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Ireland and the Stuart Papers

Dr Éamonn Ó Ciardha

University of

Bonnie Prince Charlie Entering the Ballroom at Holyroodhouse before 30 Apr 1892. Royal Collection Trust/ ©Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018

EMPOWER™ RESEARCH Irish , or Irish support for the exiled Stuart After 1691, often in the context of successive Jacobite monarchs after 1688, at once helped to sustain Irish plots and invasion scares (1692, 1695, 1708, 1715, 1719, national identity between the Treaty of 1745, 1759), Irish Jacobites looked to the Stuarts, the (1691)[1] and the (1789) and explains exiled Irish aristocracy and the Irish regiments in the the imposition and maintenance of the French and Spanish armies to restore their confiscated against for much of the eighteenth lands, dissolve the penal laws and reverse the political, century. It also condemned many Irishmen and women social and cultural domination of the Irish Protestant to a life of exile on the continent. The newly accessible, Ascendancy. In addition, they also paid careful attention digitized and heretofore shamefully under−utilized to Europe's numerous dynastic wars and ongoing Stuart Papers collection at Windsor Castle provides the political and military rivalries and their possible single most comprehensive source for this early ramifications for the Stuarts' cause. Thus, the modern Irish émigré community, Irish Jacobitism and voluminous Irish correspondence in the Stuart Papers eighteenth-century Irish history more generally. invariably equates the king's with the exiles' return to , the restitution of their lands and titles Irish loyalty to the Stuarts first manifested itself in the and the rehabilitation of the . In the immediate aftermath of James VI and I's succession to meantime, they looked to James for alms, access, the English throne and Irish crown in 1603. As the certificates of noblesse and titles to enable them to first de facto monarch of the whole kingdom, the king's operate in the restrictive world of elite ancien régime martyred Catholic mother (Mary, Queen of Scots), his [3] Europe . impeccably fabricated Gaelic genealogy and the strategic cultural, diplomatic and theological trimming This unique archive correspondingly charts the lives of Franciscan and Jesuit theologians and Irish poets and activities of an extensive and far-flung Irish and writers ensured that he had no rivals for Irish Jacobite presence on the continent and sheds new light affections. Irish loyalty to his luckless house on early modern Irish military history and then largely survived the trauma of the Great Civil War historiography. In particular, it enables us to explore (1638-52), the Interregnum (1649-1660) and the political the varied careers, lives, identities and ideologies of frustrations and disappointments of Charles II's reign this vibrant expatriate Irish Jacobite community (1660-1685). On the succession of James II and VII in through the large cache of letters, literary relics, 1685, many Irishmen accordingly looked to the new memorials and memoirs they sent to their exiled Catholic monarch to repeal anti-Catholic legislation sovereigns over the course of nearly 70 years. Providing and restore lands they had lost fighting for his family an appropriate political and military context for Irish against the English Parliament. Defeat and involvement in ongoing Jacobite plots and in disillusionment at the Boyne (1690), Aughrim and eighteenth-century European military and political Limerick (1691)[2] initially dimmed but did not extinguish intrigue more generally, they facilitate the re-creation Irish enthusiasm for his fallen house. of expatriate Irish social networks and Irish émigré links with their former homeland. They shed a great

