Tudor conquest

Tudor conquest, a term denoting the extension of English lordship, previously effective only in the Pale, to full English sovereignty throughout Ireland. This was the result of a reform policy which invariably ended being applied by force. Sir John Davies's Discovery of the True Causes (1610), trumpeting the subsequent establishment of the common law, did not hesitate to use the term ‘conquest’. The process, generally seen as getting under way in 1534 and lasting until 1603, involved conflicts of increasing scale: the Kildare rebellion, the war of the Geraldine League, the revolt of Shane O'Neill, the Desmond and Baltinglass revolts, and the Nine Years War.

An important reason for the Tudor conquest was the existence of a frontier and the related problems of defence and grand strategy. The original objective in 1534 was merely the reform of the Pale under the closer direction of Whitehall. This departure coincided with England's break with Rome, which left her diplomatically isolated and strategically vulnerable. An English lord deputy with a standing army and little local support was always apt to take the military option. Such actions in Ireland created strategic threats where none had hitherto existed. The military activities of Lord Deputy Grey in the 1530s resulted in the establishment of the Geraldine League with its appeals to the Scottish king. The creation of the kingdom of Ireland (1541) necessarily entailed consideration of administrative centralization across the whole island. When the related integrative policy of surrender and regrant faltered, the placement of garrisons in Leix and Offaly caused the O'Mores and O'Connors to appeal to France. The line of the Pale was breached, the frontier was now moving, and the process continuous. The crown became anxious to assert control for fear that foreign powers would exploit the situation. It is not unreasonable to suggest that the New English, as captains, constables, seneschals, and provincial presidents, deliberately provoked conflicts so as to reap rewards in the lands and offices which subsequently became available. The commissions of martial law to local commanders introduced by Sussex in 1556 escalated the level of violence involved. A new English colonialism justified by old chauvinist ideas and new religious prejudices was generated, with land‐hungry younger sons acquiring confiscated Irish estates as a means of providing an income and gentry status.

The role of lords deputy as architects of the conquest is a subject of debate. The most aggressive policies belong to Sussex, Sidney, Grey, and Perrot, but ironically those of the corrupt, reactive, and underfinanced Fitzwilliam caused the most bother. Canny asserts that Sidney produced a blueprint of plantations and provincial presidencies for the establishment of Tudor rule. Brady insists that the government's intention was always the establishment of the common law by reform not conquest, and concentrates on Sidney's alternative policy of composition. Crawford emphasizes the role of the privy council. This executive body had an obvious interest in making English sovereignty effective. At local level the object was shire government with sheriffs, justices of the peace, jailhouses, and visiting assizes. Most of Ireland was shired on paper by the mid‐1580s (see counties), but it was physical control of the country after 1603 that enabled the system to operate.

Military matters bulk large in any account of the Tudor conquest. The army grew to a peak of 16,000 during the Nine Years War. Expeditions into the interior against errant Gaelic lords were pointless. The only effective strategy was the establishment of garrisons followed by spoliation of the people, their crops, and their livestock, bringing starvation and eventual submission. These tactics were very expensive to maintain and were employed only in the Desmond and Nine Years wars. Massacres took place at Rathlin, Belfast, Mullaghmast, and Smerwick. Hostages were frequently taken to guarantee ceasefires during wartime and to secure compliance during peacetime. Irish revenues never sustained the cost of the standing army, which had always to be subsidized from England. The Irish lords also increased and modernized their forces. They employed large numbers of redshanks and then utilized the supply system these developed to increase local infantry recruits. Firearms aided Irish guerrilla tactics, and assisted in victories such as Glenmalure and the Yellow Ford, but the infrastructure needed for siege warfare was lacking.

Bibliography

Brady, Ciaran , The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland (1994)
Canny, N. , The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland (1976)
Crawford, J. , Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council and the Expansion of Tudor Rule 1556–78 (1995)

Hiram Morgan