ABSTRACT
The successive regimes proved less able to resist the demands of influential politicians with Irish interests, and Irish patronage became established as a significant prize in court politics. By Elizabeth's reign, the government was embarked on a highly ambitious and demanding strategy which was quite unjustifiable by the normal lights of Tudor policy. The government's central purpose remained the reduction of Ireland to English rule by reform and the gradual extension of the common law and English administrative structures, not by military conquest. Cowley completed a rough survey, and the deputy, having had his own proposals about Leix-Offaly rejected, then made token leases of substantial estates to army captains and Palesmen. In England the mid-Tudor period witnessed something of an aristocratic reaction, especially in the north where Percy and Dacre were rehabilitated and regained the wardenships and Neville became lieutenant-general. Elizabeth's parsimony was amply displayed in lengthy orders about ways and means of increasing the revenue and reducing costs.
