Belloc-Lingard - The History of England - CHAPTER VIII.
NOTE A, p. 117.
Nothing more clearly shows the readiness of Charles to engage in intrigue,
and the subtleties and falsehood to which he could occasionally descend,
than the history of Glamorgan's mission to Ireland. In this note I purpose
to lay before the reader the substance of the several documents relating to
the transaction.
On the 1st of April, 1644, the king gave to him, by the name of Edward
Somerset, alias Plantagenet, Lord Herbert, Baron Beaufort, &c., a
commission under the great seal, appointing him commander-in-chief of three
armies of Englishmen, Irishmen, and foreigners; authorizing him to raise
moneys on the securities of the royal wardships, customs, woods, &c.;
furnishing him with patents of nobility from the title of marquis to that
of baronet, to be filled up with names at his discretion; promising to give
the Princess Elizabeth to his son Plantagenet in marriage with a dower of
three hundred thousand pounds, a sum which did not much exceed what Herbert
and his father had already spent in the king's service, and in addition to
confer on Herbert himself the title of duke of Somerset, with the George
and blue ribbon.--From the Nuncio's Memoirs in Birch's Inquiry, p. 22.
This commission was granted in consequence of an understanding with the
deputies from the confederate Catholics, who were then at Oxford, and its
object is fully explained by Herbert himself in a letter to Clarendon, to
be laid before Charles II., and dated June 11, 1660. "For his majesty's
better information, through your favour, and by the channel of your
lordship's understanding things rightly, give me leave to acquaint you
with one chief key, wherewith to open the secret passages between his late
majesty and myself, in order to his service; which was no other than a
real exposing of myself to any expense or difficulty, rather than his just
design should not take place; or, in taking effect, that his honour should
suffer; an effect, you may justly say, relishing more of a passionate and
blind affection to his majesty's service, than of discretion and care of
myself. This made me take a resolution that he should have seemed angry
with me at my return out of Ireland, until I had brought him into a posture
and power to own his commands, to make good his instructions, and to reward
my faithfulness and zeal therein.
"Your lordship may well wonder, and the king too, at the amplitude of
my commission. But when you have understood the height of his majesty's
design, you will soon be satisfied that nothing less could have made me
capable to effect it; being that one army of ten thousand men was to have
come out of Ireland through North Wales; another of a like number, at
least, under my command in chief, have expected my return in South Wales,
which Sir Henry Gage was to have commanded as lieutenant-general; and a
third should have consisted of a matter of six thousand men, two thousand
of which were to have been Liegois, commanded by Sir Francis Edmonds, two
thousand Lorrainers, to have been commanded by Colonel Browne, and two
thousand of such French, English, Scots, and Irish, as could be drawn out
of Flanders and Holland. And the six thousand were to have been, by the
prince of Orange's assistance, in the associated counties; and the governor
of Lyne, cousin german to Major Bacon, major of my own regiment, was to
have delivered the town unto them.
"The maintenance of this army of foreigners was to have come from the pope,
and such Catholick princes as he, should have drawn into it, having engaged
to afford and procure thirty thousand pounds a month; out of which the
foreign army was first to be provided for, and the remainder to be divided
among the other armies. And for this purpose had I power to treat with
the pope and Catholick princes with particular advantages promised to
Catholicks for the quiet enjoying their religion, without the penalties
which the statutes in force had power to inflict upon them. And my
instructions for this purpose, and my powers to treat and conclude
thereupon, were signed by the king under his pocket signet, with blanks for
me to put in the names of pope or princes, to the end the king might have
a starting-hole to deny the having given me such commissions, if excepted
against by his own subjects; leaving me as it were at stake, who for
his majesty's sake was willing to undergo it, trusting to his word
alone."--Clarendon Papers, ii. 201, 202.
But his departure was delayed by Ormond's objections to the conditions of
peace; and the king, to relieve himself from the difficulty, proposed to
Herbert to proceed to Ireland, and grant privately to the Catholics those
concessions which the lord-lieutenant hesitated to make, on condition of
receiving in return an army of ten thousand men for the royal service. In
consequence, on the 27th of December, Charles announced to Ormond
that Herbert was going to Ireland under an engagement to further the
peace.--Carte, ii. App. p. 5.
1645, January 2nd. Glamorgan (he was now honoured with the title of earl of
Glamorgan) received these instructions. "First you may ingage y'r estate,
interest and creditt that we will most really and punctually performe any
our promises to the Irish, and as it is necessary to conclude a peace
suddainely, soe whatsoever shall be consented unto by our lieutenant the
marquis of Ormond. We will dye a thousand deaths rather than disannull or
break it; and if vpon necessity any thing to be condescended unto, and yet
the lord marquis not willing to be seene therein, as not fitt for us at the
present publickely to owne, doe you endeavour to supply the same."--Century
of Inventions by Mr. Partington, original letters and official papers,
xxxv. Then follows a promise to perform any promise made by him to Ormond
or others, &c.
January 6. He received a commission to levy any number of men in Ireland
and other parts beyond the sea, with power to appoint officers, receive the
king's rents, &c.--Birch, p. 18, from the Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 713.
January 12. He received another warrant of a most extraordinary
description, which I shall transcribe from a MS. copy in my possession,
attested with the earl's signature, and probably the very same which he
gave to Ormond after his arrest and imprisonment.
"Charles by the grace of God king of England Scotland France and Ireland
Defender of the Fayth, &c. To our Right trusty and Right well beloved
Cossin Edward Earle of Glamorgan greetinge. Whereas wee haue had sufficient
and ample testimony of y'r approued wisdome and fideliti. Soe great is
the confidence we repose in yo'w as that whatsoeuer yo'w shall perform as
warranted only under our signe manuall pockett signett or private marke or
even by woorde of mouthe w'thout further cerimonii, wee doo in the worde of
a kinge and a cristian promis to make good to all intents and purposes as
effectually as if your authoriti from us had binne under our great seale of
England w'th this advantage that wee shall esteem our self farr the moore
obliged to yo'w for y'r gallantry in not standing upon such nice tearms to
doe us service w'h we shall God willing rewarde. And althoughe yo'w exceed
what law can warrant or any power of ours reach unto, as not knowinge what
yo'w may have need of, yet it being for our service, wee oblige ourself not
only to give yo'w our pardon, but to mantayne the same w'th all our might
and power, and though, either by accident yo'w loose or by any other
occasion yo'w shall deem necessary to deposit any of our warrants and so
wante them at yo'r returne, wee faythfully promise to make them good
at your returne, and to supply any thinge wheerin they shall be founde
defective, it not being convenient for us at this time to dispute upon
them, for of what wee haue heer sett downe yo'w may rest confident, if
theer be fayth or truth in man; proceed theerfor cheerfully, spedelj, and
bouldly, and for your so doinge this shal be yo'r sufficient warrant. Given
at our Court at Oxford under our signe manuall and privat signet this 12 of
January 1644.
"To our Right trustj and Right well beloved cosin
Edward Earle of Glamorgan."
Indorsed, "The Earle of Glamorgan's further authoritj."
Feb. 12. Glamorgan had left Oxford, and was raising money in Wales, when
Charles sent him other despatches, and with them a letter desiring him to
hasten to Ireland. In it he acknowledges the danger of the undertaking,
that Glamorgan had already spent above a million of crowns in his service,
and that he was bound in gratitude to take care of him next to his own wife
and children. "What I can further thinke at this point is to send y'w the
blue ribben, and a warrant for the title of duke of Somerset, both w'ch
accept and make vse of at your discretion, and if you should deferre y'e
publishing of either for a whyle to avoyde envye, and my being importuned
by others, yet I promise yo'r antiquitie for y'e one and your pattent for
the other shall bear date with the warrants."--Century of Inventions, p.
xxxiv. On the 18th of August, 1660, the marquess of Hertford complained
that this patent was injurious to him, as he claimed the tide of Somerset.
