During the sixteenth century English policy in Ireland underwent extensive change. Against a wider European background of confessional division and strife, Ireland became a serious problem for the Tudor monarchy. The dangers facing English interests were manifest in a growing number of reform treatises, a selection of which make up this edition by David Heffernan. As an established method for offering advice to the Crown or its ministers, such works provided a medium for the articulation and development of policy. Yet the issue of reform was problematic. It emerged as a contested aim of Tudor rule, provoking highly motivated and politicized proposals that exposed a striking gap between ambition and reality. At the same time, as Heffernan notes, broad agreement on the problems in Ireland, or their remedy, was by no means universal. Arguments in favor of reform reflected, and at times amplified, fundamental differences in approach. They were compounded with the varied motives of authors whose attempts to influence policy were driven by self-promotion and interest. The means used to convey these mixed messages encompassed formal and informal treatises, memoranda, and letter-tracts, in addition to accounts of service in Ireland, such as Sir Henry Sidney’s reports of 1575, which contain evidence of his intentions for governing Ireland as lord deputy.

Out of a much larger number of more than six hundred treatises, David Heffernan has selected seventy for inclusion in this volume. They include well-known papers by royal representatives in Ireland, such as the Earls of Sussex and Essex, as well as Sir John Perrot, which have been the subject of careful examination and occasional controversy among historians of the period. A greater number are relatively neglected works, including several of the 1570s by Edmund Tremayne, the clerk of the Privy Council, which influenced the direction of policy toward the implementation of composition agreements as a means of introducing reform. Although some of this material is known from summaries in the Calendar of State Papers, a substantial number are printed here for the first time. Many appear to be brief working papers, some showing signs of hasty assembly; a smaller group of longer pieces shows evidence of more elaborate and careful construction. The authors of these works included prominent officials in Dublin, leading representatives of the “old English,” descendants of Anglo-Norman invaders and migrants, who were concerned to distinguish themselves from the unreformed Gaelic Irish, as well as English officers and settlers. The latter included ambitious colonists, such as Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who were prepared to consider extreme measures to achieve their goals. Although most of these works were intended for a small audience among the political elite of Tudor England, the survival of multiple copies suggests that they circulated, functioning as a form of political communication. Marginalia indicate that they were read and occasionally annotated, though in many cases, as Heffernan notes, their direct impact on policy was either slight or is difficult to gauge.

While there was no standard template for the reform treatise, a number of themes recurred with increasing frequency, in an attempt to impose English civility on the Gaelic Irish. Proposals concerning land, law, and jurisdiction focused on the burdens imposed by Irish leaders on their followers. Customary practices such as coign and livery were dismissed as tyrannical abuses. In characteristic language, Gilbert insisted that such disorders would destroy hell itself. Thomas Walshe was one of the earliest writers to raise the prospect of using the sword to destroy the wicked Irish, but in 1552 he dismissed it as ungodly and of uncertain consequence. Yet the language grew tougher during the crisis of the 1590s, with William Mostyn openly advocating a policy of armed force and famine. David Heffernan has done sterling work in making available such a rich and illuminating selection of works. He provides an informative introduction, drawing on recent research, including his own, to contextualize and explain the material. Each treatise also has an introductory commentary, providing information on the author and impact of the work. This is an invaluable collection of evidence for the study of English perceptions and policy toward Ireland during the Tudor period.