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The Problem of Ideology in the Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A Comparative Approach?

2015; Philosophy Documentation Center; Volume: 19; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/nhr.2015.0036

1534-5815

William Palmer,

Scottish History and National Identity

The Problem of Ideology in the Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A Comparative Approach? William Palmer Assessing the role played by ideology in the causal explanations of great events is a touchstone of the historian’s craft, and the occasion of some of its liveliest, not to say greatest, gladiatorial displays.1 But attempts to connect action with ideological motivation have often proved difficult. If historical actors followed the course of action prescribed in a certain text, would that prove they were influenced by that text? Even if it could be established that the actors in question had read the text and had followed its proposed course of action, would that prove its influence? And, even if it could be proven that particular actors had read the text, would that mean that they understood it in the way the author intended? For that matter, can it even be determined, in the case of many texts, exactly what meaning the author intended? Many of the difficulties that accompany historians’ attempts to establish ideas as the inspiration of actions can be glimpsed in the case of Elizabethan Ireland. During that period, after decades of experimenting with schemes for reform, the English turned to conquest instead. Contemporary observers agreed that the governance of Ireland was a serious matter, but they disagreed about what should be done. Ideas came in a variety of formal and informal commentaries, and in a welter of state correspondence in which writers sometimes said different things at different times. A host of other questions arise. Who actually [End Page 128] read these commentaries, and is it possible to connect their actions to what they read? How many English adventurers and their possible motivations can dance on the head of a chance remark by Andrew Trollope or John Hooker? And how seriously should we take the ideological importance of such works as Edmund Spenser’s A View of the Present State of Ireland—for after all, we know it was not written until 1596, by which time the English conquest of Ireland was well under way, and was not printed until the 1630s? The case for the importance of ideology in directing the English conquest of Ireland was initially suggested by David Beers Quinn.2 But the role of ideology as a central force in that process was advanced most powerfully by Nicholas Canny in The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A Pattern Established, 1565–76, first published in 1976.3 Canny’s book offered an array of provocative ideas. He not only declared that what happened in sixteenth-century Ireland was indeed a conquest; he also fixed a precise point for its beginning. The decisive steps were initiated by Sir Henry Sidney, who was appointed lord deputy in Ireland in 1565 and remained influential in Irish affairs until 1579. After service in Wales and Ireland, Sidney concluded that reform schemes for Ireland that simply tinkered with laws would fail. Like other “New English” officials, he doubted that either of the two ruling elites in Ireland, the “Old English” of the Pale, or the Gaelic Irish, could be trusted to govern. Prior to Sidney’s deputyship, the English had undertaken efforts to colonize Ireland, but their objectives were usually limited to defending the Pale, the normally loyal area around Dublin. In what Canny called a “new departure,” Sidney proposed to bring much of Ireland outside the Pale under control through conquest and colonization. He selected northeast Ulster and southwest Munster— areas long regarded by the English as dangerous to their interests—as his first targets. By employing a military force consisting of English-born commanders and soldiers, he intended to take land and power in those areas from the leading Irish lords, and to redistribute it to lesser lords and Englishmen. But seizing land held legally by others posed some ethical problems for the English mind; Canny also explored the process by which the English developed an ideology of conquest to justify their actions. After close inspection of the comments of numerous English observers concerning several Irish customs, ranging from transhumance to religion, Canny concluded that the English had become convinced [End Page 129] that they were dealing with a population so...