IT pleased Almighty God, after a long exile, to bring back Charles the second to the throne of his ancestors. His majesty landed from Holland, at Dover, in England, on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1660, and arrived at his palace of Whitehall, in London, on the twenty-ninth of the same month. There is nothing now to be seen or heard but joys and jubilees throughout the British empire, for the royal physician is come to heal the three bleeding nations, and to give them the life of free-born subjects. The great Justiciary is seated again in his tribunal, to distribute justice amongst the oppressed, which had been banished from the land for twenty years before, so that the loyal people of the three kingdoms may now call themselves happy, because they had suffered much for their prince, who, having been their fellow-sufferer, and now being restored to his power, cannot but share his happiness with them.
The first thing the king did, after his coming to London, for the settlement of his kingdoms, was to go about performing the promise he-had made in his declaration sent into England from Breda, which was to pardon all his subjects except such as the present parliament of England should think fit to leave out of the amnesty, to whose discretion he left the matter.
This parliament was chosen upon an agreement made between general Monk and the little remnant of the old rump parliament, sitting some weeks before the king came into England, by the free election of the people in general. And they sat while the king was in Flanders, and at last voted for the calling home of his majesty, that being the only way (as Monk had judged in his resolution of restoring the king) to end the long distractions of the three realms, caused by the different governments of madmen or fools, who usurped the sovereign authority from time to time. We may reasonably believe that a great many members of this parliament were of the old
The parliament, the next day, took the king's speech into consideration, and began the framing of the bill of oblivion. The king, in eight weeks after, came to the parliament, and in his speech he had this paragraph concerning his Irish subjects, for whom he was particularly zealous in the general pardon to be given, saying thus, on thetwenty-seventh of July, 1660: ‘I hope I need not put you in mind of Ireland, and that they alone shall not be without the benefit of my mercy. They have shown much affection to me abroad, and you will have a care of my honour, and what I have promised to them.’ This was a passionate discourse, and worthy of the king, who therein was grateful1y sensible of the obligations he owed to his best subjects. But how he actually discharged this debt, and how that parliament preserved his honour in concurring to his desire of having the Irish included in the act of oblivion, we shall behold immediately.
This speech of the king in behalf of the Irish gained the hearts of several members in both houses of parliament, as it did the good-will of all honest men who heard of the speech, and especially who had known the gallant fidelity of the Irish Catholics towards the king. But, it seems, the old design of ruining the Catholic nation of Ireland, at least in their fortunes, was not extinct by the king's oratory for them, nor by their monumental loyalty. Nay, the design was carried on with greater vehemency in the king's face, as if it were because the king appeared for them, or rather because the estates of the Irish were already in the possession of the Cromwellian brethren, and, therefore, by no means must those estates be taken away from them, though the world should cry shame upon the parliament and all their abettors. How this design was compassed, of excluding the Irish from the said general pardon, and, in consequence, from a repossession of their ancient inheritances, we shall here show you. The lord Broghill (afterwards earl of Orrery) and sir Charles Coote (afterwards made earl of Mountrath) being the most stirring men of the Cromwellian Protestants in Ireland, understanding a little before the restoration that king Charles the second would be soon settled in the throne of England:ndash;these two persons, I say, got together a meeting of their brethren, the usurpers of the Irish estates, at Dublin, to consult how they should prevent the restitution of those estates to the Irish proprietors upon the king's accession to the crown. In this consultation they resolved to imprison all the leading Catholic of Ireland, to the end those Catholic might be no assistance to the king's entrance into England if the English parliament should give resistance, unless his majesty would condescend to hard conditions, as these rebels, Broghill, Coote, and the rest did expect. Upon this resolution the prisons of Ireland were fined with nobility and gentry. Immediately after, this fanatic cabal sent sir John Clotworthy, that famous plunderer, into England, to disperse stories that it would be dangerous for the. new English interest in Ireland (that is, for the usurped possessions of Cromwellian rebels) to have the Irish natives restored to their lands of inheritance. Here, reader, you are to know that these terms, ‘the English interest
But to resume our interrupted narrative. King Charles the second at this time landed in England, as above mentioned; and thereupon the Irish gentlemen who had been a little before imprisoned in Ireland by the Cromwellian rebels, were set at liberty. However, Clotworthy (to improve his project) must needs go on with flinging about lies as fast as he could, and most foolish lies; for he showed counterfeited letters from Ireland, setting forth a new rebellion of the Irish, who were murdering his majesty's Protestant subjects, and violently entering into the possessions of other men; though those Irish were but immediately before delivered from prison, and wholly armless, and under the severe guard of a Cromwellian army. Notwithstanding these truths, this tale, as ridiculous as it was, moved the silly parliament so far, that they presented a proclamation to the king to be signed by him against the Irish; and his majesty as rashly signed it—which was published on the third of June, the fourth day after the king came to London—a fair commencement of his reign. Sir John Clotworthy, being encouraged by this success of his first endeavour, and being now assisted by the lord Broghill and other Cromwellian agents, arrived out of Ireland, is resolved to push on his good luck. These new agents brought with them bills for thirty thousand pounds sterling, in order therewith to facilitate the obtention of their aims. They tendered to the king twenty thousand pounds, as a small token of Ireland's affection to his majesty upon his coming home; as if they were the nation, and not a handful of mean strangers come thither the other day; as if they were loving subjects, and not obstinate traitors. They presented also gifts unto the royal brothers, the dukes of York and Gloucester. They gave a splendid treat to the duke of Ormonde, and another, with a gold cup, to general Monk, made duke of Albemarle. But as to Sir John Clotworthy, he being now aided by these, his fellow agents, and fearing that a general act of indemnity would be made, he most impudently tendered to the parliament a proviso against including the Irish therein,
But to revert to the grand business of pardoning the subjects of England, Ireland and Scotland. Both houses of parliament, being, in the greater number, evil-inclined unto the Irish as being Catholic, without considering justice, and being influenced by Ormonde's speech, and by the reiterated addresses of the Cromwellian agents, resolved at last to pass the bill of forgiveness, to the exclusion of the best subjects, notwithstanding the king's desire to the contrary; and so it was done, to the everlasting infamy of that Protestant parliament. The bill being thus made ready for the royal assent, the king came to the House of peers, as of custom, and gave his assent thereunto, not injustice to the Irish. Notwithstanding
This is a strange act of pardoning subjects for rebellion. The Catholic of Ireland are left out of the amnesty, yet they are suffered to live, nor is there any clause in the act for taking away their estates. Usually a subject guilty of rebellion is first condemned to the penalty of death, and in consequence thereof his estate falls to the king. But here the Irish subject is tacitly judged guilty of rebellion, yet he is neither pardoned, nor his life taken from him, nor his estate vested in the king, though in the possession of another who is an undoubted rebel, and who had usurped the same from the said Irish subject and his fellow-subject, because the said Irish subject fought for the king against that undoubted rebel and his general. This is a labyrinth in which the parliament of England have involved themselves. I am sure they will never get out of it by showing justice in their act of indemnity, and by demonstrating sense and reason therein, inasmuch as concerns the Irish. Protestants of England and of Ireland being joined in an army under the conduct of Oliver Cromwell, fought on the land of Ireland for the government of England, that had put to death Charles the first, and kept in banishment Charles the second. This is owned. Against whom did they fight in the said Ireland? They fought against the native Catholic. Why did they fight against the native Catholic? Was it because the said Catholic fought against the king? That is nonsense, for in such case the said Catholic and the
When this act of indemnity was notified to the Irish nobility and gentry, they were amazingly surprised thereat, as being so far from expecting any such treatment, that they rather hoped to be the first subjects in the king's favours. But they behaved themselves hereat like poltroons, not uniting in the common cause, nor helping themselves, as they should do, which is a misfortune frequent to the nation. Whence, we may say of them, gens ad servitutem nata. Calamity overspreads often a great people by the fault of a few amongst them, namely, when some betray the trust reposed on them; and when others become so selfish, as not to contribute the least, either in purse or in personal labour, to the general welfare, not caring a rush whether their country sink or swim, so they be well themselves under any masters; and choosing in the interim to consume their estates most sottishly on
This letter was delivered by the marquis of Ruvigny to the king, who surely was moved, and could not but think himself to have grossly erred in suffering the act of oblivion to appear without including the Irish Catholic. And the envoy was resolved to push on his master's resolutions of seeing the Irish pardoned, and consequently restored to their birth-rights. There was nothing wanting, as the case stood then, to the compassing of the business, but a vigorous concurrence of the Irish nobility and gentry, which being done, it would make the villains shake, and England to boot; for the king of France was in earnest, and his young, warm blood would carry him on violently to the vindication of his honour. But you will say that the Catholic of Ireland were not wanting in so just a concurrence with the most Christian king, for they had their agents then at London, by them authorized for that purpose. What do you tell me of such drones to be fit instruments, who could be put off by the fallacious or threatening discourse of every knave that was undermining the nation! When they heard that the French envoy came to England about their business, and that their agents had gained nothing, they should have made a hard shift to transport themselves in bodies to London, and there go, all together, with their petitions in their hands, and with the envoy in the head of them, to the palace of Whitehall; thus in the first place to make those rascally rebels understand, who fooled the king out of his design of doing justice, that they must not expect to trample loyal subjects, and incomparably their betters, under foot, when a king is in Israel, as they had done after banishing him; and thus, secondly, to support his majesty from fearing those traitors, who would render him ridiculous to the world by forcing him to commit such villainy as they themselves had done, and were doing it, and would do it again upon the first occasion. Thus, thirdly,
But what will you have of it? The Irish agents were deceived by some knavish promise made unto them of doing them justice, after an easy submission to threats of courtiers; for, as I was informed, some of them told the marquis of Ruvigny that the Irish nation was satisfied with such a course as the king would take for restoring them to their ancient estates, and that therefore he might spare his further trouble in concerning himself for them; which the envoy observed without more examining of the matter. But, alas! how little satisfactory the king's measures were to the Irish, which he assumed to make them a restitution of their fortunes, we shall see by and by.
In this while the interested enemies of the Irish were busy in securing their ends; for they could not be satisfied only with having the Catholic of Ireland left out of the amnesty, but they must also obstruct his majesty's further favours, or rather justice towards them. In order to do this effectually, they think it fit to gain the first minister of state, chancellor Edward Hyde. This man was of a sordid nature, and therefore he became servant to those knaves for a vast sum of money.
Now, the chancellor of England being their own, and the duke of Ormonde, both chief favourites of the king, this wicked convention proceeds boldly in their barbarous enterprise. They get first by the chancellor's means, the lord Robarts laid aside, who had a commission to be lord deputy of Ireland, because he was a person of known honour and integrity, and in consequence he would not be serviceable to them.
Immediately after, this blessed crew, as the lord Broghill, the earl of Anglesey, sir John Clotworthy, sir Audley Mervyn, Mr. Steel, Mr. Roberts, and Petty, put their heads together how to frame an instrument that should be the settlement of Ireland, and called ‘the king's gracious declaration’ for the settlement of that kingdom. This instrument was to be presented to the king, for his allowing it as his own, to the end the Irish Catholic might be prevented in obtaining any other declaration from his majesty in their favour, as the cabalists feared, though the Irish were excluded from the indemnity.
At last this declaration of the king's, or rather of the atheistical convention, was published on the thirtieth day of November 1660, it being about two months after the marquis of Ruvigny came into England, and six months after his majesty's restoration. At this same time, Broghill was created earl of Orrery; sir Charles Coote, earl of Mountrath, and sir John Clotworthy, lord viscount of Massereene. The earls of Orrery and Mountrath were also made, in conjunction with chancellor sir Maurice Eustace, the king's lords justices of Ireland. Heavens, can anything in nature be more preposterous than to see king Charles exalting his enemies, and such base enemies, nor was ever king so made a fool of by a few of his subject as this prince! Here you are
All things going hitherto according to the desires of the black convention, the two lords justices, Orrery and Mountrath, departed from London, to take possession of their government of the kingdom of Ireland, an honour their father's children should little expect, but much less such villains as they were—The lord Massereene, sir Audley Mervyn, and some others were left at court to follow the concerted business, and particularly to draw up private instructions, for the better executing the said declaration of his majesty in Ireland.
Now, let us see what this famous declaration is, which was penned by the enemies of the Irish Catholic, and therefore little good is to be expected out of it for the said Catholic. The first branch of the declaration confirms the possession of those lands in Ireland to the London adventurers, which Cromwell and the rump parliament gave them in the year 1653, in consideration of their plate and money brought to the treasury at London in the year 1642, in order to be employed in the war of Ireland. This lot of the adventurers amounted to ten counties, a prodigious compensation for a little money.
The second branch secures unto Cromwell's soldiers their proportion of the Irish lands conferred on them by their general and the rump parliament in 1653, to pay them their arrears of three or our years' service in Ireland, though they were well maintained and clothed during that time. But we suppose the general would be generous. Their quota comes to twelve counties. It is no wonder upon that score to see Oliver's soldiers, poor bakers, shoemakers, tailors, and the like artizans, lord it in their coaches throughout the kingdom of Ireland, while the true lords and gentlemen of those lands are going a-foot.
The third branch does satisfy the pretences of those Protestant
The fourth branch leaves the transplanted Catholic gentlemen in the fruition of those lands which had been given them by Cromwell and the regicide parliament, by way of charity, in the barren county of Clare, and in two like counties in Connaught. There are three counties more remaining in the kingdom. One of them by the declaration was appointed to supply the deficiency of the lots of the adventurers, least they had not enough for their money. Another county was to satisfy incumbrances that lay on the lands made over both on the soldiers and the adventurers. The third county was to reprize such soldiers, adventurers, and 1649 men as were to be removed from the estate belonging to the duke of Ormonde, who was positively to be put in possession thereof. And thus the king's declaration made by the Cromwellian possessors, and their great friends at court, distributed and settled all the lands of Ireland. But you will ask me: was there no provision made for the natives of the kingdom, besides that small pittance given to some of them in three unfertile shires, for their considerable inheritances in the provinces of Leinster and Munster? I answer: that this declaration provides for three sorts of Catholic natives: the first is, of those Irish officers who had served under his majesty's ensigns abroad, called, therefore, ensign-men, to the number of five hundred. The second is of article-men, who had received the peace concluded with the marquis of Ormonde, the king's commissioner, in the year 1648, which includes the whole nation. The third sort is of innocents, who had not borne arms before that peace against the king's government in Ireland, or against those general governors who called themselves the king's regents. But the first sort, the ensign-men, and the second, the article-men, are not by the declaration to be restored to their estates until first equal reprisals are found for the soldiers, adventurers, or others now in possession, who are to be removed from the lands of the ensign-men and article-men,
Behold a declaration that is worth our remarks. It is both foolish in a high degree, and unjust even to barbarity. It is strange that such a nonsensical piece could proceed from a man that is endowed with any reason. If the whole be given away, there remains no part of it to be given. If the two and thirty counties of Ireland are entirely conferred on soldiers, adventurers, 1649 men, and transplanted Irish, there rests nothing of Ireland to be granted to the ensign-men and article-men; or to reprise the soldier, or any other, that must quit his possession. 'Tis certain king Charles did not peruse this declaration, and examine it, but blindly allowed it; for otherwise he would not suffer it to come out for the honour, even of his judgment, because it was a shame nonpareil to be childishly imposed on by a parcel of loggerheads that had not wit in their knavery.
As to the injustice of the declaration, I ask of the composers of it, whether they believe the immortality of the soul? If they say they do, I am sure their actions give them the lie; for they have done wrongs against the lamp of reason not well expressible, and are eternally resolved to persist in them. Therefore, it is not rational to believe that men would quietly remain in the state of damnation to the last minute of life, if they held the soul to be subject to pain or bliss after the breath parts the body. To have wronged grievously their fellow subjects they cannot deny, and we have proved it sufficiently before, and therefore we may spare our labour to enlarge the proof. That they resolve to continue for ever this their wrong, they do confess it; and have de facto persevered to their dying day in the possession of their ill-gotten estates, without the least proposal of making restitution to the owners of them. And their heirs after them do enjoy the said estates with the same resolution. It will not excuse them before the tribunal of God to say that the king gave them a grant of those lands, and the parliament of Ireland confirmed it, even though they should have no
On the other side, if there be a God to punish vice, and a hell for the place of torture, and an immortality of the soul, then what shall become of these atheistical oppressors of a nation? Woe, woe, woe unto them. But this woe is as lasting as eternity. A hundred thousand millions of years will pass while they are in torments, and yet the torments of the damned shall not end; no, nor after millions of millions more of years. It must therefore be a miserable bargain, to feast and sport here for a few days of life, and afterwards to pay for it in everlasting pangs. This folly God himself upbraided mankind with, when He deigned to converse on earth with His creatures, saying, what does it avail man to gain the whole world if he makes shipwreck of his soul?
To turn to the king: we ask, with submission of his majesty, what title had he to the disposal of all the lands in Ireland? We know not any, nor he himself can deny it, unless in case of high treason. Yet this high treason must be proved according to the formality which law had settled. Now, if the king should ground his title upon forfeitures, as he does not, for he has declared the Irish good subjects, let every person reputed guilty be brought to trial, and if condemned, let him suffer death and the loss of his estate. The Irish nation is contented to abide this method of showing their guilt, or their innocency. But to be condemned
On the other hand the query lies, whether the king did really owe anything to those three sorts of men? The adventurers gave their money and plate in the year 1642 upon the English parliament's vote, to enable king Charles the first to carry on the war against the Catholic of Ireland, falsely accused by the justices of that kingdom of being in arms against the royal government, which money the said parliament used against the same king in their rebellion in England. In this case, what has king Charles, the son, to do with that debt? You will say, the adventurers laid down the money bona fide for his royal father's use. We answer: let those knaves who received it refund the same; that is, it proveth just that those parliament-men of both houses, who turned that treasure against the king, be now compelled to pay it back out of their particular estates unto the adventurers. At least, England by a general tax should pay it, since the generality of England was engaged for that parliament against the king. In the Interim the money of the adventurers was but little, and therefore we may believe that it was sufficiently recompensed by their possessing such large tracts of Irish land for seven years unto the king's restoration.
As to the soldiers of Cromwell, the devil is in the case if the king is obliged to pay them their arrears, who had run his kingly father to death, himself out of the kingdom, and his loyal subjects to an entire ruin. It appears to me that an overspreading frenzy seized king Charles the second at his restoration, seized the English parliament, the privy council, the favourites, and all those who countenanced the said declaration, by giving vast rewards to the worst rebels, for whom a halter was too good. This action is a shame to Christianity, a scandal to infidels; but 'tis an effect suitable to Protestantcy.
Those officers who had served king Charles the first in his standing army of Ireland at any time before the year 1649, do claim also arrears. For what? They were paid by that king unto the year1642; they had subsistences or lived on the country, for five years more unto the summer of 1647, at which time the marquis of Ormonde gave the king's government into the hands of the English rebellious parliament, so that they were no longer in the king's service, for hardly any of them came over to the Confederate Catholic at Kilkenny. Now what should be owing to a handful of an army in five years, after receiving half-pay by their subsistence? If king Charles the second thinks himself bound to pay such an army, who proved rebels to him for five years after, let him pay them out of his own, or let there be a tax levied in a parliamentary way upon the whole kingdom of Ireland, to satisfy that host of five years' loyalty. But methinks they should be obliged to refund the same money for their five years' rebellion, since they are suffered to live by the regal clemency.
Here I cannot forbear speaking still more of my admiration at the behaviour of king Charles the second towards his loyal subjects, and whom he himself acknowledged as such, and could not but acknowledge as such. I will put the best construction on the king's actions. So, I say, that in likelihood he had no value for those Cromwellian mechanics who, after reducing England to the bondage of that heathenish parliament, came into Ireland, and oppressed that kingdom with greater tyranny; which some Protestant writers, in a distracted manner, do call the Protestant conquest of Ireland for the king in the king's absence.
The same they may say of their subduing England and Scotland to the yoke of the rump parliament. The king would have rather they had left it in the possession of the Irish; nor was there need to conquer what was already the king's. However, I set two or three interrogatories to these nonsensical scribblers. Why do they call the king's being in foreign countries for fourteen years an absence, since all the world knows that it was a forcible banishment? Who banished him out of his three kingdoms? Was it not these brave Protestant conquerors of Ireland, in conjunction with their brethren in England? How then can it be understood that these heroes made a conquest of Ireland for the king, since at the same time they deprived the king of Ireland and of England, and Scotland too, nor would give him a foot of land in those kingdoms, nor suffer him to tread on the ground? Nay; they owned upon oath, that the three kingdoms belonged to the people of England, represented in a certain number of ruling men, and finally abjured the king's very title to those realms. Again, was it the king that gave them commission to conquer Ireland, or was it the rump parliament of England? Who were the chief commanders in this conquest? It is acknowledged by both sides, nemine contradicente, that these following were the men: Oliver Cromwell, general, and principal regicide, commissioned by the regicide parliament of England; Ireton, lieutenant-general; Michael Jones, the first governor of Dublin for the English parliament; Reynolds, Broghill, Coote, Venables, Hewson, Axtel, and the rest. Against whom did these now named officers fight in Ireland after king Charles the first was beheaded? It is agreed by all parties that they fought against the marquis of Ormonde and the Confederate Catholic. For whom was Ormonde then fighting? It is undeniable that he fought for king Charles the second, whose lord lieutenant of Ireland he was, and for whose interest he was general of the Irish Catholic army. And when he parted from Ireland in the year 1650, he left the marquis of Clanrickard the king's deputy, who carried on the war against the abovesaid Protestant commanders unto the year 1653, when the Irish were forced to lay down arms; at which time a considerable part of them went into foreign
This prince, as I said, had in reality no affection for that trash of men on whom he conferred honours and estates which he could not lawfully confer. What was it, then, that made majesty descend beneath the honour of a private gentleman, nay, beneath the honour of an honest tradesman? We cannot assign any other reason for this poverty of spirit than a certain inbred loathing to involve himself in new troubles, which he falsely conceived might be raised by the Cromwellian Protestants of Ireland and their faction in England if he should deny the said Protestants of Ireland their requests, though never so abominable. It seems the king's fear went beyond his reason; for it appears to a thorough considerer of that juncture that the Cromwellian Protestants of Ireland, with what assistance they could get in England, were not to be feared. First, the king getting possession of the throne independently of any positive assistance given by the Protestants of Ireland, altered the case extremely. Secondly, the Cromwellians of Ireland signified nothing as to strength without the help of England. Thirdly, the people of England, being weary with twenty years' troubles, and now tasting of the sweets of peace, would not so suddenly engage themselves in new misfortunes. Fourthly, those Cromwellians, who were settled in England, had means to live on, independent of king Charles's favours, and therefore they had less reason to begin fresh quarrels. Fifthly, the Cromwellians of Ireland were guilty of so black treason that they would be contented with the pardon of their lives if they saw the king assume the air of majesty. Sixthly, the predominant power of England was general Monk and his army, who had brought in the king for this end, that the nation might be settled in quietness, which the king's government alone could procure, as that general was sensible of. Now, where is the reason to believe that general Monk, already made duke of Albemarle, and enjoying other great favours that are not usually conferred by the king on one private Subject, should on a sudden cast away both the public repose, by himself procured at a great hazard, and also his own particular happiness.
The king was further encouraged to do this general injustice to the Irish nation, by both the foolish and villainous counsels of chancellor Edward Hyde, who was most highly bribed by the Cromwellians of
But to revert to chancellor Hyde, we will spend no more breath in exposing his silly and savage policies. I shall only refer you to the book printed at Louvain, in the year 1668, and called the Earl of Clarendon's settlement and sale of Ireland.
