0:00:02 > 0:00:05Finding our way around has never seemed easier.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09Today's mapping technology allows us to locate where we need to go
0:00:09 > 0:00:11quickly and accurately.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18This urge to map is a basic, enduring human instinct.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Where would we be without maps?
0:00:24 > 0:00:27One obvious answer is, of course, lost.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33But maps provide answers to many more questions
0:00:33 > 0:00:37than simply how to get from one place to another.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41I have studied and written about maps my entire working life.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43I'm fascinated by what drives the creation of a map...
0:00:45 > 0:00:47..and what it can tell us about the age in which it was made.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51And in this programme,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54I'm on the trail of an extraordinary hoard of maps...
0:00:55 > 0:00:58..maps of a land of huge political significance,
0:00:58 > 0:01:03painting a picture of war, migration and economic transformation...
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Any of these maps is really showing the Irish landscape
0:01:08 > 0:01:10for the first time.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13It's this idea of "Look what we have uncovered, look what we have found.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17"This is the end of Gaelic Ulster and the beginning of something new."
0:01:17 > 0:01:20The men in London looking at the maps,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22they were living in a virtual world
0:01:22 > 0:01:26and didn't really understand, I think, what was going on.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30It's about security, it's about religion,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32but it's also about profit,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and Ireland was a place where men could become rich.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40..a land at Europe's very edge...
0:01:40 > 0:01:41Ulster.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Maps have always been so much more than getting us from A to B.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Throughout history, the rich and the powerful have used maps
0:02:00 > 0:02:03to lay claim to distant places and possessions.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07In the 16th century, the mapmaker Abraham Ortelius called maps
0:02:07 > 0:02:09"the eye of history",
0:02:09 > 0:02:10because he believed
0:02:10 > 0:02:14that people could see and remember historical events much more vividly
0:02:14 > 0:02:17using maps, than in written descriptions.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20And 400 years ago was an absolutely defining moment
0:02:20 > 0:02:22in the history of maps,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25because this was a period of exploration and discovery,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29the Spanish, the Portuguese and the English laying claim
0:02:29 > 0:02:32to territories in the New World of the Americas and in Asia.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36And central to that process were maps.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Maps were a piece of technological kit which were as important
0:02:40 > 0:02:43in the 16th century as they are today, in our current online world.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50One of the most intensively-mapped regions in the 1600s, however,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52lay much closer to home than the Americas.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55It was the north part of Ireland - Ulster.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02An amazing treasure trove of maps survives from this period.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Collectively, they present a vivid portrait
0:03:06 > 0:03:08of the dramatic early years
0:03:08 > 0:03:10of Scottish and English settlement in Ulster.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Each map tells its own story, of war and conquest,
0:03:16 > 0:03:21of a great influx of entrepreneurs and adventurers
0:03:21 > 0:03:25and of a wild landscape transformed into a network of towns.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32England had first laid claim to Ireland
0:03:32 > 0:03:35in the Anglo-Norman conquest of the 12th century.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43From that moment on, control of the land was a tug-of-war
0:03:43 > 0:03:46between the Crown and the Gaelic lords.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Ireland is divided into four provinces...
0:03:54 > 0:03:59..Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Historically, the Gaelic lords controlled all four provinces
0:04:05 > 0:04:07and the territories within them.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11But in 1558, when Queen Elizabeth came to the throne,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15the English were in control of most of the eastern coast,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17which was called the Pale.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22And the Queen's desire to strengthen English rule in Ireland
0:04:22 > 0:04:25grew more urgent during her long war with Spain.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27She feared Ireland would become a launch pad
0:04:27 > 0:04:29for an invasion of England.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32But up until the late 16th century, there was one province
0:04:32 > 0:04:37that was still out of control of the English crown, and that was Ulster.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55To gain control of an area requires intimate knowledge of the terrain.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59But up until the late 1500s, Ulster remained largely a mystery,
0:04:59 > 0:05:00or certainly to the English.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Hidden by rolling fields and vast tracts of forest,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07this was a province that retained its secrets,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10undiscovered and largely unmapped.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20An unhappy 16th-century mapmaker offers one reason why -
0:05:20 > 0:05:23"short days, dark and foul weather
0:05:23 > 0:05:27"and the boggy mountains, as well, full of mire and water".
0:05:30 > 0:05:33What did exist was drawn on a small scale,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36only hinting at what lay within the interior.
0:05:39 > 0:05:40But the mysteries of the landscape
0:05:40 > 0:05:43would soon be revealed in exceptional detail by
0:05:43 > 0:05:47a new wave of mapmakers, under the orders of the Queen and her army.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Annaleigh, this is an extraordinary landscape.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54You can see that, down there, the space is incredibly flat,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57but we come up here and we have this great vantage point
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and the terrain suddenly gets very mountainous.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Tell me about it. What, for you, is significant about this?
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Well, this is a really significant part,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07because we're basically on a hill, in the middle of County Louth.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10I mean, you look down straight ahead of you,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12you see the flat land, which is leading towards the Pale,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and over to the right we've got the real hills of Ulster.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19And this would have been one of the direct routes the English armies
0:06:19 > 0:06:22would have marched through and many of the cartographers with them.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27If you're an English cartographer faced with that landscape,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29presumably you're going to be a bit nervous.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31I mean, what problems are they facing?
0:06:31 > 0:06:32Well, obviously, you're probably going to be
0:06:32 > 0:06:34very challenged by that kind of terrain,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38because of just the sheer nature and the scale of the mountains.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Quite a large amount of this would have had much more tree cover,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44so it would have been pretty daunting when you would come along.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46What about the Irish at this time? Are they mapping, as well?
0:06:46 > 0:06:51We've not come across any surviving in any archive in Ireland or Britain.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54And I mean, that takes us to the wider idea of what mapping really is.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56I mean, is it that idea of, you know,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59we had an oral culture in Ireland at that point in time?
0:06:59 > 0:07:01It would also have opened it up potentially
0:07:01 > 0:07:04to that landscape being discovered by others,
0:07:04 > 0:07:06so two neighbouring Gaelic chieftains
0:07:06 > 0:07:09may not have wanted the other to know too much about their lands.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11Mapping it down would have given physical evidence to that.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13So any of these maps
0:07:13 > 0:07:17is really showing the Irish landscape for the first time.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Mapping this uncharted territory
0:07:19 > 0:07:22presented both a challenge and a risk for the mapmaker.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35In 1598, Queen Elizabeth I commissioned Francis Jobson
0:07:35 > 0:07:37to make a survey of Ulster.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42He produced a map which, at first glance
0:07:42 > 0:07:45presents a colourful, attractive picture of the area.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49But the artistry belies the real intention behind its creation...
