T for Tudor

A 'blueprint for colonisation' tested in the Irish midlands

This is not a post about Henry VIII, his six wives, or the other women with whom he had a relationship. Nor is it about his son and two daughters who ruled after his death. It is not about the explorers who sailed the seven seas and established settlements in far flung continents. This is a post about events closer to home, when Henry and, later, his children, tried to enforce their mandate to govern Ireland. All of the complex power plays that surrounded Henry, his family and his courtiers had repercussions across St George's Channel. Whilst rich merchants in England profited from supplying the navy and the explorers with goods and services, receiving former Church lands in return and building great houses on those lands, minor members of the gentry and the less successful of the soldiery were licensed to occupy land in Ireland in an effort to subdue rebellious citizens.

Over many centuries following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the late twelfth century the descendants of the invaders contested authority over the island among themselves at the same time as continually putting down violent resistance to their occupation. By Henry VIII's time the Anglo-Norman families loyal to the Crown were confined to an area with a 50km radius from Dublin, known as 'the Pale'. Others occupied positions of power in the South West. Gaelic clans held sway over much of the rest of the island, vying with each other for control of different areas.

The Anglo-Normans in Dublin mounted frequent raids on the clans, sometimes alone, sometimes with assistance from their fellow occupiers. The Crown relied on a branch of the Fitzgerald dynbasty, designated Earls of Kildare, to protect the integrity of the Pale, at the same time deploring the frequent disagreements between them and the other dynasties, especially the Butlers. Several attempts were made to resolve this dispute. Add to that the King's decision to declare himself head of the Church and you have the ingredients for a revolt by the young heir to the Kildare Earldom and de-facto head of the governing council of Ireland, Thomas Fitzgerald.

A military force was recruited from the minor gentry and yeomanry in England to detain Thomas and his followers. It was the beginning of a long period of dysfunctional government for the Island. Under the first of Henry's heirs, the young Edward VI, the first attempt to expand the loyalist occupation beyond the Pale resulted in the establishment of a number of outposts about 80km from Dublin. One of these, in the region known as Leix*, was the largest. A stone walled fort, measuring 105m by 127m, it was named Fort Protector in honour of the king's uncle Edward Seymour who was de-facto regent styling himself 'Protector' of his nephew. Recent archaeological investigations have revealed that there were a number of residences surrounding the fort and it has been possible to assign names of occupiers of these residences thanks to an early map available in the National Archives.

Under the older of Edward's sisters, Queen Mary, this settlement was renamed Maryborough. The boundaries of the modern county of Laois were established a this time and the county named Queen's county. Within the county boundary land was allocated on fairly short leases to a variety of Gaelic men, English and Welsh soldiers and English gentry. The boundaries of Laois's neighbour, Offaly, were also established at the same time and named 'King's County'

As with more recent attempts to enforce occupation by settlement, this policy had limited success. The Gaelic clans, though decapitated during the period following the Fitzgerald rebellion, soon regrouped under a new generation of leaders and mounted raids on the settlers' land and buildings. As before, the local defence forces were periodically reinforced by soldiers recruited from England, Wales and Scotland. As different elements of the English aristocracy gained and lost influence in the Tudor court, so different individuals were assigned to the governance of Ireland, each implementing different policies.

In the province of Munster, in the south west of the Island, another branch of the Fitzgerald family operated as independent governors of the province. The English in the Pale attempted to break their hold on power by further extending the settlement policy. Like their cousins in Kildare, the Munster (or Desmond) Fitzgeralds remained loyal to the Pope and Roman Catholicism. They mounted several counter rebellions which spilled over into the Midlands. Various Gaelic clans joined forces with the rebels and the English armies. Some of the Queen's County settlers lost their lives in battles, others decided to return to the safety of English or Welsh soil.

The town of Maryborough survived many sieges and desertions over the next century. Today it thrives, as Portlaoise (the 'Port' part of the name is a reference to the original fort).

After the Desmond Fitzgeralds were routed and their subject people starved to death, dispossessed Irish clans from Laois were settled in County Kerry. In an essay published as part of the Conservation Plan for Fort Protector, Dr. Diarmuid Wheeler, concludes that the Tudor plantation of the Midlands of Ireland, although of limited success, nevertheless “presented the blueprint for wider colonisation schemes throughout Leinster and Munster and finally Ulster . . . and served as a model for future colonial ventures throughout the island and beyond.”

The descendants of one of the most successful settlers, Francis Cosby, still own some of the land granted to him in the 1550s. It surrounds a house, built by a more recent ancestor in the eighteenth century, and has, for the past twenty years, hosted a music and arts festival called Electric Picnic.

*The traditional name of the district has a number of different spellings, including Laoighis.