of their affaires and humbly to beseech relief and redresse therein the said Lieutenant Colonel though your Majesties servant and imployed in publike trust in which case the Law of Nations affords safety and protection was without regard to either not only stopped from proceeding in his imployment but also tortured on the racke at Dublin 10 The Lord-president of Munster by direction of the said Lords-Iustices that province being quiet with his accomplices burnt preyed and put to death Men Women and children without making any difference of quality condition age or sex in severall parts of that province The Catholicks Nobles and Gentlemen there mistrusted and threatned and others of inferior quality trusted and furnished with Armes and Ammunition The province of Connaght was used in the like measure whereupon most of the considerable Catholicks in both the said provinces were inforced without Arms or ammunition to looke after safety and to that end to stand on their defence still expecting your Maiesties pleasure and alwayes ready to obey your commands Now the plot of the said ministers of State and their adherents being very ripe applications were incessantly by them made to the malignant party in England to deprive this people of all hopes of your Majesties justice or mercy and to plant a perpetuall enmity between the English and Scottish Nation and your subjects of this kingdom 11 That whereas this your Maiesties kingdom of Ireland in all successions of ages since the raign of King Henry the second sometimes King of England Lord of Ireland had a Parliament of their own composed of Lords and Commons in the same manner and forme qualified with equall liberties powers priviledges and immunities with the Parliament of England and only dependant of the King and Crown of England and Ireland and for all that time no prevalent Record or authentick president can be found that any Statute made in England could or did bind this kingdom before the same were here established by Parliament yet upon untrue suggestions and informations given of your subiects of Ireland an act of Parliament intituled An Act for the speedy and effectuall reducing of the Rebells in his Maiesties kingdom of Ireland to their due obedience to his Maiesty and the Crown of England and another Act intituled An Act for adding unto explaining the said former Act was procured to be enacted in the said Parliament of England in the 18. yeare of your Maiesties raign by which Acts and other proclamations your Maiesties subiects unsummoned unheard were declared Rebels and two Millions and a halfe of Acres arrable meadow and profitable pasture within this kingdom were sold to undertakers for certain sums of money and the Edifices Loghes Woods Bogs wastes and their appurtenances were thereby mentioned to be granted and past gratis which Acts the said Catholicks doe conceive to have been forced upon your Maiesty and although voyd and uniust in themselves to all purposes yet continue matters of evill consequence and extreame preiudice to your Maiesty and totally destructive to this Nation The scope seeming to ayme at Rebels only and at the disposition of a certain quantity of Land but in effect and substance all the Lands in the kingdom by the words of the said Acts may be distributed in whose possession soever they were without respect to age condition or quality and all your Maiesties Tenures and the greatest part of your Maiesties standing Revenue in this kingdom taken away and by the said Act if it were of force all power of pardoning and of granting those Lands is taken from your Maiesty a president that no age can instance the like against this Act the said Catholicks do protest as an Act against the fundamentall Laws of this kingdom and as an Act destructive to your Maiesties right and prerogatives by colour whereof most of the forces sent hither to infest this kingdom by Sea and Land disavowed any authority form your Maiesty but doe depend upon the Parliament of England 12 All strangers and such as were not inhabitants of the city of Dublin being commanded by the said Lord-Iustices in and since the said Moneth of November 1641. to depart the said city were no sooner departed then they were by the direction of the said Lords-Iustices pillaged abroad their goods seized upon and confiscated in Dublin and they desiring to returne under the protection and safety of the state before their appearance in any action were denyed the same and divers other persons of ranke and quality by the said Lords-Iustices imployed in publick service and others keeping close within their doores without annoying any man or siding then with any of the said Catholicks in Arms and others in severall parts of the kingdom living under and having the protection and safety of the state were sooner pillaged their houses burnt themselves their Tenants and servants killed and destroyed then any other by directions from the said Lords-Iustices and by the like direction when any Commander in cheif of the Army promised or gave quarter or protection the same was in all Cases violated and many persons of quality who obtained the same were ruined before others Others that came into Dublin voluntarily and that could not be justly suspected of any crime if Irishmen or Catholicks by the like direction were imprisoned in Dublin robbed and pillaged abroad and brought to their tryall for their lives The city of Dublin and Cork and the ancient Corporate Townes of Drogheda Yeoghell and Kinsale who voluntarily received garrisons in your Majesties name and the adjacent countries who relieved them were worse used and now live in worse condition than the Israelites did in Aegipt So that it will be made appeare that more murthers breaches of publick faith and quarter more destruction and desolation more cruelly not fit to be named were committed in Ireland by the direction and advice of the said Lords-Justices and their party of the said Counsell in lesse then eighteen Moneths then can pe paraleld to have been done by any Christian people 13 The said Lord-Justices and their adherents have against the fundamentall Lawes of the Land procured the sitting of both houses of Parliament for severall Sessions nine parts of ten of the naturall and genuine Members thereof being absent it standing not with their safety to come under their power and made up a considerable number in the house of Commons of Clerks Souldiers Serving-men and others not legally or not chosen at all or returned and having no manner of estate within the kingdom in which sitting sundry Orders were conceived and dismisse obtained of persons before impeached of Treason in full Parliament and passed or might have passed some Acts against Law and to the prejudice of your Majesty and this whole Nation and during these troubles Tearmes were kept and your Majesties Court of chief place and other Courts sate at Dublin to no other end or purpose but by false and illegall Iudgements Outlawries and other Capitall proceedings to
