A Celtic Chronology

1402 Death of the Duke of Rothesay.

1406 James I ascends as King of Scotland, but he was kept a prisoner of the English for the first eighteen years of his reign. His uncle, Robert Stewart, the Duke of Albany, ruled in his place.

1407 Burning of Lollard, James Resby.

1411 The Battle of Harlaw

1412 The University of Saint Andrew is founded.

1416 Gilla-IsaMacFirbis assembled The Book of Lecan.

1425 James I of Scotland landed in Scotland and arrested Murdoc, son of the Duke of Albany, who ruled Scotland when his father died. James I also had Murdoc’s two sons arrested. All were executed. The family had used the power of the throne to enrich themselves.

1435 Privy Council of Ireland reports to the King it does not rule beyond the Pale which is along the coast centered by Dublin and extending 30 miles long and 20 miles deep into Ireland. The rest of the island was ruled mostly by the Earls of Desmond, Ormand, or Kildare except those areas held by local Irish chieftains.

1437 James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth, Scotland. His son, James II ascends the throne.

James II successfully contested the House of Douglas for control of Scotland.

1449 Richard York is named Viceroy of Ireland.

1450 Bishop Kennedy’s College of Saint Salvator is founded in Scotland.

1451 The University of Glasgow was founded by Bishop William Turnbull.

1455 Fall of the Black Douglases in Scotland.

1460 Declaration of Irish parliamentary independence.

1462 The Battle of Pilltown results in the House of Lancaster forces led by Butler being defeated by the House of York forces led by the Earl of Desmond in the War of the Roses. This begins the ascendancy of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond and Kildare.

1472 Orkney and Shetland Islands officially annexed by Scotland.

1478 Garrett Mor Fitzgerald, “the Great Earl”, rules Ireland until 1513.

1487 Lambert Simnel, a pretender, is recognized by the Yorkist nobles as King Edward VI. Simmel and his army are defeated at Stoke, England. He was made to work as a scullery boy (he was only ten) in the House of Tudor.

1488 James IV of Scotland took control of the Western Isles (The Hebrides) from the MacDonald family.

1491 Seventeen year old Perkin Warbeck another pretender gets verbal support from the Earls of Kildare and Desmond, but no aid.

1492 Columbus discovers America, in his crew is Irishman William Eris, or Ayers of Galway. Galway was one of the last ports Columbus visited before he left for “India.”

1493 An Irish monk in a Spanish order, Bernardo O’Boyle, was appointed Apostolic Vicar to the Indies.

1494 Meeting of “Poynings’ Parliament” is called by the new Lord Deputy, Sir Edward Poynings and resulted in Poynings’ Law which ended the “home rule” concept for Ireland, henceforth it was to be ruled from England.

The University of Aberdeen was founded by Bishop William Elphinstone.

1497 Strong support was shown in Cornwall during the Flammock (Flamack) Rebellion is support of Perkin Warbeck.

1503 Marriage of James IV of Scotland to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England.

1504 the Battle of Cnoc Tuagh (Knocktoe).

1509 The Pale now includes Dublin, Louth, Kildare, and part of Meath.

1512 James IV of Scotland sided with France against Henry VIII of England. When Henry VIII invaded France, James IV invaded England.

1513 Gerald called by the Irish Garrett Óg Fitzgerald succeeds his father as Earl of Kildare and the ruler of Ireland.

The Battle of Flodden and death of James IV of Scotland. English supremacy over Scotland was unchecked after Flodden.

1532 The Treaty of Vannes in which the Kingdom of Brittany became a part of France.

1534 Thomas Fitzgerald, known as “Silken Thomas”, Lord Offaly, son of the Earl of Kildare, rebels against Henry VIII efforts to limit the family’s power in Ireland, and to extend his own. In the rebellion Thomas takes the side of the Catholics as Henry was anti-Rome.

Breton Jacques Cartier discovered the Saint Lawrence River, thus begins French Canada.

1536 The “Reformation Parliament” meets Under Lord Deputy Leonard Grey and makes Henry VIII the “only Supreme Head on Earth.”

“Silken Thomas” and five of his uncles are executed ending Kildare ascendancy in Ireland.

The Geraldine League is formed to protect the only survivor of the House of Kildare, the descendants of Gerald Fitzgerald. He was a boy of fourteen. The League made up of Irish Norman nobles who moved him among their houses until he was able to be sent to the continent in 1541.

The Pale is extended to the rest of Meath and all of Leinster with the fall of the House of Kildare.

There were small Pales around Kilkenny and Wexford.

