the chief man in rebellion in Munster, and one of the Irish committee sent into England, intimating, that though it did not stand with the conveniency of his majestie's affairs to give him publick countenance, yet that his majesty was well pleased with what he did, and would in time give him thanks for it (or near to that purpose); that these letters were seen by the lord Inchiquine, the chief commander of the English forces in Munster, and by his secretary, who had kept copies of them; and that I was ready to justify as much. Whereupon the lord Faulkland was pleased to say, that they deserved to be hanged. But though I staid there at Oxford about a week after this discovery made, I never was called to any farther accompt, nor any prejudice done to these two lords; but they had the same freedom in court as before, for aught I could observe or hear to the contrary

a ""

7. The earl of Leicester, being appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland by his majesty, was desired by the parliament speedily to repair thither. Whereupon he waited on his majesty at York to receive his instructions; but he was for a long time put off with words; and not only so, "but the king being informed that there were certain draught-horses provided to be sent into Ireland, his majesty told him he must have them for his own use.-Leicester strongly remonstrated against it; but in vain: for the king gave a warrant to fetch the horses, and commanded one Errington on his allegiance to execute it "."

On this head it is farther alleged, "That the parliament and adventurers having designed 5000 foot, and 500 horse, for the relief of Munster, under the command of lord Wharton-and when nothing was wanting but a commission to the lord Wharton, to enable him for that service, no commission could be obtained

* Rushworth, vol. V. p. 350.

b Id. p. 14.

from his majesty; by reason whereof, Limerick was wholly lost, and the province of Munster in great distress. That clothes, provided by the parliament for the troops in Ireland, were seized by his majesty's offi cers here in England. That his majesty's forces were so quartered in and about the common roads to Ireland, 'that neither money, clothes, victuals, or other provision could pass thither by land with any safety. That captain Kettleby the admiral, and Sir Henry Stradling the vice-admiral of the ships, which were directed to lie upon the coast of Ireland, to annoy the rebels, and to prevent the bringing to them ammunition and relief from foreign parts, were both called away from that employment by his majesty's command; and by reason of their departure from the coast of Munster, the rebels there had received powder, ammunition, and relief from foreign parts"." Whoever would see more on this subject, may consult the answer of the house of commons to his majesty's message of the 13th of Aug. 1642, from which the above is extracted.

8. The cessation made by the rebels, Sept. 1643, after the war had been carried on "by the English from the first landing of their forces out of England, with so great success, as that, in all the encounters they had with the rebels during that time, they never received any scorn or defeats; but went on victoriously, beating them down in all parts of the kingdom ".""This cessation," says lord Clarendon, "made and continued with those rebels, though prudently, charitably, and necessarily entered into [were not the English always victorious], had been the most unpopular act the king had ever done, and had wrongfully contributed to the reputation of the two houses of parliament."

b

Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland, p. 66.

a Rushworth, vol. IV. p. 776. Rebellion, p, 332.

Lord Lansdown, speaking of this same affair, calls it "that fatal cessation with the rebels, as much exclaimed against by the king's friends at Oxford, as by his enemies at Westminster." By this cessation a good part of the regiments sent to Ireland was called back, and in a manner forced to fight against the parliament of England.-Milton, with great seeming force, presses Charles on this head in the following words. "That we may yet see further how much he was their friend, after that the parliament had brought them every where either to famine, or a low condition, he, to give them all the respite and advantages they could desire, without advice of parliament, to whom he himself had committed the managing of that war, makes a cessation; in pretence to relieve the protestants overborne there with numbers,' but, as the event proved, to support the papists, by diverting and drawing over the English army there, to his own service here against the parliament; for that the protestants were then on the winning hand, it must needs be plain; who notwithstanding the miss of those forces, which at their landing here mastered, without great difficulty, great part of Wales and Cheshire, yet made a shift to keep their own in Ireland "."

9. The employing the earl of Glamorgan to negotiate with the rebels, in order to bring over a body of them for his service against the parliament of England, has been deemed no way favourable to the character of Charles in this affair.

The negotiations of Glamorgan with the pope's nuntio are very curious: the truth of them cannot, I think, well be doubted by the considerate and impartial reader of the Enquiry into the Share which K. Charles I. had in the Transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, and the

a Lansdown's Works, vol. II. p. 193. 12mo. Lond. 1736. Prose Works, vol. I. p. 448.

a Milton's

Appendix lately added. To these I must refer such as chuse to have information on this head ".

10. Charles II. in a letter directed to the duke of Ormond and the lords of the council in Ireland, dated July 10th, 1663, says expressly, that the "referees, after several meetings, and perusal of what had been offered to them by the marquis [of Antrim], have reported to us, that they have seen several letters, all of them the hand-writing of our royal father, to the said marquis, and several instructions concerning his treating and joining with the Irish, in order to the king's service, by reducing to their obedience, and by drawing some forces from them for the service of Scotland. That besides the letters and orders under his majestie's hand, they have received sufficient evidence and testimony of several private messages and directions sent from our royal father, and from our royal mother, with the privity and with the directions of the king our father; by which they are persuaded, that whatever intelligence, correspondence, or actings the said marquis had with the confederate Irish catholicks, was directed or allowed by the said letters, instructions, and directions; and that it manifestly appears to them, that the king our father was well pleased with what the marquis did, after he had done it, and approved the same."-And again, says his majesty, "We cannot in justice but, upon the petition of the marquis of Antrim, and after the serious and strict inquisition into his actions, declare unto you, that we do find him innocent from any malice or rebellious purpose against the crown; and that what he did by way of correspondence, or compliance with the Irish rebels, was in order to the service of our royal father, and warranted by his instructions, and the trust reposed in him; and that the benefit thereof accrued to the service of the

a See also Castlehayen's Memoirs, p. 79,

tween his majesty and his parliament, was

crown, and not to the particular advantage and benefit of the marquis."

If this account given by Charles II. be true, his father must have had more hand in the Irish rebellion than his friends could have wished. For though Mr. Hume is so very positive to the contrary, nothing is more certain than that Antrim had a hand in the first rebellion in Ireland.-Dr. Borlace says expressly, "that the marquis of Antrim, from the beginning, had passionately served them [the confederate catholicks] in their most intimate concerns"." Lord Clarendon, speaking of Antrim, says, "The rebellion drove his lady [the dowager of Villiers duke of Buckingham] from Ireland, to find a livelihood out of her own estate in England. The earl of Antrim, who was a man of excessive pride and vanity, and of a very weak and narrow understanding, was no sooner without the counsel and company of his wife, than he betook himself to the rebels." If this is not sufficient, I observe further, that in the declaration of the lords and commons concerning the rise and progress of the Irish rebellion, dated July 25, 1643, we have the following words: "The earl of Antrim, a notorious rebel, was taken by the Scots army in Ulster, and imprisoned there, upon suspicion of high treason. To avoid his tryal, he brake prison, and fled into the north parts of England, and hath been with the queen at York a long time; from whence he was sent to the rebels of Ulster with secret instructions, and had ammunition assigned hịm by the queen's directions." It was nothing near two years from the breaking out of the rebellion that

b

* See the Letter at large in Truth brought to Light, p. 21. See also Burnet, vol. I. p. 59. History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 199. fol. Clarendon, vol. IV. p. 607. Rushworth, vol.

Lond. 1680.

C

V. p. 353.