Part II
Ireland in 1500 had been shaped by the Norman conquest, initiated by Anglo-Norman barons in the 12th century. Ireland was not formally a realm, but rather a lordship; the title was assumed by the English monarch upon coronation. Many of the native Gaelic Irish had been expelled from various parts of the country (mainly the east and southeast) and replaced with English peasants and labourers. The Gaelic Irish were, for the most part, outside English jurisdiction, maintaining their own language, social system, customs and laws. The English referred to them as “His Majesty’s Irish enemies”. In legal terms, they had never been admitted as subjects of the Crown.
The rise of Gaelic influence resulted in the passing in 1366 of the Statutes of Kilkenny, which outlawed many social practices that had been developing apace (e.g. intermarriage, use of the Irish language and Irish dress). By the end of…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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