Iournymen of the City went daily to the Rebels and joyned with them and that daily rumours were spread in the City aswell by words as by papers scattered and found that surprises and massacres were intended against your Majesties Subjects the Protestants of the City then was it thought fit and not before to disarme those Catholiques the better to secure the City for your Majesty and quiet the Catholiques who might well know that the strength of the Protestants was their security and from which Protestants the Catholiques never found any violence offered the Protestants profession abhorring such wickednesse the Lords Justices and Counsell also sent armes and powder to Drogheda delivered armes and powder for zoo men to Wexford they sent powder to Waterford and gave them licence to buy and import powder and armes for their defence though afterwards when they ioyned in the Rebellion the Lords Juces and Counsell restrained it as much as they could They sent powder to Trym they sent powder for Dondalke as far as Drogheda where it was staid because Dondalk was yeilded up to the Rebels before it could come thither they also wrote letters to the severall Townes of Wexford Waterford Gallway and Drogheda commending their then seeming forward affections and encouraging and perswading to stand constantly in duty and faith to your Majestie their Lord and King It is true that the Lords Justices and Counsell received an order of both houses of Parliament in England whereby they did commend to the Lord Leivtenant or in his absence to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices according to the power of their Commission to bestow your Majesties gracious pardon to all such as were seduced on false grounds and within a convenient time to be declared by their Lordships should returne to their due obedience This Order the Lords Justices and Counsell printed at Dublin forthwith after receipt thereof the 12 of November 1641 and dispersed it into all parts of the Kingdom as farre as they could to try whether it might worke any relenting or application of those confederated Catholiques to the Lords Justices and Counsell to the end they might have further proceeded to have obtevned a more full direction for granting pardon if that could have beene likely to reclaime any of them The Lords Justices also found in their Commission and instructions no expresse warrant to pardon such pernitious Traitours and that in all late former pardons Treasons against your Majesty and murther was excepted and they daily expected the old Levitenants comming over with more ample authority and direction and considered also that on the 30 of October before the Lords Justices and Counsell had by publique Proclamation adventured so farre as to tender your Majesties grace to all seduced Rebels whereupon none then tendred themselves to the Lords Justices and Counsell or any other your Majesties Officers and afterwards on the first day of November 1641 the Lords Justices and Councell foreseeing the danger that the Inhabitants of Meath Lungford Westmeath and Lowth who of the Pale lay next to the Northerne Rebels might be first educed either by strange rumours spread abroad or by the false enticement of the Clergy and desirous to contayne and preserve as many of them as they could did by publique Proclamation advised and drawne by Mr. Plunket and others of the Commons house admonish all that were not Freeholders nor having their hands in blood within ten dayes to submit themselves before any Justice of Peace or cheif Officer of a Corporation and restore the Protestants goods which they had taken thereupon they should be received to mercy whereupon a few submitted in the County of Meath but never restored any thing nor proceeded further to give satisfaction of their loyalty but soone after returned to their former defection and ioyned in the said Rebellion All which advisedly considered the Lords Justices and Counsell thought not fit to prostitute your Majesties royall grace to men so ungratefull and deperded for they plainly saw that the confederacy and their perswasion to carry all by force was so strong as their actions gave no hope of any inclinations to submit themselves to your Majesties grace and mercy No not when your Majesties Proclamation under your royall Signature and privy signet was sent amongst them Commanding them to lay downe Arms nor untill they of the Pale and the Irish of Vlster were beaten from Drogheda and the seige wholly raised which was about the beginning of March and that your Majesties Levitenant Generall of your army was in the feild with a strong force of foote and horse able to March where he pleased in Meath Lowth and Dublin ready to burne and destroy their houses and eize on the former owners thereof if they could be found Then and not till then some and those but very few of Meath rendred themselves to the Leivtenant Generall of your Majesties army who received them as prisoners and a few others of that County rendred themselves at Dublin who were all imprisoned as was just to so notorious and obstinate offendors And it were criminall in the Lords Justices and Counsell not to commit them Neither did the Lords Justices and Counsell ayme at any of their estates but on the contrary alwayes shewed much regret at the unnaturall defection of the pale which had for the most part in other Rebellions stood firme and loyall And certainly they would have beene most glad to have preserved as many of them as they could as well appeared in their readinesse to embrace the Earle of Westmeath and his Familie upon timely application made though the Lords Justices and Counsell had Intelligence of Northerne Rebells resorting to his house They also upon Sir Morgan Cavanaghs false and feigned Protestations permitted him to returne to his house in hope of his good obedience though they had cause to suspect his and hsi sonnes comming to the Towne on the 22. of October one thousand six hundred fourty one They permitted Sir Luke Fitzgerald to depart quietly because he came to them soone after the beginning of the Rebellion though the Protestant Tenants dwelling on his land were despoiled of all their substance not without his privitie as since hath appeared They permitted Robert Harpoole of Frowle and necre Catherlogh to depart upon his faire protestations notwithstanding they had intelligence of his former being with the Rebells The Sheriffe of Longford and others of the Offarralls permitted backe againe though informed to have joyned in pillaging of the Protestants and many others in like manner because the Lords Justices thought fit to forbeare all manner of strictnesse at first hoping they would not so farre forget their duties as afterwards they all did and also divers others about Dublin who entertained Rebells some perhaps of necessity were permitted to be at libertie by the Lords Justices because they desired to retaine as many of them as they could comming in any time before they had openly joyned with the Rebells and committed the
