The Book of Howth: Elizabethan Conquest and the Old English [Hardcover]

This book addresses the evolution and impact of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland on the Old English colonial community through a detailed study of The Book of Howth. Its compiler, the 7th baron of Howth, an influential member of the Old English colonial aristocracy, has traditionally received only passing mention for his opposition to Sir Henry Sidney as lord deputy, for which he was imprisoned in 1577 and again in 1578, and for the charges of domestic abuse brought against him in 1579 for which he was imprisoned a third time. A more careful look at these episodes within this context brings attention to the turbulence created within the Old English community prior to their more strident displays of opposition in the later Elizabethan and Stuart periods.

The Book of Howth, though long neglected as an erroneously-perceived work of uncertain authorship, dating, and worth, was, in fact, as this study argues, compiled purposefully by Howth over the decade of the 1570s in response to this process. This study therefore reassesses Howth???s text for its contribution to assessments of colonial practice, conflict and positioning in the later sixteenth century. This is the first serious treatment of Christopher St. Lawrence, Baron Howth (1510-1589), twice imprisioned for strongly opposing Sir Henry Sidney in the argument of 1577-1578 although Howth eventually settled with the authorities in Dublin. The new close look at the manuscript yields political and military details in connection with the failed Elizabethan conquest of Ireland and certain material on the Elizabethan effort to lessen the cost of Irish adventures...Whoever the compilers were the document is a valuable contribution to the history of colonization. McGowan-Doyle focuses on a 16th-century manuscript, The Book of Howth, complied by Christopher St. Lawrence, seventh Baron of Howth. The manuscript includes a narrative history of Ireland compiled from misclÖ