Wool, Woods and Forfeitures
The Irish parliament sitting at the start of 1699 had first assembled in September 1698. Its final legislative business was completed in January 1699, and the parliament was formally dissolved on 14 June. It was not a representative national assembly in the modern sense. Catholics were excluded from parliamentary life by the oaths required for office, while the executive and the machinery of legislation remained closely tied to Dublin Castle, the crown and English approval under Poynings’ Law. Nonetheless, its statutes mattered deeply, especially to the Protestant landowning and mercantile interests who dominated it.