The Plundering Time (1644-1646), also known as "Claiborne and Ingle's Rebellion", was a period of civil unrest and lawlessness in the Province of Maryland caused by the tensions of the English Civil War wherein rebels siezed the Province of Maryland against its proprieters. The period marked a combination of the fall of the British King and religious intolerance, which led directly to the event. The rebellion was finally put down by Governor Leonard Calvert (1606–1647), who successfully led colonial forces against Parliamentary privateers such as Captain Richard Ingle and William Claiborne.
The causes of the rebellion included Claiborne's disputed claim with the Calverts over Kent Island, Maryland, the bitter relations between the Catholic elite and the Protestant majority, and the partisanship of the English Civil War.
In 1638, Calvert seized a trading post in Kent Island established by Claiborne. In 1644, Claiborne led an uprising of Protestants and retook Kent Island. Meanwhile, Ingle seized control of St. Mary's City, Maryland. They began plundering the property of anyone who did not swear allegiance to the English Parliament. Governor Calvert escaped to Virginia and in 1647 regained control of the colony effectively ending the rebellion of Claiborne and Ingle. Succumbing to illness he died the following summer. The colonial assembly issued the Maryland Toleration Act in 1649 to mollify the factions. Parliamentary victory in England renewed tensions leading to the Battle of the Severn in 1655.