Order! Order! - Cromwell loses it, and dissolves Parliament

by Deborah Swift

'Depart I say, and in the name of God, go!'

On this day - 20th April  - 1653, Cromwell had finally had enough of Parliament and dismissed them all. So incensed was he, that he returned with a band of armed musketeers who were ordered to clear the chamber. Later, a notice was posted by an amused citizen, it read; 'This house is to be let; now unfurnished.'

It was the moment Cromwell arguably became a dictator, and undisputed ruler of England.

Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament

The Parliament that was sitting at the time was known as the 'Rump' - the rump being the back end of an animal, in other words the remnants. The remnants in this case were those Members of Parliament who in 1648 had not been purged from the Long Parliament. This was known as Pride's Purge, after Colonel Pride who carried out the orders to remove or arrest members hostile to the idea of Charles I being tried for high treason.

This left a core of about two hundred members -  a determined body of men who ignored the vote of the small number of peers still sitting in the Lords, and eventually pushed through an Act which would enable the judiciary to sentence the King to death for treason. Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall in 1649.

Afterwards the Rump passed Acts abolishing the monarchy and the House of Lords and declared England a 'Commonwealth'. 

Most of the members of the Rump were Puritans, who wanted to restrict what they regarded as dissenters - the more extreme sects such as Quakers or Ranters. To stop these groups from preaching, they formed a Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel, which issued licenses to preach, so that Parliament would have more control over the religious activities of the people. During this time the Rump Parliament also introduced the Adultery Act in 1650, which imposed the death penalty for adultery. These measures of restrictive law-giving were designed to replace the role previously held by church (Anglican or Catholic) morality, but merely made for an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. The general malaise was not helped by the fact that when civil unrest was finally ended in 1651, confiscated Royalist estates were broken up and the proceeds spent by the new government, something that did nothing to heal the wounds of the recent Civil Wars.

The misdeeds of the Rump Parliament were popularly represented on these playing cards, The Knavery of the Rump, first published in 1679. The cards are a wonderful visual insight into the times, showing the people of London about their daily tasks. Click on the link to take you to a page with more information.

http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/margary/knavery

So why was Cromwell so angry with Parliament? The Rump was only intended as an interim measure, so perhaps he thought it had outlived its usefulness. It is uncertain, but it also appears from the few records we have, that their deliberations over policy had taken too long - the event is recounted by Thomas Salmon in 1723 in his Chronological Historian:

[Cromwell] commanded the Speaker to leave the Chair, and told them they had sat long enough, unless they had done more good, crying out, 

"You are no longer a Parliament, I say you are no Parliament". 

He told Sir Henry Vane he was a Jugler [sic]; Henry Martin and Sir Peter Wentworth, that they were Whoremasters; Thomas Chaloner, he was a Drunkard; and Allen the Goldsmith that he cheated the Publick: Then he bid one of his Soldiers take away that Fool's Bauble, the mace, and Thomas Harrison pulled the Speaker of the Chair; and in short Cromwell having turned them all out of the House, lock'd up the Doors and returned to Whitehall.

It appears Cromwell had really lost his temper!

A month after these events, realizing that governing alone put him in a rather awkward position, and on the advice of the Army, Cromwell sent a request to the recognized churches in every county, asking for nominations for a new Parliament. This new government was nicknamed the tongue-in-cheek "Assembly of Saints" or Barebones' Parliament (named after Barebones, one of its members).

Find out more about my novels set in this period on my website www.deborahswift.com

Goodreads Giveaway Shadow on the Highway

Goodreads Giveaway Spirit of the Highway

Chat to me on Goodreads this Thursday as part of the Virtual Historical Fiction Festival.

Links:
BCW Project
British Parliament Website
Stuart England by Blair Worden
Early Modern England - J A Sharpe
The English Civil War - Maurice Ashley

The Story behind the Song of Mary Cruys

by Arthur Russell

The adage of “truth being stranger than fiction” can so often be applied to true stories that come down to us from history. Such a story is one from the early 15^th century, which was re-echoed two centuries later on the Cruys (Cruise) and Plunkett family estates in the baronies of Morgallion and Kells in County Meath, Ireland.

