BROTHERHOOD of St. George But to proceed William Sherwood 1475. Bishop of Meath was Lord Deputy to the Duke of Clarence he held a Parliament at Dublin Friday after the Feast of St. Margaret which makes it Treason to bring Bulls or Apostiles from Rome and orders the Lords of Parliament to wear Robes on pain of one hundred Shillings and enjoyns the Barons of the Exchequer to wear their Habits in Term-time and Enacts That if any Englishman be damnified by an Irishman not amesnable to Law he may reprize himself upon the whole Sept or Nation And that it shall be Felony to take a Distress contrary to Common Law which was a very necessary Act in those Times and is the only Act of this Parliament that is printed and though it be an English Case yet it may be useful in other Countries and therefore we will mention That George Nevil Duke of Bedford was this Year degraded 4th Instit. 355. because he had not any Estate left to support the Dignity Henry 1478. Lord Grey of Ruthen Lord Deputy held a Parliament a Drogheda which repeal'd all the Acts of the aforesaid Parliament of 12 Edw. 4. and then he resigned to Sir Robert Preston Lib. G. Lord Deputy who on the 7th of August was created Viscount Gormanston but he held the Government but a little time before he surrendred to Girald Earl of Kildare Lord Deputy he held a Parliament at Naas Friday after the Feast of St. Petronilla which Enacted 1478. 1. That Distresses taken for Rent might be sold And 2. That Non-Residents might be chosen Parliament-men 1480. but on the twelfth of August the Earl of Kildare was made Deputy to the Kings Son Richard Duke of York for four years from the fifth of May following Lib. M. by the Dukes Patent under the Kings Privy Seal quod nota and the Earl by Indenture with the King did Covenant to keep the Realm surely and safely to his power and was to have eighty Archers on Horse-back and forty other Horsemen called Spears and six hundred pound per annum to maintain them and if the Irish Revenue cannot pay it it shall be sent out of England This Lord Deputy held another Parliament on Monday after the Translation of St. Thomas at which it was Ordained 1. That no Hawks should be carried out of the Kingdom without great Custom And 2. That the Pale should have no correspondence with the Irish and it seems this Parliament Naturaliz'd Con O Neal Davis 93â— who had married the Lord Deputy's Daughter What the incomparable Spencer in his View of Ireland relates of the Duke of Clarence and Moroughen Ranagh O Brian is not to be placed in the Reign of Edward the Fourth because George Duke of Clarence was never actually in Ireland whilst he was Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom but always managed that Province by Deputies and therefore I suppose that what Spencer has related will better suit with the Government of Lionel Duke of Clarence in the Reign of Edward the Third who did indeed marry the Heiress of Vlster and performed the other Atchievements Mr. Spencer writes of It was in this Kings Reign that the Jubile which before was every Fiftieth Year was by Pope Sixtus the Fourth brought to be every five and twentieth year and that the Primacy of Scotland was setled upon the Archbishop of St. Andrews And thus stood the Government of Ireland during the Reign of King Edward the Fourth who between the French King the troublesome Earl of Warwick the discontented Lords and the Attempts of the Wife and Friends of Henry the Sixth found so much work at home that Ireland was in a manner neglected and left to the Protection of the Fraternity of St. George when on the ninth Day of April 1483 the King died in the two and fortieth Year of his Age and of his Reign the three and twentieth THE REIGN OF RICHARD III. King of England c. And LORD of IRELAND UPon the Death of King Edward his Son the Prince of Wales being then at Ludlow was Proclaimed King by the Name of Edward the Fifth and in his way to London was perswaded by the means of his Unkle the Duke of Glocester to dismiss great part of his Guards as well to save the Charge as to avoid giving Cause of Suspicion and Reasons of Jealousie to such as doubted that so numerous an Attendance was entertain'd upon Designs prejudicial to them And so having luckily mounted this first step to the Throne the Duke of Glocester proceeded to confederate with the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Hastings and by their assistance he first seized on the Earl Rivers and others of the Kings Relations and Friends and then got the King himself into his power and brought him to London using a thousand Artifices to make the People believe that the Queen-Mothers Kindred designed the extirpation of the Ancient Nobility the Slavery of the People and the Ruine of the Kingdom This Duke of Glocester wheedled or bribed to that degree that he was chosen Protector by the unanimous Consent of the Council and afterwards got the Kings Brother out of Sanctuary at Westminster and under specious Pretences of their Security both the Princes were conveyed to the Tower of London in a most pompous and splendid manner and there they were afterwards murdered by the Appointment if not by the Hands of their Unkle King Richard took upon him the Regal Office on the 18th day of June 1483. and before the Murder of his Nephews and he was Crowned together with his Queen on the 6th day of July 1483. and being very busie in England to establish the Crown he had usurped he did not think it advisable to make any Alterations in Ireland but continued in that Government Gerald Earl of Kildare Lord Deputy to Edward the Kings Son who held a Parliament at Dublin wherein it was Enacted That the Mayor and Bayliffs of Waterford might go in Pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella in Spain leaving sufficient Deputies to govern that City in their absence 2. That the Corporation of Ross might reprize themselves against Robbers and that no Persons should alien their Free-hold in Ross to a Foreigner without the Licence of the Portriff and Council of that Town but these being private Acts are not Printed It seems that the next Year the Earl of Kildare as Deputy to the Earl of Lincoln 1484. Lord Lieutenant did hold another Parliament at Dublin wherein six private Acts only were made and not long after conven'd another Parliament at Trim which either did nothing at all or nothing worth mentioning but a subsequent Parliament at Dublin gave a Subsidy of Thirteen shillings and four pence out of every Plow-Land to the Deputy towards his Charges in the Service he did against the Irish wherein O Connor it seems was a Partner or Co-adjutor for he also had ten Groats out of every Plow-Land in Meath for
would send it we being fleshed in Blood one against the other But whilst the Treaty between Ormond and the Irish was in agitation a Letter of his to the Supreme Council was intercepted and brought to the Parliament and by them shewed to the King who was then in the Isle of Wight whereupon they obliged His Majesty to write to the Lord Lieutenant not to proceed any farther in the Treaty with the Irish but that Letter was interpreted to come from one in Duress and being contrary to express Orders given his Excellency Not to obey any Commands inconsistent with those then received unless they were manifestly for His Majesty's Advantage until His Majesty were at liberty to declare his Sentiments freely That Letter was not much regarded and so after twenty days spent in the Treaty at Carrick the Lord Lieutenant about the middle of November removed to his Castle at Kilkenny upon the Invitation of the Commissioners and to be nearer the General Assembly which was then Sitting in that City he was received with such profound Respect as is usually paid to the Sovereign Authority and had his own Guards with him However it was the middle of January before the Matters relating to the Peace could be adjusted and then they passed unanimously even by the Votes of the Popish Bishops and were on the 17th of January mutually Ratified and afterwards Proclaimed with great Joy and followed by the * * Appendix 44 Declarations of the Popish Clergy expressing their great Satisfaction at this Peace which consisted of the Articles mentioned Appendix 43 which King Charles the second in the Preamble of the Act of Settlement had good reason to call Difficult Conditions Upon this Peace Ormond proposed to get together so good an Army as might by Force or Treaty prevent the Impending Fate of his Royal Master for the undertaken Quota's were as followeth  Foot Horse Munster Irish 4000 800 Leinster 4000 800 Insiquin 3000 600 Conaught 4000 800 Owen Roe if he would come in had 5000 500  20000 3500 But he depended upon a broken Reed for besides that the Irish had delayed the conclusion of the Peace too long to render it serviceable to the King and had exacted such Conditions as would rather hasten than prevent His Majesty's Ruine the Lord Lieutenant was exceedingly disappointed in his Calculation for Owen Roe did not at all come in till it was too late and most of the rest were deficient in their promised Proportions of Men or Money so that he was forced to borrow 800 l. upon his own Credit to enable the Army to march But it must not be forgotten that the Confederates still lay upon the lurch and in order to keep up their Dominion and Power notwithstanding the Peace they did on the 12th of January 1648 make the following Order By the General Assembly WHEREAS the Declaration of the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks Ante pag. 152. 〈◊〉 bearing date the 28th day of August 1645 and the Explanation of the 〈◊〉 General Assembly thereupon dated the First of September 1645 did relate to a Settlement of a Peace to be grounded on any Authority from his Majesty as by the said Declaration and Explanation thereupon more at large may appear It is this day ordered and declared by this Assembly ☜ That the said Declaration and Explanation shall CONTINUE and REMAIN in full force and be renewed as of this time and have relation to all Articles for a Settlement agreed on as well by Authority from His Majesty as from his Highness the Prince of Wales or both as if the said Declaration and Explanation had been NOW MADE to all Intents Constructions and Purposes But the Peace being concluded the Irish became very troublesom by their Importunities for Offices and Places of Trust and Honour Sir Richard Blake the very next week after the Peace wrote to Secretary Lane to mind the Lord Lieutenant to make him a Baron and others were as careful of their own Advancement but above all others the Insolence of a Son of Hugh O Connour is remarkable for he on the 9th of March wrote to the Lord Lieutenant to give him a Troop and his Brother a Foot Company or else they would shift for themselves To whom the Lord Lieutenant made answer That whatever he did with great Rebels he would not capitulate with small ones And now how gladly would I draw a Curtain over that Dismal and Unhappy Thirtieth of January wherein the Royal Father of our Country suffered Martyrdom Oh! that I could say They were Irish Men that did that Abominable Fact or that I could justly lay it at the Door of the Papists But how much soever they might obliquely or designedly Contribute to it 't is certain it was actually done by others who ought to say with the Poet Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli THE REIGN OF Charles the Second KING OF England Scotland France and Ireland CHARLES Prince of WALES 1648. eldest Son of the deceased King succeeded his Father in the Right of All and in the Possession of some of his Dominions and was by the Lord-Lieutenant first at Youghall where he then hapned to be in his return from visiting Prince Rupert and afterwards at Carrick proclaimed King by the Name of Charles the Second And altho' the new King did soon after by his Letters confirm the Marquess of Ormond in the Government of Ireland and acquainted him That the Kirk of Scotland had caused his Majesty to be proclaimed King on the 16th of February yet he also sent him the bad News of that Kirk's Declaration of the 13th of February against the Peace his Excellency had made with the Irish But the Lord-Lieutenant was encouraged to struggle with that Misfortune by two Accidents that happened in his favour viz. the Arrival of Prince Rupert and the Departure of the Nuncio The Prince being by the mistake of his Pilot put into Crook-Haven did not come into Kinsale till the 10th of February tho' his Brother Prince Maurice arrived above a Fortnight before he brought with him sixteen Frigats and his design was to make way for the Prince of Wales and he thought it a happy Omen that the first News he met with was that of the Peace Wherefore upon Conference with the Lord-Lieutenant at Corke it was resolved to send Capt. Ulbert to the Prince to hasten him for Ireland which was accordingly done and then the News of the King's Martyrdom arrving Prince Rupert proclaimed the new King at Kinsale with all the Solemnity that place was capable of and put himself and all his Officers in Mourning and even the Ensigns Jacks and Streamers of all the Fleet were altered to a colour suitable to the black and dismal Occasion Whilest Prince Rupert staid at Kinsale his Frigats cruis'd abroad and brought in several considerable Prizes and particularly three Corn-Ships which were of great consequence because of
Pound six Shillings and eight Pence per annum Lib. G. and obtained an Order from the King and Council That all those who had Lands in Ireland should repair thither or send sufficient Men in their Room to defend the Country on Pain of forfeiting their Estates Nevertheless this Lord Justice was so far from subduing the Irish that he confessed he could never get access to know their Countries or Habitations and yet he had spent more time in the Service of Ireland than any Englishman then living So finding he could do no good he resigned to James Earl of Ormond July 24. 1376 Lord Justice In whose time the Counties Cities and Burroughs of Ireland sent Commissioners to the King to Treat and Advise about the Affairs of that Kingdom and not to the English Parliament as some have mistaken it Pryn. 305. And the King did Issue a Writ to the Lord Justice and the Chancellor requiring them to levy the reasonable Expences of these Commissioners from the respective Places that chose them by Writ under the great Seal of Ireland And accordingly John Draper who served for Cork had a particular Mandate to the Mayor and Bayliffs of that City to pay him his reasonable Expences as aforesaid It will not be unuseful to recite this Lord Justice his Commission because the Reader will thereby perceive what Authority he had and will also note the Difference between this brief Commission and the prolix Forms that are now used REX omnibus ad quos Ibid. c. Salutem Sciatis quod commisimus dilecto consanguineo nostro Jacobo le Bottiler Comiti de Ormond officium Justic nostr Hibern Terram nostram Hibern cum Castris aliis pertinentiis suis custodiend quamdiu nobis placuerit percipiend per ann ad Scac. nostrum Hibern quamdiu in Officio illo sic steterit quingent libras pro quibus Officium illud terram custodiet erit se vicessimus de hominibus ad arma cum tot equis coopertis continue durante commissione supradicta c. But by a subsequent Patent the sixth of August he had Power to Pardon all Offences generally or to particular Persons and by consent of the Council to remove or displace any Officer those made by Patent under the great Seal only excepted Ibid. 307. And by another Writ of the same date the former Commission was explained not to extend to the Pardon of any Prelate or Earl for any Offence punishable by loss of Life Member Lands or Goods And the same time Alexander Bishop of Ossory was made Treasurer of Ireland and a Guard of six Men at Arms and twelve Archers at the King's Pay allowed him I have seen a Copy of a Commission to Maurice Fitz-Thomas Lib. G. 13. Earl of Kildare to govern Ireland till Sir William Windsor's return it bore date the sixteenth of February 50 Edw. 3. and Stephen Bishop of Meath was appointed to oversee Munster but because I find no other mention of his being in the Government about this time I have therefore omitted to name him as Lord Justice And so we are come to the twenty first Day of June 1377. 1377. on which Day this victorious King died at Shene in Surry in the sixty fourth Year of his Age and of his Reign the one and fiftieth Lib. M. His Revenue in Ireland did not exceed ten thousand Pound per annum though the Medium be taken from the best seven Years of his Reign THE REIGN OF RICARD II. King of England c. And LORD of IRELAND RICHARD the Second only Son of Edward commonly called the Black Prince Eldest Son of King Edward the Third was by his Grandfather declared to be his Heir and lawful Successor and accordingly succeeded him in the Throne on the 21st of June and was Crowned at Westminster the 16th of July following 1377. His tender Age being but eleven years old required a Protector and because it seemed dangerous to commit that great Authority and Power to a single Person it was given to the Kings Unkles the Duke of Lancaster and the Earl of Cambridge and others who thought fit to continue in the Government of Ireland James Earl of Ormond Lord Justice he kept the Kingdom in as good order as those dangerous and troublesom Times would admit of Baker 141. for both the French and the Scots took advantage of the Kings Infancy to disquiet his Dominions but especially the Realm of England This Lord Justice according to the Usage in those days held Pleas of the Crown Lib. G. Lambeth and Gaol-delivery at the Naas on Monday after Valentines Day 1378. and not long after surrendred to Alexander Balscot Bishop of Ossory Lord Justice who continued in the Government until November following Lib. G. and then gave place to John de Bromwick 1379. Lord Justice in whose time Beauchamp Earl of Warwick was by the Parliament of England made sole Protector of the King and Kingdom And then was made that first Act or Ordinance against Absentees Lib. M. Lambeth 138. by the Assent and Advice of the Lords and Nobles of England Davis 38. 199 being in Parliament Whereby it is Ordained That all that have Lands 4th Instit. 356 360. Rents or Offices in Ireland shall return thither but if they have reasonable cause to absent that then they shall send sufficient Deputies to defend their Castles and Estates or contribute two Thirds of the yearly value towards the defence thereof but that Students and those in the Kings Service and those absent for reasonable Cause by Licence under the Great Seal of England shall be excused for one Third of the yearly Profit of their Estates This Act was confirmed afterwards Lib. F. 19 Edw. 4. and by vertue hereof the Mannor of Ballymaclo in Meath was seiz'd into the Kings Hands for the absence of William de Carew but was the next year restor'd to him on his Petition Prin 308. Septemb. 27. 1380. And it is to be remembred That this Act was occasioned by a Petition from Ireland and that it is mentioned in the Body of the Act that the Loss of Ireland would be a Disinherison to the King and his Crown of England Ibid. At the same Parliament at Westminster there was another Irish Petition for Mine and Coigne which I take to be a Liberty to dig Mines and a Mint to coyn Money For the Kings Answer is That for six years to come every one may dig in his own Grounds for any Mineral whatsoever even Gold and Silver paying the Ninth part thereof to the King and sending the rest to the Kings Mint at Divelin for the Coynage of which they shall pay the usual Rates but must transport none to any place except England on pain of forseiting it if it be seized or the Value if he be convict of it unless the Party had special Licence under the Great Seal of
