Early Modern Ireland
Topic 1: Reform and Reformation in Tudor Ireland, 1494-1558
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The character of Kildare hegemony.
Tudor reform initiatives: from Poynings to Skeffington, 1494-1534.
The Kildare rebellion.
Lord Leonard Grey and the Geraldine League.
The Parliament of 1541 and the policy of surrender and regrant.
The mid-Tudor regimes and the beginnings of plantation. | The Plantation of Laois/Offaly |
| Society and economy | Pastoralism, transhumance and Gaelic society.
Feudalism and bastard feudalism; towns and guilds; trade; internal markets, exports/imports.
The family and kin in Gaelic Ireland.
Rich and poor: lords, freeholders and churls in Gaelic society. | Women and marriage under Gaelic law |
| Culture and religion | A divided church in pre-Reformation Ireland.
The monastaries and their dissolution.
The Observantine reform.
The Reformation under Henry VIII.
The Reformation under Edward VI.
The Counter-Reformation under Mary 1.
The state of Gaelic culture: brehons, bards and annalists. | The Bardic Schools |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certain key concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
The 8th Earl of Kildare; the 9th Earl of Kildare; Con Bacach O'Neill; Manus O'Donnell; Eleanor Fitzgerald; Sir AnthonySt. Leger; Sir Thomas Cusack; Archbishop George Browne; Archbishop George Dowdall; the 3rd Earl of Sussex.
Key concepts
Coyne and livery; lordship; kinship; political reform; surrender and regrant; plantation; royal supremacy; citizenship;Reformation; Counter-Reformation.
Topic 2: Rebellion and conquest in Elizabethan Ireland, 1558-1603
| Perspective | Elements | Case Studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The structure of administration in Elizabethan Ireland; reform programmes and presidencies; private projects and colonies; the emergence of the policy of composition.
Political divisions in the Irish lordships; Shane O'Neill; the Desmond rebellion; the Ulster rebellion and national war (the Nine Years' War). | The Lordship of Tir Eoghain |
| Society and economy | Internal changes in the Gaelic lorships.
The Pale and the burden of the army.
Colonies and plantations.
The costs of war. | Elizabethan Dublin |
| Culture and religion | 1560: re-establishment of the Reformation.
The university question.
Modes of Counter-Reformation: recusancy and militant action. | Meiler Magrath's clerical career |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Shane O'Neill; Hugh O'Neill; Sir Henry Sidney; Sir John Perrot; Archbishop Adam Loftus; Richard Creagh; AgnesCampbell; Grace O'Malley; James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald; Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn.
Key concepts
Composition; colonisation; feudal rebellion; lordship; the common law; Reformation; Counter-Reformation; recusancy;"faith and fatherland".
Topic 3: Kingdom v. colony - the struggle for mastery in Ireland, 1603-1660
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | State plantation policy; administrative problems; financial corruption; internal security; the army and the Graces; Buckingham and Ireland; Strafford in Ireland; origin of 1641 rebellion; Confederate division; royalists and parliamentarians; the impact of the Cromwellian experiment in radical political change; the fall of the Republic. | The trial of Strafford |
| Society and economy | Post-war economic problems; defective titles and tenure; problems of landlords and problems of tenants. State and private plantations: changing landscape and settlement patterns; the state of Ireland in 1641; the Cromwellian transplantations; patterns of Irish trade. | The Scots migration to Ulster |
| Culture and religion | The Counter-Reformation: the secular clergy and the orders; the Irish colleges abroad; Old English and Gaelic Irish. Irish Protestantism: Anglicans and dissenters. Visions of Ireland: Keating's Foras Feasa; the Four Masters; the depositions of 1641. | Louvain |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certain key concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Sir Arthur Chichester; Richard Boyle and his family; Elizabeth Butler, Countess of Ormond; Sir Thomas Wentworth; SirPhelim O'Neill; Patrick Darcy; Owen Roe O'Neill; Archbishop Rinuccini; Piaras Feiritéar; Luke Wadding.
Key concepts
The Kingdom of Ireland; "Old English"; "New English"; native Irish; "Thorough"; royalists and parliamentarians;confederacy; commonwealth; security of tenure; defective title; mortgages; escheats; plantation; colonisation;"To Hell or to Connaught"; Counter-Reformation; recusancy; Propaganda Fide; divine providence.
