or any of them be taken off the File annulled and declared void First by your Majesties Proclamation and after by Act to be passed in the said free Parliament Answ This we conceive to be a very bold Proposition not warranted as we also conceive by any Example and tending to introduce an ill President in After-times for that was never seen that the Records were taken off the File but where there was some Corruption or Fraud or some illegal or unjust Carriage used concerning the procuring or making up of such Records and the same first we 'll proved upon due Examination and that may not only conceal but in some sort seem to justify their abominable Treasons Murders Cruelties Massacres and Plunders acted against your Majesties Person Crown and Dignity upon the Persons of your Majesties most Loyal Protestant Subjects in that Kingdom and encourage the Papists to do the like again besides the discouragement it may beget in your Majesties Officers and Subjects to do their duties in the like Insurrections which may happen hereafter which also may prove very prejudicial to your Majesties Rights and Revenues if the Records to support the forfeitures wherein many of them are or may be grounded should be taken off the File and Cancelled 5. Prop. That inasmuch as under colour of such Outlawries and Attainders Debts due unto the said Catholicks have been Granted Levyed and disposed of and of the other side that Debts due upon the said Catholicks to those of the adverse Party have been levyed and disposed of to publick use that therefore all Debts be by Act of Parliament mutually released or all to stand in Statu quo notwithstanding any Grant or Dispossession Answ We humbly conceive that in time of Peace and most setled Government when the course of Law and Justice is most open and best observed that Debts due unto the Crown actually levyed and paid in to your Majesties use ought not to be restored though the Records of the Forfeitures should be legally reversed which is far from the present Case and this Proposition tendeth to cross that just right of your Majesty and to make the disposition by the Confederate Papist Rebels of Debts due to Protestants and by the said Rebels by Fraud and Force levied and disposed in maintenance of their Rebellion which cunningly they call by the name of Publick use to be in equal degree to the debts owing by the Rebels and by them all forfeited and many of them by Law duly levyed which is a most unequal and unjust thing and the said Proposition cannot nor doth make offer to have the Pope's Confederates cut off from the debts due to them which they have justly forfeited but only for a colour of consideration to have the Protestants lose such Debts justly due to them as have been unjustly taken from them who have done no Act at all to forfeit them 6. Prop. That the late Officers taken or found upon feigned or old Titles since the Year 1634 to intitle your Majesty to several Counties in Connaught Thomond the County of Tipperary Limrick Killkenny and Wicklow be vacated and taken off the File and the Possessors thereof setled and secure in their antient Estates by Act of Parliament and that the like Act of Limitation of your Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of your Subjects in that Kingdom be passed in that Parliament as was enacted in the One and Twentieth Year of his late Majesties Reign in this Kingdom Answ We know not of any Offices found or feigned Titles nor what the Confederates may demand in respect of any Graces promised by your Majesty which we intend not nor have any occasion to dispute but do humbly conceive that all those who have committed Treason in the late Rebellion subsequent to your Majesties Promise of those Graces have thereby forfeited the benefit thereof together with the Lands to which the said Graces might else have related and so their whole Estates are now justly fallen to your Majesty by their Rebellion which we conceive is of great importance for your Majesties Service to be taken into consideration As First with regard of the Statutes made in the present Parliament of England Secondly that necessary increase of your Majesties Revenue decayed by the present Rebellion Thirdly the abolishing the evil Customs of the Irish and preservation of Religion Laws and Government there Fourthly the satisfaction of the Protestant Subjects losses in some measure Pifthly the Arrears of your Majesties Army and other debts contracted for the War and for preservation of that Kingdom to your Majesty Sixthly the bringing in of more British on the Plantation Seventhly the building of some walled Towns in remote and desolate places for the Security of that Kingdom and your Majesties good Subjects there Eighthly the taking of the Natives from their former dependency on their Chieftains who usurped an absolute Power over them to the diminution of all Regal power and to the oppression of the Inferiors 7. Prop. That all Marks of Incapacity imposed upon the Natives of that Kingdom to purchase or acquire Lands Leases Offices or Hereditaments be taken away by Act of Parliament and the same to extend to the securing of Purchases Leases or Grants already made and that for the Education of Youth an Act be passed in the next Parliament for the erecting of one or more Inns of Court Vniversities Free and Common-Schools Answ This we conceive concerneth some of the late Plantations and no other part of that Kingdom and that the restriction herein mentioned is found to be of great use especially for the indifferency of Trials Strength of the Government and for Trade and Traffick and we humbly conceive that if other Plantations shall not proceed for the setling and securing of the Kingdom and that if no restraint be made of Popish purchasing or buylng of the Protestants out of their former Plantations where they were prudently setled though now cast out of their Estates by the late Rebellion and unable to plant the same again for want of means and therefore probably upon easie Terms will part from their Estates to the Confederates that those Plantations will be destroyed to the great prejudice of your Majesties Service and endangering of the Safety of that Kingdom Touching bearing of Offices we humbly conceive that their now Conformity to the Laws and Statutes of that Realm is the only Mark of Incapacity imposed upon them We humbly conceive that we ought not to expect to be more capable there than the Englssh Natives are here in England In like manner for Schools in Ireland there are divers setled in that Kingdom already by the Laws and Statutes of that Realm if any Person well affected shall erect and endow any more Schools there at their own Charges so that the School-masters and Scholars may be governed according to Laws Customs and Orders of England and the rest of Free-Schools here we cannot apprehend any just exception thereunto But
without due process and Judgment of Law they have since then been put or kept out and may be answered of and for all the mean profits of the same in the interim and for all the time until they shall be so restored 19. That your Majesties said Protestant Subjects may also be restored to all their Monies Plate Jewels Houshold-stuff Goods and Chattels whatsoever which without due Process or Judgment of Law have been by the said Confederates taken or detained from them since the contriving of the said Rebellion which may be gained in kind or the full value thereof if the same may not be had in kind and the like restitution to be made for all such things which during the said time hath been delivered to any Person or Persons of the said Confederates in trust to be kept or preserv'd but are by colour thereof still withholden 20. That the establishment and maintenance of a compleat Protestant Army and sufficient Protestant Soldiers and Forces for the time to come be speedily taken into your Majesties Prudent Just and Gracious Consideration and such a course laid down and continued according to the Rules of good Government that your Majesties Right and Laws the Protestant Religion and Peace of that Kingdom be no more endangered by the like Rebellions in time to come 21. That whereas it appeareth in Print that the said Confederates amongst other things aim at the Repeal of Poyning's Law thereby to open an easy and ready way in the passing of Acts of Parliament in Ireland without having them first well considered of in England which may produce many dangerous consequences both to that Kingdom and to your Majesties other Dominions your Majesty would be pleased to resent and reject all propositions tending to introduce so great a diminution of your Royal and necessary Power for the confirmation of your Royal Estate and protection of your good Protestant Subjects both there and elsewhere 22. That your Majesty out of your grace and favour to your Protestant Subjects of Ireland would be pleased to consider effectually of answering them that you will not give order for or allow of the transmitting into Ireland any Act of general Oblivion Release or Discharge of Actions or Suits whereby your Majesties said Protestant Subjects there may be barred or deprived of their legal Remedies which by your Majesties Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom they may have against the said Confederates or any of them or any of their Party for and in respect of any wrongs done unto them or any of their Ancestors or Predecessors in or concerning their Lives Liberties Persons Lands Goods or Estates since the contriving and breaking forth of the said Rebellion 23. That some fit course may be considered of to prevent the filling or overlaying of the Commons House of Parliament in Irelaâ—d with Popish Recusants being ill affected Members and that provision be duly made that none shall vote or sit therein but such as shall first take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy 24. That the proofs and manifestations of the truth of the several matters contained in the Petition of your Majesties Protestant Subjects of Ireland lately presented to your Majesty may be duly examined discussed and in that respect the final conclusion of things respited for a convenient time their Agents being ready to attend with proofs in that behalf as your Majesty shall appoint In Answer whereunto it was replyed by the Committee of Lords and others of Irish affairs at Oxford 1. THat their Lordships did not think that the Propositions presented by the Protestant Agents to his Majesty and that Morning read before their Lordships were the sense of the Protestants of Ireland 2. That those propositions were not agreeable to the Instructions given the said Agents by the Protestants of Ireland 3. That if â—hose Propositions were not withdrawn they would lay a prejudice on his Majesty and his Ministers to posterity these remaining on Record if a Treaty should go on and Peace follow which the Kings necessity did enforce and that the Lords of the Committee apprehended the said Agents did flatly oppose a Peace with the Irish 4. That it would be impossible for the King to grant the Protestants Agents desires and grant a Peace to the Irish 5. That the Lords of the Committee desired the Protestant Agents to propose a way to effect their desires either by Force or Treaty considering the condition of his Majesties affairs in England To the First Note the Paâ—â—liament of Iâ—eland was interogated on the point and did declare their concurrence with what their Agents had done the Protestant Agents replyed That they humbly conceived that the Propositions which they had presented to his Majesty were the sense of the Protestants of Ireland To the Second That the Propositions are agreeable to the instructions given to the said Agents by the Protestants of Ireland and conduced to the well settlement of that Kingdom To the Third that they had no thought to draw prejudice on his Majesty or their Lordships by putting in those Propositions neither had they so soon put in Propositions had not his Majesty by his Answer to the Protestant Petition directed the same To the Fourth The said Agents humbly conceived that they were imployed to make proof of the effect of the Protestant Petition to manifest the Inhumane Cruelties of the Rebels and then to offer such things as they they thought fit for the security of the Protestants in their Religion Lives Liberties and Fortunes that the said Protestants had not disaffection to Peace so as Punishment might be inflicted according to Law as in the Propositions are expressed and that the said Protestants might be repaired for their great Losses out of the Estates of the Rebels not formerly by any Acts of this present Parliament in England otherwise disposed of which the said Agents desired might be represented to his Majesty and the Lords of the Committee accordingly To the Fifth that the said Protestant Agents were Strangers to His Majesties affairs in England and conceived that part more proper for the Advice of his Councils than the said Agents and therefore desired to be excused for medling in the Treaty further than the manifesting of the Truth of the Protestant Petition and purposing in the behalf of the Protestants according to the Instructions given them which the said Agents were ready to perform whensoever they should be admitted thereunto Touching which and other particulars there were many motions but the proofs they would have insisted upon by the importunity of other affairs never came to their due discussion Appendix XXII Instructions for the Agents who are to attend His Most Sacred Majesty on the behalf of His Majesties Protestant Subjects of Ireland 1. FIrst most humbly to represent unto His Most Sacred Majesty the Remonstrance or Petition of his truly obedient and loyal Subjects the Protestants of this his Kingdom of Ireland intituled To the King 's Most Excâ—llent Majesty
touching Universities and Inns of Court We humbly conceive that this part of the Proposition savoureth of some desire to become independant upon England or to make aspersion on the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom which can never be truly happy but in the good Unity of both in the true Protestant Religion and in the Laws of England for as for matter of charge such of the Natives that are desirous to breed their Sons for Learning in Divinity can be well content to send them to the Universities of Lovane Doway and other Popish places in foreign Kingdoms and for Civil Law or Physick to Padua and other places which draws great Treasure yearly out of your Majesties Dominions but will send few or none of them to Oxford or Cambridge where they might as cheeply be bred up and become as Learned which course I conceive is holden out of their Pride and Disaffection towards this Kingdom and the true Religion here professed And for the Laws of the Land which are for the Common Law agreable to England and so for the greatest part of the Statutes the Inns of Court in England are sufficient and the Protestants come thither without grudging and that is a means to civilize them after the English Customs to make them familiar and in love with the Language and Nation to preserve Law in the Purity when the Professors of it shall draw from one original Fountain and see the manner of the practice of that in the same great Channel where His Majesties Courts of Justice of England do flow most clearly whereas by separation of the Kingdoms in that place of their principal Instruction where their Foundations of Learning are to be laid a degenerate Corruption in Religion and Justice may happily be introduced and spread with much more difficulty to be corrected and restrained afterwards by any Discipline to be used in Ireland or punishment there to be inflicted for departing from the true Grounds of things which are best preserved in Unity when they grow out of the same Root than if such Universities and Inns of Court as are proposed should be granted all which we humbly submit to your Majesties most pious and prudent Consideration and Judgment 8. Prop. That the Offices and Places of Command Honour Profit and Trust within that Kingdom be conferred upon Roman Catholick Natives in equality and indifferency with your Majesties other Subjects Answ We humbly conceive that the Roman Catholicks Natives of Ireland may have the like Offices and Places as the Roman Catholicks Natives of England have here and not otherwise howbeit we conceive that in the generality they have not deserved so much by their late Rebellion therefore we see not why they should be endowed with any new or farther Capacities or Priviledges than they have by the Laws and Statutes now in force in that Kingdom 9. Prop. That the insupportable Oppression of your Subjects by reason of the Court of Wards and Respit of Homage be taken away and certain Revenue in Lieu thereof setled upon your Majesty without Diminution of your Majesties Profits Answ We know of no Oppression by reason of the Court of Wards and we humbly conceive that the Court of Wards is of great use for the raising of your Majesties Revenues the preservation of your Majesties Tenures and chiefly the Education of the Gentry in the Protestant Religion and in Civility and Learning and good Manners who otherwise would be brought up in Ignorance and Barbarism their Estates be ruined by their Kindred and Friends and continue their depending upon their Chieftains and Lords to the great prejudice of your Majesties Service and Protestant Subjects and there being no colour of exception to your Majesties just Title to Wardships we know not why the taking away of your Court concerning the same should be pressed unless it be to prevent the Education of the Lords and Gentry that fall Wards in the Protestant Religion For that part of this Proposition which concerns Respit of Homage We humbly conceive that reasonable that some way may be setled for that if that standeth with your Majesties good Pleasure without prejudice to your Majesty or your Majesties Protestant Subjects 10. Prop. That no Lord not estated in the Kingdom or estated and not resident shall have vote in the said Parliament by proxy or otherwise and none admitted to the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within the Kingdom Answ We humbly conceive that in the Year 1641 by the Graces which your Majesty then granted to your Subjects of Ireland the matter of this Proposition was in a fair way regulated by your utter abolishing of blank Proxies and limiting Lords present and attending in the Parliament of Ireland that no one of them should be capable of more Proxies than two and prescribing the Peers of that Kingdom not there resident to purchase fitting Proportions of Land in Ireland within five Years from the last of July 1641 or else to lose their Votes till they should make such purchases which purchases by reason of the Troubles hapning in the Kingdom and which have continued for two years and a half have not peradventure yet been made and therefore your Majesty may now be pleased and may take just occasion to enlarge that time for five Years more from the time when that Kingdom may again be setled in a happy firm peace And as to Members of the House of Commons the same is most fit as we humbly conceive to be regulated by the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom 11. Prop. That an Act be passed in the next Parliament declaratory that the Parliament of Ireland is a free Parliament of it self independant of and not subordinate to the Parliament of England and that the Subjects of Ireland are immediately subject to your Majesty as in right of your Revenue and that the Members of the said Parliament of Ireland and all other the Subjects of Ireland are independant and no way to be ordered or concluded by the Parliament of England and are only to be ordered and governed within that Kingdom by your Majesty and such Governours as are or shall be there appointed and by the Parliament of that Kingdom according to the Laws of the Land Answ This Proposition concerns your Majesties High Court of Parliament both of England and Ireland and is beyond our Abilities who are not acquainted with the Records and Presidents of this Nature to give an Answer thereunto and therefore we humbly desire your Majesties pardon for not answering unto the same 12. Prop. That the assumed Power or Jurisdiction in the Council Board of determining all Manner of Causes be limited to Matters of State and all Patents Estates and Grants illegally and extrajudicially avoided there or elsewhere be left in State as before and the Parties grieved their Heirs or Assigns till legal Eviction Answ The Council-Table hath always exercised Jurisdiction in some Cases ever since the English Government