our Service nor our good Meaning towards our Prince's Crown availeth yet say not hereafter but in this open Hostility which here we profess and proclaim we have shewed our selves no Villains nor Churls but Warriors and Gentlemen This Sword of Estate is yours and not mine I received it with an Oath and used it to your Benefit I should stain mine Honour if I turned the same to your Annoyance Now have I need of mine own Sword which I dare trust As for the common Sword it flattereth me with a painted Scabbard but hath indeed a pestilent Edge already bathed in the Giraldines Blood and now is newly whetted in hope of a farther destruction Therefore save your selves from us as from open Enemies I am none of Henry's Deputies I am his Foe I have more mind to Conquer than to Govern to meet him in the Field than to serve him in Office If all the Hearts of England and Ireland that have Cause thereto would joyn in this Quarrel as I hope they will then should he soon be made sensible as I trust he shall of his Tyranny and Cruelty for which the Age to come may lawfully score him up among the Ancient Tyrants of most abominable and hateful Memory Having added to this shameful Oration Ibid. many other slanderous and foul Terms which for divers respects I spare to mention he would have surrendred the Sword to the Lord Chancellor who being provided for the Lord Thomas his coming and also being loth that his Slackness should seem disloyal in refusing the Sword or his Frowardness over-cruel in snatching it upon the first Proffer took the Lord Thomas by the Wrist of the Hand and requested him for the Love of God the Tears trickling down his Cheeks to give him Audience for two or three Words which granted the Reverend Father spake as ensueth My Lord although Hatred be commonly the Handmaiden of Truth because we see him that plainly expresseth his Mind to be for the more part of most men disliked yet notwithstanding I am so well assured of your Lordship's good inclination towards me and your Lordship so certain of my entire Affection towards you as I am emboldned notwithstanding this Company of Armed Men freely and frankly to utter that which by me declared and by your Lordship followed will turn God willing to the Avail of you your Friends Allies and this Country I doubt not my Lord but you know that it is Wisdom for any man to look before he leap and to sound the Water before his Ship hull thereon and namely where the Matter is of weight there it behoveth to follow sound sage and mature Advice Wherefore my Lord sith it is no May-game for a Subject to levy an Army against his Prince it lieth your Lordship in hand to breath longer on the Matter as well by forecasting the hurt whereby you may fall as by revolving the hope by which you are fed What should move your Lordship to this sudden Attempt I know not If it be the Death of your Father it is as yet but secretly mutter'd not manifestly publish'd and if I should grant you that your Zeal in revenging your Father's Execution were in some respect to be recommended yet Reason would you should suspend the Revenge until the Certainty were known And were it that the Report were true yet it standeth with the Duty and Allegiance of a good Subject from whom I hope in God you mean not to dissever your self not to spurn and kick against his Prince but contrariwise if his Sovereign be mighty to fear him if he be profitable to his Subjects to honour him if he command to obey him if he be kind to love him if he be vicious to pity him if he be a Tyrant to bear with him considering that in such case it is better with patience to bow than with stubbornness to break For sacred is the Name of a King and odious is the Name of a Rebellion the one from Heaven derived and by God shielded the other in Hell forged and by the Devil executed And therefore whoso will observe Histories or weigh the Justice of God in punishing Malefactors shall easily see that albeit the Sun shineth for a time on them that are in Rebellion yet such sweet beginnings are at length clasped up with sharp and sour Ends. Now that it appeareth you ought not to bear Armour against your King it resteth to discuss whether you be able though you were willing to annoy your King For if among mean and private Foes it be reckoned for Folly in a secret Grudge to profess open Hatred and where he is not able to hinder there to shew a willing mind to hurt much more ought your Lordship in so general a Quarrel as this that concerneth the King that toucheth the Nobility that appertaineth to the whole Commonwealth to foresee the King's Power on the one side and your Force on the other and then to judge if you be able to cock with him and to put him beside the Cushion and not whilst you strive to sit in the Saddle to lose to your own undoing both the Horse and the Saddle King Henry is known to be in these our days so puissant a Prince and so victorious a Worthy that he is able to conquer Foreign Dominions and think you that he cannot defend his own He tameth Kings and judge you that he may not rule his own Subjects Suppose you conquer the Land do you imagine that he will not recover it Therefore my Lord flatter not your self overmuch repose not so great Affiance either in your Troop of Horsemen or in your Band of Footmen or in your multitude of your Partakers what Face soever they put now on the Matter or what Success soever for a season they have because it is easie for an Army to vanquish them that do not resist yet hereafter when the King shall send his Power into this Country you shall see your Adherents like slippery Changlings pluck in their Horns and such as were content to bear you up by the Chin as long as you could swim when they espy you sinking they will by little and little shrink from you and percase will duck you over head and ears As long as the Gale puffeth full in your Sails doubt not but divers will cleave unto you and feed on you as Crows on Carrion but if any Storm happen to bluster then will they be sure to leave you post alone sticking in the Mire or Sands having least help when you have most need And what will then ensue of this The Branches will be pardoned the Root apprehended your Honour distained your House attainted your Arms reversed your Mannors razed your Doings examined at which time God knoweth what an Heart-burning it will be when that with no colour may be denied which without shame cannot be confessed My Lord I pour not out Oracles as a Soothsayer for I am neither a Prophet nor Son of a Prophet
Souls paid Tribute to Caesar though no Christian greater Honour then surely is due to your Prince His Highness the King and a Christian one Rome and her Bishops in the Fathers Days acknowledged Emperors Kings and Princes to be Supreme over their Dominions nay Christs own Vicars and it is much to the Bishop of Rome's shame to deny what their precedent Bishops owned Therefore his Highness claims but what he can justifie the Bishop Elutherius gave to S. Lucius the first Christian King of the Britains so that I shall without scrupling vote his Highness King Henry my Supreme over Ecclesiastical Matters as well as Temporal and Head thereof even of both Isles England and Ireland and that without Guilt of Conscience or Sin to God and he who will not pass this Act as I do is no true Subject to his Highness XIII That the King and his Heirs and Successors for ever shall have the twentieth part of the yearly Profits Revenues Rents Farms Titles Offerings and Emoluments Spiritual and Temporal belonging to any Archbishoprick Bishoprick Abbacy Monastery Priory Arch-Deaconry Deanry Hospital Comandry College House Collegiate Prebend Cathedral-Church Collegiate Church Conventual Church Parsonage Vicarage Chantry or Free Chappel or other Promotion Spiritual whatsoever And the King was so well pleased with this Act Lib. H. that he sent a particular Letter of Thanks to the Lords Spiritual for granting him the twentieth part of their Livings yearly for ever XIV That no Subject shall be shaved above his Ears or wear Glibbs or Crom-meals i.e. Hair on the upper Lip or Linnen died in Saffron or above seven yards of Linnen in their Shifts and that no Woman wear any Kirtle or Coat tucked up or embroydered or garnished with Silk or couched ne laid with Usker after the Irish Fashion and that no Person wear Mantles Coats or Hoods after the Irish Fashion except Women Horse-boys Cow-boys and Soldiers at the rising out and Hostings all which may wear Mantles And that every body shall endeavour to learn the English Language and conform to the English Fashion c. XV. And that Benefices shall not be given to any that cannot speak English unless after four Proclamations in the next Market-Town to the Benefice on four several Market-Days a Person that can speak English cannot be got and that then an honest able Irishman may be admitted on his Oath that he shall do his utmost endeavour to learn the English Language and observe the English Order and Fashion and teach those under him to do the like and shall keep an English School in his Parish to that purpose c. XVI An Act for the Suppression of Abbies XVII An Act against transporting of Wool and Flocks XVIII An Act about the Proof of Testaments XIX The Act of Faculties prohibiting the Subjects from paying any Pensions Cences Portions Peter-pence or any other Impositions to the use of the Pope and extinguishing and suppressing them for ever and authorizing Commissioners appointed by the King to grant Faculties and Dispensations as the Archbishop of Canterbury may do in England by vertue of the Act of Faculties there which is made of Force in Ireland XX. That Poyning's Act be suspended pro hac vice XXI An Act for Limitation of Actions on Penal Statutes viz. That Actions in the King's Name be commenced within three years after the Offence and Actions Popular within one year XXII An Act for prostrating the Wares on the River Barrow c. XXIII An Act for uniting and annexing the Parsonages and Vicarages of Dungarvan c. to the Crown XXIV That no body presume to leaze Corn whilst there be any Stacks or Reeks of Corn in the Field And that every man that cannot keep his Child at School do at ten years of Age put him to Handicraft or Husbandry XXV That the Leases made or to be made by the King's Commissioners viz. Saintleger Pawlet c. shall be good and valid any defect of Inquisition or Office c. notwithstanding Lastly An Act for the first Fruits of the great Abbies and Monasteries c. which were not vested in the King by the above Act ch 16. But this Statute is become useless by a subsequent Act that gives all the Abbies c. to the King And these are all the Acts of this Parliament to be found in the printed Statute-Book which I do not pretend to have critically or exactly abridged because I think it necessary for every man that will be nicely instructed in any Statute-Law to read the Statute at large and not to trust to an Abridgment but I have endeavoured to give such an Historical Account of these Acts as may illustrate this Collection and give the Reader some Light into the Affairs of those times Nor must it be forgotten that many of these Statutes are made in the later Sessions of this Parliament Anno 1537. And besides these Printed Acts there was another Law made at this Parliament against Fosterings and Marriage with the Irish and it was thereby made Treason to marry with the Child of any Man who had not swore allegiance and entred into Recognizance to observe it but this severe Law was repeal'd 11 Jac. 1. cap. 5. But whilst the Nobility and Gentry were at the Parliament O Connor made use of the opportunity as he used to do and invaded the Pale his Fury lighted most on the Barony of Carbry in the County of Kildare which he preyed and burnt and to revenge it the Lord Trimletstown and the Vice-Treasurer Brabazon with such men as they could on the sudden get together made an Incursion into Offaly and in like manner wasted and destroyed that Country which obliged O Connor to return home as fast as he could Sir William Brereton was likewise sent to the Confines of Vlster to parly with O Neal who complained That the League made between the Lord Deputy Skeffington and him was not duly observed on the English side so after some Expostulations upon that Point the same Agreement was renewed and confirmed And about the same time the King to reward the City of Waterford for its Loyalty and firm adhesion to the Crown sent to that City a gilt Sword and a Cap of Maintainance But John Earl of Desmond being dead the new Earl James who was a very active or rather a turbulent man began new Disturbances in Munster but he was timely opposed by the Lord Butler who wasted his Lands in the County of Limerick and repair'd and Garrison'd the Castle of Loghguir and it seems that the Lord Deputy came to Kilkenny the twenty fourth of July and having adjourned the Parliament Lib. D. as aforesaid he came to Loghguir the last of July and the next day he went to Carrigonel and took it the second of August and they say for some private Advantage redelivered it to the former Owner on the sixth of August they marched to Bryans-bridge and took the Castles and broke the Bridge but by the improvidence of
