shall be used and then and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said Prayers Preaching or other Service of God there to be used and ministred And because all and every Person may be put in mind of his Duty and be then the better prepared to the said holy Service Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that every Minister shall give warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning Prayer the Lords day next before every such three and twentieth day of October for the due observation of the said day and that after Morning Prayer or Preaching upon every such three and twentieth day of October they read publickly distinctly and plainly this present Act. And besides our private Thankfulness that we may know what the Church is enjoyned by his Majesties Command given at Whitehall the 15th of August in the 18th year of his Reign 1666. I must refer you to the Office of the Church Here one might well have thought this bloody Scene should have been fully closed the event of so horrid a Conspiracy having by God and Man been severely chastized But as if Heaven were still to be dared and Majesty affronted no sooner was this State setled in so wonderful a manner as it drew the whole world to look on it as a miracle but the grand Incendiaries of the late Rebellion Archbishops Bishops and others of that Union openly owning their Profession appear'd in publick in as much as the Parliament of England was enforced to take notice of their Insolency as an encouragement to Popery beseeching his Majesty that Plunket the Titular Archbishop of Ardmagh and Talbot Archbishop of Dublin should be apprehended to answer what might be objected against them And as an Evidence of their Parties Activeness and Insinuation the Lord of Ossory Lord Deputy and the Council by a Proclamation dated at the Council Chamber in Dublin the 11th of July 1664. shew Whereas information hath been given unto us by divers Gentlemen and others of the Popish Religion that several pretended Chapters have been and are to be soon called in several Parts of this Kingdom and Meetings appointed by Persons dis-affected to his Majesties Government and to the publick Peace and Quiet who take opportunities from those Assemblies to diffuse and spread abroad amongst the People of that Religion Seditious Doctrines to the great dissatisfaction of all those who are peaceably and loyally inclined c. They therefore to the avoiding the Contagion that by such Delusions might be ingendered and those Dangers which by the continuance and seducement of the said Persons and other turbulent Spirits are endeavour'd caution'd and forewarn'd That none should presume to assist abett or countenance them and that those who were engaged therein should upon their Duty of Allegiance to his Majesty forbear any further Proceedings c. All which were afterwards blank'd over as indeed they had the fortune to be strangely palliated together with what the Bishop of Ferns had discovered to the Earl of Sandwich passing through Galacia to Madrid of Edmond Reylie Archbishop of Ardmagh's purpose to raise the Irish again into Rebellion though some to delude the Age made a Loyal Formulary or Remonstrance of their Obedience whilst being admitted at Dublin into a National Synod of their own 1666. an Indulgence not yet fathom'd they there split themselves into Parties and the 15th day of their meeting broke up without the least satisfaction to the End they were connived at so as from their Principles its natural to conclude That whatever a Prince must expect from such men it must be in subordination to the Popes Approbation A Reflection on the like made King H. 8. say that he found the Clergy of this Realm were but his half Subjects or scarce so much every Bishop or Abbot at the entering upon his Dignity taking an Oath to the Pope derogatory to that of their Fidelity to the King which contradiction he desired his Parliament to take away and it occasion'd writes my Lord Herbert Fol. 335 the final renouncing of the Popes Authority about two years after The Clergies Oath is given at large in Walshe's Epistle to his Loyal Formulary Fol. 19. which draws me into a further consideration of the late War A War in which were interessed on several Principles some of the greatest Princes and States of Europe the Pope Emperor France Spain Lorraign and others who professedly or under-hand contributed Money Arms Council or Countenance A War many years in contriving and what makes it the more stupendious so secretly and unexpectedly carried on villany hates the light that considering how far the Conspiracy was spread and who were engaged in it it is scarce credible that no apprehension of its event should in the least be discovered more then what Ever Mac Mahon imparted 1631. The apprehension of which soon passed over as did also some other petty suspicions rais'd I know not from what improbable and confused Rumors amusing rather then convincing the Judgment of such as were most concern'd in the notice of them so as till the 22. of Octob. 1641. late at night on the very point of the Plot being acted nothing seem'd certain or infallible that if God had not been very merciful all had been surprized before any one had been suspected A War not confined to some Province or parts of Provinces in Ireland as Tyrones Desmonds and the rest had been but as if the Design were the joynt Act of the whole Kingdom all seem'd to have one head few excepted whose Honour is the greater A War not arising from small beginnings as some of the former which from private Interest at last espoused greater But this in its first appearance drove all before it like some Infections speedily diffusing its Venome through the whole Body A War for which the most diligent enquiry could not have found within the Nation a Head in Popularity or Parts for such an undertaking The occasion doubtless of security in most and whereby the State Politicks of that time were deluded they having their eyes open onely on what might have been from abroad suspected not much less fear'd at home the loud alarms of a Massinello a Person of none or of broken Fortunes of little Power or of less Brain but any thing even what is under foot and next at hand may easily be taken up and made by Divine Justice a sufficient Scourge for a provoking People such was that Sir Phelim O Neal esteem'd till then generally a very Buffoon in Converse but after own'd and Honour'd as a Principal in that undertaking Yet being therein rather the hand then the head proving however the Fire-brand of his Countrey that being the English of Phelim an Totan or smoaking Phelimy a Name on this occasion given him in way of Honour by his Irish Rhimers and wherein he himself after gloried Finally a War dismal to the English and Protestants of Ireland in its beginning so dismal as no example
greater Contagion to our Religion then could arise from those light differencies was imminent by Persons common Enemies to them both namely the great number of Priests both Seminaries and Jesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before our coming to this Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater liberty then heretofore they durst have done partly upon a vain confidence of some Innovation in matter of Religion to be done by us which we never intended nor gave any man cause to expect and partly upon the assurance of our general Pardon granted according to the custom of our Progenitors at our Coronation for offences past in the days of the late Queen which Pardons many of the said Priests have procur'd under our great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from the danger of the Laws do with great Audacity exercise all Offices of their Profession both saying Masses perswading our Subjects from the Religion Established and reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by consequence seducing them from the true perswasion which all Subjects ought to have of their Duty and Obedience to Us Of which though I might urge more I have no itch to enlarge their own Scourge may be their Punishment Saepe in Magistrum scelera redierunt sua Certain it was the Irish hop'd to shake off the English Government by that attempt but how improbable a Series of 500 years Succession sufficiently evinces every defection in the People having rooted the Prince more intire that at length methinks they should be wean'd from further Assays of that nature though where there are a People who look towards Egypt there will not want some to cry out for a Captain to lead them But to descant hereupon is not my design being willing to believe that Janus's Gates may henceforth be shut Allegiance being the aim not the pretence of their present Submission What I here endeavour is to clear by what Steps the late Rebellion arrived at its Height and how it came in so short a time to sweep all before it In handling of which I shall first shew the Condition of the Kingdom some years before the Rebellion Then I shall speak of the preliminary Acts thereunto and therein detect the vanity of those who would fix the Rebellion at first upon a few discontented inconsiderable Persons a Rable Authors of all the Civil War that followed in Ulster onely when the Plot was a long laid Design determin'd by the main Body of the Nation as Rory-Mac-Guire ingenuously told Colonel Audley Mervin That this great undertaking was never the Act of one or 2 giddy fellows We have said he our Party in England we have our Party in Scotland that will keep such as would oppose us busy from sending you any Aid in as much as I could tell you who the Persons were that were designed for the Surprisal of all the Places of Strength And in the Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates of Ireland at Jamestown the 12. of August 1650. It is there acknowledged That the Catholick People of Ireland so not the Rable in the year 1641. were forc'd to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties which some very industriously would fain wipe off as being too undeniable an evidence of their inclinations before those vain pretences they fly to as their main Subterfuge drove them into the Net with others Yet we shall herein so clear the folly of what they would have the World believe as their Excuse serves mainly to aggravate their Crime Mens Impudicam facere non casus Solet Afterwards I will fall on the Subject till the Cessation manag'd by subtil Instruments of State Yet not without great Disgusts to some highly improv'd to the event of what afterwards ensued Then we shall proceed to the Conclusion which betwixt the Cessation and that will appear to have many notable changes such as though some Histories may lead you through many varieties this more In clearing of which I should have been glad of more Originals than I could meet with especially such as might have detected the whole Proceedings at Kilkenny where the Design was so closely anvil'd as all things afterwards were found there in defiance of his Majesties Authority There first the Clergy compact a General Congregation which summon'd a General Assembly equivalent in their Veneration to a Parliament and that Established a Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks which received from them Sanction and Laws by which Coin was stamped National and Provincial Court Established Estates setled their Clergy Re-established the Popes Nuncio receiv'd Ambassadors sent thence and others entertain'd from Foraign Princes all under a Soveraign Seal of their own and what else might bespeak them independent on any but their own Power But the Evidence of these and some other Records being the Treasure of fearful men whom a specious Artifice had charm'd easy Keys oâ— Interest could not freely purchase The Records however of that presumptious Assembly are notwithstanding the unfortunateness of the Age yet secur'd in his Library which though before it wanted little to make it venerable will in future Ages be resorted to as a Treasure invaluable securing those Secrets which the malice of so potent an Enemy would have improv'd to the ruine of an Empire Yet as I have already said I ground little if any thing but on Proofs Nay I have so well sifted Kilkenny it self though no Art hath been omitted to shuffle up the Proceeding there as the Original Progress and State of that Conclave is not without faithful and notable Remarks more being under the Vizard than appear'd in the Disguise though the Retirement I have now betook my self to suitable to the effects of so disconsolate a Rebellion deprives me of those Councils and Societies which by a free'r Commerce might have rectified either my Sence or Stile For the most part I have in the Appendix set down Copies of the weightiest Records they carrying so much even of the History in them as they eas'd me in the Story I should have been forward to have enlarg'd more nothing of that nature being otherwise than important But in that his Majesty's Works Sir John Temple of the Irish Rebellion Husbands Collections of Orders Ordinances and Declarations of both Houses of Parliament the Commissioners of Ireland's Remonstrance to the House of Commons in England of the condition of the Clergy and Protestants the Speeches of several Members Diurnals Walshes Loyal Formulary the Answer to the Irish Remonstrance presented at Trim 1642. And other Prints being extant I have rather chose to refer the Reader often thither then engage him in too Voluminous a Tract though where any Relation act or other Material Instrument makes up the Story not without injury to be abreviated we have tied our selves to the Words It was my happiness I must acknowledge to meet with a
