Editing Confederate Ireland (section)

===Policies===
[[File:King Charles I after original by van Dyck.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Charles I of England|Charles I]]; the Confederates pledged him allegiance, but the two sides struggled to agree terms]]

The last piece of legislation agreed by [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] and [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] was the 1642 [[Adventurers' Act]], which provided funds to suppress the 1641 Rebellion by confiscating "rebel" lands. In order to keep their estates, in the context of the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] the Confederates claimed to be [[Cavalier|Royalists]] loyal to the king, which made reaching an agreement with him a matter of primary importance.{{Sfn|Lowe|1964|p=2}} As a result, the Confederacy never claimed to be an independent government and since only Charles could legally call [[Parliament of Ireland|Parliament]], their General Assembly never claimed to be one, although this did not prevent it enacting legislation. 

Confederate political demands included Irish self-government, secure tenure of their lands, amnesty for any acts committed during the Rebellion, an equal share in government positions and that these concessions be ratified by a post-war Parliament. In terms of religion, they insisted on toleration of Catholicism and in June 1645 added the stipulation that the Catholic clergy should retain all properties taken from the Church of Ireland since 1641.{{Sfn|Lowe|1964|p=2}} In reality, these were almost impossible to achieve, since they were asking Charles to make concessions he had refused to make to Parliament, while the vast majority of his advisors opposed them on the grounds that doing so would fatally undermine the Royalist cause in England and Scotland.{{Sfn|Lowe|1964|pp=2-3}}     

The Confederate position was further weakened by divisions between the Old English, mostly descendants of those who arrived during the [[Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland]] in 1172, and the native [[Gaels|Gaelic]] Irish. While many historians dispute the extent of the differences between the two groups, there are significant variations in terms of political, religious and economic objectives. In general, the Old English wanted to regain the power and influence they had lost under the Tudors and although they were sincere Catholics, did not support establishing the church as the [[state religion]].{{Sfn|Lowe|1964|pp=5-6}} Gaelic Irish leaders such as [[Owen Roe O'Neill]] wanted to reverse the [[Plantations of Ireland]], since this was the only way to retrieve their ancestral lands; however, they were far less united in their demands than the Old English and it has been argued they formed a pressure group, rather than a distinct political philosophy.{{Sfn|Lowe|1964|pp=5-6}}