chiefe Governour for the time being for the more equall execution thereof in case any Protestant or Protestants Estate happen to be therein concerned I shall not deny though I doe not remember it but I may have said that the English Interest in Ireland must be preserved by the English for I avow it is still my opinon But then certainly I understood of no English Interest separate from or Independant of the King and Crown of England much lesse such an English Interest as is now set up and which you say you are oblieged to serve exclusive both to King Crown and Parliament nor did I understand my selfe and many others lesse English or lesse concerned in the English Interest because of our long continuance in this Kingdom nor yet was it exclusive to all of Irish discent many of whom doe now and have in all Ages well deserved of the Crown of England I shall not deny neither but that being pressed principally by the Party for whom the mentioned Father Reyley is said to bee now Treating at Dublin I made choise to capitulate with you and others employed by the two Houses of Parliament to that end and into their hands to commit the keeping of the places I could no longer hold then to give them up or suffer them to be taken by an Army instigated by a forraigner to the danger of the whole Kingdom and the destruction of those I had so long protected and you may remember the expressions you were then pleased to make in detestation of any violence to the Kings person or the just rights of his Crown from which loyall expression I am sorry to see you now recede If you please to look again upon that part of my Letter which you interpret a menace of blood and force you will retract that part of yours that charges mee with it or else must give me leave to think you were willing to take a slender occasion to manifest your resolution to some other then to me who am as ready to submit to Gods good pleasure in the event of my undertakings as you are positive that he will follow you in your work I remaine Your Servant ORMOND Thurles this 27th of March 1649 For Colonell Michael Iones These Colonell Michael Jones his returne to the Lord of Ormonds Letter of the 27. of March 1649. My Lord YOur Lordships of the 27. of March I received this 29th this being in reply to mine of the 14. of March answering your Lordships former of the ninth The rectifying of mistakes in me concerning your Lordships proceedings and the satisfying of others that they be not by that my Letter misled are by your Lordship declared the reasons moving you to this Reply Notwithstanding all which I do for my part professe my selfe therewithall nothing satisfied nor my judgement thereby any way convinced so as I should abate any thing in my former conceptions of your Lordships waies and designes from apprehending them to be to the Protestants here to the Protestant Religion and to the very English Interest in this Kingdome pernicious altogether and apparantly destructive nor can I think any other not interessed in those your Lordships wayes or not carried on and byassed with particular respects will on view of this your Lordship now offered passe any other judgement upon those your proceedings And herein am I now confirmed more then formerly being by that your Lordships Reply called on and enforced to look into your Lordships late transactions with the Rebels further and more then otherwise I should have done As for the Protestant Religion I cannot but very much wonder to finde your Lordship still asserting the possibility and probability of its being by you restored to its purity and setled by that Army of Papists To passe what may otherwise shew it at least improbable Let it bee here considered that now we look on those Armies of Papists with you as on them who have stiled themselves Confederates in respect of that Association and of those Oathes wherein they stand bound to the setting up of Romish Religion and that to the greatest advantage And how inconsistent that their solemn Profession is with their restoring the Protestant Religion to its purity and for setling it I leave it to all not Popishly affected This I am sure of That neither before your Lordships late Treaty with the Rebels nor since have their actions given us the least hope of probability if in that power by your Lordship still left in them there be not a very impossibility of that by your Lordship herein so confidently affirmed But you say Yours is not an Army of Papists pointing to those of the Protestants in Munster drawn or rather forced into that Confederacy with your self and the Rebels That remnant of Protestants I speak it plainly betrayd into the hands of their mortall enemies the Enemies of both their Religion and Nation that remnant I say is all your Lordship hath for countenancing that your assertion And what can that handfull do although of good affections for enforcing the predominant and so the contrary confederate party to a restoring and setling Protestant Religion to its purity If it be not impossible sure I am it is improbable I said that for the Protestants there is little or no provision in that your Lordships peace with the Rebels Herein your Lordship now tells me That it was not necessary the Protestants should be named in that Treaty the established Lawes of the Kingdome no part of which is to be in those Articles repealed saving to them their Interests Thereunto shall I adde what of your Lordships owne words are thereunto preceding which are these You are to understand with whom the Treaty was namely with those of another Religion from whom Propositions for Protestants or Protestant Religion was not to be expected wherein is enough I think to shew a necessity of some expresse provisions to be made for the