CHARLES I.
{1641.} THE Scots, who began these fatal commotions, thought that
they had finished a very perilous undertaking much to their profit and
reputation. Besides the large pay voted them for lying in good quarters
during a twelvemonth, the English parliament had conferred on them
a present of three hundred thousand pounds for their brotherly
assistance.[*] In the articles of pacification, they were declared
to have ever been good subjects; and their military expeditions were
approved of, as enterprises calculated and intended for his majesty's
honor and advantage. To carry further the triumph over their sovereign,
these terms, so ignominious to him, were ordered by a vote of parliament
to be read in all churches, upon a day of thanksgiving appointed for
the national pacification;[**] all their claims for the restriction of
prerogative were agreed to be ratified; and, what they more valued
than all these advantages, they had a near prospect of spreading the
Presbyterian discipline in England and Ireland, from the seeds which
they had scattered of their religious principles. Never did refined
Athens so exult in diffusing the sciences and liberal arts over a savage
world, never did generous Rome so please herself in the view of law and
order established by her victorious arms, as the Scots now rejoiced
in communicating their barbarous zeal and theological fervor to the
neighboring nations.
* Nalson, vol. i. p. 747. May, p. 104.
** Rush. vol. v. p. 365. Clarendon, vol. ii p. 293.
Charles, despoiled in England of a considerable part of his authority,
and dreading still further encroachments upon him, arrived in Scotland,
with an intention of abdicating almost entirely the small share of
power which there remained to him, and of giving full satisfaction, if
possible, to his restless subjects in that kingdom.
The lords of articles were an ancient institution in the Scottish
parliament. They were constituted after this manner: The temporal lords
chose eight bishops: the bishops elected eight temporal lords: these
sixteen named eight commissioners of counties, and eight burgesses, and
without the previous consent of the thirty-two, who were denominated
lords of articles, no motion could be made in parliament. As the bishops
were entirely devoted to the court, it is evident, that all the lords of
articles, by necessary consequence, depended on the king's nomination;
and the prince, besides one negative after the bills had passed through
parliament, possessed indirectly another before their introduction; a
prerogative of much greater consequence than the former. The bench
of bishops being now abolished, the parliament laid hold of the
opportunity, and totally set aside the lords of articles: and till this
important point was obtained, the nation, properly speaking, could not
be said to enjoy any regular freedom.[*]
It is remarkable that, notwithstanding this institution, to which there
is no parallel in England, the royal authority was always deemed much
lower in Scotland than in the former kingdom. Bacon represents it as
one advantage to be expected from the union, that the too extensive
prerogative of England would be abridged by the example of Scotland, and
the too narrow prerogative of Scotland be enlarged from the imitation of
England. The English were at that time a civilized people, and obedient
to the laws; but among the Scots it was of little consequence how the
laws were framed, or by whom voted, while the exorbitant aristocracy had
it so much in their power to prevent their regular execution.
The peers and commons formed only one house in the Scottish parliament:
and as it had been the practice of James, continued by Charles, to
grace English gentlemen with Scottish titles, all the determinations of
parliament, it was to be feared, would in time depend upon the prince,
by means of these votes of foreigners, who had no interest or property
in the nation. It was therefore a law deserving approbation, that no man
should be created a Scotch peer, who possessed not ten thousand marks
(above five hundred pounds) of annual rent in the kingdom.[**]
A law for triennial parliaments was likewise passed; and it was
ordained, that the last act of every parliament should be to appoint the
time and place for holding the parliament next ensuing.[***]
* Burnet, Mem.
** Burnet, Mem.
*** Burnet, Mem.
The king was deprived of that power formerly exercised of issuing
proclamations which enjoined obedience under the penalty of treason;
a prerogative which invested him with the whole legislative authority,
even in matters of the highest importance.[*]
So far was laudable: but the most fatal blow given to royal authority,
and what in a manner dethroned the prince, was the article, that no
member of the privy council, in whose hands during the king's absence
the whole administration lay, no officer of state, none of the judges,
should be appointed but by advice and approbation of parliament. Charles
even agreed to deprive of their seats four judges who had adhered to his
interests; and their place was supplied by others more agreeable to the
ruling party. Several of the Covenanters were also sworn of the privy
council. And all the ministers of state, counsellors, and judges, were
by law to hold their places during life or good behavior.[**]
The king while in Scotland conformed himself entirely to the established
church, and assisted with great gravity at the long prayers and longer
sermons with which the Presbyterians endeavored to regale him. He
bestowed pensions and preferments on Henderson, Gillespy, and other
popular preachers, and practised every art to soften, if not to gain,
his greatest enemies. The earl of Argyle was created a marquis,
Lord Loudon an earl, Lesley was dignified with the title of earl of
Leven.[***] His friends he was obliged for the present to neglect
and overlook: some of them were disgusted; and his enemies were not
reconciled, but ascribed all his caresses and favors to artifice and
necessity.
* Burnet, Mem.
** Burnet, Mem.
*** Clarendon, vol. ii p. 309.
Argyle and Hamilton, being seized with an apprehension, real or
pretended, that the earl of Crawfurd and others meant to assassinate
them, left the parliament suddenly, and retired into the country; but
upon invitation and assurances, returned in a few days. This event,
which had neither cause nor effect that was visible, nor purpose, nor
consequence, was commonly denominated the incident. But though the
incident had no effect In Scotland; what was not expected, it was
attended with consequences in England. The English parliament, which
was now assembled, being willing to awaken the people's tenderness
by exciting their fears, immediately took the alarm; as if the
malignants--so they called the king's party--had had laid a plot at
once to murder them and all the godly in both kingdoms. They applied
therefore to Essex, whom the king had left general in the south of
England; and he ordered a guard to attend them.[*]
But while the king was employed in pacifying the commotions in Scotland,
and was preparing to return to England, in order to apply himself to
the same salutary work in that kingdom, he received intelligence of a
dangerous rebellion broken but in Ireland, with circumstances of
the utmost horror, bloodshed, and devastation. On every side this
unfortunate prince was pursued with murmurs, discontent, faction, and
civil wars, and the fire from all quarters, even by the most independent
accidents, at once blazed up about him.
