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Ulster filled with Troops -
Sir Phelim burns Armagh - "Colkitto" MacDonnell - The Rebellion dying
out - Revived by Arrival of Owen Roe O'Neill - The Nature of the
War - Independence of the Scots - Expeditions of the English - Lord
Leven arrives with Reinforcements - Thomas Preston lands in the South
with Men and Arms - Leven's Ineffective Correspondence - He leaves Munro
in command and returns to Scotland - O'Neill's Camp surprised - Lord
Moore killed - A Cessation of Hostilities.
Ulster now was filled
with troops. By the end of April there were 19,000 regulars and
volunteers in garrison or in the field. Newry having been taken by
Munro, and Dundalk by Tichborne, Magennis was obliged to abandon Down,
and MacMahon Monaghan. Sir William Cole, who was the first to apprise
the Government of the approaching danger, held Enniskillen throughout,
while Captain Folliott held Bally- shannon. Sir William and Sir Robert
Stewart, at the head of a daily increasing army, held undisputed sway
over a wide stretch of country comprising the major portions of Counties
Tyrone and Donegal. Londonderry and Coleraine also held their own, while
Manor Hamilton, in the hands of Sir Frederick Hamilton, was in safe
keeping.
Sir Phelim O'Neill, in
desperation at the approach of the Scots, burned Armagh, "the cathedral
with its steeple and with its bells, organ, and glass windows, and the
whole city, with the fine library". In a severe action with Sir Robert
and Sir William Stewart, notwithstanding the fact that both were
professional soldiers, O'Neill was more fortunate than usual, a fact
which perhaps may be attributed to the presence on the occasion of Sir
Alexander MacColl MacDonnell, the famous Colkitto of the Irish and
Scottish wars, who was considered by the Earl of Leven to be one of the
most formidable leaders of the Irish. In an engagement in June with the
same antagonists Sir Phelim suffered a severe reverse, his followers
being put to flight with a loss of 500 slain, many wounded, and a large
number of prisoners. The English in Ulster urged upon Munro the policy
of following up this victory, and asked for assistance to that end; but
the Scottish general refused aid, and the English, provoked thereby,
attempted to carry on the war without Scottish help. But orders came
from the Earl of Leven putting a stop to all proceedings until he should
appear on the scene of action himself; and, it having been arranged when
the treaty with the Scots was concluded that Scottish generals were to
have sole conduct of the war, there was an immediate cessation of
hostilities. The rebellion in Ulster had almost collapsed before the end
of the year. The thousands who had rallied round the standard of Sir
Phelim O'Neill were gradually reduced to a number of weak and
disorganized bands of armed men seeking refuge in the woods. The English
garrisons scoured the surrounding country, meeting with little
opposition; where they did meet it they gave no quarter. Sir William
Cole of Enniskillen stated that some 7000 of the rebels in his immediate
neighbourhood had died from want and exposure. The ill success which
continued to dog the steps of the insurgents must largely be attributed
to the fact that they were without a leader to whom the profession of
arms was familiar. Sir Phelim O'Neill was not lacking in courage, but
the science of warfare as well as personal valour is needed in the
field, and O'Neill was ignorant of the very rudiments of all that is
required in a military commander. As a leader he was a failure, for he
possessed neither the requisite knowledge of tactics nor the personal
magnetism which makes men blindly follow their leader even "into the
mouth of hell", and wildly fling themselves into the arms of death until
The foeman's line is
broke,
And all the war is rolled in smoke.
In July, when Munro began
to show some signs of activity and a renewal of hostilities was
expected, a council of the Irish confederates was held, at which it was
proposed to abandon a hopeless cause, and seek refuge on the Continent
or in the Scottish Highlands. But at this moment, when the national
cause seemed to be lost, when the Celtic population in Ulster was
meditating wholesale emigration, "a word of magic effect was whispered
from the sea-coast to the interior" Colonel Owen Roe O'Neill had arrived
off Donegal with a single ship, a single company of veterans, 100
officers, some arms, and a large quantity of ammunition. The flagging
hopes of the Irish rose once more.
