always cheerfully receiv'd their Requests and Messages and were ready to comply with them desiring that this their compliance might be entred in the Journal to the end that it might remain to Posterity Having by his Majesties Commission dated the 4th of January 1640. authority to Continue Prorogue or Determine the Parliament as they thought fit which liberty they indulg'd much to the freedom of the Parliament However being resolv'd as the sequel prov'd to pretend any thing rather than not to have some exceptions against the Government the Irish Parliament sent to his Majesty a Declaration therein magnifying the Six entire Subsidies they had given in the 10th year of his Majesties Reign and the Four Subsidies in the 15th year of his Reign pretending moreover that they had been ill presented to his Majesty which was clearly evinc'd to the contrary and several Graces vouchsaf'd them thereupon Amongst other things the State at that time found difficult to do the Disbanding of the new rais'd Army was not the least which the Parliament of England had great jealousies of and besought his Majesty that it should be dissolv'd In answer whereof his Majesty repli'd That the thing was already upon consultation but he found many difficulties in it and therefore told the Parliament He held it not onely fit to wish it but to show the way how it might conveniently be done However in August 1641. it was effectually perform'd for which afterwards the Lords Justices had his Majesties gracious approbation and the Arms and Ammunition were carefully brought into his Majesties Stores by the vigilance of the Master of the Ordnance the Lord Justice Borlase else certainly most of those Arms as well as the Men had been undoubtedly listed in the Confederates Army which many of their Party in the House of Commons in Ireland having an eye to made them so averse to have them Disbanded And the Plot proceeded being so cunningly manag'd by some of the Members of Parliament subtil in their insinuations that many of the Protestants and well-meaning people of the House blinded with an apprehension of Ease and Redress lying under the same pretended Yoak with the rest were innocently decoi'd into their acting violently with them Hence Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland was impeach'd of High Treason and others of the prime Officers and Ministers of State were Articled against yea some of the Bishops were not spar'd contrary to all presidents of that nature as was certifi'd by the Lords Justices to the Principal Secretary on search made upon his Majesties commands for that purpose So as besides some of the active men of the House Lawyers Darcy Martin Plunket Cusack Brown Linch Bodkin Evers and others took upon them with much confidence to declare the Law to make new Expositions of their own upon the Text as That killing in Rebellion was no forfeiture of Lands and to frame 21 Queries Which in a solemn Committee of the House Adjourn'd from time to time they discuss'd at their own freedom in the Dining-Room at the Castle disdaining the moderate Qualifications of the Judges who gave them modest Answers such as the Law and Duty to their Sovereign would admit and in stead of them vented their own sense as if the State were then in its Infancy and from them meerly to receive its Constitution as Sir John Temple observes resolving upon an alteration in the Government and drawing of it wholly into the hands of the Natives Sir Phelim Oneal making it plain in his Letters of Triumph to his Holy Confessor That his purposes were Conquest and not defence of Religion his Majesties Prerogative or their Liberty No! No King of England writes Mahony a Jesuit nor Crown nor People nor state of that Kingdom having at any time any kind of Right to the Kingdom of Ireland or any part thereof that the English Title to it was but meer Usurpation and Violence and that therefore the old Natives i. e. the meer Irish might chuse and make themselves a King of one of their own Irish and in the then Circumstances of Charles the First of England ' s being a Heretick ought i. e. were bound in Conscience to do so and throw off together the Yoak both of Hereticks and Foreigners Which Tenents being roughly drawn the Confederate Irish seem'd afterward to condemn forsooth in a Council of their own at Kilkenny Yet it is very observable and that from Walsh himself who says He can never forget it having extraordinary great admiration thereat That there was not one in the National Congregation met by an extraordinary favour the 11th of June at Dublin 1666. that open'd once his mouth for confession of any Villanies committed against the King at any time in the late Rebellion or Civil War or even to speak a word for so much as a general Petition to be exhibited to his Majesty imploring his Majesties gracious Pardon Notwithstanding the first Rebellion 1641. and what follow'd upon the Nuncio's access and the violation of the first Peace 1646. and the Nuncio's Censures against the Cessation with the Lord Inchequin and the Peace 1648. And the Declaration and Excommunication of the Bishops as James-Town 1650 against the Lord Lieutenant the Marquis of Ormond and those who obey'd him Emphatically enough exprest by P. W. No. 1. He enforces this Argument further There was no crime writes he at all committed by All or any of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland nor even at any time nor in any occasion or matter hapen'd since the 23d of October 1641. that needed Petitioning for Pardon either for themselves or any other of the Irish Clergy if we must believe the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket pleading for them in so express terms and the tacit approbation of his words by the universal silence of that Assembly In pursuance of which the Protestant Commissioners of Ireland in their Answer to the Objections the Rebels Agents put in against the Preamble of the Bill of Settlement took notice that in the whole Volume of Papers which were put in by the Catholicks about that Affair there was not one grateful Acknowledgment or so much as one civil mention of his Majesties singular Condescention They having the favour to inspect that Act of Settlement and object as they pleas'd as if all his Majesty could do for them were no more than he ought And further it is these Commissioners observation That in all the Irish Papers they do not own the slaughter of so many thousands to be a Rebellion or once give the Title of Rebels to those who were the first Agents in that horrid and bloody Massacre which being not acknowledged by them more easily absolves the rudeness of their Ingratitude for his Majesties favours And a Person of Honour in his Animadversions on Fanaticism who deserves much for his excellencies in the case takes notice That no Catholick ever made any profession against the Rebellion or manifested his detestation or dislike of
of the Lords seated in the House of Commons in an extraordinary manner undertook the charge and management thereof ordering at that time 500 l. in present for Owen O-Conally and 200 l. per annum till Lands of greater value could be order'd for him designing for the present Supplies of Ireland the sum of 50000 l. and had taken order for all Provisions necessary thereunto as by the Order of Parliament it appears An Order of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament in England concerning Ireland THE Lords and Commons in this present Parliament being advertis'd of the dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion in Ireland by the treacherous and wicked Instigations of Romish Priests and Jesuits for the bloody massacre and destruction of all Protestants living there and other his Majesty's loyal Subjects of English blood though of the Romish Religion being ancient Inhabitants within several Counties and Parts of that Realm who have always in former Rebellions given testimony of their fidelity to this Crown And for the utter depriving of his Royal Majesty and the Crown of England from the Government of that Kingdom under pretence of setting up the Popish Religion have thereupon taken into their serious Considerations how those mischievous Attempts might be most speedily and effectually prevented wherein the Honour Safety and Interest of this Kingdom are most nearly and fully concern'd Wherefore they do hereby declare That they do intend to serve his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes for the suppressing of this wicked Rebellion in such way as shall be thought most effectual by the Wisdom and Authority of the Parliament And thereupon have order'd and provided for a present Supply of Money and raising the number of 6000 Foot and 2000 Horse to be sent from England being the full proportion desired by the Lords Justices and his Majesty's Council resident in that Kingdom with a resolution to add such further Succours as the necessity of those Affairs shall require They have also resolv'd for providing Arms and Ammunition not only for those Men but likewise for his Majesty's faithful Subjects of that Kingdom with store of Victuals and other Necessaries as there shall be occasion And that these Provisions may more conveniently be transported thither they have appointed three several Ports of this Kingdom that is to say Bristol West-Chester and another in Cumberland where the Magazines and Store-houses shall be kept for the supply of the several Parts of Ireland They have likewise resolv'd to be humble Mediators to his most Excellent Majesty for the encouragement of the English or Irish who shall upon their own charges raise any number of Horse or Foot for his Service against the Rebels that they shall be honourably rewarded with Lands of Inheritance in Ireland according to their merit And for the better inducing of the Rebels to repent of their wicked Attempts they do hereby commend it to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or in his absence to the Deputy or Lords Justices there according to the power of the Commission granted to them in that behalf to bestow his Majesty's gracious Pardon to all such as within a convenient time to be declar'd by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or in his absence by the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices there according to the power of the Commission shall return to their due obedience the greatest part whereof they conceive to have been seduced on false grounds by the cunning and subtil practices of some of the most malignant Rebels enemies to this State and to the Reformed Religion and likewise to bestow such rewards as shall be thought fit and publisht by the said Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or Lords Justices and Council there upon all those who shall arrest the Persons or bring in the heads of such Traitors as shall be personally nam'd in any Proclamation publisht by the State there And they do hereby exhort and require all his Majesty's loving Subjects both in this and in that Kingdom to remember their duty and conscience to God and his Religion and the great and eminent danger which will befal this whole Kingdom in general and themselves in particular if this abominable Treason be not timely supprest and therefore with all readiness bounty and chearfulness to confer their assistance in their Persons or Estates to this so important and necessary Service for the common Good of all Jo. Browne Cleric Parliament And that the Army might be led by an honourable and promising Person the Lord Lieutenant being not permitted to come over speedily himself made the Earl of Ormond Lieutenant-General of the Army approved of afterwards by the King as one who by his Relation Integrity and Quality was pitch'd on as the fittest Person for that imployment of whose affection to the Protestant Religion and his Majesty's Service his Majesty had great cause to be assured Soon after his settlement in that Place he had notice from Sir Hen. Tichborn that the Rebels with 1300 Foot had sate down before Mellifont the 24th of November intending to surprize it but the Lord Moor whose House it was having plac'd 24 Musketeers and 15 Horsemen therein defended it with much resolution as long as their Powder lasted and at last the Foot yielded on Quarter the same day never observ'd by the Rebels but the Horse charged vigorously through the Enemy and came safe to Tredath This Siege of Mellifont somewhat retarded the Rebels unanimous approach to Tredath upon which the Lords Justices forthwith design'd 600 Foot and a Troop of Horse for the further strengthning of that Garrison They march'd from Dublin the 27th of November but under such a Conduct being newly rais'd and unexperienc'd that most unfortunately the Lord Gormanston's Groom giving intelligence of their approach to the Rebels not without his Lord's privity they were defeated the 29th of November near Julians-Towns at Gellingston-Bridge not above an hundred of the Men besides the Major that led them and two Foot-Captains escaping to Tredath This unhappy Defeat put such a disheartning on the State as it begat sad Suspicions who being surrounded with Rebels Sir Charles Coote the same day was commanded into Wickloe with such Forces as the State could then raise to relieve the Castle of Wickloe then besieged by the Rebels who some days before had with miserable slaughter and cruelty surpriz'd his Majesty's Forts of Cairis Fort Arkloe Fort Chichester Fort and all the Houses of the English in that County the Lord Esmond's House and the adjacent Parts of Wexford threatning to assault Dublin approaching within two miles thereof in actual Hostility Upon which Service Sir Charles Coote vigorously advanced and fought with the Rebels under the Command of Luke Toole conceiv'd to be a thousand strong himself not being many hundreds yet defeated them so shamefully as the terrour thereof rais'd a fear in the Rebels ever after of Sir Charles Coote who thenceforwards so well attended his Commands as to the Government of the City and
the Marquis Whereupon his Majesty signifi'd That in case other things were compos'd by the Treaty the Concerns of Ireland should be left wholely to the management of the Houses And in the interim writes to the Marquis of Ormond this Letter C. R. RIght Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor We greet you well Whereas We have received several Informations from Our two Houses of Parliament concerning your proceedings with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in the Kingdom of Ireland the several Votes and Extracts whereof We do herewith transmit unto you and forasmuch as We are now engaged in a Treaty of Peace with Our two Houses wherein We have made such large Concessions as We hope will prove the foundation of a blessed Peace And We having consented by one Article if the said Treaty take effect to entrust the Prosecution and Management of the War in Ireland to the Guidance and Advice of Our two Houses We have therefore thought fit hereby to require you to desert from any further Proceedings upon the Matters contained in the said Papers And We expect such Obedience unto this Our Command that Our Houses desires may be fully satisfi'd Given at Newport in the Isle of Wight the 25th of November in the 24th Year of Our Reign To Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor James Marquis of Ormond As soon as the Parliament received this Letter some were of opinion that it should be immediately sent to the Marquis of Ormond yet others aiming at what afterwards was brought upon the Stage laid it as it 's said aside We find by the event it produced nothing for the Treaty proceeded a Peace ensuing though as yet Owen Roe was so far from being reconcil'd to the Supreme Council or any that adher'd thereunto as he fell most violently in the end of November upon the Earl of Clanrickard's Party gaining Jamestown by Composition and Drumrusk by the Sword Rory Mac-Guire the prime Instrument herein with several other Officers and Common Soldiers to the number of 4 or 500 being there slain Roe's Party afterwards putting all to the Sword save Major Bourk his Wife and Children cruelly harassing the whole County of Roscommon The 19th of October the Confederate Catholick's Commissioners came to Carrick an House of the Marquis's where he continued about twenty days which they spent principally in matters of Religion in treating whereof they were so bound and limited by their Instructions and could make so little progress of themselves being still to give an account to the Assembly of whatsoever was propos'd or offer'd by the Lord Lieutenant and to expect its Direction or Determination before they proceed that for the husbanding of time which was now very precious the prevailing Party in England every day more discovering their bloody purposes towards the King the Assembly thought it fit to desire the Marquis to repair to his own Castle at Kilkenny which they offered to deliver into his hands and that for his Honour and Security he should bring his own Guards who should have the reception due to them And upon this invitation about the middle of November he went to Kilkenny before the entry into which he was met by the whole Body of the Assembly and all the Nobility Clergy and Gentry and in the same Town was receiv'd with all those requisite Ceremonies by the Mayor and Aldermen as such a Corporation use to pay to the Supreme Authority of the Kingdom so that greater evidence could not be given of an entire union in the desire of the People of returning to the Kings obedience or of more affection and respect to the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who by his steady pursuing those professions he had always made by his neglect and contempt of the Parliamentarians and their prodigious Power whilst he was in England by his refusing all Overtures made by them unto him for his particular benefit if he would live in the Kingdom and by their declared manifest hatred and malice towards him was now superiour to all those Calumnies they had aspersed him with and confessed to be worthy of a joynt trust from the most different and divided Interests and Designs However there were so many Passions and Humours and Interests to be compli'd with and all Conclusions to pass the Approbations of so many Votes that it was the middle of January before all Opinions could be so reconciled as to produce a perfect and entire Contract and Agreement which about that time passed with that miraculous consent and unity that in the whole Assembly in which there were Catholick Bishops there was not one dissenting Voice So that on the 17th of January 1648. the whole Assembly repair'd to the Lord Lieutenant in his Castle at Kilkenny and there with all solemnity imaginable presented him by the hand of their Chair-man or Speaker the Articles of Peace as concluded assented and submitted unto by the whole Body of the Catholick Nation of Ireland which he receiv'd and solemnly confirm'd on his Majesties behalf and caus'd the same that day to be Proclaim'd in that Town to the great joy of all who were present and it was with all speed accordingly Proclaim'd and as joyfully receiv'd in all the Cities and Incorporate Towns which professed any Allegiance to the King throughout the Kingdom and for the better reception thereof amongst the People and to manifest the satisfaction and joy they took in it the Catholick Bishops sent out their Declarations and Letters that they were abundantly satisfi'd in whatsoever concern'd Religion and the secure practice thereof Certainly well they might for unless it had been at such a time that his Majesty had been reduc'd to the utmost extremity a Prince could be compell'd to such disingenious and hard terms could never have been stood upon with a free and generous Prince in as much as his present Majesty in his Declaration for the settlement of Ireland there takes notice That no body could wonder that he was desirous though upon difficult conditions to get such an united Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented the infamous and horrid Parricide intended But how ineffectual this his Indulgence after prov'd will appear by these Wretches foolishly forfeiting all the Grace which they might have expected from him But to proceed When the Articles of Peace were presented in that solemn manner to him by the Assembly after a Speech made by the Chair-man The Lord Lieutenant express'd himself in these words My Lords and Gentlemen I Shall not speak to those expressions of Duty and Loyalty so eloquently digested into a Discourse by the Gentleman appointed by you to deliver your sence you will presently have in your hands greater and more solid Arguments of his Majesties Gracious acceptance than I can enumerate or perhaps you your selves discern For besides the provision made against the remotest fears fear of severity of certain Laws and besides
contrary to the Liberty and Freedom of the Subject to be by any such Oath or Covenant pre-engaged And for that the setting on foot at this time in this Kingdom the said League or Covenant without His Majesties Allowance may not only beget much distraction and unquietness amongst His Majesties good Subjects but also may prove very penal to all those who shall presume to tender or take the same We therefore for prevention of such mischiefs do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties good Subjects of what degree or quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to His Majesties that they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath And we do likewise inhibit and forbid all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant And if notwithstanding this our Proclamation any person shall presume to impose tender or take the said League Oath or Covenant We shall proceed against him or them with all severity according to the known Laws of the Land Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 18. day of Decemb. 1643. Ri. Bolton Canc. La. Dublin Ormonde Roscomon Edw. Brabazon Ant. Midensis Cha. Lambart Geo. Shurley Gerrard Lowther Tho. Rotherham Fra. Willoughby Tho. Lucas Ja. Ware G. Wentworth GOD SAVE THE KING APPENDIX XI Fol. 141. The Copy of a Letter written by direction of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled to several Commanders and Officers of his Majesties Army and others in the Kingdom of Ireland AFter our very hearty Commendations The Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament in this His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland have commanded us to signifie unto you that they have lately seen a Printed Paper intituled a solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland which seems to have been Printed at London on the ninth day of October 1643. That they have also seen a Printed Proclamation dated the eighteenth day of December last and set out by the Right Honourable the late Lords Justices and Council expressing diverse great and Weighty Reasons against the said League and Covenant and therefore Commanding all his Majesties good Subjects of what Degree or Quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to his Majesty That they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath and inhibiting and forbidding all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant That upon serious debate and consideration taken by the Lords and Commons of the said League and Covenant and Proclamation They find the said Proclamation to have been set out with great Wisdom and Reason and do highly Commend the Judgement of the said Lords Justices and Council therein and as both Houses do fully concurr therein in all the parts thereof So they have expresly Commanded us to signifie the same unto you and in their names to let you know That it is their express Pleasure that you and all the Commanders Officers and Souldiers of His Majesties Army and all others His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom whom it may concern do render all due Obedience and Observation to the said Proclamation in all the parts thereof And this being to no ther end We remain Your very Loving Friends Ri. Bolton Canc. Maur. Eustace Speaker of the House of Commons Dublin Castle xviii die April Anno Dom. 1644. Fol. 142. There is mention made of the Protestants Arrival at Oxford where they deliver'd to his Majesty this Petition To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of divers of your Majesties Protestant Subjects in your Kingdom of Ireland as well Commanders of Your Majesties Army here as others whose Names are subscrib'd in the behalf of themselves and other Your Protestant Subjects in this Your Kingdom Sheweth THAT this Your Highness Kingdom reduced with the vast Expence of Treasure and much effusion of British blood to the obedience of the Imperial Crown of England hath been by the Princely care of your Royal Progenitors especially of Queen Elizabeth and of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and your Sacred Majesty in many parts happily planted great sums of Moneys disbursed in Buildings and Improvements Churches edified and endowed and frequented with multitudes of good Protestants and your yearly Customs and Revenues rais'd to great yearly sums by the industry of your Protestant Subjects especially and great sums of Money by way of Subsidies and Contributions chearfully paid unto your Majesty by your said Subjects In which happiness this your Kingdom hath flourished in a long-continued Peace and under your Highness most glorious and happy Government until that by the present general Conspiracy and Rebellion rais'd out of Detestation of Your blessed Government and for rooting out of the Protestant Religion and so for the dispossessing of Your Majesty of this Your said Kingdom without the least occasion offered by Your Majesty or Your Protestant Subjects And notwithstanding that Your Majesty immediately before had enlarg'd beyond president Your Royal favour and bounty to them in granting all that their and our joint Agents did desire of Your Majesty And we continuing amongst them in all Love and Amity without distrust Your Petitioners and others who labour'd to oppose those damnable Designs and Practices have been driven from their Dwellings Estates and Fortunes their Houses and Churches burnt and demolished All Monuments of Civility utterly defaced Your Majesties Forts and places of strength thrown down and the Common and Statute-Laws of this Your Kingdom utterly confounded by taking upon themselves the exercise of all manner of Authorities and Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical and Civil both by Sea and Land proper and peculiar to Your Sacred Majesty being Your just Prerogatives and the Royal Flowers of Your Imperial Diadem to the Disherison of Your Crown and Your Royal Revenues brought to nothing and the Protestant Clergy with their Revenues and support for the present destroyed This Your Kingdom in all parts formerly inhabited with Brittish Protestants now depopulated of them and many thousands of Your Protestant Subjects most barbarously used stripped naked tortur'd famish'd hang'd buried alive drown'd and otherwise by all barbarous cruel sorts of Death murther'd such as yet remain of them are reduced to that extremity that very few of them have wherewithal to maintain a Being and all of them so terrified and afflicted with those barbarous and inhuman cruelties the true report whereof being now spread abroad into the Christian World Your Suppliants conceive fears that Your Majesties Brittish Subjects will be discouraged from coming again to inhabit this Kingdom and the remnant of what is left will be forced to depart All this being done by the Conspiracy of the Papists who did publickly declare the utter extirpation of the
Protestant Religion and all the Brittish Professors thereof out of this Your Majesties Kingdom And to the end it may the better in some measure appear Your Suppliants have made choice of Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Knight and Baronet Captain Michael Jones and Mr. Fenton Parsons whom they have employed and authorized as their Agents to manifest the truth thereof in such Particulars as for the present they are furnish'd withal referring the more ample manifestation thereof to the said Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Captain Jones and Fenton Parsons or any three or more of them and such other Agents as shall with all convenient speed be sent as occasion shall require to attend Your Majesty from Your Protestant Subjects of the several Provinces of this Your Kingdom VVe therefore Your Majesties most humble loyal and obedient Protestant-Subjects casting down our selves at Your Royal feet and flying to You for succour and redress in these our great Calamities as our most gracious Soveraign Lord and King and next and immediately under Almighty God our Protector and Defence most humbly beseeching Your Sacred Majesty to admit into Your Royal Presence from time to time our said Agents and in Your great VVisdom to take into Your Princely Care and Consideration the distressed Estate and humble desires of Your said Subjects so that to the Glory of God Your Majesties Honour and the happiness of Your good Subjects the Protestant Religion may be restored throughout the whole Kingdom to its lustre that the losses of Your Protestant Subjects may be repaired in such manner and measure as Your Majesty in Your Princely VVisdom shall think fit and that this Your Kingdom may be setled as that Your said Protestant Subjects may hereafter live therein under the happy Government of Your Majesty and Your Royal Posterity with comfort and security whereby Your Majesty will render Your self through the whole VVorld a most just and Glorious Defender of the Protestant Religion and draw down a Blessing on all other Your Royal Undertakings for which Your Petitioners will ever pray c. Subscribed by the Earl of Kildare Lord Viscount Montgomery Lord Blany and many others To which they received this Answer by His Majesties Command At Our Court at Oxford the 25th of April 1644. His Majesty being very sensible of the Petitioners Losses and sufferings is ready to hear and relieve them as the Exigencie of his Affairs will permit and wisheth the Petitioners to propose what they think fit in particular for his Majesties Information and the Petitioners Remedy and future Security Edw. Nicholas Upon the reading of the Petition His Majesty was pleased to say That He knew the Contents of the Petition to be Truth APPENDIX XII Fol. 142. The Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly presented to His Sacred Majesty 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 9th of May 1644. requiring the same 1. Pro. THAT all Acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholick faith whereby any restraint penalty Mulct or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholicks within the Kingdom of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholicks to be allowed the freedom of the Roman Catholick Religion Answ. To the first we say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entred into Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above eighty years since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the peace and welfare both of the Church and Kingdom there and of the Church and Kingdom of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendom and so hath been found wholesom and necessary by long experience and the repealing of those Laws will set up Popery again both in Jurisdiction profession and practice as that was before the said Reformation and introduce among other inconveniencies the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger Your Majesties Supream and just Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Administration of honour and power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious Sectaries as to Popish Recusants so as by the repeal thereof any man may seem to be left to chuse his own Religion in that Kingdom which must needs beget great confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy hath been one of the greatest occasions of this late Rebellion besides it is humbly desired that Your Majesty will be pleased to take into Your gracious consideration a Clause in the Act of Parliament passed by Your Majesties Royal Assent in England in the 17th year of Your Raign touching punishments to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the Authority of the See of Rome in any Cause whatsoever 2. Pro. That Your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdom to be held and continued as in the said Remonstrance is expressed and the Statute of the 10th year of King Hen. 7. called Poyning's Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy settlement of the present Affairs and the repeal thereof be there further considered of Answ. VVhereas their desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning implication upon Your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament we humbly beseech Your Majesty to present how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your people of that Kingdom touching that Parliament wherein several Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of high nature as we humbly conceive is not properly to be dismissed but in Parliament and Your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in Law holden before a person of honour and fortune in the Kingdom composed of good loyal and well-affected Subjects to Your Majesty who doubtless will be ready to comply in all things that shall appear to be pious and just for the good of the True Protestant Religion and for Your Majesties service and the good of the Church and State that if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would be a great terrour and discontent to all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom and may be also a means to force many of Your Majesties Subjects to quit that Kingdom or peradventure to adhere to some other party there in opposition of the Romish Irish Confederates rather than to be liable to their power which effects may prove of most dangerous consequence and we humbly offer to Your Majesties consideration Your own gracious Expression mentioned in the grounds and motives inducing Your Majesty to agree to a
of their Interest and security Each Party arrived at Oxford near the midst of April the Confederate Agents got thither soonest having less Remora's in their dispatch The Confederates as men who thought themselves possessed of the whole strength and Power of the Kingdom and the Kings condition in England so weak as he would buy their assistance at any rates demanded upon the Matter the total alteration of Government both in Church and State the very form of making and enacting Laws which is the foundation of Government and which had been practis'd ever since the Reign of King H. 7. must be abolished and instead of Liberty or Toleration for the exercise of the Romish Religion they insisted on such Priviledges Immunities and Power as would have amounted at best but to a Toleration of the Protestant Religion and that no longer then they should think fit to consent to it On the other hand the Committee of Parliament as men who too much felt the smart and anguish of their late sufferings undervalued and condemned the Irish as inferior to them in Courage and Conduct and as possessed of much greater Power by the Cessation then they could retain in War very earnestly prest the execution of the Laws in force Reparation for the dammages they had sustain'd disarming the Irish in such manner and to such a degree as it might not be hereafter in their Power to do more mischief and such other Conditions as People who are able to contend are not usually perswaded to submit unto which the Committee at Oxford for Irish Affairs insisted on with powerful Reasons and Arguments In these so different and distant Applications they who were sent as moderate Men from the Council knew not how to behave themselves but enough discovered that they had not the confidence in the Irish as to be willing that they should be so far trusted that the performance of their Duty should depend onely on their Affection and Allegiance But that there should be a greater Restraint upon them then they were inclin'd to submit to otherwise that the Protestant Religion and English Interest would be sooner rooted out by the Peace they proposed then it could be by the War It is very true that the Irish Agents demean'd themselves to his Majesty with great shew of Modesty and Duty they were Men that lack'd neither Art nor Behaviour and confessed that they believ'd that the Demands they were enjoyn'd to insist upon were such as his Majesty could not consent unto and that the present condition of his Affairs was not so well understood by them or by those who sent them before their coming out of Ireland as it now was which if it had been they were confident they should have had such Instructions as would better have complied with their own Desires and his Majesty's Occasions and therefore frankly offer'd to return and use their utmost Endeavours to incline the Confederate Council whose Deputies they were and who then exercised the supream Power over the Confederate Catholicks of that Kingdom to more Moderation and to return their full submission and obedience to his Majesty upon such Conditions as his Goodness would consent unto for their security But how little of this was perform'd you shall find in the sequel of the Story however the King sent his Command the 16th of Feb. 164. to the Marquess of Ormond to continue and renew their Cessation for another year and likewise a Commission under the Great Seal of England to make a full Peace with his Catholick Subjects upon such Conditions he found agreeable to the publick Good and Welfare and might produce such a Peace and Union in that Kingdom as might vindicate his Regal Power and Authority and suppress the Rebels in England and Scotland And so his Majesty dismissed the Catholick Agents with demonstration of much Grace and Confidence with this good Council which he most pathetically poured out to them at their departure That they should not forget the preservation of the Nation and Religion which they professed and were so zealous for in Ireland depended upon the preservation of his just Rights and Authority in England That they saw his Subjects of Scotland contrary to all Obligations had invaded England and joyned with those Rebels against him who without that assistance would have been speedily reduced to their obedience And therefore if his Catholick Subjects of Ireland made haste upon such Conditions as he might then grant without prejudice to himself and which should be amply sufficient for the security of their Fortunes Lives and Exercise of their Religion to assist him whereby he might be enabled by God's Blessing to suppress that Rebellion they might confidently believe he would never forget to whose Merit he owed his Preservation and Restauration and it would then be in his absolute Power to vouchsafe Graces to them to compleat their happiness and which he gave them his Royal Word he would then dispence in such manner as should not leave them disappointed of any of their just and full Expectations But if by insisting on such Particulars as he could not in Conscience consent to and their Consciences obliged them not to ask or on such as though he could himself be content to yield to yet in that Juncture of Time would bring such great damage to him that all the Supplies they could give or send to him could not countervail and might be as beneficially granted to them hereafter when he might better do it they should delay their joyning with him and so look on till the Rebel's Power prevail'd against him in England and Scotland and suppress'd his Party in those Kingdoms it would then be too late for them to give him help and they would quickly find their Strength in Ireland but an imaginary Support for his or their own Interest and that they who with much difficulty had destroyed him would without any considerable Opposition ruine their Interest and root out their Religion with their Nation from all the Dominions which should be subject to their exorbitant Jurisdiction How much of this prov'd a Prophesie their sad Experience knows and the World cannot but take notice of Soon after the Confederate's Agents were dismissed the Protestant's Committee of Parliament who had managed their Scene with much Courage and Integrity drew off with the King's Favour and Promise to do the utmost he could for them In the managing of which Affairs if they had not been very resolute arm'd with much Truth they would certainly have fall'n under many Inconveniencies For besides what they met with at Oxford they had still Correspondence and accordingly acted as they were animated by a Party of the Protestant Committee of the Parliament of Ireland then resident in Dublin who that they might decline the height of what those at Oxford proposed were tempted by an Order of the Council-Board to certifie Whether the 24 Propositions of his Majesty's Protestant Agents of Ireland presented to
his Majesty the 18th of April 1644. did agree with their sence in order to the present condition of the Kingdom Whereby it 's thought that if it had been said that the 24 Propositions had been agreed to by the Protestants in general there would have been an Endeavour to have got some to have signed an Instrument against the Agent 's Proceedings and therefore their Proceeding was acknowledged to be according to their Instructions and their Correspondent's Advice in Town As in the Answer May it please your Lordships IN Obedience to your Lordship's Commands signified in your Order of the 5th of June 1644. directed to us the Persons under-named requiring us to certifie your Lordships Whether the 24 Propositions of his Majesty's Protestant Agents of Ireland presented to his Majesty do agree with our sence in order to the present condition of this Kingdom We the said Persons do humbly certifie That we have perused the Propositions in the said Order mention'd and do humbly conceive them to be in substance pursuant to the humble Petition of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects as well Commanders of his Majesty's Army here as others a Copy of which Petition hath been formerly presented to your Lordships and from that Honourable Board transmitted to his Sacred Majesty and by him graciously receiv'd as may appear by his Majesty's Letters of the 6th of November last whereof your Lordships were pleas'd to grant the Petitioners a Copy And that the said Propositions are as we humbly conceive in substance pursuant unto certain Instructions entituled Instructions for the Agents who are to attend his most Sacred Majesty on the behalf of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects of Ireland Which Instructions were also presented at that Honourable Board and there upon serious Debate according to the Pleasure of your Lordships in some things altered and so a Copy thereof was delivered to your Lordships And we humbly conceive that the said Propositions are such in substance as if way may be found whereby his Majesty may bring to pass the Particulars therein conceiv'd they would conduce to the Establishment of the true Protestant Religion the Honour and Advantage of his Majesty and the future Security of his Highness his Royal Posterity this his Kingdom and the Protestant Subjects therein But how these Propositions stand in order to the present condition of this Kingdom is a thing far above us to resolve All which we humbly leave to your Lordship's Grave Considerations Signed Will. Cooley Will. Usher Hen. Jones Anth. Dopping Will. Plunket Theod. Schoute Peter Wybrants When the Irish Confederates Agents return'd into Ireland most of them as far as acted in view perform'd their Promise and Engagements to the King so as many of the Nobility and Gentry and most of the Persons of considerable Fortune together with the moderate Clergy who are easie to be number'd were convinc'd of the necessity of submitting themselves entirely to the King till he was able to grant them more that they might not be glad to accept of less But the evil Genius of that People condemn'd to wilful ruine and misfortune soon evidenc'd how unripe they were for mercy and that it was not so easie to allay the Spirits they had conjur'd up as to foment and irritate them The Nobility and Men of known Fortune whom self-Interest by this time had taught Loyalty found that they had lost their Power and the Reverence they had parted with to the Clergy had much Influence on he common People who devoting themselves solely to their Clergy's Dictate oppos'd all Conclusions which according to Wisdom and true Policy were to be the Ingredients of a happy and lasting Peace And so above 2 years were spent after these Agent 's departure from the King in fruitless and in-effectual Treaties the Earl of Glamorgan in the interim treating in that wilde order with the Rebels as under a pretended sufficient Authority from the King utterly disown'd he blew them up to such a pernicious Expectation by the feigned Articles he sign'd to them the 25th of August 1645. so destructive both to Church and State and so repugnant to his Majesty's publick Professions and known Resolutions as the Treaty of Peace proceeding on more agreeable Terms by the Lord Lieutenant found many rubbs and impediments Whilst the Strength and Power of the Parliament's Forces in England exceedingly increased and his Majesty's Forces were defeated and himself for want of Succours promis'd out of Ireland was compelled to deliver up himself to his Scottish Subjects and was shortly after by them given into the hands of the Parliament of England who being at last split into several Factions so varied Councils as in conclusion he was betrayed and suffer'd to the astonishment of the World But that I may not o're-slip the Series of this Story which through a conflux of Matter will sometimes unavoidably be disturbed I must take notice that the first Cessation being near determin'd the 5th of Sept. 1644. there was a new Cessation agreed on by the Lord Lieutenant and the Irish Commissioners to begin on the 15th of September and continue till the 1st of December following And in respect that the Treaty of Peace had several Matters of weight and consequence which necessarily required further time to be prepared and drawn into writing it was agreed on at the Castle of Dublin the 2d of Octob. anno praedict that the Treaty should be adjourn'd to the 4th of November ensuing the Irish Agents in the interim to have liberty to continue in or come to Dublin as often as they should think fit which time they improved and Affairs were so managed as there was never any other Cessation till the Peace About which time the Earls of Thomond Clanrickard and St. Albans the Lord Rannelagh Fitz-williams Taaff and Dillon who had never receded from his Majesty's Commands writ to him That betwixt two Parties one if they were disposed to make Invasion upon them and the other who sticking to the Covenant dis-obey'd the Cessation they were like to be ruin'd and therefore implor'd his Majesty to reconcile the Difference betwixt those who were too high either of the Confederates or Protestants in their Demands and declare against the Scots who would make little distinction were it in their power between them and those whom they now assaulted In treating of Peace we must not forget that the Lord Inchequin having been easily wrought on to agree to the Cessation carried over many of his Munster Forces to the King who in memory of his service bestowed on him a noble Wardship and would have made him an Earl But the Presidency of Munster pre-dispos'd of to the Earl of Portland being his aim he returns again into Ireland and from Cork the 17th of July 1644. he and other Officers there writes to his Majesty That no Peace could be concluded with the Irish Rebels which would not bring unto his Majesty and the English in general a far greater prejudice than
the shew of a Peace there would bring them an advantage c. And thereupon besought him that he would not so much regard so inconsiderable a handful of People as they were as to purchase but a seeming security by leaving thereby the Protestant Religion in all likelihood to be extirpated and his Majesty obnoxious to the loss of that Kingdom Further beseeching his Majesty that he would be pleas'd to Proclaim again the Irish to be Rebels and not to pardon those who have committed so many barbarous Crimes that they are as far above description as they are short of honesty professing they had his Majesties Commission for what they did the true sense of which devillish aspersion cast upon his Majesty with other reasons made them resolve to die a thousand deaths rather than condescend to any Peace referring themselves in other things to their Declaration And from the same place the day following these write to both Houses of Parliament in England much to the same effect importuning their Agreement with his Majesty without which the War could not be prosecuted as it ought offering for the securing of their Garrison to their Service whom they pleas'd Concluding That they hoped such a wise Assembly would distinguish betwixt the effects of Necessity the Cessation and Dishonesty Including in their Letter to both Houses their Declaration which I had thought to have abbreviated but it is so significant that we shall find it unravels many Secrets then to come and declares such Truths as without injury to their Merits we could not smother The unanimous Declaration of His Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Province of Munster IF in the undertaking of a just Design it were onely requisite that the Hearts and Consciences of the Undertakers were satisfi'd we should not need to publish this Declaration but lest our Enemies should traduce the candour of our Actions and Intentions we have made this manifestation of them which will acquaint the World with their Malice and our Innocence We are confident that all Christendom hath heard of the bloody Rebellion in Ireland and we are as confident the Rebels and Popish Clergy have so palliated and disguised it that many are fully perswaded they had reason for what they did But we believe all men of Judgment will change that opinion when they shall know That though they were a Conquer'd People yet the Laws were administred unto them with as much equity as to the English That they enjoyed their Religion though not by Tolleration yet by Connivance That their Lords though Papists sate in Parliament And that the Election of the Knights of the Shire and Burgesses was free and though of a contrary Religion were admitted into the House of Commons yet for all these and many other vast Favours and Priviledges when every one was sitting under his Vine and Fig-tree without any provocation they resolve upon a general extirpation both of the Protestants and their Religion which without doubt they had effected had not God been more merciful than they were wicked and by a Miracle discovered this devillish Design whereof though we had notice just time enough to secure our main Magazine at Dublin yet we could not prevent the butchery of multitudes of innocent Souls which suffered at the first in the Province of Ulster and since they have continued this Rebellion with such perfidiousness and bloodiness that though we had been as guilty as we are innocent yet the prosecuting of the War with that barbarousness had rather been a sin than justice But by Gods great providence when the Rebellion brake out first the Parliament of England was sitting unto whom his Majesty communicated so much of his Power over this Kingdom as we shall hereafter mention and gave them great encouragement to prosecute the War against the Rebels by granting Lands unto such as should adventure Money for the maintenance of the War Whereupon the Parliament who were most willing to advance so good a Cause sent us at first large Supplies which had so good success that the Divine as well as Humane Justice did proclaim them Rebels for indeed God Almighty since the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the Egyptians never appeared so visibly as in this War But the unhappy misunderstanding between the King and Parliament did so hinder the continuance of those Supplies for this Kingdom that all we received in nineteen months amounted not to five weeks entertainment so that the Army which was sent to relieve us lived upon us And truly we may with Justice profess that the Forces of this Province did feed as miraculously as fight being never able to prescribe any certain way of subsistance for one month together but when the poor Inhabitants were almost beggar'd and no means for the Forces to subsist on left a Cessation of Arms was made for a twelvemonth with the Rebels which our necessity not inclination compelled us to bear with and the rather out of a firm hope that the Almighty out of his infinite goodness would within that year settle a right understanding between the King and Parliament that then they would unanimously revenge the crying blood of so many thousands of innocent Souls and until God blessed us with the sight of that happy Union we might keep our Garrisons which otherwise we could not the better to enable them to prosecute so just and honourable a design But this Cessation was as fatal to us during the time of Treaty as afterwards it was ill observed for they knowing what agreement they would enforce us to condescend unto did privately send one or two persons to every Castle that we had demolished which under pretence of being by that means in their possession they ever since detain though it be contrary to the Articles And which is more injurious they have at all times since entred upon what Lands they have thought fit and detained them also and their devillish malice having no bounds they did place Guards upon the High-ways to interrupt our Markets and punished divers of their own Party for coming with Provisions to us thereby to deter all from bringing any relief to our Garrisons that so they might starve us out of those Places that neither their fraud or force could get from us which that they might the better accomplish they murthered divers of the poor English that presuming on the Article of free Commerce went abroad to buy Victuals which certainly would have caused them to have declined that course of seeking Food if hunger threatning them with more certain death had not forced them thereunto And whereas we trusted that these notorious infidelities in them and infinite sufferings in us would have been so visible to his Majesty that nothing could have induc'd him to make a Peace with so perfidious a People who through their fawning and insinuating with his Majesty and by the counsel of some who represent that there is no way left for the securing the
