the remedying of defective titles was set up, whose function it was to put an end to the confusion as to titles to land arising from the troubles of former years; and by its labours, as well as by direct grants from the Crown, a very large number of landowners of both races received titles to their estates which actually were, or which, at any rate, were supposed to be valid in law. The Deputy, with Sir John Davies and other dignitaries, undertook a journey in 1606 through Monaghan, Fermanagh, and Cavan to satisfy himself as to the actual rights to land of the chiefs and clansmen respectively in these districts.[1]
All this peaceful progress was put an end to by the "Flight of the Earls." Into the causes of this, perhaps one of the most fatal incidents in Irish history, we need not enter. Its immediate consequence, however, was a confiscation sweeping in character and far-reaching in its results. Probably no event has had such an influence in shaping the subsequent history of Ireland, and incidentally of England too, yet the accounts given in our current histories are as a rule inadequate if not actually misleading. For instance, we find school histories stating that the confiscation of Ulster was a penalty for the rising of O'Neill and O'Donnell under Elizabeth, and others holding that the Flight of the Earls vested in the Crown
- ↑ "But touching the inferior gentlemen and inhabitants, it was not certainly known to the State here whether they were only tenants-at-will to the chief lords … or whether they were freeholders yielding of right to their chief lord certain rights and services, as many of them do allege." (Sir J. Davies: Letter to Salisbury, 1606). The Deputy decided in favour of the clansmen. 1606 seems the true date of the Letter and the journey, although they are dated 1607 in Morley's Ireland under Elizabeth and James I.