their Solicitations and Attempts with an unshaken Steadiness It was pity so true a Nobleman should not fall into better Times and among a better People he might then have been as Eminent for doing of Good as now he appears Valuable in the resisting of Evil. And thus we are come to the End of a War which as it was rashly and cruelly begun so was it by the Confederates with such Cowardise and Folly carried on that excepting One Defeat given to the Scots they never had Advantage in any One Pitch'd Battel over the British And what could be more Tragical and Infamous to them at last than that they should from the Hands of those they always villified be compell'd to beg and glad to accept the worst of all Terms namely Transplantation to such as staid and of Banishment and Transportation to the rest But how surprising are the Revolutions of this World that from these Ashes and thus scatter'd to the Four Winds there should be a Foundation laid for that Fortune which the wandring Irish found by meeting in Foreign Parts the succeeding King and the Duke of York and by their Indulgence to be able not only to set up again but as at this day to expel their Conquerors and even to menace the Tranquillity of England The Links of this Mysterious Chain are so wonderful that I can hardly forbear a short Prospect of them in the Particulars following As first to observe How the Monarch of Three Kingdoms King Charles the First sat peaceably here at Home when Scotland began to Invade him How a great Number in England siding with the Scots put His Majesty into some Straits How the Irish taking advantage hereof fell to the murthering of His Protestant Subjects in that Kingdom How his Majesty sent presently His Authority and Commissions to suppress those Rebels while He at home was by others opprest and at last overthrown and His Children driven into Banishment How in consequence hereof the same Usurpers pass into Ireland and there compleating what His said Majesty's Commission could not they there subdue and drive the Irish into the like Banishment Here then the Crysis began That both Prince and Rebel-Subjects being forced to depend on Strangers and both driven by the same Hand into a State of Common Misery it was natural enough to forget how Things before had stood between them and only to look forward either how to be reveng'd or how to subsist King Charles the Second being at the Usurper's Instance expelled also from France he makes Conditions with Spain and calls to Him from other Services all His scattered Subjects and in this it must be allow'd the Irish made a Considerable Part. But if it be true that with these New Friends He then secretly grew reconciled unto their Religion also 't is no wonder if they got farther into Favour than what before they had deserv'd 'T is also easie to believe That as His Majesty's Restauration drew nigh the Irish obtain'd from Him all the good Words imaginable so that when He came into England He lay under this Contradiction of having promis'd to the Protestants of Ireland whose Commissioners met Him at Breda the Security of all they had gotten as to the Irish before the Re-possession of all they had lost The English spared not on their part to fortifie the Promise they had by a Charge of general Guilt on the Irish And the Irish were as lowd in the Justification of their Innocence So that to reconcile this Perplexity there was Advantage taken from what Both averr'd in persuading the English to restore what might belong to an Innocent and the Irish to forego their Hopes if upon Trial they should appear to be Guilty However to make this go easier down on either side there was a Notion set up and strangely imbib'd of a prodigious Stock of undisposed Acres which were sufficient to satisfie not only the Disappointments of some but even the Expectations of all Upon this an Act is fram'd by the English and tho' by the Tenor and Contexture of it nothing was more improbable than the Qualifications of Innocence yet by Favour in a Majority of Commissioners sent and instructed how to execute that Law the Irish prov'd fortunate beyond all expectation The Duke of York was always more open and avowed in his Patronage of them from the beginning and frequent Essays were made by his Power with the King to advance and distinguish them by Marks of Favour But the King was so cautious of His own Safety and He Reigned so long that the English had time to flourish For there was an Army kept up of Seven thousand Protestants and all the Commands and Offices both Civil and Military were in the Hands of the English However as His Royal Highness drew nigher to the Throne and as his Influence with the King increas'd so began this Flourishing State of the Protestants to be undermin'd And no sooner had he gotten the Scepter but he began openly to execute what surely was before intended and the whole Frame and Contexture of the English Government was subverted and dissolv'd However we live to see as at this day how dearly King James hath paid for that Experiment and for the Hopes He had and the Attempts he made of an equal Success in England And this also is worthy of some Remark That those very Protestants in the Army of Ireland who were driven out by His Command and took Refuge in Holland should so soon return under the Prince of Orange out now Happy King and assist in driving Him not only out of England but to take Refuge in Ireland Where these Windings and Revolutions will end God Almighty only knows but since we have so hopeful a Prospect that they may determine to the Honor of His Majesty to the Advantage of the English Nation the Restauration of the Irish Protestants and the Re-establishment of True Religion in that Kingdom I see no Reason to doubt but that I may be able to give you a joyful Account of all these Things in my Third Part. AN APPARATUS OR Introductory Discourse TOUCHING The Controverted Points in this HISTORY BECAUSE contrary Interests have perplexed this Affair and prevailed with a Party sometimes to stifle and sometimes to disguise the Truth and because the Papists have represented several Parts of this History not only in another manner and in a more soft and palliating Stile than I have done but have reported sundry considerable Matters of Fact quite contrary to what I have related it will be necessary to make a particular Examination of their most material Allegations and a strict scrutiny into my Assertions and the Proofs of them or Reasons for them and because I would not interrupt the Series of the History with these inquiries I thought it convenient to insert them here by way of Introduction But before I descend to particulars it is necessary to settle this great Preliminary that will run through the whole and
againg the English at Bunratty and on the Eighth of April sent the Lord Lieutenant word That a Fleet was seen at Sea which they were afraid would land Men near the Sheuin and therefore they had sent Three thousand of the Forces design'd for England to reduce Bunratty So that no more of the Irish Army was sent over than Three hundred Men under Milo Power which were design'd a Guard for the Prince of Wales and went to him to Scilly together with the Lord Digby in May in order to convey the Prince into Ireland Whereupon Ormond who was as sensible as any Man alive of the Levity of the Irish having receiv'd a Letter from the King of the Third of April recommending to his especial Care the Management of His Majesty's Affairs in Ireland as he shall conceive most for the King's Honor and Service caused that Letter to be printed that the Irish might know that there was no Peace to be expected from any other Hand than his And having informed the King by his Letter of the Seventh of April That the Treaty was so far concluded that Matters of Religion were submitted to His Majesty and the King oblig'd to nothing unless assisted in Proportion and Time mentioned in His Majesty's Letter of the First of December he was as industrious as could be to make that Peace effectual to His Majesty by a speedy Publication and a considerable Supply But finding the promised Succors diverted another way he began to despair of any Good from the Confederates And whilst he was in this Opinion the Earl of Argile and the rest of the Scots Commissioners being come over endeavoured by their Letter of the Fifteenth of April to renew the Treaty with him and tho' they did propose to have some of their Soldiers admitted into Dublin and that Ormond should submit to King and Parliament yet there were mutual Passports granted for Commissioners to Treat and the Interest of both Parties centring in the Prosecution of the Common Enemy inclin'd them to Moderation and gave great hopes of Success when the News of the King's Surrender to the Scots drew Argile home to his own Country ☜ and so the Treaty was dissolved However Ormond and the Irish could not agree and it is no wonder for they aim'd at quite different Ends. The Confederates design'd to expel the English out of Ireland under the Names of Fanaticks Parliamentarians the King's Enemies c. and Ormond design'd to get Ten thousand Irish to be sent to the King's Assistance in England The Irish intended to preserve their Government in the Form of a distinct Republick and the Lord Lieutenant hoped to reduce them to the Condition of Subjects And accordingly their Negotiations were managed on both Sides with a Tendency to their respective Ends insomuch that the Confederates in the Sixth Article of their Instructions of the Seventeenth of April to Mr. Nicholas Plunket order him to let his Excellency know That if he cause the Articles of Peace deposited with the Lord Clanriccard to be proclaim'd that then they must publish those Articles concerning Religion made with the Earl of Glamorgan and that it is not in their power to do otherwise for fear of losing their Foreign Friends and the danger of a Rupture at home But in the Two next Instructions they add That if Ormond will agree that they may on all Sides fight to clear the Kingdom of the Common Enemy that then their Councils in Civil and Martial Matters shall be manag'd by his Advice and he shall have as much Influence over their Debates ☜ us if he sat at the Board and as much Power as he was to have by the Articles during the Interval of Parliament And in their Additional Instructions of the Tenth of May they repeat to the same effect and desire the Nuncio may be countenanced and order their Agent to declare how they may be necessitated not to relie more upon his Excellency if he keep himself longer in suspence But on the other side the Lord Lieutenant very well unerstood the Inconvenience of joyning with the Irish by way of League which would be a tacit Allowance of their Government and therefore resolved not to unite with them upon any other Terms than that of the Peace And tho' he stood in great need of an Agreement with them yet not having fresh Orders to proceed in the Peace since the Condition of Transporting Men was not perform'd he could not have published the Peace if they would have consented to it and therefore he was glad to find them making Objections against it to which he * * 2 June return'd this Answer That if they publish'd Glamorgan ' s Articles that then he would in the Name of the King publickly disavow them as His Majesty had already done And in this manner the Intercourse and Correspondence between them was kept afoot and upon the Arrival of the Lord Digby on the Fourth of July with positive Verbal Orders to make the Peace they began to treat more closely Nevertheless that did not hinder the Confederates from pursuing their little Advantages underhand as appears by the following Letter of the Thirteenth of July from some of their Leading Men to General Preston WE beseech you in plain English give no Credit to my Lord Digby nor to any that goeth double ways and remember Lucan Seem nevertheless to trust him and lose no Advantage upon any Pretence whatsoever when you may do it with Safety If the Enemy have the Harvest quel consequences As you are a Catholick or Patriot Spare no Man that will not joyn with you for Kindred Religion or any other Pretence whatsoever If the King's Condition doth not forthwith Master the Parliament ☞ it will beget a bloody War there if he do absolutely Master them judge in both Cases how necessary it is the Army and Nation be considerable and able to stand upon their own Legs Burn or Master the Enemies Corn and Hay till the Body of the Army come with resulted Strength Several strong Parties may do good Service In case you undertake Trim or Minooth be sure to Master Naas Siggingsâ—own and Harristown and rather Demolish them than they should do hurt If Siggingstown and Harristown be not burnt they will do the Country hurt For your Lordship and General Birne only But in the midst of the Treaty between Ormond and the Irish there happened two strange Accidents the one was the King's Surrender of himself to the Scots near Newark the Fifth of May and the other was a great Victory Owen Roe obtain'd over the Scots and British at Bemburb on the Fifth of June which exposed the whole Province of Ulster to his Mercy if the Nuncio's Avocation of him to oppose the Supream Council had not prevented it as shall be shewn hereafter But these two grand Accidents must be handled apart and it is but Reason and Duty that we give preference to that of the King His Majesty was
The second is part of a Letter to the Marquis of Clanrickard Dated at Paris the Tenth of February 1646. And the third is an Account of Mr. Jeofry Baron his Embassy to France THat Glamorgan was The Letter to the Queen for this only Reason imprisoned That being a Catholick he was carrying to the King such Catholick Succours as might deserve His Majesty's Favour to himself and the Catholicks of Ireland That the Kingdom being clear'd of the common Enemy by the Catholicks of Ireland which we suppose may be easily done this Summer we may all unanimously go to assist our King That we dislike the late Peace because all things are referred to the Pleasure of the King which we would readily submit to if he were not environ'd on all sides with the Enemies of our Religion and so far off from Your Majesty And in the mean time the Armies Garisons and Jurisdiction of the Confederates even the Supream Council it self are subjected to the sole Authority and Dominion of the Marquis of Ormond a Protestant Viceroy But we have no small hopes and Confidence in Your Majesty's gracious and effectual Intercession with the Pope That Bounds being set to the Protestants within which their Armies and Government may be confin'd they may not disturb the Catholick Religion the Churches nor Ecclesiastical Persons or Things QUod Glamorganus eo solo capite detrudi in Carcerem quod Catholicus ad Regem ferit Catholicorum Subsidia quibus sibi Catholicis Hibernis Regios Favores promeretur Ut purgata ab Hoste Communi per Catholicos Hiberniae quod satis facile ni fallimur poterat hoc Autumno fieri unanimos ire ad nostri Regis Subsidium Pax ideo nobis displicet quia omnia referuntur ad Arbitrium Suae Majestatis i.e. Regis quod subiremus libentissime si ab Hostibus nostrae Religionis undequaque cincta à MAJESTATE Vestra tam procul non esset Interim subjici Exercitus Arma Castra omnem Confederatorum Jurisdictionem ipsum Concilium Supremum soli Authoritati Dominio Marchionis Ormoniae Proregis Protestantis Non modica nobis restat Spes Fiducia in Majestatis Vestrae benigna efficacissima Intercessione apud Summum Pontificem ut praescripto Protestantibus limite intra quem eorum Arma Imperium contineantur ne Religionem Catholicam Ecclesias Ecclesiasticasque personas acres turbare liceat THE new Agent of the Supream Council The Letter to the Marquiss of Clanrickard Colonel Fitz-Williams is very violent in his Office It is believed that Hartegan hath inchanted or infected the Employment insomuch that all his Successors prove like to him He the Colonel is very liberal in the disposing of Places and Offices in the Kingdom He told the Countess of Arundel That he could make the Earl her Husband if he pleased Lord-Lieutenant and 't is imagined he says the same of the Marquis of Worcester to his Friends that is That he shall be Lord-Lieutenant and this was just Hartegan's way of Proceeding Shall we never have a discreet Person come from those parts who may impartially do our Affairs here Such a Party would Advantage and Honour your Country Colonel Fitz-Williams hath said in great heat That Dublin should be taken as soon as Mr. Baron returned and that the Confederates are so puissant that he wisheth with all his Heart that there were in Ireland 40000 English and Scots that they might have the Honour to beat them And another said The Confederates had taken Dublin if it were not for their Respect to the Queen Her Majesty declares That tho' she hath sent Mr. Winter Grant yet it is only with reference to the Marquisses of Ormond and Clanrickard to be consulted with and without their Advice and Consent he is not to engage her Majesty's Authority in any one thing Colonel Fitz-Williams endeavoureth now by his Friends to get a good Opinion in this Court from our Queen and he clasheth with Dr. Tirrel and pretendeth at Court That he suffers for adhering to my Lord of Ormond and our King's Party however at his Arrival here Hartegan was not more violent than he was against my Lord of Ormond and that Party MR. Jeofry Baron landed at Waterford on Friday the Eleventh of March 1646. and came the next day to Kilkenny The Account of Mr. Barons Ambassy and being indisposed two or three days he came not into the Assembly till the Sixteenth at which time being asked for an account â—f his Negotiation he answered That for the most part it consisted in the Letters he had brought with him and made some scruple to communicate them to any other than a sworn Council because the matter required Secrecy At length a Committee was appointed to peruse the Letters and Sir Lucas Dillon the Chairman reported from that Committee That it was requisite the Letters should be read in the Assembly which was done accordingly The first was a Letter of 30 January from Dr. Tirrell one of the Irish Agents importing That the Repture of the late Peace did at first seem to both the Courts in France to trench far upon the publick Faith of the Kingdom but when some slight Objections were solidly refuted and full Information given then the Rejection of the Peace was confirmed by the King and Queen of France and by Cardinal Mazarine but when they heard of the Return of the Irish Forces from Dublin they suspected their Weakness and Division wherefore he advises them to unite their Forces and attack that City again and make themselves Masters of the Kingdom and thereby they will regain the good Will of the King and Queen of France And that the Queen and Prince of Wales are coming to Ireland and advises not to agree upon slight Terms for when they come the Irish will have their Wills The second was a Letter from the King of France of 26 September to this effect That being well informed of the Inclinations the Kingdom hath to him he will take a particular Care of their Interests c. The third and fourth were from Cardinal Mazarine containing general Promises and that the Settlement of His Majesty of England would much rejoyce the King of France The Fifth was from Colonel Fitz-Williams Assuring them That if they would provid a good Reception from the Queen and Prince in Ireland most of their Demands would be granted That the Queen denies to have any Power to treat with the Irish but that she will send for it That the French will sâ—â—d Ships for Two Thousand Irish That if they aid Antrim in Scotland the Scots must look to their own Country and without them the Parliamentarians can do the Irish no hurt That the Presbyterians and Independents will certainly fall out That the Irish should not decline any of their Proposals for Peace for he is sure they shall have all Only he Supplicates them to leave one Church open in Dublin for the King's Religion lest the