Topic 4: Establishing a colonial ascendancy, 1660-1715
| Perspective | Elements | Case Studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The Restoration, 1660; the Acts of Settlement and Explanation; the viceroyalties of Ormond (1662-1669, 1677-1684); Church of Ireland influence on parliament and administration; the rise of the Catholics, 1685;Tyrconnell as viceroy; the War of the Two Kings; the Treaty of Limerick; the Williamite confiscations; Irish brigades abroad; introduction of the Penal Laws. | The Parliment of 1689 |
| Society and economy | Population growth and immigration; old and new landholders; varying conditions of the peasantry. The growth and re-building of towns. Increased trade: live cattle; wool; provisions; fish; the beginnings of the linen industry. Trade restrictions: the Cattle and Navigation Acts. The growth of estate management; cutting of woods; Tories and Rapparees. | Restoration Dublin |
| Culture, religion and science | The Ulster Presbyterians; the Regium Donum; efforts at uniformity; the Popish Plot, 1678; the sacramental test, 1704; policies of conversion and penal legislation. The end of the Gaelic bardic system. Political pamphleteering. The emergence of science in Ireland. | The Jacobite poets |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
The 1st Duke of Ormond; Charles II; the Earl of Tyrconnell; the Duchess of Tyrconnell; Samuel Louis Crommelin; OliverPlunkett; William Molyneux; Patrick Sarsfield; Dáibhí Ó Bruadair; Robert Boyle.
Key concepts
Dissent; anti-popery; colonialism; ascendancy; absenteeism; uniformity; confiscation; subservience; urban growth;mercantilism; Jacobitism; Tories.
Topic 5: Colony versus kingdom tensions in mid-18th century Ireland, 1715-1770
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The "Protestant Nation"; the structure of central government administration; courts, grand juries, assizes, boroughs, parliament. Wood's halfpence, 1722; Drapier's letters; Dean Swift's pamphleteering. Attempts at reform; the Patriots; the Catholic Committee. Possible French intervention:Thurot's expedition. Townshend's viceroyalty; money bills. Political effects of Seven Years' War in Ireland. | The Ponsonbys |
| Society and economy | Population change; subdivision of holdings; forms of tenure; the potato; poverty, famine, disease. Absentee landlords, middlemen, cottiers, labourers, spalpeens, journeymen; women and rural society. Trade fluctuations; expansion of the provision trade; increase in smuggling; customs and excise dues. Enclosures; agrarian unrest; model villages; planned towns; new industries; linen and brewing. | The Whiteboys |
| Culture, religion and science | Relaxation of Penal Laws; Catholic education. The rise of the Dublin theatre; na Cúirteanna Filíochta; foreign influences on Irish traditional music; decline of the Irish language. | The trial of Fr. Sheehy |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Dean Swift; the Conolly family; Primate Stone; Charles O'Connor; Thomas Wyse; John Hely Hutchinson; Charles Lucas;Arthur Guinness; Margaret (Peg) Woffington; Turlough O'Carolan.
Key concepts
Patronage; legislative control; anti-popery; patriotism; the "Hidden Ireland"; Jacobitism; the Atlantic economy; cottier;conacre; improvement.
Topic 6: The end of the Irish kingdom and the establishment of the Union, 1770-1815
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The politics of the Irish parliament; residential lords lieutenant; American War of Independence and the rise of Patriotism; the Volunteers, free trade and Grattan's Parliament; the impact of the French Revolution; the revival of radicalism the United Irishmen; the emergence of counter-revolutionary movements; the establishment of the Orange Order. Revolution and reaction: the 1798 rebellion its nature and regional character. The Act of Union: origins and implementation; politics after the Union. | The Wexford Rebellion |
| Society and economy | Population growth, 1770-1820; economic growth: rise in agricultural output, industrialisation linen (domestic), cotton (factory); wartime boom, 1793-1815. Rural discontent: land hunger, secret agrarian organisations, and rural sectarianism. | The rise of Belfast |
| Culture, religion and science | Catholic relief: social and religious, 1771-1782; political, 1783-1793; diocesan reform and the development of Catholic education. The Church of Ireland: conservatives v. revivalists, 17501815; Presbyterianism; radical theology in the 1790s; the revival of conservatism. Georgian culture: architecture, art, literature and learning. Gaelic culture: literature and learning. | Maynooth College |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts
Key personalitites
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Henry Grattan; Wolfe Tone; John Fitzgibbon; Lord Donegall; Fr. Arthur O'Leary; Mary Anne McCracken; WilliamDrennan; Nano Nagle; Lord Castlereagh; Eibhlín Dhubh Ní Chonaill.
