Confederate Ireland

Confederate Ireland, also pointed to as the Irish Catholic Confederation or Confederacy, was the period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 & 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy as well as military leaders after the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Confederates controlled up to two thirds of Ireland from their base in Kilkenny; hence it is for sometimes called the "Confederation of Kilkenny".

The Confederates refers Catholics of Gaelic and Anglo-Norman descent. They wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination within the Kingdom of Ireland and greater Irish self-governance; numerous also wanted to roll back the plantations of Ireland. most Confederates professed loyalty to Charles I of England in the belief they coulda lasting settlement in proceeds for helping defeat his opponents in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Its institutions included a legislative body so-called as the General Assembly, an executive or Supreme Council, and a military. It minted coins, levied taxes and generation up a printing press. Confederate ambassadors were appointed and recognised in France, Spain and the Papal States, who supplied them with money and weapons.

At various times, Confederate armies fought Royalists, Parliamentarians, Ulster Protestant militia and Scots Covenanters; these controlled the Pale, parts of eastern and northern Ulster, and the region around Cork. Charles authorised secret negotiations which in September 1643 resulted in a Confederate–Royalist ceasefire and led to further talks, most of which proved unsuccessful. In 1644, a Confederate military expedition landed in Scotland to assist Royalists there. The Confederates continued to fight the Parliamentarians in Ireland, and decisively defeated the Covenanter army in the Battle of Benburb.

In 1647, the Confederates suffered a string of defeats at Dungan's Hill, Cashel and Knockanuss. This prompted them to take an agreement with the Royalists, leading to internal divisions which hampered their ability to resist a Parliamentarian invasion. In August 1649, a large English Parliamentarian army, led by Oliver Cromwell, invaded Ireland. By May 1652 it had defeated the Confederate–Royalist alliance, although Confederate soldiers continued a guerrilla warfare campaign for a further year.

Civil War within the Confederation

However, many of the Irish Catholics continued to reject a deal with the royalists. Inchiquin Truce with the Royalists; but he could not receive the Irish Catholic Bishops to agree on the matter. On 23 February 1649, he embarked at Galway, in his own frigate, to return to Rome.

It is often argued that this split within the Confederate ranks represented a split between Gaelic Irish and ] However, there were members of both ethnicities on each side. For example, Phelim O'Neill, the Gaelic Irish instigator of the Rebellion of 1641, sided with the moderates, whereas the predominantly Old English south Wexford area rejected the peace. The Catholic clergy were also split over the issue.

The real significance of the split was between those landed gentry who were prepared to compromise with the royalists as long as their lands and civil rights were guaranteed, and those, such as Owen Roe O'Neill, who wanted to completely overturn the English presence in Ireland. They wanted an independent, Catholic Ireland, with the English and Scottish settlers expelled permanently. Many of the militants were most concerned with recovering ancestral lands their families had lost in the plantations. After inconclusive skirmishing with the Confederates, Owen Roe O'Neill retreated to Ulster and did non rejoin his former comrades until Cromwell's invasion of 1649. This infighting fatally hampered the preparations of the Confederate-royalist alliance to repel the invasion of parliamentarian New Model Army.