Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish

Theordinance of no quarter to the Irish^[1]was a decree^[2]of the EnglishLong Parliamentpassed on 24 October 1644 in response to theIrish Catholic Confederationthreat to send troops from Ireland to supportKing Charles Iduring theEnglish Civil War.The decree orderedParliamentaryofficers to giveno quarterto Irish soldiers fighting inEnglandandWales,and Irish Confederate sailors at sea who surrendered.

Context

The Kilkenny Confederacy sent 2,000 troops in three regiments under the command ofAlasdair MacCollato supportMontrose'sRoyalist army in Scotland who were fighting against theCovenantersin 1644.^[3]During the years 1643 and 1644 they also promised to send 10,000 troops to England and Wales. The troops were never sent, because the negotiations with Charles I broke down over the public practice of Catholicism and the independence of theIrish Parliament.^[4]A ceasefire deal between the Irish Confederates and EnglishRoyalistsdid result in the return of some 5,000 Royalist troops from Ireland in 1643–44. The confusion of these regiments with the Irish Catholics, associated in Parliamentarian minds with the massacres of theIrish Rebellion of 1641,did much to frighten English Protestant opinion.^[5]English Parliamentarians had often tauntedPrince Rupertthat he was a Germanmercenary,^[6]and while they could just about tolerate foreign Protestants and EnglishRoman Catholicsfighting as Royalists, they considered support by foreignRoman Catholicsa much greater threat.

Even before the Ordinance was passed Irish prisoners were in danger of beingsummarily executed.For example, in July 1644 ColonelWilliam Sydenhamdefeated a Royalist plundering party from the garrison ofWarehamatDorchester,and hanged six or eight of his prisoners as being "mere Irish rebels".^[7]This gave rise to reprisals on the part of the Royalists.^[8]^[9]

Ordinance

The English Parliament's response to the Kilkenny Confederacy's proposed expeditionary force to England was to pass theOrdinance of no quarter to the Irish:

... no quarter shall be given hereafter to any Irishman, nor any Papist whatsoever born in Ireland, who shall be taken in hostility against the Parliament... every officer that shall be remiss or negligent in observing the tenor of this ordinance shall be reputed a favourer of that bloody rebellion in Ireland (Lenihan 2001,p. 211).

This Ordinance was effective only in England and Wales and did not apply to Scotland or Ireland (as they were not part of the samerealm,they were countries beyond English parliamentaryjurisdiction).

Application

The relative absence of Irish Catholic soldiers in England meant that the Ordinance was rarely acted upon. However, after the cessation of arms between the Confederates and the Royalists in 1643, this allowedOrmondeto send 8,000 troops from Dublin and Munster and aid the King.^[10]Although most were in fact Englishmen, a small contingent consisted of Irish Royalists. In the instances where these Irish were captured, execution swiftly followed. After the Parliamentarians' capture ofShrewsbury,a number of Irish soldiers were hanged in accordance with the law.^[11]In response,Prince Rupertexecuted an equal number of Parliamentarian troops, much to the English Parliament's disgust.^[12]Similarly, after the fall ofConwy Castle,seventy-five Irish prisoners were executed.^[13]One example of the severity of this law was the massacre of some Welsh civilian camp followers (who were mistaken for Irish) by Parliamentarian soldiers after theBattle of Nasebyin 1645. The Welsh, mostly women, were speaking theWelsh language,which the Roundhead troops mistook forIrish.Historian Charles Carlton has commented that the incident "was so unusual that it caused considerable comment".^[14]^[15]

Irish military historian Pádraig Lenihan explains that, in practice, although the war at sea was covered by the Ordinance, as the Irish privateers captured more English sailors than the English did Irish and held English prisoners to exchange them for Irish prisoners, the ordinance for naval warfare lapsed. As he explains, "The 'laws' of war evolved like any primitive legal code, from the principle of reciprocity; self-interest counselled against brutality if there was the chance of being paid back in the same coin".^[16]

Reciprocity in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

In Ireland, theIrish Confederate Warswere waged with considerable brutality. Irish military historian Pádraig Lenihan makes the point that the Ordinance "illustrates the depth of the conviction that the Irish shared a common and irredeemable blood guilt. The pitiless execution of Covenanters by Mac Colla's followers would seem to show that for the Irish, too, battle against British forces was waged without moral restraint. In practice, however, [in Ireland] there were restraints. For example,O'Neill,immediately afterBenburb,sent 150 prisoners (excluding officers, whom he kept for ransom) under escort back to Scottish quarters (Hogan,war in Ireland) ".^[17]

In England as in Ireland and on the high seas, expedient reciprocity often won over other principles. For example, at the start of theFirst English Civil WarMajorJohn Lilburnewas captured at theBattle of Brentford.Not only was he the most senior Parliamentary officer captured during the first campaigning season but also he was well known for his radical views. Plans to try him for treason, for bearing arms against the king, were dropped when theParliamentary side threatened to retaliate in kind,and he was exchanged for a Royalist officer.^[18]At the end of theSecond English Civil Warand the apparent utter defeat of the Royalist cause, the Parliamentary side was far less lenient than at the end of the first war.

