The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

which specified its aim as "the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland". The Irish Rebellion of 1641 had broken out five months earlier, and the Act was designed to pay the army needed to subdue the rebellion by using borrowed money. Repayment would come from confiscating the rebels' lands and selling them.

The main Act

It was passed by the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

on 19 March 1642 as a way of raising funds to suppress the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The Act invited members of the public to invest £200 for which they would receive of lands that would be confiscated from rebels in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. of Irish land were set aside by the English government for this purpose. The entire island of

is about . The enactment was done at the request of King Charles in the House of Lords, joined by the Commons, and was unanimously accepted, without any debate. The Bill had been placed before the Houses for inspection but was not formally read into the record. The title of the Act – "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the Rebels, in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland, to their due Obedience to His Majesty, and the Crown of England" – was read out to Parliament, followed by the statement: "

le roy le veult ' ("The King wills it", Modern French ''Le Roi le veut'') or ' ("The Queen wills it", Modern French ''La Reine le veut'') is a Norman French phrase used in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to signify that a public bill (including a priva ...

". The "Adventurers" were so called because they were risking their money at a time when the Crown had just had to pay for the Bishops' Wars in 1639–40. "Reducing" the rebels meant leading them back (Latin: ''reducere'') to the legal concept of the " King's Peace". King Charles could not subsequently enforce the Act, but it was realised by his political opponents following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649–1653, and formed the main legal basis for the contentious Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652. Ironically, in May 1642 the Confederate Irish rebels drafted the Confederate Oath of Association that recognised Charles as their monarch.

Auxiliary Acts

The Adventurers' Act was extended and amended by three other acts the Lands of Irish Rebels; Adventurers' Subscriptions Act 1640 (c. 34), Lands of Irish Rebels; Adventurers' Subscriptions Act 1640 (c. 35), and Irish Rebels Act 1640 (c. 37). All four received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

in the summer of 1642, just before the start of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, but are usually referred to as 1640 acts—the year the Long Parliament started to sit—and as that year was the 16th year of Charles I's reign are formally known as 16 Cha. I c.33 etc. In July 1643, Parliament passed the Doubling Ordinance which doubled the allocation of land to anyone who increased their original investment by 25%.As King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

would not assent to Bills from a Parliament at war with him, decrees of Parliament before the

Third English Civil War Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

were styled Ordinance. (Stephen C. Manganiello (2004). ''The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland 1639-1660'', Scarecrow Press,
p. 401
/ref> The purpose of the Act was twofold, firstly to raise money for Parliament to help suppress the rebellion in Ireland, and secondly to deprive the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the lands seized from rebels that would be his by

prerogative In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right bestowed by a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law. It was a common facet of feudal law. The ...

Enforcement

To enforce the Acts the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland was launched in 1649. In 1653, Ireland was declared subdued and the lands were allocated to the subscribers in what became known as the

Cromwellian Settlement The Act for the Setling of Ireland imposed penalties including death and land confiscation against Irish civilians and combatants after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and subsequent unrest. British historian John Morrill wrote that the Act and ...

Repeal

The Adventurers Act, and the other three statutes (c.33 to 35, and 37), were repealed as regards the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

by the

Statute Law Revision Act 1950 The Statute Law Revision Act 1950 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act was partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010. The enactments which were repealed (whether for the whole or any part of the United Kingdom) ...

. As regards the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

they were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007.

References

{{UK legislation 1642 in law 1642 in England 1642 in Ireland Acts of the Parliament of England Irish Rebellion of 1641 England–Ireland relations

The main Act

Auxiliary Acts

Enforcement

Repeal

See also

References