James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde: Encyclopedia II - James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde - Negotiations with the Irish Confederates

James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde - Negotiations with the Irish Confederates

Ormonde was faced with a difficult task in reconciling all the different factions in Ireland. The Old (native) Irish and Catholic Irish of English race ("Old English") were represented in Confederate Ireland—essentially an independent Catholic government based in Kilkenny—who wanted to come to terms with King Charles I of England in return for religious toleration and self-government. On the other side, any concession that Ormonde made to the Confederates weakened his support among English and Scottish Protestants. Ormonde's negotiations with hte Confederates were therefore tortuous, even though many of the Confederate leaders were his relatives or friends.

He assisted Randall Macdonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim in mounting an Irish Confederate expedition into Scotland led by Alisdair MacColla to help the Scottish Royalists, sparking the Scottish Civil War. The difficulties of Ormonde's position had been greatly increased by the secret treaty that Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester signed with the Irish Catholics on August 25, 1645. On March 28, 1646 Ormonde concluded a treaty with the Irish Confederates which granted religious concessions and removed various grievances. However, the Confederate's General Assembly rejected the deal, partly due to the influence of the Pope Innocent X's nuncio, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, to prevent the Catholics signing a compromise deal. Those who had signed the treaty were arrested and the Confederates called off their truce with Ormonde.

It soon became clear that he could not hold Dublin against the Irish rebels. He applied to the Long Parliament, signed a treaty on June 19, 1647, gave Dublin into their hands on terms which protected the interests of both Protestants and Roman Catholics who had not actually entered into rebellion, and sailed for England at the beginning of August 1647. He handed over Dublin and the troops under his command to the Parliamentarian commander Micheal Jones. Ormonde famously remarked that he "preferred English rebels to Irish ones."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Negotiations with the Irish Confederates", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki