation of the Rebels and Papists only who under pretexts of civil Contracts would continue their Antichristian Idolatry Besides several Commissioners of both Houses of Parliament who by the Broad Seal the publick Faith of the State were intrusted with the Irish Affairs would by the Cessation be further dis-enabled to Act and the Adventurers who had so many Acts for their Security would by a Cessation be disappointed as the exiled Protestants turn'd out of their Habitations be thereby continued in misery and want Whilst these things were thought on in England the People of Ireland who took a liberty at the uncertainty of Affairs were strangely divided whether the Cessation should be concluded or no. Some who were sensibly touch'd with the Injuries and Cruelties of the Rebels could not brook it others hoping for their advantage by the Change daily expected it whilst the City in general being burthen'd with Taxes quartering of Souldiers c. having no hopes of Relief from abroad willingly hearkned to their Freedom so as now the strong Affections which had been commonly born against the Rebels began to wither into an indifferency and the course which had been then took to weather out the resolute either for despair or terrour humbled many and as Interest lay several resolv'd what Party to take in England upon the conclusion of the Cessation And that the Cessation might be put forward his Majesty writ to the Lords Justices and the Marquis of Ormond from his Court at Matson the 25th of August the 19th year of his Reign which came not to them till the 26th of September eleven days after the Cessation was concluded Authorizing them or any two of them to treat and conclude for him and in his name with his Subjects then in Arms in that his Kingdom for a Cessation of Arms for one whole year But before this Letter arriv'd the Treaty at Sigginstown began with the Confederates Commissioners by vertue of the Letter the Marquis had formerly received from his Majesty dated at Oxford the 31. of July 1643. who to that purpose order'd a Commission dated at Dublin under the Broad Seal the last of August 1643 in the 19th year of his Majesties Reign to conclude the Cessation with the Irish Commissioners who the 26th of August 1643. having met the Marquis of Ormond Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army there where insisting upon the Name Title and Protestation which at first they had assum'd not permitted of by the Marquis of Ormond they proceeded The Enemy in the interim besieging Tully and afterwards taking it even whilst his Majesties Commission of Grace was not far thence in execution and in all places they shewed themselves most active endeavouring either to surprize force or gain by allurements what they could exceedingly animated with hopes of a Cessation that upon its conclusion what was in their power might be peaceably possess'd During which Treaty many difficulties arose one whether in this or the former Treaty I am not certain was much insisted on viz. How the several Indictments and Outlawries against the Irish might be repealed After some dispute at length Plunket one of the Irish Agents told them He had found a Remedy the Judges before whom they were Indicted might be summon'd to the Star-Chamber and there be Fined And there replied one who is seldom found to sign any Act of State till the Cessation was concluded all that are concern'd may be confident to find reparation This the Lord Chief Justice Shurley thought reflected upon him who thereupon express'd much courage and integrity And the Dispute fell And the 15th of September 1643. the Cessation was concluded by the Marquis of Ormond who for his Courage Affection and Loyalty his Majesty had made his Lieutenant General of his Army in Ireland and who having gotten so many notable Victories over the Rebels was very well approv'd
of by the two Houses of Parliament in England The publication of which with the Articles and his Majesties Motives thereunto you may read in his Majesties Works from fol. 353. to 365. In confirmation of which the Lords Justices and Council issued out a Warrant to the Lord Chancellor to draw Letters of Confirmation under the Great Seal of Ireland which accordingly bore date the 26th day of Septemb. in the 19th year of his Majesties Reign And to express the necessity thereof many Persons of Quality sign'd the said 15th of Septemb. 1643. a Writing therein concluding it necessary for his Majesties Honour and Service that the Lord Marquis of Ormond should assent to a Cessation of Arms though some of these afterwards joyning with the Parliaments Forces resolved to die a thousand deaths rather than to descend to any Peace with the perfidious Rebels but stuck not at length to that Protestation altering as the Scene chang'd Whilst the Cessation was in agitation at Sigginstown the Consequences of dissolving the Parliament were not the least in consideration at the Council-board nor was there any thing more desired by the Rebels who thereby hoped to be re-seated in a new Parliament which they question'd not to manage to their own ends and advantage Wherefore that the State might still steer by the same Compass they had hitherto done they committed the Case to the Judges who unanimously agreed upon the following Reasons for its continuance May it please your Lordships ACcording to your Lordships Order of the xi of September 1643. we have considered of such inconveniencies as we conceive may arise to his Majesty and his Service as Affairs now stand if this present Parliament should be determin'd and have reduc'd the same to writing which we humbly present to your Lordships further consideration The greatest part of the Free-holders of this Kingdom are now in actual Rebellion whereby his Majesty ought to be justly entituled to all their Estates both Real and Personal this cannot be done but by their Conviction and Attainder either by course of Common Law or by Act of Parliament By course of Common Law it will be very difficult to be effected for these Reasons following First Those who are indicted in most of the Counties of this Kingdom cannot be Attainted by Outlawry by reason that the Sheriffs of those Counties by occasion of the present Rebellion cannot keep their County-Courts to Proclaim and make due Return of the Exigence Nor can they be Attainted by Verdict for want of Jurors most of all the Free-holders in the Kingdom being now in Rebellion Secondly Those that are not Indicted or those that are already Indicted and in Prison or upon Bonds cannot be proceeded against Legally at the Common Law for want of Jurors because as aforesaid most of the Freeholders are in Rebellion Therefore of necessity those Persons must either not be Attainted at all or onely by Act of Parliament which is scarce possible to be effected if this present Parliament be Dissolved or Discontinued for that upon a new Parliament to be Summon'd the Knights and Burgesses must be Elected by the Free-holders and Inhabitants respectively most whereof are in Rebellion And yet the present Parliament will be discontinued unless a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the now Lords Justices or other the Chief Governour or Governours for the time being be here before the 13th of November next being the day of Prorogation for the beginning of the next Session of Parliament to enable them to continue this present Parliament the last Commission for the continuance thereof being onely to the Lords Justices one whereof is since remov'd Unless the Parties now in Rebellion being Legally Attainted which cannot be here as is aforesaid as the case now stands but by Act of Parliament his Majesty cannot have power to dispose of their Estates as in his wisdom he shall think fit either for the increasing of his Revenues or for the Peaceable establishment of this Common-wealth and indifferent Administration of Justice therein Rich. Bolton Cancell Geo. Shurly Gerrard Lowther Ja. Donnalon Sa. Mayard The Cessation as yet not being known to his Majesty the Lords Justices and Council received a Letter from him at the Camp at Matson near Gloucester of the 4th of Septemb. passionately resenting the sufferings and complaints of the Officers who upon all occasions had a tender affection in his breast And to the end they might not be frustrated of their Arrears he commands their Debentors should be respectively sign'd that they might take an effectual course to be paid the same by the Two Houses of Parliament that engaged them And left there should be any defect in acknowledging of their Merits who had so faithfully ventur'd their lives for his Majesties Service he is yet further pleased to provide for their Encouragement and Entertainment who upon the Cessation were now free to serve him though as yet he knew not of its conclusion but by the Contents of the following Letter seem'd to expect it giving particular Orders for the management of Affairs upon that occasion C. R. RIght Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellors and right Trusty and intirely Beloved Cousin and Counsellor We greet you well Whereas not onely the great neglect of the Affairs of that Our Kingdom by the remaining part of our Houses of Parliament who pretended so great care of it but their impious preventing all Supplies destin'd to their Relief by Our Authority which did ever most readily concur to any Levy of Men Money or any other Work in order to the Assistance of Our Protestant Subjects there and employing the same in an unnatural War against Us their Liege Lord and Sovereign hath reduc'd our Army in that our Kingdom into so heavy straits that out of Our Care of the preservation of them who so faithfully ventur'd their Lives for Our Service We were brought to condescend to a Treaty for a Cessation of Arms Our Will and Pleasure is and We do hereby Charge and Command you that in case according unto the Authority given unto you by Us you have agreed upon a Cessation or as soon as you shall agree thereupon you or any two of you do immediately consider of and put in execution these Our following Commands 1. That you agree upon what number of Our Army will be necessary to be kept in Garrison there for the maintenance of the same during the time of the Cessation and what Soldiers they shall be and what Persons shall command the same and that you settle them accordingly in that Command as shall appear to your discretion to be most conducing to our Service 2. That you do consider and advise of the best means of Transporting the rest of Our Army in that Our Province of Leimster excepting such as are to be kept in Garrison in Our Kingdom of Ireland and to that end We do hereby give you or any one of you full Power and Authority to hire all
Ships Barques or Vessels whatsoever and to treat with any Persons whatsoever for the Loan Hire or Sale of any Ships Barques or Vessels upon such Conditions as you or any one of you shall agree upon with them 3. That in such time and manner as to you shall seem meet you communicate to the Officers and Soldiers of that Our Army this Our intention to make use of their known Courage and Fidelity in the defence of Our Person and Crown against the unnatural Rebellion rais'd against us in this Our Kingdom and against the like labour'd by the Rebels here to be rais'd against Us out of Our Kingdom of Scotland 4. That you signifie unto them that We are the more mov'd and necessitated unto this course for as much as it is resolv'd by some ill affected Persons in that Our Kingdom of Scotland to call over the Army of Our British Subjects out of Our Kingdom of Ireland to the end to make use of them for the Invasion of Us and of Our Good Subjects of England And for as much as this Rebellion against Us under colour of the humility of Our two Houses of Parliament hath exhausted the Means appointed by the concurrence of Our Royal Authority for the sustentation of that Our Army there and by force hath stai'd and taken from Us all those Our Revenues which might have enabled Us to have supplied them in that Our Kingdom so that we ought in reason besides the Bond of their Allegiance to expect their ready concurrence against those Persons who are as well the Causers of all the Miseries they have endured as of all the Injuries We have suffered 5. That you assure them both Officers and Soldiers that upon their Landing here they shall immediately receive Our Pay in the same proportion and manner with the rest of our Army here And you are to assure the Soldiers that all care shall be taken that Cloathes Shoes and other Necessaries be forthwith provided for them after they are Landed here and that care shall be taken for the Provision of such as shall happen to be maim'd here in Our Service and for the payment of all their Arrears that shall be due to any of them that shall happen to be kill'd in the same to their Wives Children or nearest Friends And you are to assure both Officers and Soldiers that we will take special care to reward all such according to their Merit and Quality that shall do us any eminent Service in this Our War against this odious and most unnatural Rebellion 6. We will and require you and do hereby authorize you to use your utmost Interest and Industry for the speedy Transportation of this forementioned part of Our Army with their Arms Horses and such Ammunition and the like as you shall think fit into Our Kingdom of England and particularly if it may be to our Fort of the City of Chester or to the most commodious Haven in North-Wales And for Our obedience in this and every other of these Our Commands this shall be to you and every of you sufficient Warrant Given at Our Court at Eudely-Castle 7th Sept. in the 19th year of Our Reign Superscrib'd as before For the Lords Justices and the Lieutenant General of the English Army To what Party the Cessation was happy will be hard to determine that thereby the Rebels had an opportunity which they improv'd to provide themselves of Arms and Ammunition may easily be conceiv'd in as much as the Parliament of England concluded the Cessation in Ireland was of advantage to none but to the bloody Rebels of that Kingdom Agreeable to what Camd. well observs for as much as in that space wherein a Cessation is allowed to the Rebels the Rebels enjoy free liberty to digest all their secret Plots and Machinations to strengthen their Sides by new Confederacies abroad and to encrease them at home with new Forces whilst all this while the English lay at a costly idleness feeding on the fruits of their Friends and faithful Well-willers when by reason of the Cessation they might not prey upon the Enemy Certain it is the Parliament improv'd the Cessation to a very specious pretence in as much as no estate say they of the Rebels was to be disposed of consequently no Cessation or Peace to be made till the Lords and Commons of the Realm of England should in Parliament by order declare that the said Rebels were subdued and this present Rebellion appeas'd and ended But on the contrary his Majesty shew'd the necessity of his good Protestant Subjects and the Army being not longer able to subsist for want of Supplies enforced that Cessation though he is told again That many since the Cessation have and do subsist And that one end for which the Cessation was made was that the Forces might be brought out of Ireland into England and employ'd against the two Houses Which in Answer his Majesty shews the reason of when the Scots Army before was made use of against him The whole Scene is excellently stated in his Majesties Answer to the two Papers concerning Ireland at the Treaty at Uxbridge How passionately soever the Parliaments Commissioners conclude That whatsoever becomes of us say they if we must perish yet let us go to our graves with that comfort that we have not made Peace with the Enemies of Christ yea even Enemies of Mankind declared and unreconciled Enemies to our Religion and Nation And indeed to give the Parliament their due when they had reduc'd the Affairs of England to their own Module the Rebels of Ireland were frequently chastised and so affectionately pursued that neither Men Money or Courage was wanting to that service Of the first part of which Paragraph his Majesty seems most sensible expressing in his Answer before-mention'd That he would be glad that either a Peace in England or any other Expedient might furnish him with Means and Power to do Justice upon them if this cannot be we must not desperately expose our good Subjects there to Butchery without means or possibility of Protection God will in his due time avenge his own quarrel In the mean time his Gospel gives us leave in case of War to sit down and cast up the cost and estimate our power to go through with it and in such case where Prudence adviseth it is lawful to propose Conditions of Peace though the War otherwise might justly be pursued This wrought much on many But the Parliament who persisted resolutely to have his Majesty disclaim the Cessation would not allow any necessity for it alledging that though some of great estimation with the Parliament whom his Majesties Commissioners produc'd as principally interessed in the managing of Affairs in Ireland and the War there had prest for Supplies as in all likelihood to perish speedily without them yet they were assur'd even by some who were at the Council at that time when those Letters were written that the same was done onely to
press for Supplies out of England without the least intention in them of inducing a Cessation which is granted But as the necessities were there laid open so they were considered by his Majesty and no other Expedient remaining for the Protestants safety save a Cessation thereupon it was concluded though to this day some will have it that his Majesties expectation to be supplied thence and the preservation of the Irish almost swallowed up by his Forces were the principal Motives to that Cessation And it must be acknowledged from the series of Affairs since that the Irish in concluding the Cessation had a respect to their greater security and designs those being thereby withdrawn to his Majesties service in England which otherwise would certainly have oppos'd them And here I cannot but observe that the Irish afterwards acquired much confidence by a Bull of Urban's the 8th dated at Rome the 25th of May 1643. commending their forwardness against the Protestant Hereticks which they publish'd even after the Cessation of Arms was agreed on to what intent may be easily conceiv'd considering their subsequent frequent violation of Compacts and Agreements with the State Though the bleeding Iphigenia who in pleading their Cause grosly betrays it would not have it thought that this charitable Bull cherish'd the Catholicks in Rebellion but was onely an Indulgence to so good and just a Quarrel not any dis-respect to the King to whom saith he his Holiness advised them by their Agents to be Loyal as if that and the breach of his Majesties Commands to lay down Arms could rationally agree Before which Bull an Indulgence had been sent Dilecto filio Eugenio Onello the 8th of October 1642 in the 20th year of his Papacy The Cessation now concluded Obedience was expected from all parts but instead of an absolute compliance from the Scots in Ulster their Officer in Chief return'd this Letter Right Honourable YOur Lordships of the 21. I received at Ardmagh the 29 together with the Printed Cessation which was very displeasing unto this Army who being sent Auxiliary for supply of the British Forces in distress were promis'd by his Majesty and the Parliament of England Pay and Entertainment from three months to three months nevertheless in eighteen months time they have endured both Officers and Soldiers unparallel'd miseries And now a great part of the Service being done they are rewarded with the conclusion of a Cessation without assurance of entertainment for the time or any certainty of the payment of their Arrears and they must conform to the Treaty This kind of usage and contempt would constrain good Servants though his Majesties Loyal Subjects to think upon some course which may be satisfactory to them being driven almost to despair and threaten'd to be persecuted by the Roman Catholick Subjects as they are now called Nevertheless of the foresaid Contempt for obedience to his Majesties Command I have mov'd the Army for the time to cease any hostile Act against our Enemies till such time as your Lordships will be pleased to consider better of our present condition and grant us time to acquaint the General who has onely Commission over the Army to advise us how to behave our selves in this Exigency since I as Governour of Carigfergus can give your Lordships no positive Answer to this Cessation in the name of our Army having not absolute Power over them And immediately after receiving the General 's resolution your Lordships shall be acquainted therewith which is the least favour your Lordships can vouchsafe upon us in recompence of our Bygan Service And so I remain Ardmagh 29 Sept. 1643. Receiv'd the 2d of Octob. Your Lordships humble and obedient Servitor Robert Monro To the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and Council Upon this Answer of Monro's the Supreme Council at Kilkenny maintaining their Umpire in the Empire visits the Lords Justices and Council with this Letter Our very good Lords WE whom his Majesties Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom did intrust in the management of their Affairs have by their publick Act ratified and confirmed the Articles of Cessation concluded upon by our Commissioners willingly and cheerfully hoping in the quiet of that time assign'd for it by the benefit of the access which his Majesty is graciously pleas'd to afford us to free our selves from those odious Calumnies wherewith we have been branded and to render our selves worthy of Favour by some acceptable service suiting the expression we have often made and the real affections and zeal we have to serve his Majesty and in as much as we are given to understand that the Scots who not long since in great numbers came over into this Kingdom and by the slaughter of many Innocents without distinction of Age or Sex have possessed themselves of very large Territories in the North and since the notice given them of the Cessation have not onely continued their former cruelties upon the Persons of weak and unarmed Multitudes but have added thereunto the burning of the Corn belonging to the Natives within that Province of Ulster Notwithstanding which outrages we hear that they have although but faintly and with relation unto the consent of their General after some days consultation whether it were convenient for their Affairs desired to partake in the Cessation intending as is evident by their proceedings so far onely to admit thereof as it may be beneficial for their Patrons the Malignant Party now in Arms against his Majesty in England by diverting us from assisting his Majesty or of advantage to their desire of eating further into the bowels of our Countrey We who can accuse our selves of no one hollow thought and detest all subtile Practices cannot think of serving two Masters or standing Neuters where our King is Party And we desirous none should reside in this Kingdom but his Majesties good Subjects we beseech your Lordships therefore that these who have other ends then his Majesties Service and Interest and are so far from permitting the Natives to enjoy three parts of what they have sown as they may with no security look upon their former habitations and do absolutely deny to restore their Prisoners contrary to the Articles of Cessation may by the joynt power of all his Majesties good Subjects within this Kingdom of what Nation soever be prosecuted and that while these Succours are in preparation our Proceedings against them may no way be imputed unto us a desire any way to violate this Cessation And we do further pray your Lordships that for our justification therein you will be pleas'd to transmit unto his Majesty these our Letters and to send unto us the Copy of those directed unto your Lordships from Serjeant Major Monro concerning this Matter Thus with the remembrance of our heartiest wishes unto your Lordships we rest Kilkenny 15. Octob. 1643. Received 25. Your Lordships loving Friends Mountgarret Castlehaven Audley H. Armach Jo. Clonfert Th. Fr. Dublin R. Beling N. Plunket Gerrard Fennell To
the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and Council And now many of those Officers who had served his Majesty most signally in Ireland were treated with to recruit his Forces in and about Chester to which end all the encouragement that his Majesty had given in his Letters of the 4th and 7th of September were faithfully imparted to them and what could possibly be rais'd for their Transportation was effectually done Whereupon several Regiments as Sir Mich. Earnely's Sir Rich. Fleetwoods Colonel Gibson Colonel Monk Colonel Warren and others hasted over but with such Reluctancy of the Common Souldiers as the sharpest Proclamations of which there were several hardly restrain'd them from flying their Colours both before and after their arrival in England To prevent which and that the Souldiers might be secur'd in their Loyalty to his Majesty the Lieutenant General compos'd this Oath I Resting fully assured of his Majesties most Princely Truth and Goodness do freely and from my heart promise vow and protest in the presence of Almighty God that I will to the utmost of my Power and with the hazard of my Life maintain and defend the true Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England his Majesties sacred Person his Heirs and lawful Successors and his Majesties just Powers and Prerogatives against the Forces now under the Conduct of the Earl of Essex and against all other Forces whatsoever that are or shall be rais'd contrary to his Majesties Commands and Authority And I will do my best endeavour to procure and re-establish the Peace and Quietness of the Kingdom of England And I will neither directly or indirectly divulge or communicate any thing to the said Earl of Essex his Officers or any other to hinder or prejudice the Designs of his Majesty in the Conduct or Imployment of his Army Which that it may be taken by every Souldier follows the Precept By the Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army WHereas his Majesty hath been pleas'd to command the present transportation of a part of his Army here into England I do think fit and hereby Order that every Officer and Souldier to be transported hence do take the Oath above-written before they depart this Harbour Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin 13. of Octob. 1643. Ormond And in respect that upon their going many Souldiers listed themselves under other Officers the Lord Lieutenant besides other Courses publisht the 13. of November an Edict that no Souldiers under penalty of death should depart from their former Commanders and Officers and that no Commanders and Officers on pain of displeasure should dare to entertain any Souldiers so offending And the 4th of Feb. 1643. the Lord General publisht a Proclamation That if any Souldier should stay behind that was commanded to go over or should after he was transported over into England run away from his Colours he being afterwards apprehended should presently suffer death without mercy Upon which as you see many came over into England and at Hawerden Castle Beeston Castle Bartomley Church Dedington House Acton Church and Durtwich improved their time but the main body the 25. of January 1643. was utterly defeated by Sir Thomas Fairfax raising the Siege of Namptwich 1500 common Souldiers besides Officers being there taken Prisoners besides those that were slain so that what advantage accrewed to the Regal Army by their coming over many believ'd was not very considerable unless those who came out of Munster were more successful The general if not all those who came to his Majesties assistance out of Ireland were his own Forces which he had sent against the Rebels from whom I cannot yet learn after all their professions of having no one hollow thought or subtile practice to serve two Masters or standing Neuters whilst their King was Party that any formed Regiment or considerable Party reach'd England no! it will hereafter appear how shamefully they deserted his Majesties Affairs even in Ireland it self when their Interest might have united them in Loyalty and Obedience Some months after the arrival of these and other Forces out of Ireland the Parliament of England made an Ordinance against the giving of any Quarter to any Irish man or to any Papist born in Ireland taken in Hostility against the Parliament by Sea or Land which his Majesty thought very severe they being called to the service of their Natural Prince The coming over of the English made several that were not so forward suspected in their Loyalty though in truth never any Prince had an Army more intirely affecting his Person then the generality of his Militia of Ireland who being sent thither or rais'd there were not yet wean'd from the Justice of that Cause hardly matchable in any example the War being said long since a great Instrument of State not an ambitious War of Foraigns but a recovery of Subjects and that after Lenity of Conditions often tried not onely to obedience but to Humanity and Policy from more then Indian Barbarism whereas the Affairs of England imbrued Relations in one anothers blood and the Concerns of Ireland were as much his Majesties as the other and the Cause undoubtedly Gods The Lords Justices and Council this while had a great task and not so much as straw to the Work the Confederates paying in the Money viz. 30800 l. they promised the 16th of September towards the maintenance of his Majesties Army this Cessation very uncertain as their Cows and Cattle of the worst taking within three days after the Cessation near 369 head of choice English Cattle from the suburbs of Dublin acting besides many other violencies on divers Castles Forts and Houses so as this agreement with the Rebels seemed rather a Protection then a Cessation of Acts of Hostility That in this extremity the Lords Justices Providence and Care how great soever could remedy little being their business now was to proceed in another course then formerly they had the Election of which grew hourly the heavier upon them by reason of the discontents which constantly arose from the Inhabitants and the Protestants now more then ever sensible of their Condition the Irish Agents making all the speed they could to repair with their Propositions to his Majesty then at Oxford according to an Article in the Cessation and his Majesties Proclamation thereupon by which they were allowed to send Agents to his Majesty of which the Protestants in and about Dublin being very apprehensive lest his Majesty should be pre-possessed of the Rebels sence they thought it most convenient to dispatch Agents presently to his Majesty and to that end about the 6th of October 1643. they meeting at the Earl of Kildare's house fram'd a Petition to the Lords Justices and Council humbly beseeching their Lordships for their License unto such as they should appoint to attend his Majesty in their behalf whereunto the Lords Justices and Council the 12. of the same month expressed their forwardness declaring how his
the shew of a Peace there would bring them an advantage c. And thereupon besought him that he would not so much regard so inconsiderable a handful of People as they were as to purchase but a seeming security by leaving thereby the Protestant Religion in all likelihood to be extirpated and his Majesty obnoxious to the loss of that Kingdom Further beseeching his Majesty that he would be pleas'd to Proclaim again the Irish to be Rebels and not to pardon those who have committed so many barbarous Crimes that they are as far above description as they are short of honesty professing they had his Majesties Commission for what they did the true sense of which devillish aspersion cast upon his Majesty with other reasons made them resolve to die a thousand deaths rather than condescend to any Peace referring themselves in other things to their Declaration And from the same place the day following these write to both Houses of Parliament in England much to the same effect importuning their Agreement with his Majesty without which the War could not be prosecuted as it ought offering for the securing of their Garrison to their Service whom they pleas'd Concluding That they hoped such a wise Assembly would distinguish betwixt the effects of Necessity the Cessation and Dishonesty Including in their Letter to both Houses their Declaration which I had thought to have abbreviated but it is so significant that we shall find it unravels many Secrets then to come and declares such Truths as without injury to their Merits we could not smother The unanimous Declaration of His Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Province of Munster IF in the undertaking of a just Design it were onely requisite that the Hearts and Consciences of the Undertakers were satisfi'd we should not need to publish this Declaration but lest our Enemies should traduce the candour of our Actions and Intentions we have made this manifestation of them which will acquaint the World with their Malice and our Innocence We are confident that all Christendom hath heard of the bloody Rebellion in Ireland and we are as confident the Rebels and Popish Clergy have so palliated and disguised it that many are fully perswaded they had reason for what they did But we believe all men of Judgment will change that opinion when they shall know That though they were a Conquer'd People yet the Laws were administred unto them with as much equity as to the English That they enjoyed their Religion though not by Tolleration yet by Connivance That their Lords though Papists sate in Parliament And that the Election of the Knights of the Shire and Burgesses was free and though of a contrary Religion were admitted into the House of Commons yet for all these and many other vast Favours and Priviledges when every one was sitting under his Vine and Fig-tree without any provocation they resolve upon a general extirpation both of the Protestants and their Religion which without doubt they had effected had not God been more merciful than they were wicked and by a Miracle discovered this devillish Design whereof though we had notice just time enough to secure our main Magazine at Dublin yet we could not prevent the butchery of multitudes of innocent Souls which suffered at the first in the Province of Ulster and since they have continued this Rebellion with such perfidiousness and bloodiness that though we had been as guilty as we are innocent yet the prosecuting of the War with that barbarousness had rather been a sin than justice But by Gods great providence when the Rebellion brake out first the Parliament of England was sitting unto whom his Majesty communicated so much of his Power over this Kingdom as we shall hereafter mention and gave them great encouragement to prosecute the War against the Rebels by granting Lands unto such as should adventure Money for the maintenance of the War Whereupon the Parliament who were most willing to advance so good a Cause sent us at first large Supplies which had so good success that the Divine as well as Humane Justice did proclaim them Rebels for indeed God Almighty since the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the Egyptians never appeared so visibly as in this War But the unhappy misunderstanding between the King and Parliament did so hinder the continuance of those Supplies for this Kingdom that all we received in nineteen months amounted not to five weeks entertainment so that the Army which was sent to relieve us lived upon us And truly we may with Justice profess that the Forces of this Province did feed as miraculously as fight being never able to prescribe any certain way of subsistance for one month together but when the poor Inhabitants were almost beggar'd and no means for the Forces to subsist on left a Cessation of Arms was made for a twelvemonth with the Rebels which our necessity not inclination compelled us to bear with and the rather out of a firm hope that the Almighty out of his infinite goodness would within that year settle a right understanding between the King and Parliament that then they would unanimously revenge the crying blood of so many thousands of innocent Souls and until God blessed us with the sight of that happy Union we might keep our Garrisons which otherwise we could not the better to enable them to prosecute so just and honourable a design But this Cessation was as fatal to us during the time of Treaty as afterwards it was ill observed for they knowing what agreement they would enforce us to condescend unto did privately send one or two persons to every Castle that we had demolished which under pretence of being by that means in their possession they ever since detain though it be contrary to the Articles And which is more injurious they have at all times since entred upon what Lands they have thought fit and detained them also and their devillish malice having no bounds they did place Guards upon the High-ways to interrupt our Markets and punished divers of their own Party for coming with Provisions to us thereby to deter all from bringing any relief to our Garrisons that so they might starve us out of those Places that neither their fraud or force could get from us which that they might the better accomplish they murthered divers of the poor English that presuming on the Article of free Commerce went abroad to buy Victuals which certainly would have caused them to have declined that course of seeking Food if hunger threatning them with more certain death had not forced them thereunto And whereas we trusted that these notorious infidelities in them and infinite sufferings in us would have been so visible to his Majesty that nothing could have induc'd him to make a Peace with so perfidious a People who through their fawning and insinuating with his Majesty and by the counsel of some who represent that there is no way left for the securing the
implorant demisse benedictionem obsecrantes Kilkenniae 7. Jan. 1645. Vestrae Sanctitatis ad Pedum Oscula But to proceed to the Peace in which all the Particulars which might concern the Interest and Security of either Party being maturely weighed and considered and then every Article being first read debated and approved in the general Assembly without one dissenting voice the whole was concluded and the Confederate Catholicks obliged to transport within a very short time an Army of 10000 Men into England for the Service and Relief of the King as by the succeeding Propositions with Colonel Fitz-Williams is fuller evident Fitz-Williams's Propositions about the Treaty with the Queen to bring Irish into England Col. Fitz-Williams humbly prays and propounds as followeth THat your Sacred Majesty will vouchsafe to prevail with his Majesty to condescend to the just Demands of his Irish Subjects the Confederate Catholicks in Ireland at least in private That upon the consideration thereof Colonel Fitz-Williams humbly propounds and undertakes with approbation of Mr. Hertogen now imployed Agent for the said Confederate Catholicks in Ireland to bring an Army of 10000 Men or more of the King's Subjects in his Kingdom of Ireland for the King's Service into England That Colonel Fitz-Williams undertakes for the sum of 10000 l. sterling to levy Ships and arm the 10000 Men and so proportionably for more or less and that the said Moneys may be paid into such hands as may be safe for your Majesty as well as ready for the said Colonel when it shall appear the said Army shall be in readiness to be transported into England That upon the Landing of the said Men there shall be advanced to the Colonel one months Pay for all the Army according to the Muster for the present support of the Army That Colonel Fitz-Williams may be Commander in Chief thereof and dispose of all the Officers and only be commanded by the King Prince and and qualified with such Benefits as have been formerly granted unto your Majesty's Generals that have commanded Bodies apart from the King 's own Army as the Earl of Kingston and others whereby the better to enable him in the Levies as well as in the general Conduct of the Business And in respect the Order gives no Power to the Irish therefore that the said Forces shall not by any Order whatsoever be divided at least that the Colonel may be supplied with a Body of 2000. to be ready at the Place of Landing That the Colonel may be provided with Arms and Ammunition or with Money requisite for himself to provide necessary Proportions for to bring with him That the Army shall be paid as other Armies of the King Having taken these Propositions into Consideration We have thought fit to testifie our Approbation and Agreement thereunto under our Sign Manual assuring what hath been desired of us therein shall be forthwith effectually endeavour'd and not doubting to the satisfaction of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and of the said Colonel so that we may justly expect an agreeable compliance and performance accordingly from all Parties in their several Concernments Henriette Marie All things thus stated and setled the Commissioners who had treated in the Peace were sent by and in the Name of the Assembly to Dublin where the Lord Lieutenant resided to sign the said Articles and to receive his Lordship's Confirmation of them And accordingly the Articles were the 30th of July 1646. interchangeably signed and perfected with all formality requisite notwithstanding his Majesty's Letter from Newcastle the 11th of June 1646. to treat no farther with the Rebels and shortly after they were with great Solemnity and Ceremony published and proclaimed by the King at Arms at Dublin and at Kilkenny where the Supream Council and the Assemblies of all the Confederate Catholicks were held and then Printed by their Authority The Arch-Bishop of Firmo manifesting his approbation of all that had been done giving his blessing to the Commissioners when they were sent to Dublin to conclude the Treaty and other Ministers from Foraign Princes being present consenting to and witnessing the Conclusion By the Lord Lieutenant and Council Ormond WHereas Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agréed upon by and between Us James Lord Marquiss of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland his Majesties Commissioner to Treat and Conclude a Peace with his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the said Kingdom by vertue of his Majesties Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing Date at Buckingham on the 24th day of June in the Twentieth year of his Reign for and on the behalf of his Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and Donogh Lord Viscount Muskery and others appointed and Authorized by his Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects by vertue of an Authority of the said Roman Catholick Subjects bearing Date the sixth day of March 1645. and in the 21. year of his Majesties Reign of the other part a true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant and Council do by this Proclamation in his Majesties Name Publish the same And do in his Majesties Name strictly charge and command all his Majesties Subjects and all others Inhabiting or Residing within his Majesties said Kingdom of Ireland to take notice thereof and to render due Obedience to the same in all the parts thereof And as his Majesty hath been induced to this Peace out of a deep sense of the Miseries and Calamities brought upon this his Kingdom and People and out of a hope conceived by his Majesty that it may prevent the further effusion of his Subjects blood redeem them out of all the miseries and calamities under which they now suffer restore them to all quietness and happiness under his Majesties most gracious Government deliver the Kingdom in general from those slaughters deprecations rapines and spoils which always accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which un-interrupted may increase the wealth and strength of the Kingdom beget in all his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom a perfect Unity amongst themselves after the too long continued Division amongst them So his Majesty assures himself that all his Subjects of this his Kingdom duly considering the great and inestimable benefits which they may find in this Peace will with all duty render due obedience thereunto And We in his Majesties Name do hereby Declare That all Persons so rendring due Obedience to the said Peace shall be protected cherished countenanced and supported by his Majesty and his Royal Authority according to the true intent and meaning of the said Articles of Peace Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin the Thirtieth day of July 1646. Ri. Bolton Canc. Roscomon Dillon Cha. Lambart Gerrard Lowther Fr. Willoughby Robert Forth La. Dublin Geo. Cloyne Arthur Chichester Hen. Tichborn Tho. Lucas
and Commanding as well in Secular as Ecclesiastical Matters to the Popes Nuncio who began his Empire with committing to Prison the Commissioners who had been Instrumental in the Treaty and making of the Peace by order of the general Assembly and issued out an Excommunication against all those who had or should submit to the Peace which comprehended all the Nobility and almost all the Gentry and some of the Clergy which Excommunication wrought so universally upon the minds of the People that albeit all Persons of Honour and Quality received infinite scandal and well foresaw the irreparable damage Religion it self would undergo by that unwarrantable Proceeding and used their utmost Power to draw the People to obedience and submission to the said Agreement and to that purpose prevail'd so far with General Preston that he gave them reason to hope that he would joyn with them for the vindication of the publick Faith and the Honour of the Nation and compel those that oppos'd it to submit to the Peace Yet all these endeavours produced no effect but concluded in unprofitable Resentments and Lamentation In the mean time Owen O Neil when he found himself disappointed of his Design to have cut off the Lord-Lieutenant before he should reach Dublin enter'd into the Queens-County and committed all Acts of Cruelty and Outrage that could be imagined took many Castles and Forts which belong'd to the King and put all who resisted to the Sword and his Officers in cold blood caus'd others to be murther'd to whom they had promised Quarter as Major Pigot and others of his Family About the latter end of June this year Major General Monro received a severe defeat from Owen Roe O-Neil at Benburgh alias Benburge near Charlemont in the County of Ardmagh whereby the whole Province was exposed to the Rebels fury in as much as if they had had the Courage or Policy to have prosecuted it they might have destroyed all the Scotch Quarters and endanger'd their Towns but Owen Roe instead of prosecuting the Victory went presently with the Prisoners and Colours in Triumph to Kilkenny so gave our Forces a breathing whilst the Parliament suspecting his union with Preston immediately ordered 50000 l. out of the Excise for the raising of more men for Ireland and some Horse besides Foot were presently sent over with Ammunition and other necessaries these called at Dublin but the Design being not then fit for their Reception they were otherwise disposed of And shortly after the Nuncio prevail'd so much that he united General Preston to his Army at which time he took this Oath I A. B. Swear and Protest that I will adhere to the present union of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that reject the Peace lately agreed and proclaimed at Dublin and do nothing by Word Deed Writing Advice or otherwise to the Prejudice of that Union and will to the uttermost of my Power advance and further the Good and Preservation of it and of his Majesties Rights and the Priviledges of free-born Subjects to the Natives of this Kingdom And then the Nuncio as Generalissimo lead both Armies towards Dublin where the Lord Lieutenant was so surprized with their Perfidiousness that he found himself in no less straights and distresses from his Friends within then from his Enemies without who totally neglected those Forces which being under the obedience of the Parliament of England had always waged a sharp and bloody War with them and at present made inroads into their Quarters to their great damage and intirely ingaged themselves to suppress the Kings Authority to which they had so lately submitted Lest so prodigious an alteration as is now set forth may seem to be wrapt up in too short a discourse and it may appear almost incredible that an Agreement so deliberately and solemnly entred into by the whole Nobility and Gentry of the Nation in a Matter that so intirely concern'd their own Interest should in such an instant be blasted and anihilated by a Congregation of Clergy assembled onely by their own authority And therefore without the vice of curiosity all men may desire to be inform'd by what Degrees and Method that Congregation proceeded and what specious Pretences and Insinuations they us'd towards the People for the better perswading them to depart from that Peace they were even again restored to the Possession of It will not be impertinent therefore to set down some important particulars of their Proceedings and the very forms of some Instruments publish'd by them that the World may see the Logick and Rhetorick that was used to impose upon and delude that unhappy People and to intangle them more in that Labyrinth of Confusion wherein they were long involved They were not content not to suffer the Peace not to be proclaimed in Waterford and to disswade the People from submitting to it But by a Decree dated the 12 day of August 1646. which they commanded to be published in all places in the English and Irish Tongue they declared by the unanimous consent and votes of all even none contradicting as they say That all and singular the Confederate Catholicks who should adhere or consent to the Peace or to the Fautors thereof or otherwise embrace the same should be held absolute perjur'd especially for this cause that in those Articles there is no mention made of the Catholick Religion or the security thereof or any care taken for the Conservation of the Priviledges of the Country as had been promised in an Oath formerly taken by them but rather all things referred to the Pleasure of the most renowned King from whom in his present state they said nothing of certainty could be had And in the Interim the Armies and Arms and Fortunes even the Supream Council it self of the Confederate Catholicks were subjected to the Authority and Rule of the Council of State and Protestant Officers of his Majesty from whom that they might be secured they had taken that Oath And the next day being informed that the Lord Viscount Mountgarret and Lord Viscount Muskery were appointed by the Supream Council at Kilkenny to go to Dublin to confer with the Lord Lieutenant upon the best way to be pursued for the execution and observation of the Peace they made an Order in Writing in which were these words We admonish in our Lord and require the Persons who are departed to Dublin that they forbear and abstain from going thither for the said end or if they be gone that they return and this under pain of Excommunication commanding the Right Honourable the Bishop of Ossory and other Bishops as well assembled as not assembled here and their Vicars General as also Vicars Apostolical and all Priests even Irregulars that they intimate these Presents or cause to be intimated even by affixing them in publick places and that they proceed against the disobedient in denouncing of Excommunication as it should seem expedient in our Lord. When the Supream Council notwithstanding these new
be looked on as a Dream more than a Truth considering the shortness of the Expedition though none could more prudently have acted whilst he was upon the Place nor was there any whom the Soldiers would more readily obey such was his Courage so great his Integrity The Lord Broghil and Sir Arthur Loftus at the same time preferr'd Articles against the Lord Inchequin But the Parliament was so imbroil'd about the Disbanding the Independent Army then mutinous and Inchequin had so many to favour themselves countenanc'd him as little if any thing became of the Impeachment But to return to the Confederates who when they saw the Ships return'd from England with Supplies of Soldiers Money and great store of Provisions and the Commissioners to treat with the Marquis for putting all into the Parliaments hands rais'd the Siege seeming less united amongst themselves and desirous to make Conditions with the Lord Lieutenant whilst General Preston and his Officers frankly entred into a Treaty with the Marquis of Clanrickard whom the Lord Lieutenant authoriz'd to that end and with deep and solemn Oaths undertook and promised to stand to the Peace and from thenceforth to be obedient to his Majesties Authority and to joyn with the Marquis of Ormond against all those who should refuse to submit unto them On the other side the Commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament who were admitted into Dublin to treat with the Lord Lieutenant observing the very ill condition the Town was in besieged by two strong Armies by whom they within expected every hour to be assaulted concluded that the want of Food and all necessaries for defence would compel the Marquis with the importunity and clamour of the Inhabitants and Soldiers to receive Supplies of Men Money and Victuals which they had brought upon any terms and therefore stifly insisted on their Propositions refusing to consent that the Marquis should send any Messenger to the King that upon information how the case stood he might receive his Majesties direction what to do And how the Parliament in Ireland then in being might be continued which by the delivering of the Sword without his Majesties pleasure imparted could not be secured from being dissolved and without which he then resolved not to proceed to any conjunction with them and so had privately dispatched several Expresses to the King as soon as he discerned clearly that the Irish were so terrifi'd by the Nuncio and his Excommunication that there was little hope of good from them with full information of the state of Affairs and expected every day a return of some of the said Messengers with signification of his Majesties Pleasure Thus the Treaty with the Marquis not succeeding the Commissioners from the Two Houses of Parliament return'd again to their Ships about the end of November and carried all the Supplies they had brought to the Parliaments Garrisons in the Province of Ulster being much incens'd against the Lord Lieutenant for declining an entire union with them and inclining as they said he did to a new confidence in the Irish Yet they found but cold entertainment amongst the Scots At which time Dr. John Maxwel formerly Bishop of Ross in Scotland now Archbishop of Tuam in Ireland hearing of Commissioners from the Parliament of England grew so envenom'd thereat suspecting the Covenant which he had ever abhorr'd should be imposed as sicercely imprecating it and being broken with the calamities of the Times he di'd the 14th of Febr. 1646. and was buried in Trinity Church Dublin at the munificence of the Marquis of Ormond By this time the Marquis of Clanrickard had an entire trust answerable to what he had begun to treat of with General Preston from the Lord Lieutenant as a Person superiour to all temptations which might endeavour to lessen or divert his Affection and Integrity to the King or his Zeal to the Romish Catholick Religion in which he had been bred and to which he had most constantly adher'd he had taken great pains to render the Peace which had been so long in consultation effectual to the Nation and had both by Discourse and Writing endeavour'd to disswade the Nuncio from prosecuting those rough ways which he foresaw were like to undo the Nation and dishonour the Catholick Religion He found General Preston and the Officers of his Army less transported with passion and a blind submission to the Authority of the Nuncio than the other and that they professed greater duty and obedience to the King and that they seem'd to be wrought on by two Conclusions which had been speciously infus'd into them The first was that the Lord Lieutenant was so great an Enemy to their Religion that though they should obtain any Conditions from the King to their advantage in that particular he would oppose and not consent unto the same The other that the King was now in the hand of the Scots who were not like to approve that Peace had been made all that Nation in Ulster refusing to submit to it And if they should be able to procure any Order from his Majesty to disavow it the Lord Lieutenant would undoubtedly obey it These specious infusions the Marquis of Clanrickard endeavour'd to remove and undertook upon his Honour to use all the Power and Interest which he had in the King Queen and Prince on behalf of the Romish Catholicks and to procure them such Priviledges and Liberty for the free exercise of their Religion as they could reasonably expect And undertook that the Lord Lieutenant would acquiesce with such directions as he should receive therein without contradiction or endeavour to do ill Offices to the Catholicks He further promised that if any Order should be procured from the King during the restraint he was then in to the disadvantage of the Catholicks then He would suspend any obedience thereunto until such time as his Majesty should be at liberty and might receive full information on their behalf And upon the Marquis of Clanrickard's positive undertaking these particulars and the Lord Lieutenant having ratifi'd and confirm'd all that the Marquis had engag'd himself for General Preston with all the Principal Officers under his Command signed this ensuing Engagement WE the Generals Nobility and Officers of the Confederate Catholick Forces do solemnly bind and engage our selves by the Honour and Reputation of Gentlemen and Soldiers and by the Sacred Protestation upon the Faith of Catholicks in the presence of Almighty God both for our selves and as much as in us lies for all Persons that are or shall be under our Command that we will from the Date hereof forward submit and conform our selves entirely and sincerely to the Peace concluded and proclaimed by his Majesties Lieutenant with such additional Concessions and Securities as the Right Honourable Ulick Lord Marquis of Clanrickard hath undertaken to procure and secure to us in such manner and upon such terms as is expressed in his Lordships Undertakings and Protestation of
