How did the idea for the Plantation of Ulster arise?

Hi.

My name is Ruth Canning,

and I teach at Liverpool Hope University.

I am a historian of early modern Ireland with a

particular focus on on the impact of war on civilian

accidents, identity formation, and the impact of colonialism.

In this course, we are going to be exploring the ulster Plantation of

sixteen This was a massive social

engineering project,

which involved the colonization of ulster by large numbers of

English and Scottish people,

people who would soon come to see them as British.

It was not the first colonial project in our end, but

its legacy has been the most enduring.

It is anglo Irish politics to this day and it has been

largely responsible for dictating the social,

political, economic,

and religious graphics of Northern Ireland in the modern period.

Now, in this course,

we are going to explore why the ulster Plantation was

established, how it was implemented,

who came to our end as planters and how this affected the

native Irish elation.

Later in the course,

we will look at the impact of the sixteen forty one Rebellion

on the ulster Plantation and finally,

we will consider the the significance of the ulster plantations.

Now in this first lecture,

we will explore why the ulster Plantation was established

under James the first, as in what drove the desire to

colonize ulster and what conditions facilitated it It

needs to be noted that this was not the first English colonial

project in Ireland.

In fact, it wasn't the first in Olster either,

but these earlier projects had largely failed.

So we need to consider how and why the ulster Plantation of

sixteen ten was different.

To do so, we need to gain some understanding of the events

that led up to the plantation.

When James the sixth of Scotland came to the English

throne in sixteen o three,

following Elizabeth the first death.

He also inherited the kingdom of Ireland.

Within Ireland, the ganic litter classes found much to celebrate with the

accession of James the first because they saw the rise of a

Scottish king as important for the political unification of

all of Gaildom on one Gallic ruler.

It was also thought or at least hoped that James was secretly

capped and that he would be more sympathetic to the

majority Irish Catholic population.

But James was not Catholic and RN was not a welcome inheritance.

Ireland had been ravaged by war in the last decade of Elizabeth

Rain.

Starting with Henry the eighth,

Tudor Motors had pursued an increasingly aggressive policy

of conquest and colonization in our own in an effort to

complete the income eight twelfth century Anglo Norman conquest.

This led to a number of significant wars,

some of which were allowed by traditionally loyal,

but mostly Catholic descendants of the twelfth century Anglo

Norman conquerors.

But it was the northern province of Olster that proved

the most impenetrable and it threw up some of

Ireland's greatest opponents to English rule, amongst them was

Chionil, the Earl of Tyrone.

He O'Neil and his ulster allies, Hugh O'Donnell,

the Lord of Tear Connell, and Hugh Maguire,

the Lord of Romana,

led the Irish Catholic confederate in the nine years

war from fifteen ninety three to sixteen o three.

This was by far the greatest challenge to English rule that

Ireland had yet experienced.

For much of the war,

the Irish Confederate had the upper hand and inflicted

numerous embarrassing defeat on English Crown Forces.

But the tide turned at Kinseil in sixteen o one.

And for the remainder of the war,

English armies pursued a devastating the effective

scorched earth campaign.

Hue O'Neil finally surrendered in March sixteen o three only a

few days after Elizabeth had died.

Now, the nine years war was the most expensive and destructive war

tutors ever fought.

The Irish population had been severely reduced by war,

disease, and famine,

while the land was utterly devastated by the crown's roof

list, scorched earth campaign.

But this war also took an immense toll on England.

It consumed England's best military leaders,

and it nearly bankrupted the English state by costing nearly

two million pounds.

In this respect, James inherited a very heavy crown.

How is James supposed to unite, England, Wales, Scotland,

Scotland, and Ireland on a shoot string budget.

And more importantly,

how is he going to ensure peace and stability in Ireland and

make sure that it was governable?

Now having led the greatest and most expensive challenge to

English rule that the tutors had ever experienced One would

naturally assume that Q O'Neil,

the leader of the confederate forces,

along with all of his allies,

would have been intainted and executed for treason.

Certainly, many crown officials,

especially those who had served in Iran hoped to benefit from

the tainted lands in ulster following the affected downfall

of Fionil and his allies.

These officials argued that the English conquest could never be

completed unless it was followed up with a wholesale

colonization of Ireland.

