Richard Bagwell

“ Ormonde had gone fox-hunting with Castlehaven in the midst of the Civil War, and afterwards had a pack of beagles at Kilkenny who were so well trained that they always turned homewards at the sound of the castle dinner-bell. He kept bloodstock, importing both Barbs and Arabs, but was not very successful as a breeder, though he took some pleasure in the reflection that Irish horse-flesh generally would be improved. There is, indeed, no pursuit in which money is more easily lost or less easily got, unless it is made the chief business of life. ”

“ Of all the bad men in a bad time Buckingham was perhaps the worst, without shame, honour, or decency. He amused Charles and those about him, and his career is disposed of in a single line of Dryden—he had his jest and they had his estate. Ormonde was an offence unto him both for his high character and for the universal respect in which he was held. ”

“ Ormonde thought the most dangerous party in Ireland to the King’s government was that of the Protestant Nonconformists, ‘taken simply by themselves without the consideration of foreign incitement or assistance.’ He knew that men came from Scotland to escape Lauderdale and his myrmidons, but it was impossible to prosecute them without doing the same with the Papists, and after many years tacit toleration that would make great trouble. If both parties were attacked the prisons would be full, the population driven from their homes and work, and the revenue destroyed. ”

“ It was evident to every clear-sighted person that arms must decide, not only whether James or William should rule Ireland, but whether the King of England should be King in Ireland also. The pretension of the smaller country to act independently of the greater had been defined by the late legislation, and was evidently incompatible with the facts, nor did James venture to separate the two islands by repealing the law of Poynings. The penal laws that followed are accounted for, though not excused, by the conduct of the native Irish Parliament during its short tenure of power. ”

“ In times of public excitement little things sometimes have a great effect, and are better remembered than more important events. Such were the letters of obscure men in the German Reformation, the Marriage of Figaro before the French Revolution, John Brown’s march in the American civil war, and such, in the Irish branch of our own revolution, was the song of ‘Lillibullero.’ Thomas Wharton, afterwards Marquis and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, boasted that by this ditty he had sung a king out of three kingdoms. ”

“ Louvois had strictly charged Lauzun not to attempt any dazzling exploit, but to devote himself entirely to gain time and to prolong the war. From the slavish way in which he addressed the great minister, belittling himself and claiming no merit but in strict obedience, it is evident that Lauzun distrusted his own powers. He had no belief in the cause for which he was fighting, and his main objects were to get King James safely back to his wife and to restore to King Louis his money, his guns, and as many of his soldiers as possible. Above all things he longed to get out of Ireland himself. ”

“ In 1670 it was ordered that no one should act as head or member of a corporation without taking the oath of allegiance and such other oaths as were of force in Ireland. Thus the first question that Essex had to decide was whether the oath of supremacy should be enforced or not. He thought that it should be, as otherwise every corporation would be flooded with Roman Catholics. But he would allow the oath to be dispensed with by special favour. He believed that otherwise wealthy Protestant traders would withdraw themselves and their capital from Ireland. ”

“ As to the results of this oppression Berkeley asked, ‘Whether it be not a vain attempt to project the flourishing of our Protestant gentry exclusive of the bulk of the natives?’ In another place he says, ‘The house of an Irish peasant is the cave of poverty; within you see a pot and a little straw; without, a heap of children tumbling on the dunghill.’ Swift at various periods asserted that the Roman Catholics of Ireland were in point of power no more considerable than women and children ”

“ So complete was the victory that he was able to occupy Boyle and Jamestown on the Shannon. Schomberg, who was glad to have any chance of encouraging his men, made much of this affair, paraded all the Enniskillen men in camp, and rode along their ranks with his head bare. Three rounds of musketry were fired, and also salutes from some of the big guns. The noise excited wonder and some alarm in the Irish camp, but James’s men professed to be ignorant of any defeat. Sarsfield and Henry Luttrell were, however, sent to the West a few weeks later with a considerable force. ”

“ Students of Irish history have to guard themselves against seeing things too exclusively through Ormonde’s eyes. He looms so large, compared with other Irish or Anglo-Irishmen of his day, that there is some danger of being unjust to others. But Burnet was not an admirer of his, yet he stigmatises Anglesey and Orrery, his chief critics, as ‘two men of a very indifferent reputation.’ Anglesey indeed, he says, was very corrupt, ‘stuck at nothing and was ashamed of nothing.’ His letter, mentioned above, was no doubt mainly founded on Orrery’s information. ”

“ English flockmasters were injured, but the profit to Ireland was small. Irish wool was good, and better prices were to be had from foreigners, so that smuggling was found to pay well, and a trade was begun which reached vast proportions in later days.
Ireland was thinly peopled, but there was so little employment that labour was cheap, and there was plenty of available land. English commercial jealousy was thus excited, and the House of Commons forgot that they were really dealing with the Protestant settlers and showing them [Pg 79] how to seek support from other and perhaps hostile nations. ”