Glamorgan, then marquess of Worcester, readily surrendered it on the 3rd of
September, and his son was created duke of Beaufort.
On March 12, the king wrote to him the following letter:--
"I wonder you are not yet gone for Ireland; but since you have stayed all
this time, I hope these will ouertake you, whereby you will the more see
the great trust and confidence I repose in your integrity, of which I have
had soe long and so good experience; commanding yow to deale with all
ingenuity and freedome with our lieutenant of Ireland the marquess of
Ormond, and on the word of a king and a Christian I will make good any
thing which our lieutenant shall be induced unto upon your persuasion; and
if you find it fitting, you may privately shew him these, which I intend
not as obligatory to him, but to myselfe, and for both your encouragements
and warrantise, in whom I repose my cheefest hopes, not having in all my
kingdomes two such subjects; whose endeauours joining, I am confident to be
soone drawen out of the mire I am now enforced to wallow in."--Century of
Inventions, xxxviii.
What were the writings meant by the word "these" which Glamorgan might
show to Ormond if he thought fitting? Probably the following warranty dated
at Oxford on the same day.
"Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland
Defender of the Fayth &c. To our right trusty and right welbeloved Cosin
Edward earle of Glamorgan Greeting. We reposing great and espitiall trust,
and confidence in y'r approved wisdome, and fidelity doe by these (as
firmely as under our great seale to all intents and purposes) Authorise
and give you power to treate and conclude w'th the Confederat Romaine
Catholikes in our Kingdom of Ireland, if vpon necessity any thing be to be
condescended vnto wherein our Lieutenant can not so well be seene in as not
fitt for vs at the present publikely to owne, and therefore we charge you
to proceede according to this our warrant w'th all possible secresie,
and for whatsoever you shall engage your selfe, vpon such valuable
considerations as you in y'r iudgement shall deeme fitt, we promise in the
word of a King and a Christian to ratifie and performe the same, that shall
be graunted by you, and vnder your hand and seale, the sayd confederat
Catholikes having by theyr supplyes testified theyre zeale to our service,
and this shall be in eache particular to you a sufficient warrant. Given at
our Court at Oxford, under our signett and Royall signature the twelfe day
of Marche in the twentieth year of our Raigne 1644.
To our Right Trusty and right welbeloved Cosin,
Edward Earle of Glamorgan."
Some writers have attempted to dispute the authenticity of this warrant,
because though it was inserted verbatim in Glamorgan's treaty with the
confederates, he did not produce it at the requisition of the council at
Dublin, under the excuse that he had deposited it with the Catholics at
Kilkenny. But that this was the truth, appears from the Nuncio's Memoirs:
"a sua majestate mandatum habuit, cujus originate regiâ manu subscriptum
Glamorganae comes deposuit apud confoederatos Catholicos," (fol. 1292, apud
Birch, 215); and if better authority be required, I have in my possession
the original warrant itself, with the king's signature and private seal,
bearing the arms of the three kingdoms, a crown above, and C.R. on the
sides, and indorsed in the same handwriting with the body of the warrant,
"The Earle of Glamorgan's espetiall warrant for Ireland." Of this original
the above is a correct copy.
April 30. The king having heard that Rinuccini had been appointed nuncio,
and was on his way to Ireland, sent to Glamorgan a letter for that prelate
and another for the pope. The contents of the second are unknown; the first
is copied in the Nuncio's Memoirs, "Nous ne doubtons point, que les choses
n'yront bien, et que les bonnes intentions commencés par effect du dernier
pape ne s'accomplisseront par celuys icy, et par vos moyens, en notre
royaume d'Irelande et de Angleterre."--Birch 28. He then requests the
nuncio to join with Glamorgan, and promises to accomplish on the return of
the latter, whatever they shall have resolved together.--Ibid.
The king, on his return to Oxford, after the disastrous campaign of 1645,
still placed his principal reliance on the mission of Glamorgan; and, to
induce the court of Rome to listen to the proposals of that envoy, wrote,
with his own hand, the two following letters, of which the originals still
exist in the Archivio Vaticano, one to the pope himself, the other to
Cardinal Spada, requesting of both to give credit to Glamorgan or his
messenger, and engaging the royal word to fulfil whatever should be agreed
upon by Glamorgan, in the name of his sovereign:--
"Tot tantaque testimonia fidelitatis et affectus consanguinei nostri
comitis Glamorganiae jamdudum accepimus, eamque in illo fiduciam merito
reponimus, ut Sanctitas Vestra ei fidem merito praebere possit in quacumque
re, de qua per se vel per alium nostro nomine cum Sanctitate Vestra
tractaturus sit. Quaecumque vero ab ipso certo statuta fuerint, ea munire
et confirmare pollicemur. In cujus testimonium brevissimas has scripsimus,
manu et sigillo nostro munitas, qui nihil (potius) habemus in votis, quam
ut fevore vestro in eum statum redigamur, quo palam profiteamur nos.
"Sanctitatis Vestrae
"Humilimum et obedientissimum servum,
"Apud Curiam nostram, CHARLES R.
Oxoniae, Oct. 20, 1645."
Superscription--
"Beatissimo Patri Innocentio decimo Pontifici Maximo."
"Eminentissime Domine, Pauca scripsimus Beatissimo Patri, de fide adhibenda
consanguineo nostro comiti Glamorganiae, et cuilibet ab eo delegato, quem
ut Eminentia vestra pariter omni favore prosequatur, rogamus; certoque
credat nos ratum habituros quicquid a praedicte comite, vel suo delegato,
cum Sanctissimo Patre vel Eminentia vestra transactum fuerit.
"Eminentiae Vestrae,
"Apud Curiam nostram, Fidelisimus Amicus,
Oxoniae, Oct. 20, 1645." CHARLES R.
Superscription--
"Eminentissimo Domino et Consanguineo nostro, Dno Cardinali Spada."
After the discovery of the whole proceeding, the king, on January 29th,
1646, sent a message to the two houses in England, in which he declares
(with what truth the reader may judge) that Glamorgan had a commission to
raise men, and "to that purpose only;" that he had no commission to treat
of any thing else without the privity and directions of Ormond; that he
had never sent any information of his having made any treaty with the
Catholics, and that he (the king) disavowed him in his proceedings, and
had ordered the Irish council to proceed against him by due course of
law.--Charles's Works, 555.
Two days later, January 31, having acknowledged to the council at Dublin
that he had informed Glamorgan of the secret instructions given to Ormond,
and desired him to use his influence with the Catholics to persuade them to
moderate their demands, he proceeds: "To this end (and with the strictest
limitations that we could enjoin him, merely to those particulars
concerning which we had given you secret instructions, as also even in that
to do nothing but by your especial directions) it is possible we might have
thought fit to have given unto the said earl of Glamorgan such a credential
as might give him credit with the Roman Catholics, in case you should find
occasion to make use of him, either as a farther assurance unto them of
what you should privately promise, or in case you should judge it necessary
to manage those matters for their greater confidence apart by him, of whom,
in regard of his religion and interest, they might be less jealous. This is
all, and the very bottom of what we might have possibly entrusted unto the
said earl of Glamorgan in this affair."--Carte's Ormond, iii. 446. How this
declaration is to be reconciled with the last, I know not.
With this letter to the council he sent two others. One was addressed
to Ormond, asserting on the word of a Christian that he never intended
Glamorgan to treat of any thing without Ormond's knowledge and approbation,
as he was always diffident of the earl's judgment, but at the same time
commanding him to suspend the execution of any sentence which might be
pronounced against that nobleman.--Carte, ii. App. p. 12. The second, dated
Feb. 3, was to Glamorgan himself, in these words:--
I must clearly tell you, both you and I have been abused in this business;
for you have been drawn to consent to conditions much beyond your
instructions, and your treaty had been divulged to all the world. If you
had advised with my lord lieutenant, as you promised me, all this had been
helped. But we must look forward. Wherefore, in a word, I have commanded
as much favour to be shewn to you as may possibly stand with my service or
safety; and if you will yet trust my advice--which I have commanded Digby
to give you freely--I will bring you so off that you may still be useful
to me, and I shall be able to recompence you for your affection; if not,
I cannot tell what to say. But I will not doubt your compliance in this,
since it so highly concerns the good of all my crowns, my own particular,
and to make me have still means to shew myself
Your most assured Friend,
CHARLES R. Oxford, Feb. 3, 1645-6." Warner, 360.
In this letter Charles, in his own defence, pretends to blame Glamorgan;
probably as a blind to Ormond and Digby, through whom it was sent. Soon
afterwards, on February 28th, he despatched Sir J. Winter to him with full
instructions, and the following consolatory epistle:--
I am confident that this honest trusty bearer will give you good
satisfaction why I have not in euerie thing done as you desired, the wante
of confidence in you being so farre from being y'e cause thereof, that I
am euery day more and more confirmed in the trust that I have of you, for
beleeve me, it is not in the power of any to make you suffer in my opinion
by ill offices; but of this and diuers other things I have given so full
instructions that I will saye no more, but that I am
Yor most assured constant Friend,
Century of Inventions, xxxix.
April 5th he wrote to him again.
I have no time, nor do you expect that I shall make unnecessary repetitions
to you. Wherefore, referring you to Digby for business, this is only to
give you assurance of my constant friendship to you: which, considering the
general defection of common honesty, is in a sort requisite. Howbeit, I
know you cannot but be confident of my making good all instructions and
promises to you and the nuncio.
Your most assured constant Friend,
Warner, 373.
On the following day the king sent him another short letter.
As I doubt not but you have too much courage to be dismayed or discouraged
at the usage you have had, so I assure you that my estimation of you is
nothing diminished by it, but rather begets in me a desire of revenge and
reparation to us both; for in this I hold myself equally interested with
you. Wherefore, not doubting of your accustomed care and industry in my
service, I assure you of the continuance of my favour and protection to
you, and that in deeds more than words, I shall shew myself to be
Your most assured constant Friend,
Warner, 374.
If after the perusal of these documents any doubt can remain of the
authenticity of Glamorgan's commission, it must be done away by the
following passage from Clarendon's correspondence with secretary Nicholas.
Speaking of his intended history, he says, "I must tell you, I care not how
little I say in that business of Ireland, since those strange powers and
instructions given to your favourite Glamorgan, which appears to me so
inexcusable to justice, piety, and prudence. And I fear there is very much
in that transaction of Ireland, both before and since, that you and I were
never thought wise enough to be advised with in. Oh, Mr. Secretary, those
stratagems have given me more sad hours than all the misfortunes in war
which have befallen the king, and look like the effects of God's anger
towards us."--Clarendon Papers, ii. 337.
It appears that the king, even after he had been delivered by the Scots
to the parliament, still hoped to derive benefit from the exertions of
Glamorgan. About the beginning of June, 1647, Sir John Somerset, the
brother of that nobleman, arrived in Rome with a letter from Charles to
Innocent X. The letter is not probably in existence; but the answer of the
pontiff shows that the king had solicited pecuniary assistance, and, as an
inducement, had held out some hint of a disposition on his part to admit
the papal supremacy and the Catholic creed. Less than this cannot be
inferred from the language of Innocent. Literae illae praecipuam tuam
alacritatem ac propensionem ad obediendum Deo in nobis, qui ejus vices
gerimus, luculenter declarant ... a majestate tua enixe poscimus, ut
quod velle coepit, mox et facto perficiat ... ut aliquo id aggrediaris
argumento, quo te te ad Catholicam fidem recepisse intelligamus.
Undoubtedly Charles was making the same experiment with the pontiff which
he had just made with his Presbyterian subjects; and as, to propitiate
them, he had undertaken to study the Presbyterian doctrines, so he hoped
to draw money from Innocent by professing an inclination in favour of
the Catholic creed. But the attempt failed. The answer was, indeed,
complimentary: it expressed the joy of the pontiff at the perusal of his
letter, and exhorted him to persevere in the inquiry till he should come to
the discovery of the truth; but it disposed of his request, as Urban
had previously disposed of a similar request, by stating that it was
inconsistent with the duty of the pope to spend the treasures of his church
in the support of any but Catholic princes. This answer is dated 29th June,
1647.
NOTE B, p. 136.
1. The ordinances had distinguished two classes of delinquents, the one
religious, the other political. The first comprised all Catholic recusants,
all persons whomsoever, who, having attained the age of twenty-one, should
refuse to abjure upon oath the doctrines peculiar to the Catholic creed.
These were reputed papists, and had been made to forfeit two-thirds of
their real and personal estates, which were seized for the benefit of the
kingdom by the commissioners of sequestration appointed in each particular
county. The second comprehended all persons who were known to have fought
against the parliament, or to have aided the royal party with money, men,
provisions, advice, or information; and of these the whole estates, both
real and personal, had been sequestrated, with the sole exception of
one-fifth allotted for the support of their wives and children, if the
latter were educated in the Protestant religion.--Elsynge's Ordinances. 3,
22, et seq.
2. These sequestrated estates not only furnished a yearly income, but also
a ready supply on every sudden emergency. Thus when Colonel Harvey refused
to march till his regiment had received the arrears of its pay, amounting
to three thousand pounds, an ordinance was immediately passed to raise
the money by the sale of woods belonging to Lord Petre, in the county of
Essex.--Journals, vi, 519. When a complaint was made of a scarcity of
timber for the repairs of the navy, the two houses authorized certain
shipwrights to fell two thousand five hundred oak trees on the estates
of delinquents in Kent and Essex.--Ibid, 520. When the Scots demanded a
month's pay for their army, the committee at Goldsmiths' Hall procured the
money by offering for sale such property of delinquents as they judged
expedient, the lands at eight, the houses at six years' purchase.--Journals
of Commons, June 10, 24, 1644.
3. But the difficulty of procuring ready money by sales induced the
commissioners to look out for some other expedient; and when the sum of
fifteen thousand pounds was wanted to put the army of Fairfax in motion,
it was raised without delay by offering to delinquents the restoration
of their sequestrated estates, on the immediate payment of a certain
fine.--Commons' Journals, Sept. 13, 1644. The success of this experiment
encouraged them to hold out a similar indulgence to such persons as were
willing to quit the royal party, provided they were not Catholics, and
would take the oath of abjuration of the Catholic doctrine.--Ibid. March
6, August 12, 1645; May 4, June 26, Sept. 3, 1646. Afterwards, on the
termination of the war, the great majority of the royalists were admitted
to make their compositions with the committee. Of the fines required, the
greater number amounted to one-tenth, many to one-sixth, and a few
to one-third of the whole property, both real and personal, of the
delinquents.--(See the Journals of both houses for the years 1647, 1648.)
NOTE C, p. 241.
