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

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#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.

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eBook : 17 de mayo de 2022