The great plan of James in the administration of Ireland, continued by
Charles, was, by justice and peace to reconcile that turbulent people to
the authority of laws; and, introducing art and industry among them,
to cure them of that sloth and barbarism to which they had ever been
subject. In order to serve both these purposes, and at the same time
secure the dominion of Ireland to the English crown, great colonies of
British had been carried over, and, being intermixed with the Irish, had
every where introduced a new face of things into that country. During a
peace of near forty years, the inveterate quarrels between the nations
seemed, in a great measure, to be obliterated; and though much of the
landed property forfeited by rebellion had been conferred on the new
planters, a more than equal return had been made, by their instructing
the natives in tillage, building, manufactures, and all the civilized
arts of life.[**] This had been the course of things during the
successive administrations of Chichester, Grandison, Falkland, and,
above all, of Strafford. Under the government of this latter nobleman,
the pacific plans, now come to great maturity, and forwarded by his
vigor and industry, seemed to have operated with full success, and to
have bestowed at last on that savage country the face of a European
settlement.
* Whitlocke, p. 40. Dugdale, p. 72. Burnet's Memoirs of the
House of Hamilton, p. 184, 185. Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 299.
** Sir John Temple's Irish Rebellion, p. 12.
After Strafford fell a victim to popular rage, the humors excited
in Ireland by that great event could not suddenly be composed, but
continued to produce the greatest innovations in the government.
The British Protestants transplanted into Ireland, having every moment
before their eyes all the horrors of Popery, had naturally been carried
into the opposite extreme, and had universally adopted the highest
principles and practices of the Puritans. Monarchy, as well as the
hierarchy, was become odious to them; and every method of limiting
the authority of the crown, and detaching themselves from the king of
England, was greedily adopted and pursued. They considered not, that
as they scarcely formed the sixth part of the people, and were secretly
obnoxious to the ancient inhabitants, their only method of supporting
themselves was by maintaining royal authority, and preserving a great
dependence on their mother country. The English commons, likewise, in
their furious persecution of Strafford, had overlooked the most
obvious consequences; and, while they imputed to him as a crime every
discretionary act of authority, they despoiled all succeeding governors
of that power by which alone the Irish could be retained in subjection.
And so strong was the current for popular government in all the three
kingdoms, that the most established maxims of policy were every where
abandoned, in order to gratify this ruling passion.
Charles, unable to resist, had been obliged to yield to the Irish, as
to the Scottish and English parliaments; and found, too, that their
encroachments still rose in proportion to his concessions. Those
subsidies which themselves had voted, they reduced, by a subsequent
vote, to a fourth part; the court of high commission was determined to
be a grievance; martial law abolished; the jurisdiction of the council
annihilated; proclamations and acts of state declared of no authority;
every order or institution which depended on monarchy was invaded;
and the prince was despoiled of all his prerogative, without the least
pretext of any violence or illegality in his administration.
The standing army of Ireland was usually about three thousand men; but,
in order to assist the king in suppressing the Scottish Covenanters,
Strafford had raised eight thousand more, and had incorporated with
them a thousand men drawn from the old army; a necessary expedient for
bestowing older and discipline on the new-levied soldiers. The private
men in this army were all Catholics; but the officers, both commission
and non-commission, were Protestants, and could entirely be depended on
by Charles. The English commons entertained the greatest apprehensions
on account of this army, and never ceased soliciting the king till he
agreed to break it. Nor they consent to any proposal for augmenting
the standing army to five thousand men; a number which the king deemed
necessary for retaining Ireland in obedience.
Charles, thinking it dangerous that eight thousand men accustomed to
idleness, and trained to the use of arms, should be dispersed among a
nation so turbulent and unsettled, agreed with the Spanish ambassador
to have them transported into Flanders, and enlisted in his master's
service. The English commons, pretending apprehensions, lest regular
bodies of troops, disciplined in the Low Countries, should prove still
more dangerous, showed some aversion to this expedient; and the king
reduced his allowance to four thousand men. But when the Spaniards had
hired ships for transporting these troops, and the men were ready to
embark, the commons, willing to show their power, and not displeased
with an opportunity of curbing and affronting the king, prohibited
every one from furnishing vessels for that service. And thus the
project formed by Charles, of freeing the country from these men was
unfortunately disappointed.[*]
The old Irish remarked all these false steps of the English, and
resolved to take advantage of them. Though their animosity against
that nation, for want of an occasion to exert itself, seemed to be
extinguished, it was only composed into a temporary and deceitful
tranquillity.[**] Their interests, both with regard to property and
religion, secretly stimulated them to a revolt. No individual of
any sept, according to the ancient customs, had the property of
any particular estate; but as the whole sept had a title to a whole
territory, they ignorantly preferred this barbarous community before the
more secure and narrower possessions assigned them by the English. An
indulgence, amounting almost to a toleration, had been given to the
Catholic religion: but so long as the churches and the ecclesiastical
revenues were kept from the priests, and they were obliged to endure the
neighborhood of profane heretics, being themselves discontented, they
continually endeavored to retard any cordial reconciliation between the
English and the Irish nations.
* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 281. Rush. vol. v. p, 381. Dugdale,
p. 78 May, book ii. p. 3.
** Temple, p. 14
There was a gentleman called Roger More, who, though of a narrow
fortune, was descended from an ancient Irish family and was much
celebrated among his countrymen for valor and capacity. This man
first formed the project of expelling the English, and asserting the
independency of his native country.[*]
* Nalson, vol. iii. p. 543.
He secretly went from chieftain to chieftain, and roused up every latent
principle of discontent. He maintained a close correspondence with Lord
Maguire and Sir Phelim O'Neale, the most powerful of the old Irish.
By conversation, by letters, by his emissaries, he represented to his
countrymen the motives of a revolt. He observed to them, that, by
the rebellion of the Scots, and factions of the English, the king's
authority in Britain was reduced to so low a condition, that he never
could exert himself with any vigor in maintaining the English dominion
over Ireland: that the Catholics in the Irish house of commons, assisted
by the Protestants, had so diminished the royal prerogative and the
power of the lieutenant, as would much facilitate the conducting to its
desired effect any conspiracy or combination which could be formed: that
the Scots, having so successfully thrown off dependence on the crown
of England, and assumed the government into their own hands, had set an
example to the Irish, who had so much greater oppressions to complain
of: that the English planters, who had expelled them their possessions,
suppressed their religion, and bereaved them of their liberties were
but a handful in comparison of the natives: that they lived in the most
supine security, interspersed with their numerous enemies, trusting
to the protection of a small army, which was itself scattered in
inconsiderable divisions through out the whole kingdom: that a great
body of men, disciplined by the government, were now thrown loose,
and were ready for any daring or desperate enterprise: that though the
Catholics had hitherto enjoyed, in some tolerable measure, the exercise
of their religion, from the moderation of their indulgent prince, they
must henceforth expect that the government will be conducted by other
maxims and other principles: that the Puritanical parliament, having
at length subdued their sovereign, would no doubt, as soon as they had
consolidated their authority, extend their ambitious enterprises to
Ireland, and make the Catholics in that kingdom feel the same furious
persecution, to which their brethren in England were at present exposed:
and that a revolt in the Irish, tending only to vindicate their native
liberty against the violence of foreign invaders, could never at any
time be deemed rebellion, much less during the present confusions, when
their prince was in a manner a prisoner, and obedience must be paid,
not to him, but to those who had traitorously usurped his lawful
authority.[*]
By these considerations, More engaged all the heads of the native Irish
into the conspiracy. The English of the pale, as they were called,
or the old English planters, being all Catholics, it was hoped would
afterwards join the party which restored their religion to its ancient
splendor and authority. The intention was, that Sir Phelim O'Neale
and the other conspirators should begin an insurrection on one day
throughout the provinces, and should attack all the English settlements;
and that, on the same day, Lord Maguire and Roger More should surprise
the Castle of Dublin. The commencement of the revolt was fixed on the
approach of winter, that there might be more difficulty in transporting
forces from England. Succors to themselves and supplies of arms they
expected from France, in consequence of a promise made them by Cardinal
Richelieu. And many Irish officers, who served in the Spanish troops,
had engaged to join them, as soon as they saw an insurrection entered
upon by their Catholic brethren. News, which every day arrived from
England, of the fury expressed by the commons against all Papists,
struck fresh terror into the Irish nation, and both stimulated the
conspirators to execute their fatal purpose, and gave them assured hopes
of the concurrence of all their country men.[**]
Such propensity to a revolt was discovered in all the Irish, that it was
deemed unnecessary, as it was dangerous to intrust the secret to many
hands; and the appointed day drew nigh, nor had any discovery been yet
made to the government. The king, indeed, had received information from
his ambassadors, that something was in agitation among the Irish in
foreign parts; but though he gave warning to the administration in
Ireland, the intelligence was entirely neglected.[***]
* Temple, p. 72, 73, 78. Dugdale, p. 73.
** Dugdale, p. 74.
*** Bush vol. v. p. 408. Nalson, vol ii. p. 565.
Secret rumors likewise were heard of some approaching conspiracy; but
no attention was paid to them. The earl of Leicester, whom the king had
appointed lieutenant, remained in London, The two justices, Sir William
Parsons and Sir John Borlace, were men of small abilities; and, by an
inconvenience common to all factious times, owed their advancement
to nothing but their zeal for the party by whom every thing was now
governed. Tranquil from their ignorance and inexperience, these men
indulged themselves in the most profound repose, on the very brink of
destruction.
But they were awakened from their security on the very day before that
which was appointed for the commencement of hostilities. The Castle
of Dublin, by which the capital was commanded, contained arms for ten
thousand men, with thirty-five pieces of cannon, and a proportionable
quantity of ammunition; yet was this important place guarded, and that
too without any care, by no greater force than fifty men. Maguire and
More were already in town with a numerous band of their partisans;
others were expected that night and next morning they were to enter upon
what they esteemed the easiest of all enterprises, the surprisal of
the castle. O'Conolly, an Irishman, but a Protestant, betrayed the
conspiracy to Parsons.[*] The justices and council fled immediately
for safety into the castle, and reënforced the guards. The alarm was
conveyed to the city, and all the Protestants prepared for defence. More
escaped; Maguire was taken; and Mahone, one of the conspirators, being
likewise seized, first discovered to the justices the project of a
general insurrection, and redoubled the apprehensions which already were
universally diffused throughout Dublin.[**]
But though O'Conolly's discovery saved the castle from a surprise, the
confession extorted from Mahone came too late to prevent the intended
insurrection. O'Neale and his Confederates had already taken arms in
Ulster. The Irish, every where intermingled with the English, needed
but a hint from their leaders and priests to begin hostilities against
a people whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for
their riches and prosperity.[***]
* Rush, vol. v. p. 399. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 520. May, book
ii p. 6
** Temple p 17, 18, 19, 20. Rush. vol. v p. 400.
*** Ten ple, p. 39, 40, 79.
The houses, cattle, goods, of the unwary English were first seized.
Those who heard of the commotions in their neighborhood, instead of
deserting their habitations, and assembling for mutual protection,
remained at home in hopes of defending their property, and fell thus
separately into the hands of their enemies.[*] After rapacity had
fully exerted itself, cruelty, and the most barbarous that ever in any
nation was known or heard of, began its operations. A universal massacre
commenced of the English, now defenceless, and passively resigned to
their inhuman foes. No age, no sex, no condition was spared. The wife
weeping for her butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children,
was pierced with them, and perished by the same stroke.[**] The old,
the young, the vigorous, the infirm, underwent a like fate, and were
confounded in one common ruin. In vain did flight save from the first
assault: destruction was every where let loose, and met the hunted
victims at every turn. In vain was recourse had to relations, to
companions, to friends: all connections were dissolved, and death was
dealt by that hand from which protection was implored and expected.
Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English, living
in profound peace and full security were massacred by their nearest
neighbors, with whom they had long upheld a continued intercourse of
kindness and good offices.[***]
But death was the lightest punishment inflicted by those rebels. All the
tortures which wanton cruelty could devise all the lingering pains of
body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate
revenge excited without injury, and cruelty derived from no cause. To
enter into particulars would shock the least delicate humanity. Such
enormities, though attested by undoubted evidence, appear almost
incredible. Depraved nature, even perverted religion encouraged by the
utmost license, reach not to such a pitch of ferocity, unless the pity
inherent in human breasts be destroyed by that contagion of example
which transports men beyond all the usual motives of conduct and
behavior.
The weaker sex themselves, naturally tender to their own sufferings,
and compassionate to those of others, here emulated their more robust
companions in the practice of every cruelty.[****] Even children, taught
by the example and encouraged by the exhortation of their parents,
essayed their feeble blows on the dead carcasses or defenceless children
of the English.[v]
* Temple, p. 42.
** Temple, p. 40.
*** Temple, p. 39, 40
**** Temple, p. 96, 101. Rush. vol. v. p. 415.
v Temple, p. 100
The very avarice of the Irish was not a sufficient restraint to their
cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the cattle which they had seized,
and by rapine made their own, yet, because they bore the name of
English, were wantonly slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds, turned
loose into the woods or deserts.[*]
The stately buildings or commodious habitations of the planters, as if
upbraiding the sloth and ignorance of the natives, were consumed with
fire, or laid level with the ground. And where the miserable owners,
shut up in their houses, and preparing for defence, perished in the
flames, together with their wives and children, a double triumph was
afforded to their insulting foes.[**]
If any where a number assembled together, and, assuming courage from
despair, were resolved to sweeten death by revenge on their assassins,
they were disarmed by capitulations and promises of safety, confirmed
by the most solemn oaths. But no sooner had they surrendered, than the
rebels, with perfidy equal to their cruelty, made them share the fate of
their unhappy countrymen.[***]
Others, more ingenious still in their barbarity, tempted their
prisoners, by the fond love of life, to imbrue their hands in the blood
of friends, brothers, parents; and having thus rendered them accomplices
in guilt, gave them that death which they sought to shun by deserving
it.[****]
Amidst all these enormities, the sacred name of religion resounded on
every side; not to stop the hands of these murderers, but to enforce
their blows, and to steel their hearts against every movement of human
or social sympathy. The English, as heretics, abhorred of God and
detestable to all holy men, were marked out by the priests for
slaughter; and of all actions, to rid the world of these declared
enemies to Catholic faith and piety, was represented as the most
meritorious.[v] Nature, which in that rude people was sufficiently
inclined to atrocious deeds, was further stimulated by precept: and
national prejudices empoisoned by those aversions, more deadly and
incurable, which arose from an enraged superstition. While death
finished the sufferings of each victim, the bigoted assassins, with joy
and exultation, still echoed in his expiring ears, that these agonies
were but the commencement of torments infinite and eternal.[v*]
* Temple, p. 84.
** Temple, p. 99, 106. Rash. vol. v. p. 414
*** Whitlocke, p. 47. Rush. vol. v. p. 416.
**** Temple, p 100.
v Temple, p. 85, 106.
v* Temple, p 94, 107, 108. Rush. vol. v. p. 407.
Such were the barbarities by which Sir Phelim O'Neale and the Irish in
Ulster signalized their rebellion; an event memorable in the annals
of human kind, and worthy to be held in perpetual detestation and
abhorrence. The generous nature of More was shocked at the recital of
such enormous cruelties. He flew to O'Neale's camp; but found that his
authority, which was sufficient to excite the Irish to an insurrection,
was too feeble to restrain their inhumanity. Soon after, he abandoned
a cause polluted by so many crimes; and he retired into Flanders. Sir
Phelim, recommended by the greatness of his family, and perhaps too by
the unrestrained brutality of his nature, though without any courage or
capacity, acquired the entire ascendent over the northern rebels.[*] The
English colonies were totally annihilated in the open country of Ulster:
the Scots at first met with more favorable treatment. In order to engage
them to a passive neutrality, the Irish pretended to distinguish between
the British nations; and, claiming friendship and consanguinity with the
Scots, extended not over them the fury of their massacres. Many of them
found an opportunity to fly the country; others retired into places of
security, and prepared themselves for defence; and by this means the
Scottish planters, most of them at least, escaped with their lives.[**]
From Ulster the flames of rebellion diffused themselves in an instant
over the other three provinces of Ireland. In all places, death and
slaughter were not uncommon; though the Irish in these other provinces
pretended to act with moderation and humanity. But cruel and barbarous
was their humanity! Not content with expelling the English their
houses, with despoiling them of their goodly manors, with wasting their
cultivated fields, they stripped them of their very clothes, and
turned them out, naked and defenceless, to all the severities of the
season.[***] The heavens themselves, as if conspiring against that
unhappy people, were armed with cold and tempest unusual to the climate,
and executed what the merciless sword had left unfinished.[****] The
roads were covered with crowds of naked English, hastening towards
Dublin and the other cities which yet remained in the hands of their
countrymen. The feeble age of children, the tender sex of women, soon
sunk under the multiplied rigors of cold and hunger.
* Temple, p. 44.
** Temple, p. 41 Rush, i. p. 416.
*** Temple, p. 42.
**** Temple, p. 64
Here the husband, bidding a final adieu to his expiring family, envied
them that fate which, he himself expected so soon to share: there the
son, having long supported his aged parent, with reluctance obeyed his
last commands, and, abandoning him in this uttermost distress, reserved
himself to the hopes of avenging that death which all his efforts
could not prevent nor delay. The astonishing greatness of the calamity
deprived the sufferers of any relief from the view of companions in
affliction. With silent tears, or lamentable cries, they hurried on
through the hostile territories, and found every heart which was not
steeled by native barbarity, guarded by the more implacable furies of
mistaken piety and religion.[*]
The saving of Dublin preserved in Ireland the remains of the English
name. The gates of that city, though timorously opened, received the
wretched supplicants, and presented to the view a scene of human misery
beyond what any eye had ever before beheld.[**] Compassion seized the
amazed inhabitants, aggravated with the fear of like calamities; while
they observed the numerous foes, without and within, which every where
environed them, and reflected on the weak resources by which they were
themselves supported. The more vigorous of the unhappy fugitives, to the
number of three thousand, were enlisted into three regiments; the rest
were distributed into the houses; and all care was taken, by diet and
warmth, to recruit their feeble and torpid limbs. Diseases of unknown
name and species, derived from these multiplied distresses, seized many
of them, and put a speedy period to their lives: others, having now
leisure to reflect on their mighty loss of friends and fortune, cursed
that being which they had saved. Abandoning themselves to despair,
refusing all succor, they expired; without other consolation than that
of receiving among their countrymen the honors of a grave, which,
to their slaughtered companions, had been denied by the inhuman
barbarians.[***]
* Temple, p. 88.
** Temple, p. 62.
**** Temple, p. 43, 62.
By some computations, those who perished by all these cruelties are
supposed to be a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand: by the most
moderate, and probably the most reasonable account, they are made to
amount to forty thousand; if this estimation itself be not, as is usual
in such cases, somewhat exaggerated.
The justices ordered to Dublin all the bodies of the army which were
not surrounded by the rebels; and they assembled a force of one thousand
five hundred veterans. They soon enlisted and armed from the magazines
above four thousand men more. They despatched a body of six hundred men
to throw relief into Tredah, besieged by the Irish. But these troops,
attacked by the enemy, were seized with a panic, and were most of them
put to the sword. Their arms, falling into the hands of the Irish,
supplied them with what they most wanted.[*] The justices, willing
to foment the rebel lion in a view of profiting by the multiplied
forfeitures, henceforth thought of nothing more than providing for their
own present security and that of the capital. The earl of Ormond, their
general, remonstrated against such timid, not to say base and interested
counsels; but was obliged to submit to authority.
The English of the pale, who probably were not at first in the secret,
pretended to blame the insurrection, and to detest the barbarity with
which it was accompanied.[**] By their protestations and declarations,
they engaged the justices to supply them with arms, which they promised
to employ in defence of the government.[***] But in a little time, the
interests of religion were found more prevalent over them than regard
and duty to their mother country. They chose Lord Gormanstone their
leader; and, joining the old Irish, rivalled them in every act of
violence towards the English Protestants. Besides many smaller bodies
dispersed over the kingdom, the principal army of the rebels amounted
to twenty thousand men, and threatened Dublin with an immediate
siege.[****]
Both the English and Irish rebels conspired in one imposture, with which
they seduced many of their deluded countrymen: they pretended authority
from the king and queen, but chiefly from the latter, for their
insurrection; and they affirmed, that the cause of their taking arms
was to vindicate royal prerogative, now invaded by the Puritanical
parliament.[v] Sir Phelim O'Neale, having found a royal patent in Lord
Caulfield's house, whom he had murdered, tore off the seal, and affixed
it to a commission which he had forged for himself.[v*]
* Nalson, vol. ii. p. 905.
** Temple, p. 33. Rush. vol. v. p. 402.
*** Temple, p. 60. Borlase, Hist. p. 28.
**** Whitlocke, p. 49.
v Rush. vol. v. p. 400, 401.
v* Rush. vol. v. p. 402.
The king received an account of this insurrection by a messenger
despatched from the north of Ireland. He immediately communicated his
intelligence to the Scottish parliament. He expected that the mighty
zeal expressed by the Scots for the Protestant religion, would
immediately engage them to fly to its defence where it was so violently
invaded; he hoped that their horror against Popery, a religion which now
appeared in its most horrible aspect, would second all his exhortations:
he had observed with what alacrity they had twice run to arms, and
assembled troops in opposition to the rights of their sovereign: he saw
with how much greater facility they could now collect forces which
had been very lately disbanded, and which had been so long inured
to military discipline. The cries of their affrighted and distressed
brethren in Ireland, he promised himself, would powerfully incite them
to send over succors, which could arrive so quickly, and aid them with
such promptitude in this uttermost distress. But the zeal of the Scots,
as is usual among religious sects, was very feeble when not stimulated
either by faction or by interest. They now considered themselves
entirely as a republic, and made no account of the authority of their
prince, which they had utterly annihilated. Conceiving hopes from the
present distresses of Ireland, they resolved to make an advantageous
bargain for the succors with which they should supply their neighboring
nation. And they cast their eye towards the English parliament, with
whom they were already so closely connected, and who could alone fulfil
any articles which might be agreed on. Except despatching a small body
to support the Scottish colonies in Ulster, they would therefore go
no further at present than sending commissioners to London in order to
treat with that power to whom the sovereign authority was now in reality
transferred.[*]
* Rush. vol. v. p. 407.
The king, too, sensible of his utter inability to subdue the Irish
rebels, found himself obliged, in this exigency, to have recourse to
the English parliament, and depend on their assistance for supply.
After communicating to them the intelligence which he had received, he
informed them, that the insurrection was not, in his opinion, the result
of any rash enterprise, but of a formed conspiracy against the crown of
England. To their care and wisdom, therefore, he said, he committed the
conduct and prosecution of the war, which, in a cause so important
to national and religious interests, must of necessity be immediately
entered upon, and vigorously pursued.[*]
* Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 301.
The English parliament was now assembled, and discovered in every vote
the same dispositions in which they had separated. The exalting of their
own authority, the diminishing of the king's, were still the objects
pursued by the majority. Every attempt which had been made to gain the
popular leaders, and by offices to attach them to the crown, had failed
of success, either for want of skill in conducting it, or by reason of
the slender preferments which it was then in the king's power to confer.
The ambitious and enterprising patriots disdained to accept, in detail,
of a precarious power, while they deemed it so easy, by one bold
and vigorous assault, to possess themselves forever of the entire
sovereignty. Sensible that the measures which they had hitherto pursued
rendered them extremely obnoxious to the king; were many of them in
themselves exceptionable; some of them, strictly speaking, illegal; they
resolved to seek their own security, as well as greatness, by enlarging
popular authority in England. The great necessities to which the king
was reduced; the violent prejudices which generally, throughout the
nation, prevailed against him; his facility in making the most important
concessions; the example of the Scots, whose encroachments had totally
subverted monarchy; all these circumstances further instigated the
commons in their invasion of royal prerogative. And the danger to which
the constitution seemed to have been so lately exposed, persuaded many
that it never could be sufficiently secured, but by the entire abolition
of that authority which had invaded it.
But this project it had not been in the power, scarcely in the intention
of the popular leaders to execute, had it not been for the passion
which seized the nation for Presbyterian discipline, and for the wild
enthusiasm which at that time accompanied it. The license which the
parliament had bestowed on this spirit, by checking ecclesiastical
authority; the countenance and encouragement with which they had honored
it; had already diffused its influence to a wonderful degree; and
all orders of men had drunk deep of the intoxicating poison. In every
discourse or conversation this mode of religion entered; in all
business it had a share; every elegant pleasure or amusement it utterly
annihilated; many vices or corruptions of mind it promoted: even
diseases and bodily distempers were not totally exempted from it; and
it became requisite, we are told, for all physicians to be expert in the
spiritual profession, and by theological considerations to allay those
religious terrors with which their patients were so generally haunted.
Learning itself, which tends so much to enlarge the mind and humanize
the temper, rather served on this occasion to exalt that epidemical
frenzy which prevailed. Rude as yet, and imperfect, it supplied the
dismal fanaticism with a variety of views, founded it on some coherency
of system, enriched it with different figures of elocution; advantages
with which a people totally ignorant and barbarous had been happily
unacquainted.
From policy, at first, and inclination, now from necessity the king
attached himself extremely to the hierarchy: for like reasons, his
enemies were determined, by one and the same effort, to overpower the
church and monarchy.
While the commons were in this disposition, the Irish rebellion was the
event which tended most to promote the views in which all their measures
terminated. A horror against the Papists, however innocent, they had
constantly encouraged, a terror from the conspiracies of that sect,
however improbable, they had at all times endeavored to excite. Here
was broken out a rebellion, dreadful and unexpected; accompanied with
circumstances the most detestable of which there ever was any record;
and what was the peculiar guilt of the Irish Catholics, it was no
difficult matter, in the present disposition of men's minds, to
attribute to that whole sect, who were already so much the object of
general abhorrence. Accustomed in all invectives to join the
prelatical party with the Papists, the people immediately supposed this
insurrection to be the result of their united counsels. And when they
heard that the Irish rebels pleaded the king's commission for all
their acts of violence, bigotry, ever credulous and malignant, assented
without scruple to that gross imposture, and loaded the unhappy prince
with the whole enormity of a contrivance so barbarous and inhuman.[*]
[8]
* See note H. at the end of the volume
By the difficulties and distresses of the crown, the commons, who
possessed alone the power of supply, had aggrandized themselves; and it
seemed a peculiar happiness, that the Irish rebellion had succeeded at
so critical a juncture to the pacification of Scotland. That expression
of the king's, by which he committed to them the care of Ireland, they
immediately laid hold of, and interpreted in the most, unlimited sense.
They had on other occasions been gradually encroaching on the executive
power of the crown, which forms its principal and most natural branch
of authority; but with regard to Ireland, they at once assumed it,
fully and entirely, as if delivered over to them by a regular gift or
assignment. And to this usurpation the king was obliged passively to
submit; both because of his inability to resist, and lest he should
still more expose himself to the reproach of favoring the progress of
that odious rebellion.
The project of introducing further innovations in England being
once formed by the leaders among the commons, it became a necessary
consequence, that their operations with regard to Ireland should, all of
them, be considered as subordinate to the former, on whose success,
when once undertaken, their own grandeur, security, and even being, must
entirely depend. While they pretended the utmost zeal against the Irish
insurrection, they took no steps towards its suppression, but such as
likewise tended to give them the superiority in those commotions which,
they foresaw, must so soon be excited in England.[*]
* Clarendon, vol. ii. p, 435. Sir Ed. Walker p 6.
The extreme contempt entertained for the natives in Ireland, made the
popular leaders believe that it would be easy at any time to suppress
their rebellion, and recover that kingdom: nor were they willing to
lose, by too hasty success, the advantage which that rebellion would
afford them in their projected encroachments on the prerogative. By
assuming the total management of the war, they acquired the courtship
and dependence of every one who had any connection with Ireland, or who
was desirous of enlisting in these military enterprises: they levied
money under pretence of the Irish expedition; but reserved it for
purposes which concerned them more nearly: they took arms from the
king's magazines; but still kept them with a secret intention of
employing them against himself: whatever law they deemed necessary for
aggrandizing themselves, was voted, under color of enabling them to
recover Ireland; and if Charles withheld the royal assent, his refusal
was imputed to those pernicious counsels which had at first excited the
Popish rebellion, and which still threatened total destruction to the
Protestant interest throughout all his dominions.[*] And though no
forces were for a long time sent over to Ireland, and very little money
remitted during the extreme distress of that kingdom, so strong was the
people's attachment to the commons, that the fault was never imputed
to those pious zealots, whose votes breathed nothing but death and
destruction to the Irish rebels.
* Nalson, vol. ii. p 318. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 590.
To make the attack on royal authority by regular approaches, it was
thought proper to frame a general remonstrance of the state of the
nation; and accordingly the committee, which at the first meeting of
parliament had been chosen for that purpose, and which had hitherto made
no progress in their work, received fresh injunctions to finish that
undertaking.
The committee brought into the house that remonstrance which has become
so memorable, and which was soon afterwards attended with such important
consequences. It was not addressed to the king; but was openly declared
to be an appeal to the people. The harshness of the matter was equalled
by the severity of the language. It consists of many gross falsehoods,
intermingled with some evident truths: malignant insinuations are
joined to open invectives; loud complaints of the past, accompanied with
jealous prognostications of the future. Whatever unfortunate, whatever
invidious, whatever suspicious measure had been embraced by the king,
from the commencement of his reign, is insisted on and aggravated with
merciless rhetoric: the unsuccessful expeditions to Cadiz and the Isle
of Rhé are mentioned; the sending of ships to France for the suppression
of the Hugonots; the forced loans; the illegal confinement of men
for not obeying illegal commands; the violent dissolution of four
parliaments; the arbitrary government which always succeeded; the
questioning, fining, and imprisoning of members for their conduct in
the house; the levying of taxes without consent of the commons; the
introducing of superstitious innovations into the church, without
authority of law: in short, every thing which, either with or without
reason, had given offence during the course of fifteen years, from the
accession of the king to the calling of the present parliament. And
though all these grievances had been already redressed, and even laws
enacted for future security against their return, the praise of these
advantages was ascribed, not to the king, but to the parliament, who had
extorted his consent to such salutary statutes. Their own merits too,
they asserted, towards the king, were no less eminent than towards the
people. Though they had seized his whole revenue, rendered it totally
precarious, and made even their temporary supplies be paid to their own
commissioners, who were independent of him, they pretended that they
had liberally supported him in his necessities. By an insult still more
egregious, the very giving of money to the Scots for levying war against
their sovereign, they represented as an instance of their duty towards
him. And all their grievances, they said, which amounted to no less
than a total subversion of the constitution, proceeded entirely from the
formed combination of a Popish faction, who had ever swayed the king's
counsels, who had endeavored, by an uninterrupted effort, to introduce
their superstition into England and Scotland, and who had now at last
excited an open and bloody rebellion in Ireland.[*]
This remonstrance, so full of acrimony and violence, was a plain
signal for some further attacks intended on royal prerogative, and a
declaration, that the concessions already made, however important, were
not to be regarded as satisfactory. What pretensions would be advanced,
how unprecedented, how unlimited, were easily imagined; and nothing
less was foreseen, whatever ancient names might be preserved, than an
abolition, almost total, of the monarchical government of England. The
opposition, therefore, which the remonstrance met with in the house
of commons was great. For above fourteen hours the debate was warmly
managed; and from the weariness of the king's party, which probably
consisted chiefly of the elderly people, and men of cool spirits, the
vote was at last carried by a small majority of eleven.[**] Some time
after, the remonstrance was ordered to be printed and published, without
being carried up to the house of peers for their assent and concurrence.
* Rush. vol. v. p. 438. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 694.
** Whitlocke, p. 49. Dugdale, p. 71. Nalson, vol. ii. p.
668.
When this remonstrance was dispersed, it excited every where the same
violent controversy which attended it when introduced into the house of
commons. This parliament, said the partisans of that assembly, have
at length profited by the fatal example of their predecessors; and are
resolved, that the fabric which they have generously undertaken to wear
for the protection of liberty, shall not be left to future ages insecure
and imperfect. At the time when the petition of right, that requisite
vindication of a violated constitution, was extorted from the unwilling
prince, who but imagined that liberty was at last secured, and that the
laws would thenceforth maintain themselves in opposition to arbitrary
authority? But what was the event? A right was indeed acquired to the
people, or rather their ancient right was more exactly defined; but as
the power of invading it still remained in the prince, no sooner did an
opportunity offer, than he totally disregarded all laws and preceding
engagements, and made his will and pleasure the sole rule of government.
Those lofty ideas of monarchical authority, which he has derived from
his early education, which are united in his mind with the irresistible
illusions of self-love, which are corroborated by his mistaken
principles of religion, it is in vain to hope that, in his more advanced
age, he will sincerely renounce from any subsequent reflection or
experience. Such conversions, if ever they happen, are extremely
rare; but to expect that they will be derived from necessity, from the
jealousy and resentment of antagonists, from blame, from reproach, from
opposition, must be the result of the fondest and most blind credulity.
These violences, however necessary, are sure to irritate a prince
against limitations so cruelly imposed upon him; and each concession
which he is constrained to make, is regarded as a temporary tribute paid
to faction and sedition, and is secretly attended with a resolution of
seizing every favorable opportunity to retract it. Nor should we imagine
that opportunities of that kind will not offer in the course of human
affairs. Governments, especially those of a mixed kind, are in continual
fluctuation: the humors of the people change perpetually from one
extreme to another: and no resolution can be more wise, as well as more
just, than that of employing the present advantages against the
king, who had formerly pushed much less tempting ones to the utmost
extremities against, his people and his parliament. It is to be feared,
that if the religious rage which has seized the multitude be allowed
to evaporate, they will quickly return to the ancient ecclesiastical
establishment; and with it embrace those principles of slavery which it
inculcates with such zeal on its submissive proselytes. Those patriots
who are now the public idols, may then become the objects of general
detestation; and equal shouts of joy attend their ignominious execution,
with those which second their present advantages and triumphs. Nor ought
the apprehension of such an event to be regarded in them as a selfish
consideration: in their safety is involved the security of the laws. The
patrons of the constitution cannot suffer without a fatal blow to the
constitution: and it is but justice in the public to protect, at any
hazard, those who have so generously exposed themselves to the utmost
hazard for the public interest. What though monarchy, the ancient
government of England, be impaired, during these contests, in many of
its former prerogatives: the laws will flourish the more by its decay;
and it is happy, allowing that matters are really carried beyond the
bounds of moderation, that the current at least runs towards liberty,
and that the error is on that side which is safest for the general
interests of mankind and society.
The best arguments of the royalists against a further attack on the
prerogative, were founded more on opposite ideas which they had formed
of the past events of this reign, than on opposite principles of
government. Some invasions, they said, and those too of moment, had
undoubtedly been made on national privileges: but were we to look for
the cause of these violences, we should never find it to consist in the
wanton tyranny and injustice of the prince, not even in his ambition or
immoderate appetite for authority. The hostilities with Spain, in which
the king on his accession found himself engaged, however imprudent and
unnecessary, had proceeded from the advice, and even importunity of the
parliament; who deserted him immediately after they had embarked him in
those warlike measures. A young prince, jealous of honor, was naturally
afraid of being foiled in his first enterprise, and had not as yet
attained such maturity of counsel, as to perceive that his greatest
honor lay in preserving the laws inviolate, and gaining the full
confidence of his people. The rigor of the subsequent parliaments had
been extreme with regard to many articles, particularly tonnage and
poundage; and had reduced the king to an absolute necessity, if he would
preserve entire the royal prerogative, of levying those duties by his
own authority, and of breaking through the forms, in order to maintain
the spirit of the constitution. Having once made so perilous a step, he
was naturally induced to continue, and to consult the public interest
by imposing ship money, and other moderate though irregular burdens and
taxations. A sure proof that he had formed no system for enslaving his
people is, that the chief object of his government has been to raise
a naval, not a military force; a project useful, honorable, nay,
indispensably requisite, and, in spite of his great necessities, brought
almost to a happy conclusion. It is now full time to free him from all
these necessities, and to apply cordials and lenitives, after those
severities which have already had their full course against him. Never
was sovereign blessed with more moderation of temper, with more justice,
more humanity, more honor, or a more gentle disposition. What pity that
such a prince should so long have been harassed with rigors, suspicions,
calumnies, complaints, encroachments; and been forced from that path,
in which the rectitude of his principles would have inclined him to have
constantly trod! If some few instances are found of violations made on
the petition of right, which he himself had granted, there is an easier
and more natural way for preventing the return of like inconveniencies,
than by a total abolition of royal authority. Let the revenue be
settled, suitably to the ancient dignity and splendor of the crown; let
the public necessities be fully supplied; let the remaining articles of
prerogative be left untouched; and the king, as he has already lost the
power, will lay aside the will, of invading the constitution. From what
quarter can jealousies now arise? What further security can be desired
or expected? The king's preceding concessions, so far from being
insufficient for public security, have rather erred on the other
extreme; and, by depriving him of all power of self-defence, are the
real cause why the commons are emboldened to raise pretensions hitherto
unheard of in the kingdom, and to subvert the whole system of the
constitution. But would they be content with moderate advantages, is
it not evident that, besides other important concessions, the present
parliament may be continued, till the government be accustomed to the
new track, and every part be restored to full harmony and concord? By
the triennial act, a perpetual succession of parliaments is established,
as everlasting guardians to the laws, while the king possesses no
independent power or military force by which he can be supported in his
invasion of them. No danger remains but what is inseparable from all
free constitutions, and what forms the very essence of their freedom;
the danger of a change in the people's disposition, and of general
disgust contracted against popular privileges To prevent such an evil,
no expedient is more proper than to contain ourselves within the
bounds of moderation, and to consider, that all extremes naturally and
infallibly beget each other. In the same manner as the past usurpations
of the crown, however excusable on account of the necessity or
provocations whence they arose, have excited an immeasurable appetite
for liberty; let us beware, lest our encroachments, by introducing
anarchy, make the people seek shelter under the peaceable and despotic
rule of a monarch. Authority, as well as liberty, is requisite to
government; and is even requisite to the support of liberty itself,
by maintaining the laws, which can alone regulate and protect it. What
madness, while every thing is so happily settled under ancient forms and
institutions, now more exactly poised and adjusted, to try the hazardous
experiment of a new constitution, and renounce the mature wisdom of our
ancestors for the crude whimseys of turbulent innovators! Besides the
certain and inconceivable mischiefs of civil war, are not the perils
apparent, which the delicate frame of liberty must inevitably sustain
amidst the furious shock of arms? Whichever side prevails, she can
scarcely hope to remain inviolate, and may suffer no less, or rather
greater injuries from the boundless pretensions of forces engaged in her
cause, than from the invasion of enraged troops enlisted on the side of
monarchy.
The king, upon his return from Scotland, was received in London with the
shouts and acclamations of the people, and with every demonstration
of regard and affection.[*] Sir Richard Gournay, lord mayor, a man of
moderation and authority, had promoted these favorable dispositions, and
had engaged the populace, who so lately insulted the king, and who so
soon after made furious war upon him, to give him these marks of their
dutiful attachment. But all the pleasure which Charles reaped from this
joyous reception, was soon damped by the remonstrance of the commons,
which was presented him, together with a petition of a like strain. The
bad counsels which he followed are there complained of; his concurrence
in the Irish rebellion plainly insinuated; the scheme laid for the
introduction of Popery and superstition inveighed against; and, as a
remedy for all these evils, he is desired to intrust every office
and command to persons in whom his parliament should have cause to
confide.[**]
* Rush. vol. v. p. 429.
** Bush. vol. v. p. 437. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 692.
By this phrase, which is so often repeated in all the memorials
and addresses of that time, the commons meant themselves and their
adherents.
As soon as the remonstrance of the commons was published the king
dispersed an answer to it. In this contest, he lay under great
disadvantages. Not only the ears of the people were extremely prejudiced
against him; the best topics upon which he could justify, at least
apologize for his former conduct, were such as it was not safe or
prudent for him at this time to employ. So high was the national
idolatry towards parliaments, that to blame the past conduct of these
assemblies would have been very ill received by the generality of the
people. So loud were the complaints against regal usurpations, that had
the king asserted the prerogative of supplying, by his own authority,
the deficiencies in government arising from the obstinacy of the
commons, he would have increased the clamors with which the whole nation
already resounded. Charles, therefore, contented himself with observing
in general, that even during that period so much complained of, the
people enjoyed a great measure of happiness, not only comparatively,
in respect of their neighbors, but even in respect of those times which
were justly accounted the most fortunate. He made warm protestations
of sincerity in the reformed religion; he promised indulgence to tender
consciences with regard to the ceremonies of the church; he mentioned
his great concessions to national liberty; he blamed the infamous libels
every where dispersed against his person and the national religion; he
complained of the general reproaches thrown out in the remonstrance
with regard to ill counsels, though he had protected no minister from
parliamentary justice, retained no unpopular servant, and conferred
offices on no one who enjoyed not a high character and estimation in the
public. "If, notwithstanding this," he adds, "any malignant party shall
take heart, and be willing to sacrifice the peace and happiness of their
country to their own sinister ends and ambition, under whatever
pretence of religion and conscience; if they shall endeavor to lessen my
reputation and interest, and to weaken my lawful power and authority; if
they shall attempt, by discountenancing the present laws, to loosen the
bands of government, that all disorder and confusion may break in upon
us; I doubt not but God in his good time will discover them to me, and
that the wisdom and courage of my high court of parliament will join
with me in their suppression and punishment."[*] Nothing shows more
evidently the hard situation in which Charles was placed, than to
observe that he was obliged to confine himself within the limits of
civility towards subjects who had transgressed all bounds of regard, and
even of good manners, in the treatment of their sovereign.
The first instance of those parliamentary encroachments which Charles
was now to look for, was the bill for pressing soldiers to the service
of Ireland. This bill quickly passed the lower house. In the preamble,
the king's power of pressing, a power exercised during all former times,
was declared illegal, and contrary to the liberty of the subject. By
a necessary consequence, the prerogative, which the crown had ever
assumed, of obliging men to accept of any branch of public service, was
abolished and annihilated; a prerogative, it must be owned, not very
compatible with a limited monarchy. In order to elude this law, the king
offered to raise ten thousand volunteers for the Irish service: but
the commons were afraid lest such an army should be too much at his
devotion. Charles, still unwilling to submit to so considerable a
diminution of power, came to the house of peers, and offered to pass
the law without the preamble; by which means, he said, that ill-timed
question with regard to the prerogative would for the present be
avoided, and the pretensions of each party be left entire. Both houses
took fire at this measure, which, from a similar instance, while the
bill of attainder against Strafford was in dependence, Charles might
foresee would be received with resentment. The lords, as well as
commons, passed a vote, declaring it to be a high breach of privilege
for the king to take notice of any bill which was in agitation in either
of the houses, or to express his sentiments with regard to it, before it
be presented to him for his assent in a parliamentary manner. The king
was obliged to compose all matters by an apology.[**]
* Nalson, vol. ii. p. 748.
** Rush. vol. v. p. 457, 458, etc. Clarendon, vol. ii. p.
327. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 738, 750, 751, etc.