The History of Ireland Scotland and Wales Osher Lifelong Learning Lecture 8

The English Conquest of Ireland

• Anglo-Norman conquest began in the 1170s– Influx of Anglo-Norman

families like the Fitzgeralds, Fitzgilberts, etc.

• Statute of Kilkenny, 1376• Important Anglo-Irish

families in the 15th century– Butler earls of Ormond held

positions of authority in Ireland until mid-1400s

– FitzGerald earls of Kildare became most important family from 1450s onward

The English Conquest of IrelandPortrait of Silken Thomas Fitzgerald, water color copy of the original, by Sarah Countess of Essex, in Lucy Aiken’s Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth,

1825.

• Fitzgeralds and Tudors– Gerald FitzGerald, ninth earl of

Kildare• Made governor of Ireland in

1513• Recalled to court in 1519 for

acting outside English authority; restored to office in 1524

• Recalled to court in 1533, imprisoned, died in 1534

– “Silken Thomas” FitzGerald, Lord Offaly, son of Gerald FitzGerald

• Raised a revolt against Henry VIII in 1534

• Captured in 1535, executed in 1537

The English Conquest of IrelandPortrait of Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein the Younger, Walker Art Gallery,

Liverpool.• Ireland’s new order

– Lord Leonard Grey, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1536

– Archbishop of Dublin, George Browne, appointed in 1536

– Dublin parliament called in 1536-7, Henry acknowledged as head of the Irish church, English reforms brought to Dublin

– Anthony St. Leger, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1540

– Henry VIII declared king of Ireland, 1541– “Surrender and regrant”

• O’Neills recognized as earls of Tyrone in 1542– 1556 plantation of Offaly and Laois

• Aimed at the O’Moore and O’Connor clans– 1560 Act of Uniformity– 1584 plantation of Munster

• Followed on the heels of a revolt led by the FitzGerald earls of Desmond

An Act for the Uniformitie of Common Prayer and service in the church, and the Administration of the Sacraments, 1560

• Where at the death of our late soverain lord King Edward the 6. there remained one uniforme order of common service, prayer and the administration of sacraments, rites and ceremonies in the church of England, which was set forth in one book, inituled, “The book of Common Prayer, and administration of Sacraments”… [let] the said book with the order of service, and of the administration of sacraments, rites and ceremonies, …stand and bee from and after the feast of Pentecost, next ensuing, in full force and effect…

• And further be it enacted…that all and singular ministers in any cathedrall or parish church, or other place within this realm of Ireland, shall from and after the feast of Saint John Baptist, then next ensuing, be bounden to say and use the mattens, evensong, celebration of the Lord’s supper, and administration of each of the sacraments, and all their common and open prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned in the said book…

Ireland before and after the Tudors

The English Conquest of IrelandRepublic of Ireland postage stamp commemorating the flight of the

earls in 1607, issued in 2007.

• Continuing conflict in Ireland– The Nine Years War, 1595-

1603• Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone,

d. 1608• Red Hugh O’Donnell,

d. 1601• Battle of Kinsale, 1601

– Submission of O’Neill and Rory O’Donnell (younger brother of Red Hugh) to James I, 1603

• O’Donnell named Earl of Tyrconnell, d. 1616

– Flight of the Earls, 1607– Ulster Plantation, 1608-1610

The English Conquest of Ireland

• The consequences of the plantation of Ulster – 2 million acres seized; only 50,000 regranted to native Irish– 200,000 acres to “undertakers,” who were to build castles,

maintain garrisons, and not sublet to native Irish– 100,000 acres to the Protestant Church of Ireland– County and town of Derry seized and given into control of

London companies, who organized settlement– Much of this land bought by speculators, who rented lands back

to native Irish tenants• Native Irish tenants had no protection against eviction; English and Scottish

settlers could not be evicted without just cause

– In 1613, the Dublin parliament abolished Brehon law and replaced it with English Common law and English courts

The English Civil War in IrelandDepiction of the massacre of Protestants in Ulster, 1641.

• The Revolt of 1641– 4000 Protestants in Ulster killed

• Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny, 1641

– Rebels declared Ireland independent and declared support for Charles I

– Earl of Ormond declared truce with the confederation on behalf of Charles I, 1643

• By 1645, Ireland divided between the Catholic Confederation, the earl of Ormond, and the Protestants in Ulster

• In 1648, Ormond surrendered Dublin to London’s parliament

– Charles I had been captured and imprisoned in 1646

The English Civil War in Ireland

• Massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, 1649-1650– Cromwell: “I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these

barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future…”

• Act of Parliament, 1652– Ireland proclaimed part of the Commonwealth– 10 million acres seized and granted to English settlers

• 80% of all land in Ireland; 50% of the arable land• 12,000 Irish transported as prisoners to the West Indies; 34,000 sent abroad as foreign

mercenaries

– Bardic schools closed

• Restoration, 1660-1685– Dublin parliament restored– Catholics barred from parliament, 1672

• Battle of the Boyne, 1690– Native and Anglo-Irish supporters of James II versus supporters of William and Mary– The “Orangemen” = supporters of William of Orange in Ulster

The English Conquest of IrelandMap of Ireland by 1620

• By the reign of William III and Mary II, 12 million (out of 15 million) acres in Ireland had been seized and granted to Protestants. 4/5 of the population still Catholic.

• Catholics required to pay tithe to the Church of Ireland (Protestant)

The English Conquest of Ireland

• Penal laws, 1690-1730– Catholics forbidden to sit in Dublin Parliament– No Catholics allowed to hold government offices (military, civil,

or religious) unless they converted to Church of Ireland first– Catholics forbidden to “seduce” others into “popery”– Protestants forbidden to be “seduced” into “popery”– No intermarriage between Catholics and Protestants– Any Catholic father whose son converted to Church of Ireland

became the tenant of that son– Lands held by a Catholic father would be, upon his death,

divided between all his sons, UNLESS the eldest son was a Protestant, in which case he inherited all

The English Conquest of Ireland

• Penal laws, continued– Priests required to register their names and the names of their

parish, on penalty of branding with a hot iron; priests also required to take an oath of loyalty to William and Mary

• 20,000 registered; many others exiled– Crosses in public places to be destroyed; towers or steeples on

Catholic churches prohibited; pilgrimage to holy sites prohibited– Catholics barred from sending their children out of the country

for an education (all schools, including Trinity University, now Protestant)

– Catholics forbidden to run their own schools– Catholics forbidden to practice law– No juries used in trial of Catholic defendants– Catholics forbidden to own weapons or a horse worth more than

£5– Catholics forbidden to vote in parliamentary elections

The English Conquest of Ireland

• Economic laws– Irish merchants forbidden from shipping

goods to the American colonies, 1663– Imports from America to Ireland forbidden,

1670– Irish merchants forbidden from shipping

livestock (pigs, cattle, sheep) to England, 1663-1667

– Irish merchants forbidden from shipping wool to England, 1699

The English Conquest of Ireland

• A light at the end of the tunnel?– By 1778, Dublin Parliament had repealed many penal laws– By 1782, Dublin Parliament responsible for all internal affairs– In 1793, Dublin Parliament voted to enfranchise Catholic voters

• But…– The United Irishmen (1791) and Wolfe Tone (1763-1798)

• Goals included independence of Ireland, a democratic franchise, an end to corruption in Irish politics, and Catholic emancipation

• Revolt in Leinster and Wexford, summer of 1798

– Act of Union, 1800—Dublin Parliament abolished• Article 1: “…the said Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall…

be united into one Kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland…”

• Article 2: “… that the said United Kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament…”

• 100 MPs and 32 lords from Ireland to attend London Parliament