Soldier because he had English Bisket in his Pocket Sullevan 67 O Sullevan tels us that from 1168. to the Apostacy of Henry VIII the English though Catholicks by continual Tyranny and Rapine destroyed the Discipline of Church and State and fol. 67. that the English were Irreligious Inconstant and Heretical being in Dioclesian's Persecution Apostates afterwards Arians then Pelagians then Heathens then Idolaters then Murderers of S. Thomas of Becket and then Protestants in a Word wherever they dare do it they do not spare to asperse the English Nation and Government with most Malicious and Opprobrious Accusations and whoever considers That the Bishop of Clogher did so purge his Ulster-Army that he would not suffer any Papist to be in it that was of English Extraction and the Advice of Mr. Mahony in his Disputatio Apologetica Not to make a Priest of English Race nor to trust any that are so Whoever I say considers this and the true Reasons of it will easily be convinced That the Old English and the Old Irish will one Time or other split upon the old indelible National Antipathy As to the second viz. Interest it concerns the Irish and the Old English both of which have Inteterests incompatible with the New English For when the English Lords usurped Irish Arbitrary Power as aforesaid and the Commons being made Vassals to their Lords and holding their Properties but precariously fell naturally into Licentiousness to the Ruine of the Commonwealth The Duke of Clarence in the Reign of Edward III thought to cure this Malady by resuming those Palatinate Jurisdictions and other great Priviledges those English Lords had so enlarged and abused whereupon the Earl of Desmond broached the distinction between the English of Blood and the English of Birth and the former did not only confederate together but also brought in the Irish to their Assistance and Gosip'd Foster'd Married and Incorporated with them so that the Government was obliged to relax their intended Severity and to let these old Englishmen lord it as they pleased till a better Opportunity should be offered for the intended Resumption However from henceforward the Old English and Irish kept a Correspondence and upon the Reformation became more firmly united by the common tye of Religion and under Pretence of defending Religion and their usurped Jurisdictions they were found together in many Rebellions and their Estates confiscated and given to the new English so that they are united in a common Interest to recover their forfeited Estates if they can and when that is done the Irish have their particular Interest apart to recover their old Estates from the first Conquerors or Intruders As for the third viz. Religion I need not explain the Irreconcilable Antipathy that is between the Roman Catholick Religion and Heresie or between true Religion and Idolatry the Differences of Nation and Interest may be suspended lessned ay buried and annihilated but there is no Reconciliation to be made between God and Mammon This great concern has so silenced all the rest that at this Day we know no difference of Nation but what is expressed by Papist and Protestant if the most Ancient Natural Irish-Man be a Protestant no Man takes him for other than an English-Man and if a Cockny be a Papist he is reckoned in Ireland as much an Irish-man as if he was born on Slevelogher the Earls of Insiquin and Castlehaven are Examples hereof the one being of the best and ancientest Family in Ireland was yet the beloved General of an English Army and the other being the second Baron of England was Commander of the Irish Forces There is also another Difference in Religion between the Episcoparians and the Dissenters which last are branched into several Sects but it is not at all or very little taken notice of in Ireland because they do really manage this Affair more prudently than some other more celebrated Nations and sacrifice these petty Fewds to the common Interest of opposing Popery And that these Distinctions may appear to be neither trivial nor meerly Notional it will be necessary to give Instances of these several Factions in the late Irish Wars and first there was an Army of all meer Irish not an English Papist among them commanded by the Bishop of Clogher and another of meer English all Papists under General Preston And secondly There was an Army of Old English and Irish under the Lords Mountgarrat Taaf c. and an Army of New English commanded by the Earls of Ormond Insiquin c. And thirdly there was an Army of Papists under the Nuntio and an Army of Protestants commanded by the Marquess of Ormond But how stand these great Differences at this Day Why truly worse than ever for as to the first Whereas the Old English were heretofore on the British side in all National Quarrels they are now so infatuated and degenerated that they do not only take part with the Irish but call themselves Natives in distinction from the New English against whom they are at present as inveterate as the Original Irish though perhaps Time may open their Eyes and rectifie that Error And as to the Second whereas at Queen Elizabeth's Death the Protestants had not above a fourth part of the Kingdom the Escheats in Ulster in King James his time and the Act of Settlement since has given them two fourths more so that now they have three Quarters of the whole and thereby more Irish are disobliged than were formerly and their Loss is greater and consequently their Interest to regain it is larger and more pressing than it was in former Times As to the third viz. Religion it 's certain the Papists were never so enraged at the Northern Pestilent Heresie as of late they have been and the Folly Insolence and Cruelty of these last seven Years has justly rendred Popery more odious than ever to the Protestants But was there no way to secure Ireland without Sanguinary Laws and Inhuman Persecutions Yes sure if People would in time have set themselves to repair the State of Ireland as the Jews under Nehemiah did to re-edifie the Walls of Jerusalem viz. every one build over against his own House the Matter had been easily and quietly accomplished for the formidable Bulk of Irish Papists were for the most part Servants or Tenants to Protestants and of their breeding up and if the English would have sacrificed a little sordid Profit to the Publick Good and have countenanced and indulged Protestant Servants and Tenants instead of Papists a very few Years would have put themselves and their Religion out of Danger But at this Day the Provocations are carried so high and the Irish have abused the English to that degree of Barbarity and Ingratitude that it will be hard to perswade the Protestants to trust them again or to live neighbourly with the many more Nevertheless since Extirpations are Cruelty in the Abstract and odious to Human Nature there must be a Method found out to
preserve the Bulk of that People and make them serviceable to the Government which will not be practicable unless first the Raporees are severely corrected for their past Enormities and afterwards strictly kept in Obedience And perhaps it may be very useful both to the Reduction and Settlement of Ireland to make a Difference between those Papists that are of English Extraction those that are not for although at this Day they would laugh at the Distinction yet upon the first considerable Baffle they meet with they will certainly leap at the Qualification In the mean time it may be demanded How it comes to pass that the Papists in three Years have more weakned the Protestants of Ireland in Quantity Quality and Estate in a time of Peace and the Law on their side than the Protestants could weaken them in forty times that space But the Answer is easie That the Protestants are obliged to Rules of Charity and Forms of Justice which whether others observe or not will be manifest by what they have done for whereas it is most consonant to Reason Law and the Polity of that Kingdom that the small Colony of British in a conquered Country should be protected against the numerous Natives by an Army of their own Nation and Religion and so has it been practised for five hundred Years and ought rather to be now because a Protestant Parliament gave a great yearly Revenue to that very End most part of which was also paid by Protestants Yet have we seen all this Reason Law and Polity subverted and that Army disbanded with Circumstances as bad as the Fact and Enemies introduced to guard us against themselves and Mountaneers garrisoned within those Walls that were purposely built to keep them out And whereas the Force of the Common Law is resolved into Tryals by Jury was it not a subversion of the Common Law in a Country where Perjury is so frequent that Irish Evidence is become proverbially scandalous to make Judge Sheriff Jury Witnesses and Party all of a sort what Justice a Protestant could expect in such a Case may appear by those notorious Murders and other great Crimes that have passed unpunished And by those many hundreds of Protestants who without Colour or Circumstance of Truth have been impeached for Treason Seditious Words Night-walking or Vnlawful Assemblies c. And as if all this was not enough unless they entailed these Miseries upon the Protestants and even legitimated them by Act of Parliament they have in order to that seized upon all Corporations and dissolved them on forged or frivolous Pretences in so precipitate a manner that they did not allow competent time to draw much less to review the Pleadings they reversed the Outlaries of the Popish Lords and projected to call their eldest Sons by Writ and so made themselves sure of both Houses of an Irish Parliament But alass these Complaints are drowned in greater and the Insolence and Barbarity of the Raporees is not to be expressed it was tolerable whilst the Protestants suffered under Pretence or Forms of Law but when these Wolves were let loose the English were plundered of all they had at Noon Day in the face of the Sun in Times of Peace and without Provocation and which was a greater Aggravation of this Crime it was done in many Places by the Servants and Tenants they had kept from starving and the Neighbours they had most obliged so that the Protestants of Ireland are entirely ruined by an ungrateful People themselves had cherished and supported But to proceed I have been curious to give the Vice-Roys of Ireland their proper Titles and yet I am not sure that I am always exact nor is it of any great Importance whether I am or no since their Power is measured by their Commission and not by their Denomination And although I have gathered many Materials towards a Second Part yet it will be some time before I can publish it because I shall expect that those generous Persons that have collected any curious Observations of the Later Times will either communicate them to me or command mine which I will readily part with to any Body that will undertake that Province it being indifferent to me so the thing be done whether it be performed by mending mine or beginning a new Work AN APPARATUS OR Introductory Discourse TO THE HISTORY of IRELAND CONCERNING The State of that Kingdom before the Conquest thereof by the English IRELAND is an Island seated in the Vergivian Sea on the western Side of Great Britain next to which it is the biggest Island in Europe it extends from North to South about three hundred English Miles in length and it is one hundred and eighty of the same Miles broad from East to West in some Places more in some less it contains above ten Millions and a half of Plantation which is near seventeen Millions of English Acres of Land so that it is four time as big as Palestine and holds Proportion with England and Wales as 17 to 30. The Country is not at all inferior to England for Number or Goodness of Harbours Fertility of Soyl Plenty of Fish both in the Fresh and Salt Water Fowle Wild and Tame and all Sorts of Flesh Corn and Grain and every thing else necessary for the Life of Man saving that in some of these England has got an Advantage by Improvement and good Husbandry The Irish Rivers are both more numerous and more Clear the Shenin is bigber than the Thames and might be made Navigable almost two hundred Miles the Air indeed of England is more serene and consequently more hot in Summer and more cold in Winter nevertheless that Ireland is the healthier Country may be argued from hence That seldom any Pestilential Disease rages there and no part of that Kingdom is so unhealthy as the Fenns of Huntington Lincoln and Cambridge Shires the Hundreds of Essex or the Wild of Kent and it may be expected That as the Bogs are drained and the Country grows Populous the Irish Air will meliorate since it is already brought to that Pass That Fluxes and Dissenteries which are the Country Diseases are neither so riâ—e nor so mortal as they have been heretofore Things most observable of that Country are That nothing venomous will live in it there are Spiders but not poysonous Ireland breeds the largest Grey-hound in the World they are called Wolf-Dogs and will dwindle and grow much smaller in two or three Generations in any other Country The Irish Hawk is reputed the best in Europe and the Irish Hobbies or ambling Nags can hardly be matched nor do any Seas abound with Pilchards more than the Southern Irish Sea it is very rare to have an Earthquake in Ireland and when it happens it is portentuous there are a thousand Lies reported of wonderful things in Ireland but the only extraordinary thing I can aver true is the strange Quality of Logh neâ—gh that turns Wood into Stone and I
the Irish are amesnable to Law and have the Benefit of it and not long after a Commission of Martial Law and of conferring Knighthood was sent to the Lord Lieutenant and he was ordered to Knight O Neal and other Irish Potentates and the King sent a Collar of Gold to O Neal and ordered the Lord Lieutenant to prevail with them if possible to visit the King and Court of England in hopes to inure him to Civility and a regular way of Living and the same Letter orders Surry to propose a Match between the Earl of Ormond's Son and Sir Thomas Bullen's Daughter In the mean time the Earl of Kildare was set at liberty on Bail his Adversaries not being able to prove any thing to the purpose against him and soon after he was received into Favour and attended the King into France and was present at the Interview of both Kings near Calice Maurice Fitz-Thomas of Lackagh was basely murdered by the O Moors in Leix and Maurice Earl of Desmond being dead his Son and Successor James soon after met the Lieutenant at Waterford where the Earls of Ormond and Desmond by his means were reconciled and mutually perfected Indentures of Agreement and gave Hostages for the performance of them The Earl of Surry was brisk upon the Birns 1521. and in October drove them from place to place into their Fastnesses and lurking holes which gave Quiet to the rest of the Pale and it had need of it for by the wetness of the Harvest Corn became very scarce This Lieutenant was resolved to make the Army serviceable and as an instance of his Discipline he disbanded Sir John Bulmer's Troop for their Inexperience or Cowardize Surry calls a Parliament which met at Dublin the fourth of June and Enacted many good Laws viz. 1. That wilful Burning of Houses or Reeks of Corn be Treason 2. That the Transporter of Wool or Flocks shall forfeit double Value 3. Because there are but few Free-holders in the four Shires where the King's Law is used therefore he that has ten Marks per annum may be Juror in Attaint This Parliament ended after several Prorogations the twenty first of May 1522 and not in March as it is in Sir James Ware 's Annals 102. Whilst Surry was at Dinner in the Castle of Dublin News was brought him that the O Mores who had confederated with the O Conners O Carol and other Irish against the English which they counted the common Enemy were on the Borders of the Pale wherefore as well to repel them as to revenge the aforesaid Murder of Maurice Fitz-Thomas the Lord Lieutenant accompanied with the Mayor of Dublin and a choice Band of Citizens and several of the Nobility and their Attendants invaded Leix which is a Country full of Woods and Bogs The Irish divided their Forces into several Parties and having Intelligence that the Carriages and Baggage of the Army was slenderly guarded they took their opportunity to attack that part and did it so briskly that several of the Lord Lieutenant's Soldiers fled but the Valour of Patrick Fitz-Simons is recorded by the Historian to have preserved that necessary Concern of the Army and to have cut off and brought to the Mayor's Tent two of the Rebels Heads Nor perhaps had so small a thing been known to the Lord Lieutenant or recorded in History but by the means of Fitz-Simons's his Enemies for the cowardly Soldiers that fled laid the blame on Fitz-Simons who to justifie himself produced the two Heads and retorted the Crime of Cowardise upon his Accusers and so obtained both Reward and Honour by a great but frequent Providence of Divine Justice that turns even the Malice of our Enemies to our Advantage It must be observed That in these Irish Wars it was harder to find the Enemy than conquer them O More 's Army that was just now in a Body formidable to the Pale is now divided into small Parties and those sculking in thick Woods and deep Bogs Whilst the Lord Lieutenant marched through these Wildernesses a Rebel that lay in Ambush on the side of a Wood shot at him and struck the Vizor off his Helmet but did not hurt him Much ado they had to find the stubborn Tory but at last they got him and Fitz-Williams and Bedlow were forced to hew him to piecs for he would not yield This Accident manifested the Danger of the March and turned their Arms into Offaly where they besieged Monaster-pheoris but after a Day or two the Garrison frightned with the great Guns ran a way by Night So Surry left a Garrison there and burnt the Country till the twenty third of July But O Conner had not only removed the Corn and Cattle beforehand to deprive the English of Sustenance and Prey but very wisely invaded Meath hoping by that Diversion to preserve his Country But whether Surry's Expedition and Intelligence occasioned it or that the Rebels designed to fight him it matters not since it is certain that they met Ware 's Annals 104. and that whatever they resolved or bragged of beforehand when it came to the Tryal their Hearts failed them and Surry got a Victory almost without Blow and made great Slaughter in the Pursuit his only Loss being the valiant Lord of Dunsany who probably was too eager in the the Chase of the Rebels O Carol pretended that the Earl of Kildare had instigated him to this Rebellion However as Surry phrases it in his Letter to the King he made Peace with the King and his Lieutenant and gave his Son and Brother Hostages for the performance of it In the mean time Cardinal Wolsy who was Legate de latere in England sent over Bulls and Dispensations into Ireland by his Factor and Register John Allen Lib. CCC but it seems they did not turn to account for Allen in his Letter to the Cardinal complains they went off but slowly because the Irish had so little sense of Religion that they married within the Levitical Degrees without Dispensations and also because they questioned his Grace's Authority in Ireland especially out of the Pale O Donel was lately returned from Rome and by Letters and Messages promised great Matters as well from his own People as the Scottish Islanders if he might be received into Favour Ibid. wherewith the Lord Lieutenant was so wheedled that he not only granted his Pardon but highly commended his Loyalty in a Letter to the King And in confidence of O Donel's Integrity the Lord Lieutenant accompanied by O Neal and four hundred Horse four hundred Gallowglasses and eight hundred Kerne undertook an Expedition into Maâ— Mlaghlins Country but O Donel most perfidiously took the Opportunity of O Neal's Absence to invade him and Mac Genis and burnt seventeen Villages in their Countries and took considerable Preys whereupon O Neal was forced to return and Surry's Expedition was Fruitless This Lord Lieutenant wrote a notable Letter to the King on the thirtieth of June Lib.