deal of new light on their political, military, socio- Washington's Army at Valley Forge or George economic and cultural milieux, their active role in McClellan's Army of the Potomac during the American Jacobite politics and their attitude towards Ireland and Civil war. Of course, Irish generals, colonels-proprietor, their exiled king. In addition, they show us how this recruiters and clergymen then utilised this cultural expatriate Irish Jacobite community functioned as a Jacobitism to enlist kinsmen and compatriots into military, political, diplomatic, and cultural grouping in various European armies, often in conjunction with Europe; how they organised recruitment networks at their political and diplomatic traffic on behalf of the home and abroad and utilised Catholicism and exiled Stuarts. Jacobitism for their military, political and practical Seventeenth-century confiscations and the decimation advantage. Irish poets, propagandists, soldiers and of the Irish Catholic landed interest after Limerick smugglers all played a crucial role in recruiting for (1691) also ensured that Irish Jacobitism remained Irish regiments in all early modern theatres, as well as closely associated with a Catholic tenant-farming and transferring intelligence between all sections of the mercantile class, the politically suspect Irish Catholic Irish Jacobite community. Irish Catholic priests also converts to , the Irish colleges scattered served as chaplains in these Irish regiments, providing across the continent from Lisbon to Prague and a spiritual succour for their charges as well as acting as prolific, multi-lingual Irish literati on both sides of the recorders and witnesses for wills and testaments and Channel. The burgeoning Irish community on the serving as guardians for widows and orphans. In the continent, officially deemed 'traitors', 'rebels', fugitives same vein, Irish-born bankers, merchants, educators, or - at best - military and religious refugees, was thus lawyers and notaries provided a secular support able to play a significant role in European political and structure for the Irish community on the continent and cultural life for most of the Jacobite period and was their careers, and especially their pan- European thoroughly integrated into their host societies. Yet political, socio-economic and cultural networks tell us despite the long years of exile they remained loyal to a great deal about their place in their host societies. the Stuart dynasty and did not cease to participate in For the Irish Jacobite military diaspora formed only one Jacobite risings, invasion plots and cross-channel part of a multi-faceted expatriate Irish community that espionage for over six decades after the Treaty of established itself in host kingdoms and empires from Limerick. Indeed, Catholicism and Jacobitism, the Iberian Peninsula to the Russian steppe. inexorably linked until the death of James 'III and VIII' in The socio-cultural and associational aspects of the 1766, directly helped to hold this pan-European Irish military community abroad centred on a strong, community together by enabling its adherents to move distinct Irish Catholic nationalist and royalist identity seamlessly from Madrid to Moscow. Although the Irish and the cult of the exiled Stuarts. Key events in the military diaspora's relationship with their homeland in Jacobite calendar (births, birthdays and name-days) the seventeenth century has been the subject of much and associated Jacobite rituals and religious feast-days recent research, their eighteenth-century successors, mirror later St Patrick's Day celebrations in George military and civilian alike, lack a modern, pan-

European, interpretative history. The newly accessible Catholic community in Ireland during the worst years of Stuart Papers Archive will be a crucial resource for any the Penal Era. As a result, Jacobitism remained scholar who wants to address this yawning lacuna in crucially relevant for Catholic Ireland and the Irish Irish and Jacobite history. clergy focused their hopes and ambitions on the Stuart court rather than the . As well as charting the activities of the Irish Jacobite Diaspora, the Stuart Papers also provide abundant Hence a great many of the letters and documents evidence for the activities of ambitious Irish Catholic routinely submitted to the Stuart court in exile clerics, and especially of the vigorous canvassing and illuminate the workings of the Irish Catholic Church intrigues centred on appointments to vacant Irish and its links with France, Spain, the Habsburgs and bishoprics[4]. The close ties between Jacobitism and Rome. They reveal, furthermore, the major problems of Catholicism were firmly established at the outset of the Irish mission, such as the difficulties created by the James II and VII's reign. Immediately after his penal code and episodic bouts of persecution stemming accession to the throne in 1685, King James petitioned from it, the struggle between the continental-based and Innocent XI for the right of nomination to Catholic indigenous Irish clergy for control of the Irish colleges[6], bishoprics in his three kingdoms and the pope the ongoing friction between the regular and secular reluctantly conceded this. James then maintained this clergy and the problems caused by absentee bishops prerogative after his deposition in 1688 despite and an over-supply of clergymen. They also shed light opposition from a few dissident Irish clerics who feared on the way the links between the Catholic clergy in that he would attempt to anglicise the Irish church or Ireland and their religious and secular masters in that his right of nomination would provoke further Rome operated. The written and oral traffic between persecution of the Irish Catholic community. James II them had to be carried on by underground channels and VII, (acting as de facto regent for and couched in a cryptic vocabulary, and hence the her son) and the young James 'III and VIII', indeed, correspondence is full of descriptions of intricate regularly exercised this jealously guarded prerogative manoeuvres for moving information and couriers in for the next seventy years[5]. The Stuarts nominated all secret and much of it is written in elaborate ciphers but five out of 129 Irish bishops and coadjutors between with pseudonyms and references to 'widows' [vacant 1687 and 1765. It is therefore no surprise that the exiled dioceses], 'farms' [dioceses], farmers [bishops] and Stuarts continued to be regarded as the fount of 'tenants' [bishops] that were all at the disposal of the righteous authority by the higher Irish Catholic clergy. 'landlord' [James 'III and VIII']. The Irish component of These de jure kings got little chance to show their the Stuart Papers is consequently an excellent source affection for those Catholic Irish men and women who for scholars who are uninterested in Jacobitism, but sacrificed so much in their cause. However, they could are engaged in studying the mechanics of the and did scrupulously exercise their right of episcopal 'dangerous trade' of espionage and subversion in early nomination to choose men well-suited to sustaining the modern Europe[7]. underground church and the spiritual identity of the

