The Parliament 1640–1649, also called Parliament 1639–1648 using an unadjusted Old Style (O.S.) calendar, was the second of the two Irish parliaments of King Charles I of England. It voted taxes in 1640 and was then overshadowed by the Irish Rebellion of 1641. It was legally dissolved by the King's death in 1649.
The Parliament was called by the Earl of Strafford, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, because of King Charles I's need to raise funds and men to fight against the Scots in the Second Bishops' War. The main item on the agenda therefore was taxation.
| Parliaments: previous, subject of the article, and next | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch | Years | Remark | |
| Charles I of England | 1 | 1634–1635 | |
| 2 | 1640–1649 | ||
| Charles II of England | 1 | 1661–1666 | |
Parliament was opened on 16 March 1640 by Christopher Wandesford, whom the Lord Lieutenant Strafford had appointed his Lord Deputy. On that same day the parliament elected Sir Maurice Eustace, one of the two members for County Kildare, as speaker. Strafford arrived two days later. The parliament then unanimously voted four subsidies of £45,000 (about £ in) to raise an Irish army of 9000 for use by the King against the Scots in the Second Bishops' War. On 31 March Strafford prorogued parliament until the first week of June. On 3 April 1640 Strafford left Ireland.
Lord Deputy Wandesford opened the 2nd Session on 1 June. News from England was the Short Parliament had refused subsidies to the King. The Irish MPs regretted having voted subsidies and wanted to sabotage their action by changing how the subsidies would be evaluated and collected. After two weeks of inconclusive discussions, Wandesford prorogued parliament on 17 June.
Parliament reconvened on 1 October 1640 for its 3rd Session. The Commons created a committee for grievances. The committee prepared a remonstrance (complaint) against Strafford, that was then approved by the House of Commons. This remonstrance is also called the "November Petition". Wandesford prorogued parliament on 12 November, a day after Strafford's impeachment in Westminster by the Long Parliament. A delegation of 13 MPs, headed by Audley Mervyn, travelled to London to submit the remonstrance to the King, arriving on 21 November. On 12 November Wandesford prorogued Parliament until 26 January 1641. The Irish House of Lords had not acted on grievances during the 3rd Session, but after its prorogation some Lords decided to send Gormanston, Dillon, Kilmallock, and Muskerry to London to present separate Lords' grievances.
The Irish Parliament met in its 4th Session on 26 January 1641. Lord Deputy Wandesford had died on 3 December and the Irish government had devolved upon the Lords Justices, Parsons and Borlase. The Lords recognised its members who had gone to London as one of its committees. On 18 February the Lords' grievances were written up in 18 articles. The main complaint was that Strafford had overtaxed them.
On 20 February 1641, Muskerry, aged about 70, died in London during his parliamentary mission. His son, Charles MacCarty, one of the two MPs of County Cork, succeeded his father at the Lords. In the resulting byelection Redmond Roche was elected to his seat at the Commons. Muskerry's place in the Lords' delegation in London stayed vacant until 3 March when the Lords appointed Thomas Roper, 2nd Viscount Baltinglass in his stead. The Lords Justices prorogued parliament on 6 March.
On 11 May 1641 parliament reconvened for its 5th session. The Catholic MPs tried to impeach Loftus, the chancellor, and Ranelagh, the vice-president of Connaught, but failed.
| Table of sessions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Later sessions are poorly recorded. | ||||
| Session | Start | End | Remark | |
| 1st | 16 Mar 1640 | 31 Mar 1640 | Voted 4 subsidies unanimously | |
| 2nd | 1 Jun 1640 | 17 Jun 1640 | Inconclusive | |
| 3rd | 1 Oct 1640 | 12 Nov 1640 | Remonstrance passed | |
| 4th | 26 Jan 1641 | 6 Mar 1641 | ||
| 5th | 11 May 1641 | 7 Aug 1641 | Impeachments of Loftus and Ranelagh failed | |
| 6th | 9 Nov 1641 | 9 Nov 1641 | Adjourned on the same day. | |
| 16 Nov 1641 | 17 Nov 1641 | Voted a protest against the rising | ||
| 7th | 11 Jan 1642 | |||
| 8th | 1 Aug 1642 | |||
In June 1642 Sir Robert Lynch and Redmond Roche (on the 22nd) were expelled from parliament for having joined the rebels. There must have been others in the same case. William H. Grattan Flood in his ‘History of Enniscorthy’ (1898) says on 22 June 1642, nine MPs from Co. Wexford, described as “rotten and unprofitable members, fit to be cut off,” were formally expelled. Sir Thomas Esmonde, MP for Enniscorthy; Christopher Hollywood and Gerald Cheevers for the Borough of Bannow; John Furlong and Patrick French MPs for Wexford ; Nicholas Dormer and Christopher Brooke for New Ross; Hugh Rochford and Nicholas Stafford for Fethard. These were nine of forty members who were expelled
The sessions of the Parliament ceased in 1647 when Marquess of Ormond handed Dublin over to the Parliamentarians, but King Charles I never formally dissolved the parliament. Legally, the Parliament is considered dissolved by King Charles I's execution in 1649.