ABSTRACT
The Tudor conquest of Ireland was never at any time a simple affair of ‘Ireland versus England’, for Irish society was too complex and too divided to react with one hand or one voice to English policy. The Anglo-Irish, unlike the Gaelic Irish, had throughout their history enjoyed the fruits of active participation in the administration of Ireland, or, rather, of those parts of Ireland which could be administered. For the policy of raising the hopes, now of one section of the Irish people, now of another, only to dash them contributed to the general unease of the country. In 1630 another blow was struck against Old English confidence in the mother country. The ascendancy’s hostility to the Catholic and Gaelic tradition did not prevent them from raising the confederate cry of ‘God, king and country’ even though the king differed substantially from those of the men who first coined the slogan.
