This picture from John Derricke’s book, The Image of Irelande, depicts the Mac Sweynes having a feast.
(a) Can you find the head of the family? (b) What are the two men on the left at A doing?
D
(c) What jobs do you think the two people at D had in the family?
(d) The man at B is a priest. How do we know this? (e) What are the two men at C doing? (f) What do you think the two men on the far right at E are doing?
The causes of the plantations
As we saw in Chapter 6: Conquest and Colonisation, Spain created large empires in the New World (e.g. Mexico, Peru). The English king, Henry VIII, also wanted to expand his kingdom in order to control all of Ireland, not just the Pale.
During the English Reformation many people in England believed that the Catholic Irish should be forced to convert to Protestantism. They felt that Catholics could not be trusted as they might form an alliance with Catholic Spain or Catholic France who would use Ireland as a base from which to attack England.
Occasionally there were attempts by Irish leaders to force the English settlers out of Ireland. To protect the settlers Henry VIII needed to keep a large number of soldiers in Ireland. Therefore Henry decided that it would be cheaper to ‘plant’ loyal Protestants in Ireland who would do that job for him. These ‘planters’ would live in Ireland permanently.
These factors led Henry VIII to come up with an idea called Surrender and Regrant. 204