from the Crown Multitudes of British were brought in and planted in great numbers even in the most barbarous Places of the Kingdom many corporate Towns have been erected some wall'd Towns have been also lately built Castles Stone-houses and Villages daily made in every part in great abundance Trade and Traffick so well setled as the obstructions therein being remov'd the native Commodities were so freely exported as they did to the great advantage of the Kingdom by far exceed the foreign Importation and all other necessary Provisions were made for the Publick which might be thought any ways to conduce to the Peace Plenty and flourishing Estate of a growing Kingdom And for the Irish themselves though they have ever been observ'd to be a whining Generation a People always given unjustly to complain of their Governours yet in these later times there hath been a most special care taken to preserve them free from all manner of Pressures They have had liberty beyond the examples of former Ages to redress their Grievances in their own Parliament being elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses according to the Affections of the Commons they had too of their Communion Lawyers bred up in England frequent at their Bar also upon their Bench Justices of the Peace in their Counties Sheriffs and Mayors and other Officers in their Corporations Favours not aspir'd to by the Catholicks of England or ever granted And in Cases where they thought fit to present their Complaints unto his Majesty they were graciously receiv'd and fitting Remedies applied They were admitted to enjoy the free and full exercise of the Roman Religion without controul to entertain Priests Friers Jesuits and all sorts of their Ecclesiastical Orders without number whilst the Protestants dissenting from the Regimen of the Church of England were frequently summon'd to the Bishop's Court. Justice was equally administred to the British and Irish without any manner of difference the Countrey Duties and other Taxes were levied upon all without distinction of Persons all private Animosities suppress'd all ancient Grudges remov'd and in all outward appearance they liv'd so affectionately intermixt together as they could not be esteem'd two Nations in one Kingdom but that they did Coalescere in unam Gentem And it is without all contradiction not to be denied That never any Conquer'd Nation enjoy'd more fully the Liberties and Priviledges of Free Subjects and through the great Indulgence of his Majesty liv'd with greater contentment Ease Peace Plenty and freedom from all manner of extraordinary Taxations other than such as they were pleas'd to impose upon themselves in Parliament than the Natives of Ireland have lately done Inasmuch as an Excellent Lawyer clearly evidences from 1601. to the year that he writ in That Ex illo tempore quantum creverunt Hibernorum Res desertissimae sollitudines in vicos oppida Conversae Itinera olim clausa Exercitibus nunc patent Viatoribus Portus Navibus Urbes Mercatoribus Agri Colonis fora Judiciis frequentantur nec siquid inter Cives controversiae inciderit ferro nunc ut olim sed lege Judicis Arbitrio deciditur Ipsae vero Gentes Anglicanae Hibernicae quae non solum studiis sed etiam Castris olim dissidebant nec ullo faedere tenebantur sed alteri alterum utcunque occidere jus erat sublatis nuper Hostilitatis legibus in unum populum coaluerunt nec Commercia nunc Convivia verum Conjugia inter ipsos celebrantur adeoque aequo Jure pari lege eadem Conditione absque omni Gentis discrimine sub justissimo Rege vivitur ut nec Angli se vicisse nec Hiberni victos se esse sentiant That hence ensued the calmest and most universal Peace that ever was seen in Ireland it being not to be produc'd that after the Irish were receiv'd into the Condition of Subjects without difference and distinction which was in the Parliament begun at Dublin under the Lord Chichester the 18th of May Anno Regni Jacob. 11. that ever the English in Ireland offer'd the least violence to any of the Natives eo Nomine Papists or Irish yet nothing could keep them from Rebelling the Corn being then full ear'd And so we are arriv'd at the Rebellion which as you have read hath had many steps to its Rise which we shall now pursue in its Progress and Success The Irish Rebellion 23. Octob. 1641. THE first dark Light of which Sir William Cole the 11th of October 1641. gave the Lords Justices and Council notice of As that there was a great Resort made to Sir Phelim O Neals in the County of Tyrone as also to the House of the Lord Mac-Guire in the County of Fermanagh and that by several suspected Persons fit Instruments for Mischief As also that the said Lord Mac-Guire had of late made several Journeys within the Pale and other Places and had spent his time much in writing Letters and sending Dispatches abroad Upon the receipt of which Intelligence the Lords Justices and Council writ to Sir William Cole requiring him to be very vigilant and industrious to find out what should be the occasion of those several Meetings and speedily to advertise them thereof or any other particular that he conceiv'd might tend to the publick service of the State And more than this rationally could not have been done for that what Sir William Cole inform'd the State of was but conjectural and had any notice been took publickly of it whereby Sir Phelim O Neal or the Lord Mac-Guire had been seiz'd on the same would certainly have been a pretended cause for the Irish ready Touch-wood to have risen in Arms being suspected before they manifested any dis-satisfaction Besides there was some so unwilling to receive the least mis-conceit of the Irish believing Time had worn out all Animosities and the State had secur'd each Interests as they us'd the utmost artifice imaginable to suppress those thoughts in others That thence more than a circumspect eye was not to be advis'd Some say one John Cormack reveal'd to Sir William Cole the 21. of October That the Irish resolv'd to seize upon his Majesties Castle and City of Dublin to murder his Lords Justices and Council there and to seize upon all the Castles and Forts of the Kingdom c. Which Sir William Cole the same day sent the Lords Justices notice of As others from an Ultogh would infer That they had inform'd the State thereof and that Sir Lucas Dillon thereupon had been summon'd before them and told that they had heard something of him and others in Connaght that made their fidelity suspected which with a sober countenance and solemn protestation Arts he had been long bred to he soon wiped off So saith my Author that for our sins our Counsellors were infatuated and our Watch-men slumber'd But Sir John Temple whose Integrity over-weighs all Assertions to the contrary testifies That those Letters and Informations never came to their knowledge and that indeed
they had never any certain notice of this general Conspiracy of the Irish until the 22d of October late in the evening that Owen O Conally a meer Irish-man Servant to Sir John Clotworthy train'd up in the Protestant Religion imparted the same to the Lord Justice Parsons as a sense of his Duty and Loyalty to his Majesty and an effect of that Religion he was trained up in At first the Lord Parsons gave little belief to the Relation in regard it came from an obscure Person and one as he conceiv'd somewhat distemper'd at that time with drink delivering his story besides in so broken a manner that it scarce seem'd credible whereupon his Lordship let him go strictly charging him to return back the same evening with what further discoveries he could make Yet in the interim the Lord Parsons being touch'd with the Relation repair'd about Ten of the Clock at night to the Lord Borlase at Chichester-house without the Town and disclos'd to him what Owen O Conally had imparted which made so sensible an impression on his Colleague as the Discoverer being let go He grew infinitely concern'd thereat having none to punish if the story should prove false or means to learn more were it true In the disturbance of which perplexity Owen O Conally comes or as others write was brought where the Lords Justices were then met sensible that his discovery was not thorowly believed professing that what-ever he had acquainted the Lord Parsons with touching the Conspiracy was true and could he but repose himself the effects of drink being still upon him he should discover more Whereupon he had the conveniency of a Bed In the interim the Lords Justices summon'd as many of the Council as they could give notice to to their assistance that night at Chichester-house Sir Thomas Rotheram and Sir Robert Meredith Chancellor of the Exchequer came immediately to them They then with all diligence secur'd the Gates of the City with such as they could most confide in and strengthen'd the Warders of the Castle which were a few in-considerable men with their Foot-Guard usually attending their Persons charging the Mayor and his Brethren to be watchful of all persons that should walk the streets that night However many of the Conspirators escaped over the River or at least lay conceal'd in Citizens houses a Receptacle too ready for most of them and some of those who were brought before the Lords Justices and Council as James Warren Sir Neal's Servant and Paul O Neal an active Priest though neither of them then were discover'd to be such found means to get away of which Sir Phelim bragg'd of afterwards Paul O Neal having been a prime Instrument in the contrivance of the Rebellion Whilst Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon Esq Grandson by his Mother to the Traitor Tir-Oen a Gentleman of good Fortune in the County of Monaghon who had serv'd as a Lieutenant Colonel in the King of Spain's Quarters was after some little resistance apprehended before day in his own Lodging over the Water near the Inns and brought to Chichester-house where upon Examination he did without much difficulty confess the Plot resolutely telling them That on that very day it was now about 5 in the morning the 23. of Octob. 1641. that all the Forts and strong Places in Ireland would be taken That he with the Lord Mac-Guire Hugh Birn Captain Brian O Neal and several other Irish Gentlemen were come up expresly to surprize the Castle of Dublin and that twenty men out of each County of the Kingdom were to be here to joyn with them That all the Lords and Gentlemen in the Kingdom that were Papists were engag'd in this Plot That what was that day to be done in other parts of the Countrey was so far advanc'd by that time as it was impossible for the wit of Man to prevent it And withal told them That it was true they had him in their power and might use him how they pleased but he was sure he should be reveng'd Before Mac-Mahon was apprehended Owen O Conally having on his repose recovered himself had his Examination taken in these words Who being duly sworn and examined saith That he being at Monimore in the County of London-derry on Tuesday last he received a Letter from Colonel Hugh Oge-Mac-Mahon desiring him to come to Connaght in the County of Monaghan and to be with him on Wednesday or Thursday last Whereupon he this Examinant came to Connaght on Wednesday night last and finding the said Hugh come to Dublin followed him thither he came hither about six of the Clock this evening and forthwith went to the Lodging of the said Hugh to the house near the Boat in Oxmantown and there he found the said Hugh and came with the said Hugh into the Town near the Pillory to the Lodging of the Lord Mac-Guire where they found not the Lord within and there they drank a cup of Beer and then went back again to the said Hugh's Lodging He saith That at the Lord Mac-Guire's Lodging the said Hugh told him That there were and would be this night great numbers of Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Irish Papists from all parts of the Kingdom in this Town who with himself had determin'd to take the Castle of Dublin and to possess themselves of all his Majesties Ammunition there to morrow morning being Saturday And that they intended first to batter the Chimneys of the said Town and if the Citizens would not yield then to batter down the Houses and so to cut off all the Protestants that would not joyn with them He further saith That he the said Hugh told him That the Irish had prepared men in all parts of the Kingdom to destroy all the English inhabiting there to morrow morning by Ten of the Clock and that in all the Sea-Ports and other Towns in the Kingdom all the Protestants should be killed that night and that all the Posts that could be could not prevent it And further saith That he moved the said Hugh to forbear executing of that business and to discover it to the State for saving of his own Estate who said He could not help it But said That they did owe their Allegiance to the King and would pay him all his Rights but that they did this for the Tyrannical Government that was over them and to imitate Scotland who had got a Priviledge by that course And he further saith That when he was with the said Hugh in his Lodging the said Hugh swore That he should not go out of his Lodging that night but told him he should go with him the next morning to the Castle and said if this matter were discovered some body should die for it Whereupon this Examinant feign'd some necessity for his Easment went down out of the Chamber and left his Sword in pawn and the said Hugh sent his Man down with him and when this Examinant came down into the Yard and finding an opportunity