their Quarters In the interim the Parliament of Ireland then sitting at Dublin finding into what straights the Kingdom was brought and how his Excellency had strugled with the greatest difficulties imaginable for his Majesties and their Interest they the 17th of March sent this Remonstrance in acknowledgment of great Care and Indulgence The Remonstrance of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled declaring the Acknowledgment of their hearty thankfulness to the most Honourable James Marquis of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland his Excellency WE the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in our whole Body do present our selves before your Lordship acknowledging with great sense and feeling your Lordships singular goodness to us the Protestant Party and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them who have been preserved to this day under God by your Excellencies providence and pious care which hath not been done without a vast expence out of your own Estate as also to the hazarding of your Person in great and dangerous difficulties And when your Lordship found your self with the strength remaining with you to be too weak to resist an insolent and upon all advantages a perfidious and bloody Enemy rather than we should perish you have in your care transferred us into their hands that are both able and willing to preserve us and that not by a bare casting us off but by complying so far with us that you have not denied our desires of Hostages and amongst them of one of your most dear Sons All which being such a free Earnest of your Excellencies love to our Religion Nation and both Houses do incite us here to come unto you with Hearts fill'd with your love and Tongues declaring how much we are oblig'd to your Excellency professing our resolutions are with all real service to the utmost of our power to manifest the sincerity of our acknowledgment and affections unto you and to perpetuate to posterity the memory of your Excellencies merits and our thankfulness We have appointed this Instrument to be entred into both Houses and under the hands of both Speakers to be presented to your Lordship Rich. Bolton Canc. 17 die Martii 1676. intr per Val. Savage Dep. Cler. Parl. Maurice Eustace Speaker Int. 17. die Martii 1676. per Philip Fernely Cler. Dom. Com. What effect this made upon his Excellency you will here see My Lords and Gentlemen WHat you have now read and deliver'd hath much surpriz'd me and contains matter of higher obligation laid upon me by you than thus suddenly to be answer'd yet I may not suffer you to depart hence without saying somewhat to you And first I assure you that this Acknowledgment of yours is unto me a Jewel of very great value which I shall lay up amongst my choicest Treasures it being not onely a full confutation of those Calumnies that have been cast upon my actions during the time I have had the Honour to serve his Majesty here but likewise an Antidote against the virulency and poison of those Tongues and Pens that I am well assur'd will be busily set on work to traduce and blast the Integrity of my present Proceedings for your preservation And now my Lords and Gentlemen since this may perhaps be the last time that I shall have the Honour to speak to you from this Place and since that next to the words of a dying man those of one ready to banish himself from his Country for the good of it challenge credit give me leave before God and you here to protest That in all the time I had the Honour to serve the King my Master I never receiv'd any Command from him but such as spake him a Wise Pious Protestant Prince zealous of the Religion he professeth the welfare of his Subjects and industrious to promote and settle Peace and Tranquility in all his Kingdoms and I shall beseech you to look no otherwise upon me than upon a ready Instrument set on work by the Kings wisdom and goodness for your preservation wherein if I have discharg'd my self to his Approbation and Tours it will be the greatest satisfaction and comfort I shall take with me where-ever it shall please God to direct my steps And now that I may dismiss you I beseech God long long to preserve my Gracious Master and to restore Peace Rest to this afflicted Church and Kingdom But to return In conclusion the Commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament having performed all that on their part was expected the Marquis of Ormond delivered up Dublin and the other Garrisons into their hands the 17th some write the 18th of June 1647. on condition to enjoy his Estate and not to be subject to any Debts contracted for the support of his Majesties Army under his Command or for any Debts contracted before the Rebellion That he and all such Noblemen and Officers as desir'd to pass into any part of that Kingdom should have travelling Arms and free Passes with Servants for their respective Qualities That he should have 5000 l. in hand and 2000 l. per Annum for five years till he could receive so much a year out of his own Estate And that he should have liberty to live in England without taking any Oaths for a year he engaging his Honour to do nothing in the interim to the prejudice of the Parliament However he delivered not up the Regalia till the 25th of July at which time he was transported with his Family into England where they admitted him to wait on the King and to give his Majesty an account of his Transactions who received him most graciously as a Servant who had merited highly from him and fully approved all that he had done The straits his Excellency was then put to were great and in consideration into whose hands the Government might fall his surrender of Dublin to the Parliament seem'd extreme hazardous yet Providence so steer'd his Resolution in that act as doubtless the ground of his Majesties Sovereignty and the English preservation how many Channels soever it past through first proceeded thence Before He came away the Soldiers had receiv'd such a tincture of Mutiny as Mr. Annesly and Sir Robert King for fear of violence privately quitted the Kingdom before which they with Sir Robert Meredith Colonel Michael Jones and Colonel John Moore took notice of the insolency of the Soldiers to exact Contribution and free Quarters at their pleasure forbidding them so to do c. by a Proclamation at Dublin the 20th of June 1647. Soon after the Parliaments Commissioners were warm in the Government having regulated their Militia they put their Sickle into the Service of the Church where they found many so tenâ—cious to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and their Vows to their Ordinaries as they could not be wean'd from the Liturgy of the Church of England in which Ministery they desir'd to finish their Course with joy and the 9th of July
Ireland in confusion And when he had with less success than formerly issued his Excommunication the 27th of May 1648. against all those who complied with the Cessation with the Lord Inchiquin he was compelled in the end after so much mischief done to the Religion he was obliged to protect in an obscure manner to fly out of the Kingdom and coming to Rome had an ill Reception of the Pope Temerariè te gessisti said he with which and the Fate of Fermo in his absence he soon after died Nor indeed had any of those Apostolick Nuncios in Ireland much better Fate Nicholas Sanders an English-man An. 1579. was sent Nuncio by Gregory the 13th who wander'd in the Mountains of Kerry and was there starv'd under a Tree Owen Mac Egan alias Eugenius O Hegan of Irish Birth Vicarius Apostolicus under Clement the 8th was slain leading a Troop of 100 Horse against the Loyalists An. 1602 3. And because the impudent Injustice and Imprudence of the Nuncio and the lame Subjection of the People to his immoderate Pride and Haughtiness was in truth the real Cause or rather Fountain from whence this torrent of Calamities flowed which hath since over-whelmed that miserable Nation and because that exorbitant Power of his was resolutely opposed by the Catholicks of the most eminent Parts and Interests and in the end though too late expelled by them it will be but Justice to the Memories of those noble Persons briefly to collect the sum of that unhappy Person 's Carriage and Behaviour from the time that he was first design'd to that Imployment And in doing hereof no other Language shall be used than what was part of a Memorial delivered by an honourable and zealous Catholick who was intrusted to complain of the in-sufferable Behaviour of the Nuncio to the Pope himself which runs in these very words speaking of the Nuncio He declar'd before he left Rome That he would not admit either in his Company or Family any Person of the English Nation In his Voyage before he arrived at Paris he writ to his Friends in Rome with great joy the News though it prov'd after false that the Irish Confederates had treacherously surprized the City of Dublin while they were in truce with the Royal Party and treating about an Accommodation and Peace Arriving at Paris where he shut himself up for many months he never vouchsafed I will not say to participate with the Queen of England any thing touching Nunciature or in the least degree to reverence or visit her Majesty save only one time upon the score of Courtesie as if he had been sent to her Enemies not Subjects Being arrived in Ireland he imployed all his Power to dissolve the Treaty of Peace with the King which was then almost brought to perfection and his diligence succeeded of which he valued himself rejoyced and insulted beyond measure In his Letters he writ to Paris which were after shewed to the Queen and he may truely say that in that Kingdom he hath rather managed the Royal Scepter than the Pastoral Staff and that he aim'd more to be held the Minister of the supream Prince of Ireland in Temporalibus than a Nuncio from the Pope in Spiritualibus making himself President of the Council he hath managed the Affairs of the supream Council of State he hath by his own Arbitrement excluded from it those who did not second him though by Nobleness of Birth Allegiance Prudence and Zeal to Religion they were the most honourable of these he caused many to be imprisoned with great scandal and danger of sedition and in short he assumed a distributive Power both in Civil and Military Affairs giving out Orders Commissions and Powers under his own Name subscribed by his own Hand and made Authentick with his Seal for the government of the Armies and of the State and Commissions for Reprizals at Sea He stroke in presently after his Arrival in Ireland with that Party of the Natives who are esteemed irreconcilable not only to the English but to the greatest and best part of the Irish Nobility and of the same People to the most civil and most considerable of that Island And the better to support that Party and Faction he hath procured the Church to be furnished with a Clergy and Bishops of the same temper excluding those Persons who are recommended by the Queen who for Doctrine and Vertue were above all exceptions all which is contrary to what your Holiness was pleas'd to promise The Queen was not yet discouraged but so labour'd to renew the Treaty of Peace already once broke and disorder'd by Monsieur Rinuccini that by means of her Majesty it was not only re-assumed but in the end after great disputes and oppositions on his part the Peace was concluded between the Royal Party and the Confederate Catholicks and warranted not only by the King's Word but also by the retention of Arms Castles and Forts and of the Civil Magistrates with the possession of Churches and of Ecclesiastical Benefices and with the free exercise of the Catholick Religion And all this would have been exhibited by a publick Decree and authentick Laws made by the three Estates assembled in a free Parliament By this Peace and Confederacy they would have rescued themselves from the damages of a ruinous War have purchased security to their Consciences and of their temporal Estates honoured the Royal Party and the Catholicks in England with a certain restitution and liberty of the King whereon depended absolutely the welfare of the Catholicks in all his Kingdoms the Catholick Chair had quitted it self of all Engagements and Expence with Honour and Glory This Treaty of Peace on all sides so desirable Monsieur Rinuccini broke with such violence that he forced the Marquess of Ormond the Vice-Roy of Ireland to precipitate himself contrary to his inclination and affection into the arms of the Parliament of England to the unspeakable damage of the King and of the Catholicks not only of Ireland but also of England He incensed the greatest and best part of the Catholick Nobility and rendred the venerable Name of the holy Apostolick Chair odious to the Hereticks with small satisfaction to the Catholick Princes themselves of Europe as though it sought not the spiritual good of Souls but a temporal Interest by making it self Lord over Ireland And when the Lord Digby and the Lord Byron endeavour'd on the Marquess of Ormond's part to incline him to a new Treaty of Peace he did not only disdain to admit them or to accept the Overture but understanding that the Lord Byron with great danger and fatigue came to Town in the County of Westmeath where he was to speak with him he forced the Earl that was the Lord of it to send him away contrary to all Laws of Courtesie and Humanity in the night-time exposed to extraordinary inconveniencies and dangers amongst those distractions protesting that otherwise he himself would immediately depart the Town By
this Proceeding Monsieur Rinuccini hath given the World an occasion to believe that he had private and secret Commission to change the Government of Ireland and to separate that Island from the Crown of England And this Opinion is the more confirmed since that one Mahony a Jesuit hath printed a Book in Portugal wherein he endeavours to prove that all the Kings of England have been either Tyrants or Usurpers of Ireland and so fallen from the dominion of it exhorting all its Natives to get thither and to use all Cruelty against the English with expressions full of Villany and Reproach and to chuse a new King of their own Countrey And this Book so barbarous and bloody dispersed through Ireland is yet credited by the Catholick and Apostolick Chair And the Continuation of the History of Cardinal Baronius was published at the same time under the Name of Olderico Raynaldo in which he endeavours to establish the supream Right and Dominion in the Apostolick Chair even in Temporalibus over England and Ireland I leave to every Man to consider whether all these Actions are not apt enough to beget Jealousies and naughty Blood and whether I ought not out of great respect to the publick Good to represent with some ardency to your Holiness the Actions of Monsieur Rinuccini so unpleasant and directly contrary to those Ends for which it was supposed he was imployed And I beseech your Holiness if any King not only Protestant but Catholick had seen an Apostolick Nuncio to lord it in his Dominions in such a manner as Monsieur Rinuccini hath done in Ireland what Jealousies what Complaints and how many Inconveniencies would thereby follow Thus as to the Nuncio from the Confederates themselves Though he gives this account of himself For the better understanding of this saith he Recourse must be had to the first rising of the Irish which was upon this occasion The Parliament of England having enter'd into an Agreement with the Kingdom of Scotland called the large Treaty in which there was a clause to joyn against the common Enemy wherein the Catholicks of Ireland as well as others if not chiefly did apprehend themselves comprehended to ballance which or to prevent the misery that might fall upon them thereby being sensible of the Earl of Stafford's death which purported some to be sent as Governour that was not like to carry so fair to them as he had done the same being to be approv'd at least by the Parliament then sitting For better security they endeavoured the supplanting all Protestants within that Kingdom and though at that time without Arms or Ammunition got possession of most part of the Kingdom whereupon was established a Council of 24 part of Civil and part Ecclesiastical Persons of which 12 were to reside in Kilkenny or other place as occasion and need called with this Resolution agreed to hold a Parliament every year by or in which the said Council should be chang'd or continu'd By this it was resolv'd and after sworn by all the Catholicks never to lay down Arms until the Roman Church was settled as of old in Ireland and the King secur'd in all his Priviledges that of calling and putting period to Parliaments at pleasure with a Negative voice being chiefly meant and then in great hazard to be lost The Earl of Ormond and Inchequin Protestants fearing the issue of this League and fore-seeing the in-ability to oppose it treated with the Earl of Clanrickard Lord Muskery and other Lords Catholicks that possessed many Church-Benefices a way erected by Queen Elizabeth thereby to extinguish the Catholicks and advertised them that the Restitution of the Catholick Discipline would out them of all the said Profits gain'd them to the other side though they continued still of the Council in which they were a prevalent party taking to them such when any went out as were of Ormond's mind and design by which means a Peace was suddainly concluded upon supposition that the Affairs of the Catholicks requir'd it although there was no mention of the Interest of that Church in the Accord About that time the King sent to this Council the Earl of Glamorgan with full power to accord to the Catholicks as they desired if they should send him 10000 Men as they had offered Ormond then at Dublin under pretext of Treating drew Glamorgan thither took from him his Commission and made him Prisoner and certified the King that himself could make a far better and more advantagious Peace with the Catholicks which he did in 30 Articles This breach of Oath made by the Council gave occasion to the Nuncio John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo who had brought some succours of Money and Arms into Ireland to assemble the Clergy in Waterford and Excommunicate all such as should adhere to the Peace Which notwithstanding the said Marquiss advanc'd to Kilkenny to execute the same but O Neil returning victorious from the defeat of 20000 Scots in two Battles at Benburgh and Tirconnel Ormond goes back without doing of any thing whereupon were imprison'd the 7 that signed the Peace Ormond seeing himself out with the Catholicks both because he had ill treated them and by the violence exercised by his Army no sooner return'd to Dublin but he treated with the Parliament of England for the delivery of the Towns he held which was done accordingly Coming after to London where he expected to be gratified by the Parliament of England proportionable to the service done them but finding there no such disposition he went secretly to the Queen at St. Germains to justifie himself and perswade her That his rendring Dublin and other Towns were serviceable to the King her Husband then Prisoner to the Parliament because said he it is better that they have them then the Catholicks whom he affirm'd to have fail'd in their Fidelity to their King although they renew'd the abovemention'd Oath yearly About this time another Assembly of Catholicks sent to the Queen and the Princes her Children to desire certain concessions in the absence and because of the Detention of the King her Husband deputing others to Rome with Instructions to the former Deputies to act jointly with these but contrary those to the Queen not waiting the Resolution or Concurrence of them at Rome Muskery and Brown two of those Deputies notwithstanding the opposition of the Marquiss of Antrim who was chief proposed and obtain'd of the Queen that she send into Ireland the Marquess of Ormond as formerly to be Lord Deputy or Vice-Roy Who being brought into that Kingdom by the support of the said Supream Council of which 7 always favour'd him they again concluded a Cessation of Arms with Inchequin then reduced to such necessities that he was ready to fly into Holland whither then he had dispatch'd part of his Goods with good store of Money pick'd up there The Suspension not to be hindred by the Nuncio notwithstanding the offers of Money to satisfie the pressing necessities
be grounded we cannot find we have sworn to act according to the Principles you now declare For in some things if we admit of your Representation we shall be necessitated to act against what we have sworn unto in the Covenant For The first Article wherein we are bound to a preservation of the present Discipline in Scotland we are in the same Article obliged to a Reformation of the same in England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches which no doubt the Parliament will in due time establish In the interim we are un-satisfied with any Power that acts in this Case without their Direction For what you speak in relation to the King's Person we have yet no certainty out of England concerning that Matter and it is an action of so transcendent degree that till we receive some positive Resolution concerning it from England we ought not to proceed in giving our Sence of it In the 5th Article of the Covenant we are sworn to endeavour the continuing the Kingdoms in Union in which we desire your selves to be Judges if the publishing of your Representations be a probable way to observe the Oath In the 6th Article we are sworn to defend those joyn'd with us in this Covenant and not to suffer our selves directly or indirectly to combine against them Now till we receive a full Declaration of their falling from those Principles of this Covenant how can we with safety to our own Consciences declare a War against them without breaking the Covenant in this Particular In the next place We find some things in your Representations wherein as we conceive you are not rightly informed First In that you say The Parliament hath broken the Covenant in opposing the Presbyterial Government which can no ways appear since the same Government by their appointment is observ'd throughout England and that the Covenant obligeth them to establish the Government no further than is agreeable to God's Word Secondly You say That you have deeply sworn in the first Article to maintain the Church-Government as it is in the Church of Scotland which they have not sworn the part of the Oath for preservation of the Government relating only to the Kingdom of Scotland and the Reformation of Religion to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Thirdly 'T is affirmed That the Power now governing in England doth labour to establish by Law an universal toleration of all Religions which yet was never done by them Lastly The sad Consequences which will un-avoidably follow if we pursue the Intention of the Representations are these First By declaring such an open War against the Parliament we should deprive our selves of all Succours and Supplies out of England which have been hitherto a great part of our subsistence Secondly The pursuing of such a War will un-avoidably sow such Divisions amongst us who in these Parts are of such different Principles and Practices that we shall soon become instruments of our own ruine Thirdly It will compel us for our own preservation to joyn with the Rebels or desert this Kingdom And lastly It will without any lawful Call engage us in a War against an Army who have under God been the instruments of redeeming England out of thraldom and was not long since acknowledged to have been so instrumental in setling Scotland in the Peace and Quietness it now enjoyeth and this at the Charge of England as the Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland doth thankfully witness These things therefore being duely weighed we desire you in the fear of God seriously to take this our Answer into your Considerations and to remember on whom the guilt of innocent blood will fall if you inforce a War and to set before your eyes the punishment from Heaven which hath still attended the Endeavours of all who have deserted the Quarrel in this Kingdom to engage against the Parliament of England From visible Judgements we are resolv'd by God's assistance to take so good warning as we will not be guilty of destroying the Cause we have so long labour'd into countenance for your Representations till we be better satisfied in our Consciences though we will not directly or indirectly countenance any Sectaries or Schismaticks who-ever is truely so called contrary to our Solemn League and Covenant but we will to the utmost of our Endeavours continue faithful in the prosecution of the Rebels in this Kingdom and their Abettors wherein we shall not doubt of the Blessing and Protection of the Almighty upon our lawful and just Endeavours And for furtherance hereof we desire in the last place that we should all declare against the Peace last made by the Lord Marquess of Ormond as that which will if not protested against ruine and destroy your Service of this Kingdom against the Rebels Here it 's evident that Sir Charles Coot could by no ways be brought on yet the Peace being settled his Excellency endeavour'd to work over Lieutenant General Jones to his Party to which end his Excellency vouchsafed to write to him many Letters from Thurles the 27. of March 1649. all answer'd without the least compliance on Jones's side He by his Reply the 31. of March 1649. charging the fatal and inhumane Act perpetrated on his Majesty to his Excellency's arrival in Ireland during the Treaty at Carisbrook whereby the sincerity of that Treaty was question'd occasionally writes he producing what thereupon followed so as in conclusion he professed That were there neither King or Parliament he should yet stand firm to his Principles to preserve the English Interest in Ireland that being a Cause alien from what was acted in England Foraign to his Work and Trust which if he should not perform would not easily be expiated by a slender or lean Manifest upon which no more Letters pass'd betwixt them though the Lord Inchequin in June from the Camp at Finglass 1649. renewed the Attempt and was answer'd with the like Resolution and some Reflections on his Lordship About which time Ireland came again to be seriously thought of by the Parliament though hitherto it was in some respects made a Stale for several Designs then on foot Jones was much confided in but it was thought requisite the weight of that Business should lye on other shoulders not his Cromwel therefore about the 28 of March was voted General of Ireland Skippon under the Title of Martial General having refused the Command and these ensuing Votes passed thereupon 1. That such Regiments as should be alloted for the Irish Service should have their Arrears audited stated and Debentors given for their respective Services 2. That visible Security should be given so that any Friend or other being intrusted with a Debentor might receive it at a time prescrib'd by the Parliament 3. That those who go for Ireland should be first satisfied for their Arrears since 1645. 4. That out of the 120000 l. per mensem for England and Ireland
