What could be more English than a good wassail? From the Anglo-Saxon ‘wael hael’ – good health – the word refers to the tradition of ceremonial drinking of cider that survived strongly in southwest England.

In 1599 Arthur Chichester brought this wassail bowl from his native Devon to Ulster. It can be seen as a token of the idea that took shape in the plantation of Ulster: making Ulster British. Chichester, who fought against the Armada and helped crush the Irish revolt, was a classic Elizabethan adventurer. As lord deputy from 1605 to 1615 he acquired vast lands in south Antrim (including Belfast) and east Donegal, making him the single biggest beneficiary of the plantation.

At first the attitude of the English government to the defeated Gaelic lords was conciliatory. Hugh O’Neill was pardoned and restored to his lands. The O’Donnell lordship was also restored. The hope was that, suitably tamed, the Ulster aristocrats would settle down to administering the region for the crown. The Flight of the Earls marked the collapse of this policy.

A bold new strategy began to take shape, partly at Chichester’s prompting: if the population could not be coerced or cajoled into loyalty, change the population. Plantation was already underway in Wicklow, Longford, Leitrim and Offaly.

Even before the flight, the land speculators James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery had begun the colonisation of east Ulster. But the process was accelerated by the confiscation of all the land of the departed earls. A failed rising by Sir Cahir O’Doherty in Derry allowed the state to seize his lands too. Thus six of the nine counties of Ulster – Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine (Derry), Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone – were crown possessions.

In 1610, sanctioned by James I, 40 per cent of this land was allocated to English or Scots “undertakers”, with the rest allotted to soldiers who had fought in the Irish campaigns, loyal Irish chieftains, the Church of Ireland and government officials.

The undertakers were obliged to replace native Irish with settlers within two years and to build a castle on their lands by 1613. They were also urged to live in villages: the creation of urban settlements was a key part of the “civilising” project. Derry, renamed Londonderry, was treated separately and assigned to the City of London.

The plantation of Ulster did not go to plan, however. Many of the undertakers lacked the capital to create and sustain large-scale settlements. In 1610 Chichester wrote of them that “those from England are, for the most part, plain country gentlemen . . . If they have any money, they keep it close.”

The Scots had even “less money in their purses”. By 1630 the number of Scots may have been as few as 16,000, with an even smaller number of English settlers. As a result, undertakers had little choice but to keep on indigenous Catholics as tenants.

This meant that there was in fact less immediate social conflict than might have been expected: settlers were soon building not castles but undefended houses.

It also meant that Ulster evolved not as a model Protestant colony but as a much more complex and mixed society.

Thanks to William Blair, National Museums Northern Ireland

Where to see itUlster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast, 048- 90440000, nmni.com/um