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Historical revision

XVI The Flight of the Earls, 1607*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Nicholas P. Canny
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Extract

On 4 September 1607 the two Ulster earls, Tyrone and Tyrconnell, and the lord of Fermanagh, Cuconnaught Maguire, accompanied by their respective kinsmen, embarked from Lough Swilly for continental Europe. They never again returned to the lands they had striven so hard to hold. Their departure was a tragedy for Gaelic Ireland; their former dependants were left leaderless and unprotected, and what remained of the Gaelic way of life was soon undermined by the plantation in Ulster. The ‘ flight of the earls ’ is one of the black pages of Irish history and the event marks the end of an age.

What occasioned this sudden and mysterious departure? Of the many answers suggested almost all have been coloured by prejudice and the picture, consequently, remains clouded. Professional historians, with few exceptions, have shied away from the subject, and have contented themselves with qualified versions of the explanations offered by such writers as Fr Meehan, T. M. Healy, and Seán O'Faoláin. An essay in revision is certainly long overdue.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 67 , March 1971 , pp. 380 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1971

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Footnotes

*

This series has hitherto been confined to such corrections of historians’ errors as could be regarded as established beyond all reasonable question. It has been decided to extend the scope of the series so as to include articles, such as the present, that could be described as ‘ essays in revision ’.

References

1 For details of those who accompanied the earls in flight see Fr Ganice Mooney ‘A noble shipload’ in Ir. Sword, ii, 195–204; Archiv. Hib., iv, 247; Tadhg Ó Cianáin, The flight of the carls, ed. and trans. Rev. P. Walsh (Dublin, 1916), pp 16–19; Cal. S.P. Ire, 1606–8, pp 435–6.

2 Rev. Meehan, C. P., The fate and fortunes of Hugh O'Neill, carl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donel, earl of Tyrconnell; their flight from Ireland and death in exile (3rd ed. Dublin, 1886)Google Scholar; Healy, T. M., Stolen waters: a page in the conquest of Ulster (London, 1913)Google Scholar; O'Faoláin, S., The great O'Neill: a biography of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, 1550–1616 (London, 1942)Google Scholar.

3 Ó Cianáin, The flight of the earls; A.F.M., esp. vol. vi (1589–1616).

4 Moody, T. W., The Londonderry plantation (Belfast, 1939), p. 29 Google Scholar.

5 Lords of the council to Chichester, 29 Sept. 1607 (Cal S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 289).

6 By the lord deputy and council, 9 Nov. 1607 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 222, no. 175I; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 328); By the king, 15 Nov. 1607 (Rymer, Foedera, 3rd ed., vii, 158–60).

7 Davies to Salisbury, 6 Jan. 1608 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 389–93).

8 Chichester to James I, 15 Oct. 1608 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1608–10, pp 81–2).

9 Earl of Tyrconnell to the king (printed in full in Meehan, Fate and fortunes, pp 122–30; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 364–74); The earl of Tyrone's articles (printed in Meehan, Fate and fortunes, pp 130–9; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 374–83).

10 The government reorganisation of Ulster in 1603, and the conduct of the two Ulster earls in the years 1603 and 1604 have been detailed in my M.A. thesis, ‘ The career of Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, 1603–7 ’ (U.C.G., 1967), pp 20–80.

11 Moryson, Fynes, ‘ The commonwealth of Ireland ’ in Shakespeare's Europe: a survey of the condition of Europe at the end of the 16th century, ed. Hughes, C. (New York, 1967), p. 230 Google Scholar.

12 Davies to Cecil, 19 Apr. 1604 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 216, no. 15; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 161).

13 Fynes Moryson, ‘ The commonwealth of Ireland ’ in Hughes, Shakespeare's Europe, pp 223–4.

14 I use ‘feudalism’, as interpreted by Professor J. Hurstfield in his introductory chapter ‘ Feudalism declining ’ of The queen's wards (London, 1958). I agree with Professor Edwards's contention that Hugh O'Neill was striving after palatinate status, and not total independence, and suggest that O'Neill may have cherished such ambitions as late even as 1607 ( Edwards, R. Dudley, ‘ Ireland, Elizabeth I and the counterreformation ’ in Elizabethan government and society, ed. Bindoff, S. T. and others (London, 1961), p. 335 Google Scholar).

15 By the lord deputy and council, 11 Mar. 1605 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 217, no. 16; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 266).

16 James I to Chichester, 27 June 1605 (Desid. cur. Hib., i, 453–7); Commission for making shires, etc., 19 July 1605 (Pat. rolls Ire, Jas. I, ed. Erck, pt 1, pp 182–4).

17 Lord deputy and council to privy council, 30 Sept. 1605 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 217, no. 63; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, pp 318–9).

18 Lord deputy and council to privy council (as above; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 320).

19 Tyrconnell to Salisbury 1605, after Sept. (H.M.C., Salisbury MSS., xvii, 444).

20 Bagwell, Tudors, 111, 201–3.

21 G. A. Hayes-McCoy, ‘Sir John Davies in Cavan, 1606 and 1610 ’ in Bréifne, i, 177–91; Davies to Salisbury, 1606, in Davies, J., Historical tracts (Dublin, 1787), pp 215-71Google Scholar; lord deputy and council to privy council, 12 Sept. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, pp 558–62); Chichester to Salisbury, 12 Sept. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, pp 562–6).

22 Lord deputy and council to privy council, 12 Sept. 1606 (as above).

23 Chichester to Salisbury, 4 Apr. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 442); Chichester to Salisbury, 12 Sept. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire, 1603–6, p. 565).

