ABSTRACT
The Celtic areas all played a significant role in what was once called the English Civil War, but which has been renamed by some historians ‘the war of the three kingdoms’ or the ‘pan-British crisis’. There had always been an interaction between the various components of the geographical area described as the ‘British Isles’, whether military, diplomatic, religious or cultural. The Irish language remained the most commonly used form of the vernacular, the Catholic religion remained as the most practised amongst the population and violent dissent against English rule, although muted, did not disappear. The Tudors had inherited a balanced polity, in which the political influence of the lowlands was offset by the military and strategic value of semi-autonomous borderlands. By the time of Elizabeth’s death in 1603, a recognisable ‘Britain’ had emerged. As yet, however, it was both tentative and unstable.
