The Life-Guard did consist of a hundred Men besides Officers and each of the other twenty nine Troops consisted of forty five men besides Officers only the Troops belonging to the general Officers had each of them fifty Men besides Officers viz. the Lord Lieutenants the Lieutenant Generals the Major Generals the Commissary Generals and the Scout-Master Generals Each Company in the Regiment of Guards did consist of an hundred Men besides Officers and each of the afforesaid sixty Companies consted of sixty Men besides Officers the whole Standing Army in Ireland amounting then to 1598 Horse and 4250 Foot The yearly pay of the whole Army with Horse and Foot Guards amounted to 140664 l. 8 s. 6 d. In the Militia of Ireland there are 103 Troops of Horse The Militia of Ireland 127 Companies of Foot by the instructions from the Lord Lieutenant and Council to the Commissioners of Array in each County each Troop was to consist of 50 Men besides Officers and every Company of 100 private Soldiers the whole Militia of Ireland amounting to 5150 Horse besides Officers and 12700 Foot besides Officers Since the aforesaid Establishment made in 1669. there have been several Reducements and alterations in the Army of Ireland and as it admits of more so it will be more than difficult to be exact in particulars This being premised I shall proceed to tell the Reader A caution against training the Irish to the Feats of Arms as being of ill coâ—sequence to tâ—e English Inte est in Ireland that hence forwards there will be no more need of training up the Irish together with the English in the Feats of Arms which as I hinted already sorted very ill with the English Interest in Ireland especially since the nine and twentieth year of Queen Elizabeths Reign being An. 1587. In which year Sir John Perot then Lord Deputy of Ireland being called home and having delivered up his Charge to Sir Will. Fitz-Williams the appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland it was observed that till that time the English men had very easie Wars in Ireland eight hundred Foot and three hundred Horse was holden an Invincible Army Randolph with six hundred English easily discomfited O-Neale with four thousand Irish Colier in the year 1571. with his one onely Company defeated a thousand Hebridanes in Connaght Three hundred Horse overthrew the Butlers with a great rabble of Rebels and to omit other such like two Companies of Foot won in one day above twenty Castles of the Irish But after they were by Perots commandment trained daily at home taught to use their weapons and discharge their Pieces at a Mark that they might be the more ready Servitors against the Hebridanes and afterwards being bred up â—n thâ— Netherland Wars they had leaâ—ned the manner of fortifications they â—hen and ever after certainly exercised the English with 〈…〉 difficult War This puts me in mind of another like passage I have read in a discription of Novum Belgium or New Netherland in America now called New-Yorke where relating the story how upon complaint made by King Charles the first to the States of Holland a little before the last unhappy Civil Wars in England of some of the Hollanders incroaching upon some parts of his Territories in Virginia then called New-Nederland but now New-Yorke the States having by publick Instrument utterly disclaimed any pretensions thereunto the Hollanders then inhabiting there did seem willing to be gone and leave all they had there for the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds yet taking advantage of the trouble which not long after followed in England they not only raised their demands to a greater height but furnished the Native Indians with Arms and taught them how to use their Weapons A most mischievous and wicked act not only tending to the dammage and discouragement of the then present Adventurers but even to the Extirpation of all the Christians out of those Countries But the best was they were the first that smarted by it the Savages thus Armed and Trained fell foul upon them destroying their Farm-houses and forcing them to betake themselves to their Forts and Fortresses How far the application of this Story may fit the Subject in hand as the matter stands in controversie between the Protestant party and Papists in Ireland I refer to the consideration of the judicious Reader The manner of Electing Parliament Men in this Kingdome Election is the same with that in England but the Acts are drawn up and pass'd differently as also those in Scotland where the Lords of the Articles after the Parliament is met prepare the Bills but here the Lord Lieutenant and Councel usually draw up such Bills as they think fit and transmit them to his Majesty and Councel in England where they come under a new Debate and if approved returned back under the Great Seal to the Lord Lieutenant who offers them to the Parliament Each House may reject them or else must consent to them in terminis without any alteration When any Bills are thus by both Houses agreed to then they are presented to the Lord Lieutenant who gives the Royal Assent The Law whereby the Houses are not trusted with the framing of their own Bills is called Poynings Law of which look back to page 106. A List of what Places Returns Parliament Men in IRELAND COm Ardmagh 2 Bor. of Ardmagh 2 Bor. of Charlemont 2 6 Com. Antrym 2 Bor. of Belfast 2 Bor. of Carickfergus 2 