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107-451: [REDACTED] Confederate Ireland 1641–42 Irish Rebellion 1642–49 1649–53 Cromwellian Conquest The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England , led by Oliver Cromwell . It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars , and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Modern estimates suggest that during this period, Ireland experienced

214-540: A demographic loss totalling around 15 to 20% of the pre-1641 population, due to fighting, famine and bubonic plague . The Irish Rebellion of 1641 brought much of Ireland under the control of the Irish Catholic Confederation , who engaged in a multi-sided war with Royalists , Parliamentarians , Scots Covenanters , and local Presbyterian militia . Following the execution of Charles I in January 1649,

321-637: A British identity. The bitterness caused by the Cromwellian settlement was a powerful source of Irish nationalism from the 17th century onwards. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, Charles II of England restored about a third of the confiscated land to the former landlords in the Act of Settlement 1662 , but not all, as he needed political support from former parliamentarians in England. A generation later, during

428-595: A deal with the royalists. Owen Roe O'Neill refused to join the new royalist alliance and fought a brief internal civil war with the royalists and Confederates in the summer of 1648. So alienated was O'Neill by what he considered to be a betrayal of Catholic war aims that he tried to make a separate peace with the English Parliament and was for a short time effectively an ally of the English parliamentary armies in Ireland. This

535-516: A few diehard English Royalists. From this point onwards, many Irish Catholics, including their bishops and clergy, questioned why they should accept Ormonde's leadership when his master, the King, had repudiated his alliance with them. The outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish War forced Cromwell to leave Ireland and deal with the new threat, passing command to Henry Ireton. The most formidable force left to

642-554: A huge drop in population. In the event, the much larger number of surviving poorer Catholics were not moved westwards; most of them had to fend for themselves by working for the new landowners. The Cromwellian conquest completed the British colonisation of Ireland, which was merged into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653–59. It destroyed the native Irish Catholic land-owning classes and replaced them with colonists with

749-730: A longstanding commitment to re-conquer Ireland dating back to the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Even if the Irish Confederates had not allied themselves with the Royalists, it is likely that the English Parliament would have eventually tried to invade the country to crush Catholic power there. They had sent Parliamentary forces to Ireland throughout the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (most of them under Michael Jones in 1647). They viewed Ireland as part of

856-572: A majority of the Catholic bishops proclaimed that the rebellion was a just war . On 10 May 1642, Ireland's Catholic clergy held a synod at Kilkenny . Present were the Archbishops of Armagh , Cashel and Tuam , eleven bishops or their representatives, and other dignitaries. They drafted the Confederate Oath of Association and called on all Catholics in Ireland to take the oath. Those who took

963-567: A military. It minted coins, levied taxes and set up a printing press. Confederate ambassadors were appointed and recognised in France , Spain and the Papal States , who supplied them with money and weapons. At various times, Confederate armies fought Royalists , Parliamentarians , Ulster Protestant militia and Scots Covenanters ; these controlled the Pale , parts of eastern and northern Ulster , and

1070-630: A religious life. After much prayer and with the advice of his confessor, he entered the Roman Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1636. At the request of Luke Wadding , the agent at Rome for the Irish Catholic Confederation , Pope Urban VIII sent Scarampi to assist at the Supreme Council of the Confederation in 1643. Scarampi was well received by the Irish Catholics. Wherever he went he was met by

1177-654: A secure port at which he could land his army in Ireland, and that he retained the capital city. With Admiral Robert Blake blockading the remaining Royalist fleet under Prince Rupert of the Rhine in Kinsale, Cromwell landed on 15 August with thirty-five ships filled with troops and equipment. Henry Ireton landed two days later with a further seventy-seven ships. Ormonde's troops retreated from around Dublin in disarray. They were badly demoralised by their unexpected defeat at Rathmines and were incapable of fighting another pitched battle in

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1284-519: A third of their lands. However, those who remained in Ireland throughout the Interregnum generally had their land confiscated, with prisoners of war executed or transported to penal colonies. Confederate Ireland's style of parliament was similar to the landed oligarchy Parliament of Ireland established by the Normans in 1297, but it was not based on a democratic vote. Given their large notional power base,

1391-454: Is often argued that this split within the Confederate ranks represented a split between Gaelic Irish and Old English . It is suggested that a particular reason for this was that Gaelic Irish had lost much land and power since the English conquest of Ireland and hence had become radical in their demands. However, there were members of both ethnicities on each side. For example, Phelim O'Neill ,

1498-519: The Battle of Benburb . In 1647, the Confederates suffered a string of defeats at Dungan's Hill , Cashel and Knocknanuss . This prompted them to make an agreement with the Royalists, leading to internal divisions which hampered their ability to resist a Parliamentarian invasion. In August 1649, a large English Parliamentarian army , led by Oliver Cromwell , invaded Ireland . By May 1652 it had defeated

1605-584: The Eleven Years' War . Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry , clergy and military leaders after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 , the Confederates controlled up to two-thirds of Ireland from their base in Kilkenny ; hence it is sometimes called the "Confederation of Kilkenny". The Confederates included Catholics of Gaelic and Anglo-Norman descent . They wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination within

