Prelude to Restoration in Ireland The End of the Commonwealth, 16591660 [Paperback]

A detailed reconstruction of political developments in Ireland before the restoration of Charles II.This study fills a major gap in the mainstream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments before the restoration of Charles II. Protestants in Ireland had secured large benefits after the Cromwellian conquest from the confiscation and redistribution of Catholic land. The fall of the Commonwealth and the imminent restoration of Charles II threatened these gains. Aidan Clarke explains how the established colonists and the Cromwellian newcomers combined uneasily to ensure that Charles's return was not accompanied by the return of confiscated land to its Catholic owners.This study fills a major gap in the mainstream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments before the restoration of Charles II. Protestants in Ireland had secured large benefits after the Cromwellian conquest from the confiscation and redistribution of Catholic land. The fall of the Commonwealth and the imminent restoration of Charles II threatened these gains. Aidan Clarke explains how the established colonists and the Cromwellian newcomers combined uneasily to ensure that Charles's return was not accompanied by the return of confiscated land to its Catholic owners.This study fills a major gap in the maintream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments in the year before the restoration of Charles II. It is the first treatment of the complex Irish dimension of the king's return. The issue of the monarchy did not stand alone in Ireland. Entangled with it was the question of how the restoration of the old regime would affect a Protestant colonial community that had changed in character and fortune as a result of the Cromwellian conquest, the immigration that had accompanied it and the massive transfer of land that followed. As the return of Charles became increasingly probable, Cromwellian and pre-Cromwellian settlers were united in lãš