MIGRATION

5.4 Review: English control
5 The three kingdoms: England, Ireland and Scotland
5.4 Review: English control
REVIEW TASKS
You will need to explain how the English controlled Ireland and Scotland and
assess the impact this control had on those countries. You will also need to make a
judgement using contemporary sources and your own knowledge.
1 Copy and complete the table below, using as much detail as you can.
Ireland
Scotland
How the English
gained military
control
How the English
gained political control
How the English gained
economic control
Compare the ways in which the English gained military control of Ireland and
Scotland. Do the same for political and economic control.
2 Copy and complete the table below using as much detail as you can.
Ireland
Scotland
Social impact of
English rule
Political impact of
English rule
Economic impact of
English rule
Do you think England had a largely positive or negative impact on Ireland and
Scotland during this period?
3 ‘By 1730, English control of the British Isles was largely successful.’ Do the
sources in this chapter and your own knowledge convince you that this statement
is true?
KEY TERMS
Make sure you understand these key terms and can use them
confidently in your writing.
l Act of Union
l Ascendancy
l Highlanders
l Jacobites
l Lowlanders
l plantations
l Wars of the three Kingdoms
Uncorrected proof
Migration links
You already know about the tax on foreigners in the late Middle Ages, when
those born outside the king’s realm were classed as ‘aliens’. However, even
though English kings asserted their rule over Ireland, the Irish in England
were counted as aliens and taxed. From medieval times their status in English
eyes was therefore as colonised people – invaded and then controlled and
treated as inferior – rather than equal citizens.
In the seventeenth century, the Irish were already being portrayed as slaves,
cowards and ‘weeds’. These dehumanising, racist attitudes would worsen in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when poverty forced mass migration
to England.
Loss of land and harsh laws aimed at Catholics forced many more poorer Irish
people to emigrate across the Atlantic. The potato crop, seen as a lifesaver in
the 1700s, would be a major cause of famine and mass migration in the 1840s
(see Topic 3.3).
The attacks on the Scottish Highland way of life that began in this period
intensified over the next century and ended with the Clearances in the
mid nineteenth century that emptied the land of people and forced mass
emigration to Scottish and English industrial cities.
Impact on today’s world
Ireland is still deeply affected by the events of the 1690s. The divisions
between the majority Protestant north and the mainly Catholic south remain.
In Northern Ireland, although political power is shared, tension remains
between the mainly Protestant Loyalists, who want to remain in the UK,
and largely Catholic Nationalists, who want a united Ireland. On 12 July
each year, the anniversary of the Battle of Aughrim, Ulster Protestants
commemorate the Williamite victory with marches led by the Orange Order,
an Ulster Protestant organisation named in William’s honour. Disputes over
the naming of (London)derry continue.
After the defeat of the Scottish rising in 1715, one more Jacobite rebellion in
1745 failed and resulted in the total defeat of the Highland clans. Their way
of life has gone and the once populated glens and hills are largely empty of
people. Much of the Highlands and Islands still belongs to absentee private
landowners. Scotland remains part of Great Britain and the Act of Union is
still intact. However, Scotland now has its own parliament again, and the
Scottish Nationalists – who want independence – are by far the strongest
party in Scotland.
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