1712-714: The Glorious Revolution , many of the Irish Catholic landed class tried to reverse the remaining Cromwellian settlement in the Williamite War in Ireland (1689–91), where they fought en masse for the Jacobites . They were defeated once again, and many lost land that had been regranted after 1662. As a result, Irish and English Catholics did not become full political citizens of the British state again until 1829 and were legally barred from buying valuable interests in land until

1819-581: The Kingdom of Ireland and greater Irish self-governance; many also wanted to roll back the plantations of Ireland . Most Confederates professed loyalty to Charles I of England in the belief they could reach a lasting settlement in return for helping defeat his opponents in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Its institutions included a legislative body known as the General Assembly, an executive or Supreme Council, and

1926-501: The Papists Act 1778 . The Cromwellian government also contributed to the decline and eventual extinction of wolves in Ireland , through such methods as deforestation and anti-wolf legislation, the latter including bounties paid out for killing wolves. Confederate Ireland Confederate Ireland , also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation , was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1652, during

2033-516: The Plantations of Ireland , since this was the only way to retrieve their ancestral lands; however, they were far less united in their demands than the Old English and it has been argued they formed a pressure group, rather than a distinct political philosophy. In September 1643, the Confederates negotiated a " cessation " with James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde , Royalist Governor of Ireland , which

2140-473: The "peace party". The Supreme Council were arrested and the General Assembly voted to reject the deal. After the Confederates rejected the peace deal, Ormonde handed Dublin over to a parliamentarian army under Michael Jones . The Confederates now tried to eliminate the remaining parliamentarian outposts in Dublin and Cork , but in 1647 suffered a series of military disasters. First, Thomas Preston's Leinster army

2247-708: The 1640s. In addition, the English Parliament had a financial imperative to invade Ireland to confiscate land there in order to repay its creditors. The Parliament had raised loans of £10 million under the Adventurers' Act to subdue Ireland since 1642, on the basis that its creditors would be repaid with land confiscated from Irish Catholic rebels. To repay these loans, it would be necessary to conquer Ireland and confiscate such land. The Parliamentarians also had internal political reasons to send forces to Ireland. Army mutinies at Banbury and Bishopsgate in April and May 1649 were unsettling

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2354-588: The 1660 Stuart Restoration . Thereafter, Catholics were barred from most public office, although not from the Irish Parliament . The Parliamentarian campaign in Ireland was the most ruthless of the Civil War period. In particular, Cromwell's actions at Drogheda and Wexford earned him a reputation for cruelty. Cromwell's critics point to his response to a plea by Catholic Bishops to the Irish Catholic people to resist him in which he states that although his intention

2461-1017: The Caribbean where they subsequently comprised a substantial portion of certain Caribbean colony populations in the late 17th century. In Barbados, some of their descendants are known as Redlegs . Eventually, the guerrilla war was ended when the Parliamentarians published surrender terms in 1652 allowing Irish troops to go abroad to serve in foreign armies not at war with the Commonwealth of England. Most went to France or Spain. The largest Irish guerrilla forces under John Fitzpatrick (in Leinster, Edmund O'Dwyer (in Munster) and Edmund Daly (in Connacht) surrendered in 1652, under terms signed at Kilkenny that May. However, up to 11,000 men, mostly in Ulster , were still thought to be in

2568-582: The Catholic population from 1650, when large areas of the country still resisted the Parliamentary Army. These tactics included the wholesale burning of crops, forced population movement, and killing of civilians. One modern estimate estimated that 200,000 were killed, of which 137,000 were civilians. In addition, the whole post-war Cromwellian settlement of Ireland has been characterised by historians such as Mark Levene and Alan Axelrod as ethnic cleansing , in that it sought to remove Irish Catholics from

2675-521: The Catholic religion, a commitment to repealing Poyning's Law (and therefore to Irish self-government), recognition of lands taken by Irish Catholics during the war, and a commitment to a partial reversal of the Plantation of Ulster . In addition, there was to be an Act of Oblivion, or amnesty for all acts committed during the 1641 rebellion and Confederate wars – in particular the killings of British Protestant settlers in 1641 – combined with no disbanding of

2782-468: The Confederacy's secretary, Richard Bellings . He took with him a large quantity of arms and military supplies and a very large sum of money. These supplies meant that Rinuccini had a big influence on the Confederates' internal politics and he was backed by the more militant Confederates such as Owen Roe O'Neill . At Kilkenny Rinuccini was received with great honours, asserting that the object of his mission

2889-525: The Confederate Catholic general Thomas Preston took Maynooth in 1647, he hanged its Catholic defenders as apostates . Nevertheless, the 1649–1653 campaign remains notorious in Irish popular memory as it was responsible for a huge death toll among the Irish population. The main reason for this was the counter-guerrilla tactics used by such commanders as Henry Ireton, John Hewson and Edmund Ludlow against