Bor. of Lisbon 2 Bor. of Antrym 2 10 Com. Catherlaugh 2 Bor. Catherlaugh 2 Bor. Old Leighlin 2 6 Com. Corke 2 City of Corke 2 Bor. of Mallow 2 Bor. of Baltimore 2 Bor. Cloghnekilty 2 Bor. Bandon Bridge 2 Bor. Kinsayle 2 Bor. Youghall 2 16 Com. Cavan 2 Borough of Cavan 2 Bor. of Belturbet 2 6 Com. Clare 2 Bor. of Inish 2 4 Com. Dublin 2 City of Dublin 2 Univer of Dublin 3 Bor. of Newcastle 2 Bor. of Swords 2 11 Com. Down 2 Bor. Down 2 Bor. Newtown 2 Bor. Newâ—y 2 Balkillaleagh 2 Bor. Bangor 2 Bor. Hilsborough 2 14 Com. Donegal 2 Bor Lifford 2 Bor. Ballyshannon 2 Bor. Killbeggs 2 Bor. Donegall 2 Bâ—r. St. Johns town 2 12 Villa de Drogheda 2 2 Com. Gallway 2 Bor. Gallway 2 Bor. Athenry 2 Bor. Tuam 2 8 Com. Fermanagh 2 Bor. Eniskilling 2 4 Com. Kerry 2 Bor. Traley 2 Bor. Dingleicough 2 Bor. Ardfart 2 8 Com. Kilkenny 2 Bor. Callen 2 Bor. Thomas town 2 Bor. Gowran 2 Bor. Emisteoge 2 Bor. Knoctopher 2 Bor. St. Kennis 2 Civit. Kilkenny 2 16 Com. Kildare 2 Bor. Kildare 2 Bor. Naas 2 Bor. Athy 2 8 Com. Regis 2 Bor. Philips town 2 Bor. Banagher 2 6 Com. Letrim 2 Bor. James-town 2 Bor. Carricdrumrusck 2 6 Com. Lymrick 2 Civit. Lymrick 2 Bor. Kilmallock 2 Bor. Askeaton 2 8 Com. Longford 2 Town of Longford 2 Bor. St. Johns town 2 Bor. Lainsborough 2 8 Com. Louth 2 Bor. Carlingford 2 Bor. Dundalke 2 Bor. Atherdee 2 8
the policy of the King of Meth the only Irish Prince then in favour with the Tyrant These Northern Nations were the first that brought the Irish acquainted with Traffick and Commerce and with building of Castles and Fortresses only upon the Sea-coasts having hitherto known no other defence but Woods Boggs or Stoakes And last of all by the English in K. Henry 2ds reign An. 1172. After this the Roytelets or petty Princes enjoying their former Dominions till the year 1172. in which Dermot Mac Morogh King of Lynster having forced the Wife of Maurice O Rorke King of Meth was driven by him out of his Kingdome who applying himself to Henry the Second of England for succor received Aid under the leading of Richard de Clare Sir-named Strongbow Earle of Pembroke to be restored to his Kingdom by whose good success and the rest of the Adventurers upon the Arrival of Henry the Second in Ireland his very Presence without drawing his Sword prevailed so far as that all the petty Kings or great Lords within Lynster Connaght and Munster submitted themselves unto him promising to pay him Tribute and acknowledging him their chief and Soveraign Lord But as the Conquest was but slight and superficial so the Irish Submissions were but weak and fickle assurances to hold in Obedience so considerable a Kingdom for no sooner were the Kings of Englands backs turned but the Irish returned to their former Rebellions and the Kings of England had here no more power or profit than the great ones of the Country were pleased to give them for they governed their People by the Brehon Law they made their own Magistrates and Officers pardoned and punished all Malefactors within their several Countries made War and Peace one with the other without controulment and this they did not only during the Reign of King Henry the Second but also in the times succeeding even until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which Conquest became thus imperfect by reason of two great Defects first in the faint prosecution of the War and next in the loosness of the Civil Government The Conquest of Ireland by the English imperfect till of late by reason of two defects viz. first faint Prosecution of the War the Causes of it As touching the carriage of Martial Affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the Second at what time the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress the the Rebellion of Tyrone which in the end made an universal and absolute Conquest of all the Irishry It is very evident that the English either raised here or sent hither from time to time out of England were alwaies too weak to Subdue and Master so many Warlike Nations or Septs of the Irish as did possess this Island and besides their weakness they were ill paid and worse Governed And if at any time there arrived out of England an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break or subdue this People being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident and impediment or other before the perfection of the Conquest of it as namely Henry the Second by the Rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the Third and Edward the Second by the Barrons Wars Edward the First by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the Third and Henry the Fift by the Wars of France Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth by Domestick contention for the Crown of England it self Richard the Third not worth mentioning as having never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the Seventh within two years and an half after his Usurpation And Henry the Seventh himself though he made the happy Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking Spirits of the House of York which he could not conjure down without the expence of some Bloud and Treasure Henry the Eighth was diverted by his two Expeditions into France at the first and latter part of his Reign and in the middle thereof wholly taken up with the troubles created to him by the great alteration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And lastly