Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish
Encyclopedia
The Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish was a decree of the English Long Parliament
passed on 24 October 1644 in response to the Irish Confederation of Kilkenny threat to send troops from Ireland to support King Charles I
during the English Civil War
that ordered Parliamentary
officers to give no quarter
to Irish soldiers fighting in England
and Wales
, and Irish Confederate sailors at sea.
to support Montrose's
Royalist army in Scotland who were fighting against the Covenanters in 1644. During the years 1643 and 1644 they also promised to send 10,000 troops to England and Wales. However they ultimately never sent the troops because their negotiations with Charles I broke down over the public practice of Catholicism and the independence of the Irish Parliament. However, a ceasefire deal between the Irish Confederates and English Royalists
did 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 the Irish Rebellion of 1641
, did much to frighten English Protestant opinion. English Parliamentarians had often taunted Prince Rupert that he was a German mercenary
, and while they could just about tolerate foreign Protestants and English Roman Catholics fighting as Royalists, they considered support by foreign Roman Catholics a much greater threat.
Even before the Ordinance was passed Irish prisoners were in danger of being summarily executed. For example in July 1644 Colonel William Sydenham defeated a Royalist plundering party from the garrison of Wareham
at Dorchester, and hanged six or eight of his prisoners as being "mere Irish rebels". This gave rise to reprisals on the part of the Royalists.
This Ordinance was effective only in England and Wales and did not apply to Scotland or Ireland (as they were not part of the same realm
, they were countries beyond English jurisdiction
).
to send 8,000 troops from Dublin and Munster and aid the King. Although most were in fact Englishmen, a small contingent consisted of Irish Royalists. In the instances where these Irish were captured, execution was swiftly followed. After Parliamentarians capture of Shrewsbury
, a number of Irish soldiers were hanged in accordance with the law. In response, Prince Rupert executed an equal number of Parliamentarian troops, much to the English Parliament's disgust. Similarly, after the fall of Conway Castle, seventy-five Irish prisoners were executed. 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 the battle of Naseby
in 1645. The Welsh, mostly women, were speaking the Welsh language
, which the Roundhead troops mistook for Irish
. Historian Charles Carlton has commented that the incident, "was so unusual that it caused considerable comment".
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".
In Ireland, the Irish Confederate Wars
were 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 after Benburb
, sent 150 prisoners (excluding officers, whom he kept for ransom) under escort back to Scottish quarters (Hogan, war in Ireland)."
In England as in Ireland and on the high seas, expedient reciprocity often won over other principles. For example at the start of the First English Civil War
Major John Lilburne
was captured at the Battle 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 "bearing arms against the king" were dropped when the Parliamentary side threatened to retaliate in kind
, and he was exchanged for a Royalist officer. At the end of the Second English Civil War
and 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, 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. This opinion reached all the way to the top of the Royalist cause, with the Grandees of the New 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
" should be tried
— and possibly executed, as he was in January 1649.
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
passed on 24 October 1644 in response to the Irish Confederation of Kilkenny threat to send troops from Ireland to support King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
that ordered Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
officers to give no quarter
No quarter
A victor gives no quarter when the victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life in return for the surrender at discretion of a vanquished opponent....
to Irish soldiers fighting in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Irish Confederate sailors at sea.
Context
The Kilkenny Confederacy sent 2,000 troops in three regiments under the command of Alasdair MacCollaAlasdair MacColla
Alasdair Mac Colla was a Scottish soldier. His full name in Scottish Gaelic was Alasdair Mac Colla Chiotaich Mac Domhnuill . He is sometimes mistakenly referred to in English as "Collkitto", a nickname that properly belongs to his father. He fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, most notably...
to support Montrose's
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
Royalist army in Scotland who were fighting against the Covenanters in 1644. During the years 1643 and 1644 they also promised to send 10,000 troops to England and Wales. However they ultimately never sent the troops because their negotiations with Charles I broke down over the public practice of Catholicism and the independence of the Irish Parliament. However, a ceasefire deal between the Irish Confederates and English Royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
did 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 the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
, did much to frighten English Protestant opinion. English Parliamentarians had often taunted Prince Rupert that he was a German mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
, and while they could just about tolerate foreign Protestants and English Roman Catholics fighting as Royalists, they considered support by foreign Roman Catholics a much greater threat.
