permitted Sir Luke Fitz Gerald Robert Harpool Esquire and others against whom they had more than ordinary proofs of their taking part with the first Conspirators peaceably to return to their habitations as they did James Warren and Friar Paul Oneil both examined at the Council Board and were not without reason suspected of the Rebels Party which Indulgence they soon improved to the defiance of the State which of 60 persons apprehended as justly suspected to be in the Plot caused onely one of Fermanagh to suffer death whom the Lord Mac-guire confessed to be privy to the Plot. Fourthly As to the keeping back of Petitions from the King by which his Lordship will have it That the whole Nation took up Arms for their defence he must be put in mind he taking pleasure to be minded of what is more in others knowledge than his that in the beginning of the Rebellion the Irish had never less reason to complain that their Grievances were not presented For the Commissioners of Parliament of Ireland * by whom the Rebellion was hatch'd who had attended his Majesty with a Collection of all Grievances were returned with such high and unexpected condescensions and those especially relating to the Roman Catholicks that it was but in August 1641. being the last Sessions thought that the next Sessions of Parliament would be principally to return his Majesty their acknowledgment that by taking off all Discriminations and Incapacities he had laid a most sure foundation of Unity and Peace amongst his Subjects Though there is a new Piece come forth entituled A short View of the late Troubles in England which would abuse the World as if the Committee from the Parliament of Ireland after nine months attendance were at his Majesties going for Scotland referred to the Parliament of England and afterwards constrained to return without any redress Besides the Lords Justices and Council did not conceal or debar any thing that ever came to them from the Confederates though warrantably they might have done it some things being so peremptory that it was not for them to admit of being the Presentative of his Majesty and others of that ill consequence to the injured Protestants as without a Comment could not with their trust be presented to his Majesty All or most of which Addresses however accompanied with undutiful and irreverend expressions or overtures were with the first opportunity presented to his Majesties view or knowledge About the 6. of November 1641. the Rebels of the County of Cavan sent their presumptuous Propositions to the Lords Justices and Council which with their Answer they forthwith certified to the L. Lieutenant the E. of Leicester to whom by his Majesties express Command the Dispatches relating to Ireland were to be directed About the tenth of the same Month the Longford Letter to the Lord Dillon of Costiloe full of pretended Grievances and unreasonable Demands as freedom of Religion a Repeal of all Laws made to the contrary and the like was presented to the State in behalf of the Rebels of Longford which having an answerable return his Lordship and the Lord Taaff went into England promoting that which afterwards centered in a Cessation About the midst of December 1641. Sir Thomas Carey and Dr. Cale a Sorbonist offered to the Council Board several Propositions from the Rebels presuming upon the straits that the State was brought to that their insolent Demands would not have been denied which they were but not without representing them to his Majesty The 23. of December 1641. seven Lords of the Pale who had declared by former Letters That they would stand on their Guard after that they had joined with the Northern Rebels in the Siege of Drogheda sent Letters to the Lords Justices to which though without prejudice to his Majesties Honour they could not answer yet they certified them to the Lord Lieutenant And about the 16. of March 1641. there was an Overture made to the Lords Justices by a Letter to the Earl of Castlehaven who by his Memoirs gives us occasion to reflect on these things in the name of the United Lords of the Pale signed by Gormanston Nettervile and Slane for a Cessation of Arms after that by his Majesties Forces transmitted out of England and 10000 compleat fresh men in Ulster besides the Scotch ten Regiments then in the Field the Irish were beaten from Drogheda by Sir Henry Tichborn and that his 〈◊〉 ies Army was full Master of the Field in all parts of the Pale To which the Lords Justices and Council thought not fit to hearken yet certified it to the Lord Lieutenant and did not as some maliciously suggest upon this Cause merely make his Lordship Prisoner Such another Paper from the Lord Mountgarret the 23. of March 1642. came to the Earl of Ormond Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army containing Grievances done in England as well as Ireland to shew to the Lords Justices which lay not in their power to redress which was also sent to the Lord Lieutenant to be shewn to his Majesty And in August the Confederates sent to the Lieutenant General a Petition directed to his Majesty which his Lordship presented to the Lords Justices who forthwith sent it to his Majesties Principal Secretary and thereupon a Commission was sent to the Marquess of Ormond to meet and hear what the Rebels could say or propound for themselves by Virtue of which his Majesties Commissioners received the Rebels Remonstrance at Trym March 17. 