Preston's Oath I Swear and Protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that reject the Peace lately agreed and proclaimed at Dublin and will do nothing by Word Deed Writing Advice or otherwise to the prejudice of that Vnion and will to the uttermost of my Power advance and farther the good and preservation of it and of His Majesties Rights and the Priviledges of Free-born Subjects to the Natives of this Kingdom So help me God Appen XXXIII The Marquess of Clanrickard's Engagement on the renewal of the Peace of 1646. UPON the Engagement and Protestation of the Generals Nobility and Officers of the Confederate Catholick Forces hereunto annexed I Vlick Marquess of Clanrickard do on my part solemnly bind and engage my self unto them by the Reputation and Honour of a Peer and by the sacred Protestation upon the Faith of a Catholick in the Presence of Almighty God that I will procure the ensuing Undertakings to be made good unto them within such convenient time as Securities of that Nature which are to be fetcht from beyond Seas can be well procured or failing therein to unite my self to their party and never to sever from them and their Interests till I have secured them unto them First that there shall be a revocation by Act of Parliament of all the Laws in force within this Kingdom in as much as shall concern any Penalty Inhibition or Restraint upon Catholicks for the free Exercise of their Religion Secondly that they shall not be disturbed in the Enjoyment of their Churches or any others Ecclesiastical Possessions which were in their hands at the Publication of the last Peace until that matter with other referred already receive a Settlement upon a Declaration of His Majesties gracious intentions in a free Parliament held in this Kingdom His Majesty being a in free Condition himself And I do further engage my self never to consent to any thing that may bring them in hazard of being dispossessed and never to sever from them till I see them so secur'd therein either by Concession or by their Trust and Power from His Majesty in the Armies and Garrisons of this Kingdom as to put them out of all danger of being dispossessed of them And I do further engage my self that forthwith there shall be a Catholick Lieutenant-General of all the Forces of the Kingdom invested by His Majesties Authority that the Generals or either of them signing to the said Engagement shall be forthwith invested by His Majesties Authority with principal Commands worthy of them in the standing Army of this Kingdom and likewise in some important Garrison now under His Majesties Obedience and that a considerable Number of the Confederate Catholick Forces shall immediately be drawn into all the chief Garrisons under His Majesties Obedience And I do further assure proportionable Advantages to such of any other Armies in this Kingdom as shall in like manner submit uuto the Peace and His Majesties Authority That for security of as many of these particulars as shall not forthwith be performed and made good unto them by the Lord Marquess of Ormond I will procure them the King's Hand the Queens and Prince of Wales's Engagement and an Engagement of the Crown of France to see the same performed unto them and farther for their Assurance that my Lord Lieutenant shall engage himself punctually to observe such free Commands as he shall receive from His Majesty to the Advantage of the Catholicks of this Kingdom or during the King's want of Freedom from the Queen and Prince of Wales or such as shall be signified unto him to the samâ— effect to be the King 's positive Pleasure by the Lord Digby as principal Secretary of State and further that whilst the King shall be in an unfree Condition he will not obey any Orders which shall be procured from His Majesty by advantage of His Majesties want of Freedom to the Prejudice of what is undertaken And lastly I do protest that I shall never esteem my self discharged from this Engagement by any Power or Authority whatsoever Provided on both parts that this Engagement and Undertaking be not understood or extended to debar or hinder His Majesties Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom from the benefit of any further Graces and Favours which His Majesty may be graciously induced to concede unto them upon the Queens Mediation or any other Treaty abroad And I do farther engage my self to employ my utmost Endeavours and Power by way of Petition Solicitation and Perswasion to His Majesty to afford all the Subjects of this Kingdom that shall appear to have been injured in their Estates Redress in the next free Parliament I do also further undertake that all Persons joyning or that shall joyn in the present Engagement shall be included in the Act of Oblivion promised in the Articles of Peace for any Acts done by them since the Publication of the said Peace unto the Date of the said Engagement Dated November the Nineteenth 1646. Clanrickard Appen XXXIV The Engagement of General Preston and his Officers to the Lord Lieutenant 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 Comand 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 Vlick Lord Marquess of Clanrickard hath undertaken to procure and secure to us in such manner and upon such terms as is expressed in his Lordship's Undertakings and Protestation of the same Date hereunto annexed and signed by himself And we upon his Lordship's Undertaking engage our selves by the Bond of Honour and Conscience abovesaid to yield entire Obedience to His Majesties Lieutenant General and General Governour of this Kingdom and to all deriving Authority from them by Commission to command us in our several Degrees And that according to such Orders as we shall receive from them faithfully to serve His Majesty against all his Enemies or Rebels as well within this Kingdom as in any other part of his Dominions and against all Persons that shall not joyn with us upon these Terms in submission to the Peace of this Kingdom and to His Majesties Authority And we do further engage our selves under the said solemn Bonds that we will never either directly or indirectly make use of any Advantage or Power wherewith we shall be intrusted to the obliging of His Majesty or His Ministers by any kind of force to grant unto us any thing beyond the said Marquess of Clanrickard's undertaking but shall wholly rely upon His Majesties own free Goodness for what further Graces and
at any Alarm Maurice Fitz Girald as soon as he discover'd O Mlaghlin's Design gave the Signal to Griffith but before he could come up the Irish had kill'd Lacy's Interpreter who interposed to save his Master and had his Arm cut off for his Pains Lacy himself was twice knockt down but Griffith being come he soon ended this Skirmish by the Death of O Mlaghlin whose Head he cut off and sent it into England But Lacy being unable to manage the Kingdom and the King being so perplexed with the Rebellion of his Sons that he could not personally attend the Irish Affairs it was necessary to send for Strongbow into Normandy where the King was and to give him the Government of Ireland Strongbow being sent for did readily wait on the King and being made acquainted with his Majesties Intentions he made it his Request That to avoid Envy and Jealousie Reymond le Gross might be his Colleague in the Government The King replyed That Reymond should be joyned with him as an Assistant but not in Commission And so having express'd much Confidence in the Earl he gave him the City of Wexford and the Castle of Wicklow and sent him to his Government Richard Earl of Chepstow commonly call'd Strongbow Chief Governour or Lord Justice of Ireland at his arrival there found all things in Disorder many of the Irish actually revolted and all of them confederated to shake off the English Yoke the Army also was Mutinous for want of Pay and the Generals Hervy and Reymond were at odds Immediately he put the Army under the Conduct of Reymond 1174. who led them into Ophaly where they met with good Prey Thence he advanced to Lismore and spoiled both the Town and the Country and so by the Sea-side he marched towards Waterford At Dungarvan he found thirteen Boats which he seized and loaded with Prey and Plunder But being detained there a long time by contrary Winds the People of Cork found means to fit out thirty two Barques and manfully assaulted the English in their Boats nevertheless the English Bows and Arrows prevailed and the Corcagians were defeated and their Admiral Gilbert mac Turger slain Whereupon the English under their Admiral Adam de Hereford sailed triumphantly into Waterford Dermond mac Carthy King of Cork came with his Forces by Land to countenance the aforesaid Attempt of the Corcagians by Sea and to seize on the English Boats if perhaps they should be forced ashore as he expected but Reymond met him and gave him such a Brush that he got a Prey of four thousand Cows by the Bargain and brought them safe to Waterford But whilst Reymond was thus busied in Munster he received Advice of the Death of his Father William Fitz-Girald which obliged him to take a Voyage into Wales to get Possession of the Inheritance descended to him By this Accident the Command of the Army fell to Hervy and abundance of Trouble and Misfortune hapned to the Earl For it was not long before Hervy perswaded the Earl to an Exploit 1175. somewhere about Cashel and in order to it to send for more Forces from Dublin but Donald Prince of Ossory having Notice of it surpriz'd them in their March and fell upon them in Ossory where he slew four Gentlemen and four hundred Soldiers being of that sort of the Citizens of Dublin which were called Easterlings With this great Victory the Irish were elevated beyond measure and fansied They had now got a favourable Opportunity to extipate the English And to that End they armed every where and even those Irish whom he had most obliged and those also from whom he had Oaths and Pledges did nevertheless joyn with the rest in this General Conspiracy Rotherick with a mighty Army passed the River Shenin and Burnt and Prey'd the Country even to the Walls of Dublin And Strongbow was coopt up in Waterford in continual Fear of a Massacre thereâ— In this miserable Condition he sent to Reymond into Wales desiring him to hasten over and promised him the Fair Basilia Strongbow's Sister as the Reward of his Expedition Reymond made all possible Hast and with thirty Gentlemen an hundred Horsemen three hundred Archers and Footmen and in twenty Barques arrived at Waterford very seasonably for the Citizens were then conspiring the Murder of the English which by this Accident was postponed for a Time Immediately the Earl Reymond and the Army march'd to Wexford and soon after the Citizens of Waterford murdered the Governour Pursel and butcher'd all the English Men Women and Children except such as saved themselves in Reginalds Tower But they manfully kept that Tower and afterwards regained the City and forced the Citizens to submit to hard Conditions Strongbow and the Army being at Wexford Reymond was married to the Fair Basilia and had with her Idrone Glascarig Fothard and the Constableship of Leinster But in the midst of their Jollity they received Information That Rotherick had invaded Leinster wherefore the next Day they marched towards Dublin But Rotherick at the News of their Approach retreated and Reymond caused the ruined Castles to be repaired particularly the Castle of Trim and so hoped that he might now enjoy his Beautiful Spouse in quiet But the Prince of Limerick was resolved to follow his Blow and continued in open Defiance so that Reymond was forced to march to him September 1176. with twenty six Gentlemen three hundred Archers and three hundred Horsemen David Walsh forded or rather swam the River of Shenin into the Island of Limerick whom by Reymond's Persuasion and Example the rest followed October 1. and took that City and after plundering it they left a Garrison in it under Meyler of S. Davids consisting of fifty Gentlemen two hundred Horse and two hundred Archers and returned Hervey of Mount-Morris by his Letters to the King had suggested That Reymond intended to keep Limerick for himself and that he and Strongbow would monopolize Ireland and several other Falsities which so moved the King's Jealousie that he sent over Robert Power Osbert of Hereford William Bending and Adam of Germeny whereof two were to bring over Reymond and the other two to stay and watch the Earl In the mean Time Letters came from Limerick importing That the Garrison was in Distress besieged by Daniel O Bryan Whereupon it was resolved as well by Strongbow as by the new Messengers That Reymond must undertake to relieve it Wherefore taking with him eighty Gentlemen two hundred Horse and three hundred Archers with some Irish under Morough of Kensile and Donold of Ossory he marches towards Limerick but O Bryan not willing to fight with the Army and Garrison at once raises his Siege and marches towards Cashel 1177. and by plashing the Trees and trenching his Camp he made it as strong as he could It was pleasant to behold the Prince of Ossory who was O Bryans Mortal Foe to tell the English That they must fight valiantly and be Victors or He
the first and third Year of his Reign he did confirm them and in the eleventh Year he sent the following Writ which I recite at large because I find it curtail'd both in Calvin's Case and my Lord Cooks first Institutes 141. b. And what else King Henry did in this Matter shall be mentioned in the Account of his Reign REX Lib. GGG c. Baronibus militibus aliis libere tenentibus Lageniae salutem c. Satis ut credimus vestra audivit discretio quod cum bonae Memoriae Johannes quondam Rex Angliae pater noster venit in Hiberniam ipse duxit secum viros discretos legis peritos quorum communi consilio ad instantiam Hibernensium statuit praecepit Leges Anglicanas teneri in Hibernia ita quod leges easdem in scriptis redactas reliquit sub Sigillo suo ad Scaccar Dublin Cum igitur Consuetudo Lex Angliae fuerit quod si aliquis desponsaverit aliquam mulierem sive viduam sive aliam haereditatem habentem ipse postmodum ex ea prolem suscitaverit cujus clamor auditus fuerit infra quatuor parietes idem vir si supervixerit ipsam Vxorem suam habebit tota vita sua custodiam Haereditatis Vxoris suae licet ea forte habuerit Haeredem de primo viro suo qui fuerit plenae aetatis vobis mandamus injungentes quatenus in loquela quae est in Cur. Wilm Com. Maresc inter Mauritium Fitz-Gerrald petent Galfridum de Marisco Justiciarium nostrum Hiberniae tenentem vel in alia loquela quae fuerit in casu praedicto nullo modo justitiam in contrar facere presumatis Teste Rege apud W. decim Decemb. And thus King John having exceeding well acquitted himself in Ireland and thereby in a great measure attoned for Miscarriages of his former Voyage he departed thence on the thirtieth Day of August 1210. having first appointed John Gray Bishop of Norwich Lord Justice who kept the Kingdom in so good Order that he was able to spare three hundred Foot besides Horse 1211. to aid the King in France where they did good Service and yet most of them safely returned to Ireland About this Time happened the famous Story of John de Courcy 1212. which I will give you in the very Words of Hanmer because he expresses it much better than it is in Cambden's Annals Not long after Hanmer 184. there fell some Difference between John King of England and Philip King of France for the Right of some Fort in Normandy who to avoid the shedding of Christian Blood agreed of each Side to put it to a Combat Of King Philip's part there was a French-man in Readiness King John upon the sudden wist not what to do for a Champion to encounter with him at length one attending upon his Person enformed him That there was one Courcy in the Tower of London the only Man in his Dominions if he would undertake it to answer the Challenge King John joyful of this sent the first yea the second and third Time promising large Rewards and rich Gifts and that it stood him upon as far as the Honour of his Crown and