2996-463: The Confederate armies. However, Charles granted these terms only out of desperation and later repudiated them. Under the terms of the agreement, the Confederation was to dissolve itself, place its troops under royalist commanders and accept English royalist troops. Inchiquin also defected from the Parliament and rejoined the royalists in Ireland. However, many of the Irish Catholics continued to reject

3103-560: The Confederates allied with their former Royalist opponents against the newly established Commonwealth of England . Cromwell landed near Dublin in August 1649 with an expeditionary force, and by the end of 1650 the Confederacy had been defeated, although sporadic guerrilla warfare continued until 1653. The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 barred Catholics from most public offices and confiscated large amounts of their land, much of which

3210-620: The Confederates and to the king – as did the Laggan Army of the Scottish settlers living in Ulster. The Jacobite historian Thomas Carte mentioned the financial terms of the Cessation, whereby the Confederates undertook to pay Ormonde £30,000 in stages up to May 1644, half in cash and half in live cattle. In 1644 the Confederates sent around 1,500 men under Alasdair MacColla to Scotland to support

3317-429: The Confederates ultimately failed to manage and reorganise Ireland so as to defend the interests of Irish Catholics. The Irish Confederate Wars and the ensuing Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–53) caused massive loss of life and ended with the confiscation of almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the 1650s, though some was re-granted in the 1660s. The end of the period cemented the English colonisation of Ireland in

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3424-515: The Confederates were similar to those of Sir Phelim O'Neill , the leader of the early stages of the rebellion in Ulster, who issued the Proclamation of Dungannon in October 1641. On 17 March 1642, these nobles signed the "Catholic Remonstrance" issued at Trim, County Meath that was addressed to King Charles I. On 22 March, at a synod in nearby Kells chaired by Hugh O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh ,

3531-517: The Confederates' Supreme Council in 1643. Pope Innocent X strongly supported Confederate Ireland, over the objections of Cardinal Mazarin and the Queen, Henrietta Maria , who had moved to Paris in 1644. Innocent received the Confederation's envoy in February 1645 and resolved to send a nuncio extraordinary to Ireland, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini , archbishop of Fermo , who embarked from La Rochelle with

3638-526: The Confederate–Royalist alliance, although Confederate soldiers continued a guerrilla warfare campaign for a further year. The Irish Catholic Confederation was formed in the aftermath of the 1641 rebellion , both to control the popular uprising and to organise an Irish Catholic war effort against the remaining English and Scottish armies in Ireland. It was hoped that by doing this, the Irish Catholics could hold off an English or Scottish re-conquest of

3745-554: The Confederation. The synod sent agents to France, Spain and Italy to gain support, gather funds and weapons, and recruit Irishmen serving in foreign armies. Lord Mountgarret was appointed president of the Confederate Supreme Council, and a General Assembly was fixed for October that year. The first Confederate General Assembly was held in Kilkenny on 24 October 1642, where it set up a provisional government . The Assembly

3852-510: The Council, addressed to Scarampi a statement of the reasons in favour of a cessation of hostilities . Scarampi immediately gave an answer showing why the war should be continued, and that the English desired the cessation of hostilities solely to relieve their present necessities. The author of "Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland" says that Scarampi was a "verie apt and understandinge man, and

3959-659: The Earl of Inchiquin and Parliamentarian commander in Cork, took Cashel in 1647, he slaughtered the garrison and Catholic clergy there (including Theobald Stapleton ), earning the nickname "Murrough of the Burnings". Inchiquin switched allegiances in 1648, becoming a commander of the Royalist forces. After such battles as Dungans Hill and Scarrifholis , English Parliamentarian forces executed thousands of their Irish Catholic prisoners. Similarly, when

4066-644: The English Protestant settlers in Ireland, with English Parliamentarian pamphlets claiming that over 200,000 Protestants had died. In turn, this was used as justification by English Parliamentary and Scottish Covenant forces to take vengeance on the Irish Catholic population. A Parliamentary tract of 1655 argued that, "the whole Irish nation, consisting of gentry, clergy and commonality are engaged as one nation in this quarrel, to root out and extirpate all English Protestants from amongst them". Atrocities were subsequently committed by all sides. When Murrough O'Brien ,

4173-457: The English presence in Ireland. They wanted an independent, Catholic Ireland, with the English and Scottish settlers expelled permanently. Many of the militants were most concerned with recovering ancestral lands their families had lost in the plantations. After inconclusive skirmishing with the Confederates, Owen Roe O'Neill retreated to Ulster and did not rejoin his former comrades until Cromwell 's invasion of 1649. This infighting fatally hampered

4280-563: The Gaelic Irish instigator of the Rebellion of 1641, sided with the moderates, whereas the predominantly Old English south Wexford area rejected the peace. The Catholic clergy were also split over the issue. The real significance of the split was between those landed gentry who were prepared to compromise with the royalists as long as their lands and civil rights were guaranteed, and those, such as Owen Roe O'Neill, who wanted to completely overturn

4387-681: The Irish Catholics and royalists. The pre-war Irish Catholic land-owning class was all but destroyed in this period, as were the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the senior members of the Confederation spent the Cromwellian period in exile in France, with the English Royalist Court. After the Restoration , those Confederates who had promoted alliance with the Royalists found themselves in favour and on average recovered about

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4494-684: The Irish Confederacy, and agreed the Treaty of Breda with the Covenanter government in Scotland. This totally undermined Ormonde's position as head of a Royalist coalition in Ireland. Cromwell published generous surrender terms for Protestant Royalists in Ireland and many of them either capitulated or went over to the Parliamentarian side. This left in the field only the remaining Irish Catholic armies and

4601-560: The Irish and Royalists was the 6,000-strong army of Ulster, formerly commanded by Owen Roe O'Neill , who died in 1649. However the army was now commanded by an inexperienced Catholic bishop named Heber MacMahon . The Ulster Army met a Parliamentarian army commanded by Charles Coote, at the Battle of Scarrifholis in County Donegal in June 1650. The Ulster army was routed and as many as 2,000 of its men were killed. In addition, MacMahon and most of

4708-603: The Irish word tóraí meaning "pursuer" or "outlaw") operated from difficult terrain such as the Bog of Allen , the Wicklow Mountains and the drumlin country in the north midlands, and within months made the countryside extremely dangerous for all except large parties of Parliamentarian troops. Ireton mounted a punitive expedition to the Wicklow mountains in 1650 to try to put down the tories there, but without success. By early 1651, it

4815-436: The King's behalf, which promised further concessions to Irish Catholics in the future. Being a very wealthy English Catholic royalist, Glamorgan was sent to Ireland in late June 1645 with secret orders from Charles to agree to the Confederates' demands in return for an Irish Catholic army that would fight for the King in England. The plan would be anathema to most English Protestants at the time. A copy of Glamorgan's secret orders

4922-409: The New Model Army, and the soldiers' demands would probably increase if they were left idle. Finally, for some Parliamentarians, the war in Ireland was a religious war. Cromwell and much of his army were Puritans who considered all Roman Catholics to be heretics, and so for them the conquest was partly a crusade. The Irish Confederates had been supplied with arms and money by the Papacy and had welcomed

5029-422: The Parliament up to 1648 and resented fighting with the Confederates. Their mutiny handed Cork and most of Munster to Cromwell and they defeated the local Irish garrison at the Battle of Macroom . The Irish and Royalist forces retreated behind the River Shannon into Connacht or (in the case of the remaining Munster forces) into the fastness of County Kerry . In May 1650, Charles II repudiated his alliance with

5136-470: The Rebellion, an equal share in government positions and that these concessions be ratified by a post-war Parliament. In terms of religion, they insisted on toleration of Catholicism and in June 1645 added the stipulation that the Catholic clergy should retain all properties taken from the Church of Ireland since 1641. In reality, these were almost impossible to achieve, since they were asking Charles to make concessions he had refused to make to Parliament, while

5243-432: The River Shannon into the western province of Connacht in October 1650. An Irish army under Clanricarde had attempted to stop them but this was surprised and routed at the Battle of Meelick Island . Ormonde was discredited by the constant stream of defeats for the Irish and Royalist forces and no longer had the confidence of the men he commanded, particularly the Irish Confederates. He fled for France in December 1650 and

5350-450: The Supreme Council of the Confederates had come to an agreement with Ormonde, signed on 28 March 1646. Under its terms Catholics would be allowed to serve in public office and to found schools; there were also verbal promises of future concessions on religious toleration. There was an amnesty for acts committed in the Rebellion of 1641 and a guarantee against further seizure of Irish Catholic rebels' land by acts of attainder . However, there

5457-447: The Ulster Army's officers were either killed at the battle or captured and executed after it. This eliminated the last strong field army opposing the Parliamentarians in Ireland and secured for them the northern province of Ulster. Coote's army, despite suffering heavy losses at the Siege of Charlemont , the last Catholic stronghold in the north, was now free to march south and invade the west coast of Ireland. The Parliamentarians crossed

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5564-428: The army and to provide land to those who had subsidised the war under the Adventurers Act back in 1640. Under the 1640 Adventurers Act, lenders were paid in confiscated estates, while Parliamentarian soldiers who served there were often compensated with land rather than wages. Although many of these simply sold their grants, the net result was the percentage of land owned by Irish Catholics fell from 60% in 1641 to 20% by

5671-417: The bishops, clergy, and nobility. He was received with military honours and firing of canon. On his arrival in Kilkenny , he immediately saw that the danger that threatened the existence of the Confederation was dissension amongst its members. He made an earnest appeal to the Council to avoid all dissension and to make no compromise with the enemies of their religion and country. Richard Bellings , Secretary of

5778-436: The case of Drogheda and Wexford no surrender agreement had been negotiated, and by the rules of continental siege warfare prevalent in the mid-17th century, this meant no quarter would be given; thus it can be argued that Cromwell's attitude had not changed. Ormonde's Royalists still held most of Munster , but were outflanked by a mutiny of their own garrison in Cork . The British Protestant troops there had been fighting for

