The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth Part 34

[Footnote 3: Thurloe, ii. 90, 115, 127, 136, 611.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.]

[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 20.]

[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. Feb. 10.]

[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. March 23.]

received from that prince to organize a new force, and oppose every obstacle in his power to the progress of the enemy. Ireton, who antic.i.p.ated nothing less than the entire reduction of the island, opened[a] the campaign with the siege of Limerick. The conditions which he offered were refused by the inhabitants, and, at their request, Hugh O'Neil, with three thousand men, undertook the defence of the city, but with an understanding that the keys of the gates and the government of the place should remain in the possession of the mayor. Both parties displayed a valour and obstinacy worthy of the prize for which they fought. Though Lord Broghill defeated Lord Muskerry, the Catholic commander in Munster; though Coote, in defiance of Clanricard, penetrated from the northern extremity of Connaught, as far as Athenree and Portumna; though Ireton, after several fruitless attempts, deceived the vigilance of Castlehaven, and established himself on the right bank of the Shannon; and though a party within the walls laboured to represent their parliamentary enemies as the advocates of universal toleration; nothing could shake the constancy of the citizens and the garrison. They hara.s.sed the besiegers by repeated sorties; they repelled every a.s.sault; and on one occasion[b] they destroyed the whole corps, which had been landed on "the island." Even after the fatal battle of Worcester, to a second summons they returned a spirited refusal. But in October a reinforcement of three thousand men from England arrived in the camp; a battery was formed of the heavy cannon landed from the s.h.i.+pping in the harbour; and a wide breach in the wall admonished the inhabitants to prepare for an a.s.sault. In this moment of suspense, with the dreadful example of Drogheda and

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. June 11.]

[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 15.]

Wexford before their eyes, they met at the town-hall. It was in vain that O'Neil remonstrated; that the bishops of Limerick and Emly entreated and threatened, Stretch, the mayor, gave[a] the keys to Colonel Fanning, who seized St. John's gate, turned the cannon on the city, and admitted two hundred of the besiegers. A treaty was now[b] concluded; and, if the garrison and inhabitants preserved their lives and property, it was by abandoning twenty-two individuals to the mercy of the conqueror. Of these some made their escape; Terence O'Brien, bishop of Emly, Wallis, a Franciscan friar, Major-General Purcell, Sir G.o.dfrey Galway, Baron, a member of the council, Stretch, the mayor of the city, with Fanning himself, and Higgin, were immolated as an atonement for the obstinate resistance of the besiegers.[1] By Ireton O'Neil was also doomed to die, but the officers who formed the court, in admiration of his gallantry, sought to save his life. Twice they condemned him in obedience to the commander-in-chief, who p.r.o.nounced his spirited defence of Clonmel an unpardonable crime against the state; but the third time the deputy was persuaded to leave them to the exercise of their own judgment; and they p.r.o.nounced in favour of their brave but unfortunate captive. Ireton himself did not long survive. When he condemned[c] the bishop of Emly to die, that prelate had exclaimed, "I appeal to the tribunal of G.o.d, and summon thee to meet me at that bar." By many these words were deemed prophetic; for in less than a month the

[Footnote 1: See the account of their execution in pp. 100, 101 of the Descriptio Regni Hiberniae per Antonium Prodinum, Romae, 1721, a work made up of extracts from the original work of Bruodin, Propugnaculum Catholicae Veritatis, Pragae, 1669. The extract referred to in this note is taken from 1. iv. c. xv. of the original work.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 23.]

[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 27.]

[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Nov. 25.]

victorious general fell a victim to the pestilential disease which ravaged the west of Ireland. His death proved a severe loss to the commonwealth, not only on account of his abilities as an officer and a statesman, but because it removed the princ.i.p.al check to the inordinate ambition of Cromwell.[1]

During the next winter the confederates had leisure to reflect on their forlorn condition. Charles, indeed, a second time an exile, solicited[a]

them to persevere;[2] but it was difficult to persuade men to hazard their lives and fortunes without the remotest prospect of benefit to themselves or to the royal cause; and in the month of March Colonel Fitzpatric, a celebrated chieftain in the county of Meath, laid down[b] his arms, and obtained in return the possession of his lands. The example alarmed the confederates; and Clanricard, in their name, proposed[c] a general capitulation: it was refused by the stern policy of Ludlow, who a.s.sumed the command on the death of Ireton; a succession of surrenders followed; and O'Dwyer, the town of Galway, Thurlogh O'Neil, and the earl of Westmeath, accepted the terms dictated by the enemy; which were safety for their persons and personal property, the restoration of part of their landed estates, according to the qualifications to be determined by parliament, and permission to reside within the commonwealth, or to enter with a certain number of followers into the service of any foreign prince in amity with England. The benefit of these articles did not extend to persons who had taken

