ABSTRACT

By 1579, with leading magnates antagonized or totally alienated and traditional supporters exasperated and bewildered by the recent conduct of government, the Dublin administration was sitting on a powder keg. Yet, as recent campaigning had again confirmed, Gaelic levies were no match for English armies, and there was therefore small prospect of successful rebellion without foreign support. Ireland was always a peripheral concern to European princes, and the potential benefits of intriguing there had to be weighed against the possibility of English reprisals elsewhere. The remedy for Ireland's miserable estate was more colonization, properly established and supported, for which purpose the lands of Grey's grants of traitors as Desmond, Viscount Baltinglass and O'Rourke, plus the Essex inheritance in Ulster, were now all available. What was in fact a monumental failure of Tudor policy was presented as a golden opportunity. Both Delvin and Kildare had been deeply implicated in Baltinglass's original plans, though reluctant to engage in outright rebellion.