The
Act for the Settlement of Ireland imposed penalties including death and land confiscation against participants and bystanders of the
Irish Rebellion of 1641The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, but developed into inter communal violence between native Irish and English and Scottish Protestant settlers, starting a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars....
and subsequent unrest.
Background
The act was passed on 12 August 1652 by the
Rump ParliamentThe Rump Parliament was the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
of England, who had taken power after the
Second English Civil WarThe Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and include the First English Civil War and the Third...
and had agreed to the
Cromwellian conquest of IrelandThe Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649...
. The conquest was deemed necessary as Royalist supporters of
Charles II of EnglandCharles II was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father King Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time. Instead they passed a statute making such a...
had allied themselves with the Confederation of Kilkenny (the confederation formed by Irish Catholics during the
Irish Confederate WarsThis article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....
) and so was a threat to the newly formed English Commonwealth. The Rump Parliament had a large independent dissenters membership who strongly empathised with the plight of the Protestant settler community in Ireland who had suffered greatly at the start of the
Irish Rebellion of 1641The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, but developed into inter communal violence between native Irish and English and Scottish Protestant settlers, starting a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars....
and whose suffering had been exaggerated by Protestant propaganda, so the act was also a retribution against Irish Catholics who had participated in the initial stages of the war.
Preamble
Application
Ten named leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland, together with anyone
who had participated in the Irish Rebellion’s early stages and who had killed an Englishman other than in battle, lost their lives and estates.
- James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC , was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier. He was the top commander of the Royalist forces in Ireland from 1641 to 1647 fighting against the Irish Catholic Confederation. From 1649 to 1650 he was top commander of the Royalist forces fighting against the...
- James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven
James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven was the son of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and his first wife, Elizabeth Barnham ....
- Ulick Bourke Earl of Clanricarde
Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde , was an Irish nobleman and figure in English Civil War....
,
- Christopher Plunkett, 2nd Earl of Fingall
Christopher Plunkett, 2nd Earl of Fingall He was one of the ten named in Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 as leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland.Descended from Sir Christopher Plunket created Baron Killeen 1403....
,
- James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon
James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, was one of the ten named in Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 as leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland. He was a Protestant nobleman, married to Elizabeth Wentworth, one of the sisters of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. Wentworth Dillon was...
,
- Richard Nugent Earl of Westmeath
Earl of Westmeath is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1621.The Earl holds the subsidiary title of Baron Delvin .-Barons Delvin :*William Fitzrichard Nugent, 1st Baron Delvin *Richard Nugent, 2nd Baron Delvin...
,
- Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin
Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin and 6th Baron Inchiquin , was known as Murchadh na atoithean .O'Brien studied war in the Spanish service and in 1641 accompanied Earl of Strafford into Leinster on the outbreak of the Irish rebellion. He was made governor of Munster in 1642 and had some small...
,
- Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry
Donagh [Donough] MacCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancarty was an Irish noble and served as a Munster general during the Irish Confederate Wars...
,
- Theobald Taaffe 1st Earl of Carlingford,
- Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret
Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret was born in 1500 and died on 20 May 1571. He was the son of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde and Lady Margaret FitzGerald. He married, firstly, Eleanor Butler, daughter of Theobald Butler...
.
The Act made a distinction between the rebels of 1641—who were deemed
unlawful combatantAn unlawful combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a civilian who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of International Humanitarian Law and may be detained or prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.-Introduction:The Geneva Conventions apply...
s—as against those who had fought in the regular armies of
Confederate IrelandConfederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...
, who were treated as legitimate combatants provided that they had surrendered before the end of 1652. The 1641 rebels and the above mentioned Royalist leaders were not included in the pardon given to soldiers who had surrendered: they were to be executed when captured. Roman Catholic clergy were also excluded from the pardon, as the Cromwellians held them responable by fomenting the 1641 Rebellion. They were to be murdered if captured.
The remaining leaders of the Irish army lost two-thirds of their estates. To have been merely a bystander was itself a crime and anyone who had resided in Ireland any time from 1 October 1649, to 1 March 1650 and had not "manifested their constant good affection to the interest of the Commonwealth of England" lost one-third of their land. The Commissioners in Ireland had power to give them, in lieu thereof, other (poorer) lands in
ConnachtConnacht , formerly Anglicised as Connaught, is the western province of Ireland, comprising counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. Its main urban centres are Galway in the south, and Sligo in the north...
or
ClareCounty Clare commonly referred to as simply Clare, is a county of Ireland and part of the wider province of Munster. Clare is one of the 26 counties within the Republic of Ireland and it provides a basis for local government, in the form of its own constituency within the Dáil Éireann...
in proportion of value and were authorised "to transplant such persons from the respective places of their usual habitation or residence, into such other places within that nation, as shall be judged most consistent with public safety." This was interpreted liberally by the English Parliamentarian authorities in Ireland and ordered all Irish land owners to leave for those lands before 1 May, 1654 or be executed. (Hence the expression, "To Hell or to Connaught"). Protestant Royalists, on the other hand, could avoid land confiscations if they had surrendered by May 1650 and had paid fines to the Parliamentarian government.
Plantation
In the next of the
Plantations of IrelandPlantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties, but principally in the provinces of Munster and Ulster. The lands were then granted by Crown authority to colonists from Britain...
, the confiscated land was granted to the "Adventurers". The new owners were known as "planters".) The Adventurers were financiers who had loaned the Parliament £10 million in 1642 at the start of the
Wars of the Three KingdomsThe Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch. The English Civil War has become the best-known of these conflicts...
(see
Adventurers ActThe Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland"....
). Many of Ireland’s pre-war Protestant inhabitants also took advantage of the confiscation of Catholic-owned land to increase their own holdings. In addition, smaller grants of land were given to 12,000 veterans of the
New Model ArmyThe New Model Army of Great Britain was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration. It differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being...
who had served in Ireland.
Confirmation
In June 1657, the
Act of Settlement 1657The Act of Settlement 1657 was an Act of the Cromwellian Parliament for the Assuring, Confirming and Settling of lands and estates in Ireland. The Act received its Third Reading on June 8, 1657 and received the assent of the Lord Protector the following day...
"for the Assuring, Confirming and Settling of lands and estates in Ireland" ratified previous decrees, judgements, grants and instructions made or given by the various officers and councils in applying the 1652 Act.
Mitigation
All Ordinances and Acts of Parliament passed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum were considered void after the
English RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
as they had not received
Royal assentThe granting of Royal Assent is the formal method by which a constitutional monarch completes the legislative process of lawmaking by formally assenting to an Act of Parliament. While the power to withhold Royal Assent was once exercised often, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic...
.
In 1662, an
Act of Settlement 1662The Act of Settlement 1662 passed by the Irish Parliament in Dublin. It was a partial reversal of the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 1652, which punished Irish Catholics and Royalists for fighting against the English Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by the wholesale confiscation of their...
(after the Restoration) aimed to reduce its effect on Protestant and "innocent Catholics." This Act returned some lands to prominent Irish Royalists, but left most of the land confiscated from Irish Catholics in Protestant hands. This was similar to the post-Restoration situation in England, where Church and Royal lands were returned by Act of Parliament, but other confiscated Royalist lands could only be regained through civil litigation.