besiege the Town with a Fleet and having taken possession of the Abbey near adjoyning landed many of his Battering Guns But before he attempted any thing according to his Commission he first advised with the present Governour the Lord of Clanrickard affectionate to his Majesties Service As the Town seem'd to be placing his Majesties Colours on the top of their Tower charging Captain Willoughby Governour of the Fort with the breach of Pacification an Agreement it seems assented to by the State though in vindication of himself he and Captain Ashley alledg'd much Great straits he had been put to though at length happily reliev'd by the Earl of Clanrickard when he was closely Beleaguer'd together with the Archbishop of Tuam Richard Boyle and his Family besides 36 Ministers 26 of which serv'd as Soldiers and did their Duty After all the Lord Forbes being by the Town the Earl of Clanrickard and the President of Connaght with whom he had had several ineffectual Conferences daily delay'd in what he endeavour'd to give Captain Willoughby satisfaction in prepar'd to make his approach to the Town but not being strengthen'd by any supply he could get from the Lord President or Sir Charles Coot and dishearten'd by Captain Willoughby in that every House in the Town was a Fort he drew off being perswaded to a Composition to be paid in Money within two months which he never got And at the Lord Presidents return to Athlone the Soldiers Mutini'd both Officers and Soldiers offering to go to Dublin but the Common Soldiers being very weak not able to draw into a considerable Body the Irish Kerns killing all sick and fainty persons that could not accompany the Body of the Army that intent for the present was deferr'd though not long after they return'd with Sir Richard Greenvile whose seasonable relief and the Battel of Raconnel will be mention'd in its due place Whilst the Lord Forbes sail'd up Limerick River relieving some Places and without much opposition took in Fits-Geralds the Knight of the Valley or Glyn Castle furnish'd with all Utensils and Provisions for a Family About the 20th of June 700 Foot and two Troops of Horse under the Command of Colonel Gibson went into Wickloe where the Rebels not daring to face them they got much Prey burnt many Villages and return'd with success The Kings affairs now growing every day more straitned in England than other Sir Lewis Kirk at Court withdrew Sir Henry Stradling and Kettleby from guarding the Irish Coast whereby presently after there came in both Arms and Ammunition in great quantities to Wexford as also several Irish Commanders as Preston Cullen Plunket and others who having been Colonels in France were readily entertain'd there much to the heartning of the Rebels However in Ulster the 28th of June Sir Robert Stewart and Sir William Stewart Persons deserving excellently well of the State near Raphoe got a considerable Victory over the Rebels under Sir Phelim O-Neal slaying near 2000 of them though much inferiour in number Arms and Ammunition whilst Monroe sought them towards the Newry but had not so good luck to encounter them as he had the 23d of May preceding when he gave the Irish Committee of the Parliament of England this account That with 2000 Foot and 300 Horse he beat Owen Mac-Art O-Neal Sir Phelim O-Neal and Owen Mac-Art the General 's Son being all joyn'd together with their Forces and forced them to return upon Charlemont after quitting the Generals house to be spoil'd and burnt by them with the whole Houses in Louhgall being the best Plantation in Ulster and straightest for defence of the Rebels Thus in some places whilst we find the War succeeded the Lords Justices in the midst of August suspecting Preston's Forces should increase and according to the resolution of the Parliament at Kelkenny should first gain the Out-Garrisons and then besiege Dublin were forced to require the Lord Conway to come unto their aid with 3000 Foot and all the Horse he could procure to prosecute the War in Leimster Who return'd an Answer That their Companies were so weak they could not draw them together and that the Rebels having then receiv'd new Supplies were strong and that he was engag'd to meet the Earl of Leven the Scots General to encounter Owen O-Neal with all the Forces he could get Thus that Province reserved to it self its own strength not coming in as by the Tenth Article with the Parliament of England the Scots were engaged to In Munster the Scene was hot for the Parliament of England having sent over as into Leimster several Regiments of Foot and some Troops of Horse unto Sir William St. Leger Knight who having long serv'd in the Low-Countreys with singular reputation was some years before the Rebellion made Lord President of Munster a Command he discharg'd with much vigilance and courage in as much as the Enemy now fear'd no man more What he did upon the first breaking out of the Rebellion in hope to have stopt its current in that Province we have already mention'd and should have told you that the State to impower him thereunto admitted him to raise a Regiment of Foot consisting of 1000 men and two Troops of Horse 60 to each Troop which afterwards besides the supplies mention'd were listed in his Majesties Musters with Pay accordingly But the Design being general Munster at length was as well disturb'd as the rest of the Kingdom Cashel Clonmel Dungarvan and Featherd with other Places were all on an easie summons soon yielded to the Rebels raging through the Countrey which the Lord President endeavour'd to suppress as far as those small Forces he had with him would admit resolving near Redsheard to have given them Battle having at that time in his company the Earl of Barrymore the Lord Dungarvan the Lord Broghil Sir Hardress Waller Sir Edward Denny Serjeant Major Searl Sir John Brown Captain William Kingsmil with 600 Foot and 300 Horse But the Rebels on the other side the Mountain privately avoided them though four to one and getting to Cashel held there a general Rendezvous from whence Mountgarret went with his Forces to Kilmallock a Town treacherously surrendred to the Rebels a little before on demand situated on the Frontiers of the County of Limmerick towards Cork environ'd with a strong Wall which held out Loyally for the Crown all Tyrone's Wars though sometimes strongly besieged and highly distressed And the 9th of February 1641. he went to Butavant where the Gentry from all parts appear'd It is an antient Town belonging to the Earl of Barrimore in the Barony of Orrory an old Nest of Abbots Friers and Priests There the General Mountgarret exercis'd his greatness with reserv'd gravity and distance so as none except Serjeant Major Purcel who had now joyn'd himself with the Confederates contrary to the expectation the Lord President had of him were admitted to any Command in the Army more then they had over the Men they brought
be looked on as a Dream more than a Truth considering the shortness of the Expedition though none could more prudently have acted whilst he was upon the Place nor was there any whom the Soldiers would more readily obey such was his Courage so great his Integrity The Lord Broghil and Sir Arthur Loftus at the same time preferr'd Articles against the Lord Inchequin But the Parliament was so imbroil'd about the Disbanding the Independent Army then mutinous and Inchequin had so many to favour themselves countenanc'd him as little if any thing became of the Impeachment But to return to the Confederates who when they saw the Ships return'd from England with Supplies of Soldiers Money and great store of Provisions and the Commissioners to treat with the Marquis for putting all into the Parliaments hands rais'd the Siege seeming less united amongst themselves and desirous to make Conditions with the Lord Lieutenant whilst General Preston and his Officers frankly entred into a Treaty with the Marquis of Clanrickard whom the Lord Lieutenant authoriz'd to that end and with deep and solemn Oaths undertook and promised to stand to the Peace and from thenceforth to be obedient to his Majesties Authority and to joyn with the Marquis of Ormond against all those who should refuse to submit unto them On the other side the Commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament who were admitted into Dublin to treat with the Lord Lieutenant observing the very ill condition the Town was in besieged by two strong Armies by whom they within expected every hour to be assaulted concluded that the want of Food and all necessaries for defence would compel the Marquis with the importunity and clamour of the Inhabitants and Soldiers to receive Supplies of Men Money and Victuals which they had brought upon any terms and therefore stifly insisted on their Propositions refusing to consent that the Marquis should send any Messenger to the King that upon information how the case stood he might receive his Majesties direction what to do And how the Parliament in Ireland then in being might be continued which by the delivering of the Sword without his Majesties pleasure imparted could not be secured from being dissolved and without which he then resolved not to proceed to any conjunction with them and so had privately dispatched several Expresses to the King as soon as he discerned clearly that the Irish were so terrifi'd by the Nuncio and his Excommunication that there was little hope of good from them with full information of the state of Affairs and expected every day a return of some of the said Messengers with signification of his Majesties Pleasure Thus the Treaty with the Marquis not succeeding the Commissioners from the Two Houses of Parliament return'd again to their Ships about the end of November and carried all the Supplies they had brought to the Parliaments Garrisons in the Province of Ulster being much incens'd against the Lord Lieutenant for declining an entire union with them and inclining as they said he did to a new confidence in the Irish Yet they found but cold entertainment amongst the Scots At which time Dr. John Maxwel formerly Bishop of Ross in Scotland now Archbishop of Tuam in Ireland hearing of Commissioners from the Parliament of England grew so envenom'd thereat suspecting the Covenant which he had ever abhorr'd should be imposed as sicercely imprecating it and being broken with the calamities of the Times he di'd the 14th of Febr. 1646. and was buried in Trinity Church Dublin at the munificence of the Marquis of Ormond By this time the Marquis of Clanrickard had an entire trust answerable to what he had begun to treat of with General Preston from the Lord Lieutenant as a Person superiour to all temptations which might endeavour to lessen or divert his Affection and Integrity to the King or his Zeal to the Romish Catholick Religion in which he had been bred and to which he had most constantly adher'd he had taken great pains to render the Peace which had been so long in consultation effectual to the Nation and had both by Discourse and Writing endeavour'd to disswade the Nuncio from prosecuting those rough ways which he foresaw were like to undo the Nation and dishonour the Catholick Religion He found General Preston and the Officers of his Army less transported with passion and a blind submission to the Authority of the Nuncio than the other and that they professed greater duty and obedience to the King and that they seem'd to be wrought on by two Conclusions which had been speciously infus'd into them The first was that the Lord Lieutenant was so great an Enemy to their Religion that though they should obtain any Conditions from the King to their advantage in that particular he would oppose and not consent unto the same The other that the King was now in the hand of the Scots who were not like to approve that Peace had been made all that Nation in Ulster refusing to submit to it And if they should be able to procure any Order from his Majesty to disavow it the Lord Lieutenant would undoubtedly obey it These specious infusions the Marquis of Clanrickard endeavour'd to remove and undertook upon his Honour to use all the Power and Interest which he had in the King Queen and Prince on behalf of the Romish Catholicks and to procure them such Priviledges and Liberty for the free exercise of their Religion as they could reasonably expect And undertook that the Lord Lieutenant would acquiesce with such directions as he should receive therein without contradiction or endeavour to do ill Offices to the Catholicks He further promised that if any Order should be procured from the King during the restraint he was then in to the disadvantage of the Catholicks then He would suspend any obedience thereunto until such time as his Majesty should be at liberty and might receive full information on their behalf And upon the Marquis of Clanrickard's positive undertaking these particulars and the Lord Lieutenant having ratifi'd and confirm'd all that the Marquis had engag'd himself for General Preston with all the Principal Officers under his Command signed this ensuing Engagement WE the Generals Nobility and Officers of the Confederate Catholick Forces do solemnly bind and engage our selves by the Honour and Reputation of Gentlemen and Soldiers and by the Sacred Protestation upon the Faith of Catholicks in the presence of Almighty God both for our selves and as much as in us lies for all Persons that are or shall be under our Command that we will from the Date hereof forward submit and conform our selves entirely and sincerely to the Peace concluded and proclaimed by his Majesties Lieutenant with such additional Concessions and Securities as the Right Honourable Ulick Lord Marquis of Clanrickard hath undertaken to procure and secure to us in such manner and upon such terms as is expressed in his Lordships Undertakings and Protestation of
extream scandal and disgrace which we should the less resent if their malice could terminate in us but to the obstructing of the Supplies order'd and design'd for publick Service and to the irreparable prejudice thereof which our Enemies can value at so low a rate as to put it into that bargain they are in hand to make for our destruction It being very approvable by us that several Persons in power there do interpose their endeavours to continue us by the impeding of Supplies in a desperate languishing and perishable condition upon the Place and in a despicable and doubtful esteem with the Honourable Houses Whereof there will need no other Instances than that after the several promises made by Letters from the Honourable Committee at Darby-house and Votes pass'd for transmitting Supplies unto us especially in case of Major General Starling his being sent to attend the Pleasure of the Houses the only Remora then alledged to make stay of 7000 Suits of Cloaths and 10000 l. in Money being before design'd for our relief there is no more than 2700 l. sent unto us in Money and thereof but 1500 l. designed for the feeding of us and the Souldiers under our Command And that notwithstanding the signal Testimony given of our real intentions and affections to that Cause and Service in a late Engagement against the Rebels at Knockness which we touch at without any affection of vain-glory the Votes then renew'd for our Relief and the Order for our Indempnity which was conceived would not have found so much hesitation with those whose Service we had only profest are laid aside and nothing effectual or advantagious done in order thereto for our avane save the transmittal of 2700 l. but on the contrary new jealousies and distrust of us are re-embrac'd and fomented It is not therefore so insupportable a dis-comfort to us to observe our own Lives exposed a sacrifice to the malice of our now potent publick Enemies who by the conjunction of three several Armies are not more encouraged to confront us in the Field than we by the art and practice used to with-hold those just and necessary Supplies from us dis-abled to joyn Battle with them as to observe our honourable Reputation and Integrity dearer to us than our Lives brought into such frequent question and unworthily mangled depraved and slaughtered by the calumnious aspersions of our powerful and prevailing Adversaries in despight of all our zealous and cordial Endeavours to give indubitable testimony and evidence of our Fidelities What if we be beyond any common measure afflicted and dismayed We are confident that all Persons of Honour will acknowledge that we have much more than common cause And now that our Adversaries have prevailed to deprive us not only of all hopes of subsisting here in your Service but have proceeded for to provide that we may not live hereafter but out of your Favour So having intercepted and perverted the comfort we well hoped to have received from other testimonies of our sincerity they have only left us this Expedient to testifie our mindfulness of our duty by which is to give humble intimation to that Honourable House that we are involved in so great and extream exigencies of distress and universal want with the pressure of three joynt Armies upon our weak and naked Forces that there remains no humane means discernable amongst us to subsist by any longer in this Service unless it shall stand with the pleasure and piety of those in whose Service we have exhausted both our blood and livelihoods to send us some seasonable and considerable Supplies or that we should be inforced to entertain such terms as the Rebels will give us which of all things we abominate as knowing our necessities will render them such as must be both obstructive and dishonourable and therefore shall resolve of making that the last Expedient to preserve our own and many thousands of poor Protestants Lives by or that it shall please the Honourable Houses to send Shipping to fetch us off And so in discharge of our duties both to God and Man we humbly offer to consideration and remain Subscribed-by the Officers under the Lord Inchiquin This Remonstrance begat some Heats Upon which many of the Subscribers were sent for over and committed but upon submission soon releas'd and an Ordinance for their Indempnity publish'd But to return to the Marquess of Ormond whom not long since we left in France where finding himself at liberty and out of the reach of his Enemy he then projected again to visit Ireland having made the Marquess of Clanrickard and the Lord Taaff who without any pause had preserv'd their Allegiance entire privy to what might best advance his Majesty's Interest amongst those who opposing the Nuncio seem'd resolute for his Majesty And they one in Connaght the other in Munster accordingly disposed the People to a ready complyance whilst the Forces under the Nuncio were much weakned partly by the defeat of General Preston whose Army was routed and destroyed by the Parliament's Forces within less than a month after they had compelled the Marquess to leave the Kingdom and partly by the dislike the great Council of the Confederate Catholicks had of the demeanour of the Nuncio and the experience they now had of his ill conduct and the miseries he had brought them into by forcing them to decline the Peace which would have been so advantagious to them and against which the general Assembly at Kilkenny the 2d of March 1647. published a Proclamation conformable to what the Congregation of the Clergy before had pass'd at Waterford the 12th of August 1646. The Lord Inchiquin had likewise held correspondence with the Marquess of Ormond while he was in England and as soon as the Marquess came into France desired him to make what haste he could into Ireland where he should find the Army and all the important Towns of that Province under his Command ready to submit to him and to be conducted by him in the King's Service any way he should command And in the mean time he made an Agreement with the Irish under the Command of the Marquess of Clanrickard and the Lord Taaff with the Approbation of the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks from May 1648. to November following and sent them 500 Horse under the Command of Major Doily to assist them in an Expedition they were then entred upon against the Nuncio and Owen Roe O Neal in which they prevail'd so far that Owen O Neal found it necessary to retire to the great Towns and they drove the Nuncio himself into the Town of Gallway where he summoned a National Synod the 15th of July and they besieged him so close that they compelled the Town after near two months siege to pay a good sum of Money to be distributed amongst the Souldiers and to disclaim any further subjection or submission to the Nuncio's unlimited Jurisdiction which in effect had put all
Churches and Church-Livings they have in present possession and the Exercise of Jurisdiction therein 2. That a Parliament be had within 6 months or when after the Roman Catholicks shall desire 3. That all Laws made in the Parliament of England since 1641. in blemish of the Catholicks are at the next Parliament to be vacated 4. All Indictments against any Catholicks since 1641. be vacated 5. All Impediments to be taken away that Catholicks be elected in Parliament 6. All Debts to remain as they were Feb. 8. 1641. notwithstanding any Attainder 7. The Estates of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of Connaght Clare Thomond Limerick and Tipperary be secured by an Act. 8. All Incapacities of the Natives in Ireland be taken away by Act. 9. All Honours Trusts Imployments or such like be conferred as well upon Catholicks as Protestants 10. That the King take 12000 l. per annum in lieu of the Court of Wards 11. No Noblemen to have more Proxies than two in Parliament and all Blanks to be null 12. That the depending of the Parliament of Ireland upon England shall be as both shall agree and stand with the Laws of Ireland 13. That the Council-Table meddle only with Matters of State 14. That all Acts forbidding the Transport of Wooll be null'd by the next Parliament 15. That if any have been wrong'd by Grants from King James or since they may Petition and have Relief in Parliament 16. That divers particular Lords Knights and Gentlemen who have been as they conceiv'd wrong'd shall now be righted 17. That all who had their Estates taken from them in Cork Toughall and Dungarvan have restoration or Rent 18. That in the next Parliament an Act of Oblivion pass to all in Ireland and that adhered to them 19. That no Officer of Eminency in Ireland farm the Customs 20. An Act to pass against Monopolists 21. That the Court of Castle-Chamber be regulated 22. That the Acts for prohibiting plowing with Horses by the Tayls and burning Oats in the Straw be null 23. An Act for taking off the Grievances of the Kingdom 24. That Maritime Causes be determin'd in Ireland 25. That no Rents be rais'd upon the Subjects under pretence of defective Titles 26. That Interest-Money be forgiven from 1641. 27. That all this be acted and be of force till a Parliament agree the same 28. The Commissioners for the Catholicks that treated agree upon such as shall be Commissioners of the Peace and hear all Causes under 10 l. 29. That all Governours of Towns Castles and Places made by the King be with the Approbation of the Catholick Commissioners 30. That none of his Majesty's Rents be paid until a full Settlement in Parliament 31. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer do try Murthers Stealing and all inferiour Trespasses of that nature 32. That hereafter such Differencies as shall arise between Subjects be determin'd by a Court in Ireland not transfer'd to England 33. That the Roman Clergy that behave themselves according to the Agreement be not molested Lastly That his Majesty please to grant what-ever else is necessary for the Roman Catholicks Upon which Peace the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Taaff and that Party engag'd to raise for Munster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse the supream Council and Preston for Leimster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse Inchiquin 3000 Foot and 600 Horse the Lord of Clanrickard for Connaght proportionable to the first In all 15000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides what Owen Roe upon his uniting afterwards might bring in computed to be 5000 Foot and 500 Horse that in the whole a gallanter Army had they been unanimous could scarce have been marshall'd With what Consent and Unity soever this Peace was made by those who had any pretence to Trust or to whom there was the least Deputation of Authority and Power by the Nation yet Owen O Neal with whom the Earl of Antrim joyn'd had the greatest Influence upon the Humours and Inclinations of the old Irish who had given themselves up to the Nuncio and who indeed had a better disciplin'd and consequently a stronger Army at his Command than the Confederates thought he could have gain'd to his Devotion still refused to submit to it So that the Lord Lieutenant as soon as the Peace was concluded was as well to provide against him to remove some Garrisons he held which infested those who obeyed the Acts of the Assembly and to prevent his Incursion as to raise an Army against the Spring to march against the English who were possessed of Dublin and all the Countrey and important Places of that Circuit and who he was sure would be supplied with all assistance of Shipping Men Money Victuals and Ammunition which the Parliament of England who had now murthered their Sovereign and incorporated themselves under the Name and Title of a Common-wealth could send them And he was in a worse condition to prevail against both these by the unhappy Temper and Constitution of the Scots in Ulster who being very numerous and possessed of the strong Towns though in profession they abhorred the Regicides and were not reconcilable to Owen O Neal and his Party were as yet as un-inclined to the Peace made with the Confederates and far from paying an obedience and full submission to the Orders and Government of the Lord Lieutenant maintaining at the same time the Presbyterian Form in their Church and an utter Independency in the State and out of those contradictory Ingredients compounding such a peevish and wayward Affection and Duty to the King as could not be applied to the bearing any part in the great Work the Marquess was incumbent to As soon as he heard of the Murther of the King he proclaim'd our present Sovereign Charles the 2d King of England Scotland France and Ireland at Carrick the 16th of Feb. 1648. And being by a Clause in his late Commission from his Majesty qualified with special Power and Authority to make no distinction in difference of Judgement betwixt any who should subject their Assistance to his Majesty's Service he soon won the Scots to a compliance though under the shackles of their Covenant who immediately us'd the most favourable Arguments they could to win Sir Charles Coot to their Party And to that end from the Congregation of the Presbytery at Belfast the 15th of Feb. 1648. they tempt him by several Representations with their Sence To which the 7th of March ensuing Sir Charles Coot and the Council of War held at London-derry return'd these Reasons for their Dis-agreement First We find no part of God's Word authorizing us being but a Branch of a subordinate Kingdom to declare against the Parliament of England under whom we serve who are the visible Authority of both Kingdoms and against an Army acting by their Power before we receive from themselves a Declaration and Grounds of those Proceedings wherewith they are aspers'd Secondly For the Covenant we have taken on which your Representations seem to
