Customer Reviews

The Twilight Lords: Elizabeth I and the First Irish Holocaust

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The author presents a fair and balanced account of the Irish wars between the 1560s and 1603. Most of the book concentrates on the First and Second Desmond wars, and the adventures of "The Desmond", Gerald Fitzgerald.

Many giants of the age move across the pages of this book. We are introduced to Edmund Spenser ("The Faerie Queen"), Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, Phillip II of Spain, Francis Walshingham, William Cecil, Robert Dudley, James FitzMaurice, Gerald Fitzgerald, Red Hugh O'Donnell, Hugh O'Neill, James Eustace, Father Sanders, and many, many more.

Unfortunately, only 30-40 pages of the book are dedicated to the O'Neill uprising of the 1590s and early 1600s. One has the sense that the author was compelled to cut the work short. He rushes through the story of Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell, all the while exclaiming that theirs was the most significant rebellion in Ireland's history. Perhaps Mr. Berleth had grown tired of his subject by that point, and moved on to more interesting pursuits. Even so, The Twilight Lords was an illuminating read, and I highly recommend it to students of Irish and Elizabethan English history.

Like the previous reviewer wrote, this book centered mostly around the Desmond Wars which proves to be a highly destructive conflict for the Irish people. But the book also understand that Elizabeth didn't go into Ireland by chocie but by necessity. A weak nation so close to England where it could be used by her many enemies, Elizabeth couldn't let the Irish alone. Irish lords didn't help the matter by catering to Elizabeth's enemies. The near genocidial wars that took place during Elizabeth's reign was direct result of all that. Religion, English effort to colonialized and taxes didn't help. I thought the book covered the entire story of these Irish wars very nicely without boggling down the reader with excess information. But like the previous reviewer, I wish the author went bit more into the O'Neill rebellion which was quite important.