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Nationalist historiography and the English and Gaelic worlds in the late middle ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Steven G. Ellis
Steven G. Ellis*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University College, Galway
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Extract

Much more so than in modern times, sharp cultural and social differences distinguished the various peoples inhabiting the British Isles in the later middle ages. Not surprisingly these differences and the interaction between medieval forms of culture and society have attracted considerable attention by historians. By comparison with other fields of research, we know much about the impact of the Westminster government on the various regions of the English polity, about the interaction between highland and lowland Scotland and about the similarities and differences between English and Gaelic Ireland. Yet the historical coverage of these questions has been uneven, and what at first glance might appear obvious and promising lines of inquiry have been largely neglected — for example the relationship between Gaelic Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, or between Wales, the north of England and the lordship of Ireland as borderlands of the English polity. No doubt the nature and extent of the surviving evidence is an important factor in explaining this unevenness, but in fact studies of interaction between different cultures seem to reflect not so much their intrinsic importance for our understanding of different late medieval societies as their perceived significance for the future development of movements culminating in the present.

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Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 97 , May 1986 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1986

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References

1 See in particular the works cited below, nn 5–8.

2 Some modifications in the present Anglo-centric presentation of the late medieval English polity are suggested in Ellis, S.G., ‘Crown, community and government in the English territories, 1450–1575’ in History, 71 (1986), pp 187–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See, e.g., Stokes, G.T., Ireland and the Anglo-Norman church (London, 1889)Google Scholar; Orpen, G.H., Ireland under the Normans, 1169–1333 (4 vols, Oxford, 1911–20)Google Scholar; Wilson, Philip, The beginnings of modern Ireland (Dublin, 1912)Google Scholar; Dunlop, Robert, Ireland from the earliest times to the present day (Oxford, 1922)Google Scholar; Ball, F.E., The judges in Ireland, 1221–1921 (2 vols, London, 1926).Google Scholar

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10 As an ignorant foreigner, I have hitherto followed established conventions. Nevertheless, the term ‘Anglo-Irish’ has other meanings, and its use, even as a shorthand for ‘the English of Ireland’, misleadingly suggests the early emergence in England of a much more precise sense of English identity than the wide, primarily cultural sense of ‘Englishness’ which prevailed in the late middle ages. The terms ‘Anglo-Norman’, ‘Anglo-French’ and ‘Hiberno-Norman’ are in any case hardly appropriate to the later period. See also Richter, Michael, ‘The interpretation of medieval Irish history’ in I.H.S., 24, no. 95 (May 1985), pp 289–98.Google Scholar

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12 (Oxford, 1979), p. vii.

13 A recent restatement of this view is Edwards, Ireland in the age of the Tudors.

14 Perhaps one reason why nationalist interpretations of medieval Ireland have not in the circumstances achieved an outright monopoly is that among modern historians specialising in Ireland, 1169-1603, the handful whose background and training were not nationalist have included such prolific writers as A.J Otway-Ruthven, H.G. Richardson and G.O. Say les, David Quinn and Robin Frame.

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32 A.C., p. 684.

33 A.U., passim; A.C., p. 716. Cf. ibid., pp 398, 406, 410; A.L.C., ii, 136, 324; Ó Cuív, ‘Irish language’, 519, 523, 527, 541.

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44 Although the fact has generally escaped attention, the towns of the Yorkist and early Tudor lordship were both prosperous and plentiful by comparison with those of other English borderlands. See Ellis, S.G., Tudor Ireland: crown, community and the conflict of cultures, 1470–1603 (London, 1985), ch. 2Google Scholar; Palliser, Age of Elizabeth, ch. 7

45 Otway-Ruthven, History of medieval Ireland, ch. 11, Ellis, S.G., ‘Parliament and community in Yorkist and Tudor Ireland’ in Cosgrove, & McGuire, (eds), Parliament & community, pp 52–3Google Scholar; idem, Tudor Ireland, pp 131, 135.

46 Anglica historia, ed. Hay, D. (London, 1950), pp 78–80, 90–94, 108Google Scholar; Goodman, Anthony, A history of England from Edward II to James I (London, 1977), p. 7, n. 4.Google Scholar

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48 Representation in the English commons was of course confined to England until Henry VIII’s reign and was weighted in favour of the south, with Cheshire and Durham unrepresented. Thomas, 7th earl of Ormond, was summoned to the upper house as a baron.

