Page 213 - Demo

Chapter Seven 213
were held, were the two main sources of unrest. Now, from the very beginning of his reign, Charles, who irmly believed that he was divinely ordained, had a constant struggle with the almost puritan-dominated English Parliament, concerning matters of inance. In fact, it was said of him by one of his Parliamentarians ‘that the subsidies voted him never satisied his needs.’ The Irish landowners, therefore, saw an opportunity of striking a bargain with the needy monarch for the removal of their grievances, in the hope of gaining more tolerance for their religion and greater security in their estates.
Accordingly they ofered to the King, through the acting Viceroy, Lord Falkland, the sum of £120,000, on condition of obtaining certain “graces.” The most important of these graces were:
1. Recusants (those who refused to accept the Protestant faith) might practice in the Courts without taking the Oath of Supremacy.
2. Titles to lands held for over sixty years were not to be questioned.
3. Military exactions were to cease.
4. The tyranny of Ecclesiastical Courts were to be restrained.
5. The landowners of Connacht and Thomond were to be secured in their lands by a fresh registration of their titles.
The “graces” (ifty-one in all) were to be brought before the Irish Parliament for sanc- tion. Though the installments of the stipulated sum were paid over, the summoning of the Parliament was evaded, and consequently the “graces” did not become law. Indeed, in 1628 a proclamation was issued which declared that “Popish rites and ceremonies should cease.” But as already mentioned, the Parliament was never called, and the graces not put into legal efect, and having paid their money, the recusants felt they had been well tricked-in fact they were well cheated.
In 1633, Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Straford, arrived in Ireland as the king’s Deputy. Described variously as being “a capable, fearless, ruthless, and unscrupulous administrator.the upholder of absolutism of the most extreme kind.” His motto, and one he lived up to was, “Thorough,” a code-word for royal policy, and a motto which, meant, in his relations with Ireland, a thorough contempt of all private interests and personal ends; and, in the second instance, an equally thorough indiference to the feelings and sentiments of those he governed. His brief was a dual one, to make Ireland into a net revenue earner and to keep it secure for the Crown.