Protestants and Protestant Religion and that they should not be so cast upon tacite implications having to deale with such from whom nothing was to be expected for good either to them or their Religion as you so confesse Herein is also appearing the possibility and probability of restoring and setling the Protestant Religion by an Army of Papists As for the not repealed Lawes by your Lordship mentioned whereunto the Protestants are in that case by your Lordship left and referred I desire herein to be satisfied concerning the Protestants remedy for satisfaction from those by whom they have been most unjustly dispoiled and destroyed in their whole fortunes are they herein referred to the established lawes not repealed in that your Lordships peace But those Lawes although not repealed are by your Lordship as to this particular all dasht out at once in that your 18. Article wherein is found an Act of Oblivion passing over all whatsoever was done by the Rebels in that kind and much more from 23. of October 1641. And for the Protestants
A TRVE COPY OF two Letters the first sent from the Earle of Ormond to the Honourable Colonell Michael Jones Commander in chiefe of the Parliaments forces in Leinster AND Governor of the City of Dublin VVith Colonell Jones his Answere to the Earle of Ormond's said LETTERS DUBLIN Printed by William Bladen 1649. and now Re-printed The Lord of Ormonds Letter to Collonell Jones Sir I Have not thus long forborne to invite you with those under your Command to a submission to his Majesties authority in me and a Conjunction with mee in the wayes af his service out of any the least aversion I had to you or any of them or out of any disesteeme I had to your Power to advance or impede the same but out of a fear that whilst those that have of late usurp'd power over the Subjects of England held forth the least colourable shadow of moderatioÌ„ in their intentions toward the settlement of Church or State that in some tolerable way with relation to Religion the intrest of the King and Crowne the Freedom of Parliaments and the Libertie of the Subject any addresses from mee proposing the withdrawing of that Party from those thus professing ana from whom they have received some and expect farther support would have beene but coldly received any determination thereupon deferred in hope expection of the fore mentioned settlement or that if you your selfe who certainly have not wanted a fore-sight of the sad confusion now covering the face of England would have declared with mee the Lord Inchequin and the Protestant Army in Munster in prevention thereof Yet my feare was it would have beene as difficult for you to have carried with you the maine body of the Army under your Command not so clear sighted as your selfe as it would have beene dangerous for you and those with you well inclined to have attempted it without them But now that the Masque of hypocrisie by which the Independent Army hath ensnared and enslaved all Estates and degrees of men is laid aside Now that bare-faced they evidently appeare to bee the subvertours of true Religion and the protectors and invitors not only of all false ones but of irreligion and athisme now that they have barbarously and inhumainly layed violent sacrilegious hands upon and murthered Gods Annointed and our King not as heretofore some Patricides have done to make roome for some usurper but in a way plainly manifesting their intentions to change the Monarchy of England unto Anarchy unlesse their aime bee first to Constitute an elective Kingdom and Cromwell or some such John of Leyden being elected then by the same force by which they have thus farre compassed their end to establish a perfect Turkish tyranie now that of three Estates of King Lord and Commons whereof in all ages Parliaments have consisted there romaines only a small number and they dreggs and 〈◊〉 of the house of Commons picked and awed by the Army a wicked remnant left for no other end then yet further if it bee possible to delude the People with the name of Parliament the King being murthered and the Lords and the rest of the Commons being by unheard of violence forced at severall times from the house and some imprisoned and now that there remaines no other Liberty in the Subject but to professe blasphemous opinions to revile and tread under foote Majestracy to murther Majestrates and oppresse and undoe all that are not like minded with them Now I say I cannot doubt but that you and all that are with you or under your command will take this opportunity to declare and act against so monstrous and unparpalel'd a Rebellion and that you and they will cheerefully acknowledge and faithfully serve and obey Our gracious King Charles the second undoubted Heire of his Fathers Crowne and vertues under whose right and conduct wee may by Gods assistance restore Protestant Religion to purity and therein settle it Parliaments to a Freedome good Lawes to their force and our fellow Subjects to their just Liberty wherein how blessed and glorious a thing it will bee to bee so consideraâ—ly Instâ—umentall as you may now make your selfe I leave to you now to consider and though I conceive there are not any Motives relating to Particular interests to bee mentioned after these so weighty Considerations which are such as the World hath not at any time beene furnished with yet I hold it my part to assure you that as there is nothing you can reasonably propose for the safety satisfaction or advantage for your selfe or of any that shall adhere to you in what I desire that I shall not to the uttermost of my power provide for so there is nothing I should or would more industriously avoid then those necessities arising from my duty to God and Man that may by your