1642. A mere Rhapsody of scandalous Criminations upon the Government and a justification of their Rebellion since 1644. fully answered by a Person then at the Helm in a Book entituled The false and scandalous Remonstrance of the Inhumane and bloudy Rebels of Ireland worthy the Earl of Castlehaven's further Information This Remonstrance at length brought forth a Cessation in hope as David Routh titular Bishop of Ossory insinuated that it would at length prove the ruine of Heresie and the firmer establishment of the Catholick Faith and Interest And in truth whatsoever pretension there was for it it proved a snare to the English and no advantage to his Majesty After which their Agents were heard by his Majesty in Oxford who at their departure amongst many excellent admonitions worthy so intelligent a Prince were advised That if they made haste to assist to suppress the English Rebellion they might confidently believe he would never forget to whose Merit he owed his Preservation and Restauration and then it would be in his absolute power to vouchsafe such Graces to them as would not leave them disappointed of their just and full expectations Words sufficiently August By which it is apparent that nothing that ever the Rebels pretended should come to his Majesties Ears was obstructed by the Lords Justices or State Notwithstanding his Lordship is somewhat positive that the Rebels Petitions particularly those of the Pale were never sent to the King Wherein he assumes the Bleeding Iphigenia's Language That the
Christian more than a Mind conciled to Truth and Union But how those ends should meet in the Peace he designed was very unlikely considering his Majesties Concessions to the Adventurers the inestimable loss the English Protestants had suffered and the Enquiry there ought to have been for the innocent Bloud poured forth like Water in Ireland the least of which never came under consideration In as much as it is notably observed by the Person of Honour P. 58. That the Irish did the English more hurt and advantaged themselves more by the Cessation and two first Peaces than ever they did or could do by open Force after the first Massacre nothing writes Colonel Jones in his Letter to the Marquess of Ormond March 31. 1649. being to the English Interest in that Kingdom more pernicious and apparently destructive However after near three years deliberation his Majesty was forced to the Peace 1646. in assurance of a vigorous Assistance as before he had been forced to the Cessation And this not as one will have it who to wipe off the Force his Majesty was put to will have the Expression to be meant of those that erected that odious Court for taking away the life of the Excellent King Charles the First and not of the Confederates whereas the Cessation 1643. and Peace 1646. to which his Majesty says his Father was forced was some years before that odious Court was ever thought on or erected Upon the breach of which Peace the Earl of Castlehaven observes P. 80. That Story mentions not any one thing that had so fatal a consequence The Articles of which being notoriously violated it is no matter whether through the Nuncio's standing for Glamorgans Peace treacherously obtained and disallowed of by the King or the Confederates private dissentions both proceeding from animosities to the State But certain it is That all the Rebels Proceedings and their Demands however condescended to were insolent Treason Besides the Lord Lieutenant was infamously used forced out of the Kingdom the Parliament then sitting at Dublin Registring it to Posterity That the Irish were an insolent and upon all advantages a perfidious and bloudy Enemy None accompanying his Excellency to Dublin in his hazardous Retreat thithes when he and the Protestant Army were designed to be cut off by Owen O Neil but the Earl of Castlehaven P. 75. who upon the Rebels blocking up of Dublin advised the Lord Lieutenant P. 78. rather to deliver it to the Parliament than the Rebels for that when the King should have England he would have Ireland with it which otherwise with the Nuncio and his Party might remain separate A right Conclusion and that if it were his advice determined for the best Sure it is the Marquess of Ormond chose to capitulate with Jones and others imployed by the two Houses of Parliament to deliver up Dublin into their hands and other places for that he could no longer hold them rather than to suffer them to be taken by an Army instigated by a Foreigner to the danger of the whole Kingdom and the destruction of those he had so long protected Afterwards I find his Lordship for some time retired in the interim the Lord Inchiquin the Lord Taaff and other considerable Persons united Upon which the Marquess of Ormond at the request of the Confederates to the Queen and Prince was wrought upon to reassume his Lieutenantship with whom the E. of Castlehav returned The Lord Lieutenant entered upon this Imployment when the King was in his greatest trouble solemnly then concluding with all imaginable satisfaction to the Confederates though highly dishonourable to the Crown of England and destructive to the Protestants the Peace of 1648. as before he had done the Peace of 1646. upon the frequent commands he had not to let slip the means of setling that Kingdom fully under his Majesties obedience which none could blame the King to make upon difficult Conditions That he might get such a United Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented that infamous