The new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir…
October 1607 CE
The new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, had begun in 1605 to encroach on the former freedoms of the two Earls and The Maguire, enforcing the new freeholds, especially that granted in North Ulster to the O Catháin chief.
The O Catháins had formerly been subject to the O'Neills and required protection; in turn, Chichester wantd to reduce O'Neill's authority.
An option is to charge O'Neill with treason if he does not comply with the new arrangements.
The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the same year had made it harder for Catholics to appear loyal to both the crown and the papacy.
As the Dublin administration sides with O Cathain, O'Neill is invited by King James to make his case in 1607 to the Privy Council in London, which he will never do.
O'Neill's allies The Maguire and the Earl of Tyrconnell are by 1607 finding it hard to maintain their prestige on lower incomes.
Fearing arrest, they choose to flee to the Continent, where they hope to recruit an army for the invasion of Ireland with Spanish help.
The Spanish fleet had been destroyed earlier in 1607, however, by the Dutch in the Battle of Gibraltar.
Also as the Anglo–Spanish War (1585) had ended in 1604, King Philip III of Spain wants to preserve the recent peace with England under its new Stewart dynasty.
As a part of the peace proposals, a Spanish princess is to marry James' son Henry, though this will never transpired.
In what is to be come known as the Flight of the Earls, which marks the end of the Gaelic political order, in Ireland the Earls set sail from Rathmullan, a village on the shore of Lough Swilly in County Donegal, accompanied by ninety followers, many of them Ulster noblemen, and some members of their families.
Several leave their wives behind, hoping either to return or retrieve them later; on October 4, 1607, they finally reach the Continent.
Their destination is Spain, but they disembark in France and proceed overland to Spanish Flanders, some remaining in Leuven, whilst the main party continues to Italy.
They plan to return to Ireland and campaign for the recovery of their lands, with the support of Spain, but both earls will die in exile.