After the cessation of 1643 the confederate catholics sent agents to Oxford to lay their demands before the king. The propositions first presented were regarded by the council as unreasonable. But the agents proved ‘councellable’, and presented new propositions, ‘which though in many things unreasonable for the king to grant, yet are not very scandalous for them to ask.’2
The demands of the Roman catholics of Ireland humbly presented to his sacred majesty in pursuance of their remonstrance of grievances,3 and to be annexed to the said remonstrance.
That all acts made against the professors of the Roman catholic faith, whereby any restraint, penalty, mulct, or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman catholic within the kingdom of Ireland may be repealed, and the said catholics to be allowed the freedom of the Roman catholic religion.
That your majesty be pleased to call a free parliament in the said kingdom, to be held and continued as in the said remonstrance is expressed, and the statute of the tenth year of the reign of King Henry VII, called Poynings' act, and all acts explaining or enlarging the same, be suspended during that parliament, for the speedy settlement of the present affairs, and the repeal thereof to be there further considered of.
That all acts and ordinances made and passed in the now pretended parliament in that kingdom, since the seventh day of August 1641, be clearly annulled, declared void, and taken off the file.
That all indictments, attainders, outlawries in the king's
That inasmuch as under colour of such outlawries, and attainders, debts due to the said catholics have been granted, levied and disposed of, and of the other side, that debts due upon the said catholics to those of the other party have been levied and disposed to public uses, that therefore all debts be by act of parliament mutually released or all to stand in statu quo, notwithstanding any grant or disposition.
[That whereas your majesty's subjects of that kingdom have and do suffer extremely by the offices found since the first year of Queen Elizabeth, of many countries and territories, upon no real title, or upon feigned or old titles of two hundred, three hundred, four hundred years, and by many illegal, and unjust attainders, by acts of parliament or otherwise, since the time aforesaid, unto which hitherto no traverse, monstrans de droit, or petition of right could be admitted, it is therefore humbly desired that the said offices, and attainders, and all grants, leases, and estates thereupon derived from the crown be reviewed in free parliament according to justice and conscience, still reserving to your majesty the rents and profits thereout answered before the late commission of defective titles, and special care to be therein likewise had of purchases made for valuable consideration by your majesty's faithful subjects. And] That the late offices, taken or found upon feigned or old titles since the year 1634, to entitle your majesty to several countries in Connaught, Thomond, and in the counties of Tipperary, Limerick, and Wicklow, be vacated and taken off the file, the possessors settled and secured in their ancient estates by act of parliament, and that the like act of limitation of your majesty's titles for the security of the estates of your subjects of that kingdom be passed in the said parliament, as was enacted in the 21st year of his late majesty's reign in this kingdom.
That all marks of incapacity imposed upon the natives of that kingdom to purchase or acquire leases, offices, lands, or hereditaments, be taken away by act of parliament, and the same to extend to the securing of purchases, leases, or grants already made, and that for the education of youth, an act be passed in the next parliament for the erecting of one or more inns of court, universities, free and common schools.
That the offices and places of command, honour, profit and trust within that kingdom be conferred upon Roman catholics natives of that kingdom, in equality and indifference with your majesty's other subjects.
That the insupportable oppression of your majesty's subjects
That no lord not estated in that kingdom, or estated and not resident, shall have vote in the said parliament by proxy or otherwise, and none admitted to the house of commons but such as shall be estated and resident within the kingdom.
That an act shall be passed in the next parliament, declaratory that the parliament of Ireland is a free parliament of itself, independent of, and not subordinate to, the parliament of England, and that the subjects of Ireland are immediately subject to your majesty as in right of your crown, and that the members of the said parliament of Ireland, and all other the subjects of Ireland are independent, and in no way to be ordered or concluded by the parliament of England, and are only to be ordered and governed within that kingdom by your majesty and such governors as are or shall be there appointed, and by the parliament of that kingdom according to the laws of the land.
[That two acts passed in the parliament of this kingdom of England, the one entitled An act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in his majesty's kingdom of Ireland to their due obedience to his majesty and the crown of England, and another act entitled An act for adding unto and explaining the same, shall be declared void; and that all grants and assignments, under such grants or any other acts or estates whatsoever made in pursuance of them, or otherwise, or in pursuance of the act or acts of subscriptions, or any other act or proclamation, and all other acts and ordinances made in the parliament of England in prejudice of the said catholics, shall be declared void.]
That the assumed power or jurisdiction in the council board, of determining all manner of causes, be limited to matters of state, and all patents, estates, and grants illegally and extra-judicially avoided, there or elsewhere, be left in state as before, and the parties grieved, their heirs or assigns, till legal eviction.
That the statutes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth concerning staple commodities be repealed, reserving to his majesty lawful and just poundage, and a book of rates to be settled by an indifferent committee of both houses for all commodities.
That in as much as the long continuance of the chief governor or governors of that kingdom in that place of so great eminence and power, hath been a principal occasion that much tyranny and oppression hath been exercised upon the subjects of that kingdom, that your majesty will be pleased to continue such governor hereafter but for three years, and that none once employed therein be appointed for the same again until the expiration of six years next after the end of the said three years; and that an act pass to disable such governor, or governors, during their government, directly or indirectly, in use, trust, or otherwise, to make any
[That, whereas your majesty's standing army formerly in that kingdom, was of so small and inconsiderable a number, that they rather appeared a mark of suspicion and jealousy on the nation, and rendered them to all other nations as a people not to be trusted, than any strength for the defence of the kingdom, and yet exhausted a great part of your majesty's revenue, which the several officers converted to their private use, having few or no soldiers, but such as they collected of their tenants and servants, at days of musters and pay; to remove therefore that badge of distrust from your said subjects, it is humbly desired that no such army be any longer maintained in that kingdom, whereby much of your majesty's revenue will be hereafter saved for better uses, and your subjects there, with your majesty's consent, will take such course for the safety of that kingdom, by way of trained bands, or otherwise as shall be most serviceable to your majesty, and satisfactory to your said subjects.]4
[That the present government of the said catholics may continue within their quarters and jurisdictions until the parliament, and after until their grievances be redressed by acts of parliament, and for a convenient time for the execution thereof.]
[That an act of oblivion be passed in the next free parliament, to extend to all your majesty's said catholic subjects of that kingdom, for all manner of offences, capital, criminal, and personal, with a saving and reservation to both houses within six months next after the passing of the said act, to question any person or persons of any side for any notorious murders, cruelties, rapines, and robberies against public faith, and such persons as have privately or publicly in their councils or actions joined against your majesty with the rebels at Westminster, and the same to hear and determine according to law, honour, and justice, and the said act to extend to all goods and chattels, customs, mesne profits, and prizes, arrears of rents, received or incurred since these troubles.]5
Forasmuch, dread sovereign, as the ways of our address unto
J. T. Gilbert, History of the Irish confederation and the war in Ireland (1882–91), iii. 128–33.