Seventeenth-Century Britain and Ireland

British History “The seventeenth century was, historically, and is, historiographically, a mess …” Jenny Wormald (2008)

Master narratives Whig history Divine right v. representative government The puritan revolution A conflict over the legacy of the Reformation Marxist history Feudalism/absolutism v. a rising capitalist class

Revisionism Political ideology General acceptance of royal authority No “high road to civil war” Unreasonable demands of parliament Stability of England under “Eleven Years Tyranny” Religion Arminian innovation rather than puritan crusade Class Collapse of academic Marxism Eclipse of class-based interpretations

What are we left with? Return to focus on individual monarchs But why, then, did things get better?

“British History” Central problem of managing a composite state: The quest for a uniform religious policy Scottish revolt against Charles I Who was to suppress the Irish rising of 1641? James II and Irish Catholicism

Seventeenth-Century Ireland Plantation Religion and identity Conflict

Plantation Formal plantation and unplanned settlement Antrim and Down Londonderry Continuing British settlement to c.1710 The Irish and the plantation 20% of land Suvival as tenants Economic marginalization Ulster and beyond New agricultural techniques But continued reliance on stock rearing Munster: wool, iron Better communications, more developed urban network

Conflict Conflicting perspectives Normalisation Violence in European context Erosion of ethnic differences Examples of mutual accommodation Periods of peace and economic growth An Age of Atrocity Martial law continued after 1603 Massacre and atrocity Post-war terror and social cleansing

Religion and identity (1): Protestantism Church of Ireland The end of the native Reformation Calvinist theology Dissent Initial accommodation of Scots Emergence of a Presbyterian church structure Southern dissent Conflict within Protestantism Wentworth and Laudian policy Post-1660 repression Temporary Protestant unity Sacramental test (1704) Catholicism Revival and Tridentine reform The dilemma of the Old English

A war of many parts A war of the three kingdoms The Catholic revolt Begun by benficiaries of Ulster plantation A response to the rise of English parliament Unleashed forces in Ulster leaders could not control Arrival of emigres under Owen Roe O’Neill Conflicted loyalties Confederate Catholics Loyalty to king or church An ethnic dimension But primarily a division between haves and have-nots English Protestant royalists v. parliamentarians Scots revolt against parliament 1649