Lieutenant-General of the Army with a strong Party of Horse to pursue Jones his Horse which were sent for Tredagh which he did so successfully that he surprized one whole Troop and afterwards encountred Colonel Chidley Coot in the head of 300 Horse whereof he slew many and routed the rest who in great disorder fled to Tredagh The Lord Inchequin presently sent advertisement of this success and that he had reason to believe that if he pursued this advantage and attempt the Town while this terror possessed that Party he should make himself Master of it whereupon in respect of the great importance of the Place the reduction whereof would produce a secure correspondence with and give encouragement to the Scots in Ulster who made great professions in which they were ever free of Duty to the King and had now under the conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery of Ards driven Sir Charles Coot into the City of London-derry and upon the matter beleagu'd him there the Lord Lieutenant by the advice of the Council of War approved the Lord Inchequin's Design and to that purpose sent him two Regiments of Foot and two Pieces of Artillery and such Ammunition and Materials as could be spared wherewith he proceeded so vigorously that within 7 days he compelled the besieged to yield to honourable Conditions so reduced Tredagh to the Kings Obedience after he had been twice beaten off the Town having not above 600 Men who had spent all their Ammunition left to defend so large a circuit some of which afterwards revolted to the Marquess and Colonel Coot with 150 Horse and near 400 Foot march'd to Dublin There was now very reasonable ground for hope that the Parliaments Party would quickly find themselves in notable streights and distresses when it was on a suddain discover'd how very active and dexterous the spirit of Rebellion is to reconcile and unite those who were possessed by it and how contrary soever their Principles and Ends seem to be and contribute jointly to the opposing and oppressing that Lawful Power they had both equally injured and provoked The Parliament Party who had heap'd so many Reproaches and Calumnies upon the King for his Clemency to the Irish who had founded their own Authority and Strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion and some write so bitter are their Pens even with Humanity to the Irish Nation and more especially to those of the old Native Extraction the whole Race whereof they had upon the matter sworn to an utter extirpation And Owen O Neal himself was of the most antient Sept and whose Army consisted onely of such who avowed no other cause for their first entrance into Rebellion but Matter of Religion and that the Power of the Parliament was like to be so great and prevalent that the King himself would not be able to extend his Favours and Mercy towards them which they seem'd to be confident he was in his gracious disposition inclined to express and therefore professed to take up Arms against the exorbitant Power onely of them and to retain hearts full of Devotion and Duty to his Majesty and who at present by the under-hand and secret Treaties with the Lord Lieutenant seem'd more irreconcilable to the Proceedings of the General Assembly and to the Persons of those whom he thought govern'd there then to make any scruple of submitting to the Kings Authority in the Person of the Marquess to which and to whom he protested all Duty and Reverence These two so contrary and dis-agreeing Elements had I say by the subtile and volatile spirit of Hypocrisy and Rebellion the Arts of the time found a way to incorporate together and Owen O Neal had promised and contracted with the other that he would compel the Lord Lieutenant to retire and draw off his Army from about Dublin by his invading those Parts of Leimster and Munster with his Army which yielded most yea all the Provisions and subsistance to the Marquess and which he presumed the Marquess would not suffer to be spoil'd and desolated by his Incursions for the better doing whereof and enabling him for this Expedition Colonel Monk Governor of Dundalk who was the second Person in Command amongst the Parliaments Forces had promised to deliver to him out of the stores of that Garrison a good quantity of Powder Bullet and Match proportionable for the fetching whereof Owen O Neal had sent Farral Lieutenant General of his Army with a Party of 500 Foot and 300 Horse At that time Tredagh was taken by the Lord Inchequin who being there advertised of that new contracted friendship resolved to give some interruption to it and made so good hast that within few hours after Farral had receiv'd the Ammunition at Dundalk he fell upon him routed all his Horse and of the 500 Foot there were not 40 escaped but were either slain or taken Prisoners and got all the Ammunition and with it so good an Account of the present state of Dundalk that he immediately engaged before it and assisted by the Lord of Ards who a little before had been chosen by the Presbyterian Ministers their Commander in Chief thereby possessing himself of Carrigfergus and Belfast in two days compelled Monk who would else have been delivered up by his own Souldiers to surrender the Place where was a good Magazeen of Ammunition Cloath and other Necessaries for War most of the Officers and Souldiers with all alacrity engaging themselves in his Majesties service though the Governor Shipt himself for England and landing shortly after at Chester he went immediately to Bristol where Cromwel the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant was then to come for Ireland who receiv'd him very courteously but after he had remain'd some days there advised him to go up to the Parliament to give them satisfaction in the Cessation he had made with Owen Roe O-Neal the 8th of May 1649. which he did And the business of that Cessation being brought into the House it was much resented and after some debate more then ordinarily had on other occasions several severe Votes passed against it onely Colonel Monk being conceived to have made it out of a good intent for preserving the Interest of the Parliament was held to be clear and not thought fit hereafter to be question'd But this was taken as a fair way of laying him aside whereupon Colonel Monk retir'd to his own Estate unhappy onely in being the Instrument of their preservation who were not sensible of his Merits And now that all Parties might be kept entire the Marquess of Ormond publishes a Declaration upon Instructions from the King design'd purposely for Ulster AFter my hearty Commendations upon some Representations that have been lately made unto us we have thought fit to send you down the ensuing Instructions First That so far as your Power extends you cause every Person without distinction who have submitted to his Majesties Authority
Bishop of Clougher held a Council at Baltimore in West-Meath to consult the security of the Nation which Cromwel hearing of sent Colonel Reynolds and Sir Theophilus Jones with 2500 Horse Foot and Dragoons against them with which they dispersed them and those Forces which the Marquis of Clanrickard and the Earl of Castlehaven had brought out of Connaght to the Relief of Tecrogham within 20 miles of Dublin and being joyn'd with the Dublin Forces took in Trim Balahuse Finagh and other Places In the time that Clonmel was Besieged the Bishop of Ross with 4000 Foot and 300 Horse endeavours its Relief but is overcome by the Lord Broghil near Bandon-Bridge and himself taken Prisoner and hang'd in the sight of Caringdred which Castle thereupon yielded to the Lord Broghil In this Hurry the Forces in Ulster being besides much shaken by reason of several Interresses the Nobility Gentry and Commanders for the King scattered a Declaration that none who would submit to his Authority should suffer either in Religion or State but it prevailed little During the Leaguer of Clonmel absolute Orders were brought to Cromwel from the Parliament for his sudden return as also two Expresses from the Council of State to that purpose which after the compleatment of that Siege he fulfilled leaving the Kingdom about the end of May 1650. having made Colonel Ireton his Deputy Here we cannot but take notice that there were several Precepts by the Archbishop of Ardmagh and others to pray for the success of Oliver's Forces whilst Dominick Dempsy a Franciscan esteem'd a grave and holy man and therefore a leading Person and Long the Jesuit asserted that the King being out of the Roman Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him particularly or publickly in general on any other day than on Good-Friday as comprehended amongst the Infidels alias Jews Mahometans Pagans and Hereticks and then for the Spiritual welfare of his Soul not for his Temporal prosperity Though the Parliamentarians by the Faction and obstinacy of the Irish who could not hitherto be induced to make reasonable provision for defence had prevail'd far and possessed themselves of many good Places without considerable opposition yet there remain'd a good part of the Kingdom free from their Power the whole Province of Connaght was still entire and the Cities of Waterford Limerick and Galway in possession of the Catholicks which might be made so strong as not to fear any strength Ireton could bring before them and are so situated for all advantages of Sea that they might being well supplied maintain a War against the whole Kingdom they had also the Forts of Duncannon and Sligo as also the strong Castles of Caterlough Athlone Charlemont Carlo and Neanagh from whence the Confederates might bring into the Field twice the number of Men which the Enemy had so that there wanted onely Unity Order and Resolution to preserve themselves to improve which the Marquis of Ormond resolved to begin with Limerick and if he could have disposed that City unto a full obedience and to receive a Garrison he made no question not onely to fortifie it against any attempt of the Enemy but under the countenance of it and by the security of the River Shannon to Quarter his Troops raise Contribution for their support Discipline his Men and in effect by the Spring so to recruit his Army that he might not suspect to prevail against the Enemy where-ever he should engage And to this purpose he went himself thither from Kilkenny in January hoping that the good resolution of the Bishops of Cloanmacnoise had well prepared the People to comply with him but when he came thither albeit he was receiv'd with outward demonstrations of respect he found the temper not such as he desired whatsoever the Bishops had declared The Clergy had observed none of those Directions nor were any in so much credit as they who behaved themselves quite contrary to those Determinations And if no way could be found to allay this Spirit all his endeavours he saw would be without any fruit Hereupon he resolv'd to try whether that part of the Clergy which wished well to the Kingdom could use as efficacious means to preserve as the other who desired confusion did to destroy it And upon advice with the principal Persons of the Catholick Nobility and with the Commissioners of Trust he did by his Letters of the 27th of February 1649. desire as many of the Catholick Bishops as were within convenient distance to meet him at Limerick which they accordingly did the 8th of March following When they came thither he conferred with them in the presence of â—he Commissioners of Trust with all frankness upon the distracted and disjoynted state of Affairs and freely told them That without the People would be brought to have a full confidence in him and yield perfect obedience to him and without the City of Limerick might be perswaded to receive a Garrison and obey his Orders it was not to be hoped that he could be able to do any thing considerable against the Enemy He desired them therefore if they had a mist rust of him or a dislike of his Government that they would as clearly let him know it assuring them that such was his desire of the Peoples preservation that there was nothing within his Power consistent with his Duty to the King and agreeable with his Honour that he would not do at their desires for that end Withall letting them see that his continuance with the Name and not the Power of the Lord Lieutenant could bring nothing but ruine upon the Nation as well as dishonour on him So that again he propounded to them in plain terms Either that they would procure a due obedience to be yielded to him or propose some other way by his quitting the Kingdom how it might be preserved After consultation together they return'd with many expressions of respects and affection to his Person and faithfully promis'd to endeavour all that obedience he desir'd withall presenting the 13th of March to him a Paper of Advice which contained as they said certain Remedies for removing the discontents and disgusts of the People and for the advancing of his Majesties Service Amongst which they proposed That a Privy Council might be framed by the Peers and other of the Natives of the Kingdom as well Spiritual as Temporal to sit daily with him and determine all the weighty Affairs of the Countrey by their Council and many other Particulars concerning the raising of Men and conducting the War To every one of which his Excellency from Limerick gave them sitting at Loghreogh an Answer in writing amongst which he told them That he could not understand how the present distresses of the Kingdom could proceed from the want of a Privy Council or how the framing of such a Council could advantage the management of the War which by the Articles of Peace was to be done by the Commissioners of Trust with whom he
