Ireland

The Kingdom of Ireland was established in 1542 under Henry VIII of England and governed from Dublin Castle. English authority had previously been strongest around the Pale, while Gaelic lords held much of the island.

The Tudor conquest provoked resistance: Hugh O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell led a confederacy against the Crown in the Nine Years' War, which ended in 1603. Land confiscations and settlement followed, and a Protestant minority came to dominate the kingdom. After the failed rebellion of 1798, the Acts of Union joined Ireland to Great Britain in 1801.