They saw the defeat of the Irish Catholic in sixteen o

three as an opportunity to clear Ireland its traditional

leaders confiscate huge swathes of land and redistribute those

lands to loyal English and uttertakers.

Now, one of the leading advocates for this way of thinking with

sir John Davies, the the English attorney general for

Ireland.

In his treaties,

a discovery of the true causes of why Ireland was never

entirely subdued.

Davies argued that a borrower's country must be first broken by

a war before it will be capable of good government.

And when it is fully subdued and conquered,

it it be not well planted and governed after the conquest,

it will have Soon's return to the former barbarism.

Now officials like Davies believed war was necessary to

suppress the country by force and fear,

but it needed to be followed up by large scale colonization

projects in order to fully subjugate the native Irish,

Anglo the country,

extend protestantism and exploit Iran's natural resources.

Unless all of these goals were achieved,

conquest would never be complete,

and the path would remain open for the Irish to rise again.

Establishing plantations was not straightforward.

Previous experiments in Arland have proven that plantations were expensive.

They were vulnerable to attack,

and they could easily fail if they were not propped up by the

right government support, including the military.

Support.

But it also become apparent was that social reform through

colonization needed to be reinforced by adequate,

educational structures, a trained clergy and the rule of law.

In particular, there needed to be at least the appearance of justice.

However, none of these objectives had been by previous

colonial projects.

When James came to the throne,

it was clear that the English crown did not have financial

resources necessary to support or assist with any colonial endeavors.

So rather than risk another expensive war, by executing

Huoneel and his allies.

James opted to not only forgive them,

but he also returned their titles and lands and even gave them more.

Like he had done in Scotland,

the king had hoped to use local lords like Q O'Neil and

O'Donnell as agents of reform and governance.

So long as these law remain loyal and obedient,

they provided cheap and effective means for governing

dependent kingdoms.

The continuing presence though,

of Hionia and other Confederate leaders in Olster,

scuppered Crown officials'

ambitions to establish colony in the north of Ireland.

The continuing presence and authority of Hugh O'Neil in

Olster scuppered crown officials ambitions to to clear

the land established colonies in the north of Ireland.

They wouldn't have to wait long before an opportunity arose to

push their agenda again.

Ferering government plots undermine and murder him,

and his fears were well warranted since this had

happened to other lords.

Hugh O'Neil, along with some of his northern allies,

including O'Donnell wire,

along with ninety six of their followers and kinsmen,

fled Ireland for the continent in September sixteen o seven.

They would never return turn.

This event is known as the flight of the Urals.

Their flight was as proof of their treason by government officials.

And the exile lords were soon attainted and their lands were

confiscated by the around.

The flight was followed in sixteen o eight by the

rebellion of Circaire O'Daugherty in derry.

This was quickly suppressed.

The two events, the flight and the rebellion,

created both problems and opportunities for Crown

Government.

Problems because now there were no local lords to leave reform.

And the absence of these lords could lead to a complete

breakdown in social structures and result in a of rebellions.

Another concern was that any alternative to ruling through

local lords would be expensive.

That's the government needed to come up with another plan and

many crown officials saw this as an opportunity to push a

major plantation scheme.

They contended that between the nine years war,

flight of the Earl's and the suppression of Rodarity's revolt,

ulster had been cleared of its highest and mid ranking leaders and lords.

There are lands could now be confiscated by the crown on

account of their so called treasons,

and the confiscated lands could be redistributed in a new

social and political hierarchy could be imposed,

which would suppress the remaining Irish population and

bring profit to the crown.

As a English planter, Thomas Blenner Hassett opined,

England had a divine mission to reform or repair our end.

And in return, our end would repay England and come mind.

Fair England, thy flourishing sister, brave hibernia,

commendeth unto thy due consideration,

her youngest depopulated ulster.

How the long continuance of lamentable wars have raised and

utterly defaced whatsoever was beautiful in her to behold,

and hath bereaved all her royalties, goodly ornaments,

and well beseeming tears.

If thou wilt now, but assist her with means to erect her ruins.

She will nourish thee with much dainty provision,

and so furnish thee as thou shalt not need to send to thy

neighbor kingdoms for born.

So far, we have looked at the background for why the

plantation became the preferred solution for the imposition of

English rule in Northern Ireland.

In our next lecture,

we will explore the ideas and proposals behind the ulster

Plantation, as well as how it was supposed to be implemented.