been two hours in the Town before Captain James Stafford Governour of the Castle whom the Lord Lieutenant would have remov'd from that Charge not as being unfit for it but because he was a Catholick and had exercised that Charge during the time that the Confederates were in Arms against the King gave up that Place to Cromwel and took Conditions under him Cromwel having thus gain'd the Castle advanc'd his Flag upon the Castle and turn'd the Guns against the Town which the Townsmen perceiving their hearts fail'd them and the Soldiers in confusion quitted the Walls not expecting the return of their Commissioners who treating with Cromwel had procured the safety of the Inhabitants of the Town and the preservation of it from Plunder as leave for the Soldiers to depart every one to their own homes they engaging not to bear Arms any more against the State of England and lastly of life to the Officers Yet in great consternation fear having surprized the Townsmen and Soldiers before their Commissioners return they endeavour'd to pass over the Water for the safety of their lives Which Cromwel's Soldiers perceiving about 14. of October presently clapt Scaling Ladders to the Walls and entred the Town without any resistance wherein all found in Arms were put to the Sword to the number of 2000 amongst which was Sir Edmond Butler endeavouring when he discovered their Treachery to escape was killed before he had been two hours in that City Cromwel in the interim not losing 20 men in the whole Siege though as you may see Colonel David Synot Governour of the Town and Castle of Wexford had confidence by the Propositions he sent 1. That the Inhabitants of the Town should exercise without disturbance the Roman Catholick Religion 2. Their Religious Orders and Priests should enjoy their Monasteries and Churches 3. The Bishop Nicolus Ferns and his Successors should have their undisturb'd Jurisdiction of their Diocess 4. Their Officers and Soldiers should march out with flying Colours and the other punctilio's of Honour 5. Whosoever of the Inhabitants hereafter should desire to depart the Town should have what-ever was theirs with them 6. That all Free-men should have their Immunities and Liberties hitherto enjoyed they adhering to the State of England 7. None to be disturb'd in their Possession 8. Who-ever afterwards should desire to depart may have safe Conduct into England or else-where 9. That all enjoy a full liberty of Free-born English Subjects in what Port soever they should Traffick in England 10. That no memory remain of any Hostility or distance betwixt the Parliament and those that kept the Town and Castle All which Cromwel accounting impudent had no effect From this Torrent of Success and Corruption no body will wonder That Cromwel march'd thence without control and took in Ross a strong Town situate upon the Barrow and far more considerable for Navigation than Wexford the River admitting a Ship of 7 or 800 Tun to ride by the Walls of this Place Major General Lucas Taaff was Governour who had with him a strong Garrison re-enforced by 1500 Men even in the fight of Cromwel's Army who when he came before it to save Blood sent a Summons to the Town which was answer'd suitable to his mind by the Governour but the Great Guns sending in the next Summons the Town was surrendred on condition the 19th of October That they within should march away with Bag and Baggage Capitulating for which Taaff demanded Liberty of Conscience for such as should stay To which Cromwel repli'd That he medled not with any mans Conscience but if by Liberty of Conscience was meant a Liberty to exercise the Mass he judged it best to use plain dealing and to let him know where the Parliament of England had power that will not be allowed The Marquis of Ormond out of a too deep sense of the stupidity nay madness and ingratitude of that People for whose Protection and Defence he had embarqu'd himself his Fortunes and his Honour and whose jealousie and fond obstinacy made the work of their own preservation more difficult and impossible than the Power of their Enemy could do about this time desired nothing so much as an opportunity to fight Cromwel and either to give some check to his swelling Fortune or to perish gloriously in the action and to that purpose drew all his Friends to him then about the Graige and Thomastown with an intention to fight him his Excellency's Army being exceedingly increas'd by the conjunction of Inchiquin's and Roe's Armies had he not been diverted by a false Alarm of the Enemy's being gone as far as Bennets-bridge towards Kilkenny whereby he was drawn thither for the defence of that City otherwise he had engaged them before their getting to Carrick Ross being now in Cromwel's possession he caus'd a Bridge of Boats to be made under protection of the Town over the River Barrow and the Army to sit down before Duncannon a strong Fort commanded by Colonel Wogan but the Place being so well provided of all Necessaries it was judged convenient not to lose time about it And presently after Colonel Abbot reduced Enisteoge a little wall'd Town about 5 miles from Ross to the Parliaments obedience And about the same time Colonel Reynolds with 12 Troops of Horse and 3 of Dragoons march'd toward Carrick having divided his Men into two parts whilst the Besieged were amused with the one Party he enter'd a Gate with the other taking the Place and about 100 Prisoners without the loss of one Man But to look back From the time that the Peace was concluded at Kilkenny the Lord Lieutenant well discerned the mischief he should sustain by being to provide against the Attempts of General Owen O Neal as well as against the English Forces and that at least he could hope for no assistance from the Scots in Ulster as long as they fear'd him And therefore he sent Daniel O Neal Nephew to the General to perswade him to be included in the same Peace but he was so un-satisfied with the Assembly that he declared he would have nothing to do with them or be comprehended in any Peace they should make But if the Marquess would consent to some Conditions he propos'd he would willingly submit to the King's Authority in him The Marquess was content to grant him his own Conditions having indeed a great esteem of his Conduct and knowing the Army under his Command to be better disciplined than any other of the Irish. But the Commissioners of Trust would by no means consent to those Conditions whereby it is evident though these would be thought to adhere to the Marquess that they had alien thoughts to his Majesty's Happiness and declared if the Lord Lieutenant should proceed thereupon to an Agreement it would be a direct breach of the Articles of Peace And thereupon Owen O Neal made that Conjunction with Monk as is before spoken of and about the very time of the
Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurarator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andraeus Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthur Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patr. Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joa Hussey Procurator Episco Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Fr. Gregorius o Ferraile Provin Ordinis Praedicatorum Provin Hiber Fr. Thomas Mackeyernane Provin Fratrum Minorum Provin Hiber Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of the Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. to consider of the best means to unite our Flocks for averting Gods wrath fallen on this Nation now bleeding under the evils that Famine Plague and War bring after them for effecting a present Union Decreed the ensuing Acts. 1. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries within their respective Diocesses shall enjoyn Publick Prayers Fasting General-Confession and Receiving and other works of Piety toties quoties to withdraw from this Nation Gods Anger and to render them capable of his Mercies 2. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That a Declaration issue from us letting the People know how vain it is for them to expect from the Common Enemy commanded by Cromwel by Authority from the Rebels of England any assurance of their Religion Lives or Fortunes 3. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Pastors and Preachers be enjoyned to Preach amity And for inducing the People thereunto to declare unto them the absolute necessity that is for the same and as the chief means to preserve the Nation against the extirpation and destruction of their Religion and Fortunes resolved on by the Enemy And we hereby do manifest our detestation against all such Divisions between either Provinces or Families or between old English and old Irish or any the English or Scots adhering to his Majesty And we Decree and Order that all Ecclesiastical Persons fomenting such Dissentions or un-natural Divisions be punished by their respective Prelates and Superiors Juxta gravitatem excessus si opus fuerit suspendantur beneficiali Pastores à beneficio officio ad certum tempus Religiosi autem à Divinis juxto circumstantias delicti Leaving the Laity offending in this kind to be corrected by the Civil Magistrate by Imprisonment Fine Banishment or otherwise as to them shall seem best for plucking by the root so odious a Crime The Execution whereof we most earnestly recommend to all those having Power and that are concerned therein as they will answer to God for the evils that thereout may ensue 4. We Decree and Declare Excommunicated those High-way Robbers commonly called the Idle-Boys that take away the Goods of honest men or force me to pay them Contribution and we likewise declare Excommunicated all such as succour or harbour them or bestow or sell them any Victualing or buy Cattle or any other thing else from them wittingly Likewise all Ecclesiastical Persons Ministring Sacraments to such Robbers or Idle-Boys or burying them in Holy Grave to be suspended ab officio beneficio si quod habent by their respective Superiors juxta gravitatem delicti This our Decree is to oblige within fifteen days after the Publication thereof in the respective Diocesses Signed by Hugo Ardmachanus Fr. Thomas Dublin Thomas Casshel Joan. Archiep. Tuam Fr. Boetius Elphyn Fr. Edmundus Laghlinensis Procurator Waterfordiensis Emerus Clogher Robertus Corcagiensis Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andreas Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthurus Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patric Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joannes Hussey Procurator Episcop Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of this Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu on the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. taking into our consideration among other the Affairs then agitated and determinated for the preservation of the Kingdom that many of our Flock are mislead by a vain opinion of Hopes that the Commander in Chief of the Rebels Forces commonly called the Parliamentaries would afford them good Conditions and that relying thereon they suffer utter destruction of Religion Lives and Fortunes if not prevented To undeceive them in that their ungrounded expectation We do hereby Declare as a most certain Truth that the Enemies Resolution is to extirpate the Catholick Religion out of all his Majesties Dominions as by their several Covenants doth appear and the Practice where-ever their Power doth extend as is manifested by Cromwel's Letter of the 19th of Octob. 1649. to the then Governor of Ross. His words are For that which you mention concerning Liberty of Religion I meddle not with any man's Conscience but if by Liberty of Conscience you mean a Liberty to exercise the Mass I judge it best to use plain dealing and to let you know where the Parliament of England have Power that will not be allowed of This Tyrannical Resolution they have put in execution in Wexford Drogheda Ross and elsewhere And it is notoriously known that by Acts of Parliament called The Acts of Subscription the Estates of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom are sold so as there remaineth now â—o more but to put the Purchasers in possession by the power of Forces drawn out of England And for the common sort of People towards whom if they shew any more moderate usage at the present it is to no other end but for their private advantage and for the better support of their Army intending at the close of their Conquest if they can effect the same as God forbid to root out the Commons also and plant this Land with Colonies to be brought hither out of England as witness the number they have already sent hence for the Tobacco Island and put Enemies in their places And in effect this banishment or other destructions of the common People must follow the Resolution of extirpating the Catholick Religion which is not to be effected without the Massacring or Banishment of the Catholick Inhabitants We cannot therefore in our Duty to God and in discharge of the Care we are obliged to have for the preservation of our Flocks but admonish them not to delude and lose themselves with the vain expectation of Conditions to be had from that merciless Enemy And consequently we
they were advised to return to their Association and until a General Assembly of the Nation could be conveniently called unanimously to serve against the common Enemy since no Persons were named or appointed to conduct them it must be acknowledged that they were left without any direction at all to the rage and fury of those who intended nothing but their Reduction Together with their Excommunication they published in the head of the Army a Declaration entituled A Declaration of the Archibishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of his Majesty's Authority in the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the mis-government of the Subjects and the ill conduct of his Majesty's Army and violation of the Articles of Peace If the Archbishops Bishops and Secular and Regular Clergy of Ireland will take upon them to declare against the King's Authority where his Majesty hath placed it and will make themselves Judges of his supream Minister for the government of the Subjects and the ill conduct of his Majesty's Army they assume an Authority to themselves that no other Christian Clergy ever pretended and sufficiently declare to the King how far they are from being Subjects or intending to pay him any Obedience longer than they are govern'd in such Manner and by such Persons as they think fit to be pleas'd with If the Marquess of Ormond had mis-govern'd the People and conducted his Majesty's Army amiss the Clergy are not competent Judges of the one or the other And for the violation of the Articles of Peace the Commissioners nominated and appointed to provide for the due execution of them were the only Persons who could determine and remedy such Violation and who well knew there was no cause for their complaint But on the other hand as hath been before mention'd these Men obstructed that concurrence and obedience in the People without which those Articles could not be observed or the security of the People provided for The Preface of that Declaration according to their usual method justified and magnified their Piety and Vertue in the beginning and carrying on the War extolled their Duty and Affection to their King in submitting to him and returning to their Allegiance when they said they could have better or as good Conditions from the Parliament of England intimated what a vast sum of Money they had provided near half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for carrying on the War and many other Particulars of that nature the monstrous untruths whereof doth sufficiently appear in what hath been said before The Marquess having been forced to borrow those little sums of Money out of the Pockets of his Friends and to spend all that he raised upon the sail of a good quantity of his own Land for the support of his Wife and Children to enable the Army to march which was not then what-ever hath been since re-paid to him And the Magazines of Corn and Ammunition and other Materials for War being so absolutely un-furnished that it was not possible for him to reduce those small Forts of Maryburrough and Athy held by Neal's Party till he had by his own Power and Interest procured some Supplies before clearly mention'd so far were these Men from making that Provision they brag of What Conditions they might have had from the Parliament of England may be concluded by the usage they have since found nor if they were put to it would they be able to prove their Assertions divine vengeance having made that Party more merciless towards them whose forwardness obstinacy and treachery against the King's Authority contributed most to their Service than those who worthily opposed them and were most enemies to their Proceedings They endeavour'd by all imaginable Reproaches and Calumnies to lessen the Peoples Reverence towards the Lord Lieutenant laying such Aspersions on him in the said Declaration as might most alienate their Affections though themselves knew them to be un-true and without colour They complained that he had given Money Commissions for Colonels and other Commands unto Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them either betrayed or deserted the Service whereas they knew well that there was not one Protestant Officer to whom the Lord Lieutenant gave a Commission who betrayed any Place committed to him or otherwise treated in order to their support than all the other Officers of the same condition in the Army nor did they quit the Service until many of them had gallantly lost their Lives and that the Clergy had so far incensed the People against them only for being Protestants that the Marquess was compelled to give them leave to depart the Kingdom or otherwise to dispose of themselves and the Parliament Commanders gave Passes to such as would depart the Kingdom and gladly entertain'd such as went over to their Party They accused him of Improvidence in conducting the Army after the defeat at Rathmines of not relieving Tredath of permitting Play Drinking and Licentiousness in the Camp and as bold Aspersions as without Excommunication might gain credit with the People and reflect upon his Honour where he was not enough known Whereas the Action at Rathmines is before set down at large and the taking of Tredath by a Storm when it was scarce apprehended And it is notoriously known that in his Person he was so strict and vigilant that he gave not himself freedom and liberty to enjoy those Pleasures which might very well have consisted with the Office and Duty of the most severe General and that in above three months time which was from his first drawing the Forces to the Rendezvous till after the misfortune at Rathmines he never slept out of his Souldier's Habit. So that the malice and craft of those unreasonable and sensless Calumnies are easie enough to be discerned and can only make an impression upon vulgar minds not well informed of the Humour and Spirit of the Contrivers They magnified exceedingly the Merit of the Prelates the Declaration they had made at Cloanmacnoise their frequent expressions of their Sincerity and most blame the Marquess for not making use of their Power and Diligence toward the advancing the King's Interest but rather for suspecting and blaming them by his Letter to the Prelates at Jamestown before-mention'd and they said words were heard to fall from him dangerous as to the Persons of some of the Prelates To all which little need be said since there is before so just and full mention of their fair Declarations Professions and Actions which accompanied them And for the danger the Persons of some Prelates were in they will be ashamed to urge when it is known that their Bishop of Killalough was brought to him in custody even after he had sign'd this Declaration and Excommunication
a Papist had merited from them The Lord Deputy hereupon and in consideration of many resorting to the Parliaments Quarters issued forth this Proclamation By the Lord Deputy General of Ireland CLANRICKARD WHereas divers of the Tradesmen and other Inhabitants have formerly lived in the Quarters in obedience to his Majesty within this Kingdom have of late withdrawn themselves from their respective Habitations there and be-taken themselves into the Garrisons and Quarters under the Power of the common Enemy for their particular and private advantage thereby to avoid contributing to his Majesty's Army to the great dis-advantage thereof and the support of the adverse Party which probably might be destroy'd had it not receiv'd this Relief For Reformation whereof we do hereby publish and declare That whosoever of the said Inhabitants or Tradesmen shall not within 14 days after publication hereof withdraw themselves and their Goods from the Garrisons and Quarters of the Enemy wherein they now remain to the Quarters in obedience to his Majesty And whosoever after the time aforesaid shall presume to live within a Mile to any of the said Garrisons shall be liable to the Confiscation of their Goods and Chattels and shall be prosecuted against as adhering in all respects to the Enemy and Traitors to his Majesty And whereas many idle and desolate Persons commonly call'd by the Name of Tories and others under pretence of going about to his Majesty's Service and frequently exact Meat Drink and Money from the Subjects committing many Outrages and using their Will for Law to the ruine and devastation of the Kingdom For prevention whereof we do hereby publish and declare That any Person or Persons of that Condition or Nature who within 14 days after publication hereof shall not in-list themselves in his Majesty's Army shall be un-horsed and dis-arm'd where-soever taken or found and in their Persons proceeded against as Traitors And we require and command the Commanders in chief of his Majesty's Army to take Order that this our Proclamation receive due execution And to the end that no Man may plead ignorance thereof we require all Mayors Sheriffs Soveraigns Portiffs and Bayliffs in whose hands these shall come on receipt thereof within the respective Liberties in the most publick Places to cause it to be proclaimed Given under our Hand and Seal at Arms the 2d day of January 1650. God save the King But to return to the Parliaments Forces who whilst the Marquess of Ormond was thus variously treated by the Confederates took in the Castle of Carlow as the 27th of July Caterlagh and the 10th of Aug. Waterford commanded by General Thomas Preston and the strong Fort of Dungannon under Giles Smith the 14th of Aug. as in the North Charlemont that nothing indeed they attempted but resigned to their Power Ireton this Winter continued at Kilkenny because the Plague which the Summer before had so exceedingly raged at Dublin as 't is reported there died thereof 17000 Persons was not yet ceased whence he caused several Parties to be sent abroad which did notable Service in divers Parts of the Countrey as in taking in Balimoy in the Kings County and in chasing back into Thomond the Earl of Castlehaven as also in frighting the Lord Muskery to his Fastnesses in Kerry who whilst the Army was prosecuting the Earl of Castlehaven had burnt the Town and Parts near Mackrump whilst the Rebels surprized two Troops of Horse and a Company of Foot belonging to Colonel Zanckey about the midst of February About the 21. of February Colonel Huson with 1600 Foot and 700 Horse march'd to the County of Westmeath to reduce some Garrisons and to prevent the Rebels raising of Forces there When he came to Tecrogham he heard Colonel Preston and Sir John Dungan had besieged a Castle of theirs in the Kings County to whose Relief he marched as far as Terrills Pass where he heard that Colonel Reynolds had dispersed them thence turning towards Mullingar he took in Kilbridge wherein he found 200 Barrels of Corn and the next day enter'd Mullingar whereupon the Enemy quitted Tuets-town Ledwicks-town and Disert where he heard that Colonel Reynolds had taken in Donore in which was found 500 Barrels of Corn and having garrison'd Ballimore thence march'd to Ballimallock a Pass upon the Aine and took it and Sir Thomas Nugent's Castle in one day Thence drawing towards Finagh he encamped against Tough's Castle which after the third shot was delivered him where hearing that Phelim Mac Hugh with 1500 Foot was marching on the other side of the River to the re-enforcement of Finagh he sent Sir Theophilus Jones with 400 Horse and his own Regiment of Foot to encounter him who fell upon them killing O Cahan and divers considerable Officers with about 400 private Souldiers and taking Prisoners Colonel Mac Donel his Lieutenant General 1 Major 12 Captains 12 Lieutenants 15 Ensigns the Quarter-Master and about 376 private Souldiers and non-Commission Officers Sir Theophilus performing in this as in all other Expeditions excellent Service whilst Colonel Huson stormed Finagh but was repulsed with some loss though he had it surrendred the next day upon Conditions bearing date the 14th of March 1650. which Surrender brought in five adjacent Castles About May 1651. Order was taken in England for sending over Recruits of Foot and Money to pay and raise Men but by reason of the numbers sent into Scotland there could not many or much be spared but what could be procured came over very opportunely to re-inforce the Army then ready to march to the Siege of Limerick Ireton having appointed Sir Charles Coot with 2000 Horse and as many choice Northerly Foot to march into Connaght by the way of Sligo which he did seating himself before that strong Fort as though he would have besieged it but perceiving that the Irish from all Parts were drawing to its Relief he drew off and passing not without difficulty the Curlew Mountains enter'd Connaght and had Athlone by the Lord Dillon Portumna with some other Places of no great strength delivered to him whilst Ireton with the main Army passed the River Shannon about Killalow where the Rebels were gathered together but made little resistance and presently fell down before Limerick where he entrenched himself and made a formed Siege During which he and others intercepted frequent Intelligence from the Bishop and Mayor of Limerick That unless they were effectually reliev'd and that speedily the Commonalty would force them to deliver the City upon Conditions to the Enemy Upon which the Lord Broghil by orders from Ireton drew all the Forces of the County together to impede the Lord Muskery then marching out of the County of Kerry with a considerable Force and though he made many halts seeming as if he intended another Design then the Relief of Limerick yet being narrowly watched the Scouts brought certain Intelligence about the 22. of June that his Body of Horse marched from Dromagh
your Highness pious intentions for the preservation of the Catholick Religion your great and Princely care to recover his Majesties Rights and Interests from his Rebel Subjects of England and the high obligation you put upon this Nation by your tender regard of them and desire to redeem them from the great miseries and afflictions they have endured and the eminent dangers they are in And it shall be a principal part of my ambition to be an useful instrument to serve your Highness in so famous and glorious an enterprize And that I may be the more capable to contribute somewhat to so religious and just ends First in discharge of my conscience toward God my duty to the King my Master and to dis-abuse your Highness and give a clear and perfect information so far as comes to my knowledge I am obliged to represent unto your Highness that by the title of the Agreement and Articles therein contained made by those Commissioners I imployed to your Highness and but lately come 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 Masters behalf and all other Powers that could 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 Majesties 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 ambitions then the advantage of Religion or the Nation or the prosperous success of your Highness generous undertakings And to manifest the clearness of mine own proceeding 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 Masters 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 Majesties Authority being in duty bound thus far to vindicate the King my Masters 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 Gods glory and service the restauration of oppressed Majesty and the relief of his distressed Kingdom which would at length fall into intestine broils and divivisions if not forceably driven into desperation I shall now with a hopeful and chearful importunity upon a clear score free from those deceits propose to your Highness that for the advancement of all those great ends you aim at and in the King my Masters behalf and in the name of all the Loyal Catholick Subjects of this Nation and for the preservation of those important cautionary Places that are security for your Highness 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 safeguard to your Fleets and Men of War having yet many good Harbours left but also engage in the King my Masters name that whatsoever may prove to your satisfaction that is any way consistent with his Honour and Authority and have made my humble applications to the Queens 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 then 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 my self and all the Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom may soon and justly proclaim and leave recorded to posterity that your Highness was the great 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 malicious to his Majesty's Authority and Government and a fatal Instrument in contriving and fomenting all those 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 Taaffe 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 Masters behalf that he may not be countenanc'd or intrusted in any Affairs that have relation to his Majesties Interest in this Kingdom where I have constantly endeavoured by all possible service to deserve your Highness good opinion and obtaining that favour to be a most faithful acknowledger of it in the capacity and under the title of Your Highness most humble and obliged Servant CLANRICKARD Athenree 20th Octob. 1651. Thus the Lord Deputy very faithfully discharged his duty and great cause there was to protest against such proceedings of the Confederates they putting his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland into the hands of a Foreign Prince and in that
