Finian MacDonagh MacCarthy, known to the English as Florence MacCarthy, was born in 1560 the son of Donagh, the chief of the MacCarthy Reagh clan. His family and sept established themselves as allies of the English in the Desmond Rebellions and were not affected by the first Munster Plantation. Events February 27 - The Treaty of Berhick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland The first tulip bulb was brought from Turkey to the Netherlands. ... The Desmond Rebellions occurred in the 1560s, 1570s and 1580s in Munster in southern Ireland. ... Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the seizure of land owned by the native Irish and granting of it to colonists from Britain. ...

However, Florence fell foul of their government in Munster after his marriage to the daughter of the MacCarthy Mór (chief of all the MacCarthys). He was arrested in 1588 as a precaution to avert the possibility that he would become MacCarthy Mór himself, which would have given him command over huge estates and thousands of followers. He was held in the Tower of London for two years. English strategy for the following ten years was to grant limited concessions to native lords but also to ‘dissipate’ their independent military power by re-distributing their lands among their kinsmen. A Chief of the Name was a person recognised by the Chief Herald of Ireland as the most senior known male descendant of the last inaugurated or de facto chief of that name in power in Gaelic Ireland at or before the end of the sixteenth century, see Irish nobility. ... Events May 12 - Day of the Barricades in Paris. ... The Tower of London, seen from the river, with a view of the water gate called Traitors Gate. ...

However, during the crisis of the Nine Years War, the English reversed this policy and essentially acknowledged Florence as MacCarthy Mór, to secure south Munster from the rebels – in particular Florence’s brother in law Donal. However, Florence did not help the English military effort and secretly negotiated with the rebels under Hugh O’Neill and the Spaniards. He was arrested again by George Carew only a month before the Spanish landing at Kinsale and spent his remaining 40 years in imprisonment in London. After the English victory at the battle of Kinsale, Florence’s brother, Diarmuid Maol ("Bald Dermot") was killed in a skirmish with a rival branch of the MacCarthy clan. Many of his other kinsmen were also killed, the MacCarthy Mór title was abolished and the lands of the MacCarthy Reagh clan were distributed to English settlers, among them Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. The Nine Years War in Ireland took place from 1594 to 1603. ... Market Street in Kinsale, one of the towns oldest thoroughfares Kinsale (Cionn tSáile in Irish) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Sir Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, 1st Viscount Dungarvan, 1st Baron Boyle of Youghal, Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland. ...

Florence MacCarthy lived the remainder of his life in London, where he wrote a history of Ireland, based on Old Irish texts. He wrote that, "although they [the Irish] are thought by many fitter to be rooted out than suffered to enjoy their lands, they are not so rebellious or dangerous as they are termed by such as covet it". He died 1640. Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language which can be more or less fully reconstructed from extant sources. ... Events December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. ...

See also

• Tudor re-conquest of Ireland
• Nine Years War (Ireland)