ABSTRACT

Ireland, a part of the multiple kingdoms of the English monarchs in the early modern period, was a country deeply divided by the religious strife of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Protestant administrators sent over from England confronted an urban elite of mostly Catholic families who continued to find clandestine ways to practise their forbidden religion. In 1605, the Dublin administration tried yet another method to force the Dublin elite into converting to the Protestant Church of Ireland: They issued so-called ‘mandates’ to the most prominent Dublin office-holders, requiring them to attend Protestant church services. For Dublin being the principal city and seat of the State, all the eyes of the kingdom were turned upon it, expecting event of the proceedings; and the Council presumed the people of other parts would be much led one way or other by the example of that place. Davies formulates an expectation for Ireland that he derives from the ‘lessons’ of English history.