0:07:52 > 0:07:54Some of the records indicate that, at first,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58it was the English settlers who got the initial brunt of the massacre.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01But then, that spread, as inevitably it would.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06The figures today seem to indicate seem to indicate something like 4,000 deaths by massacre
0:08:06 > 0:08:09and maybe double that, another 8,000 dying of exposure,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12for many people were simply turned into a harsh winter.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20Myself, my husband and our ten children
0:08:20 > 0:08:23at the beginning of the rebellion,
0:08:23 > 0:08:29were all stripped stark naked after being robbed of all our means.
0:08:30 > 0:08:35In that posture, we were turned away into the frost and snow
0:08:35 > 0:08:40amongst about nine score more of men, women and children.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44In that posture, we escaped to Dublin.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49My husband took up arms against the Irish rebels.
0:08:49 > 0:08:55He got a bruise amongst them at the battle of Clontarf near Dublin.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01He languished for five or six days and he died of that bruise.
0:09:03 > 0:09:08Leaving me and my ten children, five of whom were infants,
0:09:08 > 0:09:13the sole mourners of his death.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17And all without means of subsistence.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59This was perfectly normal in the way things were reported all over Europe.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03Atrocities in wars, each side tries to demonise the other
0:10:03 > 0:10:06to store up the motivation for revenge.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Clearly, thousands of people lost their lives
0:10:09 > 0:10:12and we cannot minimise that.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14I know the locality that I grew up in,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18the Roman Catholics in Island Magee were butchered man, woman and child.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Some forced off the Gobbins cliffs into the sea to their death.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25So there were reprisals and the one thing we can say about Irish history
0:10:25 > 0:10:28is that no-one has clean hands. There's blood everywhere.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The arrival of the Scottish army in 1642 is crucial
0:12:34 > 0:12:37to the emergence of Presbyterianism in Ireland.
0:12:37 > 0:12:38It provides the framework
0:12:38 > 0:12:41within which a Presbyterian system takes off.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44The garrison at Carrickfergus with the four resident regiments
0:12:44 > 0:12:49each had a kirk session, each had a chaplain. And so five ministers
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and some of the elders from the army met,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55either in the castle or St Nicholas Church, we don't know where,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59and formed the first presbytery and that is the official birth
0:12:59 > 0:13:02of Presbyterianism in Ireland as a denomination.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06From the start, they are keen to incorporate communities within Ulster
0:13:06 > 0:13:09and so, within a matter of a very few years,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13the presbytery system in Ulster has moved well beyond the army.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Essentially, it was an alliance or an agreement
0:17:33 > 0:17:38between Scottish Presbyterians and English Parliamentarians.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43A common cause against Charles I and the royalists.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47The Presbyterians in Scotland saw making covenant as a way
0:17:47 > 0:17:53of bringing a Presbyterian millennium to bear in Britain and Ireland,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56bringing about a state that had a Presbyterian church.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00The draft that was sent to England was changed. It included Ireland at the last minute.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Because of the haste of the times, there was not a proper procedure of proof reading and checking,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09so it's signed in some haste, but the general truth, I would say,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13is that the English were more interested in military co-operation
0:18:13 > 0:18:17and the Scottish side were more interested in the religious aspects of that covenant.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15What is done in Ulster is an attempt to get bodies of troops
0:19:15 > 0:19:19and, to some extent, local communities as well to join in
0:19:19 > 0:19:21the Solemn League and Covenant.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24There's some debate over why they might want to do that.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29Some historians incline to the view that, by signing up for the Solemn League and Covenant,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33they're showing their credentials and that they will then get supported
0:19:33 > 0:19:35in their war against Catholic Ireland.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35We put O'Neill and his troops under heavy fire, but they held their line.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Then the advance started.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42O'Neill's men overran our gun positions
0:21:42 > 0:21:44and his horsemen broke into our ranks.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47The Scottish horse was routed.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49And then the confusion started.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Most of our infantry was cut to pieces.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Over 3,000 of our men lay dead on the field of battle at Benburb.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03What started as a goodly retreat became a massacre
0:22:03 > 0:22:08as the Scottish cavalry tangled with the foot soldiers in the darkness.