solicite for considerable Aids in Moneys to be sent timely the preservation of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom depending thereon If you find upon the place that a settlement of Peace cannot be had according to the several Instructions that go with the Commissioners to his Holiness and Christian Majesty and Prince of Wales nor such considerable Aids that may probably prove for the Preservation of the Nation then you are to inform your self by correspondence with our Commissioners imployed to Rome whether his Holiness will accept of this offer of being Protector to this Nation and if you find he will not accept thereof nor otherwise send such powerful and timely Aids as may serve to preservation then you are by advice of other the Commissioners imployed to his Majesty and Prince of Wales and by correspondence had with the Commissioners imployed to Rome and by correspondence likewise with our Commissioners imployed since if it may be timely had to inform your self where the most considerable Aids for preserving this Nation may be had by this offer of the Protectorship of the Nation in manner as by other Instructions into France grounded on the same of the Assembly is contain'd and so to manage the disposal of the Protectorship as you and the rest of our said Commissioners shall find most for the advantage of the Nation The like Instructions for Spain bearing the same Date Upon these and other considerations ever in his view the Marquess thought it much more prudent and agreeable to the Trust reposed in him to deposite the Kings Interest and Right of the Crown of Ireland into the hands of the Lords and Commons of England who still made great profession of Duty and Submission to his Majesty from whom it would probably return to the Crown in a short time then to trust it with the Irish from whom less then a very chargeable War would never recover it in what state soever the Affairs of England should be and how lasting and bloody and costly that War might prove by the intermedling and pretences of Foraign Princes was not hard to conclude In that such Auxiliaries many times prove dangerous Assistance not being over-tender or much distinguishing betwixt the Party they come to assist and that they come to subdue when they are made Umpires in such Quarrels as may be guessed by the Accompt in the 14th Appendix of which the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland being very sensible they thus in March expressed themselves and their condition to the Parliament of England The Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled in Ireland of the present Estate and distressed Condition of the Protestants in the said Kingdom and their Address unto the most Honourable the Parliament of England for Relief WE the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland having by the Mercy of God your Care of us and the Industry of those intrusted by his Majesty with the Government here preserved unto us the means of sitting together and of delivering freely our thoughts concerning the condition of this miserable Kingdom whereof we are the representative Body and finding withall the Government our Selves and indeed the Protestants in the Kingdom reduced to that final point of Extremity that if not very speedily supported and preserved all in these Parts must become a Prey unto the bloody and inhumane Rebels and this City of Dublin the chief Seat and Cittadel of this Kingdom with the other Garrisons depending thereupon be turn'd into the prime Seats and Strengths of those who have given evident proof that they aim not at less then the extirpation of all Protestants and the setting up the abominable Idol of the Mass and Superstition and at the shaking off of all Loyalty and Subjection to the Crown of England We therefore hold it our duty as being also perhaps the last which we by reason of the near approach of a powerful and pernicious Enemy may have the means to discharge in this Capacity to make the present Address and Representation of our miserable Condition to the most Honourable the Parliament of England which as it hath in all times of common Danger been the Fountain from whence the Power and Lustre of the Crown of England in this Kingdom hath sprung so it is now the onely Sanctuary unto which in behalf of our selves and the distressed Interest thereof we can fly for Succour and Preservation We hold it un-necessary to particularize our present Wants and Miseries and Imposibilities of further subsistance of our selves since they are too well known even to our Enemies in so much as it may be feared that the benefit which we confidently expect by the great diligence and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England may not arrive timely for our Relief and Preservation nor can we so misdoubt the Wisdom Justice and Piety of those Honourable Houses whereof we have had heretofore very real and great experience which we do here with all thankfulness acknowledge as to fear that they will suffer the Protestant Religion the Interest of the Crown of England and of the Protestants in these important Garrisons and Quarters to be sacrificed unto the fury of the merciless Rebels But on the contrary as we do earnestly desire so are we most confident that the Goodness and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England will so seasonably send over a sufficient Power as well to subdue and suppress these merciless and bloody Rebels as to maintain these places accompanied with an assurance from the most Honourable the Parliament of England for enjoying those Conditions of Honour subsistance and safety which have been lately offered by their Commissioners for and in the name of the most Honourable the Parliament of England to those who have hitherto govern'd and preservd them and to his Majesties Protestant Subjects and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them unto which they may be pleased to joyn such further additions of Grace and Bounty as to their Wisdoms and Goodness shall be thought fit as that they and all the Protestants and such others as have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them may find Security and Preservation therein whereby we may heartily joyn under those whom the said most Honourable the Parliament of England shall appoint in prosecuting so Pious a War and being Gods Instruments for the bringing just Vengeance upon such Perfidious Rebels and in restoring the Protestant Religion and Interest of the Crown of England in this Kingdom to its due and former Lustre which we will ever strive with the hazard of our Lives and Fortunes to maintain While the Marquess was in this deliberation being privy to the Parliaments actions he receiv'd information that the King was delivered by the Scots to the Commissioners of the two Houses of Parliament who were then treating with him for the settling of Peace in all his Dominions and at the same time several Persons of
by a Letter from Sir Robert Stewart they were pacified and all the Affairs of that Province managed by Sir Charles Coot Sir Robert Stewart being at Liberty upon his Parole Before this Townsend and Doily two Colonels under Inchequin in Munster sent over to the Committee at Derby-House some Propositions for the surrender of the Towns in Munster upon Condition of indempnity and receiving part of the Arrears for the whole Army this was pretended to be acted by the consent of Inchequin and that he with his own hand had approved and interlin'd them in several Places Hereupon the Committee at Derby-House sent back Colonel Edmond Temple with an Answer to those Colonels and Power withall to Treat with the Lord Inchequin about somewhat more certain and more reasonable to be propounded by him But before his arrival there Sir Richard Fanshaw the Princes Secretary was come from the Prince to Inchequin with a Declaration of the Princes Design to send the Duke of York into Ireland with such of the revolted Ships as remain'd in Holland and to let him know the hopes he had that by his assistance and the Army under his Command both he and his Father might be restored This so puft up Inchequin as that he would hear of no Overtures and made him absolutely dis-avow to have had any knowledge of the Propositions sent over and thereupon imprisoned Townsend and Doily thereby putting an issue to that Negotiation Fortifying besides all the Harbours against the Parliaments Forces placing and displacing their Officers as he thought most convenient to introduce the Kings keeping a Correspondence with the West of Ireland as yet free to all Trade and holding frequent intelligence with Jarsey where the Prince was said would keep his Court Thus the Interest of the Parliament was wholly lost in Munster where Sir William Fenton Colonel Fair Captain Fenton and other Officers for their affections to the Parliament being imprison'd were exchang'd in December for the Lord Inchequin's Son imprison'd in the Tower about October 1648. Near this time Owen Roe attempted to rescue Fort-Falkland besieged by the Lord Inchiquin and Colonel Preston joyn'd but he was repulsed with the loss of many men as his Lieutenant General Rice Mac-Guire and Lewis More dangerously hurt which put Owen to such straits as he made an Overture to Colonel Jones by his Vicar-General O Rely to surrender Athy Mary-burrough and Rebban and lay down his Arms if he and his Confederates might have the priviledges they had in King James's time But Jones could better improve the Offers to a beneficial delay than ascertain any thing Though afterwards Owen Roe and his Council of Officers further offered That if he nor the new expected Army from England would not molest him in his Quarters but give him leave to depart with his Forces into Spain he would not joyn with Ormond Preston or Inchiquin And here we must resume our account of the Marquis of Ormond who after he had in vain solicited supplies of Money in France to the end that he might carry some Relief to a Kingdom so harrassed and worn and be the better thereby able to unite those who would be sure to have temptation enough of Profit to go contrary to the Kings obedience his Excellency was at last compelled being with great importunity called by the Lord Inchiquin and the rest who were resolv'd to uphold his Majesties Interest to transport himself unfurnish'd of Money sufficient Arms or Ammunition considerable and without any other Retinue than his own Servants and some old Officers of the Kings And in this Equipage he Embarqu'd from Haure de Grace in a Dutch Ship and arriv'd about the end of September 1648. at Cork where he was receiv'd by the Lord Inchiquin Lord President of Munster and the Irish with much contentment soon after whose arrival even the 6th of October he published the ensuing Declaration By the Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland ORMOND TO prevent the too frequent prejudices incident through jealousies distrusts and mis-constructions to all undertakings We account it not the least worthy our labour upon the instant of our arrival to prepare this People whose welfare we contend for with a right understanding of those intentions in us which in order to his Majesties Service we desire may terminate in their good To enumerate the several Reasons by which we were induc'd for preservation of the Protestant Religion and the English Interest to leave the City of Dublin and other his Majesties Garrisons then under our Power in this Kingdom in the hands of those intrusted by his two Houses of Parliament were to set forth a Narrative in place of a Manifest It may suffice to be known that those Transactions had for one main ground this confidence That by being under the Power of the Houses they would upon a happy expected composure of Affairs in England revert unto and be revested in his Majesty as his proper right But having found how contrary to the inclinations of the well-affected to his Majesties restauration in England the Power of that Kingdom hath unhappily devolv'd to hands imployed onely in the art and labour of pulling down and subverting the Fundamentals of Monarchy with whom a pernicious Party in this Kingdom do equally sympathize and co-operate And being filled with a deep sense of the Duty and obligations that are upon us strictly to embrace all opportunities of employing our endeavours towards the recovery of his Majesties just Rights in any part of his Dominions Haing observed the Protestant Army in the Province of Munster by special providence discovering the Arts and practises used to intangle the Members thereof in engagements as directly contrary to their Duties towards God and Man as to their intentions and resolutions to have found means to manifest the Candor and Integrity thereof in a disclaimer of any obedience to or concurrence with those Powers or Persons which have so grosly vari'd even their own professed Principles of preserving his Majesties Person and Rights by confining him under a most strict Imprisonment his Majesty also vouchsafing graciously to accept the Declaration of the said Army as an eminent and seasonable expression of their fidelity toward him and in testimony thereof having laid his Commands upon us to make our repair unto this Province to discharge the duties of our Place We have as well in obedience thereunto as in pursuance of our own duty and desire to advance his Majesties Service resolved to evidence our approbation and esteem of the proceedings of the said Army by publishing unto the World our like determination in the same ensuing particulars And accordingly we profess and declare First to improve our utmost endeavours for the settlement of the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches Secondly to defend the King in his Prerogatives Thirdly to maintain the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects that in order hereunto we shall oppose
that it proceeded not from the Spirit that was included and confined within the Walls but that it was the same that was generally working in other places He was well enough satisfied that they who were most passionately possessed with it had no correspondence with the Parliament nor had a mind to be subjected to their Power he was willing therefore to believe that they had fancied and imagined to themselves some expedient for their own preservation which could not fall within his comprehension and that they might have contracted a prejudice to his Person or to his Religion which might keep them from such an union and confidence as they might be reduc'd unto under some Catholick who might be as zealous to preserve his Majesties Interest and recover the Kingdom to his obedience and he was the more confirmed in this his apprehension by revolving the several passages which had hapned at his being at Limerick during the time that they seem'd to pay him all respect when the Lord Inchiquin had been then with him towards whom they had observed the Marquis had a great confidence and friendship as he well deserved at which time some principal Persons of the City and with them some of the Bishops had under a shew of great confidence and trust repaired to the Lord. Lieutenant and declared unto him That all that indisposition and waywardness of the People proceeded from the prejudice they had against the Lord Inchequin who had always they said prosecuted the War against them with the most rigour and animosity and the Places and Persons which had been most at his devotion having treacherously revolted to the Parliament the People were not confident of him and jealous that the Marquis had too great a confidence in him so that if he would dismiss that Lord and discharge the Troops that yet remained under his Command of which some frequently ran away to the Parliament not onely that City but the whole Nation would as one man be at his disposal While these insinuations were thus proposed to the Lord Lieutenant other Persons and those as leading men with an equal number of Bishops applied themselves to the Lord Inchequin and told him That whilst the affairs were conducted by the Marquis of Ormond they expected no good fortune that they looked upon him as not of their Nation and one so solicitous for the English Interest and all English-men that he was nothing regardful of them and theirs But that his Lordship was of the most antient Extraction of Ireland and under that notion look'd upon with great affection and reverence by the Irish and if the Government and Command were exercis'd by him there would be such an Obedience paid to him that he would in short time grow strong enough to oppose the Enemy and recover his Countrey When these two Lords had communicated each to other as they quickly did the excellent Addresses which had been made to them and agreed together how to draw on and encourage the Proposers that they might discover as much of their purposes as was possible they easily found their design was to be rid of them both And when they perceived by the continuance of the same Friendship that they had communicated with each other they less dissembled towards both but proceeded with those disrespects which are mention'd before The Marquis having sadly considered all this and that nothing might remain unattempted by him that he could possibly imagine might tend in any degree to the recovery or preservation of the Kingdom he appointed another meeting to be at Loghreogh the 25th of April and summon'd thither all the Catholick Bishops as many of the Nobility as could with any security come thither the chief Gentlemen of Quality of the Parts adjacent and several Officers of the Army where being met together he gave them in the first place an Answer in writing to a Paper he had received from the Archbishop of Tuam the first of April intituled The Grievances presented by the Congregation of Prelates assembled propria motu at Cloanmacnoise in which he made it evident how much they were mistaken in the matter of Fact and that which was really amiss proceeded from themselves and their not observing the Orders and Rules they were bound by and could not be prevented by him and consented to all the good and practicable ways proposed by themselves for remedying the like for the future He remembred them of the pains he had taken of the Propositions he had made of the Orders he had given and of the Neglects Disobedience and Affronts he had received by which alone the Enemy made that progress in their Successes He shewed them a Letter he had received lately from his Master the King bearing date on the 2d of February from Castle Elizabeth in the Isle of Jersey in answer to one writ from Kilkenny in December in which his Majesty signified his gracious pleasure to him That in case of the continuance of that disobedience in the People and contempt of his Authority he should withdraw himself and his Majesties Authority out of that Kingdom Whereupon he told them having received so little effect of all the pains he had taken and so ill returns for all the affection he had shewed to them he was resolved to make use speedily of the liberty the King had given him as to his own Person which he found was rendred so unacceptable to the People yet if they could propose to him any way how he might deposite the Kings Authority in such manner as it might not be exposed to the same affronts it had received in him and might be applied to the preservation of the People and recovery of the Nation he would gladly gratifie them and would heartily wish that they might receive that happiness by his absence which they could not receive in his presence and to that purpose desired them to consult seriously and maturely among themselves Upon this all the Bishops Nobility and Commissioners of Trust with the principal Gentlemen expressed very much trouble at the resolution the Marquis had taken and on the last day of April from Loghreogh 1650 made an Address to him in writing under their several hands in which amongst other things they told him That they conceiv'd themselves in duty bound for his better information of the inclination of that Nation humbly to present to him That however his Excellency might not have met with a ready concurrence to some Proposals made for the advancing his Majesties Service occasion'd through some misunderstanding in some few Persons and Places yet the Country generally and the Nation in it as they had already by expending their Substance in an extraordinary measure and their Lives upon all occasions abundantly testifi'd their sincere and irremovable affections to preserve his Majesties Rights and Interests intire to him so they would for the future and with like cheerfulness endeavour to overcome all difficulties which the Enemies
Rapotensis Nico. Fernensis Procurator Arch. Dublin Eug. Kilmore Walt. Clonfert Procurator Leghlin c. Jamestown 10. Aug. 1650. When viz. the 12. of the same the two Persons had delivered their Credential Letter to the Lord Lieutenant he wished them in regard of the importance of the Matter they were instructed with to set down what they had in Command in Writing whereupon they presented him the 13th with this following Letter May it please your Excellency WE being intrusted by the Clergy met at Jamestown to deliver a Message unto your Excellency importing their advice what the onely means is as they conceive that may serve to free the Nation from the sad Condition whereunto it is reduced at present do in obedience to your Excellencies Commands signified for giving in the Substance of the said Message in Writing humbly present the same as followeth That whereas they doubt not your Excellency hath labour'd by other hands to bring the best Aids that possibly could be had from abroad for the Relief of this gasping Nation yet finding now in their Consciencies no other expedient Remedy for the preservation thereof and of his Majesties Interests therein more prevalent then your Excellencies speedy repair to his Majesty for preventing the Ruine and Dissolution of all and leaving the Kings Authority in the hands of some Person or Persons faithful to his Majesty and trusty to the Nation and such as the affection and confidence of the People will follow by which the Rage and Fury of the Enemy may receive Interruption They humbly offer this important Matter of the Safety or Destruction of this Nation and the Kings Interest to your Wisdom and Consideration hoping the Kingdom by your Excellencies Presence with his Majesty and intrusting safely the Kings Authority as above may with Gods blessing hold out until reliev'd with Supplies from his Majesty The Prelates will in the mean time do what lies in their Power to assist the Person or Persons so intrusted The great Trust his Majesty doth repose in your Excellency the vast Interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred you have in this Nation and your experience in the management of Affairs of greatest Consequence will we doubt not added to other the Reasons proposed by us induce you to embrace this Advice as proceeding from our pious Intentions that look onely on the preservation of the Catholick Religion the support of his Majesties Authority and the Estates Liberties and Fortunes of his Subjects of this Kingdom which we humbly offer as Your Excellencies most humble Servants Fr. Oliver Dromore Charles Kelly Aug. 13th 1650. Though the Marquess did not expect that the Meeting of the Bishops and Clergy in that manner at Jamestown would have produced any better effect than their former Meetings in other Places had done yet he could not imagine that their Presumption would have been so great as it appear'd by this Message to be And when he communicated it to the Commissioners of Trust they were no less seemingly scandalized at it and believ'd that upon serious Conference with the Bishops they should be able to reform their Understandings and their Wills and therefore desired the Marquess that instead of sending a particular Answer to the Matter of the Message he would write to them To give him a Meeting at Loghreogh on the 26th of the same month to the end that upon a free Conference they might be induced to understand how pernicious a thing they had advised in order to their own security And the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly return'd with this Proposition and the Marquess making no doubt of their Compliance so far as to meet at the Place appointed went thither at the day assigned but they instead of meeting him themselves sent their Bishops of Cork and Clonfert no otherwise intrusted then to receive his Answer to the Proposition they had made for his leaving the Kingdom To which when he saw he could not draw them to a Conference he the 31. of August return'd That they might well remember that upon the Disobediences he had formerly met with he had obtain'd leave from his Majesty to have departed the Kingdom and that if themselves the Bishops Nobility and Gentry met together had not in April last in Writing and Discourse given him assurance that they not only desired his stay but would endeavour to procure such obedience to him as might enable him with hope of success to have gone on in the War he would have made use of the liberty given unto him by his Majesty to have freed himself from the vexation which he had since endured and the dishonour which he fore-saw he should be subject to for want of Power without which as he then told them he should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or the Nation That he had transmitted those Assurances to his Majesty with his own resolution to attend the Effects That he plainly observed that the Division was great in the Nation under his Government yet it would be greater upon his removal of which in a free Conference he would have given them such pregnant Evidence as he held it not fit to declare to them by writing For these and other Reasons he told them That unless he was forced by in-evitable necessity he was not willing to remove out of the Kingdom and desired them to use all means within their Power to dispose the People to that Dutifulness and Obedience that became them This wrought nothing on the Temper of those Men who were resolved not to be satisfied with any thing the Marquess could say unto them Insomuch that within few days after they had receiv'd his Answer from Loghreogh at the time when the Parliamentarians were strong in the Field and had then passed the Shannon if they had not been restrained by the few Troops the Marquess still kept on foot they published an Excommunication against all those of what Quality soever who should feed help or adhere unto the Lord Lieutenant in which this Circumstance is observable That though they did not publish this Excommunication until the 15th of September it was enacted in their Assembly at Jamestown the 12th of August which was within two days after they had sent the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly to perswade the Marquess to leave the Kingdom and the day before they delivered their Message So that they thought any thing that the Lord Lieutenant should return to them would be impertinent to the Matter in hand or if they were not so delighted with their own Proceedings that they have themselves carefully published to the World in Print would it be believ'd that Persons who in the least degree pretended the care of the Peoples welfare and security could at such a time when a potent Enemy was in the Field set all Men loose from all Government Civil and Martial and not direct them whom they should follow and obey For if it be said That
should happen which they wished God would avert they should pray and conjure the Romish Clergy of England that that of the Maccabees might be recorded of them to future Ages Erat pro uxoribus filiis pro fratribus cognatis minor solicitudo maximus vero primus pro sanctitate erat timor Templi And this was the Answer delivered to the Commissioners of Trust upon the 5th day of November 1650. at Galway by the Bishops of Killala Ferns Kilmacduogh Clonfert Kilfinara and Dromore after several and long Conferences with the Commissioners of Trust who were Authorised by the Nation unto the Proposals presented by the Commissioners to the Committee of the Congregation the 29th of Octob. 1650. Here we cannot avoid observing by the express words of the Conclusion upon their Reasons in their Conference with the Commissioners that though they seem'd to desire that the Marquis of Clanrickard whose zeal to the Romish Religion and Interest in the Nation was so notorious and confessed that they durst not publickly repine at his known affection and integrity to the King might govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and that the Kings Authority in the Lord Lieutenant might be left in him yet they declared they meant it should onely be until an Assembly which they well knew by the express terms of the Articles of Peace could be onely lawfully conven'd by the Lord Lieutenant and then that Assembly should judge of the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be the best and safest for the defence of the Nation touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient So that they intended no other Honour to the Marquis of Clanrickard than that by his countenance and reputation they might perswade the Lord Lieutenant to leave the Kings Authority behind him and that he should call an Assembly which they would otherwise do themselves which they were sure should be constituted for the most part of such Men as would follow their Dictates by which himself should be divested of that Power and the King deposed from any further Dominion over them when they perswade any foreign Prince to take them into his Protection which practice they quickly set on foot And for the further manifestation of their Affection and Loyalty to the King which they cannot endure should be called yet in question it is observable that these Men who had so often contradicted and controuled the express Acts of every Assembly that had been convened since the beginning of these Troubles and now commanded the People under pain of damnation not to yield any obedience to the King's Authority in his Lieutenant and declared that they could not with the safety of their Consciences consent to the Propositions which he had lately made for the uniting the Nation in defence of the Peace so advantagious to their Liberty and Religion which the Commissioners intrusted by and for the Nation thought so reasonable These Men I say made no scruple of professing and declaring that if an Assembly upon due consideration of their state and condition should find it the best way for their safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy they would not hinder the People from compounding with them for the safety of their Lives and States Which being seriously considered we cannot sufficiently wonder at the strange stupid resignation of their Understandings who believed or rather at the wonderful contempt of those Understandings which would be perswaded to believe that this Congregation had loyal Purposes toward the King or that they never intended to hinder the Assembly or give Law to the People when they cancell'd all fundamental Laws broke through all Acts of their own Assembly and forbad the People to pay any obedience to the King's Vicegerent who had only the lawful Power of Government over them The more extravagant and unreasonable these Proceedings were of the Congregation and Clergy the more confident many honest and wise Men were that the Assembly of the Nation would regulate and controul that il-limited Power and utterly dis-avow all that they had done and therefore they who were exceedingly offended and enraged against the Congregation were solicitous and importunate with the Lord Lieutenant to call an Assembly And though he had too much experience of the Nature and Temper of the People and of the transcendent Power the Clergy should still have over any Assembly or at least over the People when the Assembly had done what it could to hope for any good effect from it And though he saw he should thereby the more expose his own Honour and which he considered more the Dignity of his Master to new Insolencies yet since he resolved to leave the Kingdom himself and was only un-resolved whether he should leave the King's Authority behind him liable to the same Indignities and Affronts in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard which it had been subject to in his own and could have no kind of assurance that it should not but by the Professions and Protestations of an Assembly he did resolve to call one and issued out his Letters for their meeting upon the 15th of November 1650. at Loghreogh where they met accordingly And the Bishops for removing as they said of any Jealousies that any might apprehend of their Proceedings declared and protested That by their Excommunication and Declaration at James-town they had no other aim than the preservation of the Catholick Religion and the People and that they did not purpose to make any visible Usurpation on his Majesty's Authority nor on the Liberty of the People confessing that it did not belong to their Jurisdiction so to do With which Protestation so contrary to what they had done and which in truth they had so often made even at the time they did all things contrary to it the Assembly was satisfied and did not so much as make another Protestation that the Bishops had done what they ought not to do nor exact a Promise from them that they would not do the like in time to come So that the Lord Lieutenant was resolv'd to look no more for satisfaction from them nor expose the King's Authority any further by leaving any Deputy behind him but prepared for his departure When the Assembly understood his Resolution and saw plainly that he was even ready to depart his Goods and many of his Servants being on Ship-board they sent four Members the Lord Dillon Clanrickard c. of their House to him at Kilcogan with an Instrument in writing bearing date from Loghreogh the 7th of December in which they repeated concerning the Excommunication and Declaration what the Bishops had protested in that Assembly and of his Excellency's Letter dated the 16th of November last recommending to them as the chief End for which that Assembly was
Hereupon the Assembly unanimously professed all obedience to his Majesty's Authority as it was vested in him and petition'd him to assume it without which they said the Nation would be expos'd to utter ruine And the Bishop of Ferns hitherto averse to the Royal Authority more particularly importuned him in the Name of the Clergy not to decline a Charge which could only preserve the King's Power in that Kingdom and the Nation from destruction promising so entire a submission and co-operation from the whole Clergy that his Authority should not be disputed In further assurance of which the General Assembly issue forth this Declaration By the General Assembly of the Kingdom of Ireland ALthough this Assembly hath endeavour'd by their Declaration of the 7th of this month to give full testimony of their Obedience to his Majesty's Authority yet for further satisfaction and for removal of all Jealousies we do further declare That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of this Kingdom shall not attempt labour endeavour or do any Act or Acts to set free or discharge the People from yielding due and perfect Obedience to his Majesty's Authority invested in the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard or any other Governour or Governours of this Kingdom And in case of any such Labour Act or Endeavour by which any mischief might ensue by seducing the People we declare That no person or persons shall or ought to be led thereby but by their disobedience on any such grounds are liable and subject to the heavy censures and penalties of the Laws of the Land in force and practis'd in the Reign of Henry the 7th and other Catholick Times Nevertheless it is further declared That it is not meant or intended by any thing herein contained that this Nation will not insist upon the performances of the Articles of Peace and by all just ways and means provide against the breach and violation of the same And inasmuch as his Majesty is at present as we are informed in the hands of a Presbyterian Party of the Scots who declared themselves Enemies to this Nation and vowed the extirpation of our Religion we declare That it is not hereby intended to oblige our selves to deceive obey or observe any Governours that shall come and duely nominated or procured from his Majesty by reason of or during his being in an un-free condition that may raise a disturbance in the present Government established by his Majesty's Authority or the violation of the Articles of Peace Loghreogh 23d of Decemb. 1650. Copia vera Joh. Comyn Dep. Cler. There was then in the possession of the Roman Catholicks the entire Province of Connaght in which they had the strong Castle of Athlone the strong and important Town and Harbour of Gallway Sligo and many other lesser Forts and Places of strength They had also a good part of the Province of Munster and in it the City of Limerick which by the strong situation of it and the advantages it might have from Sea could alone with the help of Gallway have maintain'd War against all the Parliaments Forces in Ireland They had many Parties of Horse and Foot in Leimster Munster and Ulster under Clanrickard Castlehaven Dillon Muskery the Earl of Westmeath Hugh O Neal Dungan Moor Preston and others which being drawn together would have constituted a greater Army than the Enemies were Masters of And the Marquess of Clanrickard had argument enough of hope if he could have been confident of the union of the Nation and that he might reasonably have promised himself if he could have been confident of the Affection and Integrity of the Clergy which at length they promised with that solemnity that if he had not confided therein the fault would have been imputed to him for they could do no more on their part to create a belief in him He was therefore content to take the Charge upon him and obliged them presently to consider of the way to keep all the Forces together when he should have drawn them together and to secure the two Towns of Gallway and Limerick with strong Garrisons which was the first Work concluded on all hands necessary to be performed Very few days had passed after the Lord Deputy had upon such their Importtunity and Professions taken the Government upon him when it was proposed in the Assembly before their Condition was impaired by any other progress or new success of the Enemy That they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring of all that was left into their hands an Inclination the Nuncio was long before inclin'd to perswading the supream Council when there was but so much as a speech of Truce to joyn rather with the Parliamentary Scots than the Royalists and pray'd for the success thereof in hopes that thence much good might accrue to the Catholick Religion And when the same was opposed with indignation by the major part of the Assembly the Bishop of Ferns himself who had so lately importuned the Marquess of Clanrickard to assume the Charge of Lord Deputy and made such ample promises in the Name of the Clergy seem'd to concur with those who were against treating with the Enemy but instead of it very earnestly pressed That they might in order to their better defence return to their ancient Confederacy and so proceed in their Preservation without any respect to the King's Authority And this Motion found such concurrence in the Assembly from the Bishops Clergy and many others that many of the Officers of the Army and some of the principalest of the Nobility and Gentry found it necessary to express more than ordinary passion in their contradiction They told them They now manifested that it was not their Prejudice to the Marquess of Ormond nor their Zeal to Religion that had transported them but their dislike of the King's Authority and their resolution to withdraw themselves from it That they themselves would constantly submit to it and defend it with their utmost hazard as long as they should be able and when they should be reduced to Extremity that treating with the Enemy could no longer be deferred they would in that Treaty make no provision for them but be contented that they should be excluded from any benefit thereof who were so forward to exclude the King's Authority Upon these bold though necessary Menaces to which they had not been accustomed the Clergy and their Party seem'd to acquiesce and promised all concurrence inasmuch as from this very time all the Factions and Jealousies which had been before amongst them seem'd outwardly quieted though the Irish in all Quarters of which the Enemy were possessed not only submitted and compounded but very many of them enter'd into their Service and marched with them in their Armies and the Lord Deputy grew as much into their dis-favour as the Lord Lieutenant had been and his being a Friend to the Marquess of Ormond destroyed all that Confidence which his being
the issue of that Treaty was and what regard there was had therein to the King's Honour we have in the next Place reason to mention And the rather for that those whom the Marquess of Clanrickard authorized to Treat with the Duke of Lorraign had most perfidiously wav'd his Instructions resuming to themselves a Deputation and Authority from the People and Kingdom of Ireland An Insolency so great as the Lord Deputy resents it with a just Indignation First we shall give you their Agreement then his Letter An Agreement betwixt Charles the 4th Duke of Lorrain and Theobald Lord Viscount Taaff Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffrey Brown deputed and authorized by the People and Kingdom of Ireland 1. THe most Illustrious Duke is to be vested with Royal Power under the Title of Protector Royal of Ireland 2. Because Religion is the prime End and Subject of the Treaty all is to begin with an Imploring Application to the Pope for his Paternal Benediction and Help That he will not be wanting in things Spiritual or Temporal in consideration whereof it is Protested that constant perpetual Obsequiousness of Duty and Faithfulness shall be paid to his Holiness and the Apostolick See 3. In consideration of this Royal Protector 's Power granted the Duke is by War to prosecute the Kings Enemies and afford him all possible Assistance 4. The said Duke is to do nothing in Derogation of the Kings Authority or Jurisdiction in Ireland but rather to amplifie it And having restored the Kingdom and Religion to its due pristine Estate he is to resign cheerfully the Kingdom to the King 5. Before Resignation as aforesaid the Duke is to be re-imbursed all by him pre-impended in this Business and for this Re-imbursment a general and exact Obedience to the Duke in Faith and Fidelity from the Kingdom and People is made and to be observ'd without reservation to any other Superiority whatsoever 6. The Duke is not to fail on his part to expel out of Ireland Hereticks Enemies to the King and his Religion and to recover and defend all things belonging to the faithful Subjects of Ireland 7. The Duke is Solely and Absolutely to exercise all Military Power for the present and future in Ireland as to the nomination of all Commanders and guiding all Martial Proceedings at his own Pleasure and in his own Person unless he in his absence substitute some other Catholick Person 8. The Duke is to introduce no Innovation in the Towns c. to him assigned repugnant to the Securities Priviledges Immunities Proprieties Lands Estates or antient Laws of the Irish reserving onely to himself Authority to apply Remedies to any thing accruing wherein publick prejudice may be concern'd 9. The Duke is not to interpose in Administration of Judicial or Civil Affairs but leave them to be proceeded in according to the Fundamental Laws and publick Form of the Kings chief Governor and the Assembly instituted 10. The manner of calling Assemblies to be as formerly unless complaint arise against their Government or other extraordinary Emergencies hinder And then according to the antient Laws the cutting off the Assembly is to be at the Pleasure of his Highness 11. When the work is done in Ireland by consent of a General Assembly the Duke promises to afford Agents to the King against Rebelling Adversaries in other Kingdoms 12. In case the Duke cannot go in Person into Ireland it is free in his Choice and Pleasure to depute any other man of Catholick Piety who shall be independent on the Militia and in Civil Matters shall be received to all manner of Councils in the same right as any other Counsellor or Commissioner 13. All Cities Castles Lands taken from the English shall revert to the Owners if Catholicks who have constantly persevered in the Catholick Quarters under the Duke Yet the Duke's Military Power shall be intire over the same to Garrison and dispose of them for publick Security at his Pleasure 14. All Pay to the Souldiers is to pass from the Duke as well out of the publick Revenues as the Duke's Coffers when that fails Provided that the Duke disburses of his proper Money for publick uses for the future to be repaid him as his former Disbursements 15. All Goods of Enemies and Dilinquents are to be converted to the publick Military Charges and towards rewarding great Merits by the Duke with advice of the General Assembly 16. The Duke besides 20000 l. already contributed promises all further Accommodations and Supplements for War together with his Power and Industry what is not above the reach of his Faculties and beneath the necessities of the War towards the repayment whereof as well principal as the annual provenue and use thereof the whole Nation of Ireland is to be liable until the last penny be paid And for Caution in the mean time the Duke is to be seized and possessed in his own hands of Galway Limerick Athenry the Castle and Town of Athlone and Waterford and the Royal Fort of Duncannon when recovered from the Enemy and these are to remain to him and his Heirs until full and intire satisfaction receiv'd and to pay just Obedience and be garrison'd and commanded at his Pleasure 17. In laying of publick Taxes and levying the same for the Dukes satisfaction the Duke do proceed by Advice of the General Assembly and all aggrieved Parties in case of inequality to seek Redress from the General Assembly 18. For liquidating and stateing the Dukes Disbursements a certain Method shall be agreed on between the Duke and the said Transactors but for the Persons to be intrusted in that Charge the General Assembly is to alter them at their Pleasure 19 The Duke shall make no Peace nor Cessation without the Lord Deputy or General Assembly 20. The Lord Deputy and General Assembly shall make no Peace without the consent of the Duke July 22. 1651. Signed Charles of Lorraign The Lord Marquess of Clanrickard Lord Deputy of Ireland his Letter to the Duke of Lorraign Octob. 20th 1651. May it please your Highness I Had the Honour on the 12th of this instant to receive a Letter from your Highness dated the 10th of September wherein you are pleased to express your great zeal for the advancement of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom your great affection to the King my Master and your good opinion of this Nation and your compassion of their sufferings and your great readiness to afford them aid and assistance even equal with your own nearest concernments and that your Highness received such satisfaction from the Queen and Duke of York as did much strengthen those resolutions so as they might sooner appear but for the stay made here of Monsieur St. Catherin and his long Northern Voyage upon his return and referred what concerned the agreement to the relation of those Commissioners I had imployed to your Highness to treat upon that subject of Assistance and Relief for this Kingdom I with much alacrity congratulate
the Rebellion all found guilty thereof were excepted from Pardon their Estates confiscated and the others who had only assisted in the War were to forfeit two parts of their Estates and be banished And accordingly great numbers of them were transported into Spain the latter end of this Summer Yet the Marquess of Clanrickard did not leave the Kingdom in many months after the Surrender of Galway but endeavour'd by all means possible to draw the scattered Forces together that he might prosecute the War afresh according to his Majesty's Letters in the years 1650 and 1651. encouraging him to his continuance in Arms as advantagious by way of Diversion to his then intended progress of promoting his Design in Scotland and coming into England And to that end the 16th of May the Marquess of Clanrickard with the Connaght Forces marched to Ballishannon which he took by storm and presently after Dungal-Castle where the Ulster Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the Relie's and Mahon's joyned with him but upon intelligence that Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables were marched against him he retired to Armagh intending for Raphoe Whilst Sir Charles Coot in his pursuit of him retook Ballishanon and Dungal-Castle gaining also Sligo Ballymote and many other Garrisons so as the Marquess was forced to shelter himself in the Isle of Carrick And having receiv'd his Majesty's Command to take care of his own security that he fell not into the Enemy's hands he having no Port to friend where he might choose a Vessel and being so betrayed by the Irish as not securely to stay 24 hours in a Place was compelled to have a Pass from the Parliaments Forces not excepting any other Conditions for himself than that he might for some time remain secure in their Quarters without taking the Oath usually imposed by them and have liberty to transport himself and 3000 Irish more into any Prince's Countrey and Service then in Amity with England which was granted and in March 1652. he was transported into England in a Vessel belonging to the Parliament after he had born the Title of the King's Deputy in Ireland little more than two years not with greater submission from the Catholick Irish than had before been paid to the Lord Lieutenant and so retired to London where not long after he died and was thence carried to Summerhill a pleasant Seat of his own which Bradshaw had in Custodium near Tunbridge in Kent and was buried in the Parish-Church He was a Person much respected for his Integrity and though of a contrary opinion to those then in Usurpation looked on as a Favourer of the English and one that no ways indulged the Cruelties and Pretensions of the Irish. This was the Fate of that unhappy Nation both under Protestant and Roman Catholick Governours neither having had the credit to be Masters of the Irish Temper fomented by the Insolencies of the Priests and whatever might instigate them against the English Government Soon after the Marquess of Clanrickard's Departure the lesser Concerns of that Nation were with little trouble and charge brought in obedience to the Parliament who declared the 26th of September 1653. That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended and thereupon proceeded to the Distribution of their Lands in pursuance of the Act for Subscriptions 17 Carol. 1. Some time before which a High Court of Justice was setled in Ireland a Name we have reason not to mention without horrour and astonishment considering who was summoned to such a Tribunal which certainly would never have been how vain how ambitious how prodigious soever some mens Success was a Strumpet often leading one to Attempts above their first thoughts had not the Rebels of Ireland for carrying on their pernicious Practices avouched the sacred Authority for their pretence and colour that though these with Pilate washed their hands from the Blood of this Righteous One yet they have as the shame so the guilt of that Royal Blood on themselves who originally gave the occasion of such a Discourse which afterwards was made one of the pretended Causes for the most barbarous and inhumane Act ever perpretated Inter tragicoe Fortunoe Exempla omnibus retro seculis memorandus Upon which eloquent Du Moulin one of the clearest Lights of the French Church honouring me with a Letter on that Subject thus passionately discovers his Resentment La Morte de vostre bon Roy d'une facon si indigne si horrible par les Maims des Independans M'outre le Coeur de Douleur C'est une action sans Example un opprobre ineffacable a nostre Religion vostre Nation tant Genereuse a elle perdu tout Courage Les Escossoes se taisent ils la dessue Mais quoy Il faut Mettre le doigt sur la bouche adorer les Conseils de Dieu qui sont Inscrutables It is observable let some foam as they please that there were none who so much as pretended to have a Reverence for the Church of England that ever had the least hand in this foul and ugly Business An instance of that is in what the Lord Chancellor Hide acquainted the Parliament with in express words from his Majesty when he was imployed in an Embassy to Spain That the Horrid Murther of his Royal Father was not the Act of the Parliament or People of England but of a very wretched and little Company of Miscreants in the Kingdom fol. 41. Upon which Monsieur Moses Amiraldus the Excellent French Divine hearing of the Protestant Religion aspersed as seditious and treasonable writ a Piece in French in vindication of the Protestant Religion and dedicated it to our King Charles the 2d in the time of his Exile when Militiere and others would have inforced the barbarous Martyrdom of his Royal Father as a just Motive to his apostatizing and not trusting his safety to the Protestant Religion whereas all these blustering Storms as the Bishop of Derry observes in his excellent Tract against Militiere radicated him deeper in his Religion that what these intended for his evil proved his good And certainly whatsoever conspired to compleat so execrable a Design as the Murther of the King nothing contributed more than the Irish deluding his Sacred Majesty so long with their Promises of a competent Army whereby he relying on them too confidently assured of their Ability and Power to perform it deferred those Agreements which else he might have seasonably composed at home And could there ever be an equaller Distribution of God's Vengeance than that they by a parallel Court should suffer the loss of their Estates Lives and Fortunes Which though un-usual was the only Expedient sufficiently set forth in the ensuing Speech of the Lord Lowther's a Person of that Gravity and Worth as whatsoever may be said by others can never reach the State of the Question more fully with less animosity and greater truth than he hath done at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neal in February
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
other Church Goods pertaing unto their respective Titles with obligations to pay proportionable Rent unto the Souldiers as aforesaid or his payment of their own competent maintenance and lett the Houses Tenements and other Church goods be taken from the Catholicks who heretofore had them as Tenements or otherwise 26. It is committed to the will and disposition of the Ordinary whether and when to enter into the Churches and celebrate Masses therein we command all and every the general Colonels Captains and other Officers of our Catholick Army to whom it appertaineth that they severally punish all transgressors of our aforesaid Command touching Murtherers Maimers Strikers Thieves Robbers and if they fail therein we Command the Parish Priests Curats or Chaplains respectively to declare them interdicted and that they shall be Excommunicated if they cause not due satisfaction to be made unto the Common-wealth and the party offended And this the Parish Priests or Chaplains shall observe under pain of Excommunication of sentence given ipso facto 27. To the end that these Acts Propositions and Ordinances may have more happy success We thought it fitting to have recourse unto God Almighty by Prayers Fastings and Alms We therefore will pray and as far as it is needful do command that every Priest as well Secular as Regular do celebrate one Mass a week and that all Lay-men do fast upon Wednesday Friday and Saturday in one week and thence forward one day a week and upon that Wednesday or Saturday as long as the Ordinary shall please and that they pray heartily unto God for the prosperous success of this our Catholick War for which they shall gain so many days indulgences as every Prelate shall publish in their several Diocesses respectively after the Fast of the aforesaid three days in one Week having first confessed and received the blessed Sacrament and bestowed some Alms to this effect 28. In every Regiment of Souldiers let there be appointed at least two Confessors and one Preacher to be named by the Ordinaries and by the Superiors of the Regulars whose competent maintenance we commend and command to every Colonel in their respective Regiments And to the end that all those Ordinances and Statutes may effectually be put in Execution We will and decree that all Arch-bishops Bishops Apostolical Vicars and Regular Superiours as well here present as absent may be very serious and careful of the Execution of the aforesaid as they tender not to incur displeasure wrath and revenge and herewith we charge their Consciences 29. Moreover VVe pray and require all Noblemen Magistrates and all other Marshal Commanders that with their helps and Secular forces they assist and set forward in Execution the aforesaid Statutes in their several Precincts respectively as often as it shall be needful If in any of the aforesaid Statutes any doubt or difficulty may by chance arise the explication thereof we reserve to the Metropolitans in every Province respectively and to the Bishops in every their Diocesses such of them as are no way contrary to this Cause no other person may presume to expound the aforesaid difficulties Haec dicta acta ordinata statuta subscripta erant nominibus sequentium Praelatorum All those Judgments Sayings Acts and Covenants VVe submit to the Judgment of the See Apostolick Hugo Archiepiscopus Armachanus Thomas Archiepiscopus Casselensis Malachius Archiepiscopus Guamenum David Episcopus Osoren Frater Boetius Episcopus Elphinensis Frater Patricius Episcopus Waterforden Lysmoren Frater Rochus Episcopus Kildaren Johannis Electus Claunfarten Emerus Electus Dunen Conoren Frater Josephus Everard Procurator Archiepiscopi Dublinens Doctor Johannes Creagh Procurator Episcopus Lymeriten David Bourck Willielmus O Connell Procurator Episcopi Imolacen Donatus O Tearnan Procurator Episcopi Laonen Doctor Dionysius Harty Decanus Laonensis Doctor Michael Hacket Vicar gener Waterforden Gulielmus Devocer Vic. gener Fernesen Thomas Roch Vicar Generalis Ossoren Frater Lucas Archer Abbas Sanctae Crucis Frater Anthonius de Rosario Ord. praed Vicar Provincial Robertus Nugent Societat Jesu in Heb. Frater Thadeus Connoldus Ang. pro Provinc Johannes Wareinge Decanus Lymericen Frater Patricius Darcye Guardian Dublin Frater Thomas Strange Guardian Waterford Frater Joseph Lancton Prior Kilkenny Frater Tho. Tearnon Guard de Dundalk Frater Johannes Reyly Guard Kilkenny Frater Boetius Egnanus Guard Buttevant Jordanus Boork Archidiaconus Lymericensis APPENDIX VIII Fol. 98. Orders made and established by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the rest of the general Assembly for the Kingdom of Ireland met at the City of Kilkenny the 24th day of October Anno Dom. 1642. and in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. 1. IMprimis That the Roman Catholick Church in Ireland shall and may have and enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities according to the great Charter made and declared within the Realm of England in the ninth year of King H. 3. sometime King of England and the Lord of Ireland and afterwards enacted and confirmed in this Realm of Ireland and that the Common Law of England and all the Statutes of force in this Kingdom which are not against the Catholick Roman Religion on the Liberties of the Natives and other Liberties of this Kingdom shall be observed throughout the whole Kingdom and that all Proceedings in Civil and Criminal Cases shall be according to the said Laws 2. Item That all and every person and persons within this Realm shall bear Faith and true Allegiance unto our Soveraign Lord King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland His Heirs and Successors and shall uphold and maintain his and their Rights and lawful Prerogatives with the utmost skill and power of such person or persons against all manner of persons whatsoever 3. Item That the Common Laws of England and Ireland and the said Statutes called the great Charter and every Clause Branch and Article thereof and all other Statutes confirming expounding or declaring the same shall be punctually observed within this Kingdom so far forth as the Condition of the present times during these times can by possibilities give way thereunto and after the War is ended the same to be observed without any Limitation or Restriction whatsoever 4. Inasmuch as the City of Dublin is the usual and principal Seat of Justice in this Kingdom where the Parliament and ordinary Courts were held and some other places where principal Councils were sometimes kept and as yet possessed and commanded by the malignant party who are Enemies to God and their King and his Majesties well-affected Subjects The Assembly is necessitated during this VVar in some formalities and circumstances to deviate from the proceedings prescrib'd by the said Laws and Statutes nevertheless retaineth the substance and Essence thereof so far-forth as the endless malice and cruelty of their Enemies the said malignant party doth permit
