A Discoverie of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Neuer Entirely Subdued
Sir John Davies (1569-1626) asked in his A Discoverie of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Neuer Entirely Subdued (1612), 'why this Kingdome' [Ireland] was not 'thoroughly subdued and reduced to Obedience of the Crowne of England.' This was a naïve question given the complexities of Ireland and the Irish. Davies's position as Attorney General was made more difficult by his staunch desire to expel Catholic priests from Ireland, and to establish a system of law based on land rather than blood. This 1747 reprint of Davies's work details the naïve attitude of another: Agricola, who believed that Ireland could be conquered by one legion, and in only a few days.