0:07:49 > 0:07:51reconnaissance.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58And for the mapmaker, the mission was so dangerous
0:07:58 > 0:08:02that he wrote he was "every hour in danger to lose my head".
0:08:03 > 0:08:07The purpose of Jobson's expedition was to uncover the complex network
0:08:07 > 0:08:09of Gaelic families who governed Ulster.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12The map identifies who they are and where they live,
0:08:12 > 0:08:19amongst them the McSweeneys the O'Boyles and the O'Cahans.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21The most powerful was a man of especial interest
0:08:21 > 0:08:24to Queen Elizabeth I and her military advisors,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32The map recognises his power, marking the place
0:08:32 > 0:08:35where he was inaugurated as chief of the O'Neills.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48This is a very strange space.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51I walked in and my pulse rate started to go.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55There's something incredibly powerful about it
0:08:55 > 0:08:56and very mysterious,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00that very powerful things have happened here.
0:09:03 > 0:09:09And Hugh O'Neill, who was the most powerful of all the Gaelic lords,
0:09:09 > 0:09:15was enshrined as chief of the O'Neills here at Tullaghoge,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18looking out over the whole landscape.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22And he was enthroned in an enormous stone chair
0:09:22 > 0:09:25in the centre, over there.
0:09:25 > 0:09:32And you can really feel the power of that moment of him taking control.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36It's almost like he's a god surveying everything that he sees.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40And you really do get that feeling of godlike control.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It's quite wonderful,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46but it's also a little bit spooky. It's extraordinary.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Queen Elizabeth I, however,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54had ambitions to smash that control and take it for the Crown.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58And the evidence is in Jobson's map.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00A series of brightly-coloured boundaries
0:10:00 > 0:10:02offers a new vision of the region,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06dividing it into counties, according to the English custom.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09The Queen's desire to control Ulster
0:10:09 > 0:10:11met with violent resistance from O'Neill
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and resulted in England's costliest campaign yet in Ireland,
0:10:14 > 0:10:16the Nine Years' War.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24The Queen underestimated O'Neill
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and his highly-trained army of Irish and Scottish soldiers.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32At the battle of the Yellow Ford, outside Armagh,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35the English faced their greatest-ever defeat in Ireland,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38losing 2,000 men.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44The Queen even sent her favourite, the Earl of Essex,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46with over 17,000 troops.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Again, after fierce fighting and an unofficial truce,
0:10:50 > 0:10:51this ended in failure.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Inflamed, the Queen swore she'd humble the arch-traitor O'Neill
0:10:57 > 0:10:58with her sword,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02but instead sent Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy,
0:11:02 > 0:11:04to do the job for her.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Mountjoy arrived in Ireland in 1600.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09With him was a man who would reveal
0:11:09 > 0:11:12some of the landscape's best-kept secrets to the outside world.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Mountjoy brought with him a mapmaker called Richard Bartlett,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31who would provide a vivid eyewitness account of the campaign.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41The account took the form of a series of beautifully-rendered maps,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45intended for presentation at Elizabeth's royal court.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49The maps have now been returned to Ireland
0:11:49 > 0:11:52and are considered a national treasure.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04What is truly extraordinary about Bartlett's work, however,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07is that it opens a window into the past
0:12:07 > 0:12:09more revealing than any written version.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22It's always an enormous thrill
0:12:22 > 0:12:24when you see manuscripts like this for the first time,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and these Bartlett maps are absolutely beautiful.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37What first strikes you is that they ARE the work of an artist.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39This is an assured draughtsman.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41The line is very fine,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46the colours are very striking, but also very muted.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50But as always with maps, there's more than one dimension to them.
0:12:50 > 0:12:56As you start to look more closely, a different aspect starts to emerge,
0:12:56 > 0:13:01and what you have here is actually a military landscape.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05What you can see is that these are spaces
0:13:05 > 0:13:09which are about military fortifications.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12There are castles, there are forts,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17there are lines through which troops can move.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20This is a story that's being told through maps.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22This is about war and it's about conquest.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29What is also remarkable about Bartlett's maps
0:13:29 > 0:13:31is that they are military intelligence,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34providing a chronological account of Mountjoy's campaign.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39And the first step in that campaign
0:13:39 > 0:13:42was gaining control of the gateway to Ulster.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The Moyry Pass is a narrow valley and was once the only way north
0:13:52 > 0:13:55through the thickly forested and mountainous region.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Whoever controlled the pass
0:13:57 > 0:14:00controlled the main entry point into Ulster.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13This ruined and dramatically situated castle in South Armagh
0:14:13 > 0:14:16represents THE turning point in the Nine Years' War.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22Some of the most brutal fighting of the war took place here.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24The prize was control of the pass.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Jim, you share a surname with Hugh O'Neill.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Tell me what happened here between him and Mountjoy.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37You see, O'Neill knew this was crucial ground,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40and throughout the war this was always very important.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42Mountjoy knew he had to come through here,
0:14:42 > 0:14:44but O'Neill had fortified this pass.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Why is this area so important?
0:14:46 > 0:14:49You've got to remember that south of Ulster,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51it's like this barrier of drumlins and forests
0:14:51 > 0:14:53that really is actually quite impenetrable
0:14:53 > 0:14:55with the type of army that Mountjoy had.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56So he had two options.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He had to go up through the west coast, up by Ballyshannon,
0:14:59 > 0:15:00or go up through the Moyry,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02and O'Neill knew this, and this is where he waited for him.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Mountjoy arrived in September 1600 with over 3,000 men.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16O'Neill met him with an equal number and a crucial advantage...
0:15:16 > 0:15:20detailed knowledge of the largely unmapped, difficult terrain.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25So you actually had fortifications up on this ridge here?
0:15:25 > 0:15:27He had fortifications on this ridge and that ridge,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29so that not only had he created barricades here,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31he'd created a kill zone,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33so that whenever Mountjoy's army entered it,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35he could not only fight them from the front,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39he could actually pour on fire on both flanks.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44After three weeks of fighting, Mountjoy withdrew.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Inexplicably, O'Neill also departed, leaving the pass undefended.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Mountjoy saw his opportunity and seized it.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Jim, this is Bartlett's map of this area. The castle wasn't there, then.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Absolutely not. The castle didn't get built till June of 1601,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03after Mountjoy had taken the pass.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07He didn't want to have a repeat of September, October 1600,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09so he built this castle to make sure
0:16:09 > 0:16:12that this pass would stay firmly in the hands of the Crown.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14What you're seeing is the unfolding of the campaign.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17I mean, the map is really rather beautiful,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20but there's something a bit more sinister going on here, isn't there?
