The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland 1536-1588 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)

Brady, Ciaran

ISBN 10: 0521520045 / ISBN 13: 9780521520041

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2002

About this Item

A revisionist account of Irish history under the Tudors. Series Editor(s): Fletcher, Anthony; Guy, John; Morrill, John. Series: Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History. Num Pages: 344 pages, bibliography. BIC Classification: 1DBR; 3JB; HBJD1; HBLH. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 228 x 152 x 20. Weight in Grams: 510. . 2002. Revised ed. paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780521520041

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland 1536-1588 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521520045
• ISBN 13: 9780521520041
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book offers a fundamental critique of conventional views of sixteenth-century Irish history that have stressed the centrality of colonization and military confrontation. It argues that reform rather than conquest was the aim of Tudor policy-makers, but shows that the immense difficulties faced by the reformers in pursuing their objectives forced them to make administrative innovations that ultimately contradicted and undermined their original policy.

Book Description

This book offers an extended reinterpretation of English policy in Ireland over the sixteenth century. It seeks to show that the major conflicts between Tudor governors and native lords which characterised the period were not the result of a deliberate Tudor strategy of confrontation, but argues that they arose from a failed experiment in legal reform and cultural assimilation which had been applied with remarkable success elsewhere in the Tudor dominions. The book identifies a distinct administrative style which evolved in Irish government during the middle of the century under a complex set of pressures acting on the would-be reformers both in Ireland and at the Tudor court, and argues that it was this highly centralised and intensely activist mode of government that undermined the aims of reform policy and provoked alienation and hostility.