Owen MacArt, better known
as Owen Roe O'Neill, was a son of Art MacBaron, and therefore a nephew
of Hugh O'Neill, the great Earl of Tyrone. In Luke Wadding's list,
compiled about 1639, his name appears as " Art O'Neill", with the rank
of captain, which he held in Henry O'Neill's Irish regimtnt. After the
flight of the Earls he was present when Tyrone and his son Henry met at
Douai. In 1633 he appears to have been colonel of the regiment. On the
death of John O'Neill, titular Earl of Tyrone, in July, 1640, a cipher
code was established between Sir Phelim in Ulster and Owen Roe in
Flanders, the latter expressing his sympathy with Sir Phelim's projects
and holding out hopes of aid from Cardinal Richelieu. When he heard of
O'Connolly's having become informer "he was in a great rage", "and he
said he wondered how or where that villain should live, for if he were
in Ireland, sure they would pull him in pieces there; and if he lived in
England there were footmen and other Irishmen enough to kill him".
Owen Roe O'Neill landed
at Doe Castle, on the northern shores of Donegal, on 3ist of July, 1642,
and sent his ship, with two others he had captured at sea, back to
Flanders for reinforcements. Sir Phelim, with 1500 men, went to receive
his kinsman, who proceeded by Ballyshannon to Charlemont, meeting with
no opposition on the way. A general meeting of the heads of the various
clans was held at Clones, at which Sir Phelim resigned the command of
the Catholic army of Ulster, and was " nominated President of Ulster",
Owen Roe being elected general-in-chief of the Catholic forces. He at
once set about organizing an army. Possessed of a high sense of honour,
and being inured to the strict discipline of the soldier, the defender
of Arras expressed the strongest disapprobation of the retaliatory
cruelties which had been tolerated by Sir Phelim, and even said he was
determined that such offenders against the laws of humanity should be
punished. He then hastened, with the assistance of the experienced
officers who had accompanied him to Ulster, to strengthen the fort of
Charlemont.
The nature of the war,
and the spirit in which it was conducted, may be inferred from the
nature of the weapons distributed from the military stores in Dublin.
These included scythes, reaping-hooks, and whetstones. These were to be
used to cut down the growing corn so that the populace might be starved
into submission or forced into leaving the country. The commissary of
stores was instructed to issue Bibles to the troops, a Bible to each
file, so that they might read therein and learn from the conduct of wars
in the Old Testament the sin and danger of sparing idolaters. Such were
the methods of the Long Parliament, who, unwilling to trust the King
with an army in Ireland, took the work of subjugation into their own
hands.
The Scots in Ulster were
at this time a sort of independent power, equally opposed to the King
and to the Catholics. Left to their own resources by the English
Parliament, which was now busy circumventing the policy of Charles, they
plundered both parties, and " wasted Down and Antrim more than the
rebels had done". Munro, during "the leafy month of June", marched and
countermarched, filled with a grim desire to devastate the province; and
as he neared them, the flying Irish, to protect themselves and secure
their cattle, crossed the Bann, "burning the country all along". With
the Scottish general were Lords Conway and Montgomery, their joint
forces amounting to close on 5000 men. With the aid of Conway's cavalry
300 cows were captured. When they arrived at Kinard, where Sir Phelim
had a house "built of freestone and strong enough to have kept out all
the force", it was discovered that O'Neill had gone to Charlemont, and
his followers who "for haste did not kill any prisoners" ran away; 200
prisoners in miserable plight were then released and the house was
fired. The only person captured seems to have been a priest, "a prime
councillor to Sir Phelim O'Neill", who "would not confess or discover
anything", and who, though he as "Chanter of Armagh" had often used his
voice to good purpose, suffered in silence and was hanged. Carts loaded
with plate belonging to Sir Phelim, which were ready to proceed to their
destination, were stopped, and the silver was sequestered, there proving
to be a goodly quantity of it; and in a private trunk was found a crown,
with which insignia the ambitious chieftain had provided himself, no
doubt with a view to being prepared for his own installation as Prince
of Ulster.
Sir William Brownlow,
aided by other prisoners in Dungannon, having overcome the rebel guard
"with the help of some Irish that formerly had relation to them", the
town was taken and garrisoned. A week later Sir John Clotworthy set out
on a cow-catching expedition with 600 foot. The lean and limber-limbed
cattle, accustomed to being driven rapidly out of harm's way by their
owners, were by no means easy to capture; but, there being a host of
human beings to feed, including 500 rescued prisoners, wits were
sharpened by hunger, and the device adopted of sending 200 men, relieved
of all armour and clad like berserkers in their shirts, after the bovine
quarry, with the result that near Moneymore 100 cows were captured,
after which there was better cheer, and the countryside was swept for a
radius of twelve miles from the fort of Mountjoy.
