In 1541, the English Crown, under Henry VIII, initiated the policy of 'Surrender and Regrant,' which aimed to assimilate Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Irish lords into the English legal and political system. Under this policy, Irish chiefs were required to surrender their lands to the Crown and receive them back as grants under English law, in exchange for recognizing the king's authority and adopting English customs. The policy was a key element of the Tudor conquest, seeking to transform the fragmented Gaelic polity into a centralized English-style kingdom.

The Surrender and Regrant policy is a subject of poetic critique in the bardic tradition, which viewed it as a cynical attempt to undermine Gaelic sovereignty. Poets like Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn composed verses that warned of the dangers of accepting English titles and laws. The policy's legacy of legal and cultural assimilation is a recurring theme in Irish poetry, which often contrasts the authenticity of Gaelic tradition with the artificiality of English legal fictions.