Seventeenth-Century Britain and Ireland

British History“The seventeenth century was, historically, and is, historiographically, a mess …”

Jenny Wormald (2008)

Master narrativesWhig history

Divine right v. representative governmentThe puritan revolution

A conflict over the legacy of the ReformationMarxist history

Feudalism/absolutism v. a rising capitalist class

RevisionismPolitical ideology

General acceptance of royal authorityNo “high road to civil war”Unreasonable demands of parliamentStability of England under “Eleven Years

Tyranny”Religion

Arminian innovation rather than puritan crusade

ClassCollapse of academic MarxismEclipse 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 policyScottish revolt against Charles IWho was to suppress the Irish rising of 1641?James II and Irish Catholicism

Seventeenth-Century IrelandPlantationReligion and identityConflict

PlantationFormal plantation and unplanned settlement

Antrim and DownLondonderryContinuing British settlement to c.1710

The Irish and the plantation20% of landSuvival as tenantsEconomic marginalization

Ulster and beyondNew agricultural techniquesBut continued reliance on stock rearingMunster: wool, ironBetter communications, more developed urban network

ConflictConflicting perspectivesNormalisationViolence in European contextErosion of ethnic differencesExamples of mutual accommodationPeriods of peace and economic growthAn Age of AtrocityMartial law continued after 1603Massacre and atrocity 1641-52Post-war terror and social cleansing

Religion and identity (1): ProtestantismChurch 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 1685-91 Sacramental test (1704)

Catholicism Revival and Tridentine reform 1603-40 The dilemma of the Old English

A war of many parts 1641-52A war of the three kingdomsThe Catholic revolt

Begun by benficiaries of Ulster plantationA response to the rise of English parliamentUnleashed forces in Ulster leaders could not controlArrival of emigres under Owen Roe O’Neill

Conflicted loyaltiesConfederate Catholics

Loyalty to king or church An ethnic dimension But primarily a division between haves and have-nots

English Protestant royalists v. parliamentariansScots revolt against parliament 1649