On the day after the king's execution appeared a work, entitled [Greek:
EIKON BASILIKAe], or the Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in "his
Solitude and Sufferings." It professed to be written by Charles himself;
a faithful exposition of his own thoughts on the principal events of his
reign, accompanied with such pious effusions as the recollection suggested
to his mind. It was calculated to create a deep sensation in favour of the
royal sufferer, and is said to have passed through fifty editions in the
course of the first year. During the commonwealth, Milton made a feeble
attempt to disprove the king's claim to the composition of the book: after
the restoration, Dr. Gauden, a clergyman of Bocking, in Essex, came forward
and declared himself the real author. But he advanced his pretensions with
secrecy, and received as the price of his silence, first the bishopric of
Exeter, and afterwards, when he complained of the poverty of that see, the
richer bishopric of Worcester.
After the death of Gauden his pretensions began to transpire, and became
the subject of an interesting controversy between his friends and the
admirers of Charles. But many documents have been published since, which
were then unknown, particularly the letters of
Gauden to the earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xxvi.-xxxi.,
xcv.), and others from him to the earl of Bristol (Maty's Review, ii. 253.
Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xcvi.; and Mr. Todd, Memoirs of Bishop Walton,
i. 138). These have so firmly established Gauden's claim, that, whoever
denies it must be prepared to pronounce that prelate an impostor, to
believe that the bishops Morley and Duppa gave false evidence in his
favour, and, to explain how it happened, that those, the most interested to
maintain the right of the king, namely Charles II., his brother the duke of
York, and the two earls of Clarendon and Bristol, yielded to the deception.
These difficulties, however, have not appalled Dr. Wordsworth, who in
a recent publication of more than four hundred pages, entitled, "Who
wrote[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe]" has collected with patient industry every
particle of evidence which can bear upon the subject; and after a most
minute and laborious investigation, has concluded by adjudging the work
to the king, and pronouncing the bishop an impudent impostor. Still my
incredulity is not subdued. There is much in the[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe]
itself which forbids me to believe that Charles was the real author, though
the latter, whoever he were, may have occasionally consulted and copied the
royal papers; and the claim of Gauden appears too firmly established to be
shaken by the imperfect and conjectural improbabilities which have hitherto
been produced against it.
NOTE D, p. 276.
The Massacres at Drogheda and Wexford.
I. Drogheda was taken by storm on the 11th of September, 1649. Cromwell, on
his return to Dublin, despatched two official accounts of his success, one
to Bradshaw, president of the council of state; a second to Lenthall, the
speaker of parliament. They were dated on the 16th and 17th of September;
which probably ought to have been the 17th and 18th, for he repeatedly
makes such mistakes in numbering the days of that month. These two
documents on several accounts deserve the attention of the reader.
I. Both mention a massacre, but with this difference, that whereas the
earlier seems to confine it to the men in arms against the commonwealth,
the second towards the end notices, incidentally as it were, the additional
slaughter of a thousand of the townspeople in the church of St. Peter. In
the first, Cromwell, as if he doubted how the shedding of so much blood
would be taken, appears to shift the origin of the massacre from himself to
the soldiery, who considered the refusal of quarter as a matter of course,
after the summons which had been sent into the town on the preceding day;
but in the next despatch he assumes a bolder tone, and takes upon himself
all the blame or merit of the proceeding. "Our men were ordered by me
to put them all to the sword."--"I forbade them to spare any that were
in arms." In the first, to reconcile the council to the slaughter, he
pronounces it a "marvellous great mercy;" for the enemy had lost by it
their best officers and prime soldiers: in the next he openly betrays his
own misgivings, acknowledging that "such actions cannot but work remorse
and regret without sufficient grounds," and alleging as sufficient grounds
in the present case--1. that it was a righteous judgment of God on
barbarous wretches who had imbued their hands in so much innocent blood;
and 2. that it would tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future.
2. Now the insinuation conveyed in the first of these reasons, that
the major part of the garrison had been engaged in the outbreak of the
rebellion and its accompanying horrors, was in all probability a falsehood;
for the major part of the garrison was not composed of native soldiers,
but of Englishmen serving under the marquess of Ormond, the king's lord
lieutenant. This is plain from the evidence of persons who cannot be
supposed ignorant of the fact; the evidence of the royalist Clarendon
(History, vol. iii. part i. p. 323), and of the republican Ludlow, who soon
afterwards was made general of the horse, and became Cromwell's deputy
in the government of the island (Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 301). But, however
groundless the insinuation might be, it served Cromwell's purpose; it would
array in his favour the fanaticism of the more godly of his party.
For the massacre of the townspeople in the church he offers a similar
apology, equally calculated to interest the feelings of the saints. "They
had had the insolence on the last Lord's day to thrust out the Protestants,
and to have the mass said there." Now this remark plainly includes a
paralogism. The persons who had ordered the mass to be said there on the
9th of September were undoubtedly the civil or military authorities in the
town. Theirs was the guilt, if guilt it were, and theirs should have been
the punishment. Yet his argument supposes that the unarmed individuals
whose blood was shed there on the 12th, were the very persons who had set
up the mass on the 9th.
3. We know not how far this second massacre was originated or encouraged by
Cromwell. It is well known that in the sack of towns it is not always in
the power of the commander to restrain the fury of the assailants, who
abuse the license of victory to gratify the most brutal of their passions.
But here we have no reason to suppose that Cromwell made any effort to save
the lives of the unarmed and the innocent. Both the commander and his
men had a common religious duty to perform. They were come, in his
own language, "to ask an account of the innocent blood which had been
shed,"--to "do execution on the enemies of God's cause." Hence, in the case
of a resisting city, they included the old man, the female, and the child
in the same category with the armed combatant, and consigned all to the
same fate.
4. Of the proceedings of the victors during that night we are ignorant; but
it does not suggest a very favourable notion of their forbearance, that
in the following morning the great church of St. Peter's was filled with
crowds of townspeople of both sexes, and of every age and condition. The
majority of the women and children sought protection within the body of the
church; a select party of females, belonging to the first families in the
town, procured access to the crypts under the choir, which seemed to offer
more favourable chances of concealment and safety. But the sacred edifice
afforded no asylum to either. The carnage began within the church at an
early hour; and, when it was completed, the bloodhounds tracked their prey
into the vaults beneath the pavement. Among the men who thus descended into
these subterranean recesses, was Thomas Wood, at that time a subaltern,
afterwards a captain in Ingoldsby's regiment. He found there, according
to his own narrative, "the flower and choicest of the women and ladies
belonging to the town, amongst whom a most handsome virgin, arrayed in
costly and gorgeous apparel, kneeled down to him with tears and prayers to
save her life; and being strucken with a profound pitie, he took her under
his arme, and went with her out of the church with intentions to put
her over the works to shift for herself; but a soldier perceiving his
intention, he ran his sword up her belly or fundament. Whereupon Mr. Wood,
seeing her gasping, took away her money, jewels, &c., and flung her down
over the works." (See the Life of Anthony a Wood, p. xx., in the edition by
Bliss, of 1813. Thomas was the brother of Anthony, the Oxford historian.)
"He told them also that 3,000 at least, besides some women and children,
were, after the assailants had taken part, and afterwards all the towne,
put to the sword on the 11th and 12th of September, 1649. He told them
that when they were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries of
the church, and up to the tower, where the enemy had fled, each of the
assailants would take up a child, and use as a buckler of defence,
when they ascended the steps, to keep themselves from being shot or
brained."--Wood, ibid. These anecdotes, from the mouth of one who was an
eyewitness of, probably a participator in, the horrors of that day, will
enable the reader to form an adequate notion of the thirst for blood which
stimulated the soldiery, and of the cruelties which they exercised on their
defenceless victims.
