Flight of the Earls

September 14, 1607

Beaten and beggared, the great Gaelic lords of Ulster, O'Neill of Tyrone and O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, boarded a French ship at Rathmullan with ninety followers and sailed for the Continent. Their lands were declared forfeit to the Crown. The plantation of Ulster with English and Scots Protestants soon followed, sowing divisions that would fester for four centuries.