The English Crown had found Munster to be the most difficult province to subdue. Munster had rebelled in 1579, gaining assistance from Continental forces, the English crushed the rebellion with great severity. It was followed by the first mass plantation of Ireland, which was the dispossession of rebellious landholders and their replacement by loyal English and Welsh settlers. It had already been tried but on a much smaller scale in the Midlands and in the North. In 1584, the Surveyor General of Ireland, Sir Valentine Brown headed a commission that surveyed Munster and allocated confiscated lands to English and Welsh Undertakers, wealthy colonists who 'undertook' to settle the lands with tenants from England and Wales. The Undertakers were also supposed to build new towns and provide for the defence of planted districts from attack. 500,000 acres were planted and it was planned that it would be settled by 15,000 settlers, however in 1589 the total number of planters did not exceed 4000. The Plantation was supposed to create compact, defensible settlements but what actually occurred were small, scattered pockets of settlers. Initially the Undertakers were granted detachments of English troops but this was stopped in the early 1590s. Hence when the Irish rebelled in 1598, in what came to be known as the Nine Years War, most of the English settlers gave up their lands without a fight, they fled to the walled towns or back to England.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source: http://www.exploringireland.net
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