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Chapter Seven 233
tion, or the ‘taming’, as it were, of the Irish nation-its people, its traditions, and its religion. But this object was never really achieved, and despite the miseries visited upon them, the Irish people stayed true to their traditions and as a result remained a race apart. The main reason put forward as to why this scheme for “turning Ireland into a second England” never really achieved the envisaged success, was the short duration of Cromwellian rule 1652-1660. Cromwell himself died in 1658, and in 1660, following a period of anarchy, his followers were the most active in placing on the throne of England, Charles 11, the son of the king they had previously executed.
The Restoration produced great excitement in Ireland as all those who had sufered from the Cromwellian coniscation expected to be restored to their lost estates. As we know, the Confederation, in its later years, had supported the Stuart Cause, and even after its inal defeat, vast numbers of Irish had served Charles abroad in several ways, so naturally, they now looked to the new King for justice. But Charles did little to help them.
On the other hand, the new settlers were in a panic at the prospect of losing their re- cently acquired lands, added to which, the diference in religion between the settlers and most of the dispossessed constituted a formidable barrier to an equitable solution to the problem. So unsurprisingly, Charles’s anxiety not to ofend the powerful and almost Prot- estant English Parliament and its planted supporters in Ireland, outweighed his feelings of gratitude towards the Irish who supported him, and it soon became clear that there was to be no general restoration of coniscated land. As one writer commented ‘Charles 11, who did not wish to go “on his travels” again, was not the man to carry out a policy in Ireland