Furthermore, prominent members of the clergy, O'Callaghan, Lloyd, McKenna, MacDonagh and Dunne is including Dr Ambrose O'Callaghan, Provincial of the replicated and magnified in those written by Irish

8] Irish Dominicans and later Bishop of Ferns[ , Dr Jacobite soldiers, civilians and Gaelic literati. Sylvester Lloyd, [9], Fr Bernard

[10] [11] In addition to materials specifically focused on Ireland Dunne , Fr. Michael MacDonough, Bishop of Kilmore and Irish matters penned by Irishmen, the collection and Fr James McKenna, Monaghan clergyman and

[12] contains hundreds of letters to and from prominent Jacobite agent , also acted as the eyes and ears of the Irish Jacobite exiles who represented King James' Stuart king in Ireland and on the continent. They sent interest across the continent, including Count John information directly to him and his secretary James O'Rourke (Vienna), Sir Charles Wogan, (Madrid)[13], Edgar, or via his agents Lieutenant-General Arthur Lieutenant-General Dillon ()[14], Daniel O'Brien Dillon and Daniel O'Brien, Jacobite Earl of Lismore, on (Rome)[15] and James Butler, Duke of Ormonde the state, structure and strength of the Irish Jacobite (Avignon)[16]. Although Ireland seldom featured directly political nation, as well as other news relating to Irish in post 1691 Jacobite plots and invasion plans ( political affairs. King James also received presents of remained the ultimate goal for the Stuarts) the butter, oysters, tobacco, linen, books (including kingdom invariably had a subsidiary, diversionary role Gulliver's Travels and other works by Jonathan Swift) in all of them. Thus, the surviving invasion plans drawn and alcohol designed to curry favour with him and his up by the likes of James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick, secretary. John Erskine, Jacobite Duke of Mar, , A further insight into the mind of eighteenth-century Bishop of Rochester and prominent Irish Jacobites Ireland can be found in the many postulations from the such as Lieutenant-General Dillon, 'Robin' Leslie, indigenous and exiled Irish nobility in support of the Roger O'Connor and a host of others all stressed the pretensions of episcopal hopefuls. These are invariably need to reinforce any indigenous rising in the British imbued both with Catholic self-righteousness and a Isles with expatriate Irish troops and arm the Jacobites strong sense of persecution. They are accordingly a in Ireland to pin down the government's troops there[17]. necessary corrective to those interpretations of Irish Irish Jacobitism, and the in particular, history that have downplayed the psychological effects has left an indelible mark on the politics, political of the penal laws. Their letters and memorandums culture, literature and history of eighteenth-century continually refer to their poor oppressed country, the Europe and this looms large in the papers of the exiled persecuted Catholics of Ireland, their lawful king, their Stuarts. Yet despite their loyal service to temporal and fatherland and the tyranny of the usurping Elector of spiritual masters on the continent and their steady Hanover (George I, II and III). They provide a ringing integration into their host societies, these exiles demonstration of the singular importance of the retained a strong, sentimental allegiance to their native Jacobite ideology in eighteenth- century Ireland and it land. Links between Ireland and her clerical and is particularly striking how resoundingly the optimism military exiles profoundly influenced the elaboration, in the letters of clergymen such as O'Connor, maintenance and survival of Jacobite ideology until the