[Footnote 1: Ludlow, i. 293, 296, 298, 299, 300, 307, 310, 316-324. Heath, 304, 305. Ireton's letter, printed by Field, 1651. Carte, ii. 154. The parliament ordered Ireton's body to be interred at the public expense. It was conveyed from Ireland to Bristol, and thence to London, lay in state in Somerset House, and on February 6th was buried in Henry the Seventh's chapel.--Heath, 305.]

[Footnote 2: Clanricard, 51.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Jan. 31.]

[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. March 7.]

[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. March 24.]

up arms in the first year of the contest, or had belonged to the first general a.s.sembly, or had committed murder, or had taken orders in the church of Rome. There were, however, several who, in obedience to the instructions received from Charles, resolved to continue hostilities to the last extremity. Lord Muskerry collected five thousand men on the borders of Cork and Kerry, but was obliged to retire before his opponents: his strong fortress of Ross opened[a] its gates; and, after some hesitation, he made his submission. In the north, Clanricard reduced Ballyshannon and Donnegal; but there his career ended; and Coote drove[b] him into the Isle of Carrick, where he was compelled to accept the usual conditions. The last chieftain of note who braved[c] the arms of the commonwealth was Colonel Richard Grace: he beat up the enemy's quarters; but was afterwards driven across the Shannon with the loss of eight hundred of his followers. Colonel Sanchey pursued[d] him to his favourite retreat; his castle of Inchlough surrendered,[e] and Grace capitulated with twelve hundred and fifty men.[1]

There still remained a few straggling parties on the mountains and amidst the mora.s.ses, under MacHugh, and Byrne, and O'Brian, and Cavanagh: these, however, were subdued in the course of the winter; the Isle of Inisbouffin received[f] a garrison, and a new force, which appeared in Ulster, under the Lord Iniskilling, obtained,[g] what was chiefly sought, the usual articles of transportation. The subjugation of Ireland was completed.[2]

[Footnote 1: On this gallant and honourable officer, who on several subsequent occasions displayed the most devoted attachment to the house of Stuart, see a very interesting article in Mr. Sheffield Grace's "Memoirs of the Family of Grace," p. 27.]

[Footnote 2: Ludlow, i. 341, 344, 347, 352, 354, 357, 359, 360. Heath, 310, 312, 324, 333, 344. Journals, April 8, 21, May 18, 25, Aug. 18.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. July 5.]

[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. May 18.]

[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. July.]

[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. June 20.]

[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. Aug. 1.]

[Sidenote f: A.D. 1652. January.]

[Sidenote g: A.D. 1652. May 18.]

3. Here, to prevent subsequent interruption, I may be allowed to describe the state of this unhappy country, while it remained under the sway of the commonwealth.

On the death of Ireton, Lambert had been appointed lord deputy; but by means of a female intrigue he was set aside in favour of Fleetwood, who had married Ireton's widow.[1] To Fleetwood was a.s.signed the command of the forces without a colleague; but in the civil administration were joined with him four other commissioners, Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver. By their instructions they were commanded[a] and authorized to observe, as far as it was possible, the laws of England in the exercise of the government and the administration of justice; to "endeavour the promulgation of the gospel, and the power of true religion, and holiness;" to remove all disaffected or suspected persons from office; to allow no papist or delinquent to hold any place of trust, to practise as barrister or solicitor, or to keep school for

[Footnote 1: Journals, Jan. 30, June 15, July 9. Lambert's wife and Ireton's widow met in the park. The first, as her husband was in possession, claimed the precedency, and the latter complained of the grievance to Cromwell, her father, whose patent of lord lieutenant was on the point of expiring. He refused to have it renewed; and, as there could be no deputy where there was no princ.i.p.al, Lambert's appointment of deputy was in consequence revoked. But Mrs. Ireton was not content with this triumph over her rival. She married Fleetwood, obtained for him, through her father's interest, the chief command in place of Lambert, and returned with him to her former station in Ireland. Cromwell, however, paid for the gratification of his daughter's vanity. That he might not forfeit the friends.h.i.+p of Lambert, whose aid was necessary for his ulterior designs, he presented him with a considerable sum to defray the charges of the preparations which he had made for his intended voyage to Ireland,--Ludlow, i. 355, 360. Hutchinson, 196. Lambert, however, afterwards discovered that Cromwell had secretly instigated Vane and Hazlerig to oppose his going to Ireland, and, in revenge, joined with them to depose Richard Cromwell for the sin of his father.--Thurloe, vii. 660.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. August 24.]

