Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Vain imagination’: the French dimension to Geraldine intrigue, 1523–1539
- 2 Gerald Fitzgerald's sojourn in France, 1540
- 3 Irish dimensions to the Anglo-French war, 1543–1546
- 4 The French diplomatic mission to Ulster and its aftermath, 1548–1551
- 5 French conspiracy at rival courts and Shane O'Neill's triangular intrigue, 1553–1567
- 6 French reaction to Catholic Counter-Reformation campaigns in Ireland, 1570–1584
- 7 France and the fall-out from the Nine Years' War in Ireland, 1603–1610
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
5 - French conspiracy at rival courts and Shane O'Neill's triangular intrigue, 1553–1567
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ‘Vain imagination’: the French dimension to Geraldine intrigue, 1523–1539
- 2 Gerald Fitzgerald's sojourn in France, 1540
- 3 Irish dimensions to the Anglo-French war, 1543–1546
- 4 The French diplomatic mission to Ulster and its aftermath, 1548–1551
- 5 French conspiracy at rival courts and Shane O'Neill's triangular intrigue, 1553–1567
- 6 French reaction to Catholic Counter-Reformation campaigns in Ireland, 1570–1584
- 7 France and the fall-out from the Nine Years' War in Ireland, 1603–1610
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Not so much for the care I have for Ireland, which I have often wished to be sunk in the sea, as for that the French should set foot therein, they should not only have entry to Scotland … but also by the commodity of the havens here [Ireland] and in Calais … whereby would endure such a ruin to England I am afeared to think on: The opinion of the earl of Sussex, touching reformation of Ireland, 11 Sept. 1560, Carew MSS, 302.
Although Franco-Irish intrigue during the period 1553–67 never reached the intensity or the seriousness that it had in the winter of 1549–50, a level of engagement between the French and Scottish courts and Irish dissidents persisted throughout the following two decades and quickened significantly in three distinct phases. The first serious engagement in the autumn and winter of 1553 centred on a plot to stage an uprising in Ireland to coincide with Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion in England. The crucial parties to this intrigue were Antoine de Noailles and Henri Clutin d'Oisel, ambassadors to England and Scotland respectively, along with Marie de Guise, the ringleaders of the Wyatt rebellion and probably Henri II. The second though much less consequential episode occurred in spring 1557, on the eve of the outbreak of war between France and England, when an Irishman named Power sought to capitalise on the tensions between the two monarchs by presenting Henri II with a proposal for a French invasion of Ireland.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Franco-Irish Relations, 1500–1610Politics, Migration and Trade, pp. 109 - 130Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2003