Editing Irish Confederate Wars

{{short description|Ethno-religious conflict within Ireland between 1641 and 1653}}
{{about|the military history of Ireland in 1641–1653|the political context of this conflict|Confederate Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Irish Confederate Wars ''or''<br />Eleven Years' War
| image             = Wenceslaus Hollar – supposed Irish atrocities during the Rebellion of 1641.jpg
| caption           = [[Wenceslaus Hollar|Václav Hollar]]'s engraving of supposed atrocities committed by Irish Catholics in the rebellion of 1641
| partof            = the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]
| date              = October 1641 – April 1653<br />(11 years and 6 months)
| place             = [[Ireland]]
| casus             =
| result            = English Parliamentarian victory
| territory = English conquest of Ireland
| combatant1        = '''Phase I: October 1641 – September 1643'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Kingdom of Ireland]]
* [[Laggan Army]]
Supported by:
* {{Flag|Kingdom of England}}
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[Scottish Covenanters]]
}}
| combatant1a       = '''Phase II: September 1643 – June 1649'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Flag of England.svg}} [[English Parliamentarians]]
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[Scottish Covenanters]]
}}
| combatant1c       = '''Phase III: June 1649 – April 1653'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Commonwealth (1649-1651).svg|size=20px}} [[English Commonwealth|England]]
}}
| combatant2        = '''Phase I: October 1641 – September 1643'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Catholic Confederates]]
}}
| combatant2a       = '''Phase II: September 1643 – June 1649'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Catholic Confederates]]
}}
| combatant2c       = '''Phase III: June 1649 –  April 1653'''{{Plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Catholic Confederates]]
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Kingdom of Ireland|Royalists]]
Supported by:
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[Scottish Covenanters]]
}}
| commander1        =  '''Phase I:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}}  [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond|Marquess of Ormond]]
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore of Drogheda|Viscount Moore of Drogheda]]{{KIA}}
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Baron Inchiquin]]
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Robert Stewart (soldier)|Robert Stewart]]
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[George Munro, 1st of Newmore|George Munro]]
}}
| commander1a        =  '''Phase II:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Flag of England.svg|size=22px}} [[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Baron Inchiquin]]
* {{flagicon image|Flag of England.svg|size=22px}} [[Michael Jones (soldier)|Michael Jones]]
* {{flagicon image|Flag of England.svg|size=22px}} [[Laurence Esmonde, 1st Baron Esmonde|Laurence Esmonde]]
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[George Munro, 1st of Newmore|George Munro]]
}}
| commander1b        =  '''Phase III:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Oliver Cromwell]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Henry Ireton]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Edmund Ludlow]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Charles Fleetwood]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Michael Jones (soldier)|Michael Jones]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Robert Venables]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath|Charles Coote]]
* {{flagicon|Commonwealth of England}} [[Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery|Roger Boyle]]}}
| commander2        = '''Phase I:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Garret Barry (soldier)|Garret Barry]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Felim O'Neill of Kinard|Phelim Roe O'Neill]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret|Viscount Mountgarret]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Rory O'Moore (Irish noble)|Rory O'More]]
}}
| commander2a        =  '''Phase II:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Alasdair Mac Colla|Alexander MacDonald]]{{KIA}}
}}
| commander2b        =  '''Phase III:'''{{plainlist|
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond|Marquess of Ormond]]
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde|Marquess of Clanricarde]]
* {{flagicon image|Royal Standard of Ireland (1542–1801).svg}} [[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Baron Inchiquin]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford|Viscount Taaffe]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven|Earl of Castlehaven]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty|Viscount Muskerry]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Richard O'Farrell (Irish Confederate)|Richard O'Farrell]]
* {{flagicon image|Green harp flag of Ireland 17th century.svg}} [[Hugh Dubh O'Neill]]
* {{flagicon image|Scottish Covenanter Flag.svg}} [[George Munro, 1st of Newmore|George Munro]]
}}
| strength1         = {{plainlist|
* 10,000 soldiers<br><small>(before 1649)</small>,
* 30,000 soldiers <small>(after 1649)</small>}}
| strength2         = {{plainlist|
* 60,000<br><small>(incl. guerrillas)</small>,
* 20,000 at any one time}}
| casualties1       = {{plainlist|
* 8,000+ English soldiers killed,
* 7,000+ locally raised soldiers killed,
* Thousands of Scottish Covenanters killed (before switching to Royalist side)}}
| casualties2       = {{plainlist|
* 25,000+ battlefield casualties,
* 200,000+ civilians<br><small>(from war-related famine or disease)</small>,
* 12,000 transported to West Indies<br><small>(by 1660)<ref>Mícheál Ó Siochrú/RTÉ ONE, Cromwell in Ireland Part 2. Broadcast 16 September 2008.</ref></small>}}
| casualties3       = '''Total:''' 200,000+ dead
| coordinates       =
| campaignbox       ={{Campaignbox Wars of the Three Kingdoms}}
{{Campaignbox Irish Confederate Wars}}
}}

The '''Irish Confederate Wars''', also called the '''Eleven Years' War''' ({{langx|ga|Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana}}), took place in [[Ireland]] between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]], a series of civil wars in the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] – all ruled by [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. The conflict had political, religious and ethnic aspects and was fought over governance, land ownership, [[religious freedom]] and [[religious discrimination]]. The main issues were whether [[Irish Catholics]] or [[Protestantism in Ireland|British Protestants]] held most political power and owned most of the land, and whether Ireland would be a self-governing kingdom under Charles I or subordinate to the [[Parliament of England|parliament]] in England. It was the most destructive conflict in Irish history and caused 200,000–600,000 deaths from fighting as well as war-related famine and disease.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theirishstory.com/2014/01/10/the-eleven-years-war-a-brief-overview/|title=The Eleven Years War 1641–52 – A Brief Overview|date=10 January 2014|website=theirishstory.com|access-date=21 March 2018}}</ref>

The war in Ireland began with [[Irish Rebellion of 1641|a rebellion in 1641]] by Irish Catholics, who tried to seize control of the [[Dublin Castle administration|English administration in Ireland]]. They wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, to increase Irish self-governance, and to roll back the [[Plantations of Ireland]]. They also wanted to prevent an invasion by anti-Catholic [[Roundhead|English Parliamentarians]] and [[Covenanter|Scottish Covenanters]], who were defying the king. Rebel leader [[Felim O'Neill of Kinard|Felim O'Neill]] claimed to be [[Proclamation of Dungannon|doing the king's bidding]], but Charles condemned the rebellion after it broke out. The rebellion developed into an [[ethnic conflict]] between Irish Catholics on one side, and English and Scottish Protestant [[Plantation of Ulster|colonists]] on the other. These first few months were marked by [[ethnic cleansing]] and massacres in [[Ulster]].

Catholic leaders formed the [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Catholic Confederation]] in May 1642, which controlled and governed most of Ireland, and comprised both [[Gaels|Gaelic]] and [[Old English (Ireland)|old English]] Catholics. In the following months and years the Confederates fought against Royalists, Parliamentarians, and an army sent by Scottish Covenanters, with all sides using [[scorched earth]] tactics. Disagreements over how to deal with the rebellion helped spark the [[English Civil War]] in mid-1642. The king authorised secret negotiations with the Confederates, resulting in a Confederate–Royalist ceasefire in September 1643 and further negotiations. In 1644, a [[Irish expedition to Scotland|Confederate military expedition]] landed in Scotland to help Royalists there. The Confederates continued to fight the Parliamentarians in Ireland, and decisively defeated the Covenanter army in the [[Battle of Benburb]]. In 1647, the Confederates suffered a string of defeats by the Parliamentarians at [[Battle of Dungan's Hill|Dungan's Hill]], [[Sack of Cashel|Cashel]] and [[Battle of Knocknanuss|Knockanuss]]. This prompted the Confederates to make an agreement with the Royalists. The agreement divided the Confederates, and this infighting hampered their preparations to resist a Parliamentarian invasion.

In August 1649, a large [[New Model Army|English Parliamentarian army]], led by [[Oliver Cromwell]], [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|invaded Ireland]]. It besieged and captured many towns from the Confederate–Royalist alliance. Cromwell's army massacred many soldiers and civilians after storming the towns of [[Siege of Drogheda|Drogheda]] and [[Sack of Wexford|Wexford]]. The Confederate capital [[Siege of Kilkenny|Kilkenny was captured]] in March 1650, and the Confederate–Royalist alliance was eventually defeated with the [[Siege of Galway|capture of Galway]] in May 1652. Confederates continued a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] campaign until April 1653. This saw widespread killing of civilians and destruction of foodstuffs by the English army, who also brought an outbreak of [[bubonic plague]].

After the war, Ireland was occupied and annexed by the [[The Protectorate|English Commonwealth]], a republic which lasted until 1660. Catholicism was repressed, [[Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652|most Catholic-owned land was confiscated]], and tens of thousands of Irish rebels were [[Irish indentured servants|sent to the Caribbean or Virginia as indentured servants]] or joined Catholic armies in Europe.

==Overview==
The war in Ireland began with the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641|Rebellion of 1641]] in [[Ulster]] in October, during which many [[Scottish people|Scots]] and [[English people|English]] [[Plantation of Ulster|Protestant settlers]] were killed. The rebellion spread throughout the country and at [[Kilkenny]] in 1642 the Association of The [[Confederate Ireland|Confederate Catholics of Ireland]] was formed to organise the Catholic war effort. The Confederation was essentially an independent state and was a coalition of all shades of Irish Catholic society, both [[Gaels|Gaelic]] and [[Old English (Ireland)|Old English]]. The Irish Confederates professed to side with the English [[Cavalier]]s during the ensuing civil wars, but mostly fought their own war in defence of the Catholic landed class's interests.

The Confederates ruled much of [[Ireland]] as a ''de facto'' sovereign state until 1649, and proclaimed their loyalty to [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. From 1642 to 1649, the Confederates fought against Scottish [[Covenanter]] and English Parliamentarian armies in Ireland. The Confederates, in the context of the [[English Civil War]], were loosely allied with the English Royalists, but were divided over whether to send military help to them in the war there. Ultimately, they never sent troops to [[England]], but did send an expedition to help the Scottish Royalists, sparking the [[Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms|Scottish Civil War]].

The wars produced an extremely fractured array of forces in Ireland. The Protestant forces were split into three main factions (English Royalist, English Parliamentarian and Scottish Covenanter) as a result of the civil wars in England and Scotland. The Catholic Confederates themselves split on more than one occasion over the issue of whether their first loyalty was to the Catholic religion or to King Charles I (see [[#Shifting allegiances|the principal factions in the war]]).

The wars ended in the defeat of the Confederates. They and their English Royalist allies were defeated during the [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland]] by the [[New Model Army]] under [[Oliver Cromwell]] in 1649–53.<ref>Philip McKeiver; A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign,Advance Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-9554663-0-4}}</ref> The wars following the 1641 revolt caused massive loss of life in Ireland, comparable in the country's history only with the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] of the 1840s. The ultimate winner, the English parliament, arranged for the mass confiscation of land owned by Irish Catholics as punishment for the rebellion and to pay for the war. Although some of this land was returned after 1660 on the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration of the monarchy in England]], the period marked the effective end of the old Catholic landed class.

