[1] In 1571, however, Queen Elizabeth I authorised a privately-funded plantation (colonisation) of eastern Ulster, and privately granted large portions of both Lower and Upper Clandeboye to two Englishmen: Sir Thomas Smith and The 1st Earl of Essex.
[2] In October 1574, Essex wrote to the Queen that "since this people have refused your mercy, and taken upon them wilful war and rebellion, I trust to be the instrument, under you, to punish their breach of faith".
Lord Essex also ordered his men to seize Sir Brian O'Neill, his wife and his brother Rory Óg.
[7] In another letter he wrote that he arrested O'Neill and "certain of the principal persons, and put others to the sword, to the number of 200 in all places, whereof forty were his best horsemen".
[9] Audrey Horning writes that "In violating the rules of hospitality, Essex not only inflicted maximum humiliation on O'Neill through his disdain of Irish custom; he also sent an aggressive message to the Gaelic leadership".
[10] Essex's additional justification for O'Neill's execution were allegations that he, in collusion with the MacDonnells of Antrim, had been plotting to cut the throats of English soldiers in his territory.
[11] The following summer, Lord Essex ordered an attack on the MacDonnells of Antrim, in which his forces massacred 600 men, women and children on Rathlin Island.