Jennifer Wells. Continental Realpolitik and its imperial resonance, 1649-92 by History Hub

Recording of a paper by Jennifer Wells (Brown University/ Institute of Historical Research) at the 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conference.

About the paper: ‘Spanish wine bee better than French’:
Continental Realpolitik and its imperial resonance, 1649-92.

In recent years, Irish historians have focused extensively on the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and its domestic ramifications, while also taking note of the extensive deportation of Irish men, women, and children to the West Indies. What (or, more precisely, who) has received much less attention are the estimated 60,000 Irishmen who, by the terms of the Act of Settlement and surrender articles granted to Irish troops by the English Parliament, fled to the Continent to serve in armies during the 1660s. This paper examines not only how this process unfolded, but also accounts for the wider European theatre of conflict, demonstrating how the exiled Charles Stuart's need to form a Continental alliance forced Irish elites and soldiers fighting for Spanish forces to switch their allegiance to the French in 1656-1657. Equally important, this paper shows how the future Charles II, making good on his promise to reward those Irish commanders who rallied their troops to the French army, appointed these men to key administrative positions in Tangier during the Restoration. The second portion of the paper thus examines how the Irish, once vanquished by Cromwellian policies, proceeded to win a place in the race for empire, embracing not only their Tangerine posts, but also putting the experience to use in both Bombay and the West Indies later in the seventeenth century. This paper accordingly demonstrates the importance of the wider European dimension when assessing early modern Irish history, the long-term repercussions of domestic Cromwellian policies to the imperial sphere, and the central role occupied by Irishmen, both Protestant and Catholic, in the English imperial project.

The 2014 Tudor and Stuart Ireland conference was generously supported by UCD School of History and Archives, UCD Research, Marsh's Library, Graduate Studies at NUI Maynooth, and the Department of History at NUI Maynooth.

Recorded for podcasting by Real Smart Media (@real-smart-media) for History Hub.