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The Levellers and the Conquest of Ireland in 1649

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Norah Carlin
Norah Carlin
Affiliation:
Middlesex Polytechnic
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Extract

As Oliver Cromwell set out on his controversial reconquest of Ireland in 1649, it was widely believed in England that the Levellers were opposed to all English rule in Ireland, and that these pro-Irish views were responsible for the mutinies and disorders in the commonwealth's armies which delayed the setting out of Cromwell's expedition.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 269 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 A Declaration of the Proceedings of His Excellency the Lord General Fairfax, in the Reducing of the Revolted Troops (Oxford, 22 05 1649), p. 5Google Scholar.

2 Dates of tracts in the Thomason Collection in the British Library are indicated by ‘Th.’. British Library reference numbers are given for newspapers in the Thomason Collection, since individual issues are not catalogued. Kiffin, William et al. , Walwins Wiles (London, 1649Google Scholar; Th. 10 May), sig. A2v.

3 Ibid. p. 19.

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16 Ibid. p. 50.

17 Moderate Intelligencer, 10 May 1649, B.L. E 555 (3). Dillingham's reading seems to me to make more sense than Waring's here; he has ‘patriot’ where Waring has ‘pattern of freedom’.

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50 I am grateful to Miss Lesley Montgomery, Librarian, Worcester College, Oxford; to staff at Cambridge University Library; to Dr Matthew Seccombe of Yale University and to Mr John J. Morrison of the Wing Short-Title Catalogue Revision Project at Yale, for help and advice in this matter.

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53 P.R.O., S.P. 25, LXII, 280. In trying to trace possible responses by other writers named in this minute, I am grateful to the earl and countess of Rosse, of Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland, and to Dr Anthony Malcolmson of the Northern Ireland Record Office, Belfast.

54 The Souldiers Demand, Shewing Their Present Misery; and Prescribing a Perfect Remedy (Bristol, 1649; Th. 18 May)Google Scholar

55 Ibid. p. 1.

56 Ibid. p. 7.

57 P.R.O., S.P. 25, LXII, XCIV.

58 Ibid XCIV, 65–6.

59 Hunting of the Foxes; Clarke papers, II, 193–4.

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64 Firth, , Clarke papers, II, XXIIGoogle Scholar; Mrs Frances McDonald of New College Library, Oxford, who is transcribing Clarke's shorthand notes, confirms that there is a gap for this period.

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70 Worcester College, Oxford, Clarke MSS, CLXXXI, box 1.

71 Sea Green and Blue, p. 1.

72 The unanimous Declaration of Colonel Scroop's and Commissary General Ireton's Regiments (Salisbury, 8 May).

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74 Sea Green and Blue, p. 14.

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77 Ibid. p. 28.

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85 Moderate, 29 May–7 Aug. 1649, B.L. E 556 (31), E 558 (16), E 559 (16), E 560 (17), E 562 (22), E 564 (1), E 565 (11), E 566 (12). See Diethe, , ‘The Moderate’, pp. 270–2Google Scholar.

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