rejecting this offer force mee to bee a sad instrument of shedding of English blood which in such a case must on both sides happen If this overture finde place with you as I earnestly wish it may let mee know with what possible speede you can and if you please by the bearer in what way you desire it should bee drawne on to a Conclusion for in that as well as in the substance you shall find all ready compliance from mee that desires to bee Carricke the 9. of March 1648. Your affectionate friend to serve you ORMONDE For Colonell Michael Jones Governour of Dublin Colonell Jones his Answer to the Lord of Ormonds said Letter My Lord. YOur Lodrships of the 9 I received the 12 instant and therein have I your Lordships Invitation to a Conjunction with your selfe I suppose as Lord Lievtenant of Ireland and with others now united with the Irish and with the Irish themselves also As I understand not how your Lordship should bee invested with that power pretended So am I very well asured that it is not in the power of any without the Parliament of England to give and assure pardon to those bloudy Rebells as by the Act to that end passed may appeare more fully I am also well assured that the Parliament of England would never assent to such a Peace such as is that your Lordships with the Rebells wherin is little or no Provision made either for the Protestants or the Protestant Religion nor can I understand how the Protestant Religion should be settled and Restored to it's purity by an Army of Papists or the Protestants intrests maintained by those very Enemies by whom they have been spoiled and theirs slaughtered and very evident it is that both the Protestants and Protestant Religion are in that your Lordships treaty left as in the Power of the Rebells to be by them born downe and rooted out at Pleasure As for that consideration by your Lordship offered of the present and late Proceedings in England I see not how it may bee a sufficient motive to mee or any other in like trust for the Parliament of England in the service of
Bloody Governours and get the Power of pardoning and making vse of his Subjects evidently invested in and reverted to the king against so great unheard of horrid innovations must not bee exercised without their leave nor they punished for the Highest Treasons but by their owne consents and if these men are meant by you under the name of the Parliament of England you may bee well assured as you say you are they would never consent to this or any other Peace thwarting their evill ends one of the most monstrous whereof declaredly is never to have more Parliament to deliver Judgement in this or any other matter for the title Bloody Rebells which you appropriate to those with whom this Peace is concluded You may know that by an Article of the Peace all such are excluded from pardon and therefore I conceive it is that one father Reyly an active Instrument in crimes of that nature is as I here treating for conditions for himselfe and others with some of a like dye not that you or any with you are hereby any further intended then as you or they shall abet or adhere to those in England that undeniably are so And where you say there is in this Peace little or no provision made either for the Protestants or Protestant Religion you are to understand with whom the Treaty was namely with those of another Religion from whom propositions for Protestants or Protestant Religion was not to bee expected nor was it necessary to obtaine their consents to any such provision the established Lawes providing for both and no part oâ— those Lawes being by the Peace to bee repealed they stand in force for their advantage and security true it is that the severity of certain Lawes against Roman Catholiques for the Exercise of their Religion is to bee porvided against by Act of Parliament but without prejudice to Protestant Religion or Protestants whose interests as fully saved unto them Your not understanding how Protestant Religion should bee setled and restored â—o its purity by an Army of Papists makes it not impossible nor I hope improbable but that that happy work may bee effected by the blessing of God under the conduct of his Majesty that now is whose Authority a Protestant Army hath acknowledged and will faithfully obey and to a conjuction with these not excluding any that have good and loyall Affections you were invited however you think fitt for this worke to make me intend only an Army of Papists And where you say it is evident that both Protestants and Prostestants Religion are in that treaty left as in the Power of the Rebells to bee by them borne downe and rooted out at pleasure I must take leave to affirme that the contrary is indeed very evident as will appeare when the particular powers left in the Irish afterwards mentioned by you as arguments for that assertion come to bee considered of you are pleased still to mistake the invitation which was not as you say to joyne with Rebells but to forsake the worst of those that ever deserved that title even in relation to the Parliament of England whether taken in the true definition of it when the King was acknoledged head of that body or when the two Houses without the King were so called which how they have been served by their Servants the Independent Army hath been already sufficietnly spoken of to manifest that to serve or adheare to those that have acted such mischeifes by the impulsion or countenance of that Army is the fowlest breach of trust imaginable and I am very sorry you so farre resolve your selfe obleiged to serve them as to thinke it no part of your worke to endeavour to preserve or restore those by whom you were intrusted and that it is not worth your notice or care what destruction falls upon