0:16:20 > 0:16:21It's a beautiful piece of art,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26but this wasn't a cartographer who happened to be with military men.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29This seemed to be a military man that was also working as a cartographer.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32With earlier maps, the pass had been seen as one great block of trees.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35At least now they had details, they could see causeways,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38they could see where they had to turn and where they could and couldn't go.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40And certainly, if we think about war reporting,
0:16:40 > 0:16:41this is somebody who is embedded
0:16:41 > 0:16:43and he has an investment in producing
0:16:43 > 0:16:45this kind of image of the campaign, doesn't he?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Absolutely. And he's lucky he's in it at this point,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50because at this point, the campaign is starting to go right.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54OK, we had the bloody excesses of the Moyry Pass earlier in the year,
0:16:54 > 0:17:00but by this stage, you've got a firm footing in Gaelic Ulster.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05What Mountjoy did next struck at the very heart of O'Neill's power.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08And recording this dramatic, pivotal moment in Ireland's history
0:17:08 > 0:17:12was the mapmaker, Richard Bartlett.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15This is probably one of Bartlett's most interesting maps,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17because it has three real stages.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20You can see the Irish under attack at the very top.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23You can see the very ordered English troops marching along,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26even down to their horses and their pikes.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And when you move to the middle section, you see Dungannon,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32obviously the heart of the O'Neill estate in Ulster.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34And there it is with the flag of St George.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38It really shows you that that is the conquest of Ireland.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40And at the bottom, we have Tullaghoge,
0:17:40 > 0:17:45which was the traditional seat for the crowning of the O'Neill family.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49It's very much in a rural location,
0:17:49 > 0:17:50it would have been very hard to find,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and here you have it so prominently displayed on a map.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58It's this idea of "Look what we have uncovered, look what we have found."
0:17:58 > 0:18:01And it's that idea, almost of, you know,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04"This is the end of Gaelic Ulster and the beginning of something new".
0:18:12 > 0:18:15The chair was destroyed on Mountjoy's orders in 1602,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18and just a few months later, as Queen Elizabeth lay dying,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20O'Neill surrendered.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Four years later, along with the other chieftains of Ulster,
0:18:23 > 0:18:24he fled Ireland for good
0:18:24 > 0:18:27in what became known as the Flight of the Earls.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30The Crown confiscated all their lands.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34The way was now open for England to lay claim to all of Ireland
0:18:34 > 0:18:36because of this conquest of the north.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Bartlett's maps provide a graphic account
0:18:42 > 0:18:44of the Elizabethan military campaign in Ulster.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He was the 17th-century equivalent of a war reporter,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52sending back dispatches from the front line to the English court.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01And if history is written by the winners,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04then Richard Bartlett's maps of Ulster during the Nine Years' War
0:19:04 > 0:19:09show that geography is likewise drawn by the victors.
0:19:09 > 0:19:10And his skill is such
0:19:10 > 0:19:15that he captures the devastation of a landscape changed for ever by war.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Bartlett's apparent delight at being on the victor's side
0:19:32 > 0:19:34was short-lived.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37He was commissioned to make a true and perfect map
0:19:37 > 0:19:40of the northernmost parts of Ulster, Donegal.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43His fate was recorded by letters
0:19:43 > 0:19:46written by the Attorney General of Ireland.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49He said, "Our geographers do not forget the entertainment
0:19:49 > 0:19:52"the Irish of Tir Chonaill gave to a mapmaker
0:19:52 > 0:19:54"after the late rebellion.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57"The inhabitants took off his head
0:19:57 > 0:19:59"because they would not have their country discovered."
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, with no direct heirs.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17The successor was King James VI of Scotland,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22and he was crowned here in London as James I of England and Ireland.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28All three kingdoms were now united under one crown.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29James was a Protestant.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32He also believed in the divine right of kings
0:20:32 > 0:20:34to rule with absolute authority
0:20:34 > 0:20:36over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39He'd already tried to settle plantations in rural Scotland,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42as a way of raising revenue for his cash-strapped kingdom,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45and his reign would also be responsible for establishing
0:20:45 > 0:20:50the first English colony in the Americas, Jamestown in Virginia.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58The King actively encouraged adventurers and entrepreneurs
0:20:58 > 0:21:01to set out for the New World and settle there in his name.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08But he was equally passionate that his subjects would do likewise
0:21:08 > 0:21:13in a land much closer to home - the newly-conquered Ulster.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19King James's Scottish origins would play an enormous part
0:21:19 > 0:21:23in who settled there and geography aided him, too.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27There's only 18 miles between the Scottish and Irish coasts here.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33And this lush and fertile spar of land, known as the Ards Peninsula,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35had had a long history of trade
0:21:35 > 0:21:37and intermarriage with families on the Scottish coast.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Even before the conquest of Ulster,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43prospective settlers had spotted its potential.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47There had been a previous attempt to settle the peninsula by the English.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51In 1571, Queen Elizabeth offered her secretary of state,
0:21:51 > 0:21:52Sir Thomas Smith,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56the opportunity to develop a colony along the peninsula.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Thomas Smith hit on the bright idea of producing a promotional booklet
0:22:00 > 0:22:04to try and attract investors, and he gave it a really hard sell
0:22:04 > 0:22:09by asking people "to possess a land that floweth with milke and hony",
0:22:09 > 0:22:11although, surprisingly,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Sir Thomas Smith also didn't underplay the weather conditions,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18advising that "Ireland requireth lasting and warm clothes".
0:22:22 > 0:22:28The booklet included a very basic yet attractive map of the peninsula.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33But this is also a map driven by personal and financial ambitions.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38As a window into Ulster's past, it gives only a partial view.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41What it deliberately doesn't show is any sign of the Gaelic lord
0:22:41 > 0:22:44who also claimed ownership of the land at that time.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Only 100 colonists arrived
0:22:48 > 0:22:53and, by 1573, the colony had failed, due to the fierce local opposition,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56ending in the murder of Sir Thomas's son.
