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The history of Ireland between 1536 and 1691 saw the conquest and colonisation of the island by the English state and the settlement of tens of thousands ofProtestant settlers from England,Wales and Scotland. Ireland had beenpartially conquered by England in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, yet had never been fully brought under English rule.^[1] The Tudor conquest of the sixteenth century largely reduced the Gaelic lords ofLeinster,Munster,Connacht andUlster to English rule, while colonial projects like theMunster Plantation andUlster Plantation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries transformed landholding in the country.^[2] In the process the Irish were subordinated to the rule of London-based governments and a British Protestant minority became the dominant political and economic class ruling over an IrishRoman Catholic majority. The period is bounded by the dates 1536, when KingHenry VIII deposed theFitzGerald dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland (the newKingdom of Ireland was declared by Henry VIII in 1542), and 1691, when the CatholicJacobites surrendered at Limerick, thus confirming Protestant dominance in Ireland. This is sometimes called theearly modern period.

TheEnglish Reformation, by which Henry VIII broke withPapal authority in 1536, was to change Ireland totally. While Henry VIII broke English Catholicism from Rome, his sonEdward VI moved further, breaking with Papal doctrine completely. While the English, the Welsh and, later, the Scots acceptedProtestantism, the Irish remained Catholic.Queen Mary I then reverted the state to Catholicism in 1553–58, and QueenElizabeth I broke again with Rome in 1559. These confusing changes determined their relationship with the British state for the next four hundred years, as the Reformation coincided with a determined effort on behalf of the English state to re-conquer and colonise Ireland thereafter. The religious schism meant that the native Irish and the (Roman Catholic)Old English were to be excluded from power in the new settlement unless they converted to Protestantism.

There is some debate about why Henry VIII of England resolved to re-conquer Ireland completely. However, the most immediate reason was that the Fitzgerald dynasty ofKildare, who had become the effective rulers of Ireland in the 15th century, had become very unreliable allies of theTudor monarchs. Most seriously, they had invitedBurgundian troops into Dublin to crown theYorkist pretender,Lambert Simnel asKing of England in 1487. In 1535,Silken Thomas Fitzgerald went into open rebellion against the crown. Henry VIII put down this rebellion and then set about to pacify Ireland and bring it all under English government control, perhaps to prevent it from becoming a base for foreign invasions of England (a concern that was to be sustained for another 400 or more years).

Ireland was changed from a lordship to a full Kingdom under Henry VIII. From the period of the original lordship in the 12th century onwards, Ireland had retained its own bicameralParliament of Ireland, consisting of aHouse of Commons and aHouse of Lords. It was restricted for most of its existence in terms both of membership – Gaelic Irishmen were barred from membership – and of powers, notably byPoynings' Law of 1494, which required the approval of theEnglish Privy Council before any draft bills might be introduced to the Parliament. After 1541, Henry VIII admitted native Irish lords into both houses and recognised their land titles, in return for their submission to him asKing of Ireland. However, the real power in Ireland throughout this period lay not with the Parliament, but with theLord Deputy of Ireland, who was nominated by the King of England to govern Ireland. The Parliament met only when called by the Lord Deputy, when he wanted to pass new laws or raise new taxes. The Lord Deputy's permanent advisors were the IrishPrivy Council.

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (left;c. 1550–1616) andHugh Roe O'Donnell (1572–1602) led the Irish confederacy during the Nine Years' War.

With the institutions of government in place, the next step was to extend the control of the English Kingdom of Ireland over all of its claimed territory. Henry VIII's officials were tasked with extending the rule of this new Kingdom throughout Ireland by the policy of "surrender and regrant". They either negotiated or fought with the autonomous Irish Kings and lords. This took nearly a century to achieve, and the re-conquest was accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed, as it led to the assimilation – sometimes abolition – of lordships that had been independent for several hundred years.

