Nagle’s Coventry Letter is striking because it links Catholic access to office with the harder question of restoring property lost under earlier settlements. The article distinguishes Nagle’s argument from enacted policy, yet it shows why the prospect of reopening land titles could unsettle Protestant proprietors, commercial confidence and local authority. This raises an interpretative issue: was land restitution chiefly a demand for historical justice, a practical foundation for Catholic political security, or a strategy for strengthening James II’s rule? How might surviving correspondence, revenue patterns and evidence from counties help us assess which of these purposes contemporaries considered most compelling?