==The plot, October 1641==
{{See also|Irish Rebellion of 1641}}
The rebellion was intended to be a swift and mainly bloodless seizure of power in Ireland by a small group of conspirators led by [[Felim O'Neill of Kinard|Phelim O'Neill]]. Small bands of the plotters' kin and dependents were mobilized in [[Dublin]], [[Wicklow]] and [[Ulster]], to take strategic buildings like [[Dublin Castle]]. Since there were only a small number of English soldiers stationed in Ireland, this had a reasonable chance of succeeding. Had it done so, the remaining English garrisons could well have surrendered, leaving Irish Catholics in a position of strength to negotiate their demands for civil reform, religious toleration and Irish self-government. However, the plot was betrayed at the last minute and as a result, the rebellion degenerated into chaotic violence. Following the outbreak of hostilities, the resentment of the native Irish Catholic population against the British Protestant settlers exploded into violence. Shortly after the outbreak of the rebellion, O'Neill issued the [[Proclamation of Dungannon]] which offered justification for the rising. He claimed that he was acting on the orders of Charles I.

==The rebellion, 1641–42==
From 1641 to early 1642, the fighting in Ireland was characterised by small bands, raised by local lords or among local people, attacking civilians of opposing ethnic and religious groups. At first, Irish Catholic bands, particularly from Ulster, took the opportunity given them by the collapse of law and order to settle scores with Protestant settlers who had occupied Irish land in the [[plantations of Ireland]]. Initially, the Irish Catholic gentry raised militia forces to try to contain the violence<ref>Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War 1641–49, pp. 33–34, "The Catholic elite of Meath dithered for a whole month between trying to rein in popular rebels and going into rebellion themselves". "Right up to the eve of the encounter at Julianstown, the local Catholic nobility and most of the gentry still backed the government"</ref> but afterwards, when it was clear that the government in Dublin intended to punish all Catholics for the rebellion,<ref>Lenihan, p. 23, "Bellings, the future secretary of the Confederate Catholics, claimed the Lords Justice, in response to the rebellion, showed they wanted to drive the Old English into following the example of the Ulster insurgents by their offensively wide description of the insurgents as some "evil affected Irish Papists"</ref> participated in the attacks on Protestants and fought English troops sent to put down the rebellion. In areas where British settlers were concentrated, around [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Dublin]], [[Carrickfergus]] and [[Derry]], they raised their own militia in self-defence and managed to hold off the rebel forces. All sides displayed extreme cruelty in this phase of the war. Around 4,000 Protestants were massacred and a further 12,000 may have died of privation after being driven from their homes.<ref>Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p. 278, '[[William Petty]]'s figure of 37,000 Protestants massacred... is far too high, perhaps by a factor of ten, certainly more recent research suggests that a much more realistic figure is roughly 4,000 deaths.'</ref><ref name=BBC-Lough-Kernan>Staff, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/northern_ireland/ni_6/article_2.shtml Secrets of Lough Kernan] [[BBC]], Legacies UK history local to you,website of the BBC. Accessed 17 December 2007</ref> In one notorious incident, the Protestant inhabitants of [[Portadown Massacre|Portadown]] were taken captive and then massacred on the bridge in the town.<ref>Hull, Eleanor (1931). ''[http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/Contents.php A History of Ireland]'', Chapter "[http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/16412.php The Rebellion of 1641–42]" website of [http://www.libraryireland.com/about.php Library Ireland]</ref> The settlers responded in kind, as did the Government in Dublin, with attacks on the Irish civilian population. Massacres of Catholic civilians occurred at [[Rathlin Island]] and elsewhere.<ref name=TR-143>{{Citation| surname1 = Royle | given1 = Trevor| year = 2004 | title = Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660|page=143 | publisher = London: Abacus | isbn = 978-0-349-11564-1}}</ref> The rebels from Ulster defeated a government force at [[battle of Julianstown|Julianstown]], but failed to take nearby [[Drogheda]] and were scattered when they advanced on Dublin.

By early 1642, there were four main concentrations of rebel forces: in Ulster under [[Phelim O'Neill]], in the [[the Pale|Pale]] around Dublin led by Viscount Gormanstown, in the south-east, led by the Butler family – in particular Lord Mountgarret and in the south-west, led by [[Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry]].

=={{anchor|Confederates}}The Confederates' War, 1642–1648==
{{See also|Confederate Ireland}}
[[Image:kilkenny castle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Kilkenny Castle]], seat of the Confederate General Assembly]]
[[Charles I of England|Charles I]] wanted control of Ireland to mobilise its resources against his opponents in England and Scotland; the Scots and their [[Long Parliament|English Parliamentary allies]] aimed to prevent this. Over the course of 1642, 10,000 Scots funded by Parliament landed in [[Coleraine]] and [[Carrickfergus]], while English forces re-established control over Dublin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan, Padraig (ed) |first1=Young, John (author) |title=Scotland & Ireland 1641–1691 in Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland |date=2001 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004117433 |page=59}}</ref>

One of the last pieces of legislation approved by both Charles and Parliament before the outbreak of the [[First English Civil War]] was the March 1642 [[Adventurers' Act]]; this funded the war in Ireland by loans that would be repaid by the sale of lands held by the Irish rebels. As a result, neither side would tolerate the autonomous Catholic state demanded by Irish leaders and both were committed to further land confiscations; enforcing the Adventurers' Act was the primary objective of the 1649 [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|Cromwellian conquest]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manganiello |first1=Stephen |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639–1660 |date=2004 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810851009 |page=160}}</ref>