In the view of the Parliamentarians, Royalist leaders who had participated in the second war (and who in some cases had broken their parole given at the end of the first war not to take up arms against Parliament) had caused pointless bloodshed for a lost cause,^[19]and so, for example, three of the five prominent Royalist peers who fought in the second war and were captured by the Parliamentarians were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March 1648.^[19]This opinion reached all the way to the top of the Royalist cause, with theGrandeesof theNew Model Army,who before the second war had wanted a negotiated settlement with Charles I, reluctantly coming round to the radicals' point of view that "Charles Stuart, that man of blood"^[20]should betried– and possibly executed, as he was in January 1649.

Notes

^Also known asOrdinance of no quarter to IrishandOrdinance of October 24 (1644)
^As the King would not consent to Bills from a Parliament at war with him Acts of Parliament at this time were styledOrdinance(Manganiello 2004,p. 401)
^Bartlett & Jeffery 1997,p. 305.
^Kenyon & Ohlmeyer,pp. 87–88.
^Lenihan 2001,pp. 75–76.
^Fraser 2007.
^Firth 1898,p. 254 cites: Devereux,Lives of the Earls of Essex,ii. 418; Vicars,God's Ark,p. 286.
^Firth 1898,p. 254 cites: Ludlow,Memoirs,i. 95.
^Ludlow 1751,pp. 103, 104.
^"This treaty, equally reprobated by violent Catholics and fanatic puritans, was of no real service to the king.Lord Byron,at the head of 3,500 troops sent by Ormond to England, wasdefeated in CheshirebyFairfaxwith the loss of nearly half his force, and all his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. Though further reinforcements were sent from Ireland, nothing of consequence was effected. Some of the transports being intercepted by ships of war belonging to the parliament increased the number of victims sacrificed by the rage of civil and religious bigotry. "(Wilkes 1812,p. 132)
^Wright 1826,p. 120.
^Wright 1826,p. 121.
^Manganiello 2004,p. 401.
^Kenyon & Ohlmeyer,p. 273.
^"John Rushworthwrote the next day, '…the Irish women Prince Rupert brought upon the field… our souldiers would grant no quarter too, about 100 slain of them, and most of the rest of the whores that attended that wicked Army are marked in the face or nose, with a slash or cut.' "(Naseby Battlefield Project2008)
^Lenihan 2001,p. 212.
^Lenihan 2001,p. 211.
^Firth 1893,p. 244.
^^a ^bAtkinson 1911,Section 49. Preston Fight.
^Brewer 1898,"Man of Blood".

References

Atkinson, Charles Francis (1911)."Great Rebellion".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 418.
Bartlett, Thomas; Jeffery, Keith (1997).A Military History of Ireland.Cambridge University Press. p.305.ISBN 978-0-521-62989-8.
Brewer, E. Cobham (1898)."Man of Blood".Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Firth, C.H.(1893)."Lilburne, John".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 244.
Firth, C.H.(1898)."Sydenham, William".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 254.
Fraser, Antonia (23 June 2007)."The robber prince".The Guardian.– a review ofPrince Rupert: The Last CavalierbyCharles Spencer(Weidenfeld)
Kenyon, John; Ohlmeyer, Jane.the Civil Wars.^{[full citation needed]}^{Publisher, date of publication and ISBN are needed.}
Lenihan, Pádraig (2001).Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49.Cork University Press. p.211.ISBN 1-85918-244-5.
Ludlow, Edmund(1751).Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, esq....: With a collection of original papers, serving to confirm and illustrate many important passages contained in the Memoirs. To which is now added, The case of King Charles the First. With a copious index.Vol. 1. W. Sands. pp.103, 104.
"Questions & Puzzles: Where did the atrocities take place?".naseby.com.Naseby Battlefield Project. Archived fromthe originalon 20 August 2008.
Manganiello, Stephen C. (2004). "The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660".The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland 1639-1660.Scarecrow Press. p.401.ISBN 0-8108-5100-8.
Wright, Thomas (1826).The history & antiquities of the town of Ludlow and its ancient castle: with lives of the presidents, and descriptive and historical accounts of gentlemen's seats, villages, &c.Procter and Jones. p.120, 121.
Wilkes, John (1812). "Ireland".Encyclopaedia Londinensis, or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature.p.312.