being over Ireton within a few days without drawing his Army nearer than the Castle of Clare which he and Sir Charles Coot joyntly took in sent a Summons to the City of Gallway offering therein Limerick's first Conditions wishing them withall to put him to no more trouble lest they far'd as Limerick did through their stubbornness adding such other threats as he thought most like to make impressions upon them and a great impression they did make But Ireton dying at Limerick the 26th of November having contracted a Feaver through his continual Watching and Services through the whole Siege of Limerick they had a little respite and being united under the Command of General Preston the Town of Gallway address'd themselves to the Lord Deputy and desired his assistance promising all obedience to his Majesties Authority in him Nor was he so much discourag'd by their former carriage and their having accepted the Articles made with the Duke of Lorrain and their declaring him to be their Protector without ever communicating it to the Lord Deputy as to decline having further to do with them But upon their first Address to him he sent his Secretary to them with some Directions and shortly after went himself thither having summon'd such of the Nobility Prelates and principal Gentry as could with safety repair thither to consult what might yet be done for their defence they having still Men enough dispersed in several Parties to resist the Enemy if they were drawn together and united amongst themselves and the Town of Galway was so good a Port that any Supplies or Succours might come from abroad to them Upon Ireton's Death the Commissioners formerly mention'd to reside at Dublin made Lieutenant General Ludlow Commander in Chief till the Parliament in England should take further Order about that Concern In the interim Sir Charles Coot with his Party straightned Galway blocking up their Harbours and approaching with his Fortifications nearer by Land which wrought so far upon the Assembly there that in February they importun'd the Lord Deputy to give them leave to send to Lieutenant General Ludlow who by this time was come to aid Sir Charles Coot in the Siege for a safe Conduct for their Commissioners to treat of Conditions for the settlement of the Nation upon which they would submit to the Government of the Parliament professing to the Lord Deputy that they would in the mean time make such preparation for their defence that if the Parliament would not give them good and ample Conditions they would sell themselves at such a dear Rate that should make their Conquest of little use to their Enemy Upon which the Lord Deputy the Marquess Clanrickard the 14th of February 1651. writes to the Commander in chief of the Parliaments Forces and in conclusion had no grateful Reply Which when the Irish found that they could not have so much as a safe Conduct sent for their Commissioners nor could be admitted so much as to treat for the Nation but only that particular Places and Persons might be admitted to compound for themselves as others had done their spirits fail'd them and after a very little deliberation and before they put the Enemy to the trouble of storming them without so much as consulting the Lord Deputy or asking his leave though he was within less than half a days journey of the Town they enter'd into a Treaty and in a short time after viz. the 12th of May surrendred the Town to Sir Charles Coot for the use of the Parliament of England upon such Conditions as would not be yielded to by the Commissioners or the Parliament Though afterwards this Difficulty was composed and many considerable Garrisons in Connaght followed the example whilst many were amazed to see upon what easie terms they parted with their last important Town a Place of great strength and had they been resolute invincible having still in loose Parties over the Kingdom more Men in Arms to have defended it than the English could have brought against the Town Upon which and other Circumstances the Irish in Leimster and Munster being reduc'd to straights meditate a Compliance some under the Earl of Westmeath others under Muskery but oppos'd by the Ulster Confederacy Ireton's Funerals being over which were performed with great Solemnity on the 6th of February following in Henry 7th's Chappel since buried under Tyburn the Parliament consulted whom they should make Deputy as they called it in Ireton's room And Major General Lambert a Commissioner in Scotland was by Cromwel the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant nominated thereunto Whereupon he presently appeared but seem'd unwilling to accept of the Charge a Difficulty soon removed making in a little time all things ready for his departure inasmuch as Waggons with his private Provisions a recruit of Souldiers and Money were in readiness to be sent away But Cromwel's Commission determining in the end of April it came into debate in the House whether it should be renewed again but he offering to lay it down it was accepted so there being no Lord Lieutenant they voted there should be no Lord Deputy and that Major General Lambert should be only Commander in chief of the Forces there And about the 4th of July 1652. Colonel Charles Fleetwood who had lately married Ireton's Relict Lieutenant General of the Horse was made Commander in chief of the Forces in Ireland he hastned his Dispatch and used great diligence to get over to his Charge In the mean time several things were under debate in the House for setling of Ireland That great Act for Confiscation of all the Rebels Lands was passed the 12th of August and another appointed to be brought in for setling the Adventurers Estates for Ireland which passed the 26th of September 1653. and was confirmed 1656. But these requiring much time the Commander in chief went away about the midst of August and left them to receive a Dispatch in his absence He had a very prosperous Passage and arrived within few days after his departure He setled his Residence at Kilkenny by reason Dublin and the Parts adjacent were at that time much infected with the Plague He found the War of Ireland drawing on to a conclusion the Rebels being Masters of few considerable Forts and Castles throughout the whole Countrey Roscommon-Castle and James-town having yielded the 3d. of April to Colonel Reynolds as the strong Hold of Ross in Kerry did the 27th of June to Lieutenant General Ludlow and the strong Fort of Inchlough the 1st of August to Colonel Zanckey And their Forces were so weak as they were not able to keep the Field and so dispersed as they had already in Parties come in as did the Earl of Westmeath the Lord Muskery Colonel Connor O Roe Sir William Dungan Sir Francis Talbot and many others to the number of 800. upon the Kilkenny Articles which were in a manner to submit unto discretion and subject themselves to a Trial for the Murthers committed in the beginning of
the Rebellion all found guilty thereof were excepted from Pardon their Estates confiscated and the others who had only assisted in the War were to forfeit two parts of their Estates and be banished And accordingly great numbers of them were transported into Spain the latter end of this Summer Yet the Marquess of Clanrickard did not leave the Kingdom in many months after the Surrender of Galway but endeavour'd by all means possible to draw the scattered Forces together that he might prosecute the War afresh according to his Majesty's Letters in the years 1650 and 1651. encouraging him to his continuance in Arms as advantagious by way of Diversion to his then intended progress of promoting his Design in Scotland and coming into England And to that end the 16th of May the Marquess of Clanrickard with the Connaght Forces marched to Ballishannon which he took by storm and presently after Dungal-Castle where the Ulster Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the Relie's and Mahon's joyned with him but upon intelligence that Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables were marched against him he retired to Armagh intending for Raphoe Whilst Sir Charles Coot in his pursuit of him retook Ballishanon and Dungal-Castle gaining also Sligo Ballymote and many other Garrisons so as the Marquess was forced to shelter himself in the Isle of Carrick And having receiv'd his Majesty's Command to take care of his own security that he fell not into the Enemy's hands he having no Port to friend where he might choose a Vessel and being so betrayed by the Irish as not securely to stay 24 hours in a Place was compelled to have a Pass from the Parliaments Forces not excepting any other Conditions for himself than that he might for some time remain secure in their Quarters without taking the Oath usually imposed by them and have liberty to transport himself and 3000 Irish more into any Prince's Countrey and Service then in Amity with England which was granted and in March 1652. he was transported into England in a Vessel belonging to the Parliament after he had born the Title of the King's Deputy in Ireland little more than two years not with greater submission from the Catholick Irish than had before been paid to the Lord Lieutenant and so retired to London where not long after he died and was thence carried to Summerhill a pleasant Seat of his own which Bradshaw had in Custodium near Tunbridge in Kent and was buried in the Parish-Church He was a Person much respected for his Integrity and though of a contrary opinion to those then in Usurpation looked on as a Favourer of the English and one that no ways indulged the Cruelties and Pretensions of the Irish. This was the Fate of that unhappy Nation both under Protestant and Roman Catholick Governours neither having had the credit to be Masters of the Irish Temper fomented by the Insolencies of the Priests and whatever might instigate them against the English Government Soon after the Marquess of Clanrickard's Departure the lesser Concerns of that Nation were with little trouble and charge brought in obedience to the Parliament who declared the 26th of September 1653. That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended and thereupon proceeded to the Distribution of their Lands in pursuance of the Act for Subscriptions 17 Carol. 1. Some time before which a High Court of Justice was setled in Ireland a Name we have reason not to mention without horrour and astonishment considering who was summoned to such a Tribunal which certainly would never have been how vain how ambitious how prodigious soever some mens Success was a Strumpet often leading one to Attempts above their first thoughts had not the Rebels of Ireland for carrying on their pernicious Practices avouched the sacred Authority for their pretence and colour that though these with Pilate washed their hands from the Blood of this Righteous One yet they have as the shame so the guilt of that Royal Blood on themselves who originally gave the occasion of such a Discourse which afterwards was made one of the pretended Causes for the most barbarous and inhumane Act ever perpretated Inter tragicoe Fortunoe Exempla omnibus retro seculis memorandus Upon which eloquent Du Moulin one of the clearest Lights of the French Church honouring me with a Letter on that Subject thus passionately discovers his Resentment La Morte de vostre bon Roy d'une facon si indigne si horrible par les Maims des Independans M'outre le Coeur de Douleur C'est une action sans Example un opprobre ineffacable a nostre Religion vostre Nation tant Genereuse a elle perdu tout Courage Les Escossoes se taisent ils la dessue Mais quoy Il faut Mettre le doigt sur la bouche adorer les Conseils de Dieu qui sont Inscrutables It is observable let some foam as they please that there were none who so much as pretended to have a Reverence for the Church of England that ever had the least hand in this foul and ugly Business An instance of that is in what the Lord Chancellor Hide acquainted the Parliament with in express words from his Majesty when he was imployed in an Embassy to Spain That the Horrid Murther of his Royal Father was not the Act of the Parliament or People of England but of a very wretched and little Company of Miscreants in the Kingdom fol. 41. Upon which Monsieur Moses Amiraldus the Excellent French Divine hearing of the Protestant Religion aspersed as seditious and treasonable writ a Piece in French in vindication of the Protestant Religion and dedicated it to our King Charles the 2d in the time of his Exile when Militiere and others would have inforced the barbarous Martyrdom of his Royal Father as a just Motive to his apostatizing and not trusting his safety to the Protestant Religion whereas all these blustering Storms as the Bishop of Derry observes in his excellent Tract against Militiere radicated him deeper in his Religion that what these intended for his evil proved his good And certainly whatsoever conspired to compleat so execrable a Design as the Murther of the King nothing contributed more than the Irish deluding his Sacred Majesty so long with their Promises of a competent Army whereby he relying on them too confidently assured of their Ability and Power to perform it deferred those Agreements which else he might have seasonably composed at home And could there ever be an equaller Distribution of God's Vengeance than that they by a parallel Court should suffer the loss of their Estates Lives and Fortunes Which though un-usual was the only Expedient sufficiently set forth in the ensuing Speech of the Lord Lowther's a Person of that Gravity and Worth as whatsoever may be said by others can never reach the State of the Question more fully with less animosity and greater truth than he hath done at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neal in February
childless among women And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal The next case is that of David David writes to Joab by Uriah to set Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest of the Battel and to retire from him that he may be smitten and die Joab did so and so Uriah was slain The Lord by Nathan the Prophet tells David That he had killed Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon and therefore the Sword shall never depart from his house The case of Joab is remarkable Joab was a kinsman to David and he was Captain of his Hoast he did many great Services and grew old in his Service yet for all this David charges Solomon that he should not let his hoary head go down to the grave in peace because he had shed the blood of war in peace in killing of Abner and Amasa And though Joab flies to the Tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the Altar yet Solomon commands him there to be slain to take way the innocent blood which Joab had shed in killing Abner the son of Ner Captain of the hoast of Israel and Amasa the son of Jether Captain of the hoast of Judah I will onely add Ahab's case Ahab covets Naboth's Vineyard his Wife Jezebel undertakes the business Ahab leaves the matter to her management she writes Letters in Ahab's name feals them with his Seal and so carries the business that Naboth is stoned to death and Ahab takes possession of the Vineyard The Lord sends Elijah the Prophet unto Ahab saying Thus saith the Lord Hast thou killed and also taken possession c. In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine And of Jezebel also saith the Lord The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel I have remembred these Cases and Presidents because they may be useful to us in this service That of Agag and Joab to admonish us not to spare Murderers That of Ahab and David to instruct us that the Authors the Contrivers the Counsellors and the Abettors are guilty of the Murther as well as the Actors be their Plots and Devices never so subtilly and secretly carried I come next to the Law under the Gospel Those Laws against Murther are confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel Matth. 26. 52. Revel 13. 10. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Verily I say unto you Till Heaven and Earth pass away one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled And in Verse 21. approves the Law against Murther and also reproves the narrow and literal Gloss and Exposition of the Pharisees upon it and gives us a larger and more spiritual sense of it viz. that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause is in danger of judgment The Law of England Murther by the Law of England is a Felony of death without benefit of the Clergy or Sanctuary and by the Law it is esteemed so high and grievous a Crime that it is prohibited by many Acts of Parliament to grant any Pardon for Wilful Murder This Law of England answers to that of Deuteronomy Thine eye shall not pity but life shall go for life The Laws of Ireland By the Laws of Ireland Wilful Murther is High Treason which is of a Temporal offence esteemed in Law to be the highest Crime and hath been censur'd with the severest Judgment and Punishment viz. for a man to be drawn upon a Hurdle to the Place of Execution and there to be hanged by the neck to be cut down alive his Intrals and Privy Members to be cut forth of his Body and burnt within his sight his Head to be cut off and his Body to be divided into four Quarters or Parts c. For a man to be drawn upon a Hurdle to the Place of Execution and there his Bowels to be burned It is considerable why and upon what grounds or reasons Murther was made a more horrid and execrable Crime in Ireland than in England and punished with a greater severity viz. both with Torture and with Death the Statute Decimo Hen. 7. in Ireland which enacts it to be so gave the reason of the difference Praying the Commons saith the Law Forasmuch as there have been unusual Murthers of malice prepense used and had in this Land of Ireland c. contrary to the Law of Almighty God without any fear of due punishment in that behalf Therefore the Statute doth enact Wilful Murder to be High Treason That sin was grown universal in Ireland and therefore the punishment must be extraordinary the universality of the crime causeth the increasing of the punishment or the severity thereof Ut metus ad omnes poena ad paucos perveniet But it will admit another Quoere How it came to pass that Malice and Murther was universal in Ireland more than in England I conceive these two Reasons may be given for it as new 1. We have been these many years weltring in blood by the frequent Rebellions in Ireland that have silenced the Laws 2. Their was a main defect in their Irish Laws and Customs viz. their Brehowne Law which the Irish continued amongst themselves and the degenerate English embraced it notwithstanding the introduction of the just and honourable Laws of England Now by their Irish Custome or Brehowne Law Murther was not punished with death but onely by Fines or a pecuniary Mulct which they called an Errick Therefore when Sir William Fitz-Williams being Deputy told Mac-guire That he was to send a Sheriff into Fermanagh being lately before made a County The Sheriff said Mac-Guire shall be welcome but let me know his Errick the price of his Head aforehand that if my People cut it off I may put the Errick upon the County Now for the reformation of these grievous abuses in the Land in the 10th year of King Hen. 7. in the Government of Sir Edward Poinings Knight then Deputy of Ireland there were three good and profitable Statutes made which were called Poinings Acts viz. the Statute of 10 H. 7. cap. 8. for the reviving confirming and putting in execution of the Statute of Kilkenny held before Lionel Duke of Clarence by which Statute at Kilkenny the Brehowne Law was abolished and decreed to be no Law but a lewd Custom The Statute of 10 H. 7. cap. oct by which it was Enacted That if any person took any money or other amends for the death of his Kinsman or Friend then the Law would permit meaning the Law of England the same shall be Felony by this Law the Errick was taken away The Statute of 10 H. 7. cap. vicessimo primo by which Murther is made High Treason in the Actor Provoker and Procurer of it So that by these three Statutes their Brehowne Law and lewd Custom was abolished their Errick taken away and Murther declared to be High Treason And thus
Person who openly shewed himself against the Anabaptists then raging and countenanced the University then in a low Ebb bestowing upon it Bishop Usher's Library composed of the choicest and best picked Books extant carrying himself so as some of the Rigour of his Father was thereby taken off and that disordered Nation brought into the Condition of a flourishing State Yet afterwards when he might have had many to have seconded him he tamely yielded in 1659. the Government to Steel the Parliaments Lord Chancellor and Miles Corbet their Chief Baron of the Exchequer his Brother Richard having surrendred the Protectorship in England very meanly with a submission as he termed it to Providence So that Family expired And the Affairs of England growing every day full of change Ireland understanding what Sir George Booth had nobly attempted in England grew thence early in its dutiful Address to his Majesty And Sir Theophilus Jones further'd by his Reverend Brother Colonel Warren Bridges Thompson Lisle Warder and Temple seized Dublin Castle Sir Charles Coot about the same time preferring an Impeachment of Treason against Ludlow Tomlinson Corbet and John Jones and weighing the Consequences of the present Distempers he together with the Council of the Officers of the Army present at Dublin the 16th of February 1659. made a Memorable Declaration concerning the Re-admission of the Secluded Members about the same time sending Captain Cuffe to attend Colonel Monk into England a General Convention being the 7th of February before Summon'd by the Vigilance and excellent Contrivance and Industry of Doctor Dudley Loftus in which Sir James Barry afterwards Lord Baron of Santry was Chairman Several Affairs of greatest Consequence came there to be considered First the Arrears of the Souldiers they were to be fastned to the Design by their Interest and by the discharge of what was due to them then what was most popular and look'd least to the mark they aim'd at came under consideration in as much as they continued till May 1660. having readily accepted of the Kings Declaration from Breda of the 14th of April 1660. laying hold by their Declaration of the 14th of May of his Condescentions as the fittest expedient to cement the divided Interests in his three Kingdoms which his Majesty in his Printed Declaration for the settlement of Ireland takes especial notice of in these words That our good Subjects the Protestants not Usurpers as the Irish in their Case entitle them in our Kingdom of Ireland have born a very good part in the Blessing of our Restitution and that they were early in their dutiful Addresses unto Us and made the same Professions of a Resolution to return to their Duty and Obedience to Us during the time of Our being beyond the Seas which they have since so eminently made good and put in practice And here I cannot pass over that when the Irish Brigade came to assist Lambert against Sir George Booth now Lord Delameere and were in the North with him at that time advancing to know what General Monk intended they under Redman and Bret first drew back though some of their Officers in their canting mood thought to have wheedled General Monk into a Compliance The Convention gave his Majesty 20000 l. the Duke of York 4000 l. and the Duke of Glocester 2000 l. and in May adjourned to the first of November a standing Committee remaining in the interim And the 18th of December 1660. his Majesty by his Letter approved of this Convention which met again the 22. of January and Sir William Dumvell was appointed Chairman it continued till May 1661. Before they determined they had by a Committee very sensible and gallantly defended at Court the English Interest against the Irish who by reason of the Peace which had been made with them in 1646. and 48. thought they had very much to plead for his Majesties favour when upon the whole it was proved that if any of them were afterwards Loyal the generality disobeyed whatever had been indulged them and the Contract was not to be understood to be made with a Party but the Community of which more in its due place His Majesty was no sooner setled in England but upon both Houses of Parliaments apprehension of the late Rebellion and the Irish flocking at his Return into England he within few days published his sence of that horrible Conspiracy in the ensuing Proclamation By the King A PROCLAMATION Against the Rebels in Ireland C. R. CHarles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all Our loving Subjects of England and Ireland Greeting We taking notice by the Information of the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament That after the vast expence of Blood and Treasure for the suppressing of the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland begun in October 1641. There are yet many of the Natives of that Our Kingdom deeply guilty of that Rebellion who have of late broke out into new Acts of Force and Violence some Murthering Robbing and Despoiling several of Our English Protestant Subjects there planted and others of them by force Entring upon and Disquieting the Possessions of several Adventurers and Souldiers there to the great and manifest disturbance and hinderance of Our English Plantation And being very sensible of the innocent bloud of so many thousands of Our English Protestant Subjects formerly slain by the hands of those barbarous Rebels and of new mischiefs of the same kind likely to fall out as the sad issue and consequents of so unhappy beginnings Do therefore by the advice of the said Lords and Commons now assembled as well to testifie Our utter abhorring of the said late Rebellion as to prevent the like for the future and for the present establishment of the Peace of that Our Kingdom hold it Our duty to God and the whole Protestant Interest to Command Publish and Declare and do by this Our Proclamation accordingly Command Publish and Declare That all Irish Rebels other than such as by Articles have liberty to reside in these Our Dominions and have not since forfeited the benefit thereof now remaining in or which hereafter shall resort to England or Ireland be forthwith apprehended and proceeded against as Rebels and Traitors according to Law And that the Adventurers and Souldiers and other Our Subjects in Ireland their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns who on the first day of January last past were in the Possession of any of the Mannors Castles Houses Lands Tenements or Hereditaments of any the said Irish Rebels shall not be disturbed in such their Possessions until We by the advice of the Lords and Commons now assembled as aforesaid or such Parliament as We shall call in England or Ireland shall take further Order or that they be Legally evicted by due course of Law And all Our Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs and other Officers both Civil and Military both in England and Ireland are hereby
