First attempts to found English colony in Ulster

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Domains

Colonialism and colonisation

Dates

Date of occurrence 1604

Places

Northern Ireland (Location)
England (Involved)

Resources

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Before the Nine Years' War (1594-1603), the Irish province of Ulster, in the north-east of the island, had been largely beyond the control of the English government. Land use was very longstanding and traditional. There were few towns, and many Gaelic farmers had a migrant lifestyle known as 'creaghting', based around the seasons and their cattle. After the rebellions of the 1590s against English influence, however, the rebel chieftains' lands were seized, and James VI and I made a concerted effort to Anglicize the region through a deliberate policy of 'plantation'. Landowners and tenant farmers from England and Scotland were brought to Ireland. There were also attempts to convert the local Catholic population to Protestantism, though this met with little success, in part due to the…

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