The Eighteenth-Century Composite State: Representative Institutions in Ireland and Europe, 1689-1800

This pioneering exploration of the phenomenon of the composite state in Eighteenth-century Europe employs a comparative approach to sustain the case for the inclusion of Ireland within this interpretative framework. Written by acknowledged experts, the collection uniquely combines the findings of new research on Ireland with broader syntheses of some of the major composite states of Europe. With accounts of the pays d'etat of Burgundy (Julian Swann) and Languedoc (Stephen J. Miller) in France, on the Hungarian diet and Austria (Orsolya Szakaly) and Poland-Lithuania (Richard Butterwick), and of Irish confessional (James Kelly, David Hayton), financial (C.I. McGrath), improving (Andrew Sneddon) and security (Neal Garnham) legislation, as well as a reflective introduction and conclusion setting the essays in their wider historical and interpretative context, this collection both amplifies understanding of the nature of the European composite state and of the deliberations of the Irish parliament. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of eighteenth-century European and Irish history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Irish Parliament in European Context: a Representative Institution in a Composite State; D.W.Hayton & J.Kelly Money, Politics and Power: the Financial Legislation of the Irish Parliament; C.I.McGrath Sustaining a Confessional State: the Irish Parliament and Catholicism; J.Kelly Parliament and the Established Church: Reform and Reaction; D.W.Hayton Defending the Kingdom and Preserving the Constitution: Reform of the Militia; N.Garnham Legislating for Economic Development: Irish Fisheries as a Case-Study in the Limitations of 'improvement'; A.Sneddon 'Le roi demande, les etats consente': Royal Council, Provincial Estates and Parliament in Eighteenth-century Burgundy; J.Swann The Estates of Languedoc in Eighteenth-Century France: Administrative Expansion and Feudal Revitalisation; S.J.Miller Managing a Composite Monarchy: the Hungarian Diet and the Habsburgs in the Eighteenth Century; O.Szakaly Lawmaking in a Post-Composite State? The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century; R.Butterwick Conclusion; D.W.Hayton& J.Kelly

About the Author :
D.W.HAYTON is Professor of Early Modern Irish and British History at Queen's University Belfast, UK. He is the author of Ruling Ireland 1685-1742 (Boydell, 2004), and many articles and essays on politics, religion and society in Ireland and Britain in the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries. JAMES KELLY is Cregan Professor of History, and Head of the History Department at St Patrick's College, Dublin City University, Ireland. His publications include Poynings' Law and the making of law in Ireland, 1660-1800 (2007), and The Proceedings of the House of Lords, 1771-1800 (3 vols, 2008) and Sir Richard Musgrave, 1746-1818: Ultra-Protestant Ideologue (2009). JOHN BERGIN is a Research Fellow at Queen's University Belfast, UK. His research interests include the Irish Catholic and Quaker political lobbies in the eighteenth century, and Irish private divorce acts.