Historical route · 1534–1691
Conquest & Colonisation
Tudor conquest, plantation, confessional war and land transfer remade power and settlement across the island.
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- 01 1534 AD
Silken Thomas Rebels
Thomas Fitzgerald renounced allegiance to Henry VIII and led a dramatic revolt. Its collapse crushed Kildare power and pushed the Tudor crown toward a far more direct conquest of Ireland.
Dublin and Leinster · Read evidence → - 02 1536 AD
The Dissolution Reaches Ireland
Henry VIII ordered religious houses dissolved. Enforcement was uneven, but monastic land and wealth began passing to the Crown and new owners, tying Reformation to conquest.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 03 1541 AD
Kingdom of Ireland Declared
Henry VIII was declared King of Ireland, replacing the old lordship with a kingdom tied to the Tudor monarchy. The move made conquest, reform, and religious change part of one project.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 04 1556 AD
Plantation Begins
The plantations of Laois and Offaly began the systematic confiscation and resettlement of Irish land. It was an experiment in control that later expanded with far greater force in Ulster.
Laois and Offaly · Read evidence → - 05 1558 AD
Shane O’Neill Defies Tudor Rule
Shane O’Neill built an Ulster power base and rejected the Crown’s attempts to reduce Gaelic lordship to an English-style title. His resistance exposed the limits of Tudor control.
Ulster · Read evidence → - 06 1567 AD
Shane O’Neill Is Killed
After military reverses, O’Neill sought support from the MacDonnells and was killed at Cushendun. His fall removed a major obstacle to Crown expansion but did not pacify Ulster.
Cushendun, County Antrim · Read evidence → - 07 1569 AD
The First Desmond Rebellion Begins
The FitzGerald earls of Desmond resisted officials seeking tighter control in Munster. The revolt joined dynastic rivalry, religion and land into a long regional war.
Munster · Read evidence → - 08 1579 AD
The Second Desmond Rebellion Erupts
James Fitzmaurice FitzGerald returned with papal support, and Desmond resistance revived. Crown forces answered with garrisons and devastation across Munster.
Munster · Read evidence → - 09 1580 AD
The Smerwick Garrison Surrenders
An Italian and Spanish-backed force surrendered at Dún an Óir in Kerry and was killed by Crown troops. The episode showed how Ireland had entered Europe’s confessional wars.
Dún an Óir, County Kerry · Read evidence → - 10 1583 AD
Munster Lands Are Confiscated
After the Desmond rebellion, the Crown confiscated vast estates and planned an English plantation. War, famine and displacement made settlement possible but also made it fragile.
Munster · Read evidence → - 11 1585 AD
The Composition of Connacht Reorders Land
Agreements converted Gaelic tribute and lordship into Crown-recognised rents and titles. They promised legal certainty while extending English administration into Connacht.
Connacht · Read evidence → - 12 1588 AD
Armada Wrecks Line the Atlantic Coast
Spanish Armada ships were wrecked along Ireland’s western coast. Survivors faced rescue, capture or death, and officials feared a new alliance between Spain and Irish lords.
West coast of Ireland · Read evidence → - 13 1592 AD
Trinity College Is Founded
Trinity College Dublin was founded to educate a Protestant elite for the Tudor state. It became one of Ireland’s great institutions, but also a symbol of who was included and who was kept outside.
Dublin · Read evidence → - 14 1594 AD
The Nine Years’ War Begins
Hugh O’Neill’s portrait turns the opening of the Nine Years’ War into a face-to-face political drama: Ulster resistance was not a backdrop, it was led by a ruler negotiating, delaying, and fighting Tudor expansion.
Ulster and northern Ireland · Read evidence → - 15 1595 AD
Clontibret Checks the Crown Army
O’Neill’s forces defeated a Crown army near Clontibret. The victory strengthened his coalition and showed that disciplined Gaelic armies could meet English troops in the field.
Clontibret, County Monaghan · Read evidence → - 16 1598 AD
Yellow Ford Shocks England
Hugh O’Neill’s forces destroyed an English army at Yellow Ford during the Nine Years’ War. For a moment, Gaelic resistance looked capable of breaking Tudor expansion in Ireland.
Yellow Ford, County Armagh · Read evidence → - 17 1599 AD
Essex’s Campaign Collapses
Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, came as Elizabeth I’s favourite with a huge army and left as a failed commander; the portrait makes the collapse feel like court ambition meeting Irish terrain and O’Neill’s patience.
