History of Ireland (1536–1691)

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Ireland during the period of 1536–1691 saw the first full conquest of the island by

. This would eventually establish two central themes in future Irish history: subordination of the country to London-based governments and surrendered at Limerick, thus confirming Protestant dominance in Ireland. This is sometimes called the early modern period.

The

Old English

were to be excluded from power in the new settlement unless they converted to Protestantism.

Re-conquest and rebellion (1536–1607)

There is some debate about why Henry VIII of England resolved to re-conquer Ireland completely. However, the most immediate reason was that the Fitzgerald dynasty of

went into open rebellion against the crown. Henry VIII put down this rebellion and then set about to pacify Ireland and bring it all under English government control, perhaps to prevent it from becoming a base for foreign invasions of England (a concern that was to be sustained for another 400 or more years).

Ireland was changed from a lordship to a full Kingdom under Henry VIII. From the period of the original lordship in the 12th century onwards, Ireland had retained its own bicameral

.

With the institutions of government in place, the next step was to extend the control of the English Kingdom of Ireland over all of its claimed territory. Henry VIII's officials were tasked with extending the rule of this new Kingdom throughout Ireland by the policy of "surrender and regrant". They either negotiated or fought with the autonomous Irish Kings and lords. This took nearly a century to achieve, and the re-conquest was accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed, as it led to the assimilation – sometimes abolition – of lordships that had been independent for several hundred years.

The re-conquest was completed during the reigns of

in 1607. This removed the last major obstacle to English government in Ireland.

Colonization and the religious question

The English had little success in converting either the native elite or the Irish people to the Protestant religion. Why the

, which had played a major role in disseminating Protestant ideas in Europe, came to Ireland very late.

From the mid-16th and into the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of colonisation known as

Anglican

English colonists.

These settlers, who had a British and Protestant identity, would form the ruling class of future British administrations in Ireland. A series of

period (1650–60).

A New Order? (1607–1641)

The difficulty in controlling the extremities of Ireland from London or Dublin early in the 17th century was demonstrated by the presence of

In the early years of the 17th century, it looked possible for a time that, because of immigration of English and Scottish settlers, Ireland could be peacefully integrated into British society. However, this was prevented by the continued discrimination by the English authorities against Irish Catholics on religious grounds.

The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the "Old (or

Roman Catholicism

, in distinction to the new Protestant British settlers and the officially Protestant British government of Ireland. During the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan wars of conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of rebellion in 1641, Irish Catholics felt themselves to be increasingly threatened by and discriminated against by the English government of Ireland.

Most of the Irish upper classes, however, were not ideologically opposed to the sovereignty of the King of England over Ireland, but wanted to be full subjects of the triple Stuart monarchy and maintain their pre-eminent position in Irish society. This was prevented by their religious dissidence and the threat posed to them by the extension of the Plantations. The Protestant settler-dominated Government of Ireland tried to confiscate more land from the native landowners by questioning their medieval land titles and as punishment for non-attendance at Protestant services. In response, Irish Catholics appealed directly to the King, first to James I and then Charles I, for full rights as subjects and toleration of their religion: a programme known as The Graces. On several occasions, the Monarchs appeared to have reached an agreement with them, granting their demands in return for raising taxes. However, Irish Catholics were disappointed when, on paying the increased levies, the King postponed the implementation of their demands. What was more, by the late 1630s, Thomas Wentworth, Charles's representative in Ireland, was proposing further widespread confiscations of native land to break the power of the Irish Catholic upper classes. It is likely that this would eventually have provoked armed resistance from Irish Catholics at some point, but the actual rebellion was sparked by a political crisis in Scotland and England that led to civil war in the three Kingdoms.

Civil wars, Land confiscations and Penal Laws (1641–1691)

The fifty years from 1641 to 1691 saw two catastrophic periods of civil war in Ireland 1641–53 and 1689–91, which killed hundreds of thousands of people and left others in permanent exile. The wars, which pitted Irish Catholics against British forces and Protestant settlers, ended in the almost complete dispossession of the Catholic landed elite.