through the World ever equall'd it in the Circumstances that accompanied the Butcheries Massacres Cruelties yea the mercy of the Rebels in that War though in the end fatal to the Irish themselves above any thing that ever befel that Nation so as the greatness of their Sufferings may well testifie the remarkableness of their Crimes sutable to the innocent blood they had barbarously shed and the devastations they had made of a most flourishing and well setled Kingdom APPENDIX I. Fol. 10. Questions wherein the House of Commons humbly desires that the House of the Lords would be pleased to require the Judges to deliver their Resolutions INasmuch as the Subjects of this Kingdom are Free Loyal and Dutiful Subjects to his Most Excellent Majesty their Natural Leige Lord and King and to be governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of force in this Kingdom in the same manner and form as his Majesty's Subjects of the Kingdom are and ought to be governed by the said Common Laws and Statutes of force in that Kingdom which of right the Subjects of this Kingdom do Challenge and make their Protestation to be their Birthright and best Inheritance Yet inasmuch as the unlawful Actions and Proceedings of some of his Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice of late years Introduced and Practised in this Kingdom did tend to the Infringing and Violation of the Laws Liberties and Freedom of the said Subjects of this Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Royal and Pious intentions Therefore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled not for any doubt or ambiguity which may be conceived or thought of for or concering the Premises nor of the ensuing questions but for manifestation and declaration of a clear Truth and of the said Laws and Statutes already planted and for many Ages past setled in this Kingdom The said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do therefore pray that the House of the Lords may be pleased to command the Judges of this Kingdom forthwith to declare in Writing their Resolutions of and unto the ensuing questions and subscribe to the same 1. Whether the Judges of this Kingdom be a Free People and to be governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of force in this Kingdom 2. Whether the Judges of this Land do take the Oath of Judges And if so Whether under pretext of any Act of State Proclamation Writ Letter or direction under the Great or Privy Seal or Privy Signet or Letter or other Commandment from the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Justice Justices or other Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom they may hinder stay or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgement or Execution thereupon If so in what Cases and whether if they do hinder stay or delay such Suit Judgement or Execution thereupon what punishment do they incurr for their deviation and transgression therein 3. Whether the King's Majesties Privy Councel either with the Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom or without him or them be a place of Judicature by the Common Laws and wherein Causes between Party and Party for Debts Trespasses Accounts Portions or Title of Lands or any of them and which of them may be heard and determined and of what Civil Causes they have Jurisdiction and by what Law and of what force are their Orders and Decree in such Cases or any of them 4. The like of the Chief Governours alone 5. Whether Grants of Monopolies be warranted by Law and of what and in what Cases and how and where and by whom are the pretended trangressions against such Grants punishable and whether by Fine mutilation of Members Imprisonment Loss and forfeiture of Goods or otherwise and which of them 6. In what Cases the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom and Councel may punish by Fine Imprisonment mutilation of Members Pillory or otherwise and whether they may Sentence any to such the same or the like Punishment for infringing the Commands of or concerning any Proclamation of and concerning Monopolies and what Punishment do they incurr that Vote for the same 7. Of what force is an Act of State or Proclamation in this Kingdom to bind the Liberty Goods Possessions or Inheritance of the Natives thereof whether they or any of them can alter the Common Law or the Infringers of them loose their Goods Chattels or Leases or forfeit the same by infringing any such Act of State Proclamation or both what Punishment do the sworn Judges of the Law that are Privy-Councellors incurr that Vote for such Acts and Execution thereof 8. Are the Subjects of this Kingdom subject to Marshal Law and whether any man in time of Peace no Enemy being in the Field with Banners displayed can be sentenced to Death If so by whom and in what Cases If not what Punishment do they incurr that in time of Peace execute Marshal Law 9. Whether voluntary Oaths taken freely before Arbitrators for affirmance or disaffirmance of any thing or for the true performance of any thing be Punishable in the Castle-Chamber or any other Court and why and wherefore 10. Why and by what Law and by what rule of Policy is it that none is admitted to reducement of Fines and other Penalty in the Castle-Chamber or Councel-Table untill he confess the Offence for which he is censured when as revera he might be innocent thereof though suborned Proofs or circumstances might induce a Censure 11. Whether the Judges of the Kings-Bench or any other Judge of Goal-delivery or of any other Court and by what Law do or can deny the Copies of Indictment of Felony or Treason to the Parties accused contrary to the Law 12. What Power have the Barons of the Court of Exchequer to raise the respit of homage arbitrarily to what rate they please to what value they may raise it by what Law they may distinguish between the respit of homage upon the diversity of the true value of the Fees when as Escuage is the same for great and small Fees and are approportionable by Parliament 13. Whether it be Censurable in the Subjects of this Kingdom to repair into England to appeal unto his Majesty for redress of Injuries or for other lawful Actions if so why and in what condition of Persons and by what Law 14. Whether Deans or other Dignitaries of Cathedral Churches be properly and de mero Jure Donative by the King and not Elective or Collative If so why and by what Law and whether the Confirmation of a Dean de facto of the Bishops grant be good and valid in Law or no if not by what Law 15. Whether the issuing of Quo warrantoes out of the Kings-Bench or Exchequer against Bourroughs that antiently and recently sent Burgesses to Parliament to shew cause why they sent Burgesses to the Parliament be legal if not what punishment ought to be inflicted upon those that are or have been the Occasioners Procurers and
in Ecclesiae unitate servanda omnium nostrûm salus potissimum consistit Jam vero Potestas hujus belli sumpta est primum à Jure Naturali deinde ab Evangelico Jus Naturale potestatem nobis facit defendendi nosmetipsos contra Manifestissimam Haereticorum Tyrannidem quia contra jus Naturae sub paena Mortis cogunt Nos priorem Nostram de Pontificis Romani Primatu fidem abjurare novamque planè contrariam Religionem invitos recipere ac profiteri Quale Jugum nec Christiani Judaeis aut Turcis nec illi Nostris unquam imposuerunt Deinde cum Christus in Evangelio Regni Caelorum claves hoc est summam Ecclesiae suae administrationem Petro dederit Hujus Apostolorum principis legitimus in eadem Cathedra successor Gregorius decimus tertius in Ducem ac Generalem hujus belli Capitaneum nos elegit ut ex ipsius literis ac Diplomate abundè constat quod quidem tanto Magis fecit quia Ejus Praecessor Pius Quintus Elizabetham istarum Haeresium patronam omni regia Potestate ac Dominio jam ante privaverat quod ipsum Ejus Declaratoria Sententia quam ipsam apud nos habemus manifestissimè testatur Itaque jam non contra legitimum Angliae Sceptrum honorabile Solium dimicamus sed contra Tyrannam quae Christum in Vicario suo loquentem recusans audire immo Christi Ecclesiam suo foemineo sexui etiam in fidei causis de quibus cum Authoritate nec loqui deberet ausa subjicere merito regiam Potestatem amisit Porro quod ad modum Ejusdam belli administrandi pertinet nec bona Nostrorum Civium invadere nec privatas inimicitias à quibus liberisumus persequi nec summam regnandi potestatem nobis usurpare cogitamus Imo restituatur Deo statim suus Honor nos continuò parati sumus gladium deponere atque iis qui legitimè praeerunt obedire Sin aliqui quod absit Haereses propugnare ac Deo suum honorem auferre deinceps pergant nam quos de praeteritis paenitet iis nihil opponimus nec unquam opposituri sumus Illi utique sunt qui de Hibernia veram pacem auferunt illi sunt qui bellum patriae suae inferunt non Nos Quando enim Pax non cum Deo sed cum Diabolo habetur uti nunc se res habet tunc non immerito una cum Servatore Nostro dicere debemus Non veni pacem in terram mittere sed Gladium Si Ergo Bellum quod ob Pacem cum Deo renovandam gerimus longè Justissimum est Qui nobis in hoc bello adversantur damnationem sibi acquirent habituri adversarios non solum omnes Sanctos quorum reliquias sanctas Imagines Haeretici conculcant sed etiam Deum ipsum Cujus Gloriam oppugnant Atque haec sint satis hoc in loco Nam si quis plenius horum omnium rationem perspicere velit Is perlegat aequitatem rationem hujus Edicti quam alias plenius edendam Curavimus APPENDIX II. Fol. 24. The Relation of the Lord Maguire written with his own hand in the Tower and delivered by him to Sir John Conyers then Lieutenant to present to the Lords in Parliament BEing in Dublin Candlemass Term last was twelve Moneth 1640. the Parliament then sitting Mr. Roger Moore did write to me desiring me that if I could in that spare time I would come to his House for then the Parliament did nothing but Sit and Adjourn expecting a Commission for the continuance thereof their former Commission being expired and that some things he had to say unto me that did merely concern me and on receipt of his Letter the new Commission for continuing the Parliament landed and I did return him an Answer that I could not fulfil his request for that present and thereupon he himself came to Town presently after and sending to me I went to see him at his Lodging And after some little time spent in salutation◠he began to discourse of the many Afflictions and Sufferings of the Natives of that Kingdom and particularly in those late times of my Lord Strafford's Government which gave distast to the whole Kingdom And then he began to cularlize the suffering of them that were the more antient Natives as were the Irish how that on several Plantations they were all put out of their Ancestors Estates All which sufferings he said did beget a general discontent over all the whole Kingdom in both the Natives to wit the Old and New Irish. And that if the Gentry of the Kingdom were disposed to free themselves furtherly from the like inconvenience and get good Conditions for themselves for regaining their Ancestors or at least a good part thereof Estates they could never desire a more convenient time than that time the distempers of Scotland being then on foot and did ask me what I thought of it I made him answer that I could not tell what to think of it such matters being altogether out of my Element Then he would needs have an Oath of me of secrecy which I gave him and thereupon he told me that he spoke to the best Gentry of Quality in Lemster and a great part of Connaght touching that matter and he found all of them willing thereunto if so be they could draw to them the Gentry of Ulster for which cause said he I came to speak to you then he began to lay down to me the case that I was in there overwhelmed in Debt the smalness of my Estate and the greatness of the Estate my Ancestors had and how I should be sure to get it again or at least a good part thereof and moreover how the welfare and maintaining of the Catholick Religion which he said undoubtedly the Parliament now in England will suppress doth depend on it For said he it is to be feared and so much I hear from every understanding man the Parliament intends the utter subversion of our Religion by which perswasions he obtained my consent And so I demanded whether any more of Ulster Gentry were in Town I told him that Phillip Reyly Mr. Jorilagh O Neal brother to Sir Phelim O Neal and Mr. Cosloe mac Mahone were in Town so for that time we parted The next day he invited Mr. Reyly and I to dine with him and after dinner he sent for those other Gentlemen Mr. Neale and Mr. mac Mahone and when they were come he began the discourse formerly used to me to them and with the same perswasions formerly used to me he obtained their consent And then he began to discourse of the manner how it ought to be done of the feazability and easiness of the Attempt considering matters as they then stood in England the troubles of Scotland the great number of able men in the Kingdom meaning Ireland what succours they were more then to hope for from abroad and the Army then raised all Irishmen and well armed meaning the Army
Cahel mac Bryne Farrall APPENDIX VI. Fol. 65. By the Lords Justices and Councel W. Parsons Jo. Borlasse IT is well known to all men but more particularly to his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom who have all gathered plentiful and comfortable fruits of his Majesties blessed Government how abundantly careful his Majesty hath been in the whole course of his Government of the peace and safety of this his Kingdom and how graciously he hath laboured to derive to all his Subjects therein all those benefits and comforts which from a most gracious King could be conferred on his Subjects to make them a happy people whereof he hath given many great testimonies And as at all times he endeavoured to give them due contentment and satisfaction so even then whilst the Rebels now in Arms were conspiring mischief against Him and his Crown and Kingdom he was then exercising Acts of Grace and benignity towards them granting to his Subjects here the fulness of their own desires in all things so far as with Honour or Justice he possibly could and particularly when the Committees of both Houses of Parliament here this last Summer attended his Majesty in England at which time amongst many other things graciously assented to by Him he was content even with apparent loss and disadvantage to himself to depart with sundry his Rights of very great value which lawfully and justly he might have retained And as his continual goodness to his people and his Princely care of their prosperity and preservation shall to the unspeakable joy and comfort of all his good Subjects render him glorious to all Posterity so the wicked ingratitude and treacherous disloyaltie of those Rebels shall render them infamous to all Ages and utterly inexcusable even in the judgment of those who for any respect either formerly wished well to their persons or now pity them in their transgressions And although the said persons now in Rebellion were in no degree provoked by any just cause of publique grief received from his Majesty or his Ministers to undertake such desperate wickedness neither can justly assign any severity or rigour in the execution of those Laws which are in force in this Kingdom against Papists nor indeed any cause at all other then the unnatural hatred which those persons in Rebellion do bear the Brittish and Protestants whom they desire and publickly profess to root out from amongst them The more strange in that very many of themselves are descended of English whence is the original and foundation of all their Estates and those great benefits which they have hitherto enjoyed and whence their Predecessors and others then well affected in this Kingdom have been at all times since the Conquest cherished relieved countenanced and supported against the ancient Enemies of the Kings people of England many of the Irish also having received their Estates and livelyhood from the unexampled bounty and goodness of the Kings of England Yet such is their inbred ingratitude and disloyaltie as they conspired to massacre Us the Lords Justices and Councel and all the Brittish and Protestants universally throughout this Kingdom and to seize into their hands not only his Majesties Castle of Dublin the principal Fort in this Kingdom but also all other the fortifications thereof though by the infinite goodness and mercy of God those wicked and devillish Conspiracies were brought to light and some of the Principal Conspirators imprisoned in his Majesties Castle of Dublin by Us by his Majesties Authority so as those wicked and damnable plots are disappointed in the chief parts thereof His Majesties said Castle of Dublin and City of Dublin being preserved and put into such a condition of strength as if any of them or their Adherents shall presume to make any attempt thereupon they shall God willing receive that correction shame confusion and destruction which is due to their treacherous and detestable disloyaltie And in pursuit of their bloody intentions they assembled themselves in Arms in hostile manner with Banners displayed surprised divers of his Majesties Forts and Garrisons possessed themselves thereof robbed and spoiled many thousands of his Majesties good Subjects Brittish and Protestants of all their Goods dispossessed them of their Houses and Lands murthered many of them upon the place stripped naked many others of them and so exposed them to nakedness cold and famine as they thereof died imprisoned many others some of them persons of eminent quality laid Siege to divers of his Majesties Forts and Towns yet in his Majesties hands and committed many other barbarous cruelties and execrable inhumanities upon the Persons and Estates of the Brittish and Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom without regard of quality age or sex And to cover their wickedness in those cruel Acts so to deceive the World and to make way if they could to the effecting of their mischievous ends they add yet to their wickedness a further degree of impiety pretending outwardly that what they do is for the maintenance and advancement of the King's Prerogative whereas it appears manifestly that their aims and purposes inwardly are if it were possible for them so to do to wrest from him his Royal Crown and Scepter and his just Soveraignty over this Kingdom and Nation and to deprive him and his lawful Ministers of all Authority and Power here and to place it on such persons as they think fit which can no way stand with his Majesties just Prerogative nor can any equal-minded man be seduced to believe that they can wish well to his Royal Person or any thing that is his who in their actions have expressed such unheard-of hatred malice and scorn of the Brittish Nation as they have done And such is their madness as they consider not that his Sacred Majesty disdains to have his Name or Power so boldly traduced by such wicked malefactors Rebels having never in any Age been esteemed fit supporters of the King's Prerogative much less these who under countenance thereof labour to deface and shake off his Government and extirp his most loyal and faithful Subjects of his other Kingdoms and here whose preservation above all earthly things is and always hath been his Majesties principal study and endeavour which even these Traytors themselves have abundantly found with comfort if they could have been sensible of it And whereas divers Lords and Gentlemen of the English Pale preferred petition unto Us in the behalf of themselves and the rest of the Pale and other the old English of this Kingdom shewing that whereas a late conspiracy of Treason was discovered of ill-affected persons of the old Irish and that thereupon Proclamation was published by Us wherein among other things it was declared that the said Conspiracy was perpetrated by Irish Papists without distinction of any and they doubting that by those general words of Irish Papists they might seem to be involved though they declared themselves confident that we did not intend to include them therein in regard they alleadged they were
other Church Goods pertaing unto their respective Titles with obligations to pay proportionable Rent unto the Souldiers as aforesaid or his payment of their own competent maintenance and lett the Houses Tenements and other Church goods be taken from the Catholicks who heretofore had them as Tenements or otherwise 26. It is committed to the will and disposition of the Ordinary whether and when to enter into the Churches and celebrate Masses therein we command all and every the general Colonels Captains and other Officers of our Catholick Army to whom it appertaineth that they severally punish all transgressors of our aforesaid Command touching Murtherers Maimers Strikers Thieves Robbers and if they fail therein we Command the Parish Priests Curats or Chaplains respectively to declare them interdicted and that they shall be Excommunicated if they cause not due satisfaction to be made unto the Common-wealth and the party offended And this the Parish Priests or Chaplains shall observe under pain of Excommunication of sentence given ipso facto 27. To the end that these Acts Propositions and Ordinances may have more happy success We thought it fitting to have recourse unto God Almighty by Prayers Fastings and Alms We therefore will pray and as far as it is needful do command that every Priest as well Secular as Regular do celebrate one Mass a week and that all Lay-men do fast upon Wednesday Friday and Saturday in one week and thence forward one day a week and upon that Wednesday or Saturday as long as the Ordinary shall please and that they pray heartily unto God for the prosperous success of this our Catholick War for which they shall gain so many days indulgences as every Prelate shall publish in their several Diocesses respectively after the Fast of the aforesaid three days in one Week having first confessed and received the blessed Sacrament and bestowed some Alms to this effect 28. In every Regiment of Souldiers let there be appointed at least two Confessors and one Preacher to be named by the Ordinaries and by the Superiors of the Regulars whose competent maintenance we commend and command to every Colonel in their respective Regiments And to the end that all those Ordinances and Statutes may effectually be put in Execution We will and decree that all Arch-bishops Bishops Apostolical Vicars and Regular Superiours as well here present as absent may be very serious and careful of the Execution of the aforesaid as they tender not to incur displeasure wrath and revenge and herewith we charge their Consciences 29. Moreover VVe pray and require all Noblemen Magistrates and all other Marshal Commanders that with their helps and Secular forces they assist and set forward in Execution the aforesaid Statutes in their several Precincts respectively as often as it shall be needful If in any of the aforesaid Statutes any doubt or difficulty may by chance arise the explication thereof we reserve to the Metropolitans in every Province respectively and to the Bishops in every their Diocesses such of them as are no way contrary to this Cause no other person may presume to expound the aforesaid difficulties Haec dicta acta ordinata statuta subscripta erant nominibus sequentium Praelatorum All those Judgments Sayings Acts and Covenants VVe submit to the Judgment of the See Apostolick Hugo Archiepiscopus Armachanus Thomas Archiepiscopus Casselensis Malachius Archiepiscopus Guamenum David Episcopus Osoren Frater Boetius Episcopus Elphinensis Frater Patricius Episcopus Waterforden Lysmoren Frater Rochus Episcopus Kildaren Johannis Electus Claunfarten Emerus Electus Dunen Conoren Frater Josephus Everard Procurator Archiepiscopi Dublinens Doctor Johannes Creagh Procurator Episcopus Lymeriten David Bourck Willielmus O Connell Procurator Episcopi Imolacen Donatus O Tearnan Procurator Episcopi Laonen Doctor Dionysius Harty Decanus Laonensis Doctor Michael Hacket Vicar gener Waterforden Gulielmus Devocer Vic. gener Fernesen Thomas Roch Vicar Generalis Ossoren Frater Lucas Archer Abbas Sanctae Crucis Frater Anthonius de Rosario Ord. praed Vicar Provincial Robertus Nugent Societat Jesu in Heb. Frater Thadeus Connoldus Ang. pro Provinc Johannes Wareinge Decanus Lymericen Frater Patricius Darcye Guardian Dublin Frater Thomas Strange Guardian Waterford Frater Joseph Lancton Prior Kilkenny Frater Tho. Tearnon Guard de Dundalk Frater Johannes Reyly Guard Kilkenny Frater Boetius Egnanus Guard Buttevant Jordanus Boork Archidiaconus Lymericensis APPENDIX VIII Fol. 98. Orders made and established by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the rest of the general Assembly for the Kingdom of Ireland met at the City of Kilkenny the 24th day of October Anno Dom. 1642. and in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. 1. IMprimis That the Roman Catholick Church in Ireland shall and may have and enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities according to the great Charter made and declared within the Realm of England in the ninth year of King H. 3. sometime King of England and the Lord of Ireland and afterwards enacted and confirmed in this Realm of Ireland and that the Common Law of England and all the Statutes of force in this Kingdom which are not against the Catholick Roman Religion on the Liberties of the Natives and other Liberties of this Kingdom shall be observed throughout the whole Kingdom and that all Proceedings in Civil and Criminal Cases shall be according to the said Laws 2. Item That all and every person and persons within this Realm shall bear Faith and true Allegiance unto our Soveraign Lord King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland His Heirs and Successors and shall uphold and maintain his and their Rights and lawful Prerogatives with the utmost skill and power of such person or persons against all manner of persons whatsoever 3. Item That the Common Laws of England and Ireland and the said Statutes called the great Charter and every Clause Branch and Article thereof and all other Statutes confirming expounding or declaring the same shall be punctually observed within this Kingdom so far forth as the Condition of the present times during these times can by possibilities give way thereunto and after the War is ended the same to be observed without any Limitation or Restriction whatsoever 4. Inasmuch as the City of Dublin is the usual and principal Seat of Justice in this Kingdom where the Parliament and ordinary Courts were held and some other places where principal Councils were sometimes kept and as yet possessed and commanded by the malignant party who are Enemies to God and their King and his Majesties well-affected Subjects The Assembly is necessitated during this VVar in some formalities and circumstances to deviate from the proceedings prescrib'd by the said Laws and Statutes nevertheless retaineth the substance and Essence thereof so far-forth as the endless malice and cruelty of their Enemies the said malignant party doth permit
contrary to the Liberty and Freedom of the Subject to be by any such Oath or Covenant pre-engaged And for that the setting on foot at this time in this Kingdom the said League or Covenant without His Majesties Allowance may not only beget much distraction and unquietness amongst His Majesties good Subjects but also may prove very penal to all those who shall presume to tender or take the same We therefore for prevention of such mischiefs do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties good Subjects of what degree or quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to His Majesties that they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath And we do likewise inhibit and forbid all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant And if notwithstanding this our Proclamation any person shall presume to impose tender or take the said League Oath or Covenant We shall proceed against him or them with all severity according to the known Laws of the Land Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 18. day of Decemb. 1643. Ri. Bolton Canc. La. Dublin Ormonde Roscomon Edw. Brabazon Ant. Midensis Cha. Lambart Geo. Shurley Gerrard Lowther Tho. Rotherham Fra. Willoughby Tho. Lucas Ja. Ware G. Wentworth GOD SAVE THE KING APPENDIX XI Fol. 141. The Copy of a Letter written by direction of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled to several Commanders and Officers of his Majesties Army and others in the Kingdom of Ireland AFter our very hearty Commendations The Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament in this His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland have commanded us to signifie unto you that they have lately seen a Printed Paper intituled a solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland which seems to have been Printed at London on the ninth day of October 1643. That they have also seen a Printed Proclamation dated the eighteenth day of December last and set out by the Right Honourable the late Lords Justices and Council expressing diverse great and Weighty Reasons against the said League and Covenant and therefore Commanding all his Majesties good Subjects of what Degree or Quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to his Majesty That they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath and inhibiting and forbidding all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant That upon serious debate and consideration taken by the Lords and Commons of the said League and Covenant and Proclamation They find the said Proclamation to have been set out with great Wisdom and Reason and do highly Commend the Judgement of the said Lords Justices and Council therein and as both Houses do fully concurr therein in all the parts thereof So they have expresly Commanded us to signifie the same unto you and in their names to let you know That it is their express Pleasure that you and all the Commanders Officers and Souldiers of His Majesties Army and all others His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom whom it may concern do render all due Obedience and Observation to the said Proclamation in all the parts thereof And this being to no ther end We remain Your very Loving Friends Ri. Bolton Canc. Maur. Eustace Speaker of the House of Commons Dublin Castle xviii die April Anno Dom. 1644. Fol. 142. There is mention made of the Protestants Arrival at Oxford where they deliver'd to his Majesty this Petition To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of divers of your Majesties Protestant Subjects in your Kingdom of Ireland as well Commanders of Your Majesties Army here as others whose Names are subscrib'd in the behalf of themselves and other Your Protestant Subjects in this Your Kingdom Sheweth THAT this Your Highness Kingdom reduced with the vast Expence of Treasure and much effusion of British blood to the obedience of the Imperial Crown of England hath been by the Princely care of your Royal Progenitors especially of Queen Elizabeth and of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and your Sacred Majesty in many parts happily planted great sums of Moneys disbursed in Buildings and Improvements Churches edified and endowed and frequented with multitudes of good Protestants and your yearly Customs and Revenues rais'd to great yearly sums by the industry of your Protestant Subjects especially and great sums of Money by way of Subsidies and Contributions chearfully paid unto your Majesty by your said Subjects In which happiness this your Kingdom hath flourished in a long-continued Peace and under your Highness most glorious and happy Government until that by the present general Conspiracy and Rebellion rais'd out of Detestation of Your blessed Government and for rooting out of the Protestant Religion and so for the dispossessing of Your Majesty of this Your said Kingdom without the least occasion offered by Your Majesty or Your Protestant Subjects And notwithstanding that Your Majesty immediately before had enlarg'd beyond president Your Royal favour and bounty to them in granting all that their and our joint Agents did desire of Your Majesty And we continuing amongst them in all Love and Amity without distrust Your Petitioners and others who labour'd to oppose those damnable Designs and Practices have been driven from their Dwellings Estates and Fortunes their Houses and Churches burnt and demolished All Monuments of Civility utterly defaced Your Majesties Forts and places of strength thrown down and the Common and Statute-Laws of this Your Kingdom utterly confounded by taking upon themselves the exercise of all manner of Authorities and Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical and Civil both by Sea and Land proper and peculiar to Your Sacred Majesty being Your just Prerogatives and the Royal Flowers of Your Imperial Diadem to the Disherison of Your Crown and Your Royal Revenues brought to nothing and the Protestant Clergy with their Revenues and support for the present destroyed This Your Kingdom in all parts formerly inhabited with Brittish Protestants now depopulated of them and many thousands of Your Protestant Subjects most barbarously used stripped naked tortur'd famish'd hang'd buried alive drown'd and otherwise by all barbarous cruel sorts of Death murther'd such as yet remain of them are reduced to that extremity that very few of them have wherewithal to maintain a Being and all of them so terrified and afflicted with those barbarous and inhuman cruelties the true report whereof being now spread abroad into the Christian World Your Suppliants conceive fears that Your Majesties Brittish Subjects will be discouraged from coming again to inhabit this Kingdom and the remnant of what is left will be forced to depart All this being done by the Conspiracy of the Papists who did publickly declare the utter extirpation of the
