Question 1
Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages and explain which you think is more
convincing as an explanation of the nature and scale of Tyrone’s rebellion.
Passage A
One cause of rebellion was the effects that governments had when they began to extend the power of the State into the provinces. As centralisation took hold and the Crown became more omniscient, political and legal privileges were swept away and traditional practices eroded. The most affected by government intervention resided in the more distant parts, and as a result these same regions were the areas that were prepared to revolt against Tudor despotism. Ireland, like the north of England, came increasingly to resent interference from central government in the administration of its affairs and by the final decade of Elizabeth’s reign, it was clear that political tension was gathering once more. The plantations in Connaught and Munster provoked ill-feeling as the new owners raised rents, claimed land to which they were not entitled, and bribed juries to obtain favourable verdicts. Government policies of composition, establishing Protestant churches at the expense of Catholics and seizing attainted lands from rebels fuelled resentment. A system of garrison contained localised disturbances, but Ulster lay largely outside effective English rule. It is ironic that the decision to take Hugh O’Neill, the future Earl of Tyrone, away from Ireland to bring him up in England should have backfired so spectacularly. When the earl returned in 1593, he was eager to be recognised as ‘the O’Neill’, ruler of Ulster. Between 1593 and 1594 he had come to the defence of English garrisons and officials when other clans had attacked them, but in his estimation he had not been adequately rewarded and by 1595 he had had enough. What made his rebellion so different was that it signalled a nation-wide revolt against England. His aim was blatantly political, to expel the new English settlers and Anglo-Irish administration and achieve independence.
Adapted from: G. Woodward, Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603, published in 2008.
Passage B
The revolt had begun in 1594 as little more than a regional uprising in the northern province of Ulster led by the wily and ambitious Earl of Tyrone, but by the summer of 1598 much of Gaelic Ireland had been set aflame. Elizabeth’s Lord Deputy had mounted a strong offensive, but was then taken fatally ill. Seeing his opportunity, Tyrone tripled the stakes, demanding liberty of conscience for all Catholic Irishmen and redress for English offences against the Irish for the past fifty years. When he was rebuffed, Tyrone laid siege to the Blackwater fort.
The Treaty of Vervins [between Spain and France] presented an opportunity for Philip III of Spain to open a new, limited front in the war against Elizabeth, one where he believed he could win a lasting victory. The result was a policy in which he decided to attack Ireland, England’s soft underbelly. He believed that far fewer troops would be needed, as it was said in Spain that the English defences in Ireland outside Dublin were no more than rudimentary, while the Gaelic Irish were loyal Catholics almost to a man. The Protestant Reformation had made minimal inroads into Ireland. Henry VIII had even failed to dissolve many of the more remote Irish monasteries. Still better from the Spanish view-point, Ireland was now in open rebellion.
Adapted from: John Guy, Elizabeth, The Forgotten Years, published in 2016.
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Answer