0:22:59 > 0:23:0130 years later, it was a different story.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03The conquest of Ulster had smoothed the way
0:23:03 > 0:23:06for Ulster's closest neighbours, the Scottish,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08to settle on the peninsula.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12The grand migration scheme that followed
0:23:12 > 0:23:17was down to the determination, luck and cunning of two Scottish men.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery were favourites of King James I.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Hugh Montgomery was from one of the most powerful families in Scotland,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28while James Hamilton, an academic,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31was the son of a minister from Ayrshire.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37Both men saw the Ards Peninsula as an accessible new frontier
0:23:37 > 0:23:39where they could make their fortunes.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50And it was at their invitation that a cross section of Scottish society
0:23:50 > 0:23:55landed in this very harbour to begin a new way of life.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00But what compelled hundreds of ordinary men and women
0:24:00 > 0:24:03to leave their native Scotland in the first place?
0:24:05 > 0:24:09It's beautiful, but tell me how this works as an economic landscape,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12and how would it have operated in the 16th century?
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Really, to understand the 16th century, early 17th century situation
0:24:15 > 0:24:18you need to go back to the 14th century,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22when you had the Black Death and a severe decline in population.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Because of that, pastoral farming was allowed to dominate.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Cattle, really, were able to take over a lot of land
0:24:28 > 0:24:29because there was no humans there.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32There was a sharp increase then in the population
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and to provide food for that burgeoning population
0:24:35 > 0:24:38they had to start bringing more land under cultivation.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Is that part of the reason for the settlement, the move towards Ulster?
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Because I look at this landscape and I think, "Why would you leave this?"
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Yeah. I mean, Ireland would have suffered the same amount of rainfall,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52but the land quality was more fertile for growing crops.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56You still had a dominance of pastoral farming in certain areas,
0:24:56 > 0:24:58but there was more land available there
0:24:58 > 0:25:02for them to grow crops, to supplement what they needed here.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08The prospect of land
0:25:08 > 0:25:12and a new life only a short sail from Scotland proved very appealing.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16The first settlers left Ayrshire in the summer of 1606.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18But as word spread, a stream of people
0:25:18 > 0:25:22departed Argyll, Dumfries & Galloway and Perthshire,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25all bound for Ulster.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28So, what kind of people were leaving this area to go to Ireland?
0:25:28 > 0:25:32They were the younger sons of noble families who went looking for land.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34They took with them their tenant farmers,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38because they weren't going to work the land. They were the landowners.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42You had to take masons, carpenters, ironworkers,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44the whole cross section that you really needed
0:25:44 > 0:25:47to support a brand-new community.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51And for Hamilton, a man from humble beginnings, it offered
0:25:51 > 0:25:56the chance to build his very own sprawling and lucrative estate.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01So Ireland, for him, was really an opportunity, and he grasped it fully.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05He set about establishing towns, he built himself a mansion,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08he was licensed to hold fairs and markets,
0:26:08 > 0:26:10and he worked himself literally
0:26:10 > 0:26:14into quite a high-status position in Ireland.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15That gives him an opportunity,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19and if they invest in that, they do very well out of it.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Both Montgomery and Hamilton would acquire great wealth and titles.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28But it came at a cost.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32A bitter feud erupted between the two men over who owned what.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Hamilton's response was to use the latest advances in mapmaking
0:26:38 > 0:26:41to record the land he owned and who lived on it.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46And at the same time, he also left history with a wonderful depiction
0:26:46 > 0:26:50of the lives of the early Scottish settlers in Ulster.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The Book of Maps was drawn by an English surveyor
0:26:53 > 0:26:54called Thomas Raven.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Raven was one of the most prolific mapmakers in Ulster at this period,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02and he was also unique, because he produced in a very long career
0:27:02 > 0:27:05a whole slew of different kinds of maps.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09They included large surveys, plantation maps, town maps
0:27:09 > 0:27:13and maps like this of an estate.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17And this is his Book of Maps of the Hamilton estates.
0:27:18 > 0:27:24Wow! It is really, really a very beautiful frontispiece,
0:27:24 > 0:27:29where he shows you this is a book which is commissioned by Hamilton,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and from there what do we get?
0:27:33 > 0:27:36A wonderful map of Bangor,
0:27:36 > 0:27:41and you can actually begin to see the town itself as it's developing.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46The settlement here shows you in real detail the bay of Bangor,
0:27:46 > 0:27:51and then you can see the main street of Bangor running up here.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54You can see the cony burrow. This is wonderful.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57So, this is Hamilton showing burrows of rabbits,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01and the rabbits rather beautifully drawn there, in relief.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03So it's really interesting that the map is both
0:28:03 > 0:28:07around settlement, in terms of mapping the space,
0:28:07 > 0:28:09but also showing economic dimensions.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14So, people wanted to eat rabbits, and they also were growing wheat,
0:28:14 > 0:28:15so you've got the wheat hill.
0:28:15 > 0:28:16You've got a sense
0:28:16 > 0:28:20of where everybody's apportion of the land is.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27And what's really revealing about Raven's series of maps
0:28:27 > 0:28:30is what else it can tell us about the settlers.
0:28:30 > 0:28:37The names inscribed on the parcels of land - Dunlap, Nesbitt, Austin -
0:28:37 > 0:28:41confirm that the first settlers were all of Scottish origin.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45Church Hill and Church Yard are also clearly marked.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47The settlers were mostly Protestant.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51The map shows the centrality of faith to their lives.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57And the sheer numbers of people on this land paying rent to Hamilton
0:28:57 > 0:28:59tells us that estate is prospering
0:28:59 > 0:29:04and his dream of making a fortune in Ulster is beginning to be realised.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14One of Raven's most beautifully drawn maps features
0:29:14 > 0:29:17a village on the shores of Strangford Lough.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Overlooking it is a fairytale-like castle.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24This was Hamilton's new home, Killyleagh.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28The castle and the village remain to this day.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31The castle has changed a good deal in the last 400 years,
0:29:31 > 0:29:36but you can still see traces of the original as depicted on the map.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Hamilton's descendant and his family continue to live here,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41in the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Good to meet you. How are you?
0:29:45 > 0:29:47Gawn, there's three of us here in the room,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50because we've got your ancestor, James Hamilton, up there.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55And I've got a quote suggesting that he was very learned, laborious
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and noble, especially to strangers and scholars.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Do you think that's quite a good assessment of him?
0:30:01 > 0:30:05He was clearly wise and learned, his libraries were extensive.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10He was a teacher and certainly set up a school in Dublin.
0:30:10 > 0:30:11Bold?
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Most definitely. I like to think of him as more of a pirate, really.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18I think that he would have been a hard man to cross.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21I don't think I'd like to be him.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24I think he was more of a, sort of, Robert Maxwell character.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28You know, he started off life as the son of the Vicar of Dunlop
0:30:28 > 0:30:31and he ended up being one of the largest landowners in Ireland
0:30:31 > 0:30:35and...I think he did it by some sharp means, too.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37But, nevertheless, I do have some admiration for him.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39He was a highly successful man,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42from whichever angle you like to look at it from.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45We've been looking at Raven's Book Of Maps.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Can you tell us why they were commissioned?
0:30:47 > 0:30:49What was the impetus behind that?
0:30:49 > 0:30:55The maps were requested by Hamilton, in order to settle,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58or help settle, the arguments he was having with Montgomery.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02I mean, they had, basically, a standing army for about 20-30 years
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and skirmishes would happen regularly between the families.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09In fact, Montgomery on his deathbed said in the intel and the will
0:31:09 > 0:31:12that no Montgomery could inherit if they'd ever marry a Hamilton
0:31:12 > 0:31:16and over 400-plus years, the families have never intermarried,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19which is extraordinary, really, given that they were neighbours.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26So, Gawn, we've got Raven's map here,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30which, rather wonderfully, has the castle down in the corner.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33But just try and orientate me here.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35What do you see as you look at that?
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Well, the first thing I see is the harbour, which, of course,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41was the commercial rationale for the village
0:31:41 > 0:31:45and you can see the harbour there, the little bay there.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47The other thing I am amused by is the church hill,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50which you see now as the church standing there.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53That steeple is a much later addition.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56But otherwise, you have the grid layout of Killyleagh
0:31:56 > 0:31:58and you have traditionally what's called Front Street
0:31:58 > 0:32:01and Back Street, which is now called Plantation Street.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03But you can see the workmen's cottages there
0:32:03 > 0:32:05and how they were lined out and these were the....
0:32:05 > 0:32:07predominantly, the stone buildings
0:32:07 > 0:32:11that Hamilton would have built, after he came here.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15Raven's map shows a thriving community
0:32:15 > 0:32:17with plots around the castle,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20also portioned out to settlers with Scottish names
0:32:20 > 0:32:24such as John Stuarde, Robert Hogg and Andrew Harde.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28And next to them is the feature which would come to characterise
0:32:28 > 0:32:30the changing landscape of 17th-century Ulster -
0:32:30 > 0:32:32a small commercial town.
0:32:32 > 0:32:38And are these names - in terms of the people who have these parcels of land -
0:32:38 > 0:32:39are they still relevant to you?
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Do they resonate? Hogg, Boyle, Hamilton...
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Hogg certainly does, yes.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46- They are names that you will still find in the village.- Yeah.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Down there, stretches of the Ards Peninsula
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and almost all the land around here in the early 17th century was Hamilton-Montgomery land.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01And the Scots that they invited to settle this area built villages, they built towns.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04They settled farms, they created mills.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07And they developed a heavily agricultural area -
0:33:07 > 0:33:10look at the parcels of land around here.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13They have left their mark on the landscape.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Raven's maps very clearly record the successful early years
0:33:18 > 0:33:21of the Scottish migration to the Ards Peninsula.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24The news of the flourishing and profitable settlement
0:33:24 > 0:33:27was eagerly received by King James I.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35Following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, he had huge swathes
0:33:35 > 0:33:38of confiscated land at his disposal in Central and Western Ulster.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44Keen to copy Hamilton and Montgomery's success on a grander scale
0:33:44 > 0:33:46and to fill the land with his own loyal subjects,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48the King launched the most expansive
0:33:48 > 0:33:52and ambitious plan for colonisation ever seen in Western Europe.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07The scheme became known as the Plantation of Ulster.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Gaining a more accurate impression of the land was vital...
0:34:10 > 0:34:13In other words, the King needed more maps.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18In 1609, he commissioned Sir Josias Bodley
0:34:18 > 0:34:20to survey Central and Western Ulster,
0:34:20 > 0:34:25showing the goodness, or badness, of the soil with the woods,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29mountains, rivers, bogs and lochs.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31It's always a great moment
0:34:31 > 0:34:33seeing these maps in the flesh for the first time
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and these are Bodley's survey maps.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Beautiful, beautiful maps.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46This is doing something very different from the military maps
0:34:46 > 0:34:49or the estate maps that we have been looking at.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52This is very much about preparation for settlement.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55You can tell the way in which the landscape
0:34:55 > 0:34:58is being drawn here by Bodley.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02And then, you also have mountainous regions, which are perhaps
0:35:02 > 0:35:04not so ripe for settlement.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07And the townlands have been drawn very carefully,
0:35:07 > 0:35:12very deliberately, and here is another part of Loughinsholin.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16And again, the labelling of the townlands - very precise,
0:35:16 > 0:35:18very careful.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21This is about where people can come, they can live their lives,
0:35:21 > 0:35:22develop their trades.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26This is about a prelude to settlement and plantation.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32Not all of the maps drawn by Bodley and his team have survived.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35These two show the ancient barony of Loughinsholin,
0:35:35 > 0:35:36located today in Central Ulster.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Really, at this point in time,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45you've got the Crown in London wanting to rival those
0:35:45 > 0:35:48European powers which were starting to get real empires
0:35:48 > 0:35:55and also looking for money, trade and colonisation, really.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59So this is really the westward expansion of the Jacobean period,
0:35:59 > 0:36:00it is just starting at this point?
0:36:00 > 0:36:05Yes, exactly. So it is also about knowledge, as well, being power.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08You've had an earlier period where everything was
0:36:08 > 0:36:10written down about land, but obviously,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14if you are in London, you are a long way away from the land in question.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16How can you visualise it?
0:36:16 > 0:36:21And in fact, these are just two of very many Irish maps
0:36:21 > 0:36:23that we have in the National Archives
0:36:23 > 0:36:25from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29And if you look at the earlier maps, you can see that the view
0:36:29 > 0:36:33they portrayed to London is showing sea monsters and wolves
0:36:33 > 0:36:36and wild men, so the London view is,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38"Gosh, that must be a really dangerous country..."
0:36:38 > 0:36:42But these are now very different, aren't they? This is a whole different world.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46This is actually showing us land which is neat, organised...
