Summary of John Gibney's A Short History of Ireland, 1500-2000

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The medieval lordship of Ireland had been established in the 1170s, after the original Norman conquest. In 1177, King Henry II of England granted the title lord of Ireland to his eldest son, John. However, three centuries later, in the 15th century, the reality behind this claim was very different. English control was effectively restricted to the English Pale and the major towns.

#2 The power of the Kildares was not unchallenged. In 1515, the ninth earl, while in London, was accused of usurping the authority of the king by adopting Gaelic practices such as coign and livery. The English dependence on the Kildares may have been a pragmatic decision, but it also meant that they had to be kept on-side.

#3 In the 1530s, Henry VIII broke with the papacy and repudiated the spiritual authority of the Vatican. This left England isolated as a Protestant power in predominantly Catholic western Europe.

#4 The tenth earl of Kildare, Thomas, had led the rebellion against the king in 1534. He was executed along with five leading male members of his family in February 1537, and the earldom was legally extinguished. In terms of ruling the lordship of Ireland, the English government were now in unfamiliar waters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822521469

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Insights on John Gibney's A Short History of Ireland, 1500-2000

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The medieval lordship of Ireland had been established in the 1170s, after the original Norman conquest. In 1177, King Henry II of England granted the title lord of Ireland to his eldest son, John. However, three centuries later, in the 15th century, the reality behind this claim was very different. English control was effectively restricted to the English Pale and the major towns.

#2

The power of the Kildares was not unchallenged. In 1515, the ninth earl, while in London, was accused of usurping the authority of the king by adopting Gaelic practices such as coign and livery. The English dependence on the Kildares may have been a pragmatic decision, but it also meant that they had to be kept on-side.

#3

In the 1530s, Henry VIII broke with the papacy and repudiated the spiritual authority of the Vatican. This left England isolated as a Protestant power in predominantly Catholic western Europe.

#4

The tenth earl of Kildare, Thomas, had led the rebellion against the king in 1534. He was executed along with five leading male members of his family in February 1537, and the earldom was legally extinguished. In terms of ruling the lordship of Ireland, the English government were now in unfamiliar waters.

#5

The Irish Reformation was the result of the extension of the Reformation to Ireland. The parliament there passed legislation that recognized the royal supremacy, and the king’s subjects were to conform to English customs. This had implications for the Gaelic Irish, who were not seen as subjects.

#6

The Irish parliament passed the Act for the Kingly Title in 1541, which formally transformed Ireland into a kingdom under Henry VIII and his successors. The act could be seen as the culmination of calls for political and cultural reform that had been made since the start of the century.

#7

The Tudors were faced with the problem that there were alternative political structures in Ireland that lay outside the jurisdiction of the English colony. These were based on alliances maintained on a national scale by figures such as the earls of Kildare.

#8

The Tudors were very interested in colonizing Ireland. The first plantations were established in the midlands in the 1550s, areas that had traditionally been within the Kildare sphere of influence.

#9

The Elizabethan religious settlement in England retained many residual ceremonies reminiscent