Key concepts
Parliamentary reform; patronage and corruption; republicanism; sectarianism; subsistence; commercialisation; proto-industry;inflation; the moral economy.
Early Modern Europe and the Wider World
Topic 1: Europe from Renaissance to Reformation, 1492-1567
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The union of Castille and Aragon; the discovery of the New World. The structure of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles V and its international relations. The Hapsburg/Valois wars. The consolidation of Tudor government. Humanism and political reform in Western Europe. The struggle against the Turks. The origins of the revolt in the Netherlands. | The divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon |
| Society and economy | The "Vital Revolution"; sources of economic recovery: the impact of the New World; the role of the State; prices, companies. Family size and patterns of marriage. | Seville, the port of the New World |
| Culture, religion and science | The structure of Christendom; the Papacy. Art and religion. Humanism; printing. The origins of the Reformation in Germany; the spread of the Reformation; the Radical Reformation; the CounterReformation. | Calvin's Geneva |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Niccolò Machiavelli; Charles V; Hernan Cortes; Jacob Fugger; Christopher Columbus; Michelangelo Buonarroti; MartinLuther; Desiderius Erasmus; Mary Tudor; Pieter Breughel the Elder.
Key concepts
Balance of power; re-conquest; Christendom; empire; new monarchy; rebellion; subsistence; primogeniture; inflation; justprice; Renaissance; humanism; grace; justification; ecclesiastical authority; predestination.
Topic 2: Religion and power: politics in the later 16th century, 1567-1609
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | Spain under Philip II. Revolt of the Netherlands. The French Wars of Religion. Elizabethan England. The rise of Muscovy. Competition for Empire in the West. The Holy Roman Empire under Rudolf II. | The Spanish Armada |
| Society and economy | Economic crises: inflation, causes and consequences. Demographic trends; shifting balance of trade. Techniques of land use. Structure of family; patterns of inheritance. | The decline of the port of Antwerp |
| Culture, religion and science | The Catholic offensive; close of Council of Trent. International Calvinism; rise of toleration; Patriarchate of Moscow; Elizabethan Anglicanism. Neoclassicism; printing and popular literature. Astronomy. | The Jesuit mission in China |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Philip II; William the Silent; Elizabeth I; Admiral Coligny; Matteo Ricci; Jacobus Arminius; Catherine de Medici; Michelde Montaigne; Sir Walter Raleigh; Tycho Brahe.
Key concepts
Sovereignty; "cuius regio, eius religio"; resistance; empire; inflation; kinship; united Christendom; mission; orthodoxy;toleration.
Topic 3: The eclipse of Old Europe, 1609-1660
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The development of French absolutism. England: constitutional change. Spain: responses to internal and international challenges. The Thirty Years war; the "military revolution"; the Hapsburg empire. The rise of new powers: Sweden, Holland, and Muscovy. | The revolt of the Catalans |
| Society and economy | Serfdom and varieties of peasantry; women, work and family. Decline of old industry; climatic change. Decline in money supply. Recovery of aristocratic fortunes; war and economic change; the commercial revolution; rise of the entrepreneur; "witch-hunting". | The Dutch empire in Asia |
| Culture, religion and science | Baroque music and art. Internal theological disputes: Pietism in Germany; the Papacy and the Jesuits; Anglicans and Puritans. New modes of political thought: theories of constitutions. Rise of empirical science. | Galileo and the Inquisition |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Marie de' Medici; Cardinal Richelieu; Count Olivares; Albrecht von Wallenstein; Queen Christina of Sweden; ClaudioMonteverdi; Peter Paul Rubens; Gian Lorenzo Bernini; Hugo Grotius; René Descartes.
Key concepts
Absolutism; republicanism; empire; mercantilism; inflation; state finance; baroque; pietism.