This resulted in the formation of [[Confederate Ireland|Irish Confederacy]], based at [[Kilkenny]]; by the end of 1642, it controlled two-thirds of Ireland, including the ports of [[Waterford]] and [[Wexford]], through which they could receive aid from Catholic powers in Europe. While supported by most Irish Catholics, especially the clergy, many co-religionists among the upper classes were Royalists by inclination, who feared losing their own lands if the plantation settlements were overturned. Some fought against the Confederation; others like [[Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde|Clanricarde]], stayed neutral.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan |first1=Padraig |title=Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603–1727 (Longman History of Ireland) |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1138140639 |pages=109–110}}</ref>

Forces initially available to the Confederacy were primarily [[militia]] and private levies, commanded by aristocratic amateurs like Lord [[Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret|Mountgarret]]. These suffered a series of defeats, including [[battle of Liscarroll|Liscarroll]], [[battle of Kilrush|Kilrush]], [[battle of New Ross (1643)|New Ross]] and [[battle of Glenmaquin|Glenmaquinn]], but the outbreak of the [[English Civil War]] in mid-1642 led to the recall of many English troops. This allowed [[Garret Barry (soldier)|Garret Barry]], a returned Irish mercenary soldier, to capture [[Siege of Limerick 1642|Limerick]] in 1642, while the English garrison in Galway was forced to surrender by the townspeople in 1643.

By mid-1643, the Confederacy controlled large parts of Ireland, the exceptions being Ulster, Dublin and Cork. They were assisted by divisions among their opponents, with some areas held by forces loyal to Parliament, others by the Royalist [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde|Duke of Ormonde]] and the [[Covenanter]]s pursuing their own agenda around Carrickfergus. The reality was an extremely complex mix of shifting loyalties; for various reasons, many [[Ulster]] Protestants regarded the Scots with hostility, as did some of their nominal allies in Parliament, including [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]].<ref>Lenihan & Young pp. 60–61</ref>

===Stalemate===
[[File:Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin by Wright, John Michael.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Inchiquin]], commander in [[Munster]], who defected to Parliament in 1644, then returned to the Royalists in 1648; an example of the complex mix of loyalties and motives]]
The Civil War gave the Confederates time to create regular, full-time armies and they were eventually able to support some 60,000 men in different areas. These were funded by an extensive system of [[taxation]], equipped with supplies from [[France]], [[Spain]] and the [[Papacy]] and led by Irish professionals like [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]] and [[Owen Roe O'Neill]], who had served in the Spanish army.

However, they arguably squandered an opportunity to conquer all of Ireland by signing a truce or "Cessation of Arms" with the Royalists on 15 September 1643, then spending the next three years in abortive negotiations.{{efn|On 14 December 1646, approximately six months after the end of the First English Civil War, Parliament enacted an ordinance to void the Cessation of Arms.<ref>{{cite web |title=December 1646: An Ordinance concerning the Cessation of Arms in Ireland, and Grants under the Great Seal of Ireland |editor1-last=Firth |editor1-first= C.H. |editor2-last=Rait |editor2-first=R.S |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/p910 |website=BHO – British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=14 June 2020}}</ref>}} The period 1642 to 1646 was dominated by raids, with all sides attempting to starve their enemies by the destruction of crops and supplies, causing great loss of life, particularly among civilians. The bitterness it engendered is illustrated by a Parliamentary Ordinance of October 1644, which forbade 'giving of quarter to any Irishman or Papist born in Ireland who shall be taken in Hostility against the Parliament either upon the Sea or in England and Wales.'<ref>{{cite web |title=Table of acts: 1644 |editor1-last=Firth |editor1-first= C.H. |editor2-last=Rait |editor2-first=R.S |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/xviii-xxx |website=BHO-British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=21 February 2019}}</ref>

An offensive against Ulster in 1644 failed to make significant progress, while defeat at [[Battle of Marston Moor|Marston Moor]] in July made it increasingly clear the English Royalists were losing the war; two weeks later, the [[Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin|Earl of Inchiquin]] defected to Parliament, giving them control of the ports of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Kinsale]] and [[Youghal]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenihan, Padraig (ed) |first1=Kerrigan, Paul (author) |title=Ireland in Naval Strategy 1641–1691 in Conquest and Resistance: War in Seventeenth-Century Ireland |date=2001 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004117433 |page=157}}</ref> In late 1644, the Confederates took [[Bandon, County Cork|Bandon]] but Inchiquin retained control of Cork; Preston captured [[Siege of Duncannon|Duncannon]] in January 1645, then besieged Youghal but lack of supplies forced him to abandon the siege in March 1645.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKeiver |first1=Philip |title=A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign |date=2008 |publisher=Advance Press |isbn=978-0955466304}}</ref>

===Refugees===
The opening years of the war saw widespread displacement of civilians – both sides practising what would now be called [[ethnic cleansing]]. In the initial phase of the rebellion in 1641, the vulnerable Protestant settler population fled to walled towns such as [[Dublin]], [[Cork (city)|Cork]] and [[Derry]] for protection. Others fled to England. When Ulster was occupied by Scottish Covenanter troops in 1642, they retaliated for the attacks on settlers by attacks on the Irish Catholic civilian population. As a result, it has been estimated that up to 30,000 people fled Ulster in 1642, to live in Confederate held territory. Many of them became camp followers of [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]'s Ulster Army, living in clan-based groupings called "[[creaght]]s" and driving their herds of cattle around with the army. Outside of Ulster, the treatment of civilians was less harsh, although the "no-mans-land" in between Confederate and British held territory in Leinster and Munster was repeatedly raided and burned, with the result that it too became de-populated.

