[Sidenote: The French service found better than the Spanish.] The Spaniards were allowed to recruit in Ireland during the whole of Strafford's reign, though he had his misgivings from the first, and though he warned Charles even before he crossed the channel for the first time. 'It had been the safer for your Majesty to have given liberty for the raising five times as many here in England; because these could not have been debauched in their faith, where those were not free of suspicion, especially being put under command of O'Neill and O'Donnell, the sons of two infamous and arch-traitors, and so likely not only to be trained up in the discipline of war, but in the art of rebellion also. Secondly, as your Majesty's deputy I must tell him, if the state of this kingdom were the same as in Queen Elizabeth's time, I should more apprehend the travel and disturbance which two hundred of these men might give us here, being natives, and experienced in their own faculty as soldiers, being sent to mutiny and discipline their own countrymen against the Crown, than of as many more Spaniards, as they sent in those days to Kinsale for relief of the rebels.' This opinion he retained to the end. He was allowed to appoint two officers, and he selected men who could be trusted to give him a true account of what went on in the Spanish Netherlands. Owen Roe O'Neill became the favourite leader of the Irish in Belgium, but Wentworth preferred Preston. Nevertheless men who were engaged for the latter's regiment very often went over to the former. The French also got no small number of Irish recruits, though they were less favoured by the Government of Charles I. Intercepted letters in 1635 showed that Paris was 'pestered with Irish of all sorts, from all parts,' while whole companies raised for the Spanish Netherlands 'suffered themselves to be debauched by the French ambassador, and now serve under the French colours.' Irish officers deserted the Spanish for the French service to get better and more regular pay, and Secretary Coke was clear-sighted enough to see that the Irish troops of both powers would probably turn against England in the end, 'and join together to replant themselves at home.'[256] FOOTNOTES: [246] _Strafford Letters_, ii. 184, 211, 266-306. For personal details see Hill's _Macdonnells of Antrim_. Lord Deputy and Council to Coke, _Melbourne Hall MSS._ calendared by Hist. MSS. Comm. under July 1637, but apparently belonging to 1639. [247] Wentworth to Windebank, March 20, 1638-9, enclosing Antrim's written proposals, _Strafford Letters_. Charles's informal commission to Antrim, dated June 5, 1639, is printed in Hill's Macdonnells of Antrim, Appx. 12, _Melbourne Hall MSS._, _ut sup._ [248] Willoughby to Wentworth, six letters in May and June 1639 in _Strafford Letters_; to Vane, June 18, 1641, in State Papers, _Ireland_; to Coke, July 23, 1639, in _Melbourne Hall Papers_.