20 December 1645: The 2nd ‘Glamorgan Treaty’ was signed in the city of Kilkenny on this day. The agreement was negotiated between the Confederation of Kilkenny and the Earl of Glamorgan. The Earl, as a trusted Englishman of the Catholic Faith, held a Commission from King Charles I [above] to secretly negotiate with the Irish Catholics and secure military backing for the Royal cause in England. He had already in August of this year concluded a secret arrangement with the Confederates by which the Catholics of Ireland were to be exempted from the jurisdiction of the Protestant clergy and were granted possession of all the churches they had seized since the outbreak of the Rising in 1641. In return, the Confederates were to raise an army of 10,000 men to serve the King in England.

However since then the formidable Cardinal Rinuccini had arrived in the Confederate Capital as the Papal Nuncio. He saw the opportunity of winning further concessions and pressed Glamorgan to agree the terms of a deal negotiated in Rome with an agent of Queen Henrietta Maria (King Charles’ wife). 

Glamorgan agreed to the new terms as he was desperate to complete his mission and return at the head of an Army to England to serve the King. Under the new terms the King was to undertake never to appoint a Protestant lord-lieutenant in Ireland, Catholic bishops were to be allowed to sit in the Dublin Parliament and a Catholic University was to be established. In return, Glamorgan was to be appointed commander of an advance guard of 3,000 Confederate soldiers to sail immediately for the relief of Chester.

As it turned out Glamorgan’s Mission to Ireland was a Fiasco as a copy of the Treaty signed in August fell into enemy hands. When the details of what Glamorgan had conceded reached Oxford [King Charles H.Q.] and London [seat of Parliament] a storm of protest was raised. In the meantime the Earl was arrested in Dublin by the Duke of Ormond and imprisoned in the Castle as a Traitor. The King had no choice but to disown him but secretly instructed that he be released from custody. He promptly fled to the Cardinal in Kilkenny but was never trusted with a secret mission again. A somewhat hapless figure he was ruined by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and even after the Restoration his family never regained their antebellum status. 

Rather than strengthen the position of King Charles in England the Treaty further weakened it as it appeared to many in both his own ranks and those of the Parliament forces that he would cut any deal with the Catholics to gain their support - something that was anathema to most of Protestant England. King Charles tried to be different things to different people to win their support - the trouble was the recipients of his attentions had difficulty knowing which King Charles they were dealing with - and this was just another classic example.

Portrait: King Charles I by Anthony van Dyck circa 1638