The Making of the British Isles

The Making of the British Isles

The State of Britainand Ireland 1450-1660

Steven G. Ellis, with Christopher Maginn

The history of the British Isles is the story of four peoples linked together by a process of state building that was as much about far-sighted planning and vision as coincidence, accident and failure. It is a history of revolts and reversal, familial bonds and enmity, the study of which does much to explain the underlying tension between the nations of modern day Britain.  

The Making of the British Isles recounts the development of the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland from the time of the Anglo-French dual monarchy under Henry VI through the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation crisis, the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Anglo-Scottish dynastic union, the British multiple monarchy and the Cromwellian Republic, ending with the acts of British Union and the Restoration of the Monarchy.

Professor Ellis offers a unique insight into this formative period in Britains history: not the national histories of four distinct nations but the story of the population of an Archipelago whose political identity was never pre-determined.

Professor Steven G. Ellis is Head of the History Department in NUI Galway. His best-known studies are Ireland in the Age of the Tudors (1998) and Tudor Frontiers and Noble Power:  the making of the British state (1995). 

Dr Christopher Maginn is Assistant Professor of History at Fordham University, Nnew York. He has recently authored 'Civilising' Gaelic Leinster: The Extension of Tudor Rule in the O'Byrne and O'Toole Lordships (2004).