Early Tudor Ireland

1485 to 1547

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in Ireland, and is situated on the bank of the River Mattock, a tributary of the Boyne, in Co. Louth. It was founded by St Malachy in 1142 with a group of Irish and French monks who trained in Clairvaux in France. The building passed through many different owners after its dissolution in 1539, and was eventually abandoned in the 18th century and left to decay. The surviving ruins at Mellifont are the Lavabo, a chapter-house and a late medieval gatehouse. Excavations have revealed the foundations of other church buildings and a vast amount of tiles. From examination of the tiles, several clear patterns have emerged. Some of these involve animal patterns and others show floral and foliage motifs.

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in Ireland, and is situated on the bank of the River Mattock, a tributary of the Boyne, in Co. Louth. It was founded by St Malachy in 1142 with a group of Irish and French monks who trained in Clairvaux in France. The building passed through many different owners after its dissolution in 1539, and was eventually abandoned in the 18th century and left to decay. The surviving ruins at Mellifont are the Lavabo, a chapter-house and a late medieval gatehouse. Excavations have revealed the foundations of other church buildings and a vast amount of tiles. From examination of the tiles, several clear patterns have emerged. Some of these involve animal patterns and others show floral and foliage motifs.

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The end of the medieval way of life in Ireland was brought about, over a period of some hundred years, by the will of a powerful, new Royal family in England, established by Henry Tudor. Henry VII, who ruled from 1485 to 1509, had too much to concern him in England to be over involved with Ireland. He took control of the Irish parliament but left the great Earl of Kildare in charge as his deputy.

Henry's policy was to control the great baronial families - 'his over-mighty subjects' - by banning their private armies, by taxation and by making the ownership of their land dependent on the Crown. This
policy was extended to Ireland by his son, Henry VIII, who changed his title from Lord to King of Ireland introducing English subjects to the high offices of state and granting Irish lands to his supporters.

Henry VIII's greatest impact on Irish architecture lies in his dispute with the Papacy, his claim, established in 1534 in the Act of Supremacy, to be the head of the church in England and Ireland and his subsequent suppression, from 1536, of the minor - and later - the major monasteries. The closure and sale of church property throughout Ireland cut at the roots of Irish society, the provision for the poor, education, culture and learning. Within 50 years most of the abbeys and friaries of the country had been demolished or were in ruins.