Military strategy and feats of valour tend to dominate histories which focus on periods of war; yet, the burden of supporting a war and the trauma these conflicts inflict is felt far beyond the battlefield. By consuming human life, money, property, and goods, wars precipitate social and economic dislocation which can have significant implications for state–community relations. This was true of sixteenth-century Ireland where each war and rebellion chipped away at centuries-old ties between the Old English inhabitants and their distant English sovereign, and none more so than the Nine Years’ War. This war cost Elizabethan England more money and men than any other conflict. Historians have addressed the drain on England's manpower and resources, along with the miserable condition of English soldiers serving in Ireland. There is no denying that this war took a toll on neighbouring England, but the impact on Ireland and its inhabitants was nothing short of devastating. Besides providing the crown with active military service, the Old English Pale community supported the crown's military enterprise by lending money, providing labourers, materials, victuals, and billeting crown soldiers in their own homes.