Kingdom did reach to make good the Combat Courcy answered very frowardly the which was taken in good Part in regard of the urgent Necessity That he would never fight for him neither for any such as he was That he was not worthy to have one Drop of Blood spilt for him That he was not able to requite him the Wrongs he had done him neither to restore him the Hearts-Ease he had bereav'd him of Yet notwithstanding all the Premises he was willing and would with all Expedition be ready to venture his Life in Defence of the Crown and his Country Whereupon it was agreed He should be dyeted apparelled and armed to his Content and that his own Sword should be brought him out of Ireland The Day came the Place appointed the Lists provided the Scaffolds set up the Princes with their Nobility of each Side with thousands in Expectation forth comes the French Champion gave a turn and rests him in his Tent They sent for Courcy who all this while was trussing of himself about with strong Points and answered the Messengers That if any of their Company were to go to such a Banquet he would make no great haste However forth he comes gave a Turn and went into his Tent. When the Trumpets sounded to Battle forth came the Combitants and viewed each other Courcy beheld him with a wonderful stern Countenance and passed by The French-man not liking his grim Look the strong Proportion and Feature of his Person stalked still along and when the Trumpets sounded the last Charge Courcy drew out his Sword and the French-man ran away and conveyed himself to Spain Whereupon they sounded Victory the People clapt their Hands and cast up their Caps King Philip desired King John That Courcy might be called before them to shew some Part of his Strength and Manhood by a Blow upon a Helmet it was agreed a Stake was set in the Ground and a Shirt of Male and a Helmet thereon Courcy drew his Sword looked wonderful sternly upon the Princes cleft the Helmet Shirt of Mail and the Stake so far in that none could pull it out but himself Then the Princes demanded of him What he meant to look so sowerly upon them His answer was If he had missed his Blow upon the Block he would have cut off both the Kings Heads All that he said was taken in good Part and King John discharged him of all his Troubles gave him great Gifts and restored him to his former Possessions in Ireland It is written further That hereupon he sailed into England came to Westchester offered himself to the Sea and was put back again fifteen times by contrary Winds which rose upon a sudden to the English Shore And in the Book of Houth it is delivered That upon every Repulse the Night following he was admonished in a Vision Not to attempt the Seas for to sail into Ireland and that he should never set Foot upon any Land there and withal that the Reason was yielded thus Courcy thou hast done very ill for thou hast pulled down the Master and set up the Servant for he had translated the Cathedral Church and the Prebendaries of the Blessed Trinity in Dune into an Abbey of Black Monks brought thither from Chester and consecrated the same to the Honour of S. Patrick Whereupon remembring himself That he had done very ill in taking the Name from God and giving it to a Creature he gave Sentence upon himself That he was worthily punished and immediately he altered his Course went into France and there died But 't is Time to return to our Lord Justice who was sent for into England and ordered to leave the Government in the Hands of Henry de Londres Archbishop of Dublin Lord Justice July 23. he had
with the sting of his guilty Conscience brake out on a sudden and forgetting his Allegiance to your Highness and his Duty to me your Deputy he took me up so roughly as though I had been rather his Underling than his Governor The Sum of which despightful Speeches I refer to the Testimony of the honourable Audience where they were delivered As for his manifold Treasons I am ashamed to rehearse such things as he did not stick to commit And if it shall stand with your Majesties Pleasure to adjourn the Trial for a few days I will charge him with such apparent Items as were his Face made of Brass he shall not be able to deny any one Article that shall be booked against him When Vescie had ended the Baron of Ophalie prest himself somewhat forward and in this wise spake Most puissant Prince and my dread Sovereign WEre Mr. Vescie's Mouth so just a Measure as what he spake should be holden for Gospel this had been no fit Place for so arrant a Traitor as he with his feigned glossing would gladly prove me to be But sith it pleased your Majesty with so indifferent Ballance to ponder both our Tales I am throughly perswaded that my loyal Innocency shall be able to overpoize his forged Treachery Your Majesty hath heard many Words to small purpose and as his Complaint hitherto hath been generally hudled up so my Answer thereto may not particularly be framed Whereas therefore he termeth me a Supporter of Thieves a Packer with Rebels and a Conspirator with Traitors If I should but with a bare word deny the Premises all his gay Gloss of glittering Speeches would suddenly fade away Yea but he craveth respite for the Booking his Articles Truly so he hath need for loitering and lingring is the only way he may devise to cloak his Feigning and Forging wherein he sheweth himself as crafty as the Philosopher was accounted wise that promised a Tyrant upon menacing words to School his Ass in Philosophy so he had seven years respite because that in that space he was perswaded that either the Tyrant the Ass or he would die In like wise Mr. Vescie upon respite granted him would hang in hope that either the Life of your Majesty which God forbid should be shortned or that I in tract of time would be disfavoured or that he by one subtile Prank or other should be of this heavy Load disburthened But if I have been as many years a Malefactor as he advoucheth how happeneth it that his Tongue was tied before this late Dissention begun Why did he not from time to time advertize the Council of my Treasons Whereas now it may be probably conjectured that he was edg'd to this Service rather for the hatred he beareth me than for any love he oweth your Royal Majesty Touching the Words I spake in Ireland I purpose not for ought I heard as yet to eat them in England And when I shall be call'd to testifie such Speeches as I delivered there I will not be found so raw in my Matter as to lose my Errand in the Carriage as Mr. Vescie hath done or to crave further respite for the registring of his manifold Treasons As for my secret Meetings with Irish Rebels were I perswaded Mr. Vescie that you were able to prove them I would be found willing to acknowledge them for if my Conscience were so deeply stung as you pretend I would take it for better policy by acknowledging my Trespass to appeal to my King's Mercy than by denying my Faults to stand to the rigour of his Justice And as for Meetings I never had so many in Woods with Rebels as you Mr. Vescie have had in your Chamber with Cows For it hath been manifestly apparent that when the Baron of Ophaly and the best of the Nobility of Ireland have been imbarr'd from entring your Chamber an Irish Cow should have at all times access unto you No Mr. Vescie a Cow an Horse an Hawk and a Silver Cup have been the occasion of your Slackness when the Subjects were preided you would be content to wink at their Misery so that your mouth were stopt with Bribery And when you had gathered your Crumbs sufficiently together you held it for a pretty Policy and yet it was but a bare shift to charge the Nobility with such packing as you daily did practise But you must not think that we are Babes or that with any such stale Device or gross jugling Trick you may so easily dusk or dazle our Eyes Can any man that is but slenderly witted so far be carried as to believe that Mr. Vescie being the King's Deputy in Ireland having his Majesties Treasure having the Nobility at his Beck the Kings Army at his Commandment but that if he were disposed to bestir himself he were able to ferret out such bare-breech Brats as swarm in the English Pale If he said he could not we must smile at his simplicity if he could and would not how may he colour his Disloyalty Yea but I bear such a stroak with the Irish as that upon any private Quarrel I am able to annoy them What then Because the Baron of Ophalie can revenge his private Injuries without the assistance of the Deputy therefore the Deputy may not vanquish weak and naked Rebels without the furtherance of the Baron of Ophalie whereas the contrary ought to be inferr'd that if a private person can tame the Irish what may then the publick Magistrate do that hath the Princes Pay But indeed it is hard to take Hares with Foxes You must not think Mr. Vescie that you were sent Governor into Ireland to dandle your Trulls to pen your self up within a Town or City to give Rebels the Gaze to peel the Subjects to animate Traytors to fill your Coffers to make your self by marring true men to gather the Birds whilst others beat the Bushes and after to impeach the Nobility of such Treasons as you only have committed But for so much as our mutual Complaints stand upon the one his Yea and the other his Nay and that you would be taken for a Champion and I am known to be no Coward let us in God's Name leave Lying for Varlets Berding for Ruffians Facing for Crackers Chatting for Twatlers Scolding for Callets Booking for Scriveners Pleading for Lawyers and let us try with the Dint of Sword as becomes Martial Men to do our mutual Quarrels Wherefore to justifie that I am a true Subject and that thou Vescie art an Arch-Traytor to God and to my King here in Presence of his Highness and in the hearing of this Honourable Assembly I challenge the Combat Whereat all the Auditory shouted Now in good Faith quoth Vescie with a right good Will Whereupon both the Parties being dismist until the King's Pleasure were further known It was agreed at length by the Council That the fittest Trial should have been by Battle Wherefore the Parties being as well thereof advertized as the Day by
to and from England Fifthly That a certain Fund be appointed for their Pay Sixthly That at the King's Charge he might have a Family or two out of every Parish in England to inhabit Ireland Seventhly To have Power of granting Benefices and of making a Deputy And Lastly That the Demesnes of the Crown may be resumed and the Acts of Absentees may be executed The Lord Lieutenant within a Week after he came to Dublin caused the Earl of Kildare and three of his Family to be arrested and suffered the Earls Goods to be rifled and spoiled by the Duke's Servants and kept the Earl himself in Prison in Dublin Castle until he paid three hundred Marks It is recorded that the Lord Lieutenant was desperately wounded in an Encounter at Kilmainham and hardly escaped with Life but it is not mentioned how nor by whom but it seems he design'd to revenge it and to make a general Hosting for he made Proclamation that all such as ought by their Tenures to serve the King should assemble together at Ross He also held a Parliament at Kilkenny for a Tallage to be granted but what Success he had in these Assemblies is not so manifest as it is that he went to England on the 13th of March leaving Thomas Butler 1409. Prior of Kilmainham his Deputy in whose time the King gave the Sword to the City of Dublin and changed their PROVOST into a MAYOR and not long after the Barbarous Mac Gilmore being routed and pursued by the Savages fled to the Church of the Friers Minors at Carigfergus which he had formerly defaced but they got into the Windows whence this Tory had formerly taken the Iron Bars and there they put an end to his Villany and his Life In Vlster Jenico de Artois the famous Gascoigne behaved himself briskly and slew eighty of the Rebels in a Skirmish he had with them But on the twenty first of May or rather the thirteenth of June the Parliament began at Dublin 1410. and made it Treason to take Coyn and Livery Lib. D. and on the tenth of July the Lord Justice took the Castles of Mibraclide in Offerol and De-la-mare It seems he proceeded to invade O Birns Country with fifteen hundred Kerns or Irish Souldiers and the Consequence was that they betrayed him and half of them went over to the Enemy so that it had gone hard with the Lord Justice if the Power of Dublin had not been there and yet he escaped not without loss for John Derpatrick was there slain The next Year was probably more quiet 1411. for there is nothing recorded of it except some considerable Marriages amongst the Grandees On the tenth of April 1412. O Connor did much Mischief in Meath and took an hundred and forty English and O Tool and Thomas Fitz-Maurice Sheriss of Limerick kill'd each other in a Duel About this time the King granted the Town and Ferry of Inishonan Lib. G. to Philip de Barry and it is to be noted that almost in every Parliament holden in England during this Reign the danger of Ireland is remembred although very little was done for it because of the frequent Troubles in England and so we come to the 20th day of March on which the King died at the Abbot of Westminster's House in the fourteenâ—h Year of his Reign and of his Age the forty seventh He died so very poor that his Executors refused to administer and therefore the Archbishop of Canterbury who is Ordinary to the Court where-ever it is exposed the Kings Goods to Sale and King Henry the Fifth bought them for the value to be paid the Executors to be disposed of according to his Fathers Will Rolls Abr. 906. but it seems he never paid the Money for it was afterwards ordained in Parliament 4 Inst 335 that the Executors should not be sued by the Creditors The Bishop of Meath is said to have been Lord Justice about the Year 1402. But because I do find him omitted by others and do not find that he did any thing worth mention I have therefore not inserted him as Lord Justice in Order THE REIGN OF HENRY V. King of England c. And LORD of IRELAND HENRY the Fifth succeeded his Father without any opposition and all the Nobility taking it then for a Law that the Crown belonged to the Heir of him that died last seized swore Homage and Allegiance to him before Coronation 1412. which was not usual in those days but this Magnanimous Prince was so taken up with Designs against France that Ireland was but little regarded in his Reign For the present He continued in the Government Thomas 1413. Prior of Kilmainham who did not long remain therein before he surrendred unto Sir John Stanly Lord Lieutenant he Landed at Clantarf the 7th of October and on the 6th of January after died at Ardee whereupon on the 11th of February the Nobility elected Thomas Crawly Lord Justice He was twice Chancellor and then Archbishop of Dublin and was a Man of fingular Piety and Learning and it is to be noted That the Parliament sate at Dublin the 26th of February so that it could not have above fifteen days of Summons though the Day of the Lord Justice his Admittance to the Government and the Day of the Session be included the Irish burnt the Pale during this Parliament as they used to do and therefore a Tax or Tallage was demanded but not granted and so that Parliament was dissolved after it had sate fifteen Days However 1414. the valiant Jenico de Artois invaded the Territory of Macgenis but was so unfortunate to lose many of his Men at Inor whereupon the Irish grew so insolent that the Lord Justice was necessitated to go out in person However he went no farther than Castledermond and there entrusting the Army with the Military men he remained with his Clergy in Procession and at Prayers for the Success of his small Army and the Event answered his expectation for the English slew an hundred of the Irish near Kilkea but that small Victory was soon over-ballanced by a Defeat which the English of Meath received from O Connor on the 10th of May to the Loss of Tho. Maureverar Baron of Shrine and many others and to the imprisonment of Christopher Fleming and John Dardis This Loss discovered the necessity of sending a Martial Man to the Government of Ireland and therefore on the 10th day of September Sir John Talbot Lord Furnival Lord Lieutenant Landed at Dalkye and immediately made a Circular Progress round the Pale in warlike manner He began with the Birns Tools and Cavenaghs on the South and so passing to the O Moors O Connors and O Ferrals in the West and ending with the O Relyes Mac Mahons O Neals and O Hanlons in the North he brought them all to the Kings Peace but he brought no Forces with him out of England and therefore though he had Strength enough to
