Lecture Three (part two) Wednesday 2nd February
Wentworth’s policies in Ireland.
In this lecture we are going to look at the interactions between the government in Ireland and the other interests groups outside of Ulster.
To remind you again of the different ethnic groups that were in Ireland in this period.
Ethnic groups in early seventeenth-century Ireland
(1) Gaelic Irish (descendants from indigenous native inhabitants) and Highland Scots, Danies and Norwegians.
Sample names: O’Neill, O’Donnell, O’Hagan, McGuinness, O’Cahan, Maguire, MacSweeney, MacDowell
(2) Old English (descendants from the Anglo-Normans, mainly Catholic, who had migrated to Ireland from the twelfth century).
Sample names: Taaffe, Butler, Clinton, Power, Bellew (most names with ‘Fitz’ etc).
(3) New English (descendants from settlers from England, usually Protestant, who had come to Ireland since the age of the Tudors).
Sample names: Bagnell, Trevor, Parsons, Sterling, Wilmot.
It is important to note that the New English group were further divided into two separate groups as a direct result of the 1641 war.
The new English of the pre-Ulster plantation days became known as the ‘Ancient Protestants’ because they were domiciled in Ireland prior to the war. Those who came to settle in Ireland as a consequence of that war became known then as the New English.
Those that are most important to this lecture are the Old English and the New English. These are important because, as we will see, it was the interactions between these two groups along with the policies of the various Lord Deputy’s, particularly Wentworth, who deliberately manipulated and threatened both these groups, that were the driving forces in the politics of Ireland at this time.
At times he appeared to favour one side over the other and then he might change sides and so on. All of this was eventually to lead to their coming together one final time in early 1641 to have Wentworth impeached for his actions in Ireland. For the Old English, their major issues in the first four decades of the seventeenth century was their religion and their land titles. The preservation of these was to dominate most of their actions and reactions throughout the period.
The New English issues were that they were taking an ever increasing grip on both the government and land of Ireland. To achieve their aims they wasted no opportunity to have the king, or his deputy in Ireland, enforce a form of penal laws against Catholicism. Irish Protestant churchmen insisted that there could be no question of tolerating an anti-Christian church. What fellowship can there be between light and darkness?
They also engaged in a lot of land grabs and land speculation. The predominant view among the New English was that peace and civility in Ireland could only be achieved by extending the policy of plantation and by financing army expenditure through levying recusancy fines.
Wentworth was the only deputy to trouble them when he began to look into the legality of their land titles. The intention was not to take the land off them, as they would undermine English settlement in Ireland. Instead the intention was to ensure that they were paying the correct amount of rent that they were liable to pay to the King, based on the extent of their estates.
General comments
It is usual to describe the 30 years or so between the Plantation of Ulster and the 1641 rebellion as a period of peace and prosperity. It is unquestionable that the country, due mainly to the industry of the new settlers, made rapid progress in material prosperity.
All the same it was also a period of deep unrest and suppressed discontentment, especially among the Gaelic Irish of Ulster In the years immediately following on the plantation of Ulster, three other plantations, in North Wexford (1610-20), Longford and Ely O’Carroll territory (1615-20) and Leitrim and the midland district around the Shannon (1620) comprising nearly half a million acres of land, were taken in hand.
This began when a group of North Wexford landholders sought to secure their title to their lands through a special commission that was set up to look into defective titles in Ireland. They were forced to conceded one quarter of their lands in return for a secure title to the remainder of the lands they held. This precedent was then followed in each of the other areas.
Though not one of these could be regarded as even moderately successful, and the land in Ulster averaged 1,000 acres for 50 pounds, it would seem that there was no shortage of people willing to try their hand at settlement in Ireland.
This time became an age of planters and plantation and the philosophical reasoning of Bacon was hardly required to convince people, willing to risk their lives and their fortunes to effect settlements in Virginia or Newfoundland, they would find a more remunerative sphere for their labours nearer to home. All they had to do was cross the Irish sea instead of the Atlantic.
