Editing Confederate Ireland (section)

==Cromwell's invasion==
[[File:Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Cromwell]], who conquered Ireland on behalf of the [[English Parliament]]]]
[[Oliver Cromwell]] invaded Ireland in 1649 to crush the new alliance of Irish Confederates and royalists. The [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland]] was the bloodiest warfare that had ever occurred in the country and was accompanied by [[pandemic|plague]] and [[famine]]. Kilkenny [[Siege of Kilkenny|fell after a short siege]] in 1650. It ended in total defeat for the Irish Catholics and royalists. The pre-war Irish Catholic land-owning class was all but destroyed in this period, as were the institutions of the [[Roman Catholic]] Church. Most of the senior members of the Confederation spent the Cromwellian period in exile in France, with the English Royalist Court. After the [[English Restoration|Restoration]], those Confederates who had promoted alliance with the Royalists found themselves in favour and on average recovered about a third of their lands. However, those who remained in Ireland throughout the [[Interregnum (England)|Interregnum]] generally had their land confiscated, with prisoners of war executed or transported to penal colonies.