The Pale
•This was a small area to the north and south of Dublin.
•This was the only part of Ireland where
the king’s officials had real power. Here, the people followed English law and
customs and spoke the English language.
Gaelic
clans often raided the Pale and took cattle.The Anglo Irish Lordships
•These were areas controlled by Anglo-Irish Lords. These lords were descendents of the Normans who had invaded Ireland in the 1100’s. By the 1500’s many of these families had become ‘more Irish than the Irish themselves.’
•Examples: The Fitzgeralds,The Butlers of Ormond.
The Gaelic Irish
These were areas under the control of
Irish (Gaelic) Lords. They followed Brehon Law. They did not recognise the King of
England as the King at all. Each mini-kingdom (tuath) had
its own chief.
•Eg. O’Neills of Tyrone, O’Donnells of
Donegal.
Henry
VIII and the later Tudor Monarchs wanted to conquer Ireland for the following Reasons:
•They wanted to protect England. They did
not want other countries like France and Spain to use Ireland as a backdoor for
invasion.
•They wanted to introduce the Protestant
religion into Ireland.
They
felt that English culture was superior to Gaelic culture and felt that it
should be spread.
Surrender and Regrant
•Gaelic and Anglo-Irish
lords were encouraged to give up their lands to the king.
•They then swore loyalty to the king and
promised to use only English law, customs and language.
•In return for this, Henry ‘regranted’
them their land back to the lords and he gave them new titles.
