Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett, and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson, so let's get started.

Today's lesson is looking at the Ulster Plantations and the Highland Clearances, and by the end of today's lesson we'll be able to record that in the 17th century, there was migration around the British Isles, including the displacement of Catholics in Ireland and Highlanders in Scotland.

In order to do that, we need to use some key terms, and our key terms for today are Protestants, plantation, Gael, and Catholic.

A Protestant is a member of the Western church who does not recognise the Pope as its head.

A plantation in Ireland is an area settled by English and Scottish families.

A Gael is a person of Celtic origin who speaks Gaelic, which is a language spoken in parts of Scotland and Ireland, and a Catholic is a Christian who believes the Pope is the head of the Church.

Today's lesson will consist of two separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at the Ulster Plantations in Ireland, so let's get going.

Now, Queen Elizabeth I successfully transformed Britain into a Protestant island, following the upheaval of the Reformation, and the religious uncertainty during her siblings' short reigns.

However, she was unsuccessful in converting Ireland to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism, which in turn undermined her authority over the Irish.

Both she and her father, Henry VIII, had attempted to convert Ireland to Anglicanism, which was the English form of Protestantism, and they did this by establishing small plantations, but none of these had been successful.

In 1593, a large rebellion, known as Tyrone's Rebellion, broke out.

It was led by the Earl of Tyrone, who is one of the traditional Gaelic leaders up in the north of Ireland, and the rebellion was centred in the northern province of Ulster, and lasted until Elizabeth's death in 1603.

Elizabeth's successor, the Scottish King James VI, who also then became James I of England, was very eager to prevent any further unrest from this new territory of his.

Well, let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So what Christian denomination did the vast majority of Irish people follow? Was it Anglicanism, was it Presbyterianism, or was it Roman Catholicism? Make your choice now.

All right, if you chose C, then very well done, that is the correct answer.

Now in September, 1607, the Earl of Tyrone and the Earl of Tyrconnell, along with their supporters, left Ireland for Spain in order to seek support for a fresh rebellion, in an event known as the Flight of the Earls.

And as bad as this sounds, this was actually the opportunity that James had hoped for.

He declared their actions treasonous, and as a result, he confiscated all of their lands.

The Earls never returned because of this, which marked the end of the traditional Gaelic leadership in Ireland, and created a leadership vacuum which James was able to fill with his supporters.

James used the opportunity presented to him to populate the Earls' land with more desirable settlers.

And by that, what I mean is that James hoped to replace the Irish Gaelic speaking Catholics with English Anglican Protestants and Scottish Presbyterian Protestants, who were far more likely to be loyal to their king than the Irish Gaels were.

The rebellious rural Catholic and Gaelic province of Ulster would then be fully Protestants, which would in James' planning, then provide a base from which to convert the rest of Ireland, so that's the plan.

On the screen in front of you there, we've got a map of Ireland, and we've got the four provinces marked out, and that northern province which has a box around it, that is a province of Ulster.

So that's where everything's taken place we're talking about today, just to get a clear picture in your head.

All right, let us do a quick check for understanding again.

So, a quick true or false statement.

James I created the Ulster Plantations to boost the population and stimulate economic growth.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose false, then congratulations, that's the correct answer, but let's justify that statement.

Now, why is it a false statement? Is it false because the Ulster Plantations were designed to establish Protestantism in the region and prevent rebellions? Or is it false because the Ulster Plantations were designed to win over the hearts and minds of the Irish people in the region? So make your choice now.

All right, if you chose A then well done, that is the correct answer.

So James used lowland Scots and Northern English migrants for this enterprise of his, and he wanted to reward his loyal Scottish supporters with lands of their own, as well as mount his first truly British venture.

So James hoped that by bringing the Scots and the English together to settle in Ireland, that that would hopefully unite these three kingdoms of his.

To a great extent that they were already united.

He also that by depopulating the borderlands of England and Scotland, he could put an end to the traditional raiding, what's called the reives, or the Border Reivers.

That was a feature of these lands, that had been happening for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Although some enterprising Scots had already begun organising plantations in Ulster from 1606, the official and large scale Ulster Plantations programme began in 1609, and by 1622, roughly 19,000 planters were present on Ulster Plantations, in broadly equal proportions of English and Scottish.

There were more Scotsmen on the private plantations naturally, but in terms of the official government-sanctioned plantations, it was roughly 50-50 between English and Scottish planters.

Understandably, the plantations were met with great hostility by the native Irish, who regarded the English and Scottish planters as invaders.

Many Irish Gaels lost their homes and lands, although some were given new, albeit worse quality land elsewhere on the plantations.