Leinster, Munster and Ulster · Read evidence → - 18 1600 AD
Mountjoy Turns to Attrition
Lord Deputy Mountjoy rebuilt garrisons and destroyed crops, livestock and shelter in rebel areas. Hunger and exhaustion became deliberate instruments of war.
Ulster and Munster · Read evidence → - 19 1601 AD
Kinsale Turns the War
Irish and Spanish hopes met English siege warfare at Kinsale. The defeat shattered the great Gaelic alliance and cleared the way for a new political order built on conquest and plantation.
Kinsale, County Cork · Read evidence → - 20 1602 AD
O’Sullivan Beare’s March Ends in Disaster
After Dunboy fell, Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare led followers from Beara to Leitrim. Only a fraction completed the winter march, revealing the war’s civilian cost.
Beara to County Leitrim · Read evidence → - 21 1603 AD
Treaty of Mellifont Ends the War
Old Mellifont Abbey marks the place where submission ended the Nine Years’ War; the ruins make the treaty feel like a hinge between Gaelic lordship and a new confiscating state.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 22 1607 AD
Flight of the Earls
Hugh O’Neill, Rory O’Donnell, and their followers left Ireland for continental Europe. Their departure marked the collapse of the old Gaelic aristocracy and opened Ulster to plantation.
Rathmullan, County Donegal · Read evidence → - 23 1608 AD
O’Doherty’s Rebellion Burns Derry
Sir Cahir O’Doherty seized and burned Derry after conflict with local officials. The short revolt ended with his death and accelerated confiscation in northwest Ulster.
County Donegal and Derry · Read evidence → - 24 1609 AD
Ulster Plantation
The Ulster Plantation settled English and Scottish Protestants on confiscated land. It changed ownership, language, religion, and settlement patterns in ways that still echo through Irish politics.
Ulster · Read evidence → - 25 1609 AD
Surveyors Prepare the Ulster Plantation
Officials mapped confiscated counties and allocated land to English and Scottish undertakers, servitors and selected Irish tenants under detailed settlement conditions.
Ulster · Read evidence → - 26 1610 AD
London Companies Build New Towns
Companies organised through the City of London received land in County Coleraine, renamed Londonderry, and developed walled towns linked to Atlantic trade.
County Londonderry · Read evidence → - 27 1613 AD
New Boroughs Reshape Parliament
Dozens of plantation boroughs gained parliamentary representation, giving the Crown and Protestant settlers greater influence in the Irish House of Commons.
Dublin and plantation towns · Read evidence → - 28 1619 AD
Derry’s Walls Enclose a Plantation City
Stone walls were completed around the new city of Londonderry. They protected settlers, advertised corporate power and later shaped the city’s siege memory.
Derry · Read evidence → - 29 1622 AD
A Royal Survey Finds Plantation Gaps
An official inquiry found undertakers missing, fortifications incomplete and many Irish tenants still on planted estates. Colonisation advanced unevenly, not according to plan.
Ulster · Read evidence → - 30 1628 AD
The Graces Promise Reform
Charles I offered Catholic landholders legal and religious concessions in return for taxation. Repeated delay in confirming the Graces deepened distrust of royal government.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 31 1632 AD
Wentworth Centralises Dublin Castle
Thomas Wentworth arrived as lord deputy and strengthened revenue, the army and royal control. His authoritarian programme alarmed both Catholic landholders and Protestant elites.
Dublin and Ireland · Read evidence → - 32 1635 AD
Connacht Titles Come Under Threat
A Connacht province map sharpens Wentworth’s title inquiry into its real subject: legal geography. Old possession became vulnerable once land could be redrawn as a Crown-administered problem.
Connacht · Read evidence → - 33 1641 AD
Rebellion Ignites
Catholic rebels rose in Ulster and violence spread into wars over land, religion and government. Contemporary claims and later estimates of civilian deaths differ sharply, so no single toll is presented as settled.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 34 1642 AD
Confederate Ireland Governs from Kilkenny
Catholic clergy and landowners formed a confederate government at Kilkenny, raising armies and negotiating amid wars across Ireland, England and Scotland.
Kilkenny · Read evidence → - 35 1642 AD
The Confederate General Assembly Meets
Representatives of Catholic Ireland created institutions at Kilkenny, including a supreme council and taxation. The confederation sought religious security and political leverage.
Kilkenny · Read evidence → - 36 1646 AD
Owen Roe O’Neill Wins at Benburb
The Ulster Army defeated a Scottish Covenanter force at Benburb. The victory raised Confederate hopes but could not overcome divisions over peace with the king.
