1603 in Ireland

Events from the year 1603 in Ireland.

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Centuries:	15th 16th 17th 18th 19th
Decades:	1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s
See also:	Other events of 1603 List of years in Ireland

Incumbent

• Monarch: Elizabeth I (until 24 March),^[1] then James I.^[2]

Events

• March 24 – James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I in England (but the news is withheld from the Irish leaders in treaty negotiations).^[2]
• March 31 – the Nine Years War (1595–1603) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.^[3]
• November – Geoffrey Keating is one of forty students who sail for Bordeaux under the charge of the Rev. Diarmaid MacCarthy to begin their studies at the Irish College which has just been founded in that city by Cardinal François de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux.^[4][5]
• Ballintubber Abbey is suppressed.^[6]
• Sir Edmund Pelham, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer since 1602, holds the first assizes in Ulster, at Donegal.^[7][8]
• Brian Óg na Samhthach Ó Ruairc, King of West Breifne is overthrown.^[9]

Births

• Approximate date – Audley Mervyn, lawyer, politician and soldier (d. 1675) ^[10]

Deaths

• March 24 – Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (b. 1533) ^[1]
• William Piers, Governor of Carrickfergus^[11]

References

1. Battista, Fabio (2019). "Staging English Affairs in Early Modern Italy: History, Politics, Drama". academicworks.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-18 – via City University of New York. Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603, at the age of 70
2. "James VI and I". National Museums Scotland. Retrieved 2024-02-18. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, he became James I of England. He is thus known as James VI and I.
3. Antman, David (2004). ""When the Plough and Breeding of Cattle Cease, Then Will the Rebellion End": The Adoption of Total War as English Policy in Ireland, 1558-1603" (PDF). Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research at the College of Charleston. 3. Charleston, SC 29424, USA: College of Charleston: 1. On March 30, 1603, Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone and leader of the nine-year Irish rebellion, surrendered to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, the English Lord Deputy in Ireland, at Mellifont Abbey. Tyrone threw himself on the floor and groveled at Mountjoy's feet, begging for the Queen's mercy, unaware that Elizabeth had died merely weeks before. He remained on his knees for an hour before being sent away; later he was made to submit to the Lords of the Irish Counciland to the Irish Parliament in Dublin.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Murtagh, Eleanor Therese (2012). "Kingship, religion, culture and order: The native Irish and the Old English in early seventeenth-century Ireland" (PDF). National University of Ireland, Maynooth Department of History. p. 104. Retrieved 2024-02-18. Keating, on the other hand, a Catholic diocesan priest, a descendant of the early Anglo-Norman settlers, from a gaelicised area in south Co. Tipperary, left Ireland at the end of the sixteenth century, studied in Rheims where he imbibed Tridentine doctrine and went on to the Irish college in Bordeaux, founded in 1603, presumably to teach theology.
5. Donald, Sarah Mac (2013-12-15). "Archbishops launch online archive of ancient religious texts". Catholicireland.net. Retrieved 2024-02-18. The priest, Seathrún Céitinn (ca. 1569 – ca. 1644) who was known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th-century poet and historian. In November 1603, he was one of forty students who sailed for Bordeaux under the charge of Fr Diarmaid MacCarthy to begin their studies at the Irish College which had just been founded in that city by Cardinal François de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux.
6. "History from the Abbey ***". Ballintubber Abbey. Retrieved 2024-02-18. However, James I in 1603 confiscated all the lands belonging to the Abbey and effectively ended the presence of the Canon Regulars in the Abbey.
7. Comerford, T. (1826). The History of Ireland: From the Earliest Account of Time, to the Invasion of the English Under King Henry II (3rd Dublin ed.). T. Scanlan & B. Edes. p. 317. ISBN 978-1170408568. The public peace being thus established, the State proceeded next to establish the public justice in every part of the realm; and to that end, Sir George Cary, who was a prudent governor and a just, and made a fair entry into the right way of reforming this kingdom, did in the first year of His Majesty's reign make the first sheriffs that ever were made in Tyrone and Tyrconnel, and shortly after sent Sir Edmund Pelham, Chief Baron, and myself thither, the first justices of assize that ever sat in those countries; and in that circuit we visited all the shires of that province.
8. MacNevin, Thomas. The Confiscation of Ulster: In the Reign of James the First, Commonly Called the Ulster Plantation (2nd ed.). James Duffy. 1603. Sir George Carey, Treasurer at War, June 1, was made Lord Deputy; he, in the first year of his majesty's reign, made the first sheriffs that ever served in Tyrowen and Tyrconnell, and shortly after sent Sir Edmund Pelham, Chief Baron, and Sir John Davies of Ireland, the first Jusices of Assize in those countries, which were welcome to the Commons, though distateful to the Irish Lords.
9. Gallogy, Dan (1963). "Brian Oge O'Rourke and the Nine Years War". Breifne Journal. 2: 200–203.
10. "Mervyn, Sir Audley | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. 2009. doi:10.3318/dib.005803.v1. Retrieved 2024-02-18. Born 1603
11. "Piers, William | Dictionary of Irish Biography". www.dib.ie. 2009. doi:10.3318/dib.007331.v1. Retrieved 2024-02-18. William Piers died in 1603 and is believed to have been buried in Carrickfergus.