Confiscation of Lands

The possessions of the Catholic Church having been confiscated, the next movement of the English conquerors was to confiscate the estates of the Irish Chieftains who had stood out against England's rule. The estates even of some of the Geraldines were thus declared to be the possession of the Crown, and their lands were distributed among English noblemen and settlers who had shown themselves loyal subjects of the Sovereign and were ready to colonize the island with imported Englishmen. This process of colonization did not go very far. Adventurers of all kinds were eager to come over to Ireland on the chance of making a good business out of the prizes held out to English settlers. But the English man of business who desired to cultivate his proffered possessions in peace and quietness was not much tempted by the prospect of having to fight for his acres and his life with the dispossessed Irish, whom all the forces of the Crown had not been able to extirpate.