the education of youth; to impose monthly a.s.sessments not exceeding forty thousand pounds in amount for the payment of the forces, and to imprison or discharge any person, or remove him from his dwelling into any other place or country, or permit him to return to his dwelling, as they should see cause for the advantage of the commonwealth.[1]

I. One of the first cares of the commissioners was to satisfy the claims of vengeance. In the year 1644 the Catholic n.o.bility had pet.i.tioned the king that an inquiry might be made into the murders alleged to have been perpetrated on each side in Ireland, and that justice might be executed on the offenders without distinction of country or religion. To the conquerors it appeared more expedient to confine the inquiry to one party; and a high court of justice was established to try Catholics charged with having shed the blood of any Protestant out of battle since the commencement of the rebellion in 1641. Donnelan, a native, was appointed president, with commissary-general Reynolds, and Cook, who had acted as solicitor at the trial of Charles I., for his a.s.sessors. The court sat in great state at Kilkenny, and thence made its circuit through the island by Waterford, Cork, Dublin, and other places. Of the justice of its proceedings we have not the means of forming a satisfactory notion; but the cry for blood was too violent, the pa.s.sions of men were too much excited, and the forms of proceeding too summary to allow the judges to weigh with cool and cautious discrimination the different cases which came before them. Lords Muskerry and Clanmaliere, with Maccarthy Reagh, whether they owed it to their innocence or to the influence of

[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 34.]

friends, had the good fortune to be acquitted; the mother of Colonel Fitzpatric was burnt; Lord Mayo, colonels Tool, Bagnal, and about two hundred more, suffered death by the axe or by the halter. It was, however, remarkable, that the greatest deficiency of proof occurred in the province where the princ.i.p.al ma.s.sacres were said to have been committed. Of the men of Ulster, Sir Phelim O'Neil is the only one whose conviction, and execution, have been recorded.[1]

II. Cromwell had not been long in the island before he discovered that it was impossible to accomplish the original design of extirpating the Catholic population; and he therefore adopted the expedient of allowing their leaders to expatriate themselves with a portion of their countrymen, by entering into the service of foreign powers. This plan was followed by his successors in the war, and was perfected by an act of parliament, banis.h.i.+ng all the Catholic officers. Each chieftain, when he surrendered, stipulated for a certain number of men: every facility was furnished him to complete his levy; and the exiles hastened to risk their lives in the service of the Catholic powers who hired them; many in that of Spain, others of France, others of Austria, and some of the republic of Venice.

Thus the obnoxious population was reduced by the number of thirty, perhaps forty thousand able-bodied men; but it soon became a question how to dispose of their wives and families, of the wives and families of those who had perished by the ravages of disease and the casualties of war, and of the mult.i.tudes who, chased from their homes and employments, were reduced to a state of t.i.tter dest.i.tution. These at different times, to the amount of several

[Footnote 1: Ludlow, ii. 2, 5, 8-11. Heath, 332, 333.]

thousands, were collected in bodies, driven on s.h.i.+pboard, and conveyed to the West Indies.[1] Yet with all these drains on the one party, and the continual accession of English and Scottish colonists on the other, the Catholic was found to exceed the Protestant population in the proportion of eight to one.[2] Cromwell, when he had reached the zenith of his power, had recourse to a new expedient. He repeatedly solicited the fugitives, who, in the reign of the late king, had settled in New England, to abandon their plantations and accept of lands in Ireland. On their refusal, he made the same offer to the Vaudois, the Protestants of Piedmont, but was equally unsuccessful. They preferred their native valleys, though

[Footnote 1: According to Petty (p. 187), six thousand boys and women were sent away. Lynch (Cambrensis Eversus, in fine) says that they were sold for slaves. Bruodin, in his Propugnaculum (Pragae, anno 1660) numbers the exiles at one hundred thousand. Ultra centum millia omnis s.e.xus et aetatis, e quibus aliquot millia in diversas Americae tabaccarias insulas relegata sunt (p. 692). In a letter in my possession, written in 1656, it is said: Catholicos pauperea plenis navibus mittunt in Barbados et insulas Americae.

