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Ireland 1685–1714

The land settlement and Protestant fears in Ireland

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 2

Overview

The Acts of Settlement and Explanation, the share of land held by Catholics, and why a Parliament was the key to overturning it.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why did James II hesitate over repealing the land settlement?

Key term

What did no Parliament meeting in Ireland before 1689 mean for the land question?

Key term

Why was land the central question in Irish politics in the 1680s?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why was land the central question in Irish politics in the 1680s?

    Model answer

    Land carried political power, income and social standing, so the loss of Catholic estates in the previous generation was the grievance behind every other Catholic demand, and their return was the settlers' deepest fear.

  2. 2

    What did dispossessed Catholic landowners want James II to do?

    Model answer

    Dispossessed Catholic landowners wanted the Acts of Settlement and Explanation repealed so that estates could be returned to the families who had held them before the wars of the 1640s.

  3. 3

    How did Tyrconnell try to reopen the land settlement?

    Model answer

    Tyrconnell pressed the King for a repeal or a substantial modification of the Acts of Settlement and sent Catholic lawyers to London in 1687 to argue the case before the King and his ministers.

  4. 4

    Who were sent to London in 1687 to argue the Catholic case on land?

    Model answer

    Sir Stephen Rice and Thomas Nugent were sent to London in 1687 to put the case for reopening the land settlement, and Protestant interests sent their own representatives to oppose them.

  5. 5

    Why did James II hesitate over repealing the land settlement?

    Model answer

    Repeal would have destroyed the security of property on which the Restoration settlement rested, alarmed English opinion further and antagonised his Protestant daughters and their allies abroad, so James II delayed rather than refused.

  6. 6

    What effect did the threat of repeal have on the Irish economy?

    Model answer

    Uncertainty over titles caused land values and rents to fall, credit to dry up and trade to contract, because no one would lend on the security of an estate that might be taken away.

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