and horrid Parricide which ensued Though generous souls would rather have adventured all Interests than to have enhaunced their price on his Majesties necessities But to come to the Peace which the Confederates as his Lordship writes P. 81. confirmed and sealed with the bloud of more than 20000 of their best men who lost their lives to maintain it refusing in the mean while all Offers of Peace and that even to the very last from the Parliament It would take up more time than can be dispensed with at present to answer all that is here alledged I cannot say but as many as his Lordship affirms may be lost of the Irish but that they fell in maintainance of this Peace he must give me leave to doubt In as much as Owen O Neil the Earl of Antrim and all the Northern Rebels refused to submit thereunto Whose assistance to the other Party he cannot forget and on what grounds they became Mercenary to Sir Charles Coot no more than that no Towns that the Confederates had but Kilkenny would receive a Garrison P. 42. And I am confident it is not out of his memory what the Clergy did at Jamestown August 12. 1650. two days after that they had sent the Bishop of Dromore and Doctor Kelly to persuade the Lord Lieutenant to leave the Kingdom claiming thereby a Power Paramount to his Majesties Authority seconding their Excommunication with daily affronts searching for him at Galway as for a Criminal person their Clergy denying to revoke their Excommunication or to give assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like for the future The Commissioners too of Trust on whom much was reposed being not all of like integrity The over balance of the Government being clearly in the Irish hands Others whom some cried were Ormonists being upon the matter Cyphers as eminently appeared in the Conference at Kilkenny and yet 20000 lost their lives to maintain the Peace of 1648. This Noble Earls Memoirs furnish us with Actions of a notable and active General such as engaged his Souldiers in Judgment as well as Duty P. 136. so as it may be expected with the Persian General that he knew every Souldier by his name and therefore might the more particularly affirm that 20000 fell in maintainance of the Peace of 1648. Yet who shall consider the Premises and those who afterwards submitted will believe some unites are wanting to complete his Arithmetick It may be he hath forgot that Captain Stafford a Roman Catholick yielded up the Castle of Wexford unto Cromwel and entered himself into his Service by which there ensued a notable effusion of bloud And I see it is out of his mind how a Party of the Confederates contracted with Ireton to give an Inlet for his Army into Limerick by securing a Port for that purpose when at the same time Hugh O Neil their
BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON THE Earl of CASTLEHAVEN'S MEMOIRS Of his ENGAGEMENTS and CARRIAGE In the WARS of IRELAND By which the Government at that time and the Justice of the Crown since are Vindicated from Aspersions cast on Both. Vero quid Verius LONDON Printed for George West 1682 TO THE KING SIR HAd it not been long observed that nothing is more resented by Great and Generous Princes than the least Affronts to their Ministers I should not have adventured to have addressed these Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven's Memoirs to your Sacred Majesty committed to the Press with an Introduction little expected But he having before invited You to what neither contains to his knowledge a Lie or Mistake I dare not but presume so far on Your Justice as to be confident that what bespeaks the Integrity of Your Ministers and supports the Honour of Your Crown severely reflected on by his Lordship shall never receive other than an acceptance how meanly soever it be cloathed by Your Majesties most dutiful and obedient Subject E. B. TO THE READER READER I Have so much Charity for the Earl of Castlehaven that if he had seriously read as well as amongst the Stationers in Saint Paul's Church-yard took into his hands the Histories of the Execrable Irish Rebellion begun the 23. of Octob. 1641. he would not afterwards have exposed his Memoirs all the Imputations which he lays on the State being in them clearly vindicated Yet since to draw from the World some Compassion he hath adventured his Memoirs abroad I am willing the World to whom his Lordship appeals should judge whether his Case was singular or being so premeditated not more notorious And this I thought sit to publish resolving never to desert the English Interest as often as it is invaded lest the confident Piece of Calumny fixed on the State might wander secure and unexamined there being at this day more who under a Disguise are willing to palliate rather than detect the Villany of that Age though if you discourse on this Subject they whisper Intrigues and if there be an opportunity offered they write they will verifie them to the World Another being set on the Tragical Conclusion of the Long Parliament to make that Junto detestable spends the viij Chapter of his Short View of the late Troubles in England wholly on the pretence the Irish had to their barbarous Insurrection wherein he re-assumes the Rebels Plea with greater Confidence than they give it in at Trym March 17. 