may not be admitted, as a thing that would be displeasing to all the English on this side: his religion, nor yet his descent (being the grand-child and son of your majesty knows whom), sort not well with it; and I am upon very probable reason for believing, that in the way of pretending service, but doing nothing for your majesty, he attentively watcheth to do something for his own fortune and power, for which hereafter to thank himself far more than your majesty "."

The king was far enough from being moved by these representations from his purposes of kindness to Antrim; for in a letter, written from Woodstock the 30th of the same month, to the lord deputy, he expresses himself as follows:-" There rests nothing but the particular of the earl of Antrim to answer, whose professions have been so free and noble at this time, that (as I have promised) indeed he deserves to be recommended to you; which at his coming over to you, I wish you to take notice of to him. But to have the command of a magazine of arms, I leave to you and the council there to judge how far ye will trust any one in that kind, of his profession in religion. To conclude this, I would have you favour and countenance him as much as any one of his profession in religion "."

In a letter, written the 25th of Jan. following, his majesty tells the lord deputy, "That he should be glad if he could find some way to furnish the earl of Antrim with arms, though he be a Roman catholick; for he may be of much use to me at this time, to shake loose upon the earl of Argyle."

Lord Wentworth again and again represented the earl as poor, unexperienced, incapable of conducting any important affair, and withal mischievously bent. But his orders from the king were express, and there was no farther room for refusing him. "If it be pos

sible," says the king in another letter, written Ap. 11, 1639, to the lord deputy, "it is most fit that Antrim be set upon Argyle, and I shall no ways despair of the success, so that you lead the design, whereof I find him most desirous. Therefore I desire you not to shun it, but to assist him all you can in it"." "Upon the receipt of his majestie's letter, lord Antrim sent to the O'Neales, O'Haras, the O'Lurgans, (if I mistake not that name," says lord Wentworth), "the Mac Genpises, the Mac Guyres, the Mac Mahons, the Mac Donnels, (as many Oes and Macs as would startle a whole council-board on this side to hear of) and all his other friends, requiring them, in his majestie's name, to meet him with their forces; so as this business now is become no secret, but the common discourse both of his lordship and the whole kingdom "."

b

Lord Wentworth still continued to represent the folly of his undertakings, and the danger of trusting him with power. At length his majesty ordered secre tary Windebank to write him word, "That his reasons against the work itself, in the way he [Antrim] proposed it, and the dangerous consequences it must necessarily produce, are very solid and unanswerable: nevertheless," adds he, "his majesty will not have the earl discouraged, but rather heartened as much as may be; and likes your lordships advice in the end of your dispatch very well, that the designs may rest till the next spring; and in the mean time so carried, as nei ther the earl be discouraged, nor set at liberty from his undertaking, but that such use may be made of him as may be for the advantage of his majestie's service"."

But farther, the favour in which the Irish catholics were with the king, appears from an extravagant grant made by him to the earl of St. Alban's and Clanricard:

Strafforde's Letters, vol. II p. 318,

b Id. p. 309. * Id. p. 322.

66.a

grant of divers lands and tenements of a large extent and value, containing a great part of the county of Galway, where the people, besides their idleness and want of manufactures, were in a manner wholly Popish and Irish, not a Protestant or Englishman of note in the whole county, extreamly addicted in their affections to Spain, and accommodated with fit harbours to comply with them." The lord deputy and council drew up a very strong remonstrance against the carrying it into execution; in which, among many other things, it is observed, that "It hath been the constant endeavour of this state [the Irish] to break the dependences which great lords draw to themselves, of followers, tenants, and neighbours, and make the subject to hold immediately of the crown, and not to be liable to the distresses of great lords; which course, if it be useful in other parts of this kingdom, is most necessary here. For partly by reason of this earl's large patents, and many tenures on him thereby granted; partly by his commission of presidency in that county, which makes him little less or other than a count palatine; and partly by the power which the popish clergy have with the people there; this state hath found very little obedience in any thing wherein that earl and clergy have not been pleased to concur, and in future times the danger thereof may be sooner felt than prevented, as by some examples in our neighbour kingdom we may easily foresee "." But his majesty's pleasure was to have the grant passed, notwithstanding all that could be alleged; though, in the opinion of the lord deputy, "he had much better have given him one hundred thousand pounds out of his coffers in ready money "

3. It is alleged that Charles's good affections to the rebels is manifest, from the tenderness with which he always spoke of and treated them. There was no pro

Strafforde's Letters, vol. II. p. 366.

+ Id. p. 367. Id. p. 425.

clamation ordered against the rebels till January 1641, and when it was printed, then it was of little effect: for his majesty expressly commanded the printer "to print not above forty copies, and to forbear to make any further publication of them till his pleasure be further signified.”—Mr. Wood, speaking of Sir Edward Walker, says, that "with great diligence and observation he had committed to writing, in a paper-book, the several occurrences that passed in the king's army, and the victories obtained by his majesty over his rebellious subjects, the book was seized on at the battle of Naseby, by some of the forces belonging to the parliament, then victors. Afterwards it was presented to their general, called Sir Thomas Fairfax, who perusing it, found one passage therein, which was very observa, ble to him, viz. That whereas he [Walker] had taken occasion to speak of the Irish, and called them rebels; his majesty, who before that time had perused the book, did, among several alterations made therein with his own hand, put out the word rebels with his pen, and over it wrote Irish "."-Milton observes, that "this chapter [concerning the Irish rebellion, in the Icon Basilike], if nothing else, may suffice to discover his good affections to the rebels; which, in this that fol lows, too notoriously appears; imputing this insurrection to the preposterous rigour and unreasonable severity, the covetous zeal and uncharitable fury of some men ;' (these 'some men' by his continual paraphrase, are meant the parliament); ' and lastly, to the fear of utter extirpation.' If the rebels had fee'd some advocate to speak partially and sophistically in their defence, he could hardly have dazzled better; yet, nevertheless, would have proved himself no other than a plausible deceiver."

a Rushworth, vol. IV. p. 473.

Milton's Prose Works.

VOL. II.

Wood's Fasti, vol. II. c. 17.

D d

4." Mac Mahoun, who was to join the lord Mac Guire for the surprising the castle of Dublin, being taken and examined at the rack, confessed that the original of the rebellion was brought to them out of England by the Irish committee, employed to his majesty for the redress of grievances ."

5. Stress was laid by the lords and commons on "the general profession of the rebels in all parts of that kingdom [Ireland], that the cause of their rising was to preserve his majesty and the queen from being oppressed by the puritan parliament, and that it was by their consent. That they knew well the best in England would side with them; that they had good warrant in black and white for what they did. Their calling the English army parliament-rogues, and traitors to the queen; and telling them, at the beginning of the rebellion, before any appearances of war here, that ere long they should see England as much in blood as Ireland then was. That they had their party in England and Scotland, which should keep both kingdoms so busy at home, that they should not send any aid against them; with a multitude of such like expressions from the Irish of the best quality and degree."

6. Mr. Jephson, a member of the house of commons, at a conference before both houses, delivered himself in these words: "At my late being at Oxford, finding the lord Dillon and the lord Taaffe in favour at court, I acquainted the lord Faulkland, his majesty's secretary, that there were two lords about the king, who, to his majesty's great dishonour, and the great discourage ment of his good subjects, did make use of his majesty's appear, I name to encourage the rebels: to make this informed him, that I had seen two letters, sent by the lord Dillon and the lord Taaffe, to the lord of Muskerie,

* Rushworth, vol. V. p. 349.