Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450

In this collection of essays Robin Frame concentrates upon two main themes: the place of the Lordship of Ireland within the Plantagenet state; and the interaction of settler society and English government in the culturally hybrid frontier world of later medieval Ireland itself. As a preludeto both these themes, Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450 begins with a hitherto unpublished discussion of why 'the first English conquest of Ireland' has been viewed as a failure, and has rarely received the attention it deserves.

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 centruy; the identity of the 'English' political community that emerged in Ireland by the reign of Edward III; and the case for a broadly conceived British 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.