They departed with this unsatisfactory answer; and
Charles, leaving the United Provinces, hastened to St. Germain in France,
to visit the queen his mother, with the intention of repairing, after a
short stay, to the army of the royalists in Ireland.[1]
That the reader may understand the state of Ireland, he must look back to
the period when the despair or patriotism of Ormond surrendered to the
parliament the capital of that kingdom.[a] The nuncio, Rinuccini, had then
seated himself in the chair of the president of the supreme council at
Kilkenny; but his administration was soon marked by disasters, which
enabled his rivals to undermine and subvert his authority.[b] The Catholic
army of Leinster, under Preston, was defeated on Dungan Hill by Jones,
the governor of Dublin, and that of Munster, under the Viscount Taafe, at
Clontarf, by the Lord Inchiquin.[2][c] To Rinuccini
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iii. 405; and the Proceedings of the Commissioners
of the Church and Kingdoms of Scotland with his Majestie at the Hague.
Edinburgh, printed by Evan Tyler, 1649.]
[Footnote 2: Rushworth, 833, 916. In the battle of Dungan Hill, at the
first charge the Commander of the Irish cavalry was slain: his men
immediately fled; the infantry repelled several charges, and retired into
a bog, where they offered to capitulate.
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