Villages 1577. and yet by help of his Intelligence which was very good he made a shift to escape the diligent Pursuit that was made after him by 〈◊〉 Captains Harrington and Coâ—by One day a Parly being appointed between them on 〈◊〉 Oaths the perfidious Rebel seiz'd upon Harrington and Cosby handâ—asted them together and made them 〈◊〉 after him 〈◊〉 a couple of 〈◊〉 through Woods and Boggâ— in continual fear of Death at length an Agreement was almost concluded when Robert Harpool Constable of Carâ—â—â— accompanied by Lieuâ— Parker and fifty Men having good intelligence went to the Place where Rory Oge 〈◊〉 Rory surprized with the Noise and suspecting the worst went to his Prisoners Harrington and Cosby and gave them many Wounds and cut off Cosby's little â—inger but being in the dark and in haste it so hapned that none of the Wounds were mortal 〈…〉 English having entred the House I released Harrington and Cosby and killed all the rest◠〈◊〉 Rory Oge and one more escaped in the dark and could not be found Soon after Rory Oge assembled all his strength together and came to 〈◊〉 early in the Morning burnt some Houses and 〈…〉 him and killed seventeen of his best Men and Rory himself hardly escaped In the mean time the Lord Deputy 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 and thither came to him 〈…〉 and renewed his former Subâ—ission he brought with him to the Town four hundred Pound in Money and thought it much to his Glory that he and his Followers spent 〈…〉 three days time and so having received some small Presents from the Deputy he returned joyfully 〈◊〉 In December the Deputy 〈◊〉 into the Kingâ— County and took Pledge◠〈…〉 held Sessions at Kilkenny where several 〈…〉 the City and Country were discovered to be 〈…〉 Popish â—uries would not find the Indictments although the Parties confessed the 〈◊〉 some of them were bound by Recognizance to appear at the Castle Chamber in Dublin to answer that 〈◊〉 To Kilkenny came the 〈◊〉 President 〈◊〉 to complain 〈◊〉 Desmond kept 〈…〉 which oppressed the Country and 〈…〉 President The Deputy 〈◊〉 for Desmond and 〈◊〉 immediately came and excused his not coming to the President because he was his 〈◊〉 Enemy but the Lord Deputy so manag'd it that they were reconciled and the 〈◊〉 promised due Obedience And so cunningly did that 〈◊〉 dissemble that he sent the Lord President word of the Arrival of a 〈…〉 with many French and Irish Men 〈…〉 and Munster in 〈…〉 In the Month of December 〈…〉 Son whereupon great and cruel 〈…〉 ensue between 〈…〉 at length their Controversies were referr'd to the Deputy About the same time some of the 〈◊〉 Followers were suspected to be 〈…〉 sent for to be 〈…〉 to surrender them 〈…〉 to be tried but also joyned with the rest of the Lords and Free-holders of Connaughâ— to settle a certain annual Rent amounting to about eighteen hundred Pounds 〈◊〉 by way of Composition Morison 3. and in lieu of all other Services But we must return again to that indefatigable Rebel Rory Oge who sent a Spy to inâ—â—â— Fitz-Patrick Lord of Upper Ossory 1578. the Messenger personating a Friend told that Lord That Rory Oge had taken a Prey from the County of Kilkenny which might easily be recovered and Rory himself taken Fitz-Patrick prepares for the Enterprize but wisely suspecting the worst made his Party as strong as he could and being come to the Place he sent thirty Men into the Wood to search for the Tories and himself and the rest of his Party kept on the Plain Rory Oge with about thirty appeared leaving the rest in Ambush and being proud and conceited thought with his Presence to frightâ—n Fitz-Patrick's Keins but he found them more valiant for they fought stoutly and amongst the rest slew Rory-Oge himself on the last day of June 1578. And though the Deputy offered the valiant Baron the thousand Marks due by Proclamation for Rory's Head yet he would take but one hundred Pounds thereof to be divided amongst his Men. In the mean time Philip King of Spain being vexed at the Aid which Queen Elizabeth under-hand gave to the Hollanders Cambd. Eliz. 230. resolved to requite her with the like secret Assistance to the Irish and the holy Father Gregory the Thirteenth partly to propagate Religion and partly to obtain that Kingdom of Ireland for his Son James Buon Campagno whom he had made Marquess of Vinâ—ola was willing to contribute to the Charge of the Irish Rebellion Wherefore they confederated and agreed to joyn Forces and Councils and to send Aid to Ireland under the Command of Stukely an English Fugitive who by his extravagant Boasting had raised the Pope's expectation to the greatest height wherefore to qualifie him for so high a Command Stukely was made Marquess of Leinster Earl of Wexford and Catherlogh Viscount Murrough and Baron of Ross and furnished with eight hundred Soldiers with which he set Sail from Civita Vecchia and arrived in Portugal Sebastian King of Portugal was at that time intent on his Wars in Africk and promised Stukely that if he would attend him into Mauritania that then he would immediately after the Africk War accompany Stukely to Ireland The Irish General agrees and to Africk they go where they were killed in the famous Battel wherein three Kings are said to be slain The Viscount Baltinglass whose real trouble was Religion and the Cess pretends great Oppression from Marshal Malby and his Soldiers one Night they lay at Baltinglass when they went against Rory Oge the Viscount made a formal Complaint to the Deputy and did the like to the Queen by Letters sent to the Earl of Ormond and communicated to her Whereupon her Majesty gave strict Order to examine the Matter and it was sound that Malby at coming to Baltinglass had made Proclamation against Oppression and at parting thence made Proclamation for those to come in for reparation that had any cause 〈◊〉 Complaint and so this Matter ended to the Disgrace of the Viscount In Vister Mac Mahon had committed a barbarous Murder on the Son and Heir of Maâ—genis and therefore at Maâ—genis his Complaint and Request the Deputy marched into Mac Mahon's Country and burnt and destroyed it And so this good Lord Deputy having been eleven years and seven several times Chief Governor of Ireland leaves that unfortunate Country in greater Quiet than ever it had been in before having first caused the Irish Statutes to be Printed and the Records to be put in good Method and Order he beautified the Castle of Dublin anno 1571 repaired Aâ—henry built the Bridge of Athlona which opened a Passage into Connaught he began to wall Oarrig fâ—rgus he built a Gaol at Molingar and in his time the Revenue was increased eleven thousand Pounds but finding all these Services under valued he laboured to be 〈◊〉 and had Orders of the twentieth of March to return but they were superâ—eded by Letters of the nineteenth of
charge for Gallowglasses number and time certain viz. Meat and Drink one day in a Fortnight Soroheen more was an equivalent for the other in Quirrens of Butter and Srones of Oatmeal South alias Tax or Tallage is a Contribution towards the payment of the Lords Debts or any other extraordinary occasion vide Cuttings Stanihurst a Treatise in Latin of the Conquest of Ireland by Richard Stanihurst Sullevan the Catholick History of Ireland written in Latin anno 1621. by Philip O Sullevan Siurirupes Carig ni shure alias Carrick in Com' Typerany T. Termon-lands are Lands belonging to the Church and were priviledg'd from Taxes and it seems the Termon was the Clergy-mans Tenant or Servant Turbarii Kernes Irish Foot-Souldiers lightly arm'd Tagh of Land is 60 acres Tuethia the Territory of Mac Swiny na doo in Com' Donegall Tirconell the County of Donegall Tybrach a Castle within two miles of Carrig and not Typerary as is by mistake supposed pag 40. Trowses are Britches and Stockings made to sit as close to the Body as can be Tate is sixty Irish acres V. Vriell is the County of Louth Vallis Juncosa Slevelogher the Mountain between the Counties of Cork and Kerry W. Ware Sir James Ware 's Annals of Ireland Ware de Presul the same de praesulibus Hiberniae Ware de Antiq. the same de Antiquitatibus Hiberniae ERRATA APparatus pag. 1. read 150 of the same miles broad p. 26. read Squaleing Engine Pag. 9. line 16. read irrita p. 11. l. 24. r. Birne p. 13. l. 11. r. next day p. 18. l. 41. r. inheritance p. 20. l. 28. r. Army was p. 23. l. 7. r. Tuam p. 27. l. 35. r. extirpate p. 37. l. ult r. and he without delay p. 44. l. 33. r. extraordinary p. 52. l. 44. r. Combatants l. 46. r. Nor the strong p. 57. l. 2. r. beholding to Ireland p. 63. l. 3. r. fideli p. 69. l. 38. r. Carbry p. 73. l. 46. r. and tho' the Britton had p. 109 l. 23. r. by methods p. 111. l. 20. r. Lucy p. 117. l. 7. r. and the King by his Patent p. 121. l. 17. r. Custodium p. 129. l. 5. r. and wounded the Earl p. 153. l. 34. r. Athy p. 157. l. 34. r. Heir Male p. 183. l. 21. r. Xeesh p. 190. l. 15. r. from his Journey p. 200. l. 16. r. in the world p. 208. l. 16. r. Clogher p. 211. l. 39. r. blows p 213. l. 19 r. repostum l. 42. r. James p. 234. l. 8. r. sixteen hundred p. 260. l. 9. r. quieted p. 261. l. 1. r. Finin O Driscoll l. 37. r. at four p. 271. l 40. r. if they prove p. 321. l. 43. r. 1565. p. 324. l. 5. r. Alexander Oge p. 325. l. 3. r. by Affane p. 329. l. 13. r. offenders in Parliament p. 367. l. 43. r. Thomas Butler alias Becket p. 368. l. 18 r. combat p. 370. l. 8. r. at wars p. 399 l. 30 r. aspersions p. 417. l. 20. r. gap p. 418. l. 19. r. root p 420. l 8 r. at loose fight p. 421. l. 15. r. O Birnes p 422. l. 9. r. figary l. 31. r. he deposed p. 425. l. 30 r. Barret l. 44. r. hereupon p. 426. l. 32. r. disown'd a Truce I do hereby License a Book written by Mr. Richard Cox intituled HIBERNIA ANGLICANA or The Second Part of the History of Ireland to be Printed and Published Given at the Court at Whitehall the 18 th day of February 1689-90 Shrewsbury Let this Book intituled HIBERNIA ANGLICANA or The Second Part of the History of Ireland be Printed Nottingham Febr. 18. 1689-â—â— HIBERNIA ANGLICANA OR THE SECOND PART OF THE HISTORY OF IRELAND From the CONQUEST Thereof by the ENGLISH To this Present Time By the Author of the First Part. ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ 61. Indeed that Sea of Blood which hath been cruelly and barbarously shed in Ireland is enough to drown any Man in eternal both Infamy and Misery whom God shall find the malicious Author or Instigator of its Effusion Earl of Clarendon against Cressy 71. Was not the Rebellion begun and carried on by the King's Roman Catholick Subjects Was there one Man but Catholicks that concurr'd in it And did they pretend any other Cause for it but Religion In the SAVOY Printed by Edward Jones for Joseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard Matthew Gillyflower in Westminster-hall Charles Harper in Fleet-street and Samuel Crouch in Cornhill MDCXC TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY GREAT SIR IT is noted by the Lord Bacon in the Life of the Wise and Victorious Prince King Henry the Seventh That it was his Custom to be First or Second in all his Warlike Exploits and that it was his Saying when he heard of Rebels That he desir'd but to see them What Your Majesty has lately published to the Two Houses of Parliament is of the same Spirit and Policy But This is not the only Parallel between Your Majesty and that Great King for He also came from Abroad yet with this Distinction that His Coming was only to assert his Particular Claim whereas the Coming of Your Majesty was of Vniversal Concern it being to free us all who were at the Brink of Idolatry and Bondage To whom then GREAT SIR should I Dedicate this Second Part of the History of Ireland but to Your Majesty who now Dedicates Your Self to the Redemption of Ireland and being thus far in Possession of the Subject I am already preparing to Record all Your Majesty's Glorious Atchievements and am in certain expectation of a greater Theme than ever that Kingdom could hitherto boast 'T is true Your Majesty hath herein the Power of Two Kings to Oppose but 't is no ill Symptom that by what you have already done the One of them has been constrained to send his Plate and the Other his Cannon to the Mint Nor ought we to think better of Irish Armies or Irish Courage than is thought by those who judge Both well paid for when but rewarded with Copper 'T is certain The Bulk of that Nation are already surfeited with the Stratagem of that Imaginary Coin they feel the Fruits of contending for a French Interest by the Slaughter Sickness and Defolation of the Year past so that 't is possible Humane Nature may at length be too hard for the Priest and the Politician too and that when by Your Majesty's Presence they behold their Ruin at hand they may give more Exercise to Your Mercy than to Your Sword It was truly observed by Your Majesty in Your late Gracious Speech That in the speedy Recovery of Ireland the Place and Honor of England did consist and that hereby alone Taxes could cease So that as Your Majesty is now willing to expose Your Person for those Great Ends 't is not to be feared but the Nation will second Your Majesty with such Royal Supplies as may make it a short and not a lingring Work for not only in This but
in many other high Regards 't is Expedition alone that can answer the Anxieties which England must be in for Your Majesty's Absence And seeing Your Majesty will leave behind that Great Pledge Your Royal Consort and our most Gracious Queen Your Majesty will not want Your own Anxieties also for a speedy Return But that it may be with such Laurels as may bring Terror to France with Triumph to Your own Kingdoms and a happy Restitution of Your poor Protestant Subjects of Ireland to their Native Homes is the most fervent Prayer of GREAT SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful most Loyal and most Devoted Subject and Servant R. COX TO THE READER YOU have here a History of great Variety and much Intrigue It takes in a large Space of Time of above Fifty Years and begins at the End of one War and ends with the Close of another The long Interval between these Two Periods being almost Forty years was spent in a profound Peace the short Commotion of O Dogharty only excepted and in promoting all those Blessings of Plenty and Good Laws which the Industry of the English could accomplish But the subsequent Part of the Time was according to Bishop Usher's Prophetical Sermon Preach'd Anno 1601. turn'd into a Scene of Blood Treachery and Desolation which overturned all The Roots of that so great Cruelty and Universal Defection are already hinted at in the Preface of my Former Part by those Differences there set forth of Nation Interest and Religion Upon King James his Accession to the Crown the Irish were surfeited with War so that all things in that Kingdom had a tendency to Peace And tho' a Rumor spread abroad and believ'd by the Irish That the King was of their Religion put some of the principal Towns into a Commotion yet the Diligence and Expedition of the Lord Deputy did soon appease that Storm and reduce the Disobedient to their Duty And tho' the natural Inclination of that King to Peace was a great Temptation to the Irish to try their Fortune with him in a War and accordingly the Lords Tyrone and Tyrconell and Sir Cahir O Dogharty attempted it yet the Rebels were always baffled in their Undertakings by the Diligence Wisdom and Courage of those to whom the King entrusted his Irish Affairs And indeed both King James the First and King Charles the First did take a particular Care to put the Government of Ireland into such Hands as were worthy of it and underwent the Administration thereof with Advantage to that Kingdom and Honor to themselves The First was the Lord Montjoy whom King James found Deputy and soon after made Lord Lieutenant This Lord was thought in England to be a better Courtier than a Soldier but when he came to Ireland he proved the best Soldier that Kingdom had seen in many Years It was he that found out the true Way of making War with the Irish For being well supplied with Necessaries from England he plainly saw that if he could attack them at a time when they wanted all Conveniences to keep the Field he could meet with very little or no Resistance and therefore he supplied his Frontier Garisons with Men and Provisions and they by their frequent Excursions did such Execution on the Persons and Estates of the Irish that by One Winters War he reduc'd them to the Necessity of eating one another and forced their Ringleader the Earl of Tyrone to submit to his Mercy and so made an end of that Rebellion His Successor or rather Deputy Sir George Cary was Treasurer at Wars and a worthy Gentleman but nothing of extraordinary moment hapned during his Government The next was Sir Arthur Chichester afterwards Lord of Belfast one well experienc'd in the Affairs of Ireland whereof he held the Chief Government for Eleven Years He was a good Soldier and a true Englishman and did Three great Things towards a Reformation The First was his Management of the most stubborn Parliament that ever was in that Kingdom which nevertheless he prevail'd with to Attaint the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconell Sir Cahir O Dogharty and others and to make an Act of Recognition and to give the King a Subsidy And the Second was the Plantation of the Forfeitâ—d Estates in Ulster which he very much influenc'd and promoted And the Third was the Reviving and Restoring the Circuits for Judges of Assize in both the Provinces of Conaught and Munster The Lords Justices Doctor Jones Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor and Sir Richard Wingfield were Men Famous in their respective Faculties and are Founders of the Noble Families of the Earl of Ranelagh and Viscount Powerscourt And Sir John Denham Lord Chief Justice was not less Renowned than either of Them by reason of his great Learning in his Profession to which the Crown owes the first Advancement of that Considerable Branch of the Revenue arising by the Customs in Ireland The next Lord Deputy was Sir Oliver Saint John afterwards Viscount Grandison a Person Nobly descended and of a generous Temper He had given great Proof of his Courage and Conduct at the Battel of Kinsale and was not inferior to any of his Predecessors in a sincere Concern for the Protestant Religion and the Good of the Kingdom but he hapned in an ill time as did also his Successor the Worthy Lord Falkland whilst the Spanish Match was in agitation So that both these brave Men by the Clamour of the Irish and the prevailing Power of their Popish Enemies came away in Disgrace But their Innocence being afterwards vindicated as it was this Affront was in some measure atton'd for by the subsequent Favour of the King The Lords Justices that received the Sword from the Lord Falkland were the Viscount Loftus of Ely Lord Chancellor one of great Parts and Merit and the Noble Earl of Cork Lord High Treasurer who was one of the most extraordinary Persons either That or any other Age hath produced with respect to the great and just Acquisitions of Estate that he made and the Publick Works that he began and finished for the advancement of the English Interest and the Protestant Religion in Ireland as Churches Alms-Houses Free-Schools Bridges Castles and * Lismore Tallow Cloghnakilty Iniâ—keen Castletown Bandon which last Place cost him 14000 l. Townsâ— Insomuch that when Cromwel saw these prodigious Improvements which he little expected to find in Ireland he declared That if there had been an Earl of Cork in every Province it would have been impossible for the Irish to have rais'd a Rebellion And whilst he was carrying on these solid Works he lived in his Family at a Rate of Plenty that exceeded those who consumed great Estates in the lavish ways of ill-ordered Excess His †God's Providence is my Inheritance Motto shews from whence he derived all his Blessings the greatest of which was the Numerous and Noble * Earl of Burlington and Cork Viscount Kinalmeky Earl of Orrery Viscount Shannon Robert
for Sir William Saintleger to be Lord President of Munster And on the Fifteenth of March he ordered the Vice-Treasurer to pay what the Lord Deputy and Eight Privy-Counsellors should think fit for the Charges of the Lord Deputy's Progress On the Ninth of May 1627. upon Complaint of the Lord Courcy That Sir Dominick Sarsfeild had obtained the Title of Viscount Kinsale it was referred to the Lord president of the Council the Steward of the Houshold Earl of Totness Viscount Grandison and Chancellor of the Dutchy who report That the Lord Courcy and his Ancestors were Lords Courcy and Barons of Kinsale and Ringrone And thereupon the Defendant endeavor'd to carry the Barony to another Line and also alledged an Attainder but made out neither and then he propos'd That both Titles were consistent one to be Baron and the other to be Viscount of Kinsale But that being not thought convenient his Majesty orders That Sir Dominick quit the Title of Kinsale but retain the Name and Precedency of Viscount Sarsfeild and chuse some other Place to denominate his Honour and afterwards he did so and was created Viscount Killmallock And on the 24th of July the King orders That Nathaniel Catlin his second Serjeant at Law should have Precedence of the Attorney-General and Sollicitor-General and in February following his Majesty likewise gave Orders to make a new Examinator for the Court of Chancery there being but one Examinator in that Court before that time But in order to make the Papists the more willing to bear the great Charge of the Army and to consent to a constant Tax for its Support certain Propositions were set on foot in their favour viz. to suspend all Proceedings against them for Marriages and Christnings by Priests and to give them liberty of Suing out Liveries and Ouster le mains without taking the Oath of Supremacy with design to introduce a more Publick Toleration of Religion for which a good Sum of Money should be paid to his Majesty to maintain the Army to which end a Great Assembly of the Nation was Convok'd by the Lord Deputy But the Protestant Archbishops and Bishops abhorring this gross and scandalous Proposal did on the 26th day of November 1626. at the Lord Primate's House unanimously vote and subscribe the following Protestation viz. The Judgment of divers of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland Life of Archb. concerning Toleration of Religion Vsher 28. THe Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous Sin and that in two Respects For First It is to make our selves accessory not only to their Superstitions Idolatries and Heresies and in a word to all the Abominations of Popery but also which is a Consequent of the former to the Perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy Secondly To grant them a Toleration in respect of any Money to be given or Contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with his most precious Blood And as it is a great Sin so it is also a Matter of most dangerous consequence the Consideration whereof we commit to the Wise and Judicious beseeching the God of Truth to make them who are in Authority zealous of God's Glory and of the Advancement of True Religion zealous resolute and couragious against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen Ja. Armachanus Mal. Casellen Anth. Medensis Tho. Ferns Leghlin Ro. Dunensis Georg. Derensis Richard Cork c. Andr. Alachadens Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Theo. Dromore Mic. Waterford Lismore Fra. Limerick This zealous Protestation of the Bishops against Popery which Downham Bishop of Derry read to the State in the midst of his Sermon at Christchurch on the 23th day of April 1627. drew on a Remonstrance from the House of Commons in England to his Majesty to this effect That the Popish Religion was publickly profest in every Part of Ireland and that Monasteries and Nunneries were thsre newly erected and replenished with Votaries of both Sexes which would be of evil Consequence unless seasonably repress'd These two extraordinary Actions put a stop to any farther Endeavors for the publick Exercise of Popery at that time Nevertheless because the Irish Agents in England did consent to the payment of 120000 l. in three Year it was thought reasonable that the King should signifie his Gracious Acceptance thereof by conferring some extraordinary Favours on the Agents and Contributors And therefore the King did on the 24th day of May not only grant them the following Graces which were transmitted to Ireland by way of Instructions to the Lord Deputy and Council but also sent with it a Letter recommending the Lord of Killeen and the Lord Poer and the rest of the Irish Agents to the Lord Deputy's Favour desiring that he would order such Moneys to be paid them by the Country as they were promis'd for their Agency and that he should issue necessary Warrants and Directions for levying the same Instructions to be observed by Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Henry Lord Viscount Falkland Our Deputy-General of Our-Realm of Ireland and by Our Council there and by the Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors and Council there which hereafter for the time shall be and by all other Our Officers and Ministers whom it may severally or respectively concern I. AT the humble Requests presented unto Us on the behalf of Our Subjects of Ireland upon mature Consideration had thereof and by the Advice of Our Privy-Council We are graciously pleased in the first place to order and direct for the better Preservation and Ease of our said Subjects that Our Soldiers there be called in and limited to the most Serviceable Garrisons and that they be not called from thence upon any Pretence but against the Enemy or Rebel that makes Head II. For the Collection of Our Rents in case of Default That first a Summons Process shall issue Secondly That a Purâ—uivant be sent and Lastly If this be not sufficient in case the Sum be of value that then Our Vice-Treasurer by Warrant from Our Deputy and Council shall appoint a competent Number of Soldiers of the next adjoyning Garison to collect Our said Rents at the Charge of the Parties complained of having care that any Man be not burdened with a greater number of Soldiers than the Service shall necessarily require III. And when Necessity requires the Marching of Our said Soldiers against the Enemy or Rebel That the Officers imploy'd shall give Ready Money or Ticket to be defalked out of their Entertainment and duly paid into the Country upon demand without taking Money Pawns or Distresses but such Meat and
