Milton’s Observations (1649) and ‘the Complication of Interests’ in Early Modern Ireland

Abstract

On 28 March 1649, Cromwell’s parliament commissioned John Milton ‘to make some observations upon the complication of interests which is now among the several designers against the peace of the Commonwealth … to be printed with the papers out of Ireland which the House hath ordered to be printed.’1 Milton’s Observations upon the Articles of Peace with the Irish Rebels duly appeared on 16 May appended to a series of documents comprising the articles of James Butler, Earl of Ormond’s peace with the Irish confederates (dated 17 January), his proclamation of Charles II as king; the ensuing exchange of letters (9 and 14 March) between Ormond and Colonel Michael Jones, Governor of Dublin; and an attack on the English parliament by the Scottish Presbytery at Belfast, dated 15 February. What Milton has to say about ‘the complication of interests’ between the Old English, the Irish ‘rebels’, and the Ulster Presbytery highlights the difficulties attending the representation of Ireland in the early modern period, and, more particularly for my purpose, points up the difficulties that arise within a multiple monarchy.