But, with whatever feeling of satisfaction the plantation policy might be regarded in England as offering a hopeful solution of the Irish problem, in Ireland, it provoked wide-spread indignation, not merely on the part of the Gaelic Irish but also amongst those whose loyalty to the English Crown had never been called seriously into question.
To the Old English, these new plantations constituted a grave political danger to their position in Irish Society.
Notwithstanding their loyalty they had long been feeling dissatisfied with their position. More than once they had formally protested against the unconstitutional methods of the government in Ireland, and had insisted on the recognition of their rights as Englishmen.
Their Roman Catholicism was going to act as a barrier to having their rights recognised.
The Government’s decision to enforce the Act of Uniformity, and the ever-rising tide of Protestant settler immigration were danger signs the Old English could no longer ignore. As symptomatic of the change that had come over them, it was noticed by a contemporary writer that whereas
‘until of late, the old English race, as well in the Pale as in other parts of the kingdom, despised the mere Irish, accounting them a barbarous people void of civility and religion, now the slaughters and rivers of bloodshed between them are forgotten and their union is such, as not only the Old English dispersed abroad in all parts of the realm, but the inhabitants of the Pale, cities, and towns are apt to take arms against us (which no precent time hath ever seen) as the ancient Irish’.
Whereas this was true of the first decade of the seventeenth century, more frequent intermarriage and a shared hatred of the New English interlopers brought the Old English closer to the Gaelic Irish.
THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT BECAME QUITE HARD TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE OLD ENGLISH AND THE NATIVE GAELS.
Both these groups began to be seen by outsiders and even began to call themselves as undifferentiated Irish.
John Lynch, a Galway cleric and Irish-language scholar noted for his Old English sympathies embodied this process of transition. Writing in the 1650s. he condemned distinctions based on paternal lineage as ‘fatuous’ which acknowledging the historical roots of the middle nation; who can deny, he asked, that ‘whoever is born in Ireland should be called Irish’.
This was adopted during the 41-53 war by the Catholic Confederates who called themselves collectively Irish. Similarly a French traveller in Ireland in 1644 indicated that all the people he met in Confederate Ireland called themselves Ayrenake (Eireannach or Irish).
There were three stages in the fabrication of this identity;
The term Old English itself was used by the settlers of pre-Reformation stock to emphasize their shared civility with the New or Protestant English.
The next step was the fabrication by Geoffrey Keating (a priest of Old English origin) who, in his FORAS FEASA AR EIREANN (1634) brought our the term SEAN GHAILL (ancient foreigner).
The newer term had almost the same literal meaning as Old English but Keating’s intention was quite different. As far as he was concerned, the Gael (Gaelic Irish) and Sean Ghaill were more united by the religion and historical experience they had in common than were the Sean Ghaill and Nua Ghaill (new foreigners)
The final step to becoming Irish so to speak was exemplified by the European authors of the Commentarius Rinuccinianus who frequently denoted the Sean Ghaill as New Irish.
This then is how the Gael and the Old English began to see themselves, as others did, as a form of Irish people in the face of a common enemy. (The New English)
By the 1620s and certainly by the 1630s, members of the Catholic elite in Ireland, whatever their paternal ancestry, shared a common identity and a set of political attitudes.
A common religious belief has furnished the cement to many strange alliances throughout history. In Ireland, where religion was fast becoming more and more the touchstone of national life, it was a little wonder that, in the face of the danger menacing them, that the Old English should have thought that their only chance of safety and survival lay in a union with the native Irish after the latter had risen in rebellion in 1642.
Before this union came about, however, it is necessary to look at the fate and fortunes of the Old English in the period leading up to that rebellion.
The Old English problems with religion and with land.
The Old English, especially those in Munster, but later on it spread throughout the kingdom, specifically rejected the state religion, which was Protestantism (church of Ireland). In some of the main towns they refused to admit any officials if they were not allowed to practice their religion.
Another area of contention for the Old English was the actions of the COURT OF WARDS which made it increasingly difficult for the Old English to inherit or sell lands under provisions demanding that they take the oath of supremacy before they could sue out their livery. If this court were allowed to continue unchecked, the Old English were likely to lose control of their land piecemeal.
The Old English argued that Catholics could swear allegiance to their monarch in temporal matters without compromising their religious principles. Such a proposition was problematic in a Europe where religious and political loyalties were inextricable linked.
The New English, for their part, thought the doctrine dubious. For them, Irish Catholics were, as James I himself called them, ‘half subjects’.
While the plantation of Ulster and other areas was been effected it became obvious that it was the intention of the government to create a Protestant majority in the Irish parliament. That this was their intention can be seen when the crown created over forty new pocket boroughs, specifically with the intention of enabling more Protestants to be elected to the Irish parliament.
Things began to go wrong for the Old English when, in November 1611, it became known that the king intended to summon a parliament in Ireland.
Lord Deputy Chichester invited the Old English of the Pale to confer with one another as to the measures they thought necessary to pass for the benefit of he country. This they refused to do, claiming precedent going back to Poynings parliament whereby the onus was on the state to inform the elected what was to pass at these sessions.
In late November they presented a strong remonstrance to the King. In it they complained that they had not been consulted by the Deputy as law required and that the erection of corporations ‘consisting of a few and beggarly cottages’ could ‘tend to naught else … but that … penal laws should be imposed upon your subjects.
The King merely ignored this petition and so elections took place and the parliament sat in May 1613.
The Old English were masters of the Common Law and they were determined from the outset to try and reassert their power in this parliament. When the protestant element in the parliament proposed Sir John Davies to be elected the speaker, the Old English retorted that on the grounds that Davies, having no residence in Fermanagh (the shire he was elected in) that he was improperly elected to the parliament and that he should be debarred immediately.
The Protestant party along with Davies withdrew so that they could count their numbers withdrew and, in their absence, the Old English elected one of their own as speaker.
The Protestant party came back on hearing this and ousted the person elected by the Old English, who immediately withdrew from the parliament. Chichester, in an attempt to calm things down, prorogued parliament and allowed the Old English to make a deputation to the king on the matter. The petition they addressed to the King was one complaining of Chichester's administration in Ireland.
The King responded by appointing a Commission to look into their grievances and when this reported back in April 1614, the king read the riot act to the Old English on their ‘undutiful and disgraceful behaviour.’ At the same time he temporarily suspended the enfranchisement of more pocket boroughs on condition that the Old English go back to parliament and pass the subsidies that were requested. This they did and, shortly thereafter, Parliament was dissolved and Chichester recalled to England.
Where Chichester had failed there was litter reason to expect that his successors, Sir Oliver St John (1616-2) or Lord Falkland (1622-9) would prove more successful. Their problem was the perennial bankruptcy of the Irish treasury and the Old English refusal to pass subsidies bills without getting something in return.
Year by year this dissatisfaction on both sides grew and the Old English, especially their Catholicism was been attacked on all sides. However, the incipient threat to Catholicism in Ireland was dramatically reversed as the new King, Charles I was faced with war with both Spain and France. It became imperative that Ireland, which was openly spoken off as the backdoor to England, was put in a state of defence.
For this purpose Falkland was authorised to sound out the nobility and gentry of the Old English as to their willingness, in return for certain valuable concessions, to undertake on behalf of the country, to maintain and pay for and army of 5,000 foot and 500 horse.
These concessions, known as the GRACES , were skilfully contrived so as to appeal to almost every class in the community and were coupled with a promise of a speedy confirmation by parliament. In May 1628 the Old English agreed to bind the country to contribute 120,000 to be spread over three years, and to be deducted from whatever subsidies might be granted by parliament. In return a relaxation of the use of the oath of supremacy as a test for public office and the actions of the Court of Wards were curtailed.