Companion of The Order and though some say Davis 59. this War was commenced on private Distaste yet it is more certain that it determined to the Publick Advantage Walter Fitz-Symons Archbishop of Dublin was sent by the Lord Deputy and Council to give his Majesty an Account of this prodigious Success and to treat with his Majesty about other Matters of State He departed the 20th of September and performed what he had in Charge to the great satisfaction as well of the King as of those that sent him and in a little time return'd to Ireland with honour and applause In the mean time the King was importunate with Pope Julius the Second to Canonize his Predecessor King Henry the Sixth and in order to it he caused a Book to be written of his Virtues and Miracles and had it Printed And the Pope recommended the Examination of the Matter to the Bishops of Canterbury London Durham and Winchester by his Bull which the Curious may find at large in Sir James Ware 's Annals pag. 73. But it seems nothing farther was done in it and this is certain That those who say he was a Good Christian do nevertheless allow that he was a bad King for first he lost France from England and then he lost England from himself And now a Provincial was indicted to meet at Tredagh in July but the Pestilence raging almost every where in Ireland but especially in Vlster the Synod was therefore translated to Ardee in the County of Louth and there for the same reason was suddenly dissolved This Plague was followed with a Famine 1505. by reason of the Wetness both of Summer and Autumn and it was but small Relief the great Charities of Walter Archbishop of Dublin and John Allen Dean of St. Patricks could at that time administer in the noble Foundation of a Hospital at S. Kevins in Dublin to which the Archbishop gave Ground and the Dean gave considerable Revenues The next Year was also unfortunate 1506. not only by the Death of John Payne Bishop of Meath who was a very hospitable Man but also by the accidental Burning of great part of Trim they say by Lightning which was at that time the most considerable Town in Meath But the Lord Deputy summoned a Parliament to meet at Dublin in October 1508. 1508. which it accordingly did and both the Clergy and Laity gave the King a Subsidy of thirteen shillings and four pence out of every hundred and twenty Acres of Arable Land Ware 81. The Deputy once more invaded Vlster in favour of his Kinsmen the O Neals 1509. he design'd to recover the Castles of Dungannon and Owny which he effected for the Castle of Dungannon surrendred upon the first Summons and the other he took and demolished and set at liberty Art Mac Con O Neal who was Prisoner there and thus stood the Kingdom of Ireland which Kildare kept in a better condition than it had formerly been in for he awed the Rebels by his Reputation which was obtained partly by his courage and the fierceness of his Humour and partly by his great and frequent Success and he secured the Pale by Castles and Fortifications built on the Borders which kind of Defence former Ages had too much neglected And so on the 22th day of April the King died at his Palace of Richmond in the four and twentieth Year of his Reign and the three and fiftieth Year of his Age. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII KING OF England and France Lord and afterward King of IRELAND HENRY the Eighth the only surviving Son of his Father succeeded peaceably to the Throne of his Ancestors April 22. 1509. in the eighteenth Year of his Age In him both Roses were united for by his Father he was Heir to the Lancastrian Line and by his Mother to the House of York and so being without Competitor was the more capable to effect those great Designs which he afterwards undertook He found in the Government of Ireland Gerald Earl of Kildare whom he continued Lord Justice and the Year following made him Lord Deputy and on good Reasons for though Kildare was counted Rash and Unpolitick yet he was a Man of great Interest and Courage and his Name was more terrible to the Irish than an Army And here let me observe once for all That no Nation in the Word is more governed by Reputation and Appearance than the Irish the Common People are dejected by a Trifle and elevated for less than nothing And this Observation is manifestly justified by their frequent Submissions and their as frequent Rebellions and if any object their continued Obstinacy to the Irish Interest and Popish Religion it is easily answered That as their Fears are without Cause so their Hopes are without Reason and that their Hope 's exceeded their Fears is partly to be attributed to the Nature of Man facile credimus quod volumus but chiefly to the Noblemen and Clergy whose Interest and Business it was to keep the Mobile always in Expectation and to make them believe That one Day or other the Popish Interest would prevail The King unwilling to disturb an infant Government by unnecessary and disobliging Changes did likewise continue all the Officers of State in their Dignities who together with the Deputy and the Mayor Aldermen and Citizens of Dublin immediately proclaimed him King of England and France and Lord of Ireland with as much Formality and State as the time could afford which was followed with the Shouts of the People ringing of Bells and Bonfires as is usual and the like was done in the other chief Cities and Towns After which on the twenty fourth Day of June the King and the Queen were crowned at Westminster by Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Kildare being now made Deputy designed an Expedition into Munster 1510. he levied an Army in the Counties of Dublin Louth Meath and Kildare and was also assisted by Hugh O Donel Lord of Tyrconnel they marched into Desmond without Opposition burning and spoiling all as they went and there they took some Castles but as they returned slowly being loaden with Prey at Monetrar in the County of Limerick Ware 's Annals 87. they met with a great number of their Enemies led by James eldest Son of the Earl of Desmond Tirlagh O Bryan Chief of Thomond and Mac William a Lord of the Burks both Sides were resolved to fight which they did desperately to the great loss of both Parties especially of the Royalists who were tired with long Marches and overburthened with too much Prey and perhaps it had been fatal to them if the Night had not ended the Conflict which gave Kildare the Opportunity to make a safe Retreat the next Day without further Damage This Year there were so great Floods and Inundations 1511. that Trees Houses and Bridges were overturned in several Places Cahir O Connor Prince of Offaly was murdered by his own Followers near the Abby called
went into England to give his Majesty a full account of his happy and successful Administration of the Government for I find he was created Lord Baron of Belfast on the 23th of February 1615 and perhaps then made Lord High Treasurer THOMAS JONES Archbishop of Dublin Lord Chancellor Sir JOHN DENHAM Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench were Sworn Lords Justices on the 11th of February 1615. The Archbishop was the worthy Ancestor of the Lords of Ranelagh And Sir John Denham was the first that raised any Profit to the Crown from the Customs in Ireland which were Lett for Five hundred Pounds the first Year and before his Death which happened the 6th of January 1638 they were improved to that degree that they were farmed at Fifty Four thousand Pounds per Annum But the Papists beginning again to grow very insolent it was necessary to hasten the new Lord-Deputy thither and therefore on the 30th of August 1616. Sir OLIVER SAINT JOHN afterwards Viscount Grandison 1616. was sworn Lord-Deputy he behaved himself briskly against the Papists who were at that time very high in Ireland Mr. Sullivan says He was a Bloody Man and that he swore he would in two Years banish all the Priests and that he levied 600000◠from the Papists for Fines and Forfeitures for not going to Church and that in Dublin only he imprisoned Ninety Citizens for denying the King's Supremacy all which is notoriously 〈◊〉 And about the same time a most Scandalous lying Book was published Entituled Annalecta Hiberniae written by David Rooth Vicar Apostolick at the Instigation and Charge of the Lord M And stuffed with innumerable Lyes and malicious Accusations of the King's Government in Ireland and yet dedicated to the Prince of Wales which is a high strain of Impudence and Folly to dedicate to the Son Reflections and Scandals upon the Father and as if that Author intended to mock the Son as well as to abuse the Father and that his Dedication to him should pass for nothing he has added another Dedication by way of Appeal to all Foreign Emperors Kings and Princes wherein he avers That the Irish look for nothing but that the King would use them like a King i. e. not like a Tyrant and when I have added that he compares the King to Julian the Apostate and Cajus Caligula and the English-men to Dogs and Wild-Beasts I have said enough of the Spirit and design of that malicious Author The Exorbitances of the Papists did indeed at this time oblige the Government to keep a stricter hand over them than hitherto they had done and two things were resolved on to humble them one was to banish all their Regulars which did in great numbers swarm almost every where in that Kingdom And the other was to suffer no Magistrates or Officers but what should take the Oath of Supremacy according to Law and in order thereunto there did issue a Proclamation against the Popish Clergy on the 13th of October 1617. Anno Dom. 1617. And afterwards on the 5th of March 1617 Donogh Earl of Twomond Lord President of Munster and Sir William Jones Lord Chief Justice of Ireland did by Virtue of a Commission under the Great Seal bearing date the 23d of January 1617 seize on the Liberties of Waterford and all their Rent Rolls Ensigns of Authority and their publick Revenues which amounted to Three Hundred and Four Pounds Ten Shillings per Annum and kept Assizes in the City for the County of Waterford The cause of this Seizure was because Nicholas White who from Michalmas 1615. to the 20th of October then next following did exercise the Office of Mayor of Waterford did on the 20th day of October 1615. refuse the Oath of Supremacy being then tendered to him by the Lord President by Virtue of a special Commission to that purpose and that upon his refusal the City Elected John Skiddy who Acted as Mayor till the 1st of May 1616. and then refused the same Oath being tendred to him by the Lord President whereupon the City chose Alexander Cuffe and swore him Mayor on the 27th of May who likewise on the 8th of July refused the aforesaid Oath of Supremacy before the Lords Justices whereupon he forbore to Act any farther in the Mayoralty and so it stood till the 1st of April 1617. at which time Walter Cleer was sworn Mayor and so continued Moreover the City had no Recorder since the Death of Nicholas Walsh Anno 1615 and yet in January 1616 there was a Goal Delivery held before the said John Skiddy without any Recorder and one William Person was then Condemned before him and afterwards by his Order executed for Felony And it appeared that the Statute of Elizabeth of Uniformity had not been given in Charge in their Sessions at Waterford for Two years past and all this was found by Inquisition taken the 5th day of September 1617. In the mean time there were sharp Contests between several great Families in Ireland about their Inheritance Lib. F. F. F. 199. the one was between Katherine Lady Power who was Heir General to the Deceased Lord Barry and the then Lord Barry Viscount Buttivant and that was happily Compos'd by the Kings Mediation and the Marriage of the Lord Barry with the Lady Power 's Daughter and the other was between Walter Earl of Ormond and the Lady Dingwell Heir General of Thomas Duff Earl of Ormond who died Anno 1614. Their Case is to be found the very last Case in my Lord Hobert's Reports and was refer'd to the King who Anno 1618. made his Award and divided the Estate between the contending Parties but the Earl of Ormond thought that Distribution so unequal that he refused to submit to it and therefore endured a long Imprisonment and many other Hardships from the Court but after his Death that Controversie was also happily Compos'd by the Marriage of his Grandson the young Earl of Ormond with the sole Daughter and Heir of the Lady Dingwell and that happy Couple improved that divided and shattered Estate to be the greatest and best belonging to any Subject in the Kings Dominions and are well known to the World by the Names of the first Duke and Dutchess of Ormond In the Year 1620. 1620. The famous Doctor Usher was made Bishop of Meath and not long after there arose a Dispute between the Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop Elect of Clogher about the Exercise of Jurisdiction before Consecration but after some Expostulations the Controversie was peaceably Compos'd The Year 1621. 1621. was famous for the Congregation de Propaganda fide then Erected at Rome the influence whereof the Subjects of Great Britain and Ireland have felt to the purpose and in the same Year Thomas Viscount Thurles Father of the first Duke of Ormond was drowned It was in this Year that the King to mortifie some of the most active Members of the House of Commons that had fallen under his
being the better Soldiers and the better Catholicks Whilst the other being the Civiliz'd Inhabitants of the Pale look'd upon the Northern Army as a sort of Barbarians And therefore the Lord Digby writes thus to the Lord Lieutenant from Grangemelan 13 October All here of the Nuncio and O Neal ' s Parties is the height of Insolency and Villanies O Neal ' s and Preston ' s Armies hate one another more than the English hates either of them O Neal has Eight thousand Foot whereof Five thousand well Armed and Eight hundred Horse the worst in the World he designs on Naas Matters standing thus General Preston On the Nineteenth of October made some Proposals to the Lord Digby to which he return'd this Answer by Sir Nicholas White That if Preston would submit to the Peace the Lord Lieutenant would break off the other Treaty but cannot do it after the Provisions and Country are destroy'd because then he will be tied by the Teeth to the Parliament on whom he must depend for Bread That he shall have reasonable Security of Religion but must decline the extravagant Expectations of the Nuncio That they shall have the Penal Laws repeal'd and not be disturb'd in the Possession of the Churches they now have until His Majesty's Pleasure cut of Restraint be known And for security hereof they shall have the Engagement of the Queen the Prince of Wales of the Crown of France and of the Marquis of Clanrickard and that Preston shall have a considerable Command and so shall as many of Owen Roe's Officers as will comply But an Answer must be sent before the Lord Lieutenant be necessitated to destroy his own Quarters And this General Preston did also send Sir James Dillon to offer the Command of his Army to the Lord of Clanrickard and that they would submit to the Peace if they might be secur'd in their Religion But as Clanrickard would not meddle without Ormond's Consent so Ormond began to be shie of Preston and not to regard what he said because he had promis'd him not to shoot a Gun at any English Garison and yet he did now assault and take Castlejordan which breach of his private Promise more sullied his Reputation with Ormond than did his Contravention of the General Peace Moreover whilst they pretended fairly and talk'd of Peace they nevertheless march'd on and destroy'd the English Quarters and therefore when the Lord Tâ—â—f on the 23th of October sent a healing Message to the Lord Lieutenant in behalf of Preston and in order to revive the Peace he smartly answered That now they had destroyed his Quarters and taken several of His Majesty's Castles and murdered His Subjects without any cause of Complaint they begin to talk and but to talk of Accommodation And when Preston replied That the Peace was disadvantagious to the Catholicks and was therefore rejected the Marquis answered That Oaths are not necessary to bind one to his Benefit and therefore are useful only when they oblige to Disadvantage and if they may for that Reason be violated all Faith amongst Men is destroy'd Whereupon on the Thirtieth of October Preston writes That he will send the Lord Lieutenant Propositions in two or three days which accordinly were sent on the Second day of November and were signed by both the Generals together with a Letter as followeth viz. May it please your Excellency BY the Command of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom who offer the inclosed Propositions we have under our Leading Two Armies Our Thoughts are best to our Religion King and Country our Ends to establish the First and make the Two following secure and happy It is the great part of our Care and Desires to purchase your Excellency to the effecting of so blessed a Work We do not desire the effusion of Blood and to that purpose the inclosed Propositions are sent from us We pray to God your Consideration of them may prove fruitful We are commanded to pray your Excellency to render an Answer to them by Two of the Clock in the Afternoon on Thursday next be it War or Peace We shall endeavor in our Ways to exercise Faith and Honor and upon this Thought we rest Your Excellencies most humble Servants T. PRESTON OWEN O NEILE 1. That the Exercise of the Romish Religion be in Dublin Tredagh and all the Kingdoms of Ireland as free and as publick as it is now in Paris in France or Bruxels in the Low-Countries 2. That the Council of State called ordinarily the Council-Table be of Members true and faithful to His Majesty and such of which there may be no fear or suspicion of going to the Parliament Party 3. That Dublin Tredagh Trim Newry Carlingford and all Garisons within the Protestant Quarters ☞ be Garison'd by Confederate Catholicks to maintain and keep the said Cities and Places for the use of our Sovereign Lord King Charles and his Lawful Successors for the Defence of this Kingdom of Ireland 4. That the present Council of the Confederates shall Swear truly and faithfully to keep and maintain for the use of His Majesty and His Lawful Successors and for the Defence of the said Kingdom of Ireland the above Cities of Dublin and Tredagh and all other Forts Places and Castles as above 5. That the said Council and all General Officers and Soldiers whatsoever do Swear and Protest to fight by Sea and Land against the Parliamentarians and all the Kings Enemies And that they will never come to any Convention Agreement or Article with the said Parliamentarians or any the Kings Enemies to the prejudice of His Majesties Rights or of this Kingdom of Ireland 6. That according to Our Oath of Association We will to the best of Our Power and Cunning defend the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the Kings Rights the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects His Excellency is prayed to make Answer to the above Propositions at furthest by Two of the Clock in the Afternoon on Thursday next But it seems that these Proposals were thought so insolent and unreasonable that it was not fit to Countenance them with an Answer In the mean time the Lord Lieutenant had sent to the Lord Clanrickard to come to him with what Assistance he could and this Lord who was always Loyal and abhorred the violation of the Peace did his Endeavour to bring a considerable Party with him but as he words it in his Letter of the Second of November The sharp Sword of Excommunication had so cut his Power and means that he could bring with him but one Troop of Horse to Tecroghan however his Presence was very considerable and as it gave great Comfort to the Lord Lieutenant so it gave mighty hopes to Preston who believed that Clanrickard who for his exemplary Loyalty would be confided in by one side and for his Religion might be trusted by the other was a fit Mediator to reconcile both Parties and accordingly he applyed himself to that Lord and by the
