Originally published in 1977 this book describes a period which is a watershed in Irish history. In some ways, it marks the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the modern state of Ireland. The book is a study of the growth of English colonialism in sixteenth century Ireland. It traces the continuity of policy, if not of methods of executing policy, of the successive Tudor monarchs. The object of their Irish policy was to subjugate the hitherto troublesome lordship of Ireland administratively, and, starting in the reign of Henry VIII, religiously. As the colonial policy gained momentum under Edward VI a recurrent theme was plantation which was just as forcefully pursued by Mary and Elizabeth and James I. The Plantation of Ulster in 1608 set the seal on the destruction of Hiberno-Norman civilization.