Of particular interest to the Old English, especially those who had lands in Connaught, who were in a constant state of anxiety for fear of loosing their land, due to defective land titles, was the offer of the Crown to accept 60 years possession as a bar to all claims. This was held back on the promise that it would be implemented fully with the remainder of the Graces. On the strength of these promises the contributions began at once and Falkland, for his part was making plans to call a parliament.
Whether Charles deliberately meant to cheat the Old English or whether he just got cold feet, time went by and no parliament was called. However, the relaxing of international tensions in 1629 again reduced the question of Old English loyalty to relative unimportance. Falkland was recalled in 1629 and was replaced by the Lords Justices Loftus and the Earl of Cork. They managed to keep things ticking over by reducing the number of the army and by exercising strict economy.
Needless to say the Old English were none too pleased as they had expected that the graces would have been granted to them as promised by the king. In January 1632 Charles announced the appointment of a new Lord Deputy, Wentworth, but he did not arrive in Ireland until 1633.
His philosophy was simple/ To quote him, ‘we must there bow and govern the native by the planter and the planter by the native. It seems that his main objective was to make Ireland a source of strength to the Crown instead of one of weakness. He succeeded by alternatively playing on the fears and hopes of the Old English and by flattering the loyalty of the New English in obtaining an extension of the contribution for a further two years.
These two years he used to plan his strategy. He held that a prosperous people would also be loyal people and, to this end, he expended a lot of his time to the development of the natural resources of Ireland. In his attempts to achieve his ends, it must be said that he spared nobody. Anybody who got in his way was quickly dealt with. It became known as a policy of THOROUGH and, as I already said, he spared nobody, neither Old English or New English who got in his way.
He thought himself so in control of the situation that he felt strong enough to call a Parliament. Parliament met on 14th July 1634. By all accounts it was the most splendid scene Dublin had witnessed for some time. In his opening speech Wentworth announced the Kings intention to hold two sessions of that parliament. The first was for the king, and the second was going to be for the benefit of his subjects. The reason for this was that Wentworth wanted to keep the issues of supply (taxes) separate from the grievances of both the Old English and New English settlers.
The plan worked, when the issue of the subsidies was brought up they were passed almost unanimously where six subsidies were to be paid to the King over four years. The Old English then assumed that the graces would be confirmed but that was not going to be the case. Wentworth particularly did not want to confirm any of these graces (demands) that would, in any way, impinge on his notion of a new plantation and a thorough revision of the plantation of Ulster.
He specifically wanted to prevent the confirmation of the grace which wanted it to be accepted that 60 years possession of land was sufficient to bar all claims to it on the part of the Crown.
To this end he divided the graces into three classes
Those which he thought fit not to grant.
(2 Those which might be continued by way of instruction.
(3 Those proper that could be passed into law.
When the Parliament reassembled again in November of that year, the Old English Catholics, who accidentally found themselves in the majority, rejected without consideration any and all measures that were submitted to them. Wentworth thought of dissolving the Parliament but the New English Protestants came to his rescue and enabled him to bring the session to a satisfactory conclusion.
Looking into land titles
It was around this time that Wentworth became determined to raise as much money for the Crown as he could and he saw that the best place to begin to raise a lot of money was to look into the land titles of both the Old English and the New English
He also looked at the plantation of Ulster, where it was know for some time now, that neither the Undertakers nor the London companies had adhered to the letter of the law in relation to what they were supposed to have carried out on their plantation lands.
Wentworth and the plantation of Ulster.
He concentrated firstly on the Plantation of Ulster. The plantation of Ulster had originally proved very unprofitable to the Crown so he started an investigation into the reasons for this as it was his intention to squeeze as much money as he could out of the people who had been granted lands there. He found that vastly more land had been passed to the Undertakers than was originally intended, land for which they were paying no rent at all to the King.
He also found that in the Undertakers haste to make as quick a profit as possible from their estates, that they were, more often than not, in breach of their conditions. This meant that they could be fined for their failure to carry out their undertakings and that they were liable to pay extra rent for the lands they had gotten over and above their original grant.
