affection of the English pale and the insurrection of Munster. In January 1641-2, however, Ormonde made a short expedition to drive the rebels out of the Naas, and, fresh forces having arrived from England, attacked and defeated a body of 3,000 rebels at Killsalghen, and in March he received orders from the lords justices to march with fire and sword into the pale, after the rebellion had drawn in the catholic gentry of English descent. He raised the siege of Drogheda, but from the further march on Newry which he proposed he was stopped by letters of recall from the lords justices. The success of the expedition was recognised by the English parliament in a letter written by the speaker on 9 April. He received their approbation a second time in a letter drawn up by Hollis on 20 July, accompanied by a jewel of the value of 620l., and it is stated that on 10 May the House of Commons moved the lords to join in an address to the king that he should offer Ormonde the garter (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. 147). On 15 March he had fought and won the bloody battle of Kilrush with great slaughter of the rebels, displaying sound generalship and personal courage. In June of the same year he was employed in quieting Connaught. A dispute with Lord Leicester, the lord-lieutenant, on the subject of the power of appointment in the army, was ruled by the king in Ormonde's favour, and a warrant was shortly afterwards signed under the great seal, 16 Sept., whereby he was appointed to the lieutenant-generalship immediately under the crown instead of, as heretofore, under the lord-lieutenant. At the same time he was created a marquis by the king. His appointment to the independent command of the army was of great importance at this juncture, as endeavours were being made to engage the Irish forces for the parliament. The continued obstructions, however, from the lords justices, and a violent illness which threatened his life, prevented him from taking an active part in suppressing the rebellion during the autumn of 1642. Meantime Thomas Preston had landed at Wexford with abundant supplies for the rebel army, a general assembly had been held at Kilkenny, and a complete political organisation established by the rebels. The catholic nobility and gentry having desired to lay their grievances before Charles, Ormonde sent their request to the king, and in January 1642-3 was appointed with others by him to receive and transmit their statement of grievances. He therefore on 3 Feb. sent to Kilkenny to request the discontented lords and gentry to send a deputation to meet himself and his fellow-commissioners at Drogheda on the 23rd. The meeting took place at Trim on 17 March. Meanwhile, much against the desire of the lords justices, he insisted upon leading the expedition to Ross, leaving Dublin on 2 March with 3,000 men. He reached Ross, in which the rebels were entrenched, on the 12th, but in an assault was beaten off, and through want of provisions was compelled to raise the siege on the 17th, and give battle on the 18th to Preston, who had under his command nearly 7,000 men. In this battle Ormonde showed considerable generalship, and won an important victory with slight loss. He returned to Dublin, where he received from the meeting at Trim the remonstrance of the rebels, which he at once transmitted to Charles. The lords justices had taken advantage of his absence to write a letter to the king urging him on no account to consent to a peace, but they refused to accept Ormonde's motion for sending also an account of the present state of the country, and Ormonde, to counteract them, drew up, in conjunction with other leading loyalists, an account of the desperate condition of the army and the immediate need of further help. Charles, however, was not capable of sending the required assistance, nor could it be obtained from the English parliament. On 23 April, therefore, the king sent Ormonde a commission, 'with all secresy and convenient expedition,' to treat with the rebels and agree to a cessation of arms. Meantime, in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught the rebels had been carrying all before them, and it was only in Ulster that they were severely checked in the rout of Owen O'Neile by the Scotch forces under Stewart. The treaty for the cessation began in June, but, through Ormonde's refusal to accept the conditions of the rebels, was broken off in July. The Scotch had now declared for the parliament and raised an army against the king; peace in Ireland became more than ever necessary, and on 2 July Ormonde received fresh instructions to conclude the cessation for a year. He reopened the negotiations at once on 26 Aug., and the cessation was signed on 15 Sept. The king now required all the Irish troops that could be spared for England, and in November, having first extracted from his officers an oath of loyalty to the king and the church, which only two of them, Monck being one, declined to take, Ormonde managed to send over some 5,000 men under Lord Byron, who did good service in Cheshire until routed by Fairfax, at Nantwich, in January 1644. At the same time, in obedience to special instructions, he exerted himself to keep the Scotch army from joining their fellows in Scotland.