The Gates to Cruicetown (formerly Cruystown Castle)

Sir Christopher Cruys married late in life, so late in fact that it came as a total surprise when he announced his desire to marry. The news of the marriage came as a nasty shock to Sir Christopher’s nephews in nearby Robertstown and Brittas Castles who fully expected to be the inheritors of the Cruys estates (now called Cruicetown), Moydorragh and Rathmore after Sir Christopher’s death.

Months after the marriage, the nephews’ concern turned to bitter disappointment when the new Lady Cruys announced she was expecting her first baby; for this was not just another baby, but the prospective heir to what the nephews had long understood would be rightfully theirs in due time. They conspired to murder both Sir Christopher as well as his pregnant wife as they made their way down the long avenue that led to their Castle Cruys home. 

Lady Cruys was wounded during the first minutes of the attack, but not fatally. After telling his wife to run to the shelter of the castle, Sir Christopher fought gallantly with his assailants, but was fatally injured with multiple sword thrusts. The wounded Lady Cruys managed to reach Castle Cruys, though she had to leave her cloak behind her as the gates slammed shut against her would be assassins*.

Bloody and shaken, the expectant mother had made arrangements for the burial of her murdered husband as well as give consideration to how she was going to preserve not just her own life, but that of her unborn child.

During the burial ceremony which was hastily held by candle light in the nearby Church which contained the Cruys family vault, Lady Cruys caused the story to be put about that she had succumbed to her wounds and had asked to be buried in the church near the other family castle at Rathmore, about fifteen miles from Castle Cruys. The reason given was that the family feud which had just caused her husband’s murder would not allow his wife to be buried with him in the family crypt in Cruicetown church. 

Before her departure, she had all the castle’s silver plate put into a large crate and sunk in a small lake near where the attack had taken place. She gathered all the estate deeds and put them into a coffin in which she herself lay as she left for Rathmore with a group of trusted servants. The ruse worked. The two murderers allowed the funeral cortege to pass, believing that Lady Cruys was indeed dead inside the coffin.

Cruicetown Church where Sir Chistopher was buried

When the cortege reached Rathmore, Lady Cruys had all that castle’s silver plate placed in the coffin in which she had arrived and had it buried in the family vault in Rathmore church. As far as those in attendance at that funeral knew, they were burying Lady Cruys.

She collected all Rathmore’s legal documents as well as whatever jewels she could carry and made her way to Dublin to board ship for England, from where she planned to mount her fight to regain possession of her murdered husband’s estates.

She soon discovered that the ways of the law grind slow, and fighting for justice in Ireland from the other side of the Irish Sea at that time was not easy. She quickly ran out of money and was forced to work for what was needed to keep herself and her daughter Mary Anne, who was born soon after she arrived in London.

Years passed. As Mary Anne grew, her mother told her of her lost inheritance in Ireland. She formulated a song in which she listed all the Irish place names related to that inheritance and taught the song to her daughter to keep her reminded of Ireland and the lost lands.

Sometime during the early 1430’s, Sir Thomas Plunkett, son of Lord Killeen in south Meath, while attending Court of Inns in London, was crossing a bridge on the River Thames when he heard a young girl singing in Irish and realized she could be the long lost heiress of Cruys, Moydorragh and Rathmore Castles. He spoke with the girl and asked to be brought to meet her mother. After he heard their story, he promised to help the two women win back what they had lost. In return for his considerable legal help he asked for the hand of young Mary Anne in marriage.

It would be nice to relate that there was a large degree of romance on the rather elderly suitor’s mind. He had himself recently buried his first wife after a childless marriage and saw in Mary Anne the possibility of both perpetrating his family name as well as increasing his estates.

The marriage deal was duly agreed; Mary Anne Cruys became a prospective Lady Killeen. Sir Thomas was successful in pleading the case he had taken on and won back the Cruys family estates from the robber nephews of Sir Christopher Cruys. 

The marriage was duly marked when the couple returned to Ireland to reclaim what was theirs, including the two caches of silver plate, one buried in Rathmore churchyard, the other sunk in Cruicetown Lake. The first visit of the newly marrieds to Ireland was marked with a stone cross erected at Killeen which stands to this day proclaiming the names of Thomas Plunkett and his wife Mary Anne Cruys. Sir Thomas was subsequently appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He died in 1471 and was buried in Rathmore.