In 1632 Wentworth revoked the charter of the London companies for their breach of conditions and sequestered the rents that were accruing to these estates. He could not deal as drastically with the many individual offenders he found as this would have thrown the whole plantation settlement into disarray.
He caused a Commission for the remedy of defective titles to come into being and this was used very successfully for all the offenders in the Ulster plantation and brought in a lot of money for the Crown. The Ulster planters put in their place he next turned his attentions to Connaught where he held that most of the land there could be classed as Crown land because of the ad hoc nature of the Old English settlers there who did not have proper title to the lands they held in Connaught.
As many of the Old English had gotten these lands back in medieval times, the chances are that their original land title document might be missing or that the bounds and meares of their original land grant were exceeded and so on.
In Munster, New English magnates such as the earl of Cork was also closely investigated, especially in matters relating to his estate, which was then the largest in Ireland.
In relation to religion, it was Wentworth’s intentions to consolidate the position of the Church of Ireland. He felt that there was no point in pursuing Catholicism until he had the alternative religion firmly and fully in place.
This fitted in with the religious aspects of King Charles reform program of the 1630s. An aspect that would ultimately prove to be both Wentworth’s and the King’s undoing. The key figure in implementing this religious policy was William Laud, created Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. Laud believed that the sacraments, set prayer and ceremonial aspects of worship had been unduly neglected in favour of lengthy sermons. He detested the doctrine of predestination favouring, instead, the sacraments. His strong view that the authority of bishops and archbishops existed by divine right also supported the puritan perception that Laud was ‘the little thief put into the window of the church to unlock the door to popery’.
Wentworth gave him free reign in Ireland and this created many enemies from among the New English who were either more Puritan or Presbyterian in their leanings.
Events in Scotland
Wentworth pushed ahead with his intention to find title for the king of almost all the lands in Connaught, based on the insecure or defective land titles of the landholders there.
He had most of this completed and was on the verge of having in re-planted when events in Scotland in 1637 saw his attention diverted to the problems there and so he hastened to England to give advice to the King. In July 1637, as part of his attempted reform of the church, Charles issued a set of Scottish prayer books by royal proclamation.
Presbyterians in Scotland saw this prayer book as gratuitously offensive and very ‘popish’ The Scots bound themselves by a solemn league and covenant to maintain their true religion, liberties and the laws of the kingdom and immediately began to raise an army to ensure that their demands were met.
This led directly to what become known as the FIRST BISHOPS WAR
A year later (1640) when the covenanters raised the stakes be engaging in a form of ecclesiastical imperialism and determined to destroy prelacy in both Scotland and England the SECOND BISHOPS WAR begun.
The Scots invaded England and Charles responded to this by instructing Wentworth, who was created earl of Strafford, to raise an Irish army and to bring it across to England to suppress the Scots.
Similarly they connections between Scotland and Ulster saw that the covenant was brought to that province and it seemed that the country was slipping into lawlessness, due mainly to the large number of Scottish settlers there. Wentworth returned to Ireland in 1640 as Earl of Strafford and persuaded the recently convened parliament there to grant more subsidies to the King.
There had been talk that the Catholic Earl of Antrim was going to raise a Catholic army to cross over to England to fight in the King’s name but Wentworth was against this. TO use his own words, he was opposed to arming as many O’s and Mac’s as would startle a whole council board and in a great part the sons of habituated traitors’.
In October 1640 Charles was forced to conclude a truce with the Scots. Blame was laid squarely on Strafford’s shoulders. His fate was sealed when later that year and for the very last time, the Old and New English were to be in agreement in parliament in Ireland. They brought articles of impeachment against Strafford and he was executed in May 1641. Parliament there was adjourned to January 1641 and Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase were appointed Lords Justices.
In these two the New English settlers had obtained rulers after their own hearts and from then on the Old English were to loose all political power in Ireland and were eventually driven to joining the Gaelic rebels in rebellion in early 1642.