Blood’s Unmade Coup
The Act of Settlement, passed in 1662, supplied the legal framework, but not a painless solution. It confirmed many adventurers and soldiers in estates acquired after the parliamentary conquest, while offering restoration to specified groups of dispossessed proprietors, especially Catholics who could establish their “innocence” of participation in the rebellion that began in 1641. The word had a highly technical legal meaning. It did not simply distinguish a peaceful person from a violent one; it determined whether a claimant might recover land, house, income and local standing.