Catholic Emancipation Act, also known as the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, granted political and civil freedoms to Roman Catholic men in the United Kingdom. The act repealed a number of restrictive laws of the 1500’s and 1600’s that prevented Catholic men from holding public office. This was especially important in Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom at the time, because most people living in Ireland were Catholics. Catholic emancipation was the outcome of a major political campaign that took place in Ireland during the 1820’s following the partial reform of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778.
Background.
During the 1500’s, the Catholic religion of England and Wales had been replaced by Protestantism. King Henry VIII had quarreled with Pope Clement VII over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534. This law rejected the authority of Rome and made Henry supreme head of the Church of England (see Henry VIII ). Over time, the Church of England accepted some of the doctrines of religious reformer Martin Luther and became Protestant, though it continues to refer to itself as an Anglo-Catholic Church. See Protestantism .
At various times over the next 200 years, there were attempts to return England and Wales to Roman Catholicism. These included the persecution of Protestants by the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and the launch of the Spanish Armada against England in 1588 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (see Spanish Armada ). In 1603, Elizabeth’s cousin, the Protestant King James VI of Scotland, also became king of England and Wales, where he ruled as James I. Following the Restoration and the decline in influence of the Puritans from Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, the kingdom was ruled by King James II, a Roman Catholic monarch. To restore a Protestant monarch, William of Orange was invited to take the throne in 1688 and drive James out of England. James’s forces were expelled from Ireland in 1690. The Act of Settlement of 1701 ensured that the British monarch from that time on would be Protestant and would be required to swear to defend the Protestant faith in Britain as head of the Church of England. The throne was thus passed to the Protestant House of Hanover in the early 1700’s. See James I ; William III ; Ireland, History of .
These events created a climate where discrimination (unfairness) against Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland could flourish. Anti-Catholic discrimination was especially harsh in Ireland, which had been under English control since the 1100’s. In the 1600’s, especially after the expulsion of King James II, English Protestants were given land in Ireland, and many Irish Roman Catholic landowners lost their estates. Protestant landlords ruled over a Roman Catholic peasantry. By 1704, Roman Catholics owned no more than 14 percent of the land in Ireland. By 1770, this share had declined to less than 5 percent.
Anti-Catholic laws.
During the 1700’s, the English government passed harsh laws against Catholics. These laws were designed to limit the power and wealth of Catholics. When a Catholic landowner died, his lands had to be split up equally among his sons. This division of property decreased the size and value of lands held by individual Catholics and forced many to become tenant farmers. Many more became extremely poor and lived as peasants or landless laborers. No Catholics could buy land or lease it for more than 31 years.
In addition, Catholics could not send their children abroad for education. They were banned from carrying weapons or owning a horse worth more than 5 pounds. Catholics were also banned from being schoolteachers, lawyers, army officers, members of a jury, or local councilors. Nor could they vote in parliamentary elections, sit as members of parliament (MP’s), or hold any government office. All MP’s were required to swear an Oath of Supremacy, accepting the dominance of the Protestant Church of England. This requirement effectively banned Catholics from Parliament.
The road to civil freedom.
Toward the end of the 1700’s, the harsh laws against Irish Catholics began to be repealed. In 1778, the legal ban on Catholics buying or inheriting land was lifted as long as they swore loyalty to the British monarch. Next, Catholic men were allowed to enter the legal, military, and teaching professions. Catholics also won freedom of worship. More rights, including the right to vote in elections, were granted by the Relief Act of 1793, a bill supported by the British prime minister, William Pitt the Younger (see Pitt, William, the Younger ). But Catholics were still barred from becoming MP’s or holding public office. One of the first people to take advantage of the 1793 Relief Act was a young Irish Catholic named Daniel O’Connell, who began to study law. See O’Connell, Daniel .
In 1801, in accordance with the Act of Union, passed in 1800, Ireland became politically united with England, Wales, and Scotland in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The extension of Britain’s full political rule over Ireland was made easier by the fact that Pitt had won the support of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. He had done so by promising to grant full political rights to Irish Catholics. But Pitt’s promise to help the Catholics was not honored, partly because of the opposition of King George III (see George III ). Far from receiving full rights, the Irish Catholics became subject to the greater restrictions under which Catholics in the rest of the United Kingdom were still suffering. In addition, the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 caused unemployment and unrest (see Napoleon I ). Farming in Ireland was unprofitable, and the economy was depressed. Daniel O’Connell, by this time a qualified lawyer, argued for the emancipation of Catholics as a step towards the relief of Ireland’s problems. But O’Connell had witnessed the terror of the French Revolution, and he therefore favored a peaceful and orderly solution to Ireland’s problems.
The passing of the Emancipation Act.
In 1823, O’Connell founded the Catholic Association, a group dedicated to working for full political rights for Catholics. At that time, under the Convention Act of 1793, any association with those aims was illegal. Despite this, the association won the support of all Irish people except the Ulster Protestants. The government of the United Kingdom tried to suppress the Catholic Association, but the group evaded this attempt by changing its constitution and limiting its activities to charitable matters. The group’s members discussed their political aims at separate public meetings.
In 1828, the Duke of Wellington became the United Kingdom’s prime minister. Wellington and his home secretary Robert Peel favored extending full rights to Roman Catholic men but needed to overcome the opposition of King George IV in order to have the matter discussed in Cabinet or Parliament. Matters became urgent after Daniel O’Connell won a by-election (a special election to fill a vacant seat when the holder dies or resigns) in County Clare but was not allowed to take his seat as an elected MP. The government feared that a revolution might break out in Ireland if O’Connell could not sit in Parliament after being duly elected. Peel therefore introduced a new Catholic Relief Bill, which passed into law as the Catholic Emancipation Act in April 1829.
In addition to allowing all Roman Catholic men in the United Kingdom the right to sit as MP’s, the Catholic Emancipation Act also declared them eligible to hold almost any public office. However, Catholic emancipation was still unpopular among Protestants. The government weakened the 1829 measure by changing the property and income qualifications for voting. Many tenants in Ireland fell below the required property threshold and lost their right to vote.
To read about the broader history and beliefs of Catholicism, see Roman Catholic Church .