thereat but such of them as applyed themselves to the Lords Justices were friendly entertained on the 28 of the same October it being complained to the Lords Justices and Councell by the Magistrates of the City that many like formerly qualifyed persons as formerly assembled to the terrour of the City did still resort to the City and Suburbs and others notwithstanding the former Proclamation did still lurk there whose company they much feared as threatning some sudden violence The Lords Justices and Councell therefore on the same grounds as formerly did the second time by Proclamation command all such to depart forthwith on pain of death and the like pain to such as wilfully harboured them And that the Inhabitants should forthwith bring in the names of all such strangers and the Officers to apprehend such Inhabitants as should further harbour them which no way was intended towards men of quality or known credit as aforesaid neither did any of them stirre or take any misapprehension at it afterwards on the 11 of November following the Lords Justices and Councell having intelligence from severall parts of the insolent proceeding of the Rebels against the British and Protestants in the borders of the Pale The Lords Justices and Councell then not fearing disloyalty in the prime Inhabitants thereof as in some other Counties adjacent and finding that divers men of quality and countenance in the Countrey and very many others were then come into the City whereby the Countrey was deprived of defence and left open to the rapine of the Rebels then in Armes And considering that in the beginning of so great distractions as then began to shew themselves in many parts the inferiours might bee terrified or disturbed in the absence of the prime men the Lords Justices and Councell therefore then unanimously thought it necessary and so did for those reasons only and in duty to their then present charge under your Majesty on the said eleventh day of November Proclaime and Command on paines in the said Proclamation mentioned That all persons not having necessary cause of residing in the said City and the Suburbs thereof or in places within two miles about the same their said cause of residing to bee approved of by the Earle of Ormond and Ossory then your Majesties Lieutenant generall of the Army and the Councell of warre there for the time being or such other persons as should bee by them appointed for examination thereof should within foure and twenty houres after publication of that Proclamation repaire to their severall dwellings in which Proclamation there are other Cautions Prescripts and reservations which shew that no unfitting rigour was offered or so much as intended This Act of the Lords Justices and Councell did soon after appeare to agree with your Majesties Royall sense of that necessary retyring of such kind of men in that time of danger and trouble in the Countrey expressed in your gracious Letters written to the Lords Justices in December after concerning the proroguing of the Parliament notwithstanding this Proclamation such of the Parliament as were come to the Towne and their retinues and great numbers of others did continue in Towne many dayes after and those of them that were Members of Parliament did sit and many of the rest of the Lords and Gentry did remain in Town as their occasions moved them and did come and go at their pleasure neither was there inforcement or so much as menaces used to any man that did not willingly go or saw not good reason on the said Publique warning to depart for the good of the Country and safety of their families and neighbours And it is observeable that although that Proclamation did expressely provide for such to stay as having cause and making the same known would desire to stay yet those of them that had a mind to joyn with the Rebels and did joyn with them did chuse rather to depart then to make use of the Liberty given them to stay and yet now would seem to bee constrained to depart which shews apparently the vanity and untruth of that their subterfuge and seeing the unnaturall conspiracy stands so discovered as now it doth it may not bee forgotten that within the space of five weekes after severall Gentlemen of the Pale who had sojourned in Town and intended so to doe that Winter and some of them who had been dwelling in the City no way concerned by that Proclamation and likewise some Citizens of good substance as is above-mentioned did freely depart the City with some of their substance of value doubting the sudden assault and taking of the City which seemed to bee upon underhand intelligence betweene them and those of the Pase then beginning to shew their formerly secret Confederacy till the discovery whereof none of them had impediment or interruption by the Lords Justices and Councell or any command from them to come and goe at their pleasure neither was there any pillaging all that while heard of in the City or of any of these Gentry in the Countrey It is most untrue that after the said discovery which was fully made immediately after the before mentioned rebellious Assembly at Swords any of those that formerly departed out of Dublin or any others of quality in the Pale except a few that continued loyall who from time to time resorted to the Lords Justices and Councel and were gladly entertained by them did offer to returne untill the Northerne forces and the forces of the Pale were beaten from Drogbeda and your Majesties Armies become full Masters of the field in all the parts of the Pale and then the Lords Justices and Councell could not with their duty deale otherwise with them then as is before mentioned Another Proclamation was published on the 28 of December 1641. requiring all persons other then such as had necessary causes to Dublin such as the Lords Justices or the said Lievtenant Generall of the Army or the Governours of your Majesties forces in the City of Dublin should approve and other then such as should bring provision to the City to be sold should forbeare comming to the City or Suburbs thereof This was done in time of high necessity The Lords Justices and Councell seeing that none offered themselves to them openly but hearing that divers being now discovered Traitors presuming on friends within did secretly come to the City partly to furnish themselves partly to eat up and exhaust our victuals and partly to gaine intelligence and understand in what case the City stood which had been a most unwise and unfaithfull thing in the Lords Justices and Councel to permit yet could it not be totally prevented notwithstanding all their care diligence so great intelligence had they amongst the Papist Inhabitants of the City It is as untrue that any of those mens goods who first departed the City intended in this Article or any other mans goods were pillaged seized or confiscated by warrant command or direction of the Lords Justices neither were