5885-449: The city and deprive the Parliamentarians of a port in which they could land. Jones, however, launched a surprise attack on the Royalists while they were deploying on 2 August, putting them to flight. Jones claimed to have killed around 4,000 Royalist or Confederate soldiers and taken 2,517 prisoners. Oliver Cromwell called the battle "an astonishing mercy, so great and seasonable that we are like them that dreamed", as it meant that he had

5992-441: The country's pre-war population. Of these, he estimated that over 400,000 were Catholics, 167,000 killed directly by war or famine, and the remainder by war-related disease. Modern estimates put the toll at closer to 20%. In addition, some fifty thousand Irish people, including prisoners of war, were sold as indentured servants under the English Commonwealth regime. They were often sent to the English colonies in North America and

6099-441: The country. The initiative for the Confederation came from a Catholic bishop, Nicholas French , and a lawyer named Nicholas Plunkett . They put forth their proposals for a government to Irish Catholic nobles such as Viscount Gormanston , Viscount Mountgarret , Viscount Muskerry and the Baron of Navan . These men would commit their own armed forces to the Confederation and persuaded other rebels to join it. The declared aims of

6206-404: The differences between the two groups, there are significant variations in terms of political, religious and economic objectives. In general, the Old English wanted to regain the power and influence they had lost under the Tudors and although they were sincere Catholics, did not support establishing the church as the state religion . Gaelic Irish leaders such as Owen Roe O'Neill wanted to reverse

6313-443: The dignity of archbishop and Apostolic nuncio , and the bishops of Ireland entreated him to accept the Archbishopric of Tuam , which was vacant at the time. He declined all honours and refused to walk under the canopy prepared for him in Waterford . He was present with the Confederate forces at the siege of Duncannon , and when the fort was taken on the eve of St. Patrick , he ordered a chapel to be immediately erected in honour of

6420-480: The eastern part of the country. Others such as the historical writer Tim Pat Coogan have described the actions of Cromwell and his subordinates as genocide. Colonial studies professor Katie Kane suggested that the invasion was comparable to the Native American genocide , drawing parallels between that event and the English treatment of Irish civilians. The aftermath of the Cromwellian campaign and settlement saw extensive dispossession of landowners who were Catholic, and

6527-406: The end of organised resistance to the Cromwellian conquest, but fighting continued as small units of Irish troops launched guerrilla attacks on the Parliamentarians. The guerrilla phase of the war had been going since late 1650 and at the end of 1651, despite the defeat of the main Irish or Royalist forces, there were still estimated to be 30,000 men in arms against the Parliamentarians. Tories (from

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6634-404: The fact that his troops had suffered heavy casualties attacking the former two, Cromwell respected surrender terms which guaranteed the lives and property of the townspeople and the evacuation of armed Irish troops who were defending them. The change in attitude on the part of the Parliamentarian commander may have been a recognition that excessive cruelty was prolonging Irish resistance. However, in

6741-449: The field at the end of the year. The last Irish and Royalist forces (the remnants of the Confederate's Ulster Army, led by Philip O'Reilly) formally surrendered at Cloughoughter in County Cavan on 27 April 1653. The English Parliament then declared the Irish rebellion subdued on 27 September 1653. However, low-level guerrilla warfare continued for the remainder of the decade and was accompanied by widespread lawlessness. Undoubtedly some of

6848-448: The garrison and Catholic priests were killed. Many civilians also died in the sack. Aston was beaten to death by the Roundheads with his own wooden leg. The massacre of the garrison in Drogheda, including some after they had surrendered and some who had sheltered in a church, was received with horror in Ireland and is used today as an example of Cromwell's extreme cruelty. Having taken Drogheda, Cromwell took most of his army south to secure

6955-410: The goods of enemies". This tactic had succeeded in the Nine Years' War . This phase of the war was by far the most costly in terms of civilian loss of life. The combination of warfare, famine and plague caused a huge mortality among the Irish population. William Petty estimated (in the 1655–56 Down Survey ) that the death toll of the wars in Ireland since 1641 was over 618,000 people, or about 40% of

7062-453: The majority of the General Assembly. Nor was the papal nuncio Rinuccini party to the treaty, which left untouched the objects of his mission; he had induced nine of the Irish bishops to sign a protest against any arrangement with Ormonde or the king that would not guarantee the maintenance of the Catholic religion. Many believed the Supreme Council were unreliable since many of them were related to Ormonde or otherwise bound to him. Besides, it

7169-401: The model of their government". The Assembly elected an executive known as the Supreme Council. The first Supreme Council was elected on or about 14 November. It consisted of 24 members, 12 of whom were to abide always in Kilkenny or wherever else they deemed fitting. The members of the first Supreme Council were as follows: James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven , representing the Crown,

7276-425: The name of Scarampi be affectionately remembered and cherished". After receiving the Apostolic nuncio, Rinuccini , he set out on his journey to Rome. He was accompanied by five Irish youths destined for the priesthood, whom he wished to educate and support at his own expense in Rome. Among these youths was Oliver Plunkett , later the martyr Archbishop of Armagh . On his arrival in Rome, he was thanked and praised by

