Chapter 3 demonstrates for the first time that the Adventure for Irish land, a suggestion of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork, was instigated and funded by the small circle of radical peers, politicians and merchants at the heart of the rebellion against Charles I. The core purpose of the Adventure was political and the participants’ interest in Irish land appears incidental and opportunistic. Much of the money raised was only contributed after it became apparent in July 1642 that the funds would be used to finance parliament’s forces in England. Most of the resources raised for the Adventure to Ireland were transferred to the parliamentary cause during the summer of 1642. A key argument in this chapter is that parliament prepared for war in England under the i of its response to the rebellion in Ireland and was encouraged by the peers and merchants central to the Irish Adventure.