them 6. Pro. That the late Officers taken or found upon feigned or old Titles since the year 1634 to intitle Your Majestie to several Counties in Connaght Thornond the County of Typperary Limrick and Kelkenny and Wicklowe be vacated and taken off the File and the possessors thereof setled and secure in their ancient Estates by act of Parliament and that the like Act of limitation of Your Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of your Subjects in that Kingdom be passed in that Parliament as was Enacted in the 21. year of his late Majesties Raign in this Kingdom Answ. VVe know not of any Offices found or feigned Titles nor what the Confederates may demand in respect of any graces promised by your Majesty which we intend not nor have any occasion to dispute but do humbly conceive that all those who have committed Treason in the late Rebellion subsequent to your Majesties promise of those Graces have thereby forfeited the benefit thereof together with the Lands to which the said Graces might else have related and so their whole Estates are now justly fallen to your Majesty by their Rebellion which we conceive is of great importance for your Majesties service to be taken into consideration as First with regard of the Statutes made in the present Parliament of England Secondly That necessary increase of your Majesties Revenue decayed by the present Rebellion Thirdly The abolishing the evil Customs of the Irish and preservation of Religion Laws and Government there Fourthly The satisfaction of the Protestant Subjects losses in some measure Fifthly The Arrears of your Majesties Army and other debts contracted for the War and for preservation of that Kingdom to your Majesty Sixthly The bringing in of more Brittish on the Plantation Seventhly The building of some walled-Towns in remote and desolate places for the security of that Kingdom and your Maiesties good Subjects there Eightly The taking of the Natives from their former dependency on their Chieftains who usurped an absolute Power over them to the dimunition of all Regal Power and to the oppression of the inferiors 7. Pro. That all marks of incapacity imposed upon the Natives of that Kingdom to purchase or acquire Lands Leases Offices or Hereditaments be taken away by Act of Parliament and the same to extend to the securing of Purchases Leases or Grants already made and that for the Education of Youth an Act be passed in the next Parliament for the erecting of one or more Inns of Court Universities Free and Common-Schools Answ. This we conceive concerneth some of the late Plantations and no other part of that Kingdom and that the restriction herein mentioned is found to be of great use especially for the indifferency of Tryals strength of the Government and for Trade and Traffick and we humbly conceive that if other Plantations shall not proceed for the setling and securing of the Kingdom and that if no restraint be made of Popish purchasing or buying of the Protestants out of their former Plantations where they were prudently settled though now cast out of their Estates by the late Rebellion and unable to Plant the same again for want of means and therefore probably upon easy terms will part from their Estates to the Confederates that those Plantations will be destroyed to the great prejudice of your Majesties Service and endangering of the safety of that Kingdom Touching bearing of Offices we humbly conceive that their now conformity to the Laws and Statutes of that Realm is the only mark of incapacity imposed upon them we humbly conceive that they ought not to expect to be more capable there then the English Natives are here in England in like case for Schools in Ireland there are divers setled in that Kingdom already by the Laws and Statutes of that Realm if any person well affected shall erect and endow any more Schools there at their own charges so that the School-master and Scholars may be governed according to Laws Customs and Orders of England and the rest of Free-Schools here we cannot apprehend any just exception thereunto but touching Universities and Inns of Court we humbly conceive that this part of the proposition savoureth of some desire to become Independant upon England or to make aspersion on the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom which can never be truely happy but in the good unity of both in the true Protestant Religion and in the Laws of England for as for matter of charge such of the Natives that are desirous to breed their Sons for Learning in Divinity can be well content to send them to the Universities of Lovane Doway and other Popish places in forreign Kingdoms and for Civil Law or Physick to Padua and other places which draws great Treasure yearly out of your Majesties Dominions but will send few or none of them to Oxford or Cambrige where they might as cheaply be bred up and become as Learned which course we conceive is holden out of their Pride and disaffection towards this Kingdom and the true Religion here professed and for the Laws of the Land which are for the Common Law agreeable to England and so for the greatest part of the Statutes the Inns of Court in England are sufficient and the Protestants come thither without grudging and that is a means to civilize them after the English customs to make them familiar and in love with the Language and Nation to preserve Law in the Purity when the Professors of it shall draw from one Original Fountain and see the manner of the Practice of that in the same great Channel where his Majesties Courts of Justice of England do flow most clearly whereas by separation of the Kingdoms in that place of their principal instruction where their foundations in Learning are to be laid a degenerate corruption in Religion and Justice may haply be introduced and spread with much more difficulty to be corrected and restrained afterwards by any Discipline to be used in Ireland or punishment there to be inflicted for departing from the true grounds of things which are best preserved in unity when they grow out of the same root then if such Universities and Inns of Court as are proposed should be granted all which we humbly submit to your Majesties most Pious and Prudent consideration and judgment 8. Pro. That the Offices and Places of Command Honour Profit and Trust within that Kngdom be conferred upon Roman Catholicks Natives in equality and indifferency with your Majesties other Subjects Answ. We humbly conceive that the Roman Catholicks Natives of Ireland may have the like Offices and Places as the Roman Catholicks Natives of England here have and not otherwise howbeit we conceive that in the generality they haye not deserved so much by their late Rebellion therefore we see not why they should be endowed with any new or farther capacities or priviledges then they have by the Laws and Statutes now in force in that Kingdom 9. Pro. That the insupportable Oppression
Answers they had Humbly offered pretending not to be Judges but submissive Petitioners for what was committed to their Charge APPENDIX XIII Fol. 144. The Humble Propositions of your Majesties Protestant Agents of Ireland in pursuance of the humble Petition of your Majesties Protestant Subjects as well Commanders of your Majesties Army there as others presented to your Majesty the 18th day of April 1644. and answered by your Majesty the 25 of the same 1. WE most humbly desire the Establishment of the true Protestant Religion in Ireland according to the Laws and Statutes in the said Kingdom now in force 2. That the Popish Titular Arch-Bishops Bishops Jesuits Friers and Priests and all others of the Roman Clergy be banished out of Ireland because they have been the stirrers up of all Rebellion and while they continue there there can be no hope of safety for your Majesties Protestant Subjects And that all the Laws and Statutes established in that Kingdom against Popery and Popish Recusants may continue of force and be put in due Execution 3. That Restitution may be made of all our Churches and Church Rights and Revenues and all our Churches and Chappels re-edified and put in as good Estate as they were at the breaking out of the Rebellion and as they ought to be at the Charge of the Confederate Roman Catholicks as they call themselves who have been the occasion of the Destruction of the said Churches and possessed themselves of the Profits and Revenues thereof 4. That the Parliament now sitting in Ireland may be continued there for the better settlement of the Kingdom and that all Persons duly indicted in the said Kingdom of Treason Felonie or other heinous Crimes may be duly and legally proceeded against outlaw'd tried and adjudged according to Law And that all Persons lawfully convicted and attainted or to be convicted and attainted for the same may receive due punishment accordingly 5. That no Man may take upon him or execute the Office of a Major or Magistrate in any Corporation or the Office of a Sheriff or Justice of Peace in any City or County in the said Kingdom until he have first taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance 6. That all Popish Lawyers who refuse to take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance may be suppress'd and restrain'd from practice in that Kingdom the rather because the Lawyers in England do not here practice until they take the Oath of Supremacy And it hath been found by woful Experience that the Advice of Popish Lawyers to the people of Ireland hath been a great cause of their continued Disobedience 7. That there may be a present absolute Suppression and Dissolution of all the assumed Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power which the said Confederates exercise over Your Majesties Subjects both in Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal 8. That all the Arms and Ammunition of the said Confederates be speedily brought into Your Majesties Stores 9. That Your Majesties Protestant Subjects ruin'd and destroy'd by the said Confederates may be repair'd for their great losses out of the Estates of the said Confederates not formerly by any Acts of this present Parliament in England otherwise dispos'd of whereby they may the better be enabl'd to re-inhabit and defend the said Kingdom of Ireland 10. That the said Confederates may rebuild the several Plantation-Houses and Castles destroy'd by them in Ireland in as good state as they were at the breaking out of the Rebellion which Your Majesties Protestant Subjects have been bound by their several Patents to build and maintain for Your Majesties Service 11. That the great Arrears of Rent due to Your Majestie out of the Estates of Your Majesties Protestant Subjects at and since Michaelmas 1641. may be paid unto Your Majestie by such of the said Confederates who have either receiv'd the said Rents to the uses of the said Confederates or destroy'd the same by disabling Your Majesties Protestant Subjects to pay the same And have also destroy'd all or the most part of all other Rents or means of support belonging to Your said Protestant Subjects And that Your said Protestant Subjects may be discharg'd of all such Arrears of Rents to Your Majestie 12. That the said Confederates may give satisfaction to the Army for the great Arrears due unto them since the Rebellion and that such Commanders as have rais'd Forces at their own Charges and laid forth great sums of Money out of their own Purses and engag'd themselves for Money and Provisions to keep themselves their Holds and Souldiers under their Commands in the due necessary Defence of Your Majesties Rights and Laws may be in due sort satisfied to the encouragement of others in like times and Cases which may happen 13. That touching such parts of the Confederate Estates as being forfeited for their Treasons are come or shall duly come into Your Majesties hands and possession by that Title Your Majesty after the due satisfaction first made to such as claim by former Acts of Parliament would be pleased to take the same into your own hands and possession and for the necessary encrease of Your Majesties Revenue and better security of the said Kingdom of Ireland and the Protestant Subjects living under your gracious Government there to plant the same with Brittish and Protestants upon reasonable and honourable Terms 14. That one good walled Town may be built and kept repair'd in every County of the said Kingdom of Ireland and endow'd and furnish'd with necessary and sufficient means of legal and just Government and Defence for the better security of Your Majesties Laws and Rights more especially the true Protestant Religion in time of Danger in any of which Towns no Papist may be permitted to dwell or inhabit 15. That for the better satisfaction of Justice and Your Majesties Honour and for the future security of the said Kingdom and Your Majesties Protestant Subjects there exemplary punishment according to Law may be inflicted upon such as have there traiterously levied VVar and taken up Arms against Your Majesties Protestant Subjects and Laws and therein against Your Majesty especially upon such as have had their hands in the shedding of Innocent blood or had to do with the first Plot or Conspiracy or since that time have done any notorious Murther or Covert Act of Treason 16. That all Your Majesties Towns Forts and places of strength destroy'd by the said Confederates since the said Rebellion may be by them and at their Charges re-edified and deliver'd up into Your Majesties hands to be duly put into the Government under Your Majestie and Your Laws of your good Protestants And that all Strengths and Fortifications made and set up by the said Confederates since the said Rebellion may be slighted and thrown down or else deliver'd up and disposed of for Protestant Government and Security as aforesaid 17. That according to the Presidents of former times in cases of General Rebellions in Ireland the Attainders which have been duly had by Outlawry for
THE HISTORY Of the EXECRABLE Irish Rebellion Trac'd from many preceding ACTS TO THE Grand Eruption The 23. of October 1641. And thence pursued to the Act of Settlement MDCLXII Spartanos genus est audax Avidumque ferae nodo cautus Propiore liga Sen. Hippolytus LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel in St. Paul's Churchyard MDCLXXX TO THE READER Reader I Am not ignorant that he exposes himself as a publick mark to many inconveniencies who appears in Print Yet there hath been so long an expectation of the Proceedings of the whole War of Ireland as by an evil silence some interpretately question whether there was any such thing or no Whereby those Pamphlets the Roman Catholicks of Ireland have dispersed through Europe get Credit and Reputation That his Majesties Protestant Subjects first fell upon and murther'd them which being so openly and frequently asserted even on the very Place where those dire Tragedies were acted and that averr'd also in a time when many are yet living who have seen and felt those miseries in themselves and their Relations I could not but let that drop from me which might flow from others niceness in this Case being the next degree to unfaithfulness Yet I cannot say what I have persued here is not to be cavell'd at no! that were to presume my fate were happier than others but I may aver that nothing is imposed on the Reader but what I have either Records publick Evidences credible Relations or my own knowledge for its Ground searching the best Intelligence I could reach to though in clearing some doubts I have encountred Obstacles I could not rationally have expected which I impute to my own misfortune no ones Design None treated with being so little affected as not frequently to desire the digestion of a History the English Interest in Ireland was not less concern'd in then Humanity it self The horror and cruelty there committed bidding defiance to whatsoever before had been acted in the World Hinc Terras Cruor Inficit omnes fusus rubuit mare So that after all if there be any Deficiency in what I shall relate it may well be pardon'd where there hath been as much Artifice to parget Truths as Countenance could reach to though as to what may be objected in reference to my Relation I have been so cautious that in Disputes I have not let Interest biass me no! where I have found any Humanity though it may be conjectur'd to proceed from self-Interest that it may be return'd in gratitude I have not designedly let it o're-slip me but of this nature there hath been little indeed the whole Scene hath been so barbarous as I have scarce found any into whose wound the Traveller hath pour'd Oyl and yet willingly more then what a just account of the Business requires I would not fester the least Soar However I expect all will not think so 't is natural for the Wasp to be angry yet when it shall be weighed on what little reason the Irish more then the English equally if not beyond them concern'd in all Levies Oppressions and Grievances had to be enraged pretending to be held in with a ruder Bit I doubt not but the more Intelligent will allow them no common Sinners I am not ignorant what examples some say they had to encourage them to their Insurrection though that encouragement how confidently soever affirmed to be their Guide never commenc'd in Blood or march'd on in Murthers and Surprisals of an innocent naked and unarm'd People or at first seiz'd on those much less murther'd them who contrary to their Judgment lived peaceably amongst them However it is not my intention to mitigate the flame they light their Torches by all Rebellions being detestable But certainly the Copy exceeded the Original and what they would solely intitle to their Religion as interdicted by the Age more justly is to be imputed to their Detestation of the English Government and Nation which from the Conquest to this instant hath been the grounds for all Rebellions even when both Nations were drunk with the Wine of Romes Fornication So that though some to mitigate the Result of so horrid a Rebellion place the grounds of it on Religion which as my Lord Bacon observes Erects a Monarchy in the minds of Men by which they would enforce all to that yoke Yet it is evident they never had so free an exercise of their Religion under Pretexts of Civil Contracts and Politick Agreements as when the Troubles began not so much then as the least Violence being offer'd to their Diana nor afterwards till they made it one of their principal Demands so that if at any time since or before they found a check That must be attributed to the rude and boisterous behaviour as a Statist seasonably notes of some of them who disturb'd the happy Calm they all enjoy'd rather then to any willing severity in the State whose bounty and generosity towards them hath by their ill usage of the Indulgence been interpreted a Product of the Kings Affection to their Religion not his charity and compassion towards their Persons That thence some have proceeded to Acts which have alienated the affections of those who desired they should not have been disquieted Till Recusancy began over-boldly to look Government in the Face in as much as thence some have suspected whether Hannibal were not at the Gates Else could any vaunt at home as others write to their Friends abroad that they hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and win ground upon us in as much as meerly from this encouragement a Romanist well observ'd by the Silver-Mouth Trumpet not long since congratulated in Print That the Face of our Church began to alter and the Language of our Religion to change saith Sancta Clara So as if a Synod were held non intermixtis Puritanis O those are Pestilent fellows our Articles and their Religion would soon be agreed Upon which and other Circumstances the learned and foreseeing Primate Archbishop Usher once in an Assembly of the whole Nation averr'd That the Magistrates yielding to meet the Papists as far as they might in their own way in the first Reformation in England had upon the experience of many years rather hardned them in their Errors then brought them to a liking of our Religion This being their usual saying If our Flesh be not good why do you drink of our Broth The consideration of which made King James of blessed memory take notice* That having after some time spent in setling the Politck Affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small labour in composing certain differencies we found amongst our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore Established in this Church of England and reduc'd the same to such an Order and Form as we doubt not but every Spirit that is led only with Piety and not with Humour shall be therein satisfied It appear'd unto us in the debating of those Matters that a
they whom they still endeavoured to root out and then ordering their Bishops and Commissioners of Trust to share in his Councels and the management of Affairs At last ejecting him as questionable before his Majesty for his injuries to them and his ill Government whilst they assumed the Management of all in acting That no Temporal Government or Jurisdiction should be assumed kept or executed in that Kingdom or any Province or County thereof other then what is approved or instituted by their General Assembly or Supream Council which was indeed the first Common-Wealth set up in his Majesties Empire And yet these are those who were receiv'd as Penitents to Mercy strange Penitents Who after so much blood and spoil of Innocents such sins against Indulgence and Oaths of Obedience and Submission were so far from satisfying their wrong doings that they were never brought to profess themselves Guilty whose Penitence seems to be only in that they fail'd to accomplish their evil in fulness Twice Conspir'd they a Peace the better to accomplish to the utmost what they might not need further Penitence thereby foolishly forfeiting all the Grace which they might have expected from his Majesty though amongst the General there were some who upon the Peace made with them honestly perform'd what they had promised to him though with inconveniency enough to themselves whose demeanour could not but be thought very worthy of his Protection Justice and Favour as they find fully enlarg'd in the Act of Settlement And here I cannot but take notice that though some would impute the Irregularity of these Proceedings to the Clergy only who indeed were the main spoak in the Wheel yet some of the Committee of Trust and of the Nobility who ever else were free were also privy thereunto how close soever they behav'd themselves as appears in their cherishing privately the ill Humors and Jealousies of the People and their averseness to punish the greatest exorbitancy wherein the Clergy were concern'd without the Cooperation of the Bishops whose consent they were sure never to have Indeed I dare not but say having it from an excellent Pen that some of the Irish Discent have in the late Troubles as in all Ages well deserv'd of the Crown though it may wrack the Memory of the strictest observer to enumerate many few having assisted the Protestants against the Mighty However great strugling there hath been That the Peace of 1648. should be inviolable whereas besides other important Reasons referring to their abominable Reservation That if those Articles of Peace were not in every particular for their Advantage performed they would not be concluded thereby It must be considered that when the King was necessitated to comply with the Rebels he was then under sad streights The odious Court by which his Sacred Life was afterwards taken away being then erected So as no body could wonder that he desir'd though upon difficult Conditions to get such an united Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented that infamous and horrible Parricide Yet then in that Article of time the Irish prest for the conclusion of the Peace Whereas if they had been truly Loyal and Unanimous Generous Souls would never have took that opportunity to have enhaunc'd their Price But in submission to what Grace they might afterwards find freely have waded through the difficulties they were call'd to having long before promised a vigorous Assistance which they never attempted Though many of these since must confess that they have been as well provided for as after so great Troubles and Confusions and such blessed Circumstances of his Majesties Restauration they could reasonably expect And yet the bleeding Iphigenia that piece of Ingratitude and Scandal will tell you That the Body of a noble antient Catholick Nation Ireland clad all in red Robes is not now to be offer'd up as Victime but is already Sacrificed not to a Prophane Diety but to the living God for Holy Religion As if after all the Indulgence which hath been and is vouchsaf'd that Nation nothing attends it but Misery and Ruine a Trumpet certainly to another Insurrection But to proceed the success of our Armies considering the numbers they often oppos'd exceeds a common Belief in as much as some have extenuated the Glory of their Service by the Cowardliness of the Enemy who seldom made a noble or brave Defence save where an extremity reduced them to an exigence or a surprize made them cruel But on this subject Sir Francis Bacon in a Letter to the Earl of Essex going for Ireland observes That the justest Triumphs that the Romans in their greatest Greatness did obtain and that whereof the Emperors in their Stiles took Additions and Denominations were of such an Enemy that is People barbarous and not reduced to Civility magnifying a kind of Lawless Liberty Prodigal of Life hardness in Body fortified in Woods and Bogs placing both Justice and Felicity in the sharpness of their Swords It being a higher Point of Honour to reduce such to Civility than to be enrich'd by a Praeditory War I am sensible that the undertaking of this War hath passed with many as an opportunity to enrich the Servitour nor can it be denied but that reward is the just expectation of Merit But when it shall be consider'd at what rates Debenters were paid off what hardship the Souldiers encountred how many in Rebellion shar'd the mercy of a Gracious Prince what were the Difficulties attended all in Government it cannot be denied but more then a Praeditory War even the Establishment of a Religion and Nation the Irish would have extirpated the settling of his Majesties Rights and the reducing of a People loose in their Principles to Civility were the main Ends of this War to which his Majesty was forc'd by the causeless and inhuman Insurrection of the Irish In reference to which the Rebels being before prepar'd thereunto soon Marshall'd a considerable Force But though it was for their Altars and Inheritance as they pretended never any Nation fell under greater Pusillanimity which some impute to their want of Warlick Provisions their ignorance in the Discipline of their Army the lack of unity amongst themselves and the Supplies of the English ever found of all necessaries But certainly the greatest Defect was in the badness of their Cause which Conor O Mahon in his Disputatio Apologetica urges from an Ethnick Poet led meerly by the light of Nature is most material Frangit attollit vires milite Causa Quae nisi justa subest excutit Arma Pudor For it must be allowed not to be denied by the Ingenious that the Natives have Courage and Abilities sufficient few in their Imployments abroad proving better Souldiers more temperate better vers'd in the World or readier to be put on the forwardest Action Here I might enlarge much in the Encomiums of those who so vigorously oppos'd them though at length the Irish got
Angliae tuerentur Jura Regia in Hiberniam Quique interdixerent nè sibi proprium Regem Eligerent Profecto circa initia Rebellionis immensum quantum obstitit in coeptis molitionibus Rebellium Illustrissimus Parens tuus destinatus ad id à potentissimo Rege Cui nota erat virtus fortissimi viri pacis belli artibus clari Cujus prudentia par erat animi Robori qui hacce virtute res nutantes ad ruinam properantes incompositasque firmavit adversus Consiliarios Magna negotia administrantes majori cum Studio privatae quam publicae Utilitatis quo in Conatu per virtutem vitamque piè innocenter actam muneri magis suo consuluit quam facultatibus parandis Cujus Vestigiis insistens Johannes ejus filius eques auratus frater tuus clarissimus ob res fortiter gestas Droghedam Rossam nec pro meritis pensatas non debuit à te praeteriri Quanquam nulla privata ratione sed solo Elatere veritatis proferendae commovearis ad imputandum publicò Historiam tuam Quae tua est Modestia Idus Novembris 1678. Vale. To this as a Resepect I must ever acknowledge I cannot but annex the following Letter lately receiv'd from the Honourable and Eminent Lord Bishop of Meath a constant Assertor of the English Interest and the Protestants Sufferings minding me from whom I had several Passages in the ensuing History A History which must want much of its due Method and more Eloquence not having his Doctor I Understood by Letters from London and after by Two from your self of your forwardness in the History of the Irish Rebellion Anno 1641. that being I find now in the Press How far you have therein proceeded or what is your way in that I know not that not having been to me by any communicated To that therefore I can say no more than that its passing your hands assures me of what may satisfie What may satisfie I mean not those who shut their eyes against light and even Rebel against it There are who contrary to all evidence confidently averr write and openly proclaim to the World that there was then no such Rebellion of the Irish neither such Massacres of the British and Protestants in Ireland but that they themselves the Irish and Papists of Ireland were then the Sufferers and that by the Protestants they say the first aggressors This bold assertion in the face of the Sun and in that very age when things were acted there having been many also then and some yet living who can speak to the truth in that This I say might gain on Strangers to the Kingdom and hath already on some even at home especially at this time about 40 years after But the contrary appear'd by those Collections which you had from me to which herein as in other particulars I refer And what do they in this but what was before and is by them done ordinarily Have they not with like confidence disclaimed that black and hellish Powder-Plot Nov. 5. 1605. from being Popish do they not give that out for false and as a forg'd Calumny cast on that Party of whom none of theirs they say was therein concern'd whereas it is well known that Hammond Baldwin Gerard and Tesmond Jesuits with their Provincial Garnet were all in that Conspiracy Thomson also a Jesuit boasted after at Rome that his shirt was often wet with digging under the Parliament-House in London besides others in that Conspiracy who were all Papists and many of them Suffering for their so practicing the publick proceedings on those Tryals remaining extant on Record And do They not now even now cry down what our eyes behold of their horrid and bloody Design and hellish Treason against the Royal Person of our Gracious Sovereign King Charles II. and against his Protestant Subjects and for total extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of the Three Kingdoms The truth of which is every day even as by miracle more and more evidenc'd to the Glory of Gods watchful Providence over this his Church and People Among which I find our selves threatned with a yet other like demonstration of zeal for the promoting of the Catholick Religion and Interest in Ireland Dr. Oates Nar. § 50. so they term those Massacres and Blood for rooting out the Protestant Religion and casting off the English Government in Ireland which their other demonstration of Zeal as they term it shews the former actings in that kind to have bin theirs and how such their Actings are by them esteemed a demonstration of Zeal for promoting the Catholick Religion But He that sits in Heaven laughs them to scorn and hath them in derision speaking to them in his wrath and vexing them in his sore displeasure saying yet or notwithstanding all such their Designs have I set up my King preserving our Gracious Soveraign the breath of our Nostrils by the care and vigilance of those our worthy Patriots whom God hath raised up happy instruments in it As to Ireland To evidence the restless Spirits of such there for mischief I shall mind here in brief what in the mentioned Collections had bin given you more at large so to lay all open at one view thereby not to wonder at Rebellions here than which comparing times nothing will appear so ordinary In which passing what occurs of that kind in elder ages and fixing only on such as had Religion for a pretence and was by Rome influenc'd and by its Emissaries fomented Therefore I begin with the Reign of that Queen of famous memory Queen Eliz. of whose Troubles in England from that Party I speak not as not of present consideration but recounting what work they found Her in this her Kingdom of Ireland only I. Anno 1567. There was a Rebellion in the Province of Ulster of Shane O-Neal who for the suppressing of the Title of O-Neal had bin by King Hen. 8. created Earl of Tyrone His Forces were broken by Sir Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy and he himself fleeing for succour to Alexander Mac Donnel then in the Clandeboyes with 600. Highlander-Scots He was by them there slain in revenge of one of theirs by him formerly killed his Head was June 20. 1567. sent to the Deputy by Captain William Piers then eminent for Service and Command at Carrickfergus and thereabout that Arch-rebels head was pitch't on the Castle of Dublin II. Since after Anno 1569. followed in the Province of Munster the Rebellion of James Fitz Mauris Fitz Gerald and John Fitz Gerald brothers to Gerald Earl of Desmond in which the Earl himself after declared Anno 1578. His Parties were considerable in Leimster to whom joyned the Viscount Baltinglas with the Pools Birns and Cavenaughs having also Foraign assistance the design being pretended for Religion the Pope and his giving therefore Aid and Countenance but Desmond being defeated he was after by his own murthered III. About 6. years after Anno 1595. brake out in Ulster also
for Religion another Rebellion that of Hugh O-Neal commonly called Tyrones Rebellion whose Forces together with the Spanish assistances were overthrown by Mountjoy Lord Deputy at Kinsale Dec. 24. 1601. he himself submitting March 1602. These were during the Reign of Queen Eliz. IV. After whose death King James succeeded and within one Month after Anno 1603. the Cities of Waterford Cork and Limerick stood out and opposed the Proclaiming the Kng he not being they said a Catholick these acted Hostility inviting all other Cities to a conjunction to which Kilkenny and Wexford were inclining but by the Deputy Mountjoys marching against them with an Army they were forced to Submission V. After Anno 1607. was a Providential discovery of another Rebellion in Ireland the Lord Chichister being Deputy the Discoverer not being willing to appear a Letter from him not subscribed was superscribed to Sir William Usher Clerk of the Council and dropt in the Council Chamber then in the Castle of Dublin in which was mention'd a Design for seizing that Castle murthering the Deputy c. with a general revolt and dependance on Spanish Forces c. and this also for Religion for particulars whereof I refer to that Letter dated March 19. 1607. which you have VI. The very next year Anno 1608. was the breaking out of Sir Cahie O Dogherty's Rebellion in Ulster by whom Derry was taken and burnt the Governor Sir George Paulet murther'd and Culmore Castle some miles distant surpriz'd that being the Magazine for Arms and Ammunition for those parts His Confederates were considerable his Forces increasing and expecting Tyrone and Tyrconnil's return with Forces from Flanders Against him was the Marshal Sir Richard Wingfield sent with a strong Party the Deputy following with more Forces from Dublin But this short yet smart Rebellion ended with the death of the Arch rebel and the dispersing his followers VII Seven years after Anno 1615. was a Providential discovery made by one Teige O Lenan to Sir Thomas Philips of Lemovadey in Ulster of a Design of Alexander mac Donel Bryan Crosse O-Neal and other the principal of the Irish in Tyrone and Tyrconnil with large Confederacies for Religion They first designed the taking Charlemount commanded by Sir Toby Caulfield where was then Prisoner Conne Greg O-Neal Tyrones Son and about the same time by severally appointed Parties was order'd the taking in the principal Forts and Towns in Ulster and murthering the Protestants in that Province and elsewhere They had promises of Foreign assistance from Spain France and Rome the particulars you have During the Reign of King James were these 4 last mentioned VIII After Anno 1634. under the Government of the Lord Viscount Wentworth Lord Deputy Ever or Emerus mac Mahon a Popish Priest privately discover'd to Sir George Radcliffe principal in trust with the Lord Deputy that there was a Design for a general rising in Ireland to be seconded and assisted from abroad The Discoverer having assurance of Pardon acknowledging himself engaged in that Conspiracy having been employed some years on that account in Foraign Courts soliciting supplies for carrying on that work for Religion This Discoverer was after the Popish Bishop of Down and after of Clogher Hereof the Lord Deputy inform'd his Majesty King Charles I. who thereupon by his Ambassadors watching practices in Courts abroad there were at length general and dark hints given of something tending to a Rebellion in Ireland but how or when or by whom was not then so appearing Hereof his Majesty by his Royal Letters Signed by Sir Henry Vane one of his principal Secretaries dated March 16. 1640. and directed to the then Lords Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase did charge them with the care of that danger imminent of which his Majesties Letter you have likewise a Copy And this brings to that Rebellion Anno 1641. which on the 23d of October did break out unexpectedly notwithstanding all cautions concerning it this like a violent Hurricane bearing all down before it which gives you your work at present The result and design of all which thus here briefly collected shews 1. That from Shane O-Neals Rebellion Anno 1566. until that in 1641. there passed about 75 years a space of time within the ordinary age of a man 2. That within those but 75. years there had been in Ireland Five open Rebellions one as it were in the neck of another viz. Shane O-Neals Anno 1566. Desmonds Anno 1569. Hugh O-Neal called Tyrones Rebellion Anno 1595. O Doghertyes Anno 1608. and this Grand Rebellion 1641. this surpassing all before I know not why that Rebellion of the Cities of Waterford Cork and Limerick may not add to that number this being as open as any and dangerous and requiring the presence of the principal Commander and the marching of the Forces of the Kingdom to suppress it Add to these those 2 Discoveries mentioned Anno 1607. and 1615. not to mention apart that Anno 1634. falling into that of 1641. which 2 former had been dismal to the Kingdom if not by Gods providence seasonably and wonderfully discovered and happily prevented Therefore have we herein not to wonder at Rebellions in Ireland than which nothing there more common from generation to generation and may not the like be yet expected when opportunity shall be for it the same Spirit and Causes remaining This is not Sir to forestal your work but serves as an Index directing to what follows of yours giving also an edge to this desire of finding the breviat as by you enlarged if you have thought fit to make use of it I shall now end your trouble herein giving you the deserved praise of your labours and zeal to that necessary undertaking I rest Sir Your very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Midensis Dublin May 27. 1679. Since I reduced the History to what it is I reflected on several to whom I might have adrest it some who having run through the Hazzard of that War and the Councils of that Age might well have own'd it it being in the main an Epitome of their Illustrious Actions Others being design'd to the Government but not aiming at the Work as too sensible of the English Interest to betray it justly challenges a respect and Title thereunto And not a few through whose Provision the Irish were subdued might well have contenanc'd the Event But considering how insignificant a great Title is where Truth must be the main support elated Dedications bespeaking Authors more ambitious than known I could not delude my Reason with a Conceipt that a Mecaenas as the Laurel exempts from Thunder and therefore countent with the Integrity of the Story having no ends to oblige me to a single respect I here comit it naked to the Decision of the Age. It may be some whose Excellency consists in Detraction will think by this I had a particular Design besides the bare History to preserve the Memory of some who otherwise in tract of time might
be lost in the common Rubbish And I dare not disown those Conjectures the Deserving being to be in everlasting Remembrance Nor hath it in all Ages and amongst the worthiest Persons been esteem'd Pride but Justice to erect Memorials and Altars to Meriting Heroes Though herein I conceive none could be so much concern'd who would have less insisted thereon then my self resolving to be sparing in what I might have been prodigal How contrary soever it may be Conjectur'd by some who pleas'd with the publick breath dare blaspheme those whom they could never wean from their Countries Interest or Religion though as to an utter extirpation which was strongly insisted on by many I may affirm that they whom the Malice of some would traduce were ever so far from that abominating the thought as the Rebels Reformation not their Ruine was their Principal care well distinguishing betwixt the Head and the Train which a most eminent and noble Person just to his Honour ever avouch'd Something 's it may be were not always suited to the just standard of the Law which in such Exigences have ever been indulged though not commanded The preservation of a State being more than the security of a Person And thence Prudence as well as Justice hath been a necessary Attendant on Magistrates No State being so secur'd by her Laws as that something emergent may not require a speedier Help the effect of which if severe being out of the common Road is the Offenders not the State Fault And hereupon a known Instrument of State perfectly experienc'd in that Road excellently well Cautions Not to weigh and measure Statesmen's Proceedings by grains and scruples lest the publick Affairs of a Kingdom lie wast whilst men of Honour and Fortune in medling with them are sure to loose The Rebels by their Pamphlets affirm that few Murthers if any were done till some examples of that nature were acted by the English whereas the contrary plainly appears by those Examinations in the Remonstrance of diverse remarkable Passages concerning the Church and Kingdom of Ireland which cannot be waded whatever R. S. in his Collections of Murthers would insinuate as if that was only framed to win Compassion and Succour from England or scandalize Authority whereas it is clear the Remonstrance was passed on such undeniable Evidences that the Circumstances he takes notice off to justisie his own of Time Place and Persons as if they were not considered in the Remonstrance are generally observed and that on Oath Not encouraged as he would infer from the hurry of the Times and the Examinants Frights but before his Majesties Commissioners a Circumstance this Detractor dare not pretend to what Favour soever he thinks to draw from Cromwel's proceedings Summo Jure in Ireland which was on another score than we shall here insist on and were promiscuously cruel yet those lessen nothing of the Irish Barbarism at First or indeed of their Mercy at Last in stripping the English in so miserable a Season driving them from their Habitations and exposing them to the Woods and Deserts for their Rest and Sustenance such as remain'd being deluded by the Rebels promises and wedded to their own Habitations were generally Massacred Certainly the lingring and sad Deaths which attended many are justly to be accounted the highest Barbarism worse than whatever determin'd in a short time how cruel soever Though some who would be thought Civil and Compassionate think they merit much in not having as they write not others their hands actually imbrued in the Blood of any of the British Protestants of which its believ'd there are but few if any that may be justly intituled to that Clemency However are they not to be accounted equally Guilty who mov'd by the same Councils Subsisted by the same maintenance Whose Victory was their Victory and the Blood shed by One was the consent of the Other Qui non vetat peccare cum possit jubet Especially when they knew of the Villanies that had passed and yet sided with the Party so imbrued and fleshed in Blood No Check being given to that Career when Leinster and Ulster Valence and Brabant agreed However we have contexed in this History few examples of Murthers and Cruelties in reference to the Luxury of the Rebels took in the Scene The effect of whose Malice and Animosity being in truth the Burthen of the whole is not omitted as not abounding in Proofs but because the Martyrology of the Clergy and the Protestants deserve an account a-part Besides though there be some Gleanings of Murthers in Ulster Connaght and Leinster yet the care which was took to register those in Munster hath been obstructed as the others if they had not been early might have been so too However they are not lost though at present confin'd Some Remarks on the Rebels Pamphlets and Pretentions we have coursorarily answer'd Not holding our selves obliged to reply to each Particular else the Volume would swell too big Besides there are many things which in reading an Intelligent Person cannot but blow over with an easie Breath Some are so ridiculous others improbable most without their Circumstances what is fairer Varnish'd we have from their own Principles or their Parties Confession clear'd therein not so much veiling Truths whether for or against us as disclosing their nakedness a deformed Face needs a Fucus The Favourers of that Party insist much on the Parliaments being Prorogued which should have met soon after the Insurrection whereby what they would have presented to the King by way of Accommodation was say they thereby prevented and that the Lords and old English of the Pale who had been constant to the Crown in other Rebellions were by the usage of the State forced to take part with the Ulster Rebels The first of these is in the main discoursed of to which we must add as being an undeniable consequence of their Desires then That their endeavours to meet at that time in Parliament was to no other end but that the Plot having been discover'd whereby they could not strike hands at first with the Northern Rebels without apparent Rebellion which they were willing to screen under fairer pretences They might in Parliament the more solemnly contest with the King for their Religion and Liberty which neither the just Jealousies of the State or the Distractions then could rationally admit of lest meeting in such numbers as a Parliament would colourably bring to Town they might take new Councils the former seeming in some part to be disappointed And as to the Latter the truth thereof is already cleared from Fol. 39. to 42. nor indeed needs there any thing more to be said but what his Majesty C. I. on this subject verified to the Protestant's Agents at Oxford 1644. That what the Rebels pleaded as to this Particular was not his Belief but an Assertion of the Irish And when the Protestant Agents would further have cleared this Point some at Court being apt to blow
up those Cindars the King said That needed not for to what purpose is it to prove the Sun shines this day when we all see it And from the Proceedings of the State exprest in their Letter to the Lord Lieutenant it is evident that all the hopes they had was of the old English of the Pale and some other Parts that they would continue constant to the King as they did in former times Then which what could be a clearer demonstration of their Confidence in them strengthening afterwards their Belief in affording them Arms and Trusting them with Commissions Civil and Martial And wheras these men will have it that they offer'd Propositions to the State charging them with the neglect thereof it is justified in the Lords Justices Letter to the Lord Lieutenant That not one of them to that hour offer'd to the State any Advice or real Assistance towards the Pacification of these Troubles Or when they were invited by all the engagements Honour or Loyalty could enforce would they ever comply with any Nay let the Insolency They used to the Orders of Parliament and the Invitation and Condescention of the State tearing the First and vilifying the Latter remain a perpetual Witness of their Arrogance and Ingratitude that the State would have secur'd their Allegiance and they would not When I first enter'd on this History I propos'd to my self a Series of the whole but prest with my own Affairs and Matter encreasing plentfully upon me I held it rational to sum up the whole after I had brought it to the Cessation which some had an apprehension was not a less Plot to deliver the Remainder of his Majesties true Subjects into the Rebels hands and to root out the Protestant Religion then what was commenc'd the 23. of October 1641. But the Articles of that Cessation speak otherwise necessity being the Ground thereof legible in his Majesties Motives to a Cessation the 19th of October 1643. which afterwards was highly controverted and in the end so enfeebled as the War according to the first intent was after the long Parliament grasp'd all pursued with Vigour and Success Which here induced to it by many Reasons we have at last according to our first thoughts brought to a Period under his Majesties Test in the Voice of his Parliament in Ireland 1662. though with omission of many Circumstances lest in such variety we might fall short of those considerable Actions which frequently interven'd fit indeed for none less Privy to the Rebels than the State However we have not omitted sufficient to clear the Rise as well as the Conclusion of this War not so much dreading Censures as caring to inform Right Yet I Question not but there will be some who will find if not sufficient enough to carp at No History was so round as to pass a General Acceptance Happily Reader Non facit ad Stomachum nostra Lagena tuum Thy Appetite relishes not truth too near the Quick another thinks the time ill chosen and some have other Prejudice Whether one or other raises an Exception the Story is Tragical And those who have trod the Theater find such Tracts as are Horrible to repeat never to be forgot Though the Errata's seem many they are more in Accents and Literal Defects then considerable mistakes Such as an Ingenious Reader may as soon rectifie as view The running Title from Fol. 24. to 32. instead of what is there must be this The Dismal Effects of the Irish Insurrection and some numbers in Battles are carefully to be Corrected as Fol. 73. 8000. Foot for 3000. and Fol. 112. 13000. Foot for 1300. The rest are generally easie Errata's in the History FOl. 9. Line 13. read An Fol. 10. Line 35. read Ghostly Confessor Fol. 13. Line 45. read Peisley Fol. 15. Line 24. read Momonia Fol. 16. Line 31. read formed Fol. 18. Line 2. read Courts Fol. 19. Line 28. read would Fol. 19. Line 33. that for our Sins that is omitted Fol. 21. Line 22. prevent it it is left out Fol. 22. Line 34. read Majesty Fol. 25. Line 45. read pursue Fol. 38. Line 52. read also Fol. 39. Line 26. read Kilbrew Fol. 43. Line 9. read Fishing-boats Fol. 44. Line 29. read dispatch Fol. 49. Line 29. read Westmeath Fol. 52. Line 13. read 1641. Fol. 64. Line 32. and killed leave out and Fol. 73. Line 43. read 3000. Fol. 76. Line 35. read Balinasto Fol. 82. Line 18. read a Gigantick Fol. 83. Line 11. read from Court Fol. 86. Line 5. read Haste Fol. 86. Line 43. leave out take or Fol. 91. Margin read Subscrib'd Fol. 102. Line 45. from whence is to be blotted out Fol. 103. Line 39. read themselves Fol. 94. Line 27. read intent Fol. 105. Line 9. read approach Fol. 106. Line 6. read Straights Fol. 106. Line 13. read for Fol. 112. Line 15. read 1300. Fol. 118. read 115. and F. 115. read 118. Fol. 120. Line 8. read Besiegers Fol. ibid. Line 15. read Carrickdrumroosh Fol. ibid. Line 25. read skirmish'd Fol. 129. Line 2. Apprehension left out Fol. 132. Margin read the 5th Fol. 134. Line 18. our obedience blot out our as also the Superscription it being to be as the former Letter was Superscribed Fol. 292. Line 36. But that but is left out 141. Line 46. immediately after Sreights prest on him is omitted Fol. ibid. in the Marg. read Teag O Bryan Fol. 181. Line 52. his is left out Fol. 185. Line 35. read restrain Fol. 187. Line 36. read Kilkitto Fol. 200. Line 4. read desist Fol. 218. Line 16. read Marquess of Ormonds Fol. 225. Line 4. Lieutenant is to be left out Fol. 226. Line 6. which was was blot out Fol. 252. Line 35. the Earl the blot out Fol. 282. Line 21. read 20. of August Fol. 287. Line 26. read unsound Fol. 316. Line 16. read 27. Fol. 326. Line 32. read blanch'd Errata's in the Appendix FOl. 10. Line 27. I is to be omitted Fol. ibid. Line 28. read Torilagh Fol. 12. Line 12. read Tool O Conly Fol. 12. Line 45. read Ever mac Mahon Fol. 15. Line 23. read Torilagh Fol. 19. Line 41. from is omitted before read Loghross Fol. 25. Line 4. read Costilough Fol. 66. Line 18. read resent Fol. 66. Line 44. do continue is twice printed Fol. 94 Line 9. read Sword Fol. 98. in the Margin read Car. 342. and lower 344. Car. An. Hib. 344. Fol. 101. Line 18. after Commission would have been violated is left out Fol. 101. Line 23. and after the Parenthesis And he is omitted Fol. 102. in the Marg. read put in Fol. 114. Line 26. read Lisgool Fol. 124. Line 32. read sence Errata's in the Epistle FOl. 6. Line 3. read form'd Fol. 7. Line 11. read reflections on Fol. 9. Line 28. read impt Fol. 9. Line 29. read Zenith Fol. 13. Line 27. Penitence for for is left out as also violating it as often Fol. 11. Line 11. read Reflected on Fol. 17. Line 12.
