plantation in Ireland during the 16th or 17th century
I am a settler who received land during the Munster plantation in the 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I is the monarch in charge of this plantation. She is fighting against the Fitzgeralds, the Earls of Desmond. She first sent over two groups of people. The first were the presidents. These were people sent over to impose English law and the protestant religion. She also sent over adventurers to lay claim to land in munster. However, in the 1560s and 1570s this caused two rebellions of which James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald was the leader. First, the English forces defeated the rebels. The pope sent 600 soldiers to help the rebels, but when they landed in Smerwick harbour they were forced to surrender to the lord deputy and were massacred on the spot. The rebels land was confiscated after this occasion. This added up to three hundred thousand acres of land. The land is divided into estates, the largest of which is 12,000 acres and has been given to the queen’s favourite, Sir Walter Raleigh. There was to be no mixing. The planted farmers were not allowed to employ Irish people to work on their farms. The planters have built garrisons to defend their land. The estates were given to undertakers, called so because they undertook to fulfil certain conditions (eg, not employing the Irish). This plantation has had mixed results on my new country of Ireland. Only 1/3 of the 20,000 people expected came to be planted. The planters were unable to find enough british people to employ, and so some have had to employ Irish people instead. The nine years war took its toll on everyone. Many planters moved back to England, but I (along with many others) stayed on my estate. We are modernising and sophisticating this barren country. New plantation towns have been built for markets and shops, and new farming methods have been brought with us from England along with new breeds of cattle. Trade has prospered because of this. The newly developed farming methods have also lead to the start of industry in this country.