Credo jam s.e.xaginta millia abivisse. Expulsis enim ab initio in Hispaniam et Belgium maritis, jam uxores et proles in Americam destinantur.--After the conquest of Jamaica in 1655, the protector, that he might people it, resolved to transport a thousand Irish boys and a thousand Irish girls to the island. At first, the young women only were demanded to which it is replied: "Although we must use force in taking them up, yet, it being so much for their own good, and likely to be of so great advantage to the public, it is not in the least doubted that you may have such number of them as you shall think fit."--Thurloe, iv. 23. In the next letter II.

Cromwell says: "I think it might be of like advantage to your affairs there, and ours here, if you should think fit to send one thousand five hundred or two thousand young boys of twelve or fourteen years of age to the place aforementioned. We could well spare them, and they would be of use to you; and who knows but it may be a means to make them Englishmen, I mean rather Christians?" (p. 40). Thurloe answers: "The committee of the council have voted one thousand girls, and as many youths, to be taken up for that purpose" (p. 75).]

[Footnote 2: Petty, Polit. Arithmetic, 29.]

under the government of a Catholic sovereign, whose enmity they had provoked, to the green fields of Erin, and all the benefits which they might derive from the fostering care and religions creed of the protector.[1]

III. By an act,[a] ent.i.tled an act for the settlement of Ireland, the parliament divided the royalists and Catholics into different cla.s.ses, and allotted to each cla.s.s an appropriate degree of punishment. Forfeiture of life and estate was p.r.o.nounced against all the great proprietors of lands, banishment against those who had accepted commissions; the forfeiture of two-thirds of their estates against all who had borne arms under the confederates of the king's lieutenant, and the forfeiture of one-third against all persons whomsoever who had not been in the actual service of parliament, or had not displayed their constant good affection to the commonwealth of England. This was the doom of persons of property: to all others, whose estates, real and personal, did not amount to the value of ten pounds, a full and free pardon was graciously offered.[2]

Care, however, was taken that the third parts, which by this act were to be restored to the original proprietors, were not to be allotted to them out of their former estates, but "in such places as the parliament, for the more effectual settlement of the peace of the nation, should think fit to appoint." When the first plan of extermination had failed, another project was adopted of confining the Catholic landholders to Connaught and Clare, beyond the river Shannon, and of dividing the remainder of the island, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster, among Protestant colonists. This, it

[Footnote 1: Hutchinson, Hist. of Ma.s.sachusetts, 190. Thurloe, iii. 459.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, Aug. 12, 1652. Scobell, ii. 197, Ludlow, i. 370.

In the Appendix I have copied this act correctly from the original in the possession of Thomas Lloyd, Esq. See note (F).]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Aug. 12.]

was said, would prevent the quarrels which must otherwise arise between the new planters and the ancient owners; it would render rebellion more difficult and less formidable; and it would break the hereditary influence of the chiefs over their septs, and of the landlords over their tenants.

Accordingly the little parliament, called by Cromwell and his officers, pa.s.sed a second act,[a] which a.s.signed to all persons, claiming under the qualifications described in the former, a proportionate quant.i.ty of land on the right bank of the Shannon; set aside the counties of Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford in Munster, of King's County, Queen's County, West Meath, and East Meath in Leinster, and of Down, Antrim, and Armagh in Ulster, to satisfy in equal shares the English adventurers who had subscribed money in the beginning of the contest, and the arrears of the army that had served in Ireland since Cromwell took the command; reserved for the future disposal of the government the forfeitures in the counties of Dublin, Cork, Kildare, and Carlow; and charged those in the remaining counties with the deficiency, if their should be any in the first ten, with the liquidation of several public debts, and with the arrears of the Irish army contracted previously to the battle of Rathmines.

To carry this act into execution, the commissioners, by successive proclamations, ordered all persons who claimed under qualifications, and in addition, all who had borne arms against the parliament, to "remove and transplant" themselves into Connaught and Clare before the first of May, 1654.[1] How many

[Footnote 1: See on this question "The Great Subject of Transplantation in Ireland discussed," 1654. Laurence, "The Interest of England in the Irish Transplantation stated," 1654; and the answer to Laurence by Vincent Gookin, the author of the first tract.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1653. Sept. 26.]