robbing and spoiling of so many of His Majesty's faithful subjects the whole kingdom over of their goods and estates to the value of a million at least, no age having produced in this kingdom so much mischief and so great calamity in so short a time, they should for laying down arms have those their grievous and unexampled tyrannies over those of the English nation remitted, which if it should so fall out, it might not only give encouragement to those rebels and others to rise in arms at every two or three years' end and enrich themselves by the spoil and destruction of the English, but might also again and often renew the miserable calamities of this kingdom and the English nation. therein, if ever hereafter any of them shall adventure to come hither upon any malignant instigation or perverse insolence in this people. Wm. Parsons. Jo. Borlase. Ad. Loftus. J. Temple. Cha. Coote.

F. A. Willoughby.

Rob. Meredith.

The KING'S PROCLAMATION to the Rebels.

Whereas divers lewd and wicked persons who have of late risen in rebellion in our kingdom of Ireland surprised divers of our forts and castles, possessed themselves thereof, surprised some of our garrisons, possessed themselves of some of our magazines of arms and munition, dispossessed many of our good and loyal subjects of the British nation and Protestants of their houses and lands, robbed and spoiled many thousands of our good subjects of the British nation and Protestants of their goods to great values, massacred multitudes of them, imprisoned many others and some who have the honour to serve as Privy Councillors of that our kingdom, we therefore having taken the same into our royal consideration, and abhorring the wicked disloyalty and horrible acts committed by those persons, do hereby not only declare our just indignation thereof, but also do declare them. and their adherents and abettors, and all those who shall hereafter join with them or commit the like acts on any of our good subjects in that kingdom, to be rebels and traitors against our royal person and enemies to our crown of England and Ireland. And we do hereby strictly charge and command all those persons who have so presumed to rise in arms against us and our royal authority (which we cannot otherwise interpret than acts of high rebellion and detestable disloyalty, when therein they spoil and destroy our good and loyal subjects of the British nation and Protestants) that they immediately lay down their arms, and forbear all further acts of hostility, wherein if they fail, we do let them know that we have authorized our Justices of Ireland and other our chief Governor or Governors and General and Lieutenant-General of our army there, and do hereby accordingly require and authorize them and every of them to prosecute the said rebels and traitors with fire and sword as persons who by their high disloyalty against us their lawful and undoubted King and Sovereign have made themselves uncapable of any mercy or favour, wherein our

said Justices or other chief Governor or Governors and General or Lieutenant-General of our said army, shall be countenanced and supported by us, and by our powerful succours of our good subjects of England and Scotland, that so they may reduce to obedience those wicked disturbers of that peace, which by the blessing of God that kingdom hath so long and so happily enjoyed under the government of our Royal father and us, and this our royal pleasure we do hereby require our Justices or other chief Governor or Governors of that our kingdom of Ireland to cause to be published and proclaimed in and throughout our said kingdom of Ireland.

Given under our signet at

LORDS JUSTICES and COUNCIL to the EARL OF LEICESTER,

Lord Lieutenant.

1641, December 28.-By the printed manifest and Proclamation which we sent to your Lordship with our letters of the 14th of this month you may perceive that we required the noblemen in those our letters mentioned to attend us at this Board on the 17th of this month, and that we did again charge and command Luke Netterville and his company, who were at Swords, upon their duties of allegiance to His Majesty, immediately to separate and not to reassemble again in that manner, and that the said Luke Netterville and all the other persons who signed the writing sent us mentioned in our said letters to your Lordship should appear before us on the 18th of this month, to which end we did give as well to those noblemen. as to Luke Netterville and those his companions whose appearance we required, the word and assurance of this State for the safety of their persons, yet none of them, either noblemen or other, appeared at that time or since, whereof we could have given your Lordship intimation by our last despatch (which though dated the 14th was stayed here by contrary winds until the 22nd), but that we did choose rather to defer for a day or two longer, to see what that might bring forth, wishing in compassion of them (who now we confess have made themselves unworthy of compassion) that we might have had cause to certify their ready submission to His Majesty's authority entrusted with us, rather than (as now we do) their disloyal disobedience. On the 23rd of this month we received letters from those noblemen, a copy whereof we send your Lordship here inclosed, whereby they seem to be satisfied as to us, but pretend a fear of Sir Charles Coote, which pretence hath in it something as of weakness so of contradiction, for they profess to believe us and yet they take not our word, and if they believe (as they would seem to do) this State (whose word and assurance they had for their safety) they needed not fear Sir Charles Coote, who is but ministerial to this State in those things wherein he is entrusted.

They mention in those letters, first, acts of inhumanity perpetrated (which is the term they are pleased to give it) upon inhabitants in the county of Wicklow, secondly, a massacre at

Santry, thirdly, Mr. King's house and whole substance burned by Sir Charles Coote on the 15th of this month, and they insinuate a breach therein of the word of this State. For clearing therefore of this State and Sir Charles Coote from the aspersions which are framed to lay scandal on this Government we crave leave to declare to your Lordship.

First, as to that action in the county of Wicklow, that that corner hath been in all ages the most offensive piece of the whole kingdom to this State [and] the seat of this State, for no sooner was a commotion raised at any time in any part of this kingdom than immediately that part brake out into open rebellion and (lying near Dublin) did rob, waste and spoil the subjects to the walls of Dublin and burned the very suburbs to the gates, and as soon as the rebellion began, the grandsons of the traitor Feogh McHugh and other the wicked offspring of like traitorous ancestors immediately began to take up the rebellious example of their ancestors, assembled themselves in great multitudes, took up arms, declared themselves in open rebellion, took His Majesty's fort in that county called Caries Fort [Carysfort], laid siege to His Majesty's Castle of Wicklow, and robbed and spoiled all the English and Protestants round about them and throughout the whole country. We therefore hoping to suppress that rebellion so near us, and which by former experience we knew might otherwise prove very offensive to this State and kingdom, employed Sir Charles Coote with a party of soldiers to go into those parts, where he in despite of them marched to the town of Wicklow and relieved His Majesty's Castle there, whereby they are enabled hitherto to stand out againt the fury of the rebels, and in his return home he was encountered by a numerous body of those rebels, who after they had skirmished with him and finding him too hard for them betook themselves to flight, in which skirmish he slew some of them, and in that journey slew and caused to be hanged others of them, and amongst them one woman that had been active in robbing and spoiling the English, and had about her at her apprehension some of the clothes of the English she had robbed, and these are those inhuman acts, which these noblemen pretend to have been perpetrated by Sir Charles Coote in the county of Wicklow.

Touching the second, which they call the massacre at Santry, the truth of that action (wherein only four persons were slain, whereas they might have slain many more if they had intended a massacre) is set down at large in our printed manifest dated the 13th of this month, sent to your Lordship with our last despatch, and it is observable that howsoever they are pleased to charge Sir Charles Coote as having acted that (as they call it) massacre, he was not then at that action, nor any nearer them than this city.

Thirdly, as to Mr. King's house and (as they say) his whole substance burnt by Sir Charles Coote on the 15th of this month, wherein also they insinuate a breach of the word of this State, your Lordship may remember that by our letters of the 14th of this month, we made known to your Lordship how the rebels

labour to hinder accesses to us by sea, how the fishermen on the sea-coasts being Irish and Papists inhabitants in the Pale brake out into rebellion with the multitude, and how they robbed, spoiled and pillaged within the bay of Dublin several barks coming hither forth of England, and we then also declared to your Lordship that if to revenge that villainy on the fishermen at Clontarf where Mr. King's house stands, and thereabouts so near us, we should send forth a party of soldiers to burn and spoil those rebels' houses and corn, the gentlemen of the Pale would immediately take new offence, as now these noblemen do, and we confess that when we saw apparently that there were such depredations committed by those of Clontarf and others even in this harbour, in scorn and disdain of this State, thereby not only to discourage ships from coming hither, but also by robbing the English both by sea and land to enrich themselves and in time (possessing themselves of ships of strength which they might surprise) to stop up our harbour, we held it needful for the safety of this harbour, as well to give some stop to their fury as to correct their insolence, and therefore Sir Charles Coote was by our appointment sent with a party of soldiers on the 15th of this month to Clontarf, where he burned some of the rebels' houses and goods, and some of the goods taken by robbery and violence from the poor English being there found in Mr. King's house, who is landlord of that town, part of his house was then also burnt.

