Flight of the Earls

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On 14 September 1607, Irish earls Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, permanently departed Rathmullan in Ireland for mainland Europe, accompanied by their families, household staff, followers and fellow nobility, numbering about ninety people. The earls were patriarchs of the two most powerful clans in Ulster (the O'Neill and O'Donnell clans), and their permanent exile is seen to symbolise the end of Gaelic Irish society.^[1] This event is now known as the Flight of the Earls (Irish: Imeacht na nIarlaí).

Both earls fought against the English Crown in the Nine Years' War, which ended with their surrender in 1603. Although the earls managed to retain their lands and titles, hostility towards them from English politicians gradually increased over time. The flight was seemingly a snap decision;^[2] its exact motivation is unclear and is the subject of debate.^[3] They may have been conspiring against the government, and their flight could have been an attempt to evade arrest.^[4] The earls intended to reach Habsburg Spain, which had allied with the Irish confederacy during the war, but were turned away by Philip III for fear of violating the recent Treaty of London.^[5] The refugees spent time in Leuven in the Spanish Netherlands, where many of the passengers left their young children to be educated at the Irish College of St Anthony. The earls arrived in Rome on 29 April 1608 and were granted small pensions by Pope Paul V. Their accommodation in Rome was paltry compared to their estates in Ireland. Tyrconnell died of a fever three months later. Tyrone repeatedly discussed plans to return to Ireland and retake his lands, but he became ill and died in 1616 before doing so. Most of the passengers on the flight never returned to Ireland. The flight was declared as treasonous by James VI and I and the earls' titles were forefeited, which led to the acquisition of the earls' lands as part of the Plantation of Ulster.