TheTreaty of Mellifont (Irish:Conradh na Mainistreach Móire), also known as theArticles of Mellifont, was signed in 1603, ending theNine Years' War which took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603.
Following the English victory in theBattle of Kinsale, the leaders fighting in Cork returned to protect their homelands. TheLord Deputy of Ireland,Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, had succeeded where his predecessor,Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, had failed. However, Mountjoy knew that, while still in hiding,Hugh O'Neill remained a threat. Although most of the lesser chiefs allied with him had been compelled to submit,Rory O'Donnell,Brian Oge O'Rourke, Cuchonnacht Maguire (brother ofHugh Maguire), andDonal Cam O'Sullivan Beare remained loyal toThe Great Earl.[1]
During the spring of 1603, Lord Mountjoy concentrated his campaign in the northern counties and theprovince ofLeinster. He ordered all land be scorched. Harvests and stock were destroyed and famine soon prevailed. Mountjoy and theEnglish Privy Council had long urged QueenElizabeth I of England to make peace. The war was costing three quarters of the Exchequer's annual revenue, and the aged Queen had been obliged to maintain an army of 20,000 men for several years past.[2]
By contrast, the English army assisting the Dutch during theEighty Years' War was never more than 12,000 strong[3] Horrified by the cost of the war, Elizabeth now dropped her insistence onunconditional surrender and authorised Mountjoy to treat withThe O'Neill upon honourable terms.[citation needed]
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The agents employed by the Lord Deputy in the negotiations wereSir William Godolphin and Sir Garrett Moore, an ancestor of theMarquesses of Drogheda. Moore, a personal friend of O'Neill, found him in early March at his retreat nearLough Neagh and persuaded him that he should negotiate peace terms, and would travel under asafe conduct.
Negotiations were conducted atMellifont, nearDrogheda inCounty Louth. This was Sir Garret's seat, which had been sold to his family following thedissolution of theCistercian abbey.
On 27 March 1603, Mountjoy received news that the Queen had died inLondon three days earlier, but he kept that information from the other parties until 5 April. Delaying the news had no legal effect, because of the principle of thedemise of the Crown and the lack of aninterregnum, but it might have caused a further delay if the newKing James had wanted to appoint different negotiators.
On 30 March, Tyrone submitted to the Crown.[4] The pardon and the terms were considered to be very generous at the time:[5][6][7]
The terms were similar in policy to many previous "surrender and regrant" agreements conducted after 1537 between the Crown and many autonomous Irish chieftains, but unusually, the earl was not obliged to convert to theChurch of Ireland.
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By the terms of theTreaty of London, the kings of England and Spain committed each side to the cessation of "all hostility and enmity" from April 24, 1603, forward.[8] The terms further provided that neither side would furnish "soldiers, provision, money [sic], arms ammunition or any other kind of assistance to forment [sic] war with the enemies and rebels of the other party". By that, the Irish rebels understood that no more aid could be expected from Spain.
On 2 June 1603 Mountjoy left Ireland in company with Hugh O'Neill and the new lord of Tír Conaill, Rory O'Donnell, to see King James inLondon.
In 1604, an Act of Oblivion declared that all "offences against the Crown" committed before the King's accession were to be "pardoned, remitted, and utterly extinguished". O'Neill returned to Ulster and appeared to have become a model subject of the Crown. Mountjoy, now aPrivy Counsellor remained a champion of the terms of the Treaty and it seems he had become quite taken with his former adversary. The elderlySir George Carey, who took over as Lord Deputy, made no attempt to clip Tyrone's wings.
That state of affairs was reversed whenSir Arthur Chichester was sworn in as Lord Deputy in February 1605. Lord Deputy Chichester sawIrish Catholicism as a major threat to the crown after theGunpowder Plot was revealed in October 1605. Though no Irish were involved in the plot, he oversaw a widespread persecution of Catholics, and he ordered the execution of two bishops. He led the campaign by royal officials, acting on the complaints of the "servitors" (tenants) to undermine the authority of Tyrone and Tyrconnell and to erode their economic base. When Hugh O'Neill and other rebel chieftains left Ireland in theFlight of the Earls (1607), interpreted as seeking Spanish help for a new rebellion, Chichester felt entitled to seize their lands under the law offorfeiture. ThePlantation of Ulster followed within a decade.[9]
Some of the loyal Gaelic lords were upset with the restoration of lands to the rebel leaders, and that was one factor that drove one of them, SirCahir O'Doherty, to launchO'Doherty's Rebellion, which he began with theBurning of Derry in 1608.