Making Ireland English: The Irish Aristocracy in the Seventeenth Century - Paperback

by Jane Ohlmeyer (Author)

This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive study of the re-making of Ireland's aristocracy during the seventeenth century. It is a study of the Irish peerage and its role in the establishment of English control over Ireland. Jane Ohlmeyer's research in the archives of the era yields a major new understanding of the early modern British elite, and it describes with new accuracy the experiences of the Irish lords in a wider British and continental context.

The book examines the resident peerage as an aggregate of 91 families, not simply 311 individuals, and demonstrates how a reconstituted peerage of mixed faith and ethnicity assimilated the established Catholic aristocracy. Tracking the impact of colonization, civil war, and other significant factors on the fortunes of the Irish peerage, Ohlmeyer arrives at a fresh assessment of the key accomplishment of the new Irish elite: making Ireland English.

Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History and Vice-Provost for Global Relations at Trinity College, Dublin.

Author Biography

Jane Ohlmeyer is Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History and Vice-Provost for Global Relations, Trinity College, Dublin. She is the author of Civil War and Restoration in the Three Stuart Kingdoms and Ireland from Independence to Occupation. She lives in Dublin, Ireland.