left. County Clare had practically escaped the war, yet out of 1,300 plough lands only about forty were tilled. A plague, worse by far than the celebrated Great Plague of London of 1666, had added to the ravages of sword and famine. Thirty-four thousand able-bodied men had laid down their arms and passed beyond the seas to acquire under the banners of France and Spain that discipline and resolution which might have saved their fortunes at home.
It is necessary to go over in a few words the history of those eleven years.
Five distinct parties each with its own army had been at one another's throats during that period.
There were two English Protestant factions, two Irish Catholic and one Scotch Presbyterian. The history of the time is a tangle of confused strife.
The Ulster Catholic Irish had risen in arms on October 23rd, 1641. They were soon joined by their co-religionists of old English descent in the Pale round Dublin. The rebellion spread till almost the whole island was involved.
Then came the outbreak of the civil war in England between Charles I. and the Puritan majority of the English parliament in August, 1642.
The effects of the English civil war were soon felt in Ireland. The Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Ormond, held Dublin and Drogheda as well as a large part of Leinster for the King. To this Protestant Royalist party belonged the majority of the Protestant landowners in Leinster and Connaught, as well as some leading Catholics such as the Marquis of Clanrickard.
