Prelude to Restoration in Ireland: The End of the Commonwealth, 1659–1660 - Hardcover

Clarke, Aidan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521650615 ISBN 13: 9780521650618

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1999

Synopsis

This study fills a major gap in the maintream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments in the year before the restoration of Charles II. It is the first treatment of the complex Irish dimension of the king's return. The issue of the monarchy did not stand alone in Ireland. Entangled with it was the question of how the restoration of the old regime would affect a Protestant colonial community that had changed in character and fortune as a result of the Cromwellian conquest, the immigration that had accompanied it and the massive transfer of land that followed. As the return of Charles became increasingly probable, Cromwellian and pre-Cromwellian settlers were united in their determination to ensure that the restoration of Charles did not deprive them of their gains. This account discloses how the leaders of the Protestant establishment protected its interests by managing the transition back to monarchy.

About this title

Book Description

This study fills a major gap in the mainstream narrative of Irish history by reconstructing political developments before the restoration of Charles II. Protestants in Ireland had secured large benefits after the Cromwellian conquest from the confiscation and redistribution of Catholic land. The fall of the Commonwealth and the imminent restoration of Charles II threatened these gains. Aidan Clarke explains how the established colonists and the Cromwellian newcomers combined uneasily to ensure that Charles's return was not accompanied by the return of confiscated land to its Catholic owners.

Review

"Clarke shows the extent to which Charles II's restoration was willed by all threee of his kingdoms...His narrative of the confusing months, based on a meticulous sifting of the fragmentary sources, cannot be other than definitive. The whole complicated story os told with economy and elegance. Otherwise, his special strengths as a master prosographer and a historian of constitutional thinking about the relationship between Ireland and England are fully displayed." Jrnl of Modern History

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0521650615
• ISBN 13: 9780521650618
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 390