History of Ireland (1536–1691)

The history of Ireland between 1536 and 1691 saw the conquest and colonisation of the island by the English state and the settlement of tens of thousands of Protestant settlers from England, Wales and Scotland.

While Henry VIII broke English Catholicism from Rome, his son Edward VI of England moved further, breaking with Papal doctrine completely.

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).

After 1541, Henry VIII admitted native Irish lords into both houses and recognised their land titles, in return for their submission to him as King of Ireland.

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.

One of several answers lies in the fact that brutal methods were used by crown authority to pacify the country and exploit its resources, which heightened resentment of English rule.

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

[5] 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.

These groups were historically antagonistic, with English settled areas such as the Pale around Dublin, south Wexford, and other walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans.

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.

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.

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.

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 Rising, launched in Ulster by Féilim Ó Néill, provoked an outbreak of anarchic violence around the country, after which it was joined by most Irish Catholic lords and their followers.

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.

Even worse was a scorched earth policy carried out by Parliamentarian commanders to subdue Irish guerrilla fighters, which caused famine throughout the country.

In addition, Catholics were barred from the Irish Parliament altogether, forbidden to live in towns and from marrying Protestants (although not all of these laws were strictly enforced).

An uneasy peace returned with the Restoration of the monarchy in England and Charles II made some efforts to conciliate Irish Catholics with compensation and land grants.

However, with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, James II was deposed by the English Parliament and replaced by William of Orange, with the help of a Dutch invasion force.

Richard Talbot, the Lord Deputy, raised a Jacobite army from among Irish Catholics and seized all the strong points around the country, with the exception of Derry, which was besieged by his men.

The following year William III landed at Carrickfergus with a multi-national force of reinforcements, including British, Dutch and Danish troops.

The two Kings fought for the English, Scottish and Irish thrones in the Williamite War, most famously at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, where James's forces were defeated.

Jacobite resistance in Ireland continued for another year however, winning a success at the Siege of Limerick, but was finally ended after the Battle of Aughrim in July 1691, when their main army was destroyed.

Penal Laws (which had been allowed to lapse somewhat after the English Restoration) 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.