In August arrived the
long-expected complement of Scottish forces under Lord Leven, with which
the whole army in Ulster, both Scottish and English, under the new
commander amounted to 20,000 foot and 1000 horse an army against which
the Irish confederates could not hope to contend. Simultaneously with
Leven's arrival in the north of Ireland there landed in the south, in
Wexford, Colonel Thomas Preston, a nephew of Lord Gormanston. Preston
had been a captain in the same regiment as Owen Roe O'Neill, but had
always been his rival; he had had on the Continent a remarkable military
career, distinguishing himself at the siege of Louvain, and he was now
nearly sixty years of age. At Wexford he awaited some vessels from St.
Malo, Nantes, and Rochelle, laden with arms and ammunition, and, having
seen their cargoes safely landed and securely stored, he proceeded to
Kilkenny, where he was unanimously elected by the confederates to the
military command of Leinster.
Leven now drew together
his forces, crossed the Bann, and entered Tyrone. There he encamped
without meeting with any serious opposition, and he commenced
proceedings by addressing a letter to Owen Roe, in which he expressed
his concern "that a man" of his "reputation should be engaged in so bad
a cause ". O'Neill replied that he had a better right to come to the
relief of his country than Leven could plead for marching into England
against his King, and added: "I charitably advise you to abandon this
kingdom and defend your native country". At the conclusion of this
fruitless correspondence the Scottish commander retired quietly, giving
up the command to Munro, and, having warned him to expect a total
overthrow if O'Neill should succeed in collecting an army, he returned
to Scotland, having practically achieved nothing.
The General Assembly
projected by the national synod of the loth of May met in Kilkenny on
the 24th of October, 1642, the day after the battle of Edgehill. "Magna
Charta and the common laws of England, in all points not contrary to the
Roman Catholic religion, or inconsistent with the liberty of Ireland,
were", says Carte, "acknowledged as the basis of the new government;"
"and as the administrative authority was to be vested in the Supreme
Council, it was agreed that at the end of every general assembly the
Supreme Council should be confirmed or changed as the general body
thought fit". The Supreme Council having been chosen, Lord Mountgarret
was elected its first president, and it began the exercise of its
executive powers by appointing Owen Roe O'Neill general of the forces in
Ulster, Thomas Preston being appointed in a like capacity for Leinster,
General Barry for Munster, and John Burke as lieutenant-general for
Connaught, the chief command in that province being reserved for the
Earl of Clanrickard, in the hope that he might eventually joim the
confederation. Lord Castlehaven was given the command of the Leinster
horse under Preston.
Munro in the meanwhile
remained inactive, and, the civil war in England having broken out, the
English and Scottish forces in Ireland were neglected, and being left
without supplies of any kind they were soon obliged to struggle during
the winter with the miseries of semi-nudity and hunger, while O'Neill
continued to collect a formidable army without inter- ference. The
rebels in Ulster could impute the extraordinary inactivity of the Scots
to no other cause save cowardice, and accordingly their self-confidence
was again in the ascendant.
Military supplies and men
poured into the country, many Irish officers and veteran soldiers being
discharged by Richelieu from the French army in order to enable them to
serve in the rebel army in Ireland, and O'Neill was thus enabled to
raise and equip a force of about 1500 men.
In May, 1643, O'Neill was
attacked by Munro near Charlemont; but although the Scot had the
superior force, there was little or no result from this passage of arms,
although Munro himself fought on foot, calling to his men in a vain
endeavour to hearten them: "Fay, fay, run away from a wheen rebels."
Another attack on O'Neill made a little later was equally unsuccessful,
as were also all endeavours to capture the Irish leader, shouts on the
field of "Whar's MacArt?" meeting with no response, although MacArt was
in the thick of the fight, and had a very narrow escape. In July,
however, O'Neill met with a serious reverse near Clones at the hands of
Sir Robert Stewart, when he lost 150 men. A month later his camp at
Boyle was surprised by a small English force, and about 160 men were
killed and wounded. This result was achieved by treachery, the sentries
having been induced to drink by Irish sutlers, who procured the
intoxicants from garrisons in the immediate vicinity.
The Ulster commander was
now ordered by the Supreme Council to support Sir James Dillon in Meath.
He obeyed by collecting some 3000 men, with whom he marched across Cavan
to Portlester. Having taken the castle, O'Neill defended the passage
across the Boyne against Lord Moore, who was at the head of superior
forces, laying the cannon himself by which Moore was killed. Hostilities
were then abandoned and a cessation of arms agreed to. |
