1646. Ormond and Digby, though privy to the commissions

and authority under which Glamorgan had acted, procured him to be indicted of high treason for forging or surreptitiously obtaining these very commissions, and his person was immediately committed to close custody. The discovery was reported to parliament, and Charles basely protested upon the word of a King and a Christian, that he had never given to the Earl of Glamorgan those commissions and powers, which he was then known by many, and now is known by all, to have repeatedly given. This colourable commitment of Glamorgan was not of long duration he was quickly discharged upon his own and the Earl of Kildare's recognizance; the confederates having peremptorily insisted upon breaking off the treaty for peace, until he should be discharged *.

was accidentally killed by the parliamentarian rebels before Sligo, who together with some of Ormond's forces, were in open bostility, notwithstanding the cessation and the then pending treaty for peace.

* Dr. Leland admits, that notwithstanding this colourable commitment, Ormond continued to regard Glamorgan as really entrusted by the King, and empowered to negociate in his name. In proof of this he favours us with the letter written to the Earl of Glamorgan soon after his discharge, the original of which he had in his possession, and adds, that both Ormond and Digby always regarded Glamorgan "as duly authorized by the King: and treated and addressed him as a person still enjoying the royal favour and confidence. And that he did still enjoy them in a very high degree, there is direct and positive proof in those letters extant amongst the Harleian manuscripts, in which Charles assures him of the continuance of his friendship, and promises to make good all his instructions and promises to him and the nuncio." 3 Lel. 283, 4, 5.

vision of the

rates.

The confederates having been thus betrayed by the 1646. King, in their subsequent negociations required some Internal dimore stable security for the performance of articles confedethan the word of a monarch so frequently violated in their regard. Hence dissention arose amongst them, which was actively fomented by Ormond. The nuncio and a considerable party of the confederates objected to the conclusion of any peace, which had future concession for its basis: but no internal division could extinguish their inviolable attachment to the royal cause.

trays the

Ormond resisted the pressing solicitations of Clan- Ormond bericarde and others, to place himself at the head of the royal cause. confederates, and proceed against Sir Charles Coote, and the other parliamentarian rebels, who were daily violating the cessation, and committing hostilities against the adherents to the royal cause: and he finally delivered up his sword, the castle, and King's authority to the commissioners of the parliamentarian rebels *. In this disgraceful negociation with parlia

*He had previously boasted to Colonel Leyburne, who had come over with a confidential commissioner from the King," that "if there should be a necessity, he would give up those places "under his command to the English rather than the Irish rebels, "of which opinion he thought every good Englishman was." Immediately before Ormond delivered up the sword to the parliament commissioners, Alderman Smith, then Mayor of Dublin, aged near eighty years, a man of great integrity and loyalty, came to the council table, and acquainted my Lord of Ormond, that it was generally reported in town, and spread so far as no man doubted it, that his excellency intended to deliver up the government to the parliament: that he came to acquaint his lordship, that himself

1646.

ment, Ormond acted with full reflection, and with the most interested views to his own domestic concerns; having stipulated with them for the price of his base surrender, viz. 5000l. in hand, 2000l. a-year for five years successively, and a total release and discharge of all incumbrances upon his estates (which were very heavy) up to the time of the insurrection. The spirit and motive, with which he thus betrayed the trust and authority of his royal master, appear more fully from the complimentary interview that passed between him and the Irish parliament in their vote and his acceptance of thanks for his treaty with the English rebels. After this, Ormond was ignominiously expelled from the castle, sooner than he intended to quit it, by the English committee, and forced to transport himself to England *.

was entrusted with the King's sword of the city, and that he would not resign it to rebels. Whereupon my Lord of Ormond gave him some check, and ordered him to withdraw: but upon further consideration, his lordship and the council thought fit to call him in again, and to commend him for the resolution he had shewn in maintaining his Majesty's authority: and withal read a letter from his Majesty requiring the lord lieutenant to deliver up the sword to the commissioners empowered by the parliament of England whereupon he said, he would submit. (St. Let. from the Earl of Essex, p. 344.) To cover the turpitude of his own con. duct Ormond thus imposed upon the lord mayor of Dublin, by reading either a forged or a forced letter from his Majesty; for had it been real, he would have pleaded it in his own justifi

:

cation.

* Before his departure the confederates again pressed him (but in vain) to put himself at their head in support of the royal cause : he had scarcely arrived in England, when he was forced to fly to

Kilkenny

selves on

fence.

In this decline of the King's affairs, the confederated 1647. catholics met again at Kilkenny, where they took into The confeconsideration, that his Majesty was in restraint, that derates at all addresses to him were forbidden, and that some put themmembers of parliament, who had ventured to speak in self dehis favour, were expelled, "therefore in that extremity, "there being no access to his Majesty for imploring "either his justice or mercy, all laws either human "or divine did allow the said catholics to take some "other course, in order to their defence and preserva"tion: not against his sacred Majesty, but against those "who had laid violent hands his person, who de"signed to abolish the royal authority, and resolved "to destroy or extirpate the said catholics *."

lands at

returns to

The ambitious Ormond having been thus indig- Ormond nantly expelled from the government by the enemies Cork, and of his master, resorted to the unshaken loyalty of the Kilkenny. Irish catholics, the King's firmest friends, as the instruments of his own revenge. He dissembled for the moment his anti-catholic rancour, and affected to place the fate of his sovereign in their exertions. He landed at Cork on the 29th of September 1648, where he was received with acclamation, and invited by the general assembly at Kilkenny to conclude a peace, and join with the nation in making head against

France, having been informed that a warrant had issued for his apprehension from the very persons, to whom he had made the mercenary surrender of his high trust, dignity, and power, in Ireland.

* Walsh's Reply to a Person of Quality.

1648. the parliamentarian rebels. He was received in triumph at Kilkenny by the whole body of the assembly, and all the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood, and lodged in his own castle with his own guards about him.

Ormond opposes the

the last.

Ormond still rejected every proposal of the confedecatholics to rates relating to toleration of religion, and the repeal of any of the penal laws. The treaty was interrupted by the open defection of Inchiquin's army and their declaration against the King. Ormond was intimately connected with this nobleman, and he took this occa sion of suspending the definitive treaty, under pretext of giving satisfaction to Inchiquin and his leading officers.

Peace con

cluded witb

derates.

The peace was concluded the 17th of January, 1648, the confe- a fortnight before the tragical end of this unfortunate monarch. Carte observes, that "the news of the "conclusion of this peace did not reach England soon "enough to deter the execrable authors of the mur"der of their King from perpetrating a villainy, which, "how long soever they had intended it, they durst

not attempt to execute, till they thought themselves "secure of impunity by being absolute masters of "Great Britain, without any considerable force in any

part of these nations to oppose their measures or "take vengeance on their crimes." Even this profsesed encomiast of Charles and Ormond has not scrupled to animadvert upon the King's ingratitude to his catholic subjects of Ireland.

2 Vol. Cart. Orm. p. 52.