them 6. Pro. That the late Officers taken or found upon feigned or old Titles since the year 1634 to intitle Your Majestie to several Counties in Connaght Thornond the County of Typperary Limrick and Kelkenny and Wicklowe be vacated and taken off the File and the possessors thereof setled and secure in their ancient Estates by act of Parliament and that the like Act of limitation of Your Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of your Subjects in that Kingdom be passed in that Parliament as was Enacted in the 21. year of his late Majesties Raign in this Kingdom Answ. VVe know not of any Offices found or feigned Titles nor what the Confederates may demand in respect of any graces promised by your Majesty which we intend not nor have any occasion to dispute but do humbly conceive that all those who have committed Treason in the late Rebellion subsequent to your Majesties promise of those Graces have thereby forfeited the benefit thereof together with the Lands to which the said Graces might else have related and so their whole Estates are now justly fallen to your Majesty by their Rebellion which we conceive is of great importance for your Majesties service to be taken into consideration as First with regard of the Statutes made in the present Parliament of England Secondly That necessary increase of your Majesties Revenue decayed by the present Rebellion Thirdly The abolishing the evil Customs of the Irish and preservation of Religion Laws and Government there Fourthly The satisfaction of the Protestant Subjects losses in some measure Fifthly The Arrears of your Majesties Army and other debts contracted for the War and for preservation of that Kingdom to your Majesty Sixthly The bringing in of more Brittish on the Plantation Seventhly The building of some walled-Towns in remote and desolate places for the security of that Kingdom and your Maiesties good Subjects there Eightly The taking of the Natives from their former dependency on their Chieftains who usurped an absolute Power over them to the dimunition of all Regal Power and to the oppression of the inferiors 7. Pro. That all marks of incapacity imposed upon the Natives of that Kingdom to purchase or acquire Lands Leases Offices or Hereditaments be taken away by Act of Parliament and the same to extend to the securing of Purchases Leases or Grants already made and that for the Education of Youth an Act be passed in the next Parliament for the erecting of one or more Inns of Court Universities Free and Common-Schools Answ. This we conceive concerneth some of the late Plantations and no other part of that Kingdom and that the restriction herein mentioned is found to be of great use especially for the indifferency of Tryals strength of the Government and for Trade and Traffick and we humbly conceive that if other Plantations shall not proceed for the setling and securing of the Kingdom and that if no restraint be made of Popish purchasing or buying of the Protestants out of their former Plantations where they were prudently settled though now cast out of their Estates by the late Rebellion and unable to Plant the same again for want of means and therefore probably upon easy terms will part from their Estates to the Confederates that those Plantations will be destroyed to the great prejudice of your Majesties Service and endangering of the safety of that Kingdom Touching bearing of Offices we humbly conceive that their now conformity to the Laws and Statutes of that Realm is the only mark of incapacity imposed upon them we humbly conceive that they ought not to expect to be more capable there then the English Natives are here in England in like case for Schools in Ireland there are divers setled in that Kingdom already by the Laws and Statutes of that Realm if any person well affected shall erect and endow any more Schools there at their own charges so that the School-master and Scholars may be governed according to Laws Customs and Orders of England and the rest of Free-Schools here we cannot apprehend any just exception thereunto but touching Universities and Inns of Court we humbly conceive that this part of the proposition savoureth of some desire to become Independant upon England or to make aspersion on the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom which can never be truely happy but in the good unity of both in the true Protestant Religion and in the Laws of England for as for matter of charge such of the Natives that are desirous to breed their Sons for Learning in Divinity can be well content to send them to the Universities of Lovane Doway and other Popish places in forreign Kingdoms and for Civil Law or Physick to Padua and other places which draws great Treasure yearly out of your Majesties Dominions but will send few or none of them to Oxford or Cambrige where they might as cheaply be bred up and become as Learned which course we conceive is holden out of their Pride and disaffection towards this Kingdom and the true Religion here professed and for the Laws of the Land which are for the Common Law agreeable to England and so for the greatest part of the Statutes the Inns of Court in England are sufficient and the Protestants come thither without grudging and that is a means to civilize them after the English customs to make them familiar and in love with the Language and Nation to preserve Law in the Purity when the Professors of it shall draw from one Original Fountain and see the manner of the Practice of that in the same great Channel where his Majesties Courts of Justice of England do flow most clearly whereas by separation of the Kingdoms in that place of their principal instruction where their foundations in Learning are to be laid a degenerate corruption in Religion and Justice may haply be introduced and spread with much more difficulty to be corrected and restrained afterwards by any Discipline to be used in Ireland or punishment there to be inflicted for departing from the true grounds of things which are best preserved in unity when they grow out of the same root then if such Universities and Inns of Court as are proposed should be granted all which we humbly submit to your Majesties most Pious and Prudent consideration and judgment 8. Pro. That the Offices and Places of Command Honour Profit and Trust within that Kngdom be conferred upon Roman Catholicks Natives in equality and indifferency with your Majesties other Subjects Answ. We humbly conceive that the Roman Catholicks Natives of Ireland may have the like Offices and Places as the Roman Catholicks Natives of England here have and not otherwise howbeit we conceive that in the generality they haye not deserved so much by their late Rebellion therefore we see not why they should be endowed with any new or farther capacities or priviledges then they have by the Laws and Statutes now in force in that Kingdom 9. Pro. That the insupportable Oppression
Treason done in this Rebellion may be establish'd and confirm'd by Act of Parliament to be in due form of Law transmitted and passed in Ireland and that such Traitors as for want of Protestant and indifferent Jurors to indict them in the proper County are not yet indicted nor convicted or attainted by Outlawry or otherwise may upon due proof of their offences be by like Acts of Parliament convicted and attainted and all such offenders forfeit their Estates as to Law appertaineth and Your Majesty to be adjudged and put in possession without any Office or Inquisition to be had 18. That Your Majesties Protestant Subjects may be restored to the quiet Possession of all their Castles Houses Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments and Leases and to the quiet possession of the Rents thereof as they had the same before and at the time of the breaking forth of this Rebellion and from whence without due Process and Judgment of Law they have since then been put or kept out and may be answer'd of and for all the Mean Profits of the same in the interim and for all the time until they shall be so restored 19. That Your Majesties said Protestant Subjects may also be restor'd to all their Moneys Plate Jewels Houshold-stuff Goods and Chattels whatsoever which without due Process or Judgment in Law have been by the said Confederates taken or detain'd from them since the contriving of the said Rebellion which may be gain'd in kind or the full value thereof if the same may not be had in kind and the like restitution to be made for all such things which during the said time have been deliver'd to any person or persons of the said Confederates in trust to be kept or preserv'd but are by colour thereof still withholden 20. That the establishment and maintenance of a compleat Protestant-Army and sufficient Protestant-Souldiers and Forces for the time to come be speedily taken into Your Majesties prudent just and gracious Consideration and such a course laid down and continued according to the Rules of good Government that Your Majesties Right and Laws the Protestant Religion and peace of that Kingdom be no more endanger'd by the like Rebellions in time to come 21. That whereas it appeareth in Print that the said Confederates amongst other things aim at the repeal of Poyning's Law thereby to open an easie and ready way in the passing of Acts of Parliament in Ireland without having them first well consider'd of in England which may produce many dangerous Consequences both to that Kingdom and to Your Majesties other Dominions Your Majesty would be pleased to resent and reject all Propositions tending to introduce so great a diminution of Your Royal and necessary Power for the confirmation of your Royal Estate and protection of Your good Protestant Subjects both there and elsewhere 22. That Your Majesty out of Your grace and favour to your Protestant Subjects of Ireland would be pleased to consider effectually of answering them that you will not give order for or allow of the transmitting into Ireland any Act of general Oblivion Release or discharge of Actions or Suits whereby Your Majesties said Protestant Subjects there may be barred or depriv'd of their Legal Remedies which by Your Majesties Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom they may have against the said Confederates or any of them or any of their party for or in respect of any wrongs done unto them or any of their Ancestors or Predecessors in or concerning their Lives Liberties Persons Lands Goods or Estates since the contriving and breaking forth of the said Rebellion 23. That some fit course may be consider'd of to prevent the filling or over-laying of the Commons House of Parliament in Ireland with Popish Recusants being ill-affected Members and that provision be duly made that none shall Vote or sit therein but such as shall first take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy 24. That the proofs and manifestations of the truth of the several matters contain'd in the Petition of Your Majesties Protestant Subjects of Ireland lately presented to Your Majesty may be duly examined discussed and in that respect the final Conclusion of things respited for a convenient time their Agents being ready to attend with Proofs in that behalf as your Majesty shall appoint In answer wereunto it was replied by the Committee of Lords and others of Irish affaires at Oxford 1. That their Lordships did not think that the Propositions presented by the Protestant Agents to his Majesty and that morning read before their Lordships were the sence of the Protestants of Ireland 2. That those Propositions were not agreeable to the Instructions given the said Agents by the Protestants of Ireland 3. That if those Propositions were drawn they would lay a prejudice on his Majesty and his Ministers to Posterity these remaining on Record if a Treaty should go on and Peace follow which the Kings necessity did enforce and that the Lords of the Committee apprehended the said Agents did flatly oppose a Peace with the Irish. 4. That it would be impossible for the King to grant the Protestants Agents desires and grant a Peace to the Irish. 5. That the Lords of the Committee desired the Protestant Agents to propose a way to effect their desires either by Force or Treaty considering the condition of his Majesties Affaires in England To the first the Protestant Agents replied that they humbly conceived that the Propositions which they had presented to his Majesty were the sence of of the Protestants of Ireland To the Second That the Propositions are agreeable to the Instructions given to the said Agents by the Protestants of Ireland and conduced to the well settlement of that Kingdom To the Third That they had no thought to draw prejudice on his Majesty or their Lordships by putting in those Propositions neither had they so soon put in Propositions had not his Majesty by his Answer to the Protestant Petition directed the same To the Fourth The said Agents humbly conceived that they were imployed to make proof of the effect of the Protestant Petition to manifest the inhumane Cruelties of the Rebels and then to offer such things as they thought fit for the Security of the Protestants in in their Religion Lives Liberties and Fortunes That the said Protestants had no disaffection to Peace so as punishment might be inflicted according to Law as in the Propositions are expressed and that the said Protestants might be repaired for their great losses out of the Estates of the Rebels not formerly by any Acts of this present Parliament in England otherwise disposed of which the said Agents desired might be represented to his Majesty and the Lords of the Committee accordingly To the Fifth That the said Protestant Agents were Strangers to his Majesties Affairs in England and conceived that part more proper for the advice of his Councils then the said Agents and therefore desired to be excused for medling in the treaty further then the
she my Brother the Earl of Antrim hath taken the Castle and City of Dublin having lately moved thither for the same purpose and not to please the Dutchess as was given out and my brother Alexander mac Donnell according to the general Appointment hath taken the Town and Castle of Carrickfergus He the Deponent then asked what they meant to do with those whom they had disarmed and pillaged She said as long as their preservation should be deemed consistent with the publick safety they should injoy their lives when otherwise better their enemy perish than themselves which was but a very cold comfort to a Freshman prisoner as my self was And also said That Sir Phelim O Neil told this Deponent in December last that his stock in money amounted to 80000 sterling wherewith he said he was able to maintain an Army for one year though all shifts else failed And that Captain Alexander Hovenden told him that as soon as his brother Sir Phelim was created Earl of Tyron and great O Neil he wrote Letters and sent them by Friars to the Pope and Kings of Spain and France but would not discover the Contents And further saith That about the first of March last the said Alexander told the Deponent that the Friars of Drogheda by Father Thomas brother to the Lord of Slane had the second time invited Sir Phelim thither and offered to betray the Town unto him by making or discovering the Deponent knoweth not whether a breach in the Wall through which he might march six men a breast The Deponent saw this Friar the same time in Armagh whom Sir Phelim took by the hand and brought to the Deponent saying This is the Friar that said Mass at Finglass upon Sunday morning and in the Afternoon did beat Sir Charles Coote at swords I hope said the Friar to say Mass in Christ-Church Dublin within eight weeks And further Deposed that he this Deponent asked many both of their Commanders and Friars what chiefly moved them to take up Arms They said Why may not we as well and better fight for Religion which is the Substance than the Scots did for Ceremonies which are but Shadows and that my Lord of Strafford's Government was intolerable The Deponent answered That that Government how insupportable soever was indifferent and lay no heavier upon them then on him and the rest of the Brittish Protestants They replied That the Deponent and the rest of the Brittish were no considerable part of the Kingdom and that over and above all this they were certainly informed that the Parliament of England had a plot to bring them all to Church or to cut off all the Papists in the Kings Dominions in England by the English Protestants or as they call them Puritans in Ireland by the Scots And further deposeth That he asked as seeming very careful of their saftety what hope of Aid they had and from whom as also what discreet and able men they had to imploy as Agents to their Friends beyond the Sea They said if they held out this next Winter they were sure and certain in the Spring to receive Aid from the Pope France and Spain and that the Clergy of Spain had already contributed five thousand Arms and Powder for a whole year then in readiness They said their best and only Agents were their Priests and Friars but especially the forenamed Paulo Neil upon whose coming with advice from Spain they presently opened the War and that since the War began in the very dead of Winter he both went with Letters and returned with Instructions from Spain in one Month professing the good Cause had suffered much prejudice if he had been hanged in Dublin And this Deponent further saith That he demanded why sometimes they pretended a Commission from the King at other times from the Queen since all Wisemen knew that the King would not grant a Commission against himself and the Queen could not They being Commanders and Friars said That it was lawful for them to pretend what they could in advancement of their Cause That many of the Garrison Souldiers now their Prisoners whom they determined to imploy in the War and to train others would not serve them in regard of their Oath unless they were made so to believe That in all Wars rumours and lies served many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they would not disclaim any advantage But they said for the Queen in regard as a Catholick she had enemies enough already they would command their Priests publickly at Mass to discharge the people from speaking of her as a Cause or Abetter of the present Troubles And the Deponent also asked Sir Phelim O Neil what his demands were without which his Lordship and the rest would not lay down Arms At first he told this Deponent That they required only Liberty of Conscience But afterwards as his Power so his Demands were multiplied They must have no Lord Deputy great Officers of State Privy Councellors Judges or Justices of Peace but of the Irish Nation no standing Army in the Kingdom all Tythes payable by Papists to be paid to Popish Priests Church Lands to be restóred to their Bishops All Plantations since primo Jacobi to be disannulled none made hereafter no payments of debts due to the Brittish or restitution of any thing taken in the Wars all Fortifications and Strengths to be in the hands of the Irish with power to erect and build more if they thought fit all Strangers meaning Brittish to be restrained from coming over all Acts of Parliament against Popery and Papists together with Poynings Act to be repealed and the Irish Parliament to be made Independent But saith that others told him this Deponent that although all these Demands were granted yet Sir Phelim for his own part was not resolv'd to lay down Arms unless his Majesty would confirm unto him the Earldom of Tyrone with all the ancient Patrimony and Priviledges belonging to the O Neils And further saith that in March 1641. Alexander Hovenden by Sir Phelim's direction sent from the Camp before Drogheda a Prophecy said to be found in the Abbey of Kells importing that Tyrone or Sir Phelim after the Conquest and Settlement of Ireland should fight five set Battels in England in the last whereof he should be killed upon Dunsmore-heath but not before he had driven King Charles with his whole Posterity out of England who should be afterwards profugi in terra aliena in aeternum The Paper it self with the Deponents whole Library to the value of seven or eight hundred pounds was lately burnt by the Scots under the Conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery since that Prophecy the Deponent saith he hath often seen Captain Tirlagh mac Brian O Neil a great man in the County of Armagh with many others no mean Commanders drinking Healths upon the knee to Sir Phelim O Neil Lord General of the Catholick Army in Ulster Earl
inclination the Irish endeavour to delude him * Arthur Annesly Esq. Sir Robert King Sir Robert Meredith Colonel John Moore Colonel Michael Jones who carried over a Regiment of Horse and 1000 Foot and was made Commander in chief of all the Forces within the Province of Leimster and Governor of Dublin who upon his entrance upon the Place found 11 old Regiments of Foot which he reduced to 7. viz. The Earl of Kildare's the Lord Moor's Sir Henry Tichburn Sir John Borlase Jun. Colonel Francis Willoughby Colonel Baily and Flowers in all about 4000. no Recruit being sent to any of them 1647 * Edw. Parry Laonensis Jac. Margetson nunc temporis Armachanus Ben. Culme Anibr Anngier Ja. Sybald Godf. Rhodes Hen. Hall exin Episc Acadensis Jos. War Jo. Brookbank Gilbert Dean Dud. Boswell Rob. Parry Joan. Creighton Can. Edw. Syng exin Ardfertensis Rob. Dickson Rand. Ince Hen. Byrch Rich. Powell The Marquis of Ormond having free access to the King acquaints him of the Impression he had made in many for his Service Some of the Scots being convinc'd of what they had done amiss in his Majesties Service better resolve and encourage the Marquis of Ormond to return into Ireland The subtilty of the Independent Army The Marquis now suspected by the Army Gen. Preston routs Colonel Jones Preston's advance on a design to Dublin * The Lord Digby Dungan-hill Battel the 8. of Aug. 1647. by some term'd Linch-Knock Battel Jones's and Monk's good Service The Battle of Knocknones or Knockness Inchiquin meditates the Alteration of his Party The Marquess of Ormond provides to return into Ireland pre-possessing the Marquess of Clanrickard and the Lord Taaff with the Design The Lord Inchiquin of the same Party 1648. The Nuncio pursued close and then quits the Kingdom Viz. 23. of Feb. 1648 9. An Express of the Nuncio's Behaviour Jones finding Clanrickard active stirs forth and takes in someCastles Several suspected to be for the Marquess of Ormond sent into England Colonel Monk seizes on Carickfergus Some suspicions that the Lord Inchequin would have submitted to the Parliament The Lord Inchequin taken off his inclinations by hopes of greater Honour The Marquis of Ormond's return into Ireland The Marquis of Antrim and the Lord Muskery sent to the Queen and the Prince in France to consider the Confederates Condition The Queen and Prince's Answer His Majesties Answer to the Parliaments Message touching the Lord Lieutenant The Confederates Commissioners come to the Lord Lieutenant at Carrick The Peace of 1648. concluded * Sir Richard Blake Knight The Lord Lieutenant's Speech upon the presenting of the Articles of Peace The LordLieutenant by the Commissioners of Trust infinitely abridged in his Office The Commissioners of Trust. * Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costeloe Lord President of Connaght Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander MacDonnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnwal Baronet Geoffry Brown Donnogh Ocallagham Tirlagh O Neal Miles Reily Gerald Fennel Esquires Owen O Neal and Antrim refuse to submit to the Peace The Scots not yet willing to joyn in the Peace The Lord Lieutenant treats with Jones to come in 1649. Inchequin does the like but in-effectually The difficulty the Lord Lieutenant encountred in forming his Army The Lord Lieutenant finds Arms and Money no ways answerable to his expectation The Lord Lieutenant constitutes the Officers of the Army to march against Dublin The Lord Lieutenant begins the Campaign in May but was forced to use his own Credit to begin the service some write but with 8000 Foot and 2000 Horse Dublin resolv'd to be first attempted The Lord Lieutenant appears before Dublin The Lord Inchequin defeats a Party of Jones's Horse sent to Tredagh The Lord Inchequin takes in Tredagh Owen O Neal and the Parliaments Party agree Inchequin routs Farral Takes in Dundalk Colonel Monk dismissed the Parliaments Service Inchequin takes in Trim. Owen O Neal in behalf of the Parliament raises the Siege of Londonderry Sir Charles Coot censured for his compliance with Owen O Neil The Lord Lieutenant upon the view of his Army found it considerable rather to Block up the City than make a Regular Siege Colonel Reynolds Hunks and Venables arrive at Dublin Cromwel accepts of the Lieutenantship The Lord Inchequin suspecting Cromwel might land in Munster went thither A Party sent to fortifie Baggatrath under Purcel * Major General Parcel The Lord Lieutenant's Forces routed at Rathmines The Defeat at Rathmines alter'd Consultations The Lord Lieutenant from Rathmines retires to Kilkenny Colonel Jones besieging Tredath was raised by the Lord Lieutenants coming to Trim. Cromwel lands at Dublin Cromwel gains Tredath by Storm c. * Near Eniscorfy there was a Monastery of Franciscans which upon the approach of the Army quitted the Place and their Provisions very considerable Cromwel takes in Wexford The Lord Lieutenant sought all opportunities to fight Cromwel Carrick taken in The Means the Lord Lieutenant took to reduce O Neal. The Commissioners of Trust dissent from the Lord Lieutenant O Neal dies The Garrisons in Munster revolt to the Parliament The Revolt of the Munster Garrisons begot a Jealousie in the Irish Army Cromwel makes his Attempt upon Waterford but draws off to his Winter-Quarters Cromwel draws off from Waterford goes to Dungarvan Colonel Jones dies about the 18th of Decem. The Lord Lieutenant's Endeavour to impede Cromwel The Lord Lieutenant's gallant Attempt to relieve the Party that went to take in Passage The Lord Lieutenant disappointed in retaking of Carrick and good Service done by Colonel Milo Power The Treachery of Waterford against the Lord Lieutenant His Account of the State of Ireland to the King The Clergy the Fomentors of all mis-conceits against the Lord Lieutenant His desire to clear their suspicions being by their Orders onely met at Kilkenny The Clergies Assembly at Cloanmacnoise whence they intitle their Merits The Deputies of the Counties adjourn to Juni 1650. The Siege of Clonmel Limerick so far from complying as it performed not outward Civility The Assembly appointed at Loghreogh The Citizens of Limericks animosity against the Lord Inchiquin The Citizens of Limerick insinuate to the Lord Inchiquin as much against the Lord Lieutenant as before they did against him The second Assembly at Loghreogh The Lord Lieutenant had license from the King on the disobedience of the Irish to withdraw The Assembly at Loghreogh address to the Lord Lieutenant upon his resolves to leave the Kingdom Wolf's Insurrection Limerick still refractory and contemptious The Bishop of Clogher defeated His Character The Confederate Clergies Resolution to meet at Jamestown The Lord Lieutenants Reply to the Clergies insolent Letter The Clergies Answer The Bishop of Dromore and Doctor Kelly's Negotiation with the Lord Lieutenant The Message from the Bishops being justly resented by the Lord Lieutenant he writes to them to meet him at Loghreoh but they augment their Contempts The Bishops of Jamestown instead of what