not prevayling therein with your Majesty as they expected have by their Letters and instruments labored with many leading Members of the Parliament there to give stop and interruption thereunto and likewise transmitted unto your Majesty and some of the state of England sundry misconstructions and misrepresentations of the proceedings and actions of your Parliament of this your Kingdom and thereby endeavoured to possesse your Majesty of an evill opinion thereof and that the said Parliament had no power of Iudicature in Capitall causes which is an essentiall part of Parliament thereby ayming at the impunity of some of them and others who were then impeached of high Treason and at the destruction of this Parliament But the said Lords-Iustices and privy counsell observing that no art or practise of theirs could be powerfull to withdraw your Majesties grace and good intentions from this people and that the redresse granted of some principall grievances was to be passed as Acts in Parliament The said Lords Iustices and their adherents with the height of malice envying the good union long before setled and continued between the Members of the house of Commons and their good correspondency with the Lords left nothing unattempted which might raise discord and disunion in the said house and by some of themselves and some instruments of theirs in the said Commons house private meetings of great numbers of the said house were appointed of purpose to raise distinction of Nation and Religion by meanes whereof a faction was made there which tended much to the disquiet of the house and disturbance of your Majesties and the publicke service And after certaine knowledge that the said Committees were by the waterside in England with sundry important and beneficiall Bills and other graces to be passed as Acts in that Parliament of purpose to prevent the same the said faction by the practise of the said Lords-Iustices and some of the said privy Counsell and their adherents in tumultuous and disorderly manner on the seventh of August 1641. and on severall dayes before cryed for an adjournment of the house and being over-voted by the voyces of the more moderate part the said Lords-Iustices and their adherents told severall honorable Peeres that if they did not adjourne the Lords house on that day being Saturday that they would themselves prorogue or adjourne the Parliament on the next Monday following by meanes whereof and of great numbers of proxies of Noblemen not estated nor at any time resident in this Kingdom which is destructive to the liberty and freedome of Parliament here the Lords house was on the said seventh day of August adjourned and the house of Commons by occasion thereof and of the faction aforesaid adjourned soone after by which meanes those Bills and graces according your Majesties intention and the great expectation and the longing desires of your people could not then passe as Acts of Parliament Within a few dayes after this fatall and inforced adjournment the said Committees arrived at Dublin with their dispatch from your Majesty and presented the same to the said Lords-Iustices and Councell expressing a right sense of the said adjournment and besought their Lordships for the satisfaction of the people to require short heads of that part of the dispatch wherein your Majesty did appeare in the best manner unto your people might be suddainly conveyed unto all the parts of the Kingdom attested by the said Lords-Iustices to prevent dispayre or misunderstanding this was promised to be done and an instrument drawn and presented unto them for this purpose and yet as it seemes desiring rather to adde fuell to the fire of the subjects discontent than quench the same they did forbeare to give any notice thereof to the people 8 After this certain dangerous and pernicious petitions contrived by the advice and Counsell of the said Sir William Parsons Sir Adam Loftus Sir Iohn Clotworthy knights Arthur Hill Esquier and sundry others of the malignant party and signed by many thousands of the malignant party in the City of Dublin in the province of Vlster and in sundry other parts in this kingdom directed to the Commons house in England were at publick Assizes and other publick places ' made known and read to many persons of quality in this kingdom which petitions contayned matters destructive to the said Catholicks their Religion lives and estates and were the more to be feared by reason of the active power of the said Sir Iohn Clotworthy in the Commons house in England in opposition to your Majesty and his barbarous and inhumane expressions in that house against Catholick Religion and the professors thereof Soon after an order conceived in the Commons house of England that no man should bow unto the name of IESVS at the sacred sound whereof all knees should bend came to the knowledge of the said Catholicks and that the said malignant party did contrive and plot to extinguish their Religion and Nation hence it did arise that some of the said Catholicks begun to consider the deplorable and desperate condition they were in by a Statute Law here found among the records of this kingdom of the second yeare of the raigne of the late Queen Elizabeth but never executed in her time nor discovered till most of the Members of that Parliament were dead no Catholick of this kingdom could injoy his life estate or libertie if the said statute were executed whereunto no impediment remained but your Majesties prerogative and power which were indeavoured to be clipped or taken away as is before rehearsed then the plot of destruction by any Army out of Scotland and another of the malignant party in England must be executed the feares of those twofold destructions and their ardent desire to maintain that just prerogative which might encounter and remove it did necessitate some Catholicks in the North about the two and twentieth of October 1641. to take Armes in maintenance of their Religion your Maiesties rights and the preservation of life estate and liberty and immediately thereupon tooke a solemne Oath and sent severall Declarations to the Lords-Iustices and Counsell to that effect and humbly desired they might be heard in Parliament unto the determination whereof they were ready to submit themselves and their demands which Declarations being received were slighted by the said Lords-Iustices who with the swaying part of the said Counsell and by the advice of the said two impeached Iudges glad of any occasion to put off the Parliament which by the former adjournment was to meet soon after caused a Proclamation to be published on the three and twentieth of the said Moneth of October 1641. therein accusing all the Catholicks of Ireland of disloyalty and therby declaring that the Parliament was prorogued untill the six and twentieth of February following within a few dayes after the said three and twentieth day of October 1641. many Lords and other persons of rank and quality made their humble addresse to the Lords-Iustices and counsel made