7383-473: The newly established Commonwealth of England took steps to regain control of Ireland . The first and most pressing reason was an alliance signed in 1649 between the Irish Confederate Catholics and Charles II , proclaimed King of Ireland in January 1649. This allowed for Royalist troops to be sent to Ireland and put the Irish Confederate Catholic troops under the command of Royalist officers led by James Butler, Earl of Ormonde . Secondly, Parliament also had

7490-520: The oath swore allegiance to Charles I and vowed to obey all orders and decrees made by the "Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholics". The rebels henceforth became known as Confederates. The synod re-affirmed that the rebellion was a "just war". It called for the creation of a council (made up of clergy and nobility) for each province , which would be overseen by a national council for the whole island. It vowed to punish misdeeds by Confederate soldiers and to excommunicate any Catholic who fought against

7597-631: The other hand, the massacres of the defenders of Drogheda and Wexford prolonged resistance elsewhere, as they convinced many Irish Catholics that they would be killed even if they surrendered. Such towns as Waterford, Duncannon, Clonmel, Limerick and Galway only surrendered after determined resistance. Cromwell was unable to take Waterford or Duncannon and the New Model Army had to retire to winter quarters, where many of its men died of disease, especially typhoid and dysentery. The port city of Waterford and Duncannon town eventually surrendered after prolonged sieges in 1650. The following spring, Cromwell mopped up

7704-586: The papal legate Pierfrancesco Scarampi and later the Papal Nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini in 1643–49. By the end of the period, known as Confederate Ireland, in 1649 the only remaining Parliamentarian outpost in Ireland was in Dublin, under the command of Colonel Jones. A combined Royalist and Confederate force under the Marquess of Ormonde gathered at Rathmines, south of Dublin, to take

7811-676: The pope for the great work he had done in Ireland. When the black plague broke out in Rome in 1656, he asked to be allowed to attend the sick in the lazaretto . He caught the sickness and died. By special permission, he was buried in the Basilica of Santi Nereo e Achilleo on the Appian Way , the titular church of Cardinal Baronius. Pope Benedict XIV commanded the Master of the Sacred Palace to make known to

7918-581: The ports of Wexford, Waterford and Duncannon. Wexford was the scene of another infamous atrocity: the Sack of Wexford , when Parliamentarian troops broke into the town while negotiations for its surrender were ongoing, and sacked it, killing about 2,000 soldiers and 1,500 townspeople and burning much of the town. The Royalist commander Ormonde thought that the terror of Cromwell's army had a paralysing effect on his forces. Towns like New Ross and Carlow subsequently surrendered on terms when besieged by Cromwell's forces. On

8025-504: The preparations of the Confederate-royalist alliance to repel the invasion of parliamentarian New Model Army . Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649 to crush the new alliance of Irish Confederates and royalists. The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland was the bloodiest warfare that had ever occurred in the country and was accompanied by plague and famine . Kilkenny fell after a short siege in 1650. It ended in total defeat for

8132-451: The region around Cork . Charles authorised secret negotiations which in September 1643 resulted in a Confederate–Royalist ceasefire and led to further talks, most of which proved unsuccessful. In 1644, a Confederate military expedition landed in Scotland to help Royalists there. The Confederates continued to fight the Parliamentarians in Ireland, and decisively defeated the Covenanter army in

8239-502: The remaining walled towns in Ireland's southeast—notably the Confederate capital of Kilkenny, which surrendered on terms . The New Model Army met its only serious reverse in Ireland at the Siege of Clonmel , where its attacks on the town's defences were repulsed at a cost of up to 2,000 men. The town nevertheless surrendered the following day. Cromwell's treatment of Kilkenny and Clonmel is in contrast to that of Drogheda and Wexford . Despite

8346-611: The royalists there under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose against the Covenanters, sparking a Civil War – their only intervention on the Royalist side in the civil wars in Great Britain. The Confederates received modest subsidies from the monarchies of France and Spain, who wanted to recruit troops in Ireland but their main continental support came from the Papacy. Pope Urban VIII sent Pierfrancesco Scarampi to liaise with and help

8453-498: The saint and celebrated the first Mass . On 5 May 1645, he was recalled to Rome by Pope Innocent X . In taking leave of the General Assembly, he thanked all the members for their kindness to him, and again urged them to be firmly united. The President of the Assembly, after referring to all the fatigues that Scarampi had endured for the Irish cause, said "that as long as the name of the Catholic religion remained in Ireland, so long would

8560-446: The short term. As a result, Ormonde hoped to hold the walled towns on Ireland's east coast to hold up the Cromwellian advance until the winter, when he hoped that "Colonel Hunger and Major Sickness" (i.e. hunger and disease) would deplete their ranks. Upon landing, Cromwell proceeded to take the other port cities on Ireland's east coast, to facilitate the efficient landing of supplies and reinforcements from England. The first town to fall

8667-511: The so-called Cromwellian Settlement . 52°39′N 7°15′W  /  52.650°N 7.250°W  / 52.650; -7.250 Pierfrancesco Scarampi Scarampi was born into the noble Scarampi family in the Marquisate of Montferrat , today a part of Piedmont , in 1596. He was destined by his parents for a military career, but during a visit to the Roman Court, he felt called to

