Robin Frame 
Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450 [PDF ebook] 

In this collections of essays Robin Frame concentrates upon two themes: the place of the Lordship of Ireland within the Plantagenet state; an the interaction of settler society and English government in the culturally hybrid frontier world of later medieval Ireland itself. As a prelude of both these themes, ‘Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450’ begins with a discussion of why »the first English conquest of Ireland» has been viewed as a »failure». The first group of essays addresses such topics as the changing character of the aristocratic networks that bound Ireland to Britain; the impact of the Scottish invasion led by Edward and Robert Bruce in the early fourteenth century; the identity of the »English» political community that emerged in Ireland by the reign of Edward III; and the case for a broadly conceived English history, incorporating rather than excluding the English of Ireland. The subsequent group explore the character of Irish warfare, the adaptation of English institutions to a marcher environment; the exercise of power by regional magnates; and the complex practical interactions between royal government and Gaelic Irish leaders.