The reign of James I (1603-25) started tolerantly, and the Treaty of London (1604) was signed with Spain, but the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 caused him and his officials to adopt a harder line against Roman Catholics who remained in the majority, even in the Irish House of Lords.
The work of translating the Old Testament into Irish for the first time was undertaken by William Bedell (1573-1642), Bishop of Kilmore, who completed his translation within the reign of Charles I, although it was not published until 1680 in a revised version by Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713), Archbishop of Dublin.