ABSTRACT
It was an obvious piece of justice that Charles II should attempt to redress what Ireland had suffered from the Cromwellian ‘usurpation’. In its later years the Kilkenny Confederation had thrown itself on the Stuart side, and after the final defeat hundreds of Irish gentry had served Charles abroad in various ways as ‘ensign-men’. Ireland was now Royalist ground, for the Irish Catholic leaders saw that only in the Monarchy lay their hopes for toleration and their recovery of their property. The English parliament now shared the power with the Crown and had no friendly feelings for the Irish. The Dublin parliament itself became a Protestant assembly, even if no actual law was yet passed to exclude Roman Catholics; the Irish Protestants were in possession of all the main seats of power; and it was only as a landed class and a majority of the people that the Catholics were formidable. The real division was Protestant versus Catholic, and public opinion in England was opposed to weakening the ‘Protestant and English interest’ in Ireland. Charles himself, though he wished well to the Irish, had to tell them: ‘My justice I must afford to you all, but my favour must be given to my Protestant subjects.’