it evidently appear unto them that the said prorogation was against Law and humbly besought the Parliament might sit according to the former adiournment which was then the only expedient to compose or remove the then growing discontents and troubles of the land And the said Lords-Iustices and their party of the Counsell then well knowing that the Members of both houses throughout the kingdom a few in and about Dublin only excepted would stay from the meeting of both houses by reason of the said prorogation by proclamation two dayes before the time gave way the Parliament might sit but so limited that no Act of grace or any thing else for the peoples quiet or satisfaction might be propounded or passed and thereupon a few of the Lords and Commons appeared in the Parliament house who in their entrance at the Castle-bridge and gate and within the yard to the Parliament-house door and recesse from thence were invironed with a great number of Armed men with their match lighted and Muskets presented even to the breasts of the members of both houses none being admitted to bring one servant to attend him or any weapon about him within the Castle-bridge yet how thin soever the houses were or how much over-awed they both did supplicate the Lords-Iustices and Counsell that they might continue for a time together and expect the coming of the rest of both houses to the end they might quiet the troubles in full Parliament and that some Acts of security granted by your Maiesty and transmitted under the great Seale of England might passe to settle the minds of your Maiesties subiects To these requests so much conducing to your Maiesties service and the settlement of your people a flat denyall was given and the said Lords-Iustices and their party of the Counsell by their working with their party in both houses of Parliament being then very thin as aforesaid propounded an order should be conceived in Parliament that the said discontented Gentlemen took Arms in rebellious manner which was resented much by the best affected of both houses but being awed as aforesaid and credibly informed of some particular persons amongst them stood in opposition thereunto that the said Musquetiers were directed to shoot them at their going out of the Parliament house through which terrour way was given to that order Notwithstanding all the before mentioned provocations pressures and indignities the far greater and more considerable party of the Catholicks and all the Cities and Corporations of Ireland and whole provinces stood quiet in their houses whereupon the Lords-Iustices and their adherents well knowing that many powerfull Members of the Parliament of England stood in opposition to your Majesty made their principall application and addressed their dispatches full fraught with calumnies and false suggestions against the Catholicks of this kingdom to them and propounded unto them to send severall great forces to Conquer the kingdom those of the malignant party here were by them armed the Catholicks were not only denyed Arms but were disarmed even in the City of Dublin which in all successions of ages past continued as loyall to the Crown of England as any City or place whatsoever all other ancient and usuall Cities and Corporate Townes of the kingdom by means whereof principally the kingdom was preserved in former times were denyed arms for their money to defend themselves and expresse order given by the said Lords-Iustices to disarme all Catholicks in some of the said Cities and Towns others disfurnished were inhibited to provide Arms for their defence and the said Lords-Justices and Counsell having received an order of both houses of Parliament in England to publish a proclamation of pardon unto all those who were then in rebellion as they tearmed it in this kingdom if they did submit by a day to be limited The said Sir William Parsons contrary to this order so wrought with his party of the Counsell that a proclamation was published of pardon only in two Counties and a very short day prefixed and therein all free-holders were excepted through which every man saw that the estates of Catholicks were first aimed at and their lives next The said Lords-Iustices and their party having advanced their design thus far and not finding the successe answerable to their desires commanded Sir Charles Coot Knight and Baronet deceased to march to the County of Wickloe where he burnt killed and destroyed all in his way And in a most cruell manner man woman and child persons that had no appearing wills to doe hurt nor power to execute it soon after some foot-companies did march in the night by direction of the said Lords-Iustices and their said party to the Town of Sawntry in Fingall three miles off Dublin a Country that neither then nor for the space of four or five hundred yeares before did feel what troubles were or war meant but it was too sweet and too neare and therefore fit to be forced to armes in that town innocent husband-men some of them being Catholicks and some Protestants taken for Catholicks were murthered in their Inne and their heads carried triumphant into Dublin next morning complaint being made of this no redresse was obtained therein whereupon some Gentlemen of quality and others the inhabitants of the Country seeing what was then acted and what passed in the said last march towards the County of Wickloe and justly fearing to be all murthered forsook their houses and were constrained to stand together in their own defence though ill provided of Arms or Ammunition Hereupon a proclamation was agreed upon at the Counsell board on the thirteenth of December 1641. and not published or printed till the fifteenth of December by which the said Gentlemen and George King by name were required to come in by or upon the eighteenth of the said Moneth a safety was therein promised them On the same day another proclamation was published summoning the Lords dwelling in the English-pale near Dublin to a Grand-Counsell on the seventeeth of the said Moneth but the Lords-Justices and their party of the Counsell to take away all hope of Accommodation gave direction to the said Sir Charles Coote the said fifteenth day of the said Moneth of December to march to Clontarff being the house and Town of the said George King and two miles from Dublin to pillage burn kill and destroy all that there was to be found which direction was readily and particularly observed in manifest breach of publike faith by meanes whereof the meeting of the said Grand-Counsell was diverted the Lords not daring to come within the power of such notorious faith-breakers the consideration whereof and of other matters aforesaid made the Nobility and Gentry of the English-pale and other parts of the province of Leinster sensible of the present danger and put themselves in the best posture they could for their naturall defence and imployed Lieutenant Colonel Read to present their humble Remonstrance to your Sacred Majesty and to declare unto you the state
