During the early part of the 1500's, the Tudors ruled effectively from Dublin, across a three to four county area called the Pale, and port towns such as Wexford, Cork, Limerick, and Galway. However, there were other areas in the Northern and Western sections of Ireland that had strictly blossomed into Irish ways. Counties such as Mayo, Antrim, and Down had grown entirely Irish in language, social habit, and law. Furthermore, many of the Old English were becoming influenced by the Irish language and customs. The state of Ireland at this time was extremely unstable and many small skirmishes and small-scale wars broke out between the Irish tenants (townsmen) and the Old English. Furthermore, more than half of Ireland was made up of Irish lordships which were independent and who administered their own Irish laws and made their own alliances and battles. In a few cases, these Irish lords were affiliated with the Old English magnates. Prior to Henry VIII's reign, it was common for attacks and counter-attacks to occur between the Irish and the English. However, it was Henry who developed a plan to change all of this. In 1541, Henry VIII became King of Ireland and changed Ireland from a lordship into a kingdom (Fitzpatrick 1).
Henry VIII and the Tudors brought about many changes to Ireland and enacted various laws. The Old English magnates were ordered to develop better relations with the Dublin government and to thwart Irish habits and customs on their lands. This was just the beginning of the secular conquest of Ireland. In addition, Henry VIII was able to effectively spread rule from Dublin over a good portion of the Irish provinces. Probably the most important act performed by Henry was his break with the Roman Catholic Church. The Old English were allowed to keep their Roman Catholicism as long as they recognized the political authenticity of the new Protestant Church of Ireland. Monasteries were broken up and Irish lords signed treaties with Henry giving up a good amount of their independence. Some of the lords took titles, some promised to hold their lordships in feudal dependence from the Crown (against Irish law), and others promised friendship to Henry and their aid in wars (Quinn 3). David Quinn, in The Elizabethans And The Irish, states this about the situation in Ireland: "This policy of 'surrender and re-grant,' and the whole expansion of Tudor influence, had been achieved by installing English officials in control of the government in Dublin, with some English soldiers, backed by subsidies from Henry VIII's English revenues, to aid them" (Quinn 3). Despite this, though, the system under Henry lacked a strong group of local officials and soldiers that could fight off the nearby Irish. As a result, Henry's plans to decentralize were thrown out at the end of his reign.
The discriminatory attitudes of the English can be seen clearly throughout the period of Tudor conquest. The English (Tudors) had extremely complicated attitudes towards the Irish. Many English stated that they would want these policies in Ireland: "A landowning class robbed of all privileges as against the Crown, disarmed, and preferably containing no really powerful magnates." "A church whose property was at the disposal of the state and whose clergy were willing to act as instruments of royal policy" (Quinn 10). These are just two of the aspects that the English and Tudors mentioned which show that they indeed wanted to take over Ireland both secularly and religiously. However, the Tudor monarchs and English statesmen were not able to completely execute these ideas and plans due to a lack of proper methods and assets within the sixteenth-century governments. As a result, before 1603, there were no positive outcomes in the Anglicizing programs set forth by the Tudor monarchs.
There were three main reasons why the Tudors and the English had problems and difficulties in opposing their will on the Irish. First, Ireland, and the societies of the Old English and native Irish, did not fit the requirements (of being taken over and ruled by the English) set forth by the English. Many of the earldoms of the south were disorderly and it was extremely difficult for the English to get the Irish to conform to their rules and laws. Secondly, the Irish lands were much too dissimilar and their leaders too outspoken for this type of policy to work. Finally, even though the English were allowed to seize a good amount of church land and place dutiful clergy in Ireland, they could not force the Irish to follow their religion and practice their beliefs which were based off of the English language and the Anglicizing process. This is one of the main reasons why the Tudor conquest of Ireland was incomplete. It was almost impossible for the Tudors to force the Irish to succumb to their religious beliefs due to the Irish having such strong ties to their religion. Furthermore, the Council of Trent backed Catholicism and took the side of the Irish (Quinn 11-12). Quinn states this about how the Irish felt: "English pride, Irishmen were sure, made them go blindly on with the conquest of the country" (Quinn 12). This statement shows that tensions were high among the English and the Irish and that peace between them was unlikely in the near future. Still, relations did not improve much during the reigns of William VI and Mary.