5. The terms of indignation, and abhorrence in which the sack of Drogheda
was described by the royalists of that period are well known. I shall add
here another testimony; not that it affords more important information,
but because I am not aware that it has ever met the eye of more recent
historians; the testimony of Bruodin, an Irish friar, of great eminence and
authority in the Franciscan order. "Quinque diebus continuis haec laniena
(qua, nullo habito locorum, sexus, religionis aut aetatis discrimine,
juvenes et virgines lactantes aeque ac senio confecti barbarorum gladiis
ubique trucidati sunt) duravit. Quatuor milia Catholicorum virorum (ut
de infinita multitudine religiosorum, foeminarum, puerorum, puellarum
et infantium nihil dicam) in civitate gladius impiorum rebellium illa
expugnatione devoravit."--Propugnaculum Cathol. Veritatis, lib. iv. c. 14,
p. 678.
6. Here another question occurs. How did Cromwell obtain possession of
Drogheda? for there appears in his despatches a studied evasion of the
particulars necessary to give a clear view of the transaction. The
narrative is so confused that it provokes a suspicion of cunning and
concealment on the part of the writer. The royalists affirmed that
the place was won through promises of quarter which were afterwards
perfidiously violated, and their assertion is supported by the testimony of
Ormond in an official letter written from the neighbourhood to Lord Byron.
"Cromwell," he says, "having been twice beaten from the breach, carried it
the third time, all his officers and soldiers promising quarter to such as
would lay down their arms, and performing it as long as any place held
out, which encouraged others to yield; but when they had all once in their
power, and feared no hurt that could be done them, then the word no quarter
went round, and the soldiers were, many of them, forced against their wills
to kill their prisoners. The governor and all his officers were killed
in cold blood, except some few of least consideration that escaped by
miracle."--Sept. 29, Carte's Letters, ii. 412. It is possible, though
not very probable, that Ormond suffered himself to be misled by false
information. It should, however, be observed, that there is nothing in his
account positively contradicted by Cromwell's despatch. Cromwell had, not
forbidden the granting of quarter before the storm. It was afterwards, "in
the heat of the action," that he issued this order. But at what part of the
action? On what account? What had happened to provoke him to issue it?
He tells us that within the breach the garrison had thrown up three
entrenchments; two of which were soon carried, but the third, that on the
Mill-Mount, was exceedingly strong, having a good graft, and strongly
palisaded. For additional particulars we must have recourse to other
authority, from which we learn that within this work was posted a body of
picked soldiers with every thing requisite for a vigorous defence, so that
it could not have been taken by force without the loss of some hundreds of
men on the part of the assailants. It so happened, however, that the latter
entered it without opposition, and "Colonel Axtell, with some twelve of
his men, went up to the top of the mount, and demanded of the governor the
surrender of it, who was very stubborn, speaking very big words, but at
length was persuaded to go into the windmill at the top of the mount, and
as many more of the chiefest of them as it could contain, where they were
disarmed, and afterwards all slain."--Perfect Diurnal from Oct. 1 to Oct.
8. Now Cromwell in his despatch says "The governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and
divers considerable officers, being there (on the Mill-Mount), our men,
getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword." In my
opinion this passage affords a strong corroboration of the charge made by
Ormond. If the reader compare it with the passage already quoted from the
Diurnal, he will find it difficult to suppress a suspicion that Axtell
and his men had obtained a footing on the Mill-Mount through the offer of
quarter; and that this was the reason why Cromwell, when he knew that they
had obtained possession, issued an order forbidding the granting of quarter
on any account. The consequence was, that the governor and his officers
went into the mill, and were there disarmed, and afterwards all slain. The
other prisoners were treated in the same manner as their officers.
7. Ormond adds, in the same letter, that the sack of the town lasted during
five days, meaning, probably, from September 11 to September 15, or 16,
inclusively. The same is asserted by most of the royalists. But how could
that be, when the storm began on the 11th, and the army marched from
Drogheda on the 15th? The question may perhaps be solved by a circumstance
accidentally mentioned by Dr. Bates, that on the departure of the army,
several individuals who had hitherto succeeded in concealing themselves,
crept out of their hiding-places, but did not elude the vigilance of the
garrison, by whom they were put to the sword.--Bates's Rise and Progress,
part ii. p. 27.
II. 1. It did not require many days to transmit intelligence from Dublin to
the government; for the admiralty had contracted with a Captain Rich, that
for the monthly sum of twenty-two pounds he should constantly have two
swift-sailing vessels, stationed, one at Holyhead, the other at Dublin,
ready to put to sea on the arrival of despatches for the service of the
state.--Lords' Journ. ix. 617. From an accidental entry in Whitelock, it
would appear that the letters from Cromwell reached London on the 27th
of September; on the 28th, parliament, without any cause assigned in the
Journals, was adjourned to October 2nd, and on that day the official
account of the massacre at Drogheda was made public. At the same time an
order was obtained from the parliament, that "a letter should be written to
the lord lieutenant of Ireland, to be communicated to the officers there,
that the house doth approve of the execution done at Drogheda both as
an act of justice to them and mercy to others, who may be warned by it"
(Journals, vi. 301), which are the very reasons alleged by Cromwell in his
despatch. His conduct was now sanctioned by the highest authority; and from
that moment the saints in the army rejoiced to indulge the yearnings of
their zeal for the cause of God, by shedding the blood of the Irish enemy.
Nor had they long to wait for the opportunity. On the 1st of October he
arrived in the neighbourhood of Wexford; on the 9th he opened a cannonade
on the castle, which completely commanded the town. On the 11th, Synnot,
the military governor, offered to capitulate; four commissioners, one of
whom was Stafford, the captain of the castle, waited on Cromwell to
arrange the terms. He was dissatisfied with their demands, pronounced them
"abominable," and detained them till he had prepared his answer. By that
answer he granted life and liberty to the soldiers; life, but not liberty,
to the commissioned officers, and freedom from pillage to the inhabitants,
subject, however, to the decision of parliament with respect to their real
property. He required an immediate acceptance of these terms, and the
delivery to him of six hostages within an hour.--(Compare the letter of
October 16 in the King's Pamphlets, No. 442, with the document published
by Mr. Carlyle, ii. 79, which appears to me nothing more than a rough and
incorrect draft of an intended answer.) But Stafford was a traitor. In the
interval, being "fairly treated," he accepted, without communication with
the governor, the terms granted by Cromwell, and opened the gates of the
fortress to the enemy. From the castle they scaled an undefended wall in
the vicinity, and poured into the town. A paper containing the terms was
now delivered to the other three commissioners; but "their commissioners
this while not having hearts to put themselves into the town again with out
offer."--Ibid. Letter of October 16. Thus Synnot and the other authorities
remained in ignorance of Cromwell's decision.
2. At the first alarm the garrison and burghers assembled in the
market-place, to which they were accompanied or followed by crowds of
old men, women, and children. For a while the progress of the enemy was
retarded by barricades of cables. At the entrance of the market-place they
met with a "stiff resistance," as it is called by Cromwell. The
action lasted about an hour; but the assailants receiving continual
reinforcements, obtained at last fell possession of the place, and put
to the sword every human being found upon it. The governor and the mayor
perished with the rest.
3. But how could these bloody proceedings be reconciled with the terms of
capitulation which had been already granted? If we may believe Cromwell's
official account, a matchless specimen of craft and mystification, he was
not to blame that they had been broken. He was perfectly innocent of all
that had happened. Could he not then have ordered his men to keep within
the castle, or have recalled them when they forced an entrance into the
town? Undoubtedly he might; but the pious man was unwilling to put himself
in opposition to God. "His study had been to preserve the place from
plunder, that it might be of more use to the commonwealth and the army."
