hope of ensuring a final end of the draining war that had brought England close to bankruptcy. O'Neill, O'Donnell, and the other surviving Ulster chiefs were granted full pardons and the return of their estates. The stipulations were that they abandon their Irish titles, their private armies, and their control over their dependents, and that they swear loyalty only to the Crown of England. In 1604, Mountjoy declared an amnesty for rebels all over the country. The reason for this apparent mildness was that the English could not afford to continue the war any longer. Elizabethan England did not have a standing army, nor could it force its Parliament to pass enough taxation to pay for long wars. Moreover, it was already involved in a war in the Spanish Netherlands. As it was, the war in Ireland (which cost over £2 million) came very close to bankrupting the English exchequer by its close in 1603. Irish sources claimed that as many as 60,000 people had died in the Ulster famine of 1602–3 alone. An Irish death toll of over 100,000 is possible. At least 30,000 English soldiers died in Ireland in the Nine Years' War, mainly from disease. So the total death toll for the war was certainly at least 100,000 people, and probably more. Although O'Neill and his allies received good terms at the end of the war, they were never trusted by the English authorities and the distrust was mutual. O'Neill, O'Donnell, and the other Gaelic lords from Ulster allied to them left Ireland in 1607 in what is known as the "Flight of the Earls" after news they planned another rebellion reached the authorities. They intended to organise an expedition from a Catholic power in Europe, preferably Spain, to restart the war but were unable to find any military backers. Spain had signed the Treaty of London in August 1604 with the new Stuart dynasty and did not wish to reopen hostilities. Further, a Spanish fleet had just been destroyed by a Dutch fleet in the Battle of Gibraltar in April 1607. In 1608 Sir Cahir O'Doherty, who had previously fought on the Crown's side against Tyrone, launched O'Doherty's Rebellion when he attacked and burnt Derry. O'Doherty was defeated and killed at the Battle of Kilmacrennan and the rebellion quickly collapsed. In 1608 the absent earls' lands were confiscated for trying to start another war, and were