6 - Reform government and the community of the Pale

Summary

The estrangement of the community of the Pale from the Dublin administration in the latter part of the sixteenth century has never been satisfactorily explained. Yet the main outlines of this gradual process are clear enough. The Palesmen who had willingly embraced the Henrician Reformation, who had rejoiced in the constitutional changes of 1541 and whose most articulate spokesmen had repeatedly urged the planting of more Englishmen in the island, began to show serious dissatisfaction almost as soon as the effects of increased governmental activity began to be felt. The earliest signs of dissent appeared in the mid–1550s when Sussex and his associates began to complain of the Palesmen's recalcitrance. But resentment became much more overt a decade later when widespread opposition within the Pale was a source of severe embarrassment to the lieutenant and played a major role in the eventual collapse of his administration. Sidney encountered resistance in the late 1560s and most importantly in the late 1570s when the Palesmen's refusal to accept his composition scheme was a major factor in his downfall. In the early 1580s the conduct of Lord Grey's administration was a source of major discontent within the Pale, and at this time also, a number of Palesmen, led by the young Viscount Baltinglas carried opposition to the government to the point of plotting treason and rebellion.