But he saw "that God would not have have it so." The events which so
quickly followed each other, were to him a proof that God in his righteous
judgment had doomed the town and its defendants to destruction; on which
account he "thought it not good, nor just, to restrain off the soldiers
from their right of pillage, nor from doing of execution on the
enemy."--Letter of 16th of October. He concludes his despatch to the
government with these words:--"Thus it has pleased God to give into your
hands this other mercy, for which, as for all, we pray God may have all the
glory. Indeed, your instruments are poor and weak. and can do nothing but
through believing, and that is the gift of God also."--Cary's Memorials,
ii. 180. Did then the fanatic believe that perfidy and cruelty were gifts
of God? for at Wexford he could not plead, as at Drogheda, that his summons
had been contemptuously rejected. It had been accepted, and he had himself
dictated the terms of capitulation. Was he not obliged to carry them into
execution, even if, as was pretended in defiance of all probability, his
men had taken possession of the castle, and forced an entrance into the
town without his knowledge or connivance? Would any honest man have
released himself from such obligation under the flimsy pretext that it
would be acting against the will of God to recall the soldiers and prevent
them from doing execution on the enemy?
4. Cromwell's ministers of the divine will performed their part at Wexford,
as they had done at Drogheda, doing execution, not on the armed combatants
only, but on the women and children also. Of these helpless victims many
had congregated round the great cross. It was a natural consequence in such
an emergency. Hitherto they had been accustomed to kneel at the foot
of that cross in prayer, now, with life itself at stake, they would
instinctively press towards it to escape from the swords of the enemy. But,
as far an regards the atrocity of the thing, it makes little difference on
what particular spot they were murdered. You cannot relieve the memory
of Cromwell from the odium of such murder, but by proving, what it is
impossible to prove, that at Wexford the women and children were specially
excepted out of the general massacre.
5. I have already copied Bruodin's description of the sack of Drogheda;
here I may transcribe his account of the sack of Wexford. "Ipse strategus
regicidarum terrestri itinere Dublinium praetergressus, Wexfordiam (modicam
quidem, et maritimam, munitam et opulentam civitatem) versus castra movet,
occupatoque insperate, proditione cujusdam perfidi ducis castro, quod
moenibus imminebat, in civitatem irruit: opposuere se viriliter aggressori
praesidiarii simul cum civibus, pugnatumque est ardentissime per unius
horae spatium inter partes in foro, sed impari congressu, nam cives fere
omnes una cum militibus, sine status, sexus, aut aetatis discrimine,
Cromweli gladius absumpsit."--Bruodin, Propag. 1. iv. c. 14, p. 679. The
following is a more valuable document, from the "humble petition of the
ancient natives of the town of Wexford," to Charles II., July 4, 1660. "Yet
soe it is, may it please your Majestie, that after all the resistance they
could make, the said usurper, having a great armie by sea and land before
the said toune, did on the 9th of October, 1649, soe powerfully assault
them, that he entered the toune, and put man, woman, and child, to a very
few, to the sword, where among the rest the governor lost his life,
and others of the soldiers and inhabitants to the number of 1,500
persons."--Gale's Corporation System in Ireland, App. p. cxxvi.
6. My object in these remarks has been to enable the reader to form a
correct notion of the manner in which Cromwell conducted the war in
Ireland. They will give little satisfaction to the worshippers of the
hero. But his character is not a mere matter of taste or sympathy. It is a
question of historic inquiry. Much indeed has been written to vindicate
him from the imputation of cruelty at Drogheda and Wexford; but of the
arguments hitherto adduced in his defence, it will be no presumption
to affirm that there is not one among them which can bear the test of
dispassionate investigation.
NOTE E, p. 338.
The following pensions were afterwards granted to different persons
instrumental in facilitating the king's escape. Unless it be mentioned
otherwise, the pension is for life:--
.
To Jane Lane (Lady Fisher) . . . . . . . . . 1000
Thomas Lane, the father . . . . . . . . . 500
Charles Gifford, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . 300
Francis Mansell, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . 200
Thomas Whitgrave, Esq. . . . . . . . . . 200
Catharine Gunter, for 21 years . . . . . 200
Joan Harford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Eleanor Sampson . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Francis Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
John and Anne Rogers, and heirs male . . 100
Anne Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Sir Thomas Wyndham, and heirs, for ever . 600
William Ellesdun, during pleasure . . . . 100
Robert Swan, during the king's life . . . 80
Lady Anne Wyadham . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Juliana Hest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Clarendon Corres. i. 656.
NOTE F, p. 358.
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland.
Whereas the parliament of England after expense of much blood and treasure
for suppression of the horrid rebellion in Ireland have by the good hand of
God vpon their vndertakings brought that affaire to such an issue as that
a totall reducm't and settlement of that nation may with Gods blessing be
speedily effected. To the end therefore that the people of that nation may
knowe that it is not the intention of the Parliament to extirpat that wholl
nation, but that mercie and pardon both as to life and estate may bee
extended to all husbandmen, plowmen, labourers, artificers, and others of
the inferior sort, in manner as is heereafter declared, they submitting
themselves to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England and liveing
peaceably and obediently vnder their governement, and that others alsoe of
a higher ranke and quality may knowe the Parliament's intention concerning
them according to the respective demerits and considerations under which
they fall, Bee it enacted and declared by this present Parliament and by
the authority of the same, That all and every person and persons of the
Irish nation comprehended in any of the following Qualifications shal bee
lyable vnto the penalties and forfeitures herein mentioned and contained
or bee made capable of the mercy and pardon therein extended respectively
according as is heereafter expressed and declared, that is to saye,
1. That all and every person and persons who at any time before the tenth
day of November, 1642, being the time of the sitting of the first generall
assembly at Kilkenny in Ireland have contrived, advised, counselled, or
promoted the Rebellion, murthers, massacres, done or committed in Ireland
w'ch began in the year 1641, or have at any time before the said tenth
day of November 1642 by bearing armes or contributing men, armes, horses,
plate, money, victuall or other furniture or habilliments of warre (other
then such w'ch they shall make to appeare to haue been taken from them by
meere force & violence) ayded, assisted, promoted, prosecuted or abetted
the said rebellion murthers or massacres, be excepted from pardon of life
and estate.
2. That all and every person & persons who at any time before the first day
of May 1643, did sitt or vote, in the said first generall
assembly, or in the first pretended counsell comonly called the supreame
councell of the confederate Catholiques in Ireland or were imployed as
secretaries or cheife clearke, to be exempted from pardon for life and
estate.
3. That all and every Jesuitt preist and other person or persons who have
receaved orders from the Pope or Sea of Rome, or any authoritie from
the same, that have any wayes contrived, advised, counselled, promoted,
continued, countenanced, ayded, assisted or abetted, or at any time
hereafter shall any wayes contriue, advise, councell, promote, continue,
countenance, ayde, assist or abett the Rebellion or warre in Ireland, or
any the murthers, or massacres, robberies, or violences, comitted against
ye Protestants, English, or others there, be excepted from pardon for life
and estate.
4. That James Butler earl of Ormond, James Talbot earl of Castelhaven,
Ullick Bourke earl of Clanricarde, Christopher Plunket earl of Fingal,
James Dillon earl of Roscommon, Richard Nugent earl of Westmeath, Moragh
O'Brian baron of Inchiquin, Donogh M'Carthy viscount Muskerry, Richard
Butler viscount Mountgarrett, Theobald Taaffe viscount Taaffe of Corren,
Rock viscount Fermoy, Montgomery viscount Montgomery of Ards, Magennis
viscount of Iveagh, Fleming baron of Slane, Dempsey viscount Glanmaleere,
Birmingham baron of Athenry, Oliver Plunket baron of Lowth, Robert Barnwell
baron of Trymletstoune, Myles Bourke viscount Mayo, Connor Magwyre baron of
Enniskillen, Nicholas Preston viscount Gormanstowne, Nicholas Nettervill,
viscount Nettervill of Lowth, John Bramhall late Bishop of Derry, (with
eighty-one baronets, knights and gentlemen mentioned by name) be excepted
from pardon of life and estate.
5. That all and every person & persons (both principalls and accessories)
who since the first day of October 1641 have or shall kill, slay or
otherwise destroy any person or persons in Ireland w'ch at ye time of their
being soe killed, slaine or destroyed were not publiquely enterteined, and
mainteyned in armes as officers or private souldiers for and on behalfe of
the English against ye Irish, and all and every person and persons (both
principals and accessories) who since the said first day of October 1641
have killed slayne or otherwise destroyed any person or persons entertained
and mainteyned as officers or private souldiers for and on behalfe of
the English, against the Irish (the said persons soe killing, slaying or
otherwise destroying, not being then publiquely enterteyned and mainteyned
in armes as officer or private souldier vnder the comand and pay of ye
Irish against the English) be excepted from pardon for life and estate.
6. That all and every person & persons in Ireland that are in armes or
otherwise in hostilitie against ye Parliam't of ye Commonwealth of England,
and shall not wthin eight and twenty dayes after publicacon hereof by ye
deputy gen'll of Ireland, and ye comission'rs for the Parliam't, lay
downs armes & submitt to ye power and authoritie of ye said Parliam't &
commonwealth as ye same is now established, be excepted from pardon for
life and estate.
7. That all other person & persons (not being comprehended in any of ye
former Qualifications,) who have borne comaund in the warre of Ireland
against the Parliam't of England or their forces, as generall, leift'ts
generall, major gen'll, commissary generall, colonell, Gouerno'rs of any
garrison, Castle or Forte, or who have been imployed as receaver gen'll or
Treasurer of the whole Nation, or any prouince thereof, Comissarie gen'll
of musters, or prouissions, Marshall generall or marshall of any province,
advocate to ye army, secretary to ye councell of warre, or to any generall
of the army, or of any the seuerall prouinces, in order to the carrying on
the warre, against the parliam't or their forces, be banished dureing the
pleasure of the parliam't of ye Com'wealth of England, and their estates
forfeited & disposed of as followeth, (viz.) That two third partes of their
respective estates, be had taken & disposed of for the vse & benefitt of
the said Com'wealth, and that ye other third parte of their said respective
estates, or other lands to ye proporcon & value thereof (to bee assigned
in such places in Ireland as the Parliam't in order to ye more effectual
settlem' of ye peace of this Nation shall thinke fitt to appoint for that
purpose,) be respectiuely had taken and enioyed by ye wifes and children of
the said persons respectively.
8. That ye deputy gen'll and comission'rs of parliam't have power to
declare, That such person or persons as they shall judge capeable of
ye parliam'ts mercie (not being comprehended in any of ye former
qualifications) who have borne armes against the Parliam't of England or
their forces, and have layd downe armes, or within eight & twenty dayes
after publicacon hereof by ye deputy gen'll of Ireland and ye Comissioners
for ye parliam't, shall lay downe armes & submit to ye power & authoritie
of ye said parliam't & com'wealth as ye same is now established, (by
promising & ingaging to be true to ye same) shal be pardoned for their
liues, but shall forfeit their estates, to the said comonwealth to be
disposed of as followeth (viz.) Two third partes thereof (in three equall
partes to bee diuided) for the vse benefitt & aduantage of ye said
ComOnwealth, and ye other third parte of the said respective states, or
other lands to ye proporcon or value thereof) to bee assigned in such
places in Ireland as the parliam't in order to ye more effectual settlement
of the peace of the Nation shall thinke fitt to appoint for that purpose
(bee enioyed by ye said persons their heires or assigns respectively)
provided, That in case the deputy gen'll Comission'rs or either of them,
shall see cause to give any shorter time than twenty-eight dayes, vnto
any person or persons in armes, or any Guarrison, Castle, or Forte, in
hostilitie against the Parliam't & shall giue notice to such person or
persons in armes or in any Guarrison, Castle or Forte, That all and every
such person & persons who shall not wthin such time as shal be sett downe
in such notice surrender such Guarrison, Castle, or Forte to ye parliam't,
and lay downe armes, shall haue noe advantage of ye time formerly limited
in this Qualificacon.
9. That all and every person & persons who have recided in Ireland at any
time from the first day of October 1641, to ye first of March 1650, and
haue not beene in actuall service of ye parliam't at any time from ye first
of August 1649, to the said first of March 1650, or have not otherwise
manifested their constant good affections to the interest of ye Comonwealth
of England (the said Persons not being comprehended in any of the former
Qualificacons) shall forfeit their estates in Ireland to the said
Comonwealth to be disposed of as followeth, (viz.), one third parte thereof
for the vse, benefitt, and advantage of the said Comonwealth, and the
other two third partes of their respective estates, or other lands to the
proporcon or value thereof (to bee assigned in such places in Ireland, as
ye Parliam't for ye more effectual settlement of ye peace of the Nation
shall thinke fitt to appoint for that purpose) bee enioyed by such person
or persons their heires or assigns respectively.
10. That all and every person & persons (haueing noe reall estate in
Ireland nor personall Estate to the value of ten pounds,) that shall lay
downe armes, and submitt to the power and Authoritie of the Parliament by
the time limited in the former Qualificacon, & shall take & subscribe the
engagem't to be true and faithfull to the Comonwealth of England as the
same is now established, within such time and in such manner, as the deputy
Generall & commission'rs for the Parliam't shall appoint and direct, such
persons (not being excepted from pardon nor adiuged for banishm't by any of
the former Qualificacons) shal be pardoned for life & estate, for any act
or thing by them done in prosecution of the warre.
11. That all estates declared by the Qualificacons concerning rebells or
delinquents in Ireland to be forfeited shal be construed, adiuged & taken
to all intents and purposes to extend to ye forfeitures of all estates
tayle, and also of all rights & titles thereunto which since the fiue
and twentith of March 1639, have beene or shal be in such rebells or
delinquents, or any other in trust for them or any of them, or their or
any of their vses, w'th all reversions & remainders thereupon in any other
person or persons whatsoever.
And also to the forfeiture of all estates limitted, appointed, conveyed,
settled, or vested in any person or persons declared by the said
Qualificacons to be rebells or delinquents with all reversions or
remainders of such estates, conueyed, uested, limitted, declared or
appointed to any the heires, children, issues, or others of the blood,
name, or kindred of such rebells or delinquents, w'ch estate or estates
remainders or reuersions since the 25th of March 1639 have beene or shal be
in such rebells or delinquents, or in any their heires, children, issues or
others of the blood, name, or kindred of such rebells or delinquents.
And to all estates graunted, limitted, appointed or conueyed by any such
rebells or delinquents vnto any their heires, children, issue, w'th all the
reversions and remainders thereupon, in any other person of the name, blood
or kindred of such rebells or delinquents, provided that this shall not
extend to make voyd the estates of any English Protestants, who haue
constantly adhered to the parliam't w'ch were by them purchased for
valuable consideracon before ye 23rd of October 1641, or vpon like valuable
consideracon mortgaged to them before ye tyme or to any person or persons
in trust for them for satisfaction of debts owing to them.
NOTE G, p. 396.
I have not been able to ascertain the number of Catholic clergymen who were
executed or banished for their religion under Charles I., and under the
commonwealth. But I possess an original document, authenticated by the
signatures of the parties concerned, which contains the names and fate of
such Catholic priests as were apprehended and prosecuted in London between
the end of 1640 and the summer of 1651 by four individuals, who had formed
themselves into a kind of joint-stock company for that laudable purpose,
and who solicited from the council some reward for their services. It
should, however, be remembered that there were many others engaged in the
same pursuit, and consequently many other victims besides those who are
here enumerated.
"The names of such Jesuits and Romish priests as have been apprehended and
prosecuted by Capt James Wadsworth, Francis Newton, Thomas Mayo, and
Robert de Luke, messengers, at our proper charge; whereof some have been
condemned; some executed, and some reprieved since the beginning of the
parliament (3 Nov. 1640); the like having not been done by any others since
the reformation of religion in this nation:--
William Waller, als. Slaughter, als. Walker, executed at Tyburne.
Cuthbert Clapton, condemned, reprieved and pardoned.
Bartholomew Row, executed at Tyburne.
Thomas Reynolds, executed at Tyburne.
Edward Morgan, executed at Tyburne.
Thomas Sanderson, als. Hammond, executed at Tyburne.
Henry Heath, alias Pall Magdelen, executed at Tyburne.
Francis Quashet, dyed in Newgate after judgment.
Arthur Bell, executed at Tyburne.
Ralph Corbey, executed at Tyburne.
John Duchet, executed at Tyburne.
John Hamond, als. Jackson, condemned, reprieved by the king, and died in
Newgate.
Walter Coleman, condemned and died in Newgate,
Edmond Cannon, condemned and died in Newgate.
John Wigmore, als. Turner, condemned, reprieved by the king, and is in
custodie in Newgate.
Andrew Ffryer, alias Herne, als. Richmond, condemned and died in Newgate.
Augustian Abbot, als. Rivers, condemned, reprieved by the king, and died in
Newgate.
John Goodman, condemned and died in Newgate.
Peter Welford, condemned and died in Newgate.
Thomas Bullaker, executed at Tyburne.
Robert Robinson, indicted and proved, and made an escape out of the King's
Bench.
James Brown, condemned and died in Newgate.
Henry Morse, executed at Tyburne.
Thomas Worseley, alias Harvey, indicted and proved, and reprieved by the
Spanish ambassador and others.
Charles Chanie (Cheney) als. Tomson, indicted and proved, and begged by the
Spanish ambassador, and since taken by command of the councell of state,
and is now in Newgate.
Andrew White, indicted, proved, reprieved before judgment, and banished.
Richard Copley, condemned and banished.
Richard Worthington, found guiltie and banished.
Edmond Cole, Peter Wright, and William Morgan, indicted, proved, and sent
beyond sea.
Philip Morgan, executed at Tyburne.
Edmond Ensher, als. Arrow, indicted, condemned, reprieved by the parliament
and banished.
Thomas Budd, als. Peto, als. Gray, condemned, reprieved by the lord mayor
of London, and others, justices, and since retaken by order of the councell
of state, and is now in Newgate.
George Baker, als. Macham, indicted, proved guiltie, and now in Newgate.
Peter Beale, als. Wright, executed at Tyburne.
George Sage, indicted by us, and found guiltie, and since is dead.
James Wadsworth.
Francis Newton.
Thomas Mayo.
Robert de Luke."
This catalogue tells a fearful but instructive tale; inasmuch as it shows
how wantonly men can sport with the lives of their fellow-men, if it suit
the purpose of a great political party. The patriots, to enlist in their
favour the religious prejudices of the people, represented the king as the
patron of popery, because he sent the priests into banishment, instead of
delivering them to the knife of the executioner. Hence, when they became
lords of the ascendant, they were bound to make proof of their orthodoxy;
and almost every execution mentioned above took place by their order
in 1642, or 1643. After that time they began to listen to the voice of
humanity, and adopted the very expedient which they had so clamorously
condemned. They banished, instead of hanging and quartering.
NOTE H, p. 493.
Revenue of the Protector.
When the parliament, in 1654, undertook to settle an annual sum on the
protector, Oliver Cromwell, the following, according to the statement of
the sub-committee, was the amount of the revenue in the three kingdoms:--
Excise and customs in England . . . . . . . . . . . 80,000
Excise and customs in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Excise and customs in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Monthly assessments in England (at 60,0001.) . . . 720,000
Monthly assessments in Ireland (at 8,0001.) . . . . 96,000
Monthly assessments in Scotland (at 8,0001.) . . . 96,000
Crown revenue in Guernsey and Jersey . . . . . . . 2,000
Crown revenue in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000
Estates of papists and delinquents in England . . . 60,000
Estates of papists and delinquents in Scotland . . 30,000
Rent of houses belonging to the crown . . . . . . . 1,250
Post-office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Exchequer revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
Probate of wills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Coinage of tin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
Wine licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Forest of Dean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Fines on alienations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
---------
1,200,000
[From the original report in the collection of Thomas Lloyd, Esq.]
NOTE I, p. 558.
Principles of the Levellers.
The following statement of the principles maintained by the Levellers is
extracted from one of their publications, which appeared soon after the
death of Cromwell, entitled "The Leveller; or, The Principles and Maxims
concerning Government and Religion, which are asserted by those that are
commonly called Levellers, 1659."
Principles of Government.
1. The government of England ought to be by laws, and not by men; that is,
the laws ought to judge of all offences and offenders, and all punishments
and penalties to be inflicted upon criminals; nor ought the pleasure of his
highness and his council to make whom they please offenders, and punish and
imprison whom they please, and during pleasure.
2. All laws, levies of moneys, war and peace, ought be made by the people's
deputies in parliament, to be chosen by them successively at certain
periods. Therefore there should be no negative of a monarch, because he
will frequently by that means consult his own interest or that of his
family, to the prejudice of the people. But it would be well if the
deputies of the people were divided into two bodies, one of which should
propose the laws, and the other adopt or reject them.
3. All persons, without a single exception, should be subject to the law.
4. The people ought to be formed into such a military posture by and under
the parliament, that they may be able to compel every man to obey the law,
and defend the country from foreigners. A mercenary (standing) army is
dangerous to liberty, and therefore should not be admitted.
Principles of Religion.
1. The assent of the understanding cannot be compelled. Therefore no man
can compel another to be of the true religion.
2. Worship follows from the doctrines admitted by the understanding. No man
therefore can bind another to adopt any particular form of worship.
3. Works of righteousness and mercy are part of the worship of God, and so
far fall under the civil magistrate, that he ought to restrain men from
irreligion, that is, injustice, faith-breaking, oppression, and all other
evil works that are plainly evil.
4. Nothing is more destructive to true religion than quarrels about
religion, and the use of punishments to compel one man to believe as
another.
NOTE K, p. 608.
That Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was deeply engaged in the intrigues of this
busy time is sufficiently manifest. He appears to have held himself out
to every party as a friend, and to have finally attached himself to the
royalists, when he saw that the royal cause was likely to triumph. Charles
acknowledged his services in the patent by which he was created Lord
Ashley, mentioning in particular "his prudent and seasonable advice with
General Monk in order to the king's restoration."--Dugd. ii. 481. From this
passage we may infer that Cooper was one of Monk's confidential advisers;
but his admirers have gone much farther, attributing to him the whole merit
of the restoration, and representing the lord-general as a mere puppet in
the hands of their hero. In proof they refer to the story told by Locke
(iii. 471),--a story which cannot easily be reconciled with the more
credible and unpretending narrative of Clarges, in Baker's Chronicle, p.
602, edit. 1730. But that the reader may form his own judgment, I shall
subjoin the chief heads of each in parallel columns.
Belloc-Lingard - The History of England - CHAPTER VIII.