In the mid-17th century, Ireland was convulsed by eleven years of warfare, beginning with the Rebellion of 1641, when Irish Catholics, threatened by expanding power of the anti-Catholic English Parliament and Scottish Covenanters at the expense of the King, rebelled against English and Protestant domination. The Rising, launched in Ulster by Féilim Ó Néill, provoked an outbreak of anarchic violence around the country, after which it was joined by most Irish Catholic lords and their followers. In some respects, the rebellion was the end product of the long term alienation of Irish Catholics with English policies in Ireland. However, it was sparked off by the fear of impending civil war in the British Isles as a whole.