Here behold a minister of state, who, by his office, should study to strengthen the king's interest, and yet, by all the base ways he can think of, he endeavours to destroy it. He renders the king an idiot in making him sign declarations, grants, and orders, that a boy of twelve years' age would be ashamed of, as to point of judgment. He publishes the justice of the nation to be that of cannibals, in getting king-murdering rebels to enjoy peaceably those spoils which they had taken from honest men and loyal subjects, because these fought for their king
The duke of Ormonde trod in his steps, which was a pity, because he was of a right noble family. He had honour enough from the king, and an ancient estate that was sufficient for his quality; but by assisting the Cromwellians ('twas an illustrious employment) in ruining his countrymen and his kindred he got for his reward an estate out of the lands of those ruined persons, four times greater than that of his house; and thus he tarnished the honour of his blood.
The earl of Anglesey, in like manner, for giving his helping hand, obtained a vast patrimony in Ireland. So did the lord Kingston and others. These men, and the like, were the idols of king Charles the second, persons of whom the freest from rebellion had never done the king any service of moment. What a calamity it is to good subjects to have a king who cannot discern between merit and demerit. O God, commiserate your poor creatures that are thus abused on earth; and give the king the spirit of honour, the spirit of conscience, and the spirit of wisdom.
But 'tis time we resume the abovesaid declaration for the settling of Ireland. We say, then, that in the declaration there was a privileged
There is another qualification as ridiculous and as heathenish as this. The rebellious state of England imposed an oath, called an engagement, on all the people of the three kingdoms, under penalty of death. In Ireland a public order was given to Cromwell's soldiers to kill any man they met with on the road who produced not a certificate of his having taken that engagement. It happened sometimes that silly peasants, through carelessness, left at home their tickets after taking the engagement, and therefore, being met on the road by those soldiers, they were inhumanly murdered by them. Now, in our case, whatsoever Irish gentleman took this engagement, though perforce, and to save his life, he must be deemed nocent; and these tyrants, who enforced the same upon him, are not to be questioned for any fault therein. This is fair play, is it not?
But to be infallibly sure of compassing their design, this Cromwellian convention addressed to their endeared chancellor, for the obtaining unto themselves a power of being the king's commissioners to execute that famous declaration for the settlement of Ireland, which was granted. But this commission of the cabal was soon laid aside, because it did scandalize all manner of persons in seeing one of the two contending parties constituted judge of the other. Whereupon the king sent orders to the lords justices of Ireland to call a parliament there for the settling of that kingdom according to the declaration, which was as
Well, let us go on. This noble parliament being convened at Dublin, on the eighth day of May, 1661, a twelvemonth after his majesty's restoration, they proceed to business. At last they made an act, commonly called the act of settlement, which the parliament entitled, an act for explaining his majesty's declaration for the settlement of Ireland. What a clatter is here with Ireland, and not a word of England and Scotland. The king makes no alteration in these two last kingdoms, but leaves the nobility and gentry in statu quo prius, everyone enjoying his own, as before the rebellion. The Cromwellians of England and Scotland do gently surrender what they had taken from the loyalists; but the Cromwellians of Ireland will needs keep what they had snatched from the loyal army, who fought it out for the king under his own appointed general, the marquis of Ormonde, after England and Scotland had been laid in bondage.
These Cromwellians in Ireland may well be impudent in their oppressions, when they have now the same king for them who had been a little before against them for their rebellion; when they have the first minister of state on their side; when the great favourite, the duke of Ormonde, that compatriot, and the flesh and blood of the Irish themselves, is in their interest; when they have their own associates, or rather themselves sitting law-makers in their own behalf; when they
Now let us see what had this long wished act of settlement produced. In the first place, it assumes a power of determining all doubtful expressions in the king's declaration, and actually does determine them in favour of the Cromwellians, that is, of those who made the said act, and to the disadvantage of the Irish Catholic—a good beginning. Secondly, it debars the ensign-men and article-men (except half a score, who are provided for) from recovering their estates without previous reprisals, which is a thing not to be had, as we showed above. Thirdly, it allows no more time for trying of 'innocents' than one year. So that it confirms the king's declaration, and leaves the usurpers in the possession that Cromwell and the bloody rump-parliament had given them; excepting only what few persons the 'innocents' (as many of them as can be judged such in that short allowance of time) and a dozen more proviso-men shall thence remove.
Here is a just act of parliament for you. Have you ever heard of the like? Yet you shall see better of the kind by and by. When this act of settlement came out, the king, upon the request of the Irish agents at London, empowered a few English gentlemen, who had no interest in Ireland, to be his commissioners for the executing the said act of settlement. Sir Richard Rainsford, the first in commission, and his brother commissioners, having received their powers, departed from London, and landed in Dublin a little after Christmas, as I take it, in the year 1662, that is, 1663, new style. The commissioners being arrived, they entered immediately upon business, and the first thing they did was to examine the act; which having done, they judged that not any of the natives could be restored to their estates but those ten men provided for therein, and such others as could prove their innocency before their bench. However, the commissioners must discharge the
However, the court went on hearing of the claims unto the month of August, in which space of six months a thousand claimants were heard. The majority of them were declared 'innocent,' notwithstanding the rigid qualifications above mentioned and the force of perjurers. But now the year was ended, which had been limited by the act of settlement for the determining the causes of the claimants to 'innocency.' Wherefore the judges would proceed no further in giving a hearing until a longer time were granted; for which they sent into England to the king, in order to hear the seven thousand that remained unheard. But Hyde the first minister of state, the great servitor to the Cromwellians, procured a denial to be given; and so ended the court of claims. At which time the Cromwellian parliament sitting at Dublin, who had made the act of settlement, sent into England a new bill in the month of May, 1664, which the king signed and sealed at Salisbury, in the year following, 1665, on the 25th of July, notwithstanding the great opposition given thereunto for a year by reason of its prodigious injustice. This happened at the time of the great mortality in London,
Act of Explanation, clause 3
However, this act section 148 provides for fifty-four persons therein named, so far that they shall be restored to their mansion-houses, and to two thousand acres thereunto adjoining, on condition that the adventurers, soldiers, and 1649 men be first reprised, who are to be removed out of their possessions, a thing that could not be done unless the transplanted Irish were deprived of their lands. Yet none of these fifty-four nominees (so they were called), or very few, were restored. There was also a provision made in this act for three or four persons more; and the 1649 men are thereby clause 36 forbidden to set or let, by way of lease or otherwise, any part of their lots within walled towns and corporations, or at a certain distance to them, unto any Irish Catholic, under the penalty of losing what is so let, and of forfeiting as much more. In this same act there is a clause 63, importing that all provisoes and clauses subject to doubts shall be construed to the advantage of the Protestants; and then the parliament was at an end.But such lands as had fallen to the lot of the regicides upon the Cromwellian division of Ireland, being by the parliament vested in the king, his majesty gave a grant of them to his brother, the duke of York, to the yearly value of many a thousand pound. Here the king
Thus at last was Ireland settled within the five first years of the king's restoration; thus the work of iniquity was completed; thus the Cromwellian rebels were established in their usurpations and robberies; thus an innocent nation was excluded from their birth-rights, being, condemned before they were heard; thus, in fine, the greatest injustice was done that mankind from the first day of the creation to the present time had seen, and done against the light of nature, so as none of the injurers can pretend to any excuse; for common reason tells us that rebels are not to be rewarded at all for their rebellion; that robbers must not be settled in the possession of their rapines; that vice is not to be encouraged; that no person whatsoever is to be gratified with the property of an innocent; that nobody is to be condemned till he be fully heard in what he can say for himself; that, in fine, he is an enemy to heaven who knowingly detains the goods that justly appertain to another.
{topic Narrative of Irish affairs, 1688-1691} As soon as the king James II. came up to London on the 26th of November, 1688, from Salisbury, he wrote a letter to the earl of Tyrconnell, lord deputy, alias, viceroy of Ireland, then at Dublin, letting him know how he was betrayed by his army; how he was abandoned by his people of England; and also giving the said lord deputy his orders and instructions what to do for his interest in this juncture. Immediately the earl of Tyrconnell called a council, to which he made a proposal for raising an army to maintain the king's rights. Upon this proposal several arguments passed pro and con. But his excellency was altogether for war, and showed plausible reasons for success, which opinion had the ascendant, and so 'twas decreed to levy forces out of hand, which was soon made known to the Catholic people throughout the kingdom. Here let us pause a while, and examine the nature of this enterprise. The Catholic of Ireland do undertake a war for the reinthroning their banished king. Why should they do this? since they bad been oppressed by the precedent monarch, for whom they did that which no subjects had ever done, viz., they maintained war on their own cost for several years against their common enemy, Oliver Cromwell, and other regicides and usurpers, till at last they were totally subdued and deprived of all they had in the world. The sad remembrance of the aforesaid oppression (never was the like since the creation) should make the Irish Catholic nobility to rejoice rather (according to the dictates of flesh and blood) at the misfortune of an ensuing king of England, especially of James II. the immediate successor and brother of their oppressor; which brother at the time of their oppression behaved himself not much better, as far as went his power; at the best he stood neuter; and moreover he received into his possession the estates of several Irish Catholic delivered most unjustly unto him by the king, his brother, and by the barbarous parliament of Ireland, as we mentioned above. But Catholic religion is one thing, and heresy is another.
Catholic religion obliges us to duty towards our lawful sovereign, though he had often injured us, and though he were of a contrary belief. Whereupon Catholic will still be Catholic, and so the Irish must lay aside all resentments that thwart their allegiance, and take up arms to discharge their devoirs, although they were to lose their fortunes, and destroy their families again, as their fathers had done for king Charles the second. Yet how are they able to assume this province? Money they have not, and their estates in land have been for thirty years before in possession of Protestants, except some few inheritances, which had been rendered in each province of the kingdom to the right owners iin the reign of the said Charles the second. They also want arms, they want horses, they want other utensils of war. They are ignorant in the military art, as being debarred upon the account of their religion from posts of that mystery of a long time by the government. They are, in fine, destitute of warlike ships and other vessels, which is the most important advantage to an island, either to guard the coasts, or to bring home all necessaries of war, or to transport men for annoying your enemy either by yourself, or in conjunction with a friend and ally. And what is worse than this, they have a most potent enemy to deal with; for they are to stand against wealthy England, hardy Scotland, and the violent Protestants of Ireland. They are to fight veteran forces of several nations, which the prince of Orange will send, or bring himself. But the greatest terror of all to the Irish Catholic is, that if England should lose an army in the fields of Ireland, she can send another and another, and tons of gold to maintain them; so that Ireland in her present circumstances is in no way a match to the power of England. These are all solid dissuasories to the enterprise of the Irish Catholic. But what will you have of it? Although conscience should be free from obligation of rising for their king, because of their inability, yet an exorbitant zeal and natural courage will attempt matters (as often it happens) which reason deems not feasible. To make these noble flames of the Catholic take a higher pitch, they are told that the king will come amongst them in person; that France will send arms, will send money, will send experienced officers and trained
Ah, would to God I were master of a meet talent in setting forth the commendation of this loyalty, of this zeal, of this love, of this compassion to their suffering prince. A mighty monarch the other day (for he was lord of kingdoms), now is expelled his throne most nefariously by his own vassals, by his menial servants, by his favourites, by his confidants, by his own bowels, for no fault, but what he thought was a blessing, and a blessing above that of the crown, that is, the Catholic religion, and being thus abandoned by his innumerous people, he can find not any of his to take pity of him, nor take up his quarrel, but those of his subjects who are least able to vindicate his wrongs, and who had been most unrighteously dealt with by Charles II., the immediate predecessor of the present king, though they demonstrated the like fidelity towards the said predecessor in his forlorn case. All we can say in the matter is, that this example of loyalty in Irish Catholic is right admirable, and may do good to other princes, though it should not profit their own. Yet their own king in after times, when by providence a restoration is made, may, if he pleases, reap a substantial benefit out of the remembrance of this behaviour of his Irish subjects, and of their Catholic fathers in the reigns of Charles the first and
{topic Movements in Ireland for William, Prince of Orange}While the Catholic of Ireland were busy in raising an army for the king in the months of December, January and February, the Protestants of Ireland were hatching oppositions; for they had resolved before to side with England, and acknowledge the prince of Orange for their king. Of all Protestants within the bounds of the English monarchy, those of Ireland (except a few) had the greatest reason to rise against king James the second (if you will lay aside conscience), because they have been in fear, of a long time, that his majesty would, upon the first opportunity, compel them by new and just laws to restore unto the Catholic owners those estates which the said Protestants possessed by the grant of Cromwell, and by the confirmation of that unrighteous parliament which sat at Dublin a little after king Charles the second had been restored. Some of the Protestants by this time actually broke out into rebellion. Others remained in their habitations, till a fair occasion was offered to show themselves bare-faced, which was when marshal Schomberg, the prince of Orange's general, landed in the north of Ireland with an army in the month of August, 1689, and when the next year the prince of Orange himself arrived in the same province Ulster, with a numerous host.
The first of Ireland's Protestants who appeared for the prince of Orange were the inhabitants of Londonderry, a city situated on an arm of the sea in the province of Ulster. This town being void of a garrison for some weeks, the lord deputy, Tyrconnell, sent his order to a Catholic regiment raised by the earl of Antrim on the first news of Orange's invasion, to march into the same. But the burgesses hearing thereof, and that the king was abandoned by his army and by the people of
Marcus Junianus Justinus, Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum, 17, I.5
the source of that kingdom's loss, as we shall see beneath. Before we go on, I must inform the reader that King, a Protestant churchman or bishop of this rebellious nest, Londonderry,After the defection of those two aforesaid towns, Bandon, in the county of Cork, and in the southern province of Ireland named Munster, rose up against the king's government on the twenty-fourth of February, and in the same year, 1688, old style. The inhabitants of the town turned out some few royal dragoons, and then shut their gates. But lieutenant-general MacCarthy, alias lord viscount of Mountcashel, came speedily thither with a body, and reduced them to quietness by an agreement, and to prevent further trouble, he had the walls of the said town demolished. By this mean the province of Munster was kept from running to arms for the prince of Orange; notwithstanding which, several Protestants of that country made shift to go into England, amongst whom was Mr. Ingoldsby, now a lieutenant-general of the English army in Holland. And others, as sir Thomas Southwell, of Kinsale, in the county of Cork, and many other gentlemen, with their servants, left their homes, and travelled into the province of Connaught, in order to go to Sligo, a garrison-town of the said Connaught, near the borders of Ulster, wherein resided at that time the lord Kingston, a Protestant, to the end that with him they might take measures how to advance the new cause of Orange. As the said sir Thomas Southwell and his considerable party drew near the town of Loughreagh, in the county of Galway, the king's officers, captain Thomas Bourke, with a troop of horse, and captain Daly, with a company of foot, met them on the first of March, 1688, old style. Both sides came to a capitulation,
But the lord deputy Tyrconnell, some weeks before this, being troubled at the loss of Londonderry and Enniskillen, the best garrisons of the north, and perceiving all the Protestants of Ulster ready to follow the same resolutions with those two towns, he gets, by a wise and seasonable dissimulation, the above-mentioned lord viscount of Mountjoy, a Protestant of the north, to go in his name to the king at St. Germain's, in France, to demonstrate to his majesty the necessity of yielding Ireland to the prince of Orange; which message Mount joy freely embraced, as believing he could persuade the king to a compliance; and thereby that he might keep the country in the same peaceful condition for the sake of the Protestants therein. This was by his excellency of purpose done to remove the said Mountjoy out of the way, that he might not now take the occasion of heading the considerable numbers of the northern Protestants, who in all likelihood would choose him for their general, as being the best soldier amongst them all, and the most leading Protestant of Ulster. The lord deputy joined with him in commission sir Stephen Rice, a Catholic, and lord chief baron or judge of the court of exchequer, to the end his design might be less suspected by the lord Mountjoy. And so both together set forth from Dublin on the tenth of January, 1688, old style, that is 1689, stilo novo. Upon their arrival at St. Germains, the lord of Mountjoy was sent to the Bastile in Paris, where he remained till the war of Ireland was over, and till he was exchanged for lieutenant-general Richard Hamilton, in the year 1692, who soon after went to the Spanish Flanders, and there engaged in the prince of Orange's army, as in that of his king, where that very summer 5th August, 1692 he was killed in the battle of Steenkerke, as were the lord Douglas and lieutenant-general Hugh Mackay, the best commanders of the English forces.
A little after that the lord Mountjoy and sir Stephen Rice were gone,
It was at the end of this business that the deputy, Tyrconnell, receiving certain intelligence that the Protestants of the north were coming into bodies to oppose the king's interest, issued out his orders that so many regiments of the army should march to Ulster (the rest were to follow in due time) to subdue the rebels, and reduce Londonderry and Enniskillen; at the same time publishing a pardon to such of them as should submit within a prefixed term to his majesty's government, only ten principal persons being excepted; amongst whom are the earl of Mountalexander, the lord Blany, the lord Massereene, sir George Rawdon, and the rest.
Several Protestants in that province, upon this proclamation, came in and took protections, yet in a few weeks after, some of them were found killed in the service of the rebels, and their protections in their pockets. At the viceroy's command, the regiments began their march from their respective quarters to the north, about the commencement of the month of March, 1688, old style, 1689, stilo novo, over which expedition lieutenant-general Richard Hamilton, of Nenagh, in the county of Tipperary, and son to Mary, the old duke of Ormonde's sister, was appointed commander-in-chief; and colonel Dominick Sheldon, an English Catholic, was constituted general of the horse. And now the unlucky war begins, unlucky because ill managed.
And so a body of the army being assembled near Drogheda, about the
After this the Irish army went on quietly, till they came to Cladybridge, which had been broken by the rebels. By this time, videlicet, in the beginning of April, the French lieutenants-general, the sieurs Pusignan and Momont, were come up, after landing with the king, of which immediately beneath. The Irish horse was forced to swim, the three lieutenants-general, Hamilton, Pusignan, and Momont leading, where major Nagle was unhappily drowned, and a private trooper. The infantry made a hard shift to get over the bridge, by them after a manner repaired with some pieces of timber. The rebels on the other side of the river, to the number of about seven thousand, under lieutenant-colonel Lundy, fired briskly on the passengers, though to no purpose. But when they saw some of the king's cavalry actually landed, they took to their heels, crying: ‘To Derry, to Derry.’ The Irish pursued them for three miles, yet without any execution. Then
About the time the army began their march to Ulster, preparations were making at Dublin for the king's reception out of France, before whose arrival monsieur Pointis was sent to Ireland, and there arrived in February, 1688, old style, to notify to the viceroy the king's approach. Upon which his excellency, accompanied with the nobility and gentry of the city, went to Munster to receive his majesty. And so it happened that the king landed at Kinsale on the twelfth of March, 1688, old style, that is 1689, new style; with whom came count D'Avaux, ambassador from Louis XIV., the most Christian king, general de Rosen, lieutenant-general Pusignan, lieutenant-general Momont, monsieur Boisselau; James Fitzjames, the duke of Berwick; William Herbert, the duke of Powis; Thomas Cartwright, the Protestant bishop of Chester, in England; the earl of Melfort, Henry FitzJames, lord grand prior, and several others, French, English, Irish, and Scots, lords, knights, gentlemen, officers, and chaplains. The king arrived that night at the city of Cork; from thence he took his journey straight to Dublin, the capital of the kingdom. All along on the road, the country came to meet his majesty with staunch loyalty, profound respect, and tender love, as if he had been an angel from heaven. All degrees of people, and of both sexes, were of the number, old and young; orations of welcome being made unto him at the entrance of each considerable town, and the young rural maids weaving of dances before him as he travelled. In a word, from Kinsale to Dublin (which is above a hundred long Irish miles) the way was like a great fair, such crowds poured forth from their habitations to wait on his majesty, so that he could not but take comfort amidst his misfortunes at the sight of such excessive fidelity and tenderness for his person in his Catholic people of Ireland. This was a
But to go on, the king made his entry into Dublin on the 24th of March, being Palm-Sunday that year. He was received by the lord mayor, sir Michael Creagh, and aldermen, in their formalities, by the principals of the city, and by the garrison under arms, while the bells rang, the cannons roared, and the music on stages erected in the streets harmoniously played. And in this manner his majesty was lodged in the royal castle, where the court of the kingdom is usually kept.
The king being arrived at the period of his journey, which he had undertaken all along from St. Germain's in France unto Dublin in Ireland, begins now to enter into his first considerations how to compass the end for which he hither came. The end of those travels was to regain England, his principal kingdom, by the assistance of his Irish Catholic subjects. Whether this enterprise could be accomplished in the circumstances wherein the Irish Catholic were at that time, I have laid the matter exposed to the judgment of others. But not to dishearten his majesty and his faithful people, I will lean to the affirmative after this manner.
I say then, that if managers of this affair were staunch in wisdom, true to their trust, diligent in the execution, clean in their conscience, and constant in unity, they might recover England by such means as were found in Ireland at the king's arrival. For first, there were at least sixty thousand men of an army, of which a considerable proportion were veterans. The rest in two months' time, by constant exercise, might be made skilful enough in the use of arms. Their cavalry and dragoonry were not to be despised. Some regiments of horse and some of dragoons might vie with the best of Europe. Of battering cannon, and
You will object, supposing there was a knack in governing to preserve the kingdom in that plentiful condition, yet how could the king get a sufficiency for his army, having no money to pay for it? I answer, a tax laid on the people by a parliamentary way would bring to his majesty a considerable store in money and in goods; and what should be wanting to enough (if anything thus would be) it might be taken up from the subjects, either on the king's only credit, or on the
This much I have spoken of the state of Ireland, wherein his majesty first saw her. To this if you will add a little aid in money from France, you will make sure work. Half a million of pounds sterling is the sum that could have been borrowed from his most Christian majesty for which three cautionary ports might have been delivered, Limerick, Galway and Cork.
Now, whether those materials found in Ireland at the king's entrance have been afterwards rightly made use of in building the great fabric of regaining England out of the hands of the rebels, I rather leave it to the judgment of others, who were present all along at the management of that war. However, I will humbly deliver my opinion, amongst other men's sentiments, and say that the means found in Ireland at the king's arrival to restore his majesty to the throne of England were not wisely used, which will appear most evident if you will consider attentively the management of the state and war from the beginning to the end. But who was the cause of this great failure? We answer, that several persons both in the state and war were causes thereof. The first was the king himself, because in this critical juncture (supposing him sufficiently skilful in all the points of governing) he left the management of his affairs too much to the skill, care and fidelity of others, not making a due inspection by himself into the behaviour of those his trustees. His majesty was a sincere Christian, suspecting no evil of anybody whom he had not de facto found to be bad, and believing that everyone entrusted by him would prove honest and diligent in discharge of his trust, which made him acquiesce often to the opinion of those who commonly were about his person, and of whose integrity and ability he had a former
The second cause was the want of wisdom or the want of fidelity in some of his counsellors, of whatsoever nation they were. The third was the ignorance or treachery of some great commanders in the army, and of some governors of garrisoned towns. The fourth was the dishonesty or neglect of particular commissaries of the warlike stores and provisions. The fifth cause was in the government, that due care was not taken to see all the products of the earth to go on every year in those tracts of land where there was no war, as they had proceeded in precedent years. The failure in this point soon brought a scarcity in the kingdom of necessaries for the sustenance of the army and people.
