Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 2 (of 3), 1642-1660Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 2 (of 3), 1642-1660
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 17th century
Glamorgan was not satisfied with abandoning as worthless the treaty
which had cost him so much, he must needs swear fealty to the nuncio in
terms such as perhaps no other English layman has ever used. 'I swear,'
he wrote, 'to obey all your commands readily without reluctance and
with a joyful mind. I make this perpetual protestation on my bended
knees to your most illustrious and reverend lordship, not only as the
Pope's minister but also as a remarkable personage, and as witnesses
of the purity of my intentions I invoke the Blessed Virgin and all the
Saints of Paradise.' The result of this alliance was the consent of the
Supreme Council to prolong the cessation till May 1, so as to give time
for the arrival of Sir Kenelm Digby's original articles. Neither Digby
nor the documents ever reached Ireland, for the Queen did not choose
that they should, and peace was concluded with Ormonde on March 28,
on the understanding that the terms were not to be divulged until May
1, Rinuccini failing to get a further postponement. 'I command you,'
Charles had written, 'to conclude a peace with the Irish, whatever it
cost; so that my Protestant subjects there may be secure, and my regal
authority preserved. But for all this, you are to make the best bargain
you can, and not to discover your enlargement of power till you needs
must.' This was early in 1645. Six months later, after Naseby, the King
'absolutely and without reply,' commanded Ormonde to make the peace,
with the consent of his Council if possible, but to make it anyhow.
The contracting parties were Ormonde alone on the King's part and the
following commissioners for the Confederate Catholics: Ormonde's uncle,
Viscount Mountgarret, and his brother-in-law, Viscount Muskerry, Sir
Robert Talbot, Tyrconnel's eldest brother; Colonel Dermot O'Brien;
Patrick Darcy of Plattin; Geoffrey Brown and John Dillon, two lawyers
who were designated as future judges. The conditions of a peace
which was no peace might seem hardly worth dwelling on, but that
they mark clearly the furthest point to which Charles would openly,
if not altogether willingly, go in his dealings with the Irish Roman
Catholics. A few weeks after the peace was signed, and before it was
published, he ceased to be a free agent, and the desperate expedients
of a prisoner scarcely count. The articles occupy twenty-two printed
pages, but the principal points may be clearly brought out in a short
abstract.
[Sidenote: Summary of the articles.]
1. The oath of supremacy to be abolished, so far as concerns Roman
Catholics, in the next Irish Parliament; and an oath of allegiance
substituted. All statutory penalties and disabilities to be repealed
by the same Act. 'That his Majesty's said Roman Catholic subjects be
referred to his Majesty's gracious favour and further concessions.'
2. An Irish Parliament to be held before November 30, when all the
articles were to be performed by law, the King undertaking to make no
alterations under Poynings' Act.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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