Plantation of Ulster

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh; Ulster Scots: Plantin o Ulstèr^[1]) 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. Most of the settlers (or planters) came from southern Scotland and northern England; their culture differed from that of the native Irish. Small privately funded plantations by wealthy landowners began in 1606,^[2][3][4] 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.^[5] Land in counties Antrim, Down, and Monaghan was privately colonised with the king's support.^[2][3][4]

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.^[6] They saw the plantation as a means of controlling, anglicising,^[7] and "civilising" Ulster.^[8] The province was almost wholly Gaelic, Catholic, and rural and had been the region most resistant to English control. The plantation was also meant to sever Gaelic Ulster's links with the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland.^[9] The colonists (or "British tenants")^[10][11] were required to be English-speaking, Protestant,^[6][12] and loyal to the king. Some of the undertakers and settlers, however, were Catholic.^[13][14][15] The Scottish settlers were mostly Presbyterian^[10] Lowlanders and the English mostly Anglican Northerners. Although some "loyal" natives were granted land, the native Irish reaction to the plantation was generally hostile,^[16] and native writers lamented what they saw as the decline of Gaelic society and the influx of foreigners.^[17]

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.