However, as officials issued these directives, they were convinced that the initial scheme was defective principally because it had relied excessively on the educational efficacy of model settlements which would be erected within an Irish environment (Leerssen, 1986). Therefore, it came to be assumed that such settlements could never endure if left in isolation, and Spenser's idea, that the entire country would have to be subjected to a scheme of plantation which would be promoted by the army, was adopted as a matter of principle by those who upheld the crown's interests in the country, even if this idea was not endorsed as official government policy. Therefore, this first experience at plantation in Munster was to have a lasting influence on the formulation of English policy for Ireland until well into the seventeenth century.

Once account is taken of the designs of continentally trained priests to dismantle the cultural barriers...
[ View Full Essay]