530 The Peace concluded. Opposition of Rinuccini [1646

their assistance could be of any service to him; and their own position was suffering in consequence of the delay. Accordingly, after a long and stormy debate, Articles of Peace, containing many valuable concessions, but leaving the question of religion to the King's decision, were signed on March 28. In deference to the Nuncio it was agreed to postpone its proclamation till May 1, in order to afford him time to obtain a copy of the pretended papal treaty, but in the meantime to dispatch the longdelayed assistance to the King with all possible speed.

Unfortunately, the opportunity for this had passed away. By the end of spring every available sea-port along the western coast of England was in the hands of the Parliament. The collapse of the King's cause in England and the activity of the Parliamentary party in Ireland, especially in Connaught, brought forcibly home to the Confederates the necessity of immediate and united action, if their own cause was to avoid a similar fate. Accordingly, nothing having been heard of the papal treaty, and Ormonde refusing absolutely to sanction Glamorgan's, the Supreme Council passed a resolution authorising the ratification and publication of the peace. The resolution had been carried in face of the fiercest opposition of the Nuncio. Outvoted in the Council, Rinuccini, after entering a formal protest against the resolution, summoned Owen O'Neill to his support. His messenger found that general in the full flush of victory, having on June 5 almost annihilated the Scottish army under Munro at Benburb. It was the only great success that the Confederate arms had achieved, and its consequences might have been even more important than they were, had O'Neill been allowed to carry out his intention of attacking the Scots in their own quarters. Recalled from his pursuit of them, he gave instant obedience to Rinuccini's summons; while the Legate, relying on his support, convoked a meeting of the clergy to Waterford, where on August 12 a resolution was passed condemning the peace and forbidding its proclamation under pain of excommunication. The Supreme Council was powerless to resist him; and, though the peace was proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny, it was everywhere else rejected. On September 18 Rinuccini entered Kilkenny in triumph, and, having caused his opponents to be arrested, he appointed a new Council, consisting of his own immediate followers, with himself as President, pending the election of a new General Assembly. It was a most successful coup d'état, and Rinuccini could with reason boast that under his leadership the much despised clergy of Ireland had as it were in the twinkling of an eye made themselves masters of the kingdom. His victory ruined the national cause.

For the moment, however, he was master of the situation, and he at once turned his attention to the capture of Dublin. It was late in the year to begin operations; but, having effected a reconciliation between Preston and O'Neill, whose mutual jealousy had constantly weakened the Confederates, he determined to make the attempt, and in November sat

1646-7] Confederates besiege Dublin.

Preston defeated 531

down before the city with 16,000 foot and 1600 horse. Believing himself unable to offer any successful resistance, Ormonde had already in September made overtures to hand over the city to the Parliament; and, shortly after the siege had begun, commissioners arrived to arrange the terms of its surrender. Influenced, however, by reports of fresh dissensions in the camp of the Confederates and of their being prevented by the bad weather from pursuing the siege with vigour, he plucked up courage to reject the terms offered by Parliament. But his confidence was shortlived, and in February, 1647, he renewed his offer to surrender on the terms formerly granted him.

Several months elapsed before the negotiations were completed, and it was not till July 28 that he formally handed over the sword of State to the Commissioners appointed by Parliament to receive it. Aroused to a sense of their danger, the Irish exerted themselves to recover the advantage of which their dissensions had robbed them; and, O'Neill having withdrawn with his army to Connaught, Preston prepared to resume operations against Dublin by breaking down the girdle of fortified places surrounding it. But it was too late. Michael Jones, to whom the defence of Dublin had been committed, had lost no time in restoring confidence and discipline to his troops, and in strengthening his position by opening up communication with Sir Henry Tichborne at Drogheda. At the beginning of August, hearing that Preston was trying to capture Trim, he sallied forth with the united garrisons of Dublin and Drogheda for the purpose of forcing a battle. Compelled by Jones' approach to change his plans, Preston endeavoured by a flank movement to cut off his communications with Dublin. The two armies met at Dangan Hill, a few miles south-east of Trim. The advantage of position lay with Preston, but Jones was superior in cavalry, and it was the cavalry that decided the day. In the battle that followed (August 8) Preston was completely defeated and his army almost exterminated, with the loss of all his artillery. Through the intervention of O'Neill, Jones was prevented from reaping the full fruits of his victory, but its effect was tremendous. Disaster followed quickly on disaster. Inchiquin, whom Castlehaven and his own necessities had long kept inactive, had at last been able to assume the offensive. By the end of August he had recovered the greater part of Munster; on September 13 he stormed the rock of Cashel, putting the garrison and many of the inhabitants to the sword with a savagery that has handed down his name to the execration of posterity; on November 13 he routed and almost destroyed the Confederate army under Lord Taaffe at Knockninoss near Mallow; and by the end of the year his light cavalry had swept the country almost to the very walls of Kilkenny. Nor was this the sum of the Confederates' misfortunes. In July Parliament appointed Monck commander of all the forces in Ulster with the exception of the Scottish regiments under Munro. Though hampered in his action by lack of provisions, his presence served to stiffen resistance there; and

532 The Confederates lose ground. Treaty signed [1647-9

by the beginning of October he was able to hold out a helping-hand to Jones.

North, south, and east, the Confederates had lost ground. Under the influence of these losses the moderate party among them recovered their authority, and, being readmitted to their places in the Supreme Council, they insisted on appointing commissioners to proceed to Paris to arrange the terms of a treaty of peace with the Queen, and at the same time to invite the Prince of Wales to Ireland. They could not have chosen a more propitious time for their purpose, in view of the wide-spread dissatisfaction created by the breach between the Parliament and the army, and of the opportunity which it furnished for an alliance between the Royalists and the Presbyterians against their common enemy, the Independents. Among the first to take the alarm was Inchiquin, who after carefully sounding Ormonde in the matter openly declared for the King in April, 1648. A month later he succeeded, in spite of the opposition of the Nuncio, and the general abhorrence with which he was regarded by the Irish, in concluding a cessation with the Confederates. The ground being thus prepared for a Catholic-Royalist alliance, Ormonde returned to Ireland early in October, and on January 17, 1649, a treaty was signed at Kilkenny on the basis of the Peace of 1646, whereby the Irish were secured in the free exercise of their religion and the independence of their Parliament, and in return for which they agreed to furnish Ormonde with 15,000 foot and 500 horse. As was to be expected, Rinuccini opposed the peace with all his might, but his period of power was over, and in February he quitted Ireland.

To Ormonde the prospect seemed brighter than ever before, and he sent a pressing message to the Prince of Wales to put himself at their head. Even the execution of Charles served rather to improve the situation than otherwise. For though nothing could shake the fidelity of Jones, or Monck, or Coote, the "old Scots" in Ulster declared for Charles II, and, after they had managed to surprise Carrickfergus and Belfast, Monck was driven to seek refuge in Dundalk, and, after the surrender of that place to Inchiquin in July, to retire to England. Want of provisions prevented O'Neill from opposing; and Jones, deprived of Inchiquin's support, was obliged to confine himself to defensive operations. Dublin, Drogheda, and Derry alone held out. Towards the end of January Rupert appeared before Kinsale with eight vessels. Nothing but one determined effort was, it seemed, wanting to win the whole of Ireland. But appearances were delusive. The country was exhausted; provisions of all sorts were scarce; money was nowhere to be got; O'Neill's attitude was at best doubtful; the loyalty of Inchiquin's army uncertain; the fleet under Rupert, owing to his jealousy of Ormonde, useless. Still, the situation was beyond all question really critical.

Believing it to be such, Cromwell on March 30 definitely accepted the command of the army destined for Ireland, and, pending the conclusion

1649] Battle of Rathmines.- Landing of Cromwell

533

of his preparations, dispatched 2000 men to reinforce the garrison of Dublin. It was June before Ormonde could take the field with about 6000 foot and 2000 horse. Marching on Dublin, he took up his position. between Castleknock and Finglas, while Inchiquin with a considerable force advanced against Drogheda. Before the end of the month Drogheda surrendered, and shortly afterwards Dundalk, Trim, Newry, and Carlingford.

Ormonde had now about 7000 foot and 4000 horse; and he determined to push his lines closer up to the city in the direction of Baggotrath, with the intention of cutting off Jones' foraging grounds. While thus engaged, and having unfortunately sent Inchiquin with a considerable force to Munster on a report that Cromwell intended to land there, he was suddenly attacked at Rathmines by Jones on August 2. His army was completely routed, with the loss of 1800 prisoners, all his military stores and artillery, and his money-chest.

The battle of Rathmines decided the issue of the war. When Cromwell landed at Dublin a fortnight later with 8000 foot and 4000 horse Ormonde could oppose to him nothing but the shadow of an army. Recognising that neither he nor the Commissioners of Trust, acting for the Confederates, could put another army in the field, and that the sole hope of resistance rested with O'Neill and the garrisoned towns, he threw 2300 of his best troops under the command of Sir Arthur Aston into Drogheda, and opened negotiations for a reconciliation with O'Neill. But the time when coöperation could be of use had passed away. Himself stricken down by a fatal disease and hardly able to support his own army, O'Neill, though expressing his willingness to come to his assistance and actually sending him 3000 men under his nephew Hugh O'Neill, could do no more. On November 6 he died at Cloughoughter in county Cavan. Left to himself, Ormonde could only look on in helpless inactivity. On September 3 Cromwell appeared before Drogheda with 10,000 men. A week later he stormed the town, and put to the sword the whole garrison and not a few civilians, including every priest on whom he could lay his hands, in all about 2800 persons. "I am persuaded," he wrote, "that this is a righteous judgment of God upon those barbarous wretches who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." As a matter of fact the sack of Drogheda, however it may be excused by the laws of war, was a most useless and unjustifiable measure - useless, because after the first terror had passed away it did not serve to weaken the resistance of a single garrison, and unjustifiable, because not one man of the garrison had in all likelihood been concerned in the " massacre." But that Cromwell could in all sincerity urge the "massacre "as a justification of his proceeding only shows how successful

534

Cromwell's campaign. - Clerical reaction [1649-50

the propaganda carried on for the last eight years by such men as Parsons, Jones, and Temple, supported by an unscrupulous press in England, had been in misleading public opinion as to the real facts of the case. For the moment, however, the terror inspired by the fate of Drogheda was indescribable. Dundalk and Trim were deserted by their garrisons. Wexford, with a better chance of resistance, was betrayed and shared the fate of Drogheda, while New Ross capitulated without a blow. But Duncannon and Waterford successfully defied the besiegers; and, with an army sadly diminished by dysentery and fever, it might have fared hard with Cromwell, had not the revolt of Inchiquin's army and the Munster garrisons at this juncture, besides providing him with safe winter-quarters and the means of recruiting his forces, broken down Ormonde's strongest line of defence. As Ormonde's ability to offer an effectual resistance declined, so likewise did his authority. In December, a meeting of the Catholic clergy at Clonmacnoise published a manifesto calling on the nation, whether old English or old Irish, new English or Scots, to unite against the common enemy in defence of their religion, lives, and fortunes. As threatening a prolongation of the war, the manifesto greatly angered Cromwell, and so soon as the weather permitted he marched against Kilkenny in the hope of crushing the Confederacy in its stronghold. But Kilkenny, plague-stricken though it was, offered a more stubborn resistance than he expected, and it was only after conceding terms, which he had hitherto denied, that he got possession of it. Against Clonmel, where Hugh O'Neill had entrenched himself with 1200 men, he was even less successful. An ineffectual attempt to storm the place cost him 2000 men; and, when in the end it capitulated on May 10, 1650, it was only to find that O'Neill and the garrison had made good their escape. A fortnight later Cromwell quitted Ireland, leaving the work of further conquest to his son-in-law Ireton. Though the end was no longer doubtful, Ireland had still two years of bloodshed to pass through before she collapsed. During the summer Ireton captured Carlow, Waterford, and Duncannon, while Coote and Venables were successfully breaking down the Scoto-Irish combination in Ulster. On June 21 the last remnant of Owen O'Neill's once formidable army, under the command of the Bishop of Clogher, Ever MacMahon, was cut to pieces at Scariffholis, near Letterkenny, and a week or two later the last outstanding fortress of Charlemont was surrendered by Sir Phelim O'Neill. Limerick, Galway, and Athlone alone remained. On October 6 Ireton sat down before Limerick; but, recognising that the season was too far advanced for regular siege operations, he shortly afterwards retired into winter-quarters. Meanwhile, the clerical reaction that had shown itself in the Clonmacnoise manifesto was gaining ground among the Irish. Though still in a measure possessing the confidence of the Confederates, as represented by the Commissioners of Trust, Ormonde, especially since the disavowal by Charles II of the Peace of 1649, had