This is because they were needed to work the farms, as not as many English and Scottish planters had immigrated, as had originally been planned.

And the reason being is that the colonisation of Virginia in America was occurring during the same period.

So a lot of the people and a lot of the investments that would've just gone to the Ulster Plantations, was instead being split between Ireland and America.

Ulster though underwent a dramatic transformation due to the plantations, even with the reduced numbers of planters and the reduced investment involved.

The rural landscape was reshaped as new towns were built.

The traditional Brehon laws were replaced by English laws, and English judges to enforce them, and Ulster Pretty much became a Protestant region of Ireland within a relatively short amount of time, the legacy of which continues to this day.

However, the rest of Ireland resisted religious conversion, partly because a lot of the Gaels didn't speak English, and a lot of the English and Scottish priests didn't speak Gaelic.

So there's a real communication breakdown, which prevented any sort of religious conversion from ever really succeeding.

Unrest continued to plague the region for a long time afterwards.

Large numbers of bandits known as wood-kern regularly attacked the planters.

The Ulster Plantations were a main cause of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which then fed into the violence of the English Civil Wars.

The Troubles, which was the fighting between Catholics and Protestants of the 20th century, have meant that violence has been a lasting legacy of the Ulster Plantations.

Right, quick check for understanding now.

I'd like you to identify two outcomes of the Ulster Plantations.

So it could be that Ireland became a Protestant country, that Ireland rebelled against James I, the Irish Catholics lost their land, or that towns were settled in Ulster.

So choose two of those options now.

Okay, if you chose C and D, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

Well, let's go for our first task for today.

So I'd like you to take a little look at the source on the screen in front of you.

So source A is an engraving of the Portadown Massacre from November, 1641, in which roughly a hundred or so Protestant planters were killed by Irish Catholics, in response to the loss of their land, due to the Ulster Plantations.

The text reads, "Drowning men, women, and children by hundreds upon bridges, and casting them into rivers.

Those who were not drowned were killed with poles and shot with muskets." And what I would like you to do, is I'd like you to pick out two useful features of this source for an historian studying the Ulster Plantations.

So pause the video whilst you do this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got okay with that task.

Let's think about what you could have said, then.

So you could have said that one useful feature of source A for an historian studying the Ulster Plantations is that the engraving shows violence taking place, suggesting that the creation of the Ulster Plantations was not well received by some people.

For instance, the Native Irish Catholics opposed the settling of the Ulster Plantations, as it meant that they would likely lose their homes and land.

In response, bands of wood-kern attacked the planters, as can be seen in the source.

Another useful feature is that source A is an engraving of the Portadown Massacre of November, 1641.

This is useful because the Irish Rebellion took place in 1641, so the source supports the fact that violence between the Irish and the planters was taking place at this time.

The violence of the Irish Rebellion continued into the English Civil Wars as well, so this source accurately implies that the Ulster Plantations caused a great deal of unrest and bloodshed.

So hopefully you've an answer that is similar to mine.

Maybe you've chosen different aspects of the source that you've considered useful, that's absolutely fine.

But hopefully what you have done.

is you've picked out an aspect of the source, and you've linked it to your own knowledge to explain how it is useful in that respect.

And let's go for our next task for today.

So which factor do you think was the more important in regards to the Ulster Plantations? Was it religion or was it governments? And what I'd like you to do is first of all, explain how each factor affected the Ulster Plantations.

And once you've done that, then go on to explain what your overall opinion is.

So which one do you think is more important, out of religion and government? So pause the video whilst you do this, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you got okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So you could have said that religion was a very important factor in regards to the Ulster Plantations.

James I, who launched the Ulster Plantations, wanted to convert the Irish Catholics to Protestantism.

He insisted that all planters must be Protestant, as he hoped to make Ulster a fully Protestant province.

The Irish Gaels who were native to Ulster were Catholic, which was a significant reason for why they launched rebellions against the Protestant British monarchy.

Government was also an important factor in the settling of the Ulster Plantations.

The 1607 Flight of the Earls removed the traditional Gaelic leadership, the government from Ulster, and this provided land for planters to settle on, and created a power vacuum, which could be filled by the Protestant planters.

It was also thanks to James I's government that the Ulster Plantations policy received significant supports.

As his first British venture.

James had a personal interest in ensuring the success of the Ulster Plantations.

There are significant links between the two factors, as without the antagonism generated by difference in religion, it is possible that the Irish Gaels would not have been so rebellious, which would not have encouraged James to settle the area with English and Scottish Protestants in order to convert them.

However, as Ulster was a rural area and the government was keen to depopulate the English and Scottish border in order to end the traditional raids that happened there, it is also possible that James' government would've settled Ulster with English and Scottish planters anyway.

