The Tudor Conquest of Ireland

Elizabeth I completed the English conquest of Ireland in 1603

Episode 20 The Tudor Conquest of Ireland

The Celtic World

Dr Jennifer Paxton (2018)

Film Review

According to Paxton, England’s “Irish crisis” was triggered by Henry VIII leaving the Catholic Church. The main concern of his privy council was that Catholic Ireland (a large portion of Ireland’s English settler community remained Catholic) would create the perfect backdoor for a Spanish invasion. Two Yorkish pretenders to the throne had already attempted to invade England from Ireland following the Tudor victory (in 1487) in the War of the Roses.

Henry VIII attempted three main strategies to subdue Ireland: Anglicization, Protestantization and a plantation system. His Anglicization and Protestantization strategy included

establishing a legal infrastructure (English courts and justices) in areas controlled by Irish chieftains, gradually crowding out Behan (native) law.enacting a surrender and regrant program, whereby Irish lords could surrender their land and have it granted back under an official English title. This led to major feuds in Irish families, where families (not individuals) held all titles to land.Requiring these “Anglicized” lords to attend the Irish parliament in Dublin, renounce the practice of charging “black rent” (this was protection money Irish lords typically demanded from their English tenants), renounce papal authority and “keep the king’s peace.”

The plantations scheme

Under the plantations scheme, begun in the 1540’s in response to a major Irish revolt, the English Parliament issued bills of attainder against the rebels, enabling the Crown to confiscate and Anglicize their land. This meant all existing Irish tenants had to adopt English dress, teach their children English and renounce Behan law in favor of English common law.

The Nine Years War

In general, these measures just led to more chaos and instability, leading to the Nine Years War (1593-1603) under Elizabeth I. The war was triggered when Hugh O’Neill who was raised in England and had fought Irish rebels, switched sides and assumed leadership of the Irish revolt.

The rebels had two main demands: Irish autonomy (not independence) and the right to have their church governed by the pope (as opposed to the English monarch). Unable to match the English in heavy artillery, O’Neill made up for it with his skillful deployment of guerilla warfare.

In 1599, Elizabeth sent the Earl of Essex Robert Devereux to quash the rebellion with 16,000 troops. After agreeing a truce with O’Neill, he began a unsuccessful rebellion of his own. In 1600 she replaced him with the Lord of Mountjoy Charles Blount, who used a siege to starve O’Neill’s rebels into submission.

Philip III of Spain, who had promised 6,000 men, only sent 4,000.* Also by the time he sent them (1601),the Irish rebels were essentially defeated. Hugh O’Neill went underground until 1607, when he was offered a pardon and went into exile (in the Vatican) with other Irish rebels. They all received pensions from the Pope and were eventually buried there.

To help discourage further rebellions, Elizabeth (as part of the Plantations scheme) facilitated the emigration of Calvinist lowland Scots to run Ulster estates seized from the rebels.

*The Irish rebels had a prior relationship with Spain after they rescued 3000 Spanish sailors follow the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

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https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5701024/5701064