The policy inaugurated by Queen Mary of establishing English colonies in Ireland, as a means of extending the authority of the Crown, seemed to her sister worthy of imitation. She gave permission, on request, to certain private individuals to " plant " specified portions of land, which, if they succeeded in their enterprises, they could hold from the Crown. The rights of the Irish proprietors who were to be dispossessed were not considered.   The first two of these attempted colonisations—that of Chatterton in ... Read More

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 ... Read More