A Cessation Agreed On
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Above : Belfast Castle
Meanwhile the negotiations were being carried on between Ormond and the Confederates. The former had been directed by the King to agree to a cessation of hostilities for a year, during which arrangements for a permanent peace might be made. The old Irish, like the Parliamentarians, though, of course, for widely different reasons, disapproved of the proposed cessation, and indeed held that an attempt to treat with any English party at this juncture was a mistake, ff they continued to press their conquests, they would be in a position to force good terms from whichever side should be victorious in England ; whereas the cessation would give their enemies time to sow dissensions amongst them; moreover, the loss of 10,000 men whom they were to send to the King’s aid would seriously diminish their military power, and consequently their chances of a successful resistance, should the negotiations end unsatisfactorily, or the terms granted them not be observed. The Anglo-Irish party, however, were the stronger in the Supreme Council and also apparently in the General Assembly.