This means that government was the more important factor, as without James's policy encouraging settlements, plantations would either not have happened or failed due to being too small in scale, as had already occurred under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

So if you have a different overall opinion to me, that's absolutely fine.

It's not a problem whatsoever, as long as you supported your opinion.

That's the really key aspect there.

You may have noticed as well that what I've done is I've linked the two factors together.

So I've explained how religion and government feed into each other.

And being able to link factors together is a really, really important skill.

It's really important that you are able to demonstrate that you understand that all of these things don't happen in isolation, that they're all linked together in some way.

and they feed into each other.

So if you can, if you're answering a question like this, try and demonstrate how these different factors link together, and perhaps one becomes far more important because it has the support of another factor.

Right, let's move on into our next and final learning cycle for today, which is the Highland Clearances in Scotland.

Now, the people of the Scottish Highlands and Islands had little in common with the Scots who lived in the Lowlands.

Although many Highlanders had converted to Protestantism by the 18th century, they had their own distinct culture, spoke Scots Gaelic rather than English, and lived in extended family groups or clans, in small farming communities known as bailteans.

The land was owned by the clan chief and used by the clan in return for their service.

James VI of Scotland, who as I said before, later went on to become James I of England, absolutely detested the Gaelic culture.

Even though he was the king of Scotland, he had far more in common with the Scottish Lowlanders than he did the Highlanders and the Islanders.

He hated the Gaelic culture.

And in response to this, he actually successfully sowed the seeds of Gaelic destruction, by forcing clan chiefs to live at his court for extended periods of time.

This cost the clan chiefs a great deal of money, money which realistically they didn't have.

And therefore in order to get that money, they took more money from their clan members, and that money became more and more money, and so on.

And over the course of the next century or so, this led to clan chiefs essentially transforming into landlords.

Well, let's have a quick check for understanding.

I'd like you to write the missing words.

So, British monarchs were something, the independent culture of the Scottish Highlanders.

Is that opposed to, supportive of, or indifferent towards? So choose your option now.

Okay if you chose A, then congratulations, that's the correct answer.

So the 1745 Jacobite Rising, which was an attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne by the Highlanders, have been brutally quashed at the Battle of Culloden, which seriously damaged the spirit of the Highlanders.

And as well as many Highlanders being killed, they also had things like bagpipes were now outlawed, as they were considered to be a weapon of war.

So the spirit of the Highlanders was essentially crushed after the Battle of Culloden.

And this came at a time when many clan chiefs were also facing bankruptcy, due in part to the fact that they had failed to keep pace with changes to farming, which had revolutionised agriculture across the rest of Britain.

Many clan chiefs responded by converting their lands to sheep farms, which were far more profitable than the traditional agriculture and cattle farming, which was practised by the Highlanders and Islanders.

The consequence of this, was that many of the Highlanders were unable to afford the rent rises, and therefore they lost their homes.

Well, it's another check for understanding.

So what were the Highland bailteans, the villages, replaced with? Were they replaced with Irish Protestant plantations, Scottish Protestant towns, or sheep farming? Make your choice now.

Okay if you chose C, then very well done.

That's the correct answer.

Now, the first phase of the Highland Clearances, from 1760 to 1815, saw thousands of Highlanders move from homes in the interior of Scotland, that their families had lived in for hundreds of years.

And in many cases, the Highlanders were violently evicted.

For example, on the Sutherland Estate, there were accusations that people's houses were burnt down with them still inside.

Highlanders were frequently moved to townships along coastal areas, and forced to engage in fishing and kelp farming, to name a couple of industries that they were expected to engage at that point.

But these were industries that they had little to no experience in.

The reason they're engaging in these, is 'cause they thought there would be a future for them.

A lot of the clan leaders and the landlords who were moving their people out to these other areas, some of them genuinely thought they were doing the right thing.

Even though in hindsight it very clearly was not right thing they were doing, at the time Duchess Sutherland, for instance, was genuinely upset that her clan members didn't think that she was doing the right thing by them.

So with hindsight we can see that what they were doing is wrong.

At the time, some of them genuinely thought that they were doing the right thing by their clans.

Not all of them, though.

In any case, the inevitable failure of the people to adapt, coupled with poor harvests, led to starvation, and the beginning of the second phase of the Clearances.

And the second phase of the Highland Clearances, which lasted from 1815s to the 1850s, saw a change from moving Highlanders to different areas of Scotland, to instead moving to different areas of the British Empire.

By the end of the 1850s, more than 66%, more than two-thirds of clan chiefs had sold their estates due to bankruptcy, which further damaged the Highlanders' link to their ancestral lands.