“ The country people about, who had lived mainly on wages paid by the colonists, made no difficulty about doing the rough work. On the last day of January an association was formed under seal, and all swore on the Gospel to obey Orpen and Palmer until they had orders from the Prince of Orange, ‘in defence of our lives and religion against the enemies of the Protestant Church.’ Stolen goods may be sweet, but in the long run they tend to poverty. The wild people who had driven off the cattle took no steps to till the ground, but lived on the plunder. ”

“ Ormonde repeatedly declared that almost any permanent arrangement would be better than none, Ireland being a prey to uncertainty in the meantime. There was not land enough to satisfy everybody and it was necessary that each party should sacrifice something. In Ireland the English party had agreed to surrender one-sixth of what the Act of Settlement gave them, but the Irish agents in London thought this too little, and it was then arranged that 1,800,000 Irish acres of profitable land should be assigned to the English and the rest to the Irish. ”

“ The Dutch war, the legislation against cattle, and the poverty of the country generally encouraged idleness, for there was no money to pay even those who were willing to work. The gaols were often crowded, but little justice was done, for the chief sufferers were the poor, and their helplessness made them afraid to give evidence. Orrery and most of the extreme English party wished for a strong Protestant militia, but against this Essex set his face. He said the regular army was able to keep order, and no doubt it would have been had it been regularly paid. ”

“ The Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland set forth their hard case and the severe measures taken against them. In order to show how little they deserve such misfortunes they fully acknowledge the King’s sovereignty in all civil and temporal affairs and declare their readiness still to do so ‘notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope.’ They ‘openly disclaim and renounce all foreign power, be it either papal or princely spiritual or temporal’ pretending to release them from the obligations of allegiance. ”

“ James shrank from the odium of appointing a successor who would not only be disagreeable to all Protestants, but to all who dreaded French influence. Tyrconnel, with characteristic duplicity, told Sheridan that he could give up Ireland to France without being Lord Lieutenant, but employed him to persuade James that the thing was impossible. Sheridan argued that England must always have the preponderating power in Irish politics, since the old Irish, who were ten to one, favoured Spain, and the Anglo-Irish France, while neither faction would submit to the other. ”

“ While Lauzun and Tyrconnel tried to make up for lost time amid the dissipations of Dublin, Schomberg was growing stronger every day by the arrival of fresh troops from England and Scotland, including 6000 Danish veterans under the Duke of Würtemberg. Long before William left London the old general saw that a stand would probably be made at the Boyne, and he was anxious to take Charlemont, so that no enemy should be left in the rear. It was James’s last stronghold in Ulster, and Mountjoy had chosen the position well. ”

“ Sir Charles Wogan, who escaped from Newgate in 1715 and served both France and Spain, secured Maria Clementina for the Pretender. He told Swift that Irish soldiers abroad ‘had always the post of honour allowed them, where it was mixed with danger, and lived in perpetual fire,’ but that their reward was systematically scanty. Promises made to them were not kept. But they continued to fight bravely, to plot, and to hope against hope. During the dreary period of the penal laws the exiles damaged England without benefiting Ireland, but many of them or their children achieved success abroad. ”

“ Clerical influence in civil affairs will continue to diminish, but will still be strong for long years to come. In the meantime we have the three Irish Churches keeping the peace between themselves, but distinctly divided. The Protestant Episcopalians look back to St. Patrick and trace their succession to the early days of Christianity, but in modern Ireland they represent mainly the immigrants from England since the Tudor re-conquest. The Presbyterians are the Scotch colony in Ulster with some outposts in the other provinces. The bulk of the native population adheres to Rome. ”

“ There is not a word about the Ulster settlement, and the conduct of Borlase and Parsons ‘who favoured the party opposing his Majesty,’ is represented as the beginning of troubles. The new settlers, or most of them, were ‘the scum of England,’ and the result of their supremacy would be to people Ireland with ‘a generation of mechanic bagmen who are strangers to all principles of religion and loyalty.’ Ormonde’s connections and natural allies would [Pg 54] be ousted and in time his own family would suffer. ”

“ When England came to be at war with both France and Holland at the beginning of 1666, it was natural to suppose that there might be danger of a descent on Ireland. Orrery, [Pg 81] who was an alarmist, thought there would be a rebellion; and he dreaded the sectaries and Presbyterians almost as much as the more numerous natives. Ormonde, who always kept cool, had little fear. There were indeed plenty of disaffected people, but they were not united, and he thought that the Government would always be too strong for any discontented party. ”

“ A Bill for the double purpose found favour with the House of Commons, but the King again interposed, and the ambassador had to be contented with a promise that all French ships should be allowed to take cargoes of wool. The Irish Parliament had declared itself independent, but the English Act remained in force, and the sailors of a St. Malo vessel refused to load the forbidden goods, with the chance of being taken at sea and hanged in England. The Englishman in James was always asserting himself, while he knew that his only effective supporter was the French King. ”