Читать книгу The Wild Atlantic Way and Western Ireland. 6 cycle tours along Ireland's west coast онлайн

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English invasion and religious division

The Anglo Norman invasion of 1169 began a process of the slow seizure of power from the traditional Gaelic rulers of Ireland. But the Gaelic political and social order that had flourished since prehistoric times persisted into the 17th century in much of Ireland.

English interest in Ireland waxed and waned periodically after the initial invasion, before reawakening in earnest during the 16th century. The first of the British rulers to claim the title of King of Ireland was King Henry VIII of England in 1541. Much of the conflict in Britain and Europe over the following two centuries stemmed from Henry’s decision to split the church in England away from the Catholic church, alongside the wider ructions of the Reformation. It became Ireland’s destiny to be proxy battleground for wider disputes between England and other European powers.

In 1594 a full-on Irish rebellion against English rule broke out. What is now called the Nine Years’ War ended in 1603 following the defeat of the Irish, and an invading Spanish force, by the English at Kinsale. In 1607 the Ulster chieftains sailed out of Lough Swilly on the Donegal coast and into exile in France. This ‘Flight of the Earls’ marks the end of the power of the traditional Irish dynasties on the island.