8774-513: The southeastern ports. He sent a detachment of 5,000 men north under Robert Venables to take eastern Ulster from the remnants of a Scottish Covenanter army that had landed there in 1642. They defeated the Scots at the Battle of Lisnagarvey (6 December 1649) and linked up with a Parliamentarian army composed of English settlers based around Derry in western Ulster, which was commanded by Charles Coote . The New Model Army then marched south to secure

8881-492: The strongly fortified cities and instead blockaded them until a combination of hunger and disease forced them to surrender. An Irish force from County Kerry attempted to relieve Limerick from the south but was intercepted and routed at the Battle of Knocknaclashy . Limerick fell in 1651 and Galway the following year. Disease, however, killed indiscriminately and Ireton, along with thousands of Parliamentarian troops, died of plague outside Limerick in 1651. The fall of Galway saw

8988-487: The territory governed by right by the Kingdom of England and only temporarily out of its control since the Rebellion of 1641. Many Parliamentarians wished to punish the Irish for alleged atrocities supposedly committed against the mainly Scottish Protestant settlers during the 1641 Uprising. Furthermore, some Irish towns (notably Wexford and Waterford) had acted as bases from which privateers had attacked English shipping throughout

9095-650: The time the killings at Drogheda and Wexford were considered atrocities. They cite such sources as Edmund Ludlow , the Parliamentarian commander in Ireland after Ireton's death, who wrote that the tactics used by Cromwell at Drogheda showed "extraordinary severity". Cromwell's actions in Ireland occurred in the context of a mutually cruel war. In 1641–42 Irish insurgents in Ulster killed some 4,000 Protestant settlers who had settled on land confiscated from their former Catholic owners. These events were magnified in Protestant propaganda as an attempt by Irish Catholics to exterminate

9202-446: The tories were simple brigands , whereas others were politically motivated. The Cromwellians distinguished in their rewards for information or capture of outlaws between "private tories" and "public tories". The English Parliament imposed an extremely harsh settlement on the Irish population, driven by antipathy to the Catholic religion, and to punish Irish Catholics for the rebellion of 1641. Also, Parliament needed to raise money to pay

9309-459: The vast majority of his advisors opposed them on the grounds that doing so would fatally undermine the Royalist cause in England and Scotland. The Confederate position was further weakened by divisions between the Old English, mostly descendants of those who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1172, and the native Gaelic Irish. While many historians dispute the extent of

9416-473: The war would have to be returned to Protestant hands and the public practice of Catholicism was not guaranteed. In return for the concessions that were made Irish troops would be sent to England to fight for the royalists in the English Civil War . However, the terms agreed were not acceptable to either the Catholic clergy, the Irish military commanders – notably Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston – or

9523-453: The wings of a dove. On the left of the cross was the harp , and on the right the crown." The motto on the seal was Pro Deo, Rege, et Patria, Hiberni Unanimes ( For God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is United ). A National Treasury, a mint for making coins, and a press for printing proclamations were set up in Kilkenny. This first General Assembly sat until 9 January 1643. The last piece of legislation agreed by Charles I and Parliament

9630-425: Was given to Protestant settlers . These proved a continuing source of grievance, while the brutality of conquest means Cromwell remains a deeply reviled figure in Ireland. How far he was personally responsible for the atrocities is still debated; some historians suggest his actions were within what were then viewed as accepted rules of war, while others disagree. Following the execution of Charles I in January 1649,

9737-406: Was Drogheda, about 50 km north of Dublin. Drogheda was garrisoned by a regiment of 3,000 English Royalist and Irish Confederate soldiers, commanded by Arthur Aston . After a week-long siege, Cromwell's forces breached the walls protecting the town. Aston refused Cromwell's request that he surrender. In the ensuing battle for the town, Cromwell ordered that no quarter be given, and the majority of

9844-512: Was a parliament in all but name. Present at the first Assembly were 14 Lords Temporal and 11 Lords Spiritual from the Parliament of Ireland , along with 226 commoners. The Confederate's constitution was written by a Galway lawyer named Patrick D'Arcy . The Assembly resolved that each county should have a council, overseen by a provincial council made up of two representatives from each county council. The Assembly agreed orders "to be observed as

9951-551: Was destroyed by Jones's parliamentarians at the Battle of Dungan's Hill in County Meath . Then, less than three months later, the Confederates' Munster army met a similar fate at the hands of Inchiquin's parliamentarian forces at the battle of Knocknanauss . These setbacks made most Confederates much more eager to come to reach an agreement with the royalists and negotiations were re-opened. The Supreme Council received generous terms from Charles I and Ormonde, including toleration of

10058-617: Was disastrous for the wider aims of the Confederacy, as it coincided with the outbreak of the second civil war in England. The Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini, endeavoured to uphold Owen Roe O'Neill by excommunicating all who in May 1648 took part in the Inchiquin Truce with the Royalists; but he could not get the Irish Catholic Bishops to agree on the matter. On 23 February 1649, he embarked at Galway, in his own frigate, to return to Rome. It

