Giovanni Battista Rinuccini and the Confederate Catholics of Ireland

GianBattista Rinuccini was one of the most significant actors in Ireland during the pivotal decade of the 1640s. Although ultimately he proved unsuccessful in almost everything which he attempted to achieve politically in Ireland during that period, he exerted a profound influence over the affairs of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland, the oath-bound association which had established a quasi-state in much of the island in the wake of the 1641 rebellion. In particular, by his staunch resistance to Confederate attempts to negotiate a durable peace settlement with the Royalist party under the leadership of the Marquis of Ormond, he altered the whole course of events not merely in Ireland but in the archipelago as a whole, as his efforts ensured that Ireland did not become a Royalist stronghold until  after the execution of the king in 1649, rather than at least three years earlier.