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
he this Examinant leaped over a Wall and two Pales and so came to the Lord Justice Parsons Octob. 22. 1641. William Parsons Thomas Rotheram Robert Meredith Owen O Conally How it came to pass that the other Lord Justice attested not the Examination it being took in his house he present hath begot some doubts evidencing how since Counsels severed into Cabals In the interim whilst Owen O Conally was examining Mac-Mahon walking in Chichester-hall drew with Chalk several Postures some on Gibbets others groveling on the ground intimating how his fancy run on what was then acting So little did he dread the event The night being thus pass'd over the Lords Justices remov'd themselves for their better security into the Castle where the body of the Council attended them and having secur'd the Lord Mac-Guire taken after several removes in an obscure Cock-loft in Cook-street they joyn'd in this Proclamation By the Lords Justices and Council W. Parsons John Borlase THese are to make known and publish to all his Majesties good Subjects in this Kingdom of Ireland That there is a discovery made by us the Lords Justices and Council of a most disloyal and detestable Conspiracy intended by some evil-affected Irish Papists against the Lives of us the Lords Justices and Council and many other of his Majesty's faithful Subjects universally throughout this Kingdom and for the seizing not onely of his Majesty's Castle of Dublin his Majesties principal Fort here but also of all the other Fortifications in the Kingdom And seeing by the great goodness and abundant mercy of Almighty God to his Majesty and this State and Kingdom those wicked Conspiracies are brought to light and some of the Conspirators committed to the Castle of Dublin by us by his Majesties Authority so as those wicked and damnable Plots are now disappointed in the chief Parts thereof We therefore have thought fit hereby not onely to make it publickly known for the comfort of his Majesties good and loyal Subjects in all parts of the Kingdom but also hereby to require them That they do with all confidence and chearfulness betake themselves to their own defence and stand upon their Guard so to render the more safety to themselves and all the Kingdom besides and that they advertise us with all possible speed of all Occurrents which may concern the peace and safety of the Kingdom and now to shew fully that Loyalty and Faith which they had always shown for the publick Services of the Crown and Kingdom which we will value to his Majesty accordingly and a special memory thereof will be retain'd for their advantage in due time and we require that great care be taken that no Levies of Men be made for Foreign Service nor any Men suffer'd to March upon any pretence Given at his Majesty's Castle at Dublin 23. October 1641. R. Dillon Ro. Digby Ad. Loftus J. Temple Tho. Rotheram Franc. Willoughby Ja. Ware Ro. Meredith Which being immediately printed was dispersed to as many Places as they could convey it to Against which some of the Lords of the Pale though at first they had offer'd their service at the Council-board with great protestations and affections to his Majesty few days after appear'd with a Petition to their Lordships wherein they utter'd the deep sense they had of an expression in that Proclamation as if by the words Irish Papists there being no distinction they might doubt themselves involv'd Upon which the Lords Justices and Council being tender lest they in whose fidelity from the example of their Ancestors their Lordships then rested confident should take umbrage at any of their expressions condescended by their Printed Declaration dated the 29th of the same October to publish and proclaim That by the words Irish Papists they intended onely such of the old meer Irish in the Province of Ulster as had plotted contriv'd and been actors in that Treason and others that adhered to them and none of the old English of the Pale and other Parts enjoyning all his Majesty's Subjects whether Protestants or Papists to forbear upbraiding matter of Religion So that this Cavil being remov'd the Lords Justices and Councel with all imaginable amity and confidence animated the Lords of the Pale and their adherents to joyn with them as one Body for the suppression of the present Rebellion and the maintenance of his Majesty's just Right and Prerogative To which end they parted with 1700 Arms and proportionable Ammunition as well to the Roman Catholicks as Protestant Subjects for the defence of their Houses in several parts As to the Lord of Gormanston there were delivered Arms for 500 Men for the County of Meath there were also delivered Arms for 300. for the County of Kildare Arms for 300. for the County of Lowth Arms for 300. for the County of West-Meath Arms for 300. for the County of Dublin and about the same time there were sent down 400 Muskets to the Lords of the Ardes and Clandeboys for the Arming of the Scots in the County of Downe also the State furnish'd Wexford Waterford Trim and Dundalk with Arms and licence to import Arms and Powder a condescension never indulg'd without great confidence and favour that nothing should be wanting to testifie their confidence of all but such as were in actual Rebellion And now having heard Mac-Mahon's and Conally's Examinations and the proceedings thereupon it will be time to give you the Lord Mac-Guire's though at first when he was brought before the Councel Board nothing could be wrung from him till the 26th of March 1642. that his Examination was taken before Charles Lord Lambert and Sir Robert Meredith Kt. Chancellor of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer by direction of the Lords Justices and Councel in these words Who being examined saith That about the time when Mr. John Bellew came out of England with the Commission for the continuance of the present Parliament Roger Moore in the said Moore 's Chamber in the House of one Peter de Costres of this City acquainted him this Examinant That if the Irish would rise they might make their own Conditions for the regaining of their own Lands and freedom of their Religion At which time the said Moore also acquainted him this Examinant that he had spoken with sundry in Leimster who would be ready for that purpose and withal told him this Examinant that he was assured a good part of Connaght would do the like and thereupon mov'd this Examinant to joyn likewise with them with all he could make unto which motion he this Examinant yielded And the next day following there was a Meeting in his the said Moore 's Chamber aforesaid where were Col. Mac-Bryan Mac-Mahon Tirelagh O Neal Philip Mac-Hugh O Relie this Examinant and Roger Moore where Discourse was had about that Business yet nothing concluded on save that Roger Moore and the rest should go and prepare their Parties And this Examinant further saith That about May last he this Examinant Roger Moore Philip O
cruel and inhumane outrages and acts of Hostility within this Realm The said Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being justly mov'd with a right sense of the said disloyal rebellious proceedings and actions of the Persons aforesaid do hereby protest and declare That the said Lords and Commons from their hearts do detest and abhor the said abominable actions and that they shall and will to their uttermost power maintain the Rights of his Majesties Crown and Government of this Realm and the peace and safety thereof as well against the persons aforesaid their Abettors Adherents as also against all Foreign Princes Potentates and other Persons and attempts whatsoever And in case the Persons aforesaid do not repent of their aforesaid Actions and lay down Arms and become humble Suitors to his Majesty for Grace and Mercy in such convenient time and in such manner and form as by his Majesty or the Chief Governour or Governours and the Council of this Realm shall be set down The said Lords and Commons do further protest and declare That they will take up Arms and will with their Lives and Fortunes suppress them and their attempts in such a way as by the Authority of the Parliament of this Kingdom with the approbation of his Excellent Majesty or of his Majesties Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom shall be thought most effectual Copia vera exam per Phil. Percivall Cleric Parliament And after that the Parliament had sate two days to whom the Lords Justices had imparted his Majesties gracious intentions not to depart from any his former favours promised to them for setling their Estates who should remain faithful and Loyal and that the Lords Justices had shorten'd the Prorogation to the 11th of January the Lord Viscount Costelough impower'd by the Lords went for England not long before having been sworn a Privy Counsellor in Ireland even since the Rebellion with whom the Lord Taaff also embarck'd having before presented to the Lords Justices and Council from many of the Gentry and Inhabitants of the County of Longford in Rebellion a rebellious and scandalous Letter in the nature of a Remonstrance full of pretended Grievances and unreasonable Demands as namely to have freedom of Religion a Repeal of all Laws made to the contrary and the like Upon the information of which especially that there should be a toleration of the Popish Religion in Ireland it was resolv'd on the 8th of December 1641. upon solemn Debate by the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England That they would never give consent to any Toleration of the Popish Religion in Ireland or in any other his Majesties Dominions Which Vote hath been since adjudged a main motive for making the War a cause of Religion consequently of calling in Foreign Princes to their aid and assistance which before ever this Vote past to ground the least pretence thereupon the Irish made Religion the principal end of their Insurrection and this Proposition was as you see one of the first to be demanded which gave the Parliament a cause for the Vote fore-mention'd In pursuance of which Sir Benjamin Rudyard whom the cause ever made eloquent thus delivered his sense Mr. Speaker PEradventure I could have wish'd that Toleration of Religion had not at this time come in question but now it is brought on the Stage I am brought to the Stake When Religion is so nearly concern'd I love not to take any Civil or Politick respects into consideration Reason of State hath almost eaten up all the Laws and Religion of Christendom I have often heard it discours'd whether we should make Religion an Argument of any of our undertakings abroad wherein the wiser sort have been very nice and tender believing that the over-number of Papists would overwhelm us yet I have been long of opinion that our Attempts and Assistances have so often miscarri'd because we have not boldly and publickly avowed our Religion It may be God thinks we are too many who can conquer as well with few as with many Shall the Irish now make their Religion the cause of their Rebellion and shall we be asham'd or afraid to maintain our Religion in reducing them to their Duty and Obedience God will not honour them who do not honour him Let us remember that expostulation in the Chronicles Why transgress ye the commandments of God so that ye cannot prosper This is a great transgression to shrink from God in his truth When we deny the Irish a Toleration we do not withdraw the eases and favours they have heretofore enjoy'd Greater I am sure than they would afford us if we were in their power Wherefore Mr. Speaker let us uphold our Religion and trust God with the success Upon which and other motions thereupon the Vote mention'd proceeded without dispute and that the cause thereof might appear we shall refer you to the Longford Letter it self What reception it had at the Council-board may easily be conceiv'd by these Lords speedy repair into England who afterwards centred in that which in time brought on a Cessation of Arms with the Rebels in its own place to be spoke of The Lord Dillon upon his coming into England was seiz'd on by the Parliament and his Papers rifled according to a Vote in Parliament the 3d. of November which by the Confederates was look'd upon as a heinous crime though the discovery of the Concerns in Ireland as well as the management of the War were entrusted to the English Parliament so no crime in them But he escaped from them at last and went to the King having in his private Instructions orders to move that no Forces might be sent over out of England but that the whole work might be left to the Remonstrants and that they would then undertake to suppress the Rebels themselves In the interim we must not omit that some of both Houses of Parliament in Ireland lately met but now Prorogu'd were appointed to treat with the Rebels So they receiv'd their Instructions from the Lords Justices who were to impower them under the great Seal thereunto But instead of any happy effects thereon the Rebels were so puffed up with their Victories over the poor surpriz'd unresisting innocent English as they barbarously tore the Order of Parliament together with the Letter sent unto them promising themselves success and Dominion in all their Attempts By this time the State had receiv'd an Answer from the Lord Lieutenant of the Account they had given him of the Rebellion wherein he certified the Lords Justices that he understood his Majesty had receiv'd some Advertisements out of the North of Ireland of the present Rebellion and that the Business of Ireland might not suffer by his stay in Scotland which was somewhat longer than he expected his Majesty had refer'd the whole Business of Ireland to the Parliament of England who after a most serious and solemn information of this horrid Plot by a select Committee
in any case whatsoever or to maintain or defend the same shall forfeit his Lands and Goods as in case of Rebellion Before which there was no pretence some thought to make the War a matter of Religion Whereas I do not conceive that that Clause is any more then what was in several Acts provided as Anno 28. H. 8. Capite 13. Anno 2. Eliz. Cap. 1. as elsewhere And by his Majesties Letter to the Marquiss of Ormond the 15th of Decem. 1644. is there specified That many Acts in favour of the Irish should be repeal'd but those against Appeals to Rome and Praemunire should stand That had not the Rebels first intended what afterwards they pursued that Clause could not have made them more obstinate Rebels nothing being in it but what was before in force Now besides other miseries which aggravated the unhappiness of the State at that time there flocked to the City from all Parts such as having escaped the fury of the Rebels sheltered themselves there of which by reason of the diseases they had contracted by their journey and ill usage there died many else prov'd a burthen to the City Which the Confederates of the Pale would have the World believe was mercy and Signal Humanity in them not to have imbrued their hands in the blood of any British Protestants When as the lingring deaths and Exigences these were put to exceeded any death which at once might have been inflicted though after the Siege of Tredath that the old English Papists of the Pale were driven into Ulster they as a meritorious act vaunted that they had killed more English and Protestants in Fingall then were killed in many other Counties for the discoveries of whose miseries and what besides others had suffered by the Rebels the Lords Justices authorised several Commissioners to state their Case and the state of the deplorable English by two Commissions the one bearing date the 23d of December the other the 18th of January both in the 17th year of his Majesties Reign whereby the Murders Losses and Cruelties committed upon the English and Protestants were discovered on Oath and presented in a Remonstrance by the Dispoil'd Clergy of Ireland to the Honourable House of Commons in England And lest the Remonstrance should seem the act of a few Persons highly interessed in their own Concerns it was accompanied with a Letter from the Lords Justices and Council dated at Dublin the 7th of March 1641. to the Speaker of the said House of Commons the Remonstrance shewing such depredations of Goods such cruelties exercis'd on the Persons and Lives of the loyal Subjects such wasting and defacing of all monuments of Civility with such Prophanation of Holy Places and Religion that by the most barbarous and heathenish Nations the like could not in any Age be found to be perpetrated of which I might say more having not yet forgot the cruelties legible in most Noble and antient Families But the day would fail us should we sum up what is in the Clergies Remonstrance Printed at London 1642. briefly mention'd to which and the History of the Irish Rebellion 1646. from p. 84. to 136 we must refer you that the Proofs of all may be before your eyes May they be writ on our Posts of our houses and our Gates that they may be looked upon and remembred for ever what Amalek did when we were faint and weary and he feared not God! Thus the State having to their power supported his Majesties Authority and the English Interest searching out whatsomever might fathom the bottom of this Conspiracy they being driven to great necessities trampled on by the Enemy not further able to support their own miseries When the last of December 1641. arriv'd at Dublin from the Parliament of England Sir Simon Harcourt with a Regiment of 1200 Foot a Gentleman of Good Extraction long bred in the Low-Countreys the School of War under Sir Horatio the Lord Vere that renown'd and Excellent Person one of the most noted and eminent Commanders of the late Age He was design'd Governour of Dublin much to the comfort of the Protestants and terrour of the Rebels soon after whose arrival the City being secur'd thereby the Lords Justices commanded forth Sir Charles Coote with such Forces as could be spared to Swoards about the 10th of January following the better to let them know how far the State resented their Insolencies whom no assurance fair or open Resolves or any free course could satisfie Sir Charles Coote found the access to the Village straightly block'd up yet so managed the attempt as he soon forc'd them to a flight beating them out of their Fortifications and killed 200 of their men without any considerable loss on his side more then Sir Laurenzo Carey second Son of the Lord Falkland late Lord Deputy a Gentleman of excellent and ingenious Parts well principled and one whose vertues and resolution promised much happiness to the State After setling of which Place Sir Charles Coote return'd to Dublin and ere long there arrived from England by Order of the Parliament three Regiments of Foot the Lord-Lieutenants Regiment under the Conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Monk since Duke of Albemarle the second under the Command of Sir Michael Earnely and the other under the Command of Colonel Cromwell and two Regiments of Horse one belonging to Philip Lord Lisle General of the Horse and the other under the Command of Sir Richard Greenvile That now the English Interest began to revive the Irish being much disheartned thereby yet grew confident in their Allies and Confederacy they had made through the whole Nation to weaken which and vindicate his Majesties Honour the State received the 20th of January a Proclamation from his Majesty dated the first of the same month declaring them Rebels and Traitors and that it might want no solemnity to impress the greater Character of obedience His Majesty was pleased to Sign all the Proclamations with his Royal Hand affixing also thereto his Privy Signet a circumstance scarce presidenc'd The Original of which I have in my Custody Charles R. WHereas diverse lewd and wicked Persons have of late risen in Rebellion in our Kingdom of Ireland surpriz'd diverse of our Forts and Castles possessed themselves thereof surpriz'd some of our Garrisons possest themselves of some of our Magazeen of Arms and Ammunition dispossest many of our good and loyal Subjects of the British Nation and Protestants of their Houses and Lands rob'd and spoil'd many thousands of our good Subjects of the British Nation and Protestants of their Goods to great values Massacred multitudes of them imprison'd many others and some who have the Honour to serve us as Privy Counsellors of that our Kingdom We therefore having taken the same into our Royal consideration and abhorring the wicked disloyalty and horrible acts committed by those Persons do hereby not onely declare our just Indignation thereof but also do declare them and their Adherents and Abettors and all
those who shall hereafter joyn with them or commit the like acts on any of our good Subjects in that Kingdom to be Rebels and Traitors against our Royal Person and Enemies to our Royal Crown of England and Ireland And we do hereby strictly Charge and Command all those Persons who have so presumed to rise in Arms against us and our Royal Authority which we cannot otherwise interpret than acts of high Rebellion and detestable Disloyalty when therein they spoil and destroy our good and loyal Subjects of the British Nation and Protestants that they immediately lay down their Arms and forbear any further acts of Hostility Wherein if they fail we do let them know that we have authorised our Justices of Ireland and other our Chief Governour or Governours and General or Lieutenant-General of our Army there and do hereby accordingly require and authorise them and every of them to prosecute the said Rebels and Traitors with Fire and Sword as Persons who by their high Disloyalty against us their lawful and undoubted King and Soveraign have made themselves unworthy of any Mercy or Favour Wherein our said Justices or other chief Governour or Governours and General or Lieutenant-General of our said Army shall be countenanc'd and supported by us and by our powerful Succours of our good Subjects of England and Scotland that so they may reduce to obedience those wicked disturbers of that Peace which by the blessing of God that Kingdom hath so long and so happily enjoy'd under the Government of our Royal Father and us And this our Royal pleasure we do hereby require our Justices or other chief Governour or Governours of that our Kingdom of Ireland to cause to be published and proclaim'd in and throughout our said Kingdom of Ireland Given under our Signet at our Palace at Westminster the 1st of January in the 17th year of our Reign 1641. Which coming forth so late and but 40 of them onely ordered to be Printed was by the Parliament in their Declaration of the 19th of May 1642. interpreted as a countenance to that Rebellion in answer whereunto his Majesty in his reply to that Declaration shews That the Proclamation not issuing out sooner was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdom desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for the expedition of that service commanded to be Printed a Circumstance not required by them thereupon we Sign'd more of them then our Justices desired And that it might further appear how deep a sense his Majesty had of the Rebellion which called upon Him and his People of England for a general Humiliation of all Estates before Almighty God in Prayer and Fasting for drawing down his Mercy and Blessing upon Ireland His Majesty was pleased by a Proclamation dated at Whitehall the 8th of January 1641. Straightly to Charge and Command That the last Wednesday of every Month during the troubles in Ireland a Solemn Fast should be observ'd through his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales shewing in his own Person and the Court and example thereof which accordingly for some years was observ'd and considerable Collections were gathered at most Churches that day for the miserable People of Ireland Several but especially Sir Benjamin Rudyard excellently speaking on that Subject which being much in a little accept of in his own Words Mr. Speaker THis Day is appointed for a charitable Work a Work of Bowels and Compassion I pray God we may never have the like occasion to move to stir up our Charity These miserable People are made so because of their Religion He that will not suffer for his Religion is unworthy to be saved by it and he is unworthy to enjoy it that will not relieve those that suffer for it I did know but the last year here in England some and they no Papists who were resolv'd to make Ireland their Retreat as the safer Kingdom of the two We do now see a great a dismal Change God knows whose Turn shall be next it is wrapp'd up in his Providence that which happens to one Country may happen to any Time and Chance comes upon all though guided by a certain Hand The right way to make a Man truely sensible of another's Calamity is to think himself in the same case and condition and then to do as he would be done unto Wherefore Mr. Speaker let our Gift be a matter of Bounty not of Covetousness that it may abound to our Account in the Day of Reckoning He that sowes plentifully shall reap plentifully I am sure he that lends to the Lord hath the best Security and cannot be a loser The first President of the Fast before-mention'd which usher'd in the Charity that succeeded was before it came to be Monthly by the Lords House kept in the Abbey of Westminster where the Archbishop of York and the Lord Primate of Ireland preach'd to the Lords as in St. Margrets Westminster Mr. Calamy and Mr. Marshall to the House of Commons Though when his Majesty afterwards found by the ill use made thereof that the Lecturers in their Sermons and Prayers stir'd up and continued the War rais'd against Him in England the great Promoters too thereof deserting the Care of Ireland He the 6th of October 1643. forbad it to be kept and instead thereof expresly commanded a solemn Fast to be observ'd every second Friday of the Month through England and Wales But to return to the King's Proclamation against the Rebels which the bleeding Iphigenia and others of that lying Spirit would have to be grounded on the information of a malignant Part of the Council informing his Majesty that the Catholicks of Ireland without discrimination had enter'd into a Rebellion whereas there was never any such general Information Nay in all the Accounts they gave to his Majesty they still intimated that they hoped the Pale and other Parts would continue their Loyalty affording the Lords of the Pale as other Towns which afterwards shamefully revolted Arms Ammunition Commands informing his Majesty only of what they had discovered in the North with the suspicions that they had learnt on Examinations from others which would have been Treachery in them to have conceal'd and grand Disloyalty Nor doth his Majesty take notice in his Proclamation of any other than that divers lewd and wicked Persons had of late risen in Rebellion in his Kingdom of Ireland not so much therein as naming Papists or Catholicks that thence any of that profession should take Umbrage Nay so circumspect were the Lords Justices and Council at that time that they avoided all expressions which might any ways encourage the Irish to apprehend the English intended to make it a War of Religion However the Rebels were so far from paying obedience to his Majesty's Proclamation afore-mention'd saying it was counterfeit or done by Coertion as they acted now not as before apart but united in
incredible charge of his own Purse hanging many though of his own kindred whom he found imbrued in Blood greatly resenting the Barbarism and Inhumanity of the Irish In as much as Hubert Boy Bourk and Sir Ulick Bourk his near Relations preying on the English he often frustrated by discovering their Designs and furnishing Sir Charles Coot from time to time with supplies of Arms and Ammunition to oppose them and impoverish their Country So that at last by the advice of Colonel Walsh and others they erected a standing Camp near the Kreggs to molest and pen up our Garrison of Castle-Coot which being almost compleated the Garrison issued out upon them who receiv'd us with a good volly of Shot which ours answer'd not according to command till we came close to them which being done with great resolution their hearts fail'd them and they betook themselves to the next Bog which being at some distance gave our Horse and Foot a fair opportunity to hew them down before they could reach it in which service Major Walsh behav'd himself well with Courage and Rhetorick endeavouring to make the Rebels stand but in vain he at length being forc'd to take the Bog for his own refuge leaving in the Camp Bread Arms Powder Corn Meal c. in great quantity which being more then we could carry away we were forced to burn In the Spring following Sir Charles Coot being inform'd of a good Prey of Cattle in the Barony of Athlone towards Balniaslo in the O Mores Country he with his Forces adventur'd thither got some Cattle great quantity of Cloth and other necessaries killing many of their Souldiers in their beds though in his return he was fought with by the Rebels sculking in in-accessible Places from whence he at last got free with no small hazard to his Person and loss to the Enemy Major Sumner in this as in the whole Siege of Castle-Coot and other places in Connaght doing excellent service as Councellor Engineer and Souldier worthily keeping his promise with one Kelly a Gentleman of good Quality and a kin to the Earl of Clanrikard whom begging his life he saved ransoming himself afterwards for 10. l. in money ten barrels of Wheat and as much Salt which at the following Siege of Castle-Coot proved of great value being sold then at 2s a Quart After which in Easter week 1642. Sir Charles Coot attempted to relieve Athlone and after some small dispute did it though the access to the Place was such as a few men might have been able to have stop'd 1000. he found his greatest difficulty was to fill up the trenches that the Enemy had made as his Horse might have free access which at last he compass'd relieving the Place with what Cattle and other Provisions he got in his Expedition not being a little startled that by such a Troop as the President there had and other Conveniencies no more should have been before attempted Nor had Roscommon Tulsk Elphin Knockvicar Abbeyboyle Belanfad Persons less active in their defence even from the first surprizals of the Rebels acting to amazement when nothing but their own courage secur'd their Forts though the last for want of Water was compell'd after a long siege to yield to the Rebels after that the Governour 's two Brothers the Kings from Boyle with Sir Charles Coot had resolv'd to have reliev'd him but at Carickdrumroosk Sir Charles Coot having intelligence that his own Castle was assaulted he was forced to retire back and very happily prevented that Design in the nick of execution though thereby the other Design was frustrated The 30th of April the Lords Justices and Council appointed a Fast to be observed monthly upon each Friday before the Sacrament to continue until Declaration were made to the contrary for the wonderful discovery of the late Plot against the State and true Religion as for the happy and prosperous success which God in his mercy had given his Majesties Forces against the Rebels and for the avoiding Gods just indignation for the future Upon the return of our Forces from the Battle of Kilrush within few days Philip Sidney Lord Viscount Lisle eldest Son to the Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant of Ireland landed at Dublin his Regiment having arriv'd before He was a Member of the House of Commons in England and by them recommended to his Father to be made Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Ireland though very young Assoon as he landed being desirous to put himself upon action he undertook the relieving of the Lady of Offalia Relict of Sir Robert Digby who upon the most insolent Menaces of the Rebels had return'd a noble answer seconding that though then very aged with an unparallel'd and gallant defence besieged in her Castle of Gheshell in the Kings-County by a numerous company of Rebels in a place of most difficult access by reason of the Bogs and Woods which encompassed it on every side The Rebels Letter to the Lady Offalia at Gheshel Honourable WE his Majesties loyal Subjects being at present imployed in his Highnesses Service for the taking of this your Castle you are therefore to deliver unto us free possession of your said Castle promising faithfully that your Ladyship together with the rest in the said Castle restant shall have a reasonable Composition otherwise upon the not yielding of the Castle we do assure you that we will burn the whole Town kill all the Protestants and spare neither Man Woman nor Child upon taking the Castle Consider Madam of this our offer and impute not the blame of your own folly unto us think not that here we brag Your Ladyship upon submissiion shall have a safe Convoy to secure you from the hands of your Enemies and to lead you where you please A speedy Reply is desired with all expedition and thus we surcease Henry Dempsy Charles Dempsy Andr. Fitz. Patrick Con. Dempsy Phelim Dempsy John Vicars James Mac Donnel Superscrib'd To the Honourable and thrice Vertuous Lady the Lady Digby These Give The Lady Offalia her Answer to the Rebels Superscrib'd For her Cousin Henry Dempsy and the Rest. I Receiv'd your Letter wherein you threaten to sack this my Castle by his Majesty's Authority I am and ever have been a loyal Subject and a good Neighbour amongst you and therefore cannot but wonder at such an Assault I thank you for your offer of a Convoy wherein I hold little safety and therefore my resolution is that being free from offending his Majesty or doing wrong to any of you I will live and die innocently and will do my best to defend my own leaving the issue to God and though I have been and still am desirous to avoid the shedding of Christian Blood yet being provoked your threats shall no whit dismay me Lettice Offalia Sir Charles Coot accompanied the Lord Lisle in this Action which with 120 Foot and 300 Horse was perform'd without much difficulty the Rebels not daring to attend their Approaches to
Councils and to give such Expedition to the Work as the nature thereof and the pressures in point of time require and whereof you are daily put in mind by the insolencies and increase of the Rebels Upon which the Parliament willing to omit no time precious in so weighty a Concern past a Bill of Loan towards the Relief of Ireland beginning thus Whereas sit hence the beginning of the late Rebellion in Ireland divers cruel Murthers and Massacres of the Protestants there have been and are daily committed by Popish Rebels in that Kingdom by occasion whereof great multitudes of Godly and Religious People there inhabiting together with their Wives Children and Families for the preservation of their Lives have been enforced to forsake their Habitations Means and Livelihood in that Kingdom and to flee for succour into several parts of his Majesties Realm of England and Dominion of Wales having nothing left to depend upon but the charitable Benevolence of well-disposed Persons The Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament taking the same into their charitable considerations for the Honour of Almighty God and the preservation of the true Protestant Religion and Professors thereof have resolv'd presently themselves to contribute towards the necessities of the said poor distressed Christians who being many in number it is thought expedient that through all his Majesties Realm of England and Dominion of Wales a general Collection should be with all expedition made for that purpose c. Other Expedients considering the state of the Kingdom at that time not being convenient to be urg'd the effect of which was incredible so vast and free a Sum flowing in thereupon as nothing but a compassionate sense of the sufferings of their Brethren and a duty to their Religion could ever have rais'd so much Yet that being short of their Exigencies the State was then forc'd to another Act pass'd for Subscriptions on certain Propositions for Lands of the Rebels in Ireland To which those of the United Provinces of Holland were also encourag'd by a Declaration of both Houses the 2d of Feb. 1642. which is worthy often to be considered but being long though excellently and with much caution pen'd we shall refer you to the Act it self Anno 17. Carol. primi Immediately upon which Act divers Captains entertain'd for the Irish service adventur'd their first 6 Months Pay upon the Propositions Yet before these Propositions could be brought into an Act that no time in so great a Concern might be omitted both Houses of Parliament joyn'd in a Letter to the High Sheriffs of England that they might publish at the ensuing Lent-Assizes all the Propositions touching his Majesty's Promise to pass the two Millions and half of Acres of Land in Ireland for an encouragement to such as should in the interim subscribe After which the Act fore-mention'd immediately ensued upon the passing of which Act these subscrib'd in the House of Commons Mr. Walter Long 1200 l. Sir Robert Pie 1000 l. the 8th of March 1641. Mr. Samuel Vassall 1200 l. Sir Samuel Rolls of Devon 1000 l. William Lord Munson 2400 l. Sir John Harrison 1200 l. the 19th of March Sir William Brereton 1000 l. the 21. of March Sir Edward Aishcough 600 l. Mr. John and Mr. Edward Ash 1200 l. the 24th of March Sir Gilbert Pickering 600 l. the 25th of March 1642. Sir John Clotworthy in Money 500 l. Sir John Clotworthy for his Entertainment as Colonel in the Irish Wars 500 l. Mr. Henry Martin 1200 l. the 26th of March Mr. Arthur Goodwin 1800 l. Sir Arthur Haslerigge of Leicestershire 1200 l. Mr. Robert Reynolds 1200 l. Sir Robert Parkhurst 1000 l. Sir Thomas Dacres 600 l. Sir John Pots 600 l. Sir Arthur Ingram 1000 l. Dr. Thomas Eden 600 l. Mr. Oliver Cromwel 500 l. Mr. Nathaniel Fines 600 l. Mr. John Pym 600 l. Sir Walter Earle 600 l. Mr. Cornelius Holland 600 l. Sir John Northcot 450 l. Mr. Roger Matthew 300 l. Sir Nathaniel Bernardston 600 l. Sir William Masham 600 l. Sir Martin Lomley for Martin Lomley Esq his Son 1200 l. Mr. Thomas Hoyle of York 600 l. Mr. Anthony Bedingfield and Mr. William Cage 700 l. Sir William Allenson of York 600 l. Mr. William Havengham 600 l. Mr. Harbert Morley 600 l. Sir William Morley 1200 l. Sir John Culpeper 600 l. Sir Edward Partherick 600 l. Richard Shuttleworth Esq 600 l. Mr. John More and Mr. William Thomas 600 l. Mr. John Lisle 600 l. Mr. John Blackston 600 l. Sir Gilbert Gerrard 2000 l. Mr. Bulstrod Whitlock 600 l. Sir Edmond Momford and Mr. Richard Harman 600 l. Mr. John Trenchard 600 l. Mr. John Gurdon 1000 l. Mr. John Barker 1000 l. Mr. William Harrison 600 l. the 29th of March Mr. John Wilde Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Lane 1000 l. Nathaniel Hallows of Derby for himself and others 1400 l. John Franklin 600 l. Mr. George Buller of the County of Cornwal 600 l. Sir Henry Mildmay 600 l. the 1. of April Mr. Oliver St. John 600 l. Sir John Wray 600 l. Sir Thomas Barrington 1200 l. Mr. Robert Goodwin and Mr. John Goodwin 600 l. the 2. of April Mr. Denzil Hollis 1000 l. Mr. John Crew 600 l. Sir John Peyton 600 l. the 4th of April Sir William Plactors 600 l. Sir William Strickland 600 l. Sir Thomas Savine 1000 l. Alexander and Squire Bence 600 l. Mr. John Rolls of Devon 450 l. Mr. John Hampden 1000 l. Mr. William Jesson 300 l. Sir Edward Baynton 600 l. Thomas Lord Wenman and Mr. Richard Winwood 1200 l. the 5th of April Sir William Drake 600 l. Mr. William Spurstow 600 l. Sir John Welyn of Godstow in the County of Surrey for himself and others 1500 l. the 7th of April Mr. Miles Corbet 200 l. the 9th of April And that this intended Design might proceed till the whole made up a considerable sum the Gentlemen of the County of Buckingham freely offer'd unto the House of Commons to lend 6000 l. upon the Act of Contribution for the Affairs of Ireland and to pay in the same before the first of May 1642. which the House took in very good part and accepted of and order'd the 9th of April 1642. that the said 6000 l. should be repaid out of the first Moneys that shall be rais'd in that County upon the Bill of 400000 l. and that Mr. Hampden Mr. Goodwin Mr. Winwood and Mr. Whitlock should return thanks to the County of Bucks from this House for their kind offer and acceptable service And it was further order'd and declared by the House of Commons That if any other County or Persons shall do the like it will be kindly accepted of by them and that the Moneys so lent shall be repaid them with Interest if they desire it out of the Moneys that shall be rais'd in those Counties where such Persons inhabit out of the Bill of 400000 l. To strengthen which precedent Act for Subscriptions c. there was an
Rebels attesting that the 100000 l. borrowed of the Subscription-Money for Ireland they soon re-paid with advantage being then forc'd to make use of it to prepare a competent Army for the defence of the King and Kingdom without any prejudice to the Affairs of Ireland whose subsistence depends on the welfare of this In Answer to which it was replied That that Kingdom were the Money restored in the mean time suffered by that Diversion and that had the Lord Wharton's Forces been approved of there was no further security that those should have been sent for Ireland than other Forces that were rais'd for that purpose and yet imployed against his Majesty at Edge-hill the other Exceptions of the Parliament in his Majesty's Papers being also answer'd which begot a Reply not altogether pertinent in this place to pursue However the Parliaments imploying the 100000 l. contrary to the Interest of the foremention'd Act in the 17th year of Car. 1. with his Majesties full consent before he left the Parliament was the cause that it produced so little good effect for Ireland many of the Subscribers taking that occasion as others before had done upon his Majesties motion to go for Ireland to withdraw their subscriptions and others not to pay in their Money which was with so much Caution provided for and guarded with so many advantagious Circumstances for all the Adventurers as if it had been carried on and seasonably applied with that Care and Sincerity it ought to have been it would in a little time have reduc'd that whole Kingdom and have eas'd that poor People of many of those Calamities they have since endur'd The want of which put the Lords Justices and State on many difficulties Yet that something might seem to be done there was an Order of the Commons House of Parliament the 3d. of August 1642. That the Ministers about the City of London should be desired to exhort the People to bestow old Garments and Apparel upon the distressed Protestants in Ireland in reference to which the 19th of September following the Lord Mayor of London ordered that those Cloaths should be brought to Yorkshire-hall in Blackwel-hall to be ready for shipping them for Ireland and a vast Supply was brought in Charity never so much manifested its compassion as in that Cause which afterwards was entrusted to a Reverend Person who discharged his trust with singular Prudence and Integrity though as to the Army these Cloaths never reach'd or intended And now the Rebels finding their Strength much augmented by the unhappy differences in England their chief Contrivers of the Conspiracy the Clergy met at Kilkenny and there Established in a General-Congregation several Considerations for their future Government Upon which Proceedings and the validity of the 6th Article of those Prelate-Dignities and learned men the first General-Assembly at Kilkenny sate the 10th of November 1642. according to what Scobel gives us an account of Though Peter Walsh one of the Assembly certainly to be credited in his second part of the first Treaties of his History and vindication of the Loyal Formulary writes that the first General or National-Assembly of the Confederates began at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. and continued to the 9th of January following upon which day they were dissolved having constituted to succeed them the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and that they might be the better tied together with the Holy bond of Union and Concord as is expressed in the thirty third Article of the General Assembly and the third of the Congregation They framed the ensuing Oath of Association to be taken by all in that Confederacy The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHereas the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom have been inforc'd to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion Plotted and by many foul Practises endeavour'd to be quite suppress'd by the Puritan Faction as likewise their Lives Estates and Liberties as also for the defence and safeguard of his Majesties Regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premisses and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association I A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and his Angels that I will during my life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to his Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the Power and Priviledge of the Parliament of this Realm the Fundamental Laws of Ireland the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Faith and Religion throughout this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof and that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said publick Cause and that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching this general Cause without the consent of the major part of the said Council and that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same Moreover I do further swear That I will not accept of or submit unto any Peace made or to be made with the said Confederate Catholicks without the consent and approbation of the general Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks And for the preservation and strengthning of the Association and Union of the Kingdom that upon any Peace or Accommodation to be made or concluded with the said Confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the utmost of my power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a Peace as aforesaid be made and the Matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of Peace be establish'd and secured by Parliament So help me God and his holy Gospel The Propositions mention'd in the aforesaid Oath 1. THat the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity to their several Capacities have free and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the 7th or any other Catholick King 's his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in
Ireland or England 2. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all other Pastors of the secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoy'd the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late H. 7. sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power and Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the 20th year of King H. 8. whereby any Restraint Penalty Mulct Incapacity or Restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the Clergy or of the Laity for such the said free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion within this Kingdom and of their several Functions Jurisdictions and Priviledges may be repeal'd revoked and declared void by one or more Acts of Parliament to be pas'd therein 4. That all Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancellors Treasures Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have hold and enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the late Protestant Clergy respectively enjoy'd the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the Profits Emoluments Perquisits Liberties and the Rights to their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in all Places now in the possession of the Confederate Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within this Kingdom saving to the Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land And that the Supreme Council the legitimate issue of the General Assembly might look with the better face of Authority they fram'd to themselves a Seal bearing the mark of a long Cross on the right side whereof a Crown and a Harp on the left with a Dove above and a flaming Heart below the Cross and round about this Inscription Pro Deo pro Rege Patria Hibernia unanimis with which they seal'd their Credentials to Princes and under that Seal pass'd their principal Acts of Sovereignty Having now modell'd themselves into a separate State confronting his Majesties Royal Government setled in Dublin ordering in their Supreme Council at Kilkenny in the said Province of Leimster all their Affairs Civil and Military through the whole Kingdom As to War they had their Forces under the Conduct of four well experienc'd Generals before mentioned answering the several Provinces of Leimster Munster Connaght and Ulster Giving out Letters of Mart An Example of which together with the Authority they assum'd notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation of the 1st of January 1641. we shall hear give you at large By the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland TO all Men to whom this Present shall come We the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Realm send Greeting Know ye That we have taken into our serious consideration the great and necessary use we have of Ships of War for the defence of the Coasts of this Realm and advancement and furtherance of Commerce with Foreign Nations and for opposing his Majesties Enemies who daily hinder and annoy his Majesties good Subjects of this Kingdom by Sea and stop all free Trade in this Realm and abroad have therefore constituted and appointed and do hereby ordain constitute and appoint our well-beloved Friend Captain Francis Oliver Native of Flanders having received good testimony of his sufficiency and integrity to be Captain of the Ship called St. Michael the Archangel of burthen 120 Lasts or Tuns or thereabouts hereby giving and granting unto the said Captain full and absolute Power Commission and Authority to furnish the said Ship with all Necessaries fit for Sea and War and with the same to cross the Seas and take hinder and prejudice all such as he shall find or meet of His Majesties Enemies the Enemies of the General Catholick Cause now in hand in this Kingdom their Ships and Goods whatsoever either by Sea or Land by what means soever and the said Shipping or Goods to set to sale and dispose of as lawful Prizes and open Enemies Goods saving unto his Majesty and his lawful Officers and unto all other Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate all Rights Requisites and Duties due or usual answered out of all Prizes And we hereby command all Officers of all our Ports Harbours and Havens within our Jurisdiction throughout this Realm to admit the said Captain Francis Oliver and his Companies Ships and Goods from time to time to pass and repass come and go without molestation or trouble And that all Commanders of Forts and all other Officers of his Majesties loving Subjects to be aiding and assisting unto him in execution and furtherance of the Premisses whatsoever and as often as occasion shall require And lastly we pray all Foreign Princes States and Potentates to defend protect assist and favour the said Captain his Ships and Goods when and as often as he shall come into their respective Coasts and Harbours This our Commission to continue during pleasure Given at Kilkenny the last of December 1642. Was signed Mountgarret Hugo Armachanus Gormanston Johan Episc. Clonfertensis Nic. Plunket Patr. Darcy James Cusack Jeffry Brown And as to Civils they had their Officers of State Justices of Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace with their Courts of Judicature in several kinds and Councils Supreme County Provincial and on occasion National this being as Parliamentary called their General Assembly They had their Negotiations also abroad and from abroad and by Envoys Agents and publick Ministers Extraordinary and Resident they receiv'd the sense of other Princes and return'd their own being also by those Princes treated at home in like manner as if they had been some State absolute or more considerable of which read the Appendix All the subsequent Acts being derived from the Orders establish'd at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. By what I have mention'd you may see how the Rebels endeavour'd to get credit abroad and repute at home managing their Concerns with so much subtilty as having them anvil'd in every Covent nothing was omitted to mature their designs or colour what they had now begun with the fairest pretence whilst the State in the interim through the distractions in England daily increasing which gave fresh fuel to the Rebels presumption were so straitned for want of Supplies that the Lords Justices having by all the ways imaginable represented as well to his Majesty as to the Parliament the miserable condition they
