Ormond peace

Ormond peace, two agreements (1646, 1649), intended to reconcile Irish Protestant royalists and Confederate Catholics so that their combined forces could be deployed for the king.

After Charles I repudiated the secret treaty negotiated with the confederates by the earl of Glamorgan, Ormond managed to achieve a treaty in March 1646 with no concessions on Catholic worship or clerical benefices, promising instead the Graces and a parliament untrammelled by Poynings's Law. However, changing English circumstances and Irish Catholic opposition led by Rinuccini quickly rendered this first Ormond peace a dead letter.

In 1649, after parliament's victory in the English Civil War, Ormond conceded recognition of Catholic worship and church organization pending a free parliament. He became supreme commander and commissioners of trust took over from the Catholic confederacy. Owen Roe O'Neill's army was subsequently included, on the assurance that the proposed parliament would reconsider the Ulster plantation. These compromises came too late to stop the Cromwellian juggernaut.

Hiram Morgan