and the other wilde fiction of 10000 Scots then not so much as thought on to come thither but long after agreed on after your Majesty under your owne royall signature had appointed and authorised severall persons of quality to be Collonels to prosecute Rebells and sent upon necessity to preserve your Majesties Crowne and Kingdome against those confederats most unnaturall and horrid attempts take the boldnesse to avow the Acts of the Northerne Rebels on the 23 of October 1641 as necessitated thereto for preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates for maintenance of their religion and for your Majesties rights which none there except themselves ever moved or offered to oppose or impeach which Northerne rising is by Declaration made by many of themselves in Parliament in November 1641 and by their advice printed professed and published to be a traiterous and rebellious taking up of Armes against your Majesty they then seeming to detest and abhorre their abhominable and inhumaine actions of murthers and other outrages therein specified therein also protesting to maintaine the rights of your Majesties Crowne and Government against the said Rebels whom they then acknowledged to be Rebels and to fight against your Majesties Rights and Government and whom now they palliate with the attribute of discontented Gentlemen Neither was that Declaration enforced from the Parliament as they suggest but by due course passed as well appeares by the passages thereof appearing in the bookes And in further presumption those Remonstrants affirme that those Northerne Traitors did send Declarations to the Lords Justices and Counsell humbly desiring to be heard in Parliament which is most untrue there never comming any Declaration or other motion from any of them to the Lords Justices and Counsell other then a presumptuous proposition from those of Cavan which their Lordships answered and certified to the then Lord Leivtenant as is before mentioned Neither is it to be wondred at that these consederats passe over so slightly the cruell murders and massacres acted upon your Majesties Protestant Subjects in Vlster and else where in time of full peace your Majesties Protestant Subjects not being in any posture of defence by reason of the suddennesse of their surprise considering the little defence the confederats are able to make against those knowne massacres And as to the Proclamation on the 23 of October 1641 published by the Lords Justices and Counsell to make knowne the preservation of your Majesties Castle and City of Dublin and to publish the discovery of the conspiracy of some evill affected Irish Papists wherein all good Subjects are admonished to take comfort to stand one their defence and preserve the peace There is in that Proclamation no mention at all of any Prorogation and whereas afterwards divers of the pale and other old English petitioned the Lords Justices and Counsell taking offence at the words Irish Papists wherein there being no distinction they might doubt themselves involved The Lords Justices and Counsell being tender least they in whose fidelity their Lordships then rested confident should take umbrage at any their expressions did by their printed Declaration dated the 29 of the same October publish and proclaime That by the words Irish Papists they intended the meere old Irish in the Province of Vlster and none of the old English of the Pale or other parts True it is that on the 27 of October 1641. The Lords Justices by advice of the Counsell and for the necessity of the time many members of those houses being then in Rebellion and many slayne or hanged by the Rebels and some imprisoned and some beseiged in their houses by them did proclaime a prorogation of the Parliament from the dayes of the former adjournment in November 1641 till the 24 of February following yet that Proclamation not to stand for a prorogation as conceived not fully warranted by Law but was done in those dangerous times to prevent concourse at Dublin to preserve the members of the houses from danger of travaile and to the end they shall not be drawne from defence of the Country In which Proclamation there is no word of Irish Papists or of the Catholiques of Ireland or of the Rebellion raised for which prorogation the Lords Justices received your Majesties expresse command because your Majesty desired the Lord Leivtenant should be then there And the Lords Justices act was therein approved by your Majesty as concurring with the advice of your Counsell And to shew that it was not intended for the full prorogation when afterwards before the day of the former adjournement some of the houses came to the Lords Justices and Counsell and seeming to doubt of the legality of that manner of prorogation desired that the houses might meete and for clearing of all doubts might fit on the 9 day of November and adjourne to the 16 day of that November and at the 16 day of November might sit for a day or two to make some publike Declaration of their loyalties and that a shorter time for their next meeting then the 24 of February aforesaid might be appointed The Lords Justices and Counsell-freely-yeilded unto them in all their requests and on the 17 day of Nouember towards night the Parliament was prorogued in the houses but till the 11 of Ianuary after though your Majesties warrant was till the end of February It is most untrue that the Lords Justices and Counsell limmited them that no Acts of grace or other thing for the peoples quiet and satisfaction should passe For the houses during those two daies did make and publish the Declaration above mentioned and some other ordinance for the provision security and comfort of the Country as farre as might be But they neither did nor could then at the very beginning of of the rebellion move or offer to passe any acts of grace The Lords iustices by his Mjesties directions did make knowne to the Parliament that his Maiesty would not depart frō any his former favours promised to them for setling their estares to such as should remain faithfull and loyall or were denyed the same many of their intentions being fixed as soone after appeared to come by their end another way which proceedings of the Lords Justices and Counsell in that businesse doth appeare by Proclamation then published by the Lords Justices and Counsell with the privity of the houses And as to their being invironed with a great number of armed men in their accesse and recesse to and from the house with their matches lighted and Muskets presented even to the breasts of the members of both houses First they should tell that those guards were put into your Majesties Castle where before none were except the ordinary retinue of a few warders under the Constables Command for guard and preservation of the said Castle against the said confederats wicked plots and conspiracies then discovered And that those guards did but stand in their Armes in the Castle yard meerely as in observance to that eminent assembly
themselves Rebels and of the Conspiracy They blocked him up in the Castle of Athlone by the helpe of the Conspirators of Westmeath They burnt his Towne of Roscomon and the Bishops Towne of Elphin and many other English mens habitations They surprized severall Castles of the Earle of Clonrickards in the County of Galway notwithstanding that on their surmise that they doubted they should not have the benefit of the graces his Lordship wrote to your Majestie and received assurance in their behalfes of the same which he published together with severall other Declarations of your Majesties And so the Lord President continued in Athlone till your Majesties Lieutenant Generall of your Army carryed downe 2000. foot and some Troopes of horse by all which appeares that neither the Lords Justices and Councell nor the Lord President nor any other in that Province did any thing to provoke them much lesse to put them to defence till they had murthered robbed and spoyled all the Brittish and Protestants and committed all other Rebellious and hostile Acts that lay within their lust or power To the eleventh Article IT is confessed that Parliaments have beene held in Ireland very many yeares often for the benefit of the King Art 11. and the good people of the Kingdome But how long Parliaments have beene held there or whether with equall liberties powers and immunities with the Parliament of England and how farre lawes made in England may bind in Ireland will best appeare in the Records Rowles and Authentick Presidents of both Kingdomes and will be fittest for the dispute and judgement of such learned in the Law and other Antiquities as your Majestie in your high wisedome shall appoint thereunto Neither is it true that untrue suggestions and informations out of Ireland moved the Parliament of England to make such Lawes as in this Article are mentioned neither can it be conceived the words or intent of those Acts if they have force in Ireland doe ayme at or can reach unto any the lands or possessions of any your Majesties good Subjects in that Kingdome but onely to the lands and rights of those that have most disloyally lifted up themselves against their most gracious Soveraigne Lord their lawfull and naturall King and committed the most detestable treasons against your person Crown and Dignity and the most sanguinolent outragious and abominable Acts upon the persons and estates of your Majesties obedient peaceable and innocent Subjects so farre as possibly they could that ever were read or heard of without provocation or the least motive neither can those Acts in any respects be the occasion or grounds of those hideous perpetrations Those Acts in their first conception being derived onely from fearefull rebellion raised by the Confederates and long after the horrible Acts of that rebellion by your Majestie and your Parliament advised of and considered in England as the most speedy and effectuall way to raise meanes for the releefe of the remnant of your Majesties miserable despoyled Subjects ready every day to be swallowed up by the deluge of that universall rebellion and to maintaine some being in your Majesties just Soveraingty rights and interest in that Kingdome wholly despised and troden under foot by the Confederates as before appeares Neither can it be beleeved that your Majestie was inforced thereunto it being your owne cause and the cause of your beloved and ever loving people And if any losse should thereon happen to your Majestie which is not beleeved yet would your Majestie be largely recompenced in setling those lands except where your Majesty shall find cause to shew mercy in the hands of a peaceable and faithfull people who will not repine or be slow to straine themselves every way to your Majesties profit and honour who will be willingly taught that rebellion is Treason and so hate and abhorre it and who will for ever free your Majestie and your posterity from those dangers travels and expences which have in many ages lien heavy upon the Kings and Kingdome of England by meanes of the undutifull behaviour and strange seducements of many of the Inhabitants of that Kingdome of Ireland and for which your Majesties gracious and pious provision for your Majesties good people both your Kingdomes will now and in all succeeding ages blesse and pray for your sacred Majestie and your Royall posterity and for ever acknowledge your Majesties rare piety and Princely goodnesse Neither is there any truth in that malicious traducement that your Majesties forces in Ireland disavowed any authority from your Majestie all their authority and command being intirely derived from your Majestie and your immediate Ministers and they wholly disclaiming any other service the contrary whereof could never be heard out of the mouthes of any of them To the twelfth Article IT is true that the Lords Justices and Councell in just and lawfull grounds Artic. 12. and for great and weighty reasons of State for common safety published severall Proclamations as shall here appeare but not with wicked intent or evill event as in this Article is with malice insinuated On the 23 of October 1641. when the houre approached which was designed for surprizing your Majesties Castle of Dublin great numbers of strangers were observed to come to towne in great parties severall wayes who not finding admittance at the gates stayed in the Suburbs and fields and there grew numerous to the terrour of the Inhabitants Insomuch as the Magistrates of the City came to the Councell board with much feare and astonishment declaring that those mighty numbers in the fields and Suburbs still increasing did threaten high present danger in respect whereof and considering the great numbers of desperate and loose persons who were the night before and that morning stolne into the City and Suburbs from severall parts of the Kingdome who were secretly harbored amongst the Papist Inhabitants the Lords Justices and Councell first caused as many of them so harboured in town as could be readily found to be apprehended and secondly sought for the rest considering also that in so sudden and great a distemper and confusion something of extraordinary was of necessity to bee done for terrour to disperse those multitudes so to rid the Town of them and to resettle in some degree the mindes of the terrifyed and distracted inhabitants which the Lords Justices and Councell did chuse rather to do the same by some sharpe Proclamation then by falling upon them by violence which must needs have increased the tumult and therefore the Lords Justices and Councell did then instantly publish a Proclamation in your Majesties Name Commanding all persons not dwellers in the City or Suburbs to depart within one houre after publishing by Proclamation and that upon paine of death This Proclamation did not so much as intend or aime at any known Inhabitants of the Pale or Countries adjacent or any of known credit or good subsistence neither did any such qualified persons then take the least ill apprehension
