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These ten thematic essays examine the three Irish wars of the seventeenth-century in relation to each other, thereby yielding important comparative insights. The military potential of England and, later, an emergent Britain, was immeasurably greater than that of Irish Catholics. John McGurk, James Scott Wheeler and Paul Kerrigan evaluate the logistical and naval strategies exploiting this advantage. Such was the disparity that an effective Irish military response to conquest and colonisation was only feasible in the favourable archipelagic and continental European circumstances explored by John Young and Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin. Defeat or victory ultimately depended on relative military performance in manoeuvre, battle and siege, operations evaluated by Pádraig Lenihan, Donal O’Carroll and James Burke. Bernadette Whelan examines the role of women as victim, survivor and, occasionally, combatant. ’You cannot carry fire in a sack’, Raymond Gillespie notes the impact of war, especially on urban Ireland.
The 17th century was one of the most dramatic in Irish history. This is the story of the civil wars, religious controversies and battles for home rule that ripped across Stuart Ireland and lay the foundations for the modern troubles.
"A new history of the largest and most famous battle in Irish history, incorporating findings of a series of newly discovered sources. Was the Boyne really as important as William of Orange's propagandists claimed, or was it, as the losers - the French and many of the Irish - insisted, "only a skirmish"? Padraig Lenihan reconciles the political potency of the Boyne with its military indecisiveness, challenging the conventional view of this most controversial event."--BOOK JACKET.
This book evaluates the Confederate Catholic war effort from the preceeding phase of localized insurgency, through the formation of a national self-government in 1642, until the Confederate Catholic regime was finally subsumed in a broad pan-Royalist alliance in 1649. While this alliance held out the prospect of significant religious and constitutional concessons this achievement was nullified by the subsequent Cromwellian catastrophe: the Confederate regime failed. In attributing this failure to political factionalism, historians have neglected the potential and limitations of the Confederate war effort. This study does not substitute crude military determinism but acknowledges that politic...
The fascinating life of Frances Jennings, elder sister of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, charting her marriages and changes of fortune, her exile and return, her ambition, political manoeuvring and sincere piety.Frances Jennings, elder sister of Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, had an interesting and eventful life, most notably as the influential wife of Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell, Catholic viceroy of Ireland under James II. Born circa 1649 into a Hertfordshire gentry family, she was a noted beauty at the Restoration court. There, she met and married George Hamilton, a Catholic officer who, after 1667, served in Louis XIV's army. In Paris, Frances raised three daughters, converted to C...
This book - now in paperback - examines one of the bloodiest epochs in Irish history. Part one covers the 16th century, revealing how efforts by the Tudor monarchy to curb the powers of the autonomous Irish lords degenerated into a bitter cultural and sectarian conflict characterized by summary killings and massacres. The second part pays particular attention to the 1641 rebellion and the Confederate Wars.
The English revolution is one of the most intensely-debated events in history; parallel events in Scotland have never attracted the same degree of interest. Rethinking the Scottish Revolution argues for a new interpretation of the seventeenth-century Scottish revolution that goes beyond questions about its radicalism, and reconsiders its place within an overarching 'British' narrative. In this volume, Laura Stewart analyses how interactions between print and manuscript polemic, crowds, and political performances enabled protestors against a Prayer Book to destroy Charles I's Scottish government. Particular attention is given to the way in which debate in Scotland was affected by the emergenc...
Understanding Non-State Actors aims to reduce the scarcity of academic literature on armed non-state actors (NSAs) that have always been a part of world politics and wars. This monograph offers, possibly for the first time, a systematic historical review as well as a substantive theory of NSAs and their arming efforts. From the Jewish rebellions against Rome to the war between the Ukrainian separatists and the Ukrainian government, NSAs’ weapons acquisition has been vital for the build-up of their force, enabling both the employment of that force and its sustainability. While weapons are not necessarily the most important factor in military build-up, NSAs need weapons to fight, and revolts...
A rich narrative history of England's increasing dominance over the territories that became known as the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the reign of Henry VII through to the Act of Union of 1707.
Interest in the history of violence has increased dramatically over the last ten years and recent studies have demonstrated the productive potential for further inquiry in this field. The early modern period is particularly ripe for further investigation because of the pervasiveness of violence. Certain countries may have witnessed a drop in the number of recorded homicides during this period, yet homicide is not the only marker of a violent society. This volume presents a range of contributions that look at various aspects of violence from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, from student violence and misbehaviour in fifteenth-century Oxford and Paris to the depiction of war wounds ...