1642. But yet considers not the Answers that have been written on that Rhapsodie of Fictions and Untruths thereby betraying the Innocence of the State and the Honour of the English However there is a Letter from a Person of Honour in the Country to the Earl of Castlehaven full of Candor as well as Reproof which hath incomparably well replied to the Earl's Memoirs and might well abate my edge in this Case But upon the encouragement of that Person of Honour rather to quicken than slacken my Intentions I could not well defer what hath been long writ the publishing my Reflections though with great disadvantage after so excellent a Pen they being meerly an Epitome of the Irish Scene In which I have not to my knowledge discovered the least Emotion against the Gallantry and Worth of that Noble Peer who hath raised this Contest his Extraction and Personal Courage being Remarkable But the Reasons for the Cause he pretends to are by what he would justifie himself in not sufferable ou il n'ya point de pechè il n'ya point de honte his not be-being convinced at first of the Crime made him conscious of no Guilt But I shall set the things in order before him and if Conviction arise not thence I shall blush at my mistake REFLECTIONS ON THE Earl of CASTLEHAVEN'S MEMOIRS CONCERNING The WARS of IRELAND AMongst some Books I lately received from my Stationer I had the Earl of Castlehaven's Memoirs I little expected after 28 years to have seen any thing of his Lordship's Proceedings in Ireland in taking part with the Rebels before the Cessation 1643. considering his and his Ancestors obligations to the Crown of England Nor am I convinced why at this time it should come forth unless thereby it s hoped that some Reflections may be fixed on the Ministers then to extenuate the general Insurrection when as we know no Artifice is more usual than to clamour the People with Calumnies on the State whilest others alarm them to Rebellion I rather expected since he imbarqued in that business in behalf of which his late Majesties heart so often bled that the Act of Oblivion should have sealed up those Encounters especially since his Majesty had been prevailed with by the intercession of his Friends in Parliament to repair the Breaches Time and Misfortune had made upon so ancient and honourable a Family as his Lordships But since he hath published his Memoirs of his Engagements and Carriage in the Wars of Ireland as something in them new which if his Majesties time may permit him to read contain neither Lie nor Mistake I conceive him so ingenuous having admitted others to mind him of some Passages which possibly may be more in their knowledge than his Lordships He will not interpret it amiss to be informed of some concerns nearer the Truth It is not my intention to arraign what as a Person of Honour and good Conduct he managed in that War having his Lordships Test for what he affirms But that I may take his Memoirs as they stand he is pleased to write Sect. 1. p. 3. That it may seem a wonder how he came to engage with the Irish being a Peer of England and an English man both by Birth and Descent not speaking a word of their Language and having little in their Kingdom Whereas the Wonder easily unriddles it self his Lordship being a strong Asserter of the Romish Persuasion to advance which no Artifice or Attempt hath ever been condemned by the Father of it as Disloyal or Inhumane And as to his Lordships coming into Ireland not long before the Rebellion ' P. 5. I cannot so far shrive his Conscience as not to allow what he affirms That it was to settle his Affairs there as he had done in England ere he ventured further on the Trade of War to which his Genius led him Yet I find the Parliament to whom the King had left the Affairs of Ireland complain in an Order 29 of Jan. 1641. That immediately before and during the barbarous and bloudy Rebellion many having Estates in England went thither amongst whom his Lordship was one especially taken notice of in a Declaration of the Commons concerning the Rise of the Rebellion 25 of July 1643. having sate as a Peer in Parliament in England immediately before the Irish Rebellion at which time Mr. Porter Sir Basil Brook the Queens Treasurer Mr. Andrew Brown and others went over And though his Lordships bare
repairing thither may be more favourably censured than to conclude he resolved to center in that Conspiracy yet since he afterwards espoused that Quarrel when many who having observed the bloudy Effects thereof were ashamed at least prudently deterred to own its Progress all cannot acquit him of that Taint for that as an Honourable Person in his Letter from the Country writes P. 50. That he could not have been engaged in that Conspiracy unless he had been resolved in the Justice of their Cause from the beginning though he is put in mind by the Letter he inserts P. 5. That immediately upon the breaking forth of the Rebellion in the North he being in Munster repaired to the Lords Justices and as his Ancestors offered to serve against the Rebels but was told his Religion was an Obstacle Nor can I say but the State returned him this Answer and how could they well say less when it was apparent that it was a Popish Conspiracy and those of that Profession were generally engaged in that Defection Though he must give me leave to put him in mind that the Lords Justices how ill soever his Party would present them to the World were so far from owning a publick Jealousie of all of his Lordships persuasion that it is well known they put Arms into the hands of divers Noblemen of the Pale of that Religion who as his Lordship made Professions to his Majesties