Burning of Derry

A map of Derry around the time of the rebellion

Date	19 April 1608
Location	Derry, Ireland
Result	Rebel victory. Derry is destroyed.

Belligerents

Ireland

O'Doherty's rebels

Commanders and leaders

Sir George Paulet

Sir Cahir O'Doherty
Phelim Reagh MacDavitt

Strength

Around 100

The Burning of Derry took place on 19 April 1608 during O'Doherty's Rebellion when Sir Cahir O'Doherty led a force of rebels to storm Derry in Ulster. He launched his rebellion with an attack on the garrison town of Derry, which was taken thanks to the element of surprise. The town was then almost entirely destroyed by fire.

O'Doherty was the Gaelic Lord of Inishowen. He had been allied with the government during the Nine Years' War (1594-1603), and has been described as "a youthful war hero on the side of the crown". During the conflict, he fought alongside Sir Henry Docwra's troops from the key base of Derry. O'Doherty, along with other pro-English Irish lords, was unhappy when the Treaty of Mellifont restored the leading rebels, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rudhraighe Ó Domhnail, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, to land which had been promised to them.

O'Doherty was further unsettled when his friend and ally Docwra was replaced as Governor of Derry by Sir George Paulet. In the years following the war Paulet continually confronted and antagonized O'Doherty, who appealed to the Dublin government which generally sided with Paulet. O'Doherty attempted to use his contacts in London to secure himself a role as a courtier which would have given him much greater influence, and sought a position in the household of Henry, Prince of Wales.

Continued disputes with Paulet pushed O'Doherty to finally undertake a rebellion, which he seems to have begun on the spur of the moment. Unknown to him, the very day that he began his rising the London government had approved his request to join the Prince of Wales, and had generally sided with him against the Dublin administration.

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Wikipedia