Councell board which they did and His Majesty being present told them That they were sent over by his Protestant subjects to move him in their behalfe and desired to know in what condition the Protestants were to defend themselves in case a peace should not be concluded which was answered by the Protestant Agents That they humbly conceived they were imployed first to make proofe of the effect of the protestants petition and disprove the scandalous aspersions which the Rebells had cast on His Majesties government and the protestants of Ireland The King said that needed not for to what purpose is it to prove the Sun shines this day when we all see it The Agents said they found not His Majesty satisfyed but that the five severall Counties called the English Pale were forced into Rebellion by his governours To which His Majesty answered That that was but an assertion of the Irish Then the King againe defired to know in what condition the protestants were in to defend themselves in case he should not make a peace with the Irish The said Agents desired some time to make an answer to that Question but His Maiesty answered That he thought they had come prepared to declare the whole condition of that Kingdome And further asked whether they would have Peace or no. To which it was answered by the Agents That peace was the thing they had been bred up in and that they were not against peace so it might stand with His Majesties honour and safety of his protestant subjects in their Religion Lives Liberties and Fortunes Then the Lord Digby told His Majesty That they desired Peace The Duke of Richmond and the Earle of Linsie replied it is true the Agents have expressed that they are not against Peace so that it may be with honour to His Majesty and safety to His Majesties Protestant Subjects of Ireland Then the King said he had rather they should have their Throates cut by Warre then that they should suffer by a Peace of His making And that hee would take a care that the Protestants of Ireland should be preserved His Majesty told the said Agents that they should have a Copy of the Propositions of the Irish and wished them to make an answer to them And the said Agents being wished to withdraw and being sent for in againe His Majesty told them That for the cleering of the matter he must tell them two things the first was That he could not relieve his Protestant subjects in Ireland either with Men Money Armes Ammunition or Victuals And secondly That he could not allow them to joyne with the new Scots or any others that had taken the Covenant with them And on the same day about one of the clocke the Protestant Agents received a copy of the Rebels high and destructive propositions from Secretary Nicholas who wisht them from His Majesty to put in their answers thereunto within two daies On which the Agents desired two daies longer which was granted And on the 13 of May 1644. at the Councell-board the King Prince and Duke of Yorke with many of the Lords there sitting the Protestant Agents presented unto His Majesty their answers to the Rebels propositions both which hereafter follow in haec verba The Propositions of the Roman Catholiques of Ireland humbly presented to His sacred Majestie in pursuance of their Remonstrance of grievances and to be annexed to the said Remonstrance Together with the humble Answer of the Agents for the Protestants of Ireland to the said Propositions made in pursuance of your Majesties directions of the ninth of May 1644. requiring the same 1. Proposition THat all acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholique Faith whereby any restraint penalty mulct or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholique within the Kingdome of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholiques to be allowed the freedome of the Roman Catholiqus Religion Answer To the first We say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entered into rebellion in the Kingdome of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above 80 yeeres since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the peace and welfare both of the Church and Kingdome there and of the Church and Kingdome of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendome and so hath been found wholsome and necessary by long experience And the repealing of those Laws will set up Popery againe both in jurisdiction profession and practice as it was before the Reformation and introduce amongst other inconveniences the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger your Majesties supreame and just authority in causes Ecclesiasticall a diminution of honour and power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious sectaries as to popish recusants so as by the repeale thereof every man may seeme to be left to choose his owne Religion in that Kingdome which must needs beget great confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy there hath been one of the greatest occasions of this late rebellion Besides it is humbly desired that your Majesty will be pleased to take into your gracious consideration a clause in the Act of Parliament passed by your Majestis Royall assent in England in the seventeenth yeere of your Reigne touching punishment to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the authority of the See of Rome in any case whatsoever 2. Proposition That your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdome to be held and continued as in the Remonstrance is expressed And the Statute of the tenth yeere of King H 7. called Poynings Act and all Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy settlement of the present affaires and the repeale thereof to be there further considered of Answer Whereas they desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning implication upon your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament we humbly beseech your Majesty to resent how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your people of that Kingdome touching that Parliament wherein severall Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of so high nature as we humbly conceive it not properly to be discussed but in Parliament and your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in law holden before a person of honour and fortune in that Kingdome composed of good loyall and well affected subjects to your Majesty who doubtlesse will be ready to comply in all things that shall appeare to be pious and just for the good of the true Protestant religion and for your Majesties service and the good of that Church and State That if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would