Service and desired the same Nor was this Concession of the Lords Justices disapproved by the Parliament in England they also granted Commissions of Government as likewise of Martial Law to several of the same Persuasion not in the Pale onely but in other parts of the Kingdom inserting a Power to spare or destroy the Rebels according to their discretion hoping those of the Pale might prove good Instruments to oppose the threatning Incursions of the Northern Rebels whilest they a few days after deserted their Houses and openly declared themselves in actual Rebellion as did several of the principal Towns Wexford Waterford Dundalk Trym and others to whom the State had sent Arms and Commissions of Trust. And this not through the least force put on them by the State No they yielded to whatsoever they thought might argue an assurance of them but they of the Pale centered with the other through their Natural Inclination and as we may believe from the Lords Mac-Guire Mac-Mahon Mac-Arts and others Confessions a designed Insurrection through the whole Kingdom of the Popish Persuasion cherished by an inveterate detestation of the English what pretext soever else his Lordship in an Appendix promises We shall find the true Original Causes of the late Rebellion throughly discovered A Piece speedily desired that the Fallacy he presumes to cast before the King might be detected So that something more than ordinary though the Particulars be lost with the time was either known or suspected by the State of his Lordship which at that time were it onely abundance of Caution might well excuse the L. Justices Reply to him P. 6. As their not furnishing him with money who by the suddenness of that Rebellion were reduced to an extreme Exigence Nor by the sequel doth it appear that his Lordship had any need of their Supply had he really intended a remove for England When for so many Months after he could freely and splendidly entertain the Dutchess of Buckingham and the Earl of Antrim at Maidenstown As to their denying him a Pass for England P. 6. which afterwards his Brother's Letter tells him the King being to that end petition'd at York denied referring him to the Parliament who without the King could do nothing So that the Lords Justices advice to make fair Weather at home was not justly to be blamed nor considering the circumstances they were then under was his Resentment thereof so often to have been angerly exprest as a villainous proceeding against him P. 14. An Expression unfit for such and not otherwise than with scorn to be resented on whom his Majesty had impressed his Authority What his Lordship did at home besides spending his Provision on the Noble and Excellent Company he had there the Dutchess of Buckingham and Earl of Antrim who afterwards sate Chairman at Kilkenny and if he had not been supported by his Majesties Mercy had never been able to have supported himself by his own Innocence I never had an itch to enquire but I find in the States Letter to the Lord Lieutenant December 14. 1641. that on the tenth of the same he presented at the Council-Board the Oath of the Confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland which had been tendred to him but as he then said he refused to swear to and it was not then justified to the contrary though his intent of producing it there was suspected to be in favour of them that their proceedings might be the easier palliated though the Oath was so weav'd as Disloyalty and Contradiction spun every thred Yet hitherto the State was loath to cherish any Heats against his Lordship leaving him to return to his house at Maidenstown P. 11. where he continued quiet 5 or 6 Months till having some disturbance by a Rabble driving away part of his stock which was soon recovered he sent his Brother to Dublin and with him all the poor English he had thitherto protected P. 7 part of which near Rathcool the Rebels barbarously killed the others that escaped through Dungan's Rescue being sorely wounded and as it was suspected either through the Treachery of their Convoy or a laid Design as a Boy serving his Lordship sometime after betrayed a Sadler Servant to the Earl of Antrim Upon which or other suggestions as that he had prepared great Entertainment for the L. Mountgarret had he defeated the King's Forces his Lordship was indicted of High Treason the most publick way of accusing and an Act rather of the Grand Jury than the State upon which he came to Dublin P. 9. The State at the Mercy of his Brother however being taxed with clandestine Proceedings for not calling him before the Council e're that he was committed to Sheriff Woodcock 's house P. 10. Whereas this was done that a severer course might not be commenced against him till the matter might have been favourably heard business at that time thronging on the State not admitting a speedy Release Grains and Scruples are not to be stuck at when a State is on its Ruine And that his Lordship might have very well been sensible of for that the Lieutenant General let him live quietly till then whereas in Justice he might have brought him Prisoner to Dublin who could find sufficient force to rescue his own People and Cattle but none to assist the King's Lieut. General when he fought near his house the Battel of Kilrush Yet this Lord being impatient of his Commitment and suspecting for which there was no proof that he should be ordered to the Castle he made an escape the 27. of September 1642.