THE HISTORY Of the EXECRABLE Irish Rebellion Trac'd from many preceding ACTS TO THE Grand Eruption The 23. of October 1641. And thence pursued to the Act of Settlement MDCLXII Spartanos genus est audax Avidumque ferae nodo cautus Propiore liga Sen. Hippolytus LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel in St. Paul's Churchyard MDCLXXX TO THE READER Reader I Am not ignorant that he exposes himself as a publick mark to many inconveniencies who appears in Print Yet there hath been so long an expectation of the Proceedings of the whole War of Ireland as by an evil silence some interpretately question whether there was any such thing or no Whereby those Pamphlets the Roman Catholicks of Ireland have dispersed through Europe get Credit and Reputation That his Majesties Protestant Subjects first fell upon and murther'd them which being so openly and frequently asserted even on the very Place where those dire Tragedies were acted and that averr'd also in a time when many are yet living who have seen and felt those miseries in themselves and their Relations I could not but let that drop from me which might flow from others niceness in this Case being the next degree to unfaithfulness Yet I cannot say what I have persued here is not to be cavell'd at no! that were to presume my fate were happier than others but I may aver that nothing is imposed on the Reader but what I have either Records publick Evidences credible Relations or my own knowledge for its Ground searching the best Intelligence I could reach to though in clearing some doubts I have encountred Obstacles I could not rationally have expected which I impute to my own misfortune no ones Design None treated with being so little affected as not frequently to desire the digestion of a History the English Interest in Ireland was not less concern'd in then Humanity it self The horror and cruelty there committed bidding defiance to whatsoever before had been acted in the World Hinc Terras Cruor Inficit omnes fusus rubuit mare So that after all if there be any Deficiency in what I shall relate it may well be pardon'd where there hath been as much Artifice to parget Truths as Countenance could reach to though as to what may be objected in reference to my Relation I have been so cautious that in Disputes I have not let Interest biass me no! where I have found any Humanity though it may be conjectur'd to proceed from self-Interest that it may be return'd in gratitude I have not designedly let it o're-slip me but of this nature there hath been little indeed the whole Scene hath been so barbarous as I have scarce found any into whose wound the Traveller hath pour'd Oyl and yet willingly more then what a just account of the Business requires I would not fester the least Soar However I expect all will not think so 't is natural for the Wasp to be angry yet when it shall be weighed on what little reason the Irish more then the English equally if not beyond them concern'd in all Levies Oppressions and Grievances had to be enraged pretending to be held in with a ruder Bit I doubt not but the more Intelligent will allow them no common Sinners I am not ignorant what examples some say they had to encourage them to their Insurrection though that encouragement how confidently soever affirmed to be their Guide never commenc'd in Blood or march'd on in Murthers and Surprisals of an innocent naked and unarm'd People or at first seiz'd on those much less murther'd them who contrary to their Judgment lived peaceably amongst them However it is not my intention to mitigate the flame they light their Torches by all Rebellions being detestable But certainly the Copy exceeded the Original and what they would solely intitle to their Religion as interdicted by the Age more justly is to be imputed to their Detestation of the English Government and Nation which from the Conquest to this instant hath been the grounds for all Rebellions even when both Nations were drunk with the Wine of Romes Fornication So that though some to mitigate the Result of so horrid a Rebellion place the grounds of it on Religion which as my Lord Bacon observes Erects a Monarchy in the minds of Men by which they would enforce all to that yoke Yet it is evident they never had so free an exercise of their Religion under Pretexts of Civil Contracts and Politick Agreements as when the Troubles began not so much then as the least Violence being offer'd to their Diana nor afterwards till they made it one of their principal Demands so that if at any time since or before they found a check That must be attributed to the rude and boisterous behaviour as a Statist seasonably notes of some of them who disturb'd the happy Calm they all enjoy'd rather then to any willing severity in the State whose bounty and generosity towards them hath by their ill usage of the Indulgence been interpreted a Product of the Kings Affection to their Religion not his charity and compassion towards their Persons That thence some have proceeded to Acts which have alienated the affections of those who desired they should not have been disquieted Till Recusancy began over-boldly to look Government in the Face in as much as thence some have suspected whether Hannibal were not at the Gates Else could any vaunt at home as others write to their Friends abroad that they hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and win ground upon us in as much as meerly from this encouragement a Romanist well observ'd by the Silver-Mouth Trumpet not long since congratulated in Print That the Face of our Church began to alter and the Language of our Religion to change saith Sancta Clara So as if a Synod were held non intermixtis Puritanis O those are Pestilent fellows our Articles and their Religion would soon be agreed Upon which and other Circumstances the learned and foreseeing Primate Archbishop Usher once in an Assembly of the whole Nation averr'd That the Magistrates yielding to meet the Papists as far as they might in their own way in the first Reformation in England had upon the experience of many years rather hardned them in their Errors then brought them to a liking of our Religion This being their usual saying If our Flesh be not good why do you drink of our Broth The consideration of which made King James of blessed memory take notice* That having after some time spent in setling the Politck Affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small labour in composing certain differencies we found amongst our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore Established in this Church of England and reduc'd the same to such an Order and Form as we doubt not but every Spirit that is led only with Piety and not with Humour shall be therein satisfied It appear'd unto us in the debating of those Matters that a
greater Contagion to our Religion then could arise from those light differencies was imminent by Persons common Enemies to them both namely the great number of Priests both Seminaries and Jesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before our coming to this Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater liberty then heretofore they durst have done partly upon a vain confidence of some Innovation in matter of Religion to be done by us which we never intended nor gave any man cause to expect and partly upon the assurance of our general Pardon granted according to the custom of our Progenitors at our Coronation for offences past in the days of the late Queen which Pardons many of the said Priests have procur'd under our great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from the danger of the Laws do with great Audacity exercise all Offices of their Profession both saying Masses perswading our Subjects from the Religion Established and reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by consequence seducing them from the true perswasion which all Subjects ought to have of their Duty and Obedience to Us Of which though I might urge more I have no itch to enlarge their own Scourge may be their Punishment Saepe in Magistrum scelera redierunt sua Certain it was the Irish hop'd to shake off the English Government by that attempt but how improbable a Series of 500 years Succession sufficiently evinces every defection in the People having rooted the Prince more intire that at length methinks they should be wean'd from further Assays of that nature though where there are a People who look towards Egypt there will not want some to cry out for a Captain to lead them But to descant hereupon is not my design being willing to believe that Janus's Gates may henceforth be shut Allegiance being the aim not the pretence of their present Submission What I here endeavour is to clear by what Steps the late Rebellion arrived at its Height and how it came in so short a time to sweep all before it In handling of which I shall first shew the Condition of the Kingdom some years before the Rebellion Then I shall speak of the preliminary Acts thereunto and therein detect the vanity of those who would fix the Rebellion at first upon a few discontented inconsiderable Persons a Rable Authors of all the Civil War that followed in Ulster onely when the Plot was a long laid Design determin'd by the main Body of the Nation as Rory-Mac-Guire ingenuously told Colonel Audley Mervin That this great undertaking was never the Act of one or 2 giddy fellows We have said he our Party in England we have our Party in Scotland that will keep such as would oppose us busy from sending you any Aid in as much as I could tell you who the Persons were that were designed for the Surprisal of all the Places of Strength And in the Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates of Ireland at Jamestown the 12. of August 1650. It is there acknowledged That the Catholick People of Ireland so not the Rable in the year 1641. were forc'd to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties which some very industriously would fain wipe off as being too undeniable an evidence of their inclinations before those vain pretences they fly to as their main Subterfuge drove them into the Net with others Yet we shall herein so clear the folly of what they would have the World believe as their Excuse serves mainly to aggravate their Crime Mens Impudicam facere non casus Solet Afterwards I will fall on the Subject till the Cessation manag'd by subtil Instruments of State Yet not without great Disgusts to some highly improv'd to the event of what afterwards ensued Then we shall proceed to the Conclusion which betwixt the Cessation and that will appear to have many notable changes such as though some Histories may lead you through many varieties this more In clearing of which I should have been glad of more Originals than I could meet with especially such as might have detected the whole Proceedings at Kilkenny where the Design was so closely anvil'd as all things afterwards were found there in defiance of his Majesties Authority There first the Clergy compact a General Congregation which summon'd a General Assembly equivalent in their Veneration to a Parliament and that Established a Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks which received from them Sanction and Laws by which Coin was stamped National and Provincial Court Established Estates setled their Clergy Re-established the Popes Nuncio receiv'd Ambassadors sent thence and others entertain'd from Foraign Princes all under a Soveraign Seal of their own and what else might bespeak them independent on any but their own Power But the Evidence of these and some other Records being the Treasure of fearful men whom a specious Artifice had charm'd easy Keys oâ— Interest could not freely purchase The Records however of that presumptious Assembly are notwithstanding the unfortunateness of the Age yet secur'd in his Library which though before it wanted little to make it venerable will in future Ages be resorted to as a Treasure invaluable securing those Secrets which the malice of so potent an Enemy would have improv'd to the ruine of an Empire Yet as I have already said I ground little if any thing but on Proofs Nay I have so well sifted Kilkenny it self though no Art hath been omitted to shuffle up the Proceeding there as the Original Progress and State of that Conclave is not without faithful and notable Remarks more being under the Vizard than appear'd in the Disguise though the Retirement I have now betook my self to suitable to the effects of so disconsolate a Rebellion deprives me of those Councils and Societies which by a free'r Commerce might have rectified either my Sence or Stile For the most part I have in the Appendix set down Copies of the weightiest Records they carrying so much even of the History in them as they eas'd me in the Story I should have been forward to have enlarg'd more nothing of that nature being otherwise than important But in that his Majesty's Works Sir John Temple of the Irish Rebellion Husbands Collections of Orders Ordinances and Declarations of both Houses of Parliament the Commissioners of Ireland's Remonstrance to the House of Commons in England of the condition of the Clergy and Protestants the Speeches of several Members Diurnals Walshes Loyal Formulary the Answer to the Irish Remonstrance presented at Trim 1642. And other Prints being extant I have rather chose to refer the Reader often thither then engage him in too Voluminous a Tract though where any Relation act or other Material Instrument makes up the Story not without injury to be abreviated we have tied our selves to the Words It was my happiness I must acknowledge to meet with a
confidence thereof they went on with great resolution determining to do what they could to make themselves Masters of Dublin and of all the English Quarters thereabouts the easier afterwards to facilitate their design against Owen Roe and his Confidents Preston thus flesh'd with his late Victory brought up his Army possess'd himself of most of the Out-Garrisons even within eight miles of Dublin and thence went with a resolution to take in Trim a Garrison of some strength under Colonel Fenwick wherein there lay a Regiment of Foot and some Troops of Horse Upon which Jones seeing himself in this condition march'd about the 17th of July with 1000 Foot and 400 Horse to Sigginstown burning by the way Castle Martin taking good Prey from Castle Bawn and was over-took by the Enemy near Johns-town who falling on his Rear cut off many where Captain Adam Meredith gallantly maintaining the Pass was kill'd a Gentleman of clear valour and greater hope In the interim the distractions of the Soldiers daily mutinous were very great the Soldiers threatning to deliver up the Town to the Rebels if they were not speedily and better suppli'd with money and other necessaries However in this high distemper Colonel Jones drew out the first of August 3800 Foot and two Regiments of Horse besides Artillery to the relief of Trim besieged by Preston who upon his approach quitted the Siege intending to follow the advice of a Person then at Leixlip a Castle 10 miles from Dublin of great trust and abilities that whilst Jones reliev'd Trim he might attempt Dublin Whereupon Jones follows being assisted by Sir Henry Tichburn from Tredagh Colonel Moor from Dondalk with the Newry Carlingford Forces as Colonel Conway with a Party of the Northern old British making up in all 700 Horse and 1200 Foot and joyn'd Battel with Preston effectually 7300 Foot and 1047 Horse strong besides what the Lord Costolough and the two Nugent's brought at Dungans-Hill the 8th of August 1647. where by plain valour Jones gain'd the greatest and most signal Victory the English ever had in Ireland there was slain upon the place 5470 besides those afterwards which were gleaned up which were many amongst the slain there were 400 of Colonel Kitto's Redshanks There were taken Prisoners 5 Colonels 4 Lieutenant Colonels 6 Serjeant-Majors 32 Captains 23 Lieutenants 27 Ensigns 2 Cornets 22 Serjeants 2 Quarter-Masters 2 Gunners the Clerk of the Store 13 Troopers and 228 common Souldiers Preston hardly escaped with the Horse he lost his Carriages and Cannon being 4 demi-Culverings each carrying 12 pound Bullet and 64 fair Oxen attending the Train which were of very great use Of ours some were wounded but not above 20 slain Of Note we lost only 2 Cornets and one Captain Gibbs who over-heated in the Service died in drinking Ditch-Water After this Victory the Enemy quit and burnt the Naas Sigginstown Harristown Collanstown Castlewarding and Moyglare Nor had the effect of this Victory ended thus but that Pay and Provision for the Army were so scant as necessity inforced them to return to Dublin where they were met with the News of 1500 l. newly arrived a Supply incompetent to furnish them forth immediately though it satisfied them there was some care taken for their Relief And upon the certainty of this great Victory in England considerable Supplies were hastned and 1000 l. sent Colonel Jones for his good Service A little after which the Lord Inchiquin took in Cahir Castle the Town and Castle of Cashel and 11 other Castles in the County of Tipperary which was exceeding well taken by the Parliament no small Causes of Defection having a little before been insinuated to them of his Fidelity About the beginning of October Colonel Jones took the Field again and having joyn'd with the Ulster Forces under the Command of Colonel Monk they march'd out near 2000 Horse and 6000 Foot taking in Portleicester Abboy and several of the Rebels Castles and Garrisons and so having got great Prey of Cattle and other Pillage they return'd to Dublin and Colonel Monk went back into Ulster with that Party he carried thence And in Munster the Lord Inchiquin was so active as the Lord Taaff appearing with a considerable Force as General of the Irish advancing towards the English Quarters he nobly encounter'd him though with much dis-advantage both of Men and Ground at Knocknones the 13th of November where after a sharp dispute excellently carried with much Gallantry and true Souldiery as to the order of the Battle he totally routed him and his Forces amongst whom fell Sir Alexander Mac Donel alias Colonel Kilkittoth the Rebels Lieutenant General and his Lieutenant Colonel besides some 4000 of their Infantry and Horse were slain 6000 Arms recovered 38 Colours of Foot some Cornets of Horse Ammunition Taaff's Cabinet besides his Tent and many Concerns of importance were also taken We lost Sir William Bridges Colonel of Horse Colonel Gray Major Brown Sir Robert Travers the Judge Advocate and some other Officers upon the routing of our left Wing who gallantly however seal'd the Cause with their blood They were 7464 Foot and 1076 Horse besides Officers we not 4000 Foot and 1200 Horse Upon the arrival of this News the House of Commons voted 10000 l. for Munster and 1000 l. with a Letter of thanks to the Lord Inchiquin Things thus succeeding it might be thought rational that the Lord Inchiquin who had obtain'd so great a Victory over the Rebels and thereupon was highly caressed by the Parliament should now have had no Design to have alter'd his Party But he having been dealt with by those who best knew how to wean him off sets forth a specious Declaration against the Parliament over-awed by Independents and the Army and hearing of Laughorn's Insurrection and the Scots Invasion grew thence more encouraged that amongst the Presbyterians he went for a Patron and distributing a little Money amongst the Souldiers won so upon them as afterwards he carried his Design for some time un-discovered sending to the Parliament this Declaration Mr. Speaker IT is not without an un-answerable proportion of Reluctancy to so heavy an Inconvenience that we are thus frequently put upon the asserting of our own Fidelities to the Services of the Honourable Houses whereunto as we have by several Evidences the mention whereof we make without vain-glory manifested our selves sincerely faithful so hath it pleased the divine Providence to prosper our Endeavours with very many improbable Successes to the attainment whereof though we have strugled through all the difficulties and contended with all the sufferances that a People un-supply'd with all necessaries and secondary means could undergo yet have we encountred nothing of that dis-affection or dis-couragement as we find administred unto us by a constant observation that it is as well in the power as it is in the practice of our malicious and indefatigable Enemies to place and foment Differences upon us not only to our
required to be aiding and assisting in the execution of this Our Proclamation as often as occasion shall require Given at our Court at Whitehal the first day of June 1660. in the Twelfth Year of Our Reign Afterwards assoon as such matters for so great a Business could be brought about his Majesty the 8th of May summon'd a Parliament at Dublin in which passed the great Act of Settlement after that his Majesty had published the 30th of November 1660. His Gracious Declaration for the settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland and satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers and Souldiers and other Subjects there wherein as to the Irish first such are considered as came in upon the Cessation secondly those who honestly and faithfully performed what they promised in the Peace and thirdly such as being beyond Seas cheerfully receiv'd and obeyed his Majesties Commands abroad all which are comprehended in several Articles proceeding from these Heads and the Souldiers and Adventurers by themselves These also who had the Fortune whether through Loyalty or Suspicion that they were not able to bear up against the English Interest to withstand the Nuncio have in the Act of Settlement their Fortunes and themselves secur'd memorable to Posterity who being fewer then those that bowed not their knees to Baal in Israel we cannot but mention it being a Reward for their eminent Sufferings And because the voice of a Parliament next to the delivery of the Law from Mount Sinai ought to impress the greatest Reverence on the heart and affections of the People I shall here present you with the Preamble to the Bill of Settlement in Ireland 1662. which in brief commits that to Posterity no Paint can ever Palliate An Act 14 Carol. 2. WHereas an unnatural Insurrection did break forth against your Majesties Royal Father of ever blessed memory his Crown and Dignity in this your Majesties Kingdom of Ireland upon the 23. of October in the year of our Lord God 1641. and manifest it self by the Murthers and Destruction of many thousands of your said Majesties good and loyal Subjects which afterwards universally spreading and diffusing it self over the whole Kingdom setled into and became a formed and almost National Rebellion of the Irish Papists against your Royal Father of blessed memory his Crown and Dignity to the destruction of the English and Protestants inhabiting in Ireland The which Irish Papists being represented in a General Assembly chosen by themselves and acting by a Council called by them The Supream Council of the Confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland did first assume usurp and exercise the Power of Life and Death make Peace and War Levy and Coin Money and many other Acts of Soveraign Authority Treating with Foreign Princes and Potentates for their Government and Protection and afterwards acted under a Foreign Authority by all the said ways disowning and rejecting your Royal Fathers and your Majesties undoubted Right to this Kingdom even while they treacherously used his and your Majesties Names in the outward forms of their Proceedings withal impiously seeming by words and shews to swear unto that which by the whole Series of their Deeds they denied And moreover presuming to pretend his late Majesties Sacred Authority even for their worst actions all which they did amongst other their evil Designs to frighten his good Protestant Subjects from their Loyalty to blast his Majesties Honour and to widen the Breach between his said Majesty and his seduced Subjects in England The which Ends by their said wicked Stratagems they did too successfully and mischievously effect Before this Preamble to the Act of Settlement pass'd the Irish by their Agents in England had an unusual Favour of inspecting that Bill and objecting what they thought fit which they did in the presence of the Commissioners sent out of Ireland by the Convention and Lords Justices and Council even before his Majesty his Council and the Committee of Lords for the Affairs of Ireland to that end especially appointed The debate continuing touching this grand Instrument from the 8th of July 1661. till March following in which the Irish most insisted against the Preamble for that it seem'd to involve the whole Nation in the first designing and raising of the late Rebellion in Ireland and in the barbarous Circumstance thereof whereas they would pretend it was onely the act of a few Persons of broken fortunes followed with the rude multitude c. Praying that nothing might be contain'd in that Preamble in Derogation to his Majesties Articles of Peace or the blemish of his Majesties Loyal Catholick Subjects delivering in at the same time their Reasons against previous Reprisals the variances between the Declaration and Act of Settlement and their defence for their Articles of Peace Insisting much upon their Loyalty after the Lord Lieutenants departure the Catholicks unanimously in their Assembly joyning if you dare credit their reports with the Lord Deputy to oppose the Usurpers as the best means to divert the Parliament from preventing the Kings Designs in England and Scotland for which his Majesty as they say return'd them thanks they rejecting then many advantagious offers from Ireton though they were in a low Condition and so continued faithful till the Lord Deputy was driven to the Mountains and they at liberty to compound for themselves many of which went beyond-Sea to serve his Majesty All which they insist on as a great test of their Loyalty whereas it can never be made evident as is alledged that Proposals were made to that Assembly by the Usurpers and refused by them for the enjoyment of their Rights Priviledges and Inheritances alike with others under their Government for indeed such Proposals were never made nor offered to them in their most flourishing Condition but it is confessed such Terms were tendred and refused by them as were agreeable to a conquering Army to give as that of the Usurpers then was and to a broken scattered Party to expect as the other was being then reduced to Bogs and Woods as their best Holts and yet the Terms so offered and rejected by the Assembly together were soon after embraced by all of them divided into Parts on which they submitted and laid down Arms having by their Conditions liberty to transport themselves into Foraign Parts or to stay in the Kingdom And therefore it doth no more consist with their Honour then with Truth to say they were forced by banishment to an opportunity of serving his Majesty beyond-Seas from whence they date their Merits from him which was more then his late Majesty of blessed memory could obtain from them although obliged thereunto by Allegiance and Articles when his Distress and their Power were sublimated to the highest Pitch and his Prerogative lay at the stake as he did often complain of The Commissioners from the Lords Justices and Council besides this produced the Instructions of the Supream Council to their Agents for Rome France Spain offering the Crown to either