The sixth cause in failing to regain England by the sufficient mediums found in Ireland at the king's landing proceeded from this, that his majesty, soon after his arrival at Dublin, did not transport an army into Scotland without heeding the reduction of Londonderry, which might have been done by the middle of May, 1689, and before the prince of Orange could send a fleet from England to stop their trajection; because (besides the reason of the thing being done so early in the season) the passage from the north of Ireland into Scotland is but the sailing of a few hours. There was in Ireland at that time an army of sixty thousand, horse, foot, and dragoons, out of which it was enough to carry over twenty thousand chosen foot, and five thousand horse and dragoons, with provisions for three weeks. This army would make way for themselves through Scotland; would command the stores of the country, and would allure abundance of loyal subjects out of the highlands to join them. They would have penetrated into the north of England by the middle of June, where infallibly they would receive a considerable augmentation of Catholic and some Protestants from Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. They could not have been met with by the prince of Orange and his army till they had come to York; at which time the king most certainly would be about fifty thousand strong, all resolute men. Now, I leave it to the judgment of any wise man, whether the
In the interim, what do you think Londonderry would do? It is agreeable to reason that the inhabitants thereof, seeing no hopes of any army to come timely to their relief out of England, would soon submit to the royal government of Ireland. This is confirmed by their contrary behaviour at the siege of that town, where they held out obstinately almost to a starvation, because they expected to be relieved out of England. So did many Protestants of Ireland at that time rise in arms against the king upon the same expectation. But if they had seen no prospect of succours, they would not have dared oppose what loyal forces were then in that kingdom. From whence you must conclude, that the best means to keep Londonderry in obedience, and likewise to retrieve England, was to send an army into Scotland, as soon as the king arrived in Ireland. On the other side, if Londonderry should prove so mad as to continue in rebellion, notwithstanding all hopes of rescue being taken away, there remained in Ireland more than strength enough to reduce the place by starvation, or by formal siege, even after sending for Scotland the above-mentioned twenty-five thousand men. All this is so clear that it is to be admired why the king would stay at all in Ireland, unless so long as he might be gathering his army together with all necessaries, and shipping them off. For his business was not to settle there, since he had the country in his possession, except those two little towns, which could in that his absence give no molestation to the government. But the end of his journey was to recover England by the help of Ireland, which he would have compassed in all probability if he had gone into Scotland with an army a little after coming to Dublin, as we showed above, by reason that the rebels of England could not make up in so short a time sufficient strength to overcome his majesty on English ground, he being so fortified with the reinforcements of Scotland and England, as aforesaid.
These now mentioned causes (and others yet undeclared) of not regaining England, and also of losing Ireland, you may more clearly discover in the accounts which are given at the present by word of
His majesty, upon his first considerations had in Dublin for the effecting of what he came for, did establish his privy council; so did he other officers of state. He created the earl of Tyrconnell duke of Tyrconnell. Immediately after this, it was resolved in council to break a great part of the new raised army, by reason that the king was judged not able to support so numerous forces; upon which resolution the
Whether this was a prudent action, it had been long since argued pro and con. However, we must here acquaint the reader, that the disbanded captains and subaltern officers were struck to the very heart by this breach; because their uncommon zeal for the cause, and their treasure spent on the subsistence of their respective bands, and their expectation from thence of lasting honour, were all now brought to nothing in their opinion, though the said officers were dismissed with the king's thanks, and promise of preferring them upon the first occasions. After this dismiss, there remained about thirty-five thousand in pay, to serve both in garrisons and in the field. If this standing host was sufficient to be divided for the conquest of England, and for the preservation of Ireland in the absence of the invading forces,—some have affirmed it, others have denied it. The affirmative opinion says, that (upon a supposition that Londonderry be early taken, as it might have been done) twenty-five thousand Irish along with the king, in the end of May, transported into the highlands of Scotland, would in their marches so increase by the accession of loyal subjects, that at the time they were got within England the rebellious party would be too weak to make head against the loyal army, because their usurpation was not yet settled in the land. The ten thousand remaining in Ireland would be sufficient to preserve that kingdom in duty, after being made quiet by the expugnation of Londonderry. It is certain that celerity in resolving and in executing is the best medium to conquer an enemy. These last ages have been very defective in that virtue, which proved often the cause that weak beginnings in rebellion, in heresy, and even in lawful wars, became by delay masters of greater powers, which might by celerity have easily crushed them. There are instances enough of this truth in histories of European nations since the empire of Charles fifth commenced. But this talent of haste in managing war appeared more conspicuous in antiquity, wherein Julius Caesar, the Roman general, was so eminent that since his time not one had equalled him. Yet I cannot pass by in silence that fine stroke of celerity by which the present king
The next deliberation of the king and council at Dublin, after fixing the Irish army to the aforesaid number was how to maintain the same and the civil administration. The result was, that money should be made of copper, that is to say, a pennyworth of copper coined must pass for half-a-crown in silver; and so it was done.
Three ways there were of subsisting the army: the first by the product of the land; the second by borrowing good money from the king of France; the third by this of brass coin. Very many intelligent persons judged the third way to be the worst, to which sentiment I cleave. And reasons hereof there are many, which, because they are obviously known, and because in all likelihood there will never be an occasion of using the like medium to support people in that kingdom any more, I omit to speak of. As easily as this vile money was had, yet the army was ill paid, which proceeded from bad management. However, that coin did this good, that the poor did not want, and buying and selling was brisk for the first half-year, until the people began to fear the power of England, which began to appear in Ireland by the first army the prince of Orange sent over under the conduct of marshal Schomberg.
The money business being thus settled, the king is undauntedly resolved to render at last that great justice to the nation which had been wanting for forty years before, that is, to restore unto the Irish Catholic
The third class comprehends, in the first place, the issue of Cromwell's army, and of other forces sent into Ireland by the rebellious parliament of England soon after the murder of Charles the first, and on the banishment of Charles the second. As soon as the said Charles the first was beheaded, the regency of England, consisting only of the lower house of parliament, appointed an English army to go for Ireland, and therein to reduce the Confederate Catholic, who were opposing the rebellious government of Great Britain and the traitorous Protestants of the said Ireland; over which army Oliver Cromwell was constituted general. But there was a difficulty of making up sufficient forces, especially officers, for that expedition, by reason that the old officers of the parliamentarian army, being weary of war after seven years' fighting against Charles the first (who in the eighth year was put to death) would now sit down at ease, and reap the benefit of their victory over that prince. It was upon this necessity the above-named Oliver Cromwell was forced to take for officers of that host all sorts of ordinary tradesmen, and likely of broken fortunes, amongst whom there was here and there an odd gentleman. After vanquishing the aforesaid Catholic by a war of four years, there came an order from England to divide the lands of Ireland to the Cromwellian army for their arrears of pay; secondly, to the judges, who had sentenced king Charles the first to die; thirdly, to the few merchants of London called adventurers; fourthly, to those officers named the 1649 men. This third class of Cromwellian Protestants (though mean and strangers they be) yet is the people that swayeth most over the true natives of the land, and over the ancient nobility and gentry thereof; for 'tis they who are masters of the greatest proportion of the kingdom, and are very many in number. The title of these Protestants, you see, is detestable, especially that of the Cromwellian soldiers and of the regicides. That
The only thing that gives a colour of right in these lands of the Irish to the said Cromwellian Protestants, is those two acts of parliament above spoken of, called the act of settlement, and the act of explanation, and made at Dublin within the five first years of king Charles' restoration. But these two acts are of no force, as we shall make appear; for the parliament that made them was not legal, as wanting two necessary conditions in the constitution of a parliament or legislators. The first is, the members of the house of Commons were not freeholders of lands, nor freemen of corporations. The second is, they were not representatives of the people of Ireland. They were no freeholders nor freemen, because they did not enjoy by any just title lands of inheritance, nor leases of lands for lives, nor freedoms in towns. This, they themselves cannot deny; for being now under the government of a lawful king, videlicet, Charles the second, they must needs acknowledge that the lands of the Irish Catholic, and the freedoms of their cities and towns, which they held unto the chosing of the above-mentioned parliament by the gift only of Oliver Cromwell, a vile usurper, and of the rebellious regency of England, were lands and freedoms forcibly
The said members of the house of commons were not representatives of the people of Ireland, because the people of Ireland at that time was the Roman Catholic, the natives and the long possessors of the land for several ages, who were in number fifteen to one. Now, it is not credible that the great body of the realm would spontaneously chose a parcel of mean, heterodox and illiterate strangers, who had come among them but the other day, to be their deputies in the management of the greatest of affairs. Much less is it to be believed that all the Catholic gentry of Ireland would at their own accord elect their enemies to sit judges whether their estates violently possessed by those judges should be restored unto the Catholic proprietors and electors, or should be for ever retained by the violent and unjust possessors. As for the Catholic lords, none, or very few of them, sat in the house of peers, wherefore the Irish nation, not being represented by the aforesaid parliament, cannot be concluded by its acts, which is granted by all parties as a first principle.
And though the parliament were legal, yet those, their two acts of settlement and explanation, are not binding, as being made not only against law but also against common reason. So says judge Henry Hobart, in the case of Savage and Day, that whatsoever is against natural equity and reason is against law. And if an act of parliament be made against natural equity and reason, that act is void. Judge Coke saith also, in the first part of his Institutes, fol. 97: Nihil quod est contra
Coke, Institutes
Now, that the aforesaid acts of settlement and explanation are such, I believe no man on earth that is in his wits will deny it. For the Pagan, as well as the Christian, knoweth that it is against natural equity and reason, first to condemn a man before he is heard; secondly, for one party to sit judge in his own cause in despite of the other; thirdly, to reward public known vice, as is the taking away your neighbour's substance by no other title than by a strong hand, and by undeniable rebellion; fourthly, to deprive innocent people, publicly owned such, of their proper goods, and to give them to persons who have no manner of right to the same. For all the Catholic of Ireland were judged by the king to he good subjects by one way or other, as some by innocency, according to the sense given to it above; some by special merit, demonstrated abroad; and the whole nation by their acceptance of the king's peace in the year 1648, old style. All which the aforesaid parliament did not deny. This being so, that the Irish were free from the guilt of forfeiting their estates, what title had the king unto them? Much less had the London adventurer. If there is money due to him, let him seek for it where he had lent it. Much less the 1649 man. If the king owes him arrears of military stipend, let him get it from the king. Much less the soldier. If Cromwell was obliged, or the rebellious parliament of England, to pay him for service done them, he should demand it from the heirs of Cromwell or that parliament, and not be so impudent as to ask it from the king, against whom he fought; nor to demand it out of the fortunes of those who had maintained a war on their own cost for the king against him, the common enemy. Much less the duke of Ormonde, the earl of Anglesey, the duke of Albemarle, and others of the like predicament in the king's favour. If they had a title to the royal bounty, as I know Albemarle had, they should have received the king's largesses when tendered out of his own stores, and not out of the bread of an honest poor man. They had the reason of a heathen to tell them so much. But it seems their religion opposed that fine reason, and bore it down. In fine, much less had his royal highness the duke of York a pretence to so many estates of good subjects. IfNow, the reader understands what obligations of justice king James the second had to abrogate the aforesaid acts of settlement and explanation. The only difficulty which appeared in the discharge of the said obligations was how to afford compassion (there was no justice due) to such persons as had purchased some of the Irish lands at considerable rates from the Cromwellian soldier or adventurer, or 1649 man, and who were now to be dispossessed by the abrogation of the act of settlement and of the act of Explanation. These purchasers could not plead any right to the detention of those lands by the said two acts of parliament, because, as you have seen, they are void in law. Neither could they have recourse to equity by having given a valuable consideration for those estates, because there is a prior rule set down to all emptions, videlicet, caveat emptor, which obligeth the buyer to buy nothing but what is the true property of the seller; and if the buyer does otherwise, this rule bars equity to claim a recompense from the true proprietor for money, or any other value given for the thing recovered by him, because equity was in precedence on the true proprietor's side, who therefore can challenge his property (wheresoever he finds it) against all claims of after laws made by man, or against any subsequent equity which riseth from bargains. For it is the voice of mankind that the first proprietor loseth not his property but by his own consent, or by a just forfeiture to the government where he is a subject; or by a lawful conquest, which is effected in a war between two independent states. Now, the Irish gave not their consent that the Cromwellians should seize on their lands. Neither did they forfeit them to their prince, king Charles the second; for he owned them good subjects. Nor did they lose the said lands by a conquest; for it was their fellow-subjects, actually rebelling, who disseised them. If this were not so, I could safely purchase stolen goods, or anything acquired by unlawful ways, as by fraud, murder, rebellion, usurpation, and retain them in despite of the true owner and his
Neither could the aforesaid purchasers plead in bar to the abrogation of the acts of settlement and explanation, the rule of prescription or long possession; for it enters not this case, because they began both their possession, and continued the same in mala fide. Yea, it was morally impossible but that they must do so, since from the restoration of king Charles the second unto this day, there had been a continual discourse throughout the kingdom that the Irish proprietors had been wronged by the act of settlement, which caused several purchasers of lands, besides the price given to Cromwellian possessors, to buy also the title of the Catholic proprietors, hoping by this way to secure their purchases against a general restitution, whensoever it should happen; so that when first they bought those lands, they voluntarily ran the risk of them.
And though the purchasers had taken possession with bona fides after the act of explanation came out in the year 1665, and continued so unto the act of abrogation in the year 1689, yet the said purchasers would be still excluded, as not possessing long enough, according to the law of prescription in lands.
As for the improvements made by the purchasers on those lands, neither in them can they be relieved by justice, because all meliorations go along with the soil; so that whosoever is owner of the soil, the same is, ipso facto, owner of the improvements made thereon, to whom the purchaser in mala fide should moreover refund all the profits he had received out of the said soil.
However, the king and his Catholic parliament were pleased to take compassion on the purchasers in the act of abrogation, as we shall see beneath, though the most of those purchasers had bought those lands at a vile price.
And now to revert from whence we have taken this excursion, the king, being resolved to restore unto his loyal subjects, the Irish Catholic, their birth-rights, which his present rebels detained, and their fathers, the rebels of his royal brother and father, had violently possessed, without any title, but by the authority of those two pretended
In the meantime his majesty, being persuaded if he appeared before Londonderry that the rebellious inhabitants thereof would return to their allegiance by being certain that the king was in Ireland, and by concession of pardon, resolved to take a journey thither. Upon which he set forth from Dublin in the beginning of April (against the duke of Tyrconnell's dissuasion), being attended by general de Rosen, by the duke of Berwick and others; and having overtaken his army near Derry, he arrived before the town on the eighth, which is a journey of more than a hundred miles. The king immediately sent in word that he was there. To whom the corporation despatched archdeacon Hamilton and Mr. Nevill, who speedily returned to assure the people that the king was in the kingdom and hard by. Whereupon a treaty for their submission was set on foot. The preliminary was that the army should not come within five miles to the town; the king was contented therewith. But while the treaty was far advanced, it happened that the army, by general de Rosen's order, marched by and close by the king, and in sight of the place, that general being of opinion that the appearance of the army would dare the rebels to a conclusion without more ado. The lieutenant-general Hamilton was of a contrary sentiment, for he would have the army not to appear, lest the rebels might see the weakness thereof in artillery and mortars, their knowledge of which would make them continue in their rebellion, as not fearing the king's power; but while the army kept out of sight, they would suppose that it was well furnished with all utensils of a siege, which opinion was best. The army then appearing before the town, the major part of the heads of the people (who were for holding out against the king) took an occasion from the sight of the army to tell their fellow-citizens and the soldiery that there was no depending upon the king's word, by reason that the preliminary was broken; and by this and other means they gained the garrison and citizens. Upon which they fired from the rampart with a cannon at the army passing by, and killed an officer that was in
You observe here the return Londonderry made the king for all the pains he had taken in travelling so far, in order to gain those rebels with lenity. But 'tis what he always gets from Protestants generally. No experience will make him behave himself towards those traitors as he should do. He spoiled his business in Ireland by his over-great indulgence towards them. He was infatuated with this rotten principle—provoke not your Protestant subjects—the which hindered his majesty from drawing troops sooner out of Ireland into England for the security of his person and government; from making up a Catholic army in England; from accepting those forces the most Christian king had offered him. It was this false politic, which prevailed with him to declare that he had no alliance with France; that he did not believe the Dutch had any design upon him, till they were almost landed in England. In fine, 'twas this deceitful suggestion that ruined him entirely by not mistrusting in time the loyalty of those heretics, as it was that which made king Charles the second commit such horrid injustices in leaving the estates of his faithful Irish in the usurped possession of known rebels both to himself and to his royal father, Charles the first.
The king being gone, the army marched to the north and east side of Londonderry, in the county of Tyrone, and in the first place went to take the fort of Culmore, which lies at the mouth of a narrow arm of the sea, three miles distant from the said Londonderry, close by which fort ships go up the channel to the town. This fort was soon taken, on condition
After the taking of this fort, the army marched back and sat down before Derry, on the 20th of April, 1689, being divided into two principal bodies on the county of Tyrone's side. A third small proportion was sent to the other side in the county of Londonderry, where the insignificant battery of mortars was planted. We suppose that a general coming with his army before a town in order to expugn it, makes it his first business to consider by what method he shall compass his design, whether it must be by making a breach in the wall, or by undermining the same, or by a escalade, or by reducing the garrison to misery with bombs and fire works, or by famishing it. Londonderry is situated on the banks of a river which mixes thereabouts with the sea, flowing in a narrow channel between two lands. The town is defended on one side with the said river. On the other side it has no outward works of any moment. The wall is thick and well lined with a rampart. However, one part of it may be soon battered with proper cannon. Scaling the walls thereof is practicable; for it was by that way taken in the wars
In opposition to this, the beleaguring host was potent enough as to numbers of men; for in the month of May it was twenty thousand strong, horse, foot and dragoons. How came it then not to be taken? Some say the cause was that the army had no battering pieces, for there was not in the camp above eight cannon, two of which were eighteen-pounders, the rest petty guns. These eight were so separated, that but two were raised in one place. What effect did they produce? Not any worth notice, for they were not discharged at the wall, but now and then over the wall amongst the houses, and sometimes at a sallying party. Of mortars there were but two, one large and the other little. The great mortar was soon rendered unserviceable, insomuch that the sieur Pointis had no sufficient opportunity to show his skill in bombarding the fortress. But why were not all those necessary instruments timely had, since there was at that time gross artillery in other forts of the kingdom, and since mortars might have been cast at Dublin, or, in season, got out of France? If neither was done, why was the beleaguer undertaken, or, at least, why was it continued? Some do answer, that the siege was carried on in order to famish the town. If this was the last resolution (as indeed it proved to be), why were the besiegers exposed from time to time to danger and actual slaughter, first, by having no lines of defence, especially for the greatest part of the duration of the siege; and secondly, by sending the men upon attacks with extraordinary disadvantage, as in day advanced, and against the enemies covered altogether with entrenchments? For that famishment might have been procured by keeping the army at distance, or in good trenches, because the said town could not be relieved with provisions
Here we remark that providence did put human means enough into the king's hands, and into those of his faithful people of Ireland, to subdue Londonderry and Enniskillen, and after that achievement to make further progress in the restoration of his majesty. But it seems the king and the great managers of his affairs did not make the right use of those means as aforesaid, and so they lost their aim, and the Irish Catholic lost for ever the blessed opportunity of making themselves a happy nation to the end of the world, by reinthroning their banished monarch. Alas! they did not help themselves in this glorious occasion offered by favouring providence, which if they had done, the day was
The army being posted before the town, as above said, without lines of defence, and without heavy cannon to make a breach in the wall (which was the posture rather of a blockade), the little battery of mortars began to play, to bring down the houses, since there was no possibility in the present circumstances to break the walls; and the mortars had good effect for the time they were in use, for several habitations werd destroyed. But the grand mortar being soon cracked, the damage ceased, and the people of the town had lodgments enough for their repose. In return to this, the garrison could do but little harm with their cannon to the besiegers, by reason that their batteries were all too high mounted, as being placed on the walls.
In this while, a party of the garrison being resolved upon action
You may admire how comes it that this little corporation had dared to stand out against the king, since his majesty is in possession of all the kingdom except itself and the borough of Enniskillen. But the reason thereof is, because these rebels have an assurance of relief from England; for they had in the beginning sent to that point word that they proclaimed the prince of Orange their king; that for him they held Londonderry, and would hold it; that therefore it concerned the prince to send them succours which, by having that hold in the country, might recover Ireland to his government. In the meantime they had no fear of losing the town by any assaults of the Irish army, by reason it had not sufficient cannon to make a breach in their walls, nor mortars to compel a surrender through want of lodgments. The only distress they feared was famishment, against which they pressed for remedy
The parliament being assembled on the said day, the king came to the house of lords in his royal robes, with the crown on his head (a crown newly made for him in the said Dublin), and from the throne he uttered a speech to both houses, showing the ends he had for calling them together; after which they proceeded to business. The first and principal act this parliament made was an act called the act of repeal by which they abrogated those two above-mentioned acts of settlement and explanation. By this act of repeal the Irish Catholic were restored to those lands unjustly possessed to that time by the aforesaid adventurers, Cromwellian soldiers, and the 1649 officers, which lands the said Irish Catholic or their ancestors had enjoyed in the year 1641, before the 23rd day of October in that same year; in which act there was a provision made for such persons as had purchased land from the said Cromwellian soldiers, 1649 men, or the adventurers. The said purchasers were to be reprised out of the stock of lands which then belonged to several other Protestants, whose ancestors had been proprietors of them since before the year 1641, in the reign of king Charles the first, and upwards; but now the said several Protestants forfeited them by their rebellion against his present majesty. This parliament made other just acts, and beneficial to the king and country during their session, which lasted from the 7th of May, 1689, to the 20th of July immediately following. But one of their acts was irreligious, which left the ecclesiastic lands in possession of the Protestant bishops, it being sufficient to afford a decent livelihood to heretical prelates during their life, after an usurpation of one hundred and twenty years. They only restored the Roman prelacy to such tithes as were annexed to their station. They mended the matter in parochial priests, for they gave possession unto them of all the tithes of Catholic people, leaving to ministers the tithes of their own.
Here riseth the question, whether it would not have been a greater
The negative answered, that there was army enough at Londonderry to force that fortress and Enniskillen to their loyalty, though at the same time many Irish proprietors attended on the parliament; and were afterwards taken up in getting possession of their decreed estates, insomuch that the failure in expugning those fortresses did not proceed from the paucity of loyal troops, but from ill management of the enterprise, as all the knowing world must own. Neither were the chief officers of the army those gentlemen who expected to be restored to their birth-rights by the parliament then sitting, but such noblemen and gentlemen as had been a long time in possession of their lands, and such as were younger brothers to good families, and such as were strangers, videlicet, French, English, and Scots, which the muster-rolls do indicate. The negative opinion adds, that if the restorable gentlemen had beforehand their estates, they would be more zealous in assisting his majesty, for the end of preserving the gained possession of their lands. And lastly, the truth is, that there would be army more than enough to go into England with the king without the assistance of the new possessors of the recovered patrimonies.
