Editing The Pale (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2024}}
The Pale was a strip of land that stretched north from Dalkey in Dublin to Dundalk in Louth; it became the base of English rule in Ireland. The [[Norman invasion of Ireland]], beginning in 1169, created the [[Lordship of Ireland]] and brought Ireland under the theoretical control of the [[Plantagenet]] Kings of England. From the 13th century onwards, the [[Hiberno-Norman]] occupation in Ireland at first faltered, then waned. Across most of Ireland, the [[Normans]] increasingly assimilated into Irish culture after 1300. They made alliances with neighbouring autonomous Gaelic lords. In the long periods when there was no large royal army in Ireland, the Norman lords, like their Gaelic neighbours in the provinces, acted essentially as independent rulers in their own areas.

The [[Lordship of Ireland|Lordship]] controlled by the English king shrank accordingly, and as parts of its perimeter in counties [[County Meath|Meath]] and [[County Kildare|Kildare]] were fenced or ditched, it became known as the Pale, deriving from the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|palus}}, a stake, or, [[synecdoche|synecdochically]], a fence. Parts can still be seen west of [[Clane]] on the grounds of what is now [[Clongowes Wood College]]. The military power of the crown itself was greatly weakened by the [[Hundred Years War]] (1337–1453), and the [[Wars of the Roses]] (1455–85). The [[Parliament of Ireland]] was created, often sitting at [[Drogheda]] until the [[Tudors]] took a greater interest in Irish affairs from 1485 and moved it back to Dublin. The Pale generally consisted of fertile lowlands which were easier for the garrison to defend from ambush than hilly or wooded ground. For reasons of trade and administration, a version of English became the official language. Its closest modern derivative is said to be the accent used by natives of [[Fingal]].
[[File:The Pale According to the Statute of 1488 edit.jpg|thumb|The Pale – According to Statute of 1488]]
In 1366, so that the English Crown could assert its authority over the settlers, a parliament was assembled in [[Kilkenny]] and the [[Statute of Kilkenny]] was enacted. The statute decreed that [[Interethnic marriage|intermarriage]] between English settlers and Irish natives was forbidden. It also forbade the settlers from using the [[Irish language]] and adopting Irish modes of dress or other customs, as such practices were already common. The adoption of Gaelic [[Brehon law|Brehon]] property law, in particular, undermined the [[feudal]] nature of the Lordship. The Act was never implemented successfully, even in the Pale itself. This inability to enforce the statute indicated that Ireland was withdrawing from English cultural norms.

By the Tudor period, the [[Irish language|Irish culture and language]] had reestablished itself in regions conquered by the Anglo-Normans: "even in the Pale, all the common folk&nbsp;... for the most part are of Irish birth, Irish habit and of Irish language".<ref name="multitext.ucc.ie">{{cite web |url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Culture__Religion_in_Tudor_Ireland_1494-1558 |title=Culture & Religion in Tudor Ireland, 1494–1558. |website=[[University College Cork]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416173828/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Culture__Religion_in_Tudor_Ireland_1494-1558 |archive-date=16 April 2008}}</ref> At a higher social level, there was extensive intermarriage between the Gaelic Irish aristocracy and Anglo-Norman lords, beginning not long after the invasion.

By the late 15th century, the Pale became the only part of Ireland that remained subject to the English king, with most of the island paying only token recognition of the overlordship of the English crown. The tax base shrank to a fraction of what it had been in 1300. A proverb quoted by [[Sir John Davies]] said that "whoso lives by west of the [[River Barrow|Barrow]], lives west of the law."<ref name=Falkiner>{{cite book
 | last = Falkiner
 | first = Caesar Litton
 | title = Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the 17th century
 | url = https://archive.org/stream/illustrationsir00jouvgoog#page/n145/mode/2up
 | year = 1904
 | publisher = [[Longman|Longmans, Green, & Co]]
 | location = London
 | pages = 117
 | isbn = 1-144-76601-X
}}
</ref> The [[Earldom of Kildare|earls of Kildare]] ruled as lords deputy from 1470 (with more or less success), aided by alliances with the Gaelic lords. This lasted until the 1520s, when the earls passed out of royal favour, but the [[Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare|9th earl]] was reinstated in the 1530s. The brief revolt by his son [[Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Kildare|"Silken Thomas"]] in 1534–35 served in the following decades to hasten the [[Tudor conquest of Ireland]], in which Dublin and the surviving Pale were used as the crown's main military base.  A book ''A Perambulation of Leinster, Meath, and Louth, of which consist the English Pale'' (1596) expressed contemporary usage.<ref name=Falkiner />

The Pale was composed of [[Dublin]] and its surrounding area, the population of which was mainly made of [[Old English (Ireland)|Old English]] merchants who were loyal to the crown.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Canning |first1=Ruth A. |title=Profits and Patriotism: Nicholas Weston, Old English Merchants, and Ireland's Nine Years' War, 1594–1603 |journal=Irish Economic and Social History |date=2016 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=85–112 |doi=10.1177/0332489316666600 |jstor=26375947 |s2cid=157626208 }}</ref>