that such a Direction To send one or more Persons to make Proposals unto them for the safety of the Nation and such a negligent expression That we shall not want willingness to prepare a good Answer could not proceed but from a Superior to an Inferior Dependant However as the Marquess knew it would be to no purpose to inhibite their Meeting so he thought fit to write to them in this manner AFter our hearty Commendations we received yours of the 24th of July on the first of this month and do with much grief acknowledge that this Nation is brought into a sad Condition and that by such means as when it shall be known abroad and by story be delivered to Posterity will indeed be thought a Fable For it will seem incredible that any Nation should so madly affect and violently pursue the Ways leading to their own Destruction as this People will appear to have done And that after the certain ruine they were running into as evidently and frequently discovered unto those that in all times and upon all occasions have had Power to compel or perswade them to what-ever they thought fit and it will be less credible when it shall be declared as in truth it will be that the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Interest and Safety even of those that had this Power and that have been thus forewarn'd did consist in making use of it to reclaim the People and direct them into the ways of Preservation To be plain it cannot be denied but the Disobedience we have met with which we at large declared unto many of you who with divers others of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled at Loghreogh in April last were the certain ready ways to the Destruction of this Nation as by our Letters of the first of May to that Assembly we made apparent Antient and late experience hath made evident what Power those of your Function have had to draw the People of this Nation to what they thought fit whether your Lordships have been convinced that the Obedience which we desired should be given to his Majesties Authority in us pursuant to the Articles of Peace was the way to preserve the Nation we know not or whether your Lordships have made use of all the means at other times and upon other occasions exercised by you to procure this necessary Obedience we shall not now determine Sure we are that since the said Assembly not onely Limerick hath persisted in the like Disobedience for want of due Compliance from those Places but principally from Limerick it hath been impossible for us to raise or imploy an Army against the Rebels for to attempt it any where on the other side of the Shannon but near Limerick and without the absolute command of that City to secure it could be no other then the certain Ruine of the Design in the very beginning of it the Rebels Power being such as to dissipate with ease the foundation that should be laid there and to have done it on the other side of the Shannon was impossible since the ground-work of the Army must be raised and supported from thence which while it was in forming would have exhausted all the substance of those Parts and not have effected the work for want of such an Army which with Gods assistance might certainly have been raised long since if Limerick had obeyed our Orders The Rebels have without any considerable Resistance from abroad taken in Clonmel Tecroghan Catherlagh and reduced Waterford and Duncannon to great and we fear irrecoverable Distress The loss of these Places and the want of any visible Power to protect them have doubtlesly induced many to contribute their Substance and personal assistance to the Rebels from which whither they might have been with-held by Church censures we know not but have not heard of any such which issued against them and lastly for want of such an Army the Rebels have taken to themselves the Contribution which might considerably have assisted to support an Army and preserve the Kingdom If therefore the end of your Consultation at Jamestown be to acquit your Consciencies in the eyes of God the amendment of all Errors and the recovery of this afflicted People as by the Letter giving us notice of your Meeting is professed we have endeavoured briefly to shew that the spring of our past losses and approaching Ruine ariseth from Disobediencies and it will not be heard to shew that the spring of those Disobediencies ariseth from the Forgeries invented the Calumnies spread against the Government and the incitement of the People to Rebellion by very many of the Clergy That these are Errors frequently practised and fit for amendment is no more to be doubted than without they be amended the affection of the People will continue and as it is to be feared end in their utter Destruction which if prevented by what your Consultation will produce the happy effect of your Meeting will be acknowledged without questioning the Authority by which you meet or expect Proposals from us which other then what we have formerly and now by this our Letter made we hold not necessary And so we bid your Lordships heartily farewel From Roscommon the 2d of August 1650. To our very good Lords the Archbishops and Bishops met at Jamestown Your Lordships very loving Friend ORMOND Upon the Receipt of this Letter the several Bishops who met at Jamestown sent the Bishop of Dromore and Doctor Charles Kelly to the Lord Lieutenant with this Letter of Credit May it please your Excellency WE received your Letter of the second Currant where to our grief and admiration we saw some expressions that seem meant for casting a blame upon us of the present sad Condition of the Kingdom which we hope to Answer to the satisfaction of your Excellency and the whole Nation In the mean time we permit this Protestation as we are Christian Catholick Prelates that we have done our Endeavours with all Earnestness and Candor for taking away from the hearts of the People all Jealousies and Diffidencies that were conceiv'd the occasion of so many disasters that befel the Nation And that in all occasions our Actions and Co-operations were ready to accompany all your Excellencies Designs for the preservation of all his Majesties Interests in this Kingdom whose State being in the present desperate Condition we thought it our Duty to offer unto your Excellency our sence of the onely possibility we could devise for its Preservation And that by the Intervention and Expression of my Lord of Dromore and Doctor Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam who shall clearly deliver unto your Excellency our thoughts and good intentions as to this effect Praying your Excellency to give full Credit to what they will declare in our Names in this Business which will be still own'd as our Command laid upon them and the Declaration of the sincere hearts of Your Excellencies most humble Servants H. Ardmagh Jo. Archiep. Tuam Jo.
assuming to themselves the name of The Kingdom and People of Ireland as if there had been no other Party or People in the Kingdom or not considerable but themselves alone and as if then in Ireland there had been no Power or Government but theirs onely his Majesties Authority in the hands of his Deputy not regarded or consulted They also the Confederates in that giving up the Kingdom into the Power of a Stranger colouring their Treason with a flattering Clause and an empty and insignificant Title to their Natural Prince in Reversion and by Resignation when the new Protector commanding all should please to do it he being first satisfi'd of all Disbursments Charges and Claims whatsoever he himself being Auditor A Concern of that importance as we seldom find where others have been called in upon Assistance especially on such Encouragements that they have quitted their hold without effusion of much blood or an absolute dis-inherizon of the right Owner And therefore the Lord Deputies foresight of such an Evil doth commend him faithful to his Prince and just to his Nation Nor can it be doubted that the Attestation of this Peer one that hath run the hazard of his Countreys safety should be further credited than what the Bishop of Ferns or any obscure loose Frier how prodigal soever in their Calumnies should or can publish in the bitterness of their spirit a crime incident to their Faculty being ill affected to his Majesty worse to his Governours One of the principal Motives which induced the Marquis of Clanrickard to submit to that Charge and to undertake a Province which he knew would be very burthensome and grievous in several respects was the joynt promise That the City of Limerick and the Town of Galway would pay all imaginable duty to him The Clergy obliged themselves in that particular with all confidence and the Deputies of the Places promised all that could be desir'd But when the Lord Deputy found it necessary to settle that business they would neither receive a Garrison or Governour from him and when he offered himself to stay in Limerick when Ireton was drawing before it and to run his Fortune with them they refused it as peremptorily as they had done to the Lord Lieutenant It is true both Limerick and Galway were contented to receive Soldiers but they must be such onely as were of their own choosing not such either in number or quality as the Lord Deputy would have sent to them or as were necessary for their security They chose likewise their own Governour or rather kept the Government themselves and gave the Title to one whom they thought least like to contradict them and in a word behaved themselves like two Common-wealths and obey'd the Deputy no farther than they were inclined by their own convenience they who compounded with the Enemy in the Countrey corresponded with them in the Town and thereby gave the Enemy intelligence of all that passed Wonderful diligence was used to make it be thought that the Independents were not uncharitable unto Papists and that they wished not any compulsion should be used in matter of Religion and when the acts of cruelty and blood of putting their Priests and Prelates to an ignominious death of which there were new instances every day were mentioned It was answer'd Those proceedings were carried on by the power of the Presbyterians very much against the Nature and Principles of the other Party This license of Communication and the evil consequences that must attend it was enough understood by the Lord Deputy but could no more be prevented reformed or punished than he could infuse a new heart or spirit into the People one instance will serve the turn There was in the Town a Frier Anthony Geoghean who had always adhered to the Nuncio and opposed the King's Authority to the utmost of his power several Letters written by him into the Enemies Quarters were intercepted and brought to the Lord Deputy in which though there were many things in Cypher there appeared much of the present state and condition of the Town and in one of them dated the 4th of Febr. 1651. he thus writes If the service of God had been as deep in the hearts of our Nation as that Idol of Dagon a foolish Loyalty a better course for its honour and preservation had been taken in time The Lord Deputy believed the crime to be so apparent and of such a nature that what Complices soever he might have none would have the courage to appear in his behalf And that he might give the Clergy an opportunity to shew their zeal in a business that concern'd so much their common safety he referr'd the examination of the Frier unto the Bishops whereof there were three or four in Town and to some other of the principal of the Clergy and appointed them to require him to produce the Cypher which he had used and to examine him to whom the Letters were intended they being directed to counterfeit and suppositious names The Cypher was accordingly produced and thereby many expressions in the Letter appear'd to be full of neglect and reproach to the King and others of insolence and contumely toward the Lord Deputy they mention'd little hope was left of relief from the Duke of Lorrain and that they resolved to send one to treat with the Rebels and had found private means of conveying one to that purpose The Frier promised to use all his diligence to dispose the Catholicks to have a good opinion of the Independents and made some request concerning himself All that he alledged for his defence was That the Letters written by him were to one who was employ'd by the Court of Rome that he had no ill meaning against the King or Deputy and that he had himself a Trust from Rome and Instructions from the Secretary of the Congregation De propaganda Fide and the Bishops certifi'd that they had seen the Instructions and that they did not relate at all to the Temporal State And this was all the satisfaction and justice the Lord Deputy could procure though he writ several Letters of Expostulation to the Bishops thereupon Whether this be a part of the Priviledges and Immunities of the Catholick Roman Church and enjoy'd in any Catholick Countrey and whether it can be indulged to them in any other Countrey where the Authority of the Bishop of Rome is not submitted unto we must leave to the World to judge and determine In the interim If Protestant Kings and Princes are provident and severe for the prevention of such practices and for the establishing their own security this must not be imputed to an unreasonable jealousie of or a prejudice to the Roman Catholick Religion but to the confident presumption of those men under the vizard of universal obedience who have pretended Religion for their warrant or excuse for the most unlawful and unjustifiable actions This was the obedience and submission they paid to the Kings