Assistance of the Lord Digby they brought the matter so far to bear that on the 12th of November the Lord Digby writes thus to the Lord Lieutenant Yesterday the Lord Clanrickard and I finished our Negotiations to which Preston and his Army and Sir Philem O Neal and part of Owen Roes Army will submit You may depend on this Engagement of Preston and his Army since it cannot be violated without such a Perâ—idy ☞ as certainly the Profession of Soldiers and Gentlemen hath never been guilty of The most that will be expected from you is a Declaration to this effect That whereas it is well known even by His Majesties Printed Letters that His gracious Intentions were to secure His Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom in the free Exercise of their Religion by repeal of the Penalties of the Law against them which in the last Articles was left out by the Subtilty of some of their own Party who intended to found this late mischief upon it that it was far from His Majesties intention or Yours to take advantage of that Omission but that they may rest as secure of His Majesties Favour in the repeal of the said Penalties as if it had been positively exprest in the Articles and that for matter of their Churches and Ecclesiastical Possessions it being referred to the King it was far from Your intentions to molest them therein till you knew His Majesties Pleasure in that particular As for your Engagement to obey His Majesties free Commands the Queen and Prince of Wales and my Significations to the advantage of the Catholicks during His Majesties want of Freedom and that you will not obey such Commands to the prejudice of what is undertaken as shall be procured by advantage of His Majesties want of Freedom Your Letter to the Marquis of Clanrickard will suffice you must proceed frankly c. And this was the Posture of Affairs when on the 14th of November Commissioners arrived from the Parliament with Fourteen hundred Foot and other Necessaries for the Preservation of Dublin which they expected to be given up to them upon the Terms proposed In what Condition was the Marquiss of Ormond now he had two inconsistent Treaties upon his hands and both well nigh concluded and he was in Danger least his own Army who abhorred any farther Correspondence with the Irish would with the Assistance of the Fourteen hundred Men newly come Deliver up both Dublin and him to the Parliament of England It is certain he had need of all that Dexterity and Presence of mind that he was Master of to extricate himself out of these Difficulties as he afterwards did It was never a Doubt with him whether he should preserve the Kingdom for his Majesty or submit it to the Parliament but the Question was whether an Union with the Irish would do the former since their Levity was such as that there could be no dependance upon them I have seen all the dispatches between Ormond and Digby upon this occasion and can assure the Reader that the Lord Lieutenant was prevailed upon against his own Judgment by the Lord Digby's importunity and when he did Consent he foretold the issue of that Reconciliation But we will first give an Account of the Treaty with the Parliament Commissioners and then discover the farther Proceedings with the Irish The Lord Lieutenant and Council being pressed by Enemies without and Necessities and intolerable Wants in the City did on the 26th day of September by Letters to the King and to the Lord Mayor of London represent the miserable Condition they were in and did also send over the Lord Chief Justice Lowther Sir Francis Willoughby and Sir Paul Davis in one of the Parliaments ships to the Parliament of England with Instructions from himself and the Council and other Instructions from the Council only The Instructions from the Lord Lieutenant and Council were 1. That a Difference ought to be made the between those that were Contrivers and first Actors of the Rebellion and those that by the Torrent of that Rebellion were afterwards accidently engaged therein and that the Confiscatitions of the former were sufficient to satisfie the Adventurers 2. That they demonstrate the necessity of making the late Peace for the Preservation of the Protestants for tho' the Protestants do survive the breach of the Peace the Reason is because the Irish are now divided and their Frame of Government dissolved 3. That before the Peace they the Lord Lieutenant and Council did enter into a Treaty with the Parliament Commissioners in Ulster to prevent it but by the Departure of the Marquis of Argile into Scotland and of Sir Robert King into England that Treaty fell for want of a sufficient number of the Commissioners and that misfortune was followed by the defeat of Monroe and the Scots at Bemburb 4. That England has receiv'd advantage by the Peace First by their experience of the perfidiousness and Treachery of the Irish ☞ And Secondly by obtaining just cause to use them severely 5. That the Covenant may not be impos'd until it be done by Act of Parliament that nothing of it may be now imposed lest it divide the Protestants and hinder them from a joynt prosecution of the War and for the same Reason the Book of Common Prayer be not suppressed but let those use the Directory that will 6. To â—ustifie the Goverment and Conduct of His Majesties Servants and to wipe off all Scandals 7. To preserve the Estates Persons and Imployments of all those that went hence to serve His Majesty in England and did not joyn with the Rebels at least to get them Liberty to compound or to transport themselves and their Goods 8. That it be immediately published we have free Commerce and Traffick with the Parliaments Towns and Allies and that three or four Ships be sent to Guard our Coasts from the Rebels 9. That Magazines of all sorts be speedily prepared at Liverpool Chester c. 10. To advise them that if Succours be not immediately sent all will be lost and the recovery of it will cost ten times as much Blood and Treasure as it will to keep it now 11. That if the Soldier be not constantly Paid he will revolt to the better Pay-master and that the Revenue here does not keep the publick Persons and Clergy from want 11. That Directions be sent to the Parliaments Forces in Ulster Munster and Conaught to correspond and joyn with Us. 12. That if they send Forces under their own Officers Care be taken to Pay ours equally with theirs to prevent Difference and Mutiny 13. That Sir Francis Butler Colonel Richard Gibson Colonel Henry Warren Colonel Monk and Lieutenant Colonel Gibs now Prisoners with the Parliament Being Men that know the Country and are experienced in the Service may be rather sent than Novices and Strangers or any others Lastly Men without Money and Victuals will do us more harm than good And if as soon as you are
but the Foot fought stoutly even to club-Musket and push of Pike but the issue was that the Irish were totally routed and then the Horse did great execution in the pursuit which was continued farther than ever was heard of before viz. above thirty Miles for at Omagh Major King with his three Troops begun the pursuit afresh and gleaned up what had escaped from the Battle so that it was believed that 500 of all this Army did not escape and even the Bishop himself was also taken by Major a Afterwards Lord Kingston King and by order of the Lord-President was the next day hanged Nor is it amiss to observe the Variety and Vicissitude of the Irish Affairs for this very Bishop and those Officers whose heads were now placed on the Walls of Derry were within less than a Year before confederate with Sir Charles Coot and raised the Siege of that City and were jovially merry at his Table in the quality of Friends Nor must it be omitted that the Duke of Lorrain sent his Agent Collonel Oliver Synot into Ireland he landed on the 29th of April 1650 and made a great noise of his Master's affection to the King and his zeal to the Catholick Religion and pretended that he had brought Money with him and that he would lend 1000 l. for his Majesty's service on the Mortgage of any Town or Fort that was considerable Whereupon the Lord-Lieutenant appointed the Lords Taaf and Athenry and Jeoffory Brown to treat with him and proposed to Mortgage Galway for that Sum But at length it was found to be a juggle on Synot's side and that either he had no Money or no intention to part with it And the Secret of this Affair is that the Duke of Lorrain was engaged in a Negotiation at Rome to Legitimate some Children that he had by Madam de Causecroix in the life-time of his first Wife Nichol de Lorrain and the easier to accomplish his design he dissembled such an extraordinary Zeal for Religion as would transport his Arms into Ireland to the relief of the Catholicks there but when he had effected his business at Rome his Devotion to the Irish Service abated so that being seperately and at several times sollicited by the King and by the Agents of the Confederates to the first he answered That the King had nothing left in Ireland and therefore it was in vain to treat And to the others he answered That he could not treat with them any farther without the approbation of their King And so with his usual dexterity he extricated himself out of this Affair In the mean time Collonel Reynolds and Sir Theophilus Jones beat back some Forces that were sent to the Relief of Terroghan and disturbed a Consult that was held in Westmeath between the Lord-Lieutenant the Lords of Clanrickard and Castlehaven and the Titular Bishop of Clogher and they also in Trim Ballyhuse and Feynagh And thus matters still growing worse and worse and the Parliamentarians daily getting ground the Popish Clergy did Proprio Motu assemble at Jamestown on the 6th of August and on the same day did give Commission to the Bishop of Fernes and Hugh Rochford to Treat with forreign Princes as Appendix 46 and afterwards did several things more extravagant Nevertheless to dissemble the Matter and as preparatory to their Meeting they sent the Lord-Lieutenant the following Letter May it please Your Excellency THis Nation become of late the Fable and Reproach of the Christianity is brought to a sad Condition Notwithstanding the frequent and laborious Meetings and Consultations of the Prelates we find Jealousies and Fears deep in the hearts of Men Thorns hard to take out We see most Men contributing to the Enemy and rendring their Persons and Substance useful to his Mallice and destructive to Religion and the King's Interest This kind of Men if not timely prevented will betray irremediably themselves and us We find no Stock or Substance ordered for maintaining the Souldier nor is there an Army any way considerable in the Kingdom to recover what is lost or defend what we hold So as Humanely speaking if God will not be pleased for his Mercy 's sake to take off from us the heavy Judgments of his Anger we are in a fair way for losing Sacred Religion the King's Authority and Ireland The four Archbishops to acquit their own Consciences in the Eyes of God have resolved to meet at Jamestown about the sixth day of the next Month and to bring about as many of the Suffragans as may repair thither with safety The end of this Consultation is to do what in us lieth for the amendment of Errors and recovery of this afflicted People If your Excellency shall think fit in your wisdom to send one or more Persons to make Proposals for the Safety of the Nation we shall not want willingness to prepare good Answers nor will we despair of the Blessing of God and of his powerful Influence to be upon our sincere Intentions in that place Even so we conclude remaining June 14th 1650. For his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland Your Excellency's Most Humble Servants Fr. Thomas Dublin Jo. Archiepiscopus Tuamen This Letter was answered by his Excellency as followeth AFter Our hearty Commendations We received yours of the 24th of July on the first of this Month and do with much Grief acknowledge that this Nation is brought into a sad Condition and that by such means as when it shall be known abroad and by Story delivered to Posterity will indeed be thought a Fable For it will seem incredible that any Nation should so madly affect and violently pursue the ways leading to their own Destruction as this People will appear to have done and that after the certain Ruine they were running into was evidently and frequently discovered unto those that in all times and upon all other occasions have had power to perswade or compel them to whatever they thought fit And it will be less credible when it shall be declared as with truth it will be that the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Interest and Safety even of those that had this power and that have been thus forewarned did consist in making use of it to reclaim the People and direct them into the Ways of Preservation To be plain it cannot be denied but the Disobedience we have met with which we at large declared unto many of you who with divers others of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled at Loghreogh in April last was the certain ready way to the Destruction of this Nation as by our Letter of the first of May to that Assembly we made appear Ancient and late Experience hath made evident what power those of your Function have had to draw the People of this Nation to what they thought fit Whether your Lordships have been convinced that the Obedience which we desire should be given to his Majesty's Authority in Us pursuant to the Articles of Peace was the way