Wales was officially made a part of England.

1540 St. Leger, Lord Deputy, wins over the Irish lords to accept Henry VIII.

1541 Irish Parliament proclaims Henry VIII “King of Ireland.” Until 1800, whomever was King of England was King of Ireland.

1542 Conn O’Neill created Earl of Tyrone. Other Irish chieftains surrender their claims as Kings and such and receive title and grants for the lands their family traditionally ruled.

The rout of Solway Moss and death of James V of Scotland leading to the accession of Mary I, Queen of Scots.

1543 The treaties of Greenwich between England and Scotland, which among other things called for Mary to marry the heir of Henry VIII, Edward. Mary was able to avoid this.

1544 England invades Scotland.

1545 Another invasion of Scotland by England.

1546 The Archbishop of Saint Andrews, David Cardinal Beaton, a strong supporter of Mary I of Scotland, ordered George Wishart burned for heresy. Wishart was a leader of the Scottish reformation movement of the Catholic Church. His death inspired his followers to stronger action. One of these was John Knox.

1547 Archbishop Beaton is murdered by members of the reformation movement. They were given sanctuary in Saint Andrews Castle. The castle, like the town, was a stronghold of the reformists. A French expedition on behalf of Mary I took advantage of the inaction of the Scotch and English and stormed the castle. Among those captured in the castle was John Knox who emerged as a spokesman for the reformation movement in Scotland.

The Battle of Pinkie in Scotland, an English victory.

1548 Sir Edward Bellingham, a Puritan and soldier, was Ireland’s Lord Deputy. He controlled Connacht, and Munster with the basing of garrisons in each location. Under a false pretext he invaded the lands of the O’Mores in Leix, and the O’Connors in Offaly to occupy land coveted by the Crown.

Sir Nicholas Bagenal was granted rich lands in Ulster that were seized from their Irish owners.

The English secured the release of John Knoz and send him to England with the other reformers. They planned to send them back at the “appropriate” time to support the reformation movement in Scotland.

1549 The beginning of “plantations” in Leix and Offaly, an effort to extend the English Pale beyond the area of Dublin. This program continued through to 1557. The names of two Counties were changed. They were changed from Leix to Queen’s County, and from Offaly to King’s County.

Humphrey Arundell was supported by the Cornish.

1551 Advisors of the boy King Edward VI influenced him to issue an order calling for the official establishment of Protestantism in Ireland. The Anglican Church was recognized for this purpose and the Catholic Mass was forbidden.

1553 Catholic Mary I is Queen of England, Catholicism and Papal authority are again recognized; but only from her view as she assumed the title of Queen of England without the Pope’s sanction. Mary held sway until 1558 when she was deposed.

1557 The rise of the “Common Band”, a movement of religious reformers to act against the influences of France and Catholicism in Scotland.

1558 Elizabeth I re-establishes the Anglican church with her ascendancy.

Mary I of Scotland, who had been living in France, marries the French heir. He would later become Francis II, King of France.

1559 Mary of Lorraine, the Queen Mother in France, led a military expedition against the now militarized Scottish reformers.

John Knox returns to Scotland and leads the reformers in protests against Mary of Lorraine.

1560 Listening to John Knox, Elizabeth I of England realized France was moving to consolidate their monarchy over France, Scotland and England. She dispatched 10,000 troops to join the Scottish reformers who were called protestants (“pro-test-tants” which later became Protestants). The english troops fought the French troops in Scotland.

The Treaty of Edinburgh effected a withdrawal of all foreign troops (French and English) from Scotland which left the reformers in control of Scotland. The Scottish Parliament abolished papal authority in Scotland and Andrew Melville challenged the monarchy’s control of church funds.

1561 Mary I returns to Scotland from France and contests Knox for control of Scotland.

1562 Shane O’Neill, lord of Tyrone, raises a revolt. He successfully regains most all of Ulster, and the rest of north Ireland down to the River Boyne at Drogheda.

1567 Shane O’Neill defeated and killed by a force led by “Black Hugh” O’Donnell at Farsetmore.

Mary I of Scotland is forced to abdicate, she escapes to England. James Stewart, Earl of Moray, is appointed Regent until James VI could reign.

1568 First Desmond Rebellion lasted until 1572 and was led by Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a Catholic Geraldine. They resisted English authority in Munster. They appealed to the Pope and the King of Spain for assistance. They were defeated but Sir James escaped to Spain.

The Battle of Langside in Scotland.

