IRELAND
103
IRELAND
creatures of the king to represent them in Parhament.
And the Catholic members acquiesced under threat of
having enacted a fresh batch of penal laws. Thus,
aided by corrupt juries and a complaisant Parliament,
James I was enabled to plant the confiscated lands of
Ulster with English Protestants and Scotch Presby-
terians. Other plantations had fared badly. That of
Iving's and Queen's County in Mary's reign had de-
cayed; and the plantation of Munster after the Des-
mond war had been swept away in the tide of O'Neill's
victories. The plantation of Ulster was more thor-
ough and effective than either of these. Whole dis-
tricts were given to the settlers, and these, supported
by a Protestant Government, soon grew into a power-
ful and prosperous colony, while the despoiled Catho-
lics, driven from the richer to the poorer lands, looked
helplessly on, hating those colonists for whose sake
they had been despoiled.
Under the new king, Charles I (1625-49), the policy of persecution and plantation was continued. Under pretence of advancing the puljlic interest and increas- ing the king's revenue, a crowd of hungry adventurers spread themselves over the land, inquiring into the title by which lands were heUl. A\ith venal judges, venal juries, and sympathetic officials to aid them, good titles were declared bad, and lands seizetl, and the ad- venturers were made sharers in the spoil. Thi' O'Byrnes were thus deprived of their lands in Wicklow. and similar confi.scations and plantations took place in Wexford, King's County, Leitrim, Westmeath. and Longford. Hoping to protect themselves against such robbery, the Catholics offered the king a subsidy of £120,000 in exchange for certain privileges called " graces", which among other things would give them indefeasible titles to their estates. These " graces ", granted by the king, were to have the sanction of Parliament to make them good. The money was paid, but the "graces" were withheld, and the viceroy, Strafford, proceeded to Connaught to confiscate aiicl plant the whole province. The projected plantation was ultimately abandoned; but the sense of injustice remained. All over the country were insecurity, anxiety, unrest, and disaffection; Irish and Anglo- Irish were equally menaced. Seeing the futility of appealing to a helpless Parliament, a despotic viceroy, or a perfidious king, the nation took up arms.
To describe the rebellion as the " massacre of 1641 " is unjust. The details of cruel murders committed and horrible tortures inflicted by the rebels are mis- chievously untrue. On the other hand, it is true that the Protestants suffered grievous wTong, and that many of them lost their lives, exclusive of those who fell in war. The Catholics wanted the planters' lands; when driven away in wintry weather, without money, or food, or sufficient clothes, many planters perished of hunger and cold. Others fell by the avenging hand of some infuriated Catholic whom they might have wronged in the days of their power. Many felUle- fending their property or the property and" lives of their friends. The plan of the rebel leaders, of whom Roger Moore was chief, was to capture the garrison towns by a simultaneous attack. But they failed to capture Dublin Castle, containing large stores of arms, owing to the imprudence of Colonel MacMahon. He imparted the secret to a disreputable Irishman named O'Connolly, who at once informed the Castle authori- ties, with the result that the Castle defences were strengthened, and MacMahon and others arrested and subsequently executed. In Ulster, however, the whole open country and many towns fell into the rebels' hands, and Munster and Connaught soon joined the rebellion, as did the ( 'at holies of the Pale, unable to ol)- tainany toleraticjn of their religion, or security of their property, or even of tluir lives. Before the "new year was far advanced the Catholic Bishops declared the rebellion just, and the Catholics formed a confedera- tion which, from its meeting place, was called the
"Confeileration of Kilkenny". Composed of clergy
and laity its members swore to be loyal to the king, to
stri\e for the free exercise of their rehgion, and to de-
fend the lives, Hberties, and possessions of all who took
the Confederate oath. Supreme executive authority
was vested in a supreme council; there were provin-
cial councils also, all the.se bodies deriving their powers
from an elective body called the '" General Assembly ".
The Supreme Council exercised all the powers of gov-
ernment, administered justice, raised taxes, formed
armies, appointed generals. One of the best-known
of these officers was General Preston, who commanded
in Leinster, having come from abroad with a good sup-
ply of arms and ammunition, and with .lOO trained
officers. A more remarkable man still was General
Owen Roe O'Neill, nephew of the great Earl of Ty-
rone, who took command in Ulster, and whose defence
of Arras against the French caused him to be recog-
nized as one of the first soldiers in Europe. He also,
like Preston, brought officers, arms, and ammunition
to Ireland. At a later stage came Rinuccini, the
pope's nuncio bringing with him a supph of money.
Meanwhile ci\il w ir riged in England between king
and Parlnment the (io\ernment at Dublin, ill sup-
plied from icross the C hannel w i^ ill fitted to crush a
powerful rebelhon and m lb4t) O NeiU won the great
victory of Benburb But the strength of which this
victory was the outcome was counterbalanced by ele-
ments of we ikness The Cathohcs of Ulster and those
of the Pale did not igree neither did Generals O'Neill
and Preston The Supreme Council with a feeble old
man. Lord Mountgarret, at its head, and four provin-
cial generals instead of a commander-in-chief, was ill-
suited for the vigorous prosecution of a war. More-
over, the influence of the Marquis of Ormond was a
fatal cause of discord. A personal friend of the king,
and chargeil by him with the command of his army and
with the conduct of negotiations, a Protestant with
Catholic friends on the Supreme Council, his desire
ought to have been to bring Catholic and Royalist to-
gether. But his hatred of the Catholics was such that
he would grant them no terms, even when ordered to
do so by His Majesty. The Catholics' professions of
loyalty he despised, and his great dijilomatic abilities
were used to sow dissensions in their councils and to
thwart their plans. Yet the Supreme Council, dom-
inated liy an Ormondist faction, continued fruitless
negotiati(.)ns with him, agreed to a cessation when they
themelves were strong and their opponents weak, and
agreed to a peace with him in spite of the victory of
Benburb, and in spite of the remonstrances of the
nuncio and of General O'Neill. Nor did they cease