This latter opinion being the more probable, we go on to say that a little before this, videlicet, on the 1st of May 1689, while the parliament was assembling at Dublin, a grand squadron of French men-of-war, about thirty-six, under the conduct of count de Chateau-Renaud, arrived
About this time we are to tell that the prince of Orange being established king of England, he entered immediately of himself into the grand confederacy which had been made the last winter between the emperor, the king of Spain, the states of the united Netherlands and the princes of the empire, against the king of France, and this to keep his royal station, and that the people of England might maintain the new government they had set up against the restoration of their banished king, which restoration they believed he would attempt with the first opportunity. England was then happy in her rebellion, because she met with, at that juncture, a powerful aid to support her rebellious victory over her natural sovereign; and had it not been for that lucky fortune happening unto her at that nick of time, she would have been soon compelled to fall on her knees and cry ‘peccavi’, by that most Christian arm which is ordained, without doubt, to scourge rebels and heretics. However, the time is not yet passed, as secure as England thinks herself to be.
This great league of Europe had its origin thus:—The duchess of Orleans making it appear to Louis XIV. the most Christian king, her brother-in-law, that she had a good title unto some lands in the Palatinate of the Rhine, the king sent to the elector Palatine a demand to restore those lands. The elector disowned any such right in her royal
This little spark of fire, kindled in the Palatinate of the Rhine for the gaining and defending a few acres of land, raised such a flame through the extent of several nations, that before it could be quenched, ten years' labour was spent, an ocean of blood spilt, mountains of treasure consumed, which might have bought twenty times more land than was in dispute; fleets destroyed; cities, towns, and countries ruined; churches profaned; the service of God conculcated; many a brave family extinguished; and thousands impoverished. Yet, in the end the cause of this long, bloody strife was not ended, but left to a peaceable decision. The consideration of these calamities which must ensue upon a war, should make princes extremely timorous in the enterprise, and never to begin till all fair ways of accommodation are first used, and unless the thing in controversy be of transcendent value and of undoubted right. Otherwise, if the title be ambiguous and the claim of no moment, in such case sovereigns ought to understand that God's rational creatures are not their beasts. Nay, sovereigns have been made such by God and his people, to procure temporal happiness unto them, so that supreme rulers are to regard more the comforts of their subjects than their own in particualar.
It were to be wished (and it becomes professors of Christianity) that Catholic princes, ere they enter upon war, did leave their difference to the judgment of the first tribunal on earth, in which sits a person to whom all owe veneration, as believing with a faith divine him to be the
It was into the abovesaid league against the most Christian monarch that the prince of Orange, as king of England, entered, and soon after declared war, videlicet, on the 17th of May, 1689, against France, but could not be any great helper unto the allies till he had put an end to the war of Ireland, which the Irish Catholic undertook against his usurpation. This entrance into the great alliance cost England more than is well credible in money, in the loss of merchant ships, of men-of-war, of most precious merchandise, of their honour at sea, in the ruin of trade, in the great slaughter of their subjects, and in the impoverishment of families. The people of England flattered themselves at the beginning that their assistance with the confederates would soon turn the scale to the destruction of France. But ignorance and foolish pride humbled them, who are dearly paying for their haughty attempt at this very day and in this year, 1706, so long since the peace of Ryswick in 1697, and will be in like manner for some years to come, so prodigious are the debts they had contracted to maintain their beloved confederacy.
Here curiosity had made some persons propose the query, whether Catholic princes could in conscience receive the alliance of England at that juncture. Their reason is, because thereby those princes assisted rebels to keep out their king unjustly dethroned. We will leave the
This reception which Catholic princes gave to the tendered alliance of England, proved a deep wound on the breast of our James the second, who did rather expect that the emperor and the king of Spain would soon condescend to a peace with the Gallic monarch (which they might have had on honorable terms, and so have prevented those horrible destructions which afterwards ensued), that by such a peace they might combine to restore their brother both in dignity and in religion, and thereby teach subjects not to swerve from their duty. But his majesty must take these disappointments with the usual patience, which had not an equal, and so goes on with the management of his affairs in Ireland.
'Tis now the time calls our return to the siege of Londonderry, where the Irish army had lain a full month without being a jot the nearer to the expugnation of the town, and may be so in their method unto doomsday; for what cares a fortress (having sufficient provisions) for a beleaguering host that had neither cannon to batter down the walls, nor mortars to demolish the habitations, nor ladders for scaling, nor any attempt made for undermining? However, the army must do something, to no purpose; and so it happened that the besieged having resolved to take in a piece of ground for some conveniences, at first in the possession of the besiegers, and afterwards by them abandoned, which lay before the north side of the town, and in the middle of which was a windmill, they, the besieged, took their opportunity in night time to fence it from near one of their gates unto the river with an entrenchment about twelve feet high, making therein several spike holes. This work they well manned with firelocks, and planted two or three small pieces of cannon on the windmill. General Hamilton, observing that the rebels made a walking place of this entrenched ground for the preservation of their health, and that they gave annoyance with their cannon from the said mill and with their long fowling pieces,
This repulse was a great vexation to the army, through the loss of so many persons of worth. However, the general resolved again to make the second attempt; and so, in a few days after, he on the fourth of June draws out the greatest part of the foot, and orders them to attack the line. A detachment out of all the grenadiers of the army marched a little before under the leading of captain John Plunkett, the youngest son of Mr. Nicholas Plunkett, of Dunsoghly, in the county of Dublin. After them came the line of colonels, with their pikes in hand, at the head of the infantry. Upon the right marched a detachment of horse under the conduct of lieutenant-colonel Edmund Butler, eldest son to the lord viscount of Mountgarrett. It was between seven and nine of the clock in the morning, so that the rebels had time enough to put themselves in a posture of defence. This was giving them fair play. In their march they were exposed to the cannon of the windmill; but by the time they advanced upon the place of taking their carriere, they received anticipately a shower of ball from the entrenchment in long fowling pieces, without seeing an enemy; at which discharge several of the king's men were killed. The aforesaid captain John Plunkett
You see here, as you have seen all along, that the tradesmen of Londonderry have more skill in their defence than the great officers of
The king, overseeing the session of parliament at Dublin, received an account of these disasters, which grieved him and the parliament very much. And it is no wonder, seeing an army fooling their time away, and perishing before a feeble fortress, when in that space of time they might have conquered a kingdom, if they had been in the beginning transported into Scotland or into England. However, his majesty thought it fit to dispatch away for Londonderry Conrade de Rosen, marshal general of Ireland, in order that he might take some course to
The sieur de Rosen departed from Dublin, and took along with him some forces as a reinforcement to the army. When he approached to Londonderry, he seized on three or four hundred Protestants, men and women, relations and friends to the people within the town, whom he brought as prisoners, and, at his arrival about the beginning of July, sent them to the gates of the fortress, in order that they might enter the place (from whence they egressed at the commencement of the siege), and live there among their own. His aim herein was to consume more speedily the provisions of the besieged if they entered; or, if they would not be suffered to go in, the general expected to compel a rendition by keeping those dear friends of the garrison a-starving at their gates. This stratagem seems severe unto some in driving back the people into the town, or in exposing them to famishment at the gates, after they had enjoyed by leave of the prior general their liberty for several weeks. The true management was herein, not to have suffered them to come out at all. This would have hastened the giving up of the fort. Neither is the said stratagem always approved of in point of prudence; for there is a difference between soldiers defending a place for their king against another prince or state (as to matter of obstinacy in holding out), and between rebellious citizens maintaining their town against their own king, into whose hands they dread to fall. The first think it enough to do their duty according to the usual manner of garrisons. The latter are apt to go beyond all mean, so sometimes they will choose to see their wives and children perish before their eyes, rather than give themselves up to the power of their sovereign lord and master. As for the particular rebels of the city of Londonderry, this
In the meantime the lord of Mountcashel was sent with a small flying camp of four thousand foot, dragoons and horse, to take Crum castle, belonging to Mr. Creighton, in the county of Fermanagh, sixteen miles from the town of Enniskillen, in order to make the way more easy for the expugnation of the said Enniskillen, almost surrounded with a deep lake, and haying an earth-work for defence at the entrance on the land side. He could not make himself master of the aforesaid castle for want of cannon large enough, and so turned off, marching towards Enniskillen. He sent before him most of his horse and dragoons under brigadier Anthony Hamilton. The rebels of Enniskillen, having known the design, sent, on the thirtieth of July, brigadier Wolseley with a body of horse and foot to fight Mountcashel. Hamilton was met by the enemy unexpectedly near Newtown-Butler, and attacked, while the lord of Mountcashel was approaching with the
About this time the duke of Berwick had a flying camp on the Finwater. Colonel Patrick Sarsfield had another beyond Ballyshany;
We return now to Londonderry, to put a shameful end to the siege thereof. On the last day of July 1689 one of the ships, called the Dartmouth frigate, which lay in the pool above mentioned for six weeks, under the conduct of major-general Kirk, resolutely undertook to bring provisions up to the people of Derry, who were by this time reduced to a nonplus in famine, as the besiegers remarked by those of the besieged whom they had killed upon a sally, and as it was known by letters, so that in a day or two more the garrison would have infallibly yielded if they were not relieved. The ship then aforesaid took the opportunity on this day of the tide and a fair gale of wind, and so came
Publius Virgilius Maro; Aeneïs III 56-57
Lord, who seest the hearts of people, we leave the judgment of this affair to Thy mercy. In the interim those gunners lost Ireland through their neglect of duty. What compensation they can make for it, we shall be able to understand when they are powerful kings, and not before. However, some will excuse them, and say that their guns were so small and so few that they could not sink a ship in the passage. This makes me reflect on the best advice that was given in this business, which was that a bark or two should be sunk in the channel, and this infallibly would have done the feat and saved the kingdom, for no carelessness or treachery could there have place. Here I cannot but consider on the uncertainty of human attempts; for let a monarch and a hundred thousand of his subjects undertake a mighty business, yet it may be rendered uncompassed by a few of that vast number, either throughBut to go on: marshal general de Rosen, seeing the town relieved with provisions contrary to expectation, and that there was no other way at present to take it, judged it in vain to remain there any longer, and so he commanded the army to prepare for rising the next day, and for marching back into Leinster, and approaching to Dublin. The army then decamped on the first of August, after lying before the place about fifteen weeks, and after losing about two thousand men from first to last, of which number several were fine gentlemen, and several heads of families, and all noble sacrifices to a most noble cause, and worthy of lasting memory. Their children and their kindred may hereafter reap out of their blood a plentiful harvest of blessings, when Providence shall think fit to put an end to oppression. The army came that night to the town of Lifford, in the county of Donegal, and it might have been sooner at London if it had been transported at the time it sate down before Londonderry. From Lifford the army marched by slow marches till it came near Drogheda, within twenty miles to Dublin, where according to orders it encamped. This of not taking Derry in so long a time, was indeed a heavy stroke of misfortune unto his majesty, which will be soon redoubled; for the king received a certain account, that marshal de Schomberg,
But with all this, his majesty had little or no intelligence of what preparations were a-making in England against Ireland for the next campaign; and therefore he and his loyalists improved not their condition. There was no augmentation of troops made, as there should be, and that considerably; no care taken in exercising the army in their respective quarters; in providing arms and apparel; in fortifying towns, and filling them with ammunition and victuals. This was not the way to secure Ireland and conquer England. Great undertakings require great wisdom, great care, great diligence. Alas! it is no children's play. The council must be staunch in knowledge and loyalty, the civil officers honest in their management; the military commanders must keep themselves from the fooleries of gaming, drinking and whoreing; they must see that their soldiers be expert in the use of arms; be fed, be apparelled, be provided for in their sickness. These are the ways of bringing such high enterprises to a happy end. These gentlemen are eager for the obtaining of higher posts, but they will not take pains to deserve them. The Confederate princes abroad, as the Catholic king, the states general, and the rest, having received an account of Schomberg's ill success in Ireland, wrote to the prince of Orange, putting him in mind that, if he did not go himself in person into Ireland, and bring the strength and flower of England with him, the war therein would last long; and consequently his alliance would signify nothing unto them, and thereupon they must be forced to make a disadvantageous peace with the common enemy. This suggestion raised the prince on a resolution to undertake the Irish expedition, and so accordingly he did prepare for the next season. He had already of foreigners in England about eight thousand Danes under the duke of Wirtemberg, who landed at Hull, the 13th of November, 1689. These veterans and other foreign troops, with some English, the prince designed to bring along with him into Ireland at the ensuing spring. In the meantime there happened no winter action of any note between the Catholic and Protestant troops on the frontiers of Ulster, except two or three. On the twenty-fourth of November, captain
The month of April being come in the year 1690, marshal Schomberg, like a vigilant general, draws out of winter quarters his army into the field, in order to take the king's fortress, called Charlemont, in the county of Armagh, before the landing of the Prince of Orange and his forces, to the end his highness might find the whole province of Ulster entirely under his obedience at his arrival. The marshal then sat down before Charlemont, about the 22nd of April, which held out three weeks, until the garrison had nothing to eat. Upon which the governor, sir Thady O'Regan, delivered it upon honourable terms, the 14th of May, that the garrison being eight hundred men, should march
By this time, his majesty commanded that his troops should draw out of their quarters, and rendezvous at Dundalk, in order to wait there for the prince of Orange (who was to land in Ulster where Schomberg lay) and to give him battle. These troops convened there, but not so many as should have met for the design; for too many regiments of foot were left in garrisons, and that to no purpose, as it happened afterwards, whereby the king's army, which took the field, proved much inferior in numbers to the host of the rebels, though, I own, excellent art might have supplied that defect. This was a strange oversight in the king and his generals, not to have brought the strength of the kingdom to the field, since the resolution had been taken of putting all upon a battle. By this management the king was neither strong in the field, nor strong in towns. For not one garrison was of any notable strength in the beginning of the war, nor any care had been taken since then to the day of the Boyne (that is a year and a half) to fortify the places.
It would have been better if the king had taken the field sooner and entered into Ulster, by which attempt he might have cut off the army of Schomberg, before the prince of Orange could land with the rest of his forces. However, his majesty being come to Dundalk on the 16th of June, fixed there his camp, with a resolution to expect the arrival of his enemy and fight him. The ground was naturally fortified, to which
But to return: we are to tell you, that the prince of Orange with fair troops embarked at Highlake, in Lancashire, on the eleventh of June 1690, and on the fourteenth he landed at Carrickfergus. He joined immediately marshal Schomberg, by which conjunction there was an army made up of thirty-six thousand chosen men, of which fourteen thousand were horse, mostly veterans, Danes, Germans, French, Dutch, English, Scots, and Irish Protestants, well paid, well clothed, well armed, with a numerous artillery; with the prince of Orange, and in some time before, came prince George of Denmark, the duke of Wirtemberg, general of the Danes, the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, the lord Douglass, count de Nassau, the duke of Ormonde, baron de Ginkel, count de Solmes, lieutenant-general Mackay, major-general Scravemoer, major-general Talmash, monsieur d'Overkirk, the earl of Oxford, the earl of Portland, the earl of Scarborough, the earl of Manchester, the lord Sidney, and others of quality out of England, all zealots for the cause; which kingdom was left feeble in strength of trained soldiers, for the remainder of the English forces was, for the
On the other side, the king, having received an account that the prince of Orange was landed and resolved to march up to Dublin, he sent out of his camp, on the twenty-second of June, a party towards Newry, to take some prisoners, that he might learn the strength of the enemy. The party consisted of four companies of grenadiers, under colonel Fitzgerald, at that time lieutenant-colonel to the lord Bellew, and of sixty horse under colonel Lawrence Dempsy, then lieutenant colonel to the lord of Galmoy. They had orders to remain at the nigher end of the Four-mile pass above-mentioned.
They were not here long, when they discovered between two hundred and three hundred English foot and dragoons, at the other end of the pass, who, it seems, were coming from the Newry towards Dundalk, to know the king's strength, and how his army lay. The Irish suffered them to pass the causeway and then they poured their shot in amongst them. There was a return made. But the English dragoons being more numerous charged the Irish horse with such fierceness, that they disordered the troop. Colonel Dempsy suddenly again brought them into order, and returned the charge with that violence that they broke their enemies, and in that confusion a party of the Irish grenadiers fired in among them, which caused a general flight in the English, of whom there were nigh thirty killed, and captain Farlow and another officer were made prisoners. There were about ten of the Irish slain, and colonel Dempsy received a mortal wound, of which he died within three days after, at Ouldbridge, a village on the Boyne. He was regretted, because he had been a good horse officer, who had been a colonel in the king of Portugal's wars.
The Irish party being returned to Dundalk, the king was told by captain Farlow, the prisoner, that the army of the prince of Orange was fifty thousand strong. This, I am sure, was an exaggeration to oblige the king to fly before his enemy and leave him the country of plenty,
Here we will consider thus: either the king resolved at his encamping on the banks of the Boyne to fight the prince of Orange, in order to keep him beyond the river, the old Rubicon of the Pale, and the frontier of the corn country, or he resolved not. If he resolved not, why did he not decamp early on Monday morning, before the prince of Orange appeared on the other side of the river, or on Monday night, because it is not safe to rise in the face of a more potent enemy? If the king resolved to stand his ground, why did he not use the common rules of art military for the strengthening of an inferior army against a superior? by which means the inferior does gain often the point, as we see in the experience of wars. There was at that time but a few narrow passes to be fortified on the Boyne, which might have been done in the space of three hours by three hundred pioneers.
But you will say, if the king's army had lain entrenched, the prince of Orange would have decamped, and marched up by the river to Navan or higher, and there have trajected. We answer first: the king might take the same course on his side and be there sooner, as having the more expeditious army, and might have entrenched there in like manner. We answer, secondly, that the king by these obstructions given to the enemy's passage could have called to his succour fifteen thousand resolute men of the Catholic militia and volunteers out of the adjacent counties of Meath, Dublin and Kildare, some armed with swords, some with half-pikes, some with fire-arms, and some with scythes, which with skilful management would likely turn the balance to the king's side, considering how propense the people were at that time to fight against a most odious enemy, who came to devour their all. But, unfortunately, none of those courses was taken, which makes me fear that some one
At this time the lord Dungan was commanded down from the right with his regiment of dragoons, to give a check unto some advanced troops of the enemies that were ready to gain the bank at the upper end of the ford of Ouldbridge, in despite of the fire that was made on them, at something too great a distance, by the Irish foot, which were posted near the said ford. The lord Dungan having repulsed those troops to the other side of the river, marched back to his station. But in his retreat upon a high ground, he was unfortunately slain by a cannon ball. At the same juncture, sir Neil Oneil, on the left, with his dragoons, did wonders at Rossnaree, in stopping the abovesaid ten thousand men near half-an-hour. But there was no care taken to sustain him, and so he was forced to retreat to his line. In this while, the king's army was only spectator of this fierce conflict between a few regiments
However, the king resolved to go back to France; and so the next morning of the Boyne, being Wednesday, the second of July, his majesty departed from Dublin, being accompanied only by a few gentlemen, and travelled through the county of Wicklow into the county of Wexford, and came to the extremity thereof, viz., to the fort of Duncannon, where he took shipping for France, having found a French man-of-war in
The next morning of the skirmish at the Boyne, the prince of Orange sent brigadier La Melloniere, with a thousand horse and dragoons, and a body of foot with eight pieces of cannon, to summon Drogheda, wherein there was thirteen hundred Irish soldiers, and the lord Iveagh, governor thereof, who surrendered the town, on condition that the garrison should march to Athlone without arms. This was a poor defence of a town that gave work enough to Oliver Cromwell to take it in the year 1649. On the fourth day of July, the prince of Orange sent the duke of Ormonde and monsieur d'Overkirke to Dublin with nine troops of horse, to secure the tranquillity of the city. On the fifth he marched his army to Finglas, a pretty village within two miles of Dublin, where he encamped. On the sixth, being Sunday, he made his entry into that city, being attended only by a few of his great officers, and went to the cathedral church to hear a sermon. On the seventh the prince issued a declaration, dated at Finglas, wherein he promises to all farmers and tradesmen his protection of their persons, of their goods and chattels, if they would remain at home and follow their callings. Yet this promise was afterwards ill performed by his officers and soldiers, both in their marches and in their winter-quarters in several places. But the estated gentlemen the prince excluded from his mercy. This was a foolish edict, and the first of this kind, I believe, that ever had been; for commonly a prince, entering into a country in order to conquer it, does in the first place encourage the principal persons to submit unto him, and when these are gained, the rest do follow in course. I suppose the prince Orange was persuaded to go against reason in favour of his great officers, who would have the Irish Catholic lords of land to be rejected from all expectation of recovering their estates, because the said
The prince having refreshed his army, and provided all things necessary for his further expedition, began his march from Finglas towards Limerick on the ninth of July. At his decamping, he sent lieutenant-general Douglass with three regiments of horse, two of dragoons, and ten of foot, with ten field pieces and two small mortars, to take Athlone, on the river Shannon, fifty miles from Dublin, it being the great important pass into the province of Connaught. The lieutenant-general came before the place on the seventeenth of July, and sat
The prince of Orange being arrived with his army at Castledermot, in the county of Kildare, sent from thence brigadier Eppinger, with a thousand horse and dragoons; into the county of Wexford, to secure the maritime town of that name, and head of the shire, and afterwards to oblige the fort of Duncannon to surrender. They found Wexford abandoned, and in it a store of provisions and ammunition; which place might have been easily fortified, so far as to make a smart resist ance against an army of twenty thousand men. General Cromwell could not take it in the year 1649 but by the treachery of the governor of the castle. From hence Eppinger went to Duncannon, which is the second fort of the kingdom, and lies at the mouth of an excellent harbour. It is capable to make a considerable besieging army to pay dearly for the expugnation thereof, and therefore it seems ridiculous that a petty handful of men should presume to frighten it. However, brigadier Eppinger summoned it to yield to the good fortune of th prince of Orange. Upon this, the governor, colonel Michael Bourk, having a smart garrison, made some delay in his resolutions; but at last, considering his scarcity of victuals, as he afterwarc alleged, and the want of sufficient powder, he condescended, on the twenty-sixth of July, to give up the place, on condition that he and his garrison should march to Limerick with arms and baggage.
In the meanwhile the prince of Orange came to Kilkenny with his army in the nineteenth of July. This town is the head of a county. It gave in Cromwell's days some resistance to his forces, but now is abandoned. From hence the prince sent, on the twentieth, count Schomberg with a party of horse to possess Clonmel, a pretty town
Caius Julius Caesar
so many towns had the prince taken without resistance, which, if each of them had given, Orange had been undone; for the war of Ireland would have been prolonged, and consequently the confederacy abroad would have been forced within two years at the farthest to make a peace with France, for want of the assistance of England, which was all employed against the Irish; by which peace all the power of France would fall upon poor England, to her chastisement for her frequent rebellion, and to the dethroning of that unnatural usurper. Here I must own my admiration that gentlemen should take upon them to be governors of towns when they know that they are not able to defend them. They should be so honorable in their dealings, as to tell so much to the prince who employed them, to the end that the nation who depends upon their defence may not be destroyed.After the taking of Waterford, the prince of Orange went to see it,
This is a city situated on the Shannon, the first river of the kingdom, whither the tide mounts from the ocean sixty miles within the land. It was then a weak town, having no outward works but a toy of a palisade before a little part of the wall, nor a rampart within. The wall is of an old standing, and far from being thick. Hither the duke of Tyrconnell and the Irish army were come about three weeks before from the Boyne, A little after their arrival there was a report spread that the Irish would put their back to the walls of Limerick, and there engage in a regular fight with the enemy for the whole kingdom; which report raised the courage of the army, and invited no small number of gentlemen, burgesses and farmers, who flew before the enemy out of Leinster, Munster and Ulster, to approach to Limerick, in order ta share in the glory of that day. There was a strong probability for their prevalence, considering their advantage in the ground, their numbers much increased, and their resolution highly incensed by their loss at the Boyne.