them but take it to be a matter Forraigne to your charge and trust I shall readily acknowledge that the divâ—sions in England have in former ages been by the meanes you mention prejudiciall to the English interest in this kingdome but you must also acknowledg that the Vsurper or wrong Doer in England was only guilty of that prejudice unlesse you will impose upon all that have Governed or shall Govern in this Kingdom a necessity of turning Trust-breakers and Traytors when and as often as it hath pleased or shall please God to give successe to any Rebellion in England Nor should this in my judgement be a very pleasing profession to those you are as you say oblieged â—o serve since it amounts to no more then that whilst they prosper you will so think and no longer which is all I shall say to your Observations of the consequences of my sending part of his late Majesties Army to serve him in England according to his Command which Army came over under his Commission Now to those Concessions which you say are so dangerous to the Protestant and English Interest in this Kingdom I shall first answer that admitting them to be as you have mistaken and set them down the danger is much more encreased by the division of the English and Protestants if this be granted as in reason it ought to be the Question then will be who is in fault that there is not a conjunction and in that sence by what you have written I conceive you will not believe me a competent Iudge and that for the same reason I am confident you are not it must be left to God who I am sure is Your mistakes in the Concessionâ— are these First you say they are allowed the continued possession of all the Cities Forts and Places of Strength whereof they stood possessed at the time of the Treaty but you give no limit to the time they are to continue this Possession as the Article doth namely till settlement by Parliament nor do you mention that those Places are to be commanded ruled and Governed in Chiefe by his Majesties Chiefe Governor or Governours for the time being as by that Article they are Next you say that they are to have a standing Force of fifteen thousand Foot and two thousand five hundred Horse all of their Party in the number you are not mistaken but you are when you say that they are all to be of their Party if you intend by Rebels the late Confederates for if they be Roman Cotholikes that Article is fulfilled and of them there are many that were not of tâ—e Confederates but much more mistaken you are when you affirm that those Forces and the whole Kingdom are to be regulated by a major Party of Trustees of the Irish there being nothing in their power through the whole Articles extending either to the regulating of an Army or any piece of one much lesse of the whole Kingdome and even in those powers derived to them by the Articles which for the most part are in matters of Levies and Taxes upon their own freehold there is a negative power left to the
of blood that innocent blood whose crie and justice will undoubtedly pursue to destruction those murderers and their abetters whosoever they were or shall be Your Lordship tells us that by an article of that peace all such are excluded from pardon But how my Lord the 18 Article sheweth it in the manner and Circumstances As that there shall be first a singling out and particularizing of certain actions there tearmed barbarous and inhumaine by whom by the Lord Lievtenant and by the Lord viscount Dillon of Costilah the L. Viscount Muskery the Lord Barron of Athenry Alexander Mac Donell Sir Lucas Dillon Sir Nicholas Plunket Sir Richard Barnwall Ieffrey Brown Donough O Callaghan Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reily and Gerrald Fennell or any seven or more of them I know not whether all these are I am sure some of them are persons chargeable with the same barbarous and inhumaine crimes neither know I but that all of them are nearly interessed in such as may be so charged But see the triall of these Malefactors They are not to receive justice in the ordinary course of Law in such Cases provided but left they are to be tried and adjudged by such indifferent Commissioners as shall be agreed upon by the Lord Lievtenant and the said Lord Dillon c. or any seaven or more of them neither is this all for the power also of those very Comissioners so chosen is to continue onely for two yeers beginning six moneths after the date of the said Articles dated Ianuary 17. 1648. See what mock Iustice is here And whether in this kinde of inquisition for blood your Lordship hath sufficiently provided for purging the land of that blood and for washing off from those Rebels that their lasting blot of Bloody Rebels You tell me my Lord of him you call father Reyley by you said to be here Treating with me As here he is not so was his Treating with me concerning release of Prisoners nor am I enabled neither desire I to be enabled with such power of Treating as is by your Lordship intended neither conceive I him or those of his Party such as are to be deluded with a Treaty where is not power to grant no not to receive what should be propounded And if any thing should have been so by him propounded it could be no more interpreted a Treaty then may this with your Lordship yet is he your Lordship now mentioneth the same who was with others of that tribe sometimes by your Lordship imployed for Treating with the Rebells in the beginning of this Rebellion and if reports faile not with whom your Lordship would now close if you knew how but that were it seems in me a sin which in your Lordship were none Circumstances considered As for that power remaining in me which your Lordship is pleased to question it is what is derived from the Parliament of England in