very tender unto us But the present distempers of this your Majesties Kingdom of England to our unspeakable grief are grown so great that all future passages by which comfort and life should be conveyed to that gasping Kingdom seem totally to be obstructed so that unless your Gracious Majesty out of your singular Wisdom and Fatherly Care apply some speedy Remedy We your distressed and loyal Subjects of that Kingdom must inevitably perish Our condition represents unto your Majesty the estate of all your Majesties faithful Protestant Subjects in Ireland the influence of Princely favour and goodness so actively distill'd upon your Kingdom of Ireland before the birth of this monstrous Rebellion there and since the same so abundantly express'd in Characters of a deep sense and lively presentment of the bleeding condition thereof gives us hope in this our deplorable extremity to address our selves unto your Sacred Throne humbly beseeching that it may please your Gracious Majesty amongst your other weighty cares so to reflect upon the bleeding condition of that perishing Kingdom that timely relief may be offered otherwise your Loyal Subjects there must yield their Fortunes a Prey their Lives a Sacrifice and their Religion a Scorn to the merciless Rebels powerfully assisted from Abroad Whilst we live we rest in your Majesties Protection if our deaths are design'd in that Cause we will die in your obedience living and dying ever praying for your Majesties long and prosperous Reign over us Montgomery Hard. Waller Arth. Hill Aud. Mervin Unto which his Majesty by his Principal Secretary the Lord Faulkland return'd this Answer from the Court at Oxford the 1st of December 1642. His Majesty hath expresly commanded me to give this Answer to this Petition THat his Majesty hath since the beginning of that monstrous Rebellion had no greater sorrow than for the bleeding condition of that his Kingdom and as he hath by all means labour'd that timely relief might be afforded to the same and consented to all Propositions how disadvantagious soever to himself that have been offer'd him for that purpose and at first recommended their condition to both his Houses of Parliament and immediately of his own meer motion sent over several Commissions and caused some proportion of Arms and Ammunition which the Petitioners well know to have been a great support to the Northern parts of that Kingdom to be conveyed to them out of Scotland and offered to find 10000 Volunteers to undertake that War but hath often since prest by many several Messages that sufficient Succours might be hastned thither and other matters of smaller importance laid by which did divert it and offered and most really intended in his own Royal Person to have undergone the danger of that War for the defence of his good Subjects and the chastisement of those perfidious and barbarous Rebels and in his several Expressions of his desires of Treaty and Peace hath declared the miserable present condition and certain future loss of Ireland to be one of his principal Motives most earnestly to desire that the present Distractions of this Kingdom might be compos'd and that others would concur with him to the same end So his Majesty is well pleas'd that his Offers Concurrence Actions and Expressions are so rightly understood by the Petitioners and those who have employ'd them notwithstanding the groundless and horrid Aspersions which have been cast upon him but wishes that instead of a meer general Complaint to which his Majesty can make no return but of Compassion they could have digested and offered to him any such desires by consenting to which he might convey at least in some degree comfort and life to that gasping Kingdom preserve his distressed and Loyal Subjects of the same from inevitably perishing and the true Protestant Religion from being scorn'd and trampled on by those merciless and Idolatrous Rebels And if the Petitioners can yet think on any such and propose them to his Majesty he assures them that by his readiness to consent and his thanks to them for the proposal he will make it appear to them that their most pressing personal sufferings cannot make them more desirous of relief than his care of the true Religion and of his faithful Subjects and of that Duty which obliges him to his Power to protect both renders him desirous to afford it to them Faulkland Upon the Petition of the Confederates of Ireland his Majesty granted a Commission to the Marquis of Ormond to meet and hear what the Rebels could say or propound for themselves by vertue of which the Earl of St. Albans and Clanrickard the Earl of Roscommon Sir Maurite Eustace and other his Majesties Commissioners met at Trim to whom the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Commissioners the Lord Viscount Gormanston Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Robert Talbot Baronet and John Walsh Esq produced a Remonstrance the 17th of March 1642. to be presented to his most Excellent Majesty by the name of The Remonstrance of Grievances presented to his Majesty in the name of the Catholicks of Ireland Yet though as you see this Remonstrance was solemnly received by his Majesties Commissioners and by them transmitted to his Majesty as before had been the presumptious Propositions from Cavan the Letter of the Farrals to the Lord Costilough Dr. Cale's Agency from the Rebels the United Lords Letter to the Earl of Castlehaven and the Lord Mountgarret's to the Lieutenant General and all other Addresses to the State as afterwards the Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland even to his Majesty by their Agents to himself at Oxford Yet the bleeding Iphigenia abounds in so much Impudence as to affirm that to this day the 23d of December 1674. they were not heard to speak for themselves Shameless Soul The Commission from his Majesty that the Rebels might be heard was brought over and confidently delivered at the Council-board the 22. of January by Thomas Bourk Esq a Contriver of the Rebellion to the amazement of All not acquainted with the Plot. In the Remonstrance there are pieced together saith that excellent and judicious Person who knew as well their Sophistry as the States Interest so many vain inconsiderable fancies many subsequent passages acted in the prosecution of the War and such bold false notorious Assertions without any the least ground or colour of truth as without all doubt they absolutely resolv'd first to raise this Rebellion and then to set their Lawyers and Clergy on work to frame such Reasons and Motives as might with some colour of justification serve for Arguments to defend it It is indeed to speak plainly a most infamous Pamphlet full fraught with scandalous aspersions cast upon the present Government and his Majesties Principal Officers of State within this Kingdom it was certainly framed with most virulent intentions not to present their condition and present sufferings to his Majesty but that it might be dispers'd to gain belief amongst Foreign States abroad as well as
high and eminent trust of your Affairs here deposited with us by your Sacred Majesty we may not forbear in discharge of our Duty thus freely and plainly to declare our humble apprehensions to the end your Majesty thus truly understanding the terribleness of our Condition may find out some such means of support to preserve to your Majesty and your Royal Posterity this your ancient and rightful Crown and Kingdom and derive deliverance and safety to the Remnant of your good Subjects yet left here as in your excellent Judgment you shall find to be most to your Honour and Advantage And so praying to the King of Kings to guide and direct you for the best in this high and important Cause and in all other your Councels and Actions we humbly remain From your Majesties Castle at Dublin the 11th of May 1643. Your Majesties most Loyal and most Faithful Subjects and Servants The 12th of May the Lord Taaffe Roch and Fitzwilliams arrived out of England and that morning Major Warren and Sir Francis Butler came to the Council the Lords sitting and presented a Petition to the Lords Justices accusing the Lord Parsons of high Misdemeanors and other Treasonable Matters requesting that his Person and Goods might be secur'd though in conclusion nothing was ever filed against him an Evidence to most that there was more of a Design then Crime in the Accusation And having as before presented you with the Lords Justices Letter to his Majesty we should now give you the Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament the 16th of June 1643. concerning the present lamentable estate and miserable condition of Ireland In answer to what the Lords Justices and Council had faithfully acquainted them withall that it may appear how sensible they were of the information they had receiv'd of the straights and exigencies of the Protestant Forces in Ireland which certainly is very Emphatical resenting with a just aggravation the miserable condition of that Kingdom but being legible in Husbands Collections we shall refer you thither not busing our selves how far it prevail'd Certainly the Exigencies of the Souldiers and State of Ireland were then very considerable in as much as his Majesty not being able by any other expedient to remedy as he was perswaded their complaints then by a Cessation he to that end sends this Letter to the Lords Justices C. R. RIght trusty and well beloved Counsellors and right trusty and intirely well beloved Cousen and Counsellor we greet you well The present Distractions here have rendred us as unable as by experience we find the remaining part of the two Houses are unwilling to supply or relieve our Army in Ireland and if the Money we consented should be rais'd in this our Kingdom for the Relief of Ireland had not been diverted by them and Rebelliously imployed against us here in England we should not have been constrain'd to have hearkned to a Cessation of Arms now on that side But since we see no other hope during the unhappy distempers here to settle the Peace of that our Kingdom but by a Cessation of Arms between us and the Irish now in Arms there and doubt very much how our Forces now in that our Kingdom will be there maintain'd if we shall admit of a Cessation We have thought it expedient by these our Letters to recommend it to your care and industry to consider seriously how our Forces on that side may be enabled to subsist during the Cessation and if there may be means found for that we do then hereby Authorise and require you to agree to a Cessation of Arms there for a year and in our Names to assure the said Irish that we are graciously inclin'd to dissolve the present Parliament and call a new one between this and the 10th of November next and to take a course to put all those that shall be chosen Members of the said Parliament into such a condition as they shall not be prejudiced of their Liberty of Assisting Sitting and Voting in the said Parliament for better effecting whereof we do hereby further authorise and require you to give License to such Commissioners as the said Irish shall appoint to come over hither to us to treat of that Business and such other Particulars to be proposed by way of Petition as shall necessarily conduce not onely to the satisfying of the said Cessation but to a preparation of what shall be requisite for the setling of a just honourable and perfect Peace in that our Kingdom And we further require in case the said Irish now in Arms shall agree to such a Cessation and Treaty to advertise us of some such able and fitting Ministers or Servants of ours on that side as you conceive fit to be sent over hither to assist in the Treaty here when Commissioners shall come over from the said Irish. In which Business we require you to use all convenient expedition and to give us a speedy Account for which these our Letters shall be your Warrant Given under our Signet at our Court at Oxford the second day of July in the 19th year of Our Reign 1643. To our right trusty and well-beloved Counsellors Sir John Borlase and Sir Henry Tichborn Kts. Lords Justices of our Kingdom of Ireland and to our right trusty and intirely beloved Cosen and Counsellor James Marquiss of Ormond Lieutenant-General of our Army there But before this Letter came to the Lords Justices the means to a Cessation were thought of Yet the day before the Marquiss of Ormond proceeded to the Treaty which was the 22. of June the chief Protestants of the City of Dublin were called before the Council to know if they would give 10000 l. or have a Cessation the latter they were very unwilling to and the former they could not advance indeed it was well known though it serv'd as an Argument to evidence the necessity the State was put to And the Irish Commissioners the 23. of June presented themselves unto the Marquiss of Ormond in his Tent near Castle Martin in the County of Kildare in the presence of divers Colonels Captains and Officers in his Majesties Army his Lordship sitting in his Chair covered and the Irish Commissioners standing bare after several passages betwixt them all tendred in writing the Irish Commissioners gave his Lordship a Copy of the Authority they had receiv'd from the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland at Kilkenny in these words WHereas his Majesty's most faithful Subjects the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland were inforced to take Arms for the preservation of their Religion for the defence of his Majesty's just Prerogatives and Rights and the maintenance of the Rights and Liberties of their Countrey labour'd to be destroyed by the Malignant Party And whereas his Majesty in his high Wisdom and Princely Care of his said Subjects Welfare and Safety and at their humble Suit That his Majesty might be graciously pleas'd to hear
their Grievances and vouchsafe Redress therein did direct there should be a Cessation of Arms and thereupon did Authorize the Right Honourable the Lord Marquess of Ormond to treat and conclude the said Cessation with the said Confederate Catholicks Know ye that the said Council by the express Order and Authority of the said Catholicks by them conceiv'd and granted in their General Assembly at Kilkenny on the 20th day of the last Month of May and in pursuance of the said Order and Authority reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Wisdom Circumspection and provident Care Honour and Sincerity of our very good Lords Nicholas Lord Viscount Gormanston Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery and our well-beloved Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Robert Talbot Baronet Tirlagh O Neal Esq Geoffry Brown Esq Ever Mac-Gennis Esq and John Walsh Esq have constituted appointed and ordain'd and by these presents do constitute appoint and ordain the said Nicholas Lord Viscount Gormanston c. our Commissioners and do by these presents give and grant unto our said Commissioners or any five or more of them full Power and Authority to treat with the said Lord Marquess of Ormond of a Cessation of Arms for one whole year or shorter and to conclude the same for the time aforesaid upon such Terms Conditions and Articles as to the said Commissioners in their Judgements Conscience and Discretion shall be thought fit and expedient by these presents ratifying and confirming whatsoever Act or Acts our said Commissioners as aforesaid shall do or execute concerning the said Cessation Given at Kilkenny the 20th of June 1643. Montgarret Castlehaven Audley Malachias Arp. Tuamen Fr. Thom. Fleming Arch. of Dublin Primate of Ireland Maurice de Rupe Fermoy Nettervile Nich. Plunket Edm. Fitz-Maurice Patrick Darcy Rob. Linch R. Bealing Upon which both sides proceeded the Marquess not admitting the Title or Name attributed by the Irish Commissioners unto them in behalf of those for whom they treated as likewise not admitting the Cause for which they took up Arms as in the Protestation is expressed Whereas the Irish Commissioners on the other side still propos'd all in the behalf of the Catholicks of Ireland with protestation that the said Catholicks took Arms in defence of their Religion his Majesty's Rights and Prerogatives and the Liberties of Ireland and no ways to oppose his Majesty's Authority so as say they neither the Title or Protestation being justly due to them were to be excepted against being the same they always used in their immediate applications to his Majesty Against which though there were exceptions the Treaty still proceeded they owning the premisses And at Sigginstown the Treaty went on not without Debates of great concern and much difficulty and then was deferr'd from the 1st of July to the Thursday next come seven-night at which time the Marquess of Ormond could not meet in respect That the necessity of his attendance otherwise upon the publick Service of his Majesty would not permit which the Irish Commissioners seem'd much to resent writing to his Lordship from Kilkenny the 19th of July 1643. That although we conceive this Treaty to be of the greatest consequence of any Service to be effected for his Majesty within this Kingdom yet we are not apt to give an ill construction to the laying of it by for the present until we do know of that Service that taketh place of it which being for the advantage of his Majesty's Interests we heartily wish may have good success Yet your Lordship will give us leave to take notice that we meet in these as in all other Proceedings whereby we may have any expectation to enjoy the benefit of his Majesty's Grace and Favour some interruption and slackness in conveying any part of his good Intentions to his faithful Subjects the Catholicks of Ireland which we add to our other Grievances and will endeavour in discharge of the many harms which may ensue by reason of this Protraction to have it rightly presented to his Majesty In Answer to which the Marquess of Ormond replyed the 21st of July That whereas they had no pretence of unaptness to give an ill construction to the laying by of the Treaty until they could know of what Service took place he acquainted them That he was not accountable to them with the knowledge of his Majesty's Services wherewith he had the Honour to be intrusted or to any but to his Majesty and to those to whom he had intrusted the government of the Kingdom And for what they said They would endeavour to have rightly presented to his Majesty he doubted not but to acquit himself as became him as in other Commands so in this Particular and that they should find when the other Occasions of his Majesty were over the deferring of the Treaty at present was not such a laying aside of the Matter as their Letters inferr'd Thus at present more than by Letters and the private Actings of some Men there was nothing further attempted in the Treaty till the 26th of August following In the interim we must take notice of the Insolence of these Men then expecting his Majesty's Favour By the Lords Justices and Council Jo. Borlase Henry Tichborn WE the Lords Justices and Council do declare That if Captain John Farrer be forthwith released by the Rebels and safely sent hither that forthwith upon his coming so released we will give Order for the releasing Synnot lately imployed as Captain amongst the Rebels out of Prison the Jaylor's just Dues being first paid and will then permit him freely to depart without interruption Given at his Majesty's Castle of Dublin July 8. 1643. La. Dublin Ormond Roscommon Bramston Ant. Midensis Tho. Rotheram Jo. Temple Fra. Willoughby Ja. Ware We do not know to whom this Certificate is directed and we will avow our selves in all our Actions to be his Majesty's loyal Subjects neither shall it be safe henceforth for any Messenger to bring any Paper to us containing other Language than such as suits with our Duty and the Affections we bear to his Majesty's Service wherein some may pretend but none shall have more real desires to further his Majesty's Interest than his Majesty's loyal and obedient Subjects Montgarret Muskery Fr. Tho. Dublin Malachias Tuamen Castlehaven Audley R. Bealing Torlo O Neile Patr. Darcy Who reads this may well think their Confidence built on other Grounds than appear'd What! Shall such as fought in opposition to his Majesty's Proclamation be thought loyal Subjects whilst the State owning his Majesty's Interest Honour and Service are said to pretend to what they really were Surely so impudent a Reply never before without chastizement escaped the Pen of suppliant Rebels nor indeed could some then have had the freedom of their just scorn and indignation should such expressions have been swallowed During the respite of the Treaty for the Cessation viz. the 29th of July 7 or 800 of the Rebels gave us at mid-night by whose neglect I know not
the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and Council And now many of those Officers who had served his Majesty most signally in Ireland were treated with to recruit his Forces in and about Chester to which end all the encouragement that his Majesty had given in his Letters of the 4th and 7th of September were faithfully imparted to them and what could possibly be rais'd for their Transportation was effectually done Whereupon several Regiments as Sir Mich. Earnely's Sir Rich. Fleetwoods Colonel Gibson Colonel Monk Colonel Warren and others hasted over but with such Reluctancy of the Common Souldiers as the sharpest Proclamations of which there were several hardly restrain'd them from flying their Colours both before and after their arrival in England To prevent which and that the Souldiers might be secur'd in their Loyalty to his Majesty the Lieutenant General compos'd this Oath I Resting fully assured of his Majesties most Princely Truth and Goodness do freely and from my heart promise vow and protest in the presence of Almighty God that I will to the utmost of my Power and with the hazard of my Life maintain and defend the true Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England his Majesties sacred Person his Heirs and lawful Successors and his Majesties just Powers and Prerogatives against the Forces now under the Conduct of the Earl of Essex and against all other Forces whatsoever that are or shall be rais'd contrary to his Majesties Commands and Authority And I will do my best endeavour to procure and re-establish the Peace and Quietness of the Kingdom of England And I will neither directly or indirectly divulge or communicate any thing to the said Earl of Essex his Officers or any other to hinder or prejudice the Designs of his Majesty in the Conduct or Imployment of his Army Which that it may be taken by every Souldier follows the Precept By the Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army WHereas his Majesty hath been pleas'd to command the present transportation of a part of his Army here into England I do think fit and hereby Order that every Officer and Souldier to be transported hence do take the Oath above-written before they depart this Harbour Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin 13. of Octob. 1643. Ormond And in respect that upon their going many Souldiers listed themselves under other Officers the Lord Lieutenant besides other Courses publisht the 13. of November an Edict that no Souldiers under penalty of death should depart from their former Commanders and Officers and that no Commanders and Officers on pain of displeasure should dare to entertain any Souldiers so offending And the 4th of Feb. 1643. the Lord General publisht a Proclamation That if any Souldier should stay behind that was commanded to go over or should after he was transported over into England run away from his Colours he being afterwards apprehended should presently suffer death without mercy Upon which as you see many came over into England and at Hawerden Castle Beeston Castle Bartomley Church Dedington House Acton Church and Durtwich improved their time but the main body the 25. of January 1643. was utterly defeated by Sir Thomas Fairfax raising the Siege of Namptwich 1500 common Souldiers besides Officers being there taken Prisoners besides those that were slain so that what advantage accrewed to the Regal Army by their coming over many believ'd was not very considerable unless those who came out of Munster were more successful The general if not all those who came to his Majesties assistance out of Ireland were his own Forces which he had sent against the Rebels from whom I cannot yet learn after all their professions of having no one hollow thought or subtile practice to serve two Masters or standing Neuters whilst their King was Party that any formed Regiment or considerable Party reach'd England no! it will hereafter appear how shamefully they deserted his Majesties Affairs even in Ireland it self when their Interest might have united them in Loyalty and Obedience Some months after the arrival of these and other Forces out of Ireland the Parliament of England made an Ordinance against the giving of any Quarter to any Irish man or to any Papist born in Ireland taken in Hostility against the Parliament by Sea or Land which his Majesty thought very severe they being called to the service of their Natural Prince The coming over of the English made several that were not so forward suspected in their Loyalty though in truth never any Prince had an Army more intirely affecting his Person then the generality of his Militia of Ireland who being sent thither or rais'd there were not yet wean'd from the Justice of that Cause hardly matchable in any example the War being said long since a great Instrument of State not an ambitious War of Foraigns but a recovery of Subjects and that after Lenity of Conditions often tried not onely to obedience but to Humanity and Policy from more then Indian Barbarism whereas the Affairs of England imbrued Relations in one anothers blood and the Concerns of Ireland were as much his Majesties as the other and the Cause undoubtedly Gods The Lords Justices and Council this while had a great task and not so much as straw to the Work the Confederates paying in the Money viz. 30800 l. they promised the 16th of September towards the maintenance of his Majesties Army this Cessation very uncertain as their Cows and Cattle of the worst taking within three days after the Cessation near 369 head of choice English Cattle from the suburbs of Dublin acting besides many other violencies on divers Castles Forts and Houses so as this agreement with the Rebels seemed rather a Protection then a Cessation of Acts of Hostility That in this extremity the Lords Justices Providence and Care how great soever could remedy little being their business now was to proceed in another course then formerly they had the Election of which grew hourly the heavier upon them by reason of the discontents which constantly arose from the Inhabitants and the Protestants now more then ever sensible of their Condition the Irish Agents making all the speed they could to repair with their Propositions to his Majesty then at Oxford according to an Article in the Cessation and his Majesties Proclamation thereupon by which they were allowed to send Agents to his Majesty of which the Protestants in and about Dublin being very apprehensive lest his Majesty should be pre-possessed of the Rebels sence they thought it most convenient to dispatch Agents presently to his Majesty and to that end about the 6th of October 1643. they meeting at the Earl of Kildare's house fram'd a Petition to the Lords Justices and Council humbly beseeching their Lordships for their License unto such as they should appoint to attend his Majesty in their behalf whereunto the Lords Justices and Council the 12. of the same month expressed their forwardness declaring how his
their daily Masses within that Town and all other of our Garrisons where Papists did inhabit they prayed for the advancement of the Catholick Cause which they believed the Rebels fought for And lastly we have lately discovered that the now Major and Corporation had combined with the Rebels to betray the Town to them and for that purpose an Army was drawn to all the parts adjoyning to our Garrisons in the three chiefest whereof we are confident the Rebels had their Party but by Divine Providence before the Plot could be executed the Major presuming on his speedy success contemned the Lord of Inchequin's Authority by opposing the levying of the Moneys granted by the English for the maintenance of the Soldiers just about the nick of time that the Treachery was to be effected And he being committed upon this occasion the Rebels apprehending their design to be discovered with-drew their Forces And lest this should be judged as an act of the Major onely as a private person we desire the World to take notice that as soon as our Army which forced their obedience was removed into England the Papists generally resisted what ever could be propounded for our security and would have dis-enabled us to continue our Garrisons had not the poor stript English taken all that burthen upon themselves Nay they were so insolent that they laboured to get Arms into their hands and to cause us to disband our Soldiers which they affirmed to be kept as an unnecessary charge upon the King that so they might with more facility receive the Irish and ruine us In a word since they pretend the ground of this War to be for Religion and that this is confessed by those who seem'd to adhere to us what faith can be expected from such a People whose Religion permits them to hold none with us By this preceding Relation it is evidently seen that unless we re-assume our Arms we betray the trust committed to us by God the King and Parliament and become slaves both of bodies and souls And therefore we have resolv'd to perform our duty though with apparent hazard of our lives and likewise maintain that which is a thousand times more dear unto us our Religion and also defend our Garrisons for the Kings just use These we take God to witness are our intentions and we beseech him to punish us as strangely as hitherto he hath preserv'd us if we decline at all from these Loyal and Religious resolutions and we firmly hope that the World will by this Declaration be as fully satisfi'd of the justness of our proceedings as we our selves are then though we all lose our lives in this Cause we shall give our Friends occasion to rejoyce and our Enemies to envy at so blessed an end This return of the Munster Forces to the Parliament was not so welcome to them as it was strange to the Lord Lieutenant who thereupon expostulated the business with the Lord Inchequin who the 2d of August writ to his Excellency That on suspitions of another intended surprisal by the Irish and out of a care to protect the English he had clear'd Cork Toughall and Kinsale of the Irish and put himself into a posture of safety which with his return from England was the worse resented for that he was the first man who mov'd the King to send for the Forces of Ireland into England Upon his revolt to the Parliament he dream'd of sudden Supplies but they were at that time so imbroil'd in business as they had little leisure to consider of Ireland and less means to help them so as little was sent to him for eight or ten months after but they made him Lord President of Munster Nor had the Scots much more relief in the North however the new and old Scots under Monro joyning themselves together unanimously made a shift to preserve themselves against the incursions of the Rebels and about Midsummer 1644. they gathered an Army of 10000 Horse and Foot and came into the County of Cavan and sent a Party into Longford and spoil'd much of that Countrey and march'd to Owen Roe and the Earl of Castlehaven who lay with their Army about Tonrages where they encompass'd them and had they been sufficiently vigilant might certainly have defeated the Rebels who through the favour of a close night escaped though pursued and at Finagh-Bridge met with a severe slaughter Nugents house of Carlestown they burnt and hanged him In the interim Duncannon one of the strongest Forts in Ireland under the Command of the Lord Esmond submitted not to the Cessation but being strongly besieged by Preston was surrendred about March 1644. before Sir Arthur Loftus who was to have been Governour of the Fort under his Lordship arrived there with a competent Supply who finding himself disappointed thereof carried his Provisions into Munster and the Lord Esmond soon after died What difference soever there was between some Towns and the Lord Lieutenant yet for the encouragement of any that should bring Commodities to Dublin Tredagh Dundalk Carlingford Cork Kinsale or Youghal for the relief of his Majesties Army and good Subjects there a Proclamation pass'd at Dublin the 20th of May 1644. to free them for six months from all Customs and Impositions in pursuance of a Proclamation from his Majesty at Oxford the 17th of March 1643. In April after the Committee of both Kingdoms in England to whom the affairs of Ireland were from the Parliament committed finding the business of Ireland grow very heavy upon them got themselves quit thereof and the Houses instituted another to sit at the Star-chamber of 13 Lords and 28 Commoners but few in it that understood the business of Ireland besides two Gentlemen whose Interest leading them to several Provinces much injur'd the equal management of the whole and he to whom the Provisions were entrusted order'd them at that rate as the complaint was great About May 1645. there were appointed Commissioners for Ulster Arthur Annesly Esq Sir Robert King and Colonel Beale a Citizen of London who were to carry with them 20000 l. in Money besides Provisions and Ammunition but the dispatch was so slow as they Landed not there till October besides some Commissioners should have joyned with them from Scotland who never came upon the Place so nothing could be orderly done in that the Scots by a late Treaty pretended a Right in the Government of Ireland which his Majesty in his Papers took just Exceptions against they long certainly having it in their Design to make themselves Masters of the North of Ireland since they fail'd of retaining any Interest in the Government in England But Troubles increasing in Scotland through Montross and Colonel Kittoâ—'s joyning together who had certainly taken Edinburgh but that the Plague was violent there several of the late Scotch Regiments were drawn from Ulster that more than what garrison'd Carickfergus Belfast Colrain and some other Places near the Sea-Coast where they committed the
Ja. Ware God save the King An Abreviate of the Articles of Peace concluded by the Marquiss of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Commissioner for the King and the Lord Mountgarret President of the Supream Council the Lord Muskery Sir Robert Talbot Dermot O Brian Patrick Darcy Jeffery Brown and John Dillon Esquires Commissioners for the Irish. 1. THat the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in the Kingdom of Ireland or any of them be not bound or obliged to take the Oath of Supremacy expressed in the second of Queen Elis. commonly called the Oath of Supremacy 2. That a Parliament may be held on or before the last day of November next and that these Articles agreed on may be transmitted into England according to the usual Form and passed provided that nothing may be passed to the Prejudice of either Protestant or Catholick Party other then such things as upon this Treaty shall be concluded 3. That all Acts made by both or either Houses of Parliament to the Blemish or Prejudice of his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects since the 7th of August 1641. shall be vacated by Acts of Parliament 4. That no Actions of Law shall be removed before the said Parliament in case it be sooner called then the last of November And that all Impediments which may hinder the Roman Catholicks to sit in the next Parliament shall be remov'd before the Parliament sit 5. That all Debts do Stand in state as they were in the beginning of these Troubles 6. That the Plantation in Connaght Kilkenny Clare Thomond Tipperary Limrick and Wickloe may be revoked by Act of Parliament and their Estates secur'd in the next Sessions 7. That the Natives may erect one or more Inns of Court in or near the City of Dublin they taking an Oath as also one or more Universities to be Govern'd as his Majesty shall appoint as also to have Schools for Education of Youth in the Kingdom 8. That Places of Command of Forts Castles Garrisons Towns and other Places of Importance and all Places of Honour Profit and Trust shall be conferr'd with equal Indifferency upon the Catholicks as his Majesties other Subjects according to their respective Merits and Abilities 9. That 12000 l. Sterling be paid the King yearly for the Court of Wards 10. That no Peer may be capable of more Proxies then two And that no Lords Vote in Parliament unless in 5 years a Lord Baron purchase in Ireland 200 l. per anum a Viscount 400 l. and an Earl 600 l. or lose their Votes till they purchase 11. That the Independency of the Parliament of Ireland on the Kingdom of England shall be decided by Declaration of both Houses agreeable to the Laws of the Kingdom of Ireland 12. That the Council Table shall contain itself within its bounds in handling Matters of State as Patents of Plantations Offices c. and not meddle with matter betwixt Party and Party 13. That all Acts concerning Staple or Native Commodities of this Kingdom shall be repeal'd except Wooll and Woollfels and that the Commissioners the Lord Mountgarret and others named in the 26 Article shall be Authoriz'd under the Great Seal to moderate and ascertain the rates of Merchandize to be exported and imported 14. That no Governor be longer Resident then his Majesty shall find for the good of his People and that they make no purchase other then by Lease for the Provision of their Houses 15. That an Act of Oblivion may be passed without extending to any who will not accept of this Peace 16. That no Governor or any other Prime Minister of State in Ireland shall be Farmers of his Majesties Customs 17. That a Repeal of all Monopolies be passed 18. That Commissioners be appointed to regulate the Court of Castle-Chamber 19. That Acts Prohibiting Plowing by Horse-tails and burning of Oats in the Straw be repealed 20. That Course be taken against the Disobedience of the Cessation and Peace 21. That such Graces as were promised by his Majesty in the Fourth year of his Reign and sued for by a Committee of both Houses of Parliament and not express'd in these Articles may in the next ensuing Parliament be desir'd of his Majesty 22. That Maritine Causes be determin'd here without Appeal into England 23. That the increase of Rents lately rais'd upon the Commission of defective Titles be repeal'd 24. That all Interests of Money due by way of Debt Mortgage or otherwise and not yet satisfi'd since the 23. of Octob. 1641. to pay no more than 5l per Cent. 25. That the Commissioners have power to determine all Cases within their Quarters until the perfection of these Articles by Parliament and raise 10000 Men for his Majesty 26. That the Lord Mountgarret Muskery Sir Dan. O Bryan Sir Lucas Dillon Nich. Plunket Rich. Bealing Philip Mac-Hugh O Relie Terlogh O Neal Thomas Flemming Patrick Darcy Gerald Fennel and Jeffery Brown or any five of them be for the present Commissioners of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery in the present Quarters of the Confederate Catholicks with power of Justice of Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery as in former times of Peace they have usually had 27. That none of the Roman Catholick Party before there be a Settlement by Parliament Sue Implead or Arrest or be Sued Impleaded or Arrested in any Court other than before the Commissioners or in the several Corporations or other Judicatures within their Quarters 28. That the Confederate Catholicks continue in their Possessions until Settlement by Parliament and to be Commanded by his Majesties Chief Governour with the advice and consent of the Commissioners or any Five of them 29. That all Customs from the perfection of these Articles are to be paid into his Majesties Receipt and to his use as also all Rent due at Easter next till a full Settlement of Parliament 30. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery shall have power to hear and determine all Offences committed or done or to be committed or done from the 15th day of September 1643. until the first day of the next Parliament Thus the Marquess having perform'd all on his part that could be expected from him and was in his power to do and having receiv'd from other Parts all the assurance he could require there being no other way of engaging the publick Faith of the Nation than that to which they had so formally engaged themselves to him in he intended nothing then but how his Majesty might speedily receive some fruit of that Peace and Accommodation he thence expected by sending assistance to him And to that purpose with advice and upon invitation of several Persons who had great Authority and Power amongst the Confederate Catholicks the Lord Lieutenant took a Journey himself to Kilkenny where he was receiv'd with that Respect and Reverence as was due to his Person and to the Place he held and with such expressions of Triumph and Joy as gave him cause
Orders and Injunctions continued still their desire to observe the Peace The titular Bishop of Ossory publisht this extraordinary Writing WHereas we have in publick and private meetings at several times declared to the Supream Council and others whom it might concern That it was and is unlawful and against conscience the implying Perjury as it hath been defined by the special Act of the Convocation at Waterford to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal to do or concur to any Act tending to the approbation or countenancing the Publication of this unlawful and mischievous Peace so dangerous as it is now Articled to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal And whereas notwithstanding our Declaration yea the Declaration of the whole Clergy of the Kingdom to the contrary the Supream Council and the Commissioners have actually proceeded to the Publication yea and forcing it upon the City by terror and threats rather then by any free consent or desire of the People We having duly considered and taken it to heart as it becometh us how enormous this Fact is and appears in Catholicks even against God himself and what a Publick Contempt of the Holy Church it appeareth beside the evil it is like to draw upon this poor Kingdom after a mature Deliberation and Consent of our Clergy in Detestation of this hainous and scandalous Disobedience of the Supream Council and others who adhered to them in matter of conscience to the Holy Church and in hatred of so sinful and abominable an Act do by these Presents according to the Prescription of the Sacred Cannons pronounce and command henceforth a general Cessation of Divine Offices throughout all the City and Suburbs of Kilkenny in all Churches Monasteries and houses in them whatsoever Given at our Palace of Nova Curia the 18th of August 1646. Signed David Ossoriensis This extravagant Proceeding did not yet terrifie those of the Confederate Catholicks who understood as they pretended how necessary the observation of the Peace was for the preservation of the Nation But as they desired the Lord Lieutenant to forbear all acts of Hostility upon how unreasonable a Provocation soever So they sent two Persons of the Supream Council Sir Lucas Dillon and Dr. Fennel to the Congregation at Waterford to dispose them to a better temper and to find out some Expedient which might compose the minds of the People and prevent those Calamities that would unavoidably fall upon the Nation upon their declining and renouncing the Peace which you must understand in them to be very real But after they had attended several days and offered many Reasons and Considerations to them The Congregation put a Period to all the Hopes and Consultations of that nature by issuing out a Decree of Excommunication which they caused to be Printed in this Form and in these Words and with these Marginal Notes By John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo and by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Ireland A Decree of Excommunication against such as adhere to the late Peace and do bear Arms for the Hereticks of Ireland and do aid or assist them NOt without Cause saith the Oracles of Truth doth the Minister of God carry the Sword for he is to punish him that doth Evil and remunerate him that doth Good hence it is that we have by our former Decrees declared to the World our sence and just Indignation against the late Peace Concluded and Published at Dublin not onely in its nature bringing prejudice and destruction of Religion and Kingdom but also contrary to the Oath of Association and withall against the Contrivers of and Adherers to the said Peace In pursuance of which Decrees being forced to unsheath the Spiritual Sword We to whom God hath given power to bind and loose on Earth assembled together in the Holy Ghost tracing herein and imitating the Examples of many Venerable and holy Prelates who have gone before us and taking for our Authority the Sacred Canons of Holy Church grounded on Holy Writ Ut tollantur èmedio nostrum qui hoc opus faciunt Domini nostri Jesu deliver over such Persons to Satan that is to say We Excommunicate Execrate Anathematize all such as after the Publication of this our Decree and notice either Privately or Publickly given to them hereof shall defend adhere to or approve the Justice of the said Peace and chiefly those who bear Arms or make or joyn in War with for or in behalf of the Puritans or other Hereticks of Dublin cork Youghall of other places within this Kingdom or shall either by themselves or by their appointment bring send or give any Aid Succour or Relief Victuals Ammunition or other Provision to them or by advice or otherwise advance the said Peace or the War made against us Those and every of them by this present Decree We do declare and pronounce Excommunicated ipso facto ut non circumveniamini à Satana non enim ignoramus Cogitationes ejus Dated at Kilkenny in our Palace of Residence the 5th day of October 1646. Signed Johannes Baptista Archiepiscopus Firmanus Nuncius Apostolicus de Mandato Illustrissimi Domini Nuncij Congregationis Ecclesiasticae utriusque Cleri Regni Hiberniae Nicholas Firmence Congregationis Cancellarius The Nuncio having thus fortifi'd himself made great preparations to march with two Armies to Dublin which consisting of 16000 Foot and as many hundred Horse he believ'd or seem'd to believe would take the Town by Assault as soon as he should appear before it and in this confidence that we may not interrupt the series of this Discourse by any intervening action when the Armies were within a days march of the City the two Generals sent this Letter with the Propositions annexed to the Lord Lieutenant May it please your Excellency BY the Command of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom who offer the inclosed Propositions we have under our Leading two Armies our thoughts are best to our Religion King and Countrey our ends to establish the first and make the two following secure and happy It is the great part of our care and desires to purchase your Excellency to the effecting of so blessed a work We do not desire the effusion of blood and to that purpose the inclosed Propositions are sent from us we pray to God your consideration of them may prove fruitful We are commanded to pray your Excellency to render an Answer to them by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next be it War or Peace We shall endeavour in our Ways to exercise Faith and Honour and upon this thought we rest From the Camp 2. March 1646. Your Excellencies most humble Servants J. Preston Owen O Neile 1. That the exercise of the Romish Religion be in Dublin Tredagh and in all the Kingdom of Ireland as free and as publick as it is now in Paris in France or Bruxels in the Low-Countreys 2. That the Council of State
