Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:40:56.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Levellers and the Conquest of Ireland in 1649

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Norah Carlin
Norah Carlin
Affiliation:
Middlesex Polytechnic
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As Oliver Cromwell set out on his controversial reconquest of Ireland in 1649, it was widely believed in England that the Levellers were opposed to all English rule in Ireland, and that these pro-Irish views were responsible for the mutinies and disorders in the commonwealth's armies which delayed the setting out of Cromwell's expedition.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 269 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 A Declaration of the Proceedings of His Excellency the Lord General Fairfax, in the Reducing of the Revolted Troops (Oxford, 22 05 1649), p. 5Google Scholar.

2 Dates of tracts in the Thomason Collection in the British Library are indicated by ‘Th.’. British Library reference numbers are given for newspapers in the Thomason Collection, since individual issues are not catalogued. Kiffin, William et al. , Walwins Wiles (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 10 May), sig. A2v.

3 Ibid. p. 19.

4 A Declaration of the Parliament of England, in vindication of their Proceedings, and Discovering the Dangerous Practices of Several Interests, Against the Present Government, and Peace of the Commonwealth (London, 1649; Th. 27 Sept.), p. 26Google Scholar.

5 The Second Part of Englands New-Chaines Discovered (London, 1649; Th. 24 March)Google Scholar; Lilburne, John et al. , The Picture of the Councel of State (London, 1649; Th. 11 April)Google Scholar; A Manifestation from Lieutenant Col. John Lilburne, Mr. William Wahwyn, Mr. Thomas Prince and Mr. Richard Overton (London, 1649; Th. 14 April)Google Scholar.

6 Walwyn, William, The Fountain of Slaunder Discovered (London, 1649; Th. 30 May), p. 18Google Scholar; Picture of the Councel of State, p. 2.

7 Prince, Thomas, The Silken Independents Snare Broken (London, 1649; Th. 20 June), p. 7Google Scholar.

8 Bottigheimer, Karl S., English money and Irish land. The ‘Adventurers’ in the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland (Oxford, 1971), p. 189 (no. 1092)Google Scholar. Prince appears here as a tallow chandler; for tallow chandlers dealing in cheese and butter see Williams, R. Monier, The tallow chandlers of London, IV (London, 1977), 50–3Google Scholar.

9 Aylmer, G. ‘Gentlemen Levellers?’, Past and Present, XLIX (1970), 123Google Scholar; The Moderate, 10 July 1649, B.L. E 564 (1).

10 Thackray, Ian Y., ‘Zion undermined: the protestant belief in a popish plot during the English Interregnum’, History Workshop, XVIII (1984), 28–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 The Moderate Intelligencer, 2 May–7 June 1649, B.L. E 552 (26), E 555 (3), E 555 (25), E 556 (12), E 557 (5), E 559 (3).

12 Waring, Thomas, An Answer to Certain Seditious and Jesuitical Queres (London, 1651)Google Scholar.

13 Ibid. p. 1.

14 Ibid. p. 38.

15 Ibid. pp. 42–3.

16 Ibid. p. 50.

17 Moderate Intelligencer, 10 May 1649, B.L. E 555 (3). Dillingham's reading seems to me to make more sense than Waring's here; he has ‘patriot’ where Waring has ‘pattern of freedom’.

18 Waring, , An Answer, pp. 59, 62Google Scholar.

19 Howell, R. & Brewster, J., ‘Reconsidering the Levellers: the evidence of the Moderate’, Past and Present, XLVI (1970)Google Scholar.

20 Tolmie, M., The triumph of the saints: the separate churches of London 1616–1649 (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar; Hill, C., The world turned upside down (London, 1972)Google Scholar.

21 Tolmie, , The triumph of the saints, pp. 144–91Google Scholar; Watts, M. R., The Dissenters from the Reformation to the French Revolution (Oxford, 1978), pp. 117–34Google Scholar.

22 A Manifestation, passim.

23 A Modest Narrative of Intelligence, B.L. E 551 (9); Perfect Occurrences, B.L. E 529 (1).

24 Kishlansky, M. A., ‘The army and the Levellers: roads to Putney’, Historical Journal, XXII (1979), 795–824CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Edwards, Thomas, The Third Part of Gangraena (London, 1646), pp. 22–3Google Scholar.

26 Edwards, Thomas, Gangraena: The Second Part (London, 1646), p. 27Google Scholar.

27 The Apologie of the Common Souldiers of his Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfaxes Army (London, 1647; Th. 3 May)Google Scholar.

28 A New Found Stratagem Framed in the old forge of Machivilisme (London, 1647), pp. 8, 11Google Scholar.

29 Williams, C. M., ‘The political career of Henry Marten’ (Unpublished D. Phil, dissertation, University of Oxford, 1954)Google Scholar, appendix C (1). I am grateful to Professor D. Underdown for this reference.

