The 1641 rebellion

Charles I on the Scaffold, 1649

And so Henry VIII, the first King of Ireland, was succeeded by Edward VI who was to seal the fate of Lady Jane Grey, by making her his successor. Lady Jane resisted all final attempts to make her pledge allegiance to Catholicism, and her head was duly removed from her shoulders. Mary restored the Catholic order and was able to spend at least some years in supervising the burning of heretics at the stake. Her sister, Elizabeth, when she acceded wasted little time in reversing the equation and re-establishing the new Protestant order. In the person of James I, the crowns of England and Scotland were united, and on his death, Charles I inaugurated his own policy of trying to impose Anglican orthodoxy across his three kingdoms. Not all the English establishment however shared the convictions of Charles regarding the divine right of Kings. And thus it was that in 1649, yet another head was to topple off the executioner's block. It had been rather an eventful period.

English policy towards the Irish remained relatively consistent throughout these years coupling military measures against the Irish with attempts to change the demographics of the island through colonization from both England and Scotland.

The old Anglo-Normans of Ireland, watched and waited and considered. Nothing was certain, nothing can have seemed entirely irrevocable. Was it better to side with the new monarchy, and traipse obediently on a Sunday to the Church of Ireland, or was there still hope that the old order would reassert itself, and Catholicism triumph? And what with new settlers and colonists being transplanted across the water, was there any hope of survival if some resistance was not mounted? 

The Hadzor family members would have been asking the same questions, but not necessarily finding the same answers. In the case of John Hadsor of Maymuck and Cappoge, the only remedy he could see was in rebellion. He signed up to the Irish Catholic Confederation and took part in the great Irish rebellion of 1641. For just a short period, the old families were to be back in control of their own affairs, and free to practise their own religion.  

The murders and massacres however that had formed the accompaniment to the debate left scars on all sides that were not to be so easily healed. Shortly after Sir Henry Tichborne broke free of the 1642 rebel siege of Drogheda, the government forces stormed their way into Slane castle, slaughtering the inhabitants. One young lady had her unborn baby cut from her womb and, for good measure, dashed against the castle walls. This was Katherine Fleming, the wife of 'Hadsor of Cappoge.' 

For John Hadsor, the omens were not propitious.