Portumna's Refusal
Archived: 16 October 2026
In 1635, Thomas Wentworth’s Dublin administration intensified efforts to reshape Ireland through parliamentary legislation, religious conformity, economic regulation and investigations of land title. Parliament passed measures on correction houses, alehouses, husbandry, clergy and Protestant schools, but failed to secure promised protections for established estates. Crown pressure reached Ulster when London plantation companies lost their charter, and peaked in Connacht, where Galway jurors at Portumna rejected the king’s claimed title and were fined and imprisoned. Wentworth also crushed Lord Mountnorris politically. Meanwhile, Hugh Ward’s death at Louvain marked a loss to Irish scholarship. The year revealed widening distrust of coercive government.