ing in the Scots and other foreigners to their assistance; *and that they had a body of walloon horse in their service, who had their Romish priests with them to say mass wheresoever they marched, thought he might with as little offence employ a body of his own Roman catholic subjects. Some Irish noblemen and gentlemen of that religion, zealous for the king's service, and presuming that the inclinations of their countrymen were agreeable to their own, undertook to his majesty to bring over several regiments of them for his service. Colonel John Barry (if the king would give way to it) proposed to raise three, under his own, his brother's, and colonel Richard Power's command. Lord Taaffe offered to raise two thousand, and sir John Dongan made the like proposition, with great assurance of success. Sir John Reade was at the end of January in the following year sent on a negotiation of the same nature to the lords and gentlemen of the pale, who readily promised three thousand men armed, together with a considerable proportion of ammunition. But none of these promises or propositions took effect; nor was there so much as one regiment or company carried over to the king's service. The reason of this was, that the supreme council refused to allow any men to go over, out of an intention to send men of their own in such a public way, as that his majesty might take particular notice thereof; whereas by their going under private persons and in small parties, his majesty would think himself little obliged to their body in general. In vain did the marquis of Ormond represent to the members of that council, that the protraction of the time would be of the worst consequence; that before they could put their purposes in action his majesty would either be past standing in need of them, or else, for want of seasonable supplies, be utterly ruined; whereas his present condition * See Collection of Letters, No. CLXVI. y Ibid. CCXI. z Marquis of Ormond's instructions to sir J. Dongan. H. 195. was such, that a very small help would much advantage 475 his affairs and forward his designs; and that there would be much more merit in the contribution of a small relief at present, than there would be hereafter in a greater supply. The supreme council were not moved by these remonstrances; they resolved to proceed in their own courses, and to make advantages to themselves by the king's distresses; persisting obstinately in that ungenerous way of thinking, till his majesty's affairs were ruined in England, and their own party afterwards involved in the like destruction. 65 About the same time that the king employed those agents to obtain from the Irish a levy of forces for his service, the court of France sent M. de Moinery, gentleman of his chamber, and Don Francisco de Melos, governor of the Low Countries, employed Francisco de Fosset, to solicit the like levies for the service of France and Spain. His catholic majesty had about the Easter before remitted to them a free gift of twenty thousand crowns, which they had laid out in arms and ammunition; and their agents at Madrid, in return for such a kindness, had offered to send a body of men out of Ireland into Spain for his service. They had directed their agent at Paris to make a like offer to the king of France, from whom they had likewise received supplies; but that court had afterwards stopped the payment of two thousand pounds, part of the money formerly ordered for their assistance. This had cooled their affections to the latter court; but there was no serving the one without gratifying both. When those agents applied to the supreme council for these levies, they excused themselves from complying immediately with their demands; because they had so a See Collection of Letters, No. CCXXI. and Register of the Supreme Council, Feb. 18, 1643-4. b Letter of Supreme Council to M. O'Hartegan, Aug. 8, 1643. 66 lately refused the same thing to their natural sovereign, and they could not with any tolerable grace grant it at that time to any foreign prince. They however gave positive assurances to both the agents, that after the next June 25, they should each of them be allowed to raise two thousand foot with their officers, upon such capitulations as should be agreed on, and to transport them into France and Spain for the service of their respective masters. As soon as the news of the cessation reached the court at Oxford, it was resolved to make the marquis of Ormond lord lieutenant of Ireland. He was very far from desiring a post, full of difficulties, to which the greatest capacity was scarce equal, in such a distracted situation of affairs, that the wisest conduct and the most perfect integrity could not carry a man through them without reproach. There was once a time, when he might in that post have served his majesty effectually, and prevented the miseries of his country, by a speedy suppression of the Ulster rebels, and by stopping the progress of the rebellion into other parts of the kingdom. But that time was elapsed; the rebellion was now at its height; the Scotch were masters of Ulster, and the rebels of the greatest part of the other provinces; the one refusing to obey the orders of the state, the other having formed a government of their own in opposition to it; and each of them too strong for any force or power which his majesty had to communicate to his ministers in that realm, and enable them to serve him with reputation to themselves and advantage to his affairs. The king knew his own weakness; and considering that a renewal of the war would be the utter ruin of his affairs and faithful protestant subjects in that kingdom, thought it necessary to put the government thereof entirely into the hands of the marquis, who alone was capable as well as willing to contain the Irish in their obedience, to keep the cessation from being violated by new and open hostilities, and to dispose matters for a general peace, that he might be able to draw some assistance from thence to enable him to 476 oppose the power of the rebels in other parts of his dominions. There were no hopes of any assistance from England, and the king's necessities, and the poverty of that small part of the kingdom which remained in obedience, were such, that there was not the least prospect of any emolument or advantage that might otherwise arise from a charge which would necessarily expose him to the fury of the parliament, and engage him to involve his own estate, to support the burdens and difficulties with which it was encumbered. These circumstances, which would have deterred any other from accepting it, prevailed upon the marquis of Ormond to undertake the charged, with that duty which made him ready upon all occasions to sacrifice himself, his family, and his fortunes, for the service of the crown, but with that submission to his majesty's pleasure, and that modesty in the manner of his accepting it, which attended him in all his actions. 67 The court being at a distance from the records of the kingdom, the lawyers were at a loss how to draw the patent of lord lieutenant. Several draughts were proposed; but they all agreed that it was best to draw it upon the plan of the earl of Leicester's, to express it in the same terms, and fill it with the same powers. The king resolved to send to the earl for his, and to engage him likewise to resign it, that the marquis of Ormond might come unexceptionably on all accounts into a post. of that difficulty and importance. The earl had been piqued against the marquis, ever since their dispute about filling up vacant commands in the army, and was not fond of resigning to one whom he had long considered as his rival. But he did not care to come to an open breach with his majesty; which was unavoidable, if he disputed d See Collection of Letters, No. CCXIV. and CCXXII. VOL. III. E his pleasure in this particular; and accordingly resigned his commission, having obtained a warrant for the payment of all the arrears of his entertainments. He still however retained a secret animosity and malignity against his successor; which betrayed him to some mean, unworthy, and untrue reflections upon the character and behaviour of the marquis of Ormond; which this nobleman could not choose but resent. He received some intimation of this from Mr. Arthur Trevor, (uncle to the late master of the rolls,) and afterwards a fuller account thereof by a message, which Mr. Lutterel brought him from John Williams, archbishop of York, but had mistaken much in the delivery. He had thereupon applied himself to his grace, (who did not care the matter should go further, the words having been spoken at his table in Oxford,) for leave to take notice of, and vindicate himself from, that very false and malicious scandal cast upon him by a person that he had never injured; "unless (says he) he understood my preventing the seduction of the army in Ireland from his majesty's obedience by his instructions and his son's endeavours to be an injury to him. But my part being to justify myself by other means than recrimination, I desire it may go no further, unless your grace will be pleased to tell it my accuser to heighten his malice; which, out of the clearness of my soul, I do more despise than I wish to revenge." The difficulties in adjusting the form, the steps requisite for procuring the earl of Leicester's resignation, and the superseding of his commission, (which was done on Nov. 29,) and the foul weather which sir P. Wemyss met with in his passage, took up so much time, that the marquis of Ormond did not receive his full powers and commission till after the middle of January following; in conse e See Collection of Letters, No. CCLXXVIII. and CCLXXXIV. f Marquis of Ormond's letter to the archbishop of York, May 27, 1644. L. 10 and L. 143. |