The re-conquest was completed during the reigns ofElizabeth I andJames I, after several bloody conflicts. TheDesmond Rebellions (1569–1573 and 1579–1583) took place in the southern province ofMunster, when the FitzgeraldEarl of Desmond dynasty resisted the imposition of an English governor into the province. The second of these rebellions was put down by means of a forced famine, which may have killed up to a third of Munster's population. The most serious threat to English rule in Ireland came during theNine Years' War (1593–1603) whenHugh O'Neill andHugh Roe O'Donnell, the most powerful chieftains in the northern province ofUlster, rebelled against English government. This war developed into a nationwide revolt where O'Neill and O'Donnell successfully obtained military aid from Spain, which was then in conflict with England during theAnglo-Spanish War. A Spanishexpeditionary force sent to Ireland made landfall in October 1601, but was defeated by English forces at theBattle of Kinsale on 3 January 1602. O'Donnell died in late 1602 and was succeeded by his brotherRory. O'Neill eventually surrendered to the newStuart King, James I, in 1603. After this point, the English authorities in Dublin established real control over Ireland for the first time, bringing a centralised form of justice to the entire island, and successfully disarmed the various lordships, both Irish and Old English. O'Neill, Rory and their allies subsequently fled Ireland for good in theFlight of the Earls in 1607. This removed the last major obstacle to English government in Ireland.

The English had little success in converting either the native elite or the Irish people to the Protestant religion. Why the ProtestantReformation failed to take hold among the Irish is an enduring question. One of several answers lies in the fact that brutal methods were used by crown authority to pacify the country and exploit its resources, which heightened resentment of English rule. Additionally, a determined proselytising campaign carried out in Ireland byCounter-Reformation Catholic clergy, many of whom had been educated inseminaries on the continent.Irish Colleges had been established in many countries in Catholic Europe for the training of Irish Catholic priests and the education of the Irish Catholic gentry. Finally, theprinting press, which had played a major role in disseminating Protestant ideas in Europe, came to Ireland very late.

From the mid-16th and into the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of colonisation known asPlantations. Scottish and English Protestants were sent as colonists to the provinces ofMunster, Ulster and the counties ofLaois andOffaly (see alsoPlantations of Ireland). The largest of these projects, thePlantation of Ulster, had settled up to 80,000 English and Scots in the north of Ireland by 1641. The so-calledUlster Scots were predominantlyPresbyterian, which distinguished them from theAnglican English colonists.

These settlers, who had a British and Protestant identity, would form the ruling class of future British administrations in Ireland. A series ofPenal Laws discriminated against all Christian faiths other than theestablished (Anglican)Church of Ireland. The principal victims of these laws were Roman Catholics and, from the late 17th century on, adherents of Presbyterianism. From 1607, Catholics were barred from public office and from serving in the army. In 1615, the constituencies of theIrish Parliament were altered so that Protestants might form the majority of 108–102 in any given vote in theIrish House of Commons. The Catholic majority in theIrish House of Lords persisted until thePatriot Parliament of 1689, with the exception of theCommonwealth period (1650–60).

The difficulty in controlling the extremities of Ireland from London or Dublin early in the 17th century was demonstrated by the presence ofpirates on the Munster coast. In particular, thetownland of Leamcon (nearSchull,^[3]County Cork) became apirate stronghold.^[4] By pleading "benefit of clergy", literate pirates in Ireland could escape secular trial (making their prosecution much more difficult) until Irish law was brought into line with English law in 1613.^[5]

In the early years of the 17th century, it looked possible for a time that, because of immigration of English and Scottish settlers, Ireland could be peacefully integrated into British society. However, this was prevented by the continued discrimination by the English authorities against Irish Catholics on religious grounds.

The pre-Elizabethan Irish population is usually divided into the "Old (orGaelic) Irish", and theOld English, or descendants of medievalHiberno-Norman settlers. These groups were historically antagonistic, with English settled areas such asthe Pale aroundDublin, southWexford, and other walled towns being fortified against the rural Gaelic clans. However, by the 17th century, the cultural divide between these groups, especially at elite social levels, was declining. For example, most Old English lords not only spoke theGaelic language, but extensively patronisedIrish poetry and music. Intermarriage was also common. Moreover, in the wake of the Elizabethan conquest, the native population became defined by their shared religion,Roman Catholicism, in distinction to the new Protestant British settlers and the officially Protestant British government of Ireland. During the decades in between the end of the Elizabethan wars of conquest in 1603 and the outbreak of rebellion in 1641, Irish Catholics felt themselves to be increasingly threatened by and discriminated against by the English government of Ireland.