end of the 1750s. In the course of the better part of a NOTES century of wars and invasion plots, the exiles vigorously [1] Signed in October 1691 at Limerick, this treaty ended the War in Ireland and saw the end of Jacobite military opposition to lobbied for, with and on behalf of the exiled Stuarts; in William of Orange in that country. periods of political inactivity, they commented on [2] Williamite forces defeated the first under James II at European politics, sought pensions, titles, preferment the on 1 July 1690, then under Lieutenant- General St Ruth at Aughrim on 12 July 1691, after James II had fled to and continually dwelt on their sadness at living in exile France. Limerick, a Jacobite stronghold, was under siege from Williamite forces first in August 1690, then once again in August 1691, and the persecution of their compatriots at home. The ending in the Jacobite surrender and the signing of the . exiled Stuart kings reciprocated by repeatedly turning to Irish soldiers, priests and merchants to represent [3] RA SP/Main/262/152 and support their political interests across the [4] Petition on Behalf of Bernard Dunne, Bishop of , for His continent and by trying to obtain favours for their loyal Translation to the Archbishopric of [1729]. RA SP/Box/1/85.

Irish subjects. For their part, the Irish Jacobite exiles [5] RA SP/M/17/23.

boasted loudly of their willingness to serve the cause [6] RA SP/Box/3/1/27. "Memorial Concerning the Pretensions of the R. and recoup their native lands and possessions by force Chapter of Piacenza in prejudice of the ancient Rights of the English College of Rome". of arms. Like Jacobitism itself, these are tokens of a [7] Arthur Dillon to James Francis Edward Stuart and John Erskine, 6 profoundly dissident, implicitly revolutionary tendency March 1719. RA SP/Main/42/75. in eighteenth-century Irish society. Long before 1798 [8] Fr Ambrose O'Callaghan to John Hay, 9 October 1724. RA and the beginnings of modern there SP/Main/77/69. was, in other words, an Irish community at home and [9] Fr Sylvester Lloyd to Col Daniel O'Brien, Paris, 4 February 1726. RA SP/Main/90/70. abroad yearning, and fighting, for a very different Ireland. [10] Bernard Dunne, , to James, 3 December 1727. RA SP/Main/112/89.

[11] Michael Macdonogh, Bishop of Kilmore, to James Edgar, 10 April 1741. RA SP/Main/231/190.

[12] Fr James MacKenna to James Edgar, 7 February 1747. RA SP/Main/281/65.

[13] Sir Charles Wogan to James, 9 December 1722. RA SP/Main/64/21.

[14] Arthur Dillon to James, 29 July 1720. RA SP/Main/48/71.

[15] Colonel Daniel O'Brien to James Francis Edward Stuart. 22 Sept 1727. RA SP/Main/110/86.

[16] James Butler to James Francis Edward Stuart, 19 March 1719. RA SP/Main/42/91.

[17] RA SP/Box/3/1/34. CITATION

ó Ciardha, Éamonn: “Ireland and the Stuart Papers.” State Papers Online: The Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the , Windsor Castle, Cengage Learning (EMEA) Ltd, 2018

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