Protestant Ascendancy - Background

Background

The gradual dispossession of large holdings belonging to several hundred native landowners in Ireland took place in various stages from the reigns of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary and her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth I onwards. Unsuccessful revolts against English rule in 1595–1603 and 1641–1653 and then the 1689-91 Williamite Wars caused much Irish land to be confiscated by the Crown, and then sold to people who were thought loyal, most of whom were English and Protestant. English soldiers and traders became the new ruling class, as its richer members were elevated to the Irish House of Lords and eventually controlled the Irish House of Commons (see Plantations of Ireland).

This process was facilitated and formalized in the legal system after 1691 by the passing of various Penal Laws, which discriminated against the property rights of the leading families of the majority Roman Catholic population, and the non-conforming ("Dissenter") Protestant denominations such as Presbyterians, where they :

• had revolted against the government and
• had not sworn allegiance to William and Mary under the 1691 Treaty of Limerick.

However, those protected by the Treaty were still excluded from public political life.

The situation was confused by the policy of the Tory party in England and Ireland after 1688. They were Protestants who generally supported the Catholic Jacobite claim, and came to power briefly in London in 1710-14. Also in 1750 the main Catholic Jacobite heir and claimant to the three thrones, Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonny Prince Charlie"), converted to Anglicanism for a time, but had reverted to Roman Catholicism again by his father's death in 1766.

The son of James VII, James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender), was recognised by the Holy See as the legitimate monarch of the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and the separate Kingdom of Ireland until his death in January 1766, and Roman Catholics were morally obliged to support him. This provided the main political excuse for the new laws, but it was not entirely exclusive as there was no law against anyone converting to Protestantism. Thousands did so, as recorded on the "Convert Rolls", and this allowed for the successful careers of Irishmen such as that of William Conolly, but the majority decided not to convert.

From 1766 onwards the Papacy did not object to the fact of an established Anglican church, as Roman Catholicism was the established church in countries such as Spain until 1931 and Austria until 1918. It did, however, push for reforms allowing equality within the system.

Among the forms of discrimination faced by Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters under the Penal Laws were:

• Exclusion of Roman Catholics from most public offices (since 1607); Presbyterians were also barred from public office from 1707.
• Ban on intermarriage with Protestants (repealed 1778)
• Presbyterian marriages were not legally recognised by the state
• Roman Catholics barred from holding firearms or serving in the armed forces (rescinded by Militia Act of 1793)
• Bar from membership in either the Parliament of Ireland or the Parliament of England from 1652; rescinded 1662-1691; renewed 1691-1829, applying to the successive parliaments of England (to 1707), Great Britain (1707 to 1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800 to 1829).
• Disenfranchising Act 1728, exclusion from voting until 1793;
• Exclusion from the legal professions and the judiciary; repealed (respectively) 1793 and 1829.
• Education Act 1695 - ban on foreign education; repealed 1782.
• Bar to Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters entering Trinity College Dublin; repealed 1793
• On a death by a Roman Catholic, a legatee could benefit by conversion to the Church of Ireland
• Popery Act- Roman Catholic inheritances of land were to be equally subdivided between all an owner's sons
• Ban on converting from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism
• Ban on Roman Catholics buying land under a lease of more than 31 years; repealed 1778.
• Ban on custody of orphans being granted to Roman Catholics
• Ban on Roman Catholics' inheriting Protestant land
• Prohibition on Roman Catholics' owning a horse valued at over £5 (in order to keep horses suitable for military activity out of the majority's hands)
• Roman Catholic lay priests had to register to preach under the Registration Act 1704, but seminary priests and bishops were not able to do so until the 1770s.
• When allowed, new Roman Catholic churches were to be built from wood, not stone, and away from main roads.
• 'No person of the popish religion shall publicly or in private houses teach school, or instruct youth in learning within this realm'; repealed in 1782.

As a result, political, legal, and economic power resided with the Ascendancy to the extent that by the mid-eighteenth century, though a small fraction of the population, 95% of the land of Ireland was calculated to be under minority Protestant control. Some 9% of this land belonged to formerly-Catholic landlords who had converted to the state religion.

Reform, though not complete, came in three main stages and was effected over 50 years:

• Reform of religious disabilities in 1778-82, allowing bishops, schools and convents.
• Reform of restrictions on property ownership and voting in 1778-93.
• Restoration of political, professional and office-holding rights in 1793-1829.