Name of THE CASE OF TENURES and was excellently reported in Print by Baron Barry afterwards Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and Baron of Sautry This Grand Inquisition was counted so great a Master-piece of the Lord Deputies and so beneficial to the King and advantagious to the English Interest That some Persons who went to England to complain of it were there not only discountenanced but imprison'd and afterwards sent back to be dealt by as the Lord Deputy should think fit which it seems produced their Submission And not long after the Lord Deputy having first received Orders to Grant the Impropriations belonging to the King to the use of the Clergy and to Grant to Trinity Colledge near Dublin Lands equal in value to the Pension they had from the Crown of 388 l. 15 s. per Annum went to England to give his Majesty a Triumphant Account of his glorious Successes in Ireland which he performed to Admiration First to the King in a private Audience and afterwards publickly at the Council-board He there told the King and Council That he had found the Irish Exchequer of Paper but he had made it of Treasure and that he had not only improv'd the Patrimony of the Church of Ireland but had also brought it to be Conformable to that of England both in Doctrine and Government by the Acceptance of the Thirty Nine Articles there That before his going to Ireland the Lord Justices wrote That the Expence exceeded the Income 24000 l. per Annum and they had no ways to raise it but by the Levying Nine pence a Sunday on Papists for not coming to Church but that now it was far otherwise without that Persecution And he advis'd That the Army should rather be encreased than diminshed it being an excellent Minister and Assistant in Execution of the Kings Writs and the great Peace-maker between the British and the Natives and the best security of past and future Plantations That by the Statutes of Wills and Uses there will more advantage arise to the Crown of England than by the six Subsidies because thereby the insant Heirs of all great Families in the Kingdom will unavoidably come under the Guardianship of the King whereby they will be bred Protestants and of what Consequence this Superintendency is doth in part appear in the Person of the Earl of Ormond formerly the Kings Ward who if bred under the Wing of his own Parents had been of the same Affections and Religion with his other Brothers and Sisters whereas he is now a firm Protestant and like to prove a great and able Servant to the Crown and a great Assistant as well in inviting others to be of his Religion as in the Civil Government it being certain That no People are more apt to be of the Religion of their great Lords than the Irish are That by the Statute of fraudulent Conveyances the Irish are prevented in their cunning Disigns by secret and sleeping Conveyancies so that the King will have his Forfeitures and Wardships and the English be encouraged to purchase of them That before his time the Pirates infested the very Harbours and a Ship was fired by them in the Port of Dublin in sight of his Majesties Castle and the Pirates were robbing the Ship two days together without opposition the Reason was because our Sea-guard for want of Money did not come till August before which time the mischief was done but now they are well Paid and come in March and that now the Exportation is double to what is imported into the Kingdom That he discourag'd Woollen and encourag'd the Linen Manufacture and had sow'd 1000 l. worth of Holland-Flax Seed and set up six or seven Looms and doubts not Success because the Irish can under-sell France or Holland Twenty per Cent. And then he laments That the English of Ireland are treated as Aliens First In the Imposition of 4 s. per Tun on Coal Secondly In the Prohibition to transport Horses or Mares hence without excessive Custom Thirdly In the Imposition of 3 s. and 4 d. per Head for every live Beast exported thence and afterwards he procur'd a Privy Seal to supersede these pro tempore Lastly That tho' he was represented more like a Basha of Buda than the Minister of a Pious Christian King yet severity was not natural to him but assumed because it was necessary for the Restoration of a Despoyled Crown Church and People from the Claws of those that had been used to the Paths of an uncontroled Liberty and Oppression But to proceed ADAM LOFTUS Viscount ELY 1636. Sir CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD Master of the Rolls were Sworn Lords Justices on the 3d. day of July 1636. and immediately some Fryars notwithstanding the former Proclamation had a publick Meeting and passed unpunish'd for the Lord Deputy wrote over That he held it not convenient to rub upon that Sore till they were provided for a thorough Cure These Lords Justices had Orders to call upon Corporations for a return of their pretended Priviledges to issue Money to finish the Fort of Galway to suspend the Lord Courcyes Pension to quicken the Admeasurement in Conaught and not to let any Soldiers be Transported But on the 23d of November THOMAS Viscount WENTWORTH returned Lord Deputy and then the aforesaid Case of Tenures was argued but the Judgment That the Letters Patent were void Husbands Collections 2 Part 245. did so Alarm the whole Nation that it was found necessary to delay the Execution for a time and afterwards Anno 1640. on private Conference with the Irish Committee then in England for it was not made an Article amongst the Grievances publickly complain'd of the King quitted the benefit and advantage thereof and so the vast Expence of this Grand Office and Inquisition which amounted to at least 10000 l. was in effect lost and this terrifying Bug-bear did not add one Acre to the Possessions of the Crown nor one English Plantation to the Kingdom as was at first design'd In the Year 1636 1636. John Atherton was preferred to the Bishoprick of Waterford and Lismore by a Symoniacal Contrivance as was believed says the Writer of Bishop Bedells Life pag. 144. but that is not probable because that Bishoprick was then so Poor that it was too small a Temptation to so great a Sin it is more likely that being a bustling Man of active Parts and a bold Spirit he was thought a fit Instrument of State to promote some Designs that were then on Foot and as proper for the Recovery of the ancient Possessions of his See as any Body that could be pitcht upon and accordingly we find him a fierce Adversary to the Earl of Cork and a severe Prosecutor of the Bishop of Killalla which last nevertheless lived to be his Successor And tho' Atherton did answer the Expectation of his Benefactors for a time yet his Tragical end by the hands of the Common Executioner on the 5th of December 1640. for a Crime
them called Traytors or Rebels but advised rather to use the soft Expression of DISCONTENTED GENTLEMEN But the Protestants scorning to be put upon so one of them express'd himself so briskly and so judiciously that the Irish finding they could not get a better agreed with much ado to the Protestation against the Rebels recited here Append. 12. And so having sate two days the Parliament was Prorogued to the Eleventh of January having first appointed a Committee of Both Houses to Treat with the Rebels and a Commission issued accordingly but the Traytors were so pufft up with their innumerable Victories over the naked and unresisting English that they tore the Order of Parliament and the Letter that was sent them and refused to Treat But the Lord Dillon of Costilo who since the Rebellion broke out was by His Majesty's former Orders sworn Privy Counsellor was deputed by the Popish Lords to attend the King and the Lord Taaf and Mr. Burk went with him but before he Embarked he presented the Lords Justices and Council a scandalous Letter See it Append. 3. in nature of a Remonstrance from the Rebels of the County of Longford which nevertheless was framed in the Pale wherein amongst other things they demand Freedom of Religion and a Repeal of all Laws contrary thereunto And this produced the Vote of the Eighth of December in the Parliament of England That they would never give Toleration of the Popish Religion in Ireland or any other of His Majesty's Dominions These Irish Agents hapned to be intercepted by the Parliament and imprison'd and their Papers being rifled it was found to be one of the Private Instructions to the Lord Dillon to move That no Forces might be sent over to Ireland but that it might be left to the Remonstrants to suppress the Rebellion 2 Temple 9. But afterwards they made a shift to escape out of Prison and diligently followed the King's Camp and effectually sollicited the unhappy Cessation Husbands's Collections 2 part 247. which afterwards ensued and whereof this Longford Remonstrance was the Parent and Foundation But what regard these Lords had to His Majesty's Service will appear by their vain Expressions in a Letter to the Lord Muskery Anno 1642. viz. That tho' it did not stand with the Convenience of His Majesty's Affairs to give him Publick Countenance yet that the King was well pleas'd with what he did and would in time give him Thanks for it Which being dscovered to the Parliament by Mr. Jepson a Member of that House begat strange Jealousies of His Majesty's Proceedings then tho' now it is manifest those Expressions related to the Cessation that was in Enbryo and not to the Rebellion which the King always abhorr'd In the mean time the King sent some Arms from Scotland to Sir Robert Steward and others in Vlster on the Eighteenth of November and Commissions to raise Forces Particularly the Lord Mongomery had Commission to raise 1000 Foot and 500 Horse and he did raise the Foot and three Troops of the Horse And on the Nineteenth the Lords Justices had an Account that His Majesty had left the Management of the Irish War to the English Parliament and the Order of Parliament was sent to them together with 20000 l. in Money and a Commission to the Earl of Ormond to be Lieutenant-General of the Army and also the following Order of Both Houses of Parliament viz. THE Lords and Commons in this present Parliament being advertised of the dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion in Ireland by the treacherous and wied Instigation of Romish Priests and Jesuits for the bloody Massacre an Destruction of all Protestants living there and other His Majesty's Loyal Subjects of English Blood tho' of the Romish Religion being ancient Inhabitants within several Counties and Parts of that Realm who have always a former Rebellions given Testimony of their Fidelity to this Crown and for the utter depriving of His Royal Majesty and the Crown of England 〈◊〉 the Government of that Kingdom under pretence of setting up the Poâ—â— Religion have therefore taken into their serious Consideration how the mischievous Attempts might be most speedily and effectually prevented wherein the Honor Safety and Interest of this Kingdom are most nearly and fully concerned Wherefore they do hereby declare That they do intendâ— serve His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes for the Suppressinâ— of this wicked Rebellion in such a way as shall be thought most effectualâ— by the Wisdom and Authority of Parliament and thereupon have ordereâ— and provided for a present Supply of Money and raising the Number of Six thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse to be sent from England being â—â—e full Proportion desired by the Lords Justices and His Majesty's Councâ— resident in that Kingdom with a Resolution to add such further Succours as the Necessity of those Affairs shall require They have also resolved of providing Arms and Munition not only for those Men but likewise for His Majesty's faithful Subjects in that Kingdom with store of Victuals and other Necessaries as there shall be occasion and that these Provisions may more conveniently be transported thither they have appointed Three several Ports of this Kingdom that is to say Bristol Westchester and one other in Cumberland where the Magazins and Storehouses shall be kept for the Supply of the several Parts of Ireland They have likewise resolved to be humble Mediators to His Most Excellent Majesty for the Incouragement of those English or Irish who shall upon their own Charges raise any Number of Horse or Foot for His Service against the Rebels that they shall be honourably rewarded with Lands of Inheritance in Ireland according to their Merits And for the better inducing the Rebels to repent of their wicked Attempts they do hereby commend it to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or in his absence to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices there according to the Power of the Commission granted them in that behalf to bestow His Majesty's gracious Pardon to all such as within a convenient Time to be declared by the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or Lords Justices and Council of that Kingdom shall return to their due Obedience the greatest part whereof they conceive have been seduced upon false Grounds by the cunning and subtile Practices of some of the most malignant Rebels Enemies to this State and to the Reformed Religion and likewise to bestow such Rewards as shall be thought fit and published by the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or Lords Justices and Council upon all those who shall arrest the Persons or bring in the Heads of such Traytors as shall be personally named in any Proclamation published by the State there And they 〈◊〉 hereby exhort and require all His Majesty's loving Subjects both in this and in that Kingdom to remember their Duty and Conscience to God and his Religion On the Twentieth day of November the Lords Justices wrote again to the Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant for Supplies of
Men and desired that he would hasten thither in Person And â—â—on after by their Proclamation they ordered that Dublin be fortified But it is time to return to Sir Philemy O Neal who having taken Dundalk and in it a Foot Company which surrendred upon the first Summons and all their Arms as also the Town of Ardee marched his Victorious Rabble of Four thousand Men to Lisnegarvy and on the Twenty second day of November attempted the Town but the Garison being Four hundred Foot and One hundred and eighty Horse under Sir Arthur Tyringham repulsed him with the loss of many Irish and Six Colours Another Party of the Rebels sat down before Melifont Novemb. 24. and found a brisk Defence from the Garison being Fifteen Horse and Twenty four Musquetiers but their Powder being spent the Horsemen forced their Way through the Irish Camp to Tredagh and the Foot surrendred upon Articles which the Rebels perfidiously broke and butchered several of them in cold Blood because they had kiâ—â—ed 140 Irishmen in defence of the Place By this Remora the intended Siege of Tredagh wâ—s delayâ—â— and therefore on the Twenty seventh day of November the Lords Justices sent Six hundred new-rais'd Foot and a Troop of Horse to reinforce the Garison there but the Lord Gormanston's Groom by his Masters privity gave notice of their March to the Irish who being three time their Number 2 Temple 16. fell upon them at Gellingstown-Bridge on the Twenty ninth of November and by the Folly or Treachery of a Captain that commanded a Countermarch and the Unexperience of the Men they were disordered and above Five hundred of them slain at which the Popish Inhabitants of Dublin did very much rejoyce and the Lords of the Pale did thereupon take off their Vizard But much better Success had Sir Charles Coot who marched from Dublin the same 27th of November to relieve the Castle of Wicklow and to quel the insolence of those Rebels that had come in Hostile manner within two miles of the City for on the 29th of the same Month he beat Luke Toole and One thousand Rebels and put them to a shameful Flight and thereby became so terrible to the Irish that they seldom afterwards made any resistance where he was Nevertheless the Irish were so elevated by the Victory at Gellingstown-bridge and the delay of Succours from England that the Lords of the Pale who were really the first Contrivers of this Rebellion and whose Tenants and Servants were openly or secretly concern'd in it from the beginning and they themselves had hitherto looked on whilst the English were robbed and had given no help or Assistance to the State having now drawn the Rebels into the Pale 2 Temple 18. believing it impossible to dissemble the Matter much longer began to unmask themselves and appear Bare-faced insomuch that the Lord Gormanston on the Second of December Mr. Dâ—â—dal's Examination Burlace 39. issued a Warrant to the Sheriff of Meath to Summon the Popish Lords and Gentry of that Country to meet at the Hill of Crofty and above One thousand of them met and Colonel Mac Mahon Philip O Rely Roger Moor c. came to them with a Guard of Musketeers whereupon the Lords of the Pale rode towards them and as formally as the Lord Mayor expostulates with the Privy Council at Temple-Bar demanded of them why they came Armed into the Pale They reply'd That they took up Arms for Liberty of Conscience and maintaining of his Majesties Prerogative in which they understood he was abridged and to make the Subjects of this Kingdom as Free as Those of England were But says the Lord Gormanstown Are not these Pretences and not indeed the true Grounds of your taking Arms and have you not some private ends of your own To which they answered That they had no private ends but did it upon the aforesaid Reasons and professed great Sincerity to his Lordship whereupon he told them That seeing those were the true ends of their Insurrection he and all the rest would joyn with them and immediately it was proclaimed that whosever denied to joyn with them or refused to assist them therein they would Account him an Enemy and to the utmost of their Power labour his Destruction and thus Valence and Brabant were joyned as Sir Philemy O Neal phrased it and the Lords of the Pale Confederated with their ancient and hereditary Enemies and became so barbarously Cruel that they bragged afterwards That they had killed more Protestants in Fingall only than were Slain in some other whole Counties But on the Third of December the Lords Justices and Council dissembling their knowledge of these Transactions wrote to the Lords of the Pale to come to Dublin and consult for the safety of the Kingdom whereupon the Lords of Kildare-Merion and Hoath came but the other Lords had another meeting at the Hill of Taragh on the Seventh of December and by Advice of their Lawyers sent the following Answer to the Lords Justices May it Please your Lordships WE have received your Letters of the Third instant intimating that you had present Occasions to confer with us concerning the present State of the Kingdom and the safety thereof in these Times of Danger and requiring us to be with you there on the Eighth of this instant We give your Lordships to understand That we have heretofore presented our selves before your Lordships and freely offered our Advice and Furtherance towards the Particulars aforesaid which was by you neglected which gave us cause to conceive that our Loyalty was suspected by you We give your Lordships further to understand That we have received certain Advertisement That Sir Charles Coot Knight at the Council-board hath offered some Speeches tending to a Purpose and Resolution to execute upon those of our Religion a general Massacre by which we are all deterr'd to 〈◊〉 on your Lordships not having any Security for our Safety from those threatned Evils or the Safety of our Lives but do rather think it fit to stand upon our best Guard until we hear from your Lordships how we shall be secur'd from those Perils Nevertheless we all protest That we are and will continue faithful Advisers and resolute Furtherers of His Majesty's Service concerning the present State of this Kingdom and the Safety thereof to our best Abilities And so with the said Tender of our humble Service we remain Your Lorship humble Servants Fingall Gormanstown Slane Dunsany Nettervill Oliver Louth Trimletstowne In like manner Luke Nettervill in the beginning of December upon three days Summons assembled Twelve hundred armed Men at Swords within Six Miles of Dublin and arrayed them under the Captains Golding Russell Travers Holywood c. which would have been impossible to have done on so short warning if they had not been privy to the Conspiracy long before and had not made Preparations for it The Lords Justices sent a Message to them ro disperse but they return'd for Answer
consent upon whatsoever Pretence to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or the Abolition of the Laws now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdom His Majesty hath further thought fit to advertise His Parliament That towards this Work He intends to raise forthwith by His Commissions in the Counties near Westchester a Guardâ— for His own Person when he shall come into Ireland consisting of Two thousand Foot and Two hundred Horse which shall be Armed at Westchester from His Magazin at Hull at which time all the Officers and Soldiers shall take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance The Charge of Raising and Paying whereof His Majesty desires His Parliament to add to their former Undertakings for that War which His Majesty will not only well accept but if their Pay be found too great a Burthen to His Subjects His Majesty will be willing by the Advice of His Parliament to sell or 〈◊〉 any of His Parks Lands or Houses towards the Supplies of the 〈◊〉 of Ireland with the Addition of these Levies to the former of English and Scots agreed upon in Parliament he hopes so to appear in this Action that by the Assistance of Almighty God in a short time that Kingdom may be wholly reduced and restored to Peace and some measure of Happiness whereby he may chearfully return to be Welcomed home with the Affections and Blessings of all His good English People Towards this good Work as His Majesty hath lately made Dispatches unto Scotland to quicken the Levies there for Ulster so he heartily wishes That His Parliament here would give all possible Expedition to thâ—se which they have resolved for Munster and Conaught and hopes the Encouragement which the Adventures of whose Interest His Majesty will be always very careful will hereby receive as likewise by the lately signing of a Commission for the Affairs of Ireland to such Persons as were recommended to Him by Both Houses of Parliament will raise full Sums of Money for the doing thereof His Majesty hath been likewise pleased out of His earnest desire to remove all Occasions which do unhappily multiply Misunderstandings between Him and His Parliament to prepare a Bill to be offered to them by His Attorney concerning the Militia whereby He hopes the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom may be fully secured to the general satisfaction of all Men without violation of His Majesty's just Rights or prejudice to the Liberty of the Subject If this shall be thankfully received He is glad of it if refused He calls God and all the World to judge on whose part the Default is One thing His Majesty requires if this Bill be approved of That if any Corporation shall make their Lawful Rights appear they may be reserved to them Before His Majesty shall part from England He will take all due Care to entrust such Persons with such Authority in His absence as He shall find to be requisite for the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and the happy Progress of this Parliament To which the Parliament returned the following Answer May it please Your Majesty YOur Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects Husbands 141. the Lords and Commons in Parliament have duly considered the Message received from Your Majesty concerning Your Purpose of going into Ireland in Your own Person to prosecute the War there with the Bodies of Your English Subjects lâ—vied transported and maintained at their Charge which You are pleased to propound to us not as a Matter wherein Your Majesty desires the Advice of Your Parliament but as already firmly resolved on and forthwith to be put in Execution by granting out Commissions for the Levying of Two thousand Foot and Two hundred Horse for a Guard for Your Person when You shall come into that Kingdom Wherein we cannot chuse but with all Reverence and Humility to Your Majesty observe That You have declined Your Great Council the Parliament and varied from the usual Course of Your Royal Predecessors That a Business of so great Importance concerning the Peace and Safety of all Your Subjects and wherein they have a special Interest by Your Majesty's Promise and by those great Sums which they have disbursed and for which they stand ingaged should be concluded and undertaken without their Advice Whereupon we hold it our Duty to declare That if at this time Your Majesty shall go into Ireland You will very much endanger the Safety of Your Royal Person and Kingdoms and of all other States professing the Protestant Religion in Christendom and make way to the Execution of that cruel and bloody Design of the Papists every where to root out and destroy the Reformed Religion as the Irish Papists have in a great part already effected in that Kingdom and in all likelihood would quickly be attempted in other Places if the Consideration of the Strength and Union of the Two Nations of England and Scotland did not much hinder and discourage the Execution of any such Design And that we may manifest to Your Majesty the Danger and Misery which such a Journy and Enterprize would produce we present to Your Majesty the Reasons of this our humble Opinion and Advice 1. Your Royal Person will be subject not only to the Casualty of War but to Secret Practices and Conspiracies especially Your Majesty continuing Your Profession to maintain the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom which the Papists are generally bound by their Vow to extirpate 2. It will exceedingly encourage the Rebels who do generally profess and declare That Your Majesty doth favour and allow their Proceedings and that this Insurrection was undertaken by the Warrant of Your Commission and it will make good their Expectation of great Advantage by Your Majesty's Presence at this time of so much Distraction in this Kingdom whereby they may hope we shall be disabled to supply the War there especially there appearing less Necessity of Your Majesty's Journy at this time by reason of the manifold Successes which God hath given against them 3. It will much hinder and impair the Means whereby this War is to be supported and increase the Charge of it and in both these respects make it more insupportable to Your Subjects And this we can confidently affirm because many of the Adventurers who have already subscribed do upon the knowledge of Your Majesties Intention declare their Resolution not to pay in their Money and others very willing to have subscribed do now profess the contrary 4. Your Majesties Absence must necessarily very much interrupt the Proceedings of Parliament and deprive Your Subjects of the Benefit of those further Acts of Grace and Justice which we shall humbly expect from Your Majesty for the Establishing of a perfect Union and mutual Confidence between Your Majesty and Your People and procuring and confirming the Prosperity and Happiness of both 5. It will exceedingly increase the Jealousies and Fears of Your People and render their Doubts more probable of some force intended by some evil
also procured the Earl of Glamorgan to be sent into Ireland who made a Peace secretly with the Irish on the 25th day of August as we shall see anon and which also met with the same Fate and for the same Reason And this unfolds the Secret of some Mysteries which at that time were unintelligible for it was a Paradox to Ormond and those Cavaliers who were so zealous for the King that they passionately coveted a Peace with the Irish as that which they thought the only probable Means left to preserve His Majesty I say it amaz'd these Men to find the Irish delay and indeed reject the Peace which themselves at first had courted and which was their Interest to hasten even upon worse Terms than were offered them Nevertheless the Confederates continued to quibble upon Niceties and to reassume Debates that were determined before and particularly the Words in one of the Articles That Officers of Both Religions be equally preferr'd being upon an Objection of the Lord Digby explain'd by themselves to intend only Indifferency were now so strained that they would admit no other Interpretation of the Word Equally but that it must extend to Number whereat His Majesty was exceedingly disgusted But in May there was a General Assembly of the Irish which pursuant to a Decision of their Clergy Appendix 29 did on the Ninth of June Vote That as to the Demand of Restoring the Protestant Churches the Commissioners shall give a positive Denial And the Truth of it is that they thought themselves so sure of what Conditions they pleas'd from the Earl of Glamorgan that they little minded what Answer they gave to the Marquis of Ormond or his Commissioners And on the other side the King thought himself so sure of the Ten thousand Men from them that Sir Marmaduke Langdale was in July sent with Seven hundred Horse to Carnarvan to receive and conduct them as there should be occasion But when their Expectation in England began to tire and no News came either of a Peace or of Succors the Lord Digby Secretary of State wrote the following Letter to the Lord of Muskery and the rest that had been Agents for the Confederates at Oxford My Lords and Gentlemen HIS Majsty having long expected a Conclusion of a happy Peace within your Kingdom and His Affairs having highly suffered by the failing of His Expectations from thence cannot chuse but wonder what the Cause is of it calling to mind those fair Professions and Promises which you made unto Him when you were imployed here as Agents And knowing well what Power and Instructions He hath long since given to my Lord Lieutenant to comply with you for your Satisfaction as far forth as with Reason or Honor His Majesty could in Civil Things or with Prudence or Conscience in Matters of Religion and in the latter as to the utmost of what for any worldly Consideration He will ever be induced to So did He conceive nothing less than what you declared unto Him you were persuaded the Catholicks would be satisfied withal nay ought not in their own Interest to seek more in the present Condition His Majesty is in lest further Concessions might by confirming former Scandals cast upon His Majesty in Matters of Religion so alienate the Hearts of His faithful and loyal Adherents as to make them abandon Him Which as it would draw inevitable Ruin on Him so were you rightly apprehensive that when the Parliament should by that means have prevailed here that must soon after bring a certain Destruction upon your selves What the change of Princples or Resolutions are His Majesty knows not but He finds by the not concluding of a Peace there that your Party it seems is not satisfied with the utmost that His Majesty can grant in Matters of Religion that is the taking away of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks within that Kingdom And His Majesty here hears that you insist upon the Demands of Churches for the Publick Exercise of Religion which is the Occasion that His Majesty hath commanded me to write thus frankly unto you and to tell you That He cannot believe it possible that Rational and Prudent Men had there been no Propositions made to the contrary can insist upon that which must needs be so destructive to His Majesty at present and to your selves in the Consequences of His Ruin that is inevitably to be made a Prey to the Rebels of these Kingdoms or to a Foreign Nation Wherefore my Lords and Gentlemen to disabuse you I am commanded by His Majesty to declare unto you That were the Condition of His Affairs much more desperate than they are He would never redeem them by any Concession of so much wrong both to His Honor and Conscience It is for the Defence of His Religion principally that he hath undergone the Extremities of War here and He would never redeem his Crown by destroying It there So that to deal clearly with you as you may be happy your selves and be happy Instruments of His Majesty's Restoring if you would be contented with Reason and give Him that speedy Assistance which you well may so if nothing will content you but what must wound His Honor and Conscience you must expect howsoever His Condition is and how detestable soever the Rebels of this Kingdom are to Him He will in that Point joyn with them the Scots or with any of the Protestant Religion rather than do the least Act that may hazard that Religion in which and for which He will live and die Having said thus much by His Majesty's Command I have no more to add but that I shall think my self very happy if this take any such effect as may tend to the Peace of that Kingdom and make me Your Affectionate humble Servant GEO. DIGBIE Cardiff 1 August 1645. But the Confederates little regarded this Importunity they had other Designs of their own to mind and were busie managing the Two Treaties with Ormond and Glamorgan and whilst they proceeded diligently with the Earl they dealt sophistically with the Marquis still raising new Scruples and Difficulties varying and inhancing upon the King as His Condition grew worse so that on the Second of August they demanded to be exempt from the Excommunication of a Protestant Bishop because they could not in Conscience seek Absolution from those of another Religâ—n And thus Matters continued until the 25th of August at which time the secret Peace with Glamorgan was concluded and then to let him know that they design'd no more effectual Compliance with him than they had perform'd with others they did on the 28th of August make the following Order ☞ viz. The General Assembly Order and Declare 〈…〉 Union and Oath of Association shall remain firm and inviâ—lable and in full strength in all Points and to all Purposes until the Articles of the intended Peace shall be ratifiâ—d in Parliament Notwithstanding any Proclamation of the Peace c. And on the First of September
they explain this not to Import any thing inconsistent with the Peace nor to breed an Interruption or Impediment of it but to farther its Performance And tho' this Declaration notwithstanding any Explanation they could make of it was diametrically opposite to the Nature and Design of a Peace because this would reduce them to the Obedience and Condition of Subjects and that would still keep them up in the Condition of a Separate State yet there was a deeper Intrigue in this Matter viz. That if they would not part with their Association it necessarily followed that they could not part with their Army which was the Ligament and Support of it And therefore notwithstanding Glamorgan's Concessions yet that Earl must have Patience and wait for the expected Succors until the King should publickly ratifie what his Lordship had privately done and they did not doubt but the same Necessities continuing or rather encreasing would compel His Majesty to comply with their Expectations And in order to bring about their Designs they continued the Treaty with Ormond until the 21th of November and to cloak their Intrigues the whole Assembly on the Ninth of September did Vote That they would send Ten thousand Men to aid the King and would refer to His Majesty's Pleasure such things about Religion as Ormond either had not Power or not Inclination to grant But on the Fifteenth of November following they did in effect invalidate that Vote by alledging That they never undertook the Transportation of the Ten thousand Men to help the King but intended only their Assistance therein Nevertheless I must not conceal that the Anti-Nunciotists do aver That they design'd sincerely to send Succours to the King and to conclude a Peace with the Marquis of Ormond on the Terms afterwards agreed on and to refer the Secret Articles about Religion to His Majesty's Pleasure wherein they doubted not of as much Condescension as His Majesty could safely give because it had been so promis'd to them by the Earl of Glamorgan But the Nuncio arriving in Ireland in the nick of this Business quite altered their Measures and confounded their Affairs And whether it be so or not is scarce worth our Inquiry since we are sure of these few Truths That the Confederates sent no Succors at all to the King nor made the Peace till it was too late and did most perfidiously break it almost as soon as it was made But we must make room for a very extraordinary Man John Baptista Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo the Pope's Nuncio who arrived in the River of Kilmair on the 22th day of October He sent before and brought with him 2000 Swords 500 Petronels 20000 Pound of Powder and Five or Six small Trunks of Spanish Gold and had in his Train 22 Italians besides several Clergy-men His Frigat which carried but 21 Guns was closely pursued by Captain Plunket in a Parliament Ship and had certainly been taken or sunk if the Cook-room of the English Ship had not accidentally taken Fire Never were People more troubled at a Disappointment than were the Seamen at this and yet scarce any Disappointment was ever more lucky For this Nuncio afterwards renew'd the fatal Distinction between Old Irish and Old English and split the Irish into * * Clerum ac populum primum diviserit mox inter se comiserit ac siâ— utriusque ruinae viam patefecerit Beling in Preface Factions which very much contributed as well to their Infamy as their Ruin He was receiv'd at Killkenny by the Supreme Council with extraordinary Joy and Respect and in a solemn manner was conducted to the Castle and in the great Hall he made an Oration in Latin to the Lord Viscount Mountgarret President of the Council Sancte jurat nâ—hil se contra 〈◊〉 regis commoda moliturum Beling 15. and amongst other things he did religiously swear to attempt nothing prejudicial to the King Nevertheless he was so little mindful of that Oath and had so small regard to the Peace and true Interest even of the Papists of Ireland that tho' he knew that the King in hopes of Succors from that Kingdom did so earnestly desire a Peace that the Fanaticks revil'd him with being an Humble Suitor to the Rebels for good Terms yet he made advantage of the King's Necessities and refus'd any Agreement that should not restore the Ecclesiastical Revenues and the Splendor of Popery and accordingly he positively wrote to his intimate Friend the Bishop of Killalla That if the Supreme Council should agree with Ormond he would take all the Bishops with him and leave the Kingdom But the Reader must take notice that all this while Ormond and the English were totally ignorant of the secret Negotiations of the Earl of Glamorgan until after the Defeat at Sligo which hapned on the 17th of October at which time the Titular Archbishop of Tuam was slain and in his Trunks was sound amongst other Papers a Copy of the Articles made with the Earl of Glamorgan which discovered such an Ocean of Contrivance and Intrigue as amazed the whole Protestant Party The Articles of this Peace and the Commission it was sounded upon and the Oath taken subsequent to it are all mentioned Appendix 27. which were so destructive to the Protestant Religion that Ormond and the Cavaliers could not believe that the King ever intended them in which Opinion they were confirm'd by the Asseverations of the Lord Digby That the Earl of Glamorgan had no such Commission or if he had it was surreptitiously obtain'd But however that were it was necessary to vindicate His Majesty's Reputation in an Affair so disobliging and scandalous and therefore the Lord Digby did on the 26th of December Impeach that Earl of Suspicion of Treason at the Council-board whereupon he was committed to Pâ—ison and a * * Earl of Roscomâ—n Lord Lambart Sir Jam. Ware Committee was appointed to take his Examination and an Account of this whole Proceeding was on the Fifth of January sent to the King whose excellent Answer thereunto is here recited verbaâ—im Appendix 28. But the Earl of Glamorgan upon his Examination confessed That he made those Concessions but that it was done under mutual Oaths of Secresie and That he conceived he had Warrant for what he did and That he did it with design to serve His Majesty and not to hurt the Protestant Religion Circumstances considered and That he conceives those Articles are not Obligatory to His Majesty and That he did not engage His Majesty's Faith or Honor further than by shewing his Authority and leaving it with them And then he gave the Committee Counterparts of all the Writings between him and the Irish And tho' the King was exceeding angry at the first News of this Affair as what he foresaw would be made use of by the Parliament to justifie all the Aspersions they had laid upon him in point of Popery yet when he had calmly considered that the Earl's
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
or Clergy but to Men of Estates that are dispossessed as appears by the Limitation of its Continuance viz. until they can possess so much of their own Estates That the Covenant hath been already pressed and imposed in all parts of Ireland that are under the power of the Parliament and therefore they must be secure against that and if there be no Ordinance of Parliament to impose it the Commissioners may the better undertake it shall not be imposed That tho' his Lordship if he were to continue the Government would submit to Ordinances of Parliament that relate to Government of the Army or the like yet he would not to Ordinances of Religion against his Conscience and doth not scruple now that the people shall be obliged to Ordinances of the former sort and the Commissioners Declaration That they intend no other will give Satisfaction in this point That there was time enough to get the King's Orders That the Delivery of Oxford was forced by Extremity and yet was not done without the King's Direction That Inferences must not be made against any thing that is expressed And besides the first Article To procure His Majesties Direction the Seventh Article Mentions That if in the mean time till they can get the King's Orders they supply the Garisons it shall be well husbanded c. So that this Matter is fully and doubly expressed in those Proposals And lastly There is no Satisfaction given about the Dissolution of the present Parliament in Ireland which would be the Ruin of the Protestants of that Kingdom But because the Kingdom might not be deprived of the Supplies the Commissioners brought and that neither side may be prejudiced until the King's Pleasure may be known and their Instructions from the Parliament enlarg'd the Lord-Lieutenant propos'd 1. That the Officers and Soldiers may be landed and put in one or more Garisons and to receive Orders from his Excellency and the Governor of the place and submit to the Martial Law 2. That 3000 l. be lent his Excellency to support the Army â…” Money and 1 â— Victuals 3. That the Commissioners engage their Soldiers shall remove at the end of six Weeks unless an Agreement be made in the mean time and till then do no Prejudice to the Government 4. That his Lordship will engage they shall have free Egress c. at six Weeks end But the Commissioners thinking that the Exigencies of the City and Army and the danger to lose both would force the Lord-Lieutenant to comply refused these Proposals and repeated That his Lordship had offered to the Parliament to put all his Forces and Garisons under their sole Command the King unconsulted with therein which his Lordship did by his Letter of the Two and Twentieth of November positively deny And so this Treaty broke off and the Commissioners carried their Men and Supplies to Ulster But though the Lord Lieutenant had a fair excuse for refusing the Parliament Commissioners since they did not bring His Majesty's Orders according to the express mention thereof twice made in his Propositions yet he was very uneasy in regard of the Protestants under his Command and accordingly in answer to one of the Lord Digby's importunate Letters he thus expâ—esseth himself Nov. 18. 1646. It is an hard Task I have to break with the Parliaments Commissioners and keep my Reputation with my own Party to whom these Commissioners offered Security in their Fortunes Supplies in their Wants and Assistance against the Irish that have destroyed them in all the Interests that are dear to Men besides I must perswade my Party to return to intolerable and inevitable Wants and to rely once more upon the recently broken Faith of the Irish And in the same Letter he excepts against letting the Irish into Garisons and against promising to obey the Orders of Queen or Prince and against the words Free Exercise of Religion To all which the Lord Digby gave plausible Answers on the 20th and writes That Preston languished for his Commission and that he need do no more than write a kind Letter to that General and so at length he was overcome and did on the 25th day of November write to Preston and the next day gave a Commission to Clanrickard to be Lieutenant General of the Army and he was received as such by General Preston's Forces drawn up in Battalia The Terms of this new Reconciliation appear in the Marq. of Clanrickard ' s Engagement Appen 33 which one would think is as full as could be desired however the Nuncio and his Minion Owen Roe were not satisfied with them the Nuncio on the 20th of November urged the Marquis of Clanrickard That the Churches of Dublin might be included in his Engagement but Clanrickard replyed That it is more plausible to refuse Obedience to the King till he become Catholick than until being a Protestant he refuse to part with his own Churches Your Grace said he ought to content your Self with the Glory of Setling all the Garisons and in a manner all the Power in the Kingdom in Catholick Hands and to have secured the Catholick Religion with at least as great Extent and as great Freedom and Lustre under a King of a different Faith as that of his own Profession However it is not doubted but the Nuncio did secretly * * Nuntius Prestonio mandat ut fâ—â—dus cum prorege renovet Beling 38. promote this Pacification not with a design it should stand but in expectation of these three Advantages 1. That being by Sickness and want of Forâ—â—ge necessitated to raise the Siege this Agreement would make their Retreat safe which else might be dangerous Ormond's Horse being much better than theirs 2. The Disappointment of the Parliaments Commissioners would make an everlasting Fewd between them and Ormond And 3. Preston's Forces being in the English Garisons might find an opportunity to master some of them Nevertheless it was necessary that Owen Roe should decline the Agreement for else all the Kingdom would have complyed with it as believing that the Nuncio wanted either Power or Will to oppose it and therefore on the 17th of November he decamped and marched into the Queens County where he ravaged over the Country and destroyed all that he could not keep But Preston stayed in the Camp and on the 27th of November received the Marquis of Clanrickard as Lieutenat General of the Army and was himself made Major General and he and his Officers signed the Engagement mentioned Appendix 34 to obey the Peace and by Letters under his own Hand invited the Lord Lieutenant to march with him to Kilkenny and Waterford to reduce those Cities to conformity which he said would be effected by his Excellency's Appearance only before those places whereupon Ormond coâ—â—â—nted but was by Sickness detained for some few days from the intended March. But contrary to his expectation General Preston decamped and on the second of December from Naas writes to his Excellency That the
