Act for the Settlement of Ireland

Timeline

1. 1649–1652Ireland · IrelandOliver Cromwell led the English New Model Army in an invasion of Ireland; after three years of war, they suppressed the Irish Catholic Confederation and Royalist coalition, captured cities such as Drogheda and Wexford, and completed the military conquest, laying the groundwork for legislative reckoning.
2. 1652Palace of Westminster · EnglandThe Rump Parliament formally promulgated the Act of Settlement of Ireland 1652, dividing Irish landowners who had participated in the rebellion into five classes and confiscating all or part of their lands according to the degree of their rebellion; except for those spared death who could be relocated west of the River Shannon, the remaining Royalist officers were required to go into exile overseas.
3. 1653–1660Connacht, Ireland · ConnachtAfter the act was implemented, an estimated 110,000 Irish Catholic landowners were relocated west of the River Shannon; English Protestant settlers and Cromwellian military veterans received the confiscated lands. The traditional Irish Catholic landowning class was essentially dismantled, and the Protestant Anglo-Irish landowning class established dominance over Irish land.