Editing County Laois (section)

=== 16th century colony and County status===
[[File:Emo, County Laois - geograph.org.uk - 1811906.jpg|thumb|A church in [[Emo, County Laois|Emo]]]]

{{Historical populations
|state=collapsed
|1500|6557
|1510|8378
|1550|11222
|1580|15301
|1585|16435
|1600|6828
|1610|7990
|1653|9915
|1659|11115
|1672|13589
|1680|17777
|1690|21255
|1700|24713
|1710|27689
|1725|32808
|1735|41577
|1745|41097
|1755|40888
|1765|51286
|1771|58411
|1775|67870
|1788|76903
|1790|93679
|1801|95820
|1811|111227
|1813|108950
|1816|122888
|1821|134275
|1831|145851
|1841|153930
|1851|111664
|1861|90650
|1871|79771
|1881|73124
|1891|64883
|1901|57417
|1911|54629
|1926|51540
|1936|50109
|1946|49697
|1951|48430
|1956|47087
|1961|45069
|1966|44595
|1971|45259
|1979|49936
|1981|51171
|1986|53284
|1991|52314
|1996|52945
|2002|58774
|2006|67059
|2011|80559
|2016|84697
|2022|91657
||footnote=<ref name=cso2022/><ref name=cso2016>{{cite web | url = http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2016/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=CTY31&Geog_Code=2AE19629148D13A3E055000000000001 | title = Census 2016 Sapmap Area: County Laois | publisher = [[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)]] | access-date = 5 January 2019 | archive-date = 5 January 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190105145401/http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2016/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=CTY31&Geog_Code=2AE19629148D13A3E055000000000001 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>For 1653 and 1659 figures from Civil Survey Census of those years, Paper of Mr Hardinge to Royal Irish Academy 14 March 1865.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cso.ie/census|title=Server Error 404 – CSO – Central Statistics Office|website=CSO|access-date=23 June 2019|archive-date=21 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321114801/https://www.cso.ie/census|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.histpop.org histpop.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507023856/http://www.histpop.org/ |date=7 May 2016 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census nisranew.nisra.gov.uk] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217095720/http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census |date=17 February 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
|last=Lee|first=J. J.| author-link =J. J. Lee (historian)|editor-last=Goldstrom|editor-first=J. M.|editor2-last=Clarkson
|editor2-first=L. A.|title=Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell
|year=1981|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford, England
|chapter=On the accuracy of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Pre-famine]] Irish censuses}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal  | last1 = Mokyr  | first1 = Joel
  | author-link = Joel Mokyr  | last2 = Ó Gráda  | first2 = Cormac
  | author2-link = Cormac Ó Gráda  | title = New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700–1850  | journal = The Economic History Review  | volume = 37  | issue =  4
  | pages = 473–488  | series = Volume  |date=November 1984
  | url = http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract  | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121204160709/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract  | url-status = dead  | archive-date = 2012-12-04  | doi = 10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x  | hdl = 10197/1406  | hdl-access = free  }}</ref>
}}
It was [[Counties of Leix and Offaly Act 1556|shired in 1556]] by [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] as '''Queen's County''', covering the ''countries'' of Leix (Loígis), Slewmarge, Irry, and that part of Glimnaliry on the southwest side of the [[River Barrow]].<ref>"An Act whereby the King and Queen's Majesties, and the Heires and Successors of the Queen, be entituled to the Countries of Leix, Slewmarge, Irry, Glimnaliry, and Offaily, and for making the same Countries Shire Grounds."; Phil. & Mar., 1556 c.2</ref> Laois received its present [[Irish language]] name following the [[Irish War of Independence]]. Laois was also sometimes spelt "Leix". Portlaoise (previously '''Maryborough''') is the main town of the county.

[[Loígis]] was the subject of two organised [[Plantations of Ireland|plantations]] or colonisations by the [[Kingdom of England]] in 1556 and 1607. During the first plantation, [[Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex]] attempted to dispossess the ruling O'Moore clan, who had been engaging in costly raids on [[The Pale]], and settle the area with English colonists. However, this led to a long drawn-out guerrilla war in the county and left only a small colonist community clustered around garrisons. This initial attempt at plantation is widely regarded as a failure by historians, as occupying the territory was far more costly than the money yielded from it, and the scheme attracted fewer settlers than anticipated.<ref>(Cal. State Papers, Irish Ser. 1574–85, pp. 392, 412)</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2022}}

The second, more successful plantation of the county took place in the aftermath of the [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]], and expanded the existing English settlements with more landowners and tenants. In 1659, a group of [[Quakers]] led by William Edmundson, settled in Mountmellick, while a group of [[Huguenot]]s were given refuge in Portarlington in 1696 after their service to [[William III of England|William of Orange]] in the [[Williamite War in Ireland]].

What followed was a period of relative calm. Anglo-Irish landowners enclosed the land and built fine houses, including [[Durrow Castle]], Heywood House and [[Emo Court]]. In 1836, a branch of the Grand Canal stretched to [[Mountmellick]], further stimulating industry in that town.

The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of 1845–49]] devastated the county. The county's workhouses could not cope with the number of destitute people seeking shelter. By the time the workhouse opened at [[Donaghmore, County Laois|Donaghmore]] in 1853, many of the poorest had emigrated or died.

The English language was already dominant in much of Leinster by the time of the famine, but the [[Irish language]] was still spoken in Laois as late as the 1870s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gliasáin |first=Justin Ó |date=2023-01-03 |title=Ireland's language shift: when Irish speakers switched to English |url=https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/0103/1342716-irelands-language-shift-when-irish-speakers-switched-to-english/ |language=en}}</ref>

The county was known as Queen's County ({{langx|ga|Contae na Banríona}}) from 1556 until its name was informally changed on the establishment of the [[Irish Free State]] in 1922. The county's name was formerly spelt as ''Laoighis'' and ''Leix''. In the [[Local Government Act 2001]], it is named in the list of counties as ''Laois'', although no legislation was enacted explicitly changing the name from Queen's County, the name formally established under the [[Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898]] which continued to have legal effect. When land is sold in the county the relevant [[Title deed#Title deed|title deeds]] are still updated as being in ''Queen's County''.