9 Counsel in extremis
-
David Edwards
Abstract
This chapter sheds new light on the role of courtier-councillors in the creation of policy in the wake of both the first Earl of Essex’s spectacular failure colonising Ulster and the even bloodier breakdown of relations between the Crown and the English-Irish Earl of Desmond. Through close analysis of a previously overlooked reform treatise – Sir James Croft’s A Discourse for the Reformacon of Irland (1583) – David Edwards reveals how first-hand knowledge of Ireland could sway the regime to reconsider martial rule in Ireland in favour of more conciliatory efforts. Given that Croft operated below the level of Council or Irish Viceroy, his influence on the Queen and her favourites has been overlooked. Recovery of the role he played in late-Elizabethan approaches to ‘Ireland matters’ speaks more widely to one of this collection’s central theses – the importance of the wider court in determining the character of English–Irish relations in the early modern period.
Abstract
This chapter sheds new light on the role of courtier-councillors in the creation of policy in the wake of both the first Earl of Essex’s spectacular failure colonising Ulster and the even bloodier breakdown of relations between the Crown and the English-Irish Earl of Desmond. Through close analysis of a previously overlooked reform treatise – Sir James Croft’s A Discourse for the Reformacon of Irland (1583) – David Edwards reveals how first-hand knowledge of Ireland could sway the regime to reconsider martial rule in Ireland in favour of more conciliatory efforts. Given that Croft operated below the level of Council or Irish Viceroy, his influence on the Queen and her favourites has been overlooked. Recovery of the role he played in late-Elizabethan approaches to ‘Ireland matters’ speaks more widely to one of this collection’s central theses – the importance of the wider court in determining the character of English–Irish relations in the early modern period.
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