Person who openly shewed himself against the Anabaptists then raging and countenanced the University then in a low Ebb bestowing upon it Bishop Usher's Library composed of the choicest and best picked Books extant carrying himself so as some of the Rigour of his Father was thereby taken off and that disordered Nation brought into the Condition of a flourishing State Yet afterwards when he might have had many to have seconded him he tamely yielded in 1659. the Government to Steel the Parliaments Lord Chancellor and Miles Corbet their Chief Baron of the Exchequer his Brother Richard having surrendred the Protectorship in England very meanly with a submission as he termed it to Providence So that Family expired And the Affairs of England growing every day full of change Ireland understanding what Sir George Booth had nobly attempted in England grew thence early in its dutiful Address to his Majesty And Sir Theophilus Jones further'd by his Reverend Brother Colonel Warren Bridges Thompson Lisle Warder and Temple seized Dublin Castle Sir Charles Coot about the same time preferring an Impeachment of Treason against Ludlow Tomlinson Corbet and John Jones and weighing the Consequences of the present Distempers he together with the Council of the Officers of the Army present at Dublin the 16th of February 1659. made a Memorable Declaration concerning the Re-admission of the Secluded Members about the same time sending Captain Cuffe to attend Colonel Monk into England a General Convention being the 7th of February before Summon'd by the Vigilance and excellent Contrivance and Industry of Doctor Dudley Loftus in which Sir James Barry afterwards Lord Baron of Santry was Chairman Several Affairs of greatest Consequence came there to be considered First the Arrears of the Souldiers they were to be fastned to the Design by their Interest and by the discharge of what was due to them then what was most popular and look'd least to the mark they aim'd at came under consideration in as much as they continued till May 1660. having readily accepted of the Kings Declaration from Breda of the 14th of April 1660. laying hold by their Declaration of the 14th of May of his Condescentions as the fittest expedient to cement the divided Interests in his three Kingdoms which his Majesty in his Printed Declaration for the settlement of Ireland takes especial notice of in these words That our good Subjects the Protestants not Usurpers as the Irish in their Case entitle them in our Kingdom of Ireland have born a very good part in the Blessing of our Restitution and that they were early in their dutiful Addresses unto Us and made the same Professions of a Resolution to return to their Duty and Obedience to Us during the time of Our being beyond the Seas which they have since so eminently made good and put in practice And here I cannot pass over that when the Irish Brigade came to assist Lambert against Sir George Booth now Lord Delameere and were in the North with him at that time advancing to know what General Monk intended they under Redman and Bret first drew back though some of their Officers in their canting mood thought to have wheedled General Monk into a Compliance The Convention gave his Majesty 20000 l. the Duke of York 4000 l. and the Duke of Glocester 2000 l. and in May adjourned to the first of November a standing Committee remaining in the interim And the 18th of December 1660. his Majesty by his Letter approved of this Convention which met again the 22. of January and Sir William Dumvell was appointed Chairman it continued till May 1661. Before they determined they had by a Committee very sensible and gallantly defended at Court the English Interest against the Irish who by reason of the Peace which had been made with them in 1646. and 48. thought they had very much to plead for his Majesties favour when upon the whole it was proved that if any of them were afterwards Loyal the generality disobeyed whatever had been indulged them and the Contract was not to be understood to be made with a Party but the Community of which more in its due place His Majesty was no sooner setled in England but upon both Houses of Parliaments apprehension of the late Rebellion and the Irish flocking at his Return into England he within few days published his sence of that horrible Conspiracy in the ensuing Proclamation By the King A PROCLAMATION Against the Rebels in Ireland C. R. CHarles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all Our loving Subjects of England and Ireland Greeting We taking notice by the Information of the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament That after the vast expence of Blood and Treasure for the suppressing of the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland begun in October 1641. There are yet many of the Natives of that Our Kingdom deeply guilty of that Rebellion who have of late broke out into new Acts of Force and Violence some Murthering Robbing and Despoiling several of Our English Protestant Subjects there planted and others of them by force Entring upon and Disquieting the Possessions of several Adventurers and Souldiers there to the great and manifest disturbance and hinderance of Our English Plantation And being very sensible of the innocent bloud of so many thousands of Our English Protestant Subjects formerly slain by the hands of those barbarous Rebels and of new mischiefs of the same kind likely to fall out as the sad issue and consequents of so unhappy beginnings Do therefore by the advice of the said Lords and Commons now assembled as well to testifie Our utter abhorring of the said late Rebellion as to prevent the like for the future and for the present establishment of the Peace of that Our Kingdom hold it Our duty to God and the whole Protestant Interest to Command Publish and Declare and do by this Our Proclamation accordingly Command Publish and Declare That all Irish Rebels other than such as by Articles have liberty to reside in these Our Dominions and have not since forfeited the benefit thereof now remaining in or which hereafter shall resort to England or Ireland be forthwith apprehended and proceeded against as Rebels and Traitors according to Law And that the Adventurers and Souldiers and other Our Subjects in Ireland their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns who on the first day of January last past were in the Possession of any of the Mannors Castles Houses Lands Tenements or Hereditaments of any the said Irish Rebels shall not be disturbed in such their Possessions until We by the advice of the Lords and Commons now assembled as aforesaid or such Parliament as We shall call in England or Ireland shall take further Order or that they be Legally evicted by due course of Law And all Our Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs and other Officers both Civil and Military both in England and Ireland are hereby
requiring and authorizing you as Commander of them in Chief to arm array divide distribute dispose conduct lead and govern in Chief the said Forces according to your best discretion and with the said Forces to resist pursue follow apprehend and put to death kill and slay as well by Battle as otherwaies all and singular the said Conspirators Traitors and their Adherents according to your discretion And according to your Conscience and discretion to proceed against them or any of them or by Martial Law by hanging them or any of them till they be dead according as it hath been accustomed in time of open Rebellion and also to take wast and spoil their or any of their Castles Holds Forts Houses Goods and Territories or otherwise to preserve the lives of them or any of them and to receive them into his Majesties favour and mercy and to forbear the devastation of their or any of their Castles Holds Forts Houses Goods and Territories aforementioned according to your discretion Further hereby requiring and authorizing you to do execute and perform all and singular such other things for Examination of persons suspected discovery of Traitors and their Adherents parlying with and granting protections to them or any of them taking up of Carts Carriages and other Conveniences sending and retaining Espials Victualing the said Forces and other things whatsoever conducing to the purpose aforementioned as you in your discretion shall think fit and the necessity of the service require further hereby requiring and authorizing you as Commander in Chief to constitute and appoint such Officers and Ministers respectively for the better performance and execution of all and singular the premises as you in your discretion shall think fit And do hereby require and command all and singular his Majesties Sheriffs Officers and Ministers and loving Subjects of and within the County of Meath and the borders thereof upon their Faith and Allegiance to his Majesty and to his Crown to be aiding helping and assisting to you in the doing and Executing of all and singular the premises This our Commission to continue during our Pleasure only and for the so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin November 1641. To our very good Lord Nicholas Gormanstowne Vic. Com. R. Dillon Jo. Temple Ja. Ware Rob. Meredith Fol. 86. l. 45. Osburn's Castle as also of the notable service of Ballially in the County of Clare well defended by Bridgeman and Cuff though slenderly succoured by Bowatty how oft soever invoked of whose neglect they were not a little sensible Fol 88. l. 39. a Careful General 's not upon diffidence that his Commands entrusted to others would be the insufficienter executed No his Souldiers had long experienced even the best of Quality amongst them that no commands were to be disobeyed But that the Souldier seeing his General to share in labour might undergo the like with more willingness and courage Examples of hardship born by such as might have ease wonderfully work on those who can have no exemption Fol. 97. l. 4. Laws of the Land This Oath of Association the later Paragraph excepted was the 26th of July 1644. in the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland at Kilkenny declared by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Knights and Burgesses of that house full and binding without addition of any other words thereunto and enjoyned to be took by all sorts of People Fol. 104. l. 28. That War and by some speeches it was apprehended that the drift in requiring subscriptions was to engage the Army against his Majesty in detestation whereof some Officers rent the Book of Subscriptions in pieces Fol. 105. l. 303. 8000 men A necessity the State was then unhappily reduced to and as his Majesty takes notice that his Ministers who suffered the return of his Army and their quartering in the City were not to be blam'd if they durst not suffer the Souldiers to march farr or stay long in the Enemies Country when there was but 40. Barrels of Powder in all the Store Fol. 106. l. 14. their Weight and afterwards by the King's approbation with C. R. with a Crown on one side and the value on the other Fol. 120. l. 4. with 300 l. In as much as their General Bourk having a good opinion of his Gallantry sent a Summons signifying That He was commanded by the Councel of the Confederate Catholiques of Ireland to demand the delivery of the Castle to his hands for the use of his Majesty and if not deliver'd upon this Summons Mercy was not to be expected although for his part He desired not the effusion of Christian blood yet if such a Paper-house should be kept against him who had such an Army such Artillery a day longer he could not by the practice of VVar be censur'd cruel if no Quarter were given a terrible Minaâ—e and considering the force he had and the Weakness of the House not irrational Fol. 140. l. 32. their Coneurrence In November 1643. the Parliament in Ireland sitting the House of Commons had in debate a Remonstrance declaring the Inhumanity of the Rebels that it might be recommended to the King a Committee was sent from the House to the Lords Justices who advising with the upper House at that time very thin and highly influenc'd were answer'd That there were greater matters of State to be considered so nothing further proceeded thereon Fol. 155. l. 44. with the Rebels which Perinchief writes was procured by the Scots to make their Ware more valuable Fol. 156. l. 6. witnessing the Conclusion which as the Cessation His Majesty prosesseth to have been forced to during the late troubles and was compelled to give the Irish a full Pardon for what they had before done amiss upon their return to their Duty and their Promise of giving Him a vigorous Assistance which how answer'd by their obedience hereafter appears Fol. 167. l. 39. into England who carried with them these Propositions from the Lord Lieutenant to the Parliament of England 1. That the said Lord Lieutenant will prosecute the VVar against the Irish Rebels as vigorously as he shall be enabled thereunto by the Parliament of England and that he will faithfully serve the Crown of England therein 2. That whilst he hath the Government of this Kingdom and the Command of the Armies therein none of the supplies of Men Moneys Arms Munition Victuals or any other Provisions of what kind or nature soever which shall by the Parliament of England be sent over or joined with the Forces already under his Command nor any of the said Forces now under his Command nor any other Forces that shall be under his Command shall in any wise be employed either within this Kingdom or without it but by the express Direction of the said Parliament of England 3. That he will not upon any Command or by virtue of any Power or Authority whatsoever enter into any Treaty with the said