that Act wherein the management of the War of Ireland against the Rebels is to all intents and purposes left solely in the Parliament without further Concurrence The forces here being to be raised maintained disposed and ordered by the Parliament as is in the said Act appearing In which Act is also provided against any pardon to the said Rebels before attainder surely intending much lesse after wherein the Parliament of England is not concurring I had therefore sufficient grounds for questioning your Lordships assumed power both in concluding that your peace with those Rebels contrary to the said Act and in what else your Lordship pretends of power without the Parliament over the Parliament forces in that Province of Mounster or elsewhere in this Kingdom And how Triviall give me leave to say it is that your Lordships discourse of the now reverting of that power seeing that Act is still in being Your Lo again presseth the late proceedings in England those particularly against the Person of the late King loath I was in my last to mind your Lo of what then I might yet did not but now must being by your Lo thereunto thus enforced that your Lordship may doe well to lay your hand upon your own heart and examine there whether you may not there finde yourself I say your self a principall occasioning that the Kings suffering For it is evident that Your Lordship appearing here as you had done as you now do the Treaty at Carisbrooke then in being between the King and People and very hopefull proceeding you gave in your selfe and in your actions occasion to the Kingdome of England to suspect the sinceirty of that Treaty which hath since occasionally produced what hath thereupon followed Yet whatsoever that hath been or whatsoever the Changes have been since as thereupon ensuing which your Lordship offers me as an an argument for changing me in my wayes I therein continue to expresse my selfe as formerly I have done that all those things being things without me are matters forraign to my work and Trust here For unto my standing here where I am placed am I principally bound and for any evils following the neglect of this my charge am I accomptable not for what is elsewhere and out of my charge of what consequence or concernment soever Herein therefore declare I my selfe clearly that were there neither King nor Parliament yet should I stand firm to my principles and to this my trust against those Bloody Rebels to the best of my power for preserving the English interest in Ireland which is in those your Lo. proceedings playnly hazarded In the conclusion of that your Lo Reply your Lo Retracts that in your former of menacing us here with blood and force if dissenting from you You now say no such thing is found in that your Letter I shall not much trouble my selfe in a thing I value not were it so or not I shall only referre you therein to your Lordships own words ' There is nothing you say I should more industriously avoyd then those necessities arising from my duty to God and Man that may by your rejecting this offer force me to be a sad instrument of shedding English blood which in such case must on both sides happen The construction I now leave to your selfe this only on this review which you give me of it I cannot but offer to your Lordships very serious consideration That as you shall answer it to God you be tender of that English blood there now in your disposing and power that in the offering up those principally to the slaughter a pleasing sacrifice to the Irish Rebels you be not after found the betrayer of that part of the Kingdom a considerable part of it to the Common Enemy And that your Lordship would also seriously consider what it shall be to be that Instrument as your Lordship sayth you must bee of shedding English blood on both sides so engaging upon each other those by whom the English Intrest is to be here preserved I should be sorry to see your Lo of the same blood to be therein but an instrument but most of all a principall as in this and such your Lordships proceedings you must be necessarily To that which hath passed mee in discourse with your Lo whereof you minde me concerning violence to the Kings Person It was occasioned on his removing from Holmby by some of the Army against whom your Lordship expressing your selfe in some bitternesse I sayd that no evill or violence was therein by the Army intended to his person but that the securing him from evill was that principally respected what since hath followed is what I assure my selfe you Lordships proceedings here have very much occasioned From which discourse your Lordship cannot conclude me as you do receding from my principles All things thus considered and seeing how little is in that your Lordships Reply more then in your former either as to matter or satisfaction give me leave to give your Lordship this my sense clearly I have cause to doubt your sending this your Trumpet on this slight errand to bee intended for other ends rather I therefore desire your Lordship would be pleased for the future not in this kinde to trouble your selfe or mee any further this being a dispute to bee decided by the Sword not by the Pen. And that your Lordship would be pleased thus to understand me once for all That I shall never by Gods grace recede from my just principles which hitherto I have never done howsoever your Lordship is pleased therein to charge mee over deeply and I must needs say it very unjustly Nor shall I ever seek my selfe or my private advantage to the deserting of my trust as have some others a Crime not to be after so easily expiated by a slender or lean Manifest So I remain Dublin March 31 1649 My Lord Your Lordships humble Servant Signed Mic Iones For the Lord of Ormond These FINIS