0:22:08 > 0:22:15We abandoned six cannons, almost all our muskets and our provisions.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19This was a gift from heaven for the Irish.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31The Stuart kings did have problems trying to sign up to the Covenant.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34They liked the fact that the Church of England was Erastian.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36In other words, the head of the church is the monarch.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Whereas in Presbyterianism,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42that royal supremacy was going to be reduced.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46So there's an important element in the Stuart rejection of the Covenant
0:25:46 > 0:25:50because it doesn't recognise the king as being head of the church.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Ultimately, the covenanting leadership
0:25:53 > 0:25:55decides to hand over Charles I
0:25:55 > 0:25:59to the jurisdiction of the English parliament.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Quite simply, because Charles I would not take the Covenants.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06He would not take the National Covenant of 1638,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09he would not take the Solemn League Covenant of 1643
0:26:09 > 0:26:13and, eventually, the Covenanters said, "Well, to hell with you."
0:26:13 > 0:26:19And they handed him over to the jurisdiction of the English Parliament in 1646.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04Scottish settlers in the north of Ireland were opposed to the execution of Charles I
0:27:04 > 0:27:08largely because Charles was the King of Scotland.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12When Charles I was executed in Whitehall,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16he was executed as King of England.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21And he was described as a man of blood. No foreigner whatsoever...
0:27:21 > 0:27:24would tell the English what to do.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27So this was an English political act
0:27:27 > 0:27:30by a minority of the English political nation.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33We don't care what the Scots say. We don't care what the Swedes say.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35We don't care what the Dutch say.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39He's English, this is England, this is English soil, he's going down.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Like most of Charles I's subjects,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46the Presbyterians in Ulster are scandalised by his execution.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50They may have resisted his policies, but it was never part of the goal
0:27:50 > 0:27:55to remove him from power, let alone have him put to death.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57And so they're in a quandary.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00They neither want to align themselves
0:28:00 > 0:28:05with the more thorough going royalists in Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10but nor are they willing to align themselves with the new English republic.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14What the Scottish parliament does, in February 1649,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17is issue a proclamation
0:28:17 > 0:28:24that states the Prince of Wales is proclaimed as being King of Great Britain, France and Ireland.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27At that point, Scotland's radical regime
0:28:27 > 0:28:31and Cromwell are on a collision course.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36But more interestingly, this regime in Edinburgh informed,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39or publicly stated, to Charles II,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43you will only become King of Great Britain, France and Ireland
0:28:43 > 0:28:46if you meet the following conditions.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Those conditions were really for him
0:28:49 > 0:28:52to be a covenanted king of three covenanted kingdoms.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Your Majesty, we have here in front of us...
0:34:18 > 0:34:20The Covenanters had more troops,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23they were in a better position.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Cromwell was on the point of withdrawing.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29They charged down the hill and were routed.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33So, for some Covenanters, this was a sign of God's wrath.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38So Scotland had to become more pure and more godly to please God.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40This was a godly war.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43Likewise for Cromwell, this proved that God was an Englishman.
0:34:43 > 0:34:45That God was on his side.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Though Cromwell's conquest of Ireland is ethnic
0:34:48 > 0:34:52and has a racial dimension to it, that's not the case in Scotland.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55He regarded the Scots as a godly people,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59a godly Protestant people who had gone astray.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01The right Protestant way was his way.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Advance George Monck and Monck St George shall be
0:37:21 > 0:37:24England's restorer to its liberty,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27Scotland's protector, Ireland's president,
0:37:27 > 0:37:29reducing all to a free parliament,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and if thou dost intend the other thing,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34go on, and all shall cry God save ye king.