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The Ulster Plantation
King James I believed that colonising Ulster would quell rebellion and win over the 'rude and barbarous Irish' to 'civility' and Protestantism. Learn about the English and Scottish planters and the role played by the London Companies in the Plantation of Ulster.
The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh) was the organised colonisation (plantation) of Ulster —a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606,[1] while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609. All land owned by Irish chieftains of the Uí Néill and Uí Domhnaill (along with those of their supporters) was confiscated and used to settle the colonists. This land comprised an estimated half a million acres (2,000 km²) in the counties Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine and Armagh
Most of the counties Antrim and Down were privately colonised.
The "British tenants", a term applied to the colonists, were mostly from Scotland and England. They were required to be English-speaking and Protestant. The Scottish colonists were mostly Presbyterian and the English mostly members of the state church in Britain. The Plantation of Ulster was the biggest of the Plantations of Ireland. Ulster was colonised to prevent further rebellion, as it had been the region most resistant to English control during the preceding century.
Key individuals
- Hugh O'Neill
- King James I
- Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery
- Sir Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, 1593-1641 Geni profile