Against this opinion of Tyrconnell there rose an opposition which was sustained with vehemency by a few officers of the army, and namely by major-general Sarsfield, by brigadier Henry Luttrell, by colonel Gordon Oneil, and by others. Zeal for king and country I highly commend—but it should be exhibited with discretion. Over-audacious enterprises are condemned by reason. What these caballing gentlemen can say for continuing the war against the sentiment of the duke, is reduced to these three points, that they have a sufficiency of men, that they have courage enough, and that they will have out of France a consummate general to govern their army, and therefore they will likely have a happy end. The truth of the three premised points I cannot deny; for all their losses hitherto since the beginning of the war are to be attributed to mismanagement, which if for the future they can rectify, I do not doubt but they will carry the day, supposing all other requisites be supplied, of which immediately. For their not taking of Derry proceeded from the want of battering-pieces, of which if the army had a dozen, they might have well made themselves masters of that town in twelve days after trenches opened. The loss of Croom castle fight was caused by mistaking the word that the commanding officer of the Irish gave, by which the strength of the lord Mountcashel's army was drawn from the field. The losing of the battle at Cavan was occasioned by ordering the Irish to attack the enemies within ditches and hedges. The failure at the Boyle sprang from several defects of military management, as it is easily known out of what we have said already. And so of the rest.
But allowing that the Irish arrny is strong and courageous enough, and ruled by a most expert general, is this sufficient to recover Ireland from the hands of so powerful an enemy as we described above. Is not money, the sinew of war, altogether wanting? It is so true, that it
There was another powerful reason against prolonging the war which we touched above, and which we here repeat. The anti-Tyrconnell faction laid the preservation of Limerick for the foundation of keeping up the war. If it should be taken, all was lost, no body doubting of it. If they could retain the town, they would have time enough to prepare a considerable strength against the next campaign. But now is the query: How could the caballists judge it probable that they would preserve with part of their army so very weak a place against a potent triumphing host, that was furiously bent upon finishing the war by the expugnation of that fortress? Certainly their undertaking (on which depended the welfare of the nation) was temerarious after the manner they proceeded. For they should have kept the whole army within and without the city in the county of Clare side, having first made entrenchments at the ford above the town, to hinder the enemy to pass the river, and to cut off the communication between the garrison and their camp, and this to the end that the garrison in the day of a general attack might be sustained by their army.
Notwithstanding these reasons, the factioneers must have their will, and on they will go with the war, relying upon expected provisions out of France and upon French generals, by whose wise management future miscarriages will be prevented. Yet in the mean time I must say
By the time Tyrconnell went off, the prince of Orange invested Limerick, viz., on the ninth of August. He sent that same day a summons of surrender to the town, but it was rejected by the governor.
The next morning the prince sent major-general Ginkel and major-gen eral Kirk with a great body of horse over the river into the county of Clare, for the sake of forage and to cut off the communication between the Irish cavalry and the garrison. They passed the Shannon near sir Samuel Foxon's house, two miles above the town, which the Irish might have prevented by making entrenchments and leaving strong guards thereat with a few pieces of cannon. The duke of Berwick, hearing of their trajection, ordered the corn within ten miles of the city to be destroyed, that the enemy might not make use of it. This action proved prejudicial to the Irish in the winter following, by reason it caused a great scarcity of grain. Then the Irish cavalry retreated to the
The next day, viz., on the eleventh of August, a deserter came from the English army into the town, and informed that there were eight pieces of battering-cannon, with ammunition, provisions, tin-boats, and other necessaries on the road from Dublin coming to the prince of Orange for the siege. Major-general Sarsfield, being desirous to keep off the beleaguer of Limerick for the present season, flew that night to the horse camp, and offered his service towards the intercepting of that great convoy. Uupon which there was given him five hundred horse and dragoons, with which party he hastened over the Shannon into the county of Tipperary, and thence into the county of Limerick, and without any rest marched till he overtook the convoy in two days after, viz., on the thirteenth of August, at night, at a little old castle called Ballineedy, within seven miles of Limerick. He surprised it in the night-time. He bursted the cannon, he burned the provisions and ammunition, destroying everything, and carried off some money, having killed about sixty of the soldiers and wagoners, with no loss of his own. For this action the duke of Tyrconnell recommended Sarsfield to the king's favour, and his majesty thereupon and for other considerations sent a patent into Ireland in five months after, creating him earl of Lucan.
This loss of the artillery struck the prince of Orange into a great fury, because it retarded the siege. However, he got other cannon that served his turn, by reason that the wall was then without rampart, as abovesaid. On the twelfth of August, brigadier Stuart was sent by the prince with a party and four field pieces to take Castle-Connell, a stronghold within three miles of Limerick close to the Shannon. After a few days' siege captain Barnewall, the governor, was forced to yield himself and one hundred and twenty men prisoners of war for want of water.
On the seventeenth the trenches before the town were opened. The chief battery was soon carried within a pistol shot to the south wall of Irishtown. On the twentieth the prince ordered a detachment to attack a small fort of the Irish, called the Stone Fort, in which there were about a hundred men. The action on both sides was brisk; but the assailants
From the seventeenth to Wednesday, the twenty-seventh of August, the mortars and cannon of the besiegers played furiously. The mortars did not the damage which was expected; but the cannon made a large breach in the wall, whereupon orders were given by the prince of Orange, in the morning of the said twenty-seventh, to the army to prepare for a general attack. Five hundred grenadiers were to begin, who were to be supported by seven regiments of foot, and in like order other bodies were appointed. The garrison was much fatigued by frequent hard duty. However, they must reject conditions. But for the more easy and surer defence against the grand attack, which was soon expected, the governor had timely an entrenchment made within the breach from side to side. Behind this work he placed a few pieces of cannon and his battalions. He ordered some companies to stand within the breach when attacked. Part of his men, who were on duty the day before, he did not call to the action at the beginning, though in the heat thereof they were brought into play. Thus were both sides prepared to gain and defend the town, to finish and continue the war, to acquire and preserve all. If the Irish should be that day overpowered, their all was gone, their religion, their property and liberty, because they had no possibility, after the loss of this town, to make conditions for themselves, and consequently the opposite party would have all.
The consideration of which matter obliges me to think that the Irish commanders hazarded too far the safety of the nation in placing it on their defence of a very weak town without all their forces against so powerful an army; and this without resolving to call for a parley, when they should see a wide breach made in the wall and a numerous host ready to mount it. Such
But to go on: the prince of Orange commanded the signal for attacking to be given between three and four of the clock in the afternoon, which being done, his men went on bravely, and after some loss they mounted the breach. The first that did it was captain Farlow, who no sooner gained the honour but he got his death on the place, where the conflict was bloody. However, the assailants by their numbers prevailed and entered the town and the circumference of the entrenchment. 'Twas here the defendants put all their might, and their commanding officers signalized themselves in managing of this last contention wherein their all was at stake.
Whereupon the soldiers were ordered not to fire till the pound was full, as 'twas said, and then they poured in their shot amongst the ingressors, from front, right and left so furiously, that they put the living to a stand, and, seconding seasonably their fire, forced at last the enemies to face about to the breach and fly. The Irish pursued violently, and drove them out of the walls and into their works, making a great slaughter. The whole action continued three hours, with violence on both sides, in which there were killed of the besiegers, soldiers and officers, at least two thousand, besides the wounded; of the besieged, not above 100, amongst whom were captain Lawless and captain Smith of the guards. But captain Patrick Dowdall was slain a few days before in a sally. The next day after this attack there was a cessation for burying the dead.
On Friday, twenty-ninth, the prince of Orange called a council of war, wherein he proposed to make a second attack, which should be undertaken by the second line of the army, that was fresh, and the first
This result incensed most highly the prince of Orange, which he testified by his discourse. Whereupon he made an order that the army should decamp within two days and go into winter-quarters. As for himself he would return into England, leaving count de Solmes commander in-chief of the army. He appointed the lord Sidney, sir Charles Porter, and Thomas Coningsby, esquire, lords justices of Ireland. So, having settled his affairs, he went away the next day, being Saturday, the thirtieth of August, for Waterford, being accompanied by prince George of Denmark, the duke of Ormonde, and other persons of quality. From thence he sailed for England on the fifth of September.
On Sunday morning, the last of August, the English army marched off from Limerick with some precipitation, as fearing a pursuit from the Irish. But the Irish garrison were so unfortunate as not to have their cavalry and the rest of their forces near them, which if they had, it is probable that they would have given no small blow to the retreating enemy, being much disheartened at their losses and disappointment before Limerick, which opinion is confirmed by intelligent persons. The English army came to Tipperary, fourteen miles from Limerick, on the sixth of September. From hence they were dispersed into winter-quarters; count de Solmes, the general, took his at Cashel.
The duke of Tyrconnell being at Galway, having received an account of all that had passed at Limerick, rejoiced very much, as did the French brigade, who now would be willing to stay in the kingdom, since they had hopes of retrieving it by the preservation of Limerick; but the fleet being come for them, they dared not remain without new orders. Tyrconnell returned to Limerick, to settle affairs there, where he appointed major-general Dorrington governor, because monsieur Boisseleau was to go into France. He ordered the army dispersed up and down to enter into winter-quarters, and the colonels to recruit who had not
After Tyrconnell was gone, major-general Sarsfield, being desirous to get some quarters in Leinster, went with a party, about the fourteenth of September, over the bridge of Banagher, to besiege the castle of Birr, in the king's county, garrisoned by a company of colonel Tiffin's regiment; but major-general Kirk coming with a greater force to relieve the place, Sarsfield was obliged to march off. 'Twas about the end of this month that count de Solmes was called for into England by the prince of Orange, and baron de Ginkel was made lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the English army, who had his quarters at Kilkenny. But before this it was judged to be most conducing to the prince's
The loss of so many men was no small weakening of the Irish army, and the loss of that city was very sensible to them, because thereby they lost the great county of Cork, as large as any other two counties in the kingdom; they lost part of the county of Kerry, and part of the county of Limerick, in which tracts of land the greatest part of the king's forces might for that winter subsist.
After Cork was thus taken, the garrison was transported into England. But before the English fleet quitted the harbour, one of the prime men-of-war was blown up by its own powder, which took fire through heedlessness of those whose office it was to look to the ammunition. In this vessel perished, among the rest, some Irish officers, and namely, colonel Charles Kavanagh, of the county of Wexford, and Mr. John Walsh, of Piltown, in the county of Waterford. Some were saved by being flung in shallow water near the shore, amongst whom was colonel Barrett, of the county of Cork, and a young son of colonel Kavanagh's. 'Twas a deplorable disaster. When the fleet arrived in England, the prisoners of the chiefest consideration were put into the tower of London; as the earl of Clancarty, the earl of Tyrone, who died therein, the lord baron of Cahir, and colonel Macgillicuddy, governor of Cork. The number of the slain at this siege was but little on either side.
The English lost the duke of Grafton, natural son to king Charles the second. He was wounded, and died the ninth of October following.
The lord Marlborough, general of this army, after leaving a garrison in the town, marched on the second of October to the new fort of Kinsale, ten miles distant from Cork, in the same county.
This fort is the first in the kingdom, and it commands the entrance into a harbour that is one of the best in Europe. It is very strong on the sea-side, but towards the land it proved at that nick of time in one place very weak, having there but an indifferent wall, not lined within with any rampart, nor strengthened without with any works. The place was well stored with provisions and ammunition, but it had only a moderate garrison, the governor whereof was sir Edward Scott. On the third of October, Marlborough, from his camp before the new fort, sent in boats major-general Tetau, with eight hundred men, to storm the old fort on the other side of the harbour of Kinsale, in which fort there were about four hundred and fifty men. On the fourth day, Tetau, with his bombs, set fire to the powder of the garrison, whereby forty were killed. The rest retired to an old castle, and surrendered, prisoners of war, after losing in all two hundred men. Before the new fort the trenches were opened the fifth of October. The governor made a smart resistance,
But before we put a period to this chapter, we think it not amiss to touch a foreign business, because it concerns the king, and which was undertaken to restore his majesty. To tell the said business in its due time, we must return back to the month of June in this same year, 1690, in which the thing happened. The most Christian king, understanding that the prince of Orange was going out of England into Ireland, and bringing along with him the strength of England, in so much that England was left almost naked of soldiers, he immediately took up a resolution to transport a moderate army, in the absence of the prince, into England, which would soon, with the assistance of the loyal party, reduce that kingdom to its obedience. But ere the army could pass over, his most Christian majesty must have first cleared the sea by overpowering the confederate fleets of England and Holland, which was a very hard task. However, the king of France would try it. In order to which he commanded his navy to make ready for a grand battle, and to be better manned than usually, At the same time he ordered an
The damage the Dutch sustained in this battle consisted in the loss of several ships, and of a great number of their equipage. Amongst the slain was rear-admiral Jan Dick, rear-admiral Brackel, and captain Nordel. Of the English there were killed captain Botham, captain Pomeroy, and two captains of the marine regiments. The French loss was little. The news of this action struck England into a terror, which obliged the princess of Orange, then governing alone in the absence of the prince, to secure suspected persons, as the earls of Lichfield, Ailesbury, and Castlemain, lords Montgomery, Preston and Bellasyse, sir Edmund Hales, sir Robert Thorold, sir Robert Hamilton, sir Theophilus Oglethorp, colonel Sackville, lieutenant-colonel Duncan Abercromy, lieutenant-colonel Richardson, major Soaper and others.
The most Christian king, having made the passage into England as easy as he had desired, now waited only for the arrival of his army at the sea-side to transport it. But the allies, being before this time informed of that king's designs, they were put to their wits' end how to stop the trajection of those forces. They fortunately hit upon the only
Here behold how this prince of a most ancient, illustrious family lays aside his honour, which in that juncture exacted from him an adhesion to his royal uncles, and a compassion for the afflicted condition of a Catholic king, inhumanly persecuted by his own vassals, and this for an expected lucre, which could not be great but in his imagination.
The duke of Savoy should have been more knowing in the power of France, and should have been convinced that the close neighbourhood of the most Christian monarch could do him more good, or more harm, than rebellious England and remote Germany and Spain. We will leave his royal highness to try experiments till he had found what we have said here to be true.
Great Louis, understanding that the Savoyard was leading into France a confederated host, speedily resolved with himself that charity begins at home, and that therefore he must postpone the restoration of his exiled cousin german, the king of Great Britain, in order to preserve France, leaving the execution of his design to another opportunity. Whereupon his most Christian majesty, having no other army to oppose the duke of Savoy, sent a countermand to the army he had destined for England, and which as yet was not arrived at the sea-side, to face about and march straight to Savoy against the said confederate army. Thus the best occasion that ever France could have of restoring the uncle was totally destroyed by the nephew, which needs must be an uncommon stroke of sorrow (because unexpected) to both the kings, Louis and James; for which reason it had been my admiration that so elevated
In the meantime we cannot omit to mention that 'twas in this same year, 1690, and on the twelfth of August, new style, pope Innocent the eleventh went off the stage of mortality. This great pastor had the comfort to receive James the second of England into his flock; and the king, on the other side, showed a noble zeal in paying to the throne of the church those devoirs that usually are paid by crowned heads. Innocent became also godfather to the prince of Wales; he gave bishops unto England; and sent his nuncio to reside at that court, where none had been seen since an age or two before. So that here was a tie of interest between the pope and the king.
But how it had happened afterwards that the holy father fell out with his royal son even in the first year of his dethronement, when his paternal affection should have rather run to the assistance of his abused child, it is not a thing publicly known. Yet we may draw some light of the cause out of this narrative. When the archbishop and elector of Cologne was dead, videlicet, in the year 1688, the chapter entered upon an election for a successor. The canons were divided in their votes. Some were for prince Clement of Bavaria, second brother to the present elector of that name; others for cardinal Furstenberg, a favourite of the most Christian king. The chapter sent up to Rome the manner of the whole election, that the pope might judge which of the two elected persons was most canonically chosen. His holiness, after examination of the matter, gave a decree for prince Clement; and thereupon sent down his bull of confirmation, with commands to the subjects of Cologne to receive Clement as their prince and bishop.
The king of France, being violent for his friend, cardinal Furstenberg, was highly vexed at his disappointment. However, he resolved off-hand (though unjustly) to sustain the cardinal as elector of
The first question that rises here is, whether the states came to an agreement. The second is, whether the nuncio (supposing an agree ment made) advanced any money unto them. The third is, in case the states had received any, whether did they give it to the prince of Orange, the constant general of their army. I leave the answers to others, who know best these points. In the interim, I say that the prince of Orange was at this very juncture most busy in preparing for his invasion upon England, in order to dethrone the king by the invitation of the heads of the people, and soon after he actually landed in Torbay. It was from this interfact of the nuncio and states general of the united Netherlands that the vulgar error sprung, which says that the pope sent money to the prince of Orange to invade England—a ridiculous whimsey, and so I leave it.
But as to our purpose. If the most Christian king in these differences with the pope, desired the king of England to become his ally, and if that alliance was made, it appears that from hence king James gave offence to his holiness. This pope was a person that both knew and dared defend his prerogative. And happy would it be to the universal church that every governor thereof had the like magnanimity. The greatest flaw (generally speaking) in the sacred government is timidity. In this, I own, it wants a reformation; for when once authority is undervalued, the end of that regency cannot be obtained, but in lieu thereof ensues anarchy and confusion. Nor truly do I see what reasons the sovereign pontiffs may have in being fearful to strain endeavours to keep kings to their Christian devoirs, seeing their sacred
However, let us suppose that the monarch of France demanded the king's alliance against his holiness. Yet I am not easily persuaded that his majesty consented thereunto because the conscience of James was tender, and his veneration for the holy see was more than ordinary. Neither will I lightly believe that Louis the great made any such particular proposal unto James the just, though he might have requested his confederacy against all enemies in general.
I should rather think that the pope's anger proceeded from this, that his Britannick majesty refused to accept of the army the king of France had offered him against the designed invasion, because by that refusal the king lost to himself the kingdom, and to the pontiff the national church of England. Notwithstanding which displeasure I am induced to judge, out of the nature of that pope, that if he had lived some years longer he would have procured an end to the late war of Europe much sooner than it happened, and this in order to get the king of Great Britain restored. He would have dealt more resolutely with the emperor, and the Catholic king, in obliging them to an honourable peace, than the following pope, Innocent the twelfth, attempted to do. The only obstacle to the prior pope's good will was the offence the king of France had given him in opposing his judgment for prince Clement of Bavaria; but that offence was taken away by the most Christian monarch's speedy submission, so that Clement was absolutely settled in his electorship.
And since we are abroad, we will continue our discourse of things that concern the king and Ireland, because they happened near the end of this year. The duke of Tyrconnell, being arrived at St. Germain's, acquainted his Britannick majesty with his procedure at Limerick, with which account the king was well satisfied; though he would be more glad that the contrary opinion took effect, because thereby he would be sooner reinthroned. And in token that he was pleased with Tyrconnell's discreet behaviour, he made him soon after knight of the most noble order of the garter, and lord lieutenant of Ireland, so that now Tyrconnell is as great as the king can make him.
The next day after
In a few weeks after, the Irish deputies above-mentioned, being come to the court of St. Germain's, exhibited to the king James II. their reasons for opposing the duke of Tyrconnell at Limerick when he pro posed to make a peace with the prince of Orange. At the same time they begged of his majesty to let them have a French general, and with him they conceived hopes of retrieving the kingdom of Ireland. The king thought it fit to acquiesce to their reasons, since their intentions appeared to be for his good and their country's, and since their undertaking, with such helps as France could then allow them, was not void of probability, especially considering how they foiled the enemy before Limerick. Upon these hopes his majesty procured for them, from his constant great friend, the king of France, both general officers and a fleet of provisions, ammunition, clothes and arms for the army to be sent into Ireland in the foHowing spring. The general was the marquis of St. Ruth, whose patent being drawn was signed by his Britannick majesty, wherein he was constituted marshal-general of Ireland. There were also two lieutenants-general appointed, the marquis d'Usson, and the chevalier de Tessé; also there was made a governor for the city of Limerick, monsieur la Tour.
We are now entering upon the third and last year of the Irish war, which the Catholic people of that kingdom had undertaken to vindicate the king's rights against the rebellion of England. Their intention was pure, their zeal ardent, their loyalty without a second, but their management stark naught. Whether treachery of particulars not only of their nation, but of strangers also, was an ingredient in the miscarriage of their enterprise, I dare not positively affirm it, but inasmuch
If those traitors (supposing them to be such) did profoundly reflect on themselves, that reflection (methinks) should be capable to give them death or distraction; for the treachery of each individual must needs have been greater than what he can possibly make compensation for. But if it proved the cause of the loss of the kingdom, in such case a king is not able to give satisfaction, as 'tis most evident. Woe be unto him that chose to be spectator of his country a-bleeding, of his religion expiring, of thousands of families reduced to miserable extremity, rather than want a purse of gold (though he was in no want) tendered unto him by the enemy, whereby he might better clothe and more daintily feed. He that has sold the honour of an honest man with so much detriment to others, cannot afterwards find the least solid comfort on earth, though for the comforts of earth he had made that brutal bargain. For, on one side he is in scorn and in detestation with those he had betrayed; on the other, he lives in an undervalue with such as his perfidiousness benefited. Here his conscience daily stings him; there the apprehension of too speedy a death gives him too frequent torments. The foreigner passes by, not deeming him worth his salutation. The kinsman is ashamed to own his kindred. And, in fine, everybody ridicules him as a fool, because, without selling his honesty, he had enough to live upon with honour before he turned traitor; and he might have continued that sufficiency in remaining faithful to his trust; and though bis party should have been overcome, yet a person of talents cannot miss to live decently and with credit in the world.
But to go on with our narrative: It happened that in the beginning of this year, 1691, new style, and about the fourteenth of January, the duke of Tyrconnell, accompanied by sir Richard Nagle, sir Stephen Rice and others returned out of France into Ireland and landed at Galway, bringing with him a few thousand pounds in silver and gold. From thence he came to Limerick, where he was received with the usual respect that is due to a person in his high station. The viceroy begins to prepare
When the lord lieutenant arrived, the duke of Berwick resolved for some reasons to go into France, and so departed from Limerick about the twenty-fourth of February, 1690-1. It was about this time that Mr. Mark Bagot, who had been sergeant-at-arms for the king, went from the Irish quarters to Dublin, to do in that city secret service for the loyalists. But, unfortunately, he was taken in woman's apparel, on the twenty-eighth of March, as he was entering into the town, and on the twentieth of May following he was put to death for a spy.
About the beginning of March the duke of Tyrconnell, finding that the brass money hitherto used became of no value, cried it down by proclamation, commanding all persons to bring in by a certain day their several sums, and to tell them to the commissioners of the mint, Mr. Walter Plunkett, Mr. Mamby, and Mr. Francis Rice, and the said commissioners, to certify the quantity of every person unto the lords of the treasury, my lord Gormanston, my lord Merrion, and my lord Riverston, to the end that the subject might not be a loser thereby when it should please God to restore the king.
