1. 16e :
There is some debate about why Henry VIII decided to re-conquer Ireland. However the most
immediate reason was that the Fitzgerald dynasty of Kildare, who had become the effective rulers
of Ireland in the 15th century, had become very unreliable allies of the Tudor monarchs. Most
seriously, they had invited Burgundian troops into Dublin to crown the Yorkist pretender, Lambert
Simnel as King of England in 1487. In 1536, Silken Thomas Fitzgerald went into open
rebellion against the crown. Henry VIII put down this rebellion set about to pacify Ireland and bring
it all under English government control, perhaps to prevent it being a base for foreign invasions of
England (a concern that was to be sustained for another 400 or more years).
Ireland was upgraded from a lordship to a full Kingdom under Henry VIII . From the
period of the original lordship in the 12th century onwards, Ireland had retained its own bicameral
Parliament of Ireland, consisting of a House of Commons and a House of Lords. It was restricted
for most of its existence in terms both of membership – Gaelic Irishmen were barred from
membership – and of powers, notably by Poynings Law of 1494, which required the approval of the
English Privy Council before any draft bills might be introduced to the Parliament. After 1541,
Henry VIII admitted native Irish lords into both houses and recognised their land titles, in return for
their submission to him as King of Ireland. However, the real power in Ireland throughout this
period lay not with the Parliament, but with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who was nominated by the
King of England to govern Ireland. The Parliament met only when called by the Lord Deputy, when
he wanted to pass new laws or raise new taxes. The Lord Deputy's permanent advisors were the
Irish Privy Council.
With the institutions of government in place, the next step was to extend the control of the English
Kingdom of Ireland over all of its claimed territory. Henry VIII's officials were tasked with
extending the rule of this new Kingdom throughout Ireland, in the process either negotiating or
fighting with the independent Irish Kings and lords. This took nearly a century to achieve, and the
re-conquest was accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed, as it led to the assimilation – sometimes
abolition – of lordships that had been independent for several hundred years.
The re-conquest was completed during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, after several bloody
conflicts. The Desmond Rebellions (1569–1573 and 1579–1583) took place in the southern
province of Munster, when the Fitzgerald Earl of Desmond dynasty resisted the imposition of an
English governor into the province. The second of these rebellions was put down by means of a
forced famine, which may have killed up to a third of Munster's population. The most serious threat
to English rule in Ireland came during the Nine Years War 1594–1603, when Hugh O'Neill, the
most powerful chieftain in the northern province of Ulster rebelled against English government.
This war developed into a nation-wide revolt and O'Neill successfully obtained military aid from
Spain, which was then in conflict with England during the Anglo-Spanish War. A Spanish
expeditionary force was defeated by English forces at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. O'Neill and his
allies eventually surrendered to the new Stuart King, James I, in 1603. After this point, the English
authorities in Dublin established real control over Ireland for the first time, bringing a centralised
form of justice to the entire island, and successfully disarmed the various lordships, both Irish and
Old English. O'Neill and his allies subsequently fled Ireland for good in the Flight of the Earls
in 1607. This removed the last major obstacle to English government in Ireland.

2. 17e :
In the early years of the 17th century, it looked possible for a time that, because of immigration of
English and Scottish settlers, Ireland could be peacefully integrated into British society. However,
this was prevented by the continued discrimination by the English authorities against Irish Catholics
on religious grounds.
The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the "Old (or Gaelic) Irish", and the Old
English, or descendants of medieval Hiberno-Norman settlers. These groups were historically
antagonistic, with English settled areas such as the Pale around Dublin, south Wexford, and other
walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans. However, by the 17th century, the
cultural divide between these groups, especially at elite social levels, was declining. For example
most Old English lords not only spoke the Gaelic language, but extensively patronised Irish poetry
and music. Intermarriage was also common. Moreover, in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest, the
native population became defined by their shared religion, Roman Catholicism, in distinction to the
new Protestant British settlers and the officially Protestant British government of Ireland. During
the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan wars of conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of
rebellion in 1641, Irish Catholics felt themselves to be increasingly threatened by and discriminated
against by the English government of Ireland.
The Confederate/Royalist coalition wasted valuable months fighting with Owen Roe O'Neill and
other former Confederates when they should have been preparing to resist the impending
Parliamentarian invasion of Ireland. O'Neill later re-joined the Confederate side. Belatedly, in
August 1649, Ormonde tried to take Dublin from the Parliamentarians, but was routed by Michael
Jones at the battle of Rathmines. Oliver Cromwell landed shortly afterwards with the New Model
Army. Whereas the Confederates had failed to defeat their enemies in eight years of fighting,
Cromwell was able to succeed in three years in conquering the entire island of Ireland, because his
troops were supplied, well equipped (especially with artillery) and well trained. Moreover, he had a
huge supply of men, money and logistics to fund the campaign.
[edit] The Cromwellian Conquest
His first action was to secure the east coast of Ireland for supplies of men and logistics from
England. To this end, he took Drogheda and Wexford, perpetrating massacres of the defenders of
both towns.[8] .[9] He also sent a force to the north to link up with the British settler army there.
Those settlers who supported the Scots and Royalists were defeated by the Parliamentarians at the
battle of Lisnagarvey.
Ormonde signally failed to mount a military defence of southern Ireland. He based his defences on
walled towns, which Cromwell systematically took one after the other with his ample supply of
siege artillery. However, the Irish and Royalist field armies did not hold any strategic line of
defence and instead were demoralised by a constant stream of defeats and withdrawals. Only at the
siege of Clonmel did Cromwell suffer significant casualties (although disease also took a very
heavy toll on his men). However, his losses were made good by the defection of the Royalist
garrison of Cork, who had been Parliamentarians up to 1648, back to the Parliament side. Cromwell
returned to England in 1650, passing his command to Henry Ireton.
In the north, the Parliamentarian/settler army met the Irish Ulster army at the battle of Scarrifholis

3. and destroyed it. Ormonde was discredited and fled for France, to be replaced by Ulick Burke, Earl
Clanricarde. By 1651, the remaining Royalist/Irish forces were hemmed into an area west of the
River Shannon, holding only the fortified cities of Limerick and Galway and an enclave in County
Kerry, under Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry. Ireton besieged Limerick while the northern
Parliamentarian army under Charles Coote besieged Galway. Muskerry made an attempt to relieve
Limerick, marching north from Kerry, but was routed by Roger Boyle at the battle of
Knocknaclashy. Limerick and Galway were too well defended to be taken by storm, but were
blockaded until hunger and disease forced them to surrender, Limerick in 1651, Galway in 1652.
Waterford and Duncannon also surrendered in 1651.