The Plantation of Leix and Offaly
Fitzwalter was furnished with precise instructions in regard to the carrying out of the scheme by which Leix and Offaly were to be planted with English settlers. Only a part of the boggy western lands was to be reserved for the native Irish. All, English and Irish alike, were to hold their lands from the Crown, paying rent and dues and conforming themselves to the English laws. The settlers were not to sell their estates, or any part of them, to the Irish, nor to take them as tenants.
The purchase or use of firearms was forbidden to the Irish. It was not to be expected that this wholesale confiscation, unjustified, in the case at least of most of the lands involved, by any legal right* would be tamely submitted to, even by people far less warlike than the O’Mores and O’Connors. At first indeed things seemed to go smoothly. In September i,,c6) Donough and Barry O’Connor made their submissions to the Deputy, confessing, if the English account is to be believed, that they had wrongfully held the lands of Offaly, and promising to receive thankfully whatever estates should be granted them and their people. Connell Og, the O’More chief, followed their example.
The Deputy, with the easy optimism of the newly-arrived English official, believed that all the trouble was over, and that nothing now remained but to arrange details. He was soon undeceived ; though the disasters which followed were doubtless, to some extent, due to his own treachery. In violation of a safe conduct, he detained Donough a prisoner, and only released him on the strong protest of the Earls of Kildare and Ormond, who had been his securities.
This was in December, and the two O’Connor-promised to come to Dublin before the end of the month to learn from the Council particulars as to the lands to be assigned them. They can scarcely be blamed for omitting to fulfil this engagement, or to trust again to the honour of the Lord Deputy. Sussex proclaimed them traitors, put a price on their heads, and prepared for an invasion of Offaly. The O’Connors and O’Mores went into rebellion, and Sussex carried fire and sword into their territories and those of the other clans who were assisting them.
