Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Prologue: Ireland in the wake of the Kildare rebellion, 1536
- Part 1 The course of reform government, 1536–1578
- 1 Reform as process: the viceroyalties of Lord Leonard Grey and Sir Anthony St Leger, 1536–1547
- 2 Ireland and the mid-Tudor crisis, 1547–1556
- 3 Reform by programme: the viceroyalties of the earl of Sussex, 1556–1565
- 4 Reform on contract: the viceroyalties of Sir Henry Sidney, 1566–1578
- Interlude: Government in Ireland, 1536–1579
- Part 2 The impact of reform government, 1556–1583
- Epilogue: Reform in crisis: the viceroyalty of Sir John Perrot, 1584–1588
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Interlude: Government in Ireland, 1536–1579
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Prologue: Ireland in the wake of the Kildare rebellion, 1536
- Part 1 The course of reform government, 1536–1578
- 1 Reform as process: the viceroyalties of Lord Leonard Grey and Sir Anthony St Leger, 1536–1547
- 2 Ireland and the mid-Tudor crisis, 1547–1556
- 3 Reform by programme: the viceroyalties of the earl of Sussex, 1556–1565
- 4 Reform on contract: the viceroyalties of Sir Henry Sidney, 1566–1578
- Interlude: Government in Ireland, 1536–1579
- Part 2 The impact of reform government, 1556–1583
- Epilogue: Reform in crisis: the viceroyalty of Sir John Perrot, 1584–1588
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Summary
‘It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self.’
(Francis Bacon)In the autumn of 1578 a watershed in the course of Tudor attempts to govern Ireland appeared to have been reached. The new government established in August constituted a direct repudiation of Sidney's methods. Thenceforth power was to be divided between the lord justice, the lord chancellor, the circuit judges advocated by Sir William Gerrard, and an autonomous president in Connacht. All of these were men of limited expectations. Priority was again given to the reform of the financial administration. Gilbert Gerrard's proposed reforms of the early 1560s were to be revived, and the new lord justice's instructions were based on those given to Sir William Skeffington almost fifty years before. Costs were to be curtailed and existing sources of revenue were to be better exploited, but no substantial increase in income was anticipated. In general, the instructions were loosely conceived. Wide discretionary powers were granted to the chief officers but no programme was underwritten. The new establishment was clearly an attempt to sever the administration of Irish affairs from the machinations of English domestic politics and to allow the appropriate processes of management to emerge from within. It was a major change of direction.
Sidney's departure, then, might well appear to mark the end of an era. A figure of extraordinary energy, his experience in Ireland had transcended a mere personal history, and had come to embody the systematic development of a general administrative practice.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Chief GovernorsThe Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland 1536–1588, pp. 159 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995