'Civilizing' Gaelic Leinster The Extension of Tudor Rule in the O'Byrne & O'Toole Lordships

This book charts the extension of Tudor government into the independent Gaelic lordships of the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles (Wicklow, Kildare, Dublin) from the origins of this process of expansion in the late 15th century until the abortive attempt under the Elizabethan regime to transform both lordships into an English county. Here we see an autonomous Gaelic district initially embrace its entrance into the fold of a nascent Tudor administrative unit before ultimately rejecting, through armed rebellion, what had become intrusive English military rule and cultural domination.

Christopher Maginn is Assistant Professor, Department of History, Fordham University.