Information AboutThe Pale |
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The Pale or the '''English Pale''' comprised a region in a radius of 20 miles around Dublin which the English in Ireland gradually fortified against incursion from Gaels . From the thirteenth century onwards the Hiberno-Norman invasion in the rest of Ireland at first faltered then waned, allowing Gaelic Ireland to become resurgent. The word 'pale' derives ultimately from the Latin word 'palus', meaning stake. ('". Also derived from the 'boundary' concept was the idea of a 'pale' as an area within which local laws were valid. As well as the Pale in Ireland, the term was applied to various other English colonial settlements, and the Pale Of Settlement , the area in the west of Imperial Russia where Jews were permitted to reside. In the 15th Century the Pale became the only real piece of Ireland under the control of the English King's Dublin government and a tenuous foothold for the English on the island of Ireland. The Pale boundary essentially consisted of a fortified ditch and rampart built around parts of the medieval counties of Louth , Meath , Dublin and Kildare , actually leaving half of Meath and Kildare on the other side. The pale border line cut off an area south of the modern day M50 in Dublin. In 1366 , in order for the English Crown to assert its authority over the settlers, a parliament was assembled in Kilkenny and the Statute Of Kilkenny was established. The statute decreed that inter-marriage between English settlers and Irish natives was forbidden. It also forbade the settlers using the Irish language and adopting Irish modes of dress or other customs. Within the confines of the Pale the leading gentry and merchants lived lives not too different from that of their counterparts in England, except that they lived under the constant fear of attack from the Gaelic Irish. SEE ALSO
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