Clan Chiefs might have tried to help their clan members by moving them to places which they thought would help them.

The people who took over these estates, they had no ties to the people who lived there.

So they had no concerns whatsoever about moving people on, in many cases.

Many of these new landlords found it cheaper to pay for their tenants to sail to distant corners of the empire, rather than continue to pay for famine relief.

And between 1846 and 1856, roughly 11,000 Highlanders provided with this assisted emigration, as it was known.

The true number that emigrated is undoubtedly much, much higher, as many Highlanders paid their own fare to emigrate, frequently through indentured servitude.

Many Highlanders congregated in communities in Canada and Australia in particular, and others moved to the Scottish Lowland cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, rather than continue to struggle to survive in the coastal townships.

Wherever Highland communities emerged across the empire, they generally assisted in improving their surroundings.

Scottish involvement in engineering projects, such as the building of infrastructure, which is roads and buildings, was significant in many of the British colonies.

Right, and the check for understanding now.

I'd like you to identify two British colonies that many Highlanders emigrated to after the Highland Clearances.

So it's Australia, Canada, India, or Hong Kong.

Choose two of those options now.

All right, if you chose A and B, then very well done.

Those are the correct answers.

And let's go for our next task now.

I'd like you to consider what impact did the Highland Clearances have on Scotland? I'd like you to try and explain two consequences of this event.

So pause the video whilst you complete this task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you've gotten okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have said.

So you could have said that one impact that the Highland Clearances had on Scotland was the complete breakdown of the traditional Scots Gaelic way of life.

This had already begun under the reign of James VI the Scotland, who initiated the process of converting Highland clan chiefs into landlords, weakening the bond between the chiefs and the clans.

The Clearances removed the Highlanders from their ancestral lands, as well as ending their traditional way of life by forcing them to become fishermen and kelp farmers, rather than agricultural and cattle farmers, as they had been previously.

Another impact that the Highland Clearances had on Scotland was the movement of Scottish people within and outside of Scotland.

The first phase of the Highland Clearances saw many Highlanders move from the interior of Scotland to coastal regions.

The second phase, which occurred after the failure of the new Highland townships to prosper, saw Scottish people emigrate to other parts of the British Empire, notably Canada and Australia.

This resulted in Scottish people impacting the British colonies, for example, by building infrastructure in the places they moved to.

So hopefully your answer is similar in structure at least, to mine there.

Hopefully you've noticed that I've made my point, and I've backed it up with specific evidence, and I've explained how that evidence supports the point that I'm making.

So hopefully you're doing the same thing there too.

Okay, let's go for another check for understanding now.

I'd like to explain two ways in which the Ulster Plantations and the Highland Clearances were similar.

So pause the video whilst you complete that task, and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you've gotten okay with that task.

Let's think what you could have said then.

So you could have said that one way in which the Ulster Plantations and the Highland Clearances were similar, is that both the Irish in Ulster and the Highlanders in Scotland were Gaelic.

This was a culture which differed from that of the other peoples of the British Isles, but one which was not tolerated by King James I of England in particular.

It was James that began the breakdown of the traditional Highlander bond between the clan chiefs and their clans, and also James that initiated the Ulster Plantations to remove Gaelic influence from Ulster.

Another way in which the Ulster Plantations and the Highland Clearances were similar, is that both events resulted in the removal of thousands of peoples from their homes, leading to a great deal of violence.

In Scotland, Highlanders were brutally removed from their ancestral bailteans, for example, on the Sutherland Estate, their houses were burnt down around them.

In Ireland, bands of wood-kern regularly attacked the planters who had taken their land, eventually leading to the bloody events of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and the subsequent violence of the English Civil Wars.

So hopefully you thought about two similarities as well, and explained how they are similar.

And the key to this is to draw out specific examples from both events, so from both the Ulster Plantations and the Highland Clearances.

And if you're struggling to think of ways in which they were similar, try and break down each of the events into three separate areas.

So the cause of the events, the actual event itself, and the consequences of the events.

And try and look for similarities within those three aspects there.

Well, let's summarise today's lesson now then.

So in an effort to subdue the Irish Catholic Gaels in Ulster, King James I of England initiated the settlement of English and Scottish Protestant plantations.

Many of the Irish were removed from their lands in a failed effort to convert all of Ulster to Protestantism.

Instead, violence erupted between the planters and the Irish Gaels.

In the Scottish Highlands, Gaelic culture was also considered a threat by James I that had to be contained.

Highlanders were removed from their homes, and replaced with sheep farms. The Highlanders were first moved to the Scottish coasts, before emigrating abroad to different parts of the British Empire.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself, hope you learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-Bye.