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
do crave his Holiness's Mediation with the Queen and Prince as also with the King and Queen Regent of France and with the King of Spain and all other Christian Princes in all Matters tending to the Avail of the Nation either in point of settlement to a Peace or otherwise 3. The Confederate Catholicks having raised Arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion do intend in the first place that you let his Holiness know their resolution to insist upon such Concessions and Agreements in Matters of Religion and for the security thereof as his Holiness shall approve of and be satisfied with wherein his Holiness is to be prayed to take into his Consideration the imminent danger the Kingdom is in according to the Representations aforesaid to be made by you and so to proceed in Matters of Religion as in his great Wisdom and Piety may tend best and prove necessary to the preservation of it and the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland 4. You are to represent to his Holiness That the Confederates think fit to insist upon as security for such Agreements in Religion as his Holiness will determine that the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governour or Governours of the Kingdom from time to time should be Roman Catholicks unless his Holiness upon the said Representation of State-Affairs here or for some other Reason shall think fit to wave that Proposition 5. You are to represent to his Holiness That the Confederate Catholicks desire that all the Concessions to be made and agreed on for the setling of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom be publisht at the same time with the Temporal Articles of the Settlement if his Holiness on representation of the State of Affairs here or for some other Advantages shall not think fit to determine or suspend the publishing of those or some of them for a time 6. You are to represent to his Holiness That no change or alteration is to be in any part of the present Government of the Confederate Catholicks until the Articles of Peace or Settlement pursuant to the present Authority and Instructions you and the Commissioners to the English Court in France have been concluded and expected and published in this Kingdom by those intrusted in Authority over the Confederate Catholicks 7. You are to take notice That the resident Council now named are the Persons to serve for the interval Government until the next Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks and the Assembly is at liberty to name others if they please and that no less than eight of the said Residents concurring during the said interval shall make any Act or Order obliging and according as it is provided in the former Articles for the interval Government in the late rejected Peace the Forts Cities Towns Castles and Power of the Armies of the Confederate Catholicks to remain and continue in their hands during the said interval Government 8. You are to take notice That the Persons to be imployed into France to the Queen and Prince are to finish their Negotiation with the Queen and Prince pursuant to their Instructions with all possible speed after they shall receive his Holiness's Resolution from you out of Rome in the Matters referred as aforesaid to his Holiness and you are to use all possible diligence in procuring and sending his Holiness's said Resolution unto our said Commissioners imployed to the Queen and Prince 9. In case his Holiness will not be pleased to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in Matters of Religion then you are to solicit for considerable Aids whereby to maintain War and to ascertain and secure the same that it may be timely applied to the use of the Confederate Catholicks And in case a Settlement cannot be had nor considerable Aids that may serve to preserve the Nation without a Protector you are to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector to this Kingdom and by special instance to endeavour his acceptance thereof at such time and in such manner as the Instructions sent by our Agents to France grounded on the Assembly doth import whereof you are to have a Copy 10. Though Matters be concluded by his Holiness's Approbation with the Prince and Queen yet you are to solicit for Aids considering our distress and setting before him that notwithstanding any such Aids we have a powerful Enemy within the Kingdom which to expulse will require a vast charge 11. You are to take with you for your instruction and the better to enable you to satisfie his Holiness of the full state of Affairs here the Copies of the Instructions at Waterford the Articles of the late rejected Peace and Glamorgan's Concessions and the Propositions from Kilkenny to the Congregation at Waterford in August 1646. 12. If Moneys be receiv'd in Rome by you by way of Gift Engagement or otherwise you are to bring or send the same hither to those in Authority and not to dispose the same or any part thereof otherwise than by Order from the general Assembly or supream Council and for all sums of Money so by you to be receiv'd you are to give account to the Authority intrusted here over the Confederate Catholicks 13. You are to manage the circumstance of your Proceedings upon the Instructions according as upon the Place you shall find most tending to the Avail of the Confederate Catholicks Tho. Dublin Tho. Cashell Thom. Tuamen Electus Ewerus Clougherensis David Ossoriens Joha Episc. Roscotensis Fr. Edmundus Laglensis Franc. Ardensis Episc. Robert Elect. Coses Cluomer Francis Patricius Ardack Electus Rob. Dromore Elect. Henry O Neal Rich. Bealing J. Bryan Robert Devereux Gerald Fennel Farren By the Command of the General Assembly N. Plunket These having been solicited we shall now present you with their further Instructions to importune other Princes Instructions for France Jan. 18. 1647. YOu are to present your Letters of Credence to his most Christian Majesty and the several Letters you have with you to the Queen the Prince and Cardinal Mazarine declaring the special affection of the Confederate Catholicks to his Majesties service upon all occasions wherein they may serve him You are to desire his most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine their Favourable and Friendly regard of the Affairs of the Confederate Catholicks and to direct their assistance in what they may to further the settling of the happy Peace of this Kingdom with advantagious and honourable Conditions Commissioners being now sent to conclude the same if they may You are to let his most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine know That there be a considerable Enemy in the heart of the several Provinces of this Kingdom that yet we have many Cities and Parts of the greatest consequence in our hands and have sufficient stock of Men to defend the Nation and expel the Enemy but do want aids of Money and Shipping without which we shall be in danger the next Summer-service and therefore to
their Quarters In the interim the Parliament of Ireland then sitting at Dublin finding into what straights the Kingdom was brought and how his Excellency had strugled with the greatest difficulties imaginable for his Majesties and their Interest they the 17th of March sent this Remonstrance in acknowledgment of great Care and Indulgence The Remonstrance of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled declaring the Acknowledgment of their hearty thankfulness to the most Honourable James Marquis of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland his Excellency WE the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in our whole Body do present our selves before your Lordship acknowledging with great sense and feeling your Lordships singular goodness to us the Protestant Party and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them who have been preserved to this day under God by your Excellencies providence and pious care which hath not been done without a vast expence out of your own Estate as also to the hazarding of your Person in great and dangerous difficulties And when your Lordship found your self with the strength remaining with you to be too weak to resist an insolent and upon all advantages a perfidious and bloody Enemy rather than we should perish you have in your care transferred us into their hands that are both able and willing to preserve us and that not by a bare casting us off but by complying so far with us that you have not denied our desires of Hostages and amongst them of one of your most dear Sons All which being such a free Earnest of your Excellencies love to our Religion Nation and both Houses do incite us here to come unto you with Hearts fill'd with your love and Tongues declaring how much we are oblig'd to your Excellency professing our resolutions are with all real service to the utmost of our power to manifest the sincerity of our acknowledgment and affections unto you and to perpetuate to posterity the memory of your Excellencies merits and our thankfulness We have appointed this Instrument to be entred into both Houses and under the hands of both Speakers to be presented to your Lordship Rich. Bolton Canc. 17 die Martii 1676. intr per Val. Savage Dep. Cler. Parl. Maurice Eustace Speaker Int. 17. die Martii 1676. per Philip Fernely Cler. Dom. Com. What effect this made upon his Excellency you will here see My Lords and Gentlemen WHat you have now read and deliver'd hath much surpriz'd me and contains matter of higher obligation laid upon me by you than thus suddenly to be answer'd yet I may not suffer you to depart hence without saying somewhat to you And first I assure you that this Acknowledgment of yours is unto me a Jewel of very great value which I shall lay up amongst my choicest Treasures it being not onely a full confutation of those Calumnies that have been cast upon my actions during the time I have had the Honour to serve his Majesty here but likewise an Antidote against the virulency and poison of those Tongues and Pens that I am well assur'd will be busily set on work to traduce and blast the Integrity of my present Proceedings for your preservation And now my Lords and Gentlemen since this may perhaps be the last time that I shall have the Honour to speak to you from this Place and since that next to the words of a dying man those of one ready to banish himself from his Country for the good of it challenge credit give me leave before God and you here to protest That in all the time I had the Honour to serve the King my Master I never receiv'd any Command from him but such as spake him a Wise Pious Protestant Prince zealous of the Religion he professeth the welfare of his Subjects and industrious to promote and settle Peace and Tranquility in all his Kingdoms and I shall beseech you to look no otherwise upon me than upon a ready Instrument set on work by the Kings wisdom and goodness for your preservation wherein if I have discharg'd my self to his Approbation and Tours it will be the greatest satisfaction and comfort I shall take with me where-ever it shall please God to direct my steps And now that I may dismiss you I beseech God long long to preserve my Gracious Master and to restore Peace Rest to this afflicted Church and Kingdom But to return In conclusion the Commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament having performed all that on their part was expected the Marquis of Ormond delivered up Dublin and the other Garrisons into their hands the 17th some write the 18th of June 1647. on condition to enjoy his Estate and not to be subject to any Debts contracted for the support of his Majesties Army under his Command or for any Debts contracted before the Rebellion That he and all such Noblemen and Officers as desir'd to pass into any part of that Kingdom should have travelling Arms and free Passes with Servants for their respective Qualities That he should have 5000 l. in hand and 2000 l. per Annum for five years till he could receive so much a year out of his own Estate And that he should have liberty to live in England without taking any Oaths for a year he engaging his Honour to do nothing in the interim to the prejudice of the Parliament However he delivered not up the Regalia till the 25th of July at which time he was transported with his Family into England where they admitted him to wait on the King and to give his Majesty an account of his Transactions who received him most graciously as a Servant who had merited highly from him and fully approved all that he had done The straits his Excellency was then put to were great and in consideration into whose hands the Government might fall his surrender of Dublin to the Parliament seem'd extreme hazardous yet Providence so steer'd his Resolution in that act as doubtless the ground of his Majesties Sovereignty and the English preservation how many Channels soever it past through first proceeded thence Before He came away the Soldiers had receiv'd such a tincture of Mutiny as Mr. Annesly and Sir Robert King for fear of violence privately quitted the Kingdom before which they with Sir Robert Meredith Colonel Michael Jones and Colonel John Moore took notice of the insolency of the Soldiers to exact Contribution and free Quarters at their pleasure forbidding them so to do c. by a Proclamation at Dublin the 20th of June 1647. Soon after the Parliaments Commissioners were warm in the Government having regulated their Militia they put their Sickle into the Service of the Church where they found many so tenâ—cious to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and their Vows to their Ordinaries as they could not be wean'd from the Liturgy of the Church of England in which Ministery they desir'd to finish their Course with joy and the 9th of July
Ireland in confusion And when he had with less success than formerly issued his Excommunication the 27th of May 1648. against all those who complied with the Cessation with the Lord Inchiquin he was compelled in the end after so much mischief done to the Religion he was obliged to protect in an obscure manner to fly out of the Kingdom and coming to Rome had an ill Reception of the Pope Temerariè te gessisti said he with which and the Fate of Fermo in his absence he soon after died Nor indeed had any of those Apostolick Nuncios in Ireland much better Fate Nicholas Sanders an English-man An. 1579. was sent Nuncio by Gregory the 13th who wander'd in the Mountains of Kerry and was there starv'd under a Tree Owen Mac Egan alias Eugenius O Hegan of Irish Birth Vicarius Apostolicus under Clement the 8th was slain leading a Troop of 100 Horse against the Loyalists An. 1602 3. And because the impudent Injustice and Imprudence of the Nuncio and the lame Subjection of the People to his immoderate Pride and Haughtiness was in truth the real Cause or rather Fountain from whence this torrent of Calamities flowed which hath since over-whelmed that miserable Nation and because that exorbitant Power of his was resolutely opposed by the Catholicks of the most eminent Parts and Interests and in the end though too late expelled by them it will be but Justice to the Memories of those noble Persons briefly to collect the sum of that unhappy Person 's Carriage and Behaviour from the time that he was first design'd to that Imployment And in doing hereof no other Language shall be used than what was part of a Memorial delivered by an honourable and zealous Catholick who was intrusted to complain of the in-sufferable Behaviour of the Nuncio to the Pope himself which runs in these very words speaking of the Nuncio He declar'd before he left Rome That he would not admit either in his Company or Family any Person of the English Nation In his Voyage before he arrived at Paris he writ to his Friends in Rome with great joy the News though it prov'd after false that the Irish Confederates had treacherously surprized the City of Dublin while they were in truce with the Royal Party and treating about an Accommodation and Peace Arriving at Paris where he shut himself up for many months he never vouchsafed I will not say to participate with the Queen of England any thing touching Nunciature or in the least degree to reverence or visit her Majesty save only one time upon the score of Courtesie as if he had been sent to her Enemies not Subjects Being arrived in Ireland he imployed all his Power to dissolve the Treaty of Peace with the King which was then almost brought to perfection and his diligence succeeded of which he valued himself rejoyced and insulted beyond measure In his Letters he writ to Paris which were after shewed to the Queen and he may truely say that in that Kingdom he hath rather managed the Royal Scepter than the Pastoral Staff and that he aim'd more to be held the Minister of the supream Prince of Ireland in Temporalibus than a Nuncio from the Pope in Spiritualibus making himself President of the Council he hath managed the Affairs of the supream Council of State he hath by his own Arbitrement excluded from it those who did not second him though by Nobleness of Birth Allegiance Prudence and Zeal to Religion they were the most honourable of these he caused many to be imprisoned with great scandal and danger of sedition and in short he assumed a distributive Power both in Civil and Military Affairs giving out Orders Commissions and Powers under his own Name subscribed by his own Hand and made Authentick with his Seal for the government of the Armies and of the State and Commissions for Reprizals at Sea He stroke in presently after his Arrival in Ireland with that Party of the Natives who are esteemed irreconcilable not only to the English but to the greatest and best part of the Irish Nobility and of the same People to the most civil and most considerable of that Island And the better to support that Party and Faction he hath procured the Church to be furnished with a Clergy and Bishops of the same temper excluding those Persons who are recommended by the Queen who for Doctrine and Vertue were above all exceptions all which is contrary to what your Holiness was pleas'd to promise The Queen was not yet discouraged but so labour'd to renew the Treaty of Peace already once broke and disorder'd by Monsieur Rinuccini that by means of her Majesty it was not only re-assumed but in the end after great disputes and oppositions on his part the Peace was concluded between the Royal Party and the Confederate Catholicks and warranted not only by the King's Word but also by the retention of Arms Castles and Forts and of the Civil Magistrates with the possession of Churches and of Ecclesiastical Benefices and with the free exercise of the Catholick Religion And all this would have been exhibited by a publick Decree and authentick Laws made by the three Estates assembled in a free Parliament By this Peace and Confederacy they would have rescued themselves from the damages of a ruinous War have purchased security to their Consciences and of their temporal Estates honoured the Royal Party and the Catholicks in England with a certain restitution and liberty of the King whereon depended absolutely the welfare of the Catholicks in all his Kingdoms the Catholick Chair had quitted it self of all Engagements and Expence with Honour and Glory This Treaty of Peace on all sides so desirable Monsieur Rinuccini broke with such violence that he forced the Marquess of Ormond the Vice-Roy of Ireland to precipitate himself contrary to his inclination and affection into the arms of the Parliament of England to the unspeakable damage of the King and of the Catholicks not only of Ireland but also of England He incensed the greatest and best part of the Catholick Nobility and rendred the venerable Name of the holy Apostolick Chair odious to the Hereticks with small satisfaction to the Catholick Princes themselves of Europe as though it sought not the spiritual good of Souls but a temporal Interest by making it self Lord over Ireland And when the Lord Digby and the Lord Byron endeavour'd on the Marquess of Ormond's part to incline him to a new Treaty of Peace he did not only disdain to admit them or to accept the Overture but understanding that the Lord Byron with great danger and fatigue came to Town in the County of Westmeath where he was to speak with him he forced the Earl that was the Lord of it to send him away contrary to all Laws of Courtesie and Humanity in the night-time exposed to extraordinary inconveniencies and dangers amongst those distractions protesting that otherwise he himself would immediately depart the Town By
declar'd by the Council together with Owen Roe O Neal's offer to drive Inchequin quite out of Munster at his own charge and at the charge he would force out of those parts by his Souldiers But at this time Inchequin was in a deeper Correspondence with the Scots Nation which way Ormond was also to biass his Designs The Nuncio thus disappointed called a new assembly of his Clergy compos'd of Hugh O Rely Primate of Ireland Thomas Fleming Archbishop of Dublin Thomas Welsh Archbishop of Cassel John de Bourk Archbishop of Tuam and ten Bishops who unanimously declared That this Cessation of Arms was much prejudicial to the Catholick Religion and could not be embraced in Conscience and so Excommunicated all that adher'd thereto Hitherto the Council had born it self with some respect toward the Catholick Church remembring the Clemency us'd by the Nuncio in delivering some of them from Prison but upon this last Excommunication they so threatned him that he was forced to go privately from Kilkenny to a Castle where Preston by order of the Council following he fled to Gallway and called there a National Council to pacifie the Troubles of the Kingdom which the aforesaid Council endeavour'd to hinder forbidding the appearance of the Clergy taking hold of divers Ecclesiastical Persons of his houshold imprisoning them So that the Nuncio despairing of re-establishing of the Affairs of the Catholicks and having information That Ormond had resolv'd with all his Forces to advance the Protestant Religion and to destroy all opposers and that the Supream Council of Catholicks had declar'd their departure from the League with their Confederates he departed arriving in France In the interim Owen Roe judging that he could not in conscience joyn his Armies any longer with a Party that called it self Catholick and yet chas'd away the Nuncio declar'd his separation from them until they recal the Nuncio and endeavour to obtain a Catholick Vice-Roy and execute in all other points the Oath they had taken This was taken very ill by the Marquess of Ormond and his Council who charg'd O Neal with a Design under colour thereof to oppose the Affairs of the King which occasion'd him to object to them not the aforesaid Oath but a particular Declaration which he had published where he with all his Officers profess That they intend onely to re-establish the Catholick Religion the Liberties of the Kingdom and the Prerogatives of the King in their former Glory and Splendor The Ormond Party Catholick being in such perplexity by reason of these differences and their sleighting the Nuncio appeal'd to his Holiness but from Rome it is certified That the Pope well understanding their deportment refused to give Audience before he had heard his Nuncio Who in the end rather receiv'd a Check as before is mention'd then an Approbation from his Holiness for what he had done in Ireland And now as to the difference betwixt their Generals and our Proceedings thereupon Colonel Jones finding the Distractions amongst the Rebels to grow very high and that the old English under the Marquess of Clanrickard had taken the Castle of Athlone and other Places from Owen Roe and that Athy was besieged by Colonel Preston and Owen Roe came up to Relieve it and burnt and spoil'd the Countrey thereabouts thought it high time to be stirring out amongst them and thereupon sent out some of his Forces which took in the Garrisons of the Nabber and Ballihoe formerly surprized by the Rebels But yet not having his Provisions come from England durst not himself stir forth till he had sufficiently secured Dublin which in the first place he began more strongly to Fortifie that it might receive no prejudice in his absence About which time Flemming an active Officer among the Rebels took in Cruces Fort and Killaloe two Garrisons in Pudsonbyes Quarters Next Jones secured Sir Maurice Eustace Colonel Gifford Capron Flower Willoughby and several others who continuing their affection to the Marquess he suspected and by Order of the Committee of Derby-House sent them to the Castle of Chester detaining Colonel Byron and Sir Thomas Lucas Prisoners at Tredagh suspecting these would deliver him and the City to the Marquess of Ormond then every day expected Lord Lieutenant out of France The Scots Army under Duke Hamilton about this time entered England to whose Proceedings Major General Monro sent over into Scotland his Son or Nephew George Monro with 2000 Foot and 600 Horse as Sir Robert Stewart his Son with a Troop and Sir Fred. Hamilton his with a Regiment and several others disaffected to the Parliament of England in hope to settle with advantage there By which means Belfast Carrigfergus and Colrain were left very weak and much un-guarded which Colonel Monk finding and understanding how contrary to all compact Monro had dealt with the Parliament of England in sending over the Forces maintain'd by them in Ireland to fight against them in England he began to think of some means to make himself master of those Towns he was at present at Lisnegarvy and prepared a Party to go out to make an inroad into the RebelsQuarters he march'd away in the morning but having sent some Persons of trust to remain near Carigfergus to attend his advance thither he return'd in the night over the mountains and came at break of day to the Gates of Carigfergus which he found open and so enter'd without resistance he seiz'd upon Major General Monro and sent him Prisoner into England where he was by the House of Comons committed to the Tower Colonel Monk having thus seized upon Carigfergus caus'd some Horse to march presently away to Belfast which was surrendred into his hands by the Governor and so was likewise Colrain so as he presently became Master of all those Towns disbanding and sending away most of those Forces into Scotland which oppos'd the Parliament and hindred those broken Troops of Monro's which fled out of England upon Duke Hamiltons defeat at Preston in Lancashire from returning into Ireland and did use all means to settle the Country in such a posture as that the Interest of the Parliament might be secur'd there He planted Garrisons upon the Frontiers of Ulster to hinder the incursions of the Rebels and he gave the Quarters the Scots had to such of the British as he found faithful to the service This was about September 1648. a Service very acceptable in England in manifestation whereof the Parliament sent him 500 l. and made him Governor of Carigfergus by an Order of the 4th of October and sent over Cloaths for some of those Scottish Regiments which came into him and 5000 l. in Money for the two Provinces of Ulster and Connaght to be equally divided Sir Charles Coot there being very active not long after took in the strong Fort of Culmore near Londonderry seizing on at the same time Sir Robert Stewart whom he sent Prisoner to the Parliament upon which the Scots Mutinied but
to the hazard of our lives those Rebels of this Kingdom who shall refuse their obedience to his Majesty upon such terms as he hath thought fit by us to require it and we shall endeavour to the utmost the suppressing of that Independent-Party who have thus fiercely laboured the extirpation of the true Protestant Religion the ruine of our Prince the dishonour of Parliament and the Vassalage of our Fellow-Subjects against all those who shall depend upon them or adhere unto them And that this our undertaking might not appear obnoxious to the Trade of England but that we desire a firm Union and Agreement be preserved betwixt us we do likewise declare that we will continue free Traffick and Commerce with all his Majesties good Subjects of England and that we will not in the least manner prejudice any of them that shall have recourse to our Harbours either in their Bodies Ships or Goods nor shall we take any thing from them without payment of ready money for the same And now that by his Majesties said Command we have proceeded to re-enter upon the work of his Service in this Province We conceive no higher testimony can be given of his Majesties acceptation or of the estimation we bear about us towards their Proceedings than by resorting unto them in Person with his Majesties Authority and exhibiting unto them the incouragement and satisfaction they may receive in this assurance That as we bear an especial regard to their present undertakings and performances accompanied with a real sense of their former sufferings so lest there should any advantage be derived unto those who endeavour to improve all opportunities of sowing sedition and distrust by this suggestion that the former differences in Judgment and Opinion which have induced persons to serve diversly under his Majesty and the Parliament will occasion prejudice or ill resentments to arise towards such Persons as have not formerly concurred in Judgment with others in his Majesties Service We do declare that we are qualifi'd with special Power and Authority from his Majesty to assure them that no distinction shall be made in any such Consideration but that all Persons now interested and engaged in this Cause shall be reflected upon with equal fervour and regard and that we shall make it our endeavours so to improve and confirm his Majesties Gracious disposure towards them as that we will never call to memory any past difference in Opinion Judgment Action or Profession to the prejudice of any Member of this Army or any Person relating to it but on the contrary shall be very ready to attest our good affections towards them in the discharge of such good Offices as shall be in our power in return whereof we shall onely expect their perseverance in their present Ingagements for his Majesties Service with such alacrity constancy and affection as may suit with their late publick Declaration and Professions To whom we desire this assurance also may be inculcated That as we shall in the future use our utmost care and diligence to provide for their preservation from the like hardships to those they have formerly undergone so we have already employ'd our best industry and endeavours for the settlement of such a course as we may with most reason hope will in these uncertain times produce a constant and competent Subsistance for them enabling them to make such a progress in their present undertakings as may with the accomplishment of the great ends thereof establish their own Honour and Content Thus much we have thought fit to publish unto the World to furnish it with an evidence of strong conviction against us if we ever swerve to the best of our power from the just ways of maintaining the true Protestant Religion the Honour and Interest of his Sacred Majesty the just Rights of Parliament the Liberties of the Subjects and the safety quiet and welfare of the People intrusted to our Care At Cork 6. Octob. 1648. Here it must not be forgotten that during the time the Marquis was in France and after the Parliaments Forces had upon so great inequality of number defeated the Irish and in all Encounters driven them into their Fastnesses the Confederate Catholicks had easily discern'd the mischiefs they had brought upon themselves by forcing the Kings Authority out of the Kingdom and introducing another which had no purposes of mercy towards them And therefore they had sent the Lord Marquis of Antrim who from the beginning had passionately serv'd them in their most intimate Concerns the Lord Viscount Muskery and others as their Commissioners to the Queen of England and to her Son the Prince of Wales who were both then at Paris to beseech them since by reason of the King's imprisonment they could not be suffered to apply themselves to his Majesty to take compassion of the miserable condition of Ireland and to restore that Nation to their protection making ample professions and protestations of Duty and of applying themselves for the future to his Majesties Service if they might be once again own'd by him and countenanced and conducted by his Authority And thereupon the Queen and Prince answered those Persons That they would shortly send a Person qualifi'd to treat with them who should have power to give them whatsoever was requisite to their security and happiness With which Answer they return'd well satisfi'd into Ireland So that as soon as the Lord Lieutenant was Landed at Cork he wrote the 4th of October to the Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks then at Kilkenny That he was upon the humble Petition which they had presented to the Queen and Prince come with full power to conclude a Peace with them and to that purpose desir'd that as little time might be lost as was possible and that Commissioners might be sent to him at his House at Carrick whither he would go to expect them within 14 miles of the Place where the Assembly then sate who were so much gladder of his presence by the obligation which they had newly received from the Kings Authority For when the Nuncio and Owen O Neil had thought to have surprized them and to have compelled them to renounce the Cessation the Lord Inchequin being sent unto by them for his protection had march'd with his Army to their relief and forc'd O Neal over the Shannon thereby restoring them to liberty and freedom so that they return'd a message of joy and congratulation to the Lord Lieutenant for his safe arrival and appointed Commissioners to treat with him at the place appointed A Copy of the Marquis of Ormond's Letter to the Supreme Council afore-mention'd was gotten by Colonel Jones and sent over to the Committee of Derby-house and being read in the House of Commons it was Voted to be sent down into the Isle of Wight to the Commissioners then Treating there with the King to know if he would avow it and in case he did disavow it that then he would declare against
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
Enemy though the Inhabitants had so obstinately and disobediently refused to receive a Garrison which would have prevented their present pressures whereas they were now closely besieged to their Walls on all that side of the Town which lay to Munster the other being open and to be reliev'd by the River Sure which there severs Leimster and Munster and washeth the Walls of the Town on that side The Inhabitants seeing Destruction at their Door abated so much of their former Madness as to be willing to receive a Supply of Souldiers yet under a condition that they might be all of the old Irish of Ulster who under the Command of Owen O Neal had long oppos'd the King's Authority and were now newly joyn'd with the Marquess and in express terms refused any of their Neighbours and Kindred the Confederate Irish Catholicks of Munster or Leimster to the great offence and scandal of that Part of the Nation which had been as zealous for their Religion as any However since there was no other way to preserve them the Lord Lieutenant was content to comply even with that Humour and so choosing a strong Party of near 1500 Men and putting them under the Command of Lieutenant General Farral who was the most acceptable to them his Excellency himself march'd with them and put them into the Town which he had no sooner done than Cromwel thought it convenient to raise his Siege having taken in Passage-Fort within 2 miles of Waterford and march'd to Dungarvan delivered up the 3d. of December where he found the Lord Broghal who partly by his own Interest and the dis-affection in the Souldiers to the Lord Inchiquin had gotten in all the Towns in Munster that had formerly been under the Parliament A Service most considerable and such as was of very great advantage to Cromwel who was now in great straits where to take up his Winter-Quarters for his sick and distressed Regiments his Army partly by sickness partly by leaving Garrisons in the several Places he had taken in being so much weakned and impair'd so as he brought not of all the Men he carried over with him above 5000 Horse and Foot to Dungarvan where Colonel Jones who sickned in his way thither died about the 18th of December 1649. of a Purple Fever a Person certainly of much Gallantry and one in the Discipline of the Army whereof he was Lieutenant General very exact carrying his Victories oftner more by the dint of his Sword than the number of his Men And though he passes not in the History of our Age without some Reflections as too obstinately adhering to Cromwel whom he us'd to call Companion in Labours yet those who were intimate with him had that certainty of his Worth as nothing so much steer'd him in the Service of Ireland as a just Reflection on the Murthers and Insolencies committed by the Irish on the Protestants not otherwise to be pacified than by a due Revenge And had he surviv'd this Service it is confidently believ'd Cromwel how well soever he spoke of him would have found some Expedient to have laid him aside Cromwel having thus gain'd Dungarvan shortly after betook himself to his Winter-Quarters garrisoning at Bandonbridge Colonel Ewer and his Regiment at Kinsale Colonel Stabber at Cork Colonel Phaier and Colonel Cook at Wexford and Youghal and other adjacent Places was assign'd the head-Quarters Whilst the Marquess of Ormond sensible of what might be the product of so un-controul'd a Success having left Waterford in his thoughts full of the sence of the late benefit and preservation which by his vigilance that City had receiv'd in December a season much colder than usually had been observ'd in that Countrey cast all ways imaginable to hinder the Enemy's future Attempt upon that Place and to reduce Passage Wexford and other Places weakly mann'd and provided by Cromwel And accordingly he drew his Forces together and leaving them on the other side of the River Sure himself with a Train only of 40 or 50 Horse consisting of his Friends and Servants went into the Town presuming he should be able to perswade them to submit to joyn in whatsoever should manifestly appear for their own benefit or advantage When he came into the Town he found Lieutenant General Farral engaged in a Design to take Passage a Place seized on by Cromwel when he had retir'd from Waterford and which was an in-convenient Neighbour to that City Colonel Wogan who had been seasonably sent by the Marquess into Duncannon even when the first Governour placed thereby the Confederate Catholicks was ready to deliver it up to the Enemy and who had with notable courage defended it against Cromwel and in the end after the loss of a great number of his Men compell'd him to retire had agreed to meet Lieutenant General Farral Commander of the Ulster Forces at a Place and House appointed and together to fall on Passage Though the Marquess had not been informed of the contrivance of the Design yet he knew well enough what interpretation would be made of his Interposition or Command or Wariness should he declare against it therefore he was very willing it should proceed The Matter was well laid and carried with secrecy being hopeful enough Lieutenant General Farral had not been march'd from the Town many hours when the Marquess discovered from some Place of prospect in the Town a strong Party of Horse marching in good order the way that led to Passage which belonging to the Enemy made him conclude that they had notice of the Design Whereupon he presently sent for the Maior of the Town and shewing him the in-evitable danger their whole Party was in which was the only Srength against any Enterprize of the Enemy if they were not instantly reliev'd required him presently to send some Body over the Water for the transporting from the other side of the River of a Regiment or two of Horse with which he would himself endeavour to rescue them How apparent soever the danger and mischief was and how visible and natural soever the remedy all the Commands and Entreaties he could use could not prevail to get one Body or their Consent that any of his Horse should be suffered to march through the Town without which they could not go to their Relief When he had in vain tryed all the means he could invent to convince and perswade them to so natural an Action he caused all his Friends and Servants aforemention'd to mount their Horses and with all imaginable haste himself led them towards Passage that he might at least discover though he was not like to prevent the loss that was to ensue When he came within sight of the Town he could discern a Party of Foot marching in great haste and disorder towards him being pursued by the Enemy's Horse who had even over-taken them having fallen upon the remainder and either killed them upon the Place or taken them Prisoners Though the
company which attended the Marquess was too few to encounter the Enemy's Horse with any considerable hope yet he drew them up in that manner on the side of an Hill that the Enemy imagining their number to be more considerable thought fit to lessen their pace and to send small Parties to discover them which being again entertain'd by the like number in like skirmishes the Foot as much improving their March they were in the end by the Marquess's frequent opposing of his own Person to retard the Enemy's pursuit preserv'd and so brought back with him into the Town about half of those who had march'd thence the rest being killed or taken Prisoners by Colonel Zanckey which also had been infallibly destroyed if the Marquess had not taken that desperate course to redeem them as he might in hope have recovered all the others who were made Prisoners and defeated all that Body of the Enemy and consequently have taken Passage if the City would have permitted his Horse to have been transported over the River and to have march'd through it His Excellency's Forces had not better success in their Attempt to re-take Carrick governed by Colonel Reynolds meerly through the want of Pick-axes and Spaces though his confidence of the Design built on the brittle assurance of his Commanders had brought him almost thither where if it had not been for Colonel Milo Power who acquainted him of his Armies being baffled and of its removal thence he had been surprized by the Enemy And the Lord Inchiquin's Lieutenant Colonel Trevor's Sir Armstrong's Expeditions against Wexford and Ross ended in the like loss and misfortune The Marquess however leaves nothing un-attempted to fortifie Waterford what dis-couragements soever he had received by the Insolency of some Men instigated by the Violence and Opiniastrise of the Clergy In as much as he knew Passage or the other Places could not be regain'd without he might bring his Army over the River which they would not admit of nay desiring that his Army might for a little time be but hutted under their Walls where they should receive their Provisions and Pay duely out of the Countrey and so should be a Security and Benefit to the Town without the least damage in any Degree This Proposition also found no more regard then the former and instead of consulting with what Circumstances to comply with so just and necessary a Demand of the Kings Lieutenant it was proposed in the Council of the Town To seize on his Person and to fall on all who belonged to him as an Enemy Which Advice met with no other Reprehension then that for the present the major part did not consent unto it Of all which when the Marquess was fully informed he thought it time to depart thence and to leave them to their own Imaginations and so marched away with his Army which after this Indignity it was a thing impossible to keep them together And because the Principal Towns refused to admit them in he was fain in the depth of Winter to scatter them over all the Kingdom The greatest part of the Ulster Forces were sent into their own Province there to chuse a new General according as their Conditions allowed them for Owen O Neal was dead And Luke Taaff with his Men were sent back into Connaght to my Lord of Clanrickard The Lord Inchequin with the remainder of such as belonged unto him went over into the County of Clare The Lord Dillon with his into Meath and towards Athlone all the rest were scattered several ways Onely Major General Hugh O Neal was admitted with 1600 Ulster Men into Clonmel as Governor whilst the Marquess went to his Castle of Kilkenny From thence he dispatch'd the 24th of December an Account to the King who was then in the Isle of Jersey of the true Estate of his Affairs in that Kingdom By which his Majesty might see how much Cromwel's Forces who disclaimed any Subjection to him prevail'd against his Authority And how it was equally contemned deluded or dis-regarded by his Subjects who made all the Professions of Obedience and Duty to him which was a Method these ill times had made his Majesty too well acquainted with And from this time which was towards the end of December 1649. the Marquess never did or could draw together into one Body a number of 500. what endeavours he used to do it will be mention'd in order hereafter Assoon as the Lord Lieutenant came to Kilkenny he consulted with the Commissioners of Trust without whose approbation and consent he could do no act that was of importance what remedy to apply to the disorder and confusion which spread it self over all their Affairs they had been still Witnesses of all his actions of his unwearied pains and industry and of the little fruit that was reaped by it how his Orders and Commands and their own had been neglected and dis-obeyed in all those Particulars without which an Army could not be brought or kept together how those places which the Rebels had possessed themselves of had been for the most part lost by their own obstinate refusal to receive such assistance from him as was absolutely necessary for their preservation and yet that they had rais'd most unreasonable Imputations and Reproaches on him as if he had fail'd in their Defence and Relief They had seen the wonderful and even insupportable wants and necessities the Army had always undergone and knew very well how all Warrants had been disobeyed for the bringing in of Money and Provisions for the supply thereof And yet their Countrey was full of clamour and discontent for the payment of Taxes and being exhausted with Contribution He desired them therefore to examine where any mis-demeanors had in truth been and that they might be punished and from whence the Scandal and Calumnies proceeded that the minds of the People might be informed and composed The Commissioners for the most part had discharged the Trust reposed in them yet there were some amongst them too able and dexterous in Business who alway malign'd the Person of the Marquess or rather his Religion and the Authority he represented And what professions soever they made of respect to him still maintain'd a close Intelligence and Correspondence with those of the Clergy who were the most dis-affected to his Majesties Interest and who from the misfortune at Rathmines had under-hand fomented and cherish'd all the ill humours and jealousies of the People The Commissioners advised the Marquess as the best expedient to satisfie the Countrey that Orders might be sent to them to elect some few Persons amongst themselves to send to Kilkenny as Agents to represent those Grievances which were most heavy upon them and to offer any desires which might promote their security alledging that they could by this means be clearly inform'd how groundless those jealousies were and the Artifices would be discover'd which had been used to corrupt their affections though the
