Kingdom of Ireland

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Kingdom of Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
1541–1801
not part of the Kingdom: Commonwealth (1651–1659)
Flag of Ireland 1541-1801 Coat of Arms of Ireland 1541–1801
flag coat of arms
← Banner of the Lordship of Ireland.svg navigation Flag of the United Kingdom.svg →
languages Irish , English , Yola , Fingallian
Capital Dublin
Form of government kingdom
Government system Constitutional monarchy
Head of state English King (1541–1707)
British King (1707–1801)
Head of government Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
surface 81,638 km² (1700)
population 3,000,000 (1700)
Population density 37 inhabitants per km² (1700)
currency Irish pound
National anthem God Save the King
Existence period 1541-1651, 1659-1801
Location of Ireland in Europe

Kingdom of Ireland ( English : Kingdom of Ireland , Irish Ríoghacht Éireann ) was since 1541 the name of the Irish state ruled by England .

history

The forerunner of the Kingdom of Ireland was the Lordship of Ireland , which had existed since 1171, but in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries it was limited to ever narrowing coastal strips around Dublin ( Pale (Ireland) ), Wexford and enclaves in Northern Ireland . In 1541 the title was by the Act of the Irish Parliament in King of Ireland ( King of Ireland ), and the name of the State in Ireland Kingdom ( Kingdom of Ireland ) changed. This happened at the insistence of Henry VIII , since the title had originally been granted to him by the Pope and Henry VIII had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church . The English king was formally also King of Ireland and ruled in personal union . In the following decades England was able to expand its control over Ireland until Ireland was completely under English control. As a result, numerous members of the Irish nobility left their homeland in 1607, whereby one spoke of the " Flight of the Earls ", practically the end of Gaelic Ireland and the Irish clans.

Gaelic Irish, Old English and royalist English settlers founded the Confederation of Kilkenny in 1642 , which aimed to establish a Catholic, loyal Ireland. Oliver Cromwell's forces ended the Irish uprising by 1652. Further uprisings followed, all of which were suppressed and worsened the legal situation of the predominantly Catholic Irish. In 1798 there were again major uprisings in Ireland and organizations such as the Society of United Irishmen , led by Lord Eduard Fitzgerald and Wolfe Tone, formed . The uprising was put down soon afterwards.

After the Irish Parliament had approved the Act of Union 1800 , the unification of the Kingdom of Ireland with the Kingdom of Great Britain took place in 1801 ; this resulted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . The Irish Parliament had ceased to exist, but the executive headed by the Lord Lieutenant remained in place until 1922. It was then that the 26 southern counties formed the Irish Free State and left the United Kingdom .

administration

The kingdom was ruled by an executive body under the control of a Lord Deputy , later a Lord Lieutenant . Although some Irish held this high office, most of the Lord Deputies were English nobles. There was a bicameral parliament, consisting of the House of Commons (lower house) and the House of Lords (upper house); both chambers almost always met in Dublin . The powers of the Irish Parliament were restricted by a number of laws, notably the Poynings' Law of 1492. Catholics, who made up the majority of the population, were almost always excluded from representation in Parliament. Most of the restrictions were lifted in 1782.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fionn Davenport: Lonely Planet - Ireland , German edition, MairDumont publishing house, Stuttgart 2010, p. 532, ISBN 3-8297-1665-6