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Planters, chiefs and hollowed out cheese |
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Build up to plantation
Gaelic Ireland, before plantation, was a patchwork of independent kingdoms each ruled by a chieftain and bound by a common set of legal, social and religious traditions. Ulster, in the north, had always been the largest area under Gaelic rule since medieval times.
Expeditions by the English to complete its conquest during the late 16th Century, and the forced plantations already underway in southern Ireland, caused Ulster chiefs to upgrade their military strength.
They achieved this by 'arming the peasants' and by importing regiments of soldiers from the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, at great expense. The constant fighting not only kept armies on the move, but turned villages into herds of refugees with their livestock - transferring out of war-torn areas under the leadership of their local lords.
James VI of Scotland became James I of England on the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. James I was under pressure from Scottish suitors for a share of the valuable land in Ulster. The fact that almost half of the land was granted to the Scots was a bitter pill to swallow for the Englishmen.
Hugh O`Neill, Earl of Tryone.
Hugh O`Neill, Earl of Tryone.
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It was the English who had lost thousands of men during a great rebellion lead by the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill and his allies in the north (the 9 years war 1594-1603). O'Neill eventually negotiated a conditional surrender to the English, and was allowed to return to his lands.
However, just four years later, in 1607, Hugh O'Neill and the Earl of Tyrconnell fled Ulster in what was to become known as "The Flight of the Earls". This sudden desire to leave (O'Neill's son, and even Tyrconnells's pregnant wife were left behind) has remained an intriguing historical puzzle ever since.
Some historians would argue they left due to persecution - the English Lords not trusting the previously rebellious troublemakers. Another point of view has the Earls up to their neck in treason, and yet another argument has the Earls fleeing to seek military help abroad, before returning to wage war on the English.
Ulster was known as the "fountain head" of rebellion, with the Ulster Irish proving a formidable foe for the English. King James saw the Irish Earls' departure as the perfect opportunity to strengthen the Protestant population with fresh English and Scottish settlers, while at the same time putting an end to revolt in Ireland forever.
After the flight of the Earls, the native Irish Catholics had designs on a new Ulster too. Indeed the Irish were to be given a substantial stake in the new settlement by the Crown, hoping that support for their exiled Lords would evaporate.
In reality, only somewhere between a quarter and fifth of the confiscated land in Ulster was returned to local inhabitants. Scots and English settlers were granted almost an identical share of the land in the Ulster Plantation. English officers had hoped that they would have received the lion's share of any Plantation in Ulster. The Scots had their King in London at just the right time.
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