From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 1 - Ballyboyle - our ancient ancestors
The English get tough
In the 16th century the European powers began their massive colonial expansion, and for England, Ireland was the laboratory where it could test out and refine many of the practices which it later put into effect across the globe[Margey 2018].
When Henry VIII ascended to the English throne in 1509, his hold on Ireland was tenuous at best, but by a policy of force, persuasion and exploitation of rivalries among the Gaelic septs and their English-descent neighbours, he and his successors were able to extend their authority. With the promise to follow English laws and customs and receive Royal protection in return, many Gaelic chiefs surrendered their traditional rights and property and were re-granted them under English law and with English titles of nobility. The English administration intended to develop Ireland as a peaceful and reliable possession, without risk of rebellion or foreign invasion.
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If anything, this increasing encroachment upon the Gaelic localised autonomy encouraged conflict within Gaelic society. Cousins who might have aspired to the leadership of their clan saw their prospects diminish because under the English practice of primogeniture, succession would now be restricted to the direct descendants of the newly created Earl, rather than elected from within the wider derbhfhine.
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Wherever the policy of surrender and regrant failed, land was confiscated and English ‘plantations’ (colonies of settlers) were established, as initiated during the reign of Henry’s daughter, Mary.
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Together with the Tudors' attempts to impose a centralised state and later the Protestant Reformation, the English system was brought into direct conflict with the Gaelic one. The protagonists of these policies were often the era’s ‘men-on-the-make’ such as Walter Raleigh and Richard Boyle, ‘the first colonial millionaire’.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, serious revolts broke out in the south, led by the FitzGerald Earls of Desmond, but were quickly crushed. In the final decade of the 16th century most of the Gaelic chiefs of the north united to wage the Nine Years’ War. Despite early victories, internal dissensions and the failure of the hoped-for Spanish assistance to materialise in sufficient quantity, in the right place at the right time led to a defeat of the Irish forces at Kinsale in 1601, and ultimately, the end of the Gaelic social and political order. Hugh Roe, leader of the O’Donnells, went to Spain to seek further Spanish support, without success, and died in 1602
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Although the Irish leaders were offered fairly lenient terms of surrender, it soon became apparent that their finances, power and influence was broken. In 1607, the Ulster chieftains of the Ó Neill, Ó Domhnaill and Mac Uidhir septs, and nearly a hundred of their followers, set sail for Europe in what became known as the Flight of the Earls. They were to spend the remainder of their days seeking military support from the powers of Spain, France and the Papacy for the restoration of their lands, without success. Within ten years, the leading figures were dead, and with them died any hope of resistance to the complete English conquest of Ireland.