The Confederate War and Cromwellian conquest

In the mid-17th century, Ireland was convulsed by

, 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.

The rebellion was marked by a number of massacres of Protestant settlers, particularly in Ulster, an event which scarred communal relations in Ireland for centuries afterwards.

As a result of the outbreak of the

, which caused famine throughout the country.

As punishment for the rebellion of 1641, almost all lands owned by Irish Catholics were confiscated and

- to say the least - in Irish popular culture.

Restoration

Main article:

English Restoration

An uneasy peace returned with the

were arrested. Talbot died in prison and Plunkett was hanged, drawn and quartered.

The War of the Two Kings

However, within a generation of the Restoration, Ireland was at war again. In the reign of the Catholic King James II of England, Irish Catholics briefly looked like recovering their pre-eminent position in Irish society. James repealed much of the anti-Catholic legislation, allowed Catholics into the Irish Parliament and the Army and appointed a Catholic, Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Protestants in Ireland could do little about this turn of events.

However, with the

arrived with a relief force.

The same year

. The war, while not as destructive as that of the 1640s and 1650s, was nevertheless a shattering defeat for the old Irish Catholic landed classes, who never recovered their former position in Irish society.

Protestant Ascendancy

) were re-applied with great harshness after this war, as the Protestant elite wanted to ensure that the Irish Catholic landed classes would not be in a position to repeat their rebellions of the 17th century. In fact, many new Penal Laws were introduced, which put restrictions on Catholics inheriting property. As a result of these laws, Catholic landownership fell from around 14% in 1691 to around 5% in the course of the next century.

In addition, as of 1704, Presbyterians were also barred from holding public office, bearing arms and entering certain professions. This was in part due to the distrust the mostly English Anglican establishment had for the mostly Scottish Presbyterian community, which by now had become a majority in Ulster. By the end of the 17th century, Ireland's population was about 25% Protestant (including all denominations) of whom Anglicans (about 13%) formed the ruling Protestant Ascendancy. For the 18th century see

.

See also

• Early Modern Irish language
• Irish of Nantes

Sources

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  .
• Canny, Nicholas P (3 May 2001). Making Ireland British, 1580–1650. Oxford University Press.
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  .
• Hayes-McCoy, Gerard Anthony (June 1989). Irish Battles. Belfast: Appletree Press.
  ISBN 0-86281-212-7
  .
• Lenihan, Pádraig (2003). 1690: Battle of the Boyne. Tempus.
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  .
• Lenihan, Pádraig (2001). Confederate Catholics at War 1641–49. Cork University Press.
  ISBN 1-85918-244-5
  .
• Lennon, Colm (March 1995). Sixteenth Century Ireland – The Incomplete Conquest. Dublin: St. Martin's Press.
  ISBN 0-312-12462-7
  .
• Moody, T. W.; Martin, Francis X.; Byrne, F. J. (1991). A new history of Ireland: Early modern Ireland, 1534–1691. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19-820242-4
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•  O'Brien, Richard Barry, ed. (1903). Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 . Dublin: Browne and Nolan, Ltd. – via Wikisource.
• Ó Siochrú, Micheál (1999). Confederate Ireland 1642–49. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
  ISBN 1-85182-400-6
  .
• Kenyon, J.; Ohlmeyer, J. H. (1998). The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1638–1660. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 0-19280-278-X
  .
• Senior, Clive M. (1976). A Nation of Pirates.
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• Simms, J.G. (1969). Jacobite Ireland. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Limited.
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  .
• Simms, J.G. (1986). War and Politics in Ireland 1649–1730. Continuum International.
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  .
• Waudchope, Piers (1992). Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite War. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
  ISBN 0-71652-476-7
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• Wheeler, James Scott (1999). Cromwell in Ireland. St. Martin's Press.
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  .

External links

• 16th century images of Irish people at Irish Archaeology
• Tudor and Stuart Ireland, annual academic conference focusing on Irish society in the Tudor and Stuart periods.