5 Debating Irish policy at the court of Elizabeth I, c.1558–80
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David Heffernan
Abstract
This section chapter demonstrates just how widespread interest in Ireland was among English courtiers. Taking as his subject the critical first decades of Elizabeth’s reign during which a policy sympathetic to persuasion shifted resolutely to one grounded in coercion, Heffernan reveals that ‘Ireland matters’ were not something reserved for a small clique, but rather engaged most of the Privy Council and a broad range of court figures. In doing so he uses the case of Ireland to expand our understanding of the English court, particularly by showing that arguments for court factions appear less tenable once it is understood how approaches to Ireland cut across those groups and extended beyond them.
Abstract
This section chapter demonstrates just how widespread interest in Ireland was among English courtiers. Taking as his subject the critical first decades of Elizabeth’s reign during which a policy sympathetic to persuasion shifted resolutely to one grounded in coercion, Heffernan reveals that ‘Ireland matters’ were not something reserved for a small clique, but rather engaged most of the Privy Council and a broad range of court figures. In doing so he uses the case of Ireland to expand our understanding of the English court, particularly by showing that arguments for court factions appear less tenable once it is understood how approaches to Ireland cut across those groups and extended beyond them.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Series editors’ preface x
- Acknowledgements xi
- Abbreviations xiii
- Introduction – Contiguous court societies 1
- I Indigenous court society in Ireland 27
- 1 Bouncers, stewards and gatecrashers 29
- 2 Court society in the south of Ireland, c.1430–c.1620 45
- 3 The Gaelic court and Irish country-house poetry 65
- 4 Latin letters and Renaissance civility in sixteenth-century Ireland 86
- II Made in Whitehall 103
- 5 Debating Irish policy at the court of Elizabeth I, c.1558–80 105
- 6 How to govern Ireland without leaving your armchair 123
- 7 Court discourse, the mid-Elizabethan polity and Ireland, 1571–75 142
- 8 Magnificence and massacre 166
- 9 Counsel in extremis 195
- III Positioning Ireland in the Renaissance court world 213
- 10 Our men in Scotland 215
- 11 Ireland’s militarised itinerant court and the Tudor state 238
- 12 ‘Winning hearts and minds’ 261
- 13 From court to courtliness 278
- Index 297
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Series editors’ preface x
- Acknowledgements xi
- Abbreviations xiii
- Introduction – Contiguous court societies 1
- I Indigenous court society in Ireland 27
- 1 Bouncers, stewards and gatecrashers 29
- 2 Court society in the south of Ireland, c.1430–c.1620 45
- 3 The Gaelic court and Irish country-house poetry 65
- 4 Latin letters and Renaissance civility in sixteenth-century Ireland 86
- II Made in Whitehall 103
- 5 Debating Irish policy at the court of Elizabeth I, c.1558–80 105
- 6 How to govern Ireland without leaving your armchair 123
- 7 Court discourse, the mid-Elizabethan polity and Ireland, 1571–75 142
- 8 Magnificence and massacre 166
- 9 Counsel in extremis 195
- III Positioning Ireland in the Renaissance court world 213
- 10 Our men in Scotland 215
- 11 Ireland’s militarised itinerant court and the Tudor state 238
- 12 ‘Winning hearts and minds’ 261
- 13 From court to courtliness 278
- Index 297