Edward VI failed miserably in his attempt to spread Protestantism in Ireland. He was the first to introduce the religion, but was unsuccessful in doing so As a result, he was responsible for the pro-papal revulsion, a pro-Catholic outcry against the English and Protestantism (Quinn 4). Conditions remained the same when Mary took over and the Irish continued to fight and oppose England's beliefs and laws. Furthermore, conditions at the end of Queen Mary's reign and beginning of Elizabeth's were terrible. Lord-lieutenant Sussex, the lord-lieutenant in Ireland, had a difficult time protecting and defending the Pale (a land area made up of three or four of the eastern counties in Ireland) from Shane O'Neill, a leading candidate for rule in Ulster. O'Neill was responsible for the great deal of Irish resistance in Northern Ireland. He frequently attacked the Pale and was involved in sporadic battles against England and the Tudors from 1560 until his death in 1567 (Canny 37). This really annoyed Sussex and he was determined to defeat O'Neill. However, he knew this would not accomplish much because someone else would come in and take over for O'Neill. Therefore, his plan was to subdivide Ulster into smaller sects in an attempt to end O'Neill's overlordship. Despite his recommendations, though, Queen Elizabeth did not agree with his suggestions. She wanted Ireland to be in perfect harmony and wanted Sussex to try a policy of pacification and compromise. In addition, the earl of Kildare and the Palesmen were also against Sussex's strategies. Therefore, Elizabeth had to choose between the two policies. The Palesmen wanted to delegate power to the Anglo-Irish feudal lords who could contain the Gaelic territories by a combination of force and persuasion. On the other hand, Sussex wanted to build up a powerful military force in Ireland so that he could conquer O'Neill and control Ireland (Canny 39). Queen Elizabeth did not take either side's stance for fear of spending too much money and losing her representative in Ireland. As a result, she went back and forth, supporting Sussex at times and supporting the Palesmen at others. Despite these efforts, England failed to control O'Neill. Other efforts and policies were tried, but these also failed. Sir Nicholas Arnold took over for Sussex as lord justice and was given the task of containing O'Neill. This task was known as the Arnold experiment He was told to continue to let O'Neill exercise his influence in Ulster, but take a stand against him if he attempted to move into the Pale. Well, O'Neill, after gaining much confidence, did force his way into the Pale and was successful there due to the futile effort of the English Army responsible for guarding the Pale. Furthermore, the war between Desmond and Armond did not help matters for Arnold. As a result of these blunders and conflicts, Sussex had lost everything he had won and achieved. Thus, Nicholas Canny, in The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, stated this:
The experience of Sussex had shown that the garrison scheme of defending the Pale was not the solution required. The Arnold experiment, as well as the Ormond-Desmond feud, made it clear that entrusting further powers to already independent lords was not the answer. It was obvious that some new policy was required that would extend the English area of influence, and thus increase the crown's revenue from Ireland. (Canny 44)Thus, until someone developed a plan of action to subdue O'Neill, England and the Tudors could not complete their conquest of Ireland.
Just before the year 1565, the president of Wales, Sir Henry Sidney stated that he had the solution England was looking for. For this reason, he was appointed as lord deputy of Ireland in October of 1565 (Canny 44). Sidney's plan was three-pronged and aimed at dealing with the Gaelic areas of Leinster, the feudal lordships, and the outlying Gaelic regions of Ulster and south- west Munster. Sidney's goal in Leinster was the gradual reduction of Gaelic rule there and the absorption of the previous Gaelic areas into the Pale. He said that this would help eliminate a military presence in Leinster. Deputy lord Sydney based the reform of the feudal lordships on the principle of provincial councils. He felt that these lords were responsible for much of the conflicts in Ireland at this time and wanted the presidents of the provinces to thwart the power of the feudal lords. In addition, each president would have military support. However, the majority of the attention was concentrated on the presidency of Munster (Canny 47-49). Sidney gained the confidence and support of the Privy Council as well as that of Queen Elizabeth on his plans. After a few years, Sidney was ordered to take control of Ireland and enact bills that would increase revenue in Ireland. Sidney was persistent in his plans to colonize Ireland and thus led the English in its attempted conquest over Ireland. He felt that placing small colonies of Englishmen throughout the country would deter rebellious lords from trying to overtake the English. Unfortunately, Sidney's plans to colonize Munster and Essex were unsuccessful due to the fact that the English relied on private individuals to help in the colonization process. As a result of the colonization efforts, Canny came to this conclusion: "On the other hand, the experiences of the 1560's and 1570's had convinced the English that they were dealing with an unreasonable people in Gaelic Ireland, and that no compromise arrangement was sufficient for reducing the area to civility" (Canny 91). As a result, the Tudors and England postponed their colonization efforts and concentrated on the provincial presidencies.
For the most part, the provincial presidencies were successful and allowed the English to take some control over Ireland. However, some of the English disagreed with this policy because they said that the president had too much power and that other leading officials in the province would have nothing to do in terms of leadership. Nevertheless, Canny stated that " as a result of the success of the program laid down by Sidney, Connacht, and not Minster, remained as a bastion of the Anglo-Irish into the seventeenth century" (Canny 116). However, the Anglo-Irish eventually grew tired of Queen Elizabeth's suppressive attitude as well as the men she placed in Ireland to rule and control the lands. As a result, the Anglo-Irish rebelled against the English during the late 1560's and into the 1570's which partly caused the Tudor's to fail in their total conquest of Ireland.
The Tudors adopted two policies in the late 1500's which caused rebellions to break out and numerous people to die. Their first policy was to establish martial law and get rid of all the vagabonds running around in Ireland. This was established by Sir John Parrot, the President of Munster, in 1570. Their second policy was to suppress any rebellions by murdering and making an example out of all of those who participated in these riots (Quinn 123, 126). As a result of these policies, rebellions and battles took place from 1569 to 1575. The Anglo-Irish realized that no matter how Anglicized they became, they would be treated like aliens by the New English. For this reason, they became somewhat united against England and Queen Elizabeth and relied on religion to keep them going. They supported Catholicism which was on the offensive during this time period and started to speak out against Protestantism and the English. The policy of England's government at this time, according to Canny, only contributed to a breakdown in relations between the Irish and the English (Canny 153). As a result, the Tudors never succeeded in taking complete control of Ireland. Furthermore, David Quinn states it best:
Neither sender nor recipient can have realized that it would take forty years of intrigue and fighting, the loss of much that was valuable in Irish society, besides the expenditure of many Irish and English lives and vast quantities of English money, before an English "order," under the aegis of a Scottish king, could be freely imposed upon the island. (Quinn 6)Indeed, all four Tudor rulers (Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth) all failed in some aspect or another to totally take over Ireland. Secularly, the Tudors were able to take control over Ireland, but religiously they were not. There were too many conflicts and different beliefs for this to happen. Thus, the conquest of Ireland by the Tudors was incomplete.