Editing Irish Confederate Wars (section)

=={{anchor|Confederates}}The Confederates' War, 1642–1648==
{{See also|Confederate Ireland}}
[[Image:kilkenny castle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Kilkenny Castle]], seat of the Confederate General Assembly]]
[[Charles I of England|Charles I]] wanted control of Ireland to mobilise its resources against his opponents in England and Scotland; the Scots and their [[Long Parliament|English Parliamentary allies]] aimed to prevent this. Over the course of 1642, 10,000 Scots funded by Parliament landed in [[Coleraine]] and [[Carrickfergus]], while English forces re-established control over Dublin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan, Padraig (ed) |first1=Young, John (author) |title=Scotland & Ireland 1641–1691 in Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland |date=2001 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004117433 |page=59}}</ref>

One of the last pieces of legislation approved by both Charles and Parliament before the outbreak of the [[First English Civil War]] was the March 1642 [[Adventurers' Act]]; this funded the war in Ireland by loans that would be repaid by the sale of lands held by the Irish rebels. As a result, neither side would tolerate the autonomous Catholic state demanded by Irish leaders and both were committed to further land confiscations; enforcing the Adventurers' Act was the primary objective of the 1649 [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|Cromwellian conquest]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manganiello |first1=Stephen |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639–1660 |date=2004 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810851009 |page=160}}</ref>

This resulted in the formation of [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Confederacy]], based at [[Kilkenny]]; by the end of 1642, it controlled two-thirds of Ireland, including the ports of [[Waterford]] and [[Wexford]], through which they could receive aid from Catholic powers in Europe. While supported by most Irish Catholics, especially the clergy, many co-religionists among the upper classes were Royalists by inclination, who feared losing their own lands if the plantation settlements were overturned. Some fought against the Confederation; others like [[Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde|Clanricarde]], stayed neutral.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan |first1=Padraig |title=Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603–1727 (Longman History of Ireland) |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1138140639 |pages=109–110}}</ref>

Forces initially available to the Confederacy were primarily [[militia]] and private levies, commanded by aristocratic amateurs like Lord [[Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret|Mountgarret]]. These suffered a series of defeats, including [[battle of Liscarroll|Liscarroll]], [[battle of Kilrush|Kilrush]], [[battle of New Ross (1643)|New Ross]] and [[battle of Glenmaquin|Glenmaquinn]], but the outbreak of the [[English Civil War]] in mid-1642 led to the recall of many English troops. This allowed [[Garret Barry (soldier)|Garret Barry]], a returned Irish mercenary soldier, to capture [[Siege of Limerick 1642|Limerick]] in 1642, while the English garrison in Galway was forced to surrender by the townspeople in 1643.

By mid-1643, the Confederacy controlled large parts of Ireland, the exceptions being Ulster, Dublin and Cork. They were assisted by divisions among their opponents, with some areas held by forces loyal to Parliament, others by the Royalist [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde|Duke of Ormonde]] and the [[Covenanter]]s pursuing their own agenda around Carrickfergus. The reality was an extremely complex mix of shifting loyalties; for various reasons, many [[Ulster]] Protestants regarded the Scots with hostility, as did some of their nominal allies in Parliament, including [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]].<ref>Lenihan & Young pp. 60–61</ref>

===Stalemate===
[[File:Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin by Wright, John Michael.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Inchiquin]], commander in [[Munster]], who defected to Parliament in 1644, then returned to the Royalists in 1648; an example of the complex mix of loyalties and motives]]
The Civil War gave the Confederates time to create regular, full-time armies and they were eventually able to support some 60,000 men in different areas. These were funded by an extensive system of [[taxation]], equipped with supplies from [[France]], [[Spain]] and the [[Papacy]] and led by Irish professionals like [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]] and [[Owen Roe O'Neill]], who had served in the Spanish army.

