Disappointingly little remains of the original manuscripts dating from the Plantation’s early decades in this collection, owing in part to a fire in London’s Guildhall in 1786. Nevertheless, the inclusion of later copies of items dating from 1609, such as a table of lands and landholders, helps in reconstructing other elements of the Plantation’s early … Read more
After the Nine Years’ War, pardons given to the Ulster Irish lords who had risen in revolt against the Crown suggest a power vacuum in the northern province and an impecunious state in no position to fill it. Attempts had been made to shire Ulster and impose English law from the 1580s, but following the … Read more
During the first decade of the seventeenth century, Ulster, traditionally a bastion of Gaelic society and culture, was transformed in a relatively short time by the military defeat and subsequent departure to the Continent of the northern earls, Rory O’Donnell and Hugh O’Neill. Moreover, the unsuccessful revolt in 1608 of Sir Cahir O’Doherty persuaded the … Read more
In the Tudor period England had done its best to keep Scotland out of any dealings with the third of James VI and I’s kingdoms, Ireland. Those who had attempted plantations under Elizabeth did not want the Scots involved. The helpful offers of Archibald, earl of Argyll, in the 1560s to support the English viceroy … Read more
Sir Cahir O’Doherty’s short-lived rebellion in 1608 took almost everyone by surprise. He had shown himself to be a very willing collaborator with the English Crown in the decisive phase of the Nine Years’ War (1594–1603) and afterwards. Yet O’Doherty was driven to conclude that his earnest efforts to integrate himself into the Stuart … Read more