Most of the Irish upper classes, however, were not ideologically opposed to the sovereignty of the King of England over Ireland, but wanted to be full subjects of the triple Stuart monarchy and maintain their pre-eminent position in Irish society. This was prevented by their religious dissidence and the threat posed to them by the extension of the Plantations. The Protestant settler-dominated Government of Ireland tried to confiscate more land from the native landowners by questioning their medieval land titles and as punishment for non-attendance at Protestant services. In response, Irish Catholics appealed directly to the King, first to James I and thenCharles I, for full rights as subjects and toleration of their religion: a programme known asThe Graces. On several occasions, the Monarchs appeared to have reached an agreement with them, granting their demands in return for raising taxes. However, Irish Catholics were disappointed when, on paying the increased levies, the King postponed the implementation of their demands. What was more, by the late 1630s,Thomas Wentworth, Charles's representative in Ireland, was proposing further widespread confiscations of native land to break the power of the Irish Catholic upper classes. It is likely that this would eventually have provoked armed resistance from Irish Catholics at some point, but the actual rebellion was sparked by a political crisis in Scotland and England that led tocivil war in the three Kingdoms.

The fifty years from 1641 to 1691 saw two catastrophic periods of civil war in Ireland 1641–53 and 1689–91, which killed hundreds of thousands of people and left others in permanent exile. The wars, which pitted Irish Catholics against British forces and Protestant settlers, ended in the almost complete dispossession of the Catholic landed elite.

In the mid-17th century, Ireland was convulsed byeleven years of warfare, beginning with theRebellion of 1641, when Irish Catholics, threatened by expanding power of the anti-CatholicEnglish Parliament and ScottishCovenanters at the expense ofthe King, rebelled against English and Protestant domination. The Rising, launched in Ulster byFéilim Ó Néill, provoked an outbreak of anarchic violence around the country, after which it was joined by most Irish Catholic lords and their followers. In some respects, the rebellion was the end product of the long term alienation of Irish Catholics with English policies in Ireland. However, it was sparked off by the fear of impending civil war in the British Isles as a whole.

The rebellion was marked by a number ofmassacres of Protestant settlers, particularly in Ulster, an event which scarred communal relations in Ireland for centuries afterwards.

As a result of the outbreak of theEnglish Civil War in 1642, no English troops were available to put down the uprising and the rebels were left in control of most of Ireland. The Catholic majority briefly ruled the country asConfederate Ireland (1642–1649) during the subsequentWars of the Three Kingdoms in Britain and Ireland. The Confederate regime allied themselves withCharles I and the English Royalists, though they did not sign a formal treaty with them until 1649. Had the Royalists won the English Civil War, the result could have been an autonomous Catholic ruled Ireland. However, the Royalists were defeated by theParliamentarians, Charles I was executed andOliver Cromwellre-conquered Ireland in 1649–1653 on behalf of theEnglish Commonwealth. TheCromwellian conquest of Ireland was marked by atrocities, such as the massacre of the Royalist garrison at theSiege of Drogheda in 1649. Another policy implemented by the Cromwellian regime was the deportation of prisoners of war to theWest Indies. Even worse was a scorched earth policy carried out by Parliamentarian commanders to subdueIrish guerrilla fighters, which caused famine throughout the country.

As punishment for the rebellion of 1641, almost all lands owned by Irish Catholics were confiscated andgiven to British settlers. The remaining Catholic landowners were transplanted toConnacht.See alsoAct of Settlement 1652. In addition, Catholics were barred from the Irish Parliament altogether, forbidden to live in towns and from marrying Protestants (although not all of these laws were strictly enforced). It has been calculated that up to a third of Ireland's population (4–600,000 people) died in these wars, either in fighting, or in the accompanying famine and plague. The Cromwellian conquest therefore leftbitter memories – to say the least – in Irish popular culture.