30 A New Engagement, or Manifesto (London, 1648; Th. 3 Aug.)Google Scholar.

31 Wolfe, D. M. (ed.), Leveller manifestos of the Puritan revolution (New York, 1944), pp. 140, 288, 408Google Scholar; Wildman, J., Truth's Triumph (London, 1647/8)Google Scholar, where tithes are said to have been omitted from the Large Petition of January 1648 because the subject was too divisive.

32 Lt ColJubbes, John, Several Proposals for Peace and Freedom by an Agreement of the People (London, 1648; Th. 22 Dec.)Google Scholar and An Apology (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 4 May).

33 Jubbes, , Apology, pp. 1, 2–3, 7Google Scholar.

34 Diethe, J., ‘The Moderate: the politics and allegiances of a revolutionary newspaper’ History of Political Thought, IV (1983), 247–79Google Scholar.

35 Jubbes, , Several Proposals, pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

36 Ibid. p. 11.

37 Firth, C. H. (ed.), The Clarke papers, II (London, Camden Society, 1894), 208Google Scholar.

38 Ibid. p. 205.

39 Articles of Peace Made and Concluded with the Irish Rebels, and Papists, by James, Earl of Ormond…Upon which are added Observations (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 16 May).

40 Coonan, T. L., The Irish Catholic confederacy and the Puritan revolution (Dublin, 1954), pp. 292–3Google Scholar; Mahaffy, R. P. (ed.), Calendar of state papers relating to Ireland, 1647–1660 (London, 1903), pp. 364–5Google Scholar; Articles of Peace, pp. 41–5.

41 The English Souldiers Standard, to repair to, for Wisdom and Understanding in these doleful backsliding times (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 5 April); Wolfe, , Leveller mantfestoes, pp. 355–83Google Scholar; Second Part of England's New-Chaines, p. 18.

42 Public Record Office, London (P.R.O.), State Papers Domestic Series (S.P.) 25, LXII, 159, 165–6.

43 English Souldiers Standard, pp. 9–10.

44 Brailsford, H. N., The Levellers and the English revolution (ed. Hill, C., Nottingham, 1976 edn), pp. 501–2Google Scholar. But Haller doubted whether The Bloody Project, to which Brailsford compares this tract, was by Walwyn, : Haller, W. (ed.), Tracts on liberty in the Puritan revolution (New York, 1934), 1, 126Google Scholar.

45 Picture of the Councel of State, p. 2; Fountain of Slaunder, p. 18.

46 Hill, C., ‘Seventeenth-century English radicals and Ireland’, in Corish, P. J. (ed.), Radicals, rebels and establishments (Belfast, 1981), pp. 40–1Google Scholar. Lilburne may never have opposed the conquest of Ireland: the only reference I can find in his writings in 1649 is an accusation that Cromwell, , not the Levellers, , delayed the ‘relief of Ireland’. An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwell (London, 1649; Th. 10 Aug.), p. 4Google Scholar.

47 Mercurius Militaris, or The People's Scout, 24 Apr. 1649, B.L. E 551 (13).

48 The Royal Diurnall, 25 Feb. 1650/1, B.L. E 594 (6); Heinemann, Margot, Puritanism and theatre (London, 1980), pp. 252–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mercurius Militaris c. 1 May 1649, Worcester College Oxford, Clarke Collection AA. 8.6; Frank, J., The beginnings of the English newspaper 1620–1660 (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), pp. 165–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Mercurius Militaris, B.L. E 551 (13); Worcester College Oxford, Clarke Collection AA. 8.6; B.L. E 554 (13).

50 I am grateful to Miss Lesley Montgomery, Librarian, Worcester College, Oxford; to staff at Cambridge University Library; to Dr Matthew Seccombe of Yale University and to Mr John J. Morrison of the Wing Short-Title Catalogue Revision Project at Yale, for help and advice in this matter.

51 Waring, , An Answer, p. 64Google Scholar.

52 Coonan, , Irish Catholic confederacy, pp. 292–3Google Scholar; Mahaffy, , Calendar, p. 364Google Scholar.

53 P.R.O., S.P. 25, LXII, 280. In trying to trace possible responses by other writers named in this minute, I am grateful to the earl and countess of Rosse, of Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland, and to Dr Anthony Malcolmson of the Northern Ireland Record Office, Belfast.

54 The Souldiers Demand, Shewing Their Present Misery; and Prescribing a Perfect Remedy (Bristol, 1649; Th. 18 May)Google Scholar

55 Ibid. p. 1.

56 Ibid. p. 7.

57 P.R.O., S.P. 25, LXII, XCIV.

58 Ibid XCIV, 65–6.

59 Hunting of the Foxes; Clarke papers, II, 193–4.

60 The Army's Martyr (London, 1649)Google Scholar; A True Narrative of the late Mutiny Made by several Troopers of Captain Savage's Troop in Col. Whalley's Regiment (London, 1649)Google Scholar.

61 P.R.O., S.P. 25, XCIV, 56, 65–6, 143; LXII, 258–9.

62 Ibid., LXII, 254.

63 ‘A Libbell, scatred about the streets the 25 April 1649’ (MS title), B.L. E 551 (2).

