lord Ranelagh, the president of Connaught in the preservation of the peace of that province. They were for a considerable time successful, notwithstanding the efforts of the partizans of the administration to extend the flames of civil war there. Lord Ranelagh, after struggling for a considerable time against the difficulties with which he was environed, finally resigned his office and the insurrection spread through the chief part of Connaught.The earl of Clanrickarde, with great exertions and at considerable expense, succeeded by his influence, which was transcendently great in the province, in reducing the town and neighbourhood of Galway to submission, almost without bloodshed-and had it pleased the government, it would have remained loyal till the end of the war. But his conduct was highly disapproved by the lords justices,† and by the English parliament, which passed some strong resolutions of condemnation. F. Willoughby, governor of the fort, and lord Forbes, commander of a body of troops on board some vessels stationed in the bay, in obedience to the views of the justices, who wished to de "This submission was made on the 13th of May, much to the surprize of the world and the honour of the earl of Clanrickarde, who, by his own strength, credit, and interest, without the least aid or supply, and almost without any countenance from the state, had found means to quell so dangerous an insurrection, to reduce one of the strongest and most important towns in the kingdom, almost without bloodshed, and to perform a work attended with such difficulties, that no body else could have surmounted them with much greater forces."692 "The lords justices would not hear of any cessation or treaty with the rebels: they absolutely disliked his lordship's receiving the submission, and granting his protection to the town of Galway; and sent him express orders to receive no more submissions from any persons whatever, but to prosecute the rebels and all their adherents, harbourers and relievers with fire and sword. To prevent the like submissions and protections in other places, they issued out a general order to the commanders of all garrisons, "not to presume to hold any correspondence, treaty, intelligence or intercourse with any of the Irish and Papists dwelling or residing in any place near or about their garrisons, or to give protection, immunity, or dispensation from spoil, burning, or other prosecution of war to any of them; but to prosecute all such rebels, harbourers or relievers of rebels from place to place with fire and sword, according to former commands and proclamations in that behalf. "098 "The administration of Ireland were so far from supplying Clanrickarde's wants, that they were glad of an occasion to traverse the measures which he took with the greatest wisdom and success, for the peace and quiet of the country. The reader must remember the dislike they showed, at the agreement which he had made with the town of Gallway, and the protections he had given. Had any other man been governor of the fort besides captain Willoughby, that paci stroy the effects of the pacification arranged with the inhabitants of Galway, were indefatigable in their exertions to provoke the earl and the inhabitants to revolt. The excesses of which they were guilty, were of the most dishonourable and disgraceful character.* Churches were exposed to sacrilegious violation-and even the bodies of the interred could not escape the grossest indignities. They were torn from their graves, and exposed as carrion on the fication might have lasted to the end of the war. But he was young, and violent; and the pacification, which had cost lord Clanrickarde a deal of trouble, was no sooner completed hardly, than he broke it; burning, and laying waste the villages for some miles into the country; destroying the suburbs ; firing his artillery for a whole day together into the town; and causing such a general discontent and resentment, that it put all lord Clanrickarde's wisdom, care, and interest to the stretch to prevent an open insurrection. Even some of his friends and relations were so exasperated, at the outrageous behaviour of the governor, which was little short of madness, as to desert his lordship, and engage with the rebels."693 * Extract of a letter from lord Clanrickarde to lord Ormonde. "Scarce any day passes without great complaints of both the captains of the fort and ship sallying out with their soldiers, and trumpet, and troop of horse, burning and breaking open houses, taking away goods, preying of the cattle, with ruin and spoil, rather than supply to themselves; not only upon those that are protected, but upon them that were most forward to relieve and assist them, and not sparing mine frequently upon fancy or rumor, without examining the occasion; shooting his ordinance into the town or threatening to do it; keeping disorderly centries at every gate; abusing those that offer to go out; offering to take them prisoners to the fort, and to exercise martial law upon them; killing and robbing poor people that come to market, burning their fisher boats, and not suffering them to go out. July, 1642. CLANRICKARDE AND ST. ALBANS.??694 "That which I most apprehend will kindle a flame beyond my power to extinguish, is a late strange proceeding of Captain Willoughby's, who came out into the country, now all quiet on this side of Gallway, with his trumpet and troop of horse, for which I am sure he has no commission; and upon some slight pretence of a complaint of a small extorsion, he besets a house, and takes prisoner a serjeant of a company under the command of my lord Clanmoris, a well experienced soldier, binds him, takes him to the fort, and there immediately hangs him; rejects a very respective letter of my lord's unto him not vouchsafing an answer. CLANRICKARDE AND ST. ALBANS."695 To Lord Ormonde. +"Whilst I was at Tirellan in treaty with his lordship, and that my lord president was then with him in the fort, I could see the country 693 Warner, 222. 694 Carte, III. 98. 695 Idem, 220. highways and what is more remarkable, and more clearly developes the nefarious views of those officers, is, that they displayed more violence and perpetrated more outrage against those who were friendly to the government,* than against those whose hostility was well known. Against the tenants and property of lord Clanrickarde they vented a peculiar degree of rage and virulence. Notwithstanding all the violence offered to him, his fidelity to the government remained unshaken to the last. I am far from regarding his conduct as laudable. On the contrary, his forbearance was carried beyond the bounds of right, and became, I think, highly culpable towards his country. Had he shown some of the true Roman spirit and headed his countrymen, a different result would probably have taken place, and his nation would not have been groveling in the dust ever since. But the extent of this forbearance only places the wicked conduct of the administration in the stronger relief. To this case of the earl of Clanrickarde, I shall add that of the earl of Antrim, to prove that the most unspotted loyalty and the most meritorious services were wholly unavailing to secure the Irish Ro on fire, my tenants' goods and houses burnt, and four or five poor innocent creatures, women and children, inhumanly killed by some of his forces. And his lordship at his landing having taken possession of our lady's church on the west of Gallway, their antient burial place, they did not only deface the church but digged up the graves and burnt the coffins and bones of the dead. These kind of proceedings make such assistance more destructive than beneficial to us. CLANRICKARDE AND ST. ALBANS."'696 October 20, 1642. *"Forbes landing his men took the castle of Glin, the ancient seat of Thomas Fitzgerald, commonly known by the name of the knight of the valley, a gentleman who had always assisted the English, and never had appeared in the rebellion. Other officers often plundered all promiscuously; but this commander seems to have picked out such as continued in their duty, to be the objects of his fury and avarice. It was indeed no impolitic course, if his view was to make the rebellion universal; since a distinction of persons was certainly necessary to show them, that an utter extirpation, (which was the table talk of the Puritan party,) was not really intended."697 "As soon as he got into the bay of Gallway, he landed some men on the Thomond side, burnt the houses and wasted the lands of Daniel and Torlagh O'Bryan, the only two gentlemen in the county that had not joined in the rebellion, who had preserved and relieved the English to the best of their power, and had assisted with their long boats and provisions for the relief of the fort, when it was besieged. Lord Forbes declared openly against the pacification, which had been disapproved by the House of Commons of England; and that though it was made by the king's authority, vested in the governor of the county, yet he who was independent of any other command whatever in Irefand, did not think himself bound thereby."698 696 Carte, III. 109. 697 Idem, I. 347. 698 Idem, 346. man Catholics from depredation and confiscation. This nobleman had by a large and seasonable supply of provisions saved Coleraine from being forced to surrender when besieged by the Ulster rebels. Monroe, a Scotch general, notorious for his rapine, some time afterwards, came into his neighbourhood, whom he offered every assistance in his power, and invited to a splendid entertainment, of which Monroe partook. As soon as it was over, the general took him prisoner and seized his castle, and all his houses, as a return for his services to the state and hospitality to himself.* II. The Courts Martial and the Rack. The armies sent out from Dublin to "kill, burn, and destroy,” although they made awful havoc, did not slaughter all they met with. They brought into the city numbers of prisoners, indeed almost all who escaped their swords, with little regard to innocence or guiltas may be fairly presumed from the ferocious orders they received. When the prisoners became too numerous in the city, it was determined to clear the prisons and execute the unfortunate wretches by martial law,t which, in the existing temper of the ruling powers, was * "The earl of Antrim had come at the latter end of April from Middinston to his seat of Dunlace, a strong castle by the sea-side in the county of Antrim; and after his arrival there, had found means to supply Colerain, which had been blocked up by the Irish, and was reduced to extremity, with 100 beefs, sixty loads of corn, und other provisions at his own expense. He had offered Monroe his service and assistance for securing of the country, in the peace of which he was greatly interested, by reason of his great estate, the rents whereof he could not otherwise receive. The major general made him a visit at Dunlace, where the earl received him with many expressions of gladness, and had provided for him a great entertainment; but it was no sooner over, than Monroe made him prisoner, and seized the castle, leaving his lieutenant colonel there with a garrison for the guard of both, and putting the rest of the earl's houses into the hands of the marquis of Argyle's men."699 +"Many prisoners were made upon this expedition; and as it was troublesome, expensive, and might be dangerous to keep so many at Dublin, the administration were resolved to thin them. Men of estates were exempted, in order to preserve the king's escheats upon attainders; but the rest were given up to martial law, under a pretence that they could not find freeholders enough for juries: and yet at the same time, there were bills of indictment for high treason found in two days against all the lords and gentlemen in the counties of Meath, Wicklow, and Dublin, and three hundred persons of quality and estate in the county of Kildare. These military executions therefore fell entirely upon the poorer sort who had no estates to forfeit; and particularly on the priests and friars, who were generally charged as the chief exciters of the rebellion, and whose execution would most exasperate the Irish."700 a mere form. The numbers thus immolated were enormously great.* The bloody-minded Coote was governor of the city and provost of the court martial. Priests, monks, and friars, were regarded as so many beasts of prey, and executed with as little ceremony. In a word, the "It was certainly a miserable spectacle, to see every day numbers of persons executed by martial law, at the discretion or rather caprice of sir C. Coote, a hot-headed and bloody man, and as such accounted by the English and Protestants. Yet this was the man, whom the lords justices picked out to entrust with a commission of martial law, to put to death rebels or traitors, i. e. all suci. as he should deem to be so; which he performed with delight, and a wanton kind of cruelty. And yet all this while the justices sat frequently in council, and the judges in their usual seasons sat in their respective courts, spectators of, and countenancing, so extravagant a tribunal as sir C. Coote's, and so illegal an execution of justice."701 "The cruelties of the martial law under Sir C. Coote have been already mentioned: but about this time when it was thought politic to discourage the submissions, which were growing frequent, Father Hig. gins, a very quiet, pious, inoffensive man, who had put himself under the protection of lord Ormonde, and whom his lordship had brought with him to Dublin, was one morning seized; and without any trial, or delay, or giving his lordship any notice of the intention, by Sir C. Coote's order hanged. F. Higgins officiated as a priest at Naas and in that neighbourhood; had distinguished himself greatly by saving the English in those parts from spoil and slaughter; and had relieved several whom he found had been stripped and plundered; so far was hre from engaging in the rebellion, or giving any encouragement to it. Lord Ormonde had therefore taken him under his protection; and when he heard of the execution of this innocent man, for no other reason than his being a priest, his lordship was very warm in his expostulation with the justices upon it at the council board. They pretended to be surprised; and excused themselves for having had any other hand in the affair than giving Sir C. Coote a general authority to order such executions without consulting them. Lord Ormonde told them very plainly that he did not expect they would order, or suffer one so well recommended to him, and so justly taken under his protection, to be put to death in that manner; and insisted that Coote should be tried for what he had done, as having hanged an innocent nay, a deserving subject, without examination, without trial, and without a particular warrant to authorise him in it. The dispute was warm on both sides. The justices, who had either directed him to do it, or were determined to support their favourite in a proceeding which was agreeable to them, would not give him up: and lord Ormonde threatened to throw up his commission, unless they gave him satisfaction. This was probably the very thing they wanted: and therefore though he highly resented this indignity, as he had good reason to do, yet considering the ill consequences to the king and to his country, by throwing up his commission at this juncture, he re 701 Carte, I. 279. |