Lord Anglesey was a war hero and glamorous figure in London society when appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1828. Within months of his arrival he faced the first of three political crises that were fundamentally to threaten the British government's ability to maintain its control over the country: the campaign for Catholic emancipation; parliamentary reform; and the abolition of tithes (the ‘ Tithe War' ).
In each case, as Anglesey repeatedly grappled with widespread violence & incidents of insurrection, many members of the government feared that they faced the possibility of revolution. However, Anglesey quickly realised that violence was not the greatest threat against the power of the state, rather it was the determined resistance of a mass movement of people that was to prove impossible for the government to overcome, and that this could in many ways be ‘ worse than war'.
A political novice when appointed, this book explores how the policies, opinions, and personal relationships between Anglesey, Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Grey, Daniel O'Connell, Edward Stanley, and others, impacted on unfolding events and the long term consequences that they had for Britain & Ireland.
