Clanricard and Thomond, 1540-1640
Subtitle: provincial politics and society transformed
By: Bernadette Cunningham
Series: Maynooth studies in local history -- number 100; Maynooth studies in local history -- no. 100.
Publisher: Four Courts Press LTD
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Dublin, Ireland
Language: eng
Number of pages: 71
ISBN-13: 9781846823527
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: Politics and government; Social change; History
Description: "This short book compares and contrasts key developments in two neighboring lordships in counties Galway and Clare, investigating how and why the impact of central government policy was ultimately dictated by local circumstances. As royal authority expanded in early modern Connacht, English common law replaced Gaelic custom and local lordships were transformed into landed estates on the English model. The willingness of the Burkes of Clanricard and the O'Briens of Thomond to condone a process of anglicization, under the auspices of a provincial presidency, allowed them to stabilize their authority within a new political structure. By the early seventeenth century the earls of Clanricard and Thomond were working to consolidate their English-style landed estates in changed political circumstances. When government-sponsored plantation threatened in the 1620s, the active, if self-interested, participation by the earls in the debate over land titles in the province further enhanced their power both locally and in the broader political sphere. By comparing the processes of political and social change in the two lordships, this study illustrates the centrality of local political considerations in determining the direction of societal change in early modern Connacht"--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-71).
Table of contents: title: The Connacht presidency and the earls; title: The composition of Connacht; title: The native response, 1569-1635; title: Estate consolidation; title: Land and politics, 1615-41.