of the Affairs of the Confederate Catholicks and to direct their Assistance in what they may to further settling of the happy Peace of this Kingdom with Advantageous and Honourable Conditions Commissioners being now sent to conclude the same if they may You are to let his Most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine know That there is a considerable Enemy in the Heart of the several Provinces of this Kingdom that yet we have many sufficient Cities and Parts of the greatest Consequence in our Hands and have sufficient Stock of Men to defend the Nation and expel the Enemy but do want Aids of Money and Shipping without which we shall be in danger the next Summer-Service and therefore to 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 order of the assembly is contained 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 Appendix XLI A Letter from Fryer Paul King to the Titular Bishop of Clogher Reverendissime Domine BReviter Dico Antrimus totus est ad Obsequium Eugenii O Neal Exercitus Ultoniensis procurabitque omnes suos ponere statim ex parte illius Rogat vehementissime ut veniat Eugenius O Neal Exercitus Ultoniensis siine mora versus Kilkenniam ne dubitent quin tota Lagenia imo Hibernia erit in dispositione ipsorum Oportet prevenire Ormonium qui venturus est statim post Muskry Browne Vester Decanus Firmanus est hic quasi Captious Ipse Archiepiscopus Dubliniensis anhelant vestrum adventum omnia ad Nutum fient cum acceleratione sed sine illa omnia nutabunt per alium bajulum mitto tibi litteras Nicolai Plunketti Prestonius vix habet nomen exercitus qui est omnino dispersus Concilium Supremum Factionistae cadent modo extemplo venerit exercitus Ultoniensis cum Eugenio O Neal. Vester fidelis Servus Fr. Paulus King Appendix XLII The Marquess of Ormonds Declaration upon his Arrival in Ireland 1648. By the Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland ORMOND TO prevent the too frequent prejudices incident through jealousies distrusts and misconstructions to all undertakings we account it not the least worthy our Labour upon the instant of our Arrival to prepare this People whose wellfare we contend for with a right understanding of those intentions in us which in order to his Majesties Service we desire may terminate in their good To enumerate the several reasons by which we were induc'd for preservation of the Protestant Religion and the English interest to leave the City of Dublin and other his Majesties Garrisons then under our power in this Kingdom in the hands of those intrusted by his two Houses of Parliament were to set forth a Narrative in place of a Manifest It may suffice to be known that those Transactions had for one main ground this confidence that by being under the power of the Houses they would upon a happy expected composure of affairs in England revert unto and be revested in his Majesty as his proper right But having found how contrary to the inclinations of the well-affected to his Majesties Restauration in England the power of that Kingdom hath unhappily devolv'd to hands imployed only in the art and labour of pulling down and subverting the Fundamentals of Monarchy with whom a pernicious party in this Kingdom do equally sympathize and cooperate And being filled with deep sense of the Duty and Obligations that are upon us strictly to embrace all opportunities of employing our endeavours towards the recovery of his Majesties just Rights in any part of his Dominions Having observed the Protestant Army in the Province of Munster by special Providence discovering the Arts and Practises used to intangle the Members thereof in engagements as directly contrary to their Duties towards God and Man as to their intentions and resolutions to have found means to manifest the Candor and Integrity thereof in a disclaimer of any obedience to or concurrence with those Powers or Persons which have so grosely vari'd even their own professed principles of preserving his Majesties Person and Rights by confining him under a most strict imprisonment his Majesty also vouchsafing graciously to accept the Declaratien of the said Army as an eminent and seasonable expression of their Fidelity toward him and in Testimony thereof having laid his Commands upon us to make our repair unto this province 〈◊〉 discharge the duties of our place We have as well in obedience thereunto as in pursuance of our own duty and desire to advance his Majesties service resolved to evidence our approbation and esteem of the proceeding of the said Army by publishing unto the world our like determination in the same ensuing particulars And accordingly we profess and declare First to improve our utmost endeavours for the settlement of the Protestant Religion according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches Secondly To defend the King in his prerogatives Thirdly To maintain the priviledges and freedom of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects that in order hereunto we shall oppose to the hazard of our Lives those Rebells of this Kingdom who shall refuse their obedience to his Majesty upon such terms as he hath thought fit by us to require it And we shall endeavour to the utmost the suppressing of that independant party who have thus fiercely laboured the extirpation of the true Protestant Religion the ruin of our Prince the dishonour of Parliament and the Vassalage of our Fellow Subjects against all those who shall depend upon them or adhere unto them and that this our undertaking might not appear obnoxious to the Trade of England but that we desire a firm Union and Agreement be preserved betwixt us we do likewise declare that we will
conventionem dicti Reverendissimus D. Nicolaus D. Hugo Procuratores nostri aut quilibet illorum aget concludet aut determinabit virtute hujus nostrae Commissionis Dat. Galuiae quinto Octobris anno Domini 1650. Franciscus Aladensis Episcopus Procurator D. Joannis Archiepiscopi Tuamensis Fr. Thomas Archiep. Dublimensis Hiberniae Primas Joan. Rapotensis Episcopus Procurator Primatis Ardmachani Walterus Clonfertensis Episcopus Procurator Lacghiniensis Episcopi Fr. Antonius Episcopus Clanmacnosensis Fr. Arthurus Dunen Coneren The Commission to the Bishop of Fernes and Sir James Preston In Dei Nomine Amen MEmorandum quod anno Domini 1651. die vero mensis Aprilis septimo nos infra scripti tam nostro quam omnium fere Procerum Nobilium ac Popularium Catholicorum Regni Hiberniae Nominâ— nominibus quorum sensuum in hac parte consensuum certam exploratam notitiam habemus nominavimus constituimus elegimus deputamus omnibus quibus possumus modo via jure ac ratione Procuratores Agentes negotiorum nostrorum Gestores generales speciales ita ut specialitas generalitati non deroget aut è contra conjunctim etiam divisim si ita opus fuerit in casu mortis aut alterius inevitabilis necessitatis Reverendissimum in Christo Patrem ac Dominum D. Episcopum Fernensem clarissimum ac nâ—bilissimum D. D. Jacobum Prestonium Equitem Auratum ut supra ad agendum tractandum consulendum ac firmiter concludendum cum serenissimo Principe Carolo Duce Lotharingiae quem in Regium Protectorem Regni Hiberniae eligimus nostro omniumque praefarorum nominibus ad agendum cum praefata sua Celsitudine tam in super negotio principâ—li Protectionis memoratae quam in de aliis articulis propositionibus postulatis nostris conventis non conventis tale negotium quomodo concernentibus cum omnibus annexis connexis emergentibus dependentibus aliqua ratione concernentibus generaliter omnia alia in praemissis agendi faciendi ac si nos ipsi praesentes essemus Et quicquid in praedictis fecerint concluserint tractaverint consenserint convenerint cum praefato serenissimo Duce Lotharingiae seu cum ejus haeredibus aut assignatis suis seu cum ejus eorumque agentibus legatis procuratoribus seu aliis quibuscunque mandatum potestatem ad id specialem habentibus uno vel pluribus nos ratum gratum aeceptum habituros promittimus per presentes Et ad id nos ipsos Successores Haeredes nostros aliosque quos possumus in perpetuum obligamus Datum sub signis sigillis nostris anno dieque quibus supra in Praesentia testium infra scriptorum Galviae in Provincia Conaciae Regno Hiberniae praesentis mansionis nostrae seu refugii loco Fr. Thomas Archiepiscopus Dubliniensis Hiberniae Primas Robertus Corcagien Cloanen Episcopus Fr. Antonius Clunamacnosensis Episc Procurator Primatis Hiberniae Walterus Cluanfertensis Procurator Laghlinensis Franciscus Aladensis Episcopus Et nos major seu praetor Galuiensis confirmamus nostris Suffragriis ratificamus praedictum procuratorium et personas in eo nominatas nostros etiam procuratores ut supra constituimus die anno quibus supra cum infra scriptis de concilio nostro Append. XLVIII The Declaration and Excommunication of the Popish Clergy at Jamestown A DECLARATION of the Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Secular and Regular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the Continuance of his Majesty's Authority in the Person of the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the Misgovernment of the Subject the ill Conduct of his Majesty's Army and the Violation of the Articles of Peace Dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Friars Minors August 12. 1650. THE Catholick People of Ireland in the Year 1641 forced to take up Arms for the Defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a Resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel Intention made a Peace and published the same the 17th of January 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from his Majesty or from his Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now Charles II hereby manifesting their Loyal Thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when his Majesty was in Restraint and neither He nor his Queen or Prince of Wales in condition to send any Supply or Relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better Conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were obtained by the above Pacification and thereby freed themselves from the Danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the Power or England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and his Enemies in the three Kingdoms Let the World judg if this be not an undeniable Argument of Loyalty This Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates ran sincerely and cheerfully under his Majesty's Authority in the Person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast Sums of Moneys well nigh half a Million of English Pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great Quantity of Powder Match Amunition with other Materials for War After his Excellency the said Lord Lieutenant frustrating the Expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Natives which he began by violating the Peace in many Parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the World I. The foresaid Catholicks having furnished his Excellency with the aforesaid Sum of Mony which was sufficient to make up the Army of 15000 Foot and 2500 Horse agreed upon by the Peace for the preservation of the Catholick Religion our Sovereign's Interest and the Nation his Excellency gave Patents of Colonels and other Commanders over and above the Party under the Lord Baron of Inchiquin to Protestants and upon them consumed the Substance of the Kingdom who most of them afterwards betrayed or deserted us II. That the Holds and Ports of Munster as Cork Youghall Kingsale c. were put in the Hands of faithless Men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed the Places to the Enemy to the utter endangering of the King's Interest in the whole Kingdom This good Service they did his Majesty after soaking up the Sweat and Substance of his Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkaable that upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow his Loyal Catholick Subjects of Cork Youghall Kingsale and other Garisons
be duly examined and it will be found that their Sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is Erroneous And as to the Preamble Concerning their Motives of taking up Arms in the Year 1641 The Answer to the Preamble we shall say nothing But since they begin so high with their Narrative as the Year 1641 it will not be amiss to mind them that betwixt that and the Year 1648 there was by Authority from his Majesty and our Ministration several Cessations and at length a Peace concluded with the Confederate Roman-Catholicks in the Year 1646 which Peace was shamefully and perfidiously violated by the Instigation and Contrivâ—ment of most part of these Arch-Bishops Bishops Prelates and others of the Secular and Regular Clergy and that not in slight and strained Particulars such as We are now charged with by them but by coming with two powerful Armies before the City of Dublin upon no provocation from Us unless they esteemed the continuance of a Cessation for about three Years with them and the bringing them a Peace to their own Doors such a Provocation as deserved their bending their united Power against Us leaving other Parts that neither had nor would have Peace or Cessation with them unmolested and at liberty to waste their Quarters whilst they devoured Ours and sought our Ruin This is a particular blotting their Name and Memory with the everlasting Infamy of Perfidy Ingratitude and undeniable Disloyalty They have reason to leap over their Preamble lest they should awaken the Curses of those Multitudes of People who being seduced into so horrid a Violation of Publick Faith by their impious Allurements and hellish Excommunications are thereby become desolate Widows helpless Orphans and miserable Exiles from the Place of their Birth and Sustenance True it is that his late Majesty and his now Majesty then Prince of Wales overcoming their just Indignation with a pious compassion of their seduced People commanded Us over to treat and conclude a Peace with the Roman-Catholicks of this Kingdom In obedience whereunto and in humble imitation of their great Example forgetting the ungrateful usage We had met with We undertook the hazard of that Voyage and at length concluded the Peace in this Preamble mentioned We are unwilling to say any thing that might seem to lessen the Loyalty and Affection of the Assembly that concluded the Peace Nor is it to that End that We shall answer to those Men that though his then Majesty was in restraint and his now Majesty and his Royal Mother not in condition to send Supplies and Relief into this Kingdom yet there wanted not apparent Motives of Advantage to induce the Roman-Catholicks to consent to the Peace which was thankfully acknowledged by a more Authentick Representative of the Nation than these Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and even by as many of them as really or from the Teeth outward for such we find now there were that consented to it Upon what Conditions the Confederate Roman-Catholicks could have agreed with those in this Declaration called the Parliament of England we know not nor do believe they are able to prove their Assertions if they be put to it Though if it should appear it were not to be wondred at that Usurpers and such as make almost as little Conscience of breaking Public Faith as these Declarers are more liberal in the Dispensation of their unlawful Acquirings by way of Brokeage than a just Monarch whose Purpose it is to keep as well as it is in his Power only to grant Conditions to a People in the State the said Confederates were in Next in their Preamble they say That after the concluding of the Peace the Catholick Confederates came sincerely and cheerfully under his Majesty's Authority in Us plentifully providing vast Sums of Money well nigh half a Million of English Pounds By which they seem to insinuate first That all the Roman Catholicks of Ireland came thus cheerfully under his Majesty's Authority whereas Omen O Neil with his whole Army and divers of the County of Wickloe with others were and continued in Rebellion long after the Conclusion of the Peace as is well known to many of the Declarers who were of their party as also that our first Work was to reduce places held by them lying in our way to Dublin as Mariburough-Athy c. They mention next after their providing plentifully vast Sums of Money adding also these Words viz. near half a Million of English Pounds to have it believed we were set forth with such a Sum and all the following Provisions of Corn and Ammunition though it is notoriously known that for all the half Million of English Pounds the Army we had brought together could not march from about â—loghgregan till upon our private Credit we had borrowed eight hundred English Pounds of Sir James Preston which is yet owing him and for which we have lately written to you to see him satisfied by means whereof and of a little Meal not yet paid for neither as we believe we took in Talâ—olstown Castle-Talbot and Kildare But there our Money and Meal failing us and having borrowed about one hundred Pounds from twenty several Officers to give the Souldiers Sustenance we were forced to stay on the West-side of the Liffy and thereby lost an Opportunity of engaging Jones who with a much less Force than ours was drawn forth of Dublin as far as Johnstown And in what continual Want the Army was from our setting forth even to the Defeat at Rathmines being about three Months is so notoriously known having during all that time been very meanly supplied in Money and that in small inconsiderable Sums as by the Receiver-General's Accompts may appear that if we be to be blamed it is for undertaking an Expedition so meanly provided and which we can only answer with the Necessity of attempting Dublin and those parts before they should receive Supplies out of England and upon Discovery destroy such as were faithful to his Majesty and importuned us daily to advance For Magazines of Corn Ammunition and Materials for War the Stores we found so inconsiderably furnished or rather so absolutely unfurnished that till we with the Assistance of the Commissioners procured some Supply thereof in Waterford Limerick and Kilkenny it was not possible for us either to reduce the Fort of Mariburough and Athy held by Owen O Neil's party nor to march as we did towards Dublin And for Ammunition we were forced to bargain with Patrick Archer and other Merchants for a Supply thereof engaging the King's Customs and Tenths of Prizes else that want of Ammunition had absolutely hindred our March nor is the said Archer yet satisfied for his Ammunition The Truth of this is referred to the Knowledg of many a Viz. Loghreagh there met who can witness with us herein and in many other Distresses and Difficulties we met with for want of Money which we cannot call to mind How much