Description
Book SynopsisChallenges the argument that the English Pale was contracting during the early Tudor period. A key argument of this book is that the English Pale - the four counties around Dublin under English control - was expanding during the early Tudor period, not contracting, as other historians have argued. The author shows how the new system, whereby "the four obedient shires" were protected by new fortifications and a newly-constituted English-style militia, which replaced the former system of extended marches, was highly effective, making unnecessary money and troops from England, and enabling the Dublin government to be self-financing. The book provides full details of this new system. It also demonstrates how direct rule by an English army and governor, which replaced the system in the years after 1534, was much more costly and led on in turn to the policy of "surrender and regrant" under which Irish chiefs became subject to English law. The book highlights how this policy made the English Pale's frontiers redundant, but how ideologically ideas of "English civility" nevertheless survived, and "the wild Atlantic way" remained "beyond the Pale".
Trade ReviewThis book is a welcome addition to the current scholarship on the English Pale and will certainly revitalise debate on this topic. * PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY *
This book will be of interest to anyone working on colonial politics in late medieval and Early Modern Ireland. [...] The book will also serve as a helpful guide to seigneurial governance in the late medieval Pale. -- CAMBRIAN MEDIEVAL CELTIC STUDIES
Ellis's findings alter our understanding of how the Pale developed through the late medieval and early Tudor period and challenge historians to question accepted wisdom. -- HISTORY IRELAND
Table of ContentsList of Maps Preface List of Abbreviations Introduction: in search of Ireland's English Pale The horizons of English rule: retreat and recovery The fortifications and identity of a military frontier County Dublin and the military frontier Strengthening the march in County Kildare The English Pale's westward expansion: County Meath The English Pale's northern frontier: County Louth Restoring the English Pale, 1534-41 The waning of the English Pale Conclusion: an English region in Tudor Ireland Bibliography Index
