The Irish Republicans quickly came to the conclusion that monarchical principles possessed a virtue which afforded the best guarantee for their interests. Their budding royalism was threatened with blight from one quarter only—the exiled Irish soldiers who had fought for Prince Charles at home and abroad. These unreasonables had to be reckoned with, for Gaelic swordsmen, gentle and simple, formed part of his bodyguard and influenced his decisions. He even sympathised with their religion while his exile lasted, for the Duke of Ormonde relates that he once found his Majesty secretly hearing Mass in Brussels in a fit of lonely piety.

The Cromwellians, awake to these difficulties, and ready to jettison any inconvenient doctrines which blocked their way, held a Convention in Dublin in 1659-60, to debate “the situation.” First they seized Dublin Castle from the weaklings who represented the tottering Commonwealth, and next they imprisoned all Catholic loyalists who could be laid hands on, to prevent their having any credit in bringing back the King or earning his gratitude. Then they sent an embassy to Brussels to propose conditions to his Majesty. Sir Arthur Forbes (son of the “discoverer” of 1628) was their messenger, and on his return Forbes reported hopefully to their spokesmen, Sir Charles Coote and Lord Broghill (Boyle). On the 16th March, 1660, the exiled King wrote engaging that “whatever Coote should promise and undertake on his behalf (which it was in his power to perform) he would make good.”

Clotworthy was a leading member of the cabal; and on the 30th March, 1660, he was nominated to proceed to Flanders to conclude the negotiations. When he reached London, his journey was stayed, as General Monck had won over Speaker Lenthal to his views, and the royal cause was thriving without the aid of cross-Channel converts. Sir John, therefore, remained in England to influence opinion against attempts to disturb the arrangements of the Irish confiscators. King Charles, on the eve of his return, issued from Breda a Declaration securing in their estates those of his enemies who had not taken part in his father’s execution. At the same moment he promised that the Irish who had served him should be restored to their lands. Unhappily, the pledge to the Irish was broken, while the bargain with Coote was kept.

Much huxtering and hugger-mugger went on at Whitehall when the King came back. A large subscription was raised among the wily “Undertakers” to bribe his courtiers, and using this lubricant, Clotworthy and his friends found easy access to the Throne. Their aim was to ensure that the confiscations should be legalised, no matter who might suffer. Charles summoned a Parliament for each of the Three Kingdoms, but the Irish Executive (staffed with men of Cromwell’s mind) found no difficulty in packing the Dublin House of Commons with prayerful freebooters. The Restoration, which brought a joyful change in England and Scotland, made none in Ireland, unless for the worse. The loyalty and sufferings in exile of the King’s friends were forgotten. The squalid attornment of his enemies was remembered and rewarded.

Irish Cromwellianism after the Restoration remained organised and formidable as before. It dominated the Government; and its mayors and sheriffs returned to Parliament such men as they listed. Out of 260 members in the Lower House, only 64 represented counties—the rest being sent up by hole-and-corner “Corporations” to which the natives were not admitted. These phantom bodies (dowered with two members) were manned by Ironsides who could hardly pronounce the names of their billets. Indeed statutory power was soon afterwards taken to replace the “barbarous and uncouth” Gaelic place-names (which limned every lineament of the landscape) with sweet-sounding “Jonesboroughs” and “Draperstowns.”

In the counties a bare handful of the inhabitants possessed the franchise. The voting was a mere taking of “voices” in the sheriff’s parlour. A “Legislature” constituted in this fashion consummated in 1662-5 the confiscations which the Acts of “Settlement” and “Explanation” enshrine. Lord Chancellor Eustace summed up the result in a letter to the Duke of Ormonde:—“Those who fought against his Majesty are to have the estates of those who fought for him.” The King’s secretary, Nicholas, in a letter to Eustace expressed his regret that the “soldiers” should command such influence in the new Parliament. Still his Majesty yielded himself up to those who helped to betray his father, declaring he was determined never to go “on his travels” again.

In the island which had been the most faithful of the Three Kingdoms to the Crown, Cromwellianism survived as hardily as in the days of Oliver himself. A packed Parliament, a ruthless Executive, and a venal judiciary made or declared the law to a prostrate people. In England and Scotland the Royalists came into their own again. In Ireland they were betrayed or plundered or forgotten.

The only clog on the Republican triumph was the King’s scruple against allowing the leading regicides to retain their booty. Estates in Ireland had been grabbed by Cromwell, Ireton, Ludlow, Bradshaw, Corbett, Jones, Axtell, and others, whose hands reeked with the blood of Charles I. These were declared forfeit; but their rightful owners were not allowed to get them back. Over 111,000 acres in seventeen counties, at a rent of £8,726 a year (which would now represent ten times that amount), awaited disposal. To prevent their restitution to the natives, it was slyly proposed to Charles II. that his dear brother, the Duke of York (afterwards James II.), should take them as a gift. James accepted the lands, and Charles consented—to the disgrace of both. After that, no assailant of the doings of the Dublin Parliament could lightly accuse it of unreasonableness to the King.