24 Privy council to Dublin council, 24 Jan. 1606 (Desid. cur. Hib., i, 463–9); Moody, Londonderry plantation, pp 27–8; Beckett, Mod. Ire., p. 42.

25 Tyrone to James I, 17 June 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire, 1603–6, p. 503). The rights of bishops in Gaelic Ulster are outlined in Barry, J. G., ‘ The duties of coarbs and erenaghs ’, in I.E.R., xciv, 211-8Google Scholar.

26 Chichester to Salisbury, 10 May 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, pp 480–2); Chichester to Northampton, 7 Feb. 1608 (B.M., Cott. MS Titus BX, ff 188–91).

27 Tyrone to James I, 17 June 1606 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 218, no. 71; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 503).

28 Chichester to Salisbury, 12 Sept. 1606 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 219, no. 105; Cal. S.P. Ire, 1603–6, pp 562–6).

29 Chichester to privy council, 2 Apr. 1608 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 223, nos 58, 59; Cal. S.P. Ire, 1606–8, pp 448–53).

30 Chichester to Salisbury, 26 Jan. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 92–5).

31 Chichester to Salisbury, 12 Sept. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. 565).

32 Chichester to Salisbury, 26 Jan. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 92–5).

33 Ibid.; privy council to Chichester, 19 Nov. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 27); Wild geese in Spanish Flanders, pp 26–7.

34 Graham, J. K., ‘ The birth-date of Hugh O'Neill, second earl of Tyrone ’, in I.H.S., i, no. 1 (Mar. 1938), pp 58-9Google Scholar.

35 Lake to Salisbury, 27 Aug. 1606 (H.M.C., Salisbury MSS, xviii, 254–6).

36 Privy council to Chichester, 2 Sept. 1606 (Cal. S.P. he., 1603–6, PP 548–9).

37 For a description of this, and other features of Gaelic institutional life see Hayes-McCoy, G. A. ‘ Gaelic society in Ireland in the late sixteenth century ’ in Hist. Studies, iv, 45–61 Google Scholar.

38 Moryson, Fynes, An itinerary (Glasgow, 1907), iii, 300 Google Scholar; Docwra, Narration, p. 274.

39 Tyrone's answer to the bill of complaint of O'Cahan, 23 May 1607 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 221, no. 54; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 149).

40 Bishop of Derry to Chichester, 4 Mar. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 125).

41 Ibid.

42 Lord deputy and council to privy council, 4 Oct. 1605 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, pp 328–30).

43 Davies to Salisbury, 12 Nov. 1606 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 14–21).

44 Ibid.; Davies stated that ‘ all O'Chane's country, and all the old freeholders' possessions in Tirone, are actually and really in his majesty's hands’ (italics mine).

45 Shane McBryan to James I, undated (H.M.G., Salisbury MSS, xix, 499); R. Hadsor to Salisbury, 23 Sept. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire, 1606–8, p. 281).

46 Petition of Tyrone to James I, undated copy (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 219, nos 153, 154; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 51). This document, filed among those relating to Dec. 1606, is certainly a rejoinder to Davies's allegations of the previous November.

47 Lord deputy and council to privy council, 26 June 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire, 1606–8, pp 199–200).

48 James I to Chichester, 16 July 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 220–22).

49 Chichester to privy council, 4 Aug. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 247–8); Meehan, Fate and fortunes, p. 126.

50 Davies to Salisbury, 12 Sept. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 272).

51 Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 259, 463.

52 Chichester to Salisbury, 7 Apr. 1608 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 463).

53 The first mention of Maguire's departure in the English state papers is that of a spy, 22 July 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 227), but no notice of the event was sent to England, by the Dublin administration, until after ‘ the flight ’.

54 Chichester to privy council, 16 July 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, pp 223–5).

55 24 Aug. 1607, Clanricard to Salisbury (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 253).

56 Chichester to privy council, 7 Sept. 1607 (P.R.O., S.P. Ire., Eliz.-Geo. III, vol. 222, no. 126; Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 259).

57 Median, Fate and fortunes, p. 126.

58 Chichester to privy council, 7 Sept. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 262); Chichester to Salisbury, 8 Sept. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 264); Moore to Salisbury, 23 May 1608 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 536).

59 C. Falls, ‘ Hugh O'Neill the great ’ in Ir. Sword, vi, 95.

60 Rev. Silke, J. J., Ireland and Europe, 1559–1605 (Dundalk, 1966), p. 28 Google Scholar; O'Neill and O'Donnell to king of Spain, 9 July 1608 (‘The last years of Hugh O'Neill ’, ed. M. Walsh in Ir. Sword, iii, 243).

61 ‘ The last years of Hugh O'Neill ’, ed. M. Walsh (in Ir. Sword, iii, 234–44; v, 223–35; vii, 5–14, 136–46, 327–37; viii, 120–29, 230–41, 294–303; ix, 59–63, 135–146); ‘ Irish material in Fondo Santa Sede, Madrid ’, ed. Sr B. Curtin (in Archiv. Hib., xxvi, 40–43); Nuncio in Flanders to the secretariats of state, 22 Dec. 1607 (Collect. Hib., i, 55–6).

62 Earl of Tyrone's articles, item 20 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 382).

63 Ó Cianáin, The flight of the earls, p. 3.

64 Earl of Tyrone's articles, item 20 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, p. 382).

65 Chichester to privy council, 7 Sept. 1607 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1606–8, 261).

66 Ibid.