49 Cf. Cosgrove, Art, ‘century of decline’ in Farrell, Brian (ed.), The Irish parliamentary tradition (Dublin, 1973), ch. 4,Google Scholar Elton, G.R., ‘Parliament’ in Haigh, Christopher (ed.), The reign of Elizabeth I (London, 1984), esp. pp 79–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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51 See especially James, M.E., A Tudor magnate and the Tudor state: Henry, fifth earl of Northumberland (York, 1966).Google Scholar The evidence on which the following interpretation of the lordship’s history is generally based is set out in Ellis, Tudor Ireland, chs 3–5.

52 See especially, Griffith, M.C., ‘The Talbot-Ormond struggle for control of the Anglo-Irish government, 1414–47’ in I.H.S., 2, no. 8 (Sept. 1941), pp 376–97Google Scholar; Cherry, Martin, ‘The struggle for power in mid fifteenth-century Devonshire’ in Griffiths, R.A. (ed.), Patronage, the crown and the provinces in later medieval England (Gloucester, 1981), pp 123–44Google Scholar; Griffiths, R.A., ‘Local rivalries and national politics: the Percies, the Nevilles and the duke of Exeter, 1452–1455’ in Speculum, 43 (1968), pp 589–632 Google Scholar; Hicks, M.A., ‘Dynastic change and northern society the career of the fourth earl of Northumberland, 1470–89’ in Northern History, 14 (1978), pp 78–107 Google Scholar

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56 L. & p Hen. VIII, iv (i), nos 10, 220, 405, 1223, 1429, 1779, 2176.

57 James, , Change & continuity, pp 9–10.Google Scholar

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60 Ibid., P.R.O., S.P 1/84, p. 199, cited in James, , Change & continuity, p. 17 Google Scholar

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63 For example, Harris, Hibernica, i, 30.

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65 Goodman, Anthony, The Wars of the Roses (London, 1981), pp 224–6Google Scholar; Fletcher, Anthony, Tudor rebellions (3rd ed., London, 1983), ch. 4Google Scholar and docs 2-11.

66 Ellis, , Tudor Ireland, pp 54–64.Google Scholar Cf. Memoranda roll, 18 Edward IV m. 26 (P.R.O.I., Ferguson coll., iii, f. 221v): the bishop of Meath’s servant resisted Lord Treasurer FitzEustace when he distrained for rent, threatened ‘quam cito hoc fecerit, tarn cito decapitus erit’ and asserted that the bishop was governor of Ireland.

67 Bradshaw, Irish constitutional revolution, ch. 9; Ellis, , ‘Crown, community and government’ Cf. Lydon, , Ireland in the later middle ages, pp 144–5Google Scholar; Bradshaw, op. cit., pp 29–30.

68 Hayden, M.T, ‘Lambert Simnel in Ireland’ in Studies, 4 (1915), pp 622–38Google Scholar; Goodman, , Wars of the Roses, pp 99–107 Google Scholar

69 Memoranda roll, 10 Edward IV m. 8 (P.R.O.I., Ferguson coll., iii, f. 221); Parliament roll, 8 Henry VII c. 22 (P.R.O.I., RC 13/9).

70 Ellis, S.G., ‘Henry VII and Ireland’ in Lydon, J.F (ed.), England and Ireland in the later middle ages (Dublin, 1981), pp 237–54.Google Scholar See also Cal anc. rec. Dublin, i, 171 (bond of nisi by the city of Dublin in 1,000 marks, 1488); and (against retaining) Cal pat. rolls, 1485–94, p. 316; Statute roll, 10 Henry VII, c. 12 (Stat. Ire., i, 45–6).

71 Ellis, Tudor Ire., chs 2–4, 6, passim. For the Salisbury settlement, see Conway, Agnes, Henry VII' s relations with Scotland and Ireland (Cambridge, 1932), pp 226–9.Google Scholar

72 Ellis, , Reform & revival, pp 15, 18, 24–8, 37, 46, 69; idem, Tudor Ire., pp 61–4.Google Scholar

73 Cf. Ross, Charles, Edward IV (London, 1974), pp 203–4.Google Scholar

74 Cf. MacCurtain, , Tudor & Stuart Ire., pp 6–21 Google Scholar

75 ‘“Factors in modern history’” in Hexter, J.H., Reappraisals in history: new views on history and society in early modern Europe (2nd ed., Chicago, 1979), pp 26–44.Google Scholar

76 Earlier versions of this paper were delivered, in whole or in part, at meetings of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the student history societies at Trinity College, Dublin, and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and the Irish Historical Society I am very grateful for the comments and criticisms offered there.