Topic summary
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began on 23 October 1641. Initiated by Irish gentry and military officers, the rebellion sought to end English domination of Ireland, restore lands confiscated through the plantations of Ireland, and secure Irish control over the country's government and affairs. Planned as a swift coup d'état to gain control of the Protestant-dominated central government, it instead developed into the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Despite failing to seize Dublin Castle, rebels under Felim O'Neill quickly over-ran most of Ulster, centre of the most recent land confiscations. O'Neill then issued the Proclamation of Dungannon, a forgery claiming he had been authorised by Charles I of England to secure Ireland against his opponents in England and Scotland. Many RoyalistAnglo-Irish Catholics responded by joining the uprising, and the rebellion spread throughout Ireland.
In November, rebels besieged Drogheda and defeated a government relief force at Julianstown. Especially in Ulster, thousands of Protestant settlers were expelled or massacred, and Catholics were killed in retaliation. By April 1642, Royalist troops held Dublin, Cork, and large areas around them, with much of Ulster occupied by a Scottish Covenanter army and local Protestant militia. This left approximately two thirds of Ireland under rebel control.
In May 1642, Ireland's Catholic bishops met at Kilkenny, and declared the rebellion a just war. Along with members of the Catholic nobility, they created an alternative government known as Confederate Ireland. For the next ten years, the Confederacy fought a four-sided war against Irish Royalists, Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians.