Ireland. A History. A Nation Once Again? Part I. Иностранный язык. Фомина И.В - 11 стр.

                                          11
was a new line of monarchs on the English throne, the Tudors, and, with
their ideas of modern, centrally-controlled government they were determined that the
anarchy that thrived in Ireland should end.

II. Answer the questions.
    1. What was the beginning of London’s claim to concern itself with Ireland?
    2. Was the impact on the Gaelic world of Normans devastating? Why?
    3. How did kings of England try to stop the process of assimilation?
    4. What was “the Pale” for? When do we use the term “beyond the Pale”?
    5. The saying of that time went “more Irish than the Irish”. Who do you think it is
       about?
    6. What was the state of Ireland like when Henry VIII came to the throne?

III. Retell the text

                                         Unit Seven.

   I.     Read and translate the text.

    It was in 1534 that Henry VIII decided to put an end to such a state of affairs.
Ireland was in a particularly advanced state of anarchy that year because the great
House of Fitzgerald, earls of Kildare – the very House that was meant to represent the
royal authority in Ireland – was itself in open rebellion against the Crown. Henry laid
down an all-important change on paper: all lands in Ireland whether owned by Gaelic
Irish or Gaelicized English, were to be surrendered to the Crown and then re-granted,
thus asserting unquestionably the Crown’s claim to ultimate control over them. His
daughter, Elizabeth I, was to make this control a reality and apply it with a ruthless
severity.
    To the Old English the change in land tenure meant, theoretically, nothing new –
simply a re-affirmation of the relationship with their overlord, the king, which was
supposed to have existed all along. What was new was that the relationship would
now be enforced. For the Gaelic chieftains the change was enormous, both in theory
and in practice. They now no longer held their lands according to ancient Gaelic law
and tradition but by the English king’s law and by the English king’s goodwill, which
required in return their good behavior.
    At first they did not seem to recognize the danger. Perhaps they just assumed that
the new English government was going to be as ineffective as the old. Of this notion
they were soon to be sadly disabused. Their very habits and customs were to be held
up as excuses for the Government’s new rigour: ‘The Irish live like beasts,’ wrote one
contemporary English observer, ‘…are more uncivil, more uncleanly, more barbarous
in their customs and demeanours than in any part of the world that is known.’ The
contemporary woodcut artist John Derricke, revealing the extent to which Irish
chieftains had adopted some Elizabethan domestic principles along with Elizabethan
dress, also took pains to stress how in other respects they fell crudely below
Elizabethan standards.