Frustration at the lack of reform among the Catholic majority eventually led, along with other reasons, to a rebellion in 1798, involving a French invasion of Ireland and the seeking of complete independence from Great Britain.

[citation needed] According to historian James Stafford, an Enlightenment critique of Empire in Ireland laid the intellectual foundations for the Acts of Union.

Many members of the Irish Parliament jealously guarded that autonomy (notably Henry Grattan), and a motion for union was legally rejected in 1799.

Only Anglicans were permitted to become members of the Parliament of Ireland though the great majority of the Irish population were Roman Catholic, with many Presbyterians in Ulster.

From the perspective of Great Britain's elites, the union was desirable because of the uncertainty that followed the French Revolution of 1789 and the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Also, in creating a regency during King George III's "madness", the Irish and British Parliaments gave the Prince Regent different powers.

In the first Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the members of the House of Commons were not elected afresh.

At the same time, a new Royal Title was adopted ('GEORGE the THIRD by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith'), and a new shield of arms.

[12] In adopting these, the moribund English claims to the French throne were not continued: the title 'King of France' was abandoned and the fleur-de-lis were removed from the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom for the first time since the Middle Ages.