In the said month of March, about the twentieth day, general St. Ruth arrived at Limerick from Brest, with the above-mentioned lieutenants-general and the governor. At his landing on the quay he was saluted by a discharge of the artillery from the castle. In his proceeding he found the soldiery of the town ranged on each side of the street. The viceroy came to meet him a hundred paces from his palace, and gave him the bien-venu into Ireland, and then brought him to dinner. In the evening he was lodged in a house prepared for his residence. Along with St. Ruth came a fleet, bringing arms, clothes for several regiments, powder, ball, a considerable quantity of oats, of meal, of biscuit, of wine and brandy, which caused a plenty in the country. In a few days after, the general began to apply himself to his charge, and
The month of April being come, baron de Ginkel, general of the prince of Orange's army, issued out commands that his troops should quit their quarters and march to the town of Mullingar, in the county of Westmeath, within twenty miles to Athlone, there to rendezvous, and from thence to begin the campaign. In compliance to which commands, some regiments actually arrived thereat on the twenty-seventh of April; the rest were in their march.
On the other side the marquis de St. Ruth sent forth the like orders, that the king's army should march out of their quarters to Athlone, and encamp near it, on Connaught side, having understood that general Ginkel designed to open the campaign by the siege of Athlone, in order to enter into the province of Connaught, hitherto in an entire possession of the Irish; and accordingly several regiments of foot came thither in the beginning of May. Their cavalry at the same time was marching from all parts.
By the beginning of June the English army was assembled at Mullingar, and on the sixth of the same month they began their march towards Athlone, with intention to take that great pass into Connaught. On the seventh they came to the village of Ballymore, on the road, and in the middle between Mullingar and Athlone. There is a fort close by it at the side of a lough, which was a little fortified by the Irish the last Winter. Lieutenant-colonel Milo Bourk was now governor thereof, in which there were about five hundred soldiers. Ginkel, resolving not to leave this untaken, sent a summons that same day to the governor, who refused to comply on good terms; at which the general ordered a few pieces to batter the fort, which was brought down to the ground, so that the next day, the eighth of June, the garrison was forced to surrender at discretion. They were sent prisoners to Dublin, and from thence all the private men were transported to the island of Lambay, a League from the continent of the county of Dublin. A few men were
Abuut this same time, the Irish army being fully gathered nigh Athlone, the marquis of St. Ruth comes thither from Limerick. The viceroy, Tyrconnell, went thither also, to see how matters stood. Athlone lies on the Shannon, which runs through it. On the left of the river is the province of Leinster; on the right, that of Connaught. The army was encamped within a mile and a half on Connaught side, upon a neck of land between two bogs. To this moiety of the town next the army, the only avenue is a causeway made in a morass. At the entrance there was an entrenchment cast up the year before, to defend the place against an enemy attacking the town from the side of Connaught, which entrenchment faced the Irish army, as it then lay. The duke of Tyrconnell gave his advice for demolishing this work, as the case then stood. His reason was, because the garrison might then be continually sustained from the king's army that was hard by, and so far as to be able to drive the enemy out of the town, though he should have entered, which was undeniably true. It was upon this assurance, we believe, and not otherwise, that the marquis of St. Ruth said the baron of Ginkel deserved to be hanged for attempting to take Athlone while he was at the head of so great an army to defend it, and that he himself deserved to be hanged if he should lose it.
But Tyrconnell's opinion was rejected, I suppose upon a belief that the usual garrison was sufficiently able to hinder the enemy from entering the town, because there was no way for entering but over the bridge, which was broken, or through the river, that was indifferently deep. Notwithstanding this, St. Rut.h's confidence was afterwards frustrated; and the viceroy's sentiment proved the best, and would have proved the preservation of the place if it had been followed. I wish the dissenting from his opinion did not proceed from animosity to his person, which the faction the year precedent at Limerick, or some one or more of the faction, conceived, and it seems there is much of probability in this consideration; for if the cabal had only a true zeal for their king
From whence the rancour rose I will leave it undiscussed, and also whether it had not in some of the faction a worse end than the running down of the duke of Tyrconnell. At least the effect of it (which was the rejecting of Tyrconnell's sentiments) proved fatal to the nation, as we shall remark beneath.
In the meantime, and about the middle of June, while the king's army was expecting the enemy's arrival before Athlone, a message was sent to the duke, and delivered by lieutenant-colonel O'Connor, viz., that if his grace did not withdraw from the camp, he would cut the cords of his pavilion. Here Tyrconnell made a noble conquest of himself, who might that day give the kingdom to the enemy, if he were resolved to vindicate off-hand the indignity cast on the king's authority, and on his own person, for he was able to destroy the Irish army in an hour's time by raising an intestine war in the middle thereof, so great was his interest in that host. He had five regiments of the cavalry for him, he had three or four of the dragoons, and the half of the best foot. The
By the time his excellency went off, the English army, after taking Ballimore, decamped on the eighteenth June, marching to Athlone, which was invested the nineteenth, on Leinster side. This part of the town was for the most part burned the last year by the Irish; yet at the present they had in it three or four companies of foot, which general Ginkel on the twentieth battered for his first attempt. In the afternoon at five o'clock he made an attack thereon and gained it; a few men were killed on both sides. Of the besiegers, lieutenant-colonel Kirk was slain by a cannon ball, as he was viewing the action from a height.
This part of the town being their own, they raised batteries the next day against the other part, that is on Connaught side. It is destitute of walls and only defended by a castle and the river, over which there runs a stone bridge into the town, the governor whereof was colonel Nicholas Fitzgerald, with a garrison of fifteen hundred men, choice grenadiers and foot. Lieutenant-general d'Usson put himself into it also. On the twenty-second, in the morning, the English batteries began to play against the castle, and in the evening there was made a great breach in the wall. On the twenty-third the whole side of the castle was beaten down, so that it became unserviceable to the besieged.
In a day or two after, what small works were about the castle became so far demolished that there remained no cover to the defendants, except a little behind the said castle. This work being over, the next attempt of the besiegers was how to get possession of the bridge, in order to attack the town thereupon.
The dispute was exceedingly fiery, but on the twenty-seventh the English gained all the arches but the last, which had been broken by the Irish. Now, to repair this was the topping difficulty. However, they carried on their endeavours so far on the twenty-eighth, that they laid beams thereon, and planked part of the beams; yet the same day a detachment of the Irish, with a surpassing audacity, threw down beams and planks, notwithstanding the most terrible fire of the enemy. The next day the besiegers renewed the attempt by the help of fascines, but it proved in vain, for the besieged burned them all.
All endeavours for assaulting the town by the way of the bridge having failed, the baron of Ginkel and the other general officers were at a stand what to do to gain the place, and longer they could not stay before Athlone, by reason that the forage all about for some miles was consumed. To decamp and go to Banagher, to endeavour to pass the Shannon that way, would prove dangerous, because the Irish horse might cut off their provisions, that came to them from Dublin, and only from Dublin. In this perplexity major-general Talmash principally, and seconded by the duke of Wirtemberg, by the majors-general Mackay, Ruvigny, and Tetau, advised to attempt getting into the town through the river in a sort of a ford on their left, and near the bridge.
This resolution was no sooner taken than a deserter traversed the river above the town and came to the Irish camp, letting the general officers know that the enemy would attack the town through the ford the next day. But there was no notice taken of this information, it being judged a thing not practicable. In this same day the Irish garrison was relieved, who had behaved themselves to admiration five days before, during the fury of the siege, and in their place three regiments of foot were sent, two of which, videlicet, of colonel O'Gara and colonel Anthony MacMahon, were but raised the winter before, and had been upon no
The thirtieth of June being come, a deserter or two from the Irish camp swam the river to the English very early in the morning, and told them that the enemy was secure, as believing that the besiegers would be gone, since they had failed so often in their undertakings, and that the garrison of Athlone consisted but of three ordinary regiments, which account encouraged Ginkel in his enterprise. But certainly it must be chiefly the knowledge that he must needs have of the abovesaid entrenchment being not cast down, and consequently that the weak garrison being overpowered by the assailants could not be sustained from the Irish army. Otherwise it was downright madness to attempt the matter, whereupon general Ginkel, having commanded two thousand men to make ready under the conduct of major-general Mackay, he distributed some money amongst the adventurers as a cordial unto them in this perilous assault. So, at six o'clock in the morning, captain Sandys and two lieutenants led through the ford, up to the armpits, sixty grenadiers in armour, twenty abreast, followed by a great body.
The garrison fired at them, and the English army fired in amongst the garrison with great and small shot. But amidst this furious storm, the adventurers gained the bank through a breach that had been made in a small work of earth, and speedily pierced into the place, casting before them their grenades, which, bursting, made frightful effects amongst the raw soldiers of the garrison, who had not been used to such squibs.
Some of the ingressors ran immediately to the end of the bridge and helped their companions on the other side to lay beams and planks on the broken arch; others went to assist the laying of the bridge of boats, by which means the English passed into the town so fast, that in half an hour all was their own, the garrison being forced to yield to numbers and better soldiers, and to retreat to their amy. Immediately the victors manned the entrenchment against the Irish forces that might attempt to come down the causeway, and beat them out of the town. Thus the place was lost, against all expectation, through a ford, which might have been defended with a thousand firelocks by the help of a trench in the bank, maugre the whole army of the enemy; and, as it was, two thousand expert soldiers rightly managed would laugh at the attempt. Here is nothing but a concatenation of errors in all the enterprises of the loyalists, no antecedent experience rendering them wiser; for which there is no excuse, unless they could make out that it is a succession of treachery which mars their efforts.
The marquis de St. Ruth, hearing the town was taken, fell into a sensible grief. However, he ordered some troops to march down, and retrieve the place if it was practicable. But the officers observing that the entrenchment was extraordinarily guarded, and might be supported by the hostile army, they returned to their camp.
In this assault the English lost but a small number of men besides the wounded, who were lieutenant-colonel Columbin, four officers more, and thirty soldiers. Of the Irish a few were slain, amongst whom in this action and in the rest of the siege were colonel MacEligot, colonel Richard Grace of Courtown; [gap: blank in manuscript].
There were made prisoners major-general Maxwell, a French adjutant-general, captain Dalton, and two or three other officers, and a few private men.
The loss of Athlone on the thirtieth of June rises up in judgment against the opponents of Tyrconnell in his opinion, which, if followed, would have preserved that town, and in sequel the province of Connaught, as all now do confess. When the news of this misfortune came to the duke of Tyrconnell, then at Limerick, he groaned thereat and redoubled
But general St. Ruth, knowing that he could not well justify his losing of Athlone, at the head of a considerable army, before the king and his own royal master, thought it not fit to pursue the sentiment of Tyrconnell, and so he chose to put the kingdom upon a fair combat, being unalterably resolved to bury his body in Ireland or regain it speedily. Whereupon, observing the strength of his army, he commanded the same to decamp from Athlone in the afternoon of that day 30th June, 1691, wherein it was taken. He marched towards Limerick and proceeded with small marches, until he came a little beyond the village of Aughrim, twenty miles from Athlone, and thirty from Limerick, in the county of Galway; where, viewing the ground, he judged it convenient for his design, and so fixed there his camp in waiting for the enemy. His army fronted Athlone to the west. Before his front he had a morass, over which foot could come, but not horse. At each end of this morass there was a passage, through which the enemy's horse could come to his right and left flank. That
'Twas here lieutenant-general de Tessé and major-general Sarsfield, now earl of Lucan, were posted. The other lieutenant-general, the marquis d'Usson, after the siege of Athlone went to Galway. On the left the marquis of St. Ruth placed the earl of Lucan's regiment of horse, and those of colonel Henry Luttrell, of colonel John Parker, and colonel Nicholas Purcell, with a body of dragoons. The lord of Galmoy, with his regiment, was put behind the second line of the foot, in the nature of a reserve to answer occasions. The conduct of this left wing was given to major-general Sheldon, the first line of which brigadier Henry Luttrell commanded. Their business was to defend the pass of the causeway, near to which, for more security, there were set two regiments of foot.
Close before the first line of the Irish infantry, there were a few old ditches, which were serviceable to them at the first charge of the enemy. The management of the infantry was assigned to major-general Dorrington and to major-general John Hamilton. Thus was the disposition of the army. No doubt St. Ruth showed good skill in choosing ground, and in ranging his host for this fight, where his all and the all of the nation lay at stake. The day before the combat he pronounced some words wherein he manifested his desire that all men would withdraw and reserve themselves for garrisons who were sickly or unable to fight as they should do, because he expected on the morrow to come to an engagement.
The day Athlone was taken, the English army and the Protestants of the town made great joy for so unexpected a victory in gaining of which they own to have spent nigh fifty tons of powder, many a ton of stones shot out of mortars, twelve thousand cannon-bullets, and six hundred bombs, which is a great expense. So, having rested here for some days, the army decamped on the tenth of July and marched towards the Irish camp. On the eleventh it came to Ballinasloe, three miles from Aughrim. The next day, being Sunday, it arrived at Aughrim a little after six in the morning, where, having rested a little while, the whole army was drawn up in two lines of battle. The Irish at that juncture were assisting at the sacrifice of Mass, and a little after prepared for meridian repast; but general St. Ruth, observing the enemy arranging in order for fighting, commanded. his men to be marshalled according as we mentioned above.
Both sides being fully prepared, action began a little after eleven, which mostly consisted in the playing of the artillery and in skirmishes for gaining and defending some advanced posts and little passes towards the right of the Irish, and which lasted thus till about six in the evening, when the main bodies deeply engaged. In that while, the English were first repulsed and afterwards they acquired those outward places. I mean, under the word English, the foreigners also, who were the better moiety of the army. Both parties, to give them their due, contended with extraordinary valour, insomuch that their combat was comely, amidst death and wounds, because fought with military skill.
But general Ginkel, not satisfied with the obtention of those little advanced posts, resolved to come closer to the matter, and make himself master of the ford on the right of the enemy, that he might get in that way with his cavalry amongst the Irish foot, which he perceived was somewhat superior, at least upon the account of the ground, and which therefore he seemed to fear most that day. Upon this, he ordered down at two o'clock a great body of horse from his left, to attack the pass of the ford. Here the dispute was rude, because it was for a thing of consequence, wherein the English were first repulsed, until the earl of Portland's regiment of horse, which then arrived in the camp, joined them,
General Ginkel did not like hitherto the countenance of the contention, because he saw no way to weaken the Irish infantry with his horse, if he should generally engage. This consideration put him in a doubt whether he should continue and come to a close fight that day. But it was soon resolved that it was so best. Whereupon he commands his left wing to charge again violently the right of the Irish horse through the ford at five in the afternoon, which they did with great bravery, and as well they were resisted, general St. Ruth taking care to provide timely against danger. He showed himself that day a good general, and did strain a point to recover the loss he had sustained in the miscarriage of Athlone. Between these wings the conflict was fierce. But at the end the English were forced to recoil, not being able to compass their aim.
'Twas at the period of this action, and about six o'clock, the main bodies of foot on both sides came to close fight, and sharp it was. The English charged, and in their advancing the Irish slew numbers from their little old ditches; the English gained them and flew in boldly among the enemies. The Irish returned the charge, and broke and pursued them with great slaughter.
Fresh bodies of English came on again and held the strife a good while in balance. Major-general Dorrington, being herein pressed, sent for the two regiments of foot, which were placed in the beginning of the day to guard the pass on the left. At the same time general Ginkel ordered down four fresh regiments more of foot to reinforce his combatants, which made the contention very sanguinary, till at last the English gave ground and the Irish advanced near the enemy's field of battle.
This repulse was no sooner given than a grand corps comes pouring down on the Irish for the third time. 'Twas now the combat seemed
At this, general Ginkel, seeing his centre wholly broken, his left wing to have had no small losses, without being able to have gained their point, that his right wing could not with any safety get over to the left of the Irish, and that the foe was on his field of battle, he became so disturbed in his thoughts that he could not well resolve what to do, unless to take his flight, of which some marks appeared immediately.
On the other side, general St. Ruth, remarking the condition of the enemy and his own success, cried out in his language with joy: ‘Le jour est à nous, mes enfants’: ‘the day is our own, my boys.’ To whom I thus address on this occasion: ‘Great general, you may well say, if God gives you life, nay, an hour of life, you will present a kingdom unto his majesty of Great Britain, as a grateful return for the honour he had done you in making you marshal-general of Ireland. If the powers above shall think fit to suffer your vital thread to be cut on this place, at least you may die with this comfort, that you have left the army entering upon possession of the realm; and if their leaders will not perform so easy a task, as to take absolute possession thereof, the fault is not yours, but theirs alone. ’ And in truth it proved so.
Amidst that confusion of general Ginkel, some of his great officers advised him for his last remedium to attempt once the sending his right wing of horse over the pass of Aughrim castle, notwithstanding the danger thereof. The general took this desperate advice and so ordered it to be executed; upon which the cavalry marched, Ruvigny's regiments being the first.
The marquis of St. Ruth, observing the enemy coming towards the
So we will proceed and say that general St. Ruth, having sent his command to the horse to march and oppose the enemy at the pass, he himself must needs go along to see them perform their duty, that there may be no failure in the last scene of this bloody tragedy. They moved and the general followed with his guards. But as he was riding down
As soon as the body was down, one of the retinue carried it off, and brought the corpse to the town of Loughreagh, and there interred it privately. His death was immediately made known by a deserter to the enemy, who thereupon advanced in haste to the pass.
Behold this great man gone at the height of his greatness; which shows we must be always mistrustful amidst the smiles of fortune. Let us see what immediate effects produced this death in the field. We find in history that some armies in battle have despaired of victory upon the killing of their general, and so retreated, that others gained the day much the sooner upon the like disaster, because they were carried on with a violent zeal to revenge the death of their leader. But we never have read that an army overcoming all the day, and ending victoriously the combat without any considerable loss on their side, and there being no difficulty to accomplish the petty remnant of the fight, that such an army, I say, gave up the victory of their own accord at the death of their general commander. 'Tis only the Irish army, or more truly a wing of it, at Aughrim, in the province of Connaught and kingdom of Ireland, that began this precedent in the year 1691.
As soon, then, as the marquis de St. Ruth was slain, the guards withdrew from the field. Brigadier Luttrell, who was at the pass with the advanced troops, hearing of it did the like after a small resistance given to the first arrived enemies. Major-general Sheldon with the main body of the left wing followed, making their way to Loughreagh, and thence to Limerick. At the same time the Irish infantry went on thundering, and their cavalry on the right stood firm to their ground,
It would be a satisfaction to the nation to know what solid reasons these great officers have for their going off the field, of their own accord, and without any compulsion, at a time when their presence was so necessary that the safety of the realm depended thereon. They say they had this one reason for so doing, because there was no general to command them to oppose the enemy at the pass. To the annulling of this reason, we answer in several ways, thus: First, the end of their being in the army was to serve the king and country upon all occasions in general, and particularly in suppressing the present rebellion. Here was for them a fair occasion to compass that end, and the best that ever they had or ever will have, which was warrant enough for their encountering the foe at that juncture without any special command. For by their fighting on this occasion, no damage could ensue to king, country, or the army, and by not combating, the destruction of all would follow, as it proved in fact. The nicety of martial laws ceases when an inevitable ruin is at hand, unless you do the moment before obstruct it, and when therefore there is no time to get positive orders from higher powers for preventing the same. In such case there is a tacit order always supposed, which order is like to the law of self-preservation, which warrants my opposing the person that invades my life, without my recurring to the magistrate, because such delay would prove my death. Moreover, there comes under this case the law of society, whereby I may without command, and I ought, if able, to preserve the members and head thereof from any imminent danger. This sort of procedure is justified by necessity, which is above the laws politic, insomuch that the laws of war, forbidding the soldier or subordinate officer to assault the enemy without orders from the superior or supreme commander, are dormant in the case of necessity, as was evidently that of defending the pass of Aughrim castle. So we will proceed and say secondly, that the
Neither could they allege for their justification an inability in stopping the foe; for the general knew the contrary. So did the enemy, who all the day, though he was sinking in his centre and on his left, yet dared not once for his relief attempt to traverse the causeway, till despair at the end compelled him to try that experiment at all hazards. So reason showed the easiness of the fact without control, and experience confirmed it; for as the right wing made good their ground and guarded the infantry where the enemy had some access unto them, so with more ease might the left (that was also somewhat superior) foil the enemy at a pass through which the access was exceedingly difficult. And, in verity, if the enemy had got the passage, it was expected that the cavalry on the left, now swollen with the success of the army, and inflamed with a desire of sharing in the honour and of putting an end to the happy battle and to their own calamities, would have been match enough for him, and especially reinforced (as they soon might be) with some battalions from the second line of their infantry, which had not toiled near so much as the first line had done all the day. In fine, since the king's cavalry on the left were resolved to retreat, an indispensable obligation lay on them to send warning to their foot to go off with all speed, while they themselves should cover their retreat, which they might have done without any sensible loss, especially assisted by the right wing, as a few regiments of horse brought off the right of their foot at the Boyne by a running fight for two miles.
The necessary result of this discourse is that the commanding officers of the left wing, by abandoning their station without compulsion, nay, without a stroke, were either traitors to their king and country, or, by exposing their foot to a certain murder, they showed a barbarous indifference for the safety of their friends and countrymen; or, in fine, were notorious cowards. And so let them keep their priding cavalry to stop bottles with.
But to proceed. By the time the king's horse went off the field, the enemy's whole right wing arrived at the pass, and, seeing no opposition beyond, they confidently went through, notwithstanding the fire from the castle on the right, which fire was insignificant, for it slew
As soon as the hostile cavalry was got over, they immediately enveloped the Irish foot, who were surprised at their hard fate while they were mowing the field of honour. They had no other remedy for their preservation than to retreat as fast as they could, making their way to Portumna, and so forward to Limerick. Most of the horse on their right made off likewise. Only the earl of Lucan, with some troops thereof, and the lord of Galmoy, with his regiment, did good service in covering their retreat as prosperously as so small a body could do. This and the arriving night and some morasses brought them off indifferently well. 'Twas their officers respectively that suffered most. In the same evening, late, the castle of Aughrim was taken, and the commander, colonel Bourk, with his major, eleven officers and forty soldiers, were made prisoners. Thus you have seen a victory snatched out of the hands of the victorious. What recompense the commanding officers of the Irish cavalry on the left can make to king and country for the loss of that day, we shall be able to judge when they are emperors in Europe. What punishments in the interim they deserve, we leave it to the judgment of those who are most knowing in art military.
In this long and bloody strife, both on the field of bravery and in the accidental retreat, there were slain of the Irish officers and soldiers about two thousand, and six hundred wounded. The wounded recovered soon almost all, and joined the army at Limerick within six weeks after. Amongst the slain was the great general St. Ruth, worthy of lasting memory. Next after him the noble youth, the lord Bourk, viscount of Galway, son to the potent earl of Clanrickard. He was dispatched by foreigners, after quarter given, as 'tis said; brigadier Connel, brigadier William Mansfield Barker, an English gentleman, early killed by a cannon ball; brigadier Henry Mac John O'Neill, colonel Charles Moor, of Kildare, with his lieutenant-colonel and major; colonel David Bourk, colonel Ulick Bourk, colonel Constantine
On the other side, of the English and foreigners there were killed officers and soldiers above five thousand, besides a great many wounded. Amongst the slain that we could learn, was major-general Holstaple, colonel Herbert, colonel Mongats, major Devenish, major Cornwall, major Fox, and major Colt.
The next day after the battle, the English buried their own and part of the Irish that lay on the ground, where general Ginkel was to fix his camp; the rest they left unburied. In this same day Ginkel sent brigadier Eppinger, with one thousand two hundred horse and dragoons, to take Portumna and Banagher, two passes on the Shannon, which yielded the fourteenth of July, on condition that the garrisons might march away with their arms and baggage.
On the thirteenth of July, in the morning, the viceroy, Tyrconnell, being at Limerick, received the sad news of the king's misfortune at Aughrim, whereby he was struck with a deep wound of sorrow, and the more because the battle was lost so unexpectedly. However, he roused his courage and kept hope alive, resolving to continue the war since he found the excellent magnanimity of the army, and that the loss of that day was not very considerable. Upon which, in the first place, he despatches away into France three expresses, one after the other, the earl of Abercorn, the lord Thomas Howard, of Norfolk, and
Within a few days after, the duke of Tyrconnell got brigadier Henry Luttrell to be apprehended, and brought to a trial before a court-martial for corresponding with the enemy; for a letter directed to him by an officer in the English army was intercepted in the trumpeter's hand, who was sent to Limerick, to know if the Irish had made such and such persons prisoners in the day of Aughrim. The letter did import that general Ginkel had full powers from the prince of Orange to give ample conditions to the confederate Catholics if they would make peace. Against this, the prisoner, being on his trial, made defence that the author of that letter and he were in discourse on a privileged day of some late cessation, wherein the question was put, why would not the Irish come to a treaty rather than to continue war with so much misery? and that the prisoner answered to this sense, that such a thing might well be if general Ginkel had a sufficient power. It was hereupon that letter was sent for information. The arguments for and against being ended, the majority of the court gave judgment that the prisoner did not deserve death. Yet the viceroy, who sat president that day and voted against the prisoner, would not set him at liberty, but confined him in the castle, where he lay till the peace of Limerick was made. However, this gentleman, in some time after the war was ended, did
While these things were happening, the three expresses that were sent for France went on in their voyage; but one of them, the earl of Abercorn, met a Dutch man-of-war near Brest, by whom the ship was taken, and the earl killed in a fight, after escaping death in the bloody field of Aughrim, where he gallantly comported himself with his regiment on the right. He was a person of great bravery, zealous for his country, and most loyal to his prince. He was of the noble family of Hamilton in Scotland, wherein he was earl of Abercorn; and in Ireland, his native soil, baron of Strabane. The like fate the Lord Thomas Howard did meet with, whose son is now duke of Norfolk, a Catholic. The third envoy arrived safe at St. Germain's, where he delivered his accounts of Ireland. The news touched his majesty very sensibly, seeing his affairs grow worse and worse every day; against which the best remedy he had was his usual resignation to the will of God. At the same time he took some comfort at the consideration of the courageous behaviour of his loyal people, and fell into consent with Tyrconnell that matters might be retrieved with some small assistance from France. The king made the whole story known unto the Gallick monarch, who heard it with sufficient sorrow for his royal friend's sake, and yet was pleased that the courage of the Irish did answer his expectation. But his most Christian majesty was not in a condition at the present to send any succours of men to the duke of Tyrconnell, though against the next campaign he might be able to afford them. In the meantime he could supply the Irish army with provisions, ammunition, arms and other necessaries of war; and actually did grant them, and ordered them with all convenient speed to be transported from Brest to Limerick, of which beneath.
General Ginkel, having refreshed his army at Aughrim, decamped on the sixteenth of July, and marched towards Galway, in order to
On the abovesaid sixteenth day of July, general Ginkel with his army came to Loughreagh, on the seventeenth to Athenree, within eight miles to Galway. On the eighteenth Galway was invested in which there were seven regiments of foot, not full nor well armed. Baldarg O'Donnell was expected there with a thousand men of reinforcement; but he came not, and afterwards made conditions for himself, and took the prince of Orange's side at the end of the war. This gentleman was descended of the family of the old earl of Tyrconnell in Ulster, who was forced to fly into Spain upon a false impeachment in the reign of king James the first, where he was owned earl of Tyrconnell, and his heirs after him. This present O'Donnell was the acknowledged earl at this time, who hearing that his nation was in war for king James the second, came into the kingdom a little after the action at the Boyne, in order to assist his countrymen, though he was suspected by some as not true to the cause. He bore the nickname of Baldarg, or a red place, or a red spot, upon the account that some of the family foolishly believed that the true earl of Tyrconnell, marked on his body with such a spot, would come from abroad into Ireland and do there great matters for his country; and they applied their ridiculous belief impertinently to this man.
On the nineteenth of July, general Ginkel planted a battery against a little new fort which the Irish had made near the town. He took it that same day. Immediately after he raised his batteries against the
The duke of Tyrconnell had great expectations that Galway would make a long resistance, which would be to his advantage; for thereby he hoped that the campaign would be so far spent, that the besieging of Limerick could not be undertaken in that season. But the town being so speedily lost, gave him a deep wound of sorrow, because it abbreviated too much of his time, wherein he expected succours out of France or a favourable answer to his request as aforesaid. For now the city of Limerick was the only fortress of note he had in possession, which his excellency knew the enemy would besiege immediately. How to keep off this beleaguer, the duke was at a stand for a while; until at last he resolved upon this following stratagem to gain a little time.
The whole Irish army, though scattered in the day of Aughrim fight, yet re-assembled within twelve days, hard by Limerick, in the county of Clare. And those officers thereof who had been violent factioneers against the duke of Tyrconnell do now own their fault, and acknowledge that his grace was all along in the right, though 'twas a submission made too late. However, the lord lieutenant ordered the army to pass from the other side of the river Shannon, through Limerick, and encamp close to the town on the east side. When this was done he issued a proclamation, commanding all men in the Irish quarters from the age of sixteen to sixty to join the army, to fight immediately the enemy; in order to which he made some other preparations. The whole city of Limerick and the army believed that there would be soon a second battle; and they conceived much alacrity thereat, especially
But the viceroy thought it not fit to give battle without a reinforcement of trained foot to supply the want of horse, though I should side with that opinion which would assent that the Irish host, now resolute to obstinacy ('tis this gives always the day), together with the volunteers and their zeal, and the advantageous situation of the place, was sufficient to get the victory, considering what numbers of the enemies were lost at Aughrim; and what were left to garrison Galway, Athlone and to take Sligo; and the apprehension, that must needs have been struck into the hostile infantry by the remembrance of Aughrim field; it being found often true that superior numbers are vanquished by the help of other advantages. There are many examples, ancient and modern, of this kind; but these few shall here suffice from antiquity drawn: as is that of Alexander the great his army overcoming Darius with six times more forces; Hannibal with lesser multitudes overthrowing the Roman generals, Paulus Aemilius and Terentius Varro; Julius Caesar, with almost half the number, putting the great Pompey to the rout in the field of Pharsalia, where Pompey, hitherto esteemed the greater captain (for none before had conquered so many nations for Rome), managed very ill the battle that day, especially in this point, that he hindered the young, fiery nobility of Rome to give the charge, which, had they done, they would have crushed Caesar's army to morsels, though made up of veterans, their most violent assault with such numbers not being supportable; which crafty Caesar knowing, commanded his army to begin the fight with charging boldly those youthful Hectors, to dash their first swelling courage.
General de Ginkel having taken Galway and garrisoned it, decamps from thence on the twenty-eighth of July, with a resolution to lay siege to Limerick in that very season, as being violently desirous to end the war by the present campaign, to please his master, the prince of Orange,
As soon as Tyrconnell got an account that the Protestant army was approaching to Limerick, he gave orders that the Irish host should repass the town and encamp on the other side of the river in the county of Clare, near unto the city. At this time his grace received an answer out of France to his message he had sent immediately after Aughrim fight to the king at St. Germain's. In which answer he finds that a reinforcement cannot be spared in this season, but that a fleet with provisions and all necessaries of war would arrive soon at Limerick.
The baron de Ginkel, being come within a few miles to Limerick, understood that the Irish army repassed the town to the county of Clare, and that all signs of a battle vanished. Whereupon he fixes his camp at Carrickinlish, four miles from Limerick, and there is resolved to remain till his gross cannon comes to him from Athlone, for which he had sent, in order to besiege the said Limerick.
The duke of Tyrconnell, understanding that Ginkel was resolved to lay siege unto the town, though it was late in the season, considering the climate of Ireland, made preparations for a defence; upon which he brings all the infantry of the army into the city, and leaves his horse and dragoons to encamp hard by on the county of Clare side. He settles
And now we come to the last scene of the tragedy, wherein the ruin of Ireland is effected. The viceroy, Tyrconnell, after putting everything in good order for a vigorous defence, was, on a Monday, the tenth of August, invited to dinner by Monsieur d'Usson, the first lieutenant-general. He and the company were very merry; but at night, upon his preparing to go to bed, he found himself indisposed. The next day his malady increased. Remedies were applied, yet to no effect. On the third day, observing his weakness to be great, he settled his worldly affairs, and took care for his conscience. He appointed (by virtue of a power left him in his commission) three persons as lords justices to govern the king's people and manage his royal affairs, who were the lord chancellor, Alexander Fitton, baron of Gosworth; sir Richard Nagle, and Mr. Plowden, an English gentleman. On the following day his excellency grew speechless, and on Friday, the fourteenth, about one of the clock, afternoon, being the fifth day of his sickness, he expired, leaving issue one daughter, the lady Charlotte Talbot. His dukedom was extinct in him, but his earldom of Tyrconnell came to his brother's son, William Talbot, whose son, the lord of Baltinglas, married afterwards, in the year 1702, the duke's daughter.
Thus this great man fell, who in his fall pulled down a mighty edifice, videlicet, a considerable Catholic nation, for there was no other subject left able to support the national cause. This noble personage, by name Richard Talbot, was a younger son of the family of Cartown, in the county of Kildare, whose father was created baronet by king James the first. Young Richard proved to be cornet of horse in the beginning of the Irish wars against Oliver Cromwell and the rebels of England in the year 1649. When that war in 1653 was ended, he went into Spain with the Irish forces that were thither transported, where he became colonel. From thence he came to Flanders upon king Charles the second's service, then in that country an exile. At Brussels he had the happiness to be known to the duke of York, who, approving of his ways, took him into his family, where being a while, colonel Talbot proved so happy as to become favourite to his royal highness.
When king Charles the second was restored, several Irish gentlemen applied themselves to the said colonel, that by his means, as being a minion to the king's brother, they might obtain the king's letter to the government of Ireland, in order to repossess themselves of their lands of inheritance, out of which they had been ejected by Cromwell and his fellow rebels. Talbot procured unto them the desired letters, and thereby some of the addressors were restored to their patrimonies. In consideration of which service, the persons so restored did bestow by an antecedent agreement part of the acquired lands on colonel Talbot, who, having money, laid it out on the purchase of some other lands, so that he had now by his own acquisition a plentiful estate.
After the duke of York ascended the throne, his majesty made colonel Talbot earl of Tyrconnell, and lieutenant-general of the Irish army. In the beginning of the third year of the king's reign, the earl of Tyrconnell was created lord deputy of Ireland and captain-general of the army. In which station he showed himself a lover of his country in general, and of his kindred in particular, which was a behaviour contrary to that of the late duke of Ormonde, who proved an enemy to his country and most unkind to his kindred. This is not to be much admired, considering the malignity which heretics have for the orthodox universally. So these must not expect as good effects from a Protestant compatriot and relation as from one of their own religion. There is a great difference between tree and tree.
About the time the king was banished out of England (which was at the end of his fourth year), the lord deputy Tyrconnell with a mighty zeal raised an army in Ireland in order to restore his royal master. The nobility and gentry of the kingdom concurred thereunto most ardently and with veneration towards the person of their general governor, for his showing them so brave an example and so singular affection to his native soil. In four months after, and in the fifth year of his majesty's reign, 1689, when the king arrived at Dublin out of France, he created the earl of Tyrconnell, duke of Tyrconnell, as above said.
But when the king, after the loss at the Boyne, thought fit to fly back into France, and when thereat the Irish greatness became dejected,
As soon as the duke of Tyrconnell was dead (some said of poison, and there was ground for it), the three fore-mentioned lords justices took upon them the government, who, on the third day of their regence, and the sixteenth of the month, being Sunday, buried at night the body of the late duke in the cathedral church of Limerick, not with that pomp his merits exacted, but with that decency which the present state of affairs admitted.
General de Ginkel, in a few days after Tyrconnell's death, having at last received his weighty artillery, decamps from Carrickinlish and marches to Limerick, which he invests on the twenty-fifth of August. At that juncture the sieur Donep, colonel of Danish horse, was killed by a cannon ball from the town. Here we will stop a while to make our observations upon the nature of this siege that is now undertaken. First, how comes it that general Ginkel dares assume the task, seeing the garrison is as numerous as his infantry, and the very men that beat his foot lately in the field of Aughrim, and sure can more easily overcome
The general seeing no success of moment hitherto, and not daring to attempt a breach on that side of the wall where the breach was made the last year by the prince of Orange —because since that time outward works were raised for its defence, which to gain would cost a world of men, and take up too much time for that late season —he resolved to remove his main battery to the north side of the town, or to that part of the city which is called the English town, where he understood the wall to be very weak, as being thin and without a rampart, and void of outward fortifications. The battery being raised did furiously play until it made a breach of forty yards wide. In opposition to this, the
The breach being made, general Ginkel prepares for an attack. Amongst other things he gets ready his floating bridges, in order to pass a branch of the Shannon which ran before the said breach. But before attempting this assault, he thought it necessary to dismount a small battery which the besieged had without the wall on his left flank, as he mounted the breach. To effect this he endeavoured it for three or four days, but could not prevail; upon which he ceased for two or three days from all kind of firing, so that there was a general silence. In the interim we are to tell that few lost their lives on either side, the besiegers not undertaking any matter of danger, nor the besieged making any sallies worth the remark. Of the last there was killed a hopeful young gentleman, a nephew of monsieur La Tour, the governor, by a bomb, being at that time in the same chamber with his uncle. In like manner a gentlewoman was slain before the door of her lodging, after coming downstairs to shun the bomb, which appeared to fall on the house, but fell in the middle of the street and there burst, a splinter of which struck the lady as aforesaid. A few more of no note received their death in that way. Upon a small sally or two there were lost captain Walter Hore, of Harperstown, in the county of Wexford, and two or three other inferior officers, with a few common soldiers. Of the besiegers, the lord Loftus of Lisburn was killed by a cannon ball on the fifteenth of September, as he was coming out of his tent, which was placed in the trenches. This nobleman was a native of the county of Dublin, in Ireland, and proprietor of Rathfarnham, near the said Dublin, and of a great estate thereunto appertaining, but he was a remarkable zealot for the prince of Orange. His friends got the bullet that had killed him to be gilded, and to be hung over his tomb in the cathedral church of Dublin dedicated to St. Patrick, the apostle of that kingdom, and this to stand a monument of his good affection and fidelity to that usurper. A folly in grain! Besides that lord there was a small number of others slain on the side of the besiegers. During
To return to Limerick: while it was besieged, as aforesaid, the Irish had a guard of dragoons, consisting of four regiments and of some foot, at a deep ford of the Shannon, a mile above the town, to hinder the enemy from passing over to the county of Clare, and thereby from cutting off the refreshments of the country, which came from thence into the city, as also to bar the foe from coming between the Irish horse encamped at Anaghbeg, about two miles from Limerick and the garrison.
General Ginkel, after the long silence of his artillery and after his mature consideration of the danger in attempting an attack on the abovesaid breach, resolved to quit that enterprise and embrace another, which was thus. He is fixed to cross the river Shannon in order to begird the town on the other side of the river, in hopes to distress soon the besieged so much as to force them to a speedy surrender; for the general was in haste to go into winter quarters, by reason that his army was suffering, and to finish the war by a happy issue of this siege. Upon this resolution, he gives orders on the sixteenth of September, at ten o'clock in the night, to carry floats and pontoons to the above-described ford, where he intends to pass the river. He commands six hundred workmen to lay the bridge in that place, and a hundred grenadiers to cover them while those men are working. The grenadiers were brought in boats into an island, where they remained undiscovered till it was almost morning; at which time the English were discerned by an Irish dragoon on the contrary bank, who was patrolling. He gave notice of it to brigadier Clifford, who commanded the Irish guards that night; but the brigadier seemed not to give credit to any such account, as not fearing that the enemy would dare undertake so perilous a passage. However, the alarm spreading, one of the colonels of the dragoons, by name Dudley Colclough, of Moyhurry, in the county of Wexford, brought down his regiment to the brigadier's tent in such haste, as some of his men did not stay to saddle their horses. The colonel desired ammunition and orders to obstruct the passage of the enemy. But the brigadier, before colonel Colclough and other officers, neglected so long by his discourses, which no man of sense understood to be pertinent, to perform his charge, that the above-mentioned bridge was finished (which happened about seven of the clock in the morning), and a great body of the English came over. The first that passed was a regiment of dragoons called the royal regiment, then grenadiers and fusiliers, who were supported by four battalions of foot and several squadrons of horse. At which the Irish guards, seeing too plainly their enemies at their nose and themselves too weak to beat them back over the said river, took a sudden resolution to save themselves
Here rises a question, whether the Irish cavalry should have come down and fought the enemy that was come over? I side with that opinion which says they should have done it; and we give for reason, because they might have come safe and timely enough, and were able, especially in conjunction with their own dragoons, to drive back the foes and to gather as many of them as could pass the bridge by the time that the Irish horse were arrived on the place. Nay, in all probability, the English forces, which had trajected the river, would not have stood to a fight, seeing the hostile cavalry and dragoonry coming all down upon them, for they could not be sufficiently supported from the other side, by reason that the bridge admitted not many in abreast. So that one regiment of Irish dragoons with three companies of firelocks would have stopped their passage on the said bridge, where they might have made a barricade of the enemies to their own people behind. This was a brave occasion for the Irish cavalry to show themselves, for from the beginning of the war to that day they were not brought to a trial, as to the whole body of them. And what should they be any more reserved for? Or for what were they at first raised? Here they would make recompense for all their past inaction, though the fault had not been in the men, but in the great officers. For by this
Here springs another query: what should the Irish horse and dragoons have done when they lost the communication of their foot that was within Limerick? Some say that they should have passed the Shannon into Ulster, or rather into the province of Leinster at some convenient place for a retreat into Connaught, if need were. The first report of their march that way would oblige the English horse and dragoons to rise from the siege and to hasten into Leinster to prevent the destruction of that country, and especially of Dublin, from whence the besieging army had all their provisions. Their infantry would not dare stay behind, as fearing their victuals might be cut off and that they might be enveloped by the numerous garrison, by the loyal people of the county of Clare, who would rouse themselves at such a juncture, and by the troops and militia of the county of Kerry, which doubtless upon this opportunity would march in great numbers towards Limerick, as being particularly provoked by the loss of their cattle, which brigadier Levison took from them about this time. I have heard it said that this very enterprise was the design of the Irish cavalry, but the execution was prevented by hearing, a few days after, while they lay encamped near Ennis, that a cessation was made in order to conclude a peace. Yet, others do tell us that the Irish cavalry might with good reason have remained in the county of Galway, upon confidence that their foot would effectually hold out the siege at this time, since a
But to go on: the English, who had passed the ford and their companions, who remained beyond, observing that the country before them was clear of the enemy, fixed their camps on both sides of the river, and spent four days more in bettering of their bridge, in removing it nearer to the town, in bringing cannon to the banks, and in planting a battery to secure the bridge. At the end of this business, videlicet, on the twenty-first of September, an account was brought to general Ginkel that the English forces had taken the town of Sligo, in the province of Connaught, from the Irish, which was after this manner. On the tenth of the present September 1691, colonel Michelbourne marched with a detachment of his regiment, with five hundred of the militia of Ulster, with two troops of dragoons of Ginkel's army and with six field-pieces. He encamped at Drumcliefe, about three miles from the said Sligo, of which he sent an account to the old earl of Granard by a party of horse commanded by captain Vaughan. On the eleventh, Michelbourne came within half a mile to the town. On the twelfth, he drew out his men to attack a party of Irish within some slight works, which were at the entrance into the town. After a short dispute the defendants quitted the works and entered into the great fort, having killed an ensign and a few private men of the enemy. On the twelfth the earl of Granard arrived with the troops under his command before the place, who immediately ordered batteries to be raised against the fort. Sir Thadey O'Regan, governor thereof, being persuaded that the enemy had great cannon, and judging it of no advantage unto Limerick, actually besieged, to hold out the fort for a few days, called for a capitulation, which was granted and perfected. The conditions were honourable, upon which the fort was surrendered on the fifteenth of September, and sir Thadey,
Now Limerick only remains in the possession of the loyalists, but that possession will not last long, because they are willing to part with it, and not otherwise, as you may judge by the following discourse, wherein you will find that general Ginkel gave them all the advantage desirable by dividing his little army on both sides of the river, and at the same time he exposed his troops to be cut off, if the garrison and their cavalry abroad would be resolute, so that instead of facilitating the reduction of the place by investing it on both sides with so weak a power, the enemy rendered his attempt wholly impracticable. But to go on: the above-mentioned bridge being perfectly finished and commodiously placed on the river, general Ginkel passed the same into the county of Clare, on the twenty-second of September, with the duke of Wirtemberg and lieutenant-general Scravemoer, bringing with him ten regiments of foot, fourteen small pieces of cannon and all the horse and dragoons of the army, except colonel Coy's regiment of horse, and fifty dragoons out of every regiment, he having left behind major-general Mackay and major-general Talmash, to command the rest of his army for the security of his camp on the county of Limerick side.
In the afternoon of the same day, as the said trajected forces approached to the city, the governor of Limerick sent a small detachment of foot to the number of two hundred men, under colonel Stapelton, deputy-governor, to skirmish with the advanced foot of the enemy, by the help of some little ditches that were near the place. This was a foolish management, for what end could it have? It was not able to hinder so great forces to approach the town, and at the same time it did expose those few Irish to the slaughter. Why rather were not some pieces of cannon raised on the other side of the bridge, or planted on the church-yard, contiguous to Thomond gate, to scour the avenues on the county of Clare side, there being the time of four days for the doing of it? This would prove a positive advantage, as the considerer finds. Nothing of which was done, as if there were no enemy approaching; so that the English forces, especially the foot, could march close to
But to proceed: colonel Stapelton, at the approach of the hostile bands, engaged them, and after fighting a while he was overcharged with numbers, which made him retire. Some of his men got into the gate that was on Thomond bridge. He himself, with the rear, was also hastening thither, but a party pursued him so close, that a French town-major, who commanded the gate, pretending a fear that the enemies would pour in with the Irish, shut the said gate against friends and foes, by which it happened that colonel Stapelton, a worthy gentleman, major Purcell, and some other inferior officers, with about eighty private soldiers, were killed on the bridge. Here again was a ridiculous fear; for had two or three thousand of the enemies entered, they would be soon overcome, though there appeared near the gate not above two or three hundred, who lodged themselves that night on the further bank of the river (which washed the town-wall) in sandpits and amongst ruinous walls of houses.
Here we must set the query: whether this division of the hostile army (that consisted but of twenty thousand men) on each side of the town and of the great river, from whence they could not relieve one another in less time than an hour, did not prove a vast advantage to the Irish garrison, for the garrison, being fourteen thousand foot and two hundred horse (besides many volunteers), was double the number of the enemies, who were left to guard their camp on the county of Limerick side, where their cavalry was not above three hundred horse and five hundred dragoons, and therefore could not the besieged take a fair opportunity to surprise them, or fight them upon a square and gain the victory? Moreover, might not the Irish cavalry in night pass the Shannon at Killaloe, six miles above Limerick, or farther off, and
To advance in our history: the town being now begirded on both sides, the garrison beat a parley on the twenty-fourth of September, to which the enemy complied, and so a cessation was made. The news thereof being brought to the Irish cavalry encamped about Ennis, several persons came from thence the next day to the English camp, as the Catholic primate of Ireland, the archbishop of Cashel, the earl of Westmeath, the lord Dillon, the lord Galmoy, major-general Sheldon, colonel Purcell, of Loughmoe, and some others, who, having dined with general Ginkel, went thence into Limerick. On the next morning, being the twenty-sixth, the earl of Lucan, brigadier Wauchop and two brigadiers more, went from the town to the English camp, to lay the
We are now upon perclosing the war of Ireland, that unfortunate war to the Irish, unfortunate through the fault of some particular persons, though the generality bravely demeaned themselves, or were prepared to do it if brought to a trial. But ere we actually end it, we think fit to form a discourse upon the subject of this treaty for a surrender.
