The Flight of the Earls - Hardcover

McCavitt, John

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0717130479 ISBN 13: 9780717130474

Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2002

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Until the end of the sixteenth century, Ulster was the most Gaelic part of Ireland. Fifty years later, it was the least Gaelic part. In 1607 Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and other Gaelic chieftains fled the continent and settled in Rome. Their lands were declared forfeit to the crown and were cleared for the plantation of Ulster which followed. Why did O'Neill and the other chieftains flee? John McCavitt's outstanding history tells us why. O'Neill had rebelled against the crown in the 1590s, had eventually been defeated at the Battle of Kinsale but had reached a nervous but secure peace settlement with the English crown. He was left in possession of his lands and was not formally threatened by London. However, crown officials in Dublin - especially the grasping Sir Arthur Chichester - maintained a campaign of harassment against O'Neill and his followers which eventually drove them from their ancestral lands in frustration. It is almost certain that O'Neill intended to return with continental troops to regain his lost patrimony. He never did. His flight was one of the decisive moments in Irish history. It opened a way for the Ulster plantation, one of the truly crucial moments in the formation of modern Ireland.

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