Portumna’s Refusal
The Irish parliament’s third and final session met from 26 January to 18 April. Wentworth had called the parliament in 1634 chiefly to obtain money for the crown, and it had granted substantial subsidies. Many Catholic and Old English landowners had supported that arrangement in the hope that the crown would confirm the promised ‘Graces’: concessions intended to regularise insecure land titles, ease particular legal disabilities and acknowledge established interests. By 1635, however, it was clear that the most valuable protections would not be embodied in statute. The long-sought assurance that sixty years’ peaceful possession would secure title against the crown was not granted.