Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450

In this collections of essays Robin Frame concentrates upon two themes: the place of the Lordship of Ireland within the Plantagenet state, an the interaction of settler society and English government in the culturally hybrid frontier world of later medieval Ireland itself. As a prelude of both these themes, Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450 begins with a discussion of why 'the first English conquest of Ireland' has been viewed as a 'failure'. The first group of essays addresses such topics as the changing character of the aristocratic networks that bound Ireland to Britain, the impact of the Scottish invasion led by Edward and Robert Bruce in the early fourteenth century, the identity of the 'English' political community that emerged in Ireland by the reign of Edward III, and the case for a broadly conceived English history, incorporating rather than excluding the English of Ireland. The subsequent group explore the character of Irish warfare, the adaptation of English institutions to a marcher environment, the exercise of power by regional magnates, and the complex practical interactions between royal government and Gaelic Irish leaders.