abhorred the breach of the Peace gave him hopes That in the General Assembly which was to meet the 10th of January Matters would be better ordered and desired him patiently to expect that and proposed a short Cessation which was afterwards at Dublin agreed unto To this Assembly the Lord Lieutenant sent the Lord Taaf and Colonel John Barry with a most excellent Letter expostulating the Violation of the Peace and telling them That they were irrecoverably betrayed to Infamy if they neglect this opportunity offered to vindicate themselves and exhorting them to a speedy and effectual Confirmation of the Peace but the Assembly had determined the Point the day before they came and so the Letter was never delivered For this extraordinary Juncto or General Assembly which was totally governed by the Nuncio did on the very first day of their Meeting receive a Paper of Unreasonable Proposals from the Congregation of their Clergy viz. To have all manner of Jurisdictions Privileges and Immunities as amply as they had in the Time of Hen. VII and to have all the Church-Livings c. conferred upon them And on the Fifteenth day of January they wrote to the Lord Lieutenant to keep his Forces within his own Quarters and on the Second of February they published a frantick Mixture of a Declaration containing Two very contradictory things Vide the Declaration Appendix 36. viz. First That the Commissioners had acted honestly and pursuant to their Instructions in making the Peace and Secondly That the Nuncio and Clergy had done well in breaking it And they farther declar'd That they might not accept of that Peace but did protest against it and declare the same invalid and of no force to all intents and purposes As also That the Nation would not accept of any Peace not containing a sufficient and satisfactory Security for the Religion Lives Estates and Liberties of the Confederate Catholicks And what they understood to be sufficient appears by the Propositions published by the Congregation at Waterford which they had caused the People to swear they would insist upon And the Reason they gave for this Procedure was as strange as the Act viz. That Glamorgan ' s Articles gave them better Conditions Whereas those Articles were disavowed and rejected by the King and even by the Earl himself acknowledg'd not to be binding both because of the Defezance and the Failure in sending Succors according to Promise And the Confederates likewise had admitted that Agreement void by embracing a subsequent Peace on other Terms Nevertheless this Assembly was so violent against the Peace that some of them attempted to Disband General Preston because he was more moderate and better inclin'd to it than they And to that end the Bishop of Fornes brought in an Impeachment against him but Preston's Friends were so loud upon that Point that the Bishop was fain to withdraw his Accusation Ad gladios pugiles in ipso Senatu ventum fuisset Beling 39. or else they had gone to Cuffs even in the very Assembly Nevertheless when they had talk'd themselves out of breath they began to find the Necessity of putting a better Gloss upon what they had done and therefore they resolv'd to propose Terms of Accommodation that at least they might have it to say that Peace was refus'd them And so on the last of February they sent Dr. Fennell and another with sufficient Credentials to Treat with the Lord Lieutenant and to make Proposals unto him but it was plain that their Design was to amuse the World and to asperse his Excellency with the Noise of this Treaty and the Pretence that they offered Reasonable Conditions and that therefore he was not necessitated to surrender to the Parliament but should rather have complied with them for they not only refus'd to reduce those Proposals into Writing but also denied to sign the Substance or Extract of them when written altho' they could not deny but that it was truly taken as they had dictated But it is fit that the World should know the Unreasonableness of these very Proposals which were to this effect 1. That each Party should continue Independent 2. That they should joyn in a War against the Common Enemy meaning the English Protestants that adhered to the Parliament and that neither Party should make Peace or Cessation or use Traffick or Commerce with them without the others Consent 3. That Dublin and other Garisons might be secur'd by their Soldiers against the Common Enemy 4. That all Papists in English Quarters have free Exercise of their Religion that is as they afterwards explain'd it the Churches and Church-livings and Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Clergy in all Places except Dublin where the greater number of the Inhabitants are Catholicks 5. That no body be permitted to live within English Quarters but such as will swear to this Accommodation And 6. That if both Armies joyn in any Expedition nevertheless they are to be Commanded by their own respective Commanders c. But these Proposals being made known to the Privy-Council they did unanimously and with scorn reject them and the Lord Lieutenant did on the 22th of March 1646. write to the Supreme Council That he could not comply with their Propositions in the manner they were propos'd And so the Assembly was on the Third of April adjourn'd to the Twentieth day of November following And now what could be more amazing than to see a People and especially the Nobility and Gentry of a whole Kingdom many of which had good Breeding and good Fortunes give up the Conduct of their Reason as well as their Consciences to the wild Ambition and Covetousness of the Clergy Men who ventur'd nothing by their preposterous Attempts to set up their Religion for in all Events they were to find Welcome abroad and to be reverenc'd even for being vanquish'd But for those Gentlemen who had no certainty of Subsistence elsewhere how imprudent was it towards their lawful and indulgent King whose Pardon they so much needed to require from Him such Conditions in Matters of Religion as by the Advantage it gave to His other Enemies in whose Hands he was must take from Him more than their Assistance could afford and by this foolish Stratagem weaken and diminish that Power by which only they could be saved Nevertheless they did in this manner trample upon the Peace not only in a Heat but in Cold Blood and thereby rendred all future Expectations vain and their own Condition irreparable But let us return to the Marquis of Ormond who was astonish'd at this foolish Procedure of the Irish He had already received Orders from His Majesty That if he could not keep Dublin he should rather surrender it to the Parliament than to the Irish and he very well understood the Sentiments of the Protestants of Ireland For altho' some of them were very fearful of the Covenant and many of them had great Jealousies and Suspicions of each other yet all
Necessaries as an early Campaign he marcht out of his Winter-quarters in the latter end of February with 3000 Men and even that small Army was divided into two parties with the one Cromwell marched to Cahir which he took as he also did Kilfinin Gowlenbridge Fethard Cashell Clogheen and Roghill and sat down before Callan and Ireton with the other part being re-inforced by Reynolds and Zanchy took Ardkenon Dundrum Knocktopher Ballynard and other Castles and joyned Cromwell at Callan Which last place as also Graige and Thomastown were easily subdued by their united Forces so that they marched to Gowran to joyn Collonel Heyson who with a Detachment from Dublin had taken Ballysannon Kildare and Leighlin and met them at Gowran which was after too long Resistance surrendered by Collonel Hammond upon hard Conditions so that he and most of the Officers were shot to death And then the Army being very considerable and numerous especially in Horse besieged Kilkenny from whence Castlehaven and his Forces were withdrawn by reason of the Plague and the General Assembly was fled to Athloane so that there was but 600 Foot and 50 Horse under Sir Walter Butler and Major Walsh left in the City nevertheless they made a vigorous Defence and bravely repulsed the first Assault and afterwards having no hopes of Relief surrendered upon very honourable Conditions on the 28th of March 1650. From thence Cromwell marched to besiege Clonmell 1650. which he found well provided of all things necessary for its Defence so that it proved the hardest Task he undertook in Ireland Moreover the Titular Bishop of Ross had gathered about 5000 Men together and that Army was daily increasing with design to raise the Siege But it happened luckily that the Lord of Broghill being at Castlelyons had secret intimations from his Brother-in-law General Barry That the Irish had cast off the King's Authority and had put all into the hands of the Clergy and that Ormond had discovered their design and therefore gave liberty to the Protestants of his Army to treat with Cromwell And that the Irish designed to make Kerry and Conaught the seats of the War and that 20000 Men would suddainly be in Arms under the Command of the Titular Bishop of Ross who always advised to kill the English unless that Cockatrice be destroyed in the Egg. Hereupon the Lord Broghill posted to Cromwell and having obtained 2000 Horse and Dragoons and 1600 Foot he marched with incredible Celerity to Kilkrea and thence to Carrigadroghid which he found garrison'd with the Bishop's Souldiers however he left his Foot there and marched with the Horse to Maccroom Upon his approach the Irish fired the Castle and retired to the rest of their Army which to the number of 5000 were in the Part but the Lord Broghill lost no time but fell upon them briskly whilst they were amazed at an Assault they little expected In fine he totally routed the Army Battle of Maccroom 10 of May. and took the Bishop prisoner to whom he profered his Life if he would cause Carigdroghid to be surrendered and the Bishop promis'd fair but which he came to the Castle instead of ordering the Garrison to surrender he advis'd them to hold it out to the last whereupon he was immediately hanged and soon after Carigdroghid was taken by a very slight Stratagem for the English got two or three Teams of Oxen and made them draw some great pieces of Timber towards the Castle which the Irish thinking to be Cannon presently began to parly and upon Articles gave up the place But we must return to Cromwell whom we left at the Siege of Clonmell where having made a breach he caused it to be assaulted but as himself expressed it he had like to bring his Noble to Nine-pence for he lost above 2000 of his best Men and yet did not take the Town at that time but in a few days the Governor Hugh O Neal having spent his Powder and finding that the Town would be lost he withdrew all his Souldiers secretly and by night over the Bridge to Waterford and Cromwell not knowing of it gave the Town 's Men good Conditions for themselves upon which they surrendered It was at this Siege that Cromwell received possitive Orders to return to England and in obedience unto them he embarqued at Youghall on the 29th day of May and left the Command of the Army with his Son-in-law Ireton who was before Major-General of the Army and Lord-President of Munster But it is time to return to the Marquess of Ormond whom we left at Limerick with the Popish Clergy and the Commissioners of Trust where notwithstanding the respectful Answer and promises of the Clergy already mentioned the Citizens of Limerick were so far from complying with his expectation that they were deficient in common and outward Respect they did not permit access to him without special orders of the Mayor which was sometimes with difficulty obtained And they imprison'd the Lord Killmallock for quartering some Horse one night within their Liberties by his Excellency's order And the Officer of the City-Guards did neither come to receive the Word from his Lordship nor bring it to him Wherefore not willing to expose the King's Authority to so many Affronts he went to Loghreagh and the Popish Clergy adjourned thither also and there he gave them the Answer to their Paper of Advice mentioned Appendix 45 wherewith they seemed to be so well satisfied that on the 28th of March they issued the following Declaration The Declaration of the Undernamed Bishops in the Name of Themselves and the rest of the Bishops Convoked at Limerick as deputed by them Presented to the Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord-Lieutenant for his Majesty and General Governour of Ireland c. MAY it please Your Excellency to be informed That We are very sensible of the Jealousies and Suspicions conceived of Vs as was intimated unto Vs that we believe arising from some disaffected and misunderstanding Persons that spare not to give ill Characters of Vs as if these deplorable Times wherein Our Religion King and Country are come to the vertical Point of their total Ruine and Destruction it should be imagined by any that we behave ourselves like sleeping Pastors in no ways contributing our best Endeavours for the Preservation of the People which ought to be more dear unto us than any worldly Thing that may be thought of Wherefore as well for the just Vindication of our own Reputation against such undeserved Aspersions as for future Testimony of our Sincerity and Integrity to endeavour always the Safety of the People and to manifest to Your Excellency as the King's Majesty's Lieutenant and Chief Governour of this Kingdom That no Labour or Care of ours hath been or shall be wanting to proceed effectually to any Proposals you will please to make known unto us that may conduce to those ends We thought it therefore fit to present this Declaration of our real Intentions in the
the Duke to proceed by Advice of the General Assembly and all agrieved Parties in case of Inequality to seek Redress from the General Assembly XVIII For Liquidating and Stating the Duke's Disbursements a certain Method shall be agreed on between the Duke and the said Transactors but for the persons to be intrusted in that Charge the General Assembly is to alter them at their pleasure XIX The Duke shall make no Peace nor Cessation without the Lord-Deputy or General Assembly XX. The Lord-Deputy and General Assembly shall make no Peace without the Consent of the Duke ☜ July 12th 1651. Signed Charles of Lorrain But the Secret and Intâ—igue of these Articles lay where one would have least suspected it viz. in the second Article for though it seem to be meer Formality and to contain only matter of Respect and Complement to the Pope yet it was the most effectual Article of all and served the Duke to these two purposes first to oblige the Bishop of Ferns and such other giddy and restless Zealots that were Favourites of the Court of Rome and secondly to delay the Execution of the Agreement until this previous Article should be first performed and accordingly the Duke of Lorrain the Bishop of Ferns the Lord Taaf Sir James Preston and Sir Nicholas Plunket signed a formal submission to the Pope Vide The Submission at large Vindiciae eversae p. 85. in the Name of the Kingdom of Ireland and therein supplicated his Absolution from the Censures and Excommunication of the Nuntio and in the mean time till that could be accomplish'd his Highness thought it enough to Succour the Irish with the following Letters To the Marquess of Clanrickard SIR THE stay which the Gentleman Abbot of St. Katharine made with you and his long Navigation by the Northern Sea having brought much delay as well to his Return as to the disposal of Affairs here I could not sooner dispatch unto you than by this Galliot by which Mr. Plunket and Mr. Brown your Deputies have in charge more at large to give you to understand the conclusion of the Treaty I have made with them to the greatest advantage that one cou'd desire for the Good of the Catholick Religion the Service of the King and Re-establishment of the Kingdom which are the only Ends that I have proposed unto Myself Moreover the satisfaction which the Queen and Duke of York have shewen unto Me shall as I hope be followed by that of all good People the Fidelity of whom hath hitherto appeared without Reproach in a time when it seems they had no other recourse but to themselves I believe they will continue to make it good being as they are invited thereunto by the part which I have taken in their preservation preferring it to that of my own Dominions and to the urgent Necessities of my Affairs touching which and the Assistances which I am with all care and diligence possible preparing I beseech you to make known to the good and faithful Subjects of the Kingdom and in your own particular to take all assurance of the Esteem which I make of your person and the desire which remains with me on all Occasions to acknowledge its merit where I may make Myself known SIR From Bruxells Sept. 10. 1657. Your Affectionate Friend to Serve You Charles Lorrain To the MAYOR COUNCIL and CORPORATION of GALWAY Honoured Sirs OF the Agreements made between Me and the Agents of that Kingdom I leave to them to inform you more particularly of which they have taken the Charge I do not think that they will omit how unchangeable and constant I am notwithstanding the ill Rumours of your Affairs and the great and urgent necessity of my own I choose to prefer your Good before all Private and Publick Occasions of my own as well as I confide that you to the uttermost will remain constant in your Intent to Defend Religion and Country to a high great hope of your Fortitude Bear in mind that the Success of the Enemies is hitherto permitted by the Providence of God to the end to reserve the chief Glory of Vindicating the Kingdom and Religion to you and the Limericians As they have performed their part most nobly I doubt not but when the Occasion of promoting the Cause is offered you also will perform and shew the like Example of Constancy with happy Emulation In the mean time least the delay of supply which proceeded of the slow return of the Abbot of St. Katherine would put you in any doubt of my Mind while with all Care and Diligence to provide and send them Supplies I thought fit to hasten the sending thither of this Barque by which I might assure your hopes of me and for my hope of you Most Worthy People Your most Affectionate CHARLES LORRAIN Dated at Bruxells Sept. 10. 1657. But the Lord-Deputy was not at all satisfied with the Articles of Agreement or these Letters as will appear by his Excellency's Answer which was as followeth May it please your Highness I Had the Honour on the 12th of this Instant to receive a Letter from your Highness dated the 10th of September wherein you are pleased to express your great Zeal for the Advancement of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom your great Affection to the King my Master and your good Opinion of this Nation and your compassion for their Sufferings and your great readiness to afford them Aid and Assistance even equal with your own nearest Concernments and that your Highness received so great satisfaction from the Queen and Duke of York as did much strengthen those Resolutions so as they might sooner appear but for the stay made here of Monsieur St. Katherine and his long Northern Voyage upon his return and referred what concern'd the Agreement to the relation of those Commissioners I had imployed to your Highness to treat upon that subject of Assistance and Relief for this Kingdom I with much alacrity congratulate your Highness's pious Intentions for the preservation of the Catholick Religion your Great and Princely Care to recover His Majesty's Rights and Interests from his Rebellious Subjects of England and the high Obligation you put upon this Nation by your tender regard of them and desire to redeem them from the great Miseries and Afflictions they have endured and the imminent Dangers they are in And it shall be a principal part of my Ambition to be an useful Instrument to serve your Highness in so Famous and Glorious an Enterprize And that I may be the more capable to contribute somewhat to so Religious and Just Ends First in discharge of my Conscience towards God my Duty to the King my Master and to disabuse your Highness and give a clear and perfect Information so far as comes to my Knowledge I am obliged to represent unto your Highness that by the Title of the Agreement and Articles therein contained made by those Commissioners imployed to your Highness ☞ and but lately come
furious in this matter and so inhumane that he kept one Henry Rice in close Prison six weeks in a Dungeon and kept him waking a very long time in hopes that Severity and Distraction might induce him to accuse the rest of his Acquaintance and when he found they were all acquitted even by a Jury whereof the Foreman was a Papist he was enrag'd and troubl'd to the last degree and died within a week afterwards But on the last of March 1685. the Duke of Ormond came to London leaving the Sword with the Lord Primate and the Earl of Granard who were nominally Lords Justices but the Power was in effect in the Earl of Tyrconnell who was Lieutenant-General of the Army and by his means the English Militia were not only deprived of their Arms and by Proclamation ordered to send them into the Stores but the English in the Army began also to be turned out under the pretence of being Oliverians or the Issue of such But 1678. not long after the Protestants were revived by the arrival of the Earl of Clarendon Lord Lieutenant and Sir Charles Porter Lord Chancellor for tho the Irish did every-where give out That they were both Papists yet they soon became sensible of their error and to their great trouble found that those Lords wanted no other Qualifications but that of Power to make the Protestant Religion and the English Interest flourish in Ireland In short they did all that wise and honest Men could do and were too great a Blessing for that unfortunate Countrey to enjoy long and therefore they were removed in February 1686. to make room for the Earl of Tyrconnell who was then sworn Lord Deputy For tho this Lord being Lieutenant-General did even in the Lord Clarendon's time so model the Army that most part of the English were disbanded yet he met with so many rubs in That and Other of his Designs that he despaired to accomplish his Project or to satisfie his Ambition unless he were Supreme in the Government Tyrconnel having thus gotten the Sword of State into his hands quickly turned the Edge of it upon the poor Protestants who were amaz'd to see him act so openly in such a Despotical and Arbitrary manner for some of his Agents not only disbanded most part of the remaining English but insulted on their Misery by doing it reproachfully and added to their affliction by turning them out far from their Friends and their Habitations and took away the Cloaths of some and the Horses and Arms of others without giving them any proportionable recompence And he also changed the Irish Soldiers so often that tho the Army did not consist of more than seven or eight thousand Men yet five times that number by these frequent Changes were taught the use of their Arms and by this means he had a considerable Militia ready upon all occasions Moreover he issued Quo Waranto's against all the Charters at once and altho that procedure did manifest to the World that it was not the Fault of any one or more Corporations that was endeavour'd to be punish'd or reform'd but that it was a fixed design to Subvert the Corporations and consequently to Model the Parliament and the Laws to the Interest and Humour of the Papists yet being Masters of standing Armies both in England and Ireland they thought themselves sure of their Game and that it would be the more Generous and Brave if they acted publickly and as it were in defiance And therefore they dissembled the Matter no longer but appointed two Popish Judges in every Court that they might be sure of a Majority upon all Occasions they also appointed Popish High-Sheriffs throughout the Kingdom and they put so many Papists into the Commission of Peace the Privy-Council and all Places of Authority that they were able to Rule all where-ever they came And as soon as the Charters were Condemn'd there were new Ones granted for the most part to such inconsiderable and beggarly Fellows as were unable to pay for them so that many were left with the Attorney General in Pawn for his Fees however in all these Charters they put in near one third English most of which were Quakers or other Dissenters but at the same time took care to limit the Power and especially that of chusing Parliament Men so that the English if unanimous should not be able to give them any Impediment But the English being the principal Traders and the most Wealthy Men in Ireland It must necessarily follow that the removal of their Plate and other Effects into England and the general Decay of Trade that ensued upon the Apprehensions they had of these Violent and Irregular Proceedings did diminish the Publick Revenue to a degree of rendring it unable to support the Necessary Expences of the Government this indeed was a sensible Stroak and would have changed all their Measures if any thing less had been in the Bottom than a fixt Resolution to subvert the Established Religion and to introduce Popery and to make Ireland a secure Retreat for those whose designs might perhaps miscarry in England However these rapid Motions of Tyrconnel made such a noise in England as occasion'd that Lord to be sent for over to meet the King at Chester the poor Protestants flattered themselves with hopes of some intervals of Moderation from this Interview but they soon found the fatal Effects of this Conference not only in the Continuation but in the encrease of their Grievances And thus the Irish having to their Advantage in Number gained also the whole Power Military and Civil into their Hands thought themselves in a Condition not only to secure Ireland but also to send over considerable Assistance to carry on THE CAUSE in England and accordingly Tyrconel did send thither about 3000 of his choicest Men. This was the single Action that conduced most to the Preservation of these Kingdoms all other things were but subservient thereunto or at most but concurrent with it for whilst other Grievances did but disoblige a certain Number or a Party the bringing in of the Irish alarm'd every Body and especially the Army so that his Present Majesty Landing not long after met with such easy and speedy Success as amazed the present and will be the Wonder of future Ages Moreover to compleat the aforesaid Number of 3000 Men Tyrconel did very improvidently withdraw the Garison of Londonderry without sending another in its stead as not suspecting the sudden Revolution which afterwards happened nor thinking that Derry would dare to refuse a Garison whenever he should think fit to send them one But it was not long before he saw his Error and having Recruited his Forces he sent a new-rais'd Regiment under the Earl of Antrim to possess themselves of the City of Derry This Regiment Quartering in and about Newton on the 6th of December Collonel George Philips sent one James Boyle to give notice thereof to Londonderry and to advise them to shut their
The humble Petition of divers of your Majesties Protestant Subjects in your Kingdom of Ireland as well Commanders of your Majesties Army here as others whose Names are subscribed in the behalf of themselves and others your Protestant Subjects in this your Kingdom and to manifest by all good ways and means the Truths thereof in every particular and to solicite the obtaining the humble Desires therein requested and to refel and disprove the Untruths of the scandalous Aspersions laid by the confederate Roman Catholicks c. of Ireland upon the most gracious Governments of our most Royal late Sovereign Queen Elizaheth and King James of ever Blessed Memory and also of our most gracious and dread Sovereign King Charles and also the extream Falshoods by the said confederate Roman Catholicks published and imposed upon by His Majesties said Protestant Subjects of this Realm 2. And also to offer unto His Majesties Royal and most tender Consideration the barbarous Usage Inhumanity cruel Tortures and bloody Murthers committed and done upon His Majesties Protstant Subjects ☞ in the several parts of the Kingdom without Provocation and that commonly after Quarter given Passes Promises and Oaths for security or safe Convoy especially in that glorious Plantation of King James of ever Blessed Memory in the Province of Vlster which terrible Effusion of innocent Blood crieth to Almighty God and His Sacred Majesty for Justice 3. In like manner to present unto His Sacred Majesty the true and entire Faith and Allegiance of His Majesties Protestant Subjects of this Kingdom unto his Royal Person Crown and Dignity their cheerful and constant Acknowledgment of his Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons their Universal Obedience to all his Laws and gracious Government and their continual Desires and Endeavours even to the uttermost hazard of their Lives and Fortunes for the preservation of all his Rights and just Prerogatives and to present to His Majesty in what Estate and Condition the Kingdom was in at the Time of the breaking out of this horrid Rebellion 4. And most humbly to desire the Preservation and Establishment of the true Protestant Religion in this Realm and the Suppression of Popery according to the Laws and Statutes to that End established 5. Most humbly to desire His Sacred Majesty that the great Losses of his Protestant Subjects now utterly ruined by the Rebellion of the said confederate Roman Catholicks c. may be repaired in such manner and measure as his Highness in his Princely Wisdom shall think fit whereby His Majesties said Protestant Subjects may be enabled to subsist and reinhabit in the said Kingdom 6. Most humbly to present to His Sacred Majesty all other things that may conduce to the Glory of God to the Advancement of the true Protestant Religion according to the Laws the Honour and Profit of His Majesty the just Prerogatives of his Crown the Preservation of the Laws and just Liberties of the Subject the securing of this Kingdom to His Majesty and His Royal Posterity and future Safety to His Majesties Protestant Subjects in their Religion Lives and Fortunes that they may no longer nor hereafter be liable to such and the like Evils and Destructions on them committed as they have now suffered from those who fell upon them spilt their Blood and destroyed their Estates unprovoked and even when they lived together in full Peace 7. And for avoiding mistakes that you present or propound nothing to His Majesty but what shall be first well debated amongst your selves and maturely considered of and agreed upon in writing by the major part of you and subscribed with your hands 8. That from time to time you give an Accompt of your proceedings unto those who are here appointed to negotiate this Affair Which said Instructions being read the Protestant Petitioners were required to withdraw who after debate had on the Instructions at the Council-board were called in again and exceptions were taken to the first second third fourth and sixth Articles of the Instructions and they were told by the Lords of the Council That they could nor would not recommend them as the Instructions were now drawn and while the third Article of the Instructions remained in respect that they knew that there were many Protestants in the Province of Vlster in Ireland that were not obedient to His Majesties Laws and the Lord Chancellor moved that these words in the second Article aforementioned might be omitted out of the Instructions viz. commonly committed after Quarter given Passes Promises and Oaths for security of safe Convoy especially in that glorious Plantation of King James of ever Blessed Memory in the Province of Ulster which effusion of innocent Blood crieth to Almighty God and His Sacred Majesty for Justice And the Lord Lieutenant and Council further gave the Protestant Petitioners the particulars in writing which they would have added and omitted in the said Instructions otherwise they would not recommend the Protestant Agents nor the Cause to His Majesty And thereupon the Protestant Petitioners consented to the Alteration of their Instructions as hereafter followeth In the second Article of the first Instruction Quarter given is left out In the former part of the third Article these words are left out Viz. In like manner to present unto His Sacred Majesty the true and entire Faith and Allegiance of His Majesties Protestant Subjects of this Kingdom unto His Royal Person Crown and Dignity their cheerful and constant Acknowledgment of his Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons their Vniversal Obedience to all his Laws and gracious Government and their continued Desires and Endeavours even to the uttermost hazard of their Lives and Fortunes for the Preservation of all his Rights and just Prerogatives In the fourth is added in Doctrine and Discipline In the sixth is added and Statutes in this Kingdom established and now of force Appendix XXIII The Propositions of the Confederate Irish Agents at Oxford and the Answer of the Protestant Irish Agents thereunto 1. Prop. THAT all Acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholick Faith whereby any Restraint Penalty Mulct or Incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholicks within the Kingdom of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholicks to be allowed the Freedom of the Roman Catholick Religion Answ To the first we say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entred into Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above eighty Years since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the Peace and Welfare both of the Church and Kingdom there and of the Church and Kingdom of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendom and so hath been found wholsome and necessary by long experience and the repealing of rhose Laws will set up Popery again both in Jurisdiction Profession and Practice as that was before the said Reformation and introduce among other
inconveniencies the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger your Majesties supream and just Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Administration of Honour and Power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious Sectaries as to Popish Recusants so as by the Repeal thereof any Man may seem to be left to chuse his own Religion in that Kingdom which must needs beget great Confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy hath been one of the greatest Occasions of this late Rebellion Besides it is humbly desired that your Majesty will be pleased to take into your gracious Consideration a Clause in the Act of Parliament passed by your Majesties Royal Assent in England in the 17 th year of your Reign touching Punishments to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the Authority of the See of Rome in any Cause whatsoever 2. Prop. That your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdom to be held and continued as in the said Remonstrance is expressed and the Statute of the Tenth Year of King Henry the Seventh called Poyning'â— Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy Settlement of the present Affairs and the Repeal thereof to be there further considered of Answ Whereas their desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning Implication upon your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament We humbly beseech your Majesty to represent how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your People of that Kingdom touching that Parliament wherein several Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of high Nature as we humbly conceive is not properly to be discussed but in Parliament and your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in Law holden before a Person of Honour and Fortune in the Kingdom composed of good loyal and well-affected Subjects to your Majesty who doubtless will be ready to comply in all things that shall appear to be pious and just for the good of the true Protestant Religion and for your Majesties Service and the good of the Church and State that if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would be a great Terror and Discontent to all your Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom and may be also a means to force many of your Majesties Subjects to quit that Kingdom or peradventure to adhere to some other party there in opposition of the Romish Irish Confederates rather than to be liable to their Power which effects may prove of most dangerous Consequence And we humbly offer to your Majesties Consideration your own gracious Expression mentioned in the Grounds and Motives inducing your Majesty to agree to a Cessation of Arms for one whole Year with the Roman Catholicks of Ireland Printed at Oxford the Ninteenth of October 1643. And let all our good Subjects be assured that as we have for these reasons and with Caution and Deliberation consented to the Proposition to peace and to that purpose do continue our Parliament there so we shall proceed in the accomplishing thereof with that Care and Circumspection that we shall not admit even Peace it self otherwise than it may be agreeable to Conscience Honour and Justice We also humbly desire that such Laws as your Majesty shall think fit to pass may be transmitted according to Poyning's Law and other Laws of Explanation thereof or of Addition thereunto now in force with great Contentment and Security to your Majesties Protestant Subjects but if the present Parliament be dissolved we humbly represent unto your Majesty that so many of your ablest and best Protestant Subjects have been murthered or banished by this Rebellion that few or no Protestant Freeholders will be found in the Countries Cities or Boroughs to elect and chuse Knights Citizens or Burgesses which will be most dangerous to your Majesties Rights and Prerogatives and good Subjects and may beget great disputes in After-times for the repealings of Poyning's Acts notwithstanding their seigned Expressions of their Loyalty yet it plainly appeareth they do not repose such Trust in your Majesties Justice as becomes Loyal Subjects to do and such they pretend themselves to be for that they seek thereby to prevent your Majesty and your Council of England and Ireland of so full a View and Time of Mature Consideration to be had of Acts of Parliament of Ireland before they pass as in prudence is requisite and hath been found necessary by the Experience of well near Two Hundred Years and if their intentions were so clear as they profess we know not why they should avoid the strictest View and Trial of your Majesty and your Councils of both Kingdoms this their desire tending to introduce a grand Diminution to the royal and necessary Power for the Conservation of your regal State and Protection of your good Protestant Subjects there and elsewhere and what special use they aim at in seeking such a repeal your Protestant Subjects as they know not the particular so can they conjecture of none unless the said Confederates have some design by way of surprize to obtrude upon your Majesty in their new desired Parliament some Acts of Justification of their ill-done Actions and for condemning such of your Protestant Subjects as have in their several Degrees most faithfully served your Majesty there which we the rather believe seeing they have vowed by their Oath of Association and the Bull lately published in Ireland since the Cessation the Destruction of the Protestants there when they have the Sword in their hands to put the same in Execution 3. Prop. That all Acts and Ordinances made and passed in the now pretended Parliament in that Kingdom since the Seventh Day of August 1641. be clearly annulled and declared void and taken off the File Answ We humbly desire that they particularize those Orders and Ordinances which may prejudice your Majesties Service for we are well assured that the Parliament now sitting in Ireland on Signification of your Majesties Pleasure therein will give your Majesty full satisfaction or repeal any unjust Orders or Ordinances whatsoever which may be prejudicial to your Majesty And there may be some Orders or Ordinances which may concern particular Persons in their Lives Liberties or Fortunes that may suffer unheard by the admitting of so general a Proposition which is meerly proposed as we humbly conceive to put a Scorn upon your Majesties Parliament now sitting there and to discourage your Protestant Subjects who have faithfully served your Majesty in that Parliament 4. Prop. That all Indictments Attainders Outlawries in the King's-Bench or elsewhere since the said Seventh Day of August 1641. and all Letters Patents Grants Leases Custodiums Bonds Recognizances and all other Records Act or Acts depending thereon or in prejudice of the said Catholicks
Great Britain France and Ireland c. for the Treating and Concluding of a Peace in the said Kingdom with His Majesties Humble and Loyal Subjects the Confederate and Roman Catholicks of the said Kingdom of Ireland of the one part and the Right Honourable Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskerry and others Commissioners Deputed and Authorized by the said Confederate Roman Catholick Subjects of the other part and thereupon many Difficulties did arise by occasion whereof sundry matters of great weight and consequence necessarily requisite to be condescended unto by His Majesties said Commissioners for the safety of the said Confederate Roman Catholicks were not hitherto agreed upon which retarded and doth as yet retard the Conclusion of a firm Peace and Settlement in the said Kingdom And whereas the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Glamorgan is intrusted and authorized by His most Excellent Majesty to grant and assure to the said Confederate Catholick Subjects further Grace and Favours which the said Lord Lieutenant did not as yet in that Latitude as they expected grant unto them and the said Earl having seriously considered of all matters and due Cirouâ—istances of the great Affairs now in agitation which is the peace and quiet of the said Kingdom and the importance thereof in order to His Majesties Service and in relation to a Peace and Settlement in His other Kingdoms and here upon the place having seen the Ardent desire of the said Catholicks to assist His Majesty against all that do or shall oppress His Royal Right or Monarchick Government and having discerned the Alacrity and Cheerfulness of the said Catholicks to embrace Honourable conditions of Peace which may preserve their Religion and other just Interests In pursuance therefore of His Majesties Authority under His Highness Signature Royal and Signes bearing Date at Oxon the Twelfth Day of March in the twentieth Year of His Reign Granted unto the said Earl of Glamorgan the Tenure whereof is as followeth Viz. Charles Rex Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To our trusty and right welbeloved Cosen Edward Earl of Glamorgan greeting We reposing great and especial Trust and Confidence in your approved wisdom and fidelity Do by these as firmly as under Our Great Seal to all intents and purposes Authorise and give you Power to treat and conclude with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in Our Kingdom of Ireland if upon necessity any thing be to be condescended unto wherein our Lieutenant cannot so well be seen in as not fit for Vs at the present publickly to own Therefore We charge you to proceed according to this our Warrant with all possible secrecy and for whatsoever you shall engage your self upon such valuable considerations as you in your judgment shall deem fit We promise on the word of a King and a Christian to ratifie and perform the same that shall be granted by you and under your Hand and Seal the said Confederate Catholicks having by their Supplies testified their Zeal to Our Service and this shall be in each particular to you a sufficient Warrant Given at Our Court at Oxford under Our Signet and Royal Signature the 12 th day of March in the 20 th year of Our Reign 1644. To our right trusty and right well-beloved Cosen Edward Earl of Glamorgan It is therefore granted accorded and agreed by and between the said Earl of Glamorgan for and on the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty His Heirs and Successors on the one part and the Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Mountgarret Lord President of the Supream Council of the said Confederate Catholicks the said Donogh Lord Viscount Muskerry Alexander mac Donnel and Nicholas Plunket Esquires Sir Robert Talbot Baronet Dermot O Brien John Dillon Patrick Darcy and Geffery Brown Esquires Commissioners in that behalf appointed by the said Confederate Roman Catholick Subject of Ireland for and on the behalf of the said Confederate Roman Catholick Subjects of the other part in manner and form following that is to say 1. IT is granted accorded and agreed by the said Earl for and in the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty His Heirs and Successors That all and every the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in the Kingdom of Ireland of whatever estate degree or quality soever he or they be or shall be shall for ever more hereafter have and enjoy within the said Kingdom the free and publick use and exercise of the said Roman Catholick Religion and of their respectives function therein 2. It is granted accorded and agreed by the said Earl for and on the behalf of His Majesty His Heirs and Successors That the said Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion shall hold and enjoy all and every the Churches by them enjoyed within this Kingdom or by them possessed at any time since the Twenty Third of October 1641 and all other Churches in the said Kingdom other than such as are now actually enjoyed by His Majesties Protestant Subjects 3. It is granted accorded and agreed by the said Earl for and in the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty His Heirs and Successors That all and every the Roman Catholick Subjects of Ireland of what estate condition degree or quality soever shall be free and exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Clergy and every of them and that the Roman Catholick Clergy of this Kingdom shall not be punished troubled or molested for the exercise of their Jurisdiction over their respective Catholick Flocks in matters Spiritual and Ecclesiastical 4. It is further granted accorded and agreed by the said Earl for and on the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty His Heirs and Successors that an Act shall be passed in the next Parliament to be holden in this Kingdom the tenour and purport whereof shall be as followeth Viz. An Act for the Relief of His Majesties Catholick Subjects of His Highnesses Kingdom of Ireland Whereas by an Act made in Parliament held in Dublin the Second Year of the Reign of the late Queen Elizabeth Intituled An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to the same And by one other Statue made in the said last mentioned Parliament Intituled An Act for the Vniformity of Common-Prayer and Service in the Church and the Administration of the Sacrament Sundry Mulcts Penalties Restraints and Incapacities are and have been laid upon the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in this Kingdom in for and concerning the use profession and exercise of their Religion and their Function therein to the great prejudice trouble and disquiet of the Roman Catholicks in their Liberties and Estates and a general disturbance of the whole Kingdom For remedy whereof and for the better setling increase and continuance of the Peace Unity and Tranquility of this Kingdom of Ireland His Majesty at the humble suit and request of the Lords and Commons