Marquess well saw how tedious and inconvenient this course might prove and rather advance all the scandalous and seditious Designs then suppress them Yet he fore-saw as well that if it were declin'd by him he should be un-avoidably reproach'd with not being willing to be informed of the just Grievances of the People and consequently not to remedy them And therefore without giving countenance to any such irregular Convention by any formal summons of his own he gave way that the Commissioners should write their Letters to that purpose and accordingly the Agents did come thither from the several Countreys to communicate and present their Complaints and Desires together in January following And the Lord Lieutenant received them with good Countenance and wished them freely to consult together as soon as they could to present whatsomever they had to say to him to which they should be sure to receive a speedy Answer About which time Colonel Barry who through the whole Scene had been intrusted by the Supream Council to negotiate with the King and was not ill thought of by the Marquess of Ormond had then licence from Cromwel to visit his Wife and Family at Castlelions under the Parliaments obedience where he transacted through the Mediation of a noble Person many Concerns to the composing of Differencies with the greatest though what tended to an Agreement with Inchequin would never in the least be indulged and the rest then spoke of had a fate not seasonably to be composed In the mean time the Bishops and Clergy of themselves and without any Authority received or desired from the Lord Lieutenant Assembled at Cloanmacnoise upon the River Shannon upon whose Councils and Conclusions all mens eyes were more fixed then upon what the Agents should represent at Kilkenny it being very evident that many of the Catholick Noblity of the Kingdom and some principal Persons of Quality and Interest formally concurred with the Marquess And the Commissioners of Trust were for the most part as zealous for the execution and observation of the Articles of Peace and that the same might be rendred useful to the Nation Yet the Clergy and Religious Persons had found means to obstruct that Union which was necessary for the carrying on the Work and especially had that influence upon the Corporate Towns that no Garrisons would be admitted therein or such Submission paid to the Lord Lieutenant or the Commissioners Orders as were essential to their own defence and to the making War against the Enemy So that all men were in suspence what would be the issue of that Meeting And it cannot be denied but that those Bishops and that part of the Clergy which were best affected and knew the ways which were most conducing to the happiness of their Countrey prevail'd so far that the Conclusions which were made there seem'd full of respect for the Kings Service and wholsom Advice and Council to the People They declared how vain a thing it was to imagine that there would be any security for the exercise of their Religion for the enjoying of their Fortunes or for the preservation of their Lives by any Treaty with or Promise from the Parliament That they abhorred all factious Animosities and Divisions which raged amongst themselves to the hindrance of the Publick Service And therefore enjoyn'd all the Clergy of what Quality soever and Ecclesiastical Persons by Preaching and all other means to incline the People unto an union of Affection and to the laying aside of all jealousies of each other and unanimously to concur in opposing the Common Enemy And appointed the Bishops and other Persons to proceed with greater severity against those Religious and Spiritual Persons who should under-hand cherish and foment those Jealousies and Divisions In a word they said so much and so well that when the Lord Lieutenant was informed of it and when he saw the Extract of their Determinations he conceiv'd some hope that it might indeed make good Impression on the People and produce a very good effect The Particulars of which here follows The Copies of Acts and Declarations by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates met at Clonmacnoise the fourth day of December 1649. And since Concluded By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates WHereas heretofore many of the Clergy and Laity did in their actions and proceedings express much discontents and divisions of mind grounding the same on the late difference of Opinion happened amongst the Prelates and the Laity by which the Nation was not so well united as was necessary in this time of great danger wherein all as with one heart and hand ought to oppose the Common Enemy We the Archbishops Bishops and Prelates of this Kingdom met motu proprio at Clonmacknose 4. Decembris 1649. having removed all differences among us not entring into the merits of diversities of former Opinions thought good for removing of all jealousies from our own thoughts hearts and resolutions and from others who had relation or were adherent to the former diversity of Opinions to manifest hereby to all the World that the said Divisions and Jealousies grounded thereupon are now forgotten and forgiven among us on all sides as aforesaid And that all and every of us of the above Archbishops Bishops and Prelates are now by the blessing of God as one body united And that we will as becometh charity and our Pastoral charge stand all of us as one intire Body for the Interest and Immunities of the Church and of every the Prelates and Bishops thereof and for the Honour Dignity Estate Right and Possession of all and every the said Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates And we will as one intire and united Body forward by our Councils Actions and Devices the advancement of his Majesties Rights and the good of this Nation in general and in particular occasions to our Power and that none of us in any occasion whatsoever concerning the Catholick Religion or the good of this Kingdom of Ireland will in any respect single himself or be or seem opposite to the rest of us but will hold firm and intire in one sence as aforesaid hereby detesting the actions thoughts and discourses of any that shall renew the least memory of the differences past or give any ground of future difference among us And do in the Name of Jesus Christ exhort all our flock to the like brotherly affection and union and to the like detestation of all past differences or jealousies as aforesaid arising hitherto among them And we desire that this our Declaration be Printed and Published in each Parish by Command of the respective Ordinaries Ut videant opera vestra bona glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in Coelis est Datum apud Clonmacnose 13. Decem. 1649. Signed by Hugo Ardmachanus Fr. Thomas Dublin Thomas Casshel Joan. Archiep. Tuam Fr. Boetius Elphyn Fr. Edmundus Laghlinensis Procurator Waterfordiensis Emerus Clogher Robertus Corcagiensis
Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurarator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andraeus Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthur Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patr. Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joa Hussey Procurator Episco Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Fr. Gregorius o Ferraile Provin Ordinis Praedicatorum Provin Hiber Fr. Thomas Mackeyernane Provin Fratrum Minorum Provin Hiber Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of the Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. to consider of the best means to unite our Flocks for averting Gods wrath fallen on this Nation now bleeding under the evils that Famine Plague and War bring after them for effecting a present Union Decreed the ensuing Acts. 1. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries within their respective Diocesses shall enjoyn Publick Prayers Fasting General-Confession and Receiving and other works of Piety toties quoties to withdraw from this Nation Gods Anger and to render them capable of his Mercies 2. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That a Declaration issue from us letting the People know how vain it is for them to expect from the Common Enemy commanded by Cromwel by Authority from the Rebels of England any assurance of their Religion Lives or Fortunes 3. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Pastors and Preachers be enjoyned to Preach amity And for inducing the People thereunto to declare unto them the absolute necessity that is for the same and as the chief means to preserve the Nation against the extirpation and destruction of their Religion and Fortunes resolved on by the Enemy And we hereby do manifest our detestation against all such Divisions between either Provinces or Families or between old English and old Irish or any the English or Scots adhering to his Majesty And we Decree and Order that all Ecclesiastical Persons fomenting such Dissentions or un-natural Divisions be punished by their respective Prelates and Superiors Juxta gravitatem excessus si opus fuerit suspendantur beneficiali Pastores à beneficio officio ad certum tempus Religiosi autem à Divinis juxto circumstantias delicti Leaving the Laity offending in this kind to be corrected by the Civil Magistrate by Imprisonment Fine Banishment or otherwise as to them shall seem best for plucking by the root so odious a Crime The Execution whereof we most earnestly recommend to all those having Power and that are concerned therein as they will answer to God for the evils that thereout may ensue 4. We Decree and Declare Excommunicated those High-way Robbers commonly called the Idle-Boys that take away the Goods of honest men or force me to pay them Contribution and we likewise declare Excommunicated all such as succour or harbour them or bestow or sell them any Victualing or buy Cattle or any other thing else from them wittingly Likewise all Ecclesiastical Persons Ministring Sacraments to such Robbers or Idle-Boys or burying them in Holy Grave to be suspended ab officio beneficio si quod habent by their respective Superiors juxta gravitatem delicti This our Decree is to oblige within fifteen days after the Publication thereof in the respective Diocesses Signed by Hugo Ardmachanus Fr. Thomas Dublin Thomas Casshel Joan. Archiep. Tuam Fr. Boetius Elphyn Fr. Edmundus Laghlinensis Procurator Waterfordiensis Emerus Clogher Robertus Corcagiensis Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andreas Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthurus Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patric Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joannes Hussey Procurator Episcop Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of this Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu on the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. taking into our consideration among other the Affairs then agitated and determinated for the preservation of the Kingdom that many of our Flock are mislead by a vain opinion of Hopes that the Commander in Chief of the Rebels Forces commonly called the Parliamentaries would afford them good Conditions and that relying thereon they suffer utter destruction of Religion Lives and Fortunes if not prevented To undeceive them in that their ungrounded expectation We do hereby Declare as a most certain Truth that the Enemies Resolution is to extirpate the Catholick Religion out of all his Majesties Dominions as by their several Covenants doth appear and the Practice where-ever their Power doth extend as is manifested by Cromwel's Letter of the 19th of Octob. 1649. to the then Governor of Ross. His words are For that which you mention concerning Liberty of Religion I meddle not with any man's Conscience but if by Liberty of Conscience you mean a Liberty to exercise the Mass I judge it best to use plain dealing and to let you know where the Parliament of England have Power that will not be allowed of This Tyrannical Resolution they have put in execution in Wexford Drogheda Ross and elsewhere And it is notoriously known that by Acts of Parliament called The Acts of Subscription the Estates of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom are sold so as there remaineth now â—o more but to put the Purchasers in possession by the power of Forces drawn out of England And for the common sort of People towards whom if they shew any more moderate usage at the present it is to no other end but for their private advantage and for the better support of their Army intending at the close of their Conquest if they can effect the same as God forbid to root out the Commons also and plant this Land with Colonies to be brought hither out of England as witness the number they have already sent hence for the Tobacco Island and put Enemies in their places And in effect this banishment or other destructions of the common People must follow the Resolution of extirpating the Catholick Religion which is not to be effected without the Massacring or Banishment of the Catholick Inhabitants We cannot therefore in our Duty to God and in discharge of the Care we are obliged to have for the preservation of our Flocks but admonish them not to delude and lose themselves with the vain expectation of Conditions to be had from that merciless Enemy And consequently we
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
Evidence enough there being many then in Dublin who own'd their Lives and whatever of their Fortunes was left purely to him so that he doubted not but that he would be worthy of their Protection Within few days after when the Marquess did not suspect the poor man to be in danger he heard that Sir Charles Coot who was Provost Martial General had taken him out of Prison and caused him to be put to death in the morning before or assoon as it was light of which Barbarity the Marquess complained to the Lords Justices but was so far from bringing the other to be question'd that he found himself to be upon some disadvantage for thinking the proceeding to be otherwise then it ought to have been This was the Case of Mr. Higgins and this the Marquess's part in it and the poor man was so far from complaining of his breach of Promise at his death how confidently soever it be aver'd that he exceedingly acknowledged the Favour he had receiv'd from his Lordship prayed for his Prosperity and lamented his want of Power to do that which the World saw his inclination prompted him to The proceeding against Mr. White was very different and in this manner The Marquess being upon his march with his Army he quarter'd one night at Clonin an house of the Earl of West-Meaths who was residing there with his Wife and Family when he was at Supper many of the Officers being at the Table the Lady of the House upon some whisper she receiv'd from a Servant expressed some trouble in her Countenance which the Marquess who sate next her perceiving asked her what the matter was she told him in his ear that she was in great apprehension of an honest man who was in her house and much fear'd the Souldiers confessing he was a Priest The Marquess replied that if he was in the house and kept himself there he was in no danger for as the Souldiers would attempt nothing while the Marquess stai'd there so he would leave a Guard at his departure that should secure it against Straglers or any Party that should stay behind which he did accordingly In the morning when he was ready to march he receiv'd information that the Rebels were possessed of a Pass by which he was to go whereupon he sent some Troops to get a Foard three miles from the way the Army was to march and by that means to come upon the Rear of the Rebels by the time the Army should come to the Pass which being done after a short Encounter in which many were killed the Rebels were put to flight and the Pass gain'd In this action Mr. White was taken on Horse-back with a Case of Pistols who desired to be brought to the Marquess which being done he told him he was the Person for whom the Countess of West-Meath had besought his favour the night before and that his Lordship had promised that he should be safe The Marquess told him if he were the same Person it was his own fault that he was not safe if he had staid in the house he was in this had not befaln him that it was now out of his Power to preserve him himself being bound to pursue those Orders which the Lords Justices had given him Nevertheless he did endeavour to have saved him at least till he might be brought to Dublin But the whole Army possessed with a bitter spirit against the Romish Clergy mutinied upon it and in the end compelled the Marquess to leave him unto that Justice which they were authoris'd to execute and so put him to death Who can now upon these two Instances and no other can or have been given reasonably and honestly say that the Marquess hath had his hands defiled with the blood of Priests And from the time that he had the chief Power committed to him there was not one Priest how Maliciously Rebelliously or Treacherously soever they behaved themselves against the Kings Service and the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who suffered death but also all other acts of Blood and Rage which are not necessary though hardly avoidable in the most just War were declined and discountenanced by him nay for his Respect to affairs of this nature that they might be evenly and without passion carried on did he not often undergo even with his own Party a suspicion of not being sufficiently faithful The Consequences of which had many Censures The truth is the Rebellion was odious to him yet his desire often to reclaim the Irish by Mercy palliated what otherwise might have finished some thought the War sooner then it had its Determination I shall pass over the many Tautologies and impertinent Calumnies in the said Declaration all which are sufficiently answer'd and clear'd by what is already contain'd in this Narrative and shall onely insert their conclusion in their own words as followeth For the prevention of these Evils and that the Kingdom may not be utterly lost to his Majesty and his Catholick Subjects this Congregation of Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of both Clergies of this Kingdom found our selves bound in Conscience after great deliberation to declare against the continuance of his Majesties Authority in the Person of the Lord Marquess of Ormond having by his Misgovernment ill Conduct of his Majesties Army and breach of Publick Faith with the People in several Particulars of the Articles of Peace rendred himself incapable of continuing that great Trust any longer being questionable before his Majesty for the aforesaid Injuries and ill Government to which effect we will joyn with other Members of this Kingdom in drawing a Charge against him And we hereby manifest to the People that they are no longer obliged to obey the Orders and Commands of the said Marquess of Ormond but are until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the common Enemy for the defence of the Catholick Religion his Majesties Interest their Liberties Lives and Fortunes in pursuance of the Oath of Association and to observe in the mean time the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe until otherwise ordered by an Assembly or until upon Application to his Majesty he settle the same otherwise And we do Fulminate the annexed Excommunication of one date with this Declaration against all opposers of the said Declaration Here we are arrived at one of the most fatal Conclusions of a desperate People any History ever mention'd yet as the case stood it was not possible for his Excellency to chastise their folly and madness such a reverence and esteem this unhappy Nation hath ever had of their Clergy that a seditious Frier and he happily none of their highest Order neither could take the Colours in the head of a Regiment and pronouncing damnation to those who should presume to march contrary to the General 's command caused the Soldiers to throw down their Arms and disband as fell out in an
called the removing of all Divisions as the best way to their Preservation They the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Gentry met in that Assembly conceiv'd That there was not a better Foundation or Ground for their Union than the holding to and obeying his Majesty's Authority to which they owed and ought to pay all dutiful Obedience And they did thereby declare and protest That their Allegiance unto his Majesty's Authority was such and so inherent in them that they would not be withdrawn from the same nor was there any Power in the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of the Kingdom that could alter change or take away his Majesty's Authority they holding that to be the chief Flower of the Crown and the support of the Peoples Liberty which they did thereby protest declare and avow and that they did esteem the same and obedience thereunto essentially inviolably and justly due from them and the chiefest means under God to uphold their Union and Preservation And they said They did unanimously beseech his Excellency in his great affection to the advancement of his Majesty's Service and his hearty desires of the Nations Preservation to which they said he had Relations of the highest Concernment in Blood Alliance and Interest to leave that Authority with them in some Person faithful to his Majesty and acceptable to the Nation To which Person when he should be made known to them they would not only afford all due obedience but would also offer and propose the best ways and means that God would please to direct them to for the preservation of his Majesties Rights and the Peoples Interests and Liberties and for the begetting a ready obedience in all Places and Persons unto his Majesty's Authority This Advice though it carried with it a particular Respect from the Assembly unto the Lord Lieutenant and an acknowledgement of the faithful and hearty Affections he had always had for his Majesty's Interest and Service in that Kingdom contrary to the scandalous Declaration gave not the Marquess the least confidence that his Majesty's Authority could find more respect in the Person of another than it had met with in him Therefore he writ to them by the same Messengers That he had sent the Authority to the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard to govern that his Majesty's Kingdom and People provided that their Declaration might be so far explain'd as to give the Marquess of Clanrickard full satisfaction that the expressions they made touching the obedience they owed and resolved to pay unto his Majesty's Authority was meant the Authority placed in his Lordship or any other Governour deriving or holding his Authority from his Majesty And that they esteem it not in the power of any Person Congregation or Assembly whatsoever to discharge or set the People free from obeying his Lordship or any other such Governour during the continuance of the said Authority in him without which he said he could not in Duty to his Majesty leave his Authority subject to be tossed to and fro at the uncertain Fancies of any Man or Men and without any probability of saving the Nation which could be no otherwise effected than by an absolute chearful obedience of the People unto the Authority placed over them And so having directed the Marquess of Clanrickard who submitted to that Charge out of pure obedience and only that he might not decline the Service which they would say would have preserv'd the Nation not to assume the Charge except the Assembly gave him full satisfaction in the Particulars required by him the Lord Lieutenant followed by the Lord Inchiquin Colonel Vaughan Colonel Wogan Colonel Warren and some 20 more Persons of Honour about the middle of December embarqued himself at Galway in a small Frigat called the Elizabeth of 28 Tuns and 4 Guns for France after he had refused to receive a Pass from Ireton who offer'd it choosing rather the Seas and Winds in that rough and blusterous season of the year than to receive an obligation from him having upon the most abstracted Considerations of Honour and Conscience faithfully adhered to his Majesty and the Crown of England without any regard had to his own Estate and Fortune as in the Act of Settlement fol. 99. is at large exprest And after being tossed at Sea for the space of some weeks and his other Ships in which his Servants and Goods and many other Passengers were lost he arrived in January at St. Malos in Britany from whence he went to Paris and soon after into Flanders thence he was imployed in a Service answerable to his Fidelity touching the Duke of Gloucester then in the Talons of the Jesuits whom with singular Prudence and Success he recovered Afterwards he was imbarqued in many Concerns of the Crown to the hazard of his Person whilst the Lord Inchiquin who had run the Gantlet on all sides retired into Holland a Person certainly of much Valour and good Conduct shewing both in an exemplary manner whilst he engaged for either Party Nor can his change of Sides to which some say he was too mutable be so properly imputed to any defect of Judgement as the unhappy Crisis of the Times his own expressions making it clear That had all things been the same they were pretended to be he would have continued as he was but Impostures being discovered he thought it ill to persist in their Fellowship Afterwards indeed he chang'd his Religion and thereby gave a suspicion that though he fought against his Countreymen he had a reverence for their Idea Certain it is he affected much to be President of Munster nor could any thing have barr'd him of it since his Majesty's happy Return wherein his Servants had the fruits of their Fidelity but his change of Religion which equally prejudiced the Lord Dillon in the Presidency of Connaght truely observable in them both We have before spoken of four Commissioners sent from the Parliament who as soon as they arrived in Ireland it is necessary to tell you presently applied themselves to the Work afore-mention'd they set out some Proclamations and travelled into the several Provinces of the Kingdom using the best means they could to raise Moneys by Sequestrations and other ways but by reason of the multitudes of Rebels which infested all the Garrisons and came up so continually about them little was to be done in that way The Lord Lieutenant was no sooner under sail than the Assembly applied themselves to the Marquess of Clanrickard who was then at his House at Loghreogh and besought him to assume the Government as Lord Deputy of Ireland according to the Power left with him by the Lord Lieutenant But the Marquess absolutely refused to do it except they satisfied the Proviso that was left in the Lord Lieutenant's Letter to them and that he saw such an union amongst them as might free the King's Authority from the Affronts it had been exposed unto
your Highness pious intentions for the preservation of the Catholick Religion your great and Princely care to recover his Majesties Rights and Interests from his Rebel Subjects of England and the high obligation you put upon this Nation by your tender regard of them and desire to redeem them from the great miseries and afflictions they have endured and the eminent dangers they are in And it shall be a principal part of my ambition to be an useful instrument to serve your Highness in so famous and glorious an enterprize And that I may be the more capable to contribute somewhat to so religious and just ends First in discharge of my conscience toward God my duty to the King my Master and to dis-abuse your Highness and give a clear and perfect information so far as comes to my knowledge I am obliged to represent unto your Highness that by the title of the Agreement and Articles therein contained made by those Commissioners I imployed to your Highness and but lately come into my hands They have violated the trust reposed in them by having cast off and declined the Commission and Instructions they had from me in the King my Masters behalf and all other Powers that could by any other means be derived from him and pretend to make an agreement with your Highness in the name of the Kingdom and People of Ireland for which they had not nor could have any warrantable Authority and have abused your Highness by a counterfeit shew of a private Instrument fraudulently procured and signed as I am informed by some inconsiderable and factious Persons ill-affected to his Majesties Authority without any knowledge or consent of the generality of the Nation or Persons of greatest Quality or Interest therein and who under a seeming zeal and pretence of service to your Highness labour more to satisfie their private ambitions then the advantage of Religion or the Nation or the prosperous success of your Highness generous undertakings And to manifest the clearness of mine own proceeding and make such deceitful Practices more apparent I send your Highness herewith an authentick Copy of my Instructions which accompanied their Commission when I imployed them to your Highness as a sufficient evidence to convince them And having thus fully manifested their breach of publick Trust I am obliged in the King my Masters name to protest against their unwarrantable proceedings and to declare all the Agreements and Acts whatsoever concluded by those Commissioners to be void and illegal being not derived from or consonant to his Majesties Authority being in duty bound thus far to vindicate the King my Masters Honour and Authority and to preserve his just and undoubted Rights from such deceitful and rebellious Practices as likewise with an humble and respective care to prevent those prejudices that might befal your Highness in being deluded by counterfeit shews in doing you greater Honour where it is apparent that any undertaking laid upon such false and ill-grounded Principles as have been smoothly digested and fixed upon that Nation as their desire and request must overthrow all those Heroick and Prince-like Acts your Highness hath proposed to your self for Gods glory and service the restauration of oppressed Majesty and the relief of his distressed Kingdom which would at length fall into intestine broils and divivisions if not forceably driven into desperation I shall now with a hopeful and chearful importunity upon a clear score free from those deceits propose to your Highness that for the advancement of all those great ends you aim at and in the King my Masters behalf and in the name of all the Loyal Catholick Subjects of this Nation and for the preservation of those important cautionary Places that are security for your Highness past and present disbursements you will be pleased to quicken and hasten those aids and assistances you intended for the relief of Ireland and I have with my whole power and through the greatest hazards striven to defend them for you and to preserve all other Ports that may be at all times of advantage and safeguard to your Fleets and Men of War having yet many good Harbours left but also engage in the King my Masters name that whatsoever may prove to your satisfaction that is any way consistent with his Honour and Authority and have made my humble applications to the Queens Majesty and my Lord Lieutenant the King being in Scotland further to agree confirm and secure whatsoever may be of advantage to your Highness and if the last Galliot had but brought 10000 l. for this instant time it would have contributed more to the recovery of this Kingdom then far greater sums delayed by enabling our Forces to meet together for the relief of Limerick which cannot but be in great distress after so long a Siege and which if lost although I shall endeavour to prevent it will cost much treasure to be regained And if your Highness will be pleased to go on chearfully freely and seasonably with this great work I make no question but God will give so great a blessing thereto as that my self and all the Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom may soon and justly proclaim and leave recorded to posterity that your Highness was the great and glorious restorer of our Religion Monarch and Nation and that your Highness may not be discouraged or diverted from this generous enterprize by the malice or invectives of any ill affected it is a necessary duty in me to represent unto your Highness that the Bishop of Ferns who as I am informed hath gained some interest in your favour is a Person that hath ever been violent against and malicious to his Majesty's Authority and Government and a fatal Instrument in contriving and fomenting all those divisions and differences that have rent asunder this Kingdom the introduction to our present miseries and weak condition And that your Highness may clearly know his disposition I send herewithal a Copy of part of a Letter written by him directed to the Lord Taaffe Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown and humbly submitted to your judgment whether those expressions be agreeable to the temper of the Apostolical Spirit and considering whose Person and Authority I represent what ought to be the reward of such a crime I must therefore desire your Highness in the King my Masters behalf that he may not be countenanc'd or intrusted in any Affairs that have relation to his Majesties Interest in this Kingdom where I have constantly endeavoured by all possible service to deserve your Highness good opinion and obtaining that favour to be a most faithful acknowledger of it in the capacity and under the title of Your Highness most humble and obliged Servant CLANRICKARD Athenree 20th Octob. 1651. Thus the Lord Deputy very faithfully discharged his duty and great cause there was to protest against such proceedings of the Confederates they putting his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland into the hands of a Foreign Prince and in that
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
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
raised by my Lord Strafford against Scotland First that every one should endeavour to draw his own friends into that Act. and at least those that did live in one County with them and when they had so done they send to the Irish in the Low-Countryes and Spain to let them know of the day and resolution so that they be over with them by that day or soon after with supply of Arms and Ammunition as they could that there should be a set day appointed and every own in his own quarters should rise out that day and seize on all Arms he could get in his County and this day to be near Winter so that England could not be able to send forces into Ireland before May and by that time there was no doubt to be made but that they themselves should be supplied by the Irish beyond Seas who he said could not miss of help from either Spain or the Pope but that his resolutions were not in all things allowed For first it was resolved nothing should be done until first they had sent to the Irish over-Seas to know their advice and what hope of success they could give for in them as they said all their hope of relief was and they would have both their advice and resolution before any further proceedings more than to speak to and try Gentlemen of the Kingdom every one as they could conveniently to see in case they would at any time grow to a resolution what to be and strength they must trust to then Mr. Moore told them that it was to no purpose to spend much time in speaking to the Gentry For there was no doubt to be made of the Irish that they would be ready at any time And that all the doubt was in the Gentry of the Pale but he said that for his own part he was really assured when they had risen out the Pale Gentry would not stay long after at least that they would not oppose them in any thing but be Neuters and if in case they did that they had men enough in the Kingdom without them Moreover he said he had spoke to a great man who then should be nameless that would not fail at the appointed day of rising out to appear and to be seen in the Act. But that until then he was sworn not to reveal him and that was all that was done at that meeting only that Mr. Moore should the next Lent following make a journey down into the North to know what was done there and that he also might inform them what he had done and so on parting Mr. Phillip Reyly and I did importune Mr. Moore for the knowledge of that great man that he spake of and on long entreaty after binding us to new secrecy not to discover him till the day should be appointed he told that it was the Lord of Mayo who was very powerful in Command of men in those parts of Connaght wherein he lived and that there was no doubt to be made of him no more than was of himself and so we parted The next Lent following Mr. Moore according to his promise came into Ulster by reason it was the time of Assizes in several Counties there he met only with Mr. Reyly and nothing was then done but all matters put off till the May following where we or most of us should meet at Dublin it being both Parliament and Term-time In the mean time there landed one Neale O Neale sent by the Earl of Tyrone out of Spain to speak with the Gentry of his Name and Kindred to let them know that he had treated with Cardinal Richelieu for obtaining succour to come for Ireland and that he prevailed with the Cardinal so that he was to have Arms Ammution and Money from him on demand to come for Ireland and that he only expected a Convenient time to come away and to desire them to be in a readiness and to procure all others whom they could to be so likewise which message did set on the proceedings very much so that Mr. Moore Mr. Reyly my brother and I meeting the next May at Dublin and the same Messenger there too It was resolved that he should return to the Earl into Spain with their Resolution which was that they would rise out twelve or fourteen dayes before or after Allhallontide as they should see cause and that he should not fail to be with them by that time There was a report at that time and before that the Earl of Tyrone was killed which was not believed by reason of many such reports formerly which we found to be false and so the Messenger departed with directions that if the Earls death were true he should repair into the Low-Countrys to Colonel Owen O Neale and acquaint him with his Commission from the Earl whereof it was thought he was not ignorant and to return an Answer sent by him and to see what he would advise or would do himself therein But presently after his departure the certainty of the Earls death was known and on further Resolution it was agreed that an express Messenger should be sent to the Colonel to make all the Resolutions known to him and to return speedily with his Answer And so one Toole O Comely a Priest as I think Parish Priest to Mr. Moore was sent away to Colonel O Neale In the interim there came several Letters and News out of England to Dublin of Proclamations against the Catholicks in England and also that the Army raised in Ireland should be disbanded and conveyed into Scotland And presently after several Colonels and Captains Landed with directions to carry away those men amongst whom Colonel Plunkett Colonel Burne and Captain Bryan O Neale came but did not all come together for Plunkett landed before my coming out of Town and the other two after wherein a great fear of Suppressing of Religion was conceived and especially by the Gentry of the Pale and it was very common amongst them that it would be very inconvenient to suffer so many men to be conveyed out of the Kingdom it being as was said very confidently reported that the Scottish Army did threaten never to lay down Arms until an uniformity of Religion were in the three Kingdoms and the Catholick Religion suppressed And thereupon both Houses of Parliament began to oppose their going and the Houses were divided in their Opinions some would have them go others not but what the definitive conclusion of the Houses was touching the point I cannot tell for by leave from the House of Lords I departed into the Country before the Prorogation But before my departure I was informed by John Barnewall a Fryer that those Gentlemen of the Pale and some other Members of the House of Commons had several meetings and consultations how they might make stay of the Souldiers in the Kingdom and likewise to arm them in defence of the King being much injured both of England and Scotland then as they were
every stranger and strangers so received or entertained And We do hereby in his Majesties name and under the pains and punishments here after mentioned command all Aldermen of Wards to transmit all Returns and Certificates made by the Citizens Inhabitants and Residents afore-mentioned to the Major or Recorder of the City of Dublin within twelve hours after receipt thereof or sooner if they conceive any sinister suspition of the persons returned together with the names of such of the said Citizens Inhabitants and Residents as shall not within the time afore limited make such Returns unto them And We do further in his Majesties name and under the pains and punishments hereafter mentioned command the said Major and Recorder of the said City of Dublin and also the Seneschalls or other chief Officers afore-mentioned to cause all Returns and Certificates that shall come to their hands to be delivered to the said James Earl of Ormond and Ossory within twelve hours after receipt thereof or sooner upon suspition as aforesaid together with the names of such Aldermen of Wards Inhabitants and Residents as shall not make such Returns and deliveries of Certificates as aforesaid respectively And if the said Major or Recorder or any Seneschall chief Officer Alderman of any Ward or any Citizen Inhabitant or Resident of or within this City the Suburbs thereof or two miles about the same or any other person or persons whatsoever shall offend contrary to the tenour of this Proclamation in not repairing to their dwellings in keeping any unnecessary retinues in not making any Return or Certificate in making any false or partial Return or Certificate in not returning the names of those who shall not in not making delivery of the said Returns and Certificates to the persons aforesaid in manner and within the times afore limited respectively they and every of them shall respectively incur and suffer such pains of death or such other severe pains and punishments as the said Earl and the Councel of War for the time being shall think fit to inflict and impose and as the danger of the persons and times shall require Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 11. day of Novemb. 1641. Ormond Ossory R. Dillon Cha. Lambert J. Temple Cha. Coote P. Crosbie God save the King APPENDIX V. Fol. 35. A Copy of a Letter directed to the Lord Viceco Cossilough from the Rebels of the County of Longford in Ireland which he presented to the State in their behalf Novemb. 10. 1641. Our very Good Lord OUR Alliance unto your Lordships Ancestors and your self and the Tryal of your and their performance of Trust unto their Friends in their greatest Adversity encourageth us and engageth your Honour to our fruition of your future favours The fixion of our Confidence in you before any other of the Peers and privy Councellors of the Kingdom doubleth this Obligation Your Lordship may therefore be pleased to acquaint the Lords Justices and Councel to be impanted unto his Sacred Majesty with our Grievances and the causes thereof the reading of which we most humbly pray and the manner of it First The Papists in the neighbouring Counties are severely punished and their miseries might serve as Beacons unto us to look unto our own when our Neighbours Houses are on fire And we and other Papists are and ever will be as loyal Subjects as any in the King's Dominions For manifestation whereof we send herein inclosed an Oath solemnly taken by us which as it received indeleble Impression in our hearts shall be sign'd with our hand and seal'd with our Blood Secondly There is an incapacity in the Papists of Honour and the Immunities of true Subjects the royal Marks of distributive Justice and a dis-favour in the Commutative which rais'd Strangers and Foreigners whose valour and vertue was invincble when the old Families of the English and the major part of us the meer Irish did swim in blood to serve the Crown of England and when Offices should call Men of worth Men without worth and merit obtain them Thirdly The Statute of the 2. Eliz of force in this Kingdom against us and they of our Religion doth not a little disanimate us and the rest Fourthly The avoidance of Grants of our Lands and Liberties by Quirks and Quiddities of the Law without reflecting upon the King 's Royal and real Intention for confirming our Estates his Broad Seal being the pawn betwixt his Majesty and his people Fifthly The restraint of purchase in the meer Irish of Lands in the Escheated Counties and the taint and blemish of them and their posterities doth more discontent them than that plantation Rule for they are brought to that Exigent of povertie in these late times that they must be sellers and not buyers of Land And we conceive and humbly offer to your Lordships consideration Principiis obsta that in the beginning of this Commotion Your Lordship as it is hereditary for you will be a Physitian to cure this Disease in us and by our Examples it will doubtless beget the like auspicious success in all other parts of the Kingdom For we are of opinion it is one sickness and one pharmach will suffice Sublatâ causâ tollitur Effectus And it will be recorded that you will do service unto God King and Countrey And for salving every the aforesaid Soars Your Lordship is to be an humble Suitor in our behalf and of the rest of the Papists that out of the abundance of his Majesties Clemency there may be an Act of Oblivion and general pardon without restitution or Account of Goods taken in the time of this Commotion a liberty of our Religion a repeal of all Statutes formerly made to the contrary and not by Proclamation but Parliamentary way A Charter free Denizen in ample manner for meer Irish All which in succeeding Ages will prove an Union in all his Majesties Dominions instead of Division a Comfort in Desolation and a Happiness in perpetuity for an imminent Calamitie And this being granted there will be all things Quae sunt Caesaris Caesari and Quae sunt Dei Deo And it was by the Poet written though he be prophane in other matters yet in this prophetically Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet All which for this present we leave to your Honourable Care And we will as we ever did and do remain Your very humble and assured ever to be Commanded Hugh mac Gillernow Farrall James Farrall Bryan Farrall Readagh Farrall Edmond mac Cael Farrall John Farrall in Carbuy Garret Farral Lisagh mac Conel Farrall Bryan mac William Farrall John mac Edmund Farrall John Farrall Roger mac Bryne Farrall Barnaby Farrall James mac Trig Farrall his Mark. Morgan mac Carbry Farrall Donnagh mac Carbry Farrall Richard mac Conel Farral William mac James Farrall James Farrall Taghna mac Rory Farrall Cormack mac Rory Farrall Conock mac Bryne Farrall Readagh mac Lisagh Farrall Connor Oge mac Connor Farrall Ed mond mac Connor Farrall
none of the old Irish nor of their Faction or Confederacy but as they then pretended altogether averse and opposite to all their designs and all others of like condition We therefore to give them full satisfaction having indeed at that time great confidence in their loyaltie did by Proclamation dated the 29. of October 1641. declare and publish that by the words Irish Papists VVe intended only such of the old meer Irish in the Province of Ulster as were then Actors in that Treason and others who adhered to them and that VVe did not any way intend or mean thereby any of the old English of the Pale nor of any other parts of this Kingdom then esteemed good Subjects VVe being then as we conceived well assured of their fidelities to the Crown and having experience of the good affection and services of their Ancestors in former times of danger and Rebellion And indeed so believing were we in their faithfulness and loyaltie to the Crown as we then also represented it into England for their advantage and thereupon in the Order of the Lords and Commons in the Parliament in England concerning Ireland His Majesties loyal Subjects of English Blood though of the Romish Religion being ancient Inhabitants within several Counties and parts of this Realm are mentioned as those who have always in former Rebellions given testimony of their fidelity to the Crown of England And in further testimony of the good affiance we had in their loyaltie VVe issued Arms to the several Counties of the English Pale the better to enable them to discharge their duties in defending those parts and His Majesties good Subjects therein against the Rebels upon deep professions of loyalty made by them and their seeming detestation of the loath somness of the crimes and bloody guilts of the Rebels which they for their parts professed with many Oaths and protestations to abhor and promised to oppose and resist them with all their power And we issued Arms also to many Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Pale and elsewhere of the Romish Religion for the defence of their Houses against the Rebels Yet much contrary to the expectation of all equal-minded men and in deceit of the trust reposed in them by this State and directly contrary as to their loyaltie and duty to His Majesty so to the great professions which they had so lately before made at this Councel-Board many of those as well whole Counties as particular persons entrusted with those Arms revolted to the Rebels carried His Majesties Arms with them and so the Arms which were trusted into their hands for the protection of His Majesties good Subjects they converted to the annoyance and destruction as much as in them lay of those good Subjects they were trusted to protect and of this State and Government and have not only not resisted the Rebels but have also joyned with them and they and the Rebels assembled in Arms in hostile manner with Banners displayed against his Majesty in besieging some of his Town taking into their possession by force or fraud many of his Majesties Burroughs walled and unwalled and in committing murthers spoyls robberies and many detestable cruelties on His Majesties good Subjects And although those of the Pale pretended that they were not able to assemble or Arm any strength against the Rebels yet lately they found means to assemble and arm great multitudes to assist the Rebels against His Majesties Forces and against His Majesties Government and this State and as well the persons who were the first Actors in this Rebellion as also many others in the English Pale and several other parts of the Kingdom forgetting those duties which by the Laws of God and man are due from them to His Sacred Majesty are so ungrateful to His Majesty for the great and abundant benefits and favours from Him and His Royal Father and Predecessors derived to them so insensible of the happiness which they with all others in this Kingdom enjoyed by His blessed Government and so improvident to themselves and their posterity as they have presumed most unnaturally to conspire raise and act those abominable Treasons and Rebellion against His Majesty as is herein formerly mentioned And forasmuch as those Rebels and particularly Sir Con Magenis of Newcastle in the County of Down Knight Patrick mac Cartan of Loghnelan in the said County Art oge mac Glasny Magenis of Ilandery in the said County Ever mac Phelim Magenis of Castlewelan in the said County Rory mac Brian oge Magenis late of Edenteecullagh in the said County Philip mac Hugh mac Shane ô Rely of Ballinecarrig in the County of Cavan Philip mac Mulmorry ô Rely of Lismore in the said County Mulmorry mac Edmond ô Rely of Cavet in the said County Hugh Boy mac Shane ô Rely of Kilmore in the said County Owen mac Shane mac Philip ô Rely of the same Rory Magwyre of Hassets Town in the County of Fermanagh Brother to the Lord Magwyre Donogh bane Magwyre of Carrow in the said County Uncle to the said Lord Magwyre Brian mac Cowconnaght Magwyre of Tempoe in the said County Sir Phelim ô Neal of Kinard in the County of Tyrone Knight Tirlagh Roe ô Neal brother to the said Sir Phelim Tirlagh Groom ô Quin of Donoghmore in the said County Cormock mac Owin oge ô Hagan of Mullinecor in the said County Patrick Modder ô Donelly of Crosscanena in the said County Art mac Tirlagh mac Henry ô Neal of Davernagh in the County of Armagh Tirlagh mac Tirlagh ô Neal of the Fues in the said County Hugh oge ô Neal of Aghadamph in the said County Donogh oge ô Murchie of Cashell in the said County Collo mac Brian mac Mahowne of Balloghie in the County of Monaghan Neal mac Kena of the Trough in the said County Coolo mac Ever Mahowne of in the said County Art Roe mac Patrick mac Art Moyle mac Mahowne of Fanahah in the said County Captain Hugh mac Phelim Birne late of Ballinecor in the County of Wickloe Shane mac Brien mac Phelim Birne late of Carrigocroe in the said County Luke alias Feagh O Toole of Castlekuen in the said County Luke alias Feagh mac Redmond Birne of Kilcloghran in the said County Redmond mac Feagh Birne late of Kilvane in the said County Phelim mac Redmond Birne late of the same in the said County Dermot mac Dowlin Cavenagh of Ballidony in the County of Wexford Lewis alias Lisagh mac Owny Dempsie of Rahynne in the Kings County Art O Molloy of Rathlian in the said County Hubert Fox of Kilcoursie in the said County Owen O Molloy of Clonekeene in the said County Florence mac Shane Fitz-Patrick of Castle-Town in the Queens County Barnabie Dempsie of Knockardegur in the said County Daniel Doine of Tenehinche in the said County Barnabie Fitz-Patrick of Raghdown in the said County James mac Fegus mac Donell of Taghnekilly in the said County Francis mac Faghny O Farrall of