1570 James Stewart, the Regent of Scotland, is murdered.

1572 John Knox died in Scotland.

1577 Sir Francis Cosby was in charge of the King’s forces in King’s and Queen’s County, but the O’Mores assisted by the O’Kellys, O’Nolans, and Lalors called the areas County Leix and County Offally and held much of the territory still. Cosby arranged a truce and invited the leading families to a banquet in County Kildare. The banquet was held in a fort, 399 went in, only one man, a Lalor escaped. One hundred and eighty O’Mores were slaughtered along with the supporting families.

One O’More who did not attend the banquet, and was a leader of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Rory Óg O’More stalked the men of Cosby with guerrilla tactics.

1579 The Second Desmond Rebellion again led by Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, which saw help arrive from the Pope and Spain with the landing of Italian and Spanish troops in Kerry in 1580 to no avail.

The English town of Youghal was sacked and the English slaughtered by the Earl of Desmond’s forces. The English Army and forces of Butler, the Earl of Ormond, teamed to put down the uprising. The Papal Army of Italians and Spanish surrendered. There was an incident during this time involving an English man famous for his courtesy and chivalry.

A contingent of the Spanish was able to make it to Golden Island off the Kerry coast. There were 800 Spaniards with plenty of provisions occupying a fort known to be impregnable. With winter approaching and all forceful solutions having failed, the English offered honorable terms by which the Spaniards could extricate themselves from the siege with their lives and honor intact. The Spanish surrendered and laid down their arms, whereupon under the direction of the courteous and chivalrous Sir Walter Raleigh, they were all massacred.

The revolt left parts of Ireland again in the grasp of a famine.

The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland is best described by Richard Berleth in his book, The Twilight of the Gods,

The conquest progressed in stages. In modern parlance,
the pacification of Ireland began with a policing action,
which escalated to full-scale operations, which resulted
in a near depopulation of the countryside, which was
amended by wholesale colonization and usurpation. On
the other hand, Ireland gobbled up the Queen’s men,
resources and energy for more than thirty years. The
Irish wars destroyed reputations, bankrupted families,
and culminated in the first authentic colonial venture
in English history.

1580 Viscount Bottlenose leads an unsuccessful revolt in Leinster of Anglo-Irish gentry.

1584 Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley of Armagh is executed.

1585 Composition of Connaught into the English system of ownership.

Perrot’s Parliament declared the Munster properties of the House of Desmond forfeit to the Crown. The property is dispersed to English supporters. Sir Walter Raleigh receives 200,000 acres. It is he who introduced the potato and tobacco to Ireland having brought them from his plantation in Virginia.

The rise of the Catholic Constitutional Party begins.

1586 Edward Nugent, an Irishman, stopped Indian raids against the English expedition of Sir Richard Grenville in what is now North Carolina.
An attempt is made to “plantation” Munster, but fails.

1587 Irishmen Darbie Glaven and Dennis Carrell are put ashore at Saint John, Virgin Islands to collect supplies and do not return to their English ship.

Mary I was executed.

1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada, mostly by the weather and the rocky Irish coast. What they did not kill, the English did. It is estimated that 10,000 Spanish lives were lost between the sea and the English with their Irish cronies.

1592 Trinity College in Dublin is founded, for centuries the only institution of higher learning in Ireland, and open only to members of the Church of Ireland.

1595 Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, raises a rebellion in Ulster. His followers are sometimes called the Northern Confederacy. With him stood Red Hugh O’Donnell. They captured the English fort at Portmore on the Blackwater River.

O’Neill defeated an English force at Clontibret that was commanded by his brother in law Sir Henry Bagenal.

1598 The Battle of Yellow Ford where O’Neill’s forces defeated the English led by Bagenal who was killed in the battle. The territories that formerly were held by the Earl of Desmond were restored by the Irish to James FitzThomas Fitzgerald.

It seemed Ireland was on the verge of throwing out the invaders once and for all, but Elizabeth decided to try again with a different tactic.

She hired spies and villains to set the various groups of Irish against one another, a tactic that has always worked. And it did again: the native Irish were set apart from the Anglo Irish, who in turn were divided by the followers of Ormand, Kildare, and Desmond. The Norman Irish were separated from all these. The Ulster Irish were divided between those from Scotland and those born in Ireland. And always the religious issue was used to separate these apart even more, Catholics were separated by group (Irish, Anglo Irish, and Norman), the Protestants were separated into the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, and the Presbyterians. If there were groups inside these classifications such as conservatives and liberals, they too were exploited into separating themselves from the others.

In Brittany, Phillipe Emmanuel Lorraine was defeated in an attempt to revive Breton independence.