Contested Island: Ireland 1460-1630 (Oxford History of Early Modern Europe)

441 Pages·2007·4.71 MB·English

by  S. J. Connolly

OXFORD HISTORY OF
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
GeneralEditor:R.J.W.Evans
CONTESTED ISLAND
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CONTESTED ISLAND
IRELAND 1460–1630
S. J. CONNOLLY
1
1
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Author’s Note
A historian who agrees to write a survey covering more than three centuries
accepts the risks involved in stepping outside his or her area of expertise. The
riskiscompounded,inthepresentcase,becausethenecessityofbreakingalong
manuscriptintotwomanageablesectionshasrequiredmetobeginwithavolume
wellremoved,intermsofchronology,fromtheperiodthathasbeenthefocusof
myowndetailedresearch.InallpartsoftheworkIdrawonareadingofatleast
themajorprimarysourcesavailableinprint.ButIamthefirsttorecognizethat
thiscanbenosubstituteforthepatientexaminationofthefullrangeofsurviving
sources that has allowed specialist scholars, over the past two decades or so, to
transformourunderstandingofTudorandearlyStuartIreland,anditisontheir
work that the pages that follow primarily depend. The experts, of course, have
not always agreed. It has not seemed a good idea, in a book of this kind, to
loadthetextwiththedetailsofspecificdebates.Butmyfootnotesshouldmake
clear to anyone interested where I am summarizing generally accepted views,
whereIamchoosingbetweenconflictingassessments,andwhereIamventuring
ajudgementofmyown.
Throughout the text I have followed the standard convention of using the
Julian calendar current in early modern England, rather than the Gregorian
calendaradopted,from1582,acrossmuchofcontinentalEurope,butintaking
the year as commencing on 1 January rather than on 25 March. I have
modernized the spelling of quotations from contemporary sources. I have also,
morehesitantly,decidedtoanglicizeIrish-languagenames.Todosorisksgiving
new life to the tired and inaccurate gibe that history is written from the stand-
pointofthewinners.Butthedifficultiescreatedbyeventhemodernizedspelling
of the Gaelic originals are a real barrier to all but the initiated. Hence Aodh
becomesHughandRuaidhriRory.However,IhaveretainedtheChristianname
Tadhg.Thestandardanglicization‘Timothy’seemssomehowinappropriatefor
a Gaelic warlord, while ‘Teague’ is both inaccurate (based on the assumption
that the name rhymed with ‘league’) and tainted by its contemporary use as a
termofsectarianabuse.
Inafewotherscases,likewise,ithasprovedeitherpointlesstoremoveafairly
familiar Irish name, or impossible to find a convenient English equivalent. For
those who want to know what they are reading, the following brief guide to
pronunciation, covering the majority of the words involved, may be of some
assistance. Theeffectofan ‘h’ (intheoriginalorthographya superior dot)isto
render a consonant silent, so that Tadhg is pronounced like the first syllable in
‘tiger’andAodhtorhymewith‘hay’.Alternativelythe‘h’canchangethesound,
sothatGarbh(rough—inthissocietyatermofpraisewhenappliedtoalord)is
viii Author’sNote
pronounced‘gorv’anddubh(black)as‘dove’.Thefirstsyllableinbacach(lame)
is prounounced to rhyme with ‘lock’, the second with ‘loch’ as in lake. The
effect of an accent is to lengthen the vowel, so that Mo´r (large, when used of a
personsenior)ispronounced‘more’,O´g (young,whenusedofapersonjunior)
to rhyme with ‘rogue’, while ta´naiste, a lord’s deputy and designated successor,
is pronounced, roughly, ‘tawn-ish-te’. Gaeil and Gaill are the plural forms of
Gael (Irish person) and Gall (foreigner), the first being pronounced ‘gale’ and
the second to rhyme with ‘doll’. All these are the pronunciations current in
the school and public service Irish of the present day. Their relationship to the
spokenlanguageoftheearlymodernperiodispartlyconjectural.
ThisbookwasbegunduringasemesterofsabbaticalleavegrantedbyQueen’s
University,Belfast.Itwascompleted,afteramind-numbinginterveningperiod
asheadofdepartment,duringafurtherperiodofresearch leave,extendedfora
second semester by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I
am grateful to both bodies for their support. At Queen’s I have benefited from
the advice and encouragement of Professor David Hayton, whose own work
as a historian of early modern Ireland remains a standard for others to aspire
to. I have also received helpful comments and assistance from Dr Bernadette
Cunningham,DrDavidEdwards,andProfessorRaymondGillespie.Theseries
editor, Professor Robert Evans, offered valuable advice and criticism. Dr Eric
HaywoodofUniversityCollege,Dublin,directedmetothewordsofthefuture
PiusII.MavisBracegirdlenoblyreadandcommentedontheentiremanuscript,
and repeatedly recalled me sternly to my self-appointed task of making early
modernIrelandbothinterestingandcomprehensibletothoseforwhomitisnot
anobsession.InsofarasIhavesucceeded,itiswithherhelp.
S.J.C.
Belfast
October2006
Contents
ListofMaps xi
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1. Prologue:TheHilloftheAxes1504 4
2. ‘TheLandofBanbaisbutSwordland’:LateMedievalIreland 10
TheIrish 10
TheEnglishofIreland 26
ThePaleandBeyond 41
King’sFriendsandIrishEnemies 46
TheTalkingCrucifixandtheTurtleDove 51
Virtu` andFortuna:TheRiseoftheKildares 58
3. FromLordshiptoKingdom 73
TheFalloftheHouseofKildare 76
GoodandGodlyReformation 90
TheStyleandTitleofKing 99
TheHandlingofWildMen 114
4. ExpansionandResistance 124
AMapofIreland 124
TheSwordofState 126
TheDeathofShaneO’Neill,2June1567 138
FrontierWars 145
FeudalRevolt 155
ProjectsandPolicies 164
5. TheWarsofIreland 171
‘LikeWellTemperedWax’:TheConquestandPlantationof
Munster 172
NewWineinOldBottles:Elizabeth’sReformation 184
OldandNewEnglish 200
‘AllConnachtunderBondage’ 214