James's Irish parliament met from May 7 through July 18. Significantly James had invited the hierarchy of the Church of Ireland to attend, but only four of them, along with four Protestant lay peers sat as members while the 27 others in attendance were Catholic and predominantly Old English. Catholics also made up 226 of the 230 attending the House of Commons to which 300 could have attended. About two-thirds of them came from Old English stock, but there were some Irish members. Their main objective was to undo the Act of Settlement, which had taken land from them in the previous generation. James had some reservations about completely alienating the Protestant population in Ireland, but the parliament nonetheless repealed both the Act of Settlement and the 1663 Act of Explanation, which had enabled some land to be restored to Catholics. In addition, taking a cue from what the Cromwellians had done to them, the parliament passed an Act of Attainment against those Protestants who had absented themselves by going into exile. Their lands became vested in the Crown and would be restored only if they returned to prove their loyalty. Another act required Catholics and Protestants to pay tithes to their own respective clergy rather than solely to the established church. One measure, which James opposed and which therefore had to be dropped, was the repeal of Poynings' Law. James also opposed any mercantile measures, such as that prohibiting the export of wool to England.
Titled the "Patriot Parliament" by the 19th-century Irish nationalist Thomas Davis, the body was hailed by Catholics and nationalists as a generous assemblage committed to religious liberty. However, Protestants saw it as having been engaged in a land grab of their property. Its ambitious agenda would be grounds for Protestant retribution after the Jacobite cause failed.
World History