*Note - There is an interesting variation to the story of Lady Cruys’s escape from her attackers which tell that she fled and hid in the sedges of the lake near where she and Sir Thomas were attacked. A heron was disturbed by the pursuers as they searched for her, from which they concluded that nobody could be hiding nearby. This caused the heron to be thenceforth added to the Cruise family’s coat of arms.

History repeats itself – well almost … 

Two centuries later, in the course of Oliver Cromwell’s “settlement” of Ireland, the Plunkett family of Meath fell victim to the Lord Protector’s wrath. Sir Robert Plunkett, a direct descendant of Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Anne; was killed with all his sons by Cromwell’s soldiers when they failed to convince the implacable General of their good intentions. This happened close to Rathmore. Cromwell was in no mood to forgive or forget the fact that some of the Plunketts were Catholics and had sided with the Irish Confederation who were minded to support King Charles I during the Civil War.

Rathmore Church near Athboy, Co Meath.

One member of the family, Sir Robert’s one and only daughter; escaped Cromwell’s wrath. Lady Catherine (Kate) Plunkett managed to travel to Northern England where she hoped to live anonymously until better days for Catholic rebels might eventually dawn.

Yes - its that song again!

By curious chance, several years after these events in Ireland, Kate was overheard singing the same Irish song in Northern England as Sir Thomas had heard Mary Anne Cruys singing two centuries before on the banks of the Thames. The song had obviously been handed down the generations as a family tradition.

The listener on this occasion was a soldier who had served in Ireland and was familiar with the Irish language as well as the story of the disappeared heiress to the Plunkett estates in Meath. History does not record the soldier’s name, but he thought he had a good chance of becoming landed gentry if Lady Kate, who was pretty and having agreed to become his wife could succeed to reclaim the Plunkett family estates that had been confiscated. Nor was this an unrealistic hope at the time, for under the Restoration and accession of Charles II to the throne, many of the former regime’s settlements were being overturned by Royal decree. 

Alas, any hopes of this happening in the case of Lady Kate failed and with it her marriage to her soldier adventurer. He increasingly found her manners and Irish mode of speaking wanting and disagreeable to him until he finally deserted her. Poor Kate made her way back to Ireland where we can only hope she found some semblance of peace and serenity after her earlier tumultuous life.

THE SONG OF MARY CRUYS (Translated from the original Irish)

Ah! blessed Mary! hear me sighing,

On this cold stone mean labour plying;

Yet Rathmore's heiress might I name me,

And broad lands rich and many claim me.

Gilstown, Rathbeg, names known from childhood;

Fair Johnstown, hard by bog and wild wood;

Re-taaffe (Blackwater near it floweth),

And Harton, where the white wheat groweth.

Thee, Ballycred, too, mem'ry prizes;

Old Oristown to mind arises;

Caultown, near bogs, black turf providing;

Rathconny, in its "Baron" priding.

The Twelve Poles, Armabregia, follow;

Kilmainham, of the woody hollow;

Cruisetown, with lake by sunbeams greeted;

Moydorragh hay, mid fair roads seated.

Still could I speak of townlands many;

Three score along the banks of Nanny;

Twelve by the Boyne, if it were pleasure

To dwell on lost and plundered treasure.

The story of Mary Cruys and her descendant Kate is a small part of a rich legacy which comes down to us as oral folk history and which are now being recorded and preserved by organisations such as the Meath Archaeological and History Society (MAHS) and the Navan & District Historical Society (N&DHS).

Note – The townland of Cruicetown, which derives its name from the Cruise or Cruice family; is situated on the border of the baronies of Morgallion and Lower Kells in Co Meath. It was granted to Sir Maurice Cruys (died 1216), by Sir Hugh deLacy in 1172 as part of the conquest of the Liberty of Meath in the aftermath of the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169.

The old church of Cruicetown, which is believed to have been a gift from the local chieftain after the conversion of the local people to Christianity post 432 AD; is situated beside a motte and bailey which was subsequently built by Sir Maurice. While the church is dedicated to St. James, it was unusual for Celtic churches to use biblical saint names. It is therefore thought that the church may have been re-dedicated by the conquering Anglo-Normans and all records of a previous Irish patron saint erased from local memory and record.
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Arthur Russell is author of Morgallion, a story set in early 13^th century during the Bruce Invasion of Ireland. Cruicetown is located in the barony which bears the name Morgallion.

