A Norman Kingdom and 'Angevin' Empire

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A is Anjou, which Henry II inherited from his father, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. B is Aquitaine, which Henry gained by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152.

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Source A is very useful to an historian studying English attitudes towards the Irish, mainly because of who wrote it and why. Gerald describes the Irish as 'a wild and inhospitable people' who 'live like beasts', and says they neglect farming and are poorly instructed in Christianity. This shows the view that the Irish were uncivilised, which was used to justify the conquest. It fits what I know: the papal letter Laudabiliter spoke of the need to reform an 'ignorant' people, and after Henry II's arrival in 1171 the Synod of Cashel in 1172 brought the Irish Church into line with English practice. Gerald's complaint about farming also reflects a real difference: Irish wealth was mainly in cattle, which Gerald, used to the arable farming of England and Normandy, saw as backward.

The provenance explains these attitudes. Gerald came from a Welsh-Norman family, and several of his relatives, such as Robert FitzStephen, were among the first knights to invade Ireland in 1169-1170. He dedicated the book to Henry II, so he had every reason to present the conquest as justified and the Irish as needing to be ruled. This makes the source unreliable as a description of the Irish, who in fact had a rich Christian culture of monasteries and illuminated manuscripts. However, it makes the source very reliable as evidence of what the conquerors and the English court believed.

The source is not completely one-sided: Gerald praises the Irish for their great skill in music, which suggests he was writing from some observation, as he visited Ireland in 1183 and 1185. His attitudes also had long-term effects, as similar ideas lay behind the Statutes of Kilkenny of 1366, which tried to stop English settlers adopting Irish customs.

Overall, Source A is very useful for studying the attitudes of the English conquerors and their supporters, precisely because it is biased, but it cannot be trusted as an accurate picture of Irish society.

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Henry II's reign was significant for the relationship between England and France because it made the King of England more powerful in France than the French king himself. Henry inherited Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Normandy from his parents, gained the huge duchy of Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor in 1152, and became King of England in 1154. Later he took control of Brittany through the marriage of his son Geoffrey and became Lord of Ireland. Historians call this collection of lands the 'Angevin' Empire. Henry spent more than half his reign in France, and he died at Chinon and was buried at Fontevraud in Anjou, which shows that his interests lay as much in France as in England.

The second aspect is the rivalry this created. For his French lands Henry owed homage to the King of France, and Louis VII and Philip II used their rights as overlord to weaken him. In 1159 Henry tried to take Toulouse but withdrew rather than fight Louis, his overlord, in person. Louis sheltered Thomas Becket during his exile from 1164 to 1170 and backed the great revolt of Henry's sons and Eleanor in 1173-1174. Philip II, king from 1180, set Henry's sons against their father, and in 1189 Henry died after being defeated by Richard and Philip. England's wealth paid for these wars, while the country was run in Henry's absence by justiciars and the Exchequer.

In the long term, Henry's reign left a legacy of conflict. The rivalry continued under Richard I and John, and in 1204-1205 Philip II conquered Normandy and Anjou. Gascony stayed English, and disputes over it led to the Treaty of Paris in 1259 and eventually to the Hundred Years' War from 1337. Henry's reign therefore marked both the height of English power in France and the beginning of a struggle with the French monarchy that lasted for centuries.

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Religion has played an important part in England and Britain's relationship with Ireland, both as a justification for intervention and, after the Reformation, as a deep source of division. However, the struggle for land and power, and English fears for their own security, were more constant factors. I will argue that religion was important but not the main factor across the whole period.

Religion was used to justify the first English intervention. The papal letter Laudabiliter, said to date from 1155, approved Henry II's entry into Ireland to reform the Irish Church, and after Henry arrived in 1171 the Synod of Cashel in 1172 reorganised the Church on English lines. However, religion was a justification rather than the real cause. The intervention began because Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, appealed for help in 1166, and Henry crossed to Ireland in 1171 because he feared Strongbow would set up an independent kingdom. Power, ambition and land were the driving forces, as Anglo-Norman lords seized land and built castles.

Ideas about civilisation also mattered in the Middle Ages. Gerald of Wales described the Irish as 'a wild and inhospitable people' who lived 'like beasts', and in 1366 the Statutes of Kilkenny tried to stop English settlers adopting Irish language, dress and law. These were cultural divisions, not religious ones, as both peoples were Catholic. By about 1500 English control had shrunk to the Pale around Dublin.

Religion became far more important after the Reformation. England became Protestant while most of Ireland remained Catholic, so the English feared that Ireland could be used by Catholic enemies. These fears were realised when Spanish troops landed at Kinsale in 1601 to help the Irish rebels in the Nine Years' War. After the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the government began the plantation of Ulster in 1609, settling Protestant English and Scots on land taken from Catholic Irish lords. This created a religious divide in Ulster that has lasted to the present day. However, even the plantation was also about land and security: it was meant to make Ulster loyal and profitable.

In the nineteenth century economic factors and government policy were most important. The Great Famine of 1845-1849 killed about a million people and drove huge numbers to emigrate; by 1851 over 700,000 Irish-born people lived in Britain. Many blamed the British government for doing too little. Religion still mattered, as Irish Catholic migrants in Britain faced anti-Catholic hostility, but their poverty and competition for jobs caused as much resentment.

In conclusion, religion was a key factor in the relationship between Britain and Ireland, especially after the Reformation, when it turned conquest into a lasting division between Protestant settlers and Catholic Irish. But across the whole period, land, power and security were more constant factors: they explain the intervention of 1169-1171, the plantations and the famine. Religion deepened divisions that were rooted in conquest and the struggle for land.