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Ireland, 1500 1650 Colonization Begins Slide 2 The Tudor Conquest Slide 3 Where we left off: When Henry VII became the first Tudor King in England in 1485, Ireland had a long history of divided political control and an overlay of English law and Norman lordship on Irish law and Celtic custom. There had been an Anglo-Norman presence for 300 years, but the Ango-Normans had at least partly been absorbed into Irish culture. Finally, all Irish were united by religion. Those last two things cultural amalgamation and religious unity - were about to change. Slide 4 Henry Tudor (1457 1509), King Henry VII of England 1485 1509, won an insecure throne after a long civil war. By then it was clear that Ireland was not only a continual source of rebellion but also a staging ground for rivals invasions of England (one such attempt had been defeated in 1487, only two years into Henrys kingship). Ireland was an English political and military problem that had to be solved. Slide 5 Sir Edward Poynings (1459 1521), Henry VIIs Lord Deputy in Ireland, 1494 - 96, was ordered by Henry to bring Ireland into whole and perfect obedience. In 1394 he called the Irish Parliament, had it reassert the Statutes of Kilkenny, and forced it to pass what become known as Poynings Law, which made the Irish Parliament subordinate to the English one and allowed it only to pass legislation pre- approved by the king. Slide 6 The Introduction of Protestantism Slide 7 Henry VIII (1491 1547), King of England, 1509- 1547. Henry was advised that control of Ireland would require complete conquest. Instead, he decided to transform the Irish lords into English ones, by ending the legal separation between English and Irish and having the Irish aristocracy give up their old titles and accept new ones, granted by him, as Earls. At the same time he suppressed a rebellion by the Earl of Kildare, and had himself declared King not Lord - of Ireland in 1541 by the Irish Parliament. Slide 8 Dungaire Castle, Galway, built 1520. The new castles of the 1500s reflect how dangerous 16 th century Ireland was for everybody. Slide 9 At the same time, Henry introduced Protestantism into Irish religion. Here is St. Patricks Cathedral, in Armagh, which, like most of the oldest churches in Ireland became Church of Ireland rather than Catholic. Much of the aristocracy went along, preferring the religion of the King. But Protestantism eventually created a permanent barrier between the Anglo-Irish and Irish. Religious schism would have a tragic effect of Irish history. It also kept Ireland from complete conquest and cultural assimilation. Slide 10 Henry also confiscated church property, in part so he could redistribute it to his supporters. Here is Quin Abbey, County Clare, constructed 1402-33 on a site where both an earlier monastery and a Norman castle had been. Henry VIII confiscated it in 1541. (In 1590 it became an abbey again, but in 1650 Cromwell killed the monks and destroyed it. It never fully recovered. The last monks were expelled in 1760, but a sole brother stuck around until his death in 1820. You couldnt come up with a more classic Irish story.) Slide 11