However, they arguably squandered an opportunity to conquer all of Ireland by signing a truce or "Cessation of Arms" with the Royalists on 15 September 1643, then spending the next three years in abortive negotiations.{{efn|On 14 December 1646, approximately six months after the end of the First English Civil War, Parliament enacted an ordinance to void the Cessation of Arms.<ref>{{cite web |title=December 1646: An Ordinance concerning the Cessation of Arms in Ireland, and Grants under the Great Seal of Ireland |editor1-last=Firth |editor1-first= C.H. |editor2-last=Rait |editor2-first=R.S |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/p910 |website=BHO – British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=14 June 2020}}</ref>}} The period 1642 to 1646 was dominated by raids, with all sides attempting to starve their enemies by the destruction of crops and supplies, causing great loss of life, particularly among civilians. The bitterness it engendered is illustrated by a Parliamentary Ordinance of October 1644, which forbade 'giving of quarter to any Irishman or Papist born in Ireland who shall be taken in Hostility against the Parliament either upon the Sea or in England and Wales.'<ref>{{cite web |title=Table of acts: 1644 |editor1-last=Firth |editor1-first= C.H. |editor2-last=Rait |editor2-first=R.S |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/xviii-xxx |website=BHO-British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref>

An offensive against Ulster in 1644 failed to make significant progress, while defeat at [[Battle of Marston Moor|Marston Moor]] in July made it increasingly clear the English Royalists were losing the war; two weeks later, the [[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Earl of Inchiquin]] defected to Parliament, giving them control of the ports of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Kinsale]] and [[Youghal]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan, Padraig (ed) |first1=Kerrigan, Paul (author) |title=Ireland in Naval Strategy 1641–1691 in Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland |date=2001 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004117433 |page=157}}</ref> In late 1644, the Confederates took [[Bandon, County Cork|Bandon]] but Inchiquin retained control of Cork; Preston captured [[Siege of Duncannon|Duncannon]] in January 1645, then besieged Youghal but lack of supplies forced him to abandon the siege in March 1645.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKeiver |first1=Philip |title=A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign |date=2008 |publisher=Advance Press |isbn=978-0955466304}}</ref>

===Refugees===
The opening years of the war saw widespread displacement of civilians – both sides practising what would now be called [[ethnic cleansing]]. In the initial phase of the rebellion in 1641, the vulnerable Protestant settler population fled to walled towns such as [[Dublin]], [[Cork (city)|Cork]] and [[Derry]] for protection. Others fled to England. When Ulster was occupied by Scottish Covenanter troops in 1642, they retaliated for the attacks on settlers by attacks on the Irish Catholic civilian population. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 30,000 people fled Ulster in 1642, to live in Confederate held territory. Many of them became camp followers of [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]'s Ulster Army, living in clan-based groupings called "[[creaght]]s" and driving their herds of cattle around with the army. Outside of Ulster, the treatment of civilians was less harsh, although the "no-mans-land" in between Confederate and British held territory in Leinster and Munster was repeatedly raided and burned, with the result that it too became de-populated.

===Victory and defeat for the Confederates===
[[Image:bunrattybig.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|[[Siege of Bunratty|Bunratty Castle, besieged]] and taken by the Irish Confederates from an English Parliamentarian force in 1646.]]
The stalemate, however, broke in 1646. During the summer after the end of the [[First English Civil War]], the Confederate military tried to make as many gains in Ireland as they could before the expected invasion by the forces of the English Parliament. In that effort they were quite successful. On 5 June 1646, [[Owen Roe O'Neill|Owen O'Neill]] defeated a Parliamentary and Scottish army commanded by Robert Munro at [[Battle of Benburb|Benburb]]. During July, [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]] leading the Leinster Army of the Confederates captured the Parliamentary stronghold at Roscommon while Donough McCarthy Viscount Muskerry captured the castle of [[Siege of Bunratty|Bunratty]].<ref name=BCW1 >Plant, The Confederate War: Timeline 1641–52.</ref>

On 30 July, however, it was proclaimed in Dublin by the Royalists that the Confederate Supreme Council had signed a peace treaty on 28 March 1646 with King Charles as represented by Ormonde. The treaty was signed unbeknownst to the Confederate military commanders and without the participation of the leader of the Catholic clergy, [[Giovanni Battista Rinuccini|Rinuccini]], who had arrived in Ireland with money and arms as the Papal Nuncio nine months earlier.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott >Scott.</ref>

Many provisions of the treaty were unacceptable to Rinuccini and the Confederate military commanders, especially sending military support to Royalists in England for a cause that was seemingly ended with the conclusion of the civil war. Rinuccini and the Confederate military commanders also believed that there might be a chance for them to defeat the English in Ireland and take total control given the magnitude of their recent victories. As so, Rinuccini publicly denounced the Ormonde treaty on 12 August. Rinuccini and the Confederate military then marched upon Kilkenny, declared the Ormonde treaty void, and create a new Confederate Supreme Council.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott/><ref name=BCW2 >Plant, The First Ormond Peace, 1646.</ref>

Trying next to take control of Ireland, the Confederate armies commanded by O'Neill and Preston attempted to capture Dublin, Ormonde's Royalist garrison by siege. Their plan to seize Dublin failed, however, as the Royalists had devastated the land around their capital and the Confederate commanders were unable to feed their armies. The inability to capture Dublin was an embarrassment to Rinuccini and the Confederates as it exposed the folly of their strategy of conquesting Ireland. Ormonde then turned to negotiations with the English Parliament and ultimately handed the city over to a Parliamentarian army commanded by Colonel Michael Jones on 19 June 1647.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott/>

In 1647, the Parliamentarian forces inflicted a shattering series of defeats on the Confederates, ultimately forcing them to join a Royalist coalition to try to hold off a Parliamentarian invasion. Firstly, in August 1647, when it tried to march on Dublin, Thomas Preston's Leinster army was annihilated at the [[battle of Dungans Hill]] by Jones' Parliamentarian army. This was the best trained and best equipped Confederate army and the loss of its manpower and equipment was a body blow to the Confederation. Secondly, the Parliamentarians based in [[Cork (city)|Cork]] devastated the Confederates' territory in [[Munster]], provoking famine among the civilian population. In September, they [[Sack of Cashel|stormed Cashel]], not only taking the town but also massacring its garrison and inhabitants, including several Catholic clerics. When the Irish Munster army brought them to battle at [[battle of Knocknanauss|Knocknanauss]] in November, they too were crushed. [[Sligo]] also changed hands again – captured by the Ulster British settlers' army. The battles in this phase of the war were exceptionally bloody: in the battles of 1646–47, the losers had up to half of those engaged killed – most commonly in the rout after the battle was decided. In the three largest engagements of 1647, no less than 1% of the Irish male population (around 7,000–8,000 men) were killed in battle.

This string of defeats forced the Confederates to come to a deal with the [[Cavalier|Royalists]], and to put their troops under their command. Amid factional fighting within their ranks over this deal, the Confederates dissolved their association in 1648 and accepted [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde|Ormonde]] as the commander in chief of the Royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquin, the Parliamentarian commander in Cork, also defected to the Royalists after the arrest of King Charles I.

The Confederates were fatally divided over this compromise. Rinuccini, the Papal Nuncio, threatened to [[excommunicate]] anyone who accepted the deal. Particularly galling for him was the alliance with Inchiquin, who had massacred Catholic civilians and clergy in Munster in 1647. There was even a brief period of civil war in 1648 between [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]'s Ulster Army, as he refused to accept the Royalist alliance, and the new Royalist–Confederate coalition. O'Neill neglected to secure adequate supplies and was unable to force a change in policy on his former comrades. During this divisive period the Confederates missed a second strategic chance to reorganise while their opponents were engaged in the [[Second English Civil War]] (1648–49), which was lost by their royalist allies.