===Victory and defeat for the Confederates===
[[Image:bunrattybig.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|[[Siege of Bunratty|Bunratty Castle, besieged]] and taken by the Irish Confederates from an English Parliamentarian force in 1646.]]
The stalemate, however, broke in 1646. During the summer after the end of the [[First English Civil War]], the Confederate military tried to make as many gains in Ireland as they could before the expected invasion by the forces of the English Parliament. In that effort they were quite successful. On 5 June 1646, [[Owen Roe O'Neill|Owen O'Neill]] defeated a Parliamentary and Scottish army commanded by Robert Munro at [[Battle of Benburb|Benburb]]. During July, [[Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara|Thomas Preston]] leading the Leinster Army of the Confederates captured the Parliamentary stronghold at Roscommon while Donough McCarthy Viscount Muskerry captured the castle of [[Siege of Bunratty|Bunratty]].<ref name=BCW1 >Plant, The Confederate War: Timeline 1641–52.</ref>

On 30 July, however, it was proclaimed in Dublin by the Royalists that the Confederate Supreme Council had signed a peace treaty on 28 March 1646 with King Charles as represented by Ormonde. The treaty was signed unbeknownst to the Confederate military commanders and without the participation of the leader of the Catholic clergy, [[Giovanni Battista Rinuccini|Rinuccini]], who had arrived in Ireland with money and arms as the Papal Nuncio nine months earlier.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott >Scott.</ref>

Many provisions of the treaty were unacceptable to Rinuccini and the Confederate military commanders, especially sending military support to Royalists in England for a cause that was seemingly ended with the conclusion of the civil war. Rinuccini and the Confederate military commanders also believed that there might be a chance for them to defeat the English in Ireland and take total control given the magnitude of their recent victories. As so, Rinuccini publicly denounced the Ormonde treaty on 12 August. Rinuccini and the Confederate military then marched upon Kilkenny, declared the Ormonde treaty void, and create a new Confederate Supreme Council.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott/><ref name=BCW2 >Plant, The First Ormond Peace, 1646.</ref>

Trying next to take control of Ireland, the Confederate armies commanded by O'Neill and Preston attempted to capture Dublin, Ormonde's Royalist garrison by siege. Their plan to seize Dublin failed, however, as the Royalists had devastated the land around their capital and the Confederate commanders were unable to feed their armies. The inability to capture Dublin was an embarrassment to Rinuccini and the Confederates as it exposed the folly of their strategy of conquesting Ireland. Ormonde then turned to negotiations with the English Parliament and ultimately handed the city over to a Parliamentarian army commanded by Colonel Michael Jones on 19 June 1647.<ref name=BCW1/><ref name=Scott/>

In 1647, the Parliamentarian forces inflicted a shattering series of defeats on the Confederates, ultimately forcing them to join a Royalist coalition to try to hold off a Parliamentarian invasion. Firstly, in August 1647, when it tried to march on Dublin, Thomas Preston's Leinster army was annihilated at the [[battle of Dungans Hill]] by Jones' Parliamentarian army. This was the best trained and best equipped Confederate army and the loss of its manpower and equipment was a body blow to the Confederation. Secondly, the Parliamentarians based in [[Cork (city)|Cork]] devastated the Confederates' territory in [[Munster]], provoking famine among the civilian population. In September, they [[Sack of Cashel|stormed Cashel]], not only taking the town but also massacring its garrison and inhabitants, including several Catholic clerics. When the Irish Munster army brought them to battle at [[battle of Knocknanauss|Knocknanauss]] in November, they too were crushed. [[Sligo]] also changed hands again – captured by the Ulster British settlers' army. The battles in this phase of the war were exceptionally bloody: in the battles of 1646–47, the losers had up to half of those engaged killed – most commonly in the rout after the battle was decided. In the three largest engagements of 1647, no less than 1% of the Irish male population (around 7,000–8,000 men) were killed in battle.

This string of defeats forced the Confederates to come to a deal with the [[Cavalier|Royalists]], and to put their troops under their command. Amid factional fighting within their ranks over this deal, the Confederates dissolved their association in 1648 and accepted [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde|Ormonde]] as the commander in chief of the Royalist coalition in Ireland. Inchiquin, the Parliamentarian commander in Cork, also defected to the Royalists after the arrest of King Charles I.

The Confederates were fatally divided over this compromise. Rinuccini, the Papal Nuncio, threatened to [[excommunicate]] anyone who accepted the deal. Particularly galling for him was the alliance with Inchiquin, who had massacred Catholic civilians and clergy in Munster in 1647. There was even a brief period of civil war in 1648 between [[Owen Roe O'Neill]]'s Ulster Army, as he refused to accept the Royalist alliance, and the new Royalist–Confederate coalition. O'Neill neglected to secure adequate supplies and was unable to force a change in policy on his former comrades. During this divisive period the Confederates missed a second strategic chance to reorganise while their opponents were engaged in the [[Second English Civil War]] (1648–49), which was lost by their royalist allies.

==The Cromwellian War, 1649–1653==
{{main|Cromwellian conquest of Ireland}}
[[File:Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Cromwell]] landed in Ireland in 1649 to re-conquer the country on behalf of the English Parliament. He left in 1650, having taken eastern and southern Ireland – passing his command to [[Henry Ireton]].]]
The Confederate/Royalist coalition wasted valuable months fighting with [[Owen Roe O'Neill]] and other former Confederates instead of preparing to resist the impending Parliamentarian invasion of Ireland. O'Neill later re-joined the Confederate side. Belatedly, in summer 1649, Ormonde [[Siege of Dublin (1649)|tried to take Dublin]] from the Parliamentarians, and was routed by Michael Jones at the [[battle of Rathmines]].

