Editing Leinster (section)

===Kingdom of Ireland period===
Leinster includes the extended "[[English Pale]]", counties controlled directly from Dublin, at the beginning of the 1600s. The other three provinces had their own regional "Presidency" systems, based on a Welsh model of administration, in theory if not in fact, from the 1570s and 1580s up to the 1670s, and were considered separate entities.  Gradually "Leinster" subsumed the term "[[The Pale]]", as the kingdom was pacified and the difference between the old Pale area and the wider province, now also under English administration, grew less distinct.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

The expansion of the province took in the territory of the ancient [[Kingdom of Mide]] encompassing much of present-day counties [[County Meath|Meath]], [[County Westmeath|Westmeath]] and [[County Longford|Longford]] with five west [[County Offaly]] baronies.<ref>{{cite book| title = Irish Leaders and Learning Through the Ages | publisher = Four Courts Press | first = Paul | last = Walsh | page = 33 | isbn = 9781851825431 | year = 2003 | chapter = 1 (Early Leinster and Meath, province and diocese ) }}</ref> Local lordships were incorporated during the [[Tudor conquest of Ireland]] and subsequent [[Plantations of Ireland|plantation schemes]].

Other boundary changes included [[County Louth]], officially removed from [[Ulster]] in 1596, the baronies of [[Ballybritt]] and [[Clonlisk]] (formerly [[Éile|Éile Uí Chearbhaill]] in the county palatine of [[County Tipperary|Tipperary]]) in [[Munster]] becoming part of Leinster in 1606, and the 'Lands of [[Ballymascanlon]]' transferred from Armagh to Louth {{Circa|1630}}. The provincial borders were redrawn by [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]] for administration and military reasons, and the Offaly parishes of [[Annally]] and [[Lusmagh]], formerly part of [[Connacht]], were transferred in 1660.

The last major boundary changes within Leinster occurred with the formation of [[County Wicklow]] (1603–1606),<ref>{{cite book | url = http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archives/war-politics-and-the-irish-of-leinster/ | title = War, politics and the Irish of Leinster, 1156–1606 | publisher = Four Courts Press | date = 2003 | isbn = 1851826904 | quote = ''Leinster from the death of Toirdhealbhach O’Connor in 1156 to the establishment, in 1606, of County Wicklow – the last Irish and Leinster county to be created'' | first = Emmett | last = O'Byrne | access-date = 17 February 2018 | archive-date = 21 November 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171121174715/http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archives/war-politics-and-the-irish-of-leinster/ | url-status = live }}</ref> from lands in the north of [[Carlow]] (which previously extended to the sea) and most of southern Dublin.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Kings, Saints and Sagas | publisher = Geography Publications |editor=Ken Hannigan |editor2=William F. Nolan | pages = [https://archive.org/details/wicklowhistoryso00kenh/page/41 41–111] | date = 1994 | first = Alfred P. | last = Smyth | journal = Wicklow History & Society | isbn = 9780906602300 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/wicklowhistoryso00kenh/page/41 }}</ref> Later minor changes dealt with "islands" of one county in another. By the late 1700s, Leinster looked as shown in the above map of 1784.