County Laois (pronounced Leash), also spelt Laoighis or Leix (Irish: Contae Laoise) was reated in 1556 by Mary I of England as Queen's County, Laois received its present Irish language name following the War of Irish Independence following a competition.. Portlaoise (previously Maryborough) is the county town. Laois was the subject of two Plantations by English settlers. The first occurred in 1556, when the Earl of Sussex dispossessed the O'Moore clan from the area and attempted to replace them with English settlers. However, this only led to a long drawn out guerilla war in the county and left a small English community clustered around garrisons. There was a more successful plantation in the county in 17th century, which expanded the existing English settlement with more landowners and tenants from England. Finally, the county became home to a community of French Huguenots in the 1690s, who were settled in Ireland after their service to William of Orange in the Williamite war in Ireland. In addition to this, large numbers of Quakers settled in Mountmellick and developed the area.