[[Oliver Cromwell]] landed shortly afterwards with the [[New Model Army]]. Whereas the Confederates had failed to defeat their enemies in eight years of fighting, Cromwell was able to succeed in three years in conquering the entire island of Ireland, because his troops were well supplied, well equipped (especially with artillery), and well trained. Moreover, he had a huge supply of men, money and logistics to fund the campaign.

===The Cromwellian Conquest===
His first action was to secure the east coast of Ireland for supplies of men and logistics from England. To this end, he [[siege of Drogheda|took Drogheda]] and [[Sack of Wexford|Wexford]], perpetrating massacres of the defenders of both towns.<ref name="autogenerated2">Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p. 98.</ref><ref>Fraser, Antonia (1973). ''Cromwell, Our Chief of Men,'' and ''Cromwell: the Lord Protector'' (Phoenix Press), {{ISBN|0-7538-1331-9}} pp. 344–46.</ref> He also sent a force to the north to link up with the British settler army there. Those settlers who supported the Scots and Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians at the [[battle of Lisnagarvey]].

Ormonde signally failed to mount a military defence of southern Ireland. He based his defences upon walled towns, which Cromwell systematically took one after the other with his ample supply of siege artillery. The Irish and Royalist field armies did not hold any strategic line of defence and instead were demoralised by a constant stream of defeats and withdrawals. Only at the [[siege of Clonmel]] did Cromwell suffer significant casualties (although disease also took a very heavy toll on his men). His losses were made good by the defection of the Royalist garrison of Cork, who had been Parliamentarians up to 1648, back to the Parliament side. Cromwell returned to England in 1650, passing his command to [[Henry Ireton]].

In the north, the Parliamentarian/settler army met the Irish Ulster army at the [[battle of Scarrifholis]] and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and fled for France, to be replaced by Ulick Burke, Earl of [[Clanricarde]]. By 1651, the remaining Royalist/Irish forces were hemmed into an area west of the [[River Shannon]], holding only the fortified cities of [[Limerick]] and [[Galway]] and an enclave in [[County Kerry]], under [[Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry]].

Ireton [[Siege of Limerick (1650–51)|besieged Limerick]] while the northern Parliamentarian army under [[Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath|Charles Coote]] [[Siege of Galway|besieged Galway]]. Muskerry made an attempt to relieve Limerick, marching north from Kerry, and was routed by [[Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery|Roger Boyle]] at the [[battle of Knocknaclashy]]. Limerick and Galway were too well defended to be taken by storm, and were blockaded until hunger and disease forced them to surrender, Limerick in 1651, Galway in 1652. [[Waterford]] and [[Duncannon]] also surrendered in 1651.

===Guerrilla War===
[[Image:Old-Galway.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Galway]]; the last Irish town to fall to the Parliamentarians, in 1652.]]
While formal resistance ended, the harsh surrender terms resulted in a period of [[guerrilla warfare]] by bands of former soldiers, known as [[Tóraidhe]] or 'Tories.' These operated from rugged areas such as the [[Wicklow Mountains]], looting supplies and attacking Parliamentary patrols, who responded with forced evictions and the destruction of crops. The result was widespread famine, aggravated by an outbreak of [[bubonic plague]].

The last organised Irish force surrendered in [[Cavan]] in April 1653 and given passage to France to either serve in the French army or with the [[Cavalier|English Royalist]] Court in exile. Those captured after this point were executed or transported to penal colonies in the [[West Indies]].

Ireland was plagued with small scale violence for the remainder of the 1650s, partly due to the 1652 [[Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652|Act for the Settlement of Ireland]]. This created a class of landless former farmers and dramatically altered patterns of Irish land holding, the percentage owned by Protestants increasing from 41% to 78% over the period 1641 to 1660.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bottigheimer |first1=Karl |title=English Money and Irish Land: The 'Adventurers' in the Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=November 1967 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=12–27 |jstor=175378 |doi=10.1086/385542 }}</ref>

==Shifting allegiances==
The Irish Confederate Wars were a complex conflict in which no fewer than four major armies fought in Ireland. These were the [[Cavalier|Royalists]] loyal to King Charles, the Scottish [[Covenanters]] (sent into Ulster in 1642 to protect Protestant planters after the massacres that marked the Irish rebellion of 1641 in that region), the [[Roundheads|Parliamentarian]] army, and the [[Confederation of Kilkenny|Irish Confederate army]] to whom most of the inhabitants of Ireland gave their allegiance.<ref>Lenihan, ''Consolidating Conquest'', pp. 109–110</ref> During the wars, all of these forces came into conflict at one stage or another. To add to the turmoil, a brief civil war was fought between Irish Confederate factions in 1648.

'''The Royalists''' under Ormonde were in conflict with Irish Catholic forces from late 1641 to 1643. Their main enclave was in Dublin. A ceasefire with the Confederate Catholics lasted from 1643 until 1646, when the Confederates again came into conflict with the Royalists. After 1648 most of the Confederates and the Scots joined an alliance with the Royalists. This was the array of forces that was to face Cromwell's army in 1649. Ormonde's handling of the defence of Ireland was however rather inept so that by mid-1650 the defence of Ireland was conducted mainly by Irish Confederate leaders.

