1542 — 1607

The Tudor Conquest

Henry VIII takes the title 'King of Ireland' in 1541, and his children finish the work by sword, by plantation, and by the bargain called surrender and regrant. Laois and Offaly are planted in the 1550s, Munster after the Desmond rebellions of the 1580s. Only Gaelic Ulster is left standing. It falls with Hugh O'Neill's Nine Years' War: Kinsale in 1601, and the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603.

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📜 The chronicle — events of this age
1556
Plantation of Laois–Offaly
The midland lordships become 'Queen's County' and 'King's County' — the first plantation.
1569
Desmond rebellions begin
The Munster Geraldines rise against Tudor encroachment.
1583
Fall of Desmond
The last earl is hunted down in the Kerry mountains; Munster lies waste for plantation.
1588
Armada on the coast
Some two dozen Spanish ships wreck on Irish shores; most survivors are killed, some sheltered.
1592
Trinity College founded
Elizabeth charters Dublin's university on a dissolved monastery.
1593
Grace O'Malley meets Elizabeth
The Mayo pirate queen negotiates at Greenwich — in Latin.
1594
Nine Years' War begins
Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell lead Gaelic Ulster's last great war.
1598
Battle of the Yellow Ford
O'Neill destroys an English army — the worst defeat England ever suffered in Ireland.
1601
Kinsale
A Spanish force lands in the wrong province; the winter march south ends in catastrophic defeat.
1603
Treaty of Mellifont
O'Neill submits days after Elizabeth's death; the Gaelic order's war is over.
1607
Flight of the Earls
O'Neill and O'Donnell sail from Rathmullan into exile — and never return.
Quick answers
When was the Tudor Conquest in Ireland?

The Tudor Conquest spans 1542 to 1607 in this atlas. Henry VIII takes the title 'King of Ireland' in 1541, and his children finish the work by sword, by plantation, and by the bargain called surrender and regrant.

Who ruled Ireland during the Tudor Conquest?

Power was divided: Kingdom of Ireland (Tudor crown) (22 counties); O'Neill of Tír Eoghain (3 counties); Clandeboye O'Neills & MacDonnells (2 counties); O'Donnell of Tír Chonaill (1 county); Fermanagh (Maguire) (1 county), among others. County boundaries are modern approximations.

What is a lesser-known fact about the Tudor Conquest?

In 1593 the pirate queen Gráinne Mhaol, Grace O'Malley of Mayo, sailed to Greenwich and negotiated with Elizabeth I face to face. Having no English and the queen no Irish, the two women conversed in Latin.

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