Benburb, County Tyrone · Read evidence → - 37 1647 AD
Cashel Is Sacked
Murrough O’Brien’s parliamentarian army captured the Rock of Cashel and killed defenders and civilians. The attack intensified the war’s religious and retaliatory violence.
Cashel, County Tipperary · Read evidence → - 38 1649 AD
Drogheda Falls to Cromwell
Cromwell’s army stormed Drogheda after its garrison refused surrender and killed most defenders as well as some civilians. Historians continue to debate the scale and interpretation of the civilian deaths.
Drogheda, County Louth · Read evidence → - 39 1649 AD
Cromwell Lands with the New Model Army
Cromwell’s 1649 portrait puts the campaign’s command presence on screen before Drogheda and Wexford: a parliamentary army arrived with money, discipline, siegecraft, and a hard ideological reading of victory.
Dublin · Read evidence → - 40 1649 AD
Wexford Falls amid Mass Killing
Selskar Abbey anchors Wexford in a real urban place rather than reusing Drogheda’s image; the fall of the port mattered because massacre, negotiation, and maritime strategy collapsed into one shock.
Wexford · Read evidence → - 41 1650 AD
Clonmel Inflicts Heavy Losses
Clonmel’s surviving walls shift the story from Cromwell’s reputation to siege mechanics: Hugh Dubh O’Neill made the town costly, proving disciplined defence could still hurt the New Model Army.
Clonmel, County Tipperary · Read evidence → - 42 1652 AD
Galway’s Surrender Ends Organised War
Galway capitulated after blockade, while guerrilla resistance faded elsewhere. Disease, hunger and displacement had compounded battlefield defeat.
Galway and western Ireland · Read evidence → - 43 1652 AD
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland
Parliament classified landholders by wartime conduct and reserved land for soldiers and creditors. The law turned victory into a programme of confiscation.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 44 1653 AD
Land Confiscation Reshapes Ireland
A Petty-map view turns confiscation into an administrative machine: land was not only seized by soldiers, it was measured, classified, and converted into transferable property.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 45 1654 AD
Transplantation Orders Drive Families West
Connacht appears here as the ordered destination in a forced political geography: transplantation broke families’ leverage even when individual removals were uneven or delayed.
Connacht and County Clare · Read evidence → - 46 1655 AD
The Down Survey Maps Confiscation
A Down Survey map makes the point visible: the conquest became durable when survey lines translated fields, owners, and claims into a ledger for soldiers and creditors.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 47 1662 AD
The Restoration Settlement Protects New Owners
Charles II’s image clarifies the reversal that was not a full reversal: monarchy returned, but most Cromwellian land transfers survived, locking the conquest into Restoration law.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 48 1685 AD
James II Raises Catholic Hopes
James II’s accession is shown through the Catholic king himself, not the later Boyne battle: the crisis began as a question of offices, army commissions, land security, and who would govern Ireland.
Ireland · Read evidence → - 49 1689 AD
The Patriot Parliament Meets
James II’s Dublin parliament asserted legislative independence and reversed many land forfeitures. Williamites rejected it, and its acts depended on a war James was losing.
Dublin · Read evidence → - 50 1689 AD
Derry Holds Out
The siege of Derry became a defining moment in the Williamite War. For Protestants it became a story of endurance; for Ireland as a whole, it showed how European wars could burn through local streets.
Derry · Read evidence → - 51 1689 AD
Enniskillen Forces Win at Newtownbutler
Williamite troops from Enniskillen defeated a larger Jacobite force, securing much of western Ulster while Derry’s siege was ending.
Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh · Read evidence → - 52 1690 AD
Battle of the Boyne
William of Orange defeated James II near the River Boyne. The battle did not end the war, but it became a lasting political symbol of victory, defeat, memory, and contested belonging.
Oldbridge, County Meath · Read evidence → - 53 1690 AD
Limerick Resists the First Siege
Jacobite defenders held Limerick and forced William III to withdraw for the season. The war continued despite the Boyne, underlining that the famous battle was not decisive by itself.
Limerick · Read evidence → - 54 1691 AD
Treaty of Limerick
The Treaty of Limerick ended the Williamite War and promised terms to Jacobites. Many believed those promises were later broken, feeding the legend of the “Wild Geese” and Catholic dispossession.
Limerick · Read evidence → - 55 1691 AD
Aughrim Breaks the Jacobite Army
The Williamite victory at Aughrim destroyed the main Jacobite field army and killed its commander, the marquis de St Ruth. Galway and Limerick were left isolated.
Aughrim, County Galway · Read evidence →