An uneasy peace returned with theRestoration of the monarchy in England andCharles II made some efforts to conciliate Irish Catholics with compensation and land grants. (See alsoAct of Settlement 1662). Most Catholics, however were disappointed that the Cromwellian land confiscations were, on the whole, allowed to stand. Protestants, on the other hand, felt that Irish Catholics had been treated far too leniently by Charles, and deserved to be punished for their massacres of Protestant civilians in 1641. In 1678, there was another brief burst of anti-Catholic repression during thePopish Plot, when it was rumoured that Irish Catholics were planning another rebellion with French help. Two Catholic Bishops,Peter Talbot andOliver Plunkett were arrested. Talbot died in prison and Plunkett was hanged, drawn and quartered.

However, within a generation of the Restoration, Ireland was at war again. In the reign of the Catholic KingJames II of England, Irish Catholics briefly looked like recovering their pre-eminent position in Irish society. James repealed much of the anti-Catholic legislation, allowed Catholics into the Irish Parliament and the Army and appointed a Catholic,Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, asLord Deputy of Ireland. Protestants in Ireland could do little about this turn of events.

However, with theGlorious Revolution of 1688,James II was deposed by theEnglish Parliament and replaced byWilliam of Orange, with the help of a Dutch invasion force. Irish Catholics backed James to try to reverse the Penal Laws and land confiscations, whereas Irish and British Protestants supported William to preserve their dominance in the country. Richard Talbot, the Lord Deputy, raised aJacobite army from among Irish Catholics and seized all the strong points around the country, with the exception ofDerry, which wasbesieged by his men. James, backed by the French KingLouis XIV, arrived in Ireland in 1689 with French troops. The Siege of Derry was broken when GeneralPercy Kirke arrived with a relief force.

The same yearMarshal Schomberg landed with a major Williamite expedition andcaptured Carrickfergus. He then advanced south toDundalk where the two armiestook part in a long stand-off before retreating into winter quarters. The following year William III landed at Carrickfergus with a multi-national force of reinforcements, including British, Dutch and Danish troops. The two Kings fought for the English, Scottish and Irish thrones in theWilliamite War, most famously at theBattle of the Boyne in 1690, where James's forces were defeated. Although not militarily decisive, this battle is remembered as a great Williamite victory because James fled Ireland for France after the battle, effectively conceding defeat to William.Jacobite resistance in Ireland continued for another year however, winning a success at theSiege of Limerick, but was finally ended after theBattle of Aughrim in July 1691, when their main army was destroyed. They surrendered atLimerick shortly afterwards. The Jacobite army left the country under the terms of theTreaty of Limerick, negotiated byPatrick Sarsfield, toenter French service. The war, while not as destructive as that of the 1640s and 1650s, was nevertheless a shattering defeat for the old Irish Catholic landed classes, who never recovered their former position in Irish society.

Penal Laws (which had been allowed to lapse somewhat after theEnglish Restoration) were re-applied with great harshness after this war, as the Protestant elite wanted to ensure that the Irish Catholic landed classes would not be in a position to repeat their rebellions of the 17th century. In fact, many new Penal Laws were introduced, which put restrictions on Catholics inheriting property. As a result of these laws, Catholic landownership fell from around 14% in 1691 to around 5% in the course of the next century.

In addition, as of 1704,Presbyterians were also barred from holding public office, bearing arms and entering certain professions. This was in part due to the distrust the mostly English Anglican establishment had for the mostly Scottish Presbyterian community, which by now had become a majority in Ulster. By the end of the 17th century, Ireland's population was about 25% Protestant (including all denominations) of whom Anglicans (about 13%) formed the rulingProtestant Ascendancy.For the 18th century seeIreland 1691-1801.

• Early Modern Irish language
• Irish of Nantes

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• 16th century images of Irish people at Irish Archaeology
• Tudor and Stuart Ireland, annual academic conference focusing on Irish society in the Tudor and Stuart periods.

• Early modern history of Ireland
• 16th century in Ireland
• 17th century in Ireland
• History of Ireland by period
• 1530s establishments in Ireland
• 1690s disestablishments in Ireland

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