Confederation of Ireland
The name Confederation of Ireland goes back to a brief period of Irish self-government between the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell in 1649 . The actual confederation was founded in the summer of 1642. During these years two thirds of Ireland was ruled by the Irish Catholic Confederation ( Irish Cónaidhm Chaitliceach na hÉireann , English Irish Catholic Confederation ), also known as the Confederation of Kilkenny , ( Comhdháil Chill Chainnigh , Confederation of Kilkenny ). The remaining Protestant enclaves in Ulster , Munster and Leinster were commanded by royalist or Scottish parliamentarians during the War of the Three Kingdoms . During the Irish Confederation Wars, the Confederates failed to defeat British units in Ireland, and in 1648 they joined a royalist alliance against the so-called rump parliament .
Rebellion and formation of the Confederation
The Catholic Confederation was formed in the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion to both control the uprisings and to organize an Irish Catholic war against the remaining British armies in Ireland. It was hoped to be able to stop a reconquest of Ireland by British or Scottish troops. The initiative of the Confederation came from the Catholic Bishop Nicholas French and the lawyer Nicholas Plunkett . Both proposed various Irish nobles for government, e.g. B. Viscount Gormanstown, Lord Mountgarret and Viscount Muskerry, who in turn brought their own armed forces into the Confederation and convinced other rebels to join it. Members of the Confederation were required to take an oath against the Roman Catholic faith, the rights of the king and the freedom of Ireland.
The Constitution of the Confederation, which was already very democratic for the time on some points, was drawn up by another lawyer, Patrick Darcy from Galway . The government consisted of a general assembly (which was actually a parliament), built up and elected by Irish landowners and the Catholic clergy , who in turn elected an executive , the so-called Supreme Council . The meeting place was the city of Kilkenny , where work began immediately on building a far-reaching tax system to finance the war. Furthermore, messengers were sent to various Roman Catholic countries in continental Europe with the request for support.
Despite all these activities, the Confederation government never declared its own independence, as - in the context of the War of the Three Kingdoms - they described themselves as royalists who were loyal to Charles I of England. Since only the king could proclaim a legitimate parliament, they never called themselves "parliament" even if they acted like one. When negotiating with the Protestant royalists, the Confederates demand that any concessions they obtain must be ratified by a post-war Irish parliament that would have consisted of the General Assembly and some Protestant royalists.
The main aim of the Confederate was to reach an agreement with King Charles I that would include:
- Recognition of the Catholic Faith
- Recognition of all rights for Catholics in Ireland
- A separate government for Ireland
The motto of the confederation was Pro Deo, Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis - For God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is united .
The members of the Supreme Council were predominantly of Old English descent (ie their ancestors came from England to Ireland), which is why they were distrusted by the Gaelic Irish, for whom the demands on the English were too moderate. The more radical among the Confederates called for the Plantations to be reversed and for the Catholic faith to be established as the state religion in Ireland.
The Confederates believed that they could best achieve their goals if they acted royalist, and therefore made the king a central part of their strategy, who also repeatedly promised them concessions. While the moderate forces sought this agreement with Charles I without pushing through radical political and religious reforms, others considered how to force the king to take this step more quickly, which is why an alliance with France or Spain was sought.
Armistice in the Confederate War
In 1643 the Confederates negotiated an armistice with the Protestant royalists in Ireland, which eventually led to further negotiations with James Butler (1st Duke of Ormonde ), the royal deputy in Ireland. As a result, the attacks between the two parties in Dublin decreased, but the English garrison in Cork , commanded by Murrough O'Brien (one of the few Irish Protestants), refused to recognize the armistice, rebelled and swore allegiance to the English Parliament . There were also some Scottish units in Ulster and the British settler militia units in this region who continued to attack.
In 1644 the Confederates sent 1,500 men under Alasdair MacColla to Scotland to support the royalists there under James Graham . However, to this day this remained the only Irish interference (by sending an army) in civil wars in Great Britain.
Arrival of the papal nuncio
The Confederates received little aid from France and Spain who wanted to recruit troops in Ireland, but the main support came from the Pope , especially Innocent X. The Confederation's messenger reached the Pope in February 1645 , who then became Giovanni Battista Rinuccini , a papal nuncio , sent to Ireland - along with a large number of weapons, military supplies and a large amount of money. The support brought Rinuccini a lot of influence into Confederation politics, and he was supported by more militant Confederates like Owen Roe O'Neill . Rinuccini was received with honor in Kilkenny and he pledged his full support to the Catholic people of Ireland in order to safeguard the Catholic faith.