In the first place we put the question, how comes it that the French and Irish commanders within Limerick are so ready to deliver up the town and make peace with their enemies? The answer is: because they cannot hold longer the place, as being invested on both sides, and by reason that they have lost communication with their horse.
We reply first: that this case did not oblige in the last campaign an inferior garrison to yield the town, at that time much weaker, to a potenter army under the prince of Orange; for this prince could have better surrounded the town, as having much more numerous forces, and as finding no opposition to pass the Shannon, by reason that the river was then fordable in several places through the dryness of that summer, and the Irish had no guards on the fords. And de facto a party of the besieging army trajected to the other side, and again repassed. But the truth of it is, the prince of Orange did not judge the investing of Limerick on Thomond side to hasten the surrender of the town. And he is in the right of it, which is our second reply; for of this opinion all precedent generals have been, who had besieged that city, and namely, general Ireton in the days of Cromwell. And they give for reason, because there is no passing into the town from the county of Clare side (supposing a breach to be made in the wall), but through the river or over the bridge. The river on each hand of the bridge is generally not fordable; and the bridge is easily broken and easily defended, because it is narrow, not capable of more than six men
As to that reason of surrendering the town because the garrison lost communication with the cavalry, it is of no moment; for the garrison of Limerick the last year, when besieged by the prince of Orange, was deprived of the horse, and yet preserved the city. Neither is it at all required or practised in the defence of fortresses to have horse, unless a few, and this in some certain towns. The Irish horse being separated from the place, might have more contributed to raise the siege, provided, in that separation, that they entered into the province of Leinster; for in that case the hostile cavalry would be obliged to follow them, as I said before, and their infantry could not in safety stay behind, as it appears to the considerer of the strength of the garrison. These are the two only reasons which were given to the public for surrendering Limerick, and which are proved null; for of provisions and ammunition they had plenty. Moreover, they daily expected a fleet out of France, with all necessaries for man and horse, even to the next campaign. And de facto it arrived at the mouth of the Shannon within sixteen days after the town was delivered to the besiegers; which shows that the most Christian king was altogether for preserving Limerick, and that he doubted not of its baffling the
Behold, then, how tenable Limerick was against the besieging army. What was it, therefore, which moved the chief commanders of the town to give up the place, and to bring the Irish Catholic nation under the heavy yoke of an usurped government? We answer, first, that it was not any solid reason or necessity which induced them to this submission, though they had their concealed reasons for doing it, besides their pretended ones, which they published. Hence proceeds our second answer, that it must be a settled resolution (which they had made) that influenced them to determine the war. When this resolution was formed it is not made known unto us, but we believe that it was done since the death of the duke of Tyrconnell. I have received an account from one of the colonels who were with brigadier Clifford in that night when the English passed the Shannon a mile above the town, that he had heard a discourse, some days before that passage, of surrendering Limerick. This being so, we may set the query, whether the investing of Limerick on Thomond side had not been a concerted plot of some persons in the Irish army with general de Ginkel, in order to give a pretence to the party on the Irish side for the giving up of the place? The affirmative
Out of the premises we may gather that Ginkel's traversing Clifford's ford, and begirding the town on Thomond-side, was done permissu superiorum’’
, in order that those superiors within the city might have a pretext for delivering that fortress, and thereby for concluding the unhappy war. What end they had by that conclusion, I dare not be positive in my opinion. The matter of fact affords a suspicion that some persons concerned in this affair had the obtaining of gold for their end. There is an opinion that a few of these great officers were for a peace, because they were tired out in holding war in Ireland after a slavish manner, and for that reason they would fain remove it into a foreign country against the prince of Orange and his allies, where, being in conjunction with the French forces and encouraged by the pay and other comforts of his most Christian majesty, they might better serve their own king in contributing to his speedy restoration. If this considerationBut that which caused very much the generality of the Irish army to yield to a treaty of surrender and peace was as follows: The Irish nobility and the lesser people then at Limerick were a multitude of levellers, there being not anyone in the nature of a directing and swaying head to effect, since Tyrconnell's decease, though some men there were by their stations as governors of the rest. To speak it in clearer terms, there wanted a pater patriae’’
, a father of the country, that is, a man all on fire with zeal to preserve his country, his religion, hisYou will say: Why should this town presume to make conditions farther than for the inhabitants thereof, according to the custom of besieged garrisons? We answer: This town is not to be compared, as to a treaty of surrender, with other towns, which have no other dependencies than the happiness of their particular dwellers. The epitome of the Catholic people of Ireland is within this city, within the body of horse belonging to the garrison, within some towns and villages of the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Mayo and Sligo, all which lie under the protection and government of Limerick. 'Tis therefore that Limerick must make provisoes for the nation in general. She is encouraged thereunto by the knowledge of her own strength, which is so great that she can force the enemy to raise his siege, by which the war is prolonged, at least to the end of the next campaign. At the beginning thereof the confederate princes will be compelled, without dispute, to strike a peace with France, as not being able to hold out any longer, through the want of England's army and money, which must be employed in the Irish war. Hence immediately follows the dethronement of Orange and the restoration of the king. General Ginkel understood very well this affair by his granting better conditions to the garrison of Limerick than are given to any besieged town whatsoever, though he gave not so good as might have been extorted from him; which was occasioned by the too easy compliance of the Irish commissioners who were appointed to treat with him.
The conditions which the Irish should have resolved to obtain were three principally: a free exercise of their religion, the temporal liberty of subjects and their properties. These three points they might have gained in their circumstances without being judged too presumptuous
For the second: that the Catholics may be equally under protection of the law with their fellow-subjects, the Protestants; that they may not be taxed by parliaments but as Protestants are; that the nobility and gentry throughout the kingdom may carry arms and use horses without restriction, and not to be prohibited by any law or order while they behave themselves peaceably. Neither is this condition to be deemed hard upon the Protestant government; for it deprives not Protestants of any employment, civil or military, nor endangers the state, because the number of Catholic lords and gentlemen is insignificant as to power against the Protestant government, which is in possession of all the kingdom and its forts, and is guarded by a considerable army, and by the assistance of England and Scotland. It is insignificant, I say, seeing the whole Catholic nation of Ireland being seized of all the realm (except Londonderry and Enniskillen), with some assistance from France, did not defend their country against the combined strength of Protestants.
As to the third point: that all Catholics whatsoever who were possessed of estates or of any rights in the reign of king Charles the second, may be restored immediately without cost; whether those Catholics, at the time of the capitulation, were within the Irish quarters, or in any other part of the kingdom, or in foreign countries. Nor is this article of any difficulty to be granted; for not any Protestant is a loser thereby of anything which he enjoyed in a year precedent. And all these Catholics together are but very few estated men in
These three principal articles the Irish commissioners obtained in part, so that their failure was in not getting them entirely, as they might have done, if they had a befitting resolution. Yea, considering the necessity the prince of Orange was in of an army at that juncture to assist his confederates against France, and through that assistance to support his crown, the Irish at Limerick might have gotten much more beneficial conditions. But, alas! misfortune accompanied them in carrying on the war, and misfortune sticks to them in the conclusion.
And now it is time that we reassume the treaty proposed about the rendition of this considerable city. The hostages being exchanged, the Irish government sent their proposals to general Ginkel on the twenty-seventh of September, 1691. One of them, as I was informed, was, that those Catholic gentlemen who remained at home within the province of Leinster and elsewhere, after the fight of the Boyne, as not being concerned in the army, and whose estates the prince of Orange had seized upon, should be restored to the said estates. But general de Ginkel would not grant that article, as also some others then offered unto him; upon which Irish commissioners, being appointed to treat face to face, went out of the town, accompanied by some other persons of note, to general de Ginkel's quarters on the twenty-eighth. The commissioners were the earl of Lucan, the lord of Galmoy, colonel Nicholas Purcell, colonel Nicholas Cusack, sir Toby Butler, colonel Garret Dillon and colonel John Brown. These commissioners being arrived, general Ginkel sent immediately for his general officers to be his co-assistants in managing the treaty. All being met, they entered upon the business, wherein they had many a long and vehement debate. At last they came to an agreement, almost complete, in that same day, the twenty-eighth of September. The few difficuties which remained to be settled were put off till the regents of Ireland for the prince of Orange should
On the first of October, in the evening, the said regents or lords justices, sir Charles Porter and Mr. Thomas Coningsby, arrived. On the next day the Irish commissioners went abroad to treat with the regents and general de Ginkel, and having stayed with them till twelve at night, they absolutely concluded the treaty, which was signed and exchanged on the third of October, 1691; in consequence of which the Irish delivered on the same day unto the English their outward works, their stone-fort and St. John's gate, in that moiety of the city called the Irish town. The English town was reserved for the Irish army until they were ready to march to the city of Cork, to be transported into France.
The articles of agreement for the surrendering of Limerick, and the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Sligo and Mayo, unto the subjection of the prince of Orange and of the princess, his consort, are divided into two parts. The first part is concerning the Irish who do remain in the kingdom. The second is concerning the Irish army that is to go to France. The first part contains thirteen articles, which are these in short:—
1. The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland; or as they did enjoy in the reign of king Charles the second: and their majesties (meaning the prince and princess of Orange, as king and queen of England), as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such farther security in that particular as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account of their said religion. This article in seven years after, viz., in the year 1698, was broken by a parliament in Ireland, summoned by the prince of Orange; for, instead of strengthening it, according to the purport of that article, the said parliament made a law for banishing in perpetuum the Catholic bishops, dignitaries, and regular clergy, which was executed. The parliament grounded their law upon their own interpretation of
Now, to apply this to the first article of Limerick's pacification, we say that the concession which the Irish Catholics obtained in that article from the prince of Orange, was to enjoy perpetually the exercise of their religion as they enjoyed it in the reign of Charles the second. The indubitable meaning of which is this: The Irish Catholics shall be permitted to exercise forever without disturbance their religion in chapels and houses, without the splendour of churches, according as they exercised it in the days of king Charles the second. This interpretation is essentially so genuine, that the words, as they did enjoy in the reign
The second is: that all persons within Limerick, and in the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork and Mayo shall be restored to what estates and rights they enjoyed in the reign of king Charles the second; and all persons within the said Limerick and counties who profess any calling, as that of a lawyer, physician, attorney, and the like, shall be permitted to exercise freely those professions. Out of this article are excluded all estated men, and professors of the above said sciences and arts, who were either prisoners of war, or who otherwise were not within the said counties and garrison of Limerick at the time of this capitulation, though these last had borne no employment, civil or military, for king James the second. It was here that the greatest weakness of the Irish Commissioners lay, by not constraining general de Ginkel to grant so easy a point, as I showed above. But I would fain understand by what authority does the prince of Orange (though he were lawful king of England) challenge a right of taking
As to those gentlemen who got such civil employments, as are collectors, justices of the peace, and the like, from their lawful king, in the beginning of his reign, and held the same until their king was ejected out of Ireland by another king, whom the people of England had raised, I start the question, whether the said gentlemen can be justly deprived of their inheritances, which they have from birth, by any authority that is righteously inherent in monarchy? If they be reputed rebels, they must first, according to law, be arraigned, and, with the formalities of the said law, be convicted of rebellion; in which case, their lives are first taken away, and, in sequel, their estates, unless they were only tenants for life. But nothing of this is observed in excluding the said gentlemen from their birth-rights.
And now that I speak of rebellion, I set again the query: how can the Irish at all be truly deemed rebels to the prince of Orange, by rising for king James the second against the said prince, created king by the people of England? Was not James the second acknowledged the lawful king by the three kingdoms, and as such did he not reign four years? What should then oblige the people of Ireland to disown him, their lawful sovereign, for the rest of his life? They had no grounds
But you'll say that England, the principal kingdom of the monarchy, ought to be followed by Ireland in owning or disowning the kings of that monarchy. We answer thus: that the behaviour herein of the people of England is no rule to Ireland, a distinct realm, a different nation, as having a viceroy for governor sent by the king as king of Ireland; also as having discrepant laws; as having a parliament of her own, so judges and magistrates. Ireland had never acknowledged her king to be chosen by the people, but to succeed by birth; nor her king to be deposable by the people upon any cause of quarrel. She knows more righteous things, and scorns to make heretical England her pattern in the point of righteousness. When the lawful king of England dies, Ireland acknowledges immediately the person next in blood, be he Catholic or Protestant, to be the king of England and hers, whether the people of England consent to it or not, as she did when king Charles the first was dead, whose eldest son, Charles the second, she owned as her true sovereign, and signed that acknowledgment
But to return to the second article of Limerick's capitulation: out of it are also excluded the very infant heirs of those fathers who had served the king against Orange, and died in his service before the said capitulation, or who, being alive, were not within the afore-mentioned counties at the time of making those articles, provided that the said fathers had not been tenants for life of their estates. Thus the innocent children must starve for want of bread, though they be the issue of lords of lands; thus they must be punished, because their fathers were honest men, and sticklers to their lawful prince. Behold a sweet government, set up by the godly people of England! Behold a religion amazingly reformed!
The third article gives the benefit of the second to all Irish merchants of Limerick, and of the other garrisons now in possession of the Irish, and of any other town or place in the counties of Clare or Kerry, that are absent beyond the seas, provided that they have not borne arms against the prince of Orange, since February, 1688, old style, that is 1689, stylo novo: and provided that they return into Ireland within eight months from the date thereof.
The fourth article allows the advantage of the second to particular persons abroad in France, as are colonel Simon Luttrell; captain Rowland White; Mr. Maurice Eustace, of Yeomanstown; and Cheevers, lord of Mount Leinster; provided they come back to their country within the space of eight months.
The fifth grants to those persons comprised in the second and third articles, a pardon of all attainders, outlawries, treasons, misprisions of treason, praemunires, felonies, trespasses, and other crimes and misdemeanours whatsoever, which have been committed by them since the beginning of the reign of king James the second.
The sixth article settles the kingdom by prohibiting lawsuits, and such animosities between private persons on king James's side, comprehended in this capitulation; and others, who were for the prince of Orange, upon the account of taking away from one and other, horses, money, or other goods in the time of the war.
The seventh permits all noblemen and gentlemen within the second and third articles to make use of a sword, of a case of pistols, and of a fusil. This article was broke in the summer following; for they disarmed surprisingly all the Catholics of the kingdom when they heard that the king James II. came to the coasts of Normandy in order to be transported into England with an army. A parliament, sitting in Dublin in autumn following, made an act that no Catholic, included in the treaty of Limerick, shall henceforward carry a sword or fire-arms, unless he be worth a hundred pounds per annum; and that such a qualified man must have special leave in writing from the government for bearing those arms. Since that time but few gentlemen have worn a sword; and those few have been often disarmed in a most rude manner, as if they had ported arms without license, whensoever the government of England dreamed or pretended any danger from the king of France; whereas those Irish gentlemen did expect upon any solid occasion to lose their arms by proclamation, commanding them to deliver them up to such and such ministers of justice, since they had carried them with the good permission of the regency.
The eighth article gives leave to the inhabitants and residents of Limerick and other garrisons of its dependence, to remove their goods from thence without being viewed or searched.
The ninth obliges the Catholics contained in this treaty, to make no other oath to the government of England than that of allegiance. This article has been broken since, both in intent and in fact. For two parliaments in Ireland have strained to pass an act that the Irish Catholics, even those comprehended in the articles of Limerick, as well as Protestants, shall be bound to take an oath against their religion, it being against the pope's spiritual power; and this under the highest penalties. But a party in those parliaments was prevailed upon not to suffer that law to be made. Afterwards, and in this year, 1703, the parliament of England, in the regency of the princess Anne of Denmark, or otherwise queen Anne, have made an act, obliging upon severe punishment all persons in England and Ireland bearing employments, civil and military, and using professions of gaining a livelihood,
There are four articles more of civil capitulation, which we will not here insert, leaving the perusal of them to the reader in a book containing at large the treaty of Limerick. The military articles for the transportation of the Irish army into France are excellently well done; whereby all persons whatsoever throughout the kingdom, as well the Irish army as others, may go into France, or into any other foreign country, but the army shall not carry above nine hundred horses out of the realm. The garrison of Limerick is to march out with arms, baggage, drums beating, match lighted at both ends, bullet in mouth, colours flying, six choice, brass guns, two mortar-pieces, and with half
The next day, being the fourth of October, the peace was proclaimed at Limerick, and in the English camp. On the fifth, the Irish cavalry that was encamped at Ennis, came close to the city, the foot-garrison thereof, for the most part, went out and joined them. Here, before the Irish army, it was declared that they had liberty to dispose of themselves as they should think fit, either to go home and live peaceably in the kingdom, or to continue their service unto king James in France, under the banners of the most Christian king; or, in fine, to come under the pay of king William, as now he must be called by his own subjects, the Irish. The invitations made to the Irish soldiers for embracing this side or that side were powerful; but at last the result was thus: all the estated men stayed in the kingdom, in order to enjoy their estates, except the Lord of Galmoy, the earl of Lucan, colonel Garret Dillon, sir Maurice Eustace, of Castlemartin, colonel Gordon O'Neil, colonel Barret, lieutenant-colonel Nugent, of Dardistown, and captain Arthur, of Hacketstown. There were some other lords of lands at that time, prisoners in England, as the earl of Tyrone, the lord baron of Cahir, the earl of Clancarty, the lord baron of Slane, and a few others; besides what were with the king in France, as the earl of Limerick, colonel Dudley Bagnal, of Dunlickny, colonel Simon Luttrell, and a few others.
But the earl of Lucan, the lord of Galmoy, brigadier Patrick Plunkett, colonel Garret Dillon, brigadier Roth, colonel Gordon O'Neil, major-general Sheldon, and some other principal officers, being desirous to follow and serve the king abroad, drew after them about twelve thousand of the army. The third division was the lot of king William, who, by general Ginkel's means, got about five thousand of the Irish host, with some considerable officers, to come under his pay.
Here, we must observe, that this behaviour of the Irish gentlemen
What excuse can they have for this dirty action? It was not want which moved them thereunto; for some of them were to regain, by the treaty of Limerick, lands of inheritance and farms. Others were able to take farms for their livelihood; and if they were to have neither land nor farm, yet, being resolved to continue a military life for maintenance, they should, in honour, go with the rest of the army into France, and serve their king under the pay of the Gallick monarch. But the matter is this: These gentlemen despaired that ever the king would be restored, and so were sure that the government of king William was in perpetuum established. Whereupon, they judged it fitter, in those circumstances, to lay aside that nice honour, and to embrace lucre, though sordid, which they proposed to themselves to have in plenty by settled employments in their own country, without being obliged to go to the confederate war abroad; and this, besides enjoying their estates and farms.
This was the paradise which these new Williamites expected to have to themselves and to their heirs. But they found soon, to their sorrow, that all was a dream; for their new master thought it not safe to trust his new servants, and so he sent orders out of England into Ireland, in January following, to disband all the Catholic forces, except 1,400 choice men of them, which were to be divided into two battalions, and to be given to Baldarg O'Donnell and colonel Wilson. In a little while after, a second order was sent to break all Irish Catholics whatsoever. A third order was sent, in March following, to raise five companies of Catholics, a hundred to each company, and
This disappointment of our gentlemen in their expectations had brought them down between hope and despair. For, in the future, when the rightful king is reenthroned, it will likely not go well with them; as it will not with such governors of towns as had easily surrendered them to the enemy; so will it not with those Catholics who turned Protestants to temporize during the usurpation; nor with those others who have had the common fame of being dishonest in the discharge of their trust, civil or military; nor with those who vilified the king's authority in condemning the viceroy Tyrconnell at Limerick, and especially at Athlone, of which above.
All things being prepared for an evacuation of the town Limerick, the two regents of Ireland for the prince of Orange, sir Charles Porter and Mr. Thomas Coningsby, departed from the English camp on the seventh of October, and returned to Dublin. On the next day, the Irish gentlemen and others, with their families, who had not been concerned in the army, as also those officers and soldiers who were resolved to stay in Ireland without taking any part under king William, began to leave the city of Limerick towards their respective homes. Likewise, on the same day, a part of the Catholic host that was to go for France, marched out of the said city for the harbour of Cork, where they were to embark. The rest followed by intervals. The last division of them quitted the town on the first November. In a fortnight after Limerick was surrendered, the expected French fleet, under count de Chateau-Renaud, arrived about the twentieth of October, at Scattery, in the river of Limerick, being eighteen men-of-war, four fire-ships, and twenty ships of burden, bringing victuals, ammunition, money, and all other necessaries of war. In this fleet was colonel Simon Luttrell, who had taken great care for its speedy arrival, though afterwards the arrival proved too late.
When this fleet arrived, there was at Limerick, in that moiety thereof which is called the English town, a good body of the Irish soldiers destined for France, who now, with the assistance of the fleet, might retake the other half of the city, and maintain it all winter, if they had a mind to break the peace, and thereby they could renew the war, for none of their army was shipped off as yet, and the English host was gone into winter-quarters. But men of honesty will rather suffer than break their word, which is a doctrine little regarded by the Protestants of England and Ireland.
The French fleet being informed of the surrender of Limerick, returned within a few days to France, with deep resentment at their unexpected disappointment; there went aboard them a part of the Irish soldiers. The most Christian king, hearing of this affair, was in great rage, and was like to punish severely those commanders (as above said) who had the chief hand in giving up the town, until receiving some sort of apology for the fact, his majesty was pleased to smother his passion.
The Irish troops being arrived at Cork, and the transport fleet made ready, the major part of them embarked and sailed away about the beginning of December, for Brest, in France. Another proportion of them departed on the twenty-second of December, with the earl of Lucan and several other officers. They all landed safe. In this voyage went along chancellor Fitton, sir Richard Nagle and Mr. Plowden, who were the late lords justices for the king, as also the Catholic lord primate of Ireland, and a few other prelates.
After the surrender of Limerick, the English army marched into winter-quarters on the thirteenth of October, there being left for governor of the town, sir David Collier, with five regiments. General Ginkel came to Dublin, where he was received and entertained by the regency with abundance of joy and honour, and on the sixth of December following, he took shipping at Dublin for England. The greatest part of the English army was in the next spring sent into Flanders, to join the confederate forces against the king of France; and some battalions were transmitted into Savoy, under the conduct of the
Here we cannot omit to tell our opinion, that the king of France made a false step in the politics by letting the Irish war fall, because that war was the best medium in the world for destroying soon the confederacy abroad, by reason that the confederate princes could not prolong the foreign war without the army and money of England, which were employed in the war of Ireland, the sequel of which would be the reenthronement of the king, at which juncture the forces of France and England, by sea and land conjoined, would give laws to the earth. 'Tis this consideration that had made some believe that it had been better for the most Christian monarch to have minded, in the first place, the restoration of king James the second, after the peace of Ryswick, than the enthronement of his grandson, the duke of Anjou; for in such case the emperor would not have dared attempt anything, seeing both sea and land, so barricadoed against him, as that there remained no human possibility unto him to come at the throne of Spain.