Even before the Ordinance was passed Irish prisoners were in danger of being summarily executed. For example in July 1644 Colonel William Sydenham defeated a Royalist plundering party from the garrison of Wareham
Wareham, Dorset
Wareham is an historic market town and, under the name Wareham Town, a civil parish, in the English county of Dorset. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles southwest of Poole.-Situation and geography:...
at Dorchester, and hanged six or eight of his prisoners as being "mere Irish rebels". This gave rise to reprisals on the part of the Royalists.
Ordinance
The English Parliament's response to the Kilkenny Confederacy's proposed expeditionary force to England was to pass the Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish:This Ordinance was effective only in England and Wales and did not apply to Scotland or Ireland (as they were not part of the same realm
Realm
A realm is a dominion of a monarch or other sovereign ruler.The Old French word reaume, modern French royaume, was the word first adopted in English; the fixed modern spelling does not appear until the beginning of the 17th century...
, they were countries beyond English jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
).
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, allowed OrmondeJames Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...
to send 8,000 troops from Dublin and Munster and aid the King. Although most were in fact Englishmen, a small contingent consisted of Irish Royalists. In the instances where these Irish were captured, execution was swiftly followed. After Parliamentarians capture of Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
, a number of Irish soldiers were hanged in accordance with the law. In response, Prince Rupert executed an equal number of Parliamentarian troops, much to the English Parliament's disgust. Similarly, after the fall of Conway Castle, seventy-five Irish prisoners were executed. 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 the battle of Naseby
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.-The Campaign:...
in 1645. The Welsh, mostly women, were speaking the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, which the Roundhead troops mistook for Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
. Historian Charles Carlton has commented that the incident, "was so unusual that it caused considerable comment".
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".
Reciprocity in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- See also Declaration of Lex TalionisDeclaration of Lex TalionisEarly in the First English Civil War the Long Parliament threatened to retaliate in kind if the Royalists tried and executed John Lilburne and two other Parliamentary offices for treason...
In Ireland, the Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....
were 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
Owen Roe O'Neill
Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill , anglicised as Owen Roe O'Neill , was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster.- In Spanish service :...
, immediately after Benburb
Battle of Benburb
The Battle of Benburb took place in 1646 during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It was fought between the forces of Confederate Ireland under Owen Roe O'Neill and a Scottish Covenanter and Anglo-Irish army under Robert Monro...
, sent 150 prisoners (excluding officers, whom he kept for ransom) under escort back to Scottish quarters (Hogan, war in Ireland)."
In England as in Ireland and on the high seas, expedient reciprocity often won over other principles. For example at the start of the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
Major John Lilburne
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
was captured at the Battle of Brentford
Battle of Brentford (1642)
The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642, between a detachment of the Royalist army, under the command of Prince Rupert and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support...
. 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 "bearing arms against the king" were dropped when the Parliamentary side threatened to retaliate in kind
Declaration of Lex Talionis
Early in the First English Civil War the Long Parliament threatened to retaliate in kind if the Royalists tried and executed John Lilburne and two other Parliamentary offices for treason...
, and he was exchanged for a Royalist officer. At the end of the Second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
and 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, 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. This opinion reached all the way to the top of the Royalist cause, with the Grandees of the New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
, 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
Charles Stuart, that man of blood
Charles Stuart, that man of blood was a phrase used by Independents, during the English Civil War to describe King Charles IThe phrase is derived from the Bible:and other verses were used to justify regicide:-Windsor Castle prayer meeting:...
" should be tried
High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I
The High Court of Justice is the name given to the court established by the Rump Parliament to try King Charles I of England. This was an ad hoc tribunal created specifically for the purpose of trying the king, although the same name was used again for subsequent courts.Neither the involvement of...
— and possibly executed, as he was in January 1649.