0:36:46 > 0:36:50It is suggesting a, sort of, familiarity - a land
0:36:50 > 0:36:55which can be made into plantations very much like estates at home.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04These are to be seen by ministers of state, who are going to be
0:37:04 > 0:37:08informed by the maps and it will influence their decisions.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10So they are, kind of, state papers, really, aren't they?
0:37:10 > 0:37:13That's right, they are working papers,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16they are not a finished reference map.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21They are really a working map, to show the information that they
0:37:21 > 0:37:24needed in London to make their policy.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Maps always reveal the concerns and interests of their makers.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40In the case of Bodley, the maps highlight a feature which
0:37:40 > 0:37:43once characterised the landscape of Western and Central Ulster...
0:37:45 > 0:37:47..the huge tracts of forest,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51which stretch from the Sperrin Mountains to Loch Neagh.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07I can really see now why the Gaelic chiefs regarded these woods
0:38:07 > 0:38:09as such strongholds.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12It is also no surprise that the English called them
0:38:12 > 0:38:14the most dangerous places in Ireland.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Finding and removing these hiding places was strategic,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25but more importantly,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Bodley's survey identified the forests as a source of great profit.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33This discovery would dramatically change the landscape of Ulster.
0:38:35 > 0:38:40In the early 1600s, timber was worth its weight in gold.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44It was needed for ships, barrels, fuel and housing.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47England had almost stripped her own countryside bare
0:38:47 > 0:38:51and so, over time, the once vast forests of Ulster were reduced
0:38:51 > 0:38:55to the few scattered clusters of woodland that remain today.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02Well, once this would have been all oak woodland,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06that's where Derry gets its name - from the word "oak", "Doire".
0:39:06 > 0:39:09And, in fact, what we have here is an oak woodland which was
0:39:09 > 0:39:12part of the great forests of Glenconkeyne and Killetra.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16So, in fact, it's a massive great big oak woodland.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18In the 1600s, a lot of that would have been harvested,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21a lot of it would have been shipped up the river, bound to Coleraine
0:39:21 > 0:39:25and exported across for housebuilding and things like that.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Tell me about the maps, because Bodley's maps are very beautiful,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31but are they still relevant for you today?
0:39:31 > 0:39:32Those are the very basis for us
0:39:32 > 0:39:35defining what ancient woodland is in Northern Ireland.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39When we started speaking about ancient woodland in the mid-1990s,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41people were very cynical and sceptical
0:39:41 > 0:39:44that there was such a thing as ancient woodland in Northern Ireland.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46As they were cynical,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50they were looking for reasons to kind of disprove what we were saying,
0:39:50 > 0:39:54but the fact that we could go back to Bodley, Raven and Bartlett,
0:39:54 > 0:39:56and look at the old maps
0:39:56 > 0:39:59that had been done in preparation for the Plantation of Ulster,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02made our project so robust.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09And as you walk through it and you think about the 400-year history of the woodland,
0:40:09 > 0:40:11how do you react to it and respond to it?
0:40:11 > 0:40:16It is amazing, because I think there is a very, very special feel.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20And I think you begin to think back about all of the people
0:40:20 > 0:40:25and all of the occurrences in the province over the last 400 years
0:40:25 > 0:40:27that these actual trees around us have witnessed.
0:40:27 > 0:40:32And if we take an oak tree at 400 years old, it is but a baby.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37You know, it's possibly got another 800 years that it can live,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40so it will be around to see some more generations coming through
0:40:40 > 0:40:44this woodland and I think that is what makes it very, very special.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54So there is a power to the map to affect change,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57even 400 years after it is first created.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Bodley's maps have had a dual impact upon the Ulster woodland.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Originally, they were drawn to define the woods
0:41:05 > 0:41:09as an economic resource and led to their destruction.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13But today, those same maps are being used to preserve that woodland.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27In the early 1600s, within a very short space of time,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31the once mysterious and impenetrable Ulster had been surveyed
0:41:31 > 0:41:33and mapped in great detail.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48King James I now had the necessary knowledge
0:41:48 > 0:41:51to divide the land into estates and award them to Scottish
0:41:51 > 0:41:55and English noblemen and soldiers who had served in Ireland.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59By 1613, almost 9,000 English
0:41:59 > 0:42:03and Scottish tenants had settled on the new estates.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06This was just the beginning.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Throughout the rest of the 17th century, tens of thousands
0:42:09 > 0:42:13more settlers - mostly Scottish - would pour into Ulster.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24James I's ambitions for plantation across the whole of Ulster
0:42:24 > 0:42:26were beginning to be realised.
0:42:26 > 0:42:27Plantations cost money
0:42:27 > 0:42:32and this one could have been a huge drain on the Royal purse,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34especially because James wanted to introduce specifically
0:42:34 > 0:42:38English ways of doing business and commerce in Ireland.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43So he devised a plan to settle the northernmost territories of Ulster.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48He called on the resources and commercial expertise
0:42:48 > 0:42:51of one of the wealthiest institutions in the entire land,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54the Guilds of London.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58The Guilds dated back to mediaeval times.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Named after the trades they represented -
0:43:01 > 0:43:04amongst them the Salters, Vintners, Skinners and Ironmongers -
0:43:04 > 0:43:08they were already involved in the new colony in Virginia.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11They were more reluctant to accept the offer of land in this remote
0:43:11 > 0:43:14and hostile part of Ulster, stating that,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17"It would be very foolish to intermeddle in this business."
0:43:21 > 0:43:24Ian, tell me about the London Companies, what are they exactly?
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Well, first of all, they are the associations through which
0:43:28 > 0:43:35London craftsmen and tradesmen organised their economic life
0:43:35 > 0:43:37and secondly, they have an important political role,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40because it is through the companies that London
0:43:40 > 0:43:42has exercised their political rights,
0:43:42 > 0:43:47which means that the companies are really quite wealthy
0:43:47 > 0:43:50organisations, or look to be so from the point of view of the Crown,
0:43:50 > 0:43:51and that makes them
0:43:51 > 0:43:57a rather attractive target for Royal projects like the Ulster Plantation.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Why does the Crown want to get them involved?
0:44:00 > 0:44:05It is partly ideological and it is partly economic.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Ideological, because the Ulster Project from the Crown's point of view
0:44:09 > 0:44:12was very much a civilising one
0:44:12 > 0:44:18and towns were central to notions of civility.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22Urbanism was going to civilise the Irish.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27And secondly, I think the Crown feels that London is going to bring
0:44:27 > 0:44:33its commercial expertise to the development of the economy.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37The London Companies were asked to invest £60,000,
0:44:37 > 0:44:41or in today's money, between £2-£3 billion.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I think you can imagine the sort of sense of shock.
0:44:44 > 0:44:50When Londoners were first given this offer they were not very keen on it.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55Initially, the City sought voluntary subscriptions and it was quite clear
0:44:55 > 0:44:59that that was not going to work and people just absented themselves.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04Then the City turns to compulsory levies
0:45:04 > 0:45:06on the Livery Company members.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Many of them are imprisoned before they pay,
0:45:10 > 0:45:12others in the Grocers' Company, for example,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14are threatened with the loss of their freedom, which is
0:45:14 > 0:45:17a really serious sanction, because that would mean
0:45:17 > 0:45:19closing their shops and denying them of voting powers.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21It is a sign that the stakes are really high,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24so they have to be squeezed really hard to pay up.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28This is not a project that they are engaging in with any enthusiasm.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38To sweeten the deal, a new county was created,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41which included the timber-rich forests of Glenconkeyne
0:45:41 > 0:45:46and the teeming fisheries of the rivers Foyle and Bann.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51Renamed Londonderry, the companies were required to clear the
0:45:51 > 0:45:56Gaelic Irish off the land and bring in English and Scottish settlers.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00And an account of what happened in the early years of the plantation
0:46:00 > 0:46:03is recorded in a stunning book of maps.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09These maps are made by the same person who was mapping
0:46:09 > 0:46:12the Hamilton estates, but they are very different.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17These are Thomas Raven's maps of Londonderry,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21and this is almost a zooming out and seeing the way in which land
0:46:21 > 0:46:25is being apportioned, and what you are seeing is the Vintners'...
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Then you also have Drapers' Land, you have the Salters' Lands,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30you have the Mercers' Lands...
0:46:30 > 0:46:32There's not really much sense of a landscape here...
0:46:32 > 0:46:34It is very beautiful, the artistry is there,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37but this is very much about political geography.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39It is about dividing the land up.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42And if we then go further in, there is a sort of drilling down
0:46:42 > 0:46:45that is going on.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48It is almost like a digital surveillance map that we have today,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50to go from one point up in space
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and then you zoom right down to the Vintners' buildings at Bellaghy...
0:46:54 > 0:46:57And look at the detail here that you've got.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00The way in which a settlement is starting to emerge.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04The very earliest settlers were mostly English.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07They built timber-framed houses in a style which was
0:47:07 > 0:47:09common in the south of England.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11The names of the people on the Vintners' portion -
0:47:11 > 0:47:15which include William Dearde, Ellis Oakes and William Cox -
0:47:15 > 0:47:17are distinctively English, too.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26The London Companies built villages like the one at Bellaghy
0:47:26 > 0:47:28in each of their 12 portions.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31The most important town of the plantation, however,
0:47:31 > 0:47:35was the greatest urban structure Ireland had seen to date.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40The London companies were required to fortify, to settle and to build.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42And 400 years ago, they built these walls
0:47:42 > 0:47:45around the existing town of Derry,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48making it the final walled city in Europe.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53Their name for the new city
0:47:53 > 0:47:56was the same as their new county - Londonderry.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59It would be the commercial hub of the plantation.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Its purpose, to trade with England, Scotland, the rest of Europe
0:48:03 > 0:48:06and the new colonies in the Americas.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09This is the plantation citadel -
0:48:09 > 0:48:12they'll receive a million acres of prime real estate...
0:48:12 > 0:48:14Formally O'Cahan's country -
0:48:14 > 0:48:17County Coleraine, County Londonderry -
0:48:17 > 0:48:20on condition that they build these walls,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23that they construct this cathedral, which is the first purposely-built
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Protestant cathedral in these islands,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28and that they arm these walls.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33The gun that we are lying on now is one of what is the finest collection
0:48:33 > 0:48:38of early modern ordinance in these islands, indeed, in Western Europe.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Can you tell me what is happening just before the London Companies arrive?
0:48:41 > 0:48:44What is the, sort of, political situation and the conflict
0:48:44 > 0:48:46that is just preceding their arrival or their settlement?
0:48:46 > 0:48:50I suppose the London Companies arrive here at the end of what
0:48:50 > 0:48:54historians would know as the Tudor conquests
0:48:54 > 0:48:57or the English reconquest of Ireland.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02And it is no surprise that this becomes the plantation citadel.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04Essentially, Britannia rules the waves,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07but England's wooden walls are full of holes.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11England has not got the virgin forests that are necessary
0:49:11 > 0:49:14to fit out shapes of the line,
0:49:14 > 0:49:17and when the London Companies are being showed around,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21rather like when Potemkin brings Catherine the Great through the Crimea,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24they don't show them the bogs or the mountains,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27they show them the fisheries. They show them the virgin forests.
0:49:27 > 0:49:28They show them the good land.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33And in some ways the London Companies are an early modern equivalent of Haliburton.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35You know, it is about security.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40It is about religion, but it is also about profit, and the merchants
0:49:40 > 0:49:44of London, the London Companies are in the business of making money.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52So this area becomes the sort of Jacobean timber outfitters?
0:49:52 > 0:49:56Yeah, fish, timber... land is also important.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Political power in the early modern period
0:49:59 > 0:50:01whether you are in England, Scotland or Ireland
0:50:01 > 0:50:05is predicated on property and, you know, this was a place,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08Ireland was a place, where men could become rich.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15But gaining those riches proved problematic for the new settlers
0:50:15 > 0:50:16living outside the City.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Each of the 12 London Company estates was far greater in size
0:50:21 > 0:50:23than had been promised.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Raven's maps showed newly-built villages
0:50:27 > 0:50:30placed on vast tracts of land.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39And each one was required to have a manor house with a defensive wall,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41known as a "bawn."
0:50:43 > 0:50:44The names and locations of many -
0:50:44 > 0:50:47like the village built by the Vintners at Bellaghy -
0:50:47 > 0:50:48have survived.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56But very little is left of the picturesque buildings
0:50:56 > 0:50:57shown on Raven's maps.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03There is a huge gulf between Raven's map
0:51:03 > 0:51:05and the village as it now stands today.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09There is certainly no timber-framed houses,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13but there are some fascinating clues to the original settlement.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16This is Castle Street and up there is the bawn.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19And there is the church, which is there.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21Now, that is probably not the original church, but probably
0:51:21 > 0:51:26standing on the original foundations of the church that we can see here.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29So there is a sense in which the skeleton of the village
0:51:29 > 0:51:33is here on Raven's map, 400 years ago.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And the gap between the present day and the past narrows most of all
0:51:41 > 0:51:43when visiting what remains of Bellaghy Bawn.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47I'm really struck by the sense of the elegant
0:51:47 > 0:51:50simplicity of this space, standing here in the courtyard of the bawn.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52There is the tower,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54the original tower that you can see on Raven's map.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58There is a real feeling about keeping people in here,
0:51:58 > 0:52:00but it is also a fortification.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03Another sense is about keeping people out.
0:52:04 > 0:52:05Soon after their arrival,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08the London Companies came face-to-face
0:52:08 > 0:52:10with the difficulties of trying to establish a colony
0:52:10 > 0:52:13in a territory which was both hostile
0:52:13 > 0:52:16and super-sized beyond their expectations.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22The Vintners were granted something like 3,500 acres, supposedly.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26But the actual estate is something like 32,000 acres!
0:52:26 > 0:52:28JERRY LAUGHS
0:52:28 > 0:52:31You see, whilst the mapmakers were very good
0:52:31 > 0:52:33at spatial relationships,
0:52:33 > 0:52:34they weren't very good at measurement.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37I suppose you might think, "Hooray!" but then you might also think,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40- "There's some problems there." - The men in London sitting there,
0:52:40 > 0:52:44looking at the maps, they were living in a virtual world.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49And they didn't really understand, I think, what was going on.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54And the native Irish, where are they in this whole process of plantation?
0:52:54 > 0:53:00Well, they are supposed to be taken off the land and moved elsewhere.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03They were, for example, supposed to be moved to the church land
0:53:03 > 0:53:05but they weren't.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09The fact is, there were not enough settlers in the early days
0:53:09 > 0:53:11to move them away.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18Raven's Book Of Maps shows the complex
0:53:18 > 0:53:21relationship between the new settlers and the native population.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28He writes that many "murders and robberies" have been committed.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33And yet, Raven also lists 145 natives living alongside
0:53:33 > 0:53:39the 52 British men and three freeholders on this portion alone.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41The London Companies had discovered they could not
0:53:41 > 0:53:45fulfil their requirement to clear the Irish off the land.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50By 1630, less than 2,000 colonists had arrived in the area.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53The lands were simply too vast to manage without the labour
0:53:53 > 0:53:55and rents of the Irish.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Maps of other portions draw attention to unfinished castles
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and half-built houses,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07and bawns even being used as cowsheds.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11And this highlighting of the plantation's flaws and shortcomings,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15reveals the true purpose of this book of maps.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Raven created it at the request of Sir Thomas Phillips,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23a man with a grudge against the London Companies.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28The book would subsequently be used as evidence in a controversial trial
0:54:28 > 0:54:31which took place in London after the death of King James I
0:54:31 > 0:54:35when his son Charles succeeded him to the throne.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42What is it that goes wrong with the Ulster Plantation
0:54:42 > 0:54:43under Charles' reign?
0:54:43 > 0:54:45Well, basically,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49the plantation is just too tempting a target for Charles' government.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56Charles is financially highly embarrassed in the 1630s,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01he is desperate for money and the Ulster Plantation offers
0:55:01 > 0:55:05one means of getting at it, by bringing London down.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Over the previous 15 years,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12London has acquired some very powerful enemies.
0:55:12 > 0:55:18One of the leading enemies in Ulster is Sir Thomas Phillips
0:55:18 > 0:55:22who became a thorn in the flesh of the whole city's project.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25Well, Phillips had been the Governor of Coleraine
0:55:25 > 0:55:30and he is displaced, to make way for the London project
0:55:30 > 0:55:32and, basically,
0:55:32 > 0:55:38makes it his career to construct a case against the City,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42to prove that they haven't fulfilled the terms of the articles
0:55:42 > 0:55:45of plantation, to prove that they haven't provided
0:55:45 > 0:55:49the settlers that the Crown had required.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55Raven himself, possibly, had his own grievances against the Londoners
0:55:55 > 0:55:59and that agenda is being pursued to some extent through the maps,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03which are an indictment of the City's failure.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06So this is a crucial moment in English history, isn't it?
0:56:06 > 0:56:09The Crown is putting the City on trial?
0:56:09 > 0:56:14Yes, and it is part of a wider process
0:56:14 > 0:56:20under Charles of subjecting the City to immense pressure.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22What was the outcome of the trial?
0:56:22 > 0:56:27First of all, a swingeing fine of £70,000
0:56:27 > 0:56:29AND the estates are confiscated.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32The City has lost those estates,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36in which it has invested huge amounts of money.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40London is really alienated by the way it is being treated
0:56:40 > 0:56:41over the plantation.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46And when Charles becomes really desperate for money,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49in the great crisis of his monarchy in 1639-1640,
0:56:49 > 0:56:53when he is facing rebellion in Scotland,
0:56:53 > 0:56:59then the City pretty consistently refuses to lend him money.
0:56:59 > 0:57:04So 1639-1640 becomes payback time for Charles.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14This seemingly modest book of maps actually captures
0:57:14 > 0:57:17an extraordinary moment in Ulster history,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22when the London Companies create a little bit of England in Ireland.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26But it is more than that.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29It sets London's merchants against the King
0:57:29 > 0:57:33and one of the consequences of that are the civil wars of the 1640s,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and ultimately, the death of a King.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40In 1649, Charles I is executed.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48The confiscated lands were later returned to the London Companies.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51The buildings seen on Raven's map did not survive the turbulent years
0:57:51 > 0:57:54of rebellion and conflict in Ulster that followed.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03If maps are indeed the eye of history,
0:58:03 > 0:58:05then the legacy of Jobson, Bartlett, Bodley
0:58:05 > 0:58:09and Raven allow us to see the landscape and population
0:58:09 > 0:58:14of early 17th-century Ulster in the midst of a profound transformation.
0:58:16 > 0:58:17And what they tell us
0:58:17 > 0:58:22is that the traces of Ulster from 400 years ago are still with us
0:58:22 > 0:58:24to this day, and they enable us
0:58:24 > 0:58:27to begin to grasp what Ulster is all about,
0:58:27 > 0:58:30in its complex landscape and its cultures
0:58:30 > 0:58:35and, to all of this, it is the maps that bear witness.
0:58:59 > 0:59:02Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd