At the beginning of 1646 the Duke proposed to send 10,000 men into England to help Charles I., but the plan was frustrated, if it was ever meant seriously, by the unwillingness of France and Holland to allow the embarkation in their respective territories. Interference in England would have had sentimental motives mainly, but Charles had other reasons for looking to Ireland. He was a bigamist, having children by a second wife during the lifetime of the first, and he was not of a rank to imitate Henry VIII. His object was to dissolve the first union and to legitimate the second, and assistance given to the Irish Catholics might gain him favour at Rome. The Irish officers in his service would naturally push him in the same direction, and the Irish clergy assembled at Clonmacnoise in December 1649 deputed Nicholas French, bishop of Ferns, and William Burke, provincial of the Dominicans, to ask the Duke's help. French carried a secret commission signed by some bishops and others under their control, and without any regard to the viceroy. The strength of England had not yet been exerted, and the clergy fancied that Ireland could break off with some foreign help. Many regretted that they had not supported Rinuccini better. Patrick Rochfort, recorder of Wexford, a partisan of the nuncio, went to Jersey about the same time to open communications with Charles II., but he had no authority from anyone holding power in Ireland. His main object seems to have been to intrigue for Ormonde's removal from the Irish Government. The Duke of Lorraine's first idea was to deal with Ormonde as the King of England's unquestioned representative, and he sent over Colonel Oliver Synnott nominally to recruit soldiers in Ireland as of old under Ormonde's authority, but also with letters relating to the more important negotiations. Rochfort followed Charles to Breda, and proposed to give Duncannon Fort to the Duke of Lorraine as security for an advance of 24,000_l._ This negotiation was carried pretty far, but nothing actually came of it, and Duncannon was in Ireton's hands in the following August. Rochfort and Synnott reached Ireland in May, declaring that they had thrown overboard their most secret and important despatches for fear of their capture by a pursuing frigate. There seemed probability enough in their story to induce Ormonde to treat with them, and he gave a commission to Lord Taaffe, Lord Athenry, and Geoffrey Browne to negotiate on his behalf. Galway was now the object instead of Duncannon, but there was mutual distrust between Ormonde and Synnott, and they came to no agreement.[199] [Sidenote: Taaffe's mission to Charles II.] [Sidenote: Mazarin and De Retz.] [Sidenote: An exile at Paris.]