The first "Peace of Ormonde"
By March 1646 , the Supreme Council had reached an agreement with James Butler, which was signed on March 28th. This agreement - which was not yet legally binding - allowed Catholics to work in public offices and schools, and there were verbal commitments to make further concessions in the future. There was also a pardon for crimes committed during the rebellion (1641) and a guarantee that the expropriation of Catholic land would cease completely.
However, there was no repeal of the Poynings' Law , which subordinated the Irish Parliament to the English, no repeal of Protestant dominance in parliament, and no repeal of the plantations in Ulster and Munster. On the other hand, all the churches that the Catholic Church had annexed during the war had to be returned to the Protestants, and the public practice of the Catholic faith was not guaranteed.
But the agreed terms of the treaty were not acceptable either to the Catholic clergy, the Irish military commanders - above all Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston - or to the majority of the General Assembly. Rinuccini was also not part of the negotiating partners, which is why he was against this treaty and he was able to persuade nine Irish bishops to sign a protest against any agreement with James Butler or the English king as long as there was no guarantee that the Catholic religion would continue gave.
The Supreme Court, which negotiated the contract, was in the eyes of many untrustworthy, as many members had special connections with James Butler. Furthermore, after Rowen Roe O'Neill's army had defeated the Scots at the Battle of Benburb , many believed that the Confederates would be able to retake all of Ireland. Rinuccini was one of the supporters of this view - after all, the members of the Supreme Council were (temporarily) arrested and the acceptance of the treaty rejected.
Military defeat and renewed peace
After the denial of the treaty by the Confederation, James Butler handed control of Dublin to Michael Jones and returned to England. The Confederation armies now attempted to capture the remaining Protestant territories in Dublin and Cork, but suffered a series of military disasters in 1647 . First Thomas Preston's army from Leinster was defeated at the Battle of Dungans Hill in Meath , then the army from Munster suffered the same fate at the Battle of Knocknanauss .
These setbacks brought the Confederates back to the negotiating table and large concessions were obtained from Charles I, including the toleration of the Catholic faith, the promise to withdraw the Poynings Law and a partial withdrawal of the Plantations concessions, which Charles I later withdrew. According to the treaty, the confederation should dissolve itself, place its troops under royalist rule and recognize the English troops.
However, many Irish Catholics still refused to accept the treaty with the royalists, and Owen Roe O'Neill did not join the new royalist alliance either. Rinuccini backed O'Neill by threatening excommunication to anyone who agreed to the truce; this time, however, he did not manage to win the Catholic bishops of Ireland to his side. On February 23, 1649, Rinuccini returned to Rome from Galway.
It is believed that the division of the Confederation mainly took place between Gaelic Irish and the descendants of the first English settlers (the so-called Old English ), since the Gaelic had lost large estates and power under English rule and were more radical in their demands than them rather moderate Old English . But there were representatives of both ethnic groups on both sides. For example, Felim O'Neill of Kinard , a Gaelic instigator of the 1641 rebellion , agreed to the armistice, while much of the mostly English-born people of South Wexford opposed it. The Catholic clergy were also split into two camps on this issue.
Oliver Cromwell
The situation did not change until 1649 when Oliver Cromwell came to Ireland and finally defeated the Confederate-Royalist Alliance. The recapture of Ireland by Cromwell was one of the most bloodthirsty warfare in Ireland, accompanied by epidemics and famine . Most of the leading members of the Confederation went into exile in France or were killed during this period. The Irish Catholic landowners were expropriated in the course of the conquest and the Roman Catholic Church was suppressed. This was also the end of the Confederation.
The Confederation of Ireland was the only sustained quasi-independent Irish government until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 . The end of the Confederation now finally consolidated British rule in Ireland.
Literature (in English)
- Nicholas Canny: Making Ireland British. 1580-1650. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2003, ISBN 0-19-925905-4 .
- John Kenyon, Jane Ohlmeyer, (Eds.): The Civil Wars. A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638-1660. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 1998, ISBN 0-19-866222-X .
- Pádraig Lenihan: Confederate Catholics at War, 1641–49. Cork University Press, Cork et al. 2001, ISBN 1-85918-244-5 .
- Michéal Ó Siochrú: Confederate Ireland 1642–1649. Four Courts Press, Dublin 1999, ISBN 1-85182-400-6 .