The term ‘Settlement’…means nothing else than the settlement of the balance of land according to the will of the strongest; for force, not reason, is the source of law
The Cromwellian Settlement is…the history of the dealings of the Commonwealth of England with the lands and habitations of the people of Ireland after their conquest of the country in the year 1652. As their object was rather to extinguish a nation than to suppress a religion, they seized the lands of the Irish, and transferred them (and with them all the power of the state) to an overwhelming flood of new English settlers, filled with the intensest national and religious hatred of the Irish. Chapter One begins with a history of the plantation of Ireland, from the first invasion of the English, under Henry II, to the Cromwellian Settlement. Chapter Two details the Irish Rebellion of October 23, 1641. Chapter Three explains the scheme for a last and permanent conquest of Ireland through a society of adventurers. Chapter Four discusses the transplantation of the Irish nation and the officers and soldiers involved. Chapter Five outlines the problems of the adventurers; Chapter Six discusses the re-inhabiting of Ireland while Chapter Seven shows the resulting desolation. Also included are an appendix and both a subject and a name index.