the Infancy of King Edward and the Coverture of Queen Mary which were both not-abilities in Law did likewise in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland so that all the Kings of England coming thus far short as to the perfecting of the true Conquest of Ireland let us examine what other impediments were given thereunto in point of Martial Affairs by the Adventurers themselves that first undertook the Conquest of this Kingdom upon their own account That the first English Adventurers had good success in Ireland during the first forty years It doth appear that for the space of about forty years after the first landing of the English in Ireland till the seventeenth year of King John during all which time there was no Army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest of Ireland that the Adventurers and Colonies already planted there proceeded with so much good success as they gained very large portions of ground in every Province As namely the Earl of Strongbow by his Marriage with the Daughter of Mac Morrogh in Lynster the Laâ—ies in Meth the Giraldines and other Adventurers in Munster the Andeleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Connaght The English Colonies being thus dispersed through all the Provinces of Ireland were necessitated But being necessitated for a long time to maintain a bordering War against the Irish at the charge of the English Planters from the twelfth year of King John till the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the Third being about an hundred and fifty years to maintain a continual bordering War between them and the Irish without receiving during all that time any supply either of Men or Money out of England to manage the same So that all the chief Governours of the Realm and the English Lords who had gotten such great Possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make War and Peace at their pleasure without the least advice or direction from the State being forced to levy all their Forces within the Land who being ill Paid and worse Governed it so came to pass the publick Revenues of Ireland being then inconsiderable to sustain such a charge that as well the Ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governour upon Journeys and general Hostings were for the most part laid upon the poor Subjects descended of English race which burden was in some measure tollerable during the Reign of King Henry the Third and Edward the First but afterwards became insupportable in the time of King
Affairs of that Kingdome expecting direction from hence the delays whereof were oftentimes through other greater affairs most irksome the oportunities there in the mean time past away and greater danger did often grow which by such timely prevention might easily have been stopped And this is worthily observed by Machiavel in his discourses upon Livie where he commendeth the manner of the Romans Government in giving absolute Power to all their Councellors and Governors which if they abused they afterwards should dearly answer And the contrary thereof he reprehendeth in the States of Venice of Florence and many other Principalities of Italy who use to limit their chief Officers so strictly as that thereby they have oftentimes lost such happy occasions as they could never come unto again The like whereof who so hath been conversant in the Government of Ireland especially during Queen Elizabeths Reign hath too often seen to their great hindrance and hurt That besides the want of Power there were eminent defects observed in the managemet of the publick Affairs of Ireland Besides this want of Power which did hinder the good Reformation of Ireland there were eminent defects noted in the mangement of the publick Affairs of that Kingdom by some of the chief Governors thereof who seeing the end of their Government to draw nigh and some mischiefs and practices growing up which afterwards might work trouble to the next succeeding Governor would not attempt the redress or cutting off thereof either for fear they should leave the Realm unquiet at the end of their Government or that the next that came should receive the same too quiet and so happily win more praise thereof than they before And therefore they would not seek at all to repress that evil but would either by granting protection for a time or holding some emparlance with the Rebel or by treaty of Comissioners or by other like devices only smother and keep down the flame of the mischief so it might not break out in their time of Government what came afterwards they cared not or rather wish'd the worst To this may be added The savoring of the Irish and depressing of the English an ill practice by some of the Lord Deputies of Ireland that when the Irish have been broken by the Sword of one Governour and thereby consequently made fit and capable for subjection another succeeding as it were into his harvest and finding an open way made for what course he pleased bent not to that point which the former intended but rather quite contrary and as it were in scorn of the former and in vain vaunt of his own Councels would tread down and disgrace all the English and set up and countenance the Irish all that he he could thereby to make them more tractable and buxome to his Government wherein he thought much amiss for surely his Government could not be sound and wholsome for that Realm it being