64 Firth, , Clarke papers, II, XXIIGoogle Scholar; Mrs Frances McDonald of New College Library, Oxford, who is transcribing Clarke's shorthand notes, confirms that there is a gap for this period.

65 The Resolutions of the Private Souldiery of Colonel Scroops Regiment of Horse (Salisbury, 8 05 1649)Google Scholar.

66 England's Standard Advanced (6 May 1649).

67 A Full Narrative of All the Proceedings betweene His Excellency the Lord Fairfax and the Mutineers (London, 1649; Th. 18 May), pp. 8–9Google Scholar, The Levellers (Falsly so called) Vindicated (n d.; Th. 21 Aug. 1649). PP. 5–6.

68 Dcnne, Henry, The Levellers Designe Discovered (London, 1649; Th. 24 May), p. 3Google Scholar.

69 Sea Green and Blue, See which speaks true (London, 1649, Th. 6 June), p. 3(b)Google Scholar.

70 Worcester College, Oxford, Clarke MSS, CLXXXI, box 1.

71 Sea Green and Blue, p. 1.

72 The unanimous Declaration of Colonel Scroop's and Commissary General Ireton's Regiments (Salisbury, 8 May).

73 Worcester College Oxford, Clarke MSS, loc. cit.

74 Sea Green and Blue, p. 14.

75 Bottigheimer, , English money, pp. 28–9Google Scholar.

76 Goodwin, John, Ireland's Advocate (London, 1641), p. 26Google Scholar.

77 Ibid. p. 28.

78 For the classic assessment of the refugees' evidence see Hickson, Mary Agnes, Ireland in the seventeenth century, or the Irish massacres of 1641–2, their causes and results (London, 1884)Google Scholar.

79 Bottigheimer, , English money, pp. 71–5Google Scholar; Tolmie, , Triumph of the saints, pp. 39–40, 114, 140Google Scholar.

80 The Bloody Attempts upon the Kingdom of Ireland (London, 1647Google Scholar; Th. 15 March); A Prospect of Bleeding Ireland's Miseries (London, 1647Google Scholar; Th. 16 April). For a suggestion that some of these illustrations may be by Holler, Wenceslaus see British Museum, Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, Division I: Political and personal satires, p. 374Google Scholar.

81 Arguments Inviting All Faithfull Marriners to ingage cheerefully in Englands Honourable and Just Cause (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 16 Apr.)

82 Articles of Peace, p. 49; Reily, Hugh, Ireland's Case Briefly Stated (London, 1695), pp. 40–1Google Scholar.

83 Moderate Intelligencer, 2 May 1649, B.L. E 552 (26).

84 P.R.O., S.P. 25, LXII, 279–80; Waring, ThomasA Brief Narration of the Plotting, Beginning and Carrying on of that Execrable Rebellion and Butcherie in Ireland (London, 1649/1650)Google Scholar. According to the council of state minutes. Waring had been employed as a clerk taking depositions from protestant refugees in 1641–2.

85 Moderate, 29 May–7 Aug. 1649, B.L. E 556 (31), E 558 (16), E 559 (16), E 560 (17), E 562 (22), E 564 (1), E 565 (11), E 566 (12). See Diethe, , ‘The Moderate’, pp. 270–2Google Scholar.

86 Barnard, T., Cromwellian Ireland: English government and reform in Ireland, 1649–1660 (Oxford, 1975). PP. 90–182Google Scholar.

87 Carlin, N., ‘Ireland and natural man in 1649’, in Barker, F. et al. (eds.), Europe and its others (Colchester, 1985), II, 91–111Google Scholar. The Observations attributed to Milton are not included in this paper; they amply confirm, however, its account of English attitudes to Ireland at the time.

88 A Discourse Concerning the Affaires of Ireland (London, 1650), p. 5Google Scholar.

89 Firth, , Clarke papers, II, 205Google Scholar.

90 Cf. Hill, , ‘Seventeenth-century English radicals’, passim, especially pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

91 Liberty of Conscience Asserted (London, 1649), p. 5Google Scholar.

92 Danvers, Henry, Certain Queries concerning Liberty of Conscience (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 27 March), pp 1–2.

93 Tyranipocrit, Discovered with his wiles, wherewith he vanquisheth (Rotterdam, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 14 Aug.), P. 35.

94 Overton, R., The Arraignment of Mr. Persecution (London, 1645), p. 11Google Scholar; Haller, , Tracts on liberty, 1, 70Google Scholar.

95 Jubbes, , Several Proposals, p. 8Google Scholar.

96 Hill, C., Milton and the English revolution (London, 1977), pp. 155–7Google Scholar.

97 The Irish Massacre (n.d.), MS note by Thomason gives Parker as the author, and dates it ‘before he went over to Hamber’ [Hamburg].

98 Wolfe, , Leveller manifestoes, pp. 405, 408Google Scholar.

99 Watts, , Dissenters, pp. 101–2Google Scholar.

100 Kiffin et al, Walwtns Wiles, sig A2v