against English government. This war developed into a nationwide revolt where O'Neill and O'Donnell successfully obtained military aid from Spain, which was then in conflict with England during the Anglo-Spanish War. A Spanish expeditionary force was defeated by English forces at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. O'Neill and his allies eventually surrendered to the new Stuart King, James I, in 1603. After this point, the English authorities in Dublin established real control over Ireland for the first time, bringing a centralised form of justice to the entire island, and successfully disarmed the various lordships, both Irish and Old English. O'Neill, O'Donnell and their allies subsequently fled Ireland for good in the Flight of the Earls in 1607. This removed the last major obstacle to English government in Ireland. Colonization and the religious question The English had little success in converting either the native elite or the Irish people to the Protestant religion. Why the Protestant reformation failed to take hold among the Irish is an enduring question. One of several answers lies in the fact that brutal methods were used by crown authority to pacify the country and exploit its resources, which heightened resentment of English rule. Additionally, a determined proselytising campaign carried out in Ireland by counter-reformation Catholic clergy, many of whom had been educated in seminaries on the continent. Irish Colleges had been established in many countries in Catholic Europe for the training of Irish Catholic priests and the education of the Irish Catholic gentry. Finally, the printing press, which had played a major role in disseminating Protestant ideas in Europe, came to Ireland very late. From the mid-16th and into the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of colonisation known as Plantations. Scottish and English Protestants were sent as colonists to the provinces of Munster, Ulster and the counties of Laois and Offaly (see also Plantations of Ireland). The largest of these projects, the Plantation of Ulster, had settled up to 80,000 English and Scots in the north of Ireland by 1641. The so-called Ulster Scots were predominantly Presbyterian, which distinguished them from the Anglican English colonists. These settlers, who had a British and Protestant identity, would form the ruling class of future British administrations in Ireland. A series of Penal Laws discriminated against all Christian faiths other than the established (Anglican) Church of Ireland. The principal victims of these laws were Roman