Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2015 Henry VIII and the Irish Political Nation: An Assessment of Tudor Imperial Kingship In 16th Century Ireland Emily Schwartz Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the European History Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons Recommended Citation Schwartz, Emily, "Henry VIII and the Irish Political Nation: An Assessment of Tudor Imperial Kingship In 16th Century Ireland" (2015). Honors Theses. 387. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/387 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Henry VIII and the Irish Political Nation: An Assessment of Tudor Imperial Kingship In 16th Century Ireland By Emily Schwartz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in the Department of History Union College June 2015 Introduction Ireland in the 16th century was by far the most self-governed domain under the authority of King Henry VIII. Within Ireland there were two distinct groups of people, the Gaelic Irish and the Anglo-Irish, whose cultural differences divided the island into two distinct political nations. The majority of Ireland was dominated by Gaelic Irish lordships. Gaelic Irish lords recognized the English king as their overlord, but followed Gaelic customs and laws within their lordships. The small sphere of English influence in Ireland was reduced even more by the political hegemony of the Anglo-Irish magnates.