of the Country which you are to enlarge and second by your own expressions according to your knowledge and therefore desire in regard Ireland and Religion in it is humanely speaking like to be lost that his Holiness in his great Wisdom and Piety will be pleased to make the preservation of a people so constantly and unanimously Catholicks his and the consistory of the Cardinals their work And you are to pray his Holiness to afford such present effectual Aids for the preservation of the Nation and the Roman Catholick Religion therein as shall be necessary 2. You are to let his Holiness know that Application is to be made to our Queen and Prince for a settlement of peace and tranquility in the Kingdom of Ireland and that for the effecting thereof the confederate Catholicks do crave his Holiness's mediation with the Queen and Prince as also with the King and Queen Regent of France and with the King of Spain and all other Christians Princes in all matters tending to the avail of the Nation either in point of Settlement to a peace or otherwise 3. The confederate Catholicks ☜ having raised Arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion do intend in the first place that you let his Holiness know their resolution to insist upon such Concessions and Agreements in matters of Religion and for the security thereof as his Holiness shall approve of and be satisfied with wherein his Holiness is to be prayed to take into his consideration the imminent danger the Kingdom is in according to the representations aforesaid to be made by you and so to proceed in matters of Religion as in his great Wisdom and Piety may tend best and prove necessary to the preservation of it and the consederate Catholicks of Ireland 4. You are to represent to his Holiness that the Confederates think to insist upon as security for such Agreements in Religion as his Holiness will determine that the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other chief Governour or Governors of the Kingdom from time to time should be Roman Catholicks unless his Holiness upon the said Representation of State-Affairs here or for some other reason shall think fit to wave that proposition 5. You are to represent to his Holiness that the confederate Catholicks desire that all the Concessions to be made and agreed on for the setling of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom be publish'd at the same time with the Temporal Articles of the Settlement if his Holiness on representation of the State of Affairs here or for some other Advantages shall not think fit to determine or suspend the Publishing of those or some of them for a time 6. You are to represent to his Holiness That no Change or Alteration is to be in any part of the present Government ☜ of the Confederate Catholicks until the Articles of Peace or Settlement pursuant to the present Authority and Instructions you and the Commissioners to the English Court in France have shall be concluded and published in this Kingdom by those intrusted in Authority over the Confederate Catholicks 7. You are to take notice That the Resident Council now named are the Persons to serve for the interval Government until the next Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks and the Assembly is at liberty to name others if they please and that no less than Eight of the said Residents concurring during the said Interval shall make any Act or Order obliging and according as it is provided in the former Arricles for the Interval Government in the late rejected Peace the Forts Cities Towns Castles and Power of the Armies of the Confederate Catholicks to remain and continue in their hands during the said Interval Government 8. You are to take notice That the Persons to be employed into France to the Queen and Prince are to finish their Negotiation with the Queen and Prince pursuant to their Instructions with all possible speed after they shall receive his Holiness's Resolutions from you out of Rome in the Matters referred as aforesaid to his Holiness and you are to use all possible diligence in procuring and sending his Holiness's said Resolution unto our said Commissioners employed to the Queen and Prince 9. In case his Holiness will not be pleased to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in Matters of Religion ☜ then you are to solicite for considerable Aids whereby to maintain War and to ascertain and secure the same that it may be timely applied to the Use of the Confederate Catholicks And in case a Settlement cannot be had nor considerable Aids that may serve to preserve the Nation without a Protector you are to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector to this Kingdom and by special instance to endeavour his Acceptance thereof at such time and in such manner as the Instructions sent by our Agents to France grounded on the Order of the Assembly doth import whereof you are to have a Copy 10. Though Matters be concluded by his Holiness's Approbation with the Prince and Queen yet you are to solicite for Aids considering our Distress and setting before him that notwithstanding any such Aids we have a powerful Enemy within the Kingdom which to expulse will require a vast Charge 11. You are to take with you for your Instruction and the better to enable you to satisfie his Holiness of the full State of Affairs here the Copies of the Instructions at Waterford the Articles of the late rejected Peace and Glamorgan's Concessions and the Propositions from Kilkenny to the Congregation at Waterford in August 1646. 12. If Moneys be receiv'd in Rome by you by way of Gift Engagement or otherwise you are to bring or send the same hither to those in Authority and not to dispose the same or any part thereof otherwise than by Order from the General Assembly or Supream Council and for all Sums of Money so by you to be received you are to give account to the Authority intrusted here over the Confederate Catholicks 13. You are to manage the Circumstance of your Proceedings upon the Instructions according as upon the Place you shall find most tending to the Avail of the Confederate Catholicks Tho. Dublin Tho. Cashel Thom. Tuamen Electus Ewerus Clougherensis David Ossoriens Joh. Episc Rapotensis Fr. Edmundus Laghlensis Franc. Ardensis Episc Rob. Elect. Cork Cluon Franciscan Patricius Ardagh Elect. Rob. Dromore Elect. Henry O Neal Rich. Bealing J. Bryan Rob. Devereux Gerrard Fennel Farren By the Command of the General Assembly N. PLUNKET Instructions for France Jan. 18. 1647. YOU are to present your Letters of Credence to his Most Christian Majesty and the several Letters you have with you to the Queen the Prince and Cardinal Mazarine declaring the special Affection of the Confederate Catholicks to His Majesties Service upon all Occasions wherein they may serve him You are to desire his Most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine their favourable and friendly regard
perfecting and concluding of these Articles by vertue or pretence of any Authority which is now by these Articles agreed on Provided also that the said Commission shall not continue longer than the first day of the next Parliament 33. Item It is concluded ordered and agreed by and between the said parties and his Majesty is further graciously pleased that for the determining such differences which may arise between his Majesties Subjects within this Kingdom and the prevention of inconvenience and disquiet which through want of due remedy in several causes may happen there shall be Judicatures established in this Kingdom and that the persons to be authorized in them shall have power to do all such things as shall be proper and necessary for them to do and the said Lord Lieutenant by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon c. or any seven or more of them shall name the said persons so to be authorized and do all other things incident unto and necessary for the setling of the said intended Judicatures 34. Item At the instance humble suit and earnest desire of the General Assembly of the Confederate Roman Catholicks it is concluded accorded and agreed upon That the Roman Catholick Regular Clergy of this Kingdom behaving themselves conformable to these Articles of Peace shall not be molested in the possessions which at present they have of and in the Bodies Sites and Precincts of such Abbies and Monasteries belonging to any Roman Catholick within the said Kingdom until settlement by Parliament and that the said Clergy shall not be molested in the enjoying of such Pensions as hitherto since the Wars they enjoyed for their respective livelihoods from the said Roman Catholicks and the Sites and Precincts hereby intended are declared to be the Body of the Abby one Garden and Orchard to each Abby if any there be and what else is contained within the Walls Mears or ancient Fences or Ditch that doth supply the Wall thereof and no more 35. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said parties that as to all other demands of the said Roman Catholicks for or concerning all or any the matters proposed by them not granted or assented unto in and by the foresaid Articles the said Roman Catholicks be referred to his Majesties gracious favour and further Concessions In witness whereof the said Lord Lieutenant for and on the behalf of his most excellent Majesty to the one part of these Articles remaining with the said Roman Catholicks hath put his Hand and Seal And Sir Richard Blake Knight in the Chair of the General Assembly of the said Roman Catholicks by order command and unanimous consent of the said Catholicks in full Assembly to the other part thereof remaining with the said Lord Lieutenant hath put his Hand and the publick Seal hitherto used by the said Roman Catholicks Jan. 17. 1641. and in the 24th year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. Appendix XLIV A Circular Letter from the Popish Clergy in Approbation of the Peace of 1648. SIRS AS a War undertaken principally for Religion gave us all the world over the reputation of a Catholick People even so the Peace now concluded between the Kings Lieutenant and us speak us a most Loyal Nation as complying with his Majesty in his greatest necessity though in our thoughts and occasions during these seven years Wars we have still this Loyalty and have oft publickly sworn it yet lay we under the suspicion of many men but by the present Agreement all blemish of that kind is taken away We are of opinion that our sense of this Peace would give you a confidence to receive and submit to it willingly and chearfully to which end we do hereby give you assurance we have by this Peace in the present Concessions and in the Expectations of further gracious Favours from his Majesties Goodness received a good satisfaction for the Being and Safety of Religion And the Substance thereof as to the Concessions for Religion is better than the Sound By the temporal Articles the Lives Liberties and Estates of men are provided for so as now you have a clear quarrel without thought or the least colour of suspicion for you fight purely against Sectaries and Rebels for God and Caesar and under those Banners you may well hope for Victories We do hereby pray you may with joy and much happiness wear his green Lawrel of happy Peace and so we remain Your Fathers and Servants in Christ Jesus Signed Johannes Archiepiscopus Tuamen David Ossoriens ThomasMiddens Franciscus Aladens Edwardus Limericens NicholausFernens Fa. Hugo Duacens Pat. Drumorens Andr. Finwarens Appendix XLV 13 March 1649. Remedies proposed to his Excellency for removing the Discontents and Distrusts of the People and for advancing his Majesties service presented by such of the Clergy as met at Lymerick the 8th of March 1649. and the Commissioners of Trust I. HAving joyned our selves in this meeting upon your Excellencies Summons and in compliance with your pleasure in delivering our sense how any life might be conserved in this gasping Kingdom The following considerations we thought fit to be represented to your Excellency II. It is generally thought that most of the present Distresses of the Kingdom did proceed from the want of a Privy Council as ever it was accustomed heretofore to assist the Government of this Land in War and Peace We conceive it essentially necessary that such a Council be framed of the Peers and others Natives of the Kingdom as well Spiritual and Temporal to sit with your Excellency daily and determine all weighty affairs of the Country by their Counsel The Commissioners of Trust being only instrusted for the due observation of the Articles of Peace had not the Authority of Counsellors and the affairs that intrench most upon the matters of State of the Kingdom were not their study or charge III. That there be an exact Establishment of the Forces forthwith settled and agreed on directing what numbers the Army of the Kingdom shall consist of Horse and Foot what each Province shall bear what number each Regiment Troop and Company shall consist of and laying down such Rules that no payments be made but according to the number of Forces that shall be visible and extant for service and the said establishment to be forthwith put in Execution and the said Army once established and made certain not to be multiplied or exceeded other than by solemn further establishment to be made with the consent and concurrence of the Commissioners of Trust if there be cause for it And in that Establishment a certain and sure course to be taken that all the Forces have the same assurance and the like equality of payment for all the Army And in that Establishment all preventions possible to be set down for avoiding the burthening of the People with thorough-fare
others had so often and so solemnly made to Us of giving Us and procuring for Us all possible Compliance and Obedience the Result whereof appears in their Declaration Yet it is very well known that when-ever the Enemy drew towards the Shannon-side We drew together all the Men We could to the defence of the Passages which otherwise the Enemy had gained And whatever our Play and Merriment was We had certainly as great cause to grieve at the loss of a Kingdom to his Majesty as these Declarers who have not carried themselves so towards him as to expect a greater proportion of his Favour than We. In Answer to the 13th Article The Answer to the 13th Article We say that Drogheda was put into the Hands and Trust of Sir Arthur Ashton a Roman-Catholick and that of the Souldiers and Officers of that Garison the greater part were of that Religion That for Trym it was governed by Mr. Daniel O-Neil who though a Protestant was yet a Native of this Kingdom and one that had manifested great Affection to the Nation That the greater part of the Officers and Souldiers with him were Roman-Catholicks and that the Lord Viscount Dillon a Roman Catholick had Command over the said Daniel O-Neil For Dundalk it is known that Place was given up through the good Affection to his Majesty of divers Officers and Souldiers rather than forced by Siege or otherwise with some of whom We conceived it fit to leave the Charge thereof What Actions or Expressions of Ours they were that disheartned the Roman-Catholicks to fight or be under our Command is not here set down So that We can no otherwise answer to this than that We never did any such Action or let fall any such Expression but were indifferent in our Actions and Expressions of Civility and Respect to all the Officers of the Army What these Catholicks and many Thousands of the People with the Commissioners of Trust or the greater part of them might fear if We had mastered the Kingdom We are not to answer for But if they feared We would in case We had mastered the Kingdom have infringed any of the Articles of Peace their Fear was unjust and groundless nor have We ever before heard there was such a Fear in them To the 14th Article The Answer to the 14th Article We answer That they have in Truth no reason to speak of any particular Corruptions and Abuses in this Article generally mentioned that which they instance in Secretary Lane's having a Custodium of Kilbeggan being so false that he never had any thing to do with it If they had a true Instance We suppose they would not have spared to make use of it What Daniel O-Neil had they set not down nor till they do are We able to answer it If these pretended Grievances whereof most are disproved The Answer to the 15th Article and some confessed and proved to be no Breaches of the Peace were delivered to the Commissioners of Trust in February last We never saw them till September after the meeting at James-Town in August last And if hereby be meant that Paper of pretended Grievances without Title or Subscription whereunto We have sent you Our Answers We never saw them till the 17th of August last The Conclusion of their Declaration is a general Recapitulation of the Miseries and Desolation fallen upon the Kingdom and People in tragical and passionate Expressions Answer to the Conclusion endeavouring to infuse into them a belief that all those Afflictions are through Our means fallen upon them whereas We suppose We have made it evident That next to the good Pleasure of God to chastise the Nation the Reason thereof may most reasonably be attributed to the Sedition Disloyalty Pride Covetousness and Ambition to Rule of these Declarers whom We challenge to instance whom We have born down that would have fought for them or whom cherished or advanced that would or did betray them And where they say that some are inclining to submit to those they call the Parliament perswading themselves that there can be no safety under Our Government attended by Fate and Disaster as they express themselves more like Heathen-Poets than Christian-Bishops and Church-men it is known to some there that to Our certain knowledg divers Persons and Places of consideration would have submitted to the Enemy if We had gone rather than live under the Tyranny and Confusion of the Government projected by these by these Declares which was the principal Reason of Our stay as will We fear be too evidently verified when We are gone unless that Assembly prevent it by more prudent temperate and solid Determinations than these Men are capable of giving or receiving Next they say that for Prevention of those Evils and that the Kingdom should not be utterly lost to his Majesty and his Catholick Subjects they found themselves bound in Conscience to declare against the Continuance of his Majesty's Authority in Us and accordingly in their own Name and in the Name of the rest of the Catholicks of the Kingdom they do declare against the Continuance of his Majesty's Authority in Us having by Our Misgovernment and ill Conduct of the Army and Breach of Publick Faith rendred our Self uncapable of continuing that great Trust any longer To which We answer ☜ That to prevent the Loss of the Kingdom to his Majesty they take the Kingdom to themselves and without so much as making any Address to him or pretending to have received any Direction or Commission from him they declare to the People that they are no longer obliged to obey any Orders or Commands of the Person by Commission authorized from Him but until a General assembly may conveniently be called or until upon application to his Majesty he settle the same elsewhere to observe the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe Whereby is to be observed that as they take it upon them when they please and in the highest Temporal Affairs in the World to declare the Sense of the People without their Consent a thing that We have never read or heard was ever till now pretended to by King Pope or Clergy so they evidently assume the Power of dissolving and erecting the Temporal Government of the Kingdom And this they say they found themselves bound in Conscience to do Which being a pretence inscrutable and at all times readily to be taken up can only be answered by the Laws of the Land the will not allow the Excuse of Conscience for taking a Purse on the Highway or to come home to this Matter for Acts of High-Treason For the Clause viz. or until upon application to his Majesty he settle the same elsewhere it is inserted with purpose to abuse the People with a belief of their Loyalty ☜ when they have first incited them to Rebellion Touching the Complaint they say they will make against Us to his Majesty it should in Reason and Justice have