'''The Irish Confederates''': formed in October 1642, the Confederation of Kilkenny was initially a rebel Irish Catholic movement, fighting against the English troops sent to put down the rebellion, though they insisted they were at war with the king's advisers and not with Charles himself. They also had to fight the Scottish army that landed in Ulster. From 1642 to 1649, the Confederates controlled most of Ireland except for east and west Ulster, Cork city and Dublin. A cessation was arranged with the Royalists in 1643 after the outbreak of civil war in England and negotiations began to bring the Confederates into the English conflict on the Royalist side. A strongly Catholic faction under the influence of the Irish Bishops and Nuncio Rinuccini emerged in 1646, which opposed signing a peace treaty that did not recognise the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland or return confiscated Catholic land. When this faction ousted the Confederate 'peace party' or pro-Royalists, the Confederates once again clashed with the English Royalists, who abandoned most of their positions in Ireland to the Parliamentarians during 1646. However, after fresh negotiations, an alliance was arranged between the Royalists and Confederates in 1648. Some Confederates (most notably the Ulster army) were however opposed to this treaty initiating a brief Irish Catholic civil war in 1648 in which the Ulster Confederate army was supported by the English Parliament.

'''The Scottish Covenanters''' arrived in Ireland in early 1642 to put down the uprising and thereby protect the lives and property of the Scottish Protestant settlers in Ulster. They held most of eastern Ulster for the duration of the war, but were badly weakened by their defeat by the Confederates at the battle of Benburb in 1646. They fought the Confederates (with the support of the English Parliament) from their arrival in Ulster in 1642 until 1648. After the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters' alliance broke down, the Scottish forces in Ulster joined the Confederates and Royalists in an alliance against their former allies in 1649.

'''The Parliamentarian Army''' gained a major foothold in Ireland for the first time in 1644, when Inchiquin's Cork-based Protestant force fell out with the Royalists over their ceasefire with the Confederates. The Protestant settler forces in the north west of Ireland, known as the [[Laggan Army]] (or Laggan Force), also came over to the Parliamentarians after 1644, deeming them to be the most reliably anti-Catholic of the English forces. The city of Dublin fell into Parliamentarian hands in 1646, when the Royalists surrendered it to an English Parliamentarian expeditionary force after the city was threatened by Confederate armies. In 1648 the Parliamentarians briefly gave support to Owen Roe O'Neill's Ulstermen after his fall out with the Confederates: Thus the extreme Catholic and [[Puritan]] forces were briefly allied for mutual expediency. The Ulster Catholic army however joined the Confederate-Royalist alliance after the shock of Cromwell's invasion in August 1649. The most potent Parliamentarian force was the [[New Model Army]], which proceeded to conquer Ireland over the next four years and to enforce the [[Adventurers' Act 1640]] by conquering and selling Irish land to pay off its financial backers.

==Aftermath==
The toll of the conflict was huge. Irish historian [[William Edward Hartpole Lecky|William Lecky]] wrote:<blockquote>Hardly any page in human history is more appalling. A full third of the population of Ireland perished. Thirty or forty thousand of the most energetic left the country and took service in foreign armies. Great tracts were left absolutely depopulated....<ref>[[William Edward Hartpole Lecky]], "Ireland in the Light of History," ''Historical and Political Essays'', [https://archive.org/details/historicalandpol00leck/page/64/mode/1up?view=theater p. 64], (London: [[Longman|Longmans, Green & Co.]], 1910) (retrieved June 2, 2024).</ref></blockquote>[[William Petty]], a Cromwellian who conducted the first scientific land and [[demographic]] survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the [[Down Survey]]), concluded that at least 400,000 people and maybe as many as 620,000 had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. The true figure may well be lower given [[William Petty#Statistician|Petty's outmoded methodology]], but the lowest suggested is about 200,000. At the time, according to William Petty, the population of Ireland was only around 1.5 million inhabitants. It is estimated that about two-thirds of the deaths were civilian. The Irish defeat led to the mass confiscation of Catholic owned land and the English Protestant domination of Ireland for over two centuries.<ref>Kenyon & Ohlmeyer, p. 278</ref>

The wars, especially the Cromwellian conquest, were long remembered in [[Irish culture]]. [[Irish language|Gaelic]]  and [[Irish poetry]] of the post-war era laments lack of unity among Irish Catholics in the Confederation and their constant infighting, which was blamed for their failure to resist Cromwell. Other common themes include the mourning of the old Irish Catholic landed classes, which were destroyed in the wars, and the cruelty of the Parliamentarian forces.

== List of battles ==
* 1641 – [[Portadown Massacre]]
* 1641 – [[Siege of Drogheda (1641)|Siege of Drogheda]]
* 1641 – [[Battle of Julianstown]]
* 1642 – Battle of Swords<ref>Tinniswood, ''The Verneys'', p. 180</ref>
* 1642 – [[Battle of Liscarroll]]
* 1642 – [[Battle of Kilrush]]
* 1642 – [[Battle of Glenmaquin]]
* 1642 – [[Sieges of Galway|Sack of the Claddagh]]
* 1642 – [[Siege of Limerick 1642]]
* 1643 – [[Battle of New Ross (1643)]]
* 1643 – [[Battle of Cloughleagh]]
* 1643 – [[Battle of Clones]]
* 1643 – [[Battle of Portlester]]<ref>Meehan, ''Confederation of Kilkenny'', p. 76</ref>
* 1643 – Siege of Forthill
* 1645 – [[Siege of Duncannon]]
* 1646 – [[Battle of Benburb]]
* 1646 – [[Siege of Bunratty]]
* 1647 – [[Battle of Dungans Hill]]
* 1647 – [[Sack of Cashel]]
* 1647 – [[Battle of Knocknanauss]]
* 1649 – [[Siege of Dublin (1649)|Siege of Dublin]]
* 1649 – [[Battle of Rathmines]]
* 1649 – [[Siege of Drogheda]]
* 1649 – [[Sack of Wexford]]
* 1649 – [[Siege of Waterford]]
* 1649 – [[Battle of Arklow (1649)|Battle of Arklow/Glascarrick]]
* 1649 – [[Battle of Lisnagarvey]]
* 1649 – Siege of Derry (1649)<ref>{{cite web|title=Exploring the secret history of Derry's Walls |url=http://www.derryjournal.com/news/exploring-the-secret-history-of-derry-s-walls-1-2133194 |publisher=Derry Journal |date=1 October 2008| access-date=May 12, 2015}}</ref>
* 1650 – [[Siege of Kilkenny]]<ref>Scott-Wheeler, ''Cromwell in Ireland'', p. 135</ref>
* 1650 – [[Siege of Clonmel]]
* 1650 – [[Battle of Tecroghan]]
* 1650 – [[Battle of Scarrifholis]]
* 1650 – [[Siege of Charlemont]]
* 1650 – [[Battle of Macroom]]
* 1650 – [[Battle of Meelick Island]]
* 1651 – [[Siege of Limerick (1650–1651)]]
* 1651 – [[Battle of Knocknaclashy]]
* 1652 – [[Siege of Galway]]

