Laois and Offaly Plantation (Mindmap)

Laois and Offaly Plantation (1556)

*Queen Mary (1553) *The Pale was part of Ireland controlled by England.

Gaelic Clans O’Moores = owned Laois

O’Connors = owned Offaly The Gaelic clans often raided the Pale to steal cattle. The English rulers were angry and attacked the O’Moores and

O’Connnors several times.

1. Queen Mary confiscated the land from the Gaelic clans.

2. Laois was renamed Queen’s County. 3. Offaly was renamed King’s County.

4. English and Scottish people (planters) were given the land.

Queen Mary hoped confiscating the land

would: 1. Punish the rebels for

raiding the Pale. 2. Make a rebellion

undesirable in Ireland. 3. Encourage Irish

people to obey English laws and rules.

4. Encourage Irish people to speak English

rather than Gaeilge.

Not a very successful plantation

Laois and Offaly Plantation - Questions

1.  What was the small area in Ireland that was controlled by England called?

2.  What family ruled Offaly before it was planted by the English Queen?

3.  What family ruled Laois before it was planted by the English Queen?

4.  What Queen of England ordered the plantation of Laois and Offaly?

5.  Why did this queen want to plant Laois and Offaly? Give one or two reasons.

6.  Was the plantation of Laois and Offaly very successful for England? If possible, explain why/why not.

Munster Plantation (Mindmap)

Munster Plantation (1586)

*Queen Elizabeth (1558) * Protestant *Feared King of Spain (Catholic) would help the Fitzgeralds

Fitzgerald of Desmond (leader = Earl of Desmond) 1. Most powerful family in Munster

2. Catholic

Dispute between Fitzzgeralds and Ormands 1. Earl of Desmond and Earl of Ormond summoned

to London. 2. Earl of Desmond imprisoned in Tower of

London for two years. 3. Earl of Ormond was allowed to return home.

4. Fitzgerald clan very angry and fought Ormonds (for two years) but were defeated.

5. Fitzgeralds’ land was confiscated and divided into estates.

Butlers of Ormond (leader = Earl of Ormond) 1. Owned land that bordered the Fitzgeralds’

land.

Undertakers duties: 1. Bring English families to

Munster to work as servants and farmworkers. 2. Introduce English ways

of farming. 3. Pay for soldiers and

weapons to protect themselves from attack.

4. Follow English customs. 5. Remove all Irish people

from their estates. 6. Not marry Irish people.

Not a very successful plantation

Munster Plantation - Questions 1.  What Catholic Irish clan ruled most of Munster before it was planted

by England?

2.  What was the leader of the Irish clan called?

3.  What was the leader of the Butlers of Ormond called?

4.  What Queen of England ordered the plantation of Munster?

5.  What was the queen afraid would happen if she did not plant Munster?

6.  Which leader was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years? Was this fair?

7.  List at least two duties that the English undertakers (who were given the confiscated land) had to carry out?

8.  Was the plantation of Munster very successful for England? If possible, explain why/why not.

Additional Reading Laois and Offaly Plantation

Key Words

•  Plantations = Lands taken from Irish families and given to English people.

•  Planters = People who came from England and were given the land which belonged to Irish families.

Laois and Offaly Plantation •  By 1540, the English

only controlled a part of Ireland called the Pale.

•  The Pale area included Dublin and parts of Co. Kildare, Meath and Louth.

•  Laois and Offaly were close to the Pale.

Laois and Offaly Plantation •  Laois and Offaly belonged to two Gaeilc clans – the

O’Moores and the O’Connors.

•  The Moores ruled Laois.

•  The O’Connors ruled Offaly.

•  Both clans often raided areas within the Pale and stole cattle belonging to the farmers there.

•  The English rules of the Pale became very angry at this and attacked the O’Moores and O’Connors on several occasions to try to force them to stop raiding their land.

Laois and Offaly Plantation •  Queen Mary (of England)

took over the throne in 1553.

•  Queen Mary decided to plant (take away) Laois and Offaly from the O’Moores and O’Connors.

•  Laois was renamed Queen’s County and Offaly was renamed King’s County.

Queen Mary thought that confiscating the land from the O’Moores and O’Connors would:

i.  Punish the rebels for raiding the Pale.

ii.  Make a rebellion in Ireland undesirable.

iii. Encourage Irish people to obey English laws and rules.

iv.  Encourage Irish peopple to use the English language rather than Gaeilge.

The Plantation of Laois and Offaly was not successful for Queen Mary because:

i.  There wasn’t a sufficient number of planters willing to move from England to Laois and Offaly.

ii.  The planters had to employ Irish workers because they could not get enough workers to come from England.

iii.  The O’Moores and O’Connors continued to attack the planters until they succeeded in driving many of them out.

iv.  The plantation cost a huge amount of money because extra English soldiers were needed to protect the planters to remain.

Additional Reading The Munster Plantation

Munster Plantation •  Queen Mary died in

1558.

•  Her half-sister Elizabeth became queen and ruled until 1603.

•  Queen Elizabeth was a Protestant.

Munster Plantation •  The Fitzgeralds of

Desmond were the most powerful family in Munster.

•  Their leader was the Earl of Desmond.

•  The Butlers of Ormond

had land that bordered the land of the Fitzgerald.

•  Their leader was the Earl of Ormond.

Munster Plantation •  The Fitzgerlands were Catholic.

•  Queen Elizabeth was afraid that the Catholic King of Spain would help the Fitzgeralds to defeat the English. Queen Elizabeth needed a reason to attack the Fitzgearlds. She found one:

•  A dispute arose between the Earl of Desmond and the Earl of Ormond over this land boundary.

•  The Earl of Ormond and the Earl of Desmond were both summoned to England due to their dispute.

•  The Earl of Ormond was allowed to return home.

•  The Earl of Desmond was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Munster Plantation •  After two years, the Earl of Desmond was still

not released.

•  The Fitzgeralds were very angry by this. They decided to fight to keep their land boundary.

•  A vicious war raged for four years.

•  In the end, the Fitzgeralds were defeated.

•  The Fitzgearlds’ land (230,000 hectares) in Munster was confiscated.

Munster Plantation •  The confiscated land was divided into large estates (very

large farms usually enclosed by a wall).

•  This became known as the Plantation of Munster.

•  The large estates were given to people (called undertakers as they had had to undertake certain duties). The duties included:

i.  Bringing English families to Munster to work as servants and farmworkers.

ii.  Introduce English ways of farming. iii.  Pay for soldiers and weapons to protect themselves. iv.  Follow English customs. v.  Remove all Irish people from their estates. vi.  Not marry Irish people.

The Munster Plantation was not a complete success for Queen Elizabeth because:

1.  The estates were too big and a sufficient number of English planters did not come to Munster to work or to rent the land.

2.  The planters or undertakers had to rent some of the land to Irish people because they couldn’t get English people to come to Ireland to work on the estates.

3.  The Irish owners of the land attacked the new planters and succeeded in driving many of them away.

The Munster Plantation did bring the following changes to Ireland:

1.  New towns such as Bandon, Mallow, Killarney and Lismore were built at this time.

2.  New farming methods were introduced.

3.  Hedges and ditches were built around fields. This can still be seen today.