On "bio-nationality" in Henry V from Nathaniel Ludewig's Essay

"The Wild Irish man" "The Wild Irish Woman" wearing the Irish Mantle
"It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?...he is an ass, as in the world." - Fluellen, Henry V 

In his essay, "Broken English, Broken Irish: Nation, Power, and the Optics of Power in Shakespeare's Histories," Michael Neill introduces the concept of bio-nationality, which defines one’s nation by one's blood. A person can never change his/her bio-nationality. The Irish soldier, Macmorris, in Shakespeare’s Henry V shows that nationhood in late 16th and early 17th century England is defined by blood when he poses the question, “What ish my nation?” This further complicates the English-Irish relationship. Neill writes, “ When, in the course of this century's first great anticolonialist revolution, Irish patriots. . . celebrated the ‘renaissance’ . . . their belief in Irish "nationhood" can be traced back to the sixteenth century and the earliest systematic attempt to absorb Ireland into the English body politic.” The idea of nationhood is not a natural concept — it is man-made. The English introduced this concept to the Irish, but Macmorris’s identity makes it clear that this nationhood is defined by blood. As they continued to be “civilized” through exposure to English culture, the Irish rebelled, insisting on their own nation. In fact, the allusion to the Earl of Essex in the final prologue dates play. In early 1599, Essex was sent to quell Tyrone's Rebellion (The 9 Year War). 

In this way, the entire surface construction of Henry V is a demonstration of English anxieties regarding Irish rebellion. Apart from the question posed by Macmorris, the play continually defines nationhood as a product of military expansion. It does this throughout the development of the plot as Henry tries to claim France as part of the English nation. This is military definition of nationhood is what Queen Elizabeth and her English authorities wanted the play's viewers to believe. As long as the Irish believe that they are part of the English nation, they will not rebel against it. The discrepancy between Henry V’s surface definition of nationhood and Macmorris’ definition of true nationhood is a manifestation of English anxieties about an Irish rebellion.

Elizabeth in Ireland timeline from the University of Wisconsin-Madison:
http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123%20256%20irish%20policy.htm