so contrary to the former For it was even as two Physicians should take one sick body in hand at two sundry times of which the former would minister al things meet to purge and keep under the body the other to pamper and strengthen it suddenly again whereof what is to be looked for but a most dangerous relapse Therefore by all means it ought to be fore-seen and assured that after once entering into this course of Reformation there be afterwards no remorse nor drawing back for the sight of any such rueful objects as must thereupon follow nor for compassion of their Calamities seeing that by no other means it is possible to cure them and that these are not of will but of very urgent necessâ—ty The Lord Lieutenant The Lord Deputies of Ireland assâ—sted by a Privy Councel or Lord Deputy of Ireland hath for his assistance a Privy Councel attending on him though resident for the most part at Dublin and in emergencies or cases of more difficult nature proceedeth many times in an arbitrary way without formalities of Law Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland in Queen Elizabeths time The Lords Presidents of Connaght and Mounster instituted in Queen Elizabeths time to enure and acquaint the People of Mounster and Connaght with the English Government again which had not been in use among them for the space of two hundred years before he instituted two Presidency Courts in those two Provinces placing Sir Edward Fitton in Connaght and John Perrot in Mounster The Lord President of Mounster hath one Assistant twelve learned Lawyers and a Secretary CHAP. IV. Of the Title changed from Lord to King of Ireland in the time of Henry the Eighth Of the Titles of the Crown to every part of Ireland and to the whole diverse ways And several claims to the Land of Ireland Of the Revenue and Strength Title altered from Lord to King SIR Anthony Saint-Leger Lord Deputy of Ireland in a Parliament which he held the 33. of Henry 8. caused an Act to pass which gave unto King Henry the Eighth his Heirs and Successors the Name Stile and Title of King of Ireland Whereas before that time the Kings of England were stiled but Lords of Ireland Although indeed they were absolute Monarchs thereof and had in right all Royal and Imperial Jurisdiction and Power there as they had in the Realm of England And yet because in the vulgar conceit the name of King is higher than the name of Lord assuredly the assuming of this Title hath not a little raised the Sovereignity of the Kings of England in the minds of this people And because it hath been doubted by some whether we might Lawfully fight against the Irish I shall for farther satisfaction here insert the Right and Title the Crown of England hath to the Kingdom of Ireland as to every part of it and to the whole divers ways I will begin with the Pedigree of William Earl Marshal Title to Leinster for thereupon depend many Records in Ireland and the King of Englands Right to Leinster Walter Fitz Richard who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror died Lord Strongbow of Strigule alias Chepstow without Issue to whom succeeded his Sisters Son who was created the first Earl of Pembroke and had Issue Richard the inheritor of Leinster by a Covenant and Marriage of Eva the Sole Daughter of Mac Murrough King of Leinster This Richard conveyed to Henry the Second all his Title and held of him the Lordship of Leinster in four Counties Wexford Catherlagh Ossory and Kildare Richard left Issue a Daughter Issabel married to William Earl Marshal of England now Earl of Pembroke Lord Strongbow and Lord of Leinster William had Issue five Sons who died without Issue when every of them except the youngest had successively possessed their Fathers Lands and five Daughters Maud Jone Issabel Sibil and Eve among whom the Patrimony was parted Anno 31. H. 3. Of these Daughters bestowed in Marriage are descended many Noble Houses as the Mortimers Bruises Clares
till about two months before the first breaking out of the last Rebellion it being very ill taken that then they were adjourned And this they have since aggravated as a high Crime against the Lords Justices and as one of the chief moving causes to the taking up of Arms generally throughout the Kingdome But to let these things pass how finely soever these proceedings were carried on and being covered over with pretences of Zeal and publick affection passed then currant without any manner of suspition yet now the eyes of all men are open and they are fully resolved that all these passages The fair but pernicious pretences of the Irish fully discovered by their Rebellion An. 1641. together with the other high contestations in Parliament not to have the newly raised Irish Army disbanded the importunate solicitation of their Agents in England to have the old Army in Ireland cashiered and the Kingdom left to be defended by the Trained Bands of their own Nation As likewise the Commissions procured by several of the most eminent Commanders afterwards in Rebellion for the raising men to carry into Spain were all parts of the Plot Prologues to the ensuing Tragedy Preparatives such as had been long laid to bring on the sodain execution of that most bloudy design all at one and the same time throughout the Kingdom Now for the Jesuits Priests The means used by the Priests and Jesuits to stir up the people to Rebel Fryars all the rest of their Viperous Fraternity belonging to their Holy Orders who as I said had a main part to Act and did not fail with great assiduity and diligence to discharge the same They lost no time but most dexterously applyed themselves in all parts of the Countrey to lay other such dangerous impressions in the minds as well of the meaner sort as of the chief Gentlemen as might make them ready to take fire upon the first occasion And when this Plot was so surely as they thought laid as it could not well faile and the day once perfixed for Execution they did in their publick Devotions long before recommend by their Prayers the good success of a great Design much tending to the prosperity of the Kingdome and the advancement of the Catholick Cause And for the facilitating of the work and stirring up of the people with greater animosity and cruelty to put it on at the time perfixed they loudly in all places declaimed against the Protestants telling the people that they were Hereticks and not to be suffered any longer to live among them that it was no more sin to kill an English-man than to kill a dog and that it was a most mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them Then also they represented with much acrimony the several courses taken by the Parliament in England for suppressing of the Romish Religion in all parts of of the Kingdom and utter extirpation of all Professors of it They told the people that in England they had caused the Queens Priest to be hanged before her own face and that they held her Majesty in her own person under a most severe discipline That the same cruel Laws against Popery were ordered to be put suddenly in execution in Ireland and a design secretly laid for bringing and seizing upon all the principal Noble-men and Gentlemen in Ireland upon November 23. next ensuing and so to make a general Massacre of all that would not desert their Religion and presently become Protestants And now also did they take occasion to revive their inveterate hatred and antient animosities against the English Nation The Irish revive their antient animosities against the English whom they represented to themselves as hard Masters under whose Government how pleasant comfortable and advantageous so ever it was they would have the world believe they had endured a most miserable Captivity and Envassalage They looked with much envy upon their prosperity considering all the Land they possessed though a great part bought at high rates of the Natives as their own proper Inheritance They grudged at the great multitudes of their fair English Cattel at their goodly Houses though built by their own industry at their own charges at the large improvements they made of their Estates by their own travels and careful endeavours They spake with much scorne and contempt of such as brought little with them into Ireland and having there planted themselves in a little time contracted great Fortunes They were much troubled especially in the Irish Countries to see the English live handsomly and to have every thing with much decency about them while they lay nastily buried as it were in mire and filthiness the ordinary sort of people commonly bringing their Cattle into their own stinking Creates or Cabins and there naturally delighting to lie amongst them These malignant considerations made them with an envious eye impatiently to look upon all the British lately gone over in that Kingdome Nothing less than a general extirpation would now serve their turn they must have restitution of all the Lands to the proper Natives whom they took to be the ancient Proprietors and only true owners most unjustly despoiled by the English whom they held to have made undue acquisitions of all the Land they possessed by gift from the Crown upon attainder of any of their Ancestors And so impetuous were the desires of the Natives to draw the whole Government of the Kingdom into their own hands The Ends proposed by the first plotters of the Rebellion to enjoy the publick profession of their Religion as well as disburthen the Countrey of all the British Inhabitants seated therein as they made the whole body of the State to be universally disliked represented the several Members as persons altogether corrupt and ill affected pretended the ill humours and distempers in the Kingdome to be grown into that height as required Cauteries deep incisions and indeed nothing able to work so great a cure but an universal Rebellion This was certainly the Disease as appears by all the Symptoms and the joynt concurrence in opinion of all the great Physicians that held themselves wise enough to propose remedies and prescribe fit applications to so desparate a Malady And thus we see those persons who by the advantage of their Education and duty of Profession should have been the great lights to direct the footsteps of the unwary and giddy-headed multitude to walk steddily in the right path of Obedience and Loyalty to their Prince and of Love and Charity towards their Neighbours by a notorious abuse of the same did wilfully mislead them to ruine and destruction The Establishment of the Army in Ireland An. 1669. Come we now to take a view of the standing Army in Ireland according to the Establishment made in the year 1669. which did then consist of thirty Troops of Horse including the Life-Guard and sixty Foot Companies besides the Regiments of Guards in which were twelve Companies