John Davies (poet) - Ulster

Ulster

Davies became heavily involved in government efforts to establish a plantation in the lately rebellious province of Ulster. In September 1607, he delivered to Cecil his report of the Flight of the Earls, a seminal event in Irish history and, before long, had travelled into the absent earls' territories to lay indictments against them there. In August 1608, he went with Chichester to view the escheated lands, reporting that the people, "wondered as much to see the king's deputy as the ghosts in Vurgil wondered to see AEneas alive in hell". In October he was in England, pushing for the plantation of the province.

In May 1609, Davies was made serjeant, with a grant of lands valued at £40 p.a. He revisited England in 1610 on plantation business, which had so advanced that he thought his assistance to the commission charged with bringing the project to fruition would no longer be needed. In 1610 he defended proceedings brought by the Irish against the plans for the plantation of Cavan, but in the following year he begged for recall from Ireland. At about this time he wrote the Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued (pub.1612), a well-written - albeit polemical - account of the constitutional standing of Ireland.

In England, Davies spent much time in preparing the way for the Irish parliament of 1613, to which he was returned for County Fermanagh. In the first sitting he was proposed as speaker with the Crown's approval, but an Irish candidate was proposed in opposition to him, and comical disorder ensued when the Irishman was placed in the chair and refused to vacate in favour of the government candidate. Davies was seized by his own supporters and lifted bodily into his opponent's lap; his opponent was then ejected from the chair and withdrew himself from the chamber with 98 supporters, whereupon the vote was taken in their absence. Davies was approved as speaker by Chichester, and delivered a memorable speech on the history and role of parliament in Ireland.

In 1615, Davies' reports of Irish cases were published; he had appeared as counsel in many of these, including the case of the Bann Fishery and the cases of Tanistry and Gavelkind, which set precedents in Irish constitutional law, with wider implications for British colonial policy.