And as to the pretended breach therein of the word of this State, the colour they have for that is Mr. King, who is one of those gentlemen that with Luke Netterville and others assembled in arms at Swords in warlike manner, as is mentioned in our said printed manifest dated the 13th of this month, who by order of this Board dated the 9th of this month were required by us to separate immediately upon sight of that order, and to appear before us on the tenth of this month to shew the cause of their assembling in that manner, which our order was delivered to them on the tenth of this month as by their own letters to us dated the same day appears, yet they in contempt thereof did not disperse nor appear before us, though they were so commanded at their extreme perils, copies of which order of ours and letter of theirs you have in the last despatch from us. It is true that by the said printed manifest, the said King and the rest who were required to appear before us, had the word and assurance of this State that they might on the 18th day of this month securely and safely repair hither unto us without danger of any trouble or stay whatsoever from us, and if he or the rest had appeared accordingly, they should have had the full benefit of safe passage, without any stay to be made of them, for we never did nor shall violate the word of this State, but how those noblemen or any other can from that safe conduct promised to Mr. King's person infer a protection to be thereby meant or intended to his tenants and town of Clontarf, one of the receptacles of those robbers and rebels, and one of their stores for keeping the spoils they had gotten from the English by sea and land, we understand not. It is observable also that by the said printed manifest, the said King, &c., were

again required upon their duty of allegiance to His Majesty immediately to separate, and although in that public instrument we declared that if they failed therein we would take such a course with which to reduce them to obedience as might prove penal to them, yet the said King and the rest were so far from yielding obedience to us as they kept our messenger sent to them with that manifest a day and a night in restraint, and they have not yet separated, but instead of separating sent us word by our messenger that we should hear of them within a day or two, as indeed we did, when, within two or three days after, they advanced nearer to Santry, within three miles of this city, with banners displayed to outface us, where increasing daily in numbers they and others advanced yet nearer within two miles of this city, robbing and spoiling the English and Protestants round about them even to the suburbs of this city, and setting themselves in garrison at Finglas and Santry, where they fortified themselves to affront this State, insomuch as we were necessitated on the 22nd of this month to send out a thousand men who put those rebels to flight and burned those parts of those two towns which relieved the rebels. By all which your Lordship may perceive how groundless the pretences of these noblemen are, and how scandalous to this Government.

By their letters they declare their readiness to attend such commissioners as we should appoint, and to deal clearly with your Lordship we hold His Majesty's honour in higher estimation than to descend to the sending of commissioners to meet them, without first receiving His Majesty's direction therein, and the rather because we know that these high assumptions of theirs at this time (which they did forbear to declare openly until they saw that our succours were so long retarded) proceed not from any true sense of public grief or just occasion given them by this State, but from some other secret cause to bring to pass some end which it seems they have propounded to themselves, wherein we would quickly make them know to the extreme disappointment of their secret purpose, whether it be matter of religion as they declare or whatsoever it is, that the king's power is too mighty for their weak opposition and would cause them to lay bitter repentance upon their high presumptions against the authority of so sacred a Majesty as the King our master, howsoever they labour to palliate the matter, if our very long expected succours from England and Scotland were arrived; and seeing we forbear to listen to their motion for commissioners or to issue any proclamation for proclaiming them rebels, until we understand His Majesty's pleasure, which latter we forbear not out of any apprehension we have of the power and greatness of those noblemen, but lest we might thereby anticipate any direction of His Majesty's, we therefore humbly sue to His Majesty for his royal pleasure and direction herein.

We find by letters from the Lord President of Munster that most of the county of Tipperary are in rebellion, led therein by the Baron of Loghmoe, that both the Ormonds, Ely O'Carroll,