Plantation of Ulster

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh; Ulster Scots: Plantin o Ulstèr) was the organised colonisation (plantation) of Ulster – a province of Ireland – by people from Great Britain during the reign of King James VI and I.

Small privately funded plantations by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while the official plantation began in 1609. Most of the land had been confiscated from the native Gaelic chiefs, several of whom had fled Ireland for mainland Europe in 1607 following the Nine Years' War against English rule. The official plantation comprised an estimated half a million acres (2,000 km2) of arable land in counties Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal, and Londonderry. Land in counties Antrim, Down, and Monaghan was privately colonised with the king's support.

Among those involved in planning and overseeing the plantation were King James, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Chichester, and the Attorney-General for Ireland, John Davies. They saw the plantation as a means of controlling, anglicising, and "civilising" Ulster. The province was almost wholly Gaelic, Catholic, rural, and had been the region most resistant to English control. King James had the following objectives in implementing the plantation:

  • Sever the ties of the Gaelic clans of Ulster with those from the Scottish Highlands, as these connections were perceived as a strategic threat to England.
  • Ensure that the Scottish subjects of James I would not be overlooked by the London court and would be rewarded with land for their earlier participation during his reign as King of Scotland.
  • Relocate the Border Reiver families to Ireland to bring peace to the Anglo-Scottish border region, which had frequently been in a state of conflict since the Middle Ages. This relocation aimed to ensure effective governance of both English and Scottish kingdoms and to provide fighting men who could suppress the native Irish.

The colonists (or "British tenants") were required to be English-speaking Protestants, with most coming from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England. This led to the creation of a distinct Ulster Protestant community whose cultures differed from that of the native Irish. Some of the landlords and settlers, however, were Catholic. Although some "loyal" natives were granted land, the native Irish reaction to the plantation was generally hostile, and native writers lamented what they saw as the decline of Gaelic society and the influx of foreigners.

The Plantation of Ulster was the biggest of the plantations of Ireland. It led to the founding of many of Ulster's towns and created a lasting Ulster Protestant community in the province with ties to Britain. It also resulted in many of the native Irish nobility losing their land and led to centuries of ethnic and sectarian animosity, which at times spilled into conflict, notably in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and, more recently, the Troubles.

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