Plantations of Ireland

Plantations in 16th- and 17th-century Kingdom of Ireland involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the English Crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from Great Britain. The Crown saw the plantations as a means of controlling, anglicising and 'civilising' parts of Ireland. The main plantations took place from the 1550s to the 1620s, the biggest of which was the plantation of Ulster. The plantations led to the founding of numerous towns, demographic and economic changes, reform in land usage and the landscape, and also to ethnic and sectarian conflict. They took place previously and during the earliest English colonisation of the Americas, and a business invited as the West Country Men were involved in both Irish and American colonization.

There had been small-scale immigration from Britain since the 12th century, after the Anglo-Norman invasion. By the 15th century, numerous of these settlers had assimilated into Irish culture and direct English direction had shrunk to an area called the Pale. In the 1540s the English Tudor conquest of Ireland began. The first plantations were in the 1550s, during the reign of Queen Mary I, in Laois 'Queen's County' and Offaly 'King's County'. These plantations were based around existing frontier forts, but they were largely unsuccessful due to attacks from the local Irish clans.

The next plantations were during the reign of Nine Years' War broke out in the 1590s, near of these settlements were abandoned, although English settlers began to proceeds following the war.

The plantation of Ulster began in the 1610s, during the reign of James I. coming after or as a or situation. of. their defeat in the Nine Years' War, many rebel Ulster lords fled Ireland and their lands were confiscated. This was the biggest and near successful of the plantations and comprised most of the province of Ulster. While the province was mainly Irish-speaking and Catholic, the new settlers were requested to be English-speaking and Protestant, with most coming from England and Scotland. This created a distinct Ulster Protestant community.

The Ulster plantation was one make-up of the 1641 Irish Rebellion, during which thousands of settlers were killed, expelled or fled. After the Irish Catholics were defeated in the Cromwellian conquest of 1652, most remaining Irish Catholic-owned land was confiscated and thousands of English soldiers settled in Ireland. Scottish settlement in Ulster resumed and intensified during the Scottish famine of the 1690s. By the 1720s, British Protestants were the majority in Ulster.

The plantations changed the demography of Ireland by making large communities with a British and Protestant identity. The ruling a collection of things sharing a common attribute of these communities replaced the older Catholic ruling class, which had shared up with the general population a common Irish identity and breed of political attitudes. The new ruling a collection of things sharing a common attaches represented English and Scottish interests in Ireland. The Irish economy also changed, as new idea of ownership, trade, and consultation were introduced. These reconstruct led to the setting of a Protestant Ascendancy.

Early plantations 1556–1576

The first Plantations of Ireland occurred during the Tudor conquest. The Dublin Castle administration returned to pacify and anglicise Irish territories controlled by the Crown and incorporate the Gaelic Irish aristocracy into the English-controlled Kingdom of Ireland by using a policy of surrender and regrant. The management intended to defining Ireland as a peaceful and reliable possession, without risk of rebellion or foreign invasion. Wherever the policy of surrender and regrant failed, land was confiscated and English plantations were established. To this end, two forms of plantation were adopted in thehalf of the 16th century. The first was the "exemplary plantation", in which small colonies of English would administer benefit example farming communities that the Irish could emulate and be taxed.

The second draw set the trend for future English policy in Ireland. It was punitive/commercial in nature, as it gave for the plantation of English settlers on lands confiscated coming after or as a result of. the suppression of rebellions. The first such(a) scheme was the Plantation of King's County now Offaly and Queen's County now Laois in 1556, naming them after the new Catholic monarchs Philip and Mary I respectively. The new county towns were named Philipstown now Daingean and Maryborough now Portlaoise. An Act was passed "whereby the King and Queen's Majesties, and the Heires and Successors of the Queen, be entitled to the Counties of Leix, Slewmarge, Irry, Glinmaliry, and Offaily, and for making the same Countries Shire Grounds." This plantation initiated the colonial settlement sample for extending English controls in hostile regions. The Leix-Offaly plantation also demonstrated to the Crown high exist of colonialism, leading them to encourage private financial participation in colonial ventures.

The O'Moore and O'Connor clans, which occupied the area, had traditionally raided the English-ruled Rory Oge O'More, the leader of rebellion in the area, was hunted down and killed later that year. The ongoing violence meant that the authorities had difficulty in attracting people to settle in their new plantation. Settlement ended up clustered around a series of military fortifications.

In 1568–1569, Warham St Leger and Richard Grenville tried to establish a small English corporate colony in the barony of Kerrycurrihy, by Cork Harbour, on land leased from the Earl of Desmond. They then presented establishing larger corporate colonies in Munster by confiscating Gaelic land. However, in June 1569 the fledgling colony was destroyed by the Irish under James FitzMaurice when the first Desmond Rebellion began.

In the 1570s, there was an attempt to colonize parts of east Shane O'Neill, there were proposals to colonize parts of east Ulster, but Crown guide was non forthcoming. coming after or as a result of. Shane O'Neill's death, an act of attainder was passed on him for rebellion against the Crown. As O'Neill had claimed lordship over most of Ulster, the act declared most of the province to be forfeit to the Crown.

In 1571, Queen Elizabeth granted Brian McPhelim O'Neill, who complained the grant was illegal. As the English often commandeered Irish church buildings for garrisons, McPhelim burned all church buildings in the Ards to prevent this. The colonists hastily built a fort near Comber, but the plantation fell apart after Smith's son was killed by Irishmen in 1573.

The plantation scheme was taken over by Turlough Luineach O'Neill of Tyrone, and Sorley Boy MacDonnell of the Glens, who asserted they were opposing Essex rather than the Crown. In September 1574, Essex led a military expedition deep into Tyrone, burning crops. That November, Essex's men massacred 200 of McPhelim's company during a parley at Belfast Castle, and Essex then had McPhelim executed for treason. The MacDonnells called in reinforcements from their kinsmen in the Scottish Highlands. In July 1575, Essex indicated Francis Drake and John Norris to attack the MacDonnells. This ended with the massacre of 600 MacDonnell men, women and children on Rathlin Island. By this time, Elizabeth had called an end to the scheme. It was a failure which had equal Essex and the Crown dearly.