Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, and the colonization of north-east Ulster, 1573-6

Between 1573 and 1575 one of the rising figures of the Elizabethan court, Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, attempted to colonize the north-east of the province of Ulster in Ireland. This ‘enterprise’, as Essex termed it, was undertaken with the aim of prising these lands away from the regional lords and planting colonies of English settlers there. Essex’s project ended in failure; notorious were the atrocities perpetrated by his forces. When Essex died in 1576, his personal wealth had been decimated. Moreover, the patrimony of his son and heir had been considerably compromised. This book presents the first full account of Essex’s ‘enterprise’. In doing so it sheds light on the nature of Tudor government in mid-Elizabethan Ireland, and the limitations of the early modern state.

A historian of Tudor and early Stuart Ireland, David Heffernan holds a postdoctoral fellowship from the Royal Irish Academy.