ABSTRACT
The period 1691-1714 was for Ireland an interim period, in which in a sense the Stuart monarchy survived and the Prerogative remained considerable; so between the liberality of William and the Toryism that triumphed under Anne the final subjection of Catholic Ireland was deferred. Nevertheless the Anglican ascendancy was secured after the fall of Limerick, and it remained for the new King and the Protestant parliaments of both countries to decide how the terms should be carried out. There was no hurry for the victors, and it was not till 1697 that the Irish parliament ratified the Treaty of Limerick and 1700 that the confiscations were completed. This may be called the Williamite settlement of Ireland. In 1692 Lord Sidney was sent over as Lord Lieutenant to represent the new régime. He summoned at Chichester House the Irish parliament, a body of three hundred in the Commons and twelve bishops and sixteen peers in the Lords, which henceforth became as long as it lasted a Protestant body, for an act of the English parliament passed in 1691 was now extended to Ireland by which members of both Houses were required to take an oath of allegiance, a declaration against the Mass, Transubstantiation, and other Roman doctrines, and an oath abjuring the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. This effectually debarred conscientious men and the few Catholic members and peers who presented themselves, and it was not till its repeal in 1829 that Roman Catholics were enabled to sit in parliament. For a century or more they could only humbly petition the King or plead as suppliants at the Bar of the House.