of your Subjects by reason of the Court of Wards and respit of Homage be taken away and certain revenue in Lieu thereof setled upon your Majesty without diminution of your Majesties profits Answ. We know of no Oppression by reason of the Court of Wards and we humbly conceive that the Court of Wards is of great use for the raising of your Majesties Revenues the preservation of your Majesties Tenures and chiefly the Education of the Gentry in the Protestant Religion and in Civility and Learning and good Manners who otherwise would be brought up in ignorance and barbarism their Estates be ruined by their Kindred and Friends and continue their depending upon their Chieftains and Lords to the great prejudice of your Majesties service and Protestant Subjects and there being no colour of exception to your Majesties just Title to Wardships we know not why the taking away of your Court concerning the same should be pressed unless it be to prevent the Education of the Lords and Gentry that fall Wards in the Protestant Religion For that part of this Proposition which concerns respit of Homage we humbly conceive that reasonable that some way may be settled for that if that standeth with your Majesties good pleasure without prejudice to your Majesty or your Majesties Protestant Subjects 10. Pro. That no Lord not estated in the Kingdom or estated and not resident shall have Vote in the said Parliament by Proxie or otherwise and none admitted to the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within the Kingdom Answ. We humbly conceive that in the year 1641. by the Graces which your Majesty then granted to your Subjects of Ireland the matter of this Proposition was in a fair way regulated by your utter abolishing of blank Proxies and limiting Lords present and attending in the Parliament of Ireland that no one of them should be capable of more Proxies then two and prescribing the Peers of that Kingdom not there resident to purchase fitting proportions of Land in Ireland within five years from the last of July 1641. or else to loose their Votes till they should make such purchases which purchases by reason of the troubles hapning in the Kingdom and which have continued for two years and a half have not peradventure yet been made and therefore your Majesty may now be pleased and may take just occasion to enlarge that time for five years more from the time when that Kingdom may again be settled in a happy firm peace and as to members of the House of Commons the same is most fit as we humbly conceive to be regulated by the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom 11. Pro. That an Act be passed in the next Parliament declaratory that the Parliament of Ireland is a free Parliament of it self independant of and not subordinate to the Parliament of England and that the Subjects of Ireland are immediately subject to your Majesty as in right of your revenue and that the Members of the said Parliament of Ireland and all other the Subjects of Ireland are independant and no way to be ordered or concluded by the Parliament of England and are only to be ordered and governed within that Kingdom by your Majesty and such Governours as are or shall be there appointed and by the Parliament of that Kingdom according to the Laws of the Land Answ. This Proposition concerns your Majesties High Court of Parliament both of England and Ireland and is beyond our abilities who are not acquainted with the Records and Presidents of this Nature to give an answer thereunto and therefore we humbly desire your Majesties pardon for not answering unto the same 12. Pro. That the assumed Power or Jurisdiction in the Council-Board of determining all manner of Causes be limited to matters of State and all Patents Estates and Grants illegally and extrajudiciously avoided there or elsewhere be left in state as before and the parties grieved their Heirs or Assigns till legal eviction Answ. The Council-Table hath aways excercised Jursdiction in some cases ever since the English Government was setled in that Kingdom and is of long continuance in cases of some Nature as the beginning thereof appeareth not which seemeth to be by prescription and hath always been armed with Power to examin upon Oath as a Court of Justice or in the nature of a Court of Justice in cases of some natures and may be very necessary still in many cases especially for the present till your Majesties Laws may more generally be received in that Kingdom and we conceive that Board is so well limited by printed Instructions in your Majesties Royal Fathers time and by your Majesties Graces in the seventeenth year of your Reign that it needeth for this present little or no regulating at all howbeit they humbly referr that to your Majesties great wisdom and goodness to do therein as to Law and Justice shall appertain 13. Pro. That the Statutes of the 11th 12th and 13th years of Queen Elizabeth concerning the Staple Commodities be repealed referving to his Majesty lawful and just Poundage and a Book of Rates be setled by an indifferent Committy of both Houses for all Comodities Answ. The matter of this Proposition is settled in a fitting and good way by your Majesty already as we conceive amongst the Graces granted by your Majesty to your people of Ireland in the Seventeenth year of your Majesties Reign to which we humbly referr our selves 14. Pro. That insomuch as the long continuance of the chief Governour or Governours of that Kingdom in that place of so great eminency and power hath been a principall occasion that much Tyranny and Oppression hath been used and exercised upon the Subjects of that Kingdom that your Majesty will be pleased to continue such Governours hereafter but for three years and that none once employed therein be appointed for the same again until the expiration of six years next after the end of the first three years and that an Act pass to disanul such Governour or Governours during their Government directly or indirectly in Use Trust or otherwise to make any manner of Purchase or acquisition of any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within that Kingdom other then from your Majesties own Heirs and Successors Answ. We humbly conceive that this Proposition tendeth to lay a false and scandalous aspersion on your Majesties gracious Government over Ireland and that it toucheth very high upon your Wisdom Justice and Power and under colour of supposed Corruptions pretended to be in the greatest Officer that Commandeth under your Majesty there if he continue so long in his Government as may well enable him to find out and discover the true State of the Kingdom and the dangerous disposition and designs of the Popish party there to prevent him therein and to turne him out from doing Service before or as soon as he is throughly informed and experienced how to do the same and then to hold him excluded so long
that in all likelihood he shall not live to come to that place the second time which we humbly conceive will be a great discouragement to any person of Honour and Fortune to serve your Majesty in that high Trust and for their purchasing Lands in that Kingdom your Majesty may be pleased to leave them to the Laws and punish them severely if they commit any offence or exercise any oppressions under colour of purchasing of any Lands or Estates whatsoever 15. Pro. That an Act may be passed in the next Parliament for the raising and setling of Trained-bands within the several Counties of that Kingdom as well to prevent foraign Invasion as to render them the more serviceable and ready for your Majesties service as cause shall require Answ. The having of Trained-bands in Ireland for the present cannot under favour be for your Majesties service or the safety of that Kingdom for that the Protestants by the said sad effects of the late Rebellion are so much destroyed that the said Bands must consist in effect altogether of the Confederates Catholicks and to continue them in Arms stored with Ammunition and made ready for service by Mustring and often Training will prove under colour of advancing your Majesties service against foraign Invasions a meer Guard and Power of the Popish Confederates and by force of Arms according to their late Oaths and Protestations to execute all their cruel designs for extirpation of the Protestant Religion and English Government both which they mortally hate however in cunning they dissemble it and to prevent the setling an Army of good Protestants without which your Maiesties good Subjects cannot live securely there 16. Pro. That an Act of Oblivion be passed in the next free Parliament to extend to all your Majesties said Catholick Subjects and their Adherents for all manner of Offences Capital Criminal and Personal and the said Act to extend to all Goods and Chattels Customs Mesne Profits Prizes Arrears of Rents taken received or incurred since these troubles Answ. We humbly pray that the Laws of force be taken into consideration and do humbly conceive that your Majesty in Honour and Justice may forbear to discharge or release any Actions Suits Debts or Interests whereby your Majesties Protestant Subjects who have committed no offence against your Majesty or your Laws should be barred or deprived of any of their legal remedies or just demands which by any of your Majesties Laws and Statutes they may have against the Popish Confederates who are the only Delinquents or any of their party for or in respect of any wrongs done unto them or any of their Ancestors or Predecessors in or concerning their Lands Goods or Estates since the contriving or breaking forth of the Rebellion the said Confederates having without provocation shed so much innocent Blood and acted so many Cruelties as cannot be parallel'd in any Story and we conceive it to be high presumption in them upon so weak grounds to propound an Act of Oblivion in such general terms some of the Confederates having been Contrivers or Actors of such cruel Murthers and other Acts of Inhumanity as cry to God and your Sacred Majesty for Justice and they having of your Majesties Revenues Customs Subsidies and other Rights of your Crown in their hands are disbursed by them to the value of two hundred thousand pounds and more 17. Pro. For as much as your Majesties said Catholick Subjects have been taxed with many inhumane Cruelties which they never committed your Majesties said Suppliants therefore for their vindication and to manifest to all the the world their desire to have all such hanious Offenders punished and the Offenders brought to Justice do desire that in the next Parliament all notorious Murthers breaches of Quarter and inhumane Cruelties committed of either side may be questioned in the said Parliament if your Majesty think fit and such as shall appear to be guilty to be excepted out of the said Act of Oblivion and punished according to their deserts Answ. We conceive this Proposition is made but for a Florish and if the Confederates be so desirous to try their innocency as they pretend they need not stay for another Parliament in Ireland but submit to that which is now in being which is an equal and just Parliament as in some of our Reasons touching that point is expressed and the offering to draw it to a new Parliament is in effect to desire that they may be their own Judges for as that Kingdom is now imbroiled and wasted the chief Delinquents or their Confederates will be so prevalent a faction in the next Parliament that they will be able and doubtless will clear all the Popish party how guilty soever and condemn all the Protestants how innocent soever These Answers to the high and unexpected Demands of the Confederates we have have framed in humble obedience to your Majesties directions but being very sensible as of the weight and great importance of the business so also of our own weakness and want of time and well knowing that some of your Majesties Privy-Councillors Judges and Officers of that Kingdom are now in Town sent for over and here attending by your Majesties Command who by their long observations and experience of the affaires and State of Ireland are better able to give your Majesty more full and satisfactory Answers touching the premises then we can and conceiving that the Collection in Answer to the said Confederates Remonstrance which we humbly presented to your Majesty the 17th of the last Month of April may in many things give your Majesty more light then these our Answers do or can We humbly beseech your Majesty that the said Privy-Counsellors Judges and Officers as occasion shall require may be called upon and heard to give your Majesty the more satisfaction in these particulars and that to the same purpose the Book of the said Collections may be perused and considered of as your Majesty shall find most requisite After reading of which Propositions and Answers thereunto the King asked the Protestant Agents whether they had Answered unto the Rebels Propositions as they were to be granted by Him in Law and Justice and fit for the Security of the Protestants of Ireland or prudentially as the times were who humbly made Answer to his Majesty That they looked upon the Rebels Propositions as they appeared to them destructive to his Majesties Laws Government and Protestant Subjects of Ireland Then the Earl of Bristol said That if they asked what by Law and Justice was due from the Rebels their Answers were full But now the King expected from the said Agents what prudentially was fit for his Majesty to do seeing the Protestants were not in a Condition to defend themselves And that the King would not admit the Protestants to joyn with the new Scots or any other that had the Covenant To which the Agents conceived not fit to Answer more then what before in their Propositions and
manifessing of the truth of the Protestant Petition and proposing in the behalf of the Protestants according to the Instructions given them which the said Agents were ready to perform whensoever they should be admitted thereunto Touching which and other Particulars there were many motions but the Proofs they would have insisted upon by the importunity of other Affairs never came to their due discussion APPENDIX XV. Fol. 120. THE SPEECH Of His GRACE James Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland My Lords and Gentlemen THere is no duty incident to the Place I have the Honour to serve the KING in to which I come with less willingness or conscience than to this of speaking to such an Assembly And by that time I have done you will acknowledg I have reason to be unsatisfied with the necessity imposed by custom upon all that sit in this Place to make Speeches a Custom perhaps reasonably introduced by those that did or at least thought they did it well but somewhat hardly continued upon those that were sure they did it ill And yet though I am in the Number of the Last I will rather obey the Necessity than hazard the Imputation of Sullenness or Singularity Besides I do not know but that to be silent at this time and in this Place may be a greater Fault than any I hope I shall commit in speaking for we are taught by Infallible Authority and enjoyned by Indispensible Precept and it seems to be agreeable to the Dictates of NATURE and REASON as well as of RELIGION and PIETY that for all the Blessings we receive from the Divine MAJESTIE we should make as proportionable Returns as lie within our Power And therefore Publique and National BLESSINGS do require Publique and Solemn CELEBRATIONS This was it that induced the Transmission of that Act for an Anniversary Thanksgiving for his Majesties most Happy RESTAURATION and this is it which if it be dully that is sincerely performed is most like to perpetuate to us and to our POSTERITY all the Happinesses consequent to that BLESSING What these Happinesses are or at least may be if we Our selves obstruct not the course of them would be best discerned and set off by a RETROSPECT into the state of things for above twenty years past and by opposing to that Dismal Object of Our remembrance the Chearfulness and Serenity of the Prospect forwards If the Miseries and Desolations of those years could be enumerated in the time I mean to allow this Discourse or if they could be described to the Life by so ill an Orator as I am they would be fewer and more supportable than I doubt the sad experience of too many have found them to be I shall therefore only put you in mind of some more Remarkable and Fundamental deliverances and Restitutions wrought by most wonderful Providence as a thankful acknowledgment fit as I conceive to be the subject of the first Discourse from this place where I have the honour how unworthily and how unresemblingly soever to represent the Majestie of my Great Master This very Seat of Royaltie is delivered from some neglected Corner or contemptible Use or from a Profanation worse than either from the Usurpation of mean and low Aspirers who having no shadow of right to it had no other way to ascend it than by treading down and destroying whatever was ordained by God or Man to fence and guard it their extravagant Ambition transporting them and darkning their understanding to that degree as not to consider how short their possession of that Throne must be to the disarming and violation of which they themselves had but newly shewn the way VVe see this Throne now restored to its proper place and Natural use surrounded and supported by Peers and Prelates by Officers Magistrates and Judges the Out-works as well as Ornaments of Majestie VVe see it restored to the approach and I doubt not to the delight of the meanest of the Commons whom you Gentlemen do nor ought not disdain to represent for they are the Foundation upon which Monarchy is built the strength wherewith it is guarded and the wealth whereby it is sustained inriched and beautified It is restored to the undoubted Lawful Possessour the Off-spring of a long-continued Race of Princes in whom all the Contested Titles of former Ages are met without the pretence of a Competitor and in whom all the Vertues of the Princes of those Ages are united without the severity to say no worse of some of the Great and Warlike and without the as harmful weaknesses of others of more devout and peaceable dispositions A PRINCE that hath given frequent proof that though he loves and seeks peace for his Subjects sakes he fears not War for his own This Sword the Instrument of conferring Military Honour and the Emblem of inflicting Punishment is delivered from the ridiculous Stage-like Pageantry of later times and from a more execrable and Tragical Abuse from cutting off the most Innocent and defending the most guilty VVe see it now by the visible immediate hand of God restored and put into that Hand that only had His Commission to bear and use it and let it be Our Prayer That he bear it long and that he may bear it long that he bear it not in vain but to the terrour and extermination of Evil-doers and to the support and Protection of those that do well The King himself whose Throne and Sword these are is accountable to God and we to God for him for many and great deliverances He is delivered from the Murtherers of his Father and the Usurpers of his Inheritance from their restless endeavours to destroy his Person and to blast his Fame from their open violence and secret contrivements against both from Exile and all the Afflicting consequences of that miserable state of a King from comfortless wandrings from Protections from cold Receptions from narrow supports and from such applications for them as were more unsupportable than the want of them could be to him that was born and delights to give rather than receive them He is deliver'd from a continual tormenting Anxietie for the danger of his Friends and the oppression and slavery of his Countrey from the importunity of impertinent Arguments drawn from his misfortunes to draw him from his Religion and from a necessity of hearing and bearing with the Reproaches and Revilings cast upon our then Desolate Church only because she was desolate and made so by her own unnatural Children From this dejected despised and in all humane appearance desperate condition he is raised and restored to the Throne of his Fathers to his Native Countrey become more dear and valuable to him by his Experience of others to the free and uncontrol'd exercise of the Religion he was bred in to a capacity of making Royal Retribution for any kindness he hath received abroad or from home and which is the greatest earthly Felicity so good a KING as he could wish he is not only
Oratory is seldom unsuccessful but what the people got by following this thrifty Counsel some have taken the pains to compute and it is found that the Impositions laid and levied upon the people to support Usurpation and Tyrannie in a few bad years came to more than the most chargeable Princes had raised in some Ages to conquer Enemies and Infidels abroad whilest this was employed to make Enemies of Friends and little better than Infidels of Christians at home I confess this Animadversion is not so seasonable now or proper to he applyed to you who in your Liberalities have outgone all Example and prevented even the Kings wishes nor are those Liberalities the less but the more valued by Him that he intends to apply them intirely to the security and improvement of a true Protestant and a right English Interest in this Kingdom There is nothing that declares indeed that constitutes perfect Union and a happy Harmony so much as mutual trusts and confidence and the interchange of gifts and benefits it is so in private Friendship and it is much more so in that good Intelligence which must make a King and His people happy The King has trusted you as far as ever King trusted Subjects and He has given you more than ever any King or Lord of Ireland had to give You have trusted the King with all you had and all you had to pretend to and you have given Him more than he thought of to desire Let it not therefore be apprehended that this Commerce must cease by the Prodigality on both sides as if there were no more to be given or received No my Lords and Gentlemen protection from Forreign Invasion and Rebellion at home the due and uncorrupt administration of Government and of the Laws and under them the advancement and encouragement of Piety and Learning Trade and all sorts of Industry and Improvements are benefits that may to the end of time descend from the Throne to you and yours And a due subjection to that Government and obedience to those Laws and application to that Piety and Learning to that Trade and Industry and to those Improvements may be as lasting Retributions from the People to the Throne I should here end this unusual Exercise but that I am commanded by the King to let you know that as He is abundantly satisfied with those demonstrations of Duty Loyalty and Affection you have given him during the whole time of your sitting so he looks with great Pleasure and Delight upon those Acts of Grace and Bounty that have past from him to you and he commands me to be sure not to forget to assure you upon all Proper Occasions that all his Promises shall be inviolably observed and that he will consent to whatever else may make this Kingdom flourishing and happy whether it shall be the Enacting of new and profitable or the repeal of old unuseful or burthensom Laws To say anything of or from my self in this place may be Presumption but to say nothing to you my Lords and Gentlemen to whom I owe so much must be Ingratitude You have before and since My Arrival been pleased to make many and obliging Expressions of your Approbation of the Kings choice of Me for this Government I have great reason to fear both the King and you consulted your Indulgence to Me more than your judgement of Me. Yet without much Presumption or Vanity I think I may say thus far the King and you may be excusable that He chose and You approved a Person whose Fortune and Family must prosper or decay must Ruine or Subsist by and with this Kingdom This has not perhaps always been the case and it is possible mean Abilities thus stimulated may be more profitable and industrious than greater actuated by less or by contrary Incentives There are upon me all imaginable Obligations to apply all that is in me to the safety and prosperity of this Kingdom Those of duty fidelity and thankfulness to the best and most bountiful Master in the World those of Retribution and Gratitude to you for extraordinary and liberal manifestations of kindness and affection and those self-preservation and Happiness Hence it may be concluded reasonably and naturally that my endeavours will be hearty and faithful and my failings which shall be as few as I can unvoluntarily and therefore the more pardonable You will presently when I am retired be at liberty to adjourn your selves to the time you desired Referrable to fol. 326. A form of Divine Service to be used October 23d appointed by Act of Parliament Anno Regni Car. 2di 14. die 27. Sep. 1662. to be kept and Celebrated as an Anniversary Thanksgiving in this Kingdom of Ireland THe begining of the Service to be according to the Form of the Common-Prayer then proper Psalms as 3. 9. 12. 46. 144. Proper Lessons for the First 2 Chron. 13. or Jer. 30. For the Second Lesson Mat. 9. or Acts 5. or Acts 23. And after the Collect for the Sunday this following Collect. ALmighty God and heavenly Father who out of thy most wise and watchful Providence and tender mercies towards us thine unworthy Servants hast been pleased as at all other times so on this day to prevent the extreme malice michievous imagination and bloody intention of our Enemies by revealing so wonderfully and opportunely their Rebellion and cruel Enterprises plotted against our dread Soveraign Lord the King and the whole State of this Realm for the subversion of this Government and the utter extirpation of the truth of thy Gospel and pure Religion professed amongst us We most humbly praise and magnifie thy glorious name for thine infinite goodness in this our marvellous deliverance We confess it was thy mercy thy mercy alone most merciful Father that we were not consumed And therefore not unto us not unto us O Lord but unto thy name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the Saints throughout all Generations For thou Lord didest discover unto thy Servants the snares of death thou didst break them and we were delivered Be thou still our mighty Protector and scatter our Enemies that delight in blood infatuate their Councils enfeeble their strength put fear in their hearts and accomplish this thy mercy in our safety and future deliverance And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Lord Lieutenant the Nobility and Magistrates of the Land with Jugdment Justice and Power to restrain such workers of Iniquity who pretend Religion and practise Rebellion and devout thine Inheritance This Lord we crave at thy merciful hands together with the continuance of thy powerful Protection over our dread Soveraign the whole Church and these Kealms and the speedy Conversion of all our Enemies and that for thy dear Sons sake Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate Amen After the Litany this Prayer for the Second Collect. O Eternal God in whom we live move and have our being and by whom alone
betwixt the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Authority Quaedam percontationes Reverendissimo Domino Nuncio a Clanrichardiae Marchione propositae 1. QUâ potestate vel Authoritate Nuncius Regiae Magistatis subditos à fide sua obedientia Statuto Regni Regnique Ordinibus debitâ abducat 2. Quâ potestate vel Authoritate Tribunos Centuriones creet militemque conscribat Qui nihil in communem hostem molitus Catholicorum Majestatus subditorum castella passim expugnet praedas agat omnia compilat 3. Quâ potestate vel ratione hominibus perjurus faveat eosque contra Rectores universique regni Ordines teneat ac tueatur 4. Quâ potestate manifestos proscriptos perduelles in retinendis ac propagandis validis munitionibus contra eos Qui Regni clavum tenent animet sustentet 5. Quâ potestate Regiae Majestatis obsequium professos Ejusque in hoc regno proinde Praefectis adhoerentes quos potest excommunicatos carceribus mancipet aliosque omnes promiscuè excommunicet To which no Answer that I could ever discover was returned but his Will Or that of Anastasius I will command but not be commanded Fol. 190. l. 49. The Pope Himself But before we proceed to that we shall be so just that wherein the supream Council disowned the Nuntio's Exorbitances Oppressions and Divisions through his Insolency we shall manifest their resentment acquainting you first that the Nuntio disliking the Cessation writes somewhat sharply to the Supream Council inveighing with more then ordinary detestation against the Lord Iuchiquin telling them that it was known through Europe how he had sack'd Cashell slain in St. Patrick's Church with horrible Sacriledge several Priests and Women at the Altar and afterwards compelled many Counties to pay Contribution and at last even before the Walls of Kilkenny insulted over the chief Magistrate To which the Supream Council having replied with much respect and ingenuity they as to this of the Lord Inchiquin told the Nuntio that what he did he did as an Enemy But upon the Cessation the means to induce a Peace Cashell the Cathedral and all the Churches thereabouts would fall into their Hands putting the Nuntio further in mind That when there was but a rumour only of agreeing with the Parliamentary Scots he was forward to encourage them to joyn in that Association That their Treasure was low that Jones had all necessary supplies from the Parliament whilst they lack'd even Corn That the Confederate Commissioners Ferns and Plunket returned from Rome onely with some Reliques but no Money Which working nothing upon the Nuntio who the 27. of May Excommunicated all that adhered to that Cessation the supream Council in their Declaration of the 3d. of June first admonished both seculars and Regulars as all of their Association That they no wise molest any of their respective Subjects Priests or Religious for persevering in their Loyalty or in pursuance thereof for approving the late Cessation made by them with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin Which not prevailing they in persuance of the Oath of Association the 20th of June 1648. enjoyned this Oath to be taken by all the Confedrate Catholicks I A. B. do swear and protest before God and his Saints and Angels that I will to the uttermost of my power observe the Oath of Association maintain the Authority of the Supream Council and the Government established by the general Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom notwithstanding the present Excommunication issued forth by the Lord Nuncio and four Bishops against the Concluders Maintainers and Adherents thereof and unto the Cessation concluded with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin and notwithstanding any other Excommunication to be issued upon the said Ground against which Excommunication and those who issued it I do appeal unto his Holiness as the indifferent Judge And I do further Swear that to the Hazard of my life I will suppress and oppose any Person or Party that shall stand in Arms in opposition of the said Association So help me God And that their further sence which they seemed to be much satisfied in might be fully known We shall here give you their Prolocutors following Letter who though he joyned with the Confederates we must from our knowledge of his Parts and Affections assure you in his own Nature was not averse to the English interest Concilii Catholicorum Regni Hiberniae Denunciatio ad Nuncium Domine mi PRaeceptum mihi est ab hoc Generali Regni Conventu Dominationi tuae significare varias Oppressiones Divisiones Exorbitantia Crimina Capitales Offensas Quas à Dominatione tua à tribus annis jam penè elapsis in hoc regno commissas hoc ipso Tempore in ineffabile Religionis Catholicae detrimentum Nationisque jam tam Antiquae quam Catholicae ruinam ac Subversionem sedisque Apostolicae dedecus continuatas ac perpetratas faederati Hiberniae Catholici ex sua Officiosa filiali in summum Pontificem reverentiâ nimiâ inauditâ apud ullam Nationem patientiâ hactenùs toleraverunt in hunc usque diem tolerant tandem compulisse haec Generalia Comitia ad valida legitima ejus Presidia recurrere pro conservandis Reliquiis Majorum Regni commodorum jam ad proximum integrae Ruinae punctum actibus tuis pravaque rerum Administratione redactorum Quapropter Dominationem tuam certiorem faciunt Declarationem * ac Protestationem contra te paratam ad suam Sanctitatem brevi mittendam esse cujus argumenti partem aliquam quam tibi placebit notare inclusum scriptum continet ac deinde ad iter Romam versus suscipiendum ibique te contra accusationem illam defendendam quam primùm parare Ac interim Dominatio tua sub interminatione paenarum caeteroqui tam divinarum quam humanarum legum vigore incurrendarum cavebit ne per se aut per ullum aliud Instrumentum directe aut indirectè ullis Regni sese hujus rebus immisceat Maneo Kilkenniae 19. Octobris 1648. Dominationis tuae admodum amicus de mandato Comitiorum Generalium Rich. Blaka Prolocutor But we suspect this Denunciation of theirs was rather delusive then entire for that afterwards we shall finde many of the Members of this Council though it drove the Nuncio out of the Kingdom stomach'd his Majesties Authority seated in his Excellency Fol. 228. l. 46. or allay In answer to whose Revolt it 's said besides what may be drawn from the Munster Remonstrance that those Towns declared with the Lord Inchiquin for the King in hopes that the Marquess would so have adjusted the Differences betwixt them and the Irish that there might have been such a visible power left in Him as to have managed the Government answerable to the Dignities of his Office and the security of the Protestants and their Religion But when they perceiv'd that the first was slighted and the latter not ascertain'd nay in effect at the Confederates mercy they again
called ordinarily the Council-Table be of Members true and faithful to his Majesty and such of which there may be no fear or suspition of going to the Parliament Party 3. That Dublin Tredagh Trim Newry Catherlagh Carlingford and all Garrisons within the Protestant Quarters be Garrison'd by Confederate Catholicks to maintain and keep the said Cities and Places for the use of our Sovereign Lord King Charles and his Lawful Successors for the defence of this Kingdom of Ireland 4. That the present Council of the Confederates shall swear truly and faithfully to keep and maintain for the use of his Majesty and his lawful Successors and for the defence of the said Kingdom of Ireland the above Cities of Dublin and Tredagh and all other Forts Places and Castles as above 5. That the said Council and all General Officers and Soldiers whatsoever do swear and Protest to fight by Sea and Land against the Parliamentarians and all the Kings Enemies And that they will never come to any Convention Agreement or Article with the said Parliamentarians or any the Kings Enemies to the prejudice of his Majesties Rights or of this Kingdom of Ireland 6. That according to our Oath of Association we will to the best of our power and cunning defend the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the Kings Rights the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects His Excellency is prayed to make Answer to the above Propositions at furthest by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next J. Preston Owen O Neile Let all dis-passionate men now consider what could the Marquis do his Quarters were so strait and narrow that they could yield no support to the few Forces he had left all his Garrisons besieg'd without an Enemy being destitute of all Provisions within all the Army he had for the Field and Garrisons amounted not to 5000 Foot and 1100 Horse without Cloathes Money or Fixed Arms and with so inconsiderable a Store of Ammunition that when the Nuncio was upon his march towards Dublin he had not in that most important City the Metropolis of the Kingdom more than 14 Barrels of Powder So that not onely the Inhabitants but the Soldiers themselves grew impatient of the distresses they were in and which inevitably they saw must fall upon them and they who had before presum'd in corners and whispers to tax the Marquis of not being zealous enough of the English Interest and too credulous of what was promised and undertaken by the Irish had now the boldness to murmur aloud at him as if he had combined with the Irish to put all into their hands They who from the beginning of the Troubles had been firm and unshaken in their Duty and Loyalty to the King and chearfully suffered great losses and undergone great hazards for being so and been of the most constant affection to and confidence in the Marquis and resolved to obey him in whatsoever he should order for the King's Service for the conducting whereof he was solely and entirely trusted by his Majesty could not yet endure to think of being put into or falling under the power of the Irish who by this new breach of Faith had made themselves utterly uncapable of any future Trust for what security could they publickly give for performance of the Contract which they had not lately given for the observation of that which so infamously they had receded from Whereupon he found it absolutely necessary to make a shew of inclining to the English and sent to the Ships then riding in the Bay of Dublin that they would transport some Commissioners from him to the Parliament to treat about the surrender of the City and the other Garrisons under his Command Which Proposition was embrac'd by them and the Persons deputed accordingly conveyed into England By this means the Marquis was forthwith supplied with 20 Barrels of Powder which the Captain of those Ships delivered to him the 10th of March by the permission of the Lord Lisle the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant without which he could have made no defence against the Nuncio whereby the Irish had a fair warning to bethink themselves in time of returning to their Duty since they might discern that if they would not suffer Dublin c. to continue in the Kings obedience it should be delivered to them who would deal less graciously with them and had power enough to punish those indignities which had been offered And the Marquis was still without other Engagement than to do what he should judge most conducing to his Majesties Service However the Rebels persisted in their intentions against Dublin where for a while we must leave them and see what course the Parliament took to infest their Quarters much they were concern'd that affairs went not on so successfully there as they expected where that they might have one Governour answerable to the exigencies of that Kingdom they Voted Philip Viscount Lisle Lord Lieutenant passing thereupon in April 1646. a Patent to him for one year allotting him 40000 l. with what else was requisite for his dispatch in raising which they were so slow many of the House being of an opposite Party as he could not get away from London till the 1st of Febr. 1646. arriving at Bristol the 6th where he found several of his own Troops and his Brother Colonel Sidney's in readiness to be transported for Ireland But Money being not come he was forc'd to Quarter them thereabouts till its arrival and himself with 30000 l. 7 Pieces of Battery 1000 Muskets 100 Barrels of Powder embarqu'd the 18th at Minhead and landed near Cork the 20th and came thither the day following where he was altogether unexpected especially by the Lord Inchequin he found things in great disorder the Army filled with Officers disaffected to him the Custodiums and Contributions no way manag'd to the publick advantage thereupon reform'd the defects and marching the 15th of March to visit Talloe Lismore Toughall Fermoy and other Places found the Countrey protected even to the Walls of the Protestant Garrisons so as no mischief could be done by them to the Rebels and about the 20th of March Knockmohun was delivered to him He order'd all things for the best advantage of the Interest he was put upon and finding his Commission was near expir'd the General Officers petition'd that in case his Lordship were not continued the Command of the Army might rest in them which the Lord President with others oppos'd The Lord Lieutenant's Commission determind ' the 15th of April 1647. And shortly after such animosities arose betwixt the Parliaments Commissioners and the Lord Inchequin as doubtless if some Privy Counsellors had not interpos'd great inconveniencies would certainly thence have risen The Lord Lisle accompani'd with the Lord Broghil and Colonel Sidney went presently for England and arriv'd at London about the beginning of May following taking the first occasion to give the House an account of his Journey which may
informed and to prevent any attempt against Religion and presently after I departed into the Country and Mr. Reyly being a Member of the House of Commons stayed the Prorogation and on his coming into the Country sent to me to meet him and I came to his House where he told me that he heard for certain that the former Narration of Barnewall to me for I did acquaint him with it was true and that he heard it from several there also was Emar mac Mahone made firmly privy to all our proceedings at Mr. Reylys lately come out of the Pale where he met with the aforenamed John Barnewall who told him as much and he formerly told me and moreover that those Colonels that lately came over did proffer their Service and industry in that Act and so would raise their men under colour to convey them into Spain and then seize on the Castle of Dublin and with their Arms there to Arm their Souldiers and have them ready for any occasion that should be commanded them but that they had not concluded any thing because they were not assured how the Gentlemen of the remote parts of the Kingdom and especially of Ulster would stand affected to that Act and that assurance of that doubt was all their impediment Then we three began to think how we might assure them help and of the assistance of Ulster Gentlemen It was thought that one should be sent to them to acquaint them there with and they made choice of me to come by reason as they said that my Wife was allyed to them and their Countrey-woman and would believe me trust me sooner than other of their parts they or most of them being of the Pale And so without as much as to return home to furnish my self for such a Journey Volens nolens they prevailed or rather forced me to come to Dublin to confer with those Colonels and that was the last August was Twelve-month Coming to Town I met Sir James Dillon accidentally before I came to my Lodging who was one of those Colonels and after Salutations he demanded of me where my Lodging was which when I told him and parted the next day being abroad about some other occasions in Town I met him as he said coming to wait on me in my Chamber but being a good way from it he desired me to go into his own Chamber being near at hand And then began to discourse of the present sufferings and afflictions of that Kingdom and particularly of Religion and how they were to expect no redress the Parliament in England intending and the Scots resolving never to lay down Arms until the Catholick Religion were suppressed Then he likewise began to lay down what danger it would be to suffer so many able Men as was to go with them to depart the Kingdom in such a time Neither said he do their other Gentlemen that are Colonels and my self affect our own private profit so as to prefer it before the general good of the Kingdom And knowing you are well affected thereunto and I hope said he ready to put your helping-hand to it upon occasion I will let you know the resolution of those other Gentlemen and mine which is if we are ready to raise our Men and after to seize on the Castle where there is great great store of Arms and arm our selves there This was the first motion that ever I heard of taking the Castle for it never came into our thoughts formerly nor am I perswaded ever would if it had not proceeded from those Colonels who were the first motioners and contrivers thereof for ought known to me and then to be ready to prevent and resist any danger that the Gentlemen of the Kingdom like thereof and help us For we of our selves neither are able nor will do any thing therein without their assistance I began according to the directions that were sent with me to approve of their Resolution and also to let him know how sure he might be of the assistance of those of Ulster Then he told us that for my more satisfaction I should confer with the rest of the Colonels themselves as many as are privy to the Action and accordingly a place of meeting was appointed that afternoon and on the time and place appointed there met Sir James himself Colonel Bourne and Colonel Plunket And that former Discourse being renewed they began to lay down the Obstacles to that Enterprise and how they should be redressed 1st If there should VVar ensue how there should be Money had to pay the Souldiers 2ly How and where they should procure succours from Forreign parts 3dly How to draw in the Pale Gentlemen 4thly Who should undertake to surprise the Castle and how it should be done To the first it was answered That the Rents in the Kingdom every where not having respect whose they should be due to the Lords and Gentlemen thereof should be collected to pay the Souldiers And moreover they might be sure nay that there was no doubt thereof to procure money from the Pope who gave several promises formerly to my Lord of Tyrone in case he could make way to come into Ireland to maintain six thousand men yearly at his own charge and that notwithstanding that my Lord of Tyrone was dead yet that he would continue the same forwardness now To the second it was answered by Colonel Bourne that help from abroad could not fail them For said he Colonel O Neal told me that he had or would procure in readiness I do not remember which of those the Colonel spake or whether he spoke positive that Colonel O Neal had Arms or would procure them Arms for ten thousand men And moreover said he I make no great question that if we send into Spain we shall not miss of aid for I being in London the last year in the Scots troubles I was in conference with one of the Spanish Ambassadours there then and talking of their troubles then a-foot he said That if the Irish did then rise too and send to Spain their Messengers would be received under Canopies of Gold These last words he told me and some one man of those that were present privately whose name I cannot call to mind neither well remember I whether he spoke to them all or no then it was thought that when they were both in Arms for defence of the Catholick cause they would be succoured by the Catholick Princes of Christendom To the third it was answered by Colonel Plunket That he was as morally certain for those were his words as he could be of any thing that the Pale Gentleman would joyn with them and assist them For he said I have spoke to several of them since my landing in the Kingdom and I find them very ready and willing and withal I have at London spoke to some of the Committees and particularly to my Lord of Gormonstowne to let them know his resolution and they approved it very well