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The small county of Laois was created as Queen's county, twinned with King's County (County Offaly) in the 16th century from lands seized from the local Irish chiefs, the O'Mores, Fitzgeralds, O'Dempseys and O'Dunnes. The English also planted Portlaoise, calling the town Maryborough after Mary Tudor for a time. Small plantation towns are dotted throughout the flat farmland of the county, which rises up to the scenic Slieve Bloom Mountains on its northern border with Offaly. The Book of Leinster, a historical and religious account of the High Kings of Ireland between 1151 and 1224, was in the possession of the O'Mores of Laois for centuries and is now on show at Trinity College Dublin.
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