Topic 4: Europe in the age of Louis XIV, 1660-1715
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The absolute monarchy of Louis XIV. Wars against the Dutch, 1660-1697. The Restoration in England; the fall of the Stuart monarchy. Spain: responses to internal and international challenges; the War of the Spanish Succession. The rise of Brandenburg. Poland under Sobieski. Peter the Great of Russia. The structures of international relations: diplomats, ambassadors, and treaties. | The Streltsy |
| Society and economy | Economic consequences of war; demographic decline and the evolution of the family; imbalances in trade new imports; smuggling and piracy. Banking and the development of the money market. Trading companies; commercialisation of agriculture; expansion of cities. | The (English) East India Company |
| Culture, religion and science | Gallicanism; anti-Popery in England; the Huguenots; the Orthodox Church in Poland and Russia. State patronage of arts and science. Debates within the sciences (Cartesians v. Newtonians) The Grand Tour. | The court of Versailles |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Louis XIV; Peter the Great; Jan de Witt; John Sobieski; Jean Baptiste Colbert; Sir Henry Morgan; Sébastien le Prestre deVauban; Isaac Newton; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz; Madame de Maintenon.
Key concepts
Absolute monarchy; patronage; balance of power; credit; joint stock companies; customs and excise; established religion;Gallicanism.
Topic 5: Establishing empires, 1715-1775
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | The structure of European states: bureaucracies, public taxation; the development of provincial administration in the Hapsburg and Russian Empires. European armies: problems of recruitment, training, pay and supplies; the development of strategic military planning. The diplomacy of empires; diplomatic revolutions. European dynastic wars. Prussia under the Fredericks. Imperial war in the west: 1739-1748, 1756-1763. Colonial revolts v. Spain and France; origins of the American Revolution. | The Boston Tea Party, 1773 |
| Society and economy | Territorial expansion; colonial acquisitions and European reclamations. International trade: tobacco, sugar and slaves. Rural society: tradition and change. Mercantilism and laissez-faire; capital accumulation; urban growth. Orders in society; the defence of privilege; new middle class. Poverty, disease and population growth. Communications: road and canal building. | The West Indies slave plantations |
| Culture, religion and science | Origins of the Enlightenment; historical and scientific criticism; political, social and economic ideas of the Enlightenment; religious ideas of the Enlightenment deism, anticlericalism; religious revivalists - Pietists, Methodists. Communication of ideas: the novel; the newspaper; the salon; the spread of literacy | The Encyclopedie |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
Catherine the Great; Frederick the Great; Maria Theresa; Robert Clive; the Duke of Bridgewater; Baron de Montesquieu;Voltaire; Denis Diderot; Jean Jacques Rousseau; Benjamin Franklin.
Key concepts
Balance of power; partition; empire; laissez faire; privilege; capital accumulation; technology; bourgeoisie; the Enlightenment;criticism; reason; nature; deism; social utility.
Topic 6: Empires in revolution, 1775-1815
| Perspective | Elements | Case studies |
|---|
| Politics and administration | Establishment of the American Republic, 1776-1789. Origins of the revolution in France, 1775-1789. Origins of the French Republic, 1789-1793. The European revolutionary wars, 1792-1799. The Napoleonic State in France. Napoleonic Europe. | The Committee of Public Safety |
| Society and economy | Economic change: the impact of the agricultural and industrial revolutions; impact of the revolutionary wars; British dominance and Napoleon's "continental system". Social change: abolition of feudalism and nobility; rise of propertied classes; abolition of slave trade; emancipation of the Jews. The problem of poverty: rise of industrial towns; impact of war; population growth. | The growth of Manchester |
| Culture and religion | Enlightenment ideas and revolution: popular sovereignty and democracy. Religion and revolution: anticlericalism; deism; church-state relations in France and Napoleonic Europe. Rise of cultural nationalism: resistance in the German states to Napoleon. | The Civil Constitution of the Clergy |
In their study of the topic, students should become aware of the role of certain key personalities.
Another "key" to developing understanding will be learning to identify the main issues through a familiarity with certainkey concepts.
Key personalities
Students should be aware of the contribution of the following to the developments listed under the elements above:
James Madison; Louis XVI; Madame de Staël; Maximilien de Robespierre; Napoleon; William Pitt; Mary Wollstonecraft;Joseph Fouché; Tom Paine; Ludwig van Beethoven.
Key concepts
Ancien régime; revolution; constitution; reign of terror; republicanism; counter-revolutionary; nationalism; capitalism;utilitarianism; laissez faire; penal servitude; romanticism; ultramontanism.