‘Not Christian, Civil or Human Creatures, But Heathen or Rather Savage and Brute Beasts’: Andrew Trollope and the ‘Reform’ of Ireland in the 1580s

Abstract

The closing years of the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) saw a hardening of attitudes among many of the New English in Ireland towards the Irish and Old English communities there. Historians have concentrated on a number of works which exemplify this attitude, notably Edmund Spenser’s A View of the Present State of Ireland. This article focuses on an earlier proponent of this outlook, a wandering lawyer, Andrew Trollope. In the 1580s, Trollope composed two extensive treatises on Ireland which contain some of the most vituperative attacks written by a Tudor commentator on the Irish, their character, religion and society. Often commented upon, though never examined in detail, this article provides the first in-depth assessment of Trollope’s writings.