More information about Morgallion can be found on website Morgallion.com

The Titled Lynches and Lynch-Blosses of Ireland, Wales and England

by Paul B. McNulty

Richard de Clare of Wales, better known as Strongbow, led the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Henry II, the Norman king of England, supported the invasion as did the Anglo-Norman Lynches. Some of invading Lynches (originally de Lench) settled in the walled city of Galway in the west of Ireland.

The appointment of Thomas Lynch as the first provost of Galway in 1274 underscored the progression of the family in Ireland, as did the appointment of more than eighty mayors of Galway named Lynch between 1485 and 1654. When James I bestowed a baronetcy on Henry Lynch, a rich merchant, in 1622, their elevated status was confirmed.

The civil wars of England in the 1640s and the simultaneous revolt of the Confederate Catholics in Ireland led to a disruption of the golden era of the Lynches. Robuck Lynch, 2nd Baronet supported the Irish rebellion. When Cromwell ‘pacified’ Ireland in 1652, he also expelled the Anglo-Norman families from Galway city. The Cromwellians seized their opulent homes in lieu of cash. Undeterred, the Lynches acquired nearby rural estates with Robuck Lynch acting as agent for the Clanricarde Burkes. Like his father, Robuck was a member of the Irish Parliament.

In 1686, James II appointed Henry Lynch, 3rd Bt, as Baron of the Exchequer. Following the Jacobite defeat at the Boyne by William of Orange in 1690, Henry was ‘attainted of high treason.’ He fled from Ireland to Brest where he died in the following year.

When Henry’s great-grandson, Robert Lynch, 6th Bt, proposed to Elizabeth Barker of Suffolk in 1749, The Gentleman’s Magazine valued her at £50,000. She had inherited the fortune of her merchant uncle, Tobias Blosse. Their marriage was seminal because Robert conformed to Protestantism as required by their marriage settlement. Henceforth, the titled Lynches remained Protestant as well as adopting the surname, Lynch-Blosse.

After a brief interlude in Suffolk, the Lynch-Blosses returned to Ireland. Elizabeth died in 1756, aged twenty-eight. Her early death may have unsettled her eldest son, Harry, who became the seventh baronet in 1775. Sir Harry’s liaison with the alluring Sibella Cottle, by whom he had seven children, scandalised the people of Balla, County Mayo, and further afield. When Sir Harry died in 1788 without legitimate heir, familial disruption continued. His nephew, Sir Robert, 8th Bt, eloped at the age of sixteen and settled in Cardiff.

The Lynch-Blosses returned to serve in Ireland until the purchase of their estate of 18,566 acres in 1909. The Congested District’s Board paid £154,000 for their property during the tenure of Henry Lynch-Blosse, 11th Bt. Thereafter, the family settled in Wales and later in England. The current incumbent is Richard Hely Lynch-Blosse, 17th Bt, a general practitioner in Oxfordshire.

Reputed portraits of Sir Harry Lynch-Blosse (above) 7th Bt (1749-1788) and his nephew, Sir Robert Lynch-Blosse, 8th Bt (1784-1818) courtesy of Richard Hely Lynch-Blosse, 17th Bt, of Oxfordshire.

Sources:

Lynch of Galway, Betham Sketch Pedigrees I, IV, Ms 264, National Library of Ireland, p
45-50.

Lynch-Blosse, Sir Henry 7th Bt, The Peerage.

McNulty, Paul, ‘The genealogy of the Anglo-Norman Lynches who settled in Galway’,
Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 2010, vol 62, p 30-
50.

Nicholls, K W, ‘The Lynch Blosse Papers,’ Analecta Hibernica, 1980, vol 28, p 113-219.

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Paul B. McNulty is the author of Spellbound by Sibella which has been accepted for publication as an e-book by Club Lighthouse Publishing, Canada. His debut novel deals with the turbulent liaison between Sir Harry Lynch-Blosse of Balla, Co Mayo and the stunning Sibella Cottle, a woman with spellbinding powers reputedly wrought by witchcraft. Scheduled for release this autumn, the novel is based on real events in late 18th century Ireland. For more about Paul and his fiction, connect with him on Paul B McNulty or on Facebook or Twitter.