REBELLION REWARDED.
The Irish Republicans quickly came to the conclusion that monarchical
principles possessed a virtue which afforded the best guarantee for
their interests. Their budding royalism was threatened with blight
from one quarter only—the exiled Irish soldiers who had fought for
Prince Charles at home and abroad. These unreasonables had to be
reckoned with, for Gaelic swordsmen, gentle and simple, formed part
of his bodyguard and influenced his decisions. He even sympathised
with their religion while his exile lasted, for the Duke of Ormonde
relates that he once found his Majesty secretly hearing Mass in
Brussels in a fit of lonely piety.
The Cromwellians, awake to these difficulties, and ready to jettison
any inconvenient doctrines which blocked their way, held a Convention
in Dublin in 1659-60, to debate “the situation.” First they seized
Dublin Castle from the weaklings who represented the tottering
Commonwealth, and next they imprisoned all Catholic loyalists who
could be laid hands on, to prevent their having any credit in
bringing back the King or earning his gratitude. Then they sent an
embassy to Brussels to propose conditions to his Majesty. Sir Arthur
Forbes (son of the “discoverer” of 1628) was their messenger, and on
his return Forbes reported hopefully to their spokesmen, Sir Charles
Coote and Lord Broghill (Boyle). On the 16th March, 1660, the exiled
King wrote engaging that “whatever Coote should promise and undertake
on his behalf (which it was in his power to perform) he would make
good.”
Clotworthy was a leading member of the cabal; and on the 30th March,
1660, he was nominated to proceed to Flanders to conclude the
negotiations. When he reached London, his journey was stayed, as
General Monck had won over Speaker Lenthal to his views, and the
royal cause was thriving without the aid of cross-Channel converts.
Sir John, therefore, remained in England to influence opinion against
attempts to disturb the arrangements of the Irish confiscators. King
Charles, on the eve of his return, issued from Breda a Declaration
securing in their estates those of his enemies who had not taken
part in his father’s execution. At the same moment he promised that
the Irish who had served him should be restored to their lands.
Unhappily, the pledge to the Irish was broken, while the bargain with
Coote was kept.
Much huxtering and hugger-mugger went on at Whitehall when the
King came back. A large subscription was raised among the wily
“Undertakers” to bribe his courtiers, and using this lubricant,
Clotworthy and his friends found easy access to the Throne. Their aim
was to ensure that the confiscations should be legalised, no matter
who might suffer. Charles summoned a Parliament for each of the Three
Kingdoms, but the Irish Executive (staffed with men of Cromwell’s
mind) found no difficulty in packing the Dublin House of Commons
with prayerful freebooters. The Restoration, which brought a joyful
change in England and Scotland, made none in Ireland, unless for the
worse. The loyalty and sufferings in exile of the King’s friends were
forgotten. The squalid attornment of his enemies was remembered and
rewarded.
Irish Cromwellianism after the Restoration remained organised and
formidable as before. It dominated the Government; and its mayors and
sheriffs returned to Parliament such men as they listed. Out of 260
members in the Lower House, only 64 represented counties—the rest
being sent up by hole-and-corner “Corporations” to which the natives
were not admitted. These phantom bodies (dowered with two members)
were manned by Ironsides who could hardly pronounce the names of
their billets. Indeed statutory power was soon afterwards taken to
replace the “barbarous and uncouth” Gaelic place-names (which limned
every lineament of the landscape) with sweet-sounding “Jonesboroughs”
and “Draperstowns.”
In the counties a bare handful of the inhabitants possessed the
franchise. The voting was a mere taking of “voices” in the sheriff’s
parlour. A “Legislature” constituted in this fashion consummated
in 1662-5 the confiscations which the Acts of “Settlement” and
“Explanation” enshrine. Lord Chancellor Eustace summed up the result
in a letter to the Duke of Ormonde:—“Those who fought against his
Majesty are to have the estates of those who fought for him.” The
King’s secretary, Nicholas, in a letter to Eustace expressed his
regret that the “soldiers” should command such influence in the new
Parliament. Still his Majesty yielded himself up to those who helped
to betray his father, declaring he was determined never to go “on his
travels” again.
In the island which had been the most faithful of the Three Kingdoms
to the Crown, Cromwellianism survived as hardily as in the days of
Oliver himself. A packed Parliament, a ruthless Executive, and a
venal judiciary made or declared the law to a prostrate people. In
England and Scotland the Royalists came into their own again. In
Ireland they were betrayed or plundered or forgotten.
The only clog on the Republican triumph was the King’s scruple
against allowing the leading regicides to retain their booty. Estates
in Ireland had been grabbed by Cromwell, Ireton, Ludlow, Bradshaw,
Corbett, Jones, Axtell, and others, whose hands reeked with the blood
of Charles I. These were declared forfeit; but their rightful owners
were not allowed to get them back. Over 111,000 acres in seventeen
counties, at a rent of £8,726 a year (which would now represent ten
times that amount), awaited disposal. To prevent their restitution
to the natives, it was slyly proposed to Charles II. that his dear
brother, the Duke of York (afterwards James II.), should take them
as a gift. James accepted the lands, and Charles consented—to the
disgrace of both. After that, no assailant of the doings of the
Dublin Parliament could lightly accuse it of unreasonableness to the
King.