10165-405: Was famine throughout much of Ireland, aggravated by an outbreak of bubonic plague . As the guerrilla war ground on, the Parliamentarians, as of April 1651, designated areas such as County Wicklow and much of the south of the country as what would now be called free-fire zones, where anyone found would be, "taken slain and destroyed as enemies and their cattle and good shall be taken or spoiled as

10272-411: Was named head general, as they thought he would sooner or later join the Confederates. The Supreme Council issued an order to raise £30,000 and a levy of 31,700 men in Leinster who were to be trained at once. The Supreme Council also made its own seal, described as follows: "'Twas circular, and in its centre was a large cross, the base of which rested on a flaming heart, while its apex was overlapped by

10379-541: Was no reversal of Poynings' Law , which meant that any legislation due to be presented to the Parliament of Ireland must first be approved by the English Privy Council, no reversal of the Protestant majority in the Irish House of Commons and no reversal of the main plantations, or colonisation , in Ulster and Munster. Moreover, regarding the religious articles of the treaty, all churches taken over by Catholics in

10486-674: Was not to "massacre, banish and destroy the Catholic inhabitants", if they did resist "I hope to be free from the misery and desolation, blood and ruin that shall befall them, and shall rejoice to exercise the utmost severity against them". Despite attempts by some to argue what happened at Drogheda was not unusual by the standards of 17th century siege warfare, this has been largely rejected by other scholars. One historian argues "the Drogheda massacre does stand out for its mercilessness,...ruthlessness and calculation, for its combination of hot- and cold-bloodiness". Moreover, other critics point out that at

10593-561: Was pointed out that the English Civil War had already been decided in the English Parliament's favour and that sending Irish troops to the royalists would be a futile sacrifice. On the other hand, many felt after O'Neill's Ulster army defeated the Scots at the battle of Benburb in June 1646 that the Confederates were in a position to re-conquer all of Ireland. Furthermore, those who opposed the peace were backed, both spiritually and financially, by Rinuccini, who threatened to excommunicate

10700-639: Was publicised by the Long Parliament , and to preserve his support in Protestant England the King had to deny his link and even proclaimed Glamorgan as a traitor. To deter the use of Confederate Irish soldiers in England the Long Parliament passed the Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish in October 1644. The nuncio considered himself the virtual head of the Confederate Catholic party in Ireland. In 1646

10807-426: Was receaved with much honour. This man in a shorte time became soe learned in the petegrees of the respective Irish families of Ireland, that it proved his witt and diligence, and allsoe soe well obsearved that all the proceedings of both ancient and recent Irish, that to an ince, he knewe whoe best and worst beheaved himself in the whole kingdome." The Supreme Council decided to supplicate the pope to raise Scarampi to

10914-557: Was replaced as commander by an Irish nobleman, Ulick Burke of Clanricarde. The Irish and Royalist forces were penned into the area west of the River Shannon and placed their last hope on defending the strongly walled cities of Limerick and Galway on Ireland's west coast. These cities had built extensive modern defences and could not be taken by a straightforward assault as at Drogheda or Wexford. Ireton besieged Limerick while Charles Coote surrounded Galway, but they were unable to take

11021-665: Was reported that no English supply convoys were safe if they travelled more than two miles outside a military base. In response, the Parliamentarians destroyed food supplies and forcibly evicted civilians who were thought to be helping the Tories. John Hewson systematically destroyed food stocks in counties Wicklow and County Kildare , Hardress Waller did likewise in the Burren in County Clare , as did Colonel Cook in County Wexford . The result

11128-449: Was signed at Jigginstown, near Naas . This ended hostilities ceased between the Confederates and Ormonde's royalist army based in Dublin . However, Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin , a rare Gaelic Irish Protestant who commanded the Royalist garrison of Cork , objected to the ceasefire and declared his allegiance to Parliament in England. The Scottish Covenanters had also landed an army in Ulster in 1642, which remained hostile to

11235-702: Was the 1642 Adventurers' Act , which provided funds to suppress the 1641 Rebellion by confiscating "rebel" lands. In order to keep their estates, in the context of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms the Confederates claimed to be Royalists loyal to the king, which made reaching an agreement with him a matter of primary importance. As a result, the Confederacy never claimed to be an independent government and since only Charles could legally call Parliament , their General Assembly never claimed to be one, although this did not prevent it enacting legislation. Confederate political demands included Irish self-government, secure tenure of their lands, amnesty for any acts committed during

11342-536: Was the final member of the Supreme Council. The Supreme Council would have power over all military generals, military officers and civil magistrates. Its first act was to name the generals who were to command Confederate forces: Owen Roe O'Neill was to command the Ulster forces, Thomas Preston the Leinster forces, Garret Barry the Munster forces and John Burke the Connacht forces. Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde

11449-410: Was to sustain the King, but above all to help the Catholic people of Ireland in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property, but not any former monastic property. The Supreme Council put great hope in a secret treaty they had concluded with Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester , under his new title of Earl of Glamorgan, on

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