and in the power of such a place is the consideration of those principles in their Religion owned and pursued by the people of this Nation more evidently than in many others and so by them in that City tending in endless violence injustice falshood and treachery towards us whereever they find opportunity as That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks which in their sense are all persons not of their Religion but that at least where the keeping of it is to the prejudice and the breaking of it may be of advantage to the Catholique cause it may be broken and any thing in a manner is lawful to be done for the advantage of that Cause at least if it be with the allowance or dispensation of their Ghostly Fathers And how dangerous and unsafe it is to keep persons of such differing and destructive principles to the Cause and Interest we serve in such places of strength and so much in the power of the Inhabitants I wish them only to make it their own case and then judge And though such principles be denied or disowned in the expressions of some yet sure I am nothing hath been more clear in the practices of the generality of the people of that Religion in this Nation as appears in the several times of their Rebellion against the lawful authority which God had set over them to whom they have several times sworn to be true and faithful and as often broke their faith and obligations as engaged and especially in this Rebellion by the Murders and Massacres of so many innocent English Protestants in the beginning of it living in peace and Trust quietly by them And that this is still their practice suitable to such principles I desire those that question it but to look upon the late actions of many of those that upon their fair professions to us and our trust in them for faithfulness or at least for innocent and peaceable demeanors towards us have received protection from us who notwithstanding do most of them make it their daily business to do us all the mischief they can wherever they see an opportunity and for that purpose do harbor entertain and encourage those many Tories in every corner that otherwise durst not come into our Quarters nor could subsist in them undiscovered or do that mischief as they do and escape yet from all our Forces and Garrisons in every corner ready to pursue them but that as they are assured and find the protected people are friends to them and in their hearts Enemies and false to us notwithstandstanding all their professions to the contrary nay many of the protected people themselves upon every slight occasion or ground of hope of doing mischief to us do frequently run from their Habitations join with the Enemy in Arms and deliver up their Castles to them And though for the shame and ill consequences of such principles to themselves if owned and profest by them many do disclaim any such opinions yea perhaps from the sence of those evil consequences may in their present and private Judgments condemn them yet whilst they hold entire communion with that Catholick Church as they account it which maintains or holds forth the same and implicitly resolve their private judgments into the belief or determination of that Church or however do own and adhere to a power both forreign and adverse to us in their Pope and Clergy which they acknowledg can bind and lose their consciences without limitation It must needs follow that upon the determinations or allowance of that Church or the injunctions or absolutions of that power they must when it comes to trial unless they will renounce that Communion and Dependance account themselves not only absolvable thereby from all obligations of humane right or duty towards us to the contrary but also obliged by an higher bond and duty to answer and pursue any Injunctions of that CHURCH or power in any ways of violence and treachery towards us which for the upholding or advancement thereof shall be required or warranted thereby and they shall see any opportunity for Now though these and many more such considerations and experiences may suffice both to justifie us in and awaken us to the providing for security to our selves and our Cause against such a generation by all ways to which in common Justice we are free as by this warning out these Inhabitants in this case and not to trust them in so visible a power and opportunity to betray or hurt us as their continuance in that City beyond the period of this warning they would have yet in humanity and our common Christian charity we cannot but pity Men so miserably blind-folded and captivated in delusions as the generality of them appear and heartily wish and pray that neither they nor any other might any longer be so and we do not desire their hurt or prejudice further than justice and necessity for our own and the publick safety do require and therefore even in this warning given we have not only consulted the justice and necessity leading to it but also the conveniency of time as to them for doing of it that it might be at such a season as might be most convenient or least prejudicial to them also which I judge the time of the period of this warning to be in regard that being in the beginning of May it is the most fitting season for persons in such conditions to provide for themselves either by hiring or building themselves places of Habitation in some parts near adjoyning to be allotted them for that purpose or to march if they so desire it by Land or take a Voyage by Sea to those places unto which they shall desire to go And that all may see who do not wilfully shut their eyes that our end is not to ruin them and inrich our selves but only to act in order to publique safety and security I do resolve where I can find a sufficient Character or mark of distinction concerning any person or persons that have not had a hand in the first years Rebellion and Massacres or have discovered themselves to be Friends to the Interest and People of England or have not been known to have been eminently active in the prosecution of the War or holding out of that City against us to difference them by favour and respect shewn from others and in all other cases wherein mercy and favour may be shewed without prejudice to publick justice and safety I do intend it and particularly in that of Orphans and Aged and decrepid people and Widdows whose condition is the most to be pitied in regard many of them may not be able to help themselves but if they should be turned out with the others immediately might suffer much by it I shall therefore take the best care and course I can for them to prevent any of those inconveniences that may otherwise fall upon persons in their conditions and to do for them
of them that would accept of it together with the Excommunication of the Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the order of Publication thereof whereupon Sir Nicholas Plunket who subscribed the said Instructions and principally insisted on the forementioned Particulars was sent for by the Committee of Lords who had the Examination of that Affair and acknowledging his hand-writing Report thereof was made to his Majesty and Council by whom it was ordered about the 14th of March 1661. That no more Petitions or Addresses should be received by the Irish to the obstruction of the Settlement of that Kingdom and that Sir Nicholas Plunket should thence-forward no more presume to come into his Majesties Presence nor to Court Likewise there was produced an Oath previously taken by several of the Popish Nobility Clergy and others of the Gentry of Ireland before the Articles of Peace made in 1648. which they so much insist upon wherein they swear and engage That if those Articles of Peace were not in every particular for their advantage performed they would not be concluded by any thing therein Which appear'd to be so damnable a Piece of Treachery as it was highly resented in Council and the rather for that his Grace stood up and justified that to his knowledge it was a Truth And lest the memory of so great a Deliverance should slip out of our thoughts I shall in the next place present you with the Anniversary Act for its observance that this may be to us not less then the Passover to the Israelites for a Memorial and a Feast to the Lord throughout our Generations by an Ordinance for ever AN ACT FOR Keeping and Celebrating the three and twentieth day of October as an Anniversary Thanksgiving in this Kingdom WHereas many Malignant and Rebellious Papists and Jesuits Friers Seminary Priests and other Superstitious Orders of the Popish pretended Clergy most disloyally treacherously and wickedly conspired to surprize His Majesties Castle of Dublin His Majesties principal Fort of this Kingdom of Ireland the City of Dublin and all other Cities and Fortifications of this Realm and that all the Protestants and English throughout the whole Kingdom that would not joyn with them should be cut off and finally by a general Rebellion to deprive our late Sovereign Lord of ever blessed memory King Charles the First of this his ancient and rightful Crown and Sovereignty of this Kingdom and to possess themselves thereof all which was by the said Conspirators plotted and intended to be acted on the three and twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord God One thousand six hundred forty and one a Conspiracy so generally inhumane barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of in any Age or Kingdom and if it had taken effect in that fulness which was intended by the Conspirators it had occasioned the utter ruine of this whole Kingdom and the Government thereof And however it pleased Almighty God in his unsearchable Wisdom and Justice as a just punishment and deserved correction to his People for their sins and the sins of this Kingdom to permit then and afterwards the effecting of a great part of that Destruction complotted by those wicked Conspirators whereby many thousand British and Protestants have been massacred many thousands of others of them have been afflicted and tormented with the most exquisite torments that malice could suggest and all Mens Estates as well those whom they barbarously murthered as all other good Subjects were wasted ruined and destroyed yet as his Divine Majesty hath in all Ages shown his Power and Mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of his Church and in the protection of Religious Kings and States so even in the midst of his Justice he was graciously pleased to extend Mercy to his Majesty and to this his Kingdom and good Subjects therein not only in mercifully discovering to the then Lords Justices by one Owen O Connelly a meer Irish Man but trained up in the Protestant Religion who out of a sense of his Duty and Loyalty to his Majesty and for the preservation of his good People and as an effect of that Religion he was trained up in revealed that hideous and bloody Treason not many hours before the appointed time for the Execution thereof but also in preserving the said Castle and City of Dublin and some other Cities Towns and Castles in the Kingdom from the bloody hands of the barbarous Conspirators as also in thereby rendring deliverance of the Lives of the said Lords Justices and Council and of all the British and Protestants in Dublin and in the said other Cities Towns and Castles preserved and of sundry other British and Protestants faln into the hands of those rebellious Conspirators and likewise in sending us Succours out of England hither by the Piety Care and Wisdom of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles the First whereby with Gods blessing the good Subjects of this Kingdom have hitherto continued safe under his mighty Protection notwithstanding the unexampled rage and implacable malice of those merciless Rebels Wherefore as we do most humbly and justly acknowledge Gods Justice in our deserved punishments in those Calamities which from the Councils and Actions of those Conspirators and their Adherents have faln upon us in this Kingdom in general so we do in like manner acknowledge that even in exercising of that his Justice he remembred Mercy also and magnified his Mercies to us in those great Blessings which we humbly confess to have proceeded meerly from his infinite Goodness and Mercy and therefore to his most holy Name we do ascribe all Honour Glory and Praise And to the end this unfeigned Thankfulness may never be forgotten but may be had in a perpetual Remembrance that all Ages to come may yield Praises to his Divine Majesty for the same and have in memory that joyful Day of Deliverance Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same that the three and twentieth day of October shall be kept and celebrated as an Anniversary holy day in this Kingdom for ever and that all Persons do at that day forbear all bodily Labour and the exercise of their Trades and that all and singular Ministers in every Cathedral and Parish Church or other usual place for Common-Prayer within this Realm of Ireland shall always upon the three and twentieth day of October say Morning Prayer and give thanks to Almighty God for that most happy and miraculous Deliverance and Preservation far above the expectations of those wretched Conspirators And that all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm of Ireland shall yearly upon the three and twentieth day of October diligently and faithfully resort to the Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or to some usual Church or Chappel where the said Morning Prayer Preaching or other Service of God