==See also==
'''Soldiers''':
* [[Alasdair MacColla]]
* [[Hugh Dubh O'Neill]]
* [[George Monck]]
* [[Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel]]
* [[Michael Jones (soldier)]]
* [[Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford]]

'''Political figures''':
* [[Patrick D'Arcy]]
* [[Richard Martyn (Mayor of Galway)|Richard Martyn]]
* [[James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven]]
* [[Richard Bellings]]
* [[Nicholas French]]
* [[Patrick O'Neill (Irish soldier)]]
* [[Giovanni Battista Rinuccini]]
* [[Nicholas Plunkett]]
* [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]

'''Places''':
* [[Clonmel]]
* [[Rathfarnham Castle]]
* [[Trim Castle]]
* [[Cahir Castle]]
* [[Narrow Water]]
* [[Ross Castle]]
* [[Rock of Cashel]]
* [[Charlemont Fort]]

'''General''':
* [[Chronology of the Irish Confederate Wars]]
* [[Chronology of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]
* [[Confederate Ireland]]
* [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland]]
* [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]]
* [[List of Irish rebellions]]
* [[List of Irish battles]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{citation|last=Coffey |first=Diarmid |date=1914 |title=O'Neill and Ormond – A Chapter of irish History |publisher=Maunsel & Company |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/details/oneillormondchap00coffuoft}}
* {{citation|last=Gilbert |first=John Thomas |author-link=John Thomas Gilbert |date=1882 |title=History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland 1641–1652 |series=Historic literature of Ireland |volume=1 |publisher=M. H. Gill & Son |location=Dublin |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101042590099}}
* {{citation|last=Gilbert |first=John Thomas |author-link=John Thomas Gilbert |date=1882 |title=History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland 1641–1643 |series=Historic literature of Ireland |volume=2 |publisher=M. H. Gill & Son |location=Dublin |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101042590107}}
* {{citation|last=Gilbert |first=John Thomas |author-link=John Thomas Gilbert |date=1885 |title=History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland |series=Historic literature of Ireland |volume=3 |publisher=M. H. Gill & Son |location=Dublin |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175001605297}} – Covers 1643–1644
* McKeiver Philip. ''A New History of Cromwell's Irish Campaign'', (Advance Press), Manchester, {{ISBN|978-0-9554663-0-4}}
* Hull, Eleanor (1931). ''[http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/Contents.php A History of Ireland]''.
* Kenyon, John & Ohlmeyer, Jane (editors). ''The Civil Wars'', Oxford 1998.{{ISBN?}}
* Royle, Trevor (2004), Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660, London: Abacus, {{ISBN|0-349-11564-8}}
* Lenihan, Padraig, ''Confederate Catholics at War'', Cork 2001, {{ISBN|1-85918-244-5}}
* McCoy, G. A. Hayes. ''Irish Battles'', Belfast 1990, {{ISBN|0-86281-250-X}}.
* {{citation|last=Meehan |first=Rev. Charles Patrick |author-link=Charles Patrick Meehan |date=1873 |title=The confederation of Kilkenny |publisher=Felix Rourke |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/TheConfederationOfKilkenny}}
* Plant, David. [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/confederate-war.htm "The Confederate War 1641–1652"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919001948/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/confederate-war.htm |date=19 September 2012 }}, [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk British] Retrieved 23-09-2008
* {{cite web |last1=Plant |first1=David |title=The First Ormond Peace, 1646 |url=http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/confederate-ireland/first-ormond-peace |website=BCW Project |publisher=David Plant |access-date=15 June 2020}}
* {{cite web |last1=Plant |first1=David |title=The Confederate War: Timeline 1641–52 |url=http://bcw-project.org/timelines/the-confederate-war |website=BCW Project |publisher=David Plant |access-date=15 June 2020}}
* {{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=David |title=Politics and War in the Three Stuart Kingdoms, 1637–49 |date=2003 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1137207098 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PknBQAAQBAJ&q=Confederate+Supreme+Council+1645&pg=PT118 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* Scott-Wheeler, James. ''Cromwell in Ireland'', Dublin 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-7171-2884-6}}

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{{Ireland topics}}

[[Category:Irish Confederate Wars| ]]
[[Category:Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]
[[Category:1640s in Ireland]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1641]]
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[[Category:1650s conflicts]]
[[Category:Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe]]
[[Category:Civil wars of the Early Modern period]]
[[Category:European wars of religion]]
[[